Jessica Garza is a digital nomad, traveler, and the COO and driving force behind Nomad Internet. Her achievements are worth talking about. That's why I sat down with her and relayed her opinion on tech nomadism, her experiences when she was the corporate queen, and what’s going on currently. Let’s reflect back on what went down in the interview with Jessica.
To Jessica Garza, I asked – given the popularity, what's your opinion on tech nomadism?
Jessica answered, “Tech nomad, digital nomad, work from anywhere – it's all about how much of control you have. It’s all about how much you can juggle at a given time. It is getting popular – no doubt about that. But grass is not always greener on the other side. Sometimes, what you see from the outside is not what there’s inside. The same goes with all the tech nomad thing that going on.”
“At first, when I went full-blown into being a digital nomad (thanks to the endless corporate grind that I was part of and wanted to get out of it because I wanted some break, something fresh, and more importantly a change), I also thought that it would be easy, it would great, relaxing all the time, no stress, no worries, and all that. But no – being a digital nomad is not comfy all the time. There are its own technicalities, its own ins and outs, its own nitty-gritty. And everyone won’t ever be successful in doing it, in becoming a tech nomad who dwells around the world.”
“For optimum tech nomadism, you’ve got to be more organized. You have to build systems, workflows, or rather a complete digital nomad lifestyle, like I did. Because you’ll be traveling to endless places, you’ll be meeting new people, you’ll be experiencing a variety of weather conditions, and you’ll be forced to manage your work whilst doing all that. That's when work-life balance comes in.”
“In my opinion, it’s alright that people nowadays dream of working at a beach in Bali or from a mountain top in the Grand Canyon but to do it with everything in place, you better be ready to make things more organized and be in control”.
What were your experiences when you were in the corporate and what now?
“I’m being honest here and would say that corporate life was great. I won’t bad-mouth about my corporate time just because I’m a digital nomad now. The reason behind being a digital nomad was simple – I needed a break, had to reflect back on my life.”
“I was the COO of Nomad Internet – an internet service providing company, which my husband started with me. Being a driving force and running the show behind the scenes, I was constantly in the grind. And there was a reason to be in the grind. We had a vision, a mission. The goal was to disrupt the entire Internet services industry. The vision was to get internet services to people who were devoid of them – to the rural areas, to remotest locations, to isolated places, to digital nomads, to van dwellers, to RV Park owners. And the mission was successfully accomplished. We did and we did it gloriously.”
“What now, you asked – well, I’m a thriving digital nomad today. I’m a traveler who travels around the United States. But I still work. I work on various innovative projects. And I’m still part of the Nomad Internet in some capacity. In short, I love what I am doing. And the well-deserved break that I was looking for – I got it. Life is more fulfilling than ever now.”