Welcome back to the Digital Nomad Diaries, where wanderlust meets work. This time, we’ve teamed up with our fave home-swap app Kindred to profile how their community of travelers are working remotely without breaking the bank.
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Who: Braelinn Frank, owner of Rave Nailz, a press-on nail business that started as an Etsy shop and is now carried at 250 retailers across the US.
Where: Miami, New York and LA
When did you start working remotely?
“I’ve always been a freelancer and quickly learned I could just stay a little longer after holidays and trips with friends. Now that I have my own business, I can work from anywhere and I actually benefit from all the networking it allows! The best part is that I can fully live in another city, feel what that's like and build real connections with people in other cities while I’m at it. This is so different from doing a few days or even a week somewhere. You just can’t really absorb it that way.”
What practical considerations did you have to take?
“Kindred lets me filter by people who are ok with me bringing my cat. This is huge for me and makes things way easier! Other than that, it was surprisingly easy. So far, time differences haven’t been an issue for me. I have no problem with a late-night meeting! It helps to be outgoing and talk to locals so they can tell you about the tourist traps to avoid and give you tips. In Miami, the best tip I got was to get a CitiBike pass since the traffic can be so bad, and a recommendation for an amazing Italian place in South of Fifth called Call Me Gaby. The food and ambiance are unmatched. I could go back 10 times. When I'm in a new city, I like to ask a bartender for recommendations. They're the cool cats with the insider knowledge, plus they're easy to talk to!”
What are the costs like? Any unexpected expenses?
“My Kindred subscription is around $50 per month, then I pay a cleaning fee of around $150 for each new spot. Flights are the biggest, obviously. I wish I had planned my transportation a bit better. In Miami, I really could have used a car, but ended up figuring out the local public transit.”
Where are you off to next?
“I have a wedding in Amsterdam, so I'm building a longer Euro tour around it. Thanks to Kindred, I'm able to do this without breaking the bank. I may set up an email warning about slow response times—I still plan to be working, I just may be getting back to people at odd hours. I actually have a few people I work with in Europe, so it'll make my Zoom calls easier with them.”
How does remote work affect your productivity?
“It improves mine. I definitely am spending chunks of time just figuring out where the heck things are, but the excitement and inspiration I get from it puts my creativity and productivity into overdrive.”
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