The marcomms industry is full of remote workers, but there's a unique subset that took work-from-home and made it global. PR pro Samantha Caffrey shares how the freedom of digital nomading has sharpened her skills as a publicist, expanded her network and beyond.
Mexico City
If you could live and work from anywhere in the world, where would you go?
A question that over 17 million people in the United States alone have answered and made their reality through digital nomading. Through luck, privilege and hard work I became one of those people.
Being one of the 17 million digital nomads wasn’t necessarily in my purview years ago, but as remote work became readily available so did my desire to get out of tiny apartments, travel the world and work. With many years in Public Relations under my belt I wasn’t expecting the digital nomad journey to teach me about my career, but man was I wrong. Traveling between the states, Europe, Australia, and Mexico for over two years now, I’ve learned how to adapt swiftly, honed my networking skills, gained new cultural perspectives and unleashed creativity that has enhanced my leadership skills with my clients and the media alike.
It all started a little over two years ago after a heartbreak (it’s wild what we’re capable of when we’re desperate to feel better!). I decided to pack up my apartment and placed all of my belongings in a storage unit with plans to come back to NYC after a few months. My first stop was Tulum, Mexico, a place I had lived before and was thrilled to go back to. But, this time around touching down in Tulum was different. The pangs from heartbreak were panging, and yet life and work kept going at the same pace. What I didn’t know at the time was that the busy pace ended up being such a gift. I just started a Director position and was working on media appointments for a highly anticipated at-home skin care device. I was hosting media appointments over Zoom with Vogue, NY Magazine and more all while settling into a new country and balancing a different language that I don’t speak. The drastic change in my environment was a gentle force that honed my skills in adaptability and ended up supporting this client's new launch.
Xochimilco, Mexico City
As my nomadic journey continued for far longer than the few months I had originally planned, I bopped around LA, Miami and my home-base New York City. About six months into being fully nomadic, I decided to go to Mexico City on a week-long vacation. I quickly fell in love with that city and extended my trip, staying there for two months.
One sunny afternoon while I was working at an outside cafe in Roma Norte I found myself in desperate need for strong WiFi. I saw a chic woman dressed in all black sitting next to me, when I asked her for the WiFi or suggestions for places to work, I found out that she was the publicist for that very cafe, along with many other hot spots around Mexico City. We got to chatting and she and I met a few more times during my trip. She showed me the best place to find local designer fare in Condesa, and she’s now my go-to person for any international PR needs in CDMX.
Museo Nacional de Antropología CDMX
Any publicist will tell you how important our networks are. They need to be vast, deep, and nurtured in order for us to build communities for our clients. But, we don’t often discuss the importance of international networks and opinions when we are working on US-based projects. However, it's crucial to recognize that global perspectives play a significant role in shaping the narrative and impact of our campaigns and our work.
The world thrives on diverse perspectives, which are key to driving real change. You don't need to travel the globe to value diversity and inclusion, but my own travels have inspired new ideas and creativity. PR professionals can and should build diverse teams and highlight voices of color in leadership and storytelling. It’s essential to include a wide range of cultural contexts and embrace diversity in our work, always.
As we’re crafting stories for our clients we must also rely on our resources to bring campaigns to life. Resourcefulness and problem-solving skills acquired as a digital nomad allowed me to think so far outside of the box. When I was alone and got food poisoning while running campaigns and didn’t speak the language I had to lean on myself more than I ever have before. Being resourceful in public relations means looking for creative solutions, calling upon your network for help, but it also means leaning on yourself as the main resource. Being nomadic has taught me more about my own inner resources than anything else in my lifetime thus far. Especially if you’re like me and you don’t have a homebase to go back to. It’s a constant need for sourcing safe places to live, to eat, to get medical care. And those are soft skills that can’t necessarily be trained.
In addition to honing imperative PR skills, being a digital nomad does something many PR professionals don’t do – PR ourselves! Our job's main focus is to differentiate our clients from their competitors, ensure that there are consistent new and fresh talking points, and an array of experiences, but most of us, including myself, forget the importance of doing this for ourselves. And when we PR ourselves our clients can receive better results. I think one of the most valuable, and unexpected, elements of my digital nomad journey was/is differentiating myself and my consultancy. We all have a keen ability to have our finger on the pulse, but a global pulse, superior agility and adaptability are invaluable. I’m thrilled to bring this value to my clients and my adventures now and in the future.
