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Episode 56: Being a 9 to 5 Nomad with Samantha Burmeister
147 Plays6 years ago
Some people dream of a life that is a constant vacation on a beach. That is their travel dream. Others want to wander the globe trying to make connections and build understanding between themselves and the people they meet along the way.
Our guest on the podcast in our most recent episode is all about the latter approach. She has become a life lesson in following the Uncommon Path. She understood her ‘why,’ designed a plan, and made it all happen. It is a spectacular story that exemplifies how we try to guide all of our clients: follow your passion, find ways to monetize it, and live your dream.
Samantha Burmeister is the woman behind 9 to 5 Nomad, a resource for people looking to make the transition from location-based work to world travel. She has been an avid traveler since high school, catching the travel bug from her grandparents.
She found every study abroad opportunity possible in college. To pay off loans and start her next adventure as soon as possible, she did join the regular 9-5 life for a while. She took the plunge into full-time travel this past year and is not looking back.
Nomad Courses: https://9to5nomad.teachable.com/
what you will learn in this episode:
- How to pay attention to your passion, and plan your life around that
- Understanding your priorities so you can make better decisions in life
- How to monetize a passion for travel
- The art and brass tacks of traveling solo
- Why living your dream might cost less than the way you are living right now
- How to listen to your friends when they call you out for making excuses
- The phases you need to go through with your finances to follow your Uncommon Path
- What it means to live as a nomad/expatriate/slow traveler
- How to be a financially savvy traveler
Recommended
Transcript
Introduction to the Uncommon Life Project
00:00:02
Speaker
Everyone dreams about living an uncommon life, but how we define that dream is very different for each of us. And for most, it's a lifelong pursuit. Welcome to the Uncommon Life Project podcast. We're going to introduce you to people who are living that life or enjoying the journey to get there. We're going to also give you some tools, tricks, and tips for starting or accelerating your own efforts to live an uncommon life.
00:00:27
Speaker
A life worth celebrating and savoring. Please welcome your hosts, Brian Dewhurst and Philip Ramsey.
00:00:34
Speaker
Hello and welcome everybody to another episode of the Uncommon Life Project. I am your host, Phillip Ramsey.
Philosophy: 'You are your best asset'
00:00:41
Speaker
And I am Brian Dewhurst. We have a fun show today for you. But if this is the first time listening and you might be one of the guests reasons why, one, thanks for joining us. Two, we are advisors with a little different purpose, a little different goal. And our biggest motto is you are your best asset. What does that mean? Brian, tell me what that means.
00:01:03
Speaker
It means that we're not taught how to monetize our passion or design our life around our gifts. So we're trying to show people through kind of the seven sources of residual income, how to design your life and have fun and kill it. That's a good point. I love it. So that's what we do every day. And we have an amazing guest on the show that is doing just
Meet Samantha Burmeister, the 9-5 Nomad
00:01:26
Speaker
that. The owner, the creator of nine to five Nomad.
00:01:32
Speaker
Samantha Burmeister, welcome to the show. And the crowd goes wild. Yes, it does. So basically, let's just get right down to it. Nine to five. No, man. What does that mean?
00:01:51
Speaker
9-5 Nomad means that I am working while traveling. And to be really short about it, 9-5, I've recently escaped my 9-5 corporate job where I'm working for somebody else, but that doesn't mean that I'm not working. And I also recently escaped having a lease and being a homeowner, so I am fully nomadic as well.
00:02:13
Speaker
That's amazing. And I think that you have sacrificed an amazing way, but you are loving your life every day. You love to travel. How did that love start? And let's just talk about that passion as it grew in your life and to the point where you're like, I'm done. I'm done with the nine to five. I'm doing this full time. Oh my gosh. What a story. Okay. So, um,
00:02:36
Speaker
Like I always tell people that the love for traveling came a long time before I ever traveled. My grandparents were incredible travelers. My grandmother was a homemaker. My grandfather was a school teacher and they went on fabulous trips together. And behind my grandfather's easy chair, there was a floor to ceiling bookshelf with three inch photo albums that my grandma would make an album for every trip that they went on.
00:03:03
Speaker
So occasionally it was like a trip to the Grand Canyon or they would go to Germany and rent a car and drive around for several weeks. And the reason it was important that my grandfather was a school teacher is not only then has my lineage been really rooted in education, but also that they had several months at a time to travel together. So they don't, they didn't travel with my dad and his siblings.
00:03:25
Speaker
the way that quote unquote normal families would travel. They would go to Colorado for months at a time in the summer. So instead of going to their house and having story time, which I mean, we totally read like Dr. Seuss also, but my grandma would sit us down and flip through the vacation books. So create our own stories. Let me tell you about this story. Yeah. Yeah. So my love for traveling happened long before I ever traveled. So then,
00:03:51
Speaker
Saved a whole bunch of money, worked really hard in high school and went to France with a group trip. Promised myself that I would go back three, four years later. I think it was three summers later, I was in college and found an opportunity to go speak, teach English.
Embracing a Nomadic Lifestyle
00:04:08
Speaker
I swear I can speak English to go teach English to kids in France. So I went and did that. And that's probably the summer there during college where it really took off for me that I realized like, I can live and work abroad. And it was a little bit of an identity crisis too, because it had always been this far outlandish goal of someday I'm going to go live and work abroad. And then I was 19 and had done it. Yeah.
00:04:35
Speaker
And I almost, it seriously was an identity crisis. And I came back and I thought, I'm going to drop out of school and go travel full time. I'm going to visit every country. I'm going to do it. And I got back to the identity crisis was basically you saying like, what am I doing here on my regular life? Or what was that identity crisis? Yeah. I mean, that was exactly it was, um,
00:04:56
Speaker
What the heck is this path that I'm on, this college to career, to eventual retirement, so that then I can go travel the way that my grandparents did. My grandfather retired in his, I think he was like 59 and a half or something like that, state of Illinois, public school teacher, some story where it made sense for him to retire. And they, like that was the path that I was realistically on. And there's, while there's nothing wrong with it, it didn't feel right for me.
00:05:25
Speaker
Good. So then you go back to school and you're not loving life. I love what Brian says. He's like the Jumanji drum beat is beating louder and louder and louder. So when do you start like verbalizing this to your parents? Because one, either your parents are probably understanding because their parents, they saw it, but at what point do you start verbalizing like, Hey, I might be on a different path here. You know what I'm saying?
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, I think it was at that point that I tried applying to a university in the UK. And I got in, I got a huge scholarship, and I was like, mom and dad, I'm transferring to England. And they were like, huh, maybe don't do that. Why don't you transfer to a state school, save a little bit of money, study abroad,
00:06:15
Speaker
and see how that sets you up in the future. And while I was super resistant to it at the time, I did just that. I transferred out of state, got a degree, graduated with a bucket load of debt. Um, and, but during that time I was still working towards my goals and we can touch on that a little bit later, but I traveled to, I think it was like 12 or 14 different countries before I graduated college. Wow.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah, so I made study abroad a priority, I made taking a gap after college a priority, and then I went to work and started working with the mentality that I'm here for a short time, I'm here to learn, and I'm here to pay off my debts so that I don't need to make as much money in the future so that I can be traveling and doing what I want. So it was always
00:07:12
Speaker
I don't want to say always, but always ever since that summer in France that I knew that I was going to be traveling full time. It was just a matter of making it work in a way that felt sustainable for me. Yeah. Looking back, do you wish you would have used that AIMS Iowa State experience for something different?
00:07:32
Speaker
You know, I thought about that before and I honestly think that had I done it differently, I would have probably gone to Ames right out of high school so that I didn't dump a bunch of money into an expensive private school. Gotcha. Somebody told me when I was in college that
00:07:49
Speaker
What you're learning in school isn't really what matters. It's the power that going to school gives you. So I would never say that I regret going to college. I know that for some people it doesn't make sense to go to public university or private university, whatever. But for me, I use the heck out of my .edu email. I learn from people.
00:08:10
Speaker
I did the darn thing. I did very good grades, but man, did I use college to my benefit. Totally. I really liked that approach and that mindset. You know, this is funny for me because one of our first podcasts, Brian, you remember who we interviewed and we had somebody that just loved to travel and wanted to do the deal like you are doing. First off, where are you right now?
00:08:33
Speaker
I am in Tagazoot, Morocco. It's a little beach town, about four hours drive from Marrakech. Yeah. And I'm at a coworking space that I'm living at. I'm paying monthly rent here. So cool. So you're just not talking about it. You are living and doing the deal.
00:08:53
Speaker
Oh yeah. I can see the beach like out the window right now. It's great. I love it. I just saw like on Yahoo, you know how they have those headlines, like 10 best places to travel in 2020 or something. It had like just this massive picture of Morocco. And I was like, Oh yeah.
Monetizing Passion for Travel
00:09:11
Speaker
Come on Sam, get it. I'm doing the thing. They released one of those, uh, listicles. Uh, when I was in Hoi An Vietnam earlier, well, I guess back in 2019, um,
00:09:23
Speaker
And I was there and they were like, number one place to visit in 2020 is going to be Hoi An, Vietnam. And I was like, did I get this pushed to me because Google knows that I'm here or is this a real thing? And it was, it was like travel and leisure says this is the best place in the world.
00:09:37
Speaker
Oh, that's cool. Okay. So how do you start monetizing your passion? You start like, Hey, I'm going down this path. I did the Iowa state deal, got my grad, like graduated. And then how do you're like, I'm going to start doing this. And I will caveat this whole thing by saying that we meet a lot of people who say, I want to travel all the time. And I'm like, Hmm.
00:09:59
Speaker
I don't know. It's pretty tough. Like it's travel and vacationing are different deals and you probably know better. So let's talk about that first. And then let's talk about how you start monetizing your passion. Yeah. I mean, for that, it really comes down to starting with your why.
00:10:16
Speaker
And for me, my why was always about finding global connections. I always say people, plates, and places. The people are incredible, but the plates are indicative of a culture, meals, breaking bread with people, quite literally. And then the places, it doesn't matter where you are or where I am, I suppose, is that it's all about the mixture of the three and fostering those global connections.
00:10:43
Speaker
If people's why they want to travel more is because they want to escape their corporate role and go sit on a beach in Cancun and have that life of leisure all the time, they're two very different things. And that's a vacation versus long-term travel. I'm living in a house with four Germans, a couple of Dutch folks, a girl from Indonesia. But it's all about these connections that we get to share all the time.
00:11:10
Speaker
And I think I ran down that path really quickly. What was the second part of your question? Well, how do you start monetizing what you're doing now? It's a whole different economy of what you're doing. And I think it's scary to a lot of people. And I think you're weaving in that kind of like, this is how you do it. It's not actually that complicated. And so walk us through kind of the economics of all this.
00:11:33
Speaker
Yeah, I would love to. I think the first thing to think about is that my life is not expensive. I lived in Dallas, Texas before this. I was paying well over a grand for rent. Going out to eat was easily, I mean, $15, $25, $30, and then you have drinks on top of that, right? So my lifestyle in the US was not cheap. I was also working a corporate job and had
00:12:03
Speaker
was working towards different things while I was there. But here, like I said, I'm beachfront property. I have a beautiful room to myself that gets cleaned every day. Utilities and everything are included. Breakfast is cooked for me every morning. My office is downstairs and that counts as my office space and I'm paying $700. And that is outrageous to the people who come here and just get an apartment on their own. I chose to be surrounded by what's called the digital nomad community. And those are other people who are working while traveling full time.
00:12:32
Speaker
Um, so that's like part one of it is that I don't need as much to live as the folks who are paying for housing and an office space, et cetera, et cetera. Great job. That's like the big thing there. So I don't need to make as much. Um, but of course the goal is to build massive passive income. So, uh, I,
00:12:56
Speaker
realized that I had a real talent for writing I've been travel blogging ever since I studied abroad in college, probably a little bit before that so writing came really naturally to me, so I took on some gigs freelancing and.
00:13:10
Speaker
Freelance writing has been paying the bills, but what I'm passionate about is travel, not just for the sake of telling other people to get on planes, but helping people to foster other global connections. Reason being that it makes the world a better, happier, more well understood place. A mentor of mine said, if we agree to disagree, it's one of the most dangerous things that we can do. But if we agree to understand each other, that that's where the world truly shifts.
00:13:37
Speaker
So within that, I want to teach other people, specifically other working women, how to travel solo. So I'm working on a course right now, by the time this podcast goes live, I'm sure it will also be live. So working one-on-one in a consultancy way, but also in a online course way to help women find the budget to do it, the mindset and the confidence to do it, and helping other people really maximize
00:14:05
Speaker
their PTO and their hard earned dollars on travel that's going to make a difference for themselves and for others. Absolutely. This is what we do every day is get somebody like Samantha who is super passionate and they're so excited to share their passion with the world. I'm telling you it's attractive and people start surrounding you because of it.
00:14:28
Speaker
And I love your niche. As we talk about different things, different ideas, you have to think about a niche. And Brian and I really feel like the smaller the niche, the better it's going to be. And so you've kind of targeted women traveling because I think first and foremost, it's kind of a scary thing or people have this notion that it's scary. So talk through that and your experience being a single woman traveling the world.
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is like, well, it's not that scary. But I also hope, what's that old song from like the 90s? I hope you still feel small when you stand beside the ocean.
00:15:11
Speaker
I hope that I always feel small when I stand beside the ocean. I hope that the first time I go to Ankeny, Iowa, that it feels a little bit intimidating because I don't know what to expect. There is absolutely no way to visit every place because everything changes all the time. So if I were to go back to Paris for the 10th time, I hope I still feel excited and different and that I'm a little bit nervous. But I think scary is just a bit of an overstatement because people are people everywhere.
00:15:41
Speaker
And for the most part, people are so excited to help people and love on each other. But as far as getting over that, every single time I do something that I thought I couldn't do, it proves to me that I can do it. And I've really never run into something that I can't do.
00:16:02
Speaker
Um, totally. And that kind of excitement or nervous level is something that will create the best memories. You'll never forget those. And every day you get to create those and the person just sits back and sits in their cubicle and doesn't do a lot. Doesn't push themselves. I feel like are really limiting themselves to the memories that they could be making. Cause this is where the memories are made is when you're a little bit nervous. I want to.
00:16:28
Speaker
key in here because I think this is a wisdom principle that we haven't fleshed out very well. We work with a lot of talented people.
00:16:39
Speaker
hardworking people. And we often say to them, think how much money you're making for the company you work for. And then think about how much money you're getting paid. And if you've always been successful in school or sports or the job, getting promotions, why would you not be successful
00:16:59
Speaker
doing what you're extremely passionate about. Because really it just comes down to time management and focus at that point. And so for I think the large part portion of our listeners are just hardworking, dedicated people, but there's this fear that I'm not going to be successful if I go do what I was born to do.
00:17:17
Speaker
which is totally counterintuitive because it's like that's how you're going to actually make the most money and not even from an economic standpoint, but just an enjoyment of life standpoint. And I think that's what comes out with you saying, you know, so could you share what that was like from a mental state and that shift for you? Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. And I think that's kind of the part, like that's the
00:17:40
Speaker
Cherry on top of the story, right? We talked about college and then I went to work and now suddenly I'm here. So I did. I decided to travel in a way for work. I moved from Iowa after I graduated. I spent a half year in Brazil and some time out in Colorado and moved out to Rhode Island, was constantly like
00:18:02
Speaker
Oh, it was great. I lived on a farm kind of. We had chickens and a garden and I was living like super cheap, sharing it with a bunch of people. Moved to Florida for another job opportunity. And it was the same thing where I was, my degrees were in marketing, international business and concentration in French language. And I decided to go work in sales in an IT.
00:18:26
Speaker
for an IT company. And then I was like, this is stupid. I hate it. Moved to Florida and did the same thing. I was making massive amounts of money for someone else. And I knew that that's what I was doing and I was okay with it because I was also taking sales bonuses and putting those like large lump sums towards my debt. Taking large lump sums and being able to, boom, pay for a trip to Hungary for Thanksgiving. I was able to do
00:18:55
Speaker
those things while I was working. So I knew that I was constantly working towards my goals, but then there came a point where I had saved up enough money and paid off all of my debt. Um, I call the money that I was saving on the side, my effort fund, uh, fill in there. So it was my effort fund. And I knew that I had hated my first job and quit it. And that I never wanted to be in that same place emotionally where I was debating between like the Peace Corps grad school,
00:19:24
Speaker
And like, homelessness, I don't even know. I was in such a terrible history when I quit my first job. Went to my second job and said, I'm never going to do this again. Had my effort fine. Paid off all my debt. And finally, a friend, I was traveling with him in Vietnam. He really called me out in a raw way that I so appreciate and that everybody needs friends like this. But he said, Sam, you always said that you wanted to quit your job and travel. And then you went and worked.
00:19:52
Speaker
And then you said, when I pay off my debt, I'm going to go travel. And then you paid off your debt. And now you're saying, oh, when I save enough for like a year on the road, then I'll go travel. He's like, you've done that. What is this man's name? What is this man's name? His name's Matt. And he was my roommate in Florida. We're best friends to this day. Matt, shout out to you, brother. I love you, buddy. Ring the bell. Ring the bell, Matt. Come on.
00:20:20
Speaker
Wish we had sound effects. I would do something for him, but I don't. Yeah, he lives in China now, so I'll make sure that he gets a copy of this. But he was totally right and he called me out and we went about our day and then I opened up an email because I was looking for a flight confirmation that I had sent to my work email. So I said, opened up my work email while on my vacation, which I never do.
00:20:44
Speaker
Uh, and I was getting chewed out for something that I had no control over. That wasn't my fault and didn't really impact me. I love that email, by the way, looked up at the beach, looked down at my phone again, and I was like crushing it for somebody else. Like this is Matt's right. I've said this to myself forever. Like I, I'm.
00:21:12
Speaker
Done. So I knew that my boss was on PTO. I waited for her to get back in the office. I FaceTimed her. We had a really great relationship and I said, Hey, just wanted to let you know I'm quitting. And she asked, you know, is this your quitting, like you're going to put in your two weeks or is this your quitting and staying on a beach in Vietnam? I was like, I'm going to stay in Vietnam. And that's it. But I mean, to circle all the way back, Brian, and answer your question, like,
00:21:42
Speaker
You're right. I was crushing it for someone else. And I was putting so much emotional real estate into somebody else's goal. And that was trash. I had no time.
Living Aligned with Passions
00:21:55
Speaker
I look at my blog that I said, I told you I kept for several years.
00:21:58
Speaker
And there's an entire year's gap in there. And I write for fun. I write for emotional release. And I wasn't writing. I wasn't doing anything that lit up my brain. I had sold my soul to the corporate. And while there were benefits to it that got me to where I am, it was no longer serving me. And I was like, drop the mic. I'm done. I'm out. So I think that you kind of came to this realization that, listen, if I love what I did every day,
00:22:27
Speaker
I wouldn't need to retire. And you just start headed that direction. And when you start having that mindset, you start, you stop thinking about the retirement account. You start thinking how I'm going to live now. How am I going to impact others and show them what I'm passionate about? And I think other people are just as passionate about and might need somebody to lead this path for them. So kudos for you. And I want to just quickly
00:22:51
Speaker
We're going to talk about expats and expatriates because I don't think a lot of people know about these people, but I know you know a lot about them. But before we go there, I think it's really interesting that you came to the realization of what Brian and I have started helping people go down this path. And here it is. Phase one is what is your budget? And what you realize is there's two things. You can keep living the life that you're living.
00:23:17
Speaker
And you can keep going down that path. Great. But you knew that your expenses were high. You needed a lot of income. And so what you ended up doing is you ended up lowering your income, keeping that high end job, saving that extra money, lowering her expenses. I think you meant low. Yeah, I'm sorry. Lowering your expenses. Thank you.
00:23:36
Speaker
So you, you had a lower expenses, but you had a high paying job and you took that excess and you started saving it away for this next transition. So phase one for us, Brian and I, if you wanted to go down this uncommon path is know your numbers and then really take an analyzing look at your numbers and see if there's any place where you can maybe cut budget or maybe you don't need this or that. If you truly want to go down this uncommon path and for you, you did.
00:24:04
Speaker
So phase two is then just saving an amount of money, like this nest egg. We call it a capital fund. My uncle Dave Ramsey, who really isn't my uncle, calls it an emergency fund. And then once you get that, then it's now to this point where like, okay, I'm going to start this uncommon path. And that's phase three. And you start investing. You start doing what you love. You start blogging for you, writing, traveling, making memories, starting to think about maybe coursework that you can do to get paid, right?
00:24:32
Speaker
And then phase four is once your investment is kicking off enough of your, I'd say income to cover your monthly expense. Now you're going to move to phase four, which is time freedom. Here's my favorite part about this whole uncommon path is that once you get into time freedom.
00:24:50
Speaker
You think to yourself, I can do it more efficient. I can go back into phase three and start doing more writing. I can start bringing more people on this uncommon path. And it's really like, I don't ever want to get out of this. This is great. Obviously, there's going to be some things that you change, especially if the income's coming in. You might be like, hey, I don't really like this part about it. I don't like this aspect of it. I'm going to hire somebody else. But now you start running a business, a business that you absolutely love. And it's your passionate, enthusiastic about it.
00:25:19
Speaker
I'll get off my high horse, but I love that you figured out that path and you can articulate it. It's really powerful, Sam. Yeah, thank you. And I mean, again, it comes down to understanding my why. And a lot of people have come to me and said, I wouldn't know what to do with my time.
00:25:39
Speaker
What are you doing? And there's the whole fire, financially independent retire early movement and all of that, or even people who retire after 40 years in their job, really worry about what to do with their time. And in a really polite way, I have to laugh at that because I'm doing exactly what I want to. And I found a way to monetize it. It's amazing.
00:26:04
Speaker
And if you don't love your hobbies or I mean, again, there were times where I was making an awful commute, working at a place that I had become awful for me and then coming home and being exhausted and not really doing anything because I was so overwhelmed by it all. But I don't know that I would have been able to make the jump and know what to have done with my time. But I've been able to like figure that out as I go. And now I have like weird hobbies and I
00:26:33
Speaker
And you make a really good point because if you're just a person that's like trying to find a silver bullet and try to find income in a way that you're not really passionate about, I challenge you to just say, are you just spinning a plate and going to just spin another plate? Like it's exhausting. And maybe one thing works and maybe you could retire and do what you want. But my challenge is what are you going to do with the money?
00:26:56
Speaker
Oh, I'm going to now do something what I really love, what I'm passionate about, or do the Samantha Burmeister way and just love what you do and get paid for it. Yeah, exactly. All right. So let's go to expats. What are they? Where are they? Give us a definition. Start us off. Yeah, cool. So to expatriate means to leave your home country.
00:27:20
Speaker
not a dictionary, but I'm pretty sure that's the simplest explanation ever. It was amazing. I mean, depending on what circle you're in and whatnot, it might be considered immigration, long-term travel. We also call it slow travelers or expats. But what's the poll? Do you think, why do you think that's been beginning to be more and more of a, I think, fad and popularity? Why do you think?
00:27:49
Speaker
I mean, we have the opportunity now more than any other time in history to travel. Flights are super cheap to a lot of places, at least. Being in other places is typically pretty cheap.
Travel Preferences and Global Reach
00:28:07
Speaker
And because we have Wi-Fi just about everywhere, we can be anywhere that we want to be. Right. So, I mean, I'm from Iowa originally.
00:28:17
Speaker
you guys know that I detest being cold. I was there for all of like six days a few weeks ago and was not having it. So I don't have to be cold with what I do for work. I don't have to live anywhere. So I'm choosing to be in Morocco right now. I've got plans next winter to spend some time in coastal India and then probably Southeast Asia after that. But
00:28:44
Speaker
I would hate to say, oh, because it's cheap to be elsewhere. Like, yeah, the US is a super expensive place to be in relativity to a lot of other places. But I would just as happily go spend a whole bunch of time back in Dallas. I loved living in Dallas. But I think, like, yeah, the short answer is because we can.
00:29:03
Speaker
I think too, you hear this a lot and I think it's something that a lot of people don't realize. Like when I went to Africa a while ago, the dollar is strong globally and acts really as the world reserve currency. So I think one of the other things that makes this possible is that you earn income in dollars and you're converting it where you're at internationally. And that conversion ratio is really effective for this type of lifestyle.
00:29:31
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. I think what is it Tim Paris in the four hour work week says earn earn dollars live in.
00:29:41
Speaker
pesos and outsourced in rupees or something like that. Right. Yeah. I think that's really cool. It's just the mindset shift. I've heard, and I'm not sure, I don't know how much validity this is, but I've heard the person who, uh, she's older. Think about the long-term care. Think about the retirement home. She just goes straight to a cruise. She is on the cruise 100% of the time because she did the cost analysis.
00:30:06
Speaker
and realize that it's cheaper for her to get on the cruise full time, have the doctors provide, have an amazing food, have maybe amazing memories, and live on a cruise. I mean, that's the mindset shift that is so powerful. Yeah, yeah, 100%. And the exposure bias tells us that everybody's at home working nine to five jobs and gets maybe 20 days of PTO a year.
00:30:37
Speaker
But my exposure, because I'm working with software developers and bloggers, full-time bloggers here, like my exposure is that people spend like a month in their home country every year and that there's plenty of ways to make money online. A girl is showing me her numbers last night for her affiliate linking that she does through blogging. So again, another stream of income that people create for themselves. And she's making,
00:31:05
Speaker
as much as I make in a month, just for having a website that she has worked super, super hard to get to where she is. But it's just there. It's just making her money. And it's incredible that like, she hasn't been back in her home country in months, but she's earning income in euros.
00:31:27
Speaker
I think the notion that only celebrities are the ones that represent products or goods or services is gone. And now with social media and people, you know, that are consistent like that woman, if you continue to provide a message and a value to people, you're going to get the affiliate opportunities, you know, economically. And you're seeing that now. And I think what I love about your message, Sam, is that, you know, you have a global audience.
00:31:53
Speaker
What you're saying is that, hey, I'm resonating and my message is resonating with people all over the world. It's not just about America anymore. Perfect transition to tell us about the course that you're building, the 9-5 Nomad. I want to just caveat this by saying, don't sell it too hard because Brian will take off. Okay? You guys would do great here.
00:32:22
Speaker
I have no doubt, by the way. Yeah. Yeah. So for my brand, 9to5 Nomad, I'm creating a course.
Empowering Women to Travel Solo
00:32:31
Speaker
It's geared towards women, but there's no reason that men can't do it too. But helping people to shift their mindset and then find the means to create either
00:32:44
Speaker
time off for themselves and travel the way that they want to. But the digital nomad life is not for everyone. So it's absolutely 100% not about quitting your job or going fully remote and traveling the world. The course is 100% about traveling in a way that you want to and being 100% independent when you do it. So helping professional women learn how to solo travel is the goal.
00:33:11
Speaker
And what's the course look like? Like, what are they going to learn in this course? How do they get on the course? Cause I had a feeling there was some listeners out there that was like, yeah, I'm in. Let me start having a different mindset. Yeah, absolutely. So my website is nine to five nomad.co nine T O five nomad.co. And from there, people will be able to sign up for the course. It's on an online teaching platform called teachable.
00:33:37
Speaker
And there's going to be two main modules. The first is going over mindset. So I mean, some people don't even go to the bathroom without taking their cell phones. They're that connected all the darn time. So the first is just mindset, like getting over the idea of
00:33:53
Speaker
fear of being lonely, fear of going it alone, fear of all of the what ifs. So 100%, digging in the mindset. And then the second portion is the tactical part is digging into how do you budget? There's a little bit on credit card hacking, but that's like a whole other course in and of itself, but credit card hacking, making it a reality how to find cheap tickets.
00:34:16
Speaker
how to pick a place to go and then actually doing the darn thing. So from the minute that somebody says, man, I would love to go spend two weeks in the Caribbean, but nobody will go with me. That's where they start working with me. And the end result is them getting there and doing the darn thing and having an awesome time doing it. And basically you're just mad to other people, right? Exactly.
00:34:42
Speaker
I'm the hype queen just standing behind and saying book it, book the ticket. And you need that. I'm telling you the value that you're giving there is, it's very high. People need some help. I need help. Yeah. I mean, it's wild to me, I mean, to be totally vulnerable. It's wild because it's come so easily to me because the first time I traveled when I was 19, so the first time really as an adult, um, I was going to teach English, but I didn't even think about,
00:35:08
Speaker
the fact that I was going alone, I just figured there'll be other English speakers because I'm teaching in an English speaking camp. So it's always just come to me so naturally, but it's wild to think about the value that I do provide for other people who don't think like me when it is, it's such a given, but I've helped so many people in my family and my friend circle to make the leap, but it's just such a natural thing to do.
00:35:35
Speaker
It's a joy. And here's my question. I'm going to answer it for you. When do you want to retire from what you're doing currently? And I want you to say, retire from what? I'd love this. Like, what am I retiring from? This has come natural for me. I'm passionate about it. This is just what I am. Yeah. Like, I'll do this for a while. And then when something else seems cool and fun, I'll do that for a while. Like, how do you not be attracted to that? That's amazing.
00:36:05
Speaker
Good job, Samantha. I'm proud of you. Yeah, yeah. I'm having a blast and I just want other people to love their lives and see the world the way that I see it.
00:36:15
Speaker
Well, you exude that energy and I really appreciate that. And I know our listeners are as well. So if you have any questions for Samantha or any questions for Brian and I, we would love to answer those. We would love to get you connected. How is a, I think that 9to5.co is the best way to get ahold of you in contact. 9to5nomad.co. Oh. Yep.
00:36:38
Speaker
Otherwise, like for my millennials out there, I'm super active on Instagram at 9to5.nomad. And then otherwise, my email address is 9to5nomad.co at gmail.com. Perfect.
00:36:55
Speaker
And I follow, sorry, I'm battling a cold here. I follow Samantha on Insta and she have a great feed. So I highly recommend the follow there. And especially if you want to travel more, so. Yeah. Thank you. I try and keep it super real. Like there's all the Instagram models and whatnot out there yesterday. I was like in my sweatpants filming the Muslim call to prayer. Cause there's a mosque right across the street and they broadcast it five times a day. So like, I I'd like to think I'm a good follow. I keep it pretty real.
00:37:24
Speaker
Yeah, definitely. Well, Samantha, thank you for going down this uncommon path. I just want to tell you it is hard work. And the work that you've done up to this point has been valuable and what you're doing for people is valuable. So great job. Thanks for being on the show. And if there's any way we can help you, we are all about it because we are passionate about what you're doing and how you're helping other people. So thank you. Awesome. Thank you, guys.
00:37:51
Speaker
So you've been listening to the Uncommon Life Project. I've been your host, Phillip Ramsey. And I'm Brian Dewhurst. Thanks for tuning in. Tune in next time for another episode. Thanks so much. Bye. That's all for this episode of the Uncommon Life Project, brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit uncommonwealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.