It’s that time of year! When we look back on the year that has passed and reflect on the achievements and “failures”, the ups and downs.
I’ve been doing these roundup posts since 2012…and I’ve been super consistent with them – I’ve only missed 2 years!
We like to publish these reflection posts for ourselves, to remember what really happened throughout the year, and for you, to give you a behind-the-scenes look at our personal and professional lives.
We hope these articles inspire you, give you a lightbulb moment, or simply give you the opportunity to get to know us better!
In my email I sent at the end of 2024, our words and feelings heading into 2025 were: recalibration, balance and freedom…I think we’ve done a really good job incorporating those values this year.
2025 – The Year of the Snake
Based on the Chinese zodiac, 2025 was the year of the Snake… which was all about awareness, subtle changes and shedding old “skin”. It wasn’t about huge, dramatic changes, but rather about calm. recalibration.
Looking back, this theme couldn’t be more accurate for us, given what we’ve been through this year!
This year wasn’t about pushing harder or forcing things…it was just about to pause, observe, and be honest with what works (and what doesn’t) with our health, our business, and our daily lives. And then recalibrate the steering slightly and adjust the dial.
Like every year, there were many reasons to be grateful in our personal and professional lives. We’ve had a lot of “highs”… but there have also been some lows throughout the year.
Let’s go. Here’s a look at what 2025 had to offer…
PS, if you want to know more about our years since the beginning, you can! Take a look at 2023, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013And 2012.
Navigating Health Issues
In January, I decided to hire a functional health coach who addresses thyroid, hormonal, and gut health. I had been feeling exhausted, stressed and “foggy” for quite a while.
It was time to address the root cause, instead of just tackling the symptoms and neglecting them.
It’s time to cleanse
My health coach suggested I do a detox and diet for 6 weeks (I ended up doing it for 55 days), which meant no gluten, dairy, sugar, seed oil, coffee or alcohol. Nick joined me and cut out most of those things too, including caffeine and alcohol!
This may seem like a difficult diet (and eating out was), but I actually found it quite easy. If you think about it, it’s just eating real food – proteins, vegetables, nuts and fruits.
During this time, I also took many natural supplements and pills to heal my gut and liver. After that detox, I was at the lowest weight I can remember in my adult life. More importantly, I felt good too.
Additional tests
After this first cleanse, I decided to go further and did a blood test for my thyroid and an HTMA test (hair tissue mineral analysis) with my health coach.
If you’ve never done one, I highly recommend it. The amount of things she was able to tell me about my body just based on my hair was mind-blowing.
I learned what minerals I was seriously lacking and what toxins were in my body – and how these imbalances affected my health and daily life.
Basically, my coach was telling me “I don’t even know how you’re functioning right now”… the test showed that my adrenals were in a state of extreme burnoutI was incredibly low in vital minerals, and based on my blood test and other things I had experienced, I have Hashimotos.
The rest of the year was dedicated to making health a priority – emotional, mental and physical. I had a bespoke mineral powder created especially for me, based on what my body was missing, and I’m happy to say that I’ve felt really good ever since.
When we thought of “balance And recalibration“As a goal this year, I didn’t think it would be a goal to balance my minerals!
We shook up business
You know that feeling when things are going well, but something is wrong?! Like, is something wrong? The first months of 2025 have been such. We didn’t really know which direction to take our new coaching business.
In 2024, we ran two successful cohorts with 18 amazing people, but to be completely honest, we were both feeling pretty exhausted heading into 2025… even my hair test confirmed it! 
The company was new, so of course there was a plot TO DO.
We had spent months filming and creating a course, conceptualizing and designing a new curriculum, and then delivering live calls, texts, and website building.
We felt like we were working really hard on our clients’ businesses and not having time for our own. We had to rebalance And recalibrate!
Unsurprisingly, at the start of this year we were both reluctant to lead another cohort.
We wanted time to work on growing our business, updating our curriculum to be as current as possible, and having time to create content for our social media, this website, and our email subscribers.
So we decided to shake things up!
A new environment
We made the decision to go to Crete, Greece, for a few weeks and it was the best decision we ever made. Sometimes all it takes is a change in environment to gain clarity or regain the spark, and the Greek island provided that.
We did a lot of hiking, explored old towns, swam in the sea, ate delicious food… and discussed how to move our business forward.
We were able recalibrate slightly (rather than making a massive, dramatic pivot), and finding a solution that gave us the balance we wanted/needed…
…we would run the program “evergreen” and over a longer period. This meant new customers could join us throughout the year, rather than all at once to form a cohort that sometimes seemed overwhelming.
It also gave them more time to enjoy the course material and work through it at their own pace.
New courses and events
Since we made this slight change in how we ran our coaching program, it gave us time to do more and be more creative.
We launched a brand new course to help people find the business idea within their passions, skills and life experiences… AND we hosted 3 live events for our subscribers – for free.
People love live events and many of them joined our program after getting on a live call with us and seeing how much passion we have for remote business.
All this felt really good and was much more aligned.
I’m happy to say that 27 new members joined our Creator Kickstarter coaching program this year, and 61 joined our Niche Clarity course, and we are so grateful!
We got engaged!!
If you recently started following us, you probably assumed that we were already engaged or married. 
On our 18th anniversary (yes, 18!), Nick popped the question at an estate in the Beaujolais wine region of France, surrounded by vineyards. It was the most romantic and special day imaginable.
Being a genius, Nick told me he was planning something secret for our 18th anniversary…
…so I wouldn’t be suspicious and I wouldn’t expect anything other than a special birthday. I absolutely had No idea of what was planned for the day.
It all started with a train journey from Lyon to Annecy – a village in France said to have inspired Beauty and the Beast. Just visiting the picturesque village, complete with an old town, a crystal-clear lake and the surrounding mountains, would have been an amazing day!
But it was the day that kept on giving 
We hopped in an Uber and headed to a hangar and airstrip… where our private helicopter was waiting for us!
Champagne was tasted and we enjoyed the very scenic 35 minute flight from Annecy to the Beaujolais wine region, just north of Lyon. We flew over mountains, villages, farmland, rivers… and vineyards.
Then we started our descent and the helicopter literally landed in a vineyard. Seriously, you can’t even make this up!
As we entered the grounds, a table for 2 was set up under a huge tree and we were surrounded by (you guessed it) vines.
Nick asked the question before our beautiful charcuterie board arrived ie and our wine – I think if he had waited any longer it probably would have burst!
Of course, my answer was (and always will be) yes.
It was the most incredible day. Somehow Nick managed to keep all of this a secret for weeks and weeks while he orchestrated the whole thing. The effort, thoughtfulness and love behind this proposal made it even more unforgettable.
The icing on the cake was that we headed to the south of France to share our news and travel with a group of close friends.
A friend had a tragic accident
Life is a crazy thing. While we were getting engaged in France (living the happiest times together), one of our close friends was fighting for his life in a hospital in Mexico.
After being hit by a car while crossing the road, our friend Nathan suffered from head trauma (among other things). I won’t go into detail, but the Mexican hospitals and his insurance company failed him.
Navigating the emotional duality of our excitement for our engagement, alongside the overwhelming grief of what he was going through – and the prognosis – was incredibly difficult.
It hasn’t been an easy road for Nathan, but incredibly… today, just 7 months since the accident, Nathan is walking, talking and living his life… what a miracle!
All the doctors said he shouldn’t have survived.
This year we spent American Thanksgiving in Mexico with him, an event he organized for 28 people. There were certainly many reasons to be grateful.
Nathan summed up his sense of humor and what we were all thinking about at Thanksgiving pretty well when he added his note to the gratitude chart:
Of course, with it being such a traumatic injury, he still has a way to go, but Nathan’s progress is incredible and we are all very proud of him.
This experience really put into perspective the fragility of life, the importance of being there for your friends, and the importance of living life to the fullest.
Quality time with family and friends
We’ve been traveling and living abroad since 2008, so we don’t see our families as often as we’d like, but when we do, we make it count! Being able to take time off whenever we want – or bring our work with us – is not something we take for granted.
2024 has been busy and rushed, while this year we’ve allowed ourselves to slow down and spend intentional, quality time with our loved ones.
Mom makes Europe
This year, my mother came to visit us in Europe – her first time on the continent! We met her in Rome and spent a few days walking and eating around the city.
Then we flew to Bulgaria to show him around our house, before crossing the border to spend a few days together in Greece.
We had a memorable visit and she added three new countries to her list. Seeing his eyes wide and amazed at the incredible ruins and buildings of Rome is something I will never forget.
Welcome to Canada
During the summer, we returned to Canada to visit other friends and family. Summer in Canada (when there are no forest fires…) is honestly one of the most breathtaking places in the world!
We were home for 5 weeks and spent lots of time on the lake, boating, fishing, hiking, visiting farmers markets, eating delicious food, and of course visiting with everyone.
We still find it very difficult to work while we are visiting, but we have found a balance and still made time to support our customers and create content for our business.
Connecting with our loved ones and spending time with the people we care about is a top priority for us, and having the freedom doing it in the blink of an eye is what this lifestyle really means to us.
We have invested A LOT
Over the past few years, we have focused on investing in coaching and consulting for our health, our finances and our business… and this year was no exception!
We hired coaches for health, stock market investing, sales and mindset, and the creation of short videos… and social media consultants.
We strongly believe in investing time and money in ourselves and those who will help us achieve our goals faster than if we could do it alone.
Health
As I mentioned at the beginning of this article, I hired a functional health coach who focuses on the thyroid and Hashimotos. It ended up being an eye-opening experience for me.
If you’re feeling a little ‘off’, it’s definitely worth seeing a doctor and discussing a cleansing plan, getting some blood work done and even an HTMA test.
For me, I loved that she was all about finding out “why” the symptoms are there and seeing me as a whole person…rather than just treating the symptoms.
Finances (Spoiler: we hired our client!)
It was a really cool and complete experience. Jimmy joined our Creator Kickstarter program in 2024, where we taught him how to take his personal finance and investing knowledge and become a self-made millionaire and turn it into his own online business.
He now has over 100,000 followers on Instagram, around 10,000 subscribers to his email list, he created an investing course for beginners, and runs a community where he offers monthly calls and tons of advice within the community.
Obviously, once he launched his program, we had to join!
Not only did we learn a tonne about stock investing in general, but Jimmy shared his Wealth Ladder system with us and continues to share his stock picks (and the reasons behind them).
We like Jimmy’s methods because he is low risk and selects fundamental stocks from established companies based on her real research and data.
We are very proud of the progress made with his company, but not only that, since his hiring as a financial coach and his arrival in his community, our investments have paid off very well.
We may have started investing later in life, but it’s certainly better late than never. 
Social networks
Even though we have been sharing on social media since 2012, the landscape is always change.
In order to stay on top of what works and what doesn’t, how to create the best content possible, and how to continue to grow while being authentic online, Nick joined an expensive coaching program with one of the best video creators in the business.
As part of the program, he had course materials to go through and live group calls twice a week.
He has worked very hard to create educational content, providing value and integrating people into our ecosystem.
Nick even grew up have a TikTok account from zero to almost 5,000 followers and reels with almost 100,000 views! All this in just a few months, while continuing to manage our other activities – incredible.
Sales, strategy and mindset
Being an entrepreneur requires community – and actually, being in any business does!
But working for yourself and wearing all the hats (sales, marketing, networking, content creation, client work, coaching calls, and all the tech!) comes with its challenges.
This year again, having mentors in various fields was a great help to us: we had 3 different coaches throughout 2025.
Whether it’s sales and strategy, mindset and visibility, or just accountability and having someone to bounce ideas off of, having a community and business coaches is something we will always invest in.
Retreats and Events
We had two incredible experiences this year at in-person events and retreats.
A major “peak” from 2025 was to see Tony Robbins I live in Germany with 13,000 other people! Tony is the absolute GOAT when it comes to self-help, mindset, business, and overall life transformation.
It was emotional, intense and raw. We literally walked on hot coals to prove to ourselves that we can accomplish difficult things.
We hugged, waved, danced and gave massages to complete strangers! We had so many “aha” moments and breakthroughs at the event.
Additionally, there were numerous guest speakers, including Dean Graziosi and Trent Shelton (whose book Nick had already read without knowing would be there!).
The energy in the arena was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.
We also went to see a beautiful little brain retirement with our mentors in Greece! Being alongside the 10 other entrepreneurs who were growing their businesses, letting go of their old beliefs and stories, and operating at a high frequency was such a privilege.
Sure, the business and organizational aspect was great, but so were the sunset sailing, the hiking, the on-site chef, the DJ night, and the beautiful villa we all stayed in.
Joining events virtually is one thing…but being live…that energy is unmatched!
Give back
This is something I feel like we haven’t done enough of this year. Donating our time and donating money to causes is something we have focused heavily on in previous years, and we will do so more in 2026.
Helping and making an impact on the world is what really matters. That said, we managed to do a few notable things this year.
Picking up trash was a common task for us – locally in our neighborhood and in the surrounding mountains, and we always bring our own bags and pick up the trash when Nick goes fly fishing in the rivers. Unfortunately, waste is a problem in rural Bulgaria (and many places around the world).
This month, one of our clients made her annual trip to the Dominican Republic where she brings toys and medical supplies to children in a village. We loved this initiative and were happy to help share it with children.
Finally, after finding out that our friend Nathan’s insurance wouldn’t cover all of his hospital bills, we brainstormed with a few friends to see how we could help him.
Of course, a GoFundMe was planned, but he needed more.
We decided to organize our own fundraiser. Having never organized a fundraiser before, it was a bit logistically challenging, but it was successful! Every little bit counts and we are so grateful to those who donated to the cause. 
Our trips
Even though we are now based in Bulgaria, travel and freedom are still our core values!
We still have the “itch” and are ready to go on the next trip. We’ve visited over 80 countries together, and these days we’ve explored Europe the most.
In our younger years, we really wanted to get off the beaten path and have crazy adventures in less visited parts of the world like Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Lately we are in our “European era” . Flights from home are so close and easy that we can hop in the car and drive to neighboring countries, and there are so many places on this continent we haven’t visited yet.
This year, we visited 9 countries (Greece, Italy, France, Monaco, Canada, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and Spain) and many new locations in Bulgaria.
Monaco and Ireland were new countries for us, as were all the destinations in France, and the cities of Madrid, Milan and Cologne. So we had a few recurring countries, but lots of new cities!
Our last minute travel in Ireland by motorhome was a highlight of the year. You can find out more about this trip here.
The pub culture with its incredible music and traditional sessions, the welcoming and friendly people, the stunning scenery, the hearty food and the perfectly served Guinness made this an incredible journey. It was hard to leave!
Objectives and reflections for 2026
We already feel a very strong desire for more freedom and more movement. I interpret this as physical movement (travel and exercise!)… but also emotional and spiritual. It really looks like something big It’s going to happen this year!
There are 4 main things we want to focus on and accomplish in 2026:
Deliver value
This is what we do and what it has always been about. As I mentioned earlier in this article, for a little while we felt too overwhelmed or too busy to give anything “extra” to our audience.
Now that we’ve organized our coaching program to be more manageable (and have also hired an assistant and customer service manager to help us!), we’ll focus more on free events, valuable emails, and social media content.
We already have a bonus call on the calendar for our Creator Kickstarter customers and the Remote Goats community! We are very happy to bring our community even closer together. This is honestly the best band ever.
Focus on well-being
By this I mean not only our physical health, but also our mental, emotional and spiritual health.
Recently, we’ve both gotten into meditation, introspection, and manifestation, and it’s something we’ll be focusing on even more in the new year.
We firmly believe that what we focus on happens. The way we feel and act will be reflected back to us. So if we feel depressed or doubt ourselves, this will be reflected back to us by the outside world.
With meditation, it calms the mind and allows for reflection and clarity. We look forward to experiencing more in 2026.
The year of YES
When ideas come to us or someone mentions something that seems interesting… we say “yes”. No overthinking, no indecision, no buzzing and buzzing…go for it!
Every time we’ve done this in the past, things have worked out for us and opportunities have presented themselves that we hadn’t even considered.
We have already said “yes” to a travel partnership for this year, “yes” to trips to countries very far from our home in Bulgaria, “yes” to further business growth and “yes” to prioritizing this life we have.
2026 is the year of momentum and saying YES!
Our wedding
Rather than putting it off, or staying engaged for a long time (I mean, we’ve been together for 18 years already!), we decided to get married THIS YEAR (2026)!
It’s exciting and a little nerve-wracking to think about planning it… but I’m sure it will be the absolute highlight of not only 2026, but of our entire lives.
We look forward to sharing this part of our lives with you and entering this new chapter.
THANKS!
We are so grateful that you are here and following our journey. Whether you’ve been here since the beginning in 2012, or have just joined the “tribe 
”, thank you for your support – it means everything to us!
If you’re here to get information about digital nomads, follow our personal journey, or learn how to turn what you already know into an online business, you’ve come to the right place.
Our motto has always been: make travel a lifestyle …and this mission won’t change anytime soon!
If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to subscribe to our mailing listAnd follow us on Instagram. And if you want to join the Creator Kickstarter to earn income, make an impact, and find purpose in your work, send us an email and we will see if you are a good candidate.
As always, we wish you the best year ahead, the most adventurous, exciting and fun, full of love, laughter, growth and of course… travel.
Dariece and Nick
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