Perhaps the best part of a digital nomad lifestyle is the opportunity to meet up with like-minded people all over the world. One of the better friends I’ve made in the last year is Sebastiaan Van Der Schrier. His business is helping people overcome social anxiety disorders through his products and Skype based coaching. Sebastiaan talks about his experiences living around the world and how he built the online business that funds his travel lifestyle.
This was an important interview for me because I also suffer from various social anxieties. Talking on video, meeting large groups of people and public speaking can be very stressful and difficult for me. Sebastiaan took me through a two-hour coaching session and I think it helped a lot. I’ll make some more comments on his coaching below.
Sebastiaan Tells Us
- Where he has travelled over the last decade.
- Why he didn’t like living in Bali.
- How he initially funded his permanent travel lifestyle.
- How he built a successful online business even though he made a lot of mistakes along the way.
- How he learned the skills to become a social anxiety coach.
- How much passive income he earns every month, even though he doesn’t know much about online marketing.
- The problems and benefits of outsourcing.
Interview Questions and Timeline
0:41 Please introduce yourself.
1:00 Can you tell us how you started your travel lifestyle? When did you first leave your home country of the Netherlands?
2:30 You’ve lived in Bali, The Philippines, Thailand, South Africa?
3:11 In Bali, there are not many long-term travellers?
4:14 Where in the Philippines were you?
4:45 Can you give us a run down of your living costs in those four places? What is Cape Town like?
5:50 My immediate idea of Johannesburg is danger and crime, what was it like there?
7:33 Can you give a comparison of the Philippines versus Chiang Mai, Thailand?
9:00 How much more expensive is the Philippines than Thailand?
9:17 How much did you spend a month in Chiang Mai?
9:41 Tell us about your business Social-Anxiety-Solutions.com. What do you do? How did you get started?
11:11 What is the product you sell? Is it an ebook? Video course?
12:10 What were your own social anxieties exactly? Please explain how this all started.
13:35 You don’t seem to have social anxiety any longer, have you completely transformed your life with this?
16:39 How did you become an expert on this stuff?
19:11 Do you have a full-time income from your coaching now?
19:24 What do customers buy from you?
20:04 Is this passive income for you? Does selling products automatically from your website work?
21:36 Once a customer buys from you, do they become a lifetime customer? Are they always coming back to you? Or do you fix their problem and it’s done?
22:30 Do you see other niches where your business model could work? What can other digital nomads do?
24:30 I love your business model. It’s so niche and targeted.
25:16 If you were starting today, what would you do differently?
26:20 You don’t hire professional web developers or other professionals to help you?
28:19 What are the ups and downs of a digital nomad lifestyle?
My Opinion of Social Anxiety Coaching
I’m pretty skeptical of most things, especially touchy-feeling types of subjects like psychological counselling and spirituality. I’m definitely a much more analytical and scientifically focused person. I want measurable results, not subjective evaluations.
However, when it comes to fears, emotions and spiritual matters, humans have a tendency to behave very irrationally. I know that how I react to certain social situations is completely irrational and unfounded, yet I still can get stressed at times.
My one session with Sebastiaan has helped a lot. I’ve gained an inner confidence very quickly. A large part of his coaching was just repetitively guiding me through my fears and their likely origins so that I could move beyond them. I guess this would be a lot like what a psychologist would do, although I have no experience other than what I’ve seen on TV.
Another part is the Emotional Freedom Technique, which involves tapping on different parts of your body’s energy meridians. Although, I feel that I’ve had a major improvement in my confidence levels, I’m still a little skeptical of the benefits of tapping on the surface of my body. However, whatever Sebastiaan has done has generated results. Even if it’s just a placebo effect, I’m getting results, so I’ll continue the tapping and personal mantra that he helped me write.
Does his coaching work? It did for me.
Links
Social-Anxiety-Solutions.com