Most people have to go to work,
but what if your work could go with you wherever you went?
Maybe you follow one of those vloggers
who seems to be in a different country every month
or one of those internet people
who says they work from a beach in Thailand,
and now you're like that lady from Napoleon Dynamite
and you're like--
- I want that.
- Or maybe you just wanna work from home
and not go to an office every day.
Either way, I wanna cover what you can do
to start building that kind of a work-life balance
in this video.
So, before we get started,
let's address the elephant in the room,
which is that I'm in my room
in my apartment in Denver, Colorado.
I'm not a full-time traveler
and I'm certainly not making this video
from a beach in Thailand.
I prefer to get my horrible sunburns on top of mountains.
But for the past five years,
I have had the ability to travel
and work basically whenever I want.
And in those years, I've got to Japan three times,
I've gone to New York City, Portland,
San Diego, San Francisco, Austin,
a ton of different cities around the country,
and I've been able to work and have fun in each one of 'em.
Now, before any of you cynical people
start typing away in the comments,
no, I am not a trust fund baby.
My parents don't pay for me to travel the world.
In fact, they weren't even able
to contribute to my college fund at all,
so I've had to do this on my own.
The way that I do it is through building a business
that I can work on from anywhere,
but that's not the only solution.
So, I wanna give you a few starting points in this video
and I wanna tackle two main topics:
number one, the cost of traveling,
doing it full-time or just doing it on a irregular basis;
and also how to make money while doing it.
(deep drum and bass music)
The first thing I wanna cover here is the cost of traveling,
because while it does definitely cost money to travel
and for some people it can be very expensive,
it's not as expensive as you might think.
And I just wanna jump into a concrete example here
to illustrate this.
So, if you go to NomadList.com,
you can see a bunch of different statistics
on all sorts of cities that are good for "digital nomads,"
those kinda people who roam the world with their laptops
doing all kinds of different work
that can be done from basically anywhere.
And NomadList is a great resource because it can give you
tons of information on these cities,
including their estimated costs of living,
and I wanna do a quick comparison here.
So, let's take the number one city over on Nomad List,
Budapest, Hungary.
They have two different cost of living scores on this site.
There's the Nomad price and then there's the local price.
So, in Budapest, the Nomad Price
is just over $1,000 per month,
and that is if you're staying in cheap hotels
every single day, eating out three times a day,
basically living the life of a traveler,
just over $1,000 a month.
Now, for a lotta people around the world,
that is certainly a lotta money.
But if you live in a big city,
especially like here in the US, that's actually kinda cheap.
Let's compare that to Denver, Colorado, where I live,
and the local cost of living is over $1,800 a month.
So, if you were to travel around the world
in cities like Budapest or even cheaper cities
like Bangkok, Thailand,
you would be spending $800 per month
less than you would be spending
to live the life of a local in Denver.
The other thing is prioritization.
I know a lotta people who have single-location lifestyles
who have expensive apartments, they have car payments,
they eat out a lot at restaurants,
they've got the new video game
that comes out every single month.
That is an example of prioritization
that costs a lotta money.
And if you were to travel around the world
and spend a little bit of money on hostels every night
and plane tickets, yes that does cost money,
but it could actually end up being cheaper
than that single-location lifestyle.
And a good example of this are my friends,
Syd and Mackie, who are pro mountain bike racers.
They actually live in a van
and travel all around the country
and also to other countries as well.
And they don't make a whole lotta money,
but they're able to do it
because they have their priorities geared towards travel.
And so, if you wanna do this, ask yourself,
"What could I give up to make my lifestyle cheaper
"and to enable travel?"
(deep drum and bass money)
Now, the one big advantage
that my single-location friends have
is the ability to go to a job
and actually, you know, make money
to support their expensive lifestyles.
So, if you wanna travel or if you don't wanna go
to an office every day, how do you do that?
Well, there are two main pretty obvious options:
there's the employed route
and there is the self-employed route.
And I'm gonna give you some specific tips
for each one in just a second here,
but there is one overarching factor
that applies to both of them,
and that's that you need to build portable skills.
When most people think of portable skills,
they're thinking of computer skills:
web design, graphic design, programming, writing,
editing, all that kinda stuff.
And for the rest of this video,
I am gonna focus on those sort of digital nomad skills
that you can do from anywhere,
but I do wanna make a quick point
that there are other options out there as well.
In fact, Matt from ExpertVagabond.com has an entire article
on all the different kinds of jobs you can do as a traveler,
and he breaks 'em down into three different categories.
There's the expat jobs,
the vagabond jobs, and the digital nomad jobs.
Expat jobs are basically the kinda jobs
where you move to another country
and you find a regular job there.
A good example is teaching English.
And if you wanted to go to Japan, say,
you could get involved in the JET Program,
which allows you to teach English
in public schools while living in Japan.
That's a great way to get experience
living in that country and interacting with the locals.
On the vagabond side, you have jobs
that aren't really based on computer skills.
These are things like working on farms
through programs like WWOOFing or working at hostels.
And as somebody who's been in Japan many different times,
I have firsthand experience seeing people
who worked at hostels and got free lodging
and pay sometimes in exchange.
However, the most flexible kinds of jobs,
either self-employed or employed
are gonna be those digital nomad-type jobs.
Basically anything you can do from a computer
or from the internet is gonna allow you
a lotta flexibility in where you are when you do that work.
Now, you do have your usual suspects, like I said:
web design, programming, all that stuff.
There's also social media management,
customer service for startups, all those kinda jobs,
but there are also other options out there
that you might not think of.
For example, my friend Gretchen is a tutor
for high school and middle school students,
and she can do that from Skype.
And my friend Ryan from Medical School HQ
helps pre-med students
with their medical school applications.
Again, that could be done through a Skype
and through email and other tools,
so he could do it from anywhere.
(deep drum and bass music)
All right, so we now we are getting into specific tips
for each individual path,
and I wanna start with the employed path,
working for somebody else.
So, if you want to either work from home
while being employed or be able to travel while you work,
I have a couple of specific tips for you.
The first one is to look for remote-friendly companies.
Here's the thing: a lotta companies out there
are looking to build a very specific culture
where they're building face-to-face teams
that have in-person interaction,
and other companies just might wanna control
the work environment or the tools you use or your schedule.
But there are a lot of other companies out there
that are embracing a remote-first approach.
For example, Buffer, which is a company I've been following
for about six or seven years now and use myself,
it's a social media scheduler,
they have over 80 people all over the globe,
tons of different timezones,
and some of their employees actually travel full-time
while doing work for them.
So, if this is something that you wanna do,
look for companies that have a remote-friendly culture.
And there are actually several websites online
where you can go to look for remote-only jobs,
including RemoteBase.io, Remote.co, and WeWorkRemotely.com.
The other thing you can do is to simply ask
about the company's culture during the interview.
Ask 'em if they have anybody who works from home
or anybody who's ever worked while traveling
and if they'd ever be open to that situation,
because if that's something you wanna do,
you need to figure out if that company's culture
is going to be a fit.
Remember, an interview is not just an audition.
It's not just an audience with some all-powerful recruiter
that you prostrate yourself in front of.
It is a negotiation between two parties
who are trying to figure out if they can work well together.
The other huge thing to consider
is that any sort of arrangement
where you're traveling and working
creates uncertainty for your potential employer.
You're no longer in the building,
you're not working on their schedule,
you're possibly halfway around the world
in a different timezone with unreliable internet,
and that can make them a little bit uncertain
as to whether you're gonna actually be able
to deliver on what they need you to do,
so you're gonna need to build trust and prove your value
before you ask for something like this.
And unfortunately, you're not always gonna be able
to build that trust through the strength of your portfolio
or through the interview.
Sometimes, it just takes time and putting your dues in.
I found a great example of this concept over on Hacker News
when I found a thread called
Best Place to Look for Remote Jobs,
and the top comment read like this:
"An old colleague of mine,
"who'd worked at an LA-based tech company for 10 years,
"went to hand in his resignation.
"He was moving to Charlotte
"so he could be with his girlfriend.
"His boss begged him to stay.
"He could even work remotely.
"My friend took the deal.
"He lives in Charlotte now and flies to LA
"every two or three months.
"The best place to look for remote jobs
"is to talk to people who have worked with you
"in the past and trust you."
(deep drum and bass music)
The other main route for being able to travel
and work at the same time is the self-employed route,
and this is the one that most people think of,
this is the one that all those internet gurus
sitting on beaches in Bangkok, are there beaches in Bangkok,
are trying to sell you courses on how to do
and it is what I do,
so we're gonna talk a little bit about that.
Now, my particular business model is content creation
and I spend most of my time making YouTube videos
and blog posts and podcasts for you guys.
But my business model comes through advertising
and brand deals, so I'm essentially selling access
to my audience to these companies.
And the disadvantage there
is that this takes a long time to do.
It took me about two-and-a-half years
to build up my audience to the point
where I could actually make enough money to pay my expenses.
And that's why, while this is definitely
something you can do if you're passionate
about making videos or making podcasts or whatever,
it's not exactly the best option
for being able to create a situation
where you can travel and work in the short-term.
For that, you're gonna wanna find a situation
where you can apply your skills in such a way
that a small group of clients or customers
can pay for most of your expenses,
and that's why I think freelancing is a great option.
If you have a skill, maybe web development,
programming, writing, or editing,
or anything else that you can do from the internet
and if it's valuable enough that a small group of people
could pay your bills,
then you could spin that up pretty quickly
and then get on the road.
Now, freelancing is a huge topic,
so we can't talk about it too much in this video,
but I do have an article over on my site, College Info Geek,
called the Ultimate Guide to Freelancing in College.
And even if you're not in college,
this article will be helpful for you.
It goes through how to pick your skill, how to find clients,
how to reach out to those clients,
how to set prices, all that good stuff.
So, definitely check out the link in the description below
if that is something that's interesting to you.
Couple of additional resources before I leave you today.
First, some recommended reading.
And the first one is the Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.
Now, this book is not a travel book,
it's not a vagabonding book, it's nothing so niche.
It's more an overall introduction
to most of the main concepts in business:
value creation, value delivery,
marketing, sales, all that kinda stuff.
And while that may sound
a little bit boring to you right now,
I think that any student and any person
in the working world should read this book,
because when you have a better grasp of business as a whole,
you're gonna understand the incentives
that drive your boss or your clients,
which in turn makes you a better freelancer or employer.
And when you increase your skills
in either of those categories,
you increase your ability to do things
like travel and work at the same time.
The other book is vagabonding by Rolf Potts,
and this is the full-time travel book.
This is the book to read if you wanna be going
all over the world to multiple different countries.
I read this when I went to Japan a few years ago
and it was very helpful for me.
And it does have a chapter on financing your travels,
but also answers lots of other questions,
like how to pick where to go,
where to stay once you're there,
all sorts of stuff like that,
so it's definitely a good resource.
Some of the links are kinda outdated in it,
but as a whole, the information is good.
And my last recommendation is for any of you
who are interested in starting to freelance,
because my friend Roberto Blake,
who has a channel here on YouTube,
has a ton of great videos that you're gonna wanna check out,
and I'm gonna put a card to one of his videos right there.
Definitely go subscribe to his channel
if you wanna learn how to do that.
You can also subscribe to my channel right there
if you haven't done so already,
and give this video a like if you enjoyed it.
You an also find that Ultimate Guide to Freelancing article
right there and another one of my videos right there.
Thanks for watching and I'll see you next week.