August 2, 2023 • 50 mins
When Rogan Steele quit his corporate job to pursue an entrepreneurial and digitally nomadic lifestyle, he wasn’t sure what would happen next. However, he was adamant about traveling the world while pursuing his passion for filmmaking and vlogging. With his girlfriend turned fiancee, they’ve spent the better part of one and a half years traveling the globe while working remotely. From the outside looking in, most individuals think they are enjoying a “fiesta” every day because of social media. In this episode, Rogan gets real about the grit and grind needed to sustain this lifestyle, finding balance, and how others can pursue this way of life.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/globetrotters-podcast--5023679/support.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/globetrotters-podcast--5023679/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:14):
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. Here at the Globetrotters Podcast,
we hope to show that travel isso much more than how it's represented
on social media and television by bringingyou real stories, thoughtful discussions on ethical
issues, and investigations into how youcan make the most of an adventure without
(00:37):
breaking the bank. I'm your cohost Jonathan o'deto and I'm Maximo Gonzalez and
in our last episode, John interviewedAlice Norton. This episode demystified remote work
in twenty twenty three. Honestly,it's a great episode for anyone that wants
independence and a fully remote gig whiletraveling and being employed. Definitely, and
(00:59):
that's what today's show special and relevant. Lately, we've been trying to partner
episodes with the professional in the fieldwho can educate our listeners and us about
topics that pertain to travel. Alicewrote a great article in her newsletter about
embracing the digital nomad life and givinghelpful tips and tricks to help people secure
(01:19):
their dream remote job. In twentytwenty three, and today we have Rogan
Steel And I know what you're thinking. That's not an alias. He just
has a great name. Rogan isa Canadian who has lived in New Zealand
for nearly a decade and is wellinto his sect. His two year long
adventure of traveling the globe with hisgirlfriend turned fiance. Will get into those
(01:40):
deeds and how it happened a littlebit later, but both of them have
embraced the digital nomad lifestyle, embodyingsome of the tips that Alice outlined in
her POT. So far, Loganhas been on the road for nearly sixteen
months, and so far he's beento Indonesia, Portugal, Canada, Mexico,
Believes, Guatemala, Savodore and Duras, Columbia, Guador and Peru.
(02:04):
And you still have a few morecountries to visit before you're done. Rogan.
It's a pleasure to speak with you. Hey, guys, super excited
to be here. Thanks for havingme on great and listen, there's so
many questions we have for you aboutquote unquote, the digital nomad lifestyle and
what that means in practicality. Butbefore we get there, I think a
(02:25):
lot of people are listening and thinking, two years traveling the globe, how
are you paying for this? It'smy understanding that you had a corporate job
and saved anywhere between fifty to seventyfive percent of your earnings for years.
That's a lot of dedication and sacrificeto build up to this trip. Can
you talk a little bit about whyyou wanted to do a trip on this
(02:47):
scale and what sacrifices you had tomake in your day to day life to
make this trip a reality. Yeah, super good question. So I won't
go too far into my backstore,but I definitely took a little bit more
of an untraditional route when I wasyoung. I did my first trip overseas
(03:07):
when I was eighteen. I didn'tgo to college, and so I got
a taste for travel at a reallyyoung age, and like everyone else,
eventually, of course, I kindof fell into the traditional route of a
corporate nine to five, which hasits positives and negatives. It obviously allowed
me to save a lot of money, and after doing the first trip and
(03:30):
really really getting the travel bug,I think for me saving my paycheck,
you know, it took time.I was young, and I was figuring
out kind of what to do withmoney. That's something I wish they taught
you more in school, but theydon't. And so over time I just
kind of realized that, you know, I was still able to attend social
(03:53):
events and maybe not eat out asmuch and do the things I still like
to do, but but save theval majority of that paycheck. So that
would involve, you know, cookingfor myself every day and not eating out
for lunch, and maybe instead ofgoing to the bars on weekends, I
would buy a box of beers andgo to a friend's house instead. So
it was really simple stuff that allowedme to still maintain a good social life,
(04:18):
but also see that savings account grow. And that's probably the biggest key
point here is for the first coupleof thousand dollars, it doesn't seem like
much, but when you start seeingit get to six or seven, eight,
ten, fifteen, you almost getaddicted to savings account growing. Yeah,
especially knowing what you want to useit for. So for me,
(04:41):
you know, I've never had I'venever gotten to the stage in my life
where a house in a car wheremy priority. Maybe that'll happen in the
future, but you know, it'salways been these trips that I've saved for.
So I did a year long tripin twenty eighteen on my own.
I did a solo travel through SoutheastAsia, and of course this was the
(05:02):
biggest trip I had ever done.And I did that trip with probably about
twelve to fifteen thousand US dollars.I managed to make that last a year,
so I knew that I could doit, and I knew that that
was an amount of money that wasnot too insane to save up. And
so for this big trip with mypartner, I came back to New Zealand
(05:26):
because at the time she wasn't quiteready to leave, but she decided,
hey, you know what, ifyou come back to New Zealand, I'll
go with you this time. Andso we kind of both put our heads
down, worked really hard and saveda lot of money with the intention of
leaving and just kind of seeing wherelife was going to take us. But
budget did you have in mind?And have you been like too strict or
(05:50):
too loose about it? You know? What was your mindset there? Yeah?
So funny enough, I'm not muchof a planner. I'm very much
just just go with the flow kindof guy. My partner is there's a
little bit more of a planner,and so based on previous trips, for
me, like I know, Ican manage on a budget of probably safely
(06:12):
like fifteen hundred to two thousand USdollars a month for me is a really
good budget that sometimes, of course, if you're doing more crazy adventure activities,
you might go over. And thenother months, you know, if
we're just doing some work and youknow, doing cheap free walking tours and
lots of other things that don't costmuch money, it's it's super easy to
maintain that for us. And Brogan, is that through experience or did you
(06:36):
learn that from someone? That wasmostly through my own experience. I've done
trips with very very little money,like I said, eighteen in Europe,
you know, I did trips withvery little money, and then I've done
trips with a bit more, butit was mostly just through experience. And
like I said, surviving off thattwelve to fifteen thousand US for an entire
(06:59):
year year, I just kind oflooked at it and went, wow,
I actually you know, I didit, and that was that was kind
of that was an even smaller budget. But of course I was young and
I was staying in cheaper hostels then, and uh, you know, I
was living on a much tighter budget. I could eat noodles, and I
didn't have a partner to you know, get mad at me for eating.
This one was a little different andmaybe required a bit more budget, But
(07:23):
at the same time I knew,I knew it was very doable. And
of course traveling alone versus with apartner can change things too. You know,
we're able to split the costs ofaccommodation, and we're able to split
the cost of a lot of things, which can make stuff a little cheaper
sometimes as well. So and youknow, from talking to you and meeting
you, I know you have alot of cool experiences, and specifically around
(07:44):
this trip, I do want totalk about some of the iconic cities and
countries that you've been to. Butbefore we get there, I want to
first focus on the term digital nomad. I think oftentimes people intertwine and intertwine
and a travel influencer with the digitalnomad. The two aren't synonymous, but
they're often labeled in the same category. How do you distinguish between the two
(08:07):
and do you consider yourself one orthe other? Yeah, this is a
really, really good question, becauseI've thought about this a lot, and
I've had many discussions with people aboutit, you know, So like everyone
else, I'd spent many, manyyears trying to figure out what it is
I want to do with my lifeand pursue and a couple of years,
probably about two years before we left, I decided to quit my job and
(08:30):
pursue videography and cinematography and filmmaking fulltime. So I would never I would
not consider myself an influencer, eventhough maybe maybe there is some people I
influence. But I guess the termdigital nomad to me definitely resonates a little
bit more. I mean it's avery broad term, of course, but
(08:54):
you know, for me, it'sI always loved creating content about my travels,
and it was primarily for me.It was never for anyone else.
It was you know, I wasalways a big journal er on my trips.
I would love to journal, andyou know, because I don't know
if you've ever done it yourself,but me reading back my journals from my
first trips, I think nothing makesme laugh more in the world. It's
(09:16):
hilarious how much how much you forgetand the small details of the people you
meet and the things that happened,and and so for me, video is
just kind of another step to that. And so yeah, and you know,
in this trip, it's been alot of just figuring out for both
of us, myself and my partner, figuring out what the lifestyle of actually
(09:39):
being a digital nomad is, oror what even just being a digital nomad
is in general. And so that'staken a lot of yeah, a lot
of like introspective and extrospective you know, view and looking at at what it
means and if this is what wereally want, and we've we've found out
a lot of of really cool thingsalong the way about ourselves. So digital
(10:03):
nomad is a person who travels freelywhile working remotely using technology and the internet.
What do you I mean you mentionedfilmmaking. What do you and your
fiance do for work? And canyou tell us a bit about the pros
and cons of the digital nomad workspaceyou operate in? Yeah? So,
(10:24):
yeah, so I am a filmmaker, but I'm quite new to the industry.
So, like I said, Iquit my job a couple of years
before to pursue it full time.I didn't have any formal education or anything.
So it was I've always been avery much just like with my planning,
I learn on the fly kind ofguy. And so yeah, and
so I just you know, Igot freelance gigs doing weddings and some small
(10:48):
advertisements and things along those lines.And of course I've always loved kind of
expressing myself in my own way viaYouTube and things. On the other hand,
my partner, she is a designerwho does have a formal education.
She's a strategist and a creative graphicdesigner, you could say, and so
she has about a decade experience now. She followed the same path. She
(11:11):
quit her job about a year beforeto dip her toes into the world of
freelancing and kind of getting accustomed to, you know, not working in an
agency and going to work every dayand just getting a little bit used to
that lifestyle. But of course,nothing's ever going to really prepare you for,
you know, traveling around and tryingto find clients. So I would
say, you know, for us, it's I guess being a digital nomad
(11:35):
does require a lot of a lotof sacrifice. There's a lot of positives
and a lot of negatives. Thepositives are very obvious. You know,
you get to live in these amazing, beautiful countries that are so culturally rich
and so different from where we've allgrown up. And anyone who has traveled
and enjoys traveling knows that that's oneof the things we all love the most,
(11:56):
you know, to be engrossed ina different culture, in a life.
So every day is kind of newand exciting, but at the same
time, you know, you stillhave to work, and so it's quite
funny. I get a lot ofpeople who say, how do you do
it? You know, like it'sto most people. I think from the
outside, it feels like every dayis you know, a blast, and
(12:18):
we're going to a fiesta at somehostile and things like that. But in
reality, you know, sometimes wehave two or three weeks where we really
don't move. We sit here atthe kitchen table and we work and we
cook dinner, and you know,we might go out one night a week.
But we live a very very normallife. And things like you know,
finding a place with good internet that'saffordable, and you know, I
(12:41):
don't know, close to certain amenities. These are things that most travelers wouldn't
consider that they're on their trip.And while we're on the topic, I,
you know, I want to kindof educate our listeners he a little
bit and talk a little bit aboutthat work life balance that I think you're
talking about. You know, everyone'sdifferent, including you and your partner.
But how do you try to actuallysplit your time between play and work?
(13:03):
And how hard is it to staydisciplined? As you already touched on with
you know, your journaling, Yeah, for sure, I mean so it
definitely depends on the stage you're at. Two. So for me, I
spend a lot of my time tryingto acquire work. You know, this
is and it goes back to whatI said before, it's it's nothing is
as easy as it seems. Youknow. People make it seem like it
(13:26):
is a very easy thing to do. But everything, everything good, takes
time, you know, And I'mstill in the process of of I suppose
manage it or trying to get Iguess, full time income from this lifestyle.
My partner's cracked it. She's notmuch much further along. She's dedicated
(13:46):
a decade of her life to this. So for me, it's, you
know, it's still a timely process. But in terms of how we manage
our time. I mean, it'sactually worked out quite nicely trying with a
partner and doing this sort of work, because had we not had this work
to entertain ourselves, after sixteen monthsof seeing each other twenty four hours a
(14:09):
day, you know, you mightget a little tired of seeing each other.
Normal day to day life. You'reyou and your partner or girlfriend or
boyfriend whatever, you know, wouldgo to work, and you see each
other after work, and you know, and then same same and you spend
weekends together. So this is verymuch. You are together all the time,
and so for us it's you know, very much. We do keep
(14:31):
a semi Monday to Friday or youknow, yeah, Monday to Friday schedule
where we wake up and we makesome coffee and some breakfast, we get
to work, and a lot ofit is on the fly. We say,
hey, there's, um, youknow, there's salsa nite tonight at
this bar, and we go,sure, okay, let's clock off at
three today, you know, goout and roam the streets a bit,
(14:52):
and then we'll go do some salsayou know, which would which you would
do a regular office anyway, exactly. Yeah, And it's it's just very
much. I don't know, Somedaywe go, hey, let's work in
the evening tonight, so we wakeup early and we go out and get
a bus somewhere and do something cool, and then we start work at four.
(15:13):
So it's obviously we're not constricted bythe time, probably as much as
you would be on a normal dayto day life. But I would say
we still you know, we bothdo a lot of work, and we're
both very driven and passionate about whatwe do, and so yeah, it's
it's not as I wouldn't say that'sone of the burdens of this sort of
(15:35):
lifestyle. But you know what Iwould say about that, I think these
are the aspect well you're talking aboutright now is so important because this is
what's happening behind the scenes. Peoplesee your content, they see the cool
videos, the shots, but they'renot seeing the actual, you know,
effort that's going into just working sixor seven hours, whether it's early mornings,
(15:56):
late afternoons, and so I thinka lot of the time people will
just envy it without being the typeof person who's going to put in the
work or effort to make that areality. Because you do work, and
it's it's it's necessary to sustain thelifestyle, of course, and you know,
time goes by very fast, andso you know, I noticed this
when I was in Canada. Forinstance, I did some i guess you
(16:19):
could say normal work. I wentto my father works and logistics, so
I went to do some some manuallabor work to you know, maybe get
a bit of extra money. AndI didn't post much at all for maybe
a month and a half two months. But that period of time people very
much forget. And then if yougo back to posting a week later,
they're like, it's it feels tothem like a continuation of you've just been
(16:44):
living this life every day, youknow. So that is very very applicable,
and I think it's one of thosethings that no matter who you look
at, whether it's the most famousinstagrammer or YouTuber or whoever, you know,
they're not going to post them sittingat a desk every day. And
what you see is of course thefun and the amazing stuff that they're able
(17:07):
to produce and see. But yeah, as you said, so much of
that time is spent just having maybea cooler view than your house. Don't
get me wrong. There is benefitsto working in these places. But but
you're still just sitting at your computerwith with maybe a nicer view. You
mean, you're not seeing squirrels outsideof your hotel right now, No,
(17:30):
I'm seeing to alpacas in the distance. You can see Machu Picchu from your
room, right like, that's ofcourse right there, okay, yeah,
right here. Yeah. One ofthe biggest challenges you keep bringing up is
finding work and finding clients. Whatapplications and tools do you use to help
you find more work? Yeah?So, um so this this is definitely
(17:55):
part of the journey, which isyou know, finding out one, of
course, what you like to do. But in reality, we can't only
do what we like to do.We also have to do some things that
we're just good at. And soto answer your question quickly, it would
be so upwork and fiber and applicationslike this. I think people have spoken
about them previously. You know,they're fantastic ways to find work, but
(18:18):
I think people forget how valuable alittle bit of self driven hunting is or
self motivation. I guess I'm tryingto think of the words to put here,
But you know, reaching out tofriends who might be in your industry,
or not even just friends, justpeople you've you might not know of,
(18:40):
or using something like LinkedIn to justyou really have to get out there
and reach out. So for me, a good example of this is I,
you know, by trade, wasa videographer, cinematographer, things like
this, but I didn't do muchanimation or motion graphics. But I knew
that that would be maybe not justmore lucrative, but also there would probably
(19:00):
be a few more opportunities in theindustry for that abroad. So so I
just self taught while we were onthe road, learned some new applications,
learn the ins and out to themand how to use them in my spare
time. And that has led tomy partner being able to, I guess,
hand people over to me or whensomeone inquires to her. Because she's
(19:23):
in the industry, she obviously canthrow my name out there, and so
this doesn't have to be a ship. Yeah, it's it's also very much
we are lucky it's a partnership interms of our industries. But even if
she wasn't my partner, you know, having that skill set and you know,
knowing a friend, I could say, hey, if anyone's ever looking
(19:44):
for this sort of work, couldyou throw my name out there? You
know? So, I guess broadeningyour skill set is also to me equally
as important as just maybe pinpointing onone thing and trying to find work in
that industry. It's you can dothat, but in terms of finding work,
it's going to be super beneficial toyou to I guess broaden your horizons
(20:06):
a bit and go, okay,not just what am I good at?
What do I what can I learn? And what can I get better at?
You know? So? And wherecan you source these different avenues of
revenue? Right? So exactly?Yeah, yeah, it's like like everyone
nowadays, right, you don't wantto have if you can manage it,
you know, you'd like to haveincome coming from maybe a few different avenues.
(20:29):
So a lot of people go settingup online shops and there's a million
in one ways, but all ofthem coming back to you know, they
take time. Nothing is going tohappen overnight. And I think that's the
biggest thing is, you know,people have to have patience and you might
have to live off noodles and broccoli, you know, for two months,
(20:51):
if that means and if you reallywant to live this lifestyle, you know,
that's what it means. You mighthave to do a great Yeah.
Yeah, you you bring up travelingwith your partner quite a bit. Let's
talk the Let's talk the dynamics oftraveling with a partner. Um, it's
one thing to go on vacation fora few days, or living together or
(21:11):
working different jobs that you know,you have time apart, they separate you,
you know for most of the day, but both of you are living
in this lifestyle, which means youspend the majority of your time together.
What has that experience been like foryou? Yeah, it's been really really
cool. I mean I've all ofmy previous trips of being solo. Um,
(21:34):
I've you know, been with friendson and off and things like that.
But you know, when you travelsolo, you obviously can wake up
whenever you want, go wherever youwant, and eat whatever you want and
you have no other opinion. Youhave no other opinion that that joins into
that. So this is very mucha life that I'm used to, uh,
you know, being a being ayoung bachelor. But um, yeah,
(21:59):
so me and my partner before weleft, it was kind of funny,
you know, we both said toeach other, Hey, this will
be the ultimate tests, right,I mean, for sure I never mentioned
engagement before, but you know,if I always had the idea in mind,
We're very close and so going onthis trip together was always going to
be that ultimate test. And Ithink overall, you know, when you're
(22:22):
traveling, everything is new and excitingand fun, and so for the most
part, it's fantastic to share anexperience with someone else that you care so
much about instead of just yourself.You know, it is very, very
it's great to have those shared experiences. But at the same time, you
know, there there are many manymoments where no matter who the two people
(22:44):
are, if it's your brother,your cousin, your mum, you're gonna
have large disagreements about Sometimes I wouldactually argue most of the time, it's
about the tiniest things. It's noteven the big things. The big things
are easy. It's normally the smallstuff. And of course, oh,
I was just gonna say, justlike trying to decide which couch to keep,
(23:06):
but go on, exactly, Yeah, the smallest things like that,
which couch to keep, or yeah, which Airbnb has the nicer couch?
I don't know, you know verymuch that's the case. Um, but
yeah, the overall experience is it'ssomething I would recommend for for anybody,
Like like I said, whether itis your brother or worse. Yeah,
(23:26):
for better or worse. But atthe end of the day, you're either
gonna probably never speak again or you'llbe the closest you've ever been in your
life after an experience like this,so totally. Yeah. Yeah, you
have to resolve issues that get broughtup. There is no um ignoring until
they go away, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, this is a topic that
I can spend an entire day talkingabout, just the dynamics between you know,
(23:51):
the travelers you meet and the impactthat they can have in your life,
even if it's just a brief conversation. Um, you know, just
to give our listeners contact. Roganand I met while diving in Belize,
and we you know, I spenta full week there, but I didn't.
I only we only spent about halfa day together on this diving expedition.
(24:11):
And you know it's led to allthis, so which which I'm thankful
for just that experience. We hada good time, but you brought up
like airbnbs and deciding which one hasthe better sofa. So I want to
talk a little bit about that.It's when do you decide, as as
a couple or as a team wentto splurge or went to rain. In
(24:33):
the spending, you mentioned that oneof your airbnbs and I found this really
funny had a blender. And howawesome and excited you were that an airbnb
had a blender. So how doyou how do you make those decisions?
Yeah, so dude, blenders,I mean things like that, a little
George Foreman grill that you can makeToastu's in, Like, just don't grow
(24:56):
your foot with it. You'll befine. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
you'll be good. But yeah,so kind of the way we travel is,
you know, of course, somewhatdictated by the work that's happening too,
So we might have two or threeclients on the go at one time,
and therefore, you know, it'skind of tricky to do the kind
of classical day to day traveling throughcountries. So Guatemala was a good example,
(25:22):
and Belize actually where we moved fairlyquickly, so we would spend two
days here going to the next placesee some cool stuff, three days here,
and during those times will normally spenda little less on accommodation. We'll
stay at some hostels to meet somepeople and make some friends and figure out
where they're going, and more ofthe quintessential travel I suppose you could say.
(25:45):
And then after probably about you know, a month of doing that,
we will say, okay, it'stime we may be reigning in a little
bit and focus a bit more onwork. So this is actually kind of
leading back to your other question ofreally how we manage our time with work
life balance is we'll do it inbig chunks. So after a month of
(26:07):
lots of excitement and lots of peopleand places and cool stuff, will say,
okay, let's find a city welike and you know, obviously one
that's kind of close ideally, andlet's find a nice airbnb that's comfortable and
has a blender and a rice cookerif we're lucky, and kettle and you
know, a fridge. And sothis is what we'll do, is we'll
(26:30):
say, okay, let's spend alittle bit more money somewhere comfy for the
two of us, and we canhave a bit more of a productive working
environment. Because this is one ofthe things I probably one of my biggest
weaknesses is I'm able to be selfmotivated and productive, but when I am
(26:51):
in like a hostile environment, Ivery much so can get FOMO very quickly.
Sat there on my laptop trying towork, and there's four cool looking
guys and girls who I'd love togo meet and have a beer with.
And so for us to kind ofwe almost have to flip the switch of
you know, traveling with a bitof work, we can still get it
done, but going to an environmentwhere we can really hunker down and you
(27:17):
know, be productive and get alot of work done. And yeah,
so I don't know about UMX,but I'm the exact same way. I
was just about to say, that'sa unique perspective and insight on the whole
travel and work dynamic because a lotof people, I think, would you
know, immediately default to day byday. How do you day by day
split up your time between work andplay? But you know, like you
(27:40):
said, weeks or a month oflike you know, hostels, hanging out,
going and doing really fun things,and then a month of hunkering down
and putting in that work. Ifeel like a lot of people don't think
about it in terms of that longterm commitment, right it's day by day
like, oh, for the firstfour hours, six hours, eight hours,
I'm gonna work, then I'm gonnago out right under. Yeah.
I think that's a really unique wayto think about it. Yeah, And
(28:03):
it was now that I think aboutit, you know, trying to That's
why I struggled to answer your questionat first, John, was because I'm
going, how do we manage ourday by day? But in reality,
it is a lot more long termin that sense it'll be week week by
week or month by month. Isway more of how we balance it.
So yeah, and even you knowyou saying that, I kind of caught
(28:25):
myself like the problem was in thequestion because I'm asking it from my perspective,
how would I approach traveling for thisamount of time? Because I am
the type of individual that would needto break it up, like, Okay,
on Monday, I am going towork for four to five hours in
the morning or the afternoon. Thisis what we're going to plan for the
afternoon or vice versa. I believemyself very little room for spontaneity and situations
(28:49):
like that, which I've realized throughthis podcast. Yeah. Yeah, and
it's it's definitely with a partner dynamictoo. Being solo, of course,
you can do this on your own, but you know, it's communication with
my partner too. She'll say,hey, you know what, look next
week, I really I've got alot on and so you know, I
go, okay, well, maybeI don't have a lot on, but
(29:11):
I will put myself in a scenariowhere I can keep myself busy, I
can learn something new, I cando some work on my own project or
whatever it may be. But thatdynamic of I need to sit and you
know, eat smoothies from our blenderand work or hey, I'm good,
let's go and do a bunch offun stuff for two weeks, like for
example, this trip we just did. We just spent three and a half
(29:34):
four weeks in Moto taxis in themiddle of the mountains, and working was
not working was not so easy duringthis trip. So you know, even
though my partner did take a fewconference calls in the back of the tuk
tuk, which was horrid, Iwould pay to hear those calls. If
I'm the client on the other end, I wouldn't even care. I would
(29:56):
be like, that's that's awesome respectyou made it. Ye. Yeah,
I'm telling people at the bar lateron that afternoon. Yeah, I took
I took a call with someone whowas riding in the back of the TIC
on this topic, How are theretimes where one of you is hunker down
and the other person is like,okay, well I'm gonna go do this,
(30:17):
and you know, either goes outon a little mini adventure or just
goes out for the night with peoplethey've met. Are there times where you
go out without your partner and viceversa, Yeah, for sure. I
mean, yeah, we definitely havethose times. My partner a bit more
than me. She's definitely keeping herselfsuper busy. But no, I mean
(30:40):
there's there's times where I mean,look, the nature of travel, it's
not even just work. Sometimes youjust don't feel like doing something. You
know, you might not hangover,you might just say hey, I need
to I need like two days justto rest because at the end of the
day, of course, every dayis fun. But like anything, when
you're having fun every day, youget kind of tired, for sure.
So yeah, there it could betimes, whether it's work or you know,
(31:02):
just wanting to chill out on yourown, have some alone time that's
also important. You know, I'llgo out and go see some cool lookout
point, or go to some coolrestaurant or bar with some people we met,
or I don't know, maybe it'sjust going out on your own and
doing something that's definitely a dynamic thatI think is super important, definitely one
(31:23):
that the one that we have aswell. It's just hey, go away,
I want to be alone. It'scool, fair enough? All right?
Seeing more communication? Yeah, yeah, all right, let's switch this
up a little bit and talk aboutstrictly the traveling aspect of your journey.
You listed El Salvador as one ofyour one of your favorite destinations thus far.
(31:45):
What made it so special to you? Yeah, I mean for me.
I don't know if it sounds cheesyor not. I'm pretty sure we
all yeah, we all, weall kind of crave. For me obviously,
just new experiences in general, butyou know, me in particular,
I really loved to be in environmentswhere I'm forced to speak a new language,
(32:10):
or like just fully immersed myself ina culture. We've all been places
that were full of tourists and youcould speak English to everyone, and it
was easy to make friends. Andthere was lots of things that kind of
cater to the backpacking tourist, butfor me, El Salvador was the polar
opposite. So for people that don'tknow, I mean, it was for
(32:31):
a decade one of the most dangerouscountries in the world, and so they
have kind of just come out ofthis era of kind of sadness and zero
tourism and a lot of danger andcrime. And so almost from the moment
we arrived, there was a lotof Americans who had emigrated and left the
(32:53):
country many many years ago, andthey were also coming back to their own
home country for the first time andjust so cited. You know, Oh
my gosh, where are you guysfrom What are you doing here? Oh,
we rented a big four by fourtruck. We're going to drive the
country. That's amazing. You haveto go here. You gotta go here,
and here here, And so thewhole experience was just really really special
(33:14):
because we felt like, I don'tknow, pioneers. It felt like a
country that really no one had goneto, and we were seeing, you
know, the countryside of this placeand meeting meeting locals, and it was
a really really immersive experience and onethat kind of completely came out of the
(33:35):
window for it, Like we justwe had no idea what to expect.
We were kind of expecting it tobe a little dangerous in things, but
of course, as per usual,you know, it turned out to be
the polar opposite. It was someof the kindest people we met. It
was. It was just it feltlike it was a group of four people
in a car and it felt likewe had a whole country to ourselves.
It was. It was really reallysomething special. Yeah, and so I
(33:58):
get why the adventure was special whenyou frame it that way, But what
did you actually do and see that, you know, what would stand out
or would catch someone's attention if youwere to promote Oh Salvador to them.
Yeah, I mean, like alot of Central American countries, the landscape
is gorgeous. You know, they'vegot volcanoes every five kilometers that just stretch
(34:22):
up into the sky and you canhike up them and see you know,
Honduras, you can see other countries. You just view forever and ever and
ever. I mean, the foodwas one of those things. I'd never
heard of El Salvadorian food in mylife. Never. I mean, here's
the thing. I'm Canadian and ofcourse a lot of my adult years in
(34:45):
New Zealand that's a little bit ofa mission for El Salvadorian people. So
there wasn't much El Salvadorian stuff there, but the food was amazing, the
papoosays and yeah, for me,like after seeing you know, the amount
of countries I have of the people, you really get a feel for a
lot of countries have kind people,but the people in this country. It
(35:10):
was a country that felt like itwas on the rebuild and it was very
uplifting. Every little town you wentto that people were so interested in knowing
who you were and where you camefrom and wanting to show you their family
and you know, just they wereso excited about showing people El Salvador and
(35:32):
how beautiful it is and all ofthe things that we just mentioned. It
was something I hadn't really experienced beforebecause a lot of other places are used
to seeing tourists, whether it mightbe backpackers or you know, more expensive
tourists, whatever it might be.There, you know, they're more places
are used to seeing that, andthere you really got a special feeling that
(35:55):
this was a place that in fiveten years might be the next Columbia or
Mexico or something. You know,it was very fascinating and it was really
special. Yeah, and you're you'reone of many that have recently told me
Il Salvador is the true hidden gemin Central America. I did an entire
episode on Nicaragua, which is wheremy family's from, so I was a
(36:17):
little biased, but that episode produceda few responses that said, oh no,
you got a trial Salvador. Okay, okay, maybe i'll speak on
it a little bit more highly.Yeah, and so you know, earlier
in the pot I mentioned how yourpartner went from a girlfriend to a fiance
on this trip, and we alreadytalked about how any sort of extend to
(36:39):
travel with a partner can be abig test on any relationship. And clearly
you two passed each other's test inyour mind. When did you say,
okay, this is a person forme, and tell our listeners a little
bit more about your engagement day becauseit is fascinating. Sure, yeah,
(37:00):
very good. We'll get into thesappy love stuff. Love it. Yeah.
If I'm honest, I kind ofknew. I kind of knew before
we went on this trip actually thatshe was the one for me. I
figured it out on my previous trip. It was very much a classic romance
novel you don't know what you haveuntil it's gone scenario. And I was
(37:22):
meeting all of these other friends andladies in my trip and you know,
no one ever kind of came upto scruff. So that was what sparked
us to do this trip together ingeneral, because I didn't want to stop
traveling, of course, and shewasn't quite ready to start, and so
when she was there, we went. So basically it was more of a
(37:42):
less catastrophe strikes this is what Iexpect should hopefully happen. And yeah,
we we just you know, asI said, we really both just had
such a fantastic time experiencing everything together. And like any of course couple of
friends would, we of course hadfights, but nothing ever extreme, you
(38:04):
know, just just the little stuffthat's expected. So as we we,
I guess I'll start from here,is we both dive and you know,
as when we met you John,but we've dreamed of going to the Galapagos
for many many years. We bothlove you know, marine life and the
ocean, and so this was somethingthat was kind of high on our bucket
(38:24):
list for quite some time, andso I got a ring in Canada.
Actually I got a custom made ringin my hometown when we were back just
to see family for the summer,and I carried it in my backpack for
seven months. Yeah, the ladywho made it thought I was insane,
which you know, I couldn't reallydispute that. A key here is air
(38:47):
tags. People put air tags inabsolutely everything. So so carried this ring
with me and that was always theplan. Was was Galapagos and had lots
of family who were messaging me,when are you gonna do it? Blah
blah blah blah blah. So wewent to the Glap of Ghosts and I
was waiting for the right time,waiting for the right time. It's never
going to be the right time.But we were on the island of Saint
(39:10):
Crystal Ball and they have one ofthe largest sea lion colonies. I won't
say the world because I don't knowthat's the case, but it is unbelievable,
just thousands of sea lions on thebeach. So I thought, oh,
this would be great. I'll proposeand then you know, maybe we'll
get attacked by sea lions. Thiswill make for a great a great engagement
to go viral, for sure.So we go to a beach and it
(39:36):
was a beautiful sunset. But then, of course, in true fashion with
my luck, it started to pourdown with rain, so we get soaked
all walking on our way to thisbeach. We arrived at the beach,
I was going, perfect, there'sgoing to be all the sea lions.
There was one sea lion. SoI try to set it up, of
course with my camera, because I'mnot going to not capture this moment.
(39:57):
And we're both soaking wet in thepouring rain. And she's used to me
telling her to go pose in placesfor videos and things of that nature.
So she poses right in front ofthe sea lion. He proceeds to run
after her and chase her, andso she runs away. Then the sea
lion rolls away. So I'm herewith a rainy shot, no sea lions,
with a little bit of sunset inthe background, and I just said,
(40:21):
you know what, after all this, I can't I can't put this
off any longer. So I wentand pop the question, and that was
that she you know, didn't runaway, so and you know, into
anyone listening I thought I had comeup with the perfect plan of proposing.
Here's Rogan who just blew half ofour listeners out of the water proposing in
(40:43):
the Galapagoes while diving. I tellyou what, though, no matter how
much planning you put into it,if that story didn't express to you that
it's never gonna go the way youthink it is, then I don't know
why. Well, um, speakingof your fiance, what impact has she
had in your life, you know, in terms of travel professional development?
(41:07):
Yeah? Huge. I mean ifI had done this trip solo, like
I said, I probably would havemade two videos in the last year and
a half because I'm by far thebig extrovert, and so you know,
for me, going to hostiles andpartying and doing crazy adventures with people and
this is the way I've always beenaccustomed to travel. So it's been a
(41:29):
kind of a full three sixty forme, of but she's brought enjoyment into
my life doing these things. Soshe's always been a super driven and focused,
passionate person with when especially when itcomes to work, and she really
loves what she does. And I'veseen her succeed exponentially since we've left,
(41:50):
and so that's been really motivating tome because you know, she was someone
who was also very much trapped inthe corporate nine to five cycles. She
was terrified to quit her job.You know, she was right, yeah,
and in my opinion, she wasbeing grossly underpaid. And you know,
I'm sure a lot of people feelthe same. And she ended up
(42:12):
taking the leap, and it tooksome time, but you know, now
she's got clients all over the world, some in the US and New Zealand
and Europe, and she's just reallyhit a stride. That is it's inspiring
for me to see because you know, I think one of the biggest things
people struggle with, including myself,sometimes is not seeing the success you expect
(42:34):
to see by certain ominous dates youput in your head. You know,
like for instance, with my personalcareer in YouTube and other filmmaking. You
know, I would if you askedme a year ago, I probably would
have thought I would have had abigger following, or I'd be making more
money or But at the end ofthe day, that's that's not really what's
(42:55):
important. But you have to remindyourself of that, you know. It's
it's more so it's the classic cheesyline of enjoy the journey. You know,
it's not about the destination, andshe really showed that, I suppose
because she enjoys what she does.I think a lot of people don't a
lot time for the educational and trialand air stage of you know, creating
(43:19):
a business or developing a skill set, and so a lot of the times,
like people expect to see progress immediatelyafter embarking on this journey, where
it's like, hey, you actuallyhaven't put in the time for the education
and for the trial and air,and so you're you're not going to see
progress without understanding the foundations developing yourniche and then kind of like you know,
attempting to execute and then touching ongoals. I mean, it's nice
(43:44):
to have foresight of like, hey, that would be a great goal to
hit at this time, and ifyou leave it there as a hypothetical,
sometimes you'll blow that goal out ofthe water. I don't want to say
without even trying, but without youknow, stressing it. And sometimes that's
the beauty of it when it worksout out when you're at least expecting it
too. Did my co host MaxGonzal say that or warm Buffett the most
(44:07):
insul notes. Yeah, for sure, Rogan. What piece of advice would
you give someone who wants to embarkon this type of lifestyle things that you
wish you would have known before yougot started? Yeah, piece of advice?
Yeah. I think one of thebiggest things I tell people is,
(44:30):
well, there's a couple of things, but you know, when you travel,
and I guess when people ask meonce again, it ties into kind
of the question or the thought ofhow do you do it right? What
I try to tell people is dowhat feels right. So you know,
you see people who travel for twoyears at a time like me, or
(44:51):
you see someone who does one monthlong holidays and then goes back to work.
You know, there's nothing wrong witheither because truly, the lifestyle you
want to live totally depends on youand not what anyone else is doing.
You know. So if you onlyhave five thousand dollars in the bank and
you go, oh, Rogan,saved up way more. I can't afford
(45:13):
to do that. It's it's thewrong way of thinking about it. Of
course you can, but you mighthave to go on workaway dot Com and
find a farm that will put youup for free and feed you, and
all you got to spend your moneyon is I don't know, some snacks
and maybe going out for beers.It's there's ways if you really want it,
if you really want to do something, there's always a way to do
(45:35):
it. It's not going to beeasy. Nothing is ever easy. But
I guess the to sum that upis just find out what you want to
do and what suits you and pursuethat. Don't try to travel like other
people or go on holidays like otherpeople. Just do what works for you.
Well said. And so before wefinished, we thought we'd hit you
(45:58):
with a few rapid fire questions aboutthe last sixteen months of your life.
So I hope you're ready. I'mready, all right. Best city or
a country that you've been to sofar? This is a very, very
hard question. It's probably the hardestquestion to answer. But I will say
Vietnam is a country. Okay.Best beverage you've had, alcoholic or otherwise?
(46:22):
Oh geez, you know what I'mgonna give Perua leg up. I'm
gonna say Peace Coast hours. Theyare Turkish. Here we go. I
agree. Most underrated city or country, Most underrated city or country? Who
these are Actually, I'm very impressed. These are pretty tough questions. I
(46:45):
mean, we were on the topicof El Salvador. I will Yeah,
I'm gonna give it to El Salvadoras a country, most underrated, best
country for food, best country forfood, Oh, Mexico by a country
mile. Okay, And so lastone, it's kind of you and your
(47:07):
fiance here, so both of youare divers, so it's only fitting we
end with this question the country withthe best diving. This is also a
very tough one because each country tendsto have one or two fantastic spots.
But if I want to make adive site too, I was gonna that
(47:27):
was gonna be my original question.Dive site. Yeah, in Malaysia.
Sipid End in Malaysia as a divesite is unbelievable, the best I've done
out of sixty seventy dives. Butif I was to give a whole country,
I would give Indonesia the leg upbecause they have so many islands and
so the vastness of diving is incredible, and they're all very good dives too.
(47:52):
So yeah, John, that soundslike we have to do a work
trip to those sites. So yes, Hey, I'm going to Indonesia November,
so I'm getting ready for that.Absolutely live aboard. It's the best
way to do it. Anyways,Rogan, thank you so much for being
on our show man. We reallyappreciate you all the insight and you know,
just hearing about your your journey withyour partner has just been fantastic.
(48:15):
It's super inspiring, and you know, I'm just super grateful to have you
on here. If our listeners wantto learn more about you, where can
they find you? Yeah? Youcan. Since my name is kind of
like a weird, a not usualname is the best way to put it.
You can look me up on prettymuch anything just by my name,
(48:36):
So Instagram, Rogan Steel, YouTube, Rogan Steel, Facebook, all all
the above. But yeah, thankyou guys so much. It's been really
really cool up and following your guysjourney as well since I met John,
and it's an awesome thing you guysare doing here. You get really cool
people on and I'm honored because comparedto some of these amazing people you've had
on here. Yeah, no,no, you are an amazing traveler,
(48:59):
you think, and you have amazingcontent which we will share and obviously give
you credit for when your episode comesout. Max. If they want to
find out a little bit more aboutus, they can by visiting our website
at www dot GTS podcast dot com. They can also find us on Instagram
or Facebook at Globetrotters Podcast, Twitterat globetrot Pod. Make sure you drop
(49:22):
us a review on Apple Podcasts orSpotify if you enjoyed listening to this conversation
or any streaming platform of your choice. That's right and editing was done by
Jonathan Ordero and last but not least, Rogan. Thank you so so much
for being here, and to everyoneelse out there, thanks for listening.
Until next Thanks guys,
You're listening to the Globetrotters podcast,the show dedicated to bringing you fresh and
diverse perspectives from traveling enthusiasts all overthe world. Here at the Globetrotters Podcast,
we hope to show that travel isso much more than how it's represented
on social media and television by bringingyou real stories, thoughtful discussions on ethical
issues, and investigations into how youcan make the most of an adventure without
(00:37):
breaking the bank. I'm your cohost Jonathan o'deto and I'm Maximo Gonzalez and
in our last episode, John interviewedAlice Norton. This episode demystified remote work
in twenty twenty three. Honestly,it's a great episode for anyone that wants
independence and a fully remote gig whiletraveling and being employed. Definitely, and
(00:59):
that's what today's show special and relevant. Lately, we've been trying to partner
episodes with the professional in the fieldwho can educate our listeners and us about
topics that pertain to travel. Alicewrote a great article in her newsletter about
embracing the digital nomad life and givinghelpful tips and tricks to help people secure
(01:19):
their dream remote job. In twentytwenty three, and today we have Rogan
Steel And I know what you're thinking. That's not an alias. He just
has a great name. Rogan isa Canadian who has lived in New Zealand
for nearly a decade and is wellinto his sect. His two year long
adventure of traveling the globe with hisgirlfriend turned fiance. Will get into those
(01:40):
deeds and how it happened a littlebit later, but both of them have
embraced the digital nomad lifestyle, embodyingsome of the tips that Alice outlined in
her POT. So far, Loganhas been on the road for nearly sixteen
months, and so far he's beento Indonesia, Portugal, Canada, Mexico,
Believes, Guatemala, Savodore and Duras, Columbia, Guador and Peru.
(02:04):
And you still have a few morecountries to visit before you're done. Rogan.
It's a pleasure to speak with you. Hey, guys, super excited
to be here. Thanks for havingme on great and listen, there's so
many questions we have for you aboutquote unquote, the digital nomad lifestyle and
what that means in practicality. Butbefore we get there, I think a
(02:25):
lot of people are listening and thinking, two years traveling the globe, how
are you paying for this? It'smy understanding that you had a corporate job
and saved anywhere between fifty to seventyfive percent of your earnings for years.
That's a lot of dedication and sacrificeto build up to this trip. Can
you talk a little bit about whyyou wanted to do a trip on this
(02:47):
scale and what sacrifices you had tomake in your day to day life to
make this trip a reality. Yeah, super good question. So I won't
go too far into my backstore,but I definitely took a little bit more
of an untraditional route when I wasyoung. I did my first trip overseas
(03:07):
when I was eighteen. I didn'tgo to college, and so I got
a taste for travel at a reallyyoung age, and like everyone else,
eventually, of course, I kindof fell into the traditional route of a
corporate nine to five, which hasits positives and negatives. It obviously allowed
me to save a lot of money, and after doing the first trip and
(03:30):
really really getting the travel bug,I think for me saving my paycheck,
you know, it took time.I was young, and I was figuring
out kind of what to do withmoney. That's something I wish they taught
you more in school, but theydon't. And so over time I just
kind of realized that, you know, I was still able to attend social
(03:53):
events and maybe not eat out asmuch and do the things I still like
to do, but but save theval majority of that paycheck. So that
would involve, you know, cookingfor myself every day and not eating out
for lunch, and maybe instead ofgoing to the bars on weekends, I
would buy a box of beers andgo to a friend's house instead. So
it was really simple stuff that allowedme to still maintain a good social life,
(04:18):
but also see that savings account grow. And that's probably the biggest key
point here is for the first coupleof thousand dollars, it doesn't seem like
much, but when you start seeingit get to six or seven, eight,
ten, fifteen, you almost getaddicted to savings account growing. Yeah,
especially knowing what you want to useit for. So for me,
(04:41):
you know, I've never had I'venever gotten to the stage in my life
where a house in a car wheremy priority. Maybe that'll happen in the
future, but you know, it'salways been these trips that I've saved for.
So I did a year long tripin twenty eighteen on my own.
I did a solo travel through SoutheastAsia, and of course this was the
(05:02):
biggest trip I had ever done.And I did that trip with probably about
twelve to fifteen thousand US dollars.I managed to make that last a year,
so I knew that I could doit, and I knew that that
was an amount of money that wasnot too insane to save up. And
so for this big trip with mypartner, I came back to New Zealand
(05:26):
because at the time she wasn't quiteready to leave, but she decided,
hey, you know what, ifyou come back to New Zealand, I'll
go with you this time. Andso we kind of both put our heads
down, worked really hard and saveda lot of money with the intention of
leaving and just kind of seeing wherelife was going to take us. But
budget did you have in mind?And have you been like too strict or
(05:50):
too loose about it? You know? What was your mindset there? Yeah?
So funny enough, I'm not muchof a planner. I'm very much
just just go with the flow kindof guy. My partner is there's a
little bit more of a planner,and so based on previous trips, for
me, like I know, Ican manage on a budget of probably safely
(06:12):
like fifteen hundred to two thousand USdollars a month for me is a really
good budget that sometimes, of course, if you're doing more crazy adventure activities,
you might go over. And thenother months, you know, if
we're just doing some work and youknow, doing cheap free walking tours and
lots of other things that don't costmuch money, it's it's super easy to
maintain that for us. And Brogan, is that through experience or did you
(06:36):
learn that from someone? That wasmostly through my own experience. I've done
trips with very very little money,like I said, eighteen in Europe,
you know, I did trips withvery little money, and then I've done
trips with a bit more, butit was mostly just through experience. And
like I said, surviving off thattwelve to fifteen thousand US for an entire
(06:59):
year year, I just kind oflooked at it and went, wow,
I actually you know, I didit, and that was that was kind
of that was an even smaller budget. But of course I was young and
I was staying in cheaper hostels then, and uh, you know, I
was living on a much tighter budget. I could eat noodles, and I
didn't have a partner to you know, get mad at me for eating.
This one was a little different andmaybe required a bit more budget, But
(07:23):
at the same time I knew,I knew it was very doable. And
of course traveling alone versus with apartner can change things too. You know,
we're able to split the costs ofaccommodation, and we're able to split
the cost of a lot of things, which can make stuff a little cheaper
sometimes as well. So and youknow, from talking to you and meeting
you, I know you have alot of cool experiences, and specifically around
(07:44):
this trip, I do want totalk about some of the iconic cities and
countries that you've been to. Butbefore we get there, I want to
first focus on the term digital nomad. I think oftentimes people intertwine and intertwine
and a travel influencer with the digitalnomad. The two aren't synonymous, but
they're often labeled in the same category. How do you distinguish between the two
(08:07):
and do you consider yourself one orthe other? Yeah, this is a
really, really good question, becauseI've thought about this a lot, and
I've had many discussions with people aboutit, you know, So like everyone
else, I'd spent many, manyyears trying to figure out what it is
I want to do with my lifeand pursue and a couple of years,
probably about two years before we left, I decided to quit my job and
(08:30):
pursue videography and cinematography and filmmaking fulltime. So I would never I would
not consider myself an influencer, eventhough maybe maybe there is some people I
influence. But I guess the termdigital nomad to me definitely resonates a little
bit more. I mean it's avery broad term, of course, but
(08:54):
you know, for me, it'sI always loved creating content about my travels,
and it was primarily for me.It was never for anyone else.
It was you know, I wasalways a big journal er on my trips.
I would love to journal, andyou know, because I don't know
if you've ever done it yourself,but me reading back my journals from my
first trips, I think nothing makesme laugh more in the world. It's
(09:16):
hilarious how much how much you forgetand the small details of the people you
meet and the things that happened,and and so for me, video is
just kind of another step to that. And so yeah, and you know,
in this trip, it's been alot of just figuring out for both
of us, myself and my partner, figuring out what the lifestyle of actually
(09:39):
being a digital nomad is, oror what even just being a digital nomad
is in general. And so that'staken a lot of yeah, a lot
of like introspective and extrospective you know, view and looking at at what it
means and if this is what wereally want, and we've we've found out
a lot of of really cool thingsalong the way about ourselves. So digital
(10:03):
nomad is a person who travels freelywhile working remotely using technology and the internet.
What do you I mean you mentionedfilmmaking. What do you and your
fiance do for work? And canyou tell us a bit about the pros
and cons of the digital nomad workspaceyou operate in? Yeah? So,
(10:24):
yeah, so I am a filmmaker, but I'm quite new to the industry.
So, like I said, Iquit my job a couple of years
before to pursue it full time.I didn't have any formal education or anything.
So it was I've always been avery much just like with my planning,
I learn on the fly kind ofguy. And so yeah, and
so I just you know, Igot freelance gigs doing weddings and some small
(10:48):
advertisements and things along those lines.And of course I've always loved kind of
expressing myself in my own way viaYouTube and things. On the other hand,
my partner, she is a designerwho does have a formal education.
She's a strategist and a creative graphicdesigner, you could say, and so
she has about a decade experience now. She followed the same path. She
(11:11):
quit her job about a year beforeto dip her toes into the world of
freelancing and kind of getting accustomed to, you know, not working in an
agency and going to work every dayand just getting a little bit used to
that lifestyle. But of course,nothing's ever going to really prepare you for,
you know, traveling around and tryingto find clients. So I would
say, you know, for us, it's I guess being a digital nomad
(11:35):
does require a lot of a lotof sacrifice. There's a lot of positives
and a lot of negatives. Thepositives are very obvious. You know,
you get to live in these amazing, beautiful countries that are so culturally rich
and so different from where we've allgrown up. And anyone who has traveled
and enjoys traveling knows that that's oneof the things we all love the most,
(11:56):
you know, to be engrossed ina different culture, in a life.
So every day is kind of newand exciting, but at the same
time, you know, you stillhave to work, and so it's quite
funny. I get a lot ofpeople who say, how do you do
it? You know, like it'sto most people. I think from the
outside, it feels like every dayis you know, a blast, and
(12:18):
we're going to a fiesta at somehostile and things like that. But in
reality, you know, sometimes wehave two or three weeks where we really
don't move. We sit here atthe kitchen table and we work and we
cook dinner, and you know,we might go out one night a week.
But we live a very very normallife. And things like you know,
finding a place with good internet that'saffordable, and you know, I
(12:41):
don't know, close to certain amenities. These are things that most travelers wouldn't
consider that they're on their trip.And while we're on the topic, I,
you know, I want to kindof educate our listeners he a little
bit and talk a little bit aboutthat work life balance that I think you're
talking about. You know, everyone'sdifferent, including you and your partner.
But how do you try to actuallysplit your time between play and work?
(13:03):
And how hard is it to staydisciplined? As you already touched on with
you know, your journaling, Yeah, for sure, I mean so it
definitely depends on the stage you're at. Two. So for me, I
spend a lot of my time tryingto acquire work. You know, this
is and it goes back to whatI said before, it's it's nothing is
as easy as it seems. Youknow. People make it seem like it
(13:26):
is a very easy thing to do. But everything, everything good, takes
time, you know, And I'mstill in the process of of I suppose
manage it or trying to get Iguess, full time income from this lifestyle.
My partner's cracked it. She's notmuch much further along. She's dedicated
(13:46):
a decade of her life to this. So for me, it's, you
know, it's still a timely process. But in terms of how we manage
our time. I mean, it'sactually worked out quite nicely trying with a
partner and doing this sort of work, because had we not had this work
to entertain ourselves, after sixteen monthsof seeing each other twenty four hours a
(14:09):
day, you know, you mightget a little tired of seeing each other.
Normal day to day life. You'reyou and your partner or girlfriend or
boyfriend whatever, you know, wouldgo to work, and you see each
other after work, and you know, and then same same and you spend
weekends together. So this is verymuch. You are together all the time,
and so for us it's you know, very much. We do keep
(14:31):
a semi Monday to Friday or youknow, yeah, Monday to Friday schedule
where we wake up and we makesome coffee and some breakfast, we get
to work, and a lot ofit is on the fly. We say,
hey, there's, um, youknow, there's salsa nite tonight at
this bar, and we go,sure, okay, let's clock off at
three today, you know, goout and roam the streets a bit,
(14:52):
and then we'll go do some salsayou know, which would which you would
do a regular office anyway, exactly. Yeah, And it's it's just very
much. I don't know, Somedaywe go, hey, let's work in
the evening tonight, so we wakeup early and we go out and get
a bus somewhere and do something cool, and then we start work at four.
(15:13):
So it's obviously we're not constricted bythe time, probably as much as
you would be on a normal dayto day life. But I would say
we still you know, we bothdo a lot of work, and we're
both very driven and passionate about whatwe do, and so yeah, it's
it's not as I wouldn't say that'sone of the burdens of this sort of
(15:35):
lifestyle. But you know what Iwould say about that, I think these
are the aspect well you're talking aboutright now is so important because this is
what's happening behind the scenes. Peoplesee your content, they see the cool
videos, the shots, but they'renot seeing the actual, you know,
effort that's going into just working sixor seven hours, whether it's early mornings,
(15:56):
late afternoons, and so I thinka lot of the time people will
just envy it without being the typeof person who's going to put in the
work or effort to make that areality. Because you do work, and
it's it's it's necessary to sustain thelifestyle, of course, and you know,
time goes by very fast, andso you know, I noticed this
when I was in Canada. Forinstance, I did some i guess you
(16:19):
could say normal work. I wentto my father works and logistics, so
I went to do some some manuallabor work to you know, maybe get
a bit of extra money. AndI didn't post much at all for maybe
a month and a half two months. But that period of time people very
much forget. And then if yougo back to posting a week later,
they're like, it's it feels tothem like a continuation of you've just been
(16:44):
living this life every day, youknow. So that is very very applicable,
and I think it's one of thosethings that no matter who you look
at, whether it's the most famousinstagrammer or YouTuber or whoever, you know,
they're not going to post them sittingat a desk every day. And
what you see is of course thefun and the amazing stuff that they're able
(17:07):
to produce and see. But yeah, as you said, so much of
that time is spent just having maybea cooler view than your house. Don't
get me wrong. There is benefitsto working in these places. But but
you're still just sitting at your computerwith with maybe a nicer view. You
mean, you're not seeing squirrels outsideof your hotel right now, No,
(17:30):
I'm seeing to alpacas in the distance. You can see Machu Picchu from your
room, right like, that's ofcourse right there, okay, yeah,
right here. Yeah. One ofthe biggest challenges you keep bringing up is
finding work and finding clients. Whatapplications and tools do you use to help
you find more work? Yeah?So, um so this this is definitely
(17:55):
part of the journey, which isyou know, finding out one, of
course, what you like to do. But in reality, we can't only
do what we like to do.We also have to do some things that
we're just good at. And soto answer your question quickly, it would
be so upwork and fiber and applicationslike this. I think people have spoken
about them previously. You know,they're fantastic ways to find work, but
(18:18):
I think people forget how valuable alittle bit of self driven hunting is or
self motivation. I guess I'm tryingto think of the words to put here,
But you know, reaching out tofriends who might be in your industry,
or not even just friends, justpeople you've you might not know of,
(18:40):
or using something like LinkedIn to justyou really have to get out there
and reach out. So for me, a good example of this is I,
you know, by trade, wasa videographer, cinematographer, things like
this, but I didn't do muchanimation or motion graphics. But I knew
that that would be maybe not justmore lucrative, but also there would probably
(19:00):
be a few more opportunities in theindustry for that abroad. So so I
just self taught while we were onthe road, learned some new applications,
learn the ins and out to themand how to use them in my spare
time. And that has led tomy partner being able to, I guess,
hand people over to me or whensomeone inquires to her. Because she's
(19:23):
in the industry, she obviously canthrow my name out there, and so
this doesn't have to be a ship. Yeah, it's it's also very much
we are lucky it's a partnership interms of our industries. But even if
she wasn't my partner, you know, having that skill set and you know,
knowing a friend, I could say, hey, if anyone's ever looking
(19:44):
for this sort of work, couldyou throw my name out there? You
know? So, I guess broadeningyour skill set is also to me equally
as important as just maybe pinpointing onone thing and trying to find work in
that industry. It's you can dothat, but in terms of finding work,
it's going to be super beneficial toyou to I guess broaden your horizons
(20:06):
a bit and go, okay,not just what am I good at?
What do I what can I learn? And what can I get better at?
You know? So? And wherecan you source these different avenues of
revenue? Right? So exactly?Yeah, yeah, it's like like everyone
nowadays, right, you don't wantto have if you can manage it,
you know, you'd like to haveincome coming from maybe a few different avenues.
(20:29):
So a lot of people go settingup online shops and there's a million
in one ways, but all ofthem coming back to you know, they
take time. Nothing is going tohappen overnight. And I think that's the
biggest thing is, you know,people have to have patience and you might
have to live off noodles and broccoli, you know, for two months,
(20:51):
if that means and if you reallywant to live this lifestyle, you know,
that's what it means. You mighthave to do a great Yeah.
Yeah, you you bring up travelingwith your partner quite a bit. Let's
talk the Let's talk the dynamics oftraveling with a partner. Um, it's
one thing to go on vacation fora few days, or living together or
(21:11):
working different jobs that you know,you have time apart, they separate you,
you know for most of the day, but both of you are living
in this lifestyle, which means youspend the majority of your time together.
What has that experience been like foryou? Yeah, it's been really really
cool. I mean I've all ofmy previous trips of being solo. Um,
(21:34):
I've you know, been with friendson and off and things like that.
But you know, when you travelsolo, you obviously can wake up
whenever you want, go wherever youwant, and eat whatever you want and
you have no other opinion. Youhave no other opinion that that joins into
that. So this is very mucha life that I'm used to, uh,
you know, being a being ayoung bachelor. But um, yeah,
(21:59):
so me and my partner before weleft, it was kind of funny,
you know, we both said toeach other, Hey, this will
be the ultimate tests, right,I mean, for sure I never mentioned
engagement before, but you know,if I always had the idea in mind,
We're very close and so going onthis trip together was always going to
be that ultimate test. And Ithink overall, you know, when you're
(22:22):
traveling, everything is new and excitingand fun, and so for the most
part, it's fantastic to share anexperience with someone else that you care so
much about instead of just yourself.You know, it is very, very
it's great to have those shared experiences. But at the same time, you
know, there there are many manymoments where no matter who the two people
(22:44):
are, if it's your brother,your cousin, your mum, you're gonna
have large disagreements about Sometimes I wouldactually argue most of the time, it's
about the tiniest things. It's noteven the big things. The big things
are easy. It's normally the smallstuff. And of course, oh,
I was just gonna say, justlike trying to decide which couch to keep,
(23:06):
but go on, exactly, Yeah, the smallest things like that,
which couch to keep, or yeah, which Airbnb has the nicer couch?
I don't know, you know verymuch that's the case. Um, but
yeah, the overall experience is it'ssomething I would recommend for for anybody,
Like like I said, whether itis your brother or worse. Yeah,
(23:26):
for better or worse. But atthe end of the day, you're either
gonna probably never speak again or you'llbe the closest you've ever been in your
life after an experience like this,so totally. Yeah. Yeah, you
have to resolve issues that get broughtup. There is no um ignoring until
they go away, exactly. Yeah. Yeah, this is a topic that
I can spend an entire day talkingabout, just the dynamics between you know,
(23:51):
the travelers you meet and the impactthat they can have in your life,
even if it's just a brief conversation. Um, you know, just
to give our listeners contact. Roganand I met while diving in Belize,
and we you know, I spenta full week there, but I didn't.
I only we only spent about halfa day together on this diving expedition.
(24:11):
And you know it's led to allthis, so which which I'm thankful
for just that experience. We hada good time, but you brought up
like airbnbs and deciding which one hasthe better sofa. So I want to
talk a little bit about that.It's when do you decide, as as
a couple or as a team wentto splurge or went to rain. In
(24:33):
the spending, you mentioned that oneof your airbnbs and I found this really
funny had a blender. And howawesome and excited you were that an airbnb
had a blender. So how doyou how do you make those decisions?
Yeah, so dude, blenders,I mean things like that, a little
George Foreman grill that you can makeToastu's in, Like, just don't grow
(24:56):
your foot with it. You'll befine. Yeah, yeah, exactly,
you'll be good. But yeah,so kind of the way we travel is,
you know, of course, somewhatdictated by the work that's happening too,
So we might have two or threeclients on the go at one time,
and therefore, you know, it'skind of tricky to do the kind
of classical day to day traveling throughcountries. So Guatemala was a good example,
(25:22):
and Belize actually where we moved fairlyquickly, so we would spend two
days here going to the next placesee some cool stuff, three days here,
and during those times will normally spenda little less on accommodation. We'll
stay at some hostels to meet somepeople and make some friends and figure out
where they're going, and more ofthe quintessential travel I suppose you could say.
(25:45):
And then after probably about you know, a month of doing that,
we will say, okay, it'stime we may be reigning in a little
bit and focus a bit more onwork. So this is actually kind of
leading back to your other question ofreally how we manage our time with work
life balance is we'll do it inbig chunks. So after a month of
(26:07):
lots of excitement and lots of peopleand places and cool stuff, will say,
okay, let's find a city welike and you know, obviously one
that's kind of close ideally, andlet's find a nice airbnb that's comfortable and
has a blender and a rice cookerif we're lucky, and kettle and you
know, a fridge. And sothis is what we'll do, is we'll
(26:30):
say, okay, let's spend alittle bit more money somewhere comfy for the
two of us, and we canhave a bit more of a productive working
environment. Because this is one ofthe things I probably one of my biggest
weaknesses is I'm able to be selfmotivated and productive, but when I am
(26:51):
in like a hostile environment, Ivery much so can get FOMO very quickly.
Sat there on my laptop trying towork, and there's four cool looking
guys and girls who I'd love togo meet and have a beer with.
And so for us to kind ofwe almost have to flip the switch of
you know, traveling with a bitof work, we can still get it
done, but going to an environmentwhere we can really hunker down and you
(27:17):
know, be productive and get alot of work done. And yeah,
so I don't know about UMX,but I'm the exact same way. I
was just about to say, that'sa unique perspective and insight on the whole
travel and work dynamic because a lotof people, I think, would you
know, immediately default to day byday. How do you day by day
split up your time between work andplay? But you know, like you
(27:40):
said, weeks or a month oflike you know, hostels, hanging out,
going and doing really fun things,and then a month of hunkering down
and putting in that work. Ifeel like a lot of people don't think
about it in terms of that longterm commitment, right it's day by day
like, oh, for the firstfour hours, six hours, eight hours,
I'm gonna work, then I'm gonnago out right under. Yeah.
I think that's a really unique wayto think about it. Yeah, And
(28:03):
it was now that I think aboutit, you know, trying to That's
why I struggled to answer your questionat first, John, was because I'm
going, how do we manage ourday by day? But in reality,
it is a lot more long termin that sense it'll be week week by
week or month by month. Isway more of how we balance it.
So yeah, and even you knowyou saying that, I kind of caught
(28:25):
myself like the problem was in thequestion because I'm asking it from my perspective,
how would I approach traveling for thisamount of time? Because I am
the type of individual that would needto break it up, like, Okay,
on Monday, I am going towork for four to five hours in
the morning or the afternoon. Thisis what we're going to plan for the
afternoon or vice versa. I believemyself very little room for spontaneity and situations
(28:49):
like that, which I've realized throughthis podcast. Yeah. Yeah, and
it's it's definitely with a partner dynamictoo. Being solo, of course,
you can do this on your own, but you know, it's communication with
my partner too. She'll say,hey, you know what, look next
week, I really I've got alot on and so you know, I
go, okay, well, maybeI don't have a lot on, but
(29:11):
I will put myself in a scenariowhere I can keep myself busy, I
can learn something new, I cando some work on my own project or
whatever it may be. But thatdynamic of I need to sit and you
know, eat smoothies from our blenderand work or hey, I'm good,
let's go and do a bunch offun stuff for two weeks, like for
example, this trip we just did. We just spent three and a half
(29:34):
four weeks in Moto taxis in themiddle of the mountains, and working was
not working was not so easy duringthis trip. So you know, even
though my partner did take a fewconference calls in the back of the tuk
tuk, which was horrid, Iwould pay to hear those calls. If
I'm the client on the other end, I wouldn't even care. I would
(29:56):
be like, that's that's awesome respectyou made it. Ye. Yeah,
I'm telling people at the bar lateron that afternoon. Yeah, I took
I took a call with someone whowas riding in the back of the TIC
on this topic, How are theretimes where one of you is hunker down
and the other person is like,okay, well I'm gonna go do this,
(30:17):
and you know, either goes outon a little mini adventure or just
goes out for the night with peoplethey've met. Are there times where you
go out without your partner and viceversa, Yeah, for sure. I
mean, yeah, we definitely havethose times. My partner a bit more
than me. She's definitely keeping herselfsuper busy. But no, I mean
(30:40):
there's there's times where I mean,look, the nature of travel, it's
not even just work. Sometimes youjust don't feel like doing something. You
know, you might not hangover,you might just say hey, I need
to I need like two days justto rest because at the end of the
day, of course, every dayis fun. But like anything, when
you're having fun every day, youget kind of tired, for sure.
So yeah, there it could betimes, whether it's work or you know,
(31:02):
just wanting to chill out on yourown, have some alone time that's
also important. You know, I'llgo out and go see some cool lookout
point, or go to some coolrestaurant or bar with some people we met,
or I don't know, maybe it'sjust going out on your own and
doing something that's definitely a dynamic thatI think is super important, definitely one
(31:23):
that the one that we have aswell. It's just hey, go away,
I want to be alone. It'scool, fair enough? All right?
Seeing more communication? Yeah, yeah, all right, let's switch this
up a little bit and talk aboutstrictly the traveling aspect of your journey.
You listed El Salvador as one ofyour one of your favorite destinations thus far.
(31:45):
What made it so special to you? Yeah, I mean for me.
I don't know if it sounds cheesyor not. I'm pretty sure we
all yeah, we all, weall kind of crave. For me obviously,
just new experiences in general, butyou know, me in particular,
I really loved to be in environmentswhere I'm forced to speak a new language,
(32:10):
or like just fully immersed myself ina culture. We've all been places
that were full of tourists and youcould speak English to everyone, and it
was easy to make friends. Andthere was lots of things that kind of
cater to the backpacking tourist, butfor me, El Salvador was the polar
opposite. So for people that don'tknow, I mean, it was for
(32:31):
a decade one of the most dangerouscountries in the world, and so they
have kind of just come out ofthis era of kind of sadness and zero
tourism and a lot of danger andcrime. And so almost from the moment
we arrived, there was a lotof Americans who had emigrated and left the
(32:53):
country many many years ago, andthey were also coming back to their own
home country for the first time andjust so cited. You know, Oh
my gosh, where are you guysfrom What are you doing here? Oh,
we rented a big four by fourtruck. We're going to drive the
country. That's amazing. You haveto go here. You gotta go here,
and here here, And so thewhole experience was just really really special
(33:14):
because we felt like, I don'tknow, pioneers. It felt like a
country that really no one had goneto, and we were seeing, you
know, the countryside of this placeand meeting meeting locals, and it was
a really really immersive experience and onethat kind of completely came out of the
(33:35):
window for it, Like we justwe had no idea what to expect.
We were kind of expecting it tobe a little dangerous in things, but
of course, as per usual,you know, it turned out to be
the polar opposite. It was someof the kindest people we met. It
was. It was just it feltlike it was a group of four people
in a car and it felt likewe had a whole country to ourselves.
It was. It was really reallysomething special. Yeah, and so I
(33:58):
get why the adventure was special whenyou frame it that way, But what
did you actually do and see that, you know, what would stand out
or would catch someone's attention if youwere to promote Oh Salvador to them.
Yeah, I mean, like alot of Central American countries, the landscape
is gorgeous. You know, they'vegot volcanoes every five kilometers that just stretch
(34:22):
up into the sky and you canhike up them and see you know,
Honduras, you can see other countries. You just view forever and ever and
ever. I mean, the foodwas one of those things. I'd never
heard of El Salvadorian food in mylife. Never. I mean, here's
the thing. I'm Canadian and ofcourse a lot of my adult years in
(34:45):
New Zealand that's a little bit ofa mission for El Salvadorian people. So
there wasn't much El Salvadorian stuff there, but the food was amazing, the
papoosays and yeah, for me,like after seeing you know, the amount
of countries I have of the people, you really get a feel for a
lot of countries have kind people,but the people in this country. It
(35:10):
was a country that felt like itwas on the rebuild and it was very
uplifting. Every little town you wentto that people were so interested in knowing
who you were and where you camefrom and wanting to show you their family
and you know, just they wereso excited about showing people El Salvador and
(35:32):
how beautiful it is and all ofthe things that we just mentioned. It
was something I hadn't really experienced beforebecause a lot of other places are used
to seeing tourists, whether it mightbe backpackers or you know, more expensive
tourists, whatever it might be.There, you know, they're more places
are used to seeing that, andthere you really got a special feeling that
(35:55):
this was a place that in fiveten years might be the next Columbia or
Mexico or something. You know,it was very fascinating and it was really
special. Yeah, and you're you'reone of many that have recently told me
Il Salvador is the true hidden gemin Central America. I did an entire
episode on Nicaragua, which is wheremy family's from, so I was a
(36:17):
little biased, but that episode produceda few responses that said, oh no,
you got a trial Salvador. Okay, okay, maybe i'll speak on
it a little bit more highly.Yeah, and so you know, earlier
in the pot I mentioned how yourpartner went from a girlfriend to a fiance
on this trip, and we alreadytalked about how any sort of extend to
(36:39):
travel with a partner can be abig test on any relationship. And clearly
you two passed each other's test inyour mind. When did you say,
okay, this is a person forme, and tell our listeners a little
bit more about your engagement day becauseit is fascinating. Sure, yeah,
(37:00):
very good. We'll get into thesappy love stuff. Love it. Yeah.
If I'm honest, I kind ofknew. I kind of knew before
we went on this trip actually thatshe was the one for me. I
figured it out on my previous trip. It was very much a classic romance
novel you don't know what you haveuntil it's gone scenario. And I was
(37:22):
meeting all of these other friends andladies in my trip and you know,
no one ever kind of came upto scruff. So that was what sparked
us to do this trip together ingeneral, because I didn't want to stop
traveling, of course, and shewasn't quite ready to start, and so
when she was there, we went. So basically it was more of a
(37:42):
less catastrophe strikes this is what Iexpect should hopefully happen. And yeah,
we we just you know, asI said, we really both just had
such a fantastic time experiencing everything together. And like any of course couple of
friends would, we of course hadfights, but nothing ever extreme, you
(38:04):
know, just just the little stuffthat's expected. So as we we,
I guess I'll start from here,is we both dive and you know,
as when we met you John,but we've dreamed of going to the Galapagos
for many many years. We bothlove you know, marine life and the
ocean, and so this was somethingthat was kind of high on our bucket
(38:24):
list for quite some time, andso I got a ring in Canada.
Actually I got a custom made ringin my hometown when we were back just
to see family for the summer,and I carried it in my backpack for
seven months. Yeah, the ladywho made it thought I was insane,
which you know, I couldn't reallydispute that. A key here is air
(38:47):
tags. People put air tags inabsolutely everything. So so carried this ring
with me and that was always theplan. Was was Galapagos and had lots
of family who were messaging me,when are you gonna do it? Blah
blah blah blah blah. So wewent to the Glap of Ghosts and I
was waiting for the right time,waiting for the right time. It's never
going to be the right time.But we were on the island of Saint
(39:10):
Crystal Ball and they have one ofthe largest sea lion colonies. I won't
say the world because I don't knowthat's the case, but it is unbelievable,
just thousands of sea lions on thebeach. So I thought, oh,
this would be great. I'll proposeand then you know, maybe we'll
get attacked by sea lions. Thiswill make for a great a great engagement
to go viral, for sure.So we go to a beach and it
(39:36):
was a beautiful sunset. But then, of course, in true fashion with
my luck, it started to pourdown with rain, so we get soaked
all walking on our way to thisbeach. We arrived at the beach,
I was going, perfect, there'sgoing to be all the sea lions.
There was one sea lion. SoI try to set it up, of
course with my camera, because I'mnot going to not capture this moment.
(39:57):
And we're both soaking wet in thepouring rain. And she's used to me
telling her to go pose in placesfor videos and things of that nature.
So she poses right in front ofthe sea lion. He proceeds to run
after her and chase her, andso she runs away. Then the sea
lion rolls away. So I'm herewith a rainy shot, no sea lions,
with a little bit of sunset inthe background, and I just said,
(40:21):
you know what, after all this, I can't I can't put this
off any longer. So I wentand pop the question, and that was
that she you know, didn't runaway, so and you know, into
anyone listening I thought I had comeup with the perfect plan of proposing.
Here's Rogan who just blew half ofour listeners out of the water proposing in
(40:43):
the Galapagoes while diving. I tellyou what, though, no matter how
much planning you put into it,if that story didn't express to you that
it's never gonna go the way youthink it is, then I don't know
why. Well, um, speakingof your fiance, what impact has she
had in your life, you know, in terms of travel professional development?
(41:07):
Yeah? Huge. I mean ifI had done this trip solo, like
I said, I probably would havemade two videos in the last year and
a half because I'm by far thebig extrovert, and so you know,
for me, going to hostiles andpartying and doing crazy adventures with people and
this is the way I've always beenaccustomed to travel. So it's been a
(41:29):
kind of a full three sixty forme, of but she's brought enjoyment into
my life doing these things. Soshe's always been a super driven and focused,
passionate person with when especially when itcomes to work, and she really
loves what she does. And I'veseen her succeed exponentially since we've left,
(41:50):
and so that's been really motivating tome because you know, she was someone
who was also very much trapped inthe corporate nine to five cycles. She
was terrified to quit her job.You know, she was right, yeah,
and in my opinion, she wasbeing grossly underpaid. And you know,
I'm sure a lot of people feelthe same. And she ended up
(42:12):
taking the leap, and it tooksome time, but you know, now
she's got clients all over the world, some in the US and New Zealand
and Europe, and she's just reallyhit a stride. That is it's inspiring
for me to see because you know, I think one of the biggest things
people struggle with, including myself,sometimes is not seeing the success you expect
(42:34):
to see by certain ominous dates youput in your head. You know,
like for instance, with my personalcareer in YouTube and other filmmaking. You
know, I would if you askedme a year ago, I probably would
have thought I would have had abigger following, or I'd be making more
money or But at the end ofthe day, that's that's not really what's
(42:55):
important. But you have to remindyourself of that, you know. It's
it's more so it's the classic cheesyline of enjoy the journey. You know,
it's not about the destination, andshe really showed that, I suppose
because she enjoys what she does.I think a lot of people don't a
lot time for the educational and trialand air stage of you know, creating
(43:19):
a business or developing a skill set, and so a lot of the times,
like people expect to see progress immediatelyafter embarking on this journey, where
it's like, hey, you actuallyhaven't put in the time for the education
and for the trial and air,and so you're you're not going to see
progress without understanding the foundations developing yourniche and then kind of like you know,
attempting to execute and then touching ongoals. I mean, it's nice
(43:44):
to have foresight of like, hey, that would be a great goal to
hit at this time, and ifyou leave it there as a hypothetical,
sometimes you'll blow that goal out ofthe water. I don't want to say
without even trying, but without youknow, stressing it. And sometimes that's
the beauty of it when it worksout out when you're at least expecting it
too. Did my co host MaxGonzal say that or warm Buffett the most
(44:07):
insul notes. Yeah, for sure, Rogan. What piece of advice would
you give someone who wants to embarkon this type of lifestyle things that you
wish you would have known before yougot started? Yeah, piece of advice?
Yeah. I think one of thebiggest things I tell people is,
(44:30):
well, there's a couple of things, but you know, when you travel,
and I guess when people ask meonce again, it ties into kind
of the question or the thought ofhow do you do it right? What
I try to tell people is dowhat feels right. So you know,
you see people who travel for twoyears at a time like me, or
(44:51):
you see someone who does one monthlong holidays and then goes back to work.
You know, there's nothing wrong witheither because truly, the lifestyle you
want to live totally depends on youand not what anyone else is doing.
You know. So if you onlyhave five thousand dollars in the bank and
you go, oh, Rogan,saved up way more. I can't afford
(45:13):
to do that. It's it's thewrong way of thinking about it. Of
course you can, but you mighthave to go on workaway dot Com and
find a farm that will put youup for free and feed you, and
all you got to spend your moneyon is I don't know, some snacks
and maybe going out for beers.It's there's ways if you really want it,
if you really want to do something, there's always a way to do
(45:35):
it. It's not going to beeasy. Nothing is ever easy. But
I guess the to sum that upis just find out what you want to
do and what suits you and pursuethat. Don't try to travel like other
people or go on holidays like otherpeople. Just do what works for you.
Well said. And so before wefinished, we thought we'd hit you
(45:58):
with a few rapid fire questions aboutthe last sixteen months of your life.
So I hope you're ready. I'mready, all right. Best city or
a country that you've been to sofar? This is a very, very
hard question. It's probably the hardestquestion to answer. But I will say
Vietnam is a country. Okay.Best beverage you've had, alcoholic or otherwise?
(46:22):
Oh geez, you know what I'mgonna give Perua leg up. I'm
gonna say Peace Coast hours. Theyare Turkish. Here we go. I
agree. Most underrated city or country, Most underrated city or country? Who
these are Actually, I'm very impressed. These are pretty tough questions. I
(46:45):
mean, we were on the topicof El Salvador. I will Yeah,
I'm gonna give it to El Salvadoras a country, most underrated, best
country for food, best country forfood, Oh, Mexico by a country
mile. Okay, And so lastone, it's kind of you and your
(47:07):
fiance here, so both of youare divers, so it's only fitting we
end with this question the country withthe best diving. This is also a
very tough one because each country tendsto have one or two fantastic spots.
But if I want to make adive site too, I was gonna that
(47:27):
was gonna be my original question.Dive site. Yeah, in Malaysia.
Sipid End in Malaysia as a divesite is unbelievable, the best I've done
out of sixty seventy dives. Butif I was to give a whole country,
I would give Indonesia the leg upbecause they have so many islands and
so the vastness of diving is incredible, and they're all very good dives too.
(47:52):
So yeah, John, that soundslike we have to do a work
trip to those sites. So yes, Hey, I'm going to Indonesia November,
so I'm getting ready for that.Absolutely live aboard. It's the best
way to do it. Anyways,Rogan, thank you so much for being
on our show man. We reallyappreciate you all the insight and you know,
just hearing about your your journey withyour partner has just been fantastic.
(48:15):
It's super inspiring, and you know, I'm just super grateful to have you
on here. If our listeners wantto learn more about you, where can
they find you? Yeah? Youcan. Since my name is kind of
like a weird, a not usualname is the best way to put it.
You can look me up on prettymuch anything just by my name,
(48:36):
So Instagram, Rogan Steel, YouTube, Rogan Steel, Facebook, all all
the above. But yeah, thankyou guys so much. It's been really
really cool up and following your guysjourney as well since I met John,
and it's an awesome thing you guysare doing here. You get really cool
people on and I'm honored because comparedto some of these amazing people you've had
on here. Yeah, no,no, you are an amazing traveler,
(48:59):
you think, and you have amazingcontent which we will share and obviously give
you credit for when your episode comesout. Max. If they want to
find out a little bit more aboutus, they can by visiting our website
at www dot GTS podcast dot com. They can also find us on Instagram
or Facebook at Globetrotters Podcast, Twitterat globetrot Pod. Make sure you drop
(49:22):
us a review on Apple Podcasts orSpotify if you enjoyed listening to this conversation
or any streaming platform of your choice. That's right and editing was done by
Jonathan Ordero and last but not least, Rogan. Thank you so so much
for being here, and to everyoneelse out there, thanks for listening.
Until next Thanks guys,
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!