What Kind of Freedom Are You Looking For?

Why Do You Want to be an Anywhereist?

For the first time in over a year, I’m drafting this issue of the newsletter from my local Starbucks.

This particular SBUX has a lovely outdoor, covered patio – with ceiling fans to keep things cool on our hotter Central Florida days. I used to work here regularly when I needed a change of scene.

I’m finding it hard to get anything done today, though. I’m much more distracted by the conversations around me, by people walking by. . . All the things I used to effortlessly tune out now get my attention.

That’s part of what happens when you live with minimal stimulus for a long time, I guess. That doesn’t mean I think the solution is to stay holed up at home, though.

One of the questions I’ve been pondering this week is why you — and I — want to be Anywhereists?

I suspect the reasons are as many as there are readers, but here are some that occur frequently. You:

1. Want to leave your home country (or maybe your home town where you’ve lived since your were born) and live somewhere else
2. Want to experience immersion in another culture, or maybe learn a new language that you can use in everyday life
3. Want to go full monty with a digital nomad lifestyle, moving frequently
4. You no longer have kids tying you to a specific school district
5. You’re able to retire from your career, but you want to start a new business venture, that allows you to work from wherever you find yourself
6. You can’t afford to retire with the quality of life you want where you are now

Understanding your why is really important. Once you understand your why, it’s easier to find your where and your how.

For example, if working from anywhere is part of your why, that narrows your choices to locations with good quality internet. If you want to learn a new language in the place where it’s spoken, proximity to a good language school would be high on your priority list.

(Here’s a hint: if you dig deeper, you’ll find it’s really about freedom — freedom from certain things and freedom to do others. . .)

I’m looking to reduce my monthly cost of living so I can change my focus away from taking on projects simply because they pay the bills, and doing more projects just because I find them interesting. I also want to start traveling again, now that it’s opening up.

If you’re not really clear on why you’re an Anywhereist, I encourage you to schedule some time this week to really think about it. And if you’d care to share your thoughts, I’d love to hear them! Just hit reply to this email.

And if you already have a business, but you need help figuring out or updating your website to get the results you’re looking for, I can help with that. Here’s some information from my WordPress Building Blocks website.

Read: Is Your Website Doing Its Job

Tips & Tools

Is your homepage getting the results you want?

Since we’re talking about business and websites, the SEO wizards at Yoast have some excellent guidance on optimizing your homepage.

“Your homepage should make clear what people can find on your website. It should focus on your unique selling point. And, it should guide your visitors to your most important pages.”

Read: How to Optimize Your Homepage

What’s in a label?

What’s in a label?

Recently I posed a question in a large writing group I belong to.

I asked, “Curious about something – do you think of yourself as a freelancer, or as a solopreneur? Why?”

I got a ton of responses. Some people think of themselves a s freelancers, or solo business owners, or copywriters, or. . .

Some said, “you shouldn’t label yourself.”

I believe that how you label yourself — whether you think of yourself as a freelancer, designer, photographer, or a solopreneur, business owner, or some other title — affects what you do and how you do it.

This article, by writer Melinda Crow faced with the same question, explains why.

Read: Blogger, Freelancer, Journalist, Influencer, or Just a Writer? Who Are You?

Creating images for social media just got easier

As a professional creative, there will be times when you’ll need to create images, even if that’s not your field. (Think, social media posts . . .)

There are a number of tools available to make that task easier for those of us who aren’t visual artists, photographers, or graphic designers.

The one I’ve been using lately, Crello, has just added a Brand Kit.

What’s a Brand Kit? It’s a set of tools that lets you establish your business’ brand color, typefaces, etc. as default settings. Once you’ve set up your brand kit, you need to spend less time on those images, and their look and feel will be consistent.

And that’s a good thing.

Read: Build Your Content with Crello Brand Kit

Free stock photos

Along with creating those branded social media posts, you’ll likely have a need for stock photos from time to time. While Crello, Canva, and other image-making tools make some available to you, you may want to source them elsewhere.

Read: 32 Best Sites for Stock Photos – the Secret List

In Case You Missed It. . .

If you want to start a business you can work anywhere (or any business for that matter), there are three important puzzle pieces you need to figure out before you start. They’re simple, although not always easy. . .

In fact, that’s really the hard part.

Read: Are You Ready to Start a Profitable Business You Can Work from Anywhere?

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