6 minute read
Natalie Sisson: Make Every Day Your Perfect Day
Day Natalie Sisson: Make Every Day Your Perfect
The term ‘freedom’ holds different meaning for each of us - from not having to set your alarm every morning, or not having to answer to a boss, to being able to pursue that which you love, rather than what you feel you should do. Freedom may also mean having a steady income, being debt-free or the security of having a roof over your head. When it comes to entrepreneurship, freedom rates especially high on the agenda in terms of designing work and life on your own terms.
Advertisement
Natalie Sisson, fondly known as the Suitcase Entrepreneur, believes freedom is a right, not a privilege – and is something EVERYONE can achieve. Her journey began while working in the London corporate scene. She became very successful in her role, but despite working her way up the ladder to a wellpaid, highly regarded management level, she was not happy.
“While working in London, I began feeling pretty miserable, not motivated to go to work, and being pretty beaten down by the bureaucracy and the office politics. As somebody who’s always enjoyed going to work and enjoyed my roles, this was really new to me,” she said.
“This feeling was a massive impetus for change, the feeling of not being able to do what I wanted in that job not having the freedom to make change. I felt stuck in the rat race, and I just rebelled against it.”
So, Natalie decided enough was enough, this life was not for her. She handed in her notice, sold all her assets and packed a suitcase. She booked a oneway ticket to Canada to play ultimate frisbee and to discover who she was and what she really wanted to do. While in Canada, Natalie met her business partner and co-founded a startup tech company.
While this new venture ticked some of her freedom-seeking boxes, it soon became just another job. Eighteen months later, she amicably parted ways with her business partner, and the Suitcase Entrepreneur business was born.
“For essentially seven years I ran the Suitcase Entrepreneur business, all based around digital nomads, location independence and how to build an online business while travelling the world. It was fantastic because I was immersed in it myself and became a kind of a pioneer in that space.”
After six and a half years living full time out of her suitcase and visiting 70 countries, Natalie’s definition of freedom took on new importance. Her freedom, up until that point, had meant she was able to live and work anywhere she wanted, but now it also meant she was able to drop everything and pack up her apartment in Portugal to return home when her father became ill. After all her journeys and her unique, evolving definition of freedom, being able to be with those she loved when it mattered most trumped everything else.
What is your definition of freedom?
To get started on the journey towards a thriving business, location independence and living the life you dreamed of, one of the first things Natalie suggests is defining what that dream actually is – what is your perfect day?
“It’s a really powerful exercise where you describe your perfect day from start to finish - from the moment you get up to the moment you go to sleep - and describe in amazing detail how it looks, how it feels, how it smells. What would you do if you woke up tomorrow morning with no monetary constraints and were able to do whatever you want?” she explained.
“Once people actually write down and look at what their perfect day would be for them, they get really, really clear on how they’d like to show up in the world and how they’d like to earn money and how they’d like to structure their business or their career.”
This exercise opens your mind to the possibilities, the opportunities and helps you discover a fresh way of constructing your life around the things you love and that are important to you. As Natalie describes it, it is about finding that perfect intersection between what you’re good at or great at, what you love doing, and what people pay you to do.
“So, for me now it’s all about how do you thrive in the future of work and get paid to be you?” she said.
Natalie discusses her ‘perfect day’ exercise and the evolution of her own unique take on freedom in her TED talk, The Surprising Truth About Freedom.
Are you cut out to be a suitcase entrepreneur?
With today’s plethora of apps, tools and interconnectivity, it is easier than ever to work remotely.
“When I started out there was no AirBnB and there was no Uber. Internet and wi-fi was very dodgy in most places and remote co-working spaces were non-existent, or there were very few of them. And now I feel like those things, including just your laptop, smartphone and wi-fi connection is all you need to be able to run your business from anywhere,” Natalie said.
“And so, the ultimate thing actually, is your mindset; are you ready for this? Are you prepared to be location independent? Do you like travelling? Do you like your own company? Those are the more important things to running a business from anywhere.”
Natalie has a great quiz on her homepage which runs through these questions and leads you to discovering what type of entrepreneur you are. From here, you can better gauge how to proceed, what systems you can put into place and how to, ultimately, chase that freedom you long for.
Freedom is not all fun and games
Gaining freedom means choice, but as Natalie points out, it also takes discipline. She quickly discovered that the more discipline she had around her (systems, routines and habits), the more freedom that enabled her to move around and take time off or pursue other opportunities.
“I have played on the spectrum for years, where I’ve given myself too much freedom, which may sound like a beautiful problem to have but it can actually be quite paralysing for a lot of people. When you’re given so much choice and so many opportunities and so much freedom to do whatever you want, it can actually lead to you doing absolutely nothing.”
A new freedom for the Suitcase Entrepreneur
Natalie Sisson is now based back in New Zealand, applying her vast knowledge and experience to teaching other entrepreneurs how to live life according to their own unique definition of freedom and build successful businesses that reflect their personality, skills and lifestyle.
She has transitioned to her own personal brand over at nataliesisson. com which focuses on how to thrive in the future of work by getting paid to be you, and has a fantastic selection of free tools, podcasts and blog posts available for browsing.
For those wanting more, Natalie has written two books, The Suitcase Entrepreneur and The Freedom Plan which both offer additional insights into living and loving a freedom-filled life and practical tips and tricks to making your perfect day a reality.
Find out more or take the quiz to find out if you’re ready at
