August 23, 2023 • 42 mins
Be honest, have you ever thought about leaving your country? What reasons would prompt you to embark on such an adventure? In this episode Kris is joined by Javi, a friend that is in the process of Quitting LA! Join Javi and Kris as they talk about everything from what caused Javi to pull the plug on LA and the logistics of moving to another country to what opportunities a new location might unlock.
Links:
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierelmendoza
CashApp: https://cash.app/$javiereduardomendoza
Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/javimendoza
Links:
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javierelmendoza
CashApp: https://cash.app/$javiereduardomendoza
Venmo: https://venmo.com/u/javimendoza
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Welcome to The Big Quit with Chris, a show that
originally started off as a place to connect with those
that identified as part of the Great Resignation and said
see you to their jobs, and has evolved to a
show where we talk about how quitting is just the
beginning for so many things. Whether it's leaving a job,
a relationship, a comfort zone, or any other status quo.
We're here to explore the courageous journey of letting go
(00:27):
and embracing new possibilities. What's up, good folks, Welcome to
a brand new episode of The Big Quit with Chris. Today,
we're not just talking about quitting a job, We're talking
about quitting an entire city. In this conversation, you'll meet
(00:48):
my friend Jave, currently a fellow Angelino that was born
in El Salvador and is about to embark an incredible inventure.
As I'm recording this episode, you may be able to
hear Hurricane Hillary in the back, providing an oddly fitting backdrop.
It's kind of funny, isn't it. Out Here, where the
cost of living can feel like an unending uphill battle,
(01:08):
we're braving storms of all kinds, from the weather to
just trying to exist here in La These days, I'm
more anxious about what next week's gas prices might be
than I am about this rain. But neither here nor
there let me shift gears. Lately, with the swirling currents
of political and social change in the US, many of
(01:29):
us find ourselves pondering our contingency plans just in case
we ever need to leave the country behind, and that
just in case is looking like a win we need
to leave the country behind. At this point, I'll be
honest with y'all, I have daydreamed and am willing to
admit that I have watched walking tours on YouTube about
Portugal Lisbon, to be exact, and a lot of my
(01:49):
friends have a list of countries on their radar too.
Yet what sets Hobby apart is the decisiveness that most
of us can only envy. Hobby takes us on a
journey of introspection and audacity, from the first fleeting thoughts
of departing to the pivotal moment of purchasing that ticket
to the unknown. What propels someone to abandon the familiar
(02:10):
and embrace the unfamiliar, to swap palm trees for samba beats,
which honestly sounds like a good deal to me. We'll
unravel the layers of courage, excitement, and perhaps a hint
of trepidation that come with bidding farewell to one life
and embracing the promise of another. So, whether you're contemplating
a major life shift or simply curious about the allure
(02:30):
of new horizons, punch your ticket and join us as
we delve into Hobby's extraordinary narrative. This is The Big
Quit with Chris. Hey, y'all, welcome to this episode of
The Big Quit with Chris. Today, I have my friend
Hovey here with me and we are talking about quitting LA.
(02:50):
My boo is leaving me. But I thought it was
really fitting for us to have this conversation because you
are not the only person that has had this on
their mind. You and I have had frequent conversations actually
about beating the hell up out of here, but.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You're actually doing it. So I really am excited to
chat with you about this.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And my friend, you are an LA native and you've
decided it's time to go.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Tell us what made you decide to quit LA.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, starting off, I've been here in twenty five years,
so I moved here when I was six years old,
and I never left. Really, I have never lived anywhere else.
I went to college here, I started working in the
entertainment industry, so again I was landlocked to LA. And
(03:44):
I've always wanted to travel. I've always wanted to go
explore the world. I've always wanted to go get lost
in other languages, cultures, and go entertain myself in other ways.
And I'm La for me was a city of necessity,
a city of desire. I was here because, as an
(04:04):
immigrant child, my parents brought me here. You know, I
didn't have a choice, and I moved from one location
to an extremely different one, and I had to adapt
and survive and grind and hustle like all immiference to
And I've just gone to the point where I have
(04:27):
a choice, So I made the choice.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I love this. Do you think it's permanent.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, I don't think it's going to be permanent. But
I think my relationship with La is going to fundamentally change.
I am never again going to be landlocked to the city.
I'm not going to be tied down to having to
do anything here. Everything is going to be much more
(04:56):
flexible and go with the flow and there's going to
be a lot more traveling and exploring the world at large,
more than there ever was. So I will be back.
I just won't be back the same way.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You better be back. Yes, I'm putting that on record.
You better be back friend.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And you mentioned you mentioned how La has really been
an integral part of your life, even though with a
city of necessity and not necessarily a city that was
part of your heart's desire. How would you say that
your experience in La has shaped your perspective on life
in your personal growth, I.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Wouldn't be the person that I am today without growing
up and being here in La. After about twenty three
years of being here, I finally went back and visited
a Salvador, which is where I was born and grew up.
And after more than two decades of being here in
the United States and being in La, no longer Salvadorian.
(06:02):
I am fully Americanized, and I'm fully integrated, and I
have remnants.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Of that culture that I left behind, but I am
very much you know, my identity is very much a
American to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So in regards to growth, what I think is cool
about in La is that at the end of the day.
It set me up for an extremely well educated, well cultured,
lived experience that prepares me really well to jump out
(06:41):
into the world. You know, from growing up around of
multiple different languages and all of their cuisines and all
of their cultures so easily accessible at any time during
the day, I think really formed a very specific expectation
of the world in my psyche and it just left
(07:06):
me better prepared to leave. In a sense, it was very
I think the best way to put it is like
it was very educational. It was all very very educational,
from getting an American education, to going to one of
the best universities in the country, to working in one
of the most recognized industries in the world, to being
(07:29):
surrounded by all sorts of cultures. There's literally nothing that
I haven't been exposed to, or nothing that I can't
get comfortable with or explore or be adventurers with, Like
I can, I can do it all?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You truly can.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I have yet to see you run instantly You're like,
I don't know how to do that or you don't
know where to find the answer, because hello, we're all
like good bessies with chat GPT, and speaking of chat, GPT.
I know that you freelance a lot, and you consult
and you work with a lot of different clients to
(08:09):
help get them to where they want to go in
the media industry and in this different and all these
different fields, because you again are kind of a little
bit of a jack of all trades where you can
do a little bit of everything. Would you say that
work or work opportunities or lack thereof, or your experiences
with work, play any role in the decision to like,
(08:31):
you know, I think I can leave LA for a minute.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Absolutely. I think one of the things that when I
first started out my career back in twenty fourteen, when
I graduated, one of the things that was really always
in the forefront of my mind, even if I couldn't
put a name to it, was the idea of being
(08:56):
free in a sense at this sort of the umbrella
idea for a lot of different things, like I wanted
to be free to be creative, I wanted to be
free to be fully seen and supported and heard. I
wanted to be financially free. And I felt because at
(09:19):
the time I didn't have any other resources or no
other way to go about it that I knew or
was accessible to me. I felt the only way to
go about it was to continue constraining myself within corporate America,
because at the end of the day, it's training to
(09:40):
a certain extent, and there are skills that I've picked
up throughout those almost a decade that have been cumulative
enough that allowed me to be here today, you know,
because of that journey of consistently learning and working very
(10:02):
hard and having a work ethic and try and do
my best in whatever situation, even at the expense of myself.
Sometimes there was always in the sense of I am
moving forward, I'm learning, like I'm going to capitalize on
this someday, like I'm going to figure it out, And
at the end I did. I was writing along. So
(10:24):
my work in the entertainment industry and my work at
marketing agencies have all accumulated into me being able to
freelance as a marketer or I'm a strategist and working
social media and entertainment verticals without having to be tied
(10:44):
down to a corporate office.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Do you remember your last like corporate gig and when
you were like, you know what, m I don't want
to do this anymore. It's time for me to be free.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Literally, yes, I do so. Twenty twenty one was the
first time I went back to Old Salvador, and I
spent a total of three months away from the United States,
and in that I was doing a lot of soul
(11:20):
searching and really figuring out what I wanted and what
I wanted to do. And I was very, very very
exhausted from all the years of working and grinding and
the pandemic on top of it, and so I just
needed to break any to trust. And when I came back,
(11:40):
my former co workers and a marketing agency had all
for the most part collectively moved on to another agency.
And before I started to travel, they had wanted me
to come on board on their strategy team, but I
wasn't able to because I traveled, I wasn't able to
work abroad with a company it was not allowed. So
I come back and a week later I post I
(12:03):
publicly announced I'm back in LA and an hour later
my former boss calls me and he's like, you want
a job, And I was like, okay, sure, I mean
I had nothing else to do. Like I knew I
was coming back to LA And funny enough, I remember
on the plane ride into La I. I was looking
(12:25):
out the window as the plane was landing, and I
was looking down at the city, and that was like
a thick layer of dark brown smug over the entire city.
And I remember being very resigned to landing. I remember
being like, great, I'm back in LA Because again I
(12:46):
didn't have any options, any other resources to just leave
and be gone. So I felt like I was just
putting myself back into this golden cage. And I was
having to get reacquainted with being being pent up and
trapped in this life that I love of pent up
(13:07):
and trapped in this life that a lot of other
people move here for so long story short, I ended
up taking the job and that I was there for
two months before I pulled the plug. And for me,
the whole thing was that I was back to a
relentless nine to five grind. I was online all the time.
(13:32):
My mental health started to deteriorate again, my physical health
started to deteriorate again, just because when you're on the
grind on your computer all day, like healing slacks and
emails and to do some assignments, and you know, you
have to be on all the time. It was very
difficult for me to breathe and to step away and
(13:52):
to take care of myself. And eventually, after two months,
I was like, I can't do it anymore. I just
I don't care. Like as much as I loved that
the people that I worked with, and how cool it
was to be doing what I was doing, because I
was working at a very very prestigious marketing agency with
(14:14):
some amazing, amazing people that I'm really whose company, and
I really enjoyed the entire work environment, which was really
unhealthy for me personally. And it was absolutely one of
those things where I was at the edge of the
cliff after two months, like looking over the edge, being like,
(14:34):
am I going to do this? Am I going to not?
Am I going to do this? Am I going to not?
And what pushed me into it was that I was
at a coffee shop and I'm doing my work and
I struck up a conversation with a guy and he
was looking to be more creative and he was looking
to develop, you know, a creative outlet of sorts, and
(14:59):
we got to talk and he liked my advice, so
he contracted me for like about an hour a week
at an insane price for that hour that I had
never before been paid in my life. It was multiple,
multiple times what I was getting paid at an hourly basis.
(15:21):
Oh And I remember sitting there looking at like, Okay,
I'm grinding my ass off eight hours a day for
this much an hour, and this guy here thinks like
all the shit that I've accumulated that's in my mind
over the past ten years is worth is much an hour.
That's wild And I was like, obviously, this is a
(15:46):
direction that I have to go in. There's it's not
worth being on like a fifty k salary to be
a you know, a coordinator when I can have I
have more power and more influenced direct influence on things
that matter at a much higher price point. M hm.
(16:11):
And so all of that coalesced into me one Friday
walking into the office, going up to my manager privately
in her office and just being like, Hey, I have
something to tell you. She's like what She's like, and
I'm like, I'm putting in my two weeks today, and
(16:32):
she was floored. She was like what she was like,
that's so crazy because I normally have I get like
a feeling, like intuitive feeling when something like this is
going to happen, and I did not get that at all,
Like I had no idea this was coming. And she
was like, why, what's going on. I was like, it's time,
Like it's just time that I do it, Like I
(16:54):
need to be out of my own and I've had
enough of being in a structure where I am just
a piece of a puzzle and I have my little
hamster wheel, my little cog that I run round in
to make sure the whole machine works. I have zero
experience in actually being my own person, like fully no experience,
(17:20):
like I don't even know myself to a certain extent,
because I've been so caught up with work. And it's
time that I fully own something and I created with
my own two hands, and that I am fully truly
responsible for it. And I don't want to have to
answer to Disney's fifth revisions of a gradient palette that
(17:47):
we've been working at for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Like, after five revisions, boot just say that this is
not what you want and let's move on.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So I walked into the manager's office and I flat
out just gold her I'm not doing this and more
I'm putting my two weeks. She was floored, but she
understood when I explained that I just wanted to have
my own thing. I wanted to be much more responsible
for myself. I wanted to be more entrepreneurial. I wanted
to do with left fut like I wanted to experience it.
I wanted to sit up my body. And so I
was over it. And that's that was said and done.
(18:19):
I had made up my mind. I walked into the office,
I gave my two weeks notice, finished out my two weeks,
and then I left the office and sat on the
right back home in shock. I was like, I literally
just did that. I felt so liberated and so scared
at the same time. And I was like, I just
did that, and I have no idea what I'm doing.
(18:41):
And I didn't have like a nest egg or that
much money in my bank account. I had nothing, literally
nothing to my name, and I was like, I'm going
to do it anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yes, feeling the fear and doing it anyway is like,
it's such an interesting moment because you know that no
matter what, things are going to change, and all you
can kind of do is like hope that they're changing
for the better. But it's still such a powerful experience
to get to that point of saying I want to
be me. I don't want to be hobby the entertainment professional.
(19:15):
I want to be hobby the hobby like I want
to be myself and really take a chance on yourself,
which sounds like that's what you decided to do going
into freelancing, And I.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Want to go back a little bit.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Because when you ran into the guy that hired you
as a contractor and he's paying you like way more
than your normal rate, right, how did that feel to
run into some money that recognized your worth at that level.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I feel like I refuse to let myself feel anything
about it because I didn't think I was ready to
receive that kind of a compliment. I thought it was
crazy that he would just not blink an eye and
(20:02):
be like, sure, I'll pay you that much. And I
just ran with it. And I remember I would show
up to every meeting being like, Okay, we're doing this.
And I really pushed him on his creativity and I
really poured as much as I could into him. But
what I felt about it myself, I felt empowered and
(20:25):
I felt scared at the same time, empowered because there
was a certain degree if it's one thing I learned
very early on in my childhood here in the States
was that I had to believe in myself. I had
no choice. So at my very core, I will always
believe in myself despite what my emotions may be in
(20:45):
any moment. And at the same time, my emotions were
that I was very scared to believe it was true.
Like I was like, this is crazy, Like that's nuts,
Like I can't believe this is real. Intuitively, it felt right.
So I decided to again follow that thread and see
(21:05):
where it took me, even though I was a little
hesitant about it.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I love this again, feeling that fear and doing it
anyway and then being able to look back and be like,
but it felt right, and so I'm going to keep
following that. I think that speaks to again the idea
that sometimes you just know, like it's not always going
to be a big glaring sign, but it could just
be like the feeling that you're getting. So what we're
(21:35):
going to do, we'll take a quick break and then
we'll come back and we'll talk about your upcoming journey,
where you're headed, and how that journey and freelancing and
consulting are going to go hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back,
and we're back.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So have you, I stated at the beginning of the
episode of what we've been chatting about a little bit
so far is the fact that you're quitting LA, You're leaving,
you're moving, and so I know that you just made
this decision like literally what seventy two hours ago has
not been that long And what has their response been
like so far from family and friends? Is it what
(22:19):
you expected or are you still in the process of
telling folks what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So what's funny is when I make these kinds of
decisions where I just decide, like I've made in my mind,
I'm gone into it, bought the ticket, I'm gone after that.
Nobody's reactions matter. I've made up my mind. So if
you like it, if you don't like it, that's fine,
that's your problem. My flight is still looked. I'm still leaving, yes,
(22:50):
God being sad. All the reactions have been super super positive.
Everyone's been shocked and everyone's been very very surprised, especially
when they learn it the speed at which things happened.
So for context for the listeners right now, it's Tuesday.
I had the idea on Saturday and bought my ticket,
(23:14):
my one way ticket Sunday night, and I leave in
two weeks, so I'm at the eleven day countdown before
I get on a plane and move.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So, oh my goodness, tea minus eleven days. I'm personally
super excited for you, one, because it means I have
another place to come visit du and period. I know
you'll be back. You know, I know you'll be here
to visit. Mind is made up, people are supportive, Everything
is a go. You got a tea minus eleven day
(23:50):
countdown going on? What emotions have been coming up for
you as you're getting ready to depart from LA and
start this new journey.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
The first emotion that came up for me was a
sense of relief, honestly, And the reason that it was
relief was because in my mind, before I made the decision,
I was thinking of toughing it out for another eight
months till my lease was over, before I decided to
move and maneuver all of those things. And that Saturday morning,
(24:19):
when the thought hit me and the realization hit me, one,
I was indignant that I hadn't thought about this before
seriously or that I hadn't come to that conclusion seriously,
knowing how I had felt for so long. And two
I navigated through it by telling myself that the best
(24:41):
part was that I had a ride, I had figured
it out, had solved it, like I had my answer
now and my only path forward was to accept it,
embrace it, and move forward. And I had to leave
all those negative emunctions behind. It was a sense of relief.
(25:01):
I felt like even everything around me started looking much
clearer and brighter because I knew everything had an end date.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I knew even in the LA smog, things were looking
brighter even.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Exactly so, because I knew everything had an end date,
all of a sudden, things just started to make sense,
like things started to have purpose. And I was at
a wellness retreat this past weekend as everything was kind
of going down, and it just all coincided perfectly, you know.
I woke up the morning and on the way to
(25:37):
the retreat, the thought came to me. And then I've
spent the entire weekend thinking it over and thinking it
over while taking classes on wellness and power and finding
your inner sense of self and things like that. And
by the time I got home Sunday night from the retreat,
I was like, this is it. I'm doing it, And
(25:58):
it was again at the very edge of a cliff,
and my toes are over the edge. Buying the ticket
is jumping off the cliff and I have been tiptoeing
this jump for two days now. So I had a
friend with me at Sunday nights and he was sat
(26:22):
with me and held my hand basically while I process
the ticket. And it was said and done.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Shout out to the friend.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We love friend support, especially in major life transitions.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
And shout out to Lucky, he's a friend.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yes, shout out Lucky. We see you boo. Appreciate you
very much. So cool, so so cool.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And it really feels happy, like very genuine that this
is a good move for yourself, like yourself in the
sense of your well being, your spirit, having that end
data and knowing that things are about to change, like
for the better, that you're really doing this for you.
(27:08):
I really feel that like in this move, and I'm
really excited to see what.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
All you do and where all you go. You know,
I don't I think you're going to be a world traveler.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I just see you in all these different places and
moving about the world, you know, not just the country.
I think to say, like you, moving about the country
would be limiting you. So I expect you to see
you in all different countries, in all these different places,
and eating all this good food and being insanely jealous
one thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I'm very excited to travel and live out my travel fantasies.
Just get lost in other places with other people.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yes, and being lost in these other places and being
in different places, right, They're going to be different opportunities.
How do you see your travels the move to start,
but through travels in general, like impacting how you freelance
and how you consult.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I feel like the travel is going to give me
a greater sense of purpose and motivation in my freelancing
work that I do, because you know, part of the
traveling is precisely that I don't just want to show
up to a new location just to sit in the
(28:30):
very tourist areas on my laptop all day. The whole
point is I am going to dive into the culture
I want to go in and like learn how to
make the food. I want to make sure I'm speaking
the language. I want to make sure I'm engaging in
the cultural arts that are around me. So for example,
(28:53):
for Brazil, you know, I'm going to find a samba school,
going to find a jiu jitsu school. I speak Portraitue already,
so I'm going to stop speaking English. And that requires
time and effort and dedication. And I can only have
that time for myself if I'm really focused and dialed
(29:14):
in on the work that allows me to even be
there in the first place.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
M h m hmm.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's so dope that that immersion is going to be
so insightful. It's something that you can't get from a book.
It's something you can't really get from other people's point
of view. You have to experience it yourself. So that
immersion is going to be so awesome to see and like,
I can't wait to see what all you learn and
(29:43):
what all you pick up, and it's just going to
be so dope. Okay, So we talked about work a
little bit. We've talked about how you're feeling about it.
What has it been like planning to transition to this
new location and lifestyle, Like the logistics of everything, the.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Planning of the logistics of actually moving is where I
start to feel overwhelmed a little bit because there are
so many moving pieces and so many tedious little details
to it. But I have no choice. They have to
get done, they have to get addressed one way or
the other, and they have to happen. And again, that's
part of it. And the reason I don't have many
(30:20):
complaints about any of that is precisely because the their
purpose of actually arriving is worth whatever tedious little things
I have to do to get there. So you know,
it's breaking my lease, it's going to the doctors and
the optometrists and the dentist one last time. It's making
sure my documents are in order. It's making sure that
(30:43):
my banks know that I'm going to be charging things
from abroad and making sure they have a travel card,
making sure that I find a place to land safely.
So fun fact, I know absolutely nobody in Rio, nobody,
(31:06):
And one of my goals is that I do not
want to stay in a hostel and I do not
want to stay in an ARABNB. I want to stay
with someone who is from the city. That is difficult
considering I know nobody in the city, so that is
a little bit overwhelming. But some things have lined up.
(31:26):
I met some Brazilians at the gym yesterday and they're like, yeah,
like we'll help you out, like you know, you know,
like I'm going to be back in about a week,
like hit me up, like we can go out. I
can show you this, I can show you that. And
I got connected with somebody else who has been living
in and out a Rio for thirty years.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Yeah. So he's been very gracious to offer to come
up to Rio from where he's at now and spend
at least a week getting me at Alington with the
city once I land.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Wow for you, for you, like the way all of
that just lined up to meeting the Brazilians in the
gym to like, oh yeah, I live down there, I'll
meet you, I'll meet you, I'll hook you up, like
let's go hello.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Could it be any more for you?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Like at this time, at this date, like in that
place is just perfect perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah. So those are the things that are worrying me
right now. Like the big idea of getting on a
plane and flying is exciting. Everything leading up to that
is all sorts of busy work, getting all these appointments
out of the way and making sure my papers are
more making sure that like my stuff is in storage,
(32:44):
I have a And obviously, as soon as you decide
to travel, you realize how many unexpected expenses are starting
to come up.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Truly, Oh my goodness, what have you run into so far?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
So, for example, I am running out of car contact lenses,
so I have to go to the optometrist, get a
new test, and buy new contact lenses, which are going
to be expensive. And obviously I have to get the
cheaper like monthly or bi weekly versions because days whatever,
I'm not getting into it. I need a new pair
of glasses because I'm not wearing contacts all the time.
(33:22):
I want to film content, and so I need to
replace a phone that I lost so that I show
up with two phones so I can get multiple ankles
of things. I have to buy tripods for the phones,
all sorts of things to start piling up. I mean,
that's just that's just a little laundry list things here
(33:44):
and there, like and then I'm looking at my bank account.
I'm looking at my bank account and like eyeing in
and they're like can I do this? And I'm looking
at like I'm looking at like depending payments that are
about to be processed that are going to hit my
back account, and I'm like, can I do this?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And like, if I look at it long enough, maybe
more money will appear in there.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I'm hoping.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm hoping, keep hope alive. Friend, don't look, don't give up.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I'm gonna drop my ben Mohen. I'm gonna drop my
ben Mohen.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Here, you guys, don't please do We will link all
of your information in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
So Venmo cash app.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
You know, support young Zell, okay, support my friend on
his immaculate journey through the world. It's I'm so excited.
All right, y'all, We're gonna take another quick break and
we will be right back. All right, y'all, welcome back.
(34:42):
I'm still here talking with Hobby about quitting LA and traveling,
like literally traveling the world. So we've talked a lot about,
you know, what's led you to leave the city, what
your experience has been like in preparing to leave, and
I want to talk about what the looks like once
you're there.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We've talked about the fact.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
That being in new places is going to open up
so many new opportunities, and I want to kind of ask, like,
how does this change align with your long term goals
and aspirations. What do you see yourself doing as you're
moving throughout the world.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I think there's the lines of my goals in the
way that I am going to be able to create
the content that I want to see and to take
myself on a journey that I want to go on.
So the content is literally just a physical conduit for
(35:43):
the experiences that I want to create for myself. It
provides me structure for these experiences. So for example, you know,
if I'm going to the jiu Jitsu gym and I'm
giving myself like a ninety day challenge of the gym
and content around that. The content is only to keep
me accountable to this so that in ninety days I
(36:05):
can look back and have a body of work that
shows my journey of growth in one little aspect of
life that I've always wanted to explore. So fundamentally, it's
an exercise of growth and recording the memories and the
experiences that created that growth. And again this goes back
(36:29):
to me saying that one of the reasons I want
to live was leave work was I wanted full ownership
and creative control of myself as well and this is
exactly that I want to learn how to be a
better jiu jitsu fighter. I'm going to do it. I
have ninety days to get better. What am I doing
(36:50):
to get better? So fundamentally, the content is really for
me and for me to see me in look and
have something created that I find visually placing in a
storyline that I like and that the goals that I'm
hitting the I want like. Basically, each pieces of these
(37:12):
content and the challenges that I'm going to give myself
is they're just it's storytelling. I'm just taking myself from
a little hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Oh that's so cute.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, thirty sixty ninety days at a time, I just
have a little hero's journey.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yes, And we will make sure to link all of
Hobby's information where you can keep up with his journey
in the show notes, so that way you can follow along.
For those of us that are in LA or in
other places in the US and you're thinking about traveling
and immersing yourself and some new activities, some new opportunities,
some new places, you can check out Hobby's journey before
(37:48):
you do that, so we'll make sure to have that
linked and where I.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Want to move to.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Next is what are you most excited about when it
comes to going to rioing this step and getting on
that flight?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
What excites you the most?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
What I'm most excited about is finding a different version
of myself. I feel like once I get there and
I really start focusing on embedding myself in the culture
and letting it sit in my body and experiencing what
it's like to live, dance, eat, breathe, maneuver a city
(38:26):
like the Brazilians do, it's going to add to who
I am in a different way, especially because I'll be
doing it in their language, so you know, picking up
their manners, speaking up the like the the the unique
little ways that they do things that you know, sort
(38:46):
of like the colored nuances of life that they have
that are going to be new to me, and you know,
trying things on seeing the bit mazing if I like them,
and just developing myself in that way. It's going to
be so much fun. And I think it's going to
be so much fun to do that into any culture
that I've had in.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Heck, yeah, it's going to be so dope.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
All of these variations of hobby all over the world
so cool. Okay, as we are wrapping up, I always
try to share any type of advice. I mean, your
story in and of itself is going to be a
great point of reference for a lot of folks, and
I think it's going to be very inspirational for a
lot of people that are feeling the same about being
(39:28):
a hamster.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
On the wheel.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Honey, what advice would you offer to anyone considering quitting
their current location and starting a new adventure.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Do it. You will never regret having done it. You're
always going to be extremely scared to do it, You'll
never regret having done it. None of these crazy decisions
I've ever made in my life have I ever regread it.
I've fallen down, not gotten my ship headed back to me,
(39:58):
but I never regretted any of it. So I think
my advice is just go for it. There's you're your
own hero. You're on your own journey. Like, don't let
whatever expectations anybody or any other entity has of you
(40:18):
at the end of the day tell you what to do.
You tell yourself what to do.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Mm hmm. You were the author of your own story.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
One.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Thank you so much for this conversation. Friend.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Are there any other parting words or messages you want
to leave the folks that are listening with before we
close out.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, I think I gave it all. I got you guys.
Have fun follow along for more perfect.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Did y'all hear Hobbies? Just do it good? I hope
Nike did too. Hello, Sponsor us, Sponsor us AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
As we conclude this episode of The Big Quit with Chris,
I wanted to leave you all with some thoughts that
have been on my mind.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about leaving get all behind?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Honestly, I've had moments where I kind of wish I
could do the thing that I've seen in movies where
they throw a dart at a map and they're like,
wherever this dart lands, That's where I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And who knows, maybe one.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Day I'll actually do that, at least for a vacation.
Right Like that seems like a good time. The story
of Hobby's bold decision to leave La for Rios also
sparks an important conversation amongst us as a community. It's
not just about changing scenery, but it's about embracing the
unknown and stepping out of your comfort zone so you
can step into yourself, So I invite you to take
(41:32):
a moment to reflect.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Have you ever thought about leaving your country?
Speaker 1 (41:36):
What reasons would prompt you to embark on such an adventure, Or,
if you've already taken the plunge, what wisdom would you
share with others considering a similar path. Feel free to
share your thoughts, stories and aspirations with us, connect with
us on social media, or drop us an email at
the Big Quit with Chris at gmail dot com. Your
experiences might inspire others who are standing at their own crossroads.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Life is a series of chapters.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
And each one presents an opportunity for a fresh start.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of The
Big Quit with Chris and Never Forget Quitters Win two.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
All right, y'all, I hope you enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Thank you so much for hanging with us, and we'll
see you in the next episode.
Welcome to The Big Quit with Chris, a show that
originally started off as a place to connect with those
that identified as part of the Great Resignation and said
see you to their jobs, and has evolved to a
show where we talk about how quitting is just the
beginning for so many things. Whether it's leaving a job,
a relationship, a comfort zone, or any other status quo.
We're here to explore the courageous journey of letting go
(00:27):
and embracing new possibilities. What's up, good folks, Welcome to
a brand new episode of The Big Quit with Chris. Today,
we're not just talking about quitting a job, We're talking
about quitting an entire city. In this conversation, you'll meet
(00:48):
my friend Jave, currently a fellow Angelino that was born
in El Salvador and is about to embark an incredible inventure.
As I'm recording this episode, you may be able to
hear Hurricane Hillary in the back, providing an oddly fitting backdrop.
It's kind of funny, isn't it. Out Here, where the
cost of living can feel like an unending uphill battle,
(01:08):
we're braving storms of all kinds, from the weather to
just trying to exist here in La These days, I'm
more anxious about what next week's gas prices might be
than I am about this rain. But neither here nor
there let me shift gears. Lately, with the swirling currents
of political and social change in the US, many of
(01:29):
us find ourselves pondering our contingency plans just in case
we ever need to leave the country behind, and that
just in case is looking like a win we need
to leave the country behind. At this point, I'll be
honest with y'all, I have daydreamed and am willing to
admit that I have watched walking tours on YouTube about
Portugal Lisbon, to be exact, and a lot of my
(01:49):
friends have a list of countries on their radar too.
Yet what sets Hobby apart is the decisiveness that most
of us can only envy. Hobby takes us on a
journey of introspection and audacity, from the first fleeting thoughts
of departing to the pivotal moment of purchasing that ticket
to the unknown. What propels someone to abandon the familiar
(02:10):
and embrace the unfamiliar, to swap palm trees for samba beats,
which honestly sounds like a good deal to me. We'll
unravel the layers of courage, excitement, and perhaps a hint
of trepidation that come with bidding farewell to one life
and embracing the promise of another. So, whether you're contemplating
a major life shift or simply curious about the allure
(02:30):
of new horizons, punch your ticket and join us as
we delve into Hobby's extraordinary narrative. This is The Big
Quit with Chris. Hey, y'all, welcome to this episode of
The Big Quit with Chris. Today, I have my friend
Hovey here with me and we are talking about quitting LA.
(02:50):
My boo is leaving me. But I thought it was
really fitting for us to have this conversation because you
are not the only person that has had this on
their mind. You and I have had frequent conversations actually
about beating the hell up out of here, but.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
You're actually doing it. So I really am excited to
chat with you about this.
Speaker 1 (03:11):
And my friend, you are an LA native and you've
decided it's time to go.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Tell us what made you decide to quit LA.
Speaker 3 (03:19):
Well, starting off, I've been here in twenty five years,
so I moved here when I was six years old,
and I never left. Really, I have never lived anywhere else.
I went to college here, I started working in the
entertainment industry, so again I was landlocked to LA. And
(03:44):
I've always wanted to travel. I've always wanted to go
explore the world. I've always wanted to go get lost
in other languages, cultures, and go entertain myself in other ways.
And I'm La for me was a city of necessity,
a city of desire. I was here because, as an
(04:04):
immigrant child, my parents brought me here. You know, I
didn't have a choice, and I moved from one location
to an extremely different one, and I had to adapt
and survive and grind and hustle like all immiference to
And I've just gone to the point where I have
(04:27):
a choice, So I made the choice.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
I love this. Do you think it's permanent.
Speaker 3 (04:35):
No, I don't think it's going to be permanent. But
I think my relationship with La is going to fundamentally change.
I am never again going to be landlocked to the city.
I'm not going to be tied down to having to
do anything here. Everything is going to be much more
(04:56):
flexible and go with the flow and there's going to
be a lot more traveling and exploring the world at large,
more than there ever was. So I will be back.
I just won't be back the same way.
Speaker 2 (05:11):
You better be back. Yes, I'm putting that on record.
You better be back friend.
Speaker 1 (05:18):
And you mentioned you mentioned how La has really been
an integral part of your life, even though with a
city of necessity and not necessarily a city that was
part of your heart's desire. How would you say that
your experience in La has shaped your perspective on life
in your personal growth, I.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Wouldn't be the person that I am today without growing
up and being here in La. After about twenty three
years of being here, I finally went back and visited
a Salvador, which is where I was born and grew up.
And after more than two decades of being here in
the United States and being in La, no longer Salvadorian.
(06:02):
I am fully Americanized, and I'm fully integrated, and I
have remnants.
Speaker 4 (06:08):
Of that culture that I left behind, but I am
very much you know, my identity is very much a
American to a certain extent.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
So in regards to growth, what I think is cool
about in La is that at the end of the day.
It set me up for an extremely well educated, well cultured,
lived experience that prepares me really well to jump out
(06:41):
into the world. You know, from growing up around of
multiple different languages and all of their cuisines and all
of their cultures so easily accessible at any time during
the day, I think really formed a very specific expectation
of the world in my psyche and it just left
(07:06):
me better prepared to leave. In a sense, it was very
I think the best way to put it is like
it was very educational. It was all very very educational,
from getting an American education, to going to one of
the best universities in the country, to working in one
of the most recognized industries in the world, to being
(07:29):
surrounded by all sorts of cultures. There's literally nothing that
I haven't been exposed to, or nothing that I can't
get comfortable with or explore or be adventurers with, Like
I can, I can do it all?
Speaker 2 (07:46):
You truly can.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I have yet to see you run instantly You're like,
I don't know how to do that or you don't
know where to find the answer, because hello, we're all
like good bessies with chat GPT, and speaking of chat, GPT.
I know that you freelance a lot, and you consult
and you work with a lot of different clients to
(08:09):
help get them to where they want to go in
the media industry and in this different and all these
different fields, because you again are kind of a little
bit of a jack of all trades where you can
do a little bit of everything. Would you say that
work or work opportunities or lack thereof, or your experiences
with work, play any role in the decision to like,
(08:31):
you know, I think I can leave LA for a minute.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
Absolutely. I think one of the things that when I
first started out my career back in twenty fourteen, when
I graduated, one of the things that was really always
in the forefront of my mind, even if I couldn't
put a name to it, was the idea of being
(08:56):
free in a sense at this sort of the umbrella
idea for a lot of different things, like I wanted
to be free to be creative, I wanted to be
free to be fully seen and supported and heard. I
wanted to be financially free. And I felt because at
(09:19):
the time I didn't have any other resources or no
other way to go about it that I knew or
was accessible to me. I felt the only way to
go about it was to continue constraining myself within corporate America,
because at the end of the day, it's training to
(09:40):
a certain extent, and there are skills that I've picked
up throughout those almost a decade that have been cumulative
enough that allowed me to be here today, you know,
because of that journey of consistently learning and working very
(10:02):
hard and having a work ethic and try and do
my best in whatever situation, even at the expense of myself.
Sometimes there was always in the sense of I am
moving forward, I'm learning, like I'm going to capitalize on
this someday, like I'm going to figure it out, And
at the end I did. I was writing along. So
(10:24):
my work in the entertainment industry and my work at
marketing agencies have all accumulated into me being able to
freelance as a marketer or I'm a strategist and working
social media and entertainment verticals without having to be tied
(10:44):
down to a corporate office.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
Do you remember your last like corporate gig and when
you were like, you know what, m I don't want
to do this anymore. It's time for me to be free.
Speaker 3 (10:58):
Literally, yes, I do so. Twenty twenty one was the
first time I went back to Old Salvador, and I
spent a total of three months away from the United States,
and in that I was doing a lot of soul
(11:20):
searching and really figuring out what I wanted and what
I wanted to do. And I was very, very very
exhausted from all the years of working and grinding and
the pandemic on top of it, and so I just
needed to break any to trust. And when I came back,
(11:40):
my former co workers and a marketing agency had all
for the most part collectively moved on to another agency.
And before I started to travel, they had wanted me
to come on board on their strategy team, but I
wasn't able to because I traveled, I wasn't able to
work abroad with a company it was not allowed. So
I come back and a week later I post I
(12:03):
publicly announced I'm back in LA and an hour later
my former boss calls me and he's like, you want
a job, And I was like, okay, sure, I mean
I had nothing else to do. Like I knew I
was coming back to LA And funny enough, I remember
on the plane ride into La I. I was looking
(12:25):
out the window as the plane was landing, and I
was looking down at the city, and that was like
a thick layer of dark brown smug over the entire city.
And I remember being very resigned to landing. I remember
being like, great, I'm back in LA Because again I
(12:46):
didn't have any options, any other resources to just leave
and be gone. So I felt like I was just
putting myself back into this golden cage. And I was
having to get reacquainted with being being pent up and
trapped in this life that I love of pent up
(13:07):
and trapped in this life that a lot of other
people move here for so long story short, I ended
up taking the job and that I was there for
two months before I pulled the plug. And for me,
the whole thing was that I was back to a
relentless nine to five grind. I was online all the time.
(13:32):
My mental health started to deteriorate again, my physical health
started to deteriorate again, just because when you're on the
grind on your computer all day, like healing slacks and
emails and to do some assignments, and you know, you
have to be on all the time. It was very
difficult for me to breathe and to step away and
(13:52):
to take care of myself. And eventually, after two months,
I was like, I can't do it anymore. I just
I don't care. Like as much as I loved that
the people that I worked with, and how cool it
was to be doing what I was doing, because I
was working at a very very prestigious marketing agency with
(14:14):
some amazing, amazing people that I'm really whose company, and
I really enjoyed the entire work environment, which was really
unhealthy for me personally. And it was absolutely one of
those things where I was at the edge of the
cliff after two months, like looking over the edge, being like,
(14:34):
am I going to do this? Am I going to not?
Am I going to do this? Am I going to not?
And what pushed me into it was that I was
at a coffee shop and I'm doing my work and
I struck up a conversation with a guy and he
was looking to be more creative and he was looking
to develop, you know, a creative outlet of sorts, and
(14:59):
we got to talk and he liked my advice, so
he contracted me for like about an hour a week
at an insane price for that hour that I had
never before been paid in my life. It was multiple,
multiple times what I was getting paid at an hourly basis.
(15:21):
Oh And I remember sitting there looking at like, Okay,
I'm grinding my ass off eight hours a day for
this much an hour, and this guy here thinks like
all the shit that I've accumulated that's in my mind
over the past ten years is worth is much an hour.
That's wild And I was like, obviously, this is a
(15:46):
direction that I have to go in. There's it's not
worth being on like a fifty k salary to be
a you know, a coordinator when I can have I
have more power and more influenced direct influence on things
that matter at a much higher price point. M hm.
(16:11):
And so all of that coalesced into me one Friday
walking into the office, going up to my manager privately
in her office and just being like, Hey, I have
something to tell you. She's like what She's like, and
I'm like, I'm putting in my two weeks today, and
(16:32):
she was floored. She was like what she was like,
that's so crazy because I normally have I get like
a feeling, like intuitive feeling when something like this is
going to happen, and I did not get that at all,
Like I had no idea this was coming. And she
was like, why, what's going on. I was like, it's time,
Like it's just time that I do it, Like I
(16:54):
need to be out of my own and I've had
enough of being in a structure where I am just
a piece of a puzzle and I have my little
hamster wheel, my little cog that I run round in
to make sure the whole machine works. I have zero
experience in actually being my own person, like fully no experience,
(17:20):
like I don't even know myself to a certain extent,
because I've been so caught up with work. And it's
time that I fully own something and I created with
my own two hands, and that I am fully truly
responsible for it. And I don't want to have to
answer to Disney's fifth revisions of a gradient palette that
(17:47):
we've been working at for two weeks.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Like, after five revisions, boot just say that this is
not what you want and let's move on.
Speaker 3 (17:57):
So I walked into the manager's office and I flat
out just gold her I'm not doing this and more
I'm putting my two weeks. She was floored, but she
understood when I explained that I just wanted to have
my own thing. I wanted to be much more responsible
for myself. I wanted to be more entrepreneurial. I wanted
to do with left fut like I wanted to experience it.
I wanted to sit up my body. And so I
was over it. And that's that was said and done.
(18:19):
I had made up my mind. I walked into the office,
I gave my two weeks notice, finished out my two weeks,
and then I left the office and sat on the
right back home in shock. I was like, I literally
just did that. I felt so liberated and so scared
at the same time. And I was like, I just
did that, and I have no idea what I'm doing.
(18:41):
And I didn't have like a nest egg or that
much money in my bank account. I had nothing, literally
nothing to my name, and I was like, I'm going
to do it anyway.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
Yes, feeling the fear and doing it anyway is like,
it's such an interesting moment because you know that no
matter what, things are going to change, and all you
can kind of do is like hope that they're changing
for the better. But it's still such a powerful experience
to get to that point of saying I want to
be me. I don't want to be hobby the entertainment professional.
(19:15):
I want to be hobby the hobby like I want
to be myself and really take a chance on yourself,
which sounds like that's what you decided to do going
into freelancing, And I.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
Want to go back a little bit.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
Because when you ran into the guy that hired you
as a contractor and he's paying you like way more
than your normal rate, right, how did that feel to
run into some money that recognized your worth at that level.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
I feel like I refuse to let myself feel anything
about it because I didn't think I was ready to
receive that kind of a compliment. I thought it was
crazy that he would just not blink an eye and
(20:02):
be like, sure, I'll pay you that much. And I
just ran with it. And I remember I would show
up to every meeting being like, Okay, we're doing this.
And I really pushed him on his creativity and I
really poured as much as I could into him. But
what I felt about it myself, I felt empowered and
(20:25):
I felt scared at the same time, empowered because there
was a certain degree if it's one thing I learned
very early on in my childhood here in the States
was that I had to believe in myself. I had
no choice. So at my very core, I will always
believe in myself despite what my emotions may be in
(20:45):
any moment. And at the same time, my emotions were
that I was very scared to believe it was true.
Like I was like, this is crazy, Like that's nuts,
Like I can't believe this is real. Intuitively, it felt right.
So I decided to again follow that thread and see
(21:05):
where it took me, even though I was a little
hesitant about it.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Mm hmmm.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
I love this again, feeling that fear and doing it
anyway and then being able to look back and be like,
but it felt right, and so I'm going to keep
following that. I think that speaks to again the idea
that sometimes you just know, like it's not always going
to be a big glaring sign, but it could just
be like the feeling that you're getting. So what we're
(21:35):
going to do, we'll take a quick break and then
we'll come back and we'll talk about your upcoming journey,
where you're headed, and how that journey and freelancing and
consulting are going to go hand in hand.
Speaker 2 (21:46):
We'll take a quick break and we'll be right back,
and we're back.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
So have you, I stated at the beginning of the
episode of what we've been chatting about a little bit
so far is the fact that you're quitting LA, You're leaving,
you're moving, and so I know that you just made
this decision like literally what seventy two hours ago has
not been that long And what has their response been
like so far from family and friends? Is it what
(22:19):
you expected or are you still in the process of
telling folks what's going on there?
Speaker 3 (22:24):
So what's funny is when I make these kinds of
decisions where I just decide, like I've made in my mind,
I'm gone into it, bought the ticket, I'm gone after that.
Nobody's reactions matter. I've made up my mind. So if
you like it, if you don't like it, that's fine,
that's your problem. My flight is still looked. I'm still leaving, yes,
(22:50):
God being sad. All the reactions have been super super positive.
Everyone's been shocked and everyone's been very very surprised, especially
when they learn it the speed at which things happened.
So for context for the listeners right now, it's Tuesday.
I had the idea on Saturday and bought my ticket,
(23:14):
my one way ticket Sunday night, and I leave in
two weeks, so I'm at the eleven day countdown before
I get on a plane and move.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
So, oh my goodness, tea minus eleven days. I'm personally
super excited for you, one, because it means I have
another place to come visit du and period. I know
you'll be back. You know, I know you'll be here
to visit. Mind is made up, people are supportive, Everything
is a go. You got a tea minus eleven day
(23:50):
countdown going on? What emotions have been coming up for
you as you're getting ready to depart from LA and
start this new journey.
Speaker 3 (23:58):
The first emotion that came up for me was a
sense of relief, honestly, And the reason that it was
relief was because in my mind, before I made the decision,
I was thinking of toughing it out for another eight
months till my lease was over, before I decided to
move and maneuver all of those things. And that Saturday morning,
(24:19):
when the thought hit me and the realization hit me, one,
I was indignant that I hadn't thought about this before
seriously or that I hadn't come to that conclusion seriously,
knowing how I had felt for so long. And two
I navigated through it by telling myself that the best
(24:41):
part was that I had a ride, I had figured
it out, had solved it, like I had my answer
now and my only path forward was to accept it,
embrace it, and move forward. And I had to leave
all those negative emunctions behind. It was a sense of relief.
(25:01):
I felt like even everything around me started looking much
clearer and brighter because I knew everything had an end date.
Speaker 1 (25:09):
I knew even in the LA smog, things were looking
brighter even.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
Exactly so, because I knew everything had an end date,
all of a sudden, things just started to make sense,
like things started to have purpose. And I was at
a wellness retreat this past weekend as everything was kind
of going down, and it just all coincided perfectly, you know.
I woke up the morning and on the way to
(25:37):
the retreat, the thought came to me. And then I've
spent the entire weekend thinking it over and thinking it
over while taking classes on wellness and power and finding
your inner sense of self and things like that. And
by the time I got home Sunday night from the retreat,
I was like, this is it. I'm doing it, And
(25:58):
it was again at the very edge of a cliff,
and my toes are over the edge. Buying the ticket
is jumping off the cliff and I have been tiptoeing
this jump for two days now. So I had a
friend with me at Sunday nights and he was sat
(26:22):
with me and held my hand basically while I process
the ticket. And it was said and done.
Speaker 2 (26:32):
Shout out to the friend.
Speaker 1 (26:33):
We love friend support, especially in major life transitions.
Speaker 3 (26:37):
And shout out to Lucky, he's a friend.
Speaker 2 (26:40):
Yes, shout out Lucky. We see you boo. Appreciate you
very much. So cool, so so cool.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
And it really feels happy, like very genuine that this
is a good move for yourself, like yourself in the
sense of your well being, your spirit, having that end
data and knowing that things are about to change, like
for the better, that you're really doing this for you.
(27:08):
I really feel that like in this move, and I'm
really excited to see what.
Speaker 2 (27:13):
All you do and where all you go. You know,
I don't I think you're going to be a world traveler.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
I just see you in all these different places and
moving about the world, you know, not just the country.
I think to say, like you, moving about the country
would be limiting you. So I expect you to see
you in all different countries, in all these different places,
and eating all this good food and being insanely jealous
one thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:40):
I'm very excited to travel and live out my travel fantasies.
Just get lost in other places with other people.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yes, and being lost in these other places and being
in different places, right, They're going to be different opportunities.
How do you see your travels the move to start,
but through travels in general, like impacting how you freelance
and how you consult.
Speaker 2 (28:07):
What does that look like for you?
Speaker 3 (28:09):
I feel like the travel is going to give me
a greater sense of purpose and motivation in my freelancing
work that I do, because you know, part of the
traveling is precisely that I don't just want to show
up to a new location just to sit in the
(28:30):
very tourist areas on my laptop all day. The whole
point is I am going to dive into the culture
I want to go in and like learn how to
make the food. I want to make sure I'm speaking
the language. I want to make sure I'm engaging in
the cultural arts that are around me. So for example,
(28:53):
for Brazil, you know, I'm going to find a samba school,
going to find a jiu jitsu school. I speak Portraitue already,
so I'm going to stop speaking English. And that requires
time and effort and dedication. And I can only have
that time for myself if I'm really focused and dialed
(29:14):
in on the work that allows me to even be
there in the first place.
Speaker 2 (29:19):
M h m hmm.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
That's so dope that that immersion is going to be
so insightful. It's something that you can't get from a book.
It's something you can't really get from other people's point
of view. You have to experience it yourself. So that
immersion is going to be so awesome to see and like,
I can't wait to see what all you learn and
(29:43):
what all you pick up, and it's just going to
be so dope. Okay, So we talked about work a
little bit. We've talked about how you're feeling about it.
What has it been like planning to transition to this
new location and lifestyle, Like the logistics of everything, the.
Speaker 3 (29:58):
Planning of the logistics of actually moving is where I
start to feel overwhelmed a little bit because there are
so many moving pieces and so many tedious little details
to it. But I have no choice. They have to
get done, they have to get addressed one way or
the other, and they have to happen. And again, that's
part of it. And the reason I don't have many
(30:20):
complaints about any of that is precisely because the their
purpose of actually arriving is worth whatever tedious little things
I have to do to get there. So you know,
it's breaking my lease, it's going to the doctors and
the optometrists and the dentist one last time. It's making
sure my documents are in order. It's making sure that
(30:43):
my banks know that I'm going to be charging things
from abroad and making sure they have a travel card,
making sure that I find a place to land safely.
So fun fact, I know absolutely nobody in Rio, nobody,
(31:06):
And one of my goals is that I do not
want to stay in a hostel and I do not
want to stay in an ARABNB. I want to stay
with someone who is from the city. That is difficult
considering I know nobody in the city, so that is
a little bit overwhelming. But some things have lined up.
(31:26):
I met some Brazilians at the gym yesterday and they're like, yeah,
like we'll help you out, like you know, you know,
like I'm going to be back in about a week,
like hit me up, like we can go out. I
can show you this, I can show you that. And
I got connected with somebody else who has been living
in and out a Rio for thirty years.
Speaker 2 (31:46):
Wow.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
Yeah. So he's been very gracious to offer to come
up to Rio from where he's at now and spend
at least a week getting me at Alington with the
city once I land.
Speaker 1 (31:58):
Wow for you, for you, like the way all of
that just lined up to meeting the Brazilians in the
gym to like, oh yeah, I live down there, I'll
meet you, I'll meet you, I'll hook you up, like
let's go hello.
Speaker 2 (32:12):
Could it be any more for you?
Speaker 1 (32:14):
Like at this time, at this date, like in that
place is just perfect perfect.
Speaker 3 (32:22):
Yeah. So those are the things that are worrying me
right now. Like the big idea of getting on a
plane and flying is exciting. Everything leading up to that
is all sorts of busy work, getting all these appointments
out of the way and making sure my papers are
more making sure that like my stuff is in storage,
(32:44):
I have a And obviously, as soon as you decide
to travel, you realize how many unexpected expenses are starting
to come up.
Speaker 2 (32:54):
Truly, Oh my goodness, what have you run into so far?
Speaker 3 (32:57):
So, for example, I am running out of car contact lenses,
so I have to go to the optometrist, get a
new test, and buy new contact lenses, which are going
to be expensive. And obviously I have to get the
cheaper like monthly or bi weekly versions because days whatever,
I'm not getting into it. I need a new pair
of glasses because I'm not wearing contacts all the time.
(33:22):
I want to film content, and so I need to
replace a phone that I lost so that I show
up with two phones so I can get multiple ankles
of things. I have to buy tripods for the phones,
all sorts of things to start piling up. I mean,
that's just that's just a little laundry list things here
(33:44):
and there, like and then I'm looking at my bank account.
I'm looking at my bank account and like eyeing in
and they're like can I do this? And I'm looking
at like I'm looking at like depending payments that are
about to be processed that are going to hit my
back account, and I'm like, can I do this?
Speaker 2 (34:04):
And like, if I look at it long enough, maybe
more money will appear in there.
Speaker 3 (34:08):
I'm hoping.
Speaker 2 (34:09):
I'm hoping, keep hope alive. Friend, don't look, don't give up.
Speaker 3 (34:14):
I'm gonna drop my ben Mohen. I'm gonna drop my
ben Mohen.
Speaker 1 (34:16):
Here, you guys, don't please do We will link all
of your information in the show notes.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
So Venmo cash app.
Speaker 1 (34:22):
You know, support young Zell, okay, support my friend on
his immaculate journey through the world. It's I'm so excited.
All right, y'all, We're gonna take another quick break and
we will be right back. All right, y'all, welcome back.
(34:42):
I'm still here talking with Hobby about quitting LA and traveling,
like literally traveling the world. So we've talked a lot about,
you know, what's led you to leave the city, what
your experience has been like in preparing to leave, and
I want to talk about what the looks like once
you're there.
Speaker 2 (35:02):
We've talked about the fact.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
That being in new places is going to open up
so many new opportunities, and I want to kind of ask, like,
how does this change align with your long term goals
and aspirations. What do you see yourself doing as you're
moving throughout the world.
Speaker 3 (35:19):
I think there's the lines of my goals in the
way that I am going to be able to create
the content that I want to see and to take
myself on a journey that I want to go on.
So the content is literally just a physical conduit for
(35:43):
the experiences that I want to create for myself. It
provides me structure for these experiences. So for example, you know,
if I'm going to the jiu Jitsu gym and I'm
giving myself like a ninety day challenge of the gym
and content around that. The content is only to keep
me accountable to this so that in ninety days I
(36:05):
can look back and have a body of work that
shows my journey of growth in one little aspect of
life that I've always wanted to explore. So fundamentally, it's
an exercise of growth and recording the memories and the
experiences that created that growth. And again this goes back
(36:29):
to me saying that one of the reasons I want
to live was leave work was I wanted full ownership
and creative control of myself as well and this is
exactly that I want to learn how to be a
better jiu jitsu fighter. I'm going to do it. I
have ninety days to get better. What am I doing
(36:50):
to get better? So fundamentally, the content is really for
me and for me to see me in look and
have something created that I find visually placing in a
storyline that I like and that the goals that I'm
hitting the I want like. Basically, each pieces of these
(37:12):
content and the challenges that I'm going to give myself
is they're just it's storytelling. I'm just taking myself from
a little hero's journey.
Speaker 2 (37:19):
Oh that's so cute.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yeah, thirty sixty ninety days at a time, I just
have a little hero's journey.
Speaker 1 (37:26):
Yes, And we will make sure to link all of
Hobby's information where you can keep up with his journey
in the show notes, so that way you can follow along.
For those of us that are in LA or in
other places in the US and you're thinking about traveling
and immersing yourself and some new activities, some new opportunities,
some new places, you can check out Hobby's journey before
(37:48):
you do that, so we'll make sure to have that
linked and where I.
Speaker 2 (37:52):
Want to move to.
Speaker 1 (37:53):
Next is what are you most excited about when it
comes to going to rioing this step and getting on
that flight?
Speaker 2 (38:02):
What excites you the most?
Speaker 3 (38:05):
What I'm most excited about is finding a different version
of myself. I feel like once I get there and
I really start focusing on embedding myself in the culture
and letting it sit in my body and experiencing what
it's like to live, dance, eat, breathe, maneuver a city
(38:26):
like the Brazilians do, it's going to add to who
I am in a different way, especially because I'll be
doing it in their language, so you know, picking up
their manners, speaking up the like the the the unique
little ways that they do things that you know, sort
(38:46):
of like the colored nuances of life that they have
that are going to be new to me, and you know,
trying things on seeing the bit mazing if I like them,
and just developing myself in that way. It's going to
be so much fun. And I think it's going to
be so much fun to do that into any culture
that I've had in.
Speaker 2 (39:05):
Heck, yeah, it's going to be so dope.
Speaker 1 (39:08):
All of these variations of hobby all over the world
so cool. Okay, as we are wrapping up, I always
try to share any type of advice. I mean, your
story in and of itself is going to be a
great point of reference for a lot of folks, and
I think it's going to be very inspirational for a
lot of people that are feeling the same about being
(39:28):
a hamster.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
On the wheel.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
Honey, what advice would you offer to anyone considering quitting
their current location and starting a new adventure.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
Do it. You will never regret having done it. You're
always going to be extremely scared to do it, You'll
never regret having done it. None of these crazy decisions
I've ever made in my life have I ever regread it.
I've fallen down, not gotten my ship headed back to me,
(39:58):
but I never regretted any of it. So I think
my advice is just go for it. There's you're your
own hero. You're on your own journey. Like, don't let
whatever expectations anybody or any other entity has of you
(40:18):
at the end of the day tell you what to do.
You tell yourself what to do.
Speaker 2 (40:22):
Mm hmm. You were the author of your own story.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
One.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
Thank you so much for this conversation. Friend.
Speaker 1 (40:30):
Are there any other parting words or messages you want
to leave the folks that are listening with before we
close out.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
No, I think I gave it all. I got you guys.
Have fun follow along for more perfect.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Did y'all hear Hobbies? Just do it good? I hope
Nike did too. Hello, Sponsor us, Sponsor us AnyWho.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
As we conclude this episode of The Big Quit with Chris,
I wanted to leave you all with some thoughts that
have been on my mind.
Speaker 2 (40:57):
Have you ever found yourself daydreaming about leaving get all behind?
Speaker 1 (41:01):
Honestly, I've had moments where I kind of wish I
could do the thing that I've seen in movies where
they throw a dart at a map and they're like,
wherever this dart lands, That's where I'm gonna go.
Speaker 2 (41:10):
And who knows, maybe one.
Speaker 1 (41:11):
Day I'll actually do that, at least for a vacation.
Right Like that seems like a good time. The story
of Hobby's bold decision to leave La for Rios also
sparks an important conversation amongst us as a community. It's
not just about changing scenery, but it's about embracing the
unknown and stepping out of your comfort zone so you
can step into yourself, So I invite you to take
(41:32):
a moment to reflect.
Speaker 2 (41:34):
Have you ever thought about leaving your country?
Speaker 1 (41:36):
What reasons would prompt you to embark on such an adventure, Or,
if you've already taken the plunge, what wisdom would you
share with others considering a similar path. Feel free to
share your thoughts, stories and aspirations with us, connect with
us on social media, or drop us an email at
the Big Quit with Chris at gmail dot com. Your
experiences might inspire others who are standing at their own crossroads.
Speaker 2 (42:00):
Life is a series of chapters.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
And each one presents an opportunity for a fresh start.
Thank you for joining us on this episode of The
Big Quit with Chris and Never Forget Quitters Win two.
Speaker 2 (42:11):
All right, y'all, I hope you enjoyed this.
Speaker 1 (42:13):
Thank you so much for hanging with us, and we'll
see you in the next episode.
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