What Is Digital Nomad Life Really Like? The Real Story

What is digital nomad life really like? For Katherine Tuominen — marketing strategist and founder of Catalyst Brand Strategy — it looked nothing like the Instagram version: visa battles, reverse culture shock, lost friendships, and the slow realization that a beautiful destination doesn't outrun an unhealed self. It started during Melbourne's hardest lockdown, when she couldn't leave her house without a grocery receipt and made a quiet promise to herself: she would never feel that trapped again. In this conversation, Katherine talks with KiKi about what the lifestyle actually costs, why the nine-to-five script makes any other path feel reckless to the people around you, how she landed on a travel rhythm that worked for her after almost three years of trial and error, and how the cultural fluency she's built abroad now shapes the brand work she does with founders in the health and wellness space. The thread running through it: when you strip away the titles, the resume, the corporate version of yourself nobody calls you by overseas, what's left tends to be what was already there — the kid who wrote plays, drew on lunch breaks, made up worlds. The life she designed didn't invent a new Katherine. It handed back the original one. Resources Catalyst Brand Strategy — Katherine Tuominen (website): https://catalystbrandstrategy.com Katherine Tuominen (LinkedIn): https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherine-tuominen/ Catalyst Brand Strategy (Instagram): https://www.instagram.com/catalyst_brandstrategy/ HIGHLIGHTS 00:00 — KiKi opens with the gap between designed life and lived life 01:15 — Katherine on what a digital nomad actually is 02:48 — Melbourne lockdown becomes the non-negotiable turning point 04:18 — Making the jump: backlash, lost friendships, going against the grain 06:53 — The Instagram version meets the laptop on the beach 08:55 — First real hurdle: baggage travels with you 10:25 — Finding her travel rhythm after almost three years of trial and error 13:18 — How cultural nuance reshaped her brand work with clients 16:39 — The third culture kid origin: Finland, China, Australia 20:08 — Identity stripped of titles: who you were as a kid is who you are 24:30 — Fear as guide, and breaking the leap into bite-sized starts 30:11 — Closing: you don't have to resolve everything, just stop pretending If you've been suspecting the life you carefully designed is starting to design you back, Katherine's story is a steady, honest look at what happens when you stop performing the version that's been working. Listen & Subscribe Substack: https://thetrustproject.substack.com/  Libsyn RSS Feed: https://feeds.libsyn.com/597715/rss Libsyn Podcast Page: https://sites.libsyn.com/597715/site  Libsyn Video Feed: https://feeds.libsyn.com/597715/spotify Spotify (video): https://open.spotify.com/show/0AToVdda4omlLpG9KpQ0Hj Spotify (audio): https://open.spotify.com/show/2K6DYzLMRkbT4FfmDaFP7a?si=4b4c70c5a3a84ce2 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/things-go-sideways/id1849510232 Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/87fc90ea-455c-443d-a24f-bd3bccc2e764/things-go-sideways Audible: https://www.audible.com/podcast/Things-Go-Sideways/B0G59XM2XY YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@WhenThingsGoSideways