This is Chloe Nicole Spinks, learning Muay Thai on our fitness bootcamp in Chiang Mai . Before joining our first South East Asia tribe, Chloe was earning good money in a "normal" steady job back in her hometown in Australia. But she felt unfulfilled with the life she was living. She knew she needed to change her life by stepping back and asking herself "why?" to discover her purpose through our program.
In just a year, Chloe has transitioned into becoming a full-time digital nomad working in marketing, armed with passion and confidence to start her own business and carve out a life on her own terms.
Watch our full interview with Chloe to hear her advice for those who want to apply, and the biggest lesson she learnt from the life-changing 3 months on our program.
In which way has your career changed?
It’s changed in the sense that I know exactly what I want to do in terms of my purpose, my passion and why I’m here. I’m now starting up my own business on the side, as well as working in digital marketing, so the [Digital Marketing] course that I did on The Nomad MBA really helped me transition into this.
Now that I’m a digital nomad, when I wake up every morning to decide whether or not I want to work, I have the freedom to choose to explore if I’m in a new place. When I do feel like working (which to be honest is most days anyway because I’m that excited and passionate about it), it doesn’t feel like work. I can work for 10 hours that day and it feels like I haven’t done anything, that’s how different it feels - as opposed to being in an office job, wondering when your next break is and being bored to death.
What is your story?
I worked for a mining company based in my hometown Newcastle in Australia. It was one of those scenarios where I fell into the job because it was what my father wanted me to do. We’re taught to go to university and get a good job, and it all comes down to social conditioning, what we’re led to believe we should be doing. So I was living a life that was considered very “normal”, working in a job that is “okay” and “earning good money” but it really wasn’t fulfilling.
How was it to apply?
I saw the ad for The Nomad MBA and I applied straightaway. You just feel it when you see something like that, if it excites you and lights you up inside. That’s how I felt when I applied, and the rest is history. When I did finally get the call telling me that I was accepted, I was over the moon!
What was your trigger to apply?
Wanting to change my life. At the end of the day, when you’re working in a job you don’t like, and you’ve gone down the traditional path and nothing has seemed to have worked out, you got to take a step back and ask yourself “why?”. I just knew I wasn’t happy with where I was, what I was doing, and I didn’t even recognise the person I had become.
I realise that now and I finally feel like how I was as a child - I have so much passion for life again, I love life, I love everyone around me and my views on everything has changed so much in the past year. And it all started with The Nomad MBA!
Biggest lesson from the program?
The biggest challenge I had to overcome was not giving in to that self doubt. Especially this past year, telling myself that I can and will do this, and that I won’t go back to my previous life. That I will live the life that I set out to achieve through The Nomad MBA. That’s exactly what I’ve done and I’ve definitely overcome it.
What do you miss most about the program?
When the 3 months ended, what I struggled with the most was leaving everybody. During that time, you become so close, like family. It’s amazing that I can now go anywhere in the world and I have a friend I can visit.
Advice for people applying?
Just do it! Don’t give into that self- doubt. The program is life-changing. You will gain so much from it, there’s really nothing else like it.
At the end of the day, it’ll change everything for you. The more you put yourself into it, the more you’ll get out of it. Where else can you go where you can have so many like-minded people around you and supporting you, whilst travelling and changing your career and doing what you want to do, being who you want to be, with no other noise around you telling you otherwise? You can actually think and be yourself, and you will figure yourself out and come out a totally different person.
Is it worth the investment?
Of course, it’s totally worth it! It’s something that money can’t even buy. Looking back on it now, I wouldn’t care how much it cost, I’ll do it all over again in a heartbeat.
Why join The Nomad MBA?
If you want to do something completely different and insane, if you want to get out of your comfort zone and not follow the norm that everyone else is following, just do it. It’ll change your life! I can tell you from my own experience and how it’s changed everything for me in my life and I’ve obviously never been happier. I’ve never felt more part of a community and a family that I do now.
