Being a solopreneur in a global marketplace is great, as you have access to a world of opportunity. But you're also contending with a world of competition too - so how can you stand out, to the clients you need to find you?This is one of our practical 'how to' episodes, which every freelancer needs to pay attention to and take notes. Just as previous guests have helped us to optimise our various social media presences, Xolo's very own specialist Zoe Nguyen today helps us to optimise our most important online presence of all - our own website.Whatever you do and want to be be discovered for, it's essential that Google knows all about it first - and that's where the magic of SEO is your friend, sending you FREE organic traffic and sales leads.Zoe talks to us about Google Search Console - which helps to track your website traffic, what keywords people use to search for your content, and be in control of your website technical health (indexation, sitemap, links, mobile friendliness)And for deciding what content to create, she recommends Ahrefs - SEO Tools & Resources To Grow Your Search Traffic or Semrush - Online Marketing Can Be Easy - for keyword research, ranking tracking, and even discovering what your competitors are up to!And don't forget that the Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io -  right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months - giving you another great edge over your competition 😉Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Digital nomads sometimes get a bad rap, for impacting local communities in a negative way rather than creating positive change. But today's guest is working hard to counter that, with two fantastic projects.Tarek Kholoussy is a social entrepreneur with an MBA with honors from New York University and a career of working at top organizations like Goldman Sachs. In 2013, he left the corporate world behind in an effort to explore the actual world, and in 2018 launched Nomads Giving Back!This programme inspires volunteers to contribute locally to their homes-away-from-home, enriching their personal experiences and making a difference to areas which need it. Because the need is often related to learning, in the knowledge work community,  Tarek and his team launched Nomads Skillshare! in 2020 - a learning platform and community empowering everyone to learn the skills needed for global mobility, and new location-independent ways of living.You can keep in touch with Tarek and his travels online:https://www.linkedin.com/in/kholoussy/https://www.instagram.com/tarek.world/And of course, check out (and get involved) with the voluntary projects at:Nomads Giving Back | An Impact-driven Digital Nomads Communityhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nomadsgivingback/https://www.instagram.com/nomadsgivingback/www.nomadsskillshare.comhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/nomadsskillshare/https://www.instagram.com/nomadsskillshare/And don't forget that the Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io -  right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months, while you volunteer at one of Tarek's projects.  https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leap - so you can take your location-independent business on the road with you to your new remote work destination of choice 😎Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Lily Szabo is a startup storyteller and community builder, currently focusing on the fast-moving world of global mobility, and ways we can take our work to different countries through new visa programmes.With more countries every month offering special visas to attract remote workers and digital nomad visas, this is a moving target to keep track of. Lily's exploration of the present scene also informs her work with Plumia - the SafetyWing non-profit working to create a country on the internet, for truly location-independent professionals.Along with the challenges of life with a 7-month-old, Lily and Maya discuss the ways that our new life-work choices include:🌎 the unlocking of rural and small-town communities for remote workers🌎 the income and geoarbitrage issues around digital nomad workers🌏 the dimensions of travel choice, from tourism through to immigrationAnd will spark new ideas for your own location-independent future... at a time when the possibilities have never been more exciting.Keep up with Lily's thoughts and writing at:Lily Szabo | Welcome to my Social Bloghttps://www.linkedin.com/in/lilybruns/itslilyszaboAnd don't forget that the Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io -  right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months! https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leap - so you can take your location-independent business on the road with you to your new remote work destination of choice 😎Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Are you a freelancer who is totally on top of your finances, from cashflow to long-range planning and investments? What about your net worth?If so, congratulations and scroll on by - you'll learn nothing, from this conversation with Shlomo Freund, creator of Free Financial Self!But for the rest of us, listen up, because Shlomo specialises in helping freelancers, remote workers, and digital nomads get a grip on their money - and make sure they have enough of it to achieve their goals in the long term, and master day-to-day income and expenditure in the meanwhile. Overcoming your financial hangups and getting to grips with this stuff will alter your mindset to, towards a longer-term focus - something all of us gig-driven freelancers could learn from,Here are Shlomo's socials and links:https://www.freefinancialself.com.  https://shlomofreund.gumroad.com/l/lmkyvhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/shlomofreund https://www.facebook.com/shlomo.freund https://twitter.com/FreundShlomohttps://youtube.com/freefinancialselfhttps://instagram.com/freefinancialselfSo you can get started on the new financially-sorted you, as soon as you finish listening.Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Life and work have never been more integrated than they are today, and the coliving phenomenon is the ultimate expression of this.Offering unique opportunities for solopreneurs and all digital nomads to find the right place to live and work in a new environment, coliving centres ensure everything you could possibly need is right at hand - including a community of fellow travellers, to instantly connect with and get to know.But there's a lot that goes into creating an effortless-looking experience, and today's podcast guest Leah Ziliak has created a bespoke consultancy to help businesses do just this. Digital nomads are not tourists, their needs are very different - but they're looking for quality, reciprocal experiences in new places, and they're bringing an income with them. Get it right, and they'll stay awhile, and tell their friends... So making them welcome in style is a win-win for all.We loved this case history in designing a unique service around a personal passion and experience, and identifying an under-served and timely niche lifestyle business possibility - so there are lessons for every solopreneur to absorb here about transferable skills and opportunity spotting. Finding new ways to combine established experience with changing global trends, to create a work/life style that truly fulfils personal passions, is insight we can all value.Leah Ziliak - The Coliving Consultanthttps://www.linkedin.com/in/leahziliak/https://www.instagram.com/colivingconsultant/www.colivingconsultant.comwww.colivingcompass.com The Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io - and right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months! https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leap - ample time to check out your favourite coliving spot for maximum frictionless solopreneur productivity!Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Have you ever wished you had more hours in the day, or that some of the less inspiring, yet essential tasks in your business would go away?Today's guest Imogen Cook has found a great solution for this, through tactical outsourcing to professional virtual assistants in the Philippines - a solution which not only helped her to grow her original business, it led to a completely new one helping others to do the same.Through The Freedom Geek, Imogen helps businsesses all over the world to create expert niche teams - while simultaneoulsy creating lucrative careers for Filipino professionals in a wide range of disciplines.But as well as providing a done-for-you hiring solution through her agency, Imogen also shares lots of excellent advice on how to approach this strategy on a DIY basis - defining a role, creating a robust application and screening process, and training and delegating effectively.And if you're not sure what you COULD delegate, there's a few ideas to pique your interest over at The Freedom Geek 500 Tasks You Can DelegateAnd don't forget, the best way to remove unnecessary busy work in your business before you delegate, is by trying Xolo Leap! And right now, you can check out the flagship Xolo Leap Pro service for 3 months free, the ultimate business launchpad. The Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

When your lifestyle means you travel all the time, what do you look for in a destination? And what does it mean to feel like you're 'coming home'?Today's guest Gonçalo Hall knows that digital nomads seek community and connectedness, alongside their next adventure - and when you don't live in a fixed location, that sense of community matters more than ever.NomadX is combining the persistence and permanence of a digital community, with a growing network of physical communities - places that digital nomads can find the accommodation and infrastructure they need to do their work, but can also find those less tangible things we all need.  Other people who understand you, events which immerse you in the local culture, and ways to connect, share, and give back. As Gonçalo has memorably explained it, "people don't move from one place to another, they move from one community to another" - and NomadX make that easy, sustainable, and enjoyable.From Madeira to Cape Verde, via Brazil, Switzerland, and a dozen more pins on the map, you can find your tribe wherever you go. And that tribe is changing, differentiating, and growing all the time.Keep up with Gonçalo wherever he goes, athttps://www.nomadx.com/ and on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/goncalohall/ The Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io - and right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months! https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leap. Meanwhile, this show is taking a 4-week break now, and returning to your podcast queue on September 9th. So, make sure you subscribe or follow in your app of choice, so you don't miss the start of Season Two 😎Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

 At this time of year we may all be dreaming of exotic destinations - but for Nora Dunn travel is a way of life. Her almost 17 years on the road have taken her to some incredible places, and you definitely need to check out her website and socials if you're getting itchy feet. But the most important thing is that Nora has figured out how to do all of this while balancing the budget - adapting her destinations, lifestyle, and activities, to ensure she can do everything she wants, without overspending or debt.So if you've ever contemplated the digital nomad lifestyle but considered it out of reach, or have no idea how to really live like a local and not a tourist whatever your destination, you'll find Nora's advice invaluable. From technical tricks to mindset shifts, every freelancer will learn something new from the Professional Hobo...Just remember to send us a virtual postcard, wherever you end up!Keep in touch with Nora at:https://www.theprofessionalhobo.com/freegift/https://www.theprofessionalhobo.comhttps://www.youtube.com/NoraDunnhttps://www.facebook.com/TheProfessionalHobohttps://twitter.com/hobonora https://www.instagram.com/theprofessionalhobo/Let us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Minimalism. The very word feels serene, and an antidote to stress and busy-ness.But what is BUSINESS minimalism, and why does it matter?Today's guest, Saskia Mardi, was described by a client as 'The Marie Kondo' of business, and she helps her coaching clients defeat overwhelm and move from chaos to calm. Working with online entrepreneurs worldwide individually and in groups, she provides accountability and motivation, alongside practical strategies and reflective exercises.It all starts with getting to the heart of your purpose, and getting rid of what does not serve you - and Saskia not only creates and shares a lot of excellent free content to support everyone on their journey to business minimalism, she offers some great tips to listeners today.So, ignore Maya's croaky voice (that virus is definitely not 'sparking joy'), and listen to Saskia's wise words, to help you achieve more of what matters in your business and your life.Follow Saskia at:https://www.instagram.com/saskiamardi/ www.saskiamardi.com Lose the friction in your business by trying Xolo Leap! The Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io - and right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months! https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leapLet us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.

Matt Stait transformed his life through martial arts - but like so many in our amazing Xolopreneur community, his freelance career has taken him in various unanticipated directions. From his own championship achievements, he has found new ways to inspire audiences beyond those who can attend his gym in the UK, by mastering online publishing.In demand as a speaker, consultant, and author, Matt has achieved great success recently with short-form video content, which is the perfect medium for him to educate and share the skills he has developed - on Youtube Shorts, Reels, and TikTok.Today, Matt generously shares his insights into mastering this new medium, and unpacks the skills he teaches other businesses, when they want to create and grow a TikTok presence from scratch. So, if you're even remotely curious about what all the fuss is about, and/or whether you should be on TikTok yourself, you'll want to listen hard to today's episode.Matt is definitely not a lipsyncing teenager, but there's a lot more to this fast-growing platform than that these days.Catch up with Matt online:https://www.facebook.com/matt.stait.5/https://www.linkedin.com/in/matt-stait/https://www.tiktok.com/@modernsamuraima?lang=enwww.differentthink.co.ukwww.modernsamurai.onlineAnd remember that the Future Is Freelance podcast is brought to you by https://xolo.io - and right now, you can try our flagship Xolo Leap product for free for 3 months! https://www.xolo.io/zz-en/leapLet us know what you think, and what subjects you'd enjoy hearing about in future, just message our host Maya Middlemiss. You can support the Future is Freelance podcast by leaving a rating and review on Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen. It’s a chance to tell us what you love about the show, and it helps others discover it, too! Here's to your own freelance future.