At the start of 2017, I quit my last full time corporate job at Amazon as a digital marketing professional. I decided to switch to remote working in my then core area of expertise and became a Digital Nomad. For the uninitiated, a Digital Nomad is a someone who works remotely using Internet and other modern telecommunication technologies.
Thanks to a very supportive company like Digital Vidya I was able to lead digital marketing trainings online from across India and abroad. Some of the most enjoyable Social Media Marketing and Search Engine Marketing trainings I’ve led were from atop a tree house in Auroville, from a homestay in Dharamshala in the Himalayas while attending a retreat, from an Airbnb in Guwahati enroute to a retreat I was leading in Meghalaya, and from a co-working space in Istanbul while I was traveling for a yoga program there last year.
Being a digital nomad and remote working gave me immense learning opportunities which I would have missed otherwise. Last year while I was attending my life coaching certification program in Bangalore, I opted for weekday trainings which happen usually at night. That way I could continue my normal work while up-skilling myself in a new field. Often, I’ve two or three yoga classes in the morning starting from 6 AM which I finish and return home to login to lead my social media marketing training at 10 AM on weekends. The scale of work that I am doing now wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for the technology that facilitated remote working as a possibility.
Redefining Work & Profession
These experiences changed my view about the nature of work and I firmly believe the future of work is bound to be so dynamic and fluid. The idea that one has to go to an ‘office’ and be there for a fixed number of hours is overrated in my recent experience. You can make any space your ‘office’, so to speak. Choosing to be a Digital Nomad also opened up possibilities for me to explore other dimensions of my life and invest time and energy in developing other skill sets. It helped me develop two successful ventures in Yogasala and Tarot Dojo. I’m incredibly grateful to the technology and the company which helped me develop a very fulfilling parallel career in yoga, life coaching and even Tarot!
I carried forward the idea of location-independence to my yoga venture, life coaching and tarot reading too. Instead of starting a yoga studio which is the recent trend and ‘in-thing’ to do for any trainer, I chose to establish Yogasala as a brand that is location-independent and focussed on traveling and creating spaces for yoga. I found that in the early days even other yoga trainers who were my friends and ran studios could not relate to it and often looked down upon me as someone who ‘does not even have a studio’. But something in me said I was on the right track and I stuck with the idea exploring its possibilities. By now, I’ve created Yogasalas in most States of India and did my first international program in Istanbul in November 2018. I’ve two-three international programs planned for this year. I did this even while establishing a personal teaching practice in Hyderabad city where I reside. At the city level, I promoted the Yogasala concept as creating a space for yoga in the comfort of the home of the student. Though it took me six months to get my first student, today I teach over 108 hours of personalised yoga training sessions in a month.
Once I completed my life coaching training, my first three coaching clients were based in Delhi, Melbourne and Gurgaon. I held the coaching conversations over Skype and got very good feedback. Today I also teach yoga online for few of my personal class students when they travel. I also teach Yoga Sutra chanting over Skype to a student in Seattle. As far as tarot reading is concerned, I conduct regular online tarot readings for clients in Mumbai, Delhi, Guwahati, Indonesia, and even USA.
An Invitation to the Dreamer In You
In the process of exploring these fields, I’ve also come across a wide variety of people from all walks of life and I can see this intense urge in most to pursue something that deeply resonate with them but often doubt if it is wise to switch fields, especially when they have invested a lot of time and is successful in one field.
My invitation to the dreamer in you is to give your dreams a chance. The world is a much better place now for you to explore the real YOU who can’t be defined by a single job or skill that you have developed. I invite you to explore newer definitions of yourselves and have lots of fun doing it!
