About

Christopher Dodd aka Chris the Freelancer

Hi. I'm Chris and I'm what's called a Location Independent Freelancer.

The nature of my work means that I can perform it anywhere where I have access to my computer and a reliable internet connection.

However, it wasn't always this way.

Back in 2015, I was headed into a corporate career that I wasn't at all passionate about.

I was seeking an international experience but the path that was laid out for me didn't quite allow me to live abroad.

Working holidays weren't really an option for me as I was focused on building a long-term professional career after graduating with a degree in Business from the Queensland University of Technology in mid-2015.

Shortly before graduating, I realised that I was starting my career during the beginnings of something called, 'the digital nomad movement'.

Discovering the 'Digital Nomad Movement'

In early 2015, I discovered something called the Digital Nomad Movement. Each day, more and more people were becoming aware that they no longer had to be restricted to any one location and that day in January, I became one of them.

Less than 12 months later, I left Australia on my own digital nomad journey towards true Location Independence.

So what exactly is a 'Digital Nomad'?

Digital nomads are individuals who leverage telecommunications technologies to perform their work duties, and more generally conduct their lifestyle in a nomadic manner." Wikipedia (2015)

Put simply, a Digital Nomad is anyone who uses their digital abilities to work from anywhere and everywhere.

This movement is seeing thousands of digital workers moving overseas and living anywhere they like. As technology advances, so does the general population's ability to work online, needing only a laptop and some WiFi to do their job.

With employers now cluing on to the advantages of distributed teams, the definition of a digital nomad has expanded past lifestyle entrepreneurs to include employees, freelancers and creatives.

Starting 'Chris the Freelancer'

When starting my ‘digital nomad journey’, I discovered a huge information gap in the travel space for those who work online and travel.

As someone who watched (and still watches) a lot of YouTube, I was surprised to find that there was hardly any vloggers who covered this particular lifestyle and so I set about becoming that vlogger.

For the next two years, I released weekly vlogs about my digital nomad lifestyle, interviews other digital nomads and reviews on the top destinations in the world for digital nomads.

But it wasn't sustainable...

Becoming 'Location Independent'

During those two first years of freelancing and work remotely, I was purely motivated by travel but after circumnavigating the world in 2017, I realised that my 'digital nomad lifestyle' was no longer sustainable.

In late 2017, I returned home to Australia to re-think my life and I realised that I still wanted the freedom to travel but the not the pressure of constant travel.

Working remotely from my home city of Brisbane, Australia, I realised that it's not just the ability to travel to far and exotic locations that made freelancing and working remotely a great way to live.

Along with this realisation, I begun to develop a stronger focus on the work I wanted to do instead of the locations in which to do it.

In 2018, I've made the switch to do more to help people actually become location independent rather than focusing purely on traveling and working remotely.

If you're new to my blog and want to learn how you can work remotely as well - whether that be as a freelancer, an online business owner or a remote employee - visit my Start Here page to access my best beginner resources.

Until next time,
Chris