How to Become a Salesforce Digital Nomad: Embracing Travel with Alex Lapa

Our conversation with Alex then sails into the practical seas of managing client relationships from across the ocean. We uncover the overlooked perks of serving a North American clientele from Europe, not least the advantages of currency rates. But it’s not all smooth sailing; we tackle the real talk about the loneliness that can accompany a nomad’s life and how to find your tribe in foreign lands. This episode is rich with travel hacks and solutions that help digital nomads like Alex—and potentially you—keep thriving in this lifestyle.

As we bid adieu to Alex, we leave you with a teaser of what’s on the horizon: the Salesforce World Tour in New York City. We’ll be bringing you the latest updates and discussing resources for Salesforce pros looking to improve their interviewing technique or scout for talent. Whether you’re a digital nomad, a Salesforce enthusiast, or simply someone who loves the idea of exploring the world without putting your career on hold, this episode is packed with insights that will inspire you to chart your own course.

Announcer: 0:04

And now the number one audio program that helps you to hire, get hired and soar higher in the Salesforce ecosystem. It’s the Salesforce Career Show with Josh Matthews and Vanessa Grant.

Josh Matthews: 0:24

Okay, hello and welcome to the Salesforce Career Show. My name is Josh Matthews, and today we have a special guest. His name is Alex Lampa. Alex is a senior Salesforce architect who specializes in nonprofit. He has worked as an app builder, he’s also a podcast host and he produces a regular newsletter for Salesforce professionals as well. Welcome to the show, alex.

Alex Lapa: 0:48

Thank you, josh, thank you for having me.

Josh Matthews: 0:51

It’s a pleasure to have you. Now quick history Alex and I had a brief conversation, I want to say it was about three and a half years ago and you had just started being a digital nomad. Now your hometown is Toronto, is that correct? Montreal, actually Montreal, my bad, okay. Now your hometown is Toronto, is that correct? Montreal, actually Montreal, my bad, okay, I love me some Montreal, okay, so Montreal. And then you spend a fair amount of your time overseas. Could you do me a favor, do the audience a favor, just describe what’s a digital nomad.

Alex Lapa: 1:20

Yeah, so I would define a digital nomad as someone who has more than one home or who gets out more often, as often as possible, let’s say, someone who isn’t tied necessarily to one particular location, someone who’s able to escape once in a while Different, of course, degrees of digital nomad lifestyle. I’m choosing one, or I’ve chosen one, where I’m doing six months in Montreal the summers, which are fantastic, and then I spend the winters in the South of Spain, which is where I’m from right now.

Josh Matthews: 1:50

That’s fantastic. Well, welcome from across the pond, my friend, and for some people, there are a variety of styles of digital nomad. Right In your situation, you go to Spain. By the way, when you go to Spain, do you stay in the same location? Do you do you rent, or?

Alex Lapa: 2:06

so the first time I came, at least the same. Yeah, the first time I came, when we spoke, I was actually testing out various areas. I was looking for a place for a second home. So over the course of maybe six months I had stayed in maybe six different places, about a month per place, and it was really along the coast, in a very specific region, maybe 60 miles ish from coast to coast, so every 10 miles, let’s say, I was trying a new spot and ended up being in one spot in particular now for the last two years and I’ve even bought a place here. I loved it so much that I said I’m planting roots so I will have a place to come and call my own.

Josh Matthews: 2:44

Good for you, congratulations. But there are more than one style of being a digital nomad right? I’ve heard stories of some folks who it’s almost like there’s no plan right, there is no home base and they spend all year bouncing around. Have you run into folks like that in your travels? Absolutely.

Alex Lapa: 3:03

Yeah, I think the only two requirements to be a digital nomad is a laptop and Wi-Fi, and the rest is really up to you. And when I say Wi-Fi, I mean internet in general. Hotspots and so forth are good enough. I see people who are using RVs, trucks, just zooming around the country. I see people flip-flopping all over Europe or all over the world. Sometimes they work completely asynchronously, so there’s almost no customer meetings, and they’re just able to work completely remotely at any time zone anywhere.

Alex Lapa: 3:31

For me, because I do have client meetings, I can’t vary off too far from the Eastern time zone. So six hours ahead for me is perfect by being in Spain. But yeah, there’s no real. That’s the best part of it. It’s so relaxed. There’s no real rules to this game. It’s really what you can do, and there are some people who do only a couple of weeks per year. Some do more, like myself, which is six months, six months. And some people are you know what just say I don’t want to have a residency anywhere. I’m going to just be a perpetual digital nomad.

Josh Matthews: 4:01

Yeah Live, yeah live, live out of your backpack, so to speak.

Josh Matthews: 4:08

I’ve got a friend who’s going to be doing some of that digital nomad style next year on a boat and he’s going.

Josh Matthews: 4:11

He and his wife and their dogs he’s also a sales force pro are going to travel with what’s called the great loop, which is a year-long journey on typically a you know under 50 foot foot boat, going up the Mississippi, through the Great Lakes and then down through the East Coast all the way through Florida and back, and they’re using Starlink, right. So I’m imagining that that’s probably something that’s interesting for people who are in RVs, who are doing a lot of travel, a lot of excessive travel and to particularly remote places, but then also for any boaters out there let’s face it, there are not a lot of travel, a lot of excessive travel and to particularly remote places. But then also for any boaters out there let’s face it, there are not a lot of towers in the middle of the ocean, much less offshore 20 miles, right. So it can be a bit of a challenge. What has been the biggest impact, sort of the biggest aha? You went into this with an idea of what it was going to be like, right?

Alex Lapa: 5:03

I had a vague idea because I mean, it wasn’t like the first time I decided to be a digital nomad. It was the first time I traveled. Before this experience I had done the backpack thing. I wasn’t really working too much at the time, but it was about two years where I was traveling, mostly alone with a backpack, all around the world, doing light work here and there, so that was kind of an intro to the digital lifestyle, but I was traveling extensively before that I visited.

Alex Lapa: 5:33

Now I think I’m more than 55 countries that I visited so far. My gosh Congratulations. My grandparents, the parents of my mom, have been to a hundred countries, 190 countries correct myself, and they have a doll collection where they have the traditional how many countries are there?

Josh Matthews: 5:42

220?

Alex Lapa: 5:43

It varies based on how many regions you consider, but definitely 190 is up there. It’s significant. And they have a doll collection, a traditional doll with the dress of, I mean, 100, I don’t mean just, like you know, collecting names off a list, but at least experiencing spending time there. So that sabbatical that I took for two years was a great way to accomplish a big part of that goal. But yeah, it was not to answer your question. It was not a completely new experience. I had an idea of what I was getting myself into. I knew that there was going to be some challenges which we can get into. It’s not always unicorns and rainbows. There are drawbacks to this lifestyle, but for me personally, I love it and I advocate for it, because travel is just a fantastic way to grow as a person and that’s the seed of why I do it.

Josh Matthews: 6:41

I agree, you’ve got me beat on countries by about 30, you know, and I don’t have the same travel bug that you do. There’s there’s another 10 that I’d like to visit that I haven’t been to, but I and I and I still have time to do that. I mean the learning. Let’s talk about that learning curve for a minute, right? So for a seasoned traveler, this must feel like look, yeah, you need internet and you’ve got to figure some of that stuff out, but you’ve already figured out. Okay, I need a passport. It’s step one, right. I need to check on visas. I need to understand how I’m going to get healthcare Do I need travel healthcare, for instance? And some countries will require that in order to give you a visa, things like that. So what are some of the logistical challenges, or at least things that someone who’s interested in this lifestyle should really begin to be aware of in the early?

Alex Lapa: 7:36

stages of their consideration. So there’s a lot we can go through. Let’s see if I can come up with some kind of ordered, structured list For sure. Passports first, number one yeah, you can’t go much, can’t go far, without a passport.

Alex Lapa: 7:47

Knowing the entry and exit requirements for every country you do want to visit. Knowing the travel advisory. Making sure the place you’re going to is relatively safe right, you don’t want to go to a place that isn’t, um. Knowing where you’re going to stay, of course, during that time. Knowing where they if they have internet there um. Knowing what you’re going to stay, of course, during that time. Knowing if they have internet there.

Alex Lapa: 8:05

Knowing what you’re going to do with your stuff at home. If you keep your stuff that sabbatical, for example, I was able to put most of my stuff into storage, sell a whole bunch of stuff, so I left not much behind. It was a weight off my shoulders, which was a fantastic way to experience things. I didn’t feel like I had ties back at home. So deciding that level as well is important to how much you want to keep at your home and how much you want to just throw to the wind and say let’s just do this and see where the wind takes me Um knowing at least what about scanned email, uh, scanned mail servers, things like that, forwarding mail actual mail.

Alex Lapa: 8:42

That’s a good point too. I had forwarded to my mail, mostly to my brother, so he was able to take care of certain logistics uh, tax statuses, of course, if you are planning to be away for a long period of time, you have to figure that part out. Luckily, with covid, a lot of things are now much more digital than they ever were before. So moving around and doing everything remotely you know, signing documents and contracts much easier now than it was, you know, five, 10 years ago. That would be the starting point. So definitely I’m sure I could think of some more as we continue talking, but as a starting point that would be the list that I would work with.

Josh Matthews: 9:15

Yeah, those are all good. I mean, there’s also banking and you know, and, by the way, folks, there are services that will open your mail for you and digitally scan it and send it to you in an email. So if you don’t have a brother who’s willing to crack open those letters and read them to you over the phone or over FaceTime or something like that, you can definitely utilize services like that. So, one of the things that’s critical for most people now if you’re close to retirement or if you’ve been a very good saver and you have a savings, you can be a digital nomad and not be digital at all. You can just be a nomad.

Josh Matthews: 9:51

But the digital nomad is really an individual who operates some sort of remote employment or they have their own business that allows them to work remotely.

Josh Matthews: 10:02

You know, fortunately, in the Salesforce ecosystem, a really huge swath of the ecosystem are remote workers, whether they’re working directly for Salesforce or, you know, for a partner or for a customer. But we are seeing it closed down a little bit. We’re seeing a lot more requests through my company for for onsite hybrid work. So they’re you know, they just want you in the office a couple of days a week, but now you have to be in Minneapolis right, or now you have to be in Miami. So talk a little bit about what folks can do to either communicate their desire to lead this type of work Maybe they’re a full-time employee and they want to take advantage of remote work with their employer or they need to have some communication with the employer asking them hey, this is what I want to do. What kind of benefits might they be able to share with their employers to help convince them that this is the right move, not just for the nomad, but also for the business that they’re serving?

Alex Lapa: 11:09

So there’s two kind of facets to this I can imagine. One is you’re starting to engage with a company that has these kinds of policies in place, which makes it much easier to set the rules from the beginning, saying look, this is my lifestyle, here’s how I do things, I’m here for this portion of the year and I’m not here for that portion of the year. Obviously, in that kind of situation it is easier to have that conversation because it’s from the onset. If you’re already at an organization that is now clamping down these rules and you don’t have any interest in leaving because you like it there, there are a few things you can do. The first one I would suggest is start exploring the conversation of saying look as a trial, mr Manager, I would like to propose working remotely for a certain period of time a few weeks, a few months and let’s do it as a trial. Let’s just see what happens.

Alex Lapa: 11:56

If it’s completely unsuccessful and a flaming pile of you know what, let’s just not do this again.

Alex Lapa: 12:03

But if it’s successful, I would like to repeat it again in the future.

Alex Lapa: 12:07

And phrasing it as a trial, not as a this is how things are going to be from now on, makes it easier to digest and to swallow and to accept.

Alex Lapa: 12:14

And of course you want to make sure you’re super responsive when you’re away. You have now a higher level of responsibility to be responsive, to react to demands of the clients and to do good work, because you never want your employer to question that your level of quality or your professionalism. And if you do those right, after that trial you should be able to get the feedback again to say look, it worked really well, confirm, it did go very well, and let’s do this again, say next year, which can carve out a little niche for yourself to say every year for a month or two you are no longer on site and you are away, and you might have to sacrifice also a little bit more. Maybe during the time that you are on site you spend five days a week at the office instead of four days a week, or four weeks four days instead of three days, but at least you know you’re able to carve that out, that lifestyle out for yourself.

Josh Matthews: 13:06

Sure, and what about actually servicing companies in different, in different countries? Is that something you’ve done? Have you gone in and supported any Spanish organizations, for instance?

Alex Lapa: 13:16

It not no, I have Spanish, portuguese clients actually, which is kind of convenient because they’re right next door. So at this point I mean I’m Canadian, yeah, they’re right there. As Canadian, I got most of my clients in Canada or the US and there has been one in Romania and one in Portugal. It’s great because euros are very strong in terms of currency and I would be open to Spanish. But it’s a different culture here. In this particular country, things are very mañana, very relaxed. Things take much longer than you would expect. So I don’t know, if I would want, I wouldn’t reject, but it’s harder to find employment or work here. I much prefer having something that’s a bit more, in my case at least, north American, but more stable, a bit more business-oriented, and then work here so you don’t have to depend on the local labor.

Josh Matthews: 14:09

Yeah, that makes sense. And then you get the North American rates as well you do, which is definitely a consideration.

Alex Lapa: 14:16

It’s different perspectives as well. In terms of how they conduct business here it’s a bit more, it’s just different. And in terms of healthcare, in terms of how they conduct business, here it’s a bit more, um, it’s just different. And in terms of health care, in terms of banking, all that stuff, I mean everything, for me stays in canada, so I don’t have to change too much.

Josh Matthews: 14:29

It’s really just me physically being somewhere else sure, talk, talk, if you can, a little bit about some of the countries that you visited that seem maybe for the novice traveler or the novice nomad would be moderately soft landings for them as they begin to explore this lifestyle.

Alex Lapa: 14:52

So the easiest one, the easiest countries, would definitely be Europe, and more and more European countries are offering what’s called a digital nomad visa. So typically, with a Canadian or an American passport, you’re only able to stay in Europe for three months. You have to leave after that. But more and more countries are now offering this visa, which allow you and your family to spend up to a year, and even renewable for five years. Portugal was one of the first that I’m aware of. It happened a couple of years ago, spain was last year. Italy just announced theirs as well too. I’m not sure about the rest. I’m sure there are websites out there that you can research all this information, but the idea is that more and more countries are being open to this kind of concept with minimal requirements. As long as you have employment, as long as you can prove a certain level of income, as long as you have health care and travel insurance or travel health insurance would be important then, uh, they will accept you.

Josh Matthews: 15:46

So, um, and come spend your money with us, right, that’s basically don’t drain our system.

Alex Lapa: 15:52

Spend our, spend your money here and we’ll accept you. So europe in general is very welcoming, especially for these places that are have this kind of visa because they’re kind of expecting you. So as an English speaker that doesn’t speak very much Spanish, I’m able to thrive here. I’m able to use Google Translate and other translation devices to help me with certain people.

Josh Matthews: 16:12

Sure.

Alex Lapa: 16:12

Obviously, I would love to learn Spanish more and more, but the idea is that, even though you only speak English, you know you’re able to function in most of these countries Because, luckily, most people’s second language is English.

Josh Matthews: 16:26

Yeah, that’s terrific, you know. I want to bring something to the audience’s attention which came across my newsfeed last week, and it’s from Virgin Virgin Cruises. It’s a cruise line. It’s owned by Richard Branson and this article talks about a new cruise they have. It’s called Work from Cruise Workations for Remote Workers.

Josh Matthews: 16:50

I thought that was pretty cool, and so, for about 10 grand, I think, is what it is all in that’s probably per person, so it’s not nothing you know still got to pay a handsome sum. This is not the cheap way to do it, by the way, guys, but it’s a really interesting way to get to explore what I would imagine is a lot of the Mediterranean and work from a beautiful cruise ship. And so you can check that out just by typing in work from cruise and Virgin Cruises. But I thought, man, that’s a great idea. You don’t have to worry about shopping, cooking, you don’t have to worry about any of that stuff, just getting some sunshine, getting out and visiting a variety of different ports and countries and then hunkering down and getting your work done. Getting your job done, which is nice too.

Alex Lapa: 17:42

There are a few agencies like this actually Talk to me a little. I’ve seen it, not necessarily as a cruise.

Alex Lapa: 17:47

But there are digital nomad communities that basically have this around the world trip, or at least various locations around the world where they’ve already vested all the requirements that you need. They provide facilities for you room and board I’m not sure about food necessarily, but it’s the same kind of thing. You pay a portion. The price you pay is for the room and board, for visas, for accommodations, for Wi-Fi. You’re surrounded by like-minded people and I think they move from country to country or place to place, or there’s one place per year. There’s something to explore there. I forget the name offhand, but there are definitely organizations and communities that help you achieve that digital nomad lifestyle.

Josh Matthews: 18:28

And you know what? Going that route, alex, I think helps to cure one of the challenges that some digital nomads experience, and that’s loneliness. I’ve lived overseas before we spent three years in Australia and it takes time to find your people. It takes time to make friends. It takes time to figure out the culture. You might be hysterical and really funny, prepared to no longer be funny. The nuance gets lost in the new communities and across cultural lines.

Josh Matthews: 19:03

It’s a serious thing, particularly for those that are looking to backpack quite a bit. I’m aware of sorry, I talk about boating a lot. I live in Florida. It’s hard not to, but this happens even when people are touring around the Med or touring around the Caribbean on boats and they might be working. A lot of them are just YouTubers trying to make a few bucks and fund their trip, but a lot of them are retired. And then there are some digital nomads out there too and they just kind of find one another in this harbor, that harbor, and then it’s like, hey, we’re going a vehicle, so if you’re doing the RV thing or if you’re doing the boat thing which I think is a great way to do it Otherwise, if you’re going solo, that’s going to put yourself in a certain situation. If you’re going with a partner, make sure you guys get along.

Alex Lapa: 20:04

It’s a great test.

Josh Matthews: 20:06

Because travel, yeah, it increases stress doesn’t it?

Alex Lapa: 20:10

It’s a great test is travel and yeah, it increases stress. It’s a great test with your partner, you know for sure. Like I fell in love with my wife after we traveled around by motorcycle around europe, spending three weeks together day in, day out, you learn pretty quickly if you’re compatible or not that’s right, you do.

Josh Matthews: 20:26

I have a friend who was a bit of a nomad, not a digital nomad, but he traveled extensively. You know you do a year in af friend who was a bit of a nomad, not a digital nomad, but he traveled extensively. He’d do a year in Africa and a year in Europe and a year in Southeast Asia and so on, and he was married at the time and they got along great and they’re no longer married. And when we talked about it after their separation he said you know what this individual was. She was absolutely an incredible travel companion. Couldn’t have asked for better. But when it came to the white picket house and the white picket fence and the children, you know she was like a caged cheetah. It was like get me out of here. So you know, figuring out who you are, I think, is important and having an opportunity for your partner to figure that out too is, like you said, a real test.

Alex Lapa: 21:18

Going back to your earlier point. So you find, even as a soloist traveling by backpack, camaraderie and friendships very, very quickly. I remember once I was in South America South Africa, sorry and we were at a bus stop waiting for the bus to arrive, lots of people moving around and we were a pack of people that came from the hostel, never met these people knew them for only a few minutes at the time, but already we kind of gave each other looks like look, I need to go to the bathroom, can you watch my backpack for me? And within a few seconds we’d already built that trust relationship. Because we are foreigners, we have a collective interest in keeping ourselves safe and to trust each other, and therefore we could do that. And same experiences too, where, hey, we’re all going this way, you want to come join us? It’s like cool, let’s just do that. So it’s not just with boating and RVs, but you also can do that with your backpack as well.

Alex Lapa: 22:10

So, and finding that it is important, finding your people finding your community and grouping together is a beautiful and powerful I mean the relationships you can build so quickly and so powerfully is a great bonus of traveling like this.

Josh Matthews: 22:24

It really is. It really is. It’s like you get to go back and be six years old again. You know where you meet someone and you’re like let’s be best friends in like five minutes or two minutes and mom, dad, this is my new best friend. Like that’s always fun. And getting to do it when you’re later on in life and and connecting with people, it’s nice. Like people don’t have nearly as much baggage that they’re. You know they’re not mowing their lawn, you know everyone’s in the same situation. And finding that connection, finding that connection, I mean if you can find it, it’s great, and if you don’t, you might need to move towns, right.

Alex Lapa: 23:00

Exactly, and it. But it isn’t too hard to find. As long as you put yourself out there, as long as you put yourself in a place where you can meet people, you will. It’s putting in that effort that sometimes people are resistant Like you have to. Even myself, as an introvert, I had to force myself, I had to turn a dial to become more extrovert, to push myself to introduce myself and say hello to people. But once you get into it it’s like a muscle, like anything else the more you do it, the better you get at it and it becomes more and more effortless. And then that’s the best part about pushing that comfort zone is that at some point in time you look back and say, wow, I’ve accomplished so much that I didn’t think I could, and I’m so much bigger as a person now that I can be proud of what I did.

Josh Matthews: 23:41

I love that man, I really do. I want to dive in on maybe a little bit of the dark side of it, right, because we’ve already talked about there can be some disadvantages, whether it’s security and safety or healthcare access to healthcare you know differences in cultures which require a lot of adaption or adaptation. What’s a, you know? Is there a story of like gosh, josh, like? In my experience, this is one of the and I don’t want you to relive some trauma here, right, but is there a moment or a day or an event that happened where you’re like oh my God, what am I doing? Or it was scary or frustrating, difficult.

Alex Lapa: 24:22

So there’s two scenarios I can think of. One was I realized at a certain point when I was doing my sabbatical, right. So imagine I’m on my own backpack, going from country to country with no particular direction, just really following the wind, which is awesome in so many different levels. But I realized by putting myself out there, by stressing myself to push myself, I couldn’t do it every single day. I had to allow myself to take a day a month to say, look, I’m going to just stay in all day, order pizza, watch Netflix or whatever it was, and just take a moment for myself entirely, and that was really important for my mental health.

Alex Lapa: 25:01

I would also say, at a certain point you come up with certain fatigues where and I remember this the first time I came across a group where they were just tired. They were driving around Europe and they were just tired of seeing things. They didn’t want to go to the cathedral. They didn’t want to see this because they had seen so many in the last few months that one more cathedral was meaningless to them. I experienced that. I didn’t understand that at the time until years later, when I had the same kind of experience and I realized I’m just tired of moving around so much it’s tiring at a certain point. So you want to just be aware of that, to know where your limits are, and be okay with it and just say, look, I’m going to stop here for a little while, maybe I’ll go home for a bit because I’m tired of moving, and just be acceptive of that, not to judge yourself too much. Just to realize that there are limits, you can turn up the dial to 11 for too long and it will burn you out.

Josh Matthews: 25:51

Sure it will. And what about two with time zones? So if there are people that need to run East Coast time zones, so that means your day of meetings might start. At what time in Spain?

Alex Lapa: 26:03

It’s three. But you have to understand. There’s actually a second reason why I chose Spain. Two of 10 reasons, let’s say it was because, in particular, spain it’s great. I wake up whenever I want, right? No alarm, Just my body tells me when it’s time to wake up. It could be eight, could be nine, local time. Meeting started at three. So I have basically the whole morning and some of the afternoon entirely for myself. I’ve got missions to do. I want to go for a walk, I want to spend time with my partner. Everything’s open, everything’s available.

Josh Matthews: 26:37

The sun is shining, the weather is fantastic. Yeah, In our last talk you were walking. We had a little Zoom meeting and you were not in a room with a white wall behind you and a big, giant black microphone in front of you. Instead, you were walking along what looked like a beautiful boardwalk or pier, you know, with cafes and boats and sunshine right.

Alex Lapa: 26:56

Yeah, yeah, it’s a tough life, but somebody has to live it, and it’s not just me. I’m not doing anything magical. It’s not like everything that we’re talking about can be done by anyone if you put your mind to it, if you make it a priority. But to finish that, have you? Have you? Because I finished the thought of, in Spain in particular, why I like Spain.

Alex Lapa: 27:17

So siesta time basically, people like Mexico. They just take time out during the day from between two and five meetings started three, so things are quiet. Anyway, I don’t miss out by much by being in the office at home and then, if I finish the day around 9, 10, even 11 o’clock at night, if I want to go out for dinner. That’s when Spaniards typically go out for dinner. If you go to a restaurant at 7, 8 pm, you will be alone in the restaurant. You go there at 9, 10 o’clock and that’s when it starts getting bustling. So the Spanish lifestyle really aligns well. For at least me as a night owl and I don’t feel like I’m missing very much I can still have a semi-normal lifestyle, a local lifestyle, even though I’m working remote hours.

Josh Matthews: 27:57

I love that and have you and your wife? Have you made friends?

Alex Lapa: 28:00

where you are. It takes time, that definitely once you start planting your seed, your roots, I should say saying I’m going to stay here now and be here for a bit. It is difficult, I mean you have to still put yourself out there During the week. It’s harder to meet people, but I find exercise or common activities can help. Like I joined a paddle group, which is like pickleball Very similar sport and I joined a group there. I made a whole bunch of friends locally and I’m starting to build it now and it’s slow, you have to give yourself time and patience again, but it is possible.

Josh Matthews: 28:36

That’s great. What about your ability to go in and attend, for instance, european Dreamin’ events and actual Salesforce-oriented events in Europe? Do you find that, based in Spain, you’re popping over to Munich or checking out Belgium? Are you using it as a launchpad to explore other countries on the continent? I’m starting to.

Alex Lapa: 28:58

Last year I went to Dream Olay in Spain, which was actually my first Salesforce conference outside of Dreamforce, and that motivated me to start going to more in North America. So I was in New York, I was in chicago, I was in new hampshire. Uh, this year, unfortunately, dream olay is happening at the same time as salesforce world tour in new york, so I’m going to go to new york instead. But yeah, I mean, it’s so easy to jump on a flight.

Josh Matthews: 29:21

I’ll get to say hi to you pardon me I said I’ll be there too next week.

Alex Lapa: 29:26

Cool, awesome I’m looking forward to shaking your hand. Yeah, that’ll be great, but yeah, it’s easy when you’re in Spain and Europe in general. To just hop on a flight costs almost nothing to jump around. So there’s Paris, there’s UK events. I mean all over Europe there are definitely events you can jump to that are very easy to.

Josh Matthews: 29:46

I’m starting to. I’m starting to, I’m starting to get there. Any last messages for our, our listeners here, regarding recommendations or advice on how to be a successful digital nomad.

Alex Lapa: 30:01

I would say just take your time, do the research. Don’t be a perfectionist. You might not get it right the first time. It’s a process that you learn as you go, kind of thing. I follow the steps we talked about at the beginning, about you know preliminary steps, what to do, what not to do. Um, be kind on yourself but be open to the experience as well, because, as I mentioned, growth for me is a big part of my life, pushing comfort zones, doing things that makes you uncomfortable, but doing that is so rewarding and so satisfying. And luckily, we do have careers. Salesforce is a fantastic ecosystem to have a digital nomadic lifestyle. I’m so excited I can’t get the words out. Not many careers have that opportunity, I should say. So take advantage of the moment if you can. If it’s any interest to you, if you want to explore it, just try it once. Do it as a trial. If you don’t like it, you don’t need to do it again, but I would encourage you to try it because a lot more positives than negatives.

Josh Matthews: 31:05

Yeah, I’ve never heard the term realtor nomad, right. There are certain things that you simply can’t do remotely like being a real estate agent, for instance. Alex, it’s been great having you on the show. I’d love for you to take a moment and just please share. Where can people follow your podcast and how can they connect with you for your newsletter?

Alex Lapa: 31:26

Sorry, the podcast is about nonprofits. So my specialization at Salesforce or with Salesforce is with nonprofits. So I have a podcast that’s oriented toward that not necessarily Salesforce, but more nonprofits in general and that’s called Agents of Nonprofit. And then I have a newsletter or email list. Five days a week I’m sending out little snippets, nuggets, of helping junior Salesforce consultants. It’s not specific to nonprofits, it’s more about Salesforce in general and that’s called the Good Enough Consultant.

Josh Matthews: 31:56

The Good Enough Consultant so they can go to the goodenoughconsultantcom and register for this. Okay, fantastic. And if it’s not up there already, we’ll get it on the Expand Exchange, which is our directory to help folks in the ecosystem connect uh, which is our directory to help help folks in the ecosystem connect uh, collaborate and learn as well. So, alex, thank you so much for being on the program uh audience. Thank you so much for listening. We’ll be back in. Well, I guess we’ll be live uh a week from when this gets launched, um, and hopefully have some updates for you from New York city. World tour from Salesforce. Thanks for being listeners and if you are interested at all in new opportunities or you’d just like to bone up a little bit more on your ability to interview or learn how to hire the best talent in the world in the ecosystem, go ahead and check out the salesforceretruitercom. Thanks, alex, and have a great weekend. Thank you, you too.