A Most Interesting New Nomad Shares the Nomad Experience With Olumide Gbenro | TNN01

Allen Koski and Andrew Jernigan interviewed Olumide Gbenro, a notable remote work influencer and digital nomad community builder.

Based in Bali, Olumide shares his insights and experiences on the digital nomad lifestyle. Being a polyglot and a Global Citizen, he shares his insights on the highs and lows of being a digital nomad. From being a couch-surfer to being a recognized international social media advisor to celebrities, influencers, and olympians, Olumide shares his success story and what it takes to thrive in what he does.

Allen and Andrew, being nomads themselves, discuss their best practices in the cross-border lifestyle and their views on the vaccination passport as well as how remote workers cope with the pandemic.

Follow Insured Nomads at:

Instagram: @insurednomads

www.insurednomads.com

Timestamps:

[1:04] The pros and cons of the vaccination passport

[5:11] Being a Global Citizen

[9:23] Couch-surfing vs getting your own suite

[18:19] Digital Nomads and the life of freedom

[19:55] Covid 19: How it affected the laptop lifestyle

[22:28] How to stay physically fit as digital nomads

Transcript

Alan  

Welcome to The New Nomad. We have a great guest today. Olumide is joining us from Bali and we'll learn more about his story, ideas, and perspectives on the nomad lifestyle. 

Once again, The New Nomad is not just a podcast, it's a community of people, ideas, and spirit, helping you take advantage of the cross-border lifestyle. And if there's anyone who epitomizes that lifestyle is, my co-host, Andrew Jernigan. Andrew, how are you today? And what is on your mind?

Andrew  

I am doing very well, thank you. Just landed in from Sau Paulo, Brazil a few hours ago. And loving life. It's great to be on hosting this podcast episode with you and welcome everyone. And I'm excited about our guests today as well, someone I've known for quite some time, and I believe a lot of you will value his insights he'll share as well as be glad to follow him. So Alan, what's on your mind today?

Alan  

Well, there's been some interesting conversation about COVID passports and relative to what we used to see in the old days with yellow fever vaccination forums. Now there are a lot of folks that don't think COVID passports will be needed, something gets intrusive from a privacy perspective. And then people counter with well, you know, countries can set their own parameters, sports stadiums, can set their own, you know, parameters. I mean, many of us want to go to concerts again. How is that going to play? So I know you were just out in Brazil, and you've been talking to many folks, and I know you've been in areas where yellow fever is something that people have to take, you know, the paperwork for what what's kind of your feeling on that debate?

Andrew  

Yeah, it's that's a really valid point. Years ago, I was highlighted, pulled out of a line and in Brazil, some I don't know, almost 20 years ago now is, look, even the foreigners are getting their yellow fever shots. And when we were traveling this week, and even last month on an international trip myself, it was that thing of Okay, where do we look on these documents to make sure that you pack them correctly. And every lab formatted differently, and a lab in one country had it in one language. 

So it's, I think there are positive aspects to a vaccination passport a that includes testing, things like that, and of course, other technology besides a vaccination passport, where you can store your, your lab results. But there are a lot of aspects of privacy, health care, data privacy, how that's going to be communicated. How it will be shared between people will it be hat because usually the things contain information that you don't want to be shared and there'll be prejudice around who's been vaccinated and who's not. And we want governments to know so I'm not sure how widely accepted these will be taken on and how many people will actually say I would want it in my phone because if my phone is hacked you know, I know you and I we all use a VPN on our smartphones because there might mini computers but can that passport be hacked in the future. Too much info.

Alan  

No, it's great. No i think that's helpful for the for the listeners and guess what in the future will continue to follow this issue. Thank you Andrew. I think let's move on to something that's a lot clearer. Olumide with us today and here is somebody who is got quite an interesting story. Been in many locations and by the way, the energy level that that I feel what I see is you to other areas. Welcome How are you today? Where are you? 

Olumide  

Hey, Alan, Andrew. I am in Bali Indonesia. Yes, I get a lot of comments from friends and family like they're telling me I wish I was in Bali so it's a true blessing. I'm always happy to just you know, wake up and say wow, I'm still here and yeah it's an amazing lifestyle to live .I'm happy to be live from Bali it's nighttime so I'm not sure where everybody will be listening from but it's past 9pm right now here in Bali. So yeah.

Andrew  

Well last week I saw you at a five star resort in Jakarta, on your Instagram you're back in Bali, you're not in that resort

Olumide  

No, I sometimes I like to leave and I like to leave the perfect pristine beaches and go into the matrix just to see what it's like but then I hurry back to Bali or or beach nearby. So that's kind of how that works.

Andrew  

Are you from there? Where are you from? And then that's not really a question in this world anymore of where you're from, is it?

Olumide  

Yeah, it's, I'm on the global citizen passport, you were talking about the vaccination passports. I'm on a global citizen passport. But specifically, I was actually born in Nigeria. And I, my parents left when I was about six years old. And we immigrated to the United States, no to the United Kingdom to England first, so I had to have a British accent for like a while. And then when I was 13, we moved to the United States. 

My parents were like, missionaries, pastors, and the church was they were moving from church to church, and hey, I was a kid. And it was definitely arrived. A lot of challenges. Being an immigrant kid, going from Nigeria, to the UK, and then I had a British accent. And then I went from UK to the USA and, and I was a black boy with a British accent. And that came with a lot of interesting experiences growing up on the east side of Columbus, Ohio, you know, and sort of an urban area where I was like, where am i right now, I had no idea what my bearings were, I just knew I had to survive. 

So that entire, you know, experience is what formed me into this, like global citizen, you know, having lived among different cultures. You know, in college, I started learning Portuguese, funny enough. Brazil, you speak Portuguese over there. And Spanish as well, when I was a young kid, and I just fell in love with languages and culture. And that's what when I graduated from college in San Diego, what took me around the world to say, okay, you know, I don't have a lot of money right now, because I gave up on this PhD, I could have done in my, my nice, you know, salary and the American dream. And my parents were like, what are you doing? And I was like, I don't know. But it's fun. And I get to see the world again, but on my own terms. But, you know, here I am today, after traveling about five or six years now, and spend actually the last two in Bali, because it's just been such a strong community where I felt that I could anchor myself and grow something special, especially with the summit, I'm sure we'll talk about later that we hosted last year. Yeah, last year, and hopefully in the future.

Alan  

Do you do you think it was any intellectual curiosity? That got you this Nomad spirit? Or what? What does I mean, if somebody's listening to this podcast, and they're saying, you're somebody who's had a really interesting life? How in the world do I have that type of, you know, get up and go curiosity? How do you do it?

Olumide  

I think for sure, it had to do with my upbringing and being in different cultures. So my norm was always being you know, among the international students or the foreign kids. So when I traveled, it was just a community of all foreigners in different areas of the world. So you know, I connect with Americans and people from South America and in my homies from Germany, I used to visit Germany a lot when I first started traveling, because that's what I knew from my college. I was like, I know these German dudes, like when I go to Germany, I know whose couch to sleep on. So it's more of an extension of like, curiosity, yes, to check out new cultures that I sort of experienced or got a taste for. And it just led me to different places I literally was moving the last even to like, when I came to Bali, it was because a friend said, she said, Oh, it's great here. You know, I was like, I don't know, I don't want to lose my clients. I just started this marketing agency is going good. I don't know what to do. And she encouraged me to just take the chance. And as soon as someone's like, hey, it's okay. That's where I end up going. And that's been always been the journey, connecting to friends and people who literally became family to me, you know,

Alan  

it's it's those connections that I think the Nomad community really needs it. I know, you're somebody in the middle of those connections. If you were starting out on a new nomadic existence, so to speak, for lack of a better term, I wouldn't get you know, would you would you look to your experience and some of your tips, and what would you say to somebody who said, You know what, I want to experience a lot of different cultures. But how do I prepare myself and obviously you have done it and done it successfully?

Olumide  

Yeah, but it wasn't always looking this successful. as Andrew said, you know, maybe you see me in five star hotels, I'm living good. I'm at these nice resorts. My friends, when I started about five years ago, I was a couch surfer. You know, I was making eager means and I was just trying to get by. I was making a few $100 on Instagram consulting  . And I would say for everybody is to find something that you're really good at, that someone will pay you enough for you not to survive, but to actually thrive like figure out if you want to go to a certain region, how much there's a cost to live there, make sure your salary is like double that. I wish I had known these things, you know, before I started, but it's okay because I get to teach and share with other people as well. So I'd say figure out what you can be an expert at, figure out that passion  . And then make sure you're good at it so that you can start developing an income so then you can really live with a life of freedom rather than, I'm not saying couchsurfing is a life of freedom but it sure is nice to have your own room.

Alan  

Well, you know, it's it brings up another interesting thought I'd call it many of us count served. And you're right, after a while, you want to get on your own two feet, and have the freedom of travel. So as you've you've dealt with all these different cultures, have there been some really interesting ones that that are more intriguing to you than others? it were, it's kind of interesting, you've kind of moved across the world. And it's kind of interesting that here, you know, some of the cultural norms that you've seen that might be 

Olumide  

yeah

Alan  

interesting to you

Olumide  

What stood out to me just immediately in my head, I was like Japan, Tokyo, Japan. The Japanese culture is really distinctive. It's very sort of community groupthink base. You know, America is we're independent, like, you know, whatever, Mom. You don't say whatever mom in certain cultures, you got to get that spanking on. 

So in Japan, what I noticed is that because people are so groupthink, the biggest thing I noticed that was really interesting to me. And it sounds random. And maybe it doesn't make sense, but I'll say it anyway, is when I went to the train station or got on the train for the first time, adults, full blown adults were in a perfectly straight line queuing up to get on the train. I had never seen this sort of coordinated, sort of like human movement was like a dance. It was a beautiful sort of movement and elegance to the people just going about their day. Even in the busiest things called Shibuya, whatever the big big crossing is where it's the biggest crosswalk in the world. Even that was a beautiful dance of people crossing the road so elegantly. And it was just like, Where am I right? I felt like I was in a movie or something. I was like, wow, I'm in Japan. Amazing. Yes. But I also felt like, wow, these people are amazing, you know, I really respect to the culture of risk, they have a lot of respect. 

They're reminded me of my sort of my home country of Nigeria, where you bow to your elders, and you're very respectful. So that helped me get get get, you know, get get up to speed, but just the order in the machine that is that city of Tokyo and in Japan and how people move as a group was like, next level to me. I thought I was somewhere else, you know, so I definitely think that would that would stick out for me.

Andrew  

So, do you feel you've been in this lifestyle for quite a while? Do you feel that being a digital nomad? Is something that will remain with you forever? Or do you feel that this is, this is feasible for you? 

You know, my brother Andrew, I'm 32 I look, I know I look young. And listen, I might still look like this in a few years. Thanks, hopefully, you know, but I'm done with the with the travel every month, every three months. Like I you know, the reason that I stayed in Bali two years, just because I knew, you know, at this time in my life, I wanted some consistency, I want to be able to, you know, have the same gym, the same apartment, go to the same restaurants, go shopping, you know, and understand a culture much deeper than the surface of just traveling for a few weeks or a few months. 

And that's why I chose to put one of my, you know, hopefully home bases here for quite a long time as Bali. But as you know, also, there are other beautiful, amazing spots around the world and parts. I've never been to Brazil, I'll follow Portuguese. I speak Portuguese, but I've never been to Brazil. I just learned it from friends in college because I went to all the coffee hours like, like so there's places I need to see I'm not gonna leave this earth without going to Brazil, you know, and there's other places and I want to go to Greece. Yeah, I want to go to all these beautiful places, and maybe set up a home there as well, you know, and have a home base there as well.

Yeah, that you open up a spectrum. And I wasn't sure how you answer that. But in that the term digital nomad I have been one since for 22 years now.

Olumide  

The OG, the original

Andrew  

no, it's one of the things of the definition. To me, it's not a constant traveler. It's someone who can work whether they choose you or not, they can work from their computer, but they may be quite a slow mad. 

Olumide  

Yeah

Andrew  

or an expat after time, but really not taking on that colonial term of expat.

Olumide  

Yeah,

Andrew  

just being a global citizen, as you referred to earlier, that new Nomad that is, you know, not with a camel in the deserts, maybe with their own private jet instead of a camel.

Olumide  

I like that

Andrew  

What this new nomad, this new normal that for many people, it's not new. They left Lebanon and went to a culture of war to open a grocery store or a latex foam mattress factory. They went from China to Canada to open a restaurant, that's the Nomad of the past that we kind of have relegated to oh, this is new. No. This has been for centuries this way before. The, you know, some discoverers Christopher Columbus got credit as being the digital nomad at the time. They were doing it before him, somebody the Indians, they conquered those Indians, were the nomads before that. It's a strange concept. So I brought that question with you have, do you think it's a lifestyle for you? It's unique, once you've gotten this bug of hitting countries, and Alan knows this more than you and I for sure, is he's how many 460 countries Alan Sorry, I'll toss it

Alan  

almost too many to count. But I've come back in one piece. That's the important thing.

Olumide  

He made it back. I love it. Yeah, I really think this, the future is really this global citizenship where you know. You people are and when people ask about all these different digital nomad pieces, which which we may discuss, people will choose based on their lifestyle choice. For me, you know, Bali is a special spot because it's close to nature. 

And I figured out I kind of love nature, you know, I didn't grow up aroun d it. I grew up in a very industrial like city, Metropolitan. And then I got to the beach one day, and I was like, I'm not leaving, like I chose to be here. And I see that as you know, people who have interest in surfing, you may want to just go to Portugal, I know, there's some great surf spot. 

Andrew  

Sure. 

Olumide  

If people are into mountains, if people might people might be digital nomads in Montana, Colorado, and they may be coming from Spain, because they want to be you know, in that sort of environment. So it's super exciting that people are going to be hopefully have that choice in the future to be able to do this.

Alan  

Is it you're feeling that COVID-19 is accelerated this process is people have learned Zoom and Teams. 

Olumide  

Yeah. 

Alan  

And also learn that they can work from home. What's your feeling on how the world has changed it, frankly, in the last year?

Olumide  

Yeah, it literally you know, that quote about having a billion digital nomads, you know, and it was gonna be 2035? You know, I forget who said that, I think is Peter levels. All of a sudden, we did it in like three weeks, you know, everybody's home, start figuring it out. And, yeah, I think it absolutely accelerated it. 

And I think what it did most it's so funny, it made everybody instead of like, traveling and made everybody go within, like, what do I want to do with my life? Like, what is what is my future life? My family, you know, what do I actually want to achieve in this world? And it made people think, Oh, now I have a choice to actually work remotely and travel and see the world on like I could never do before. So I think it was a huge thing. It's unfortunate, you know, in this situation, I can't say that enough. But I think there's some beauty in it. Because of the way this transformed so many lives around the world internally.

Alan  

I can't agree with you more, there's been a lot of folks that I've spoken to that said that this was a little bit of a timeout slash reflection point, where you sit there and you say, what do I want to do with 

my life? What do I want to see? An d certainly when we can't be with our families, because many of them were seniors that might be you know, in a in a home or something and you say to yourself, I can't wait till we can come and give them a hug. And you know, even even though we love these Zoom calls, right? It's that physical contact, you know, isn't it amazing how the world has changed?

Olumide  

Yeah, it's, uh, I think yeah, it's, it's shown how much for granted we just took like physical contact or meeting up for for beer or like, hey, let's go to a movie like, like that stuff was so taken for granted. You know, and I hope that when elements of that come back, because it will always be different, I think from now on, that people will appreciate it, you know?

Andrew  

Yeah, this is The first season that will pass. But the side effects of it will continue. For decades, just the seasons in other countries have their effect. I know this week we, we've commemorated the genocide that took place in Rwanda. And the tragedy and the trauma there. That season has passed, but the effects of it, though, carry on, and our hearts go out with them, and we celebrate some of the changes that have taken place there. And I hope all of us in new ways can help make sure things like that don't happen again. 

But in the same sense, we look at the pandemic and realize, okay, yes, we've had deaths among this because of it. We've had lifestyle changes because of it. But it will affect how we live as we move forward. Some people are greatly affected by the pandemic, while many others who were working remotely before it, were trapped in their bedrooms, at their computers, they don't feel any differently now than before. And it really hasn't affected them a lot. They were living in a foreign country, and they stayed there and weathered it out on the beach. They're a little bungalow in some resort location, and stayed there. That was we all of last year, you know, and in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, all during pandemic and it was a luxury to be able to go on runs on the beach. 

And, you know, I know we're there's so many things I'd love to ask you. But as you made it through this lifestyle, there's I know you've been quite the athlete throughout your years. How do you maintain physical fitness? 

Olumide  

Yeah

Andrew  

Without and routine, that physical self care while living a cross-border lifestyle? And you know, being this globally remote worker, as you are.

Olumide  

Great question. Yeah, I don't I've never had that before. This is a great question. How do I do it? Hmm. I think it's always like, it's always like having someone to be in as someone who has, you know, done athletics earlier in my life, I actually had a serious ankle injury in two surgeries so it limited me for a while. But even then, I was doing push ups in the dormer, on the in the dorm rooms, you know, hotel room. Wherever I was, even when I was on those couches, I wake up like the guys like that I'd stay with my friends. my homies would be like, they'd wake up in the morning, and I'm doing push ups next to them. 

Like, I just had this, this wire in me and this this sort of drive to always stay consistent. And that's probably also I never thought about this, Andrew, but that's a very good question. I think it also influenced an impact my drive for business and for knowledge, and to be actually to become a better businessman, or to just progress. Because if I wake up at that time, I'm already thinking like, there's something to achieve. There's something to do. 

But I think one of the biggest things that practical things is every time I, you know, if I go to a vacation, or I go to a city or I go to another town like it, even in Bali, I look up that whether or not that place actually has a gym, it actually isn't a decision making of where I stay. And if it's an apartment or somewhere that doesn't have their own gym, I look at where the close, Google is a great thing, everybody. I look at Hey, where's the closest gym? You know? So yeah, that's kind of that's kind of how I would answer that because it's just, it's just important to me. So it's been a thing to just be physically fit and healthy. And, yeah, that's kind of how I do that.

Alan  

It you know, it's amazing because I know a lot of people that travel, they are physical fitness, their acuity deteriorates. And I think what's really important is that you stay in a job consistent workout pattern that you probably feel like if I didn't work out today, I miss something. And you know, it's really great feedback for the rest of us. 

So one question we ask all of our guests, and I think you've had such a world experience, we're probably going to get a an amazing answer. You know, for our Nomad family, what is one overlooked person, place or experience you would suggest our listeners discover, and it sounds like you've discovered many so this could have been podcast in itself. So we're gonna have to narrow it down if you probably got so many options.

Olumide  

Yeah, I think II'll do a couple. Um, when I first started traveling, one of the first places I went to Europe was Denmark, Copenhagen, Denmark. Like they they dress different over there. I was like, Where is this movie like, these people dress like they're like a sort of a really cool chic movie. Everybody dresses so well. And I was like, I remember this was my challenging time. And I was like wearing a hoodie. And I was like, Where am I do I belong here. So and that's just real facts. I was just being real. But when I when I saw this sort of style and the way that this culture moved, I was very impressed by that. So I would say if you want to experience style, and sort of this chic feeling. In Europe, especially a lot of people though, it's a small country, I would say check out Copenhagen, Denmark. In the summer there, people really like to be inside, you know, it's a cold, cold place. So when it's summer, everybody's outside, all these town squares are filled, the energy's different. And it was something I got to experience early in my in my travels travel journey. 

Another place I would say, to switch it up then is probably Mexico City. Mexico City, especially a central like, like in the middle of the city, is has this energy too but kind of this fast energy that I haven't seen before as well. Like when you go and you walk around, even you feel like you have to walk faster. And there's just that sort of pace to it. 

And I think the food there is really good. And I'm not just talking about Mexican food, which is amazing. But I mean, like they have great Japanese food and you go to these areas where it's just a random hole in the wall as we say in America. And you know, you get a taco you like Who made this? Who made the say, you're the person who made this talk all right now like, I don't know, they're like, Listen, it's the restaurant. The grandmother lady knows a family thing. And it's like, what am I eating? You know, so for me I love food. So I would say that was that was an experience MEXICO CITY The food there. 

And then yeah, I think those are the two places that really really stuck out to me. I'm not going to give you the the smoothie bowl in Bali thing. Bali is great but those are the other two places where I was like, wow, like, these places are different. The people here move differently. And I really really enjoyed those two cities.

Alan  

So that really yeah, it's funny Copenhagen I've been here I completely agree with you. They stylish, it's fantastic. You know, what's funny? Your comment about street tacos? absolutely spot on the food actually all around the world. If you can go to a local, yeah, you know, local spot and and really, really dig dig in. So I'm sure after hearing today's podcast, people will want to learn more about you. Where can they find you, online, etc. With 

Olumide  

Sure

Alan  

to catch up with you in greater detail.

Olumide  

Sure, thank you for that, by the way, really appreciate that. So I'm pretty active on Instagram. My name on Instagram is Olumide_Gbenro. So it's O-L-U-M-I-D-E underscore G-B-E-N-R-O. And also you can go to my website OlumideGbenro.com and then. Yeah, I think the biggest thing I'm working on right now is actually an online platform for digital nomads remote entrepreneurs. It's an education community based platform called Globalversity. So it's G-L-O-B-A-L-V-E-R-S-I-T-Y if you go to that website, I would love for you guys to just check it out. Anybody that has an inclination for this lifestyle, wants to learn how to build an online business, but also internally, he wants to learn meditation breathwork all these great things that people were exploring right now, we really encourage you to check out that website. But yeah, just search my name. I think even if you search by my first name, and I think I'm pretty well populated on Google Now. You can find a 

Andrew  

It's a whole lot easier guys. Yes, it's a whole lot easier if you just type in the world's most famous digital nomad. He's got a search. 

Olumide  

Actually, that is true 

Andrew  

as digital nomad. That's the easy way to find this guy.

Olumide  

that's so kind of you, Andrew. It's true, because one of the articles but yeah. Hey, if you want to find me, you can also connect through Andrew and Alan. Definitely have an amazing amazing relationship brewing here. We're gonna see each other in person. Soon. I don't know if it'll be this year, but in the next 12 months, I want to see you guys in person. Let me just put it that way.

Alan  

You have a deal. You have a deal. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. I'll tell you he brought some great energy also. I will say Andrew, another amazing insights. I loved our conversation today. Any final thoughts for the audience out there?

Andrew  

There is a lot going on. There are a lot of great events coming up. I know some of you may be listening today. And then on an archives session, but you know if he's Olumide has hosted the Digital Nomad Summit, and there's also the Thriving Nomads Summit that is coming up. This month. Running remote is got their global events next month, which I'll be one of the speakers there. And, Alan, I know you'll be at the worldwide broker network events coming up here this month and I know their global conference in Portugal. There's there's a whole gamut of events where you'll see different people from from our team, and just keep in touch with us. Hopefully, we will get to see you, listener, in person at some of these because you're a family, this Nomad family around the world. We're glad to be in it with you. So thanks for tuning in today. And Alan, I'll toss it back to you.

Alan  

Yes. If you liked today's podcast, please subscribe to The New Nomads leave a great review. It will help others in our community find the podcast. Or you could go to the no new man no new nomad.net or insurednomads.com. But please stay well and share best practices, great experiences with others. And once again, we want to thank our guests today. And please once again, leave a great review if you enjoyed today's podcast. Thank you