Connecting the Dots

Connecting the Dots...with a travelling mortgage guy (Cole Sjoholm)

• Adam Leishman

Share episode

Dive into this episode as Cole, a traveler I met on a cruise, discusses his continuous exploration of the world, including a monumental year-long journey to all seven continents. Discover the motivations behind his travels and how digital nomad life has reshaped his personal and professional world. Hashtags: #WorldTraveler #DigitalNomad #TravelPodcast

Speaker 3:

Week 33. And I, I think people know this about me. I'm not a big traveler. I got my first passport like a year ago and I haven't used it. So I don't, I, it's fair to say I have not met many people traveling,'cause I don't travel a lot. But I met a person on a cruise ship I, I guess about a year ago, maybe 18 months ago, something like that. And I guess for most people you meet people and you never see them again. But the internet changes that. You start following people on Instagram because you met them, you know, a couple of times on a cruise ship. And the next thing you know, they're waiting for a 30 free. So let's go meet a, well, he, he does lots of traveling, but we're about to find out about that. Let's go meet him.

Speaker:

This is Cole. Is that how you pronounce it? I, it's an interesting name. There's not many Coles here in Australia. Is that how you say it? Coal?

Speaker 2:

It is how you say it, and if I remember correctly, I believe your bottle shop is called Coals. So it's kind of I think it's that, right?

Speaker:

Yes, we have Woolies and Coals are our, you know, two main supermarkets here. Is it short for anything?

Speaker 2:

No, I mean, I don't exactly know where it came from. My parents Yeah, I have, I've got two other brothers, I guess. So my older brother is Ryan, very traditional name, and then my younger brother's name was Shea a little bit more unique, of course, and then somehow I ended up as Cole. Yeah, wow.

Speaker:

Now, I usually start by asking people about what they do, but I'm not going to do that with you. I'm going to start with, where are you?

Speaker 2:

Okay, very good. Yeah, so right now, today I'm on the Carnival of Venetia. We left New York City yesterday and have three sea days before we hit the Caribbean. St. Thomas will be our first stop and the U. S. Virgin Islands on Tuesday, so we've got three sea days in a row. So today I'm out in the northern Atlantic, somewhere off the coast of Lake Virginia or North Carolina.

Speaker:

Yeah, wow. This, this, we met on a cruise ship in Queensland. So, and I was just fascinated by your story and started following you on Instagram and you've got a webpage that, you know, talks about your journey or your travel. What's with all the travel?

Speaker 2:

You know, it's really about an opportunity that I saw and I took it. A quick background story, I was chatting with a friend on Instagram on New Year's Eve of 2022, going into 2023, and she knew that I liked to travel, and she just asked me if I had ever seen these videos on TikTok about the Drake Passage, and I don't have a TikTok, so I said, you know, I don't have TikTok, but I know about the Drake Passage, and I know her, but What that is. And then she asked me if I'd ever been to Antarctica before, and I just replied back, that's pretty random, no. And then she said, would you go? And that one question really changed my whole life in a way that I never imagined. Going into 2023, I had just gone through a breakup, and I knew I was going to travel pretty extensively because I'd always wanted to do that. So I had this trip to Australia booked. I wanted to be somewhere far away from, from home for my birthday which was in March. And then I also knew I wanted to go to Europe that summer explore some family ancestral kind of things. And So her question then about going to Antarctica meant I'd be going to South America. And then I said to myself, I only have to go to Africa and Asia, and I can go to all 7 continents in a year. And I replied back to her, maybe 3 minutes later, I'm going to go to all 7 continents in 2023. Went up to my hotel room and figured out if that was really possible. I don't know, 30 minutes later, I had this plan sketched out on a piece of paper went home the next day and started booking travel with the help of my travel agent. And on January 5th of 2023, I took my first trip and went out, saw 25 different countries, 50 destinations, and something about 167 nights overseas last year in 2023. And then once that travel bug bites you, you can't really stop, so here I am again, out there, traveling around the world. And again, a lot of it is on a cruise ship. I travel by myself. So,

Speaker:

how many cruise ships have you been on?

Speaker 2:

Number? I don't know. I think this is maybe cruise number 33 that I've been on

Speaker:

in my life. Oh, wow. So by the time we met then on a cruise ship off the Queensland coast out of Brisbane how many cruises, like, were you well into cruising then?

Speaker 2:

I mean I had been, I think my first cruise was in 2007 I'd probably been on maybe seven to nine cruises before you and I met, but there's been a huge amount of cruising that's happened since then. And Australia was really the first continent that I visited outside of North America. So it was a very special for me. Wow. I love my time in Australia.

Speaker:

And you've got a web, what's

Speaker 2:

the website called? Yeah, it's called Mortgage Guy travels the world.com. So answering your other question then, my, my typical day job is I'm a mortgage lender, so I help people secure financing to buy residential real estate here in the us and. After COVID, it really changed a whole bunch where I was able to travel and work more remotely. People didn't really plan to meet in person anymore after COVID and all those changes that happened. So I've been out traveling the world and still originating mortgage loans, and then I've since become a travel agent as a side hustle, as a way to both get paid for my own travel, but then also to help other people book trips.

Speaker:

So this is not just your cabin, it's also your office.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, yes. I mean, my office, the, the view out the window changes every day. I get to meet all sorts of new people, interesting people on cruise ships. And then have a great team back in the US in Colorado where, where I call home. That continues to help support me.

Speaker:

And do you have an office that when, when you're back at home, is there an office that you go to?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I really work from home a lot of the time even when I'm in, in Colorado where, where my office is. But then I do also have an office on Main Street in Grand Junction, Colorado that I visit on a regular basis.

Speaker:

And so, what's what's happening at home when you're off around the world all the time?

Speaker 2:

Well, I've been traveling so much, I actually listed my house for sale recently, and that's on the market, and If and when that sells, I'll have to figure out what the next part of my life is going to look like, but you know, until that happens, I don't have a lot of plans other than I literally packed up and sold pretty much everything in my life prior to getting on this trip, because I'm going to be traveling pretty extensively in 2025.

Speaker:

Right. I hear on the, you know, the, the business podcast, there's a, you know, true freedom is geographical freedom where you can, you know, operate your life from anywhere in the world. What do you think about that?

Speaker 2:

I agree. I mean, People see the glamour in all the locations and destinations and it looks glamorous and it is in a lot of ways, but there is also a lot of sacrifices. It's not all sunny and rosy and, you know, I do it because I love it. The pros outweigh the cons, but there is certainly sacrifices that I don't think get talked about enough certainly in this digital nomad life, or whatever you want to call it, where, you know, connections with people, you know, being here on a cruise ship that might be a week to two weeks long. And then you're cycling through new people and friends you stay in touch with, you know, folks like yourself that you meet over a year ago and, you know, continue to develop friendships and things like that, but a lot of those friendships remain digital at that point because most people aren't out living their lives. In a foreign country or a cruise ship or something like that. So there's some challenges and then, you know, certainly not being around family for the holidays is more difficult. Technology really helps you stay in touch and plugged in with people, you know, at FaceTime, a good group of friends on a regular basis, Instagram, Snapchat, all those fun ways to do quick check ins with people. It's just, it's a fun way to, to continue to build those relationships and be part of people's lives. What did you do before you were a mortgage broker? I've been in banking and finance really my entire career. I was a hotel restaurant management major in college. I never worked in the industry largely. I started in banking as a bank teller and worked my way up and became a regional manager for a local bank in Colorado. 15 years. Banking transitioned into mortgage after the 2008 recession. Real Estate Crash. The bank that I was working for wanted to transition me into a different position and help restore a mortgage division. And it was a great fit. I wish I would have done it sooner. But things happen for a reason. Time and place and space in your life and all those good things came together, so. It all happened the way that it should, and mortgages provided a great life for me, I love what I do, the people that I work with are fantastic, and yeah, just continuing to evolve and see what happens in the next phase.

Speaker:

What's the next holiday after this one?

Speaker 2:

So I'm living on a cruise ship until February 16th, so it's 88 days, I think I'm on shore for maybe 6 nights in hotels. Okay. 7 different cruise ships. Two different cruise lines. Right, wow. East coast, west coast of the U. S. So it's, it's a little bit of a wild time, but I don't love winter. I do ski. Living in Colorado, I do like to snow ski. But I don't know. I was over it this year, so I just decided to spend a winter in the Caribbean and Mexico and see what that feels like.

Speaker:

What other, some of the destinations you'll be hitting or ticking off in 25? 25? 25? Twenty five, so I'm,

Speaker 2:

Spending summer, or I'm sorry, winter, and, our winter, in the Caribbean, Mexico, then go to Europe in March and April, doing a, like, Southern, Mediterranean sort of thing, Barcelona, Italy, Greek Isles, Turkey, Cyprus. Then we come home, and I'm going to Alaska, finally, with my parents and brother and sister in law. We had a trip planned during COVID. That got cancelled in June of 2020, so we're finally going to take that trip as a family. Then we'll go back to Europe and go to British Isles, Iceland Scandinavia over June and July. And then I'm going to do this 22 day cruise from Seattle out to Sydney that stops in Hawaii Tahiti, Bora Bora. And then I'll spend all of October and early November in, in Australia.

Speaker:

Yeah, awesome. What in terms of your career, what, what's the future do for your career? Will you, will you stay traveling and writing loans from around the world? Is that, is that the plan for now?

Speaker 2:

I mean, that is the plan and that's the goal. You know, certainly I've got a very loyal group of clients that I've worked hard for for 15 years that continue to support me with referrals and, you know, doing business with me even when I'm not in the U. S. Yeah. Again, my team couldn't do it without them. I've got a great loan partner and manager that support me in my travels. But becoming a travel agent has definitely supported income in a way that I wasn't planning on. I started my travel agency as an independent contractor as a way to get paid for my own travel, and then it's turned into a way to help these other clients, you know. My mortgage clients book trips and, and do things like that. And I'm having a lot of fun with it because I have a lot of experience in different destinations. But then also I get to research destinations that I haven't been to. And it really feeds that travel bug. So I don't see mortgage going away. It's just been such a huge part of my life and is my primary income source at this point. But I am excited to have some diversification and another source of income to help support the travel. And the travel bug kind of feeds that. Industry itself. So it's been, it's been good. I'm, I'm happy where I'm at.

Speaker:

Yeah. Awesome. If if there came a moment where you couldn't call Colorado home and you had to call home some other part of the world you've now seen, where would that be?

Speaker 2:

That's a great question. And I mean, I think about that question a lot, just because I do love to travel. And the more you travel, the more you see how different a lot of the rest of the world functions. A lot of other places are more mobile and, you know, living in a foreign country isn't as different as it is in the US. It's just not real common to leave the US, but Australia is high on that list of places that I could see myself. Mexico there's a few cities in Mexico that I really like. That would be a much easier transition than, you know, a 15 hour plane ride across the Pacific Ocean to Australia. If I could live anywhere in the world, though, I would pick Norway. I absolutely love Norway. Haven't been there in the winter, so that might make me feel differently with, you know, 24 hours of darkness at a time or whatever, but the summers in Norway are glorious. I found the people wonderful. I like the cuisine. The scenery is absolutely stunning.

Speaker:

What's been your favorite cruise ship so far?

Speaker 2:

I would, hmm, that's an interesting question. Haven't been asked that one before, but kind of the gut answer that comes to mind is the Celebrity Apex. It's a, one of their newer ships. It's very, very nice and posh, but I mean, every cruise ship is fun and has its own quirks. Some of the older carnival ships that have a lot of personality and, you know, Maybe a little bit more tacky design. I really enjoy it just because it's not so sterile. It doesn't feel like you're walking into an Ikea or, you know, something that's very canned. But I guess my favorite cruise ship is the one that I'm on.

Speaker:

That's a good answer. If you, has there been a favorite destination? Is there a, been a, you know, a favorite destination, but from a, you know, You were surprised. You went somewhere and you were just like, Oh, I, I enjoyed this. Or, you know, this was not what I was expecting at all.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. I would say two different things for culture and, and people. I would say Asia. I had no real idea what to expect out of Asia. I fell in love with Asia when I was there. I've actually been back to Japan for a second time now in 12 months. And I don't know why I wasn't as excited about that trip as some of the other continents, but I think I was more nervous about that trip just because of language barriers and being so unfamiliar, but I absolutely love the culture of Asia. Spent quite a bit of time in Japan now, a little bit of time in Hong Kong, Vietnam, Singapore, a day in Taiwan, and just across the board, I was very mesmerized by how much they've retained their culture, even though it's become much more westernized than maybe, you know, travel in the 50s or 60s. Where the rest of the world, it's maybe not as different. It's probably more similar than, than not, in my experience. From an outdoor and just simply scenery standpoint, I don't think I could say anything other than Antarctica. It's so unspoiled different than what you expect. Pictures really don't do it justice, how grand the mountains and ice and wildlife is. It's one of those places that I don't think you can really say it's like any other destination in the world. It is so unique and I can't wait to go back to Antarctica.

Speaker:

If if somebody was to say to you, Oh, I'm not a big traveler. I'd like to, you know, dip my toe in the water and try it out. Where do I start? What would you say to them?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, I'm a big proponent of go to the town next to you. I mean, travel doesn't have to be grandiose. It can be, you know, as simple as the town next to you. You can, you know, take a day trip. You can, you know, meet some locals that live in that town. You can find a restaurant or a coffee shop. And it's enough different from your everyday life that it's It's, can be enjoyable, or can challenge yourself, or you might hate it, but I don't think travel has to be a foreign country, or a long international flight, or some exotic cruise, or something like that. It's, I think, pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, whatever that is. And whether that is a big, grandiose trip or it's just going to the town next to you that you drive through all the time, but you never stop. And I, I think that's the best place to start.

Speaker:

Yeah. That's awesome. Thank you very much for chatting with me today.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. It's always lovely to see you. I can't wait to see you again. You know, I have this trip coming up, so we'll definitely be in touch here in, in the fall of next year. And hopefully we can cross paths again and if not yeah, if you're somewhere next, you be Sydney for

Speaker:

a while. I'll, I'll definitely come down and say good day. It's a, you know, it's a great excuse. I'm one of those people that don't travel often or well or turn my mind to it or prioritize it. And when I say all of those things, I mean all of those things. I don't do any of those things. So just you going, I'm going to be in Sydney should be enough for me to go, Oh, I'm going to, that's a great reason for me to hop on a plane and come, you know. Say g'day to somebody that's, you know, you've done the bulk of the travel. I can do the last little bit.

Speaker 2:

Hey, well, that sounds wonderful. I will definitely look forward to that. And you know, certainly as other, other things come up, please let's stay in touch. Cause I, I did thoroughly enjoy our conversations. We've had a few cocktails together. The good old Alchemy Bar on the Luminosa. And hopefully we can meet again there sometime as well.

Speaker:

Yeah, sounds great. Thank you very much.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Adam Leishman

Host