Overcoming debt and beating the odds

Digital nomad Eva Forde wasn’t always moving around. At a certain point in her life, she was living in Jamaica, destitute and hungry, in extreme debt. But one day, she felt empowered to conquer it all, and she’s still at it.

TAMAR: Hi, everybody, I am so excited to be introducing Eva Forde, who I don’t really know yet. And I will be about to meet her. She was introduced to me by one of my past podcast guests, Sasha Raskin. So, I’m so excited that you’re here. Thank you so much for coming on.

00:37

EVA FORDE: Yeah, so great to be here. And thank you for inviting me.

00:41

TAMAR: Yeah, yeah. So, tell it. Everybody told me because I don’t know anything. So, I will tell you, Eva wanted to prepare for this. And I said, I don’t want to prepare for this. I know that sometimes I come with a little bit of background context, I wanted to make this blink. I hope you won’t regret it.

00:59

EVA FORDE: But let’s keep fingers crossed.

TAMAR:  You’ll be great.

EVA FORDE: You’ll be great as well. And here’s the thing. I wanted to not so much prepare, because I show up and I connect.

TAMAR: Right.

EVA FORDE: But what’s important to me, the whole goal of  what you do, your mission is about the self-care, right. So, for me, there’s no better self-care or meaning in life than connection. And so, it was really not even so much to prepare for the podcast, but just to really connect with you. Because I always want to make sure that the people that I engage with in life, whether it’s at the grocery store, or on a podcast, that there’s some sort of meaning or that it’s just not meaningless. I want to leave people with, like, “Oh, I could have had a VA as opposed to Eva.”

01:55

TAMAR: So, I will say you’re highlighting my shortcoming. I guess, in the context of trying to be, like a hustler in so many different ways. It’s extraordinarily impossible to carve out too much time. But at the same time, I think you’re right. And I want anybody who’s ever been on the podcast to realize that I don’t want it to necessarily be a one time, a one-off. I want to maintain that connection. So, I appreciate you highlighting that. Because it’s very difficult. And I’ve been interviewed by lots of people in podcasts in my life as well. And I don’t even know who they are almost.

EVA FORDE: Yeah.

TAMAR: So, I don’t want to fall into that same trap. But I know that in a way I might be.

02:40

EVA FORDE: Yeah, I don’t even think it’s about remembering who people are but getting into the story. My story, at least the part where I started to pay attention to meaning was when my mom passed away, and I was 10 years old. And she was given eight months to live with cancer. And when it seemed imminent that she was going to pass she spent the last few months of that reconnecting with people who I guess there had been any miscommunication or misunderstanding or just trying to make things right. And I remember thinking as a kid, I never want to have to live where I have to look back and regret. And so, I want to be intentional about how I go through life. And it’s not so much that I’m Mother Teresa, No, that’s not it.

03:48

TAMAR: It’s  great, it’s admittedly a very, very powerful sentiment. And I’m missing some words here. I mean, there’s a lot of ways to embody that’s particularly sensitive, and it’s extraordinarily important. I think it’s great that you decided to do that. And I don’t want to say, “Oh, I wish I could do it more. I love doing it. It’s just how many hours are there; the day ultimately is my poor excuse for that. But at the same time again, it’s such an amazing thing, and I totally appreciate it.

04:21

EVA FORDE: Yeah, I think what has reminded me of it or what keeps it in the forefront of my mind is I think it’s come from the yoga movement where you’re being still and you are being mindful. So, like the mindfulness movement, or just how mindful are we, where we are in our consciousness when we’re brushing our teeth or when we’re picking up the phone for an unexpected call or when we’re interacting with that person at the grocery store? Like, are we mindful of how we’re walking through the world.

TAMAR: Right.

EVA FORDE: And, again, don’t always get it right. But I think, especially in this climate that we