Freedom Lifestyle

Why I Paused My Podcast For A Year :(

December 21, 2021 Sam Laliberte Season 4
Freedom Lifestyle
Why I Paused My Podcast For A Year :(
Show Notes Transcript Chapter Markers

I had to be honest with myself ⁠— am I committed to creating a life that reflects my own beliefs and values or am I following a path that's being created for me?

It's  really difficult to not be influenced and when the pandemic changed public opinion about  everything I stood for, an identify crisis ensued and I lost my voice.

This long overdue episode shares why I paused my podcast for an entire year, how I leveraged this time and what I think freedom seekers now need in a post-covid world.


About this show:

Freedom is achieved by creating a life that reflects your individual beliefs and desires whether or not they align with the norms and expectations you’re exposed to. It’s when you give yourself permission to be truly yourself, because no one can give you that power but you. 

Sam Laliberte - entrepreneur, digital nomad and freedom seeker, hosts the Freedom Lifestyle Podcast as an effort to make alternative living, less alternative. Her guests push the boundaries of what it means to live a life that’s courageously authentic and on your own terms. 

Topics like remote work, passive income, financial freedom, gig economy, lifestyle business, van life, entrepreneurship, minimalism, consciousness, and more!

Get exposed to and learn from the various ways to create your dream life and finally unlock the lifestyle you know you deserve.

Sam:

Hello, freedom seekers. I wanted to create this bonus episode to talk a little bit about why I haven't created an episode And use my voice this way in over a year, What was happening to me personally, that was the catalyst for that decision to kind of go silent for a bit, how I've used the time over the past year, and what I see for the future. Uh, freedom lifestyle, this community, that show, but much bigger this movement and what I think freedom seekers need to go in for. So the last time you heard from me, I was sharing how I got engaged and I bought my first house and it was a really exciting time. Jared and I had talked about buying a house for awhile. We were ready. We wanted to move to BC, which is on the other side of Canada that we were living in Toronto, but it kind of. Became less of a priority than hopping on a plane to our next adventure and saying yes to the next opportunity to experience something really cool. We just kept putting it off. And so when the pandemic forced us all to get really still and travel, wasn't really an option. And we weren't really able to experience life in the way that we were used to. We said, Hey, this is a great time to. Accomplish this goal, buying a house and moving. So that's what we did. And we moved to a small town in Squamish, which if you've been to BC, if you've been to Vancouver or Whistler, it's a small mountain town, right. In between the two and by small, I mean, I'm pretty sure it's less than 20,000 people definitely feels even smaller than that. So that was a huge change right off the bat. We were downtown Toronto. It couldn't be more downtown than Richmond and Simcoe. I'm talking across from the Shangri-La view of the CN tower. When you walk out in between the. queen street and king street street, car subway, station steps away. We were in the heart of the city and it was a really fun life for five years that I was there. I was a social butterfly. I was attending networking events all the time. I built the freedom lifestyle brands from there. I built the community of entrepreneurs that I cherish so much in the. The city and it provided so many opportunities for not only my career, but also my social life and my romantic life. There was so many fun date options and entertainment options in the city. And it was a really exciting, great life. I never thought I would leave. So coming to Squamish, I mean, I was prepared that it was going to be slower life living. And I had been warned that it rains a lot here, but as soon as November hit, it was the trifecta of, we don't have any friends here. There isn't really anything going on in general. And in terms of entertainment and restaurant scene and social scene, like we were used to, and it's now a pandemic where even seeing people is not great and really not a safe decision. Jared's parents live about an hour from us, And we're close with them. We see them often. And the last thing we wanted to do was to put them in danger. So we were in a really tough situation and we were struggling our relationship, to be honest, I think it was the lowest we've ever been in our relationship. And, you know, had really difficult conversations about, are we growing apart? Do we want the same things? a lot of introspection and reflection, which is all you really had time to do because there was nothing else. So that was happening personally, which was really difficult. I was wondering if moving here was the right decision. It was raining every single day, all day. I hadn't seen the sun in weeks and anything I wanted to do was either illegal or heavily frowned upon at the same time, my career was based on. Mobility based on moving around the world, traveling, working from anywhere, helping people do the same, experiencing life, carving your own path, breaking the rules, doing your thing. And all of that was also heavily frowned upon. And it was this moment in time where I realized that everything I stood for. Was not appropriate to be talking about. And in fact, people went out of their way to tell me that I should, take it back a notch right now. And maybe, not be producing content and not be sharing this message. And it was really difficult because I felt like I lost my voice. And so that was challenging in general. I went home for the holidays. I mean, what has he been home? But I went back to Ontario where my family lives and I distinctly remember Jared and I having a video chat. And I said to him, I have something to say, and I'm scared to say it. And he said what? I said, I don't think I want to go back to Squamish in January. And he's like, honestly, I've been feeling the same way. And I was just like, wow. Finally, we are agreeing on something. We are back on the same page. Okay. And we said, okay, what does this mean? How can we live our lives still? And do what makes us happy and fulfilled at our best us and the most aligned self while also being responsible and keeping people around us safe. So we decided to go to Costa Rica for the winter, And honestly, it was the best decision I've made in a very long time. I know not everybody agrees with that decision. However, We did it in a way that we felt we could still have happiness and live our lives while being responsible and safe. So little tweaks, right. Instead of moving around every month to a new country, we just stayed in the same spot for four and a half months instead of going to coworking spaces and lots of coffee shops to work, we just got a nicer Airbnb with a proper site. And stayed there the entire time and really lived there. What was also great about Costa Rica is that everything's outside And so we were really safe. We did not get COVID and it was a really beautiful experience in terms of. However, I was still getting the same feedback. You really shouldn't be telling people you're doing this. You really shouldn't be posting about this on social media. You really shouldn't be advocating for this. And there was just so much pressure on me and expectation on me to not be who I am. And that sucked. Honestly, I felt like what is even my purpose? Then I've built this brand now for four years of doing these types of things and choosing my own adventure and creating rules that work for me that are also responsible and productive. And I felt like what I was doing was okay. Yeah, there being this stigma. And so I listened, I deleted my Instagram didn't even go on the apps or post for, I think it was a couple of months and of course didn't podcast for a year. And in this time I got really sick. I just said, okay, well, what can I do in this time instead? I had actually lost a few freelance clients when COVID first hit. I think a lot of companies got really scared and weren't really sure where the economy was going to go. So projects that I had previously been relying on ended, and for a time I wasn't making as much money as well, which was also really stressful. So I thought. How can this be an opportunity? It's not like these other contracts I had where the best thing ever and totally aligned with what I wanted to be doing. I was still on year three of my freelance journey, where I had learned how to take work that paid me more and started to price myself based on the value versus just hourly and was, working with really great companies that would hire me to work remote and create my own schedule. But it still wasn't perfect. I was still. Hopping around to different gigs. one day it would be an influencer marketing project. Another day I'd be working on affiliate management another day, be doing some random podcasting work. And so I was still all over the place. And so I said, okay, well, I'm not on Instagram. I don't have a podcast and now I don't really have any work. How can I use this time as a gift? I think so often when we're either going through a transition specifically work-wise and we suddenly aren't as busy as we were. It can be really easy to get stressed about that and worry about that and scramble and just make quick decisions, because you just want to be out of this situation in this time period as quickly as possible. So you just say yes to the next thing, and you just want to be over this period of uncertainty. I think the best thing you can do is say to yourself, this can be a gift in no time. I am confident that I'm going to be working again busy again. And I'm just going to be in that action state of output. And right now I'm going to use this time to really get still, to think deeply and to dream and create a vision and do all this like deep strategic work, knowing that in the future very soon, I'm going to be busy and I'm going to wish I had time for this stuff. So that's what I think. and really took my business to another level. I doubled my income in 2020, and now in 2021, I'm making way more money than I was making before, because I made a couple of the decisions, which I'm definitely going to be creating whole podcast episodes about that. But it has a lot to do with just focusing in on a niche, in an area of expertise and really starting to create the higher ticket offers. I've been making money. I've been growing my business. I've been living my life again, but I still wasn't really creating content and doing anything to push this freedom lifestyle movement forward. And there's been this longing inside of me to be doing more and to be creating an impact in that. when you look at the wheel of happiness, which you should totally look this up, it basically tells you to give yourself a one to 10 ranking on 10 different categories that essentially together create a fulfilled and happy life. Career and making money are just two of those 10 things and making an impact and having purpose driven work is something that's so important to me and something that I really care about. And so I've had to think a lot about, okay, how can I come back? How can I use my voice? And again, how can I find empowerment and be respectful of different opinions, but also grow the brand in 2017. When I started the freedom lifestyle. It was because I wanted the freedom lifestyle too. I wanted to learn how to work remotely from anywhere in the world. And I. I'm going to interview five people who have done this, and I'm going to call it a podcast. And I'm assuming by the end of these five interviews, I'll have some ideas of, ways that I could start working online. Turns out in 2017, I was not alone in that desire of how the heck do you work online? Remote work has changed a ton. The adoption of it specifically in the last two years is incredible. We have watched massive companies, Facebook, Google, Shopify, permanently close their offices and adopt a distributed work online model in definitely. And so really does my community need as much help and how to work online and how to be location. Independent digital nomadism has also totally gone mainstream. And the four years since I've been talking about this, it seems like every scroll on Instagram, you see someone posting about this idyllic lifestyle and how they're doing it. And there's so many different ways that you can do it now. So it really felt like, okay, well, there seems to be a lot of resources about this online. Another wake up call I really had this year is just because you work remote and can work from anywhere. It doesn't mean you have that much freedom. When I was in Costa Rica, it was so fun to see first-time remote workers there. Some of them were not actually allowed to be there. We actually met a bunch of people who were working remotely for the first time while we were in Costa Rica. So it was really cool to just see people so excited about this lifestyle and mind blown. And I can't believe this is amazing. And we're like, yes, I'm so happy for you. But then they would tell us, like my company doesn't even know I'm not even supposed to be doing this. I'm just here because we're remote indefinitely right now. And we were like, how did they not know? Like you were so tanned and they'd be like, I just haven't turned on my webcam. So funny, but we definitely saw a lot of first time remote workers, a lot of people who had had full-time jobs who were working. Now in the location that they decide however, when it would be a really sunny, nice day, or there would be some really cool market that was happening, that was maybe from the hours of one to three, or the surf was up between, you know, a certain period at the time, there was a lot of people who still couldn't take advantage of that. they still had. To be working under someone's time schedule and had fixed hours. And that made me really realize that, okay, freedom, lifestyle, and the ability to feel free and have flexibility to carve your own day and carve out your own life seems to be more than just location independence. you seem to also really need schedule freedom. You need to be able to have the opportunity to have enough flexibility, to move things around when you see fit. If there's some spontaneous thing you want to experience place, you want to go where you want to spend your time. You need to be able to have some flexibility to do that. And I've really been thinking about, okay, what does that mean for the future of freedom seekers and how it's not just about financial freedom? It's not just about location freedom, but it's also about schedule freedom. And how do we think about all three of those and how can we be creating businesses, products, pursuing opportunity that checks all of those boxes so that we can truly achieve the freedom to carve out every day and potentially have the perfect day. So that's been a big aha moment. That's shaping how I'm thinking about the future of the freedom lifestyle. Another is that. specifically in Squamish and this town I'm in. I thought that I was living pretty alternatively and pretty unconventionally. I thought I was pretty free and I've met people here that have really taken success to a whole new level and how they define it and how they define free that's even pushed me. Squamish is like one of the adventure capitals of the world, definitely in Canada. And there's just so much fun stuff you can do here. And so much adrenaline adventure, everything from highlining, which is a sport we took up this year, which is so wild and so fun to rock climbing, mountain biking. Of course, the ski Hills really close to here, 40 minutes from Whistler, kite surfing. There's just so much adventure to be had. And. When we would meet people most of the time when you would have that classic conversation. Oh, what do you do? A lot of these people were like barely working. They were living in their vans pretty much full times that they can rock climb all day, every day. And then in the winter had to Whistler, they were living in houses with like eight people where two people would be sleeping on the couches. One would be parking their van in the driveway and they would all share the facility. Okay. The shower, the toilet, and probably the fridge. And honestly, I just, I respect it so much. I think it takes so much courage to just say I reject all of these traditional definitions of success and back, I can only imagine they're getting from potentially friends and family and other people in their lives and saying, this is how I want to spend every day, all day. And I'm going to look at it. This. So that has really also evolved my way of thinking and making me realize that achieving freedom and having that what's your free is not necessarily always even towards a career. And work-related, so that's definitely something I'm exploring a lot more and just reinforcing the idea that I always had a there's no right way to live. And also you can do anything. You can have anything, you just can't really have everything or do everything. And a lot of it is about choices, consciousness being deliberate and choosing your definition of free. How do you make sure that you show up every day and make those decisions for yourself in a world where it is so easy to be influenced by people, media, government, friends, and family. How do you balance all of that input with being true to yourself and thinking for yourself and making sure you're making decisions that reflect your own views? It is really difficult to not be influenced. Whether it's consciously or subconsciously, we have to decide, am I going to be creating a life that reflects what I think about things with my definitions of success, with my definitions of safety, or am I going to follow a path that's been created for me? That's supposed to work for everybody. There's been a lot of parallels with. How people are responding to the pandemic and what we are supposed to do versus figuring out a way to govern themselves a little bit and be safe, but also choose happiness or default to a lot of the time, what I saw being miserable, being angry sharing. Hey. Because I'm just going to follow the rules and everybody else should sacrifice themselves too. I don't believe that. I think it's a balance and I trust myself and I trust others to find that line. And that's my view. And I hope it's okay that I shared that. I hope it's okay. That I feel that way. And if you're listening and you don't feel that way and you don't respect me for that, I have love for you. I really do. I have approached this year, really from a place of curiosity Curiosity about why people are feeling the way they do and why they're either feeling so fearful or not feeling fearful at all. and I've taken the time to have conversations with people on both sides of those. And I'm not on either I'm somewhere in between and I'm always going to be somewhere in between. I'm always going to be playing by a rule. That's a little bit of this and a little bit of that, And I want to empower you to not feel like you have to be one thing either. So the future of the freedom lifestyle movement, freedom is achieved by creating a life that reflects your individual beliefs and desires, whether or not they line with the norms and the expectations that you've been exposed to. It's when you give yourself permission to be truly yourself. Because no one can give you that power, but you, so join me for season five, where I take things to a whole new level of freedom. I'm someone who is a part-time digital nomad part-time house owner. Part-time cat mom, but full-time freedom seeker. This podcast is an effort to help anybody who wants to make alternative living. Less alternative. The guests that I have on the show are going to be pushing the boundaries of what it means to live a life that's courageously authentic. And on your own terms, we will still be covering the topics that we all know and love remote. Passive income, financial freedom, the gig economy, lifestyle businesses. But I also want to grow into bigger topics about what it really means to live consciously things like minimalism, adventure, schedule freedom, then living and so much more. So I hope you'll join me and getting. Most of these new ways of thinking and learning the various ways that people are dreaming up their dream life and finally taking the lifestyle they know they deserve. I don't expect you to find a story that you want to completely replicate. I hope that you pick and choose. Everything that you hear of what works for you? What, doesn't a mix of my stories, a mix of my guests, and you find a way to create a lifestyle for yourself. I hope to hear what you choose and what's your free

No Title