The experience of qualitative research on digital nomads in the online community: mobile sociality, space(s), work-life balance bachelor’s project

There is a possibility to manipulate the space, adjust the space for oneself's needs.There is a possibility for self-expression through surrounding rooms and being able to adopt the space rather being the one who adopts. 

Home as a place fulfilling material needs - being comfortable, modern, safe

Home as a place to come back: base, storage to keep belongings

And the second way to conceptualize home is through the emotional experience, often shared with familiar people and giving the feeling of safety usually connected to physical space

Home as a place where one is able to fulfil existential/ non-material needs - when the concept of home is associated with close ones, relationships and the overall feeling of happiness and acceptance

Home as a place, where you spend time and get used to, something familiar

Depending on their perception of what the home is, digital nomads might create their own strategies of living the lifestyle. Thus, for those, who see the physical space as fulfilling material needs and a mean for self-expression, having a home might be the reason to wish to settle down and become an expat, while for people, perceiving space as an abstract concept, it is easier to adjust to such an unconventional, mobile lifestyle. 

For me home isn't so much about the actual location, as it is about having the ability to make it feel good to me… House-sitting was lovely, because, as I said, we were in these amazing houses, but to be able to decorate... And I am creative and my space matters to me. <> So, to be able to have some things around me that makes me feel good - that's home for me. I don't really care what country that's in.

(online English teacher, female, 50)

In the paradigm of qualitative research, analysing the home of the respondent is a piece of valuable information. When being manipulated, it is believed this space reflects one's personality. However, digital nomads are limited in this sphere of self-expression. The question emerges then, what is a home if not a physical space, extension of the personality. 

Travel.

While exploring the strategies of getting to know the place, where a nomad arrives, three options were common separately or in the combination: explore physically, by moving from one place to another and learning about infrastructure and location from the first-hand experience; exploring the place through local people or travelers with a bigger amount of knowledge about the place; and, finally, using digital communities for getting an advise and organizing meeting with other nomads to explore the place together. 

The reasons to travel might be the variable that contributes to the diversity of practices and the complicatedness of defining digital nomadism: while the most common strategy is working `on move', spending equal amount of time on work and the rest of the life, if not prioritizing the latter, some digital nomads might prioritize their work more than travel. There is a case, when the choice of the destination and all movements are dictated by the desire to improve one's career or gain better educational opportunities. This dichotomy: work to travel versus travel to work, is a phenomenon that divide digital nomadism into more individual strategies and shrink the possibilities for constructing the solidarity:

They just want to travel, and they have something that they earn money with. They see their job more as the way to earn money to pay for their travelling <> I really love my job, and this is a priority or the reason that influences my decisions on where to go.

(interpreter, female, 26)

Work-life balance

Traditional types of working experience.

The question arises from the following findings: what is similar in digital nomads that allow some of its representatives call digital nomadism a subculture or a community? Usually, these are problems, experiences, shared meanings connected to the career choices, career past and the common image of the labor market and strategies to act inside of it. And the first one is an image of officing, of the career path, dependent from one's location. This lifestyle is conceptualized as stressful, associated with the underestimation of efforts that one puts intro work and not paying enough, which are most commonly discussed themes in the context of burnouts: “I rarely got any `thank you's or `good job's” (Math materials creator, female, 40) or “It was just stressful a lot - trying to maintain life, be creative, not have to take a job, working in a great office, cubicle, where I would just wanna stab myself in the eye.” (online English teacher, female, 50) Corporate culture is perceived as suppressing one's own initiative and creative freedom.

I got written up for overproduction. I was able to do my job duties faster than other people, and.. They told me I brought down the moral of the team.

(Math material creator, female, 40)

Brought to the condition of burnout or the desire for more control over one's time and revenue, digital nomads might come to the series of existential questions and significant decision for their life: to leave the job and start a new lifestyle, new career. In the biographies, the decision of quitting the job that anchors one to one place, usually coincide with the start of nomadic lifestyle. This start of a new “life” is described in the terms of “passions”, whether it is a passion for freedom, control or travelling and working less. In the words of one of the digital nomads I talked to, the liberation from office and traditional workplace feels like “we escaped the matrix”.

Self-management skills. Boundaries

The concept of control is very central and important one for understanding all the narratives surrounding the work-life balance theme. 

First of all, every respondent has demonstrated either skills or awareness of strategies of self-management. Being focused on the task: not having disruptions, muting the phone, think only about work - these working strategies are quite common among digital nomads. The mindset behind them is to work hard in a limited number of hours and give the rest of the day to other activities. Productivity is important not only for the nomads willing to build an ambitious career, but for those, who want to give all attention to their personal sphere. Thus, I have met a person who works for 1 hour a day, and who tried quite hard to achieve such a type of work and life balance. Initially, two main types of measuring productiveness and the effort of worker exist: hour-based score and the judgment by the end-result. The first one is a most common practice met in offices of Fordian economy type. To adopt to this, workers often try to minimize their efforts and gain most profit from it (wage). One of the strategies is shrinking from the direct abilities and creating the visibility of the work. Another strategy concerning my research is the practice to calibrate the standard by the most performing worker, who set the goal for everybody else. 

However, no nomad is put into the office and one rarely faces these attributes of the Fordian epoch. Thus, they may choose another strategy to construct their time during the day. Having work-free time is perceived by the nomads as a piece of freedom, so often mentioned as the main value of the movement. And concentrated into the narrow frames, intense, gig and digital type of their work (Ashford et al., 2018) fits in the motivational paradigm of the post-Fordism: judgment of productiveness by the final result. There is no need for self-employed nomad of business owner for the shirking strategies, since the time they spend on a certain task is impossible to track (except for the time-charging services like language tutors). 

Step further to this philosophy is doing tasks straight away. This working style is characteristic for respondents with high-level intrinsic motivation for work. Planning tasks was reported to be helpful in the long run, however, when thoughts about the work preoccupy one's mind, or the work is enjoyable, concentrating on the tasks to do does not become a problem for one. The career path the respondents chose was often a non-conformist one, and the certain amount of personal control over one's time and one's structure of the day is one of the outcomes of this voluntary choice. 

Planning was one of the topics, rarely supported by the respondents. In most cases, their schedule is perceived as a flexible list of tasks one is willing to perform. However, long-term planning was mentioned as a useful strategy for keeping in mind far deadlines and large projects. 

High level of control over one's time and the amount of workload during the day is one of the most guarded values in the life of remote worker and digital nomad. In their terms, control also means freedom. Some asquire it through the particular amount of working hours, other set a part of the day for doing work. Either way, boundaries that separate work from the valuable “the rest of the life” activities are often built. These might be the boundaries between social or family life and work: 

I was on partying, having fun, i'm telling you: it's 1:30 am, and I talk to this girl, and.. She had her phone, she was answering emails - half drug... everybody had some fun, going crazy around, as loud and noise, and she's ike [looking in her phone] `i have to answer this email!' <> she should've set boundaries, and also only work for a certain number of hours, not respond. 

(entrepreneur, male, 32)

and even travelling and work:

They seem to be talking how to make more money all the time. <>I guess, it came from the desire to travel, and I think travelling is amazing, but now.. That you have responsibility, and you are forced to use technology to make sure that in tomorrow trip you have a good Wi-Fi… It kind of kill the travelling experience, right? People travelling.. well, digital nomads.. They don't do one of the 2 things right. So, they don't really travel, and they also don't really work. It ruins the travelling experience, and it also ruins work experience in my view. Cause you're not free anymore. 

(IT specialist, male, 39)

Financial stability. Freedom.

The last statement, where a respondent have to choose between two activities to make it `right' revealed the bigger discourse and issue for the phenomenon of digital nomadism. Namely, the debate between “travelling” and “work”, where one of two components might be prioritized over another, or these features of nomadic lifestyle might be in a conflict. 

Judging by the common narratives and issues, the theme of money was often mentioned by the respondents without me being aware of its importance and starting a conversation about it. While some emphasized the importance of having money or a stable way to earn them when you start a nomadic lifestyle, others report their mistake from past or present experience and how they learn from it in the process. Financial stability might become the sorting feature of nomadic lifestyle, which determines, whether economic status and clientele acquiring system is suitable for living this lifestyle. One of the creators of a digital nomad event suggested even that lifestyle should be considered as a luxury one. 

Z1 ...3 or 4 weeks. It's just not consistent enough for you to build a real business. And I didn't want to admit that in the beginning... unless you have a past of income, and you have a product you sell based on, like, your brand .. I don't think this is smart to really travel every 2 weeks. Unless you have a massive team or a strong team that does all the work.

(entrepreneur, male, 32)

Clientele become another part to the equation, and the process of gaining clients among those nomads, who provide service or goods on a freelance basis, is a common issue in the Facebook group, in particular: “Can someone give me their advice on how I should start my journey to be a digital nomad? The last two years I've been freelancing, clients have been on and off and are all locally based…” (group content-analysis, post date 21.03.20)

In terms of work-life balance, these issues faced by nomads of any experience, might lead to the prioritizing one sphere over another, or to the economic gap and alienation from the community, described by other representatives, to the re-defining oneself while there is no possibility to fulfill one's desire to travel with their own wage or revenue. The absence of financial stability deprive a nomad of freedom, and control over one's own time and life choices, which are defining characteristic to the lifestyle.

Finally, there is a spectrum of narrative describing a desire to be independent from, contributing and helpful to the local community, which digital nomads travel to. Coming from the values of freedom, personal responsibility is actively mentioned in different forms, whether it is fascination of hackathons in coworking spaces, organized for the non-local specialists or a desire to be a volunteer and help third-world countries with most essential problems. The illustration to this statement might be an image of a `begpacker', which one of the respondents does not want to be associated with.

But the main reason, or what bothers me about that is you now have the phrase `begpackers', where you have these people who wanted to travel the world, and they do run out of money, and they become a burden on that country, where they're not paying tax dollars, and they, you know, begging for the money and support.. I don't like that, I don't want to be stereotyped that way, I definitely.. 

(Math materials creator, female, 40)

Main empirical findings

To summarize all findings and ideas discovered through the process of analysis of the empirical data, several conclusions have to be made.

First idea, which was not emphasized enough by previous researchers, is the existence of barriers and limitation for the lifestyle. Despite digital nomadism being often represented as a lifestyle of choice and freedom; a lifestyle with understandable rules of maintaining and seemingly low amount of things needed (internet, laptop and remote work), by the advertisers of the lifestyle, there are several economic and socio-demographic prerequisites. Attention of the respondents is drawn to the financial stability and wellbeing in any context of nomadic experience: past, present and future plans. It may influence the priority given to either `work' or `life' parts of work-life balance, it may restrict travelling possibilities and even influence the experience of socialization.

Financial stability is achieved either through the real estate management (lending, renting, opening for house-sitting) and its profit or, in most cases, by the job and business income. Freedom is understood, in the first place, as being free from time-demanding job and the necessity to invest considerable amount of effort to provide own security and comfort: having a variety of affordable options, where to stay, activities to do and places to visit; and a freedom to manage own time, which comes with the choice of remote well-paid work. As noted by some of the respondents, infrastructure, built for the remote workers in the places with their high concentration: coworking zones, some hostels; telecommunication infrastructure: internet and calls, might be quite costly for a nomad.

All of my respondents were either born in the countries with high economic development and possibilities for vertical economic mobility, or migrated in the early childhood. However, it is not the country's economy exclusively, which predetermines the opportunity to be a digital nomad. Individual strategies of financial management, skills, associated with the management of own time and (self)education are the factors, that facilitate transitions of capitals of a person or a household. Vivid examples I have met are transformation of social capital to the economic (Bourdieu, 1986), while a digital nomad is making friends with the potential business partners, or cultural to economic, while another digital nomad transferred their cultural knowledge and experience acquired through the process of travelling to the craft that makes their living. Thus, being mobile, digital nomads might demonstrate flexible skills of capital arrangement.

Extending this statement, digital nomadism is a lifestyle with relatively low barriers for entry and high barriers for staying. People with lower skills of self-organization and unstable financial situation might experience struggles for maintaining a work-life balance, described by previous researchers. And while for the digital nomads, who managed to stay in the lifestyle for a while, burnouts and lack of choice might be left in the past, for the vast majority of people trying digital nomadism but not meeting the criteria, their trials might lead to the fails and problems. In such situation digital nomadism transforms into the temporal experience or event instead of a prolonged lifestyle.

Secondly, nomadic lifestyle suggests a high level of autonomy: independence from the working place, a native state, a home, and external mechanisms of encouragement. As discussed before, personal initiative is quite common for nomads, and freedom of actions is combined with the responsibility for the own lifestyle. As emphasized earlier, digital nomads might not create the bonds to the place, choose not to belong and not to form identity upon one or another place, but the commitment to contribute to the countries of transition is a noticeable narrative. Harmful to the country's economics, ecology or society practices are ostracized and stigmatized. While nomads might not experience any stigma on themselves for their lifestyle, some actively promote responsible relationships with the place and people: they desire to volunteer in the countries they travel to, solve the problems of locals, not living a life of a `begpacker', a burden for a recreational-oriented economy.

The third finding of my research is the strategies of following or deviating from the `normative' or `right' practices among digital nomads. This antagonism might be found not only in the interaction between a nomad and a majority adhering to the settled-down lifestyle, but within the individual trajectories of digital nomadism. These strategies exist in the self-identification with the `altruistic' or `egoistic' party, described before, they may lie in the antagonism of personal initiative, financial freedom and responsibility versus carelessness and passiveness, commented negatively by the respondents. These believes are rooted to the common values, guiding digital nomadism, they might seem to belong to the sphere of moral, rather than social order. However, some of the oppositions are dictated by practical standpoints and a domination of practices in a societies and networks, a person is included into. As was described in the chapter about generations, the opposition of mainstream and nomadic practices, and adaptational strategies of socialization reflect the fear of loneliness and not belonging to the community.

Thus, I may suggest that the digital nomadism belongs to the sphere of lifestyles, rather than subcultures or communities, to end the competition between two explicit point of views of my respondents. Despite common values guiding some of the nomadic life choices, it resembles the combination of individual strategies with a large scale of personal adaptation to mobile lifestyle effects for managing downsides of the choice.

Concerning the analysis of the Facebook group content, in many cases it justified the conclusions made from the interviews and was a resourceful material for understanding of digital nomadic issues on the larger scale. Such topics as information requests in the posts, support and events organization were found in the web community, but were rarely discussed in the interviews. Overall, the combination of these two methods of research and their analysis were insightful and brought me to the idea for the extension of the study.

There is a possibility that informants leaded me through the topics, most interesting for them, during the conversation. However, the amount of content on the previously described topics on Facebook was significant in comparison of their absence in the narratives, and this phenomenon demands further exploration.



Chapter #4. Conclusion

In this paper, I addressed the topic of digital nomadism and explore its practices, meanings, impact and prerequisites. I explored the symbiosis of ICT and a mobile lifestyle to explore the impact of a digital nomadic status on the plans, and practices of a person in the present time.

To briefly summarize the findings I have, common practices of communication and networking were categorized and defined among digital nomads, specific to their status of a temporal visitor of the country. Their relationships with locals, friends and other nomads were defined.

The image of digital nomadism was discussed, some prerequisites and common challenges of the lifestyle were discussed, including the strategies of maintaining the work-life balance, the intrinsic motivation and orientation either to the `life' or a `work' side of the equilibrium. Some common socio-demographic and economic specifics of digital nomadism were revealed and described in details.



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Appendix #1

Guide

Introduction

“I'd like to reassure that you know the rules:

call is recorded

all information is used for scientific purposes only

all information, including your personality and any details are anonymous

citations from each interview are used for illustrative purposes

Do you give your consent for that?”

Biography

First of all, could you tell a little about yourself?

Where are you from?

What is your profession?

What last stage of formal education do you have? What was your specialisation [if Bachelor/Master/PhD]? Do you consider education to be only formal? What type of education was most important for you?

Career Past

Moving to the questions about your current and previous jobs. Is job important for you in general?

Tell me about your career path. What job was your first?

What is important to you when you are choosing a job? [Если несколько: could you, please, range your options?]

Why have you quitted past job(s)? What did you not like?

Если в компании: [Why you are finally at the work position you have at this company?]

How were you finding current job/started business?

What service/social media have you used (if any)?

Were your personal networks and friendships useful when you were/are looking for a job?

Career Present

Is your current job connected to your education? Why is it so?

For how long you've been working at the current job?

What do you do at work? What are your duties/tasks?

Do you work alone or at some group? Is it group project oriented or you can perform it alone?

How do you communicate with your employer/client?

How do you communicate with your team?

What does your working process look like? Do you work on projects or your job is evenly spread? Does your work have a seasonal character?

Self-branding

Is social media an important deal for you in your profession? Why?

Do you present yourself as a specialist online or offline? How?

Did you create a “professional” account or personal brand page separately?

How do you think, can somebody be a professional in your sphere?

What qualities, do you think, make a good professional? How do you understand “It's a professional”, when you meet someone?

Do you consider yourself a professional?

Work-life Balance

What schedule do you have, if any?

How do you live through your day/ organise it?

What determines, what would the day be like for you?

When you are out, travelling, is there anything that influences your schedule structure?

Do you know about work-life balance?

If yes: do you think, you have it? Why?

Do you “turn off” your phone, if that is your leisure time?

Have you experienced any burnouts? If yes, please, tell me about them.

Do you still enjoy what you do now?

Going places

`Now, let's talk about your nomadic experience.'

Could you call yourself a mobile person?

What places have you been at?

How much do you travel? How often?

Why do you travel?

How do you choose which country you would like to settle next time?

Tell me about your last experience travelling.

What are your favourite places in the previous city you've been?

When you first arrived, how did you get familiar with the city?

How were you finding housing in the new country?

Was there anything that surprised, amazed or shocked you?

Is there a place you call “home”? What, do you think, makes the home?

Does the way you organize your day differ from what you do at “home”?

Is there anything you lack or need when you are in the other place? How do you handle it? How it was emotionally for you - to live through this nomadic experience?

Have your attitude to travel and mobile lifestyle changed through your experiences\age?

CORONA

Most of us are affected by coronavirus now. Does the situation with epidemic affected you, your lifestyle or your job?

Networking

How long are you a member of this facebook community?

Why do you need this facebook group?

Do you communicate with people, who are also FBcomm members?

Have you encountered one of them? If yes, how often and why?

Do you know anyone else from there?

Do you communicate with other nomads?

What are you talking about with other nomads? Where have you met?

Why do you need these networks (of friendships with other nomads)?

Do you use other services or platforms that let you connect to other nomads? Are they like this group? How?

Close Ones

Who do you consider your close ones? How many are of them?

Do you still keep in touch with people from your home country/place you're born at?

How many people can you call your friends? Where are they from?

Do you have a partner? How have you met?

How do you communicate with your close ones?

You have probably met new people in new places.

What is your attitude to such friendship? Do you believe that remote friendship/partnership is possible? Do you keep in touch?

Is there any difference for you in professional and personal communication? In terms of quantity, quality and priority.

Nomadic Identity

`Let's imagine I know nothing about “digital/global” nomads. Could you explain to me, who is a digital nomad? What is a typical digital nomad like from your point of view?'

Do you call yourself a nomad? Do you fit well in this definition? How are you similar with and different to other nomads?

How do you first learn that one can call themselves a nomad?

Lately I have seen an article “Why I decided to stop being a nomad”.

How do you think, can one be a former nomad?

Please, reflect on this experience - have you by your own thought that you want to quit this lifestyle? Why or why not?

Have you had any negative experience or struggle associated with nomadic lifestyle? Please, tell a story.

Why have you decided to stay or quit a nomadic lifestyle?

What are your impressions of this experience? Are you ready to try again/move/visit this country once more? Are there any conditions you need for this to happen?



Appendix #2

No.	Age	Gender	Country of origin	Profession	Relations with the digital nomad community	Identify as
1	39	male	Germany	IT specialist, business owner (IT sphere)	alienated from the FB community, have relationships irl	Not considering self a nomad. Denying nomadism as the term. Started to do it before the term emerged.
2	26	female	Italy	interpreter, online school for interpreters owner	connected to FB community, have relationships irl	digital nomad
3	46	female	Ireland	event management, virtual assistant	hate a part of FB and real-life community	digital nomad
4	40	female	the USA, Arizona	prepare materials for Math classes, business owner	active on FB community, also expat groups, lacks connections with other nomads, want to participate in irl events	digital nomad, wanna-be expat
5	36	female	Poland	writer, single parent	administrator of FB community	ex nomad
6	32	male	Nigeria	marketer, entrepreneur, marketing business owner	organizes a digital nomad event, connected to FB community	digital nomad
7	50	female	the USA, California	english teacher online	connected to FB community, also expat groups	digital nomad, wanna-be expat
8	about 50	male	the UK	astrologist	alienated from FB community, connected to digital nomads in real life	newly introduced to `digital' nomad
9	28	male	the USA	photographer, business owner	connected to FB community, participating in real-life nomad events	digital nomad
10	30	female	Pakistan	consultant company owner	alienated from FB community	digital nomad
11	27	female	Serbia	crafter, artist	part of FB community, alienated from other nomads in real life	digital nomad
12	25	male	the USA, Ohio	employed in marketing sphere	alienated from FB community	digital nomad for 3 years



Appendix #3

Date of the interview	20.04.2020
Name of the video/audio file	video (8)
Length	1:07:52
Gender	female
Age	40
Country of origin	The USA, Arizona
Occupation	Math materials creator, business owner
Comments	I - interviewer, R - respondent. The image is glitching sometimes, but overall, the recording is clear. Unclear parts of the audio might be marked as `(?)', and emotions are usually marked as `[reaction name]'

I: So, I would like to reassure first, that you know the rules. That call is recorded, that all information is used for scientific purposes only, that all details including your personality would be anonymized. So, do you give your consent for that?

R: Yes.

I: Great! Could you, please, tell me a little bit about yourself?

R: Sure! I'm 40 years old, and I am a business owner. I'm a mathematician and a former educator bu trade. So, i've taught high school, and I was also a university professor, and now my business - we create math resources for both university and K12 - courses, levels. I create the products, the content, the resources videos for publishers, who then go out and sell it in whatever means they want. More of the development side of things. And because everything I do is online, I chose not to have a homebase anymore, and that's why i'm kind of a digital nomad, enjoying the world the best as we can at this point of time. So, i'm physically in Belize right now.

I: So, what was important for you when you decided to start this career? How did you first choose your career path?

R: You know, honestly, I had a really good third-grade teacher. She just made me feel good about myself, and I just remember that that was an age that.. I just remember her. She was a good role model for me. And honestly, I think, that's what influenced me as I grew up. I had a couple other really good teachers, and especially in high school. Growing up in US, I lived in Kansas the majority of my life, and I had another really good high school teacher, who was a Maths teacher - and her last name starts with a G, which was my last name starts with. And, so I just really looked up to her as well. And that continued kind of my passion towards `I wanna be an educator as well'. And yeah - that's kinda how I went into it. And although i've had different jobs within education. I've had a few more roles outside of the classroom prior to becoming self-employed, i've still been in the realm of math education as a whole.

I: Since you now are having your own business, what did you not like, why did you decide to chose this path?

R: Yeah, I work for 2 different companies, so, that.. I was outside the classroom, working for these 2 companies, and one: I was writing curriculum and lesson plans, and activities of different things - getting a little on the creative side of content development for education. And then the other one I was a manager professional development and… Both of these roles started taking me.. around the US and Canada, and then the leader position also have any travel to Dubai and Qatar. And I have never been that far away from home, if you will. So, those travel experiences opened it up, and, honestly, I worked right below the vice president at both of these companies and... At each respective company I got written up for over-production(!). I was able to do my job duties faster than other people, and.. They told me I brought down the moral of the team. And so, I got written up for it. And when that happened the second time, I was like `okay, come on' (laughs). Really? But that was also the light-up moment, because none of these.. persons came to me and said: `How are you doing that?', you know, meaning meaning to work. How am I getting my workload done so quickly and, you know, sure - I would make a mistake here and there, but nothing.. like a quick typo or something, nothing crazy. I am human, and... But being in education and not having my leadership, want to use a teachable moment - really bothered me. You know, they were just all about shaking the finger and pointing blame, you know, `Why are you doing this?', and instead of finding out like `How(!) are you doing this'. So, that really bothered me, and then also, you know, obviously I was thinking it's a good thing to be produced quickly. You know, the faster you get something out then you can work on the next thing. And especially because, honestly, everyone really is in sales to some extent - then you can sell the next best thing. So, that was just a clash of perspectives, and all in all things happen for a reason and.. Now I have a company and i'm living all over the world. I mean, how cool is that? So, I'm grateful that it happened, you know (laughs). It really, really was hurtful, when it happened both times, and that took me through the whole emotional wind, but now, looking back, you know, everything happens for a reason, so.. I'm grateful for going through those times.

I: What was emotions about? Was it about losing something or.. What did you experience?

R: I think, I was so upset because... I was not valued, I rarely got any `thank you's or `good job's and so, I had no idea I was doing something they didn't like. So had communication come - come in general or in, you know, in a different way maybe, than it did.. I could have made changes and I would have been happy to. But I didn't know I was doing something they didn't care for or they didn't understand, so.. [upset laugh] if you don't know, then you don't know to change something. So, yeah, it was sad, I did get depressed, because I quit both of those jobs. And the second job I quit before. Well, the first one I quit, and then I moved to the second one. So, I had kind of landed that job and then moved on to it. But with the second one, when this happened, I did realize `okay, this is not the right fit for me'. I can tell we're not going to work through this, In a way that's gonna work out for me, you know. So, I started looking and I was interviewing, but I found myself - I was so bitter about the situation and then I became self-sabotaging in my on interviews with other companies, because I was [nod] bitter and angry and mad, you know. `I work 12 hours a day for you guys and this is what I get?' kind of thing with no appreciation.. So, after I did not get a couple positions I had gone far with the interview process, that's what I told myself in my `i have to stop, because i'm too upset'. So I did stop and, honestly, started driving for Uber and then lift these companies that we have in the US, at least, doing something for myself. And I took a breath, and then I pulled back on `i'd always done freelancing work here or there in the past,i started when I became a professor, actually - just freelancing in the side and.. I reached back into that, and it was my connections of my professional network that I have built over built over 15 years. That I landed this awesome contract creating.. um, like, 450 videos for major textbook publisher. And it was fun, it was different, it was new, it was challenging. But it was also on my own terms. I had to teach myself how to negotiate really quickly, and.. you know, I was just one of those life-changing events that worked out really well, and.. I loved working on my own time so much during that project. I'm like `Okay, let me continue to reach out to my network and.. let me also learn, where(!) and how(!) to get other similar projects, like this, from different companies. And so, I started doing that, and then I got so many, I was bouncing, like, five different projects at one time with different companies. And that's when I was, like `Oh my gosh, what did I get myself into?' And I learned how to subcontract out work and what that entailed. So, that's why I do consider myself having a small business, as opposed to just being a solo freelancer - cause I have a team of people now. So, I can(!) take on more work, because I'm physically not doing it all on my own. My team - I know who's great at what, so I did get (??) it up and pay person (a quarter?) and voila - I have a business.

I: Do you think that these characteristics, like your ability to get so many things done - is it, like, in your character or is it a skill that you learned?

R: Hm.. I think it's a little bit of both. I think the multi part of it is something that I learned through just growing up in school and seeing other people balance and juggle the different things that you have to handle. Especially in middle school and high school for me... you... you start going to classes by subject or discipline and then you have that, you know, homework for these different things, and then maybe after school activities. So, you have to learn your time management skills. So.. I did a really good job of that then, so when I went off to college, I didn't struggle, like other people did with managing their time. I was good at it. I had three part-time jobs, while being a full-time student, taking anywhere from 12 to 18 credit hours. Typically 12 is the average, so I would take a little bit more. And between having a full-time schedule and working three different jobs, I just.. and (!) having a really good social life, I just did it. So I think, after a while, it kind of became part of my characteristics and personality, and... I actually really value that about myself now(!). That I can take on lots of different things, and I can figure out how to get it best done for myself. I don't need to sit down and work 8 hours straight. I'm fine with doing 2 hours here, going and taking a break for and hour or so and then coming back. Some days I can tell my motivation level is not as high, I don't want(!) to work, you know, I want to go play, so on those days when I wake up I'm like `Okay, I've got to go sit down and I'll make a list of what I want to get done, and I will, kind of, force myself to do it. But once I see that last thing checked off of the list, i'm like `okay great I can go play now'. So, I'm good at setting those goals and tasks for myself.

I: And what are actually your duties or your tasks when you're performing work?

R: Sure, it depends on the different types of projects that i've taken on, with different companies. So, right now i'm really only balancing a couple different ones. I have a large editorial project that requires me to just go on Microsoft Word and look at formatting - font, size, style, spacing after periods. Just a little basic formatting. But it's also in relation to maths. So, I have to read the content, make sure there's no errors, fix some of the wording, cause it might not be.. and maybe as formal or as accurate, as it could be. That's one type of job that.. I really like video projects that I have. A lot of people since now school is pretty much online almost everywhere in the world, a lot of people want some short videos. So, I call them explainer videos. They might give me a topic, and I will try my best to be as concise.. and model how to solve, you know those types of problems or teach that topic in just a few minutes. So, it allows me to get a little creative. And those projects I personally take on myself - editorial projects or maybe.. a lot of people want assessment questions: kind of, like, ACT or standardized assessing questions - well, my team of people are really great at that. They're all former educators as well. So, I can form out those jobs to them, and then they send work back to me, and then I will just look over it. And.. make sure that i'm proud of what the work is, cause it is coming from my name and my company, and then I turn it into the client. But I don't have to physically spend the hours on the development of that. And my team of subcontractors are great, we set deadlines, they're hard-workers as well, so they like to exceed the deadlines. So I know, if I tell them `o, can you have this done by, you know, in 2 weeks', i'll get it in a week or a week and a half, you know. That works out well, then I can take a look and send it back to the client. It's balancing a lot of random things. Sometimes I even get asked to animate microsoft powerpoints. So, professors might create powerpoint for a maths class, but they want certain things to happen on the screen in different times. And they don't know how to physically use the animation feature in the product, so then I get paid to go in and follow their description and make the screen move, the equations in and out and appear kind of line by line, so that's another random thing that I do, but hey, that's fun. I have the skills and again, I can check the mathematics - if there's an error, I can fix it.

I: And how did you build your digital literacy since you're doing this job right now for people, who, like… for people you give services to?

R: How did I get the business clientele?

I: Yeah, but also, how did you gain this knowledge - is it something that you know from your experience or is it something that you learn, while you were on your move in your business?

R: Most of it I feel I already doing and learning when I was a high school teacher and a maths professor. Of course, I was given materials to use to teach from. But then I might want to say something in a little different way, or present it slightly different than how textbook or worksheet might have presented it. Maybe I want to present content in parts, and I don't want to see my students everything at ones. So, I kind of learn the technology skills by doing myself, as a professor. So, I would use a lot of my own resources, even though an abundance was given to me. I would modify what they gave me, so.. And I personally learned Microsoft Office with middle school, i'm 40 now, born in 1979, so when I was in middle school in early 80s, that was just part of school. We had computers and we learned that. So, and transferring over to the google sweet(??) - now google docs, google sheets - okay, no problem, because I was already very fluent into Microsoft Word and Powerpoint, Publisher, Access. Haha, so.. those skill were transferable at that time. Now, when I got my first video project, that was my big thing that kind of launched my business without me knowing it. I was nervous because I had not created videos before, but! the person who asked me to consider this project - she told me how they did it. They literally used Microsoft Powerpoint - you prep things on the different slides and then in powerpoint there's a record tab. And you can record voiceover on top of the slides, and then, there's another tab, that actually I think, I record in slideshow, and the record tab is where there's a button to convert your file into an mp4. So, i'm doing everything in Microsoft Powerpoint, I don't need these fancy programs: camtasia, imovie - you know, whichever type of device you have. There's always wonderful programs out there, but I actually don't have to use them. So, the fact that I was taught `hey, we want you to use this program, make it simple'. But you can still make it nice and modern and professional-looking by the design of the layout. It is very simple! So, it's been awesome! And so, for the clients that i've found - i'll shown them a quick little demo of what I can do, they like it, they're fine with not having all these fancy bells and whistles, because it is about the content, and.. Still making it engaging, but - you know - they also don't want to spend 10 times more for an animator, and production - this and that and the other. So, i'm kind of a one-stop shop, unlike other places, where you might have one person doing the content and the scripting and somebody else doing a physical audio or video, and somebody else cutting and slicing, and this and that...I make it simple. Why make it hard, haha.

I: Speaking of your clients, you've mentioned that you have a professional network and you established it. Could you tell me a little bit more about it?

R: Yeah! When I was a professor in my first year, as a maths professor, some of the people that I met, they would come into my office, they would be textbook sales representatives, and, you know, we were somebody.. some point in time already adopted textbooks to use or curriculum to use for the content of the courses. And, so they were just saying `hello', and they also are your go-to person if you need a new version of the book. And everything at that point in time was already kind of online too. So, [?] had any questions about their online programm, they were accessible to ask. And just through a nice conversation with one of the sales reps, they were talking about how, as a new professor, I needed to publish. And so, she connec.. it was just a part of what you need to do, as a professor - you need to publish and do speaking engagements, and this and that. So, she connected me with an editor at that textbook company, and a relationship was formed there. That editor asked me to do one small project for a textbook, doing some supplemental resources for them. And I did that, and that little project led into another one and another one. So, that specific relationship was key for me. And over the years, I spoke at conferences, so I met more people, made a lot of connections through linkedin - I use that as my professional networking online source, and so, when it was time for me to go on my on - of course, I reached out to the first relationship, but those other people I met throughout the years, I threw them notes within linkedin as well, messages, and said `hey, this is what i'm doing now, if you have any work you would like to get done, I would be glad to chat about that' and see if I can be of assistance to you. Or, if you know anyone else, you know, pass my info on. And that was great.That's really helped. Honestly, I have used the platform upwork.com, and found a number of clients on there, smaller businesses in this space. And I have met some amazing people. I've made some good relationships. Maybe, a certain project didn't work out on there, but we've kept in touch, and whether they got a hold of me, or they passed my information on to somebody else, i've lended a phenomenal number of contracts through there as well.

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