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today at xfit experts we have a very special guest with us M de K Mii is an entrepreneur and freedom Advocate and
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also the founder of Nom travel groups a company that helps digital Nomad create a life of freedom and fulfillment and
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she worked herself or all over the world so we Explore her journey as an expert
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but also her vision on what digital noral lifestyle
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means this is xat experts the podcast that dives into the fascinating lives of
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those who've lived and worked across borders exploring the challenges experiences and insights they've gained
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along the way but before we start with the episode I want to remind to all listeners that
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the best way to stay tuned with the latest episodes is by hitting subscribe here on YouTube and in your favorite
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audio platform for extra information about the podcast check the website expert exerp podcast.com or check the
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link in the description the exper Marie
The expat: Marie DeCosse
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deos so in the first part of the episode today I would like to dive a little bit
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into into Mar life uh as an expert but also as a digital Nomad and a nomad and
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person who travels all around the world let's say like this because I think there is a difference between being an
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expert and B between being an nor itself and I think you live both so it's very interesting that you can give the the
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both perspective in there um yeah besides besides that thank you so much M
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for joining the the the podcast today thank you for being here and having you dedicating some time of your schedule uh
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welcome thanks thanks so much for having me I'm very excited to be here and it's
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always a pleasure to talk about travel travel is what I live for I was sort of
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born into it um so I'm happy to talk about anything related to it um and with
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regard to your first question so yes I lived an expat lifestyle growing up so
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my dad um worked in Economic Development and that necessitated a lot of travel
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and living abroad particularly in emerging countries when I was younger I was born in the DC area but then we
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quickly moved to Madagascar we spent some time there and then we moved to Bangladesh and we spent a little over 5
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years there and you know I'm very appreciative for the experience that my
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family was able to give me especially living abroad in my younger years it's something that not a lot of Americans
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get to experience and I think it is something that many more should
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especially in emerging countries because you get exposed to different ways of life and I think the biggest thing that
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stood out to me was the communalistic culture versus individualistic culture in the US everything is about how
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quickly are you going to get ahead in your career how much money are you going to make who has a bigger house than the next person and people aren't that
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willing to help others out even members of their family but living in countries
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like Madagascar and Bangladesh everything was about the community you make money you put it back into the
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community if somebody needs help you lend a helping hand even if you don't know who that person is if there are
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people that are struggling if they don't have food we would invite people over for dinner at times it's just a
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different way of life and it has a lot more to do with building community and
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just being being a good person and I'm I'm really thankful that I had that
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experience and I can go into other stories about Madagascar and Bangladesh with in any other questions that you
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might have but transitioning to you know a digital Nomad lifestyle so that
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started happening after the pandemic when we moved back from Bangladesh it
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was business as us as usual as a typical American so I went to public school I
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went to college and then I started working full-time as an international tax analyst for a public accounting firm
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and every it was just life was boring like I felt like I'm not able to travel
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I'm not feeling like I'm doing what I really want to do and then the pandemic kit and it shook everything up and I
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realized that I could work remotely I could travel and I could still fulfill my client's needs and that sort of
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ignited this spark of okay I don't have to do the typical 9-to-5 I can change
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things up in my home life so I can meet my passion for travel while still earning money while still pursuing
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career interests and so after the pandemic when the Border started opening up again I was traveling frequently I
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would spend time working remotely in New York in DC I went to Mexico for a little bit I was in Portugal I went to London I
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was just bouncing around and yes you have to work in different time zones but that's a necessary sacrifice when on
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your off hours you get to explore beautiful new cities and and meet different people all these things that
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are prior to the pandemic prior to this digital Nomad lifestyle becoming a mainstream thing you know luxuries that
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you only get to do when you're on vacation and that's what maybe once or twice a year if you're lucky so being a
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digital Nomad was my way to reconnect with my roots to reconnect with the Maria who was living abroad who found
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this this passion through travel and the pandemic was horrible you know I would
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say the one good thing that came out of it was people realizing that you could live a more flexible lifestyle and The
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Rebirth of this digital Nomad fat definitely I think it's what it
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opened doors internationally for a lot of companies to to start realizing that
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even even for the companies itself if you take it from a business perspective you are saving money on offices
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equipments and stuff so just like uh for them it was also beneficial I think for
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some of them at least um exactly so you you said that you move for the first
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time to Madagascar Madagascar was the first move that you ever did uh how old were you in in that
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moment yes so I was um I would say preschool going into first grade when I
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was when we were in Madagascar my sister was uh around the second grade and so my
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me my memories of Madagascar are fairly sparse what I do remember is we lived
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right next to these rice fields and we would go out into the rice fields and
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sort of walk in like the Narrow Path that's in between the the budding uh the
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budding rice plants and my sister who is a
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um my sister who is more of an adventurous like very rambunctious girl
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when she was younger she started running through the rice fields and then she fell in and it was like mud that was so
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deep and my dad came running out sorry everyone I'm just this is this is the
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this is we're going to get into the business soon but when you run a business there is never ever time off
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people are always trying to get your attention so I apologize for all the buzzing noises um but she went running through
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the rice seels she fell in and she was waste deep and I remember my dad having
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to run out there and pull her out and he grabbed her arm and he was he pulled her quickly because there was tons of snakes
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in the rice fields and he didn't want her to get caught by one of them and he ended up dislocating he ended up
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dislocating her shoulder and we we went running back to the house and this I have this vivid memory standing in the
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bathroom my poor sister is crying and my dad is trying to wash her off and there's just mud going all down the
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drain and I looked at her and I was like but did you have fun in the rice fields
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and she looks at me and she had this sort of shy smile and she was like yeah let's go back so Madagascar it was a fun
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start to my life and I'm glad that I got to experience it with my sister we were
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always just getting into things we always wanted to Adventure we always imagin these fantasies of I'm you know a
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queen in a castle and and I have my animals and you know I'm just ruling
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this land all the all the things that children do but it was beautiful that we were able to experience that in a
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completely different country because it it makes you it makes you approach life in a different way and start dreaming
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about you know what's possible outside of the confines of the
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US yeah it makes a lot of sense I think like as a child you also see it from a
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different perspective I assume know the thing like it's not it's not the thing
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that you have in mind at that moment it's something that you analyze afterwards of seeing like other people
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who hasn't passed through the same experience as you and maybe stayed in the United States forever and Home
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Country never had this experience maybe they they don't have this spark for I
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don't know traveling or this Freedom that you were talking on becoming Nomad and being able to um even if it requires
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some sacrifices as you were saying to to it doesn't something that comes intrinsically in a lot of people they
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they are home people um you said that this was mainly due to your dad's job
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but you were moving the whole family um it yes how how was how was it for
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your family in general and For You especially to to not have a place or every certain time knowing that you need
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to move and that the thing was temporary I think so for us it was just
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it was normal like I don't I don't ever remember it being unusual to travel that
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frequently because we started our life doing it we were just sort of born into
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this um traveling family and my mom so my mom is sagales she grew up in senagal
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and then um when she was pursuing her degree she was living in France that's where she met my father and then they
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moved back to the US so she lived a life abroad and she came over to the US um to
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start her life with us and my dad he at
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the time that he had met my mom he had been to I don't know how many many tens
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of many countries he lived in Peru for a long time while he was doing his uh
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Master's he's just he's always had this love for travel and I remember him
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telling me when I got older you know he said that I don't like to stay stagnant for too long I feel like I I am who I'm
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supposed to be when I'm traveling when I'm working in a different country so all of us have this passion for it and
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I'm blessed that I had parents that sort of showed me the way but what's
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beautiful about this rise in digital nomadism is that people who weren't born
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into a family like mine are are tapping into what travel means and figuring it
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out and it can be scary you know going to a new country you don't know the mechanisms maybe you're not familiar with traveling abroad that frequently
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but people are having more of the guts to do it because it's becoming more of a
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popular thing and I think that's beautiful I think it's beautiful to travel because you learn about different
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people and it helps you understand other people I think the world will be a little bit better if we all took the
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time to understand each other a little bit more definitely exploring cultures opens
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normally a lot of of our mind and our preconceptions of places in your case I
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assume you also went to very like to undeveloped countries to multiple of them um do you
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remember this shaping your childhood or like your way of seeing the
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world while being there but also afterwards yes when we were in
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Bangladesh because I was older and also because I wasn't really as sheltered
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from the um socioeconomic disparities like I was in madas Asar in Madagascar
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it was I was at home most of the time and then I was sort of driven to school and then I had my community at school
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but I wasn't exposed to life outside sort of those guidelines then when we moved to Bangladesh I went to an
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international school so folks from all over the world who were working in Bangladesh sent their kids there that
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already started opening my mind up to different cultures and perspectives but then outside of the school you see so
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much disparity you know it you it's unusual to visit a city where you see
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this beautiful luxurious skyscraper right next to the slums like it's it's
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that adjacent the disparity um and and I wouldn't say that I ever got used to it
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it wasn't something that I ever just welcomed as normal you were always sort
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of sort of shocked by the standards or the conditions that a lot of people had
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to live in because you know they were born into a certain cast and there was
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very limited options for them to get out of it so I think being exposed to that
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at a young age humbled me and made me really appreciative for what I was given
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it makes you want to give back but it also makes you want to explain to other
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people who have these preconceived notions about how other cultures operate
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that maybe they should take some time to actually be there to like fully understand what goes on in an emerging
14:33
country before they judge others and their way of life I remember when I
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moved back to the US I told people that I lived in Madagascar I lived in
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Bangladesh and people were like oh did you live in a cave I was like that's not
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how it that's not how it works like there are people living in luxury apartment buildings it's just the news
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only shows you one side um um so but yeah again it just goes back to how
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travel makes you understand things a little bit more you actually touched one of the
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points that I wanted to ask you about because I'm always curious about the schooling system when you are a kid that
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moves around how how was this experience for you and how how do you manage like
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changing schools and and how is the system working for in these different
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countries I so I actually was really really depressed when I left the school
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in Bangladesh and had to come back to the US I loved going to school in DACA
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so it was called AISD the American International School of DACA the schooling system was really great they
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had teachers that were Bangladeshi or you know uh foreign Nationals who wanted
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to teach in Bangladesh the quality of the schooling was great the school in
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itself was um a fairly large campus we had any activity you wanted to do there was
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swimming there was track there was basketball everything was at your fingertips it was a really really
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beautiful School the class sizes were small so I would say there were no more than maybe 10 to 11 kids um in my in my
16:21
class itself so out of the entire third grade maybe maybe 30 kids and the school
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hosted from first grade first grade all the way through 12th grade and it was
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all on the same campus and I knew people who started at AISD and went all the way
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through and graduated and then went to really prominent um universities in
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Canada or London it was sort of their stepping stone to go into this this you
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know young adult life of pursuing higher level education so if there are any
17:01
disparities and I'm sure you know depending on where you are the quality of the education differs but what a lot
17:07
of people don't understand is when you're a foreign National living in an emerging country or another country your
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government they do take care of you or the private company that you work for takes care of you and generally the
17:19
quality of the schooling is really good yeah makes sense that and I mean
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they take care of who giving an a good image now I suppose also um what happens
17:32
when you come back though it's like all the grades all the all the studies that
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you have done are valid you come back to a system in United States because you
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said that you went to then into public school also in United States and how does how does this transfer from one to
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the other yes so we didn't have any issues with the credits that I had at the
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American um inter International School in DACA transferring to public school in the US and I think what my parents did
18:04
before enrolling Us in that school was just triple check that there wouldn't be any issues because they knew that the
18:10
contract period was going to be five years so we would be moving back after that stin I also know a lot of friends
18:17
who were coming from Malaysia were coming from London were coming from
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other parts of the world and they didn't have any issues with their credits transferring as well as you move into
18:30
high school so from 9th grade through 12th grade I'm sure there were some what we call in the US AP classes so higher
18:38
level classes that maybe some of those credits didn't transfer because I know a lot of schools are very particular like
18:44
when you're now applying to colleges they're very particular about what what credits do or don't but at least between
18:51
the grades of first grade through 8th grade there generally isn't that much of an issue with transferring
19:00
cool in school which kind of friends did you do as a kid like it was always like
19:06
you were surrounded by the international environment in that school but did you have also local friends from from daa
19:13
for example or from uh I would say it was mostly people from
19:19
the um international school so the folks that went to AISD it wasn't just foreign
19:26
Nationals kids there were a lot of Bangladeshi kids Indian Pakistani who
19:32
went to AISD and they did because the quality of the education was high so
19:39
Bangladesh itself if you were a Bangladeshi local and you were able to put your child through schooling at ASD
19:46
that was that was the obvious choice it was the probably the best school to go to in DACA which is the capital city so
19:55
I had a lot of friends who were from from Bangladesh in southeast East Asia and outside of AISD it's kind of odd and
20:03
I don't know if you've heard of this but and it's probably an emerging country thing but there were specific clubs that
20:11
you would go to depending on your nationality so there was the American Club there was the Swedish Club the dut
20:18
the Dutch Club I think there was the French Club like there were these for these clubs that they weren't
20:25
restrictive but if you were a foreign National from that country you were automatically sort of given membership
20:32
and then as kids you would go and go to this club and invite your friends there
20:38
so I remember going to the American Club often and that they had tennis boards in a swimming pool and I would invite my
20:44
friends from AISD and we would all hang out there and then you meet more kids through there and then you go to the
20:50
French Club because somebody invited you and you meet other people through that Network so it's it's it's this unusual
20:58
sort of connection you have with fellow expats and then I would say a prominent
21:04
Bangladeshi individuals like their kids I
21:09
see nice do you keep contact with any of these people do you still have contact
21:15
with someone from your youth in in my I do yeah so my sort of core girl group
21:22
when I was younger they are now living in different parts of the world I met up with one of them when I was in London
21:29
last year and it was really great to see her and then another friend is in
21:35
California doing amazing things and two and a half maybe three years ago was the
21:41
last I saw her in person but then because you know we live in a social
21:46
media era it's so easy to keep up with them they're all of my they're all friends on on my Instagram and so I can
21:53
see what they're doing and it it's really nice cool
21:58
um do you remember any experiences any stories like any funny stories any I
22:04
don't know stories that impacted you or that you still remember because sometimes we we forget no stories when
22:10
we are kids but some of them are always there you so that's the important ones
22:15
uh from your time in Bangladesh yeah let me see what's the
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probably funniest story there's one story that's maybe not it's funny to me
22:27
now but but I also am embarrassed my first boyfriend was Swedish and it was
22:33
just one of those like third grade relationships where you're nervous to talk to the person so we would always
22:40
pass notes through our cubby so he'd put a note in my cubby and then I'd read it and it was like what I would look
22:47
forward to all day it was just to be able to read this note because I didn't I didn't have it's not like we had
22:53
phones like we do now so the only time I could hear from him was either at recess or through these noes and um I remember
23:01
I was obsessed with his hair because he had this long flowy hair and it was like he was Prince Charming really into you
23:07
know princesses and Barbies and everything at the time and then one day he showed up to school and he buzzed all
23:15
of his hair off like everything was gone and I remember coming up to him on the
23:21
playground and I was like what did you do to your hair why didn't you tell me that you were going to cut all of your
23:27
hair off and he was like it's just easier for me to play soccer and I remember going back
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to class after recess and I started cry I started crying because he was no
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longer Prince Charming in my mind so then I wrote him a note and I said I'm so sorry but we're over and I put it in
23:48
his I put in his I feel now looking back on it you know I'm sure he thinks back
23:54
on it and laughs or doesn't even remember that that happened but it's just one of those silly things when
24:00
you're a kid like somebody cutting their hair is the worst thing in the entire world all things can be big depending on
24:09
who whose eyes are there no yes exactly cool um I wanted to ask you also
24:19
we touch a little bit about the school when you come back but because in the
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latest episodes I talk with a lot of people who went back home so and the
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fact of repatriation it's also something that it's not normal or it's not easy for everyone you left the country you
24:38
left it somehow but then when you come back it's something different your friends also changed your family also
24:43
changed the environment has changed completely do you remember at what age did you come back to United
24:49
States uh so I was 11 or 12 I think after I was going into the sixth grade
24:56
so I think 11 or 12 years old so nearly entering High School directly um at that point yes entering
25:05
Middle School yeah me to and how was your going
25:11
back home experience like how did it fell for you it was really difficult it was a
25:19
huge adjustment I wasn't used to the public schooling in system in the US I had never really been exposed to it what
25:27
I remember I think the biggest differentiator was again coming back to
25:32
the aspect of community when we were overseas I think because it we all
25:38
bonded over the fact that we were you know in a country that wasn't our birth country people were just more open with
25:47
each other if there was a new person who started you know at that school they were immediately welcomed it wasn't this
25:54
sort of there was no bullying like at least with the people that I surrounded myself with everyone everyone just liked
26:01
each other but and then I moved back to the US and the first thing I noticed was
26:07
sort of people being segmented by their
26:12
racial background that was the first thing that that I noticed especially in the cafeteria you had African-American
26:20
people generally grouped together one side you know you had Caucasian people
26:25
group together on another side it was almost like I was walking into like a prison cafeteria and now I have to
26:31
figure out where I'm going to sit and it was it was the it was the biggest shock
26:37
because I hadn't I wasn't used to seeing color like that because I grew up in a very diverse environment where everybody
26:44
was just friends with each other and then you come back to the us and then you have to figure out you know and
26:50
decide what group you're going to be a part of uh which one is going to accept you and that was really difficult it
26:57
took me a really long time to find my place it was hard for me to make friends and I just remember being developing a
27:04
severe social anxiety for from seventh grade through 9th grade I had really bad
27:10
social anxiety and um it wasn't until my father got me involved in playing tennis
27:16
frequently with a group outside of school that helped me sort of break out of my shell a little bit more and and
27:22
start to um come back to myself sort to be a little bit more normal but yeah the
27:28
the moving back experience it was really really
27:33
tough it's it's a common pattern but I assume as a child it's even more I mean
27:40
it's not an age that you should be figuring out the things like I don't know why segregation of a race no for
27:48
example and I assume when you wake like when you raise up and you grow up in a
27:53
society that is implicit in it you don't notice it but as soon as you enter from outside from some years of being out of
28:00
it the shock it's it must be hardcore it is difficult for for adults for a kid I
28:08
assume it's even even worse I suppose yes
28:14
yeah um maybe switching a little bit into more digital Nomad you already said
28:21
that this trigger was like the post-pandemic the capacity of like during the pandemic I assume like
28:28
discovering that you could home work from home and then after that when the borders start opening starting traveling
28:35
around um are you traveling all the time how how does it work for you do you have
28:41
a base camp uh where you consider home and then you travel here and there or how how is your life structor traveling
28:49
wise yeah so I have a base cam my base camp is Denver Colorado I've been in
28:54
Denver for a almost 5 years now I moved here right after college I would I have
29:01
a travel bug so if I sit anywhere for longer than two months I just start
29:07
getting this itch I need to go somewhere even if it's you know into the mountains a three and a half hour drive at least
29:14
I'm I'm away from where I have been sitting for the past two months so
29:21
because I've been building this company this summer has not involved that much travel which has been really difficult
29:28
but like let's take last year for example I went to New York twice I was in Philly I went to DC I went to London
29:36
I went to Portugal I was in Spain for a little bit I went to California Vancouver and Seattle and that's just
29:44
within a year um and I needed to do it and you know there's ways where you just
29:49
find good flights good affordable flights and and it you get it done but I
29:55
always come back to base camp I think having base camp is really important because um travel helps you figure
30:02
certain things out about yourself and then when you come back to where you feel comfortable where you feel situated
30:09
that's where you can put what you have learned about yourself how you need to advance this or that into actual
30:20
practice nice I think it's important to have somewhere that you consider home no
30:25
I I assume it's it's giving also an inner peace of like okay if something happens I have where to go back um
30:32
exactly what are the I mean you work with a lot of nens we will enter with the with the fact that you created a
30:40
company you said this year or so it's a pretty new uh
30:45
project yes so the founding date um was August I think 14th
30:52
2023 so we're a little over a year now nice but you start travel
30:58
before building the company itself meaning that you were capable of continue working remote for the company
31:05
that you were working during pandemic or you switch in there yes so I actually ended up um
31:13
switching companies I was working for a public accounting firm through the
31:18
pandemic that went fully remote like every other company but then once the
31:23
pandemic started slowing had a mandatory 3 days in office off return to work
31:29
policy and I was like heck no I'm not doing that so I quit and I moved to
31:34
another company that offered me a fully remote role so that I could continue
31:41
traveling nice do you one of the biggest questions that I always get like do you then how
31:50
how how do you balance friends and and relationships with with being a om like
31:57
how do you be build community or like try to to stay with a circle of friends
32:03
and yeah well the beautiful thing about being a nomad and the longer you do it
32:10
the more Community you build in in different countries that you go to is that you have resources to tap into all
32:18
over the world and travelers are very open with providing connections oh you
32:24
want to do this oh I have a friend who can you know get that trip planned for you oh you're going to London oh you
32:30
need to check out this restaurant or cafe or meet up with my friend here so I think building Community was not
32:38
difficult at all especially when you do solo trips because people are are engaging in a Solo trip in order to
32:44
build community make friends and get out of their comfort zone where I found that
32:49
I was lacking was with my community at home so especially when I was traveling for longer distance I'd be so focused on
32:57
what I was doing in that country and and I would just neglect my family or I would neglect my friends have been
33:04
friends for years and they know who I am especially my family we're all very independent people we just work best
33:11
when we're we're away from each other so they know that there's going to be periods of times where they're not going
33:16
to be able to get in touch with me but when I return home I try to you know
33:21
make it a point to reconnect with the people that I haven't been able to speak to in a while just check on them and
33:28
make sure that they're doing okay what about building strong
33:34
connections with these people like because sometimes even as an expert you go to these meetups or you go to this I
33:41
don't know whatever it is and yes you meet people and it's kind of easy to
33:47
meet people over the wall all the time wherever you go no but having deep
33:52
friends or real friends and deep connections with people it's where it gets complex um how how always was this
33:59
experience for you I think that just happens over time so you can't force anything but you have
34:06
this feeling right where you know that you immediately hit it off with somebody and your personality is just very
34:13
similar or it just works well together so in you know those first few weeks you
34:19
you're having fun lightly within a group of people but then that's where social media comes in handy so you keep into
34:25
contact with them check in on them through the app and then generally what
34:31
I've found is the people that I've built strong connections with end up coming with me on a trip so I had a friend that
34:38
I met through traveling I kept in contact with her on social media my friends and I were planning a trip to
34:45
Panama and I asked her to come with me and then she came and she bonded with all of my my clo girlfriends and that
34:53
just you know that sort of roots that friendship so it takes time but it's
35:00
important to not forget the people that you had a good connection with and you know try to plan a more intimate trip
35:06
with them just to just to keep exploring that
35:12
friendship what are the biggest misconceptions that you find when you say hey I'm a digital nomed or like when
35:18
or like the stereotypes that people have when you say I live like this this is my
35:26
lifestyle I think there are people who think that you just don't work you're
35:31
digital Nomad so you must have a lot of family money and you're just able to travel frequently or you know you're a
35:38
hippie and you just want to bounce around different countries but that's not what it is at all digital Nomads
35:45
have found a way to work frequently earn their money like anybody who's going
35:52
into an office would continuously Advance their career and do so in a way
35:58
that works for their lifestyle um so yeah I think the biggest misconception is is how are you making
36:05
money and that's usually members of the older generation who the concept of being a digital Nomad it's just a
36:11
completely new concept for them yeah can imagine I mean even when
36:19
you're on an expectation sometimes they tell you how how do you work from home
36:24
well I only need my computer to work so and yes
36:29
um yeah so related but not maybe not 100% related what are the biggest
36:36
challenges that you faced in your own Journey as a digital Nomad until
36:42
now I think the biggest thing for myself and for a lot of digital Nomads is the
36:48
cost it's why I founded my business so that there could be a more Equitable
36:54
travel solution but the cost is huge and that's why a lot of people don't or a
37:00
lot of digital Nomads don't hang on to their primary property or their Base Cam
37:05
because the cost of keeping up with rent or mortgage payments for that plus your flight cost plus your accommodation food
37:13
for you know as much as you want to travel frequently is a lot it's a lot of
37:19
money um so yeah it all it really all comes down to that if we were able to
37:24
take away cost people would be traveling a lot more frequently
37:30
how do you reduce costs I suppose this enters a little bit into the Nomad travel groups a little bit also why you
37:36
created the the the company we will dig into it but how are your tips and tricks
37:41
for anyone who is dreaming of becoming a digital Nom that encounters these challenges how do you reduce these costs
37:49
examp so I'm a huge proponent for cooking your meals at home buy your
37:54
groceries cook your breakfast and lunch at home and then you know choose certain
37:59
restaurants that you're really excited about to to spend that money on or
38:04
street food I'm a huge fan of street food and people need to eat it more often because that's where you're going
38:11
to get the really quality stuff but when it comes to expenses you know reconsider
38:17
how you're approaching food reconsider just spending frantically on buying new
38:23
clothes here and there you really don't need to have that much and you want to pack light when you're traveling because
38:28
if you don't there's other expenses that come in like paying for your check bag wherever you go lugging it everywhere I
38:35
know a lot of people are are fans of hostiles I'm not a huge fan of hostiles
38:40
because for me it's more of a safety and comfort thing it also depends on the country that you go to the quality of
38:46
hostiles varies so look into accommodation that way and then also opts for public transportation bus
38:54
systems and train systems are great and most countries and they keep cost low so
39:00
instead of always opting for flights if you want to travel from one country to the next look for a bus look for a train
39:06
that's going to get you there and you're going to be able to see beautiful things along along the way I think those are
39:12
the biggest ones and then really just keeping track of your expenses so I was using mint which is an app to track how
39:20
much I was spending usually before I travel I put a set budget of I'm not going to spend more than this
39:27
when I'm in this country and if I'm starting to find myself inching towards the top end of that budget then looking
39:34
at all of my expenses seeing you know what what's getting taken out where can I cut costs just to make sure that I'm
39:40
on track don't just spend willy-nilly because your credit card is is is not going to like it once you return
39:48
home definitely I need also a piece of plastic so it's easy to use sometimes uh
39:54
yeah maybe the last question about nor life although I have a last section that
39:59
I want to talk with you about more like personal Reflections and recommendations of because you traveled around and I'm
40:06
sure you've touched a lot of cultures food restaurants and places so I want to talk about that quickly afterwards but
40:13
what what is in your opinion the difference between a digital Nom and an expert you that you've lived in the both
40:19
worlds let's say like this do they have different challenges is really a different full
40:25
life I would say so I think there's similarities and differences in terms of
40:31
the biggest difference in expat is getting rid not getting well they're
40:37
uprooting their life right they're moving their entire life to a particular country and spending an extended period
40:45
of time in that one country and that is that's a big shift that requires a lot
40:52
of planning a lot of strategy and a lot of just getting used to this one country
41:00
or culture that you're now immersing yourself in a digital Nomad is not
41:06
necessarily getting rid of their um their security their Community their
41:11
home they can still maintain this base this sort of safety mechanism in their
41:17
home country while exploring other countries bopping around so I would say
41:23
digital Nomad is much more transient and expat has to make the decision to be
41:30
sedentary in a country that is not um their own in terms of similarities
41:35
though you it all comes down to um this connection to explore the world to want
41:42
to see the way that other people live to want to immerse themselves in it and the
41:49
want to be uncomfortable because you have to be uncomfortable when you're
41:54
when you're moving or or visiting a country that is not your own and that
41:59
just I think a lot of it is just a passion for travel that um expats and digital Nomad
42:06
share nice just the last question it just pop up and I really wanted to ask
42:12
you about it it's how do you feel I mean I'm sure that you heard it and probably experienced it at some places I there is
42:20
a big discussion right now about digital Noms increasing the price of the cities
42:25
on the countries where they going to for example no um what is your opinion on
42:31
that I mean I'm from Barcelona and there isn't a strong right now uh movement of
42:38
what it's happening because our flats are going so crazy high that nobody can lives in Barcelona anymore no it's the
42:43
case of vanessia a little bit the case but I don't know if it's in your opinion
42:48
it's it's only I don't I know that it's not only about the digital nits but uh what what is your vision on all like the
42:57
opinion on this topic yeah I mean it's a and it's a very valid concern right you have people
43:04
coming from countries where you know let's say the median income is a lot higher and then driving money into
43:11
countries that haven't shifted standards in terms of um income for their own
43:16
residents and so you're creating this disparity the government wants to encourage travel they want to encourage
43:23
funneling money into their economy but then there aren't ways to boost up their
43:28
own residents so that they can participate in this in this shift of standard I think this is where we need
43:35
to really have companies like Airbnb and vbo you know come to the table and see
43:43
what they're doing to assist this disparity the reason that I like home
43:50
exchange is because you it's not a short-term rental you're not driving up
43:55
the cost of rent right it's a home swap you're not creating new properties for
44:02
people to now buy at a higher price point that property was already there and you're swapping into it so you're
44:09
not contributing to economic disparity you're just you know utilizing a property like you would swap into a
44:16
friend's home I think it's a lot more of an economical approach um I think it's a
44:21
lot more of a um morally conscious approach because we do have to pay
44:28
attention to how digital nomadism is going to shape economies and unfortunately it takes the government a
44:34
really long time to come up with standards to regulate but you can call
44:40
Private companies to the table to see what they're doing to contribute to
44:45
this totally agree I mean it's happening so we need to find Solutions in general
44:52
it's not a matter okay then I would say that just to close the first part of the episode I wanted to ask you some
44:59
personal recommendations about things that you have uncovered it can also be
45:05
about your expert life in Bangladesh or Madagascar but do you remember any local
45:10
traditional or cultural practices lasted a big impression on you that you
45:16
wouldn't expect that in the countries that you visited so
45:21
far yes um so I guess cultural practices that I didn't
45:28
really expect having a mom who is sagales I was sort of taught because you
45:34
I'm half my mom is is Muslim my dad is is Catholic and so I grew up in a in a
45:41
two- Faith household with two completely different cultural practices so I learned both um and when it came to my
45:48
mom's side you know in Sagal you eat with your hands and there's a certain way that you do it it's not just you
45:55
there's a respect factor that comes with sharing food especially a communal bowl and then eating with your hands and a
46:01
cleanliness Factor so there were certain things that were um Baseline in terms of
46:07
cultural practices that I'd already grow grown up understanding and and was exposed to so I wouldn't say there was
46:14
anything that sort of completely shocked me but what I will say is you know when
46:21
we were in so we were in tongal which is a little um it's a community or or a
46:27
city that's close to DACA maybe like a 3H Hour 4 hour it was it was a trip in
46:33
order to get there and we would go there a few times a year because my dad was doing some agricultural work with the
46:39
company he was working for in the area um and it was a really small town almost
46:45
like a village and I remember sharing food with a family who opened up their
46:51
home to us in order to have a meal and you know the cultural stand standard is
46:58
and a lot of Americans don't know this whatever food they serve you you eat it
47:03
you know I don't it's if you're vegan if you're gluten-free whatever this is a family who doesn't
47:10
have much and they're this it's a big show of respect in order to put food on
47:16
the table for you so you eat it no matter what it is and I remember I had
47:22
this has already been drilled into my head from my mom so I I wasn't shying away from the food but there were
47:27
certain things that I just didn't I didn't want didn't want to eat um because I wasn't familiar with what it
47:34
is but I did and it it surprised me how amazing it was it didn't you know it
47:40
didn't look super appetizing but it was it was this beautiful concoction of
47:47
spices and flavors that I had never been exposed to before there was mystery meat
47:52
that I didn't I didn't question what it was and it was good and so you know know there what I will say um especially when
48:00
you're in emerging countries pay attention to what it takes for people to
48:05
put food on the table for you however many weeks worth of a salary for them to
48:10
give you this food that they don't need to but they're doing it as a sign of respect and take the time to understand
48:17
what it took to prepare it take the time to understand how it applies to their life and their culture and eat it
48:24
because it will surprise you I promise you nine times out of 10 it's going to blow you
48:31
away cool well maybe last question before we jump to the to the expert part it's
48:39
related to food any food or DRS that you have discovered during your journey that
48:44
if you could you would bring to everywhere you go like that you would put in your backpack and always have it
48:50
there yes when I was in um uh it wasn't
48:55
Bali it was ubu um one of my friends from Bangladesh her family had a
49:02
property out there and we went and it was I forgot exactly what the cultural term for it was but it was like this pig
49:09
roast and they roasted it all day and the skin was super super crispy and then they sliced it off of the pig and they
49:17
put it into this banana leaf with a little bit of rice and then some like side condiments and this sort of like
49:23
vinegary spice over the top oh my gosh I continuously dream about this one meal
49:29
that I had way back when and if I could find it there's no restaurant in Denver
49:35
I'm sure there's one in New York that has Indonesian food but nothing like
49:40
that so if I could recreated if I could go back to that moment in time and just try to write down exactly what went into
49:47
creating this meal I would well maybe that's the opportunity
49:53
if there is any Indonesians listening to this episode or anyone who knows exactly
49:58
the name and the recipe for it just put it in the in the comments of the episode and then we can check it out and try to
50:05
reproduce it probably not as tasty as an original one but still do it
50:11
um please I would appreciate it
50:16
yeah um I would say that we can jump directly into the to the second part and
50:22
hey there everyone if you're loving this episode so far and you want to stay tuned with other exper experiences make
50:28
sure to hit the Subscribe button and follow our podcast so you never miss an episode with that said let's go back to
The expert: Home swapping with NOMAD Travel Groups
50:34
the episode the expert home swap with Nomad travel
50:39
groups we already shared with with us that uh you created the company a little
50:45
bit longer than a year ago um so the compan it's called Nomad travel groups
50:51
um explain this a little bit what it's about what it's the what you offer
50:57
so sure so Nomad travel groups is a home exchange platform and what we do is
51:04
we've introduced a group-based approach to home swapping so our customers sign
51:11
up for our site list their property and then choose the listings that they
51:17
prefer we match them into a curated group of Travelers give them a shared
51:22
calendar give them group messaging features so that they can p at their travel plans list when their homes are
51:29
going to be available and ultimately build relationships in trust with one another so they can engage in affordable
51:36
stays at each other's homes and what Nomad really is is for people who want
51:42
to be digital Nomads right want to live a location independent lifestyle but are
51:47
not yet ready to get rid of their home their security their their Base Cam and
51:54
so you can hold on to it you're holding on to it within a group of Travelers
51:59
whose homes you want to access so that you can travel frequently and affordably
52:04
so what it's doing is it's lowering the cost of accommodation a stay with Nomad
52:09
costs $250 per week on average getting people you know giving people the ability to
52:16
travel more frequently and giving people the ability to build a community of
52:21
Travelers who they built trust and relationships with and just really
52:28
facilitating this mechanism of secure affordable and safe
52:35
travel interesting does that mean that your travel group is always the same So
52:40
eventually what it means is that you're always swapping houses with the same people
52:47
and meaning you have an reduced access of who is which houses do you have
52:52
access to or so the way that it works is um you
52:59
have travel groups of two persons three persons or four persons and the duration
53:05
of those groups are 3 months 6 months or 12 months currently we're in our MVP
53:11
state which means the minimum viable version of our website we're in involved
53:18
in funding Rams right now to enhance our website capabilities once we engage in our full build our customers are going
53:25
to be able to engage in multiple concurrent travel groups so I could be in a travel group of three for six
53:31
months and also at the same time be in a travel group of two for 12 months at the
53:37
same time being a travel group of four for three months it's really up to our customers how many travel groups they
53:44
want to participate in the size of the Travel Group and the duration of the travel group so that just opens up so
53:50
many more properties to you nice do you bring the trouble groups
53:57
yourself so meaning that you are you and two friends in the a trouble group of three persons it's you and your friends
54:03
or it it is also like a kind of matching system of saying I want to travel solo
54:09
and then I contact this person and then I decide if it's the correct person to travel with or
54:15
not so it's a matchmaking system and the way that we sort it is you select the
54:22
listing so you look at all the listings on our homepage these are Supply by individuals who have signed up for their
54:28
for the site and and listed their property same as you and you choose the listings that you prefer so I want to be
54:35
in New York and I want to be in La so I like this listing in New York and I like this one in La I select the two and I
54:41
submit my preferences to Nomad Nomad then applies our matchmaking system and
54:47
the way that we do it is we try to meet at least one of your selections when we
54:53
place you into your curated Travel Group so the connection that everybody has in
54:58
that Travel Group is they have selected at least one of those properties in that group we've been applying already AI
55:06
testing to enhance our matchmaking mechanism right now the criteria is
55:11
based off of listing and location but what we're doing is studying our user
55:17
feedback studying what people liked didn't like any enhanced criteria that we can use to feed into um our AI model
55:25
to facilitate not just listing and location preference matchmaking but also other criteria that will enhance the the
55:32
curated group experience very interesting so it's on
55:39
building on the MVP it's also like you're doing usability testing I'm a ux designer so you triggered my my
55:46
curiosity now also yeah
55:53
y good that's it's good practice that you're testing it like properly um right
56:00
what what about like so does that mean that when you register to Nomad itself
56:06
you need to yes or yes so I have two questions in regards of this yes or yes put your house for swap or you can
56:13
register without having a property and the second one is can you register being
56:19
a couple for example do you want to like you want to do this but you're not a single profile you're two persons
56:26
yes so to answer your first question you have to have a property in order to
56:33
participate on our platform that's what differentiates us from short-term rental
56:38
platforms right in order to participate in a home swap you have to have a home
56:43
to swap otherwise you aren't able to and yes for your um question about
56:50
couples if you're a couple you are absolutely permitted to use our site what we do is is we run background
56:59
checks so at least one member of that couple must participate in a full
57:04
background check powered by our partner stripe identity and you also have to
57:09
upload documentation verifying that the listed address is registered in your name and then you have to provide the
57:16
full legal name of your guest so as we go through and the guest meeing your
57:22
partner as we go through um multiple you know V2 V3 iterations of our site we'll
57:29
figure out ways to um enhance our screening of couples primarily but at
57:34
the very least you're required to submit the other name of of that Partnership if they will be traveling with
57:41
you I see when do use when you use swap like when we swap a home might it be
57:49
that there is other persons also like a group concept meaning like uh or it's always you
57:57
no so we always guarantee entire properties for Safety and Security we
58:03
don't we don't uh permit shared dwellings what we call them to be listed
58:08
on our site so if you have a roommate unfortunately um we we're not currently
58:14
allowing your listing okay and what about the rented
58:22
properties because that's also like I don't know if in the US it's it's a different legislation or I suppose in
58:28
each country will change no but I'm pretty sure for example in certain countries of Europe you are not able to
58:35
home swap with other people uh if you're not the owner of
58:41
that property yes so currently we're
58:46
operating just in the US Canada and Mexico but in terms of rentals so when
58:52
it comes to home swapping there is fairly fairly little regulation especially in in the US which gives us a
58:59
little bit more leeway but at the end of the day you know we always safety is number one concern and
59:07
we like to advise our uh customers who are renters to review their lease
59:14
agreements because there's specific language within the lease agreement that specifies the amount of time you're
59:20
allowed to have a guest at your home whether it's per month or for the entire lease and so what we say is if you're
59:28
engaging in a home swap pay particular attention to that specific amount of time let's say you're not allowed to
59:34
have a guest for more than you know 10 days per month okay engage in a home swap for nine days per month or five
59:42
days per month you know just make sure that you're falling in line with those lease parameters but yes if you are a
59:48
renter you are permitted to use our site and that's typical for most home exchange platforms that are based in the
59:54
us as well cool I think you touched one of the
1:00:00
biggest questions that you should probably get and it's is is it safe uh
1:00:06
how yeah how you ensure that nothing happens to your home no because it's it's your home a lot of people must be I
1:00:13
assume concerned about their property their I don't know accidents can always
1:00:18
happen I assume but that nobody steals your stuff or break everything I don't know yes yeah and that it's a fair
1:00:27
question and I would have the same question if I were signing up for for a site or I was unfamiliar with home
1:00:33
exchange what we do is we partner with stripe identity to run full background checks on our customers uh before
1:00:40
they're placed into a Travel Group assignment what stripe identity does is they request a copy of your government
1:00:46
issued ID you upload a picture and then they take a live capture of your face at
1:00:51
the time of submission to match your actual face to the government ID we then get notified whether or not that
1:00:58
background check clearance was flagged or if it was verified if it's flagged then we look into it further obviously
1:01:05
if it's rejected that we don't post your listing on our site and you're not placed into a Travel Group assignment
1:01:10
the second thing that we do is request copy of um the listed address just to
1:01:16
verify that it's listed in your name so as part of our home registration process
1:01:21
customers upload a bank statement or mortgage document or a Le leas agreement
1:01:26
anything that has your full legal name plus the listed address we verify that
1:01:32
information manually and if there is any issues there we request new documents or
1:01:38
if you're not providing them we don't post your listing on our site in terms of taking care of your home we've
1:01:44
partnered with super hog which is actually a a I believe it's a UK based brand and what they do is they provide
1:01:51
Gest damage protection coverage of up to $50,000 for any damages that may occur
1:01:57
um while a member is participating in a home swap Arrangement at your home our
1:02:03
customers have the option to uh add on this Gest Tage production coverage
1:02:08
whenever a member of their Travel Group requests uh stay at their home and we always encourage it because it's under
1:02:15
our Nomad light plan it's only $5 per day of stay um so definitely opt into it
1:02:20
so you can make sure you get you can get up to $50,000 in coverage so there's three things we do to promote the Safety and
1:02:28
Security of um members you know participating in home swaps which is
1:02:35
important because it's your home and we want to make sure that it it stays safe but the last thing is just the mechanism
1:02:42
of travel groups in general it's a small group of people who have selected each
1:02:48
other's properties as properties that they like this is far different than participating in an Airbnb Arrangement
1:02:54
where thousands of people can access your home stay there for one week mess it up and then you know run away and
1:03:02
never come back these are people that are swapping into each other's home so there's already a baseline level of
1:03:10
respect and care there that's different than engaging in a short-term rental
1:03:17
arrangement I see yeah it makes sense no so it's building a little bit of a community of people and although you
1:03:25
actually never met them no because probably when you're are having your home free it's when you are not
1:03:32
there so right you only you never
1:03:37
met yeah no and it's unusual but this is the way that our society operates right
1:03:43
you don't meet most people whose homes you stay at as airbnbs or vbos but you
1:03:48
you still do it but at least we have our group messaging feature right so you can
1:03:53
communicate with them you can build relationships with them and then in um V2 of our site you can actually call
1:04:00
them you can you can get on a video call and chat with them before participating
1:04:06
in that home swap Arrangement all to make sure that you feel safe and you feel
1:04:12
comfortable cool I had a question also like popping up when you were talking about the the
1:04:19
length no so for example you can say Okay I want to travel group for three six and 12 months I think you you said
1:04:26
right what happens in both cases either like you sub your home with someone and you need
1:04:32
to go back home earlier than planned because of I don't know any emergency or whatever and the other way around I'm
1:04:39
I'm at someone's place and suddenly I need to leave for whatever
1:04:47
reason yeah so what we do in in the event of that is we refund the staying
1:04:53
parties fees so the uh service fees that they paid to stay
1:04:59
at that member's home we also have the host who needed to return pay out a
1:05:06
cleaning fee to the staying party and this is compensatory for you know any
1:05:12
shifts in plans that may result in that party needing to get a hotel or
1:05:18
temporary living accommodation in order to facilitate the return back home what
1:05:24
we also do we highly encourage and this is just for any traveler we highly
1:05:29
encourage you to have travel insurance because your travel insurance covers
1:05:35
issues like this needing to get a hotel for one night stay or you know needing
1:05:40
to get a quick return flight home that's going to cover events like this so we
1:05:46
foresee it happening right but we have um we have uh protocols in place to make
1:05:53
sure that that individual is is compensated I see cool well nice that
1:06:01
see that they have a safety net also for that case uh maybe a little bit more
1:06:07
personal on your journey like as an entrepreneur now building your own how how has been it it's not an easy journey
1:06:14
I assume like you came from having a corporate work no so how how was this
1:06:20
experience of building your own company what's challenges did you find in the way and
1:06:27
now it's when you're building your own company you're learning something new every single day and I started out it
1:06:35
was just this idea that I had I started researching you know the home Exchange
1:06:40
Market I started making sure you have to be 100% sure that the way that you're
1:06:46
differentiating is unlike anything a company is currently doing and that you're able to create ATT traction
1:06:53
because the size of your service serviceable addressable Market or you
1:06:58
know the size of your projected or target audience year one year two year
1:07:03
three year four year five so what's helpful is I had my tax and accounting
1:07:09
background that helped me dig into the weeds and do all that research and be really meticulous but then you find that
1:07:16
there's areas that you don't have expertise in so I didn't have expertise in marketing I had no Dev
1:07:22
background Dev or design just no technology background at all so there's
1:07:28
all these pieces of the puzzle that you need to find and that's what's so important about building a great team of
1:07:36
people who are bringing in this this expertise and also believe in your mission and the vision and so the first
1:07:43
person that was brought on to The Nomad team was my CTO Ibrahim se he is a full
1:07:51
stack web developer he was actually working with other startups on building out web applications prior to joining
1:07:58
The Nomad team he brought on a four other members who work you know
1:08:04
part-time as independent contractors to refine other versions to refine other parts of our site we brought on a senior
1:08:10
developer a senior designer we were Contracting portions of the MVP out to a
1:08:16
company called Fetch Ley that did the majority of the lift with assistance from The Nomad team and then we just
1:08:23
recently brought on a project manager who uh is brilliant and is getting
1:08:29
things organized and in line so that we're a full-fledged team so it's it's constantly trying to fill in pieces of
1:08:36
the puzzle learn things that are out of your comfort zone but you know if you
1:08:41
believe in in what you're doing and you start to see traction it's like this drug and you can't get enough of it and
1:08:48
you just you need to continuously do what you can especially with a team of
1:08:53
people relying on you do what you can to take this Vision to the next
1:09:00
level you I am assuming that your colleagues also work remote you then
1:09:06
probably like are they all digital Nomads are they all traveling
1:09:12
around so one of my colleagues is in France right now and I'm so jealous um
1:09:18
and then she's uh going to Asia you know one thing we spoke about before we
1:09:25
offered the contract was whether or not she was going to be able to work from France or whether or not she was going
1:09:31
to be able to work from uh Asia and if that was okay and I remember working as
1:09:38
a full-time employee of other companies I was always scared to ask that question because company Protocols are always no
1:09:45
you cannot spend you know time in a foreign country that's just off the table it's you're not allowed to do that
1:09:52
but nomad's different and I want my colleagues be able to to roam around that's the whole point that's the whole
1:09:58
reason we're building what we're building so yes she's a digital Nomad my other colleages I think right now are
1:10:05
more fixated in one place but as the team expands I'm sure we're going to get more Travelers on the
1:10:11
table I mean it makes sense no you building a product for digital NS the people who is attracted to these kind of
1:10:18
companies are also digital NS and Al and besides that there is also this trickiness always of the comp
1:10:25
saying oh this is not possible but you are theorically only binded to taxation
1:10:31
over 183 days of your life of your year so right it is legal from a legal
1:10:39
perspective don't don't get scamed on that also uh yeah maybe a couple of
1:10:46
questions yes just sorry yeah yeah I wanted just tap into that because you hit the nail on the head when it comes
1:10:53
to the reason companies don't want fully remote Workforce right is because of tax issues it's about sales tax or foreign
1:11:01
income tax issues by way of physical presence so what we've done is actually created a solution for companies using
1:11:08
the same mechanism that we're using for B Toc channel so we're opening up a B2B
1:11:14
channel so selling to businesses our Travel Group mechanism but it's going to
1:11:20
be curated by members of that company or employees of that company so we do is
1:11:25
we'll create employee based home exchange groups and then we retrofit our
1:11:31
shared calendar feature to Implement Company specific protocols that regulate
1:11:36
how much time you can spend in state what states you can visit and how much time you can spend in country to make
1:11:43
sure that you don't trigger any sales tax or foreign income tax issues digital
1:11:49
nomadism is a is a quote unquote problem that is not going away and ex iives know
1:11:55
that they have to offer remote work roles in order to attract top talent so by providing companies with a way to
1:12:03
encourage travel to encourage employee relationship building while also offering enhanced oversight control and
1:12:10
mitigating tax exposure we're really excited about the feedback that we're going to get from our B2B clients and
1:12:17
hope that you know by implementing this and starting from small businesses through Enterprise level we will be able
1:12:24
to encourage dig digital nomadism and in a way that's safe and secure for most
1:12:31
companies oh that's very nice also so you also thinking of futuristic approach
1:12:37
on B2B which is also cool because it's always the for any exper any digital NAD
1:12:44
at the end it's always the same no you enter this and then it's like now calculating I'm spending more time here
1:12:51
than there where do I need to pay right ta everything not everyone has not
1:12:58
everyone has access to an accountant everywhere where they go so that makes sense also um related to that to that
1:13:06
topic it's probably the last question for today but what is your vision I mean you're in an MVP you're building new
1:13:13
versions I can feel that there is a lot of things coming so uh maybe what if you
1:13:21
can share some of them whatever you can share what is your vision for for the future of nomad what what is the
1:13:28
impact that you will you are trying to achieve with with the platform so you know what we're really
1:13:35
trying to achieve is giving people access to ways to travel that are either
1:13:41
affordable or they're curated meaning they speak to a particular group of
1:13:47
people or lowering misconceptions that um businesses have about travel it's not
1:13:55
something that is a that is going to impact your company adversely let's actually look at it on the flip side
1:14:02
this is something that's going to make your company a lot more marketable bring in higher level talent and we're giving
1:14:08
you a way to facilitate this without exposing your your company to taxation
1:14:13
issues which is the primary reason that you're not letting your employees travel more frequently so what we're doing is
1:14:20
we're coming at it with a B Toc and a B2B approach that's going to reshape the
1:14:25
way that people approach travel make work life balance much more of a
1:14:31
priority all in an effort to create an interconnected world that takes the time
1:14:37
to understand different cultures different experiences um and it doesn't look at you know going into the office
1:14:44
and doing a N9 to-5 as the only thing that you can do in your life you can build your career and you can travel at
1:14:50
the same time so just looking to share my passion for travel with the world
1:14:55
that is my vision for Nomad travel groups and coming up with innovative
1:15:00
solutions to ensure that people can travel more frequently other iterations
1:15:06
that we have we've been approached to create an exciting collaboration with a
1:15:11
particular community that will create a nomad specific portal for members of
1:15:17
that community and I can't um announce it just yet but this is how we are going
1:15:23
to iterate there a nomad base plan there's going to be various other Nomad
1:15:30
collaborations that speak to your particular interest or who you identify as there's going to be a nomad business
1:15:38
roll out and then the last one I can't mention um that's going to be in a in a
1:15:43
few years but we're very excited with how we're approaching this and already
1:15:49
excited by the traction that we've built cool happy to see you and looking
1:15:56
forward to to check what what becomes uh NAD on where it goes um thank you thank
1:16:04
you so much thank you thank you so much for the for the time for explaining your
1:16:09
life your experience as an expert as a digital Nomad as I think we went a
1:16:14
little bit stage by stage through your life I think thank you also for explaining what Nomad is what n travel
1:16:20
groups is and how it works probably the last question that it's relevant for all all of our listens is where can they
1:16:26
find you how they can log in how they can sign up to to Nomad but also maybe get in contact with you if if you needed
1:16:33
um so yeah yes we can put all the links the description uh give us a follow on
1:16:40
Instagram and Tik Tok at wravel Nomad our website is wravel nomad.com we're on
1:16:48
LinkedIn at Nomad travel groups and please say hi I'd love to hear who's who
1:16:54
who's listening to to this if you have any you know thoughts about being an xat or being a digital Nomad or whatever you
1:17:00
know I'd love to chat with you um so please reach out to me on LinkedIn my
1:17:05
name is Marie deos I would love to hear from
Outro
1:17:11
you cool uh again thank you so much um it has been a pleasure talking to
1:17:19
you um thank you for joining the episode and to of course to all the listeners uh
1:17:25
until next time keep exploring stay curious and take care thanks so much it was great
1:17:31
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