2017 – The year when i have finally turned my life around!

Stuck in my daily routine without any new input, I just felt like dying from my old life back home in Augsburg, Germany. I had a normal 9 to 5 office job, which was nice, but i had the feeling that i need to change something. And when 2017 started I got strangely the weird feeling, that this year was meant to be different…!

Looking back on my life and my past years living at my hometown, I felt no longer comfortable and happy there, so I decided that it´s time to make a change. ASAP! Inspired by my last travels to Ibiza, the little island of the Baleares in the Mediterranean Sea of Spain, I was starting to think about going there for a longer period of working, More and more these thoughts and ideas became plans and I have just tried my luck and started applying for jobs on the magical island Ibiza.

Ibiza – the game changer

Like a gift from heaven, I have got the job to work in the field of event management and social media management for the German company “Cirque de la Nuit”, that organizes the biggest and most famous boat party around the island,. Thankful for getting the chance to fulfill my biggest dream of living on Ibiza, I signed in for 3 months, but finally ended up working there for 6. I have really loved the island and its special vibe so much, so I simply stayed. Going to Ibiza was the best decision I have ever made in my life and I just can highly recommend it to everyone who is looking for a better life with sea-view, salty hair, daily sunshine, good vibes, good people and good music. My taste in music totally changed from mainstream stuff to techno, because I went to the best partys of my life. I have improved my skills in the fields of event, project and social media management, writing and speaking in English, met a lot of great people and had so much fun! This time was also the start of my idea of becoming a digital nomad, a person who works and lives location independent and wherever and whenever he/she wants to. This idea just arised in my mind, because of several creative conversations about life that I had with a special person I have met there.

So i have bought the German speaking interactive video course “Raus aus dem Büro”, that i can highly recommend you to check out, if you understand a bit of German and if you are interested in working remotely/location independent.

Living on ibiza was total fun, but there is always a little drop of bitterness that i had to accept: Living together in a worker´s accommodation with shared rooms was a total different experience than to live in my own 3 rooms flat in Germany, having enough space, privacy and rest. You don´t have this luxury kind of lifestyle when you come to Ibiza, but what you get is something much more valuable: A life that wants to be lived. Not just existing. And in the end, I had to admit that I really liked it, living together with a lot of people, having a real community with strangers who turned into friends, was not bad at all!

When I arrived on the island I thought about building up an own Instagram profile to share my Ibiza tips, impressions and experiences with others. What began as a hobby kind of thing, suddenly turned into a very busy profile with the name “magical_island_ibiza”. The feedback and the interest in my content was just INSANE and I finally ended up with 10 thousand organically grown followers in just 5 months! I could not believe it.

In the following months I have build up other social media accounts and changed my name into Franzis Footprints to switch it into something more global and personal. And on top of that i was thinking about creating an associated website blog, where I have the chance to tell you more into detail about my adventures and to give you tips, impressions and recommendations about where to go. And here we are now with my new website and I am super happy that we have got this big step done to launch it! For this reason, I have also bought my first reflex camera (CANON) to improve the quality of my pictures, that used to be taken by my normal iPhone camera in the past. This website launch was next level!

Working location independent as a digital nomad

Because I got more and more interested in working as a location independent freelancer I was looking for jobs in that field and finally have got the best one I could get: Working as the Head of Operations for DNX (digital nomad conferences – worldwide) in the field of project, event and social media management and blogging.

The DNX, founded by the German couple Marcus Meurer and Felicia Hargarten, organizes big events for example conferences with famous speaker and specialists, camps and workshops in the whole world to unite loads of digital nomads for online business topics. While doing this, the DNX has already built up a strong network of digital nomads around the globe and a real online community. Working in a great international team and being part of that wonderful movement makes me really happy and proud that I have the chance to learn so many useful skills every day.

The DNX organizes for example the big DNX conference in Berlin each year in May, which i highly want to recommend to everyone of you who wants to escape from the normal 9 to 5 life. Here you can get your tickets for the German speaking conference this year.  Would be super cool to meet up there with you! And if you can´t join us in Berlin this year, you have now the chance to watch all talks from last years conference with the help of the German speaking DNX Videopaket.

And in case you are not German speaking, you should join us this September in Lisbon for our international English speaking DNX conference!

Now i am sitting here in Thailand at the beach of Koh Phangan, thinking about my last incredible year and can not believe it. It feels more like a dream, totally surreal! But listening to the sound of the ocean, with your feet in the sand and a cocktail in your hands while working on your laptop is the greatest experience i have ever made. Having the freedom to just go with the flow wherever you want to go is just pure life: HIGHCLASS WORK-LIFE-BALANCE.

It´s really funny, how life goes sometimes, if you just follow your heart! If I would not have decided to go to Ibiza I would not have that positive mindset now, would have never met these amazing people and would never work location independent now while following my dreams. It is all about the journey and the people you meet along your way, that inspire you to do what is right for you! Thank god i can finally say, I had the best time of my life this year and I know that this was just the start of something even bigger! So excited to see what 2018 has to offer.

2017 was just the beginning…

My plan for 2018 is to go on with traveling the world and visiting the places I have ever wanted to see and to go back to Ibiza this summer – To my happy place, where everything good started! Therefore, I have decided to give up my nice little flat back home to focus on realizing my dreams to live the life that it is meant for me. To achieve my goals, I want to work hard and give 120%. I´m planning to improve my website, my English skills and want to learn more about photo and video editing. And i want to build up more sustainable collaborations. I am super thankful for any kind of feedback and would love to get in touch with you!

I thank you so much for your incredible support this year: All friends, my family, colleagues, travel mates, all the like-minded-people who inspire me to keep going and YOU my loyal reader and follower! Without YOU this thing would not work… and I am super grateful for it! I wish you a wonderful year 2018. Make every day count, just pack your things and go traveling. You may come back home different than before, but in a much better version of yourself, believe me: Focused, open-minded and happier!