100. Celebrating 100 episodes with fearless females

Welcome to the 100th episode of The Offbeat Life podcast!

It has been such an honor so share so many incredible stories with all of you.

This podcast started because I wanted to learn from all the digital nomads and independent entrepreneurs.

I wanted to learn how they were able to transition and create a location independence lifestyle.

I wanted to learn how to create freedom in my own life.

Here I am today, a year and a half later, living the life I only dreamed of having.

There are two quotes that I want to share with you, that have really resonated with me on this whole journey.

The first “ Remember when you wanted what you currently have”. This quote reminds me of the progress I’ve made and to be grateful for every second that I have living this messy but beautiful life.

The second is a quote by Tim Ferris “ People don’t want to be millionaires – they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy”.

A brilliant quote because we often think that a lot of money can make us happy, but it is really the freedom that we want and if you can achieve that, then you will feel like a billionaire.

So, listeners, I hope that you are able to live a life of freedom and life you truly deserve to live.

Enjoy this 100th episode, as I bring back two of my fearless female friends Joni Sweet and Sierra Dehmler as we talk about life transitions and catch up on the last year of changes and gratefulness.

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for being a part of this journey with me and I hope to see you in the next 100!

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Listen Below:

Show Notes:

Debbie:

I’m here with Johnny and Sierra and they both look really excited. Sierra just sipped on her Chai Tea Latte. They’re so nice. They actually came out and doing this 100th episode with me.

I wanted to do this with the both of you because you both had some of the most fun episodes that I’ve had and I just wanted to chat with you guys.

Joni:

Any excuse to hang out with Debbie is fine.

Sierra:

We can record it for the whole world here. It’s fine.

Debbie:

Joni and I did two episodes together and Sierra and I did one and there have been so many changes that have happened between the both of you. All of our lives together. I’m moving for a few months at least.

Joni:

No! Don’t leave. How dare you.

Debbie:

And then Sierra moved out of New York City, and now she’s in Connecticut. And Joni’s also thinking of moving and you’re always traveling, so it feels like you’re always moving.

Joni:

Yeah, I am always moving. I’m not leaving the city though. I love my neighborhood too much. I’m happy spending 50% of my income on rent.

Debbie:

And that’s the thing about New York City, it’s just so expensive, but it’s addicting. And you can’t stop yourself from living here.

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Sierra:

It took me nine years to leave. I finally did it. It’s only because I felt like I was inching towards hating it. And then I was like, okay, I gotta go. I gotta get out.

Joni:

When you hate it, you gotta leave.

Sierra:

You gotta leave. It’s not fair to stay, to yourself or to the people who love New York and need this space.

Joni:

True story.

Debbie:

I don’t think I’ll ever permanently leave New York City like that, but it’s just crazy that this is the hundredth episode of the podcast and its pretty nuts.

Just a little introduction, Sierra, has a blog passportvoyager.com and Joni is a writer who does a lot of writing for publications with topics in health and travel.

How does it feel for the both of you to think about this career as a goal and now looking at your life and you’re actually living what you wanted to have.

Sierra:

Which is crazy.

How does it feel to be living a digital nomad lifestyle?

Debbie:

How does that feel for both of you? Because sometimes I just wake up and think, oh my gosh, how did I get here.

Joni:

Yeah, I really love it. I love that I was patient with the journey because lately, I’ve been dealing with some late paying clients and you know, last time we talked we talked about working for a while and building up savings so that you can kind of whether those gaps and payment.

And lately, I’ve been really grateful that I took that time even though it was excruciating, kind of waiting and seeing my dream in the distance and having to work jobs that I really hated, leading up to it. But you know, right now I think it’s bringing me a lot of success and eliminating some stress that I might otherwise have. Had I not taken the time to work and plan before I made the plunge.

Sierra:

I can come at that from the other side.

I did not do that and now I’m paying for it. So basically what happened is, I had a remote job for a company, a startup company, which we talked about more extensively on an earlier episode.

But basically, I lost that job. The company shut down and I was not at all ready to transition into blogging full time or consulting or doing anything like that and I had no plan and I just was like, I guess I’m doing this now.

It kind of felt like I either needed to dive in and try it and try to make it work somehow or it was never going to happen. I could’ve just kept putting it off and putting it off.

So we have very different experiences and I feel like it’s really tough, especially for me right now because I’m dealing with a lot of the same things like late paying clients or client turnover.

People being like, oh my priorities have changed now I need to do this and they don’t need you anymore. So the fluctuation of that has been really stressful and so I wish that I had taken more time. I think in the same vein, I feel like if I had, I may have gotten stuck in another job that I hate it.

I don’t know, it’s such a catch 22 because I feel like either way you have to be patient on one end or the other

Joni:

It’s so true. I mean I’m grateful that I was able to keep those jobs while I had them and put money away during that time and build my freelancing on the side. But you know, a lot of other people are in your position where they’re just kind of pushed into it and they give it a go.

And I really admire the people who were able to make that work because that’s very, very difficult too.

Sierra:

It requires a lot of patience, a lot of flexibility, a lot of creativity, a lot of penny-pinching sometimes to try and make it work.

Debbie:

But you’re making it work.

Sierra:

Barely. And I keep trying to remind myself you have a car, you have an apartment, you have a nice apartment, you have health insurance. These are big things and even if I’m barely making it some months at least I’m somehow making it.

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Joni:

Well, what do you need to make it work? What are you missing right now or what is lacking that is making it hard?

Feast or Famine Life of being a freelancer.

Sierra:

That’s a good question. I feel like what I’m sort of noticing is that my gaps are in consistency and then planning. So because I took on so many clients, I just took on as many as I could as fast as I could. Didn’t really think about building packages and making things make sense long term. So now I feel like I’m just sort of treading water and I have work but it’s not necessarily thought out.

Debbie:

So you feel like you’re all over the place and it’s overwhelming.

Sierra:

Sometimes it’s okay. And then other months I’m like, this is nuts.

Joni:

It’s a feast or famine.

For me, if all my clients paid on time, I would be great and most of them do. I have to say thank you, clients. Most of you do and I love you all.

But lately, a couple of new clients have been really late. It’s really screwing up my take home even though I’ve been working my butt off this month.

Sierra:

That’s the tough part. I was talking to my dad yesterday about this and he’s like, how’s work going? I’m like, well I’m working my butt off but I feel broke. So it’s just that thing where I’m on Mediavine so I have to wait two months for payments to come through from that.

There’s a lot of delayed gratification in this job. There’s a lot of like waiting for this to happen, wait for that to happen and you’re not going to see the money for a while.

Joni:

Even when I submit an article, honestly I send that article into the editor and if he or she is happy with it, I don’t think about it again unless for some reason I’m particularly excited about that article that’s maybe like one in 10 that I write and last year I wrote over 300 articles.

Most of them, I’m excited about it while I’m doing it. And then once I’ve submitted it, great, it’s gone and they don’t tell me when it goes live. So sources come to me and they’re like, hey, when is this article going up? And it really disrupts my flow.

Honestly, I don’t know. Like it could be right, it could be tomorrow, it could be six months from now. I have no idea. And I don’t have the mental capacity or the time during my day to be checking in on this all the time. But there is a lot of delayed gratification.

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Debbie:

And a lot of uncertainties with a lot of things. In any type of industries where you’re a freelancer or you’re an entrepreneur and you’re in charge of your own thing. That’s why sometimes there’s a lot of people that are better off with a secure nine to five and then just doing something on the side.

Because thank God for you Sierra, you didn’t have a family to support. You didn’t have that added stress. But then if you have other things that you were in charge of, it’s so much harder to go into this industry.

Unless you’re making plenty of money, you have a lot of savings, you have another partner who’s able to help you while you’re doing the transition because like you said, there’s a lot of late payments. There’s a lot of people that sometimes don’t pay you at all and you have to track them down.

Joni:

I didn’t realize I was turning into a bill collector but add that for that list of skills.

Debbie:

And then there are so many things that happen in between, not just with work but also your personal life that could also make everything change.

Self-care is crucial to a successful career.

Joni:

This past month was the first time I’ve taken sick days in like the past year and change. I took two sick days and even then I worked both days, but I emailed my clients and I said, hey, you’re probably not going to get the work I owe you today. I’m really sorry I’m having a sick day.

And they might, I have to give it to my clients. They were so supportive and so kind just saying, hope you get better, take your time.

But I felt so guilty and I don’t want them to go to another writer in the future who’s more reliable. I’m very, very, very reliable, but my body failed me this month and yeah, it’s really hard to say I’m sick and I really can’t do this today. It’s really hard to say that.

Sierra:

I’ve had to learn that because I have plenty of health issues. I just feel like since, last fall, I’ve just had one thing after another.

In January I had two emergency surgeries while I was traveling, which obviously I didn’t plan for, that basically knocked me out of commission for about a month. I was still working from bed but on painkillers and trying to be a coherent person and do good work and all that stuff.

It’s tough when you’re recovering and you can’t force it. I mean your body takes its time. So it’s really tricky to feel that pressure and I feel that all the time. I feel like I have to stay up. I mean like last night I slept for like two and a half hours.

Joni:

I don’t compromise my sleep that much, but for me what get’s compromised is my self-care and they always say that that’s a goes and it’ll, it starts with okay, I don’t have time to exercise, so let’s cut that.

And then it’s, I don’t have time to eat healthy food. Let me order whatever again. And then you get sick and it’s just like a bad cycle. I’m definitely paying for that now and I’ll work til like midnight. Even when I’m working until midnight, I still say, I don’t want to do anything else. I’m so happy to be doing this. Your self-care is an investment in your ability to do your job.

Sierra:

I think that’s the key that a lot of people miss is you can’t work yourself to death because you’re the only person who is able to do the work you’re doing, that you’re contracted to do. People are expecting of you. They need you. They don’t need, 20 other people, doing a similar thing.

Joni:

And there are 20 other people who are waiting to do what you’re doing.

Sierra:

But also have to take care of yourself.

When to start outsourcing tasks for your business.

Debbie:

We also need boundaries with ourselves. Because you need to have that boundary where you’re working too much and you’re not taking care of yourself and then all of a sudden you get even sicker because you’re working too much and you’re not getting enough sleep and you’re worrying too much. But then it’s also stressed because you feel like you’re not working enough. How are you going to pay the bills?

It becomes a cycle, but if you don’t take care of yourself, it just becomes so much worse. And that’s so important. And I think because you’re in charge of your own business and you’re the only person that could do that.

By the way, I keep telling Sierra to outsource a lot of stuff.

Sierra:

I know, I’m such a control freak.

Joni:

I can’t outsource anything. I admire you for doing that and I would love to, but I look at what I have to do and I’m like, I’m the only one that can do it.

Sierra:

That’s how I feel too. It’s kind of like mom syndrome, you know? When moms are like, I’ll just do it myself. It’s fine.

You can’t do it the way I do it. I’ll do it.

Debbie:

It’s the perfectionist in you.

Joni:

I know its an investment in training somebody right to train them to do like smaller tasks, but I don’t even want to teach somebody, I hate it. I hate.

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Debbie:

Okay. So honestly it’s the best thing because for me, what I do is I actually create videos on QuickTime and I voice record everything. So when I tell them to do something. I don’t need to sit there and explain everything. I just record everything, send them the video. If they have questions, fine.

But everything they need to do is video recorded so I don’t have to teach it over and over again if they need to go back. And then if I lose one of my assistants, I just send all of those videos to the new person.

Well, also the fact that now I have an editor for my podcast. I have writers from my website. I also have someone who was like an assistant that helps so much. I can take all of those hours that I used to do just for a lot of editing and backend stuff.

Now I have more time to actually create packages to make more money to do more collaborations, to think about big picture stuff. It’s really hard in the beginning because you have to set a system for all of that, but once you do it will make your life so much easier.

It’s not easy to find someone, but you can’t always have that person. Right, because they’re going to go on to bigger, better things if they’re your assistant or someone who works for you. But if you have a system you created already, it becomes easier because then it’s already set in place and in motion for you to do and then it helps you a lot.

Joni:

So I do think about it. I have a couple of areas that an assistant could help me.

One is invoicing, but honestly, it takes me maybe half an hour a week, 45 minutes a week doing invoicing, it’s so little that I just do the work myself.

The other area is helping find sources cause some articles I might need one source, some I might need five and I’ll put out a request in HARO which is help a reporter out and it connects journalists with sources from all around the world. I’ll submit a post on HARO that says, oh I’m looking for sources to offer health tips while traveling.

Please send me three tips and your credentials and then I’ll get responses from anywhere from 10 to 150 people and it would be helpful to have somebody weed out the bad ones. But part of it is when I’m reading it, I get other story ideas as I’m going through those responses.

So even though it’s like not a great use of my time for that assignment, it is kind of good use of my time for the future. And I make new connections that way and I don’t think an assistant would be able to discern between stuff that I really, really, really do not need to read and stuff that like I might actually want to read.

Debbie:

What if you have somebody do that for you but keep all of the emails that you got because when you do have the time you could read through it, but when you’re in a deadline it’ll be faster for you if somebody actually looks through it so it’s not like you’re deleting the responses.

Joni:

Yeah, that’s a good idea. I’d love to get like a paid intern. Less of like a virtual personal assistant and more like a journalism student who already has a very keen sense of what to look for and I could pay them a small amount. That might help streamline. If anyone’s listening, send me an email.

You could send an email to Joni and if you want to be her paid intern.

Sierra:

That’s the key too, I was an intern for many years at record labels. The music industry is a very intense place to be an intern and I was an unpaid intern for most of that time. So I have a lot of feelings about how people get paid and how much and like people being fairly compensated and stuff.

So I’m very hesitant to outsource stuff because I feel like I would feel weird not paying someone really, really well, you know? So it’s there’s a balance.

Debbie:

Do you know what I do with that? Every time I hire someone, I asked them what they want to get paid so that I know that I’m not taking advantage of them and I know what they feel like they’re worth. If it’s too much, then I’ll try to negotiate it. If I feel like it’s worth it, then I go with it.

But usually, I give them the money that they ask for in the beginning. So that could be like a good way for you to know that what you’re paying them is right. And also you know like the industry standard if it’s here in the United States or if it’s outside and you’re outsourcing so then you, you already know what to expect.

You’re not going to pay somebody $50 an hour if you’re hiring from a third world country unless like it’s a really huge job that would pay a hundred in the United States. But it’s good to know to always ask them first what they want to get paid because then you’re not feeling like you’re cheating somebody.

Joni:

Yeah, that’s smart. That’s a really good way of doing it.

Sierra:

I was going to go back to what you said about finding ideas while you’re doing research and stuff and looking for sources. I feel like the equivalent of that for me is doing like Seo Keyword research and stuff. So when I’m doing that, I get so many ideas for things.

And the idea of relinquishing that to somebody else who’s not going to look at it the same way that I do and not going to have the same thoughts like, Oh I a post that this would do great, you know, linking to, and this would be a great like cornerstone content piece for me, that scares me.

Joni:

Even though that might be one of the easier things skill-wise. And it doesn’t require a lot of extra knowledge about your personal business to do that work. But it’s a really key component of how you get ideas.

Sierra:

Yeah. So I get that. I totally get that. It’s tough and I think if you are the type of person who likes to do things a certain way and has a type A personality. I self-diagnosed myself.

Debbie:

It’s hard. I’ve spoken to a lot of people about it, right. Especially for someone who is very type A, very creative and they know what they want and it’s hard to relinquish that cause it’s like a superpower that you have and for you to give that up, but it’s also you have to think about it in a way where how much of this actually allows your business to grow and think about what you want in the long run.

Because if you are looking at all of the little things and you’re so caught up with all of those things, then it’s going to be harder to grow. Now. If you feel like where you are right now is perfect, that’s what you want, then that’s fine, but then if you want to keep growing and you want to do other things with your business and you want to add on other services, then it’s going to be really hard as one person because it’s already overwhelming for you to do that by yourself and then just keep adding more stuff and more stuff to it.

Sierra:

Yeah. Yeah. I get that for sure. I am. I’m in it right now. I’m really in it. Joni and I are very similar.

Joni:

And it requires you to be more organized if you’re going to delegate. I used to be so good about when an article came out and send it to all the sources and write a thank you note and all of this and now that part is falling behind because it doesn’t bring me any more income. It just takes up time during my day.

And I also don’t know when my articles get posted and I feel bad that like my sources who gave the time aren’t getting their reward. So I’d love to outsource that, but that requires me to organize my address book.

Debbie:

You have to balance it and see what works for you and what doesn’t and what tasks you can actually outsource and what tasks you can’t. And at the beginning that’s really hard to do because you have to pay someone and if you’re not making money, don’t do that yet.

And also if you don’t know how to run your business and you don’t know how to do all of those tasks, then you’re going to be in trouble later on. So God forbid your assistant just leaves an editor leaves and you don’t know how to do any of that, then you’re screwed.

So in the beginning, I would definitely say learn all of those tasks, make sure that you know how to do it. And also when you’re hiring someone, if you’re interviewing them, you know who is knowledgeable and who isn’t because you already know what they’re going to do for your business.

So if they’re giving you BS work, you can definitely spot that super quickly. On the other hand if you don’t know what you’re doing and some of these just giving you crap then you’ll be like, okay, cool. I don’t know.

Sierra:

Yeah, that’s very true. I think being educated about your own industry and staying on top of things, staying on top of trends, staying on top of the news, like these things are important for sure. It’s very valuable.

Being grateful for opportunities and appreciating the wins.

Debbie:

So let’s look at everything that’s been happening to you since you started this because I’m kind of reminiscing through the hundred episodes, remembering all of the people I’ve spoken to, all of the changes that have been happening. What are you guys really most grateful about?

There are also so many things that I feel so grateful for. I mean just meeting you guys in this industry. That is something that I’m so grateful for because I’ve learned so much from all of you and all of the people really that I’ve spoken to and it really formed who I am as an entrepreneur, as a businesswoman and as fearless females. To create these friendships and just learning from everybody.

And it makes you so grateful to be doing what you’re doing when you’re surrounded by so many incredible people.

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Sierra:

Oh my gosh. Well, yeah, I think you kind of took mine, which is the people probably, but also even beyond the people that I’ve met and the friends that I’ve made and the connections that I’ve grown, all of that has helped me keep going when I felt like I could not or did not want to.

Because everyone’s been so supportive and like you and our whole friend group, they’ve been fantastic. If I have questions about blogging or questions about monetization or SEO or whatever, I have people to go to for all these different things. And that’s huge.

Facebook groups have been amazing. The community that I’ve found within those, it’s been great. But I would say overall, I think what I’m most grateful for is my own stamina, which it sounds so cocky, but I think I’ve just learned that I’m way more determined and resilient than I thought I was and that’s been really huge.

It’s affected other parts of my life as well. So when people come to me and they’re like, oh, you’re doing such a great job, how are you doing this? What are you doing? I’m like, I don’t know what I’m doing. I don’t know. People ask me all the time and I’m like, I really don’t know what to tell you. I’m just doing it.

I realized that there’s a certain gratitude I need to have the that just on its own. The fact that I’m continuing to try to figure this out, that it’s working. I’m somehow feeding myself, clothing myself, housing myself, paying for my own insurance, like all of these things.

I need to be grateful for the fact that I’ve gotten this far instead of just looking forward and being a little bit bummed out that I’m not exactly where I want to be because I have lofty goals and I know what I want and that’s a good thing.

But I think it’s important to be like, okay, I’ve made it this far. This is huge. The fact that I haven’t given up is huge because this is not an easy path to take at all.

Joni:

It’s so great that you can acknowledge that too. So many of us just beat ourselves up. I appreciate that you said that you’re thankful for one of your own qualities, one of your own traits.

Sierra:

Which is hard for me because any friend will tell you I am not the type of person to toot my own horn, but I will toot it here today. What about you?

Joni:

I’m grateful for a lot. I think the biggest thing I’m grateful for is my independence. I don’t need to rely on a boss. I am my boss. I’m grateful for my independence and my freedom. I can choose where in the world I want to work. I can choose when I do my work, if I want to spend the morning recording a podcast and push my work til later in the day, I can do that.

Whereas when you work in a nine to five, you don’t have that flexibility. And that was really stifling for me. So I’m really grateful to have that now.

I’m also grateful for all the travel opportunities. This freedom has allowed me to take those opportunities were always there for me, but now that I’ve been taking them, there are more of them popping up and I’m able to travel as much or as little as I want.

Most months I do two to three trips, but this past April I took the whole month off and stayed home the whole time. And that’s been really lovely too. And it makes me really appreciate what I have at home. So I like having that, you know, the ebb and flow of going places and appreciating home as well.

And then the third thing I’m grateful for is the ability to pursue all these fascinating stories. I’m working on an article right now about what it’s like to travel when you have a disability. And reporting on disability rights has been really important for me in my career. That’s something I write about every year and I love hearing inspiring stories and writing about it. So, some of the work I do is branded content and it’s kind of advertising and that’s less exciting for me.

You won’t really see me sharing it, but it pays. And then there’s also work that I find really means that I do share. And you know, I love that I can have that balance now.

Freedom is the biggest bonus of being a digital nomad and entrepreneur.

Sierra:

I would agree with that too. The freedom thing is huge. And also for someone who was homeschooled and I have always had to be really self-motivated and had to be really independent and organized in a certain fashion.

And so I think that that has carried over into the fact that I don’t want to work for somebody else. I did for years, but I also did a lot of independent work or I was nannying or working at record labels or just different styles of work. But now I really don’t ever want to work for anybody ever again.

Joni:

It requires a lot of control and so much discipline, but I love it. You understand why work really picked up this month and where your time went. Whereas if you’re working at a big organization, sometimes it just happens, they throw project on you, like you need to get this done by this day and you’ll go, okay, great.

I have this many hours in a day, I better work longer and you don’t really understand or nobody really explains to you how this benefits the entire organization and then ultimately benefits you. Are you getting a bonus at the end of this busy month? Probably not, but when you’re a freelance you do. The more I worked, the more I make.

Sierra:

That’s like a dangerous thing for me, which I’m sure it is for a lot of people because I can make as much money I want, which is, I mean that sounds a little cocky. It’s not necessarily true, but to an extent, I mean I can do as much work as I want to and bring in as much as I want to, but I won’t sleep.

And I do really value my sleep and taking care of myself is something that I’ve been working really hard on this past year just because my body was going to shut down on me if I don’t slow down. So I think that it’s a double-edged sword because you’re like, I can do as much as I want, but also I can’t physically do as much as I want.

Debbie:

And it’s so interesting. Like even now when I have other people to help me with things, I always find something more to do. And then that’s the thing, all of that stuff is getting done by someone else, but now you have more time for more ideas and then you put more work on yourself, which is really horrible.

Joni:

Whenever you’re making an investment in somebody else, you want that investment to pay off for you so you invest that time in your own business.

Debbie:

But it’s so good to hear all of these things from you guys because I think even for us, when we’re doing this now and you’re doing it full time, it’s hard to step back and really appreciate all of the work that you’ve been doing and the success that you created for yourself.

This lifestyle is not for everybody. There’s a lot of people that go into this and go back to their nine to five, which is, fine. If that happens to you, there’s nothing wrong with that. There’s nothing wrong with that at all, but it’s just having the courage to actually go into this and seeing if it’s something that is for you, then that takes a lot of balls and then to go back because it’s not the right lifestyle for you.

But it’s just really appreciating yourself and valuing how much you’ve done and the hard work that it takes to make this work.

Figuring out what to share on social media.

Joni:

I’ve been like sort of taking a step away from some social media, like any social media I’m not using for work. I’ve been putting on the back burner, not totally neglecting it. I’ll post some times, but I haven’t been posting that much because lately, I’ve been feeling like it’s really fake.

It’s a lot of comparisons and I worry that I’m feeding into that by posting. If I take a thousand photos over two months and they only post one, that’s like the best image over two months. It’s my highlight reel and I feel bad. I feel like I’m making other people feel bad about their own lives, so I’ve kind of been stepping away.

Sierra:

I totally get that. I feel like if Instagram wasn’t a part of my brand and business, I would not do it as much. And I really have stepped back a lot. I used to post all the time, but now I’m lucky if I post like once a week. And I don’t care about the algorithm. I don’t care if Instagram is punishing me for not posting every day, you know?

fearless females

Joni:

Is that something that people worry about, that thing? I don’t even know. I read this article about all these, comment pods, and said people hack Instagram. It just felt even less authentic than it had been already. I don’t really care about that.

Sierra:

Well, if it’s a part of your brand and your business, you get frustrated. But then it’s like you feel sleazy and weird sometimes. That’s a whole other topic for another day.

Debbie:

It’s a whole other topic. I created stories the other day. I was talking about how people will look at all of our curated images on Instagram and they think that that’s the real thing. And it’s not, there are so many things happening. There are so many ups and downs in your life, but obviously, you want to put your best foot forward when you’re sharing images, you don’t want the depressing images of yourself

Sierra:

I’m not going to put up a picture of me sitting on my couch with no makeup in my pajamas, with Netflix on in the background working for 14 hours.

Joni:

Even though that’s your daily reality.

Sierra:

When I post a picture of me traveling and people are like, oh my gosh, what an amazing life you have. This is 0.0 0.0% of my life. And I try to be really honest in my captions, I’m really honest in my stories.

And I talk a lot about mental health, my own mental health and how important it is to take care of yourself. And I think that I’ve had to find that balance of making sure that I don’t curate everything and making sure that I feel like I can share honest posts.

Debbie:

When I start posting those things. I think that’s really what gets people the most. You can connect to that and they really appreciate that. But also it’s about balance, right?

Because if you don’t show the best images, they won’t come. But then they also want you to be vulnerable and tell them the truth. But then they also don’t want the bad images. I know that that’s the reality. So you have to put both in there.

So stories will help with the more realistic stuff and your captions, but then your images still have to look good.

Joni:

But see even this feels so formulaic and I don’t like it. It turns me off. I used to want that. I used to want big followers and all of that.

Debbie:

You got it good because you don’t need to be worried about that and you’re still traveling.

Joni:

Although I do get jealous of the influencers when I go on press trips with them. When you are done with the trip you’re done. I have to spend a month pitching stories. SoI am envious in that way.

Before we leave. What is your plan for the next year?

Debbie:

Honestly, I’m not a big planner and I just go with the flow and take follow where life takes me. I guess for me it’s just really growing and I’m really obsessed with marketing so that’s why I’m so thankful that I have other people to implement it for me because I have a lot of ideas of where I want to take my business.

I plan to keep highlighting more people and just to keep growing with my reach and meeting more incredible people and also just keep growing as a person too.

Sierra:

If you could take one of your podcast episodes and bury it in the desert. For the future, after the apocalypse which one would it be and why?

Which episode of The Offbeat Life am I most proud of?

Debbie:

The one I’m most proud of. I would probably say the one-year episode because it was the live one. It was a really fun experience for me because I’ve never done a live episode before with other people actually listening and asking questions.

That was really interesting and something that I would remember til forever because I got to meet my listeners which was crazy. That was the craziest thing. And you know when you’re talking like this, you don’t actually think people are going to listen to it and it feels like you are talking in a void.

And people showed up and I was like, oh my gosh, this is crazy. You actually listen to my show!

I got to meet my listeners and for them to ask questions.

So now ladies if our listeners want to know more about you, because obviously, they haven’t learned enough, Joni, where can they find you?

Joni:

Check out my website, Jonimsweet.com.

Sierra:

And mine is passportvoyager.com

Debbie:

Thank you, ladies. For joining me on this episode and for being the fearless females that you are in business and in life!

Thank you, everyone, for being here for the 100 episodes of the podcast. Make sure to visit theoffbeatlife.com to catch up on all of the previous episodes that you haven’t heard before. I’ll talk to you soon.