What I Learned Being a Digital Nomad
Step 1: Start by ditching the “digital” part…
Earning a living online is tough. When I first set out to do so, I gave myself a 5-year timeline to accomplish my goal. I told myself that if I didn’t succeed by the end of those five years, I would throw in the towel and get a “real job” to provide for my family.
The first couple of years were undoubtedly tough — and financially unrewarding. But little by little, my work began to catch the attention of others, and job opportunities soon arose from those encounters. By the end of the third year, I was feeling optimistic about how things were developing. The wind was blowing in the right direction, even if its gusts came and went with varying intensity.
It was at this point I realized that if I wanted to get serious about earning a living online, I had to — counterintuitively — get offline to do so. Because as grateful as I was for being able to make money via the internet, a growing “spiritual” problem was slowly beginning to emerge.
It was a problem defined primarily by its lack of definition: no official workplace, office hours, or fulfilling closure to digital projects. I’d invest months of effort into a campaign, only for it to conclude with me clicking “End meeting for all” and closing my computer. It was a far cry from my days in the music industry, where gigs would end with the ritualistic load-out — something I now realize that, however physically exhausting it could be, served an important psychological purpose.
So it was that in the light of this all, I decided to start a coffee company. I wanted to work with something I could see, hear, touch, taste, and smell — and my favorite beverage seemed to offer the perfect solution. Even better, it was to be something I could share (physically, not via retweet) with others. A win-win for all!
Since launching Imperium Coffee last year, I’ve learned a ton about how to balance the opportunity of the digital world with a sense of rootedness in the physical one. Today, I want to share three specific ideas that have helped me live more grounded in the digital age — and can help you do the same.
1. You Are Not In Control (so stop pretending you are)
I know this sounds obvious, since of course you know you’re not totally in control of your life. But do you act like it?
Before getting into the coffee industry, I tended to think I was a lot more in control of my life than I actually was — I knew that if I wanted to make more money, I could just work longer and harder, that’s all.
To some degree, it’s not a bad attitude to have. But it’s also fundamentally delusional.
Now that I’m officially a “coffee dealer” (as my wife lovingly calls me), I realize there are so many things that are completely out of my control in life — from harvest rains to foreign tariffs and packages getting stolen off the porches of customers (it’s happened). But strangely, this is rather comforting.
Personally, I believe the comfort comes from knowing (for the most part) what is within your control and what isn’t. Because while my work in the digital world would lead me to believe many more things are in my control than actually are (technology likes to fool you like that), the world of coffee makes no such deceptive pretenses.
Disappointment stems from disillusion, but there can be no disillusionment if you were under no illusions in the first place. The more you pierce through the myriad illusions of the digital world, the happier you will be.
2. Good Things Take Time (and make life beautiful)
It’s a common saying that when planning for a project, you should first make generous estimates with your timeline and budget — and then triple them both.
This was certainly true for getting Imperium Coffee off the ground (though our killer new site was totally worth the time and effort), but it’s not the main point here. The main point is that in the digital age, it’s easier than ever to grow disenchanted with life, and take even the most spectacular things for granted.
The world of e-commerce doesn’t help with this — you see something you want, you click “buy now”, and Amazon ships it to your house in 24 hours. It’s the commercial equivalent of asking for a ChatGPT summary of Hamlet, without taking time to experience the play for yourself — in both cases, you focus only on the tangible outcome, and miss out on the meaning of the journey.
Getting into the coffee industry was a major wake-up call for me in this regard, as I was forced to understand the spectacular journey that went into the preparation of a single bag of coffee.
For example, here’s a (very brief) glimpse of what goes into making a cup of our Napoleon roast:
Coffee beans are planted in volcanic soil on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro, a dormant volcano in Tanzania
10-12 months pass as the high altitude slows the beans’ growth and maturation, resulting in a more complex flavor-profile
Harvest lasts 2-3 months as workers return every 10-14 days to pick only the ripest of coffee cherries
8-25 days then go by as the coffee is washed and dried until it reaches 10-12% moisture content
The beans are hulled, bagged, and are loaded onto a freighter at Dar es Saleem, from whence they begin the 30-60 day journey to the U.S.
After making it through customs, the beans are shipped to our roastery in North Carolina
You place an order online
We roast your order fresh and mail it your way
You receive your coffee, grind it fresh, and prepare it using your favorite brew method
In brief, behind the making of every single cup of coffee is a roughly 18-month journey that begins in Tanzania and ends on your kitchen counter. And that’s not even counting the months of work that went into the packaging design, nor the millions of years behind the creation of Mount Kilimanjaro!
All this to say, good things take time. And part of regaining a sense of rootedness in our digital age is to recognize this in the small, everyday things you might have previously taken for granted.
What is the story behind the coffee you brew at breakfast, the corn you cook at lunch, and the wine you sip at dinner? Re-enchantment with the world begins by looking at these things with the curiosity of a child, and an eagerness to learn their story.
3. Children Make Life Meaningful
Speaking of children, they are gifts that make life meaningful — or at the very least, more meaningful than it was before. Although this is (hopefully) easy to acknowledge philosophically, it’s another thing to actually live it out.
About a year ago, a family member asked me how I was able to manage work after the arrival of our firstborn. Expecting me to say work had gotten harder, he was rather shocked to hear me reply it had never been better. As he inquired into how that was the case, I went on to explain how my work had taken on a whole new meaning following the birth of my son.
If Imperium Coffee were something I started only for myself, it would still be a worthy pursuit. But knowing that I’m running it to one day pass down to my children makes everything I do with it 100x more meaningful.
It has me thinking of how I can expand the business both vertically and horizontally to accompany the skills and interests of my children, giving them responsibility and ownership of the business as it grows. It also encourages me in my daily efforts, since I know my hard work isn’t just for me, but for the good of my family.
Overall, starting a business rooted in a real, physical good that people can see, hear, touch, taste, and smell has made my experience of the digital world inestimably better. It’s made my online efforts worthwhile, and given me something beyond mere “digital know-how” to pass down to my children. Not to mention how rewarding it is to see customers enjoying the thing you worked so hard to produce!
So while I still make my living online, I’m now able to do so with my feet firmly planted in the offline world. It’s something of a paradox, in that the more I lean into the physical, the more my experience in the digital is enriched.
To be clear, you don’t have to start a coffee company to achieve this. As long as you work to recognize the limits of your control, cherish beauty in the small things, and create something that outlives you, you’ll end up in a great spot — ideally, one that allows you to enjoy slow mornings with a fresh cup of your favorite brew…
Ad finem fidelis,
-Evan
PS — If you made it this far and would like to try out Imperium Coffee for yourself, feel free to use the code SUBSTACK for 15% off any order you place this week.
Beautiful reflection. It’s important to see examples of people in this space finding deeper fulfillment in the physical over the digital, no matter how ‘successful’ the digital world becomes for them. The internet has its place, but nothing compares to getting your hands dirty in the real world, where results becomes truly tangible. God bless!
Thanks for sharing your experience and lessons
I appreciate.