🌍🏡 In this dynamic episode of the Expat Experts Podcast, we’re joined by Marie DeCosse—a Senegalese-American who grew up as a global citizen, living in Madagascar and Bangladesh. Her unique upbringing shaped her perspective on cultural exchange and inspired her entrepreneurial journey. Today, she’s the founder of NOMAD Travel Groups, a revolutionary home-swapping platform for travelers seeking authentic, local experiences.
🎙️📹 Check all the interviews: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLUHBYh0ornEGBu9L5Hgxbmh5hzZcX2SjC
*📢 SUBSCRIBE and LISTEN in our audio channels:*
https://www.expatexpertspodcast.com/spotify
https://www.expatexpertspodcast.com/applepodcast
https://www.expatexpertspodcast.com/share
*💫 1-1 consultations:*
https://expatexpertspodcast.com/1-1-consultation
*📲 Follow Marie on:*
https://wetravelnomad.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wetravelnomad/
https://www.tiktok.com/@wetravelnomad
https://www.linkedin.com/company/nomad-travel-groups
Like a dating app by matching hosts and guests for podcast interviews with process automations.
VidIQ
Helps you acquire the tools and knowledge needed to grow your audience faster on YouTube and beyond.
Podcastpage
Makes it easy to create powerful podcast websites in minutes. Without coding.
Buzzsprout
The easiest way to start a podcast. Gets your podcast online and into Apple, YouTube, and Spotify.
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Want to be a guest on Expat Experts? Send Marc Alcobé a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/expatexperts
Check the episodes in video in Youtube 🎥:
https://www.youtube.com/@expatsexperts
Follow us on social media 📲:
https://www.instagram.com/expatexperts_podcast
https://www.tiktok.com/@expatexperts_podcast
https://www.facebook.com/expatexpertspodcast
0:00
today at xfit experts we have a very special guest with us M de K Mii is an entrepreneur and freedom Advocate and
0:06
also the founder of Nom travel groups a company that helps digital Nomad create a life of freedom and fulfillment and
0:14
she worked herself or all over the world so we Explore her journey as an expert
0:19
but also her vision on what digital noral lifestyle
0:27
means this is xat experts the podcast that dives into the fascinating lives of
0:32
those who've lived and worked across borders exploring the challenges experiences and insights they've gained
0:38
along the way but before we start with the episode I want to remind to all listeners that
0:45
the best way to stay tuned with the latest episodes is by hitting subscribe here on YouTube and in your favorite
0:50
audio platform for extra information about the podcast check the website expert exerp podcast.com or check the
0:58
link in the description the exper Marie
The expat: Marie DeCosse
1:05
deos so in the first part of the episode today I would like to dive a little bit
1:11
into into Mar life uh as an expert but also as a digital Nomad and a nomad and
1:18
person who travels all around the world let's say like this because I think there is a difference between being an
1:24
expert and B between being an nor itself and I think you live both so it's very interesting that you can give the the
1:30
both perspective in there um yeah besides besides that thank you so much M
1:37
for joining the the the podcast today thank you for being here and having you dedicating some time of your schedule uh
1:45
welcome thanks thanks so much for having me I'm very excited to be here and it's
1:50
always a pleasure to talk about travel travel is what I live for I was sort of
1:56
born into it um so I'm happy to talk about anything related to it um and with
2:03
regard to your first question so yes I lived an expat lifestyle growing up so
2:11
my dad um worked in Economic Development and that necessitated a lot of travel
2:19
and living abroad particularly in emerging countries when I was younger I was born in the DC area but then we
2:26
quickly moved to Madagascar we spent some time there and then we moved to Bangladesh and we spent a little over 5
2:34
years there and you know I'm very appreciative for the experience that my
2:41
family was able to give me especially living abroad in my younger years it's something that not a lot of Americans
2:48
get to experience and I think it is something that many more should
2:53
especially in emerging countries because you get exposed to different ways of life and I think the biggest thing that
2:59
stood out to me was the communalistic culture versus individualistic culture in the US everything is about how
3:07
quickly are you going to get ahead in your career how much money are you going to make who has a bigger house than the next person and people aren't that
3:14
willing to help others out even members of their family but living in countries
3:20
like Madagascar and Bangladesh everything was about the community you make money you put it back into the
3:26
community if somebody needs help you lend a helping hand even if you don't know who that person is if there are
3:32
people that are struggling if they don't have food we would invite people over for dinner at times it's just a
3:39
different way of life and it has a lot more to do with building community and
3:45
just being being a good person and I'm I'm really thankful that I had that
3:50
experience and I can go into other stories about Madagascar and Bangladesh with in any other questions that you
3:56
might have but transitioning to you know a digital Nomad lifestyle so that
4:02
started happening after the pandemic when we moved back from Bangladesh it
4:07
was business as us as usual as a typical American so I went to public school I
4:13
went to college and then I started working full-time as an international tax analyst for a public accounting firm
4:20
and every it was just life was boring like I felt like I'm not able to travel
4:25
I'm not feeling like I'm doing what I really want to do and then the pandemic kit and it shook everything up and I
4:32
realized that I could work remotely I could travel and I could still fulfill my client's needs and that sort of
4:40
ignited this spark of okay I don't have to do the typical 9-to-5 I can change
4:45
things up in my home life so I can meet my passion for travel while still earning money while still pursuing
4:52
career interests and so after the pandemic when the Border started opening up again I was traveling frequently I
4:58
would spend time working remotely in New York in DC I went to Mexico for a little bit I was in Portugal I went to London I
5:06
was just bouncing around and yes you have to work in different time zones but that's a necessary sacrifice when on
5:12
your off hours you get to explore beautiful new cities and and meet different people all these things that
5:18
are prior to the pandemic prior to this digital Nomad lifestyle becoming a mainstream thing you know luxuries that
5:25
you only get to do when you're on vacation and that's what maybe once or twice a year if you're lucky so being a
5:32
digital Nomad was my way to reconnect with my roots to reconnect with the Maria who was living abroad who found
5:41
this this passion through travel and the pandemic was horrible you know I would
5:46
say the one good thing that came out of it was people realizing that you could live a more flexible lifestyle and The
5:54
Rebirth of this digital Nomad fat definitely I think it's what it
6:02
opened doors internationally for a lot of companies to to start realizing that
6:07
even even for the companies itself if you take it from a business perspective you are saving money on offices
6:14
equipments and stuff so just like uh for them it was also beneficial I think for
6:19
some of them at least um exactly so you you said that you move for the first
6:26
time to Madagascar Madagascar was the first move that you ever did uh how old were you in in that
6:33
moment yes so I was um I would say preschool going into first grade when I
6:39
was when we were in Madagascar my sister was uh around the second grade and so my
6:46
me my memories of Madagascar are fairly sparse what I do remember is we lived
6:53
right next to these rice fields and we would go out into the rice fields and
6:59
sort of walk in like the Narrow Path that's in between the the budding uh the
7:04
budding rice plants and my sister who is a
7:10
um my sister who is more of an adventurous like very rambunctious girl
7:17
when she was younger she started running through the rice fields and then she fell in and it was like mud that was so
7:24
deep and my dad came running out sorry everyone I'm just this is this is the
7:30
this is we're going to get into the business soon but when you run a business there is never ever time off
7:36
people are always trying to get your attention so I apologize for all the buzzing noises um but she went running through
7:44
the rice seels she fell in and she was waste deep and I remember my dad having
7:50
to run out there and pull her out and he grabbed her arm and he was he pulled her quickly because there was tons of snakes
7:57
in the rice fields and he didn't want her to get caught by one of them and he ended up dislocating he ended up
8:02
dislocating her shoulder and we we went running back to the house and this I have this vivid memory standing in the
8:10
bathroom my poor sister is crying and my dad is trying to wash her off and there's just mud going all down the
8:16
drain and I looked at her and I was like but did you have fun in the rice fields
8:21
and she looks at me and she had this sort of shy smile and she was like yeah let's go back so Madagascar it was a fun
8:30
start to my life and I'm glad that I got to experience it with my sister we were
8:36
always just getting into things we always wanted to Adventure we always imagin these fantasies of I'm you know a
8:42
queen in a castle and and I have my animals and you know I'm just ruling
8:49
this land all the all the things that children do but it was beautiful that we were able to experience that in a
8:55
completely different country because it it makes you it makes you approach life in a different way and start dreaming
9:02
about you know what's possible outside of the confines of the
9:08
US yeah it makes a lot of sense I think like as a child you also see it from a
9:13
different perspective I assume know the thing like it's not it's not the thing
9:19
that you have in mind at that moment it's something that you analyze afterwards of seeing like other people
9:25
who hasn't passed through the same experience as you and maybe stayed in the United States forever and Home
9:30
Country never had this experience maybe they they don't have this spark for I
9:35
don't know traveling or this Freedom that you were talking on becoming Nomad and being able to um even if it requires
9:43
some sacrifices as you were saying to to it doesn't something that comes intrinsically in a lot of people they
9:50
they are home people um you said that this was mainly due to your dad's job
9:57
but you were moving the whole family um it yes how how was how was it for
10:04
your family in general and For You especially to to not have a place or every certain time knowing that you need
10:12
to move and that the thing was temporary I think so for us it was just
10:20
it was normal like I don't I don't ever remember it being unusual to travel that
10:26
frequently because we started our life doing it we were just sort of born into
10:31
this um traveling family and my mom so my mom is sagales she grew up in senagal
10:39
and then um when she was pursuing her degree she was living in France that's where she met my father and then they
10:46
moved back to the US so she lived a life abroad and she came over to the US um to
10:52
start her life with us and my dad he at
10:57
the time that he had met my mom he had been to I don't know how many many tens
11:04
of many countries he lived in Peru for a long time while he was doing his uh
11:11
Master's he's just he's always had this love for travel and I remember him
11:17
telling me when I got older you know he said that I don't like to stay stagnant for too long I feel like I I am who I'm
11:25
supposed to be when I'm traveling when I'm working in a different country so all of us have this passion for it and
11:34
I'm blessed that I had parents that sort of showed me the way but what's
11:39
beautiful about this rise in digital nomadism is that people who weren't born
11:44
into a family like mine are are tapping into what travel means and figuring it
11:49
out and it can be scary you know going to a new country you don't know the mechanisms maybe you're not familiar with traveling abroad that frequently
11:57
but people are having more of the guts to do it because it's becoming more of a
12:02
popular thing and I think that's beautiful I think it's beautiful to travel because you learn about different
12:08
people and it helps you understand other people I think the world will be a little bit better if we all took the
12:14
time to understand each other a little bit more definitely exploring cultures opens
12:21
normally a lot of of our mind and our preconceptions of places in your case I
12:27
assume you also went to very like to undeveloped countries to multiple of them um do you
12:35
remember this shaping your childhood or like your way of seeing the
12:40
world while being there but also afterwards yes when we were in
12:47
Bangladesh because I was older and also because I wasn't really as sheltered
12:54
from the um socioeconomic disparities like I was in madas Asar in Madagascar
13:00
it was I was at home most of the time and then I was sort of driven to school and then I had my community at school
13:06
but I wasn't exposed to life outside sort of those guidelines then when we moved to Bangladesh I went to an
13:13
international school so folks from all over the world who were working in Bangladesh sent their kids there that
13:20
already started opening my mind up to different cultures and perspectives but then outside of the school you see so
13:26
much disparity you know it you it's unusual to visit a city where you see
13:34
this beautiful luxurious skyscraper right next to the slums like it's it's
13:39
that adjacent the disparity um and and I wouldn't say that I ever got used to it
13:47
it wasn't something that I ever just welcomed as normal you were always sort
13:52
of sort of shocked by the standards or the conditions that a lot of people had
13:58
to live in because you know they were born into a certain cast and there was
14:03
very limited options for them to get out of it so I think being exposed to that
14:09
at a young age humbled me and made me really appreciative for what I was given
14:14
it makes you want to give back but it also makes you want to explain to other
14:20
people who have these preconceived notions about how other cultures operate
14:26
that maybe they should take some time to actually be there to like fully understand what goes on in an emerging
14:33
country before they judge others and their way of life I remember when I
14:38
moved back to the US I told people that I lived in Madagascar I lived in
14:43
Bangladesh and people were like oh did you live in a cave I was like that's not
14:48
how it that's not how it works like there are people living in luxury apartment buildings it's just the news
14:56
only shows you one side um um so but yeah again it just goes back to how
15:02
travel makes you understand things a little bit more you actually touched one of the
15:09
points that I wanted to ask you about because I'm always curious about the schooling system when you are a kid that
15:16
moves around how how was this experience for you and how how do you manage like
15:21
changing schools and and how is the system working for in these different
15:27
countries I so I actually was really really depressed when I left the school
15:33
in Bangladesh and had to come back to the US I loved going to school in DACA
15:38
so it was called AISD the American International School of DACA the schooling system was really great they
15:45
had teachers that were Bangladeshi or you know uh foreign Nationals who wanted
15:52
to teach in Bangladesh the quality of the schooling was great the school in
15:57
itself was um a fairly large campus we had any activity you wanted to do there was
16:04
swimming there was track there was basketball everything was at your fingertips it was a really really
16:11
beautiful School the class sizes were small so I would say there were no more than maybe 10 to 11 kids um in my in my
16:21
class itself so out of the entire third grade maybe maybe 30 kids and the school
16:29
hosted from first grade first grade all the way through 12th grade and it was
16:35
all on the same campus and I knew people who started at AISD and went all the way
16:40
through and graduated and then went to really prominent um universities in
16:48
Canada or London it was sort of their stepping stone to go into this this you
16:55
know young adult life of pursuing higher level education so if there are any
17:01
disparities and I'm sure you know depending on where you are the quality of the education differs but what a lot
17:07
of people don't understand is when you're a foreign National living in an emerging country or another country your
17:14
government they do take care of you or the private company that you work for takes care of you and generally the
17:19
quality of the schooling is really good yeah makes sense that and I mean
17:26
they take care of who giving an a good image now I suppose also um what happens
17:32
when you come back though it's like all the grades all the all the studies that
17:38
you have done are valid you come back to a system in United States because you
17:43
said that you went to then into public school also in United States and how does how does this transfer from one to
17:50
the other yes so we didn't have any issues with the credits that I had at the
17:57
American um inter International School in DACA transferring to public school in the US and I think what my parents did
18:04
before enrolling Us in that school was just triple check that there wouldn't be any issues because they knew that the
18:10
contract period was going to be five years so we would be moving back after that stin I also know a lot of friends
18:17
who were coming from Malaysia were coming from London were coming from
18:23
other parts of the world and they didn't have any issues with their credits transferring as well as you move into
18:30
high school so from 9th grade through 12th grade I'm sure there were some what we call in the US AP classes so higher
18:38
level classes that maybe some of those credits didn't transfer because I know a lot of schools are very particular like
18:44
when you're now applying to colleges they're very particular about what what credits do or don't but at least between
18:51
the grades of first grade through 8th grade there generally isn't that much of an issue with transferring
19:00
cool in school which kind of friends did you do as a kid like it was always like
19:06
you were surrounded by the international environment in that school but did you have also local friends from from daa
19:13
for example or from uh I would say it was mostly people from
19:19
the um international school so the folks that went to AISD it wasn't just foreign
19:26
Nationals kids there were a lot of Bangladeshi kids Indian Pakistani who
19:32
went to AISD and they did because the quality of the education was high so
19:39
Bangladesh itself if you were a Bangladeshi local and you were able to put your child through schooling at ASD
19:46
that was that was the obvious choice it was the probably the best school to go to in DACA which is the capital city so
19:55
I had a lot of friends who were from from Bangladesh in southeast East Asia and outside of AISD it's kind of odd and
20:03
I don't know if you've heard of this but and it's probably an emerging country thing but there were specific clubs that
20:11
you would go to depending on your nationality so there was the American Club there was the Swedish Club the dut
20:18
the Dutch Club I think there was the French Club like there were these for these clubs that they weren't
20:25
restrictive but if you were a foreign National from that country you were automatically sort of given membership
20:32
and then as kids you would go and go to this club and invite your friends there
20:38
so I remember going to the American Club often and that they had tennis boards in a swimming pool and I would invite my
20:44
friends from AISD and we would all hang out there and then you meet more kids through there and then you go to the
20:50
French Club because somebody invited you and you meet other people through that Network so it's it's it's this unusual
20:58
sort of connection you have with fellow expats and then I would say a prominent
21:04
Bangladeshi individuals like their kids I
21:09
see nice do you keep contact with any of these people do you still have contact
21:15
with someone from your youth in in my I do yeah so my sort of core girl group
21:22
when I was younger they are now living in different parts of the world I met up with one of them when I was in London
21:29
last year and it was really great to see her and then another friend is in
21:35
California doing amazing things and two and a half maybe three years ago was the
21:41
last I saw her in person but then because you know we live in a social
21:46
media era it's so easy to keep up with them they're all of my they're all friends on on my Instagram and so I can
21:53
see what they're doing and it it's really nice cool
21:58
um do you remember any experiences any stories like any funny stories any I
22:04
don't know stories that impacted you or that you still remember because sometimes we we forget no stories when
22:10
we are kids but some of them are always there you so that's the important ones
22:15
uh from your time in Bangladesh yeah let me see what's the
22:21
probably funniest story there's one story that's maybe not it's funny to me
22:27
now but but I also am embarrassed my first boyfriend was Swedish and it was
22:33
just one of those like third grade relationships where you're nervous to talk to the person so we would always
22:40
pass notes through our cubby so he'd put a note in my cubby and then I'd read it and it was like what I would look
22:47
forward to all day it was just to be able to read this note because I didn't I didn't have it's not like we had
22:53
phones like we do now so the only time I could hear from him was either at recess or through these noes and um I remember
23:01
I was obsessed with his hair because he had this long flowy hair and it was like he was Prince Charming really into you
23:07
know princesses and Barbies and everything at the time and then one day he showed up to school and he buzzed all
23:15
of his hair off like everything was gone and I remember coming up to him on the
23:21
playground and I was like what did you do to your hair why didn't you tell me that you were going to cut all of your
23:27
hair off and he was like it's just easier for me to play soccer and I remember going back
23:34
to class after recess and I started cry I started crying because he was no
23:40
longer Prince Charming in my mind so then I wrote him a note and I said I'm so sorry but we're over and I put it in
23:48
his I put in his I feel now looking back on it you know I'm sure he thinks back
23:54
on it and laughs or doesn't even remember that that happened but it's just one of those silly things when
24:00
you're a kid like somebody cutting their hair is the worst thing in the entire world all things can be big depending on
24:09
who whose eyes are there no yes exactly cool um I wanted to ask you also
24:19
we touch a little bit about the school when you come back but because in the
24:24
latest episodes I talk with a lot of people who went back home so and the
24:30
fact of repatriation it's also something that it's not normal or it's not easy for everyone you left the country you
24:38
left it somehow but then when you come back it's something different your friends also changed your family also
24:43
changed the environment has changed completely do you remember at what age did you come back to United
24:49
States uh so I was 11 or 12 I think after I was going into the sixth grade
24:56
so I think 11 or 12 years old so nearly entering High School directly um at that point yes entering
25:05
Middle School yeah me to and how was your going
25:11
back home experience like how did it fell for you it was really difficult it was a
25:19
huge adjustment I wasn't used to the public schooling in system in the US I had never really been exposed to it what
25:27
I remember I think the biggest differentiator was again coming back to
25:32
the aspect of community when we were overseas I think because it we all
25:38
bonded over the fact that we were you know in a country that wasn't our birth country people were just more open with
25:47
each other if there was a new person who started you know at that school they were immediately welcomed it wasn't this
25:54
sort of there was no bullying like at least with the people that I surrounded myself with everyone everyone just liked
26:01
each other but and then I moved back to the US and the first thing I noticed was
26:07
sort of people being segmented by their
26:12
racial background that was the first thing that that I noticed especially in the cafeteria you had African-American
26:20
people generally grouped together one side you know you had Caucasian people
26:25
group together on another side it was almost like I was walking into like a prison cafeteria and now I have to
26:31
figure out where I'm going to sit and it was it was the it was the biggest shock
26:37
because I hadn't I wasn't used to seeing color like that because I grew up in a very diverse environment where everybody
26:44
was just friends with each other and then you come back to the us and then you have to figure out you know and
26:50
decide what group you're going to be a part of uh which one is going to accept you and that was really difficult it
26:57
took me a really long time to find my place it was hard for me to make friends and I just remember being developing a
27:04
severe social anxiety for from seventh grade through 9th grade I had really bad
27:10
social anxiety and um it wasn't until my father got me involved in playing tennis
27:16
frequently with a group outside of school that helped me sort of break out of my shell a little bit more and and
27:22
start to um come back to myself sort to be a little bit more normal but yeah the
27:28
the moving back experience it was really really
27:33
tough it's it's a common pattern but I assume as a child it's even more I mean
27:40
it's not an age that you should be figuring out the things like I don't know why segregation of a race no for
27:48
example and I assume when you wake like when you raise up and you grow up in a
27:53
society that is implicit in it you don't notice it but as soon as you enter from outside from some years of being out of
28:00
it the shock it's it must be hardcore it is difficult for for adults for a kid I
28:08
assume it's even even worse I suppose yes
28:14
yeah um maybe switching a little bit into more digital Nomad you already said
28:21
that this trigger was like the post-pandemic the capacity of like during the pandemic I assume like
28:28
discovering that you could home work from home and then after that when the borders start opening starting traveling
28:35
around um are you traveling all the time how how does it work for you do you have
28:41
a base camp uh where you consider home and then you travel here and there or how how is your life structor traveling
28:49
wise yeah so I have a base cam my base camp is Denver Colorado I've been in
28:54
Denver for a almost 5 years now I moved here right after college I would I have
29:01
a travel bug so if I sit anywhere for longer than two months I just start
29:07
getting this itch I need to go somewhere even if it's you know into the mountains a three and a half hour drive at least
29:14
I'm I'm away from where I have been sitting for the past two months so
29:21
because I've been building this company this summer has not involved that much travel which has been really difficult
29:28
but like let's take last year for example I went to New York twice I was in Philly I went to DC I went to London
29:36
I went to Portugal I was in Spain for a little bit I went to California Vancouver and Seattle and that's just
29:44
within a year um and I needed to do it and you know there's ways where you just
29:49
find good flights good affordable flights and and it you get it done but I
29:55
always come back to base camp I think having base camp is really important because um travel helps you figure
30:02
certain things out about yourself and then when you come back to where you feel comfortable where you feel situated
30:09
that's where you can put what you have learned about yourself how you need to advance this or that into actual
30:20
practice nice I think it's important to have somewhere that you consider home no
30:25
I I assume it's it's giving also an inner peace of like okay if something happens I have where to go back um
30:32
exactly what are the I mean you work with a lot of nens we will enter with the with the fact that you created a
30:40
company you said this year or so it's a pretty new uh
30:45
project yes so the founding date um was August I think 14th
30:52
2023 so we're a little over a year now nice but you start travel
30:58
before building the company itself meaning that you were capable of continue working remote for the company
31:05
that you were working during pandemic or you switch in there yes so I actually ended up um
31:13
switching companies I was working for a public accounting firm through the
31:18
pandemic that went fully remote like every other company but then once the
31:23
pandemic started slowing had a mandatory 3 days in office off return to work
31:29
policy and I was like heck no I'm not doing that so I quit and I moved to
31:34
another company that offered me a fully remote role so that I could continue
31:41
traveling nice do you one of the biggest questions that I always get like do you then how
31:50
how how do you balance friends and and relationships with with being a om like
31:57
how do you be build community or like try to to stay with a circle of friends
32:03
and yeah well the beautiful thing about being a nomad and the longer you do it
32:10
the more Community you build in in different countries that you go to is that you have resources to tap into all
32:18
over the world and travelers are very open with providing connections oh you
32:24
want to do this oh I have a friend who can you know get that trip planned for you oh you're going to London oh you
32:30
need to check out this restaurant or cafe or meet up with my friend here so I think building Community was not
32:38
difficult at all especially when you do solo trips because people are are engaging in a Solo trip in order to
32:44
build community make friends and get out of their comfort zone where I found that
32:49
I was lacking was with my community at home so especially when I was traveling for longer distance I'd be so focused on
32:57
what I was doing in that country and and I would just neglect my family or I would neglect my friends have been
33:04
friends for years and they know who I am especially my family we're all very independent people we just work best
33:11
when we're we're away from each other so they know that there's going to be periods of times where they're not going
33:16
to be able to get in touch with me but when I return home I try to you know
33:21
make it a point to reconnect with the people that I haven't been able to speak to in a while just check on them and
33:28
make sure that they're doing okay what about building strong
33:34
connections with these people like because sometimes even as an expert you go to these meetups or you go to this I
33:41
don't know whatever it is and yes you meet people and it's kind of easy to
33:47
meet people over the wall all the time wherever you go no but having deep
33:52
friends or real friends and deep connections with people it's where it gets complex um how how always was this
33:59
experience for you I think that just happens over time so you can't force anything but you have
34:06
this feeling right where you know that you immediately hit it off with somebody and your personality is just very
34:13
similar or it just works well together so in you know those first few weeks you
34:19
you're having fun lightly within a group of people but then that's where social media comes in handy so you keep into
34:25
contact with them check in on them through the app and then generally what
34:31
I've found is the people that I've built strong connections with end up coming with me on a trip so I had a friend that
34:38
I met through traveling I kept in contact with her on social media my friends and I were planning a trip to
34:45
Panama and I asked her to come with me and then she came and she bonded with all of my my clo girlfriends and that
34:53
just you know that sort of roots that friendship so it takes time but it's
35:00
important to not forget the people that you had a good connection with and you know try to plan a more intimate trip
35:06
with them just to just to keep exploring that
35:12
friendship what are the biggest misconceptions that you find when you say hey I'm a digital nomed or like when
35:18
or like the stereotypes that people have when you say I live like this this is my
35:26
lifestyle I think there are people who think that you just don't work you're
35:31
digital Nomad so you must have a lot of family money and you're just able to travel frequently or you know you're a
35:38
hippie and you just want to bounce around different countries but that's not what it is at all digital Nomads
35:45
have found a way to work frequently earn their money like anybody who's going
35:52
into an office would continuously Advance their career and do so in a way
35:58
that works for their lifestyle um so yeah I think the biggest misconception is is how are you making
36:05
money and that's usually members of the older generation who the concept of being a digital Nomad it's just a
36:11
completely new concept for them yeah can imagine I mean even when
36:19
you're on an expectation sometimes they tell you how how do you work from home
36:24
well I only need my computer to work so and yes
36:29
um yeah so related but not maybe not 100% related what are the biggest
36:36
challenges that you faced in your own Journey as a digital Nomad until
36:42
now I think the biggest thing for myself and for a lot of digital Nomads is the
36:48
cost it's why I founded my business so that there could be a more Equitable
36:54
travel solution but the cost is huge and that's why a lot of people don't or a
37:00
lot of digital Nomads don't hang on to their primary property or their Base Cam
37:05
because the cost of keeping up with rent or mortgage payments for that plus your flight cost plus your accommodation food
37:13
for you know as much as you want to travel frequently is a lot it's a lot of
37:19
money um so yeah it all it really all comes down to that if we were able to
37:24
take away cost people would be traveling a lot more frequently
37:30
how do you reduce costs I suppose this enters a little bit into the Nomad travel groups a little bit also why you
37:36
created the the the company we will dig into it but how are your tips and tricks
37:41
for anyone who is dreaming of becoming a digital Nom that encounters these challenges how do you reduce these costs
37:49
examp so I'm a huge proponent for cooking your meals at home buy your
37:54
groceries cook your breakfast and lunch at home and then you know choose certain
37:59
restaurants that you're really excited about to to spend that money on or
38:04
street food I'm a huge fan of street food and people need to eat it more often because that's where you're going
38:11
to get the really quality stuff but when it comes to expenses you know reconsider
38:17
how you're approaching food reconsider just spending frantically on buying new
38:23
clothes here and there you really don't need to have that much and you want to pack light when you're traveling because
38:28
if you don't there's other expenses that come in like paying for your check bag wherever you go lugging it everywhere I
38:35
know a lot of people are are fans of hostiles I'm not a huge fan of hostiles
38:40
because for me it's more of a safety and comfort thing it also depends on the country that you go to the quality of
38:46
hostiles varies so look into accommodation that way and then also opts for public transportation bus
38:54
systems and train systems are great and most countries and they keep cost low so
39:00
instead of always opting for flights if you want to travel from one country to the next look for a bus look for a train
39:06
that's going to get you there and you're going to be able to see beautiful things along along the way I think those are
39:12
the biggest ones and then really just keeping track of your expenses so I was using mint which is an app to track how
39:20
much I was spending usually before I travel I put a set budget of I'm not going to spend more than this
39:27
when I'm in this country and if I'm starting to find myself inching towards the top end of that budget then looking
39:34
at all of my expenses seeing you know what what's getting taken out where can I cut costs just to make sure that I'm
39:40
on track don't just spend willy-nilly because your credit card is is is not going to like it once you return
39:48
home definitely I need also a piece of plastic so it's easy to use sometimes uh
39:54
yeah maybe the last question about nor life although I have a last section that
39:59
I want to talk with you about more like personal Reflections and recommendations of because you traveled around and I'm
40:06
sure you've touched a lot of cultures food restaurants and places so I want to talk about that quickly afterwards but
40:13
what what is in your opinion the difference between a digital Nom and an expert you that you've lived in the both
40:19
worlds let's say like this do they have different challenges is really a different full
40:25
life I would say so I think there's similarities and differences in terms of
40:31
the biggest difference in expat is getting rid not getting well they're
40:37
uprooting their life right they're moving their entire life to a particular country and spending an extended period
40:45
of time in that one country and that is that's a big shift that requires a lot
40:52
of planning a lot of strategy and a lot of just getting used to this one country
41:00
or culture that you're now immersing yourself in a digital Nomad is not
41:06
necessarily getting rid of their um their security their Community their
41:11
home they can still maintain this base this sort of safety mechanism in their
41:17
home country while exploring other countries bopping around so I would say
41:23
digital Nomad is much more transient and expat has to make the decision to be
41:30
sedentary in a country that is not um their own in terms of similarities
41:35
though you it all comes down to um this connection to explore the world to want
41:42
to see the way that other people live to want to immerse themselves in it and the
41:49
want to be uncomfortable because you have to be uncomfortable when you're
41:54
when you're moving or or visiting a country that is not your own and that
41:59
just I think a lot of it is just a passion for travel that um expats and digital Nomad
42:06
share nice just the last question it just pop up and I really wanted to ask
42:12
you about it it's how do you feel I mean I'm sure that you heard it and probably experienced it at some places I there is
42:20
a big discussion right now about digital Noms increasing the price of the cities
42:25
on the countries where they going to for example no um what is your opinion on
42:31
that I mean I'm from Barcelona and there isn't a strong right now uh movement of
42:38
what it's happening because our flats are going so crazy high that nobody can lives in Barcelona anymore no it's the
42:43
case of vanessia a little bit the case but I don't know if it's in your opinion
42:48
it's it's only I don't I know that it's not only about the digital nits but uh what what is your vision on all like the
42:57
opinion on this topic yeah I mean it's a and it's a very valid concern right you have people
43:04
coming from countries where you know let's say the median income is a lot higher and then driving money into
43:11
countries that haven't shifted standards in terms of um income for their own
43:16
residents and so you're creating this disparity the government wants to encourage travel they want to encourage
43:23
funneling money into their economy but then there aren't ways to boost up their
43:28
own residents so that they can participate in this in this shift of standard I think this is where we need
43:35
to really have companies like Airbnb and vbo you know come to the table and see
43:43
what they're doing to assist this disparity the reason that I like home
43:50
exchange is because you it's not a short-term rental you're not driving up
43:55
the cost of rent right it's a home swap you're not creating new properties for
44:02
people to now buy at a higher price point that property was already there and you're swapping into it so you're
44:09
not contributing to economic disparity you're just you know utilizing a property like you would swap into a
44:16
friend's home I think it's a lot more of an economical approach um I think it's a
44:21
lot more of a um morally conscious approach because we do have to pay
44:28
attention to how digital nomadism is going to shape economies and unfortunately it takes the government a
44:34
really long time to come up with standards to regulate but you can call
44:40
Private companies to the table to see what they're doing to contribute to
44:45
this totally agree I mean it's happening so we need to find Solutions in general
44:52
it's not a matter okay then I would say that just to close the first part of the episode I wanted to ask you some
44:59
personal recommendations about things that you have uncovered it can also be
45:05
about your expert life in Bangladesh or Madagascar but do you remember any local
45:10
traditional or cultural practices lasted a big impression on you that you
45:16
wouldn't expect that in the countries that you visited so
45:21
far yes um so I guess cultural practices that I didn't
45:28
really expect having a mom who is sagales I was sort of taught because you
45:34
I'm half my mom is is Muslim my dad is is Catholic and so I grew up in a in a
45:41
two- Faith household with two completely different cultural practices so I learned both um and when it came to my
45:48
mom's side you know in Sagal you eat with your hands and there's a certain way that you do it it's not just you
45:55
there's a respect factor that comes with sharing food especially a communal bowl and then eating with your hands and a
46:01
cleanliness Factor so there were certain things that were um Baseline in terms of
46:07
cultural practices that I'd already grow grown up understanding and and was exposed to so I wouldn't say there was
46:14
anything that sort of completely shocked me but what I will say is you know when
46:21
we were in so we were in tongal which is a little um it's a community or or a
46:27
city that's close to DACA maybe like a 3H Hour 4 hour it was it was a trip in
46:33
order to get there and we would go there a few times a year because my dad was doing some agricultural work with the
46:39
company he was working for in the area um and it was a really small town almost
46:45
like a village and I remember sharing food with a family who opened up their
46:51
home to us in order to have a meal and you know the cultural stand standard is
46:58
and a lot of Americans don't know this whatever food they serve you you eat it
47:03
you know I don't it's if you're vegan if you're gluten-free whatever this is a family who doesn't
47:10
have much and they're this it's a big show of respect in order to put food on
47:16
the table for you so you eat it no matter what it is and I remember I had
47:22
this has already been drilled into my head from my mom so I I wasn't shying away from the food but there were
47:27
certain things that I just didn't I didn't want didn't want to eat um because I wasn't familiar with what it
47:34
is but I did and it it surprised me how amazing it was it didn't you know it
47:40
didn't look super appetizing but it was it was this beautiful concoction of
47:47
spices and flavors that I had never been exposed to before there was mystery meat
47:52
that I didn't I didn't question what it was and it was good and so you know know there what I will say um especially when
48:00
you're in emerging countries pay attention to what it takes for people to
48:05
put food on the table for you however many weeks worth of a salary for them to
48:10
give you this food that they don't need to but they're doing it as a sign of respect and take the time to understand
48:17
what it took to prepare it take the time to understand how it applies to their life and their culture and eat it
48:24
because it will surprise you I promise you nine times out of 10 it's going to blow you
48:31
away cool well maybe last question before we jump to the to the expert part it's
48:39
related to food any food or DRS that you have discovered during your journey that
48:44
if you could you would bring to everywhere you go like that you would put in your backpack and always have it
48:50
there yes when I was in um uh it wasn't
48:55
Bali it was ubu um one of my friends from Bangladesh her family had a
49:02
property out there and we went and it was I forgot exactly what the cultural term for it was but it was like this pig
49:09
roast and they roasted it all day and the skin was super super crispy and then they sliced it off of the pig and they
49:17
put it into this banana leaf with a little bit of rice and then some like side condiments and this sort of like
49:23
vinegary spice over the top oh my gosh I continuously dream about this one meal
49:29
that I had way back when and if I could find it there's no restaurant in Denver
49:35
I'm sure there's one in New York that has Indonesian food but nothing like
49:40
that so if I could recreated if I could go back to that moment in time and just try to write down exactly what went into
49:47
creating this meal I would well maybe that's the opportunity
49:53
if there is any Indonesians listening to this episode or anyone who knows exactly
49:58
the name and the recipe for it just put it in the in the comments of the episode and then we can check it out and try to
50:05
reproduce it probably not as tasty as an original one but still do it
50:11
um please I would appreciate it
50:16
yeah um I would say that we can jump directly into the to the second part and
50:22
hey there everyone if you're loving this episode so far and you want to stay tuned with other exper experiences make
50:28
sure to hit the Subscribe button and follow our podcast so you never miss an episode with that said let's go back to
The expert: Home swapping with NOMAD Travel Groups
50:34
the episode the expert home swap with Nomad travel
50:39
groups we already shared with with us that uh you created the company a little
50:45
bit longer than a year ago um so the compan it's called Nomad travel groups
50:51
um explain this a little bit what it's about what it's the what you offer
50:57
so sure so Nomad travel groups is a home exchange platform and what we do is
51:04
we've introduced a group-based approach to home swapping so our customers sign
51:11
up for our site list their property and then choose the listings that they
51:17
prefer we match them into a curated group of Travelers give them a shared
51:22
calendar give them group messaging features so that they can p at their travel plans list when their homes are
51:29
going to be available and ultimately build relationships in trust with one another so they can engage in affordable
51:36
stays at each other's homes and what Nomad really is is for people who want
51:42
to be digital Nomads right want to live a location independent lifestyle but are
51:47
not yet ready to get rid of their home their security their their Base Cam and
51:54
so you can hold on to it you're holding on to it within a group of Travelers
51:59
whose homes you want to access so that you can travel frequently and affordably
52:04
so what it's doing is it's lowering the cost of accommodation a stay with Nomad
52:09
costs $250 per week on average getting people you know giving people the ability to
52:16
travel more frequently and giving people the ability to build a community of
52:21
Travelers who they built trust and relationships with and just really
52:28
facilitating this mechanism of secure affordable and safe
52:35
travel interesting does that mean that your travel group is always the same So
52:40
eventually what it means is that you're always swapping houses with the same people
52:47
and meaning you have an reduced access of who is which houses do you have
52:52
access to or so the way that it works is um you
52:59
have travel groups of two persons three persons or four persons and the duration
53:05
of those groups are 3 months 6 months or 12 months currently we're in our MVP
53:11
state which means the minimum viable version of our website we're in involved
53:18
in funding Rams right now to enhance our website capabilities once we engage in our full build our customers are going
53:25
to be able to engage in multiple concurrent travel groups so I could be in a travel group of three for six
53:31
months and also at the same time be in a travel group of two for 12 months at the
53:37
same time being a travel group of four for three months it's really up to our customers how many travel groups they
53:44
want to participate in the size of the Travel Group and the duration of the travel group so that just opens up so
53:50
many more properties to you nice do you bring the trouble groups
53:57
yourself so meaning that you are you and two friends in the a trouble group of three persons it's you and your friends
54:03
or it it is also like a kind of matching system of saying I want to travel solo
54:09
and then I contact this person and then I decide if it's the correct person to travel with or
54:15
not so it's a matchmaking system and the way that we sort it is you select the
54:22
listing so you look at all the listings on our homepage these are Supply by individuals who have signed up for their
54:28
for the site and and listed their property same as you and you choose the listings that you prefer so I want to be
54:35
in New York and I want to be in La so I like this listing in New York and I like this one in La I select the two and I
54:41
submit my preferences to Nomad Nomad then applies our matchmaking system and
54:47
the way that we do it is we try to meet at least one of your selections when we
54:53
place you into your curated Travel Group so the connection that everybody has in
54:58
that Travel Group is they have selected at least one of those properties in that group we've been applying already AI
55:06
testing to enhance our matchmaking mechanism right now the criteria is
55:11
based off of listing and location but what we're doing is studying our user
55:17
feedback studying what people liked didn't like any enhanced criteria that we can use to feed into um our AI model
55:25
to facilitate not just listing and location preference matchmaking but also other criteria that will enhance the the
55:32
curated group experience very interesting so it's on
55:39
building on the MVP it's also like you're doing usability testing I'm a ux designer so you triggered my my
55:46
curiosity now also yeah
55:53
y good that's it's good practice that you're testing it like properly um right
56:00
what what about like so does that mean that when you register to Nomad itself
56:06
you need to yes or yes so I have two questions in regards of this yes or yes put your house for swap or you can
56:13
register without having a property and the second one is can you register being
56:19
a couple for example do you want to like you want to do this but you're not a single profile you're two persons
56:26
yes so to answer your first question you have to have a property in order to
56:33
participate on our platform that's what differentiates us from short-term rental
56:38
platforms right in order to participate in a home swap you have to have a home
56:43
to swap otherwise you aren't able to and yes for your um question about
56:50
couples if you're a couple you are absolutely permitted to use our site what we do is is we run background
56:59
checks so at least one member of that couple must participate in a full
57:04
background check powered by our partner stripe identity and you also have to
57:09
upload documentation verifying that the listed address is registered in your name and then you have to provide the
57:16
full legal name of your guest so as we go through and the guest meeing your
57:22
partner as we go through um multiple you know V2 V3 iterations of our site we'll
57:29
figure out ways to um enhance our screening of couples primarily but at
57:34
the very least you're required to submit the other name of of that Partnership if they will be traveling with
57:41
you I see when do use when you use swap like when we swap a home might it be
57:49
that there is other persons also like a group concept meaning like uh or it's always you
57:57
no so we always guarantee entire properties for Safety and Security we
58:03
don't we don't uh permit shared dwellings what we call them to be listed
58:08
on our site so if you have a roommate unfortunately um we we're not currently
58:14
allowing your listing okay and what about the rented
58:22
properties because that's also like I don't know if in the US it's it's a different legislation or I suppose in
58:28
each country will change no but I'm pretty sure for example in certain countries of Europe you are not able to
58:35
home swap with other people uh if you're not the owner of
58:41
that property yes so currently we're
58:46
operating just in the US Canada and Mexico but in terms of rentals so when
58:52
it comes to home swapping there is fairly fairly little regulation especially in in the US which gives us a
58:59
little bit more leeway but at the end of the day you know we always safety is number one concern and
59:07
we like to advise our uh customers who are renters to review their lease
59:14
agreements because there's specific language within the lease agreement that specifies the amount of time you're
59:20
allowed to have a guest at your home whether it's per month or for the entire lease and so what we say is if you're
59:28
engaging in a home swap pay particular attention to that specific amount of time let's say you're not allowed to
59:34
have a guest for more than you know 10 days per month okay engage in a home swap for nine days per month or five
59:42
days per month you know just make sure that you're falling in line with those lease parameters but yes if you are a
59:48
renter you are permitted to use our site and that's typical for most home exchange platforms that are based in the
59:54
us as well cool I think you touched one of the
1:00:00
biggest questions that you should probably get and it's is is it safe uh
1:00:06
how yeah how you ensure that nothing happens to your home no because it's it's your home a lot of people must be I
1:00:13
assume concerned about their property their I don't know accidents can always
1:00:18
happen I assume but that nobody steals your stuff or break everything I don't know yes yeah and that it's a fair
1:00:27
question and I would have the same question if I were signing up for for a site or I was unfamiliar with home
1:00:33
exchange what we do is we partner with stripe identity to run full background checks on our customers uh before
1:00:40
they're placed into a Travel Group assignment what stripe identity does is they request a copy of your government
1:00:46
issued ID you upload a picture and then they take a live capture of your face at
1:00:51
the time of submission to match your actual face to the government ID we then get notified whether or not that
1:00:58
background check clearance was flagged or if it was verified if it's flagged then we look into it further obviously
1:01:05
if it's rejected that we don't post your listing on our site and you're not placed into a Travel Group assignment
1:01:10
the second thing that we do is request copy of um the listed address just to
1:01:16
verify that it's listed in your name so as part of our home registration process
1:01:21
customers upload a bank statement or mortgage document or a Le leas agreement
1:01:26
anything that has your full legal name plus the listed address we verify that
1:01:32
information manually and if there is any issues there we request new documents or
1:01:38
if you're not providing them we don't post your listing on our site in terms of taking care of your home we've
1:01:44
partnered with super hog which is actually a a I believe it's a UK based brand and what they do is they provide
1:01:51
Gest damage protection coverage of up to $50,000 for any damages that may occur
1:01:57
um while a member is participating in a home swap Arrangement at your home our
1:02:03
customers have the option to uh add on this Gest Tage production coverage
1:02:08
whenever a member of their Travel Group requests uh stay at their home and we always encourage it because it's under
1:02:15
our Nomad light plan it's only $5 per day of stay um so definitely opt into it
1:02:20
so you can make sure you get you can get up to $50,000 in coverage so there's three things we do to promote the Safety and
1:02:28
Security of um members you know participating in home swaps which is
1:02:35
important because it's your home and we want to make sure that it it stays safe but the last thing is just the mechanism
1:02:42
of travel groups in general it's a small group of people who have selected each
1:02:48
other's properties as properties that they like this is far different than participating in an Airbnb Arrangement
1:02:54
where thousands of people can access your home stay there for one week mess it up and then you know run away and
1:03:02
never come back these are people that are swapping into each other's home so there's already a baseline level of
1:03:10
respect and care there that's different than engaging in a short-term rental
1:03:17
arrangement I see yeah it makes sense no so it's building a little bit of a community of people and although you
1:03:25
actually never met them no because probably when you're are having your home free it's when you are not
1:03:32
there so right you only you never
1:03:37
met yeah no and it's unusual but this is the way that our society operates right
1:03:43
you don't meet most people whose homes you stay at as airbnbs or vbos but you
1:03:48
you still do it but at least we have our group messaging feature right so you can
1:03:53
communicate with them you can build relationships with them and then in um V2 of our site you can actually call
1:04:00
them you can you can get on a video call and chat with them before participating
1:04:06
in that home swap Arrangement all to make sure that you feel safe and you feel
1:04:12
comfortable cool I had a question also like popping up when you were talking about the the
1:04:19
length no so for example you can say Okay I want to travel group for three six and 12 months I think you you said
1:04:26
right what happens in both cases either like you sub your home with someone and you need
1:04:32
to go back home earlier than planned because of I don't know any emergency or whatever and the other way around I'm
1:04:39
I'm at someone's place and suddenly I need to leave for whatever
1:04:47
reason yeah so what we do in in the event of that is we refund the staying
1:04:53
parties fees so the uh service fees that they paid to stay
1:04:59
at that member's home we also have the host who needed to return pay out a
1:05:06
cleaning fee to the staying party and this is compensatory for you know any
1:05:12
shifts in plans that may result in that party needing to get a hotel or
1:05:18
temporary living accommodation in order to facilitate the return back home what
1:05:24
we also do we highly encourage and this is just for any traveler we highly
1:05:29
encourage you to have travel insurance because your travel insurance covers
1:05:35
issues like this needing to get a hotel for one night stay or you know needing
1:05:40
to get a quick return flight home that's going to cover events like this so we
1:05:46
foresee it happening right but we have um we have uh protocols in place to make
1:05:53
sure that that individual is is compensated I see cool well nice that
1:06:01
see that they have a safety net also for that case uh maybe a little bit more
1:06:07
personal on your journey like as an entrepreneur now building your own how how has been it it's not an easy journey
1:06:14
I assume like you came from having a corporate work no so how how was this
1:06:20
experience of building your own company what's challenges did you find in the way and
1:06:27
now it's when you're building your own company you're learning something new every single day and I started out it
1:06:35
was just this idea that I had I started researching you know the home Exchange
1:06:40
Market I started making sure you have to be 100% sure that the way that you're
1:06:46
differentiating is unlike anything a company is currently doing and that you're able to create ATT traction
1:06:53
because the size of your service serviceable addressable Market or you
1:06:58
know the size of your projected or target audience year one year two year
1:07:03
three year four year five so what's helpful is I had my tax and accounting
1:07:09
background that helped me dig into the weeds and do all that research and be really meticulous but then you find that
1:07:16
there's areas that you don't have expertise in so I didn't have expertise in marketing I had no Dev
1:07:22
background Dev or design just no technology background at all so there's
1:07:28
all these pieces of the puzzle that you need to find and that's what's so important about building a great team of
1:07:36
people who are bringing in this this expertise and also believe in your mission and the vision and so the first
1:07:43
person that was brought on to The Nomad team was my CTO Ibrahim se he is a full
1:07:51
stack web developer he was actually working with other startups on building out web applications prior to joining
1:07:58
The Nomad team he brought on a four other members who work you know
1:08:04
part-time as independent contractors to refine other versions to refine other parts of our site we brought on a senior
1:08:10
developer a senior designer we were Contracting portions of the MVP out to a
1:08:16
company called Fetch Ley that did the majority of the lift with assistance from The Nomad team and then we just
1:08:23
recently brought on a project manager who uh is brilliant and is getting
1:08:29
things organized and in line so that we're a full-fledged team so it's it's constantly trying to fill in pieces of
1:08:36
the puzzle learn things that are out of your comfort zone but you know if you
1:08:41
believe in in what you're doing and you start to see traction it's like this drug and you can't get enough of it and
1:08:48
you just you need to continuously do what you can especially with a team of
1:08:53
people relying on you do what you can to take this Vision to the next
1:09:00
level you I am assuming that your colleagues also work remote you then
1:09:06
probably like are they all digital Nomads are they all traveling
1:09:12
around so one of my colleagues is in France right now and I'm so jealous um
1:09:18
and then she's uh going to Asia you know one thing we spoke about before we
1:09:25
offered the contract was whether or not she was going to be able to work from France or whether or not she was going
1:09:31
to be able to work from uh Asia and if that was okay and I remember working as
1:09:38
a full-time employee of other companies I was always scared to ask that question because company Protocols are always no
1:09:45
you cannot spend you know time in a foreign country that's just off the table it's you're not allowed to do that
1:09:52
but nomad's different and I want my colleagues be able to to roam around that's the whole point that's the whole
1:09:58
reason we're building what we're building so yes she's a digital Nomad my other colleages I think right now are
1:10:05
more fixated in one place but as the team expands I'm sure we're going to get more Travelers on the
1:10:11
table I mean it makes sense no you building a product for digital NS the people who is attracted to these kind of
1:10:18
companies are also digital NS and Al and besides that there is also this trickiness always of the comp
1:10:25
saying oh this is not possible but you are theorically only binded to taxation
1:10:31
over 183 days of your life of your year so right it is legal from a legal
1:10:39
perspective don't don't get scamed on that also uh yeah maybe a couple of
1:10:46
questions yes just sorry yeah yeah I wanted just tap into that because you hit the nail on the head when it comes
1:10:53
to the reason companies don't want fully remote Workforce right is because of tax issues it's about sales tax or foreign
1:11:01
income tax issues by way of physical presence so what we've done is actually created a solution for companies using
1:11:08
the same mechanism that we're using for B Toc channel so we're opening up a B2B
1:11:14
channel so selling to businesses our Travel Group mechanism but it's going to
1:11:20
be curated by members of that company or employees of that company so we do is
1:11:25
we'll create employee based home exchange groups and then we retrofit our
1:11:31
shared calendar feature to Implement Company specific protocols that regulate
1:11:36
how much time you can spend in state what states you can visit and how much time you can spend in country to make
1:11:43
sure that you don't trigger any sales tax or foreign income tax issues digital
1:11:49
nomadism is a is a quote unquote problem that is not going away and ex iives know
1:11:55
that they have to offer remote work roles in order to attract top talent so by providing companies with a way to
1:12:03
encourage travel to encourage employee relationship building while also offering enhanced oversight control and
1:12:10
mitigating tax exposure we're really excited about the feedback that we're going to get from our B2B clients and
1:12:17
hope that you know by implementing this and starting from small businesses through Enterprise level we will be able
1:12:24
to encourage dig digital nomadism and in a way that's safe and secure for most
1:12:31
companies oh that's very nice also so you also thinking of futuristic approach
1:12:37
on B2B which is also cool because it's always the for any exper any digital NAD
1:12:44
at the end it's always the same no you enter this and then it's like now calculating I'm spending more time here
1:12:51
than there where do I need to pay right ta everything not everyone has not
1:12:58
everyone has access to an accountant everywhere where they go so that makes sense also um related to that to that
1:13:06
topic it's probably the last question for today but what is your vision I mean you're in an MVP you're building new
1:13:13
versions I can feel that there is a lot of things coming so uh maybe what if you
1:13:21
can share some of them whatever you can share what is your vision for for the future of nomad what what is the
1:13:28
impact that you will you are trying to achieve with with the platform so you know what we're really
1:13:35
trying to achieve is giving people access to ways to travel that are either
1:13:41
affordable or they're curated meaning they speak to a particular group of
1:13:47
people or lowering misconceptions that um businesses have about travel it's not
1:13:55
something that is a that is going to impact your company adversely let's actually look at it on the flip side
1:14:02
this is something that's going to make your company a lot more marketable bring in higher level talent and we're giving
1:14:08
you a way to facilitate this without exposing your your company to taxation
1:14:13
issues which is the primary reason that you're not letting your employees travel more frequently so what we're doing is
1:14:20
we're coming at it with a B Toc and a B2B approach that's going to reshape the
1:14:25
way that people approach travel make work life balance much more of a
1:14:31
priority all in an effort to create an interconnected world that takes the time
1:14:37
to understand different cultures different experiences um and it doesn't look at you know going into the office
1:14:44
and doing a N9 to-5 as the only thing that you can do in your life you can build your career and you can travel at
1:14:50
the same time so just looking to share my passion for travel with the world
1:14:55
that is my vision for Nomad travel groups and coming up with innovative
1:15:00
solutions to ensure that people can travel more frequently other iterations
1:15:06
that we have we've been approached to create an exciting collaboration with a
1:15:11
particular community that will create a nomad specific portal for members of
1:15:17
that community and I can't um announce it just yet but this is how we are going
1:15:23
to iterate there a nomad base plan there's going to be various other Nomad
1:15:30
collaborations that speak to your particular interest or who you identify as there's going to be a nomad business
1:15:38
roll out and then the last one I can't mention um that's going to be in a in a
1:15:43
few years but we're very excited with how we're approaching this and already
1:15:49
excited by the traction that we've built cool happy to see you and looking
1:15:56
forward to to check what what becomes uh NAD on where it goes um thank you thank
1:16:04
you so much thank you thank you so much for the for the time for explaining your
1:16:09
life your experience as an expert as a digital Nomad as I think we went a
1:16:14
little bit stage by stage through your life I think thank you also for explaining what Nomad is what n travel
1:16:20
groups is and how it works probably the last question that it's relevant for all all of our listens is where can they
1:16:26
find you how they can log in how they can sign up to to Nomad but also maybe get in contact with you if if you needed
1:16:33
um so yeah yes we can put all the links the description uh give us a follow on
1:16:40
Instagram and Tik Tok at wravel Nomad our website is wravel nomad.com we're on
1:16:48
LinkedIn at Nomad travel groups and please say hi I'd love to hear who's who
1:16:54
who's listening to to this if you have any you know thoughts about being an xat or being a digital Nomad or whatever you
1:17:00
know I'd love to chat with you um so please reach out to me on LinkedIn my
1:17:05
name is Marie deos I would love to hear from
Outro
1:17:11
you cool uh again thank you so much um it has been a pleasure talking to
1:17:19
you um thank you for joining the episode and to of course to all the listeners uh
1:17:25
until next time keep exploring stay curious and take care thanks so much it was great
1:17:31
speaking with you you've been listening to expat experts the podcast that takes you
1:17:38
around the world through the stories of those who've lived it subscribe now to
1:17:44
YouTube and your favorite podcast platform and stay tuned for more
1:17:50
inspiring interviews