How to live your best life

The story of how I changed from a corporate career to being a digital-nomad

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“Gaëlle, you’re throwing your life away, don’t do this !”

If I had listened to this one so-called friend’s advice two and a half years ago, I would still be sitting at my desk in Johannesburg (South Africa), complaining about load-shedding and crime. Instead where am I today ?

I am living my best life.

Years ago I remember thinking as I drove to work one day, if only I could get a job just driving around every day, I love driving. But the thought of becoming a truck driver forever stuck on grey highways didn’t really appeal to me…

Instead I discovered the universe of voice-overs and, totally bowled over, I poured every ounce of spare energy I had left over from a full-time career in architecture and my motherhood responsibilities, into honing my skills and building a sustainable business for myself.

Covid really helped me, I was one of the lucky ones there, because while I was stuck at home with all my building sites closed for the lockdown, I did nothing else but hide in my new soundproof booth and talk into my microphone.

My recording booth back in Johannesburg

And that’s how I transitioned from corporate life to freelance life. With a lot of work and sheer determination. But that’s how I roll - anything I set myself to do I tend to go in at 200% until I eat and dream it and think of nothing else. My friends must have thought I’d dropped off the surface of the Earth, when I was in fact just locked up in a padded room…

Having deep dived long and hard into the ocean of voices, I started to get weary of lockdowns and zoom socialising, so I began to reach for the surface again, came up to get some air and took a holiday overseas - thanks to a very fortuitous family wedding and a covid-delayed seventieth birthday !

A freelancer is never really on holiday, you don’t get five weeks paid leave and a safe salary at the end of every month. Forget the thirteenth month, you’re lucky if you get eleven at all… So I took my recording equipment with me and hoped I would find good places to work. It was very risky to tell the truth, but somehow I pulled it off.

The Opal Coast, Pas-de-Calais

So, in between recording projects I hopped on trains and visited cities in my native France that I’d only ever read about in books and spotted on maps. And I found this country is so rich in history and culture and nature, every day I learned something new and walked around in awe at what I saw - it would take me a lot of time to just scratch the surface of all there is to discover !

Don’t tell anyone I recorded in the middle of the night in a car under a thick blanket in a southern Fance campsite on a hot summer night, trying to escape the brain-drilling song of cicadas - definitely an unwanted sound-effect in a corporate training module about all the different types of hospital beds in my client’s portfolio…

I won’t mention trying out every single room in my french family’s large country house, including the damp cellar and the antique toilet cubicle, to end up finding a cramped space between a vintage closet and a wonky old bed where I could hang blankets and position couch cushions to make a recording fort… Luckily I know I’m not the only voice artist to resort to such shenanigans while on holiday. It made me feel a little better, but not terribly proud of myself, or my work.

But it got me thinking. And thinking.

My clients are all over the world. As long as I have a decent internet connection and a good place to record (and that’s the crucial point right there) I can continue doing what I am doing from anywhere I choose. Why stay stuck at the same desk in the same house in the same town all the time ? My children have grown up and are living their own life, all I’m doing here is earning money to pay for house and food. That’s not living. There’s so much to see out there, starting with France - the country I was born in and know absolutely nothing about except what I’ve read in books and seen in films.

Marseille

But how ? On my return to South Africa, I did a deep dive into how I could make this work. I could think of three options of travelling around France while working:

1. By train, staying in Airbnb's

2. By car, staying in campsites

3. By van, staying in my very own van !

I chose option three. And spent countless hours learning everything about vans, motorhomes, the nomad life, french admin, french rules of the road, anything I could read, view or listen to. Figuring out if there was any chance that I could set up a proper mobile recording studio to service my clients in a way I would be proud of. Just as I had done with the voice-over industry to begin with. And yes, as it turns out, radio stations and rock bands do set up their recording studios in their tour busses, so why couldn’t I ?

Then I made it happen.

I bought a one-way plane ticket to pin down the date, then I sold and gave away everything I owned, including my car and my house, and my beautiful recording booth. Online I setup my french micro-entreprise so I could hit the ground running, and I came away with just two suitcases and got on that plane.

Col du Tourmalet, Pyrénées

Almost two years later I do not regret one single second having made that move.

If you’ve read any of my previous posts you’ll see that travelling just around the one country has been fulfilling and amazing, and most importantly, has changed me as a person - I am not someone else than I was before, no, but I have overcome fears that used to overwhelm me, I have done things I never imagined I’d do - and yet, nothing extreme, I mean, it’s not like I’ve climbed Mount Everest or anything, but for little old insignificant me, they’ve made a huge difference. Because most of us aren’t superheroes, and just making small changes to our own lives is a mega achievement enough !

So yup, I eventually figured out how to live my life driving on the road - not the way I’d originally imagined, but a much better version of it ! I drive everyday wherever I want to go, on quaint old country roads, and work at the career that I’ve found speaks to me deeply - I have found the best of both worlds.

I am living my best life !

My recording studio, somewhere in France

In conclusion I want to say to you - there is a way to live your life so that your soul sings with joy ! You may not know exactly what it is right now, but if you listen to your heart and follow the paths that excite you, they will inevitably lead you where you need to be !

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If this is your first time reading me, go ahead and subscribe below so that the next part lands straight into your mail box ! Wondering what I was talking about earlier, when I mentioned recording my voice ? Find out more about what I do on my website www.gaellegosselin.com You are also welcome to follow me on Instagram @gaelle.and.gus.the.bus and on Substack Notes, where I post almost every day about the places through which I travel with Gus the Bus 😊

I love finding out what you thought of my musings, and I’m always happy to answer questions, so please write something in the comments section below (better than replying directly to the emails too, so everyone can join in on the conversation)

Until next time !