My (Very) Honest Digital Nomad Story: How I Became a Full Time Traveller and the Realities

What no one tells you about being a digital nomad is that the freedom comes with a cost ..

Today I’m flipping the mic and sharing a very real, very unfiltered conversation I had on James Hammond’s Winging It Travel Podcast. If you’ve ever dreamed about getting paid to travel, building a business from your laptop, or living the digital nomad life heading into digital nomad 2026… this one’s for you.

This isn’t the romanticized “work from a beach in Bali” version. This is the behind-the-scenes reality — the burnout, the loneliness, the identity shifts, and the hard lessons I learned after traveling for nearly 10 months straight while running my business.

In this episode, we talk about:

• Why I left the U.S. to become a digital nomad — and why I came back
• The difference between backpacking vs. being paid to travel with a business
• How travel burnout sneaks up on you (even when you “love travel”)
• The hidden loneliness of long-term travel
• Why co-living can make or break your digital nomad experience
• The truth about popular nomad hubs (and why Bali wasn’t it for me)
• How traveling too fast nearly wrecked my nervous system
• Why I believe most people shouldn’t be nomads forever
• What I’d do differently if I started again in digital nomad 2026

🌍 Check out James Hammond:

This episode originally aired on Winging It Travel Podcast hosted by James Hammond, where he shares honest travel stories, digital nomad realities, and global adventures from around the world.

🔗 Connect + Take Action

• 🎧 Listen to Winging It Travel Podcast with James Hammond
• 📸 Follow James on Instagram for travel + nomad insights
• 💬 Want my favorite co-living spots or digital nomad resources? DM me
• ⭐ If this episode hit home, leave a review — it helps more travelers find the truth

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