Lee and Rhys, hosts of the Solo Venture podcast, recount their globetrotting adventures, offering tips on living the digital nomad lifestyle and finding clients while exploring the world.
Rhys Harris turned his life around during COVID. Lost 45lbs, quit smoking, and began a career in marketing. Now he travels the world, consulting and copywriting. He’s produced over $1MM in email sales and advises agencies on marketing strategy and implementation.
Lee Payton is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, Serial Entrepreneur, Digital Nomad, & Recovering 9-5er with over 25 years of professional experience across multiple government & private sector industries. He’s founded five successful businesses in the private sector, including a medical sales company, CMO service, and a digital marketing agency.
Tune in! This episode is a treasure trove of experiences and advice for everyone dreaming of a digital nomad life.
Connect with Rhys & Lee:
Connect with Anne:
Lee and Rhys, hosts of the Solo Venture podcast, recount their globetrotting adventures, offering tips on living the digital nomad lifestyle and finding clients while exploring the world.
Rhys Harris turned his life around during COVID. Lost 45lbs, quit smoking, and began a career in marketing. Now he travels the world, consulting and copywriting. He’s produced over $1MM in email sales and advises agencies on marketing strategy and implementation.
Lee Payton is a U.S. Marine Corps Veteran, Serial Entrepreneur, Digital Nomad, & Recovering 9-5er with over 25 years of professional experience across multiple government & private sector industries. He’s founded five successful businesses in the private sector, including a medical sales company, CMO service, and a digital marketing agency.
Tune in! This episode is a treasure trove of experiences and advice for everyone dreaming of a digital nomad life.
Connect with Rhys & Lee:
Connect with Anne:
Hey Nomads, welcome to Digital Nomad Stories, the podcast. My name is Anna Claessen and, together with my co-host, kendra Hasse, we interview digital nomads. Why? Because we want to share stories of how they did it. We talk about remote work, online business, location and dependency, freelancing, travel and, of course, the digital nomad lifestyle. Do you want to know more about us and access all previous episodes? Visit digitalnomadsstoriesco. Alright, let's go into today's episode. Hey, hey, nomads, welcome to a new episode of Digital Nomad Stories. Today I'm here with Lee and Rhys. They are the hosts of the Solo Venture podcast, their entrepreneurs, digital nomads, copywriters and I am very excited to have them on the show today to learn more about their digital nomad story and also their experience building solar printer businesses, travelling the world, all the digital nomad tips that they can give us. So welcome to the show, Lee and Rhys.
Rhys Harris:Thanks for having us Good to be here. If there's anything that feels like imposter syndrome, that's what feels like imposter syndrome Having your bio read out by a podcast host.
Lee Payton:I'm like I'm not that person.
Rhys Harris:Who is that? Who you are?
Lee Payton:It's a constant struggle and that never ends. There's never a day where I sit down to do something or you know from start to finish on this that I haven't like what am I doing here? This guy does not deserve to be sitting in this chair.
Anne Claessen:So I have that also. Yeah, the weekly breakdowns. As an entrepreneur, at least I have the weekly After four years of entrepreneurship, right? I mean, before it was more often. Definitely yeah, but can you tell us a little bit more about what you do exactly? Rhys, do you want to take it away? And then we'll go over to Lee.
Rhys Harris:Sure. So since last November I've been travelling around Europe as a digital nomad still getting used to saying that and my focus is marketing, mostly copywriting. A dash of SEO here and there that's what I used to do back in London and strategy and other bits of consulting, so a mixed bag, but generally all within marketing also makes some websites here and there, but mostly it's marketing strategy and copywriting, email marketing.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, awesome. So you do that while travelling around? Are you more of a slow traveller or a fast traveller?
Rhys Harris:Generally it's pretty slow, not like five to six months at a time, but definitely like one or two months on average in a place. However, then there's been dotted within that a few very fast pieces of travel, which is quite difficult when you're trying to run things. So definitely try and prioritise longer periods of time. Unfortunately, as a British citizen, we decided to do brexit a couple of years ago, which means travelling around Europe is now slightly more complicated. You have a 98 limit in most places, so navigating that has been a challenge, but still not the end of the world. Still have managed to explore some really nice places in Europe.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, all the visa fun that they added to that to the equation. Yeah, bad timing. And what does a work week look like for you? Do you work weekdays like kind of the nine to five schedule or do you work whenever you feel like it Half days, full days? Can you tell us a little bit more about that, what your days look like?
Rhys Harris:I'm not very good at being consistent between locations, so it tends to be that when I'm in a location I have some sort of routine that perhaps works, based on where I'm living and where things are in the city, which kind of dictates like gym schedules and eating schedules etc. But most recently it's kind of an adjusted nine to five. I do typically work Monday to Friday and it usually looks like working quite early in the morning, quite early, I mean 7am, sprint until maybe 11 or 12, go to the gym, walk whatever, have food and then do a couple of hours in the afternoon, which is more comms, so just keeping up with clients, emails, anything like that. So most of the deep work, if you like, is in the morning and I try to avoid weekends. But sometimes I can't help myself and I will lean into my own business and looking ahead and forecasting things and doing a bit of strategy for myself, which I don't really think is work. I think it's just. That's just an additional to the life that we've decided to lead, and it's quite fun.
Anne Claessen:Okay, cool. Well, thank you for sharing. It's interesting to hear how you structured your days. I do a little bit like maybe the opposite, like I take mornings off to go to the gym and do all the things and then I start my work in the afternoon so that I can be available for clients who are mostly in the US, and I'm in Europe right now. So I try to time it like that so that I can, so that I don't wake up with like a gazillion emails in my inbox. What about you, Lee? How is your work week? What does that look like?
Lee Payton:Well, I torture myself, so I end up taking out a little bit of work and I do and I actually enjoy working on the weekends, just because it's kind of my quiet time. So I've been copywriting now for almost two years. Before that I had completely separate jobs, which helps out a lot too with some of the stuff we try to do to help other entrepreneurs and aspiring digital nomads. Because I was 40 years old and I left a good corporate job in Miami, completely started over. I hadn't even really even heard of copywriting. I wasn't really sure what it was. So I started off trying to do a little bit of email marketing, email copywriting. That didn't really take off because I didn't spend a lot of time focusing on that and I ended up kind of just becoming a generalist, which has served me well, especially in the days of artificial intelligence and the machine learning stuff. Now we've kind of found that it's a little bit better to have a broad knowledge base with the writing and marketing.
Lee Payton:But my weeks are very full now and my days are pretty packed, and some of that is a function of when I was living in the Miami Fort Lauderdale area for 15 years. I was that guy that was at the beach bars every day. I would go work all day on my particular job and then go straight to happy hour and I would type up my. I was a private investigator so I had a lot of surveillance reports to type up and I would go sit at the bar and do that. So some of my longer hours now are a direct reflection of that, because now that I don't I'm not sitting at a bar at the end of my days or on the weekends now I spend that time working.
Lee Payton:So it's a bit of a a bit of a crutch, but I do work too much and re-snoze this. I try to exercise and I get plenty of sleep but I actually, for some strange reason, I just look forward to having Saturday and Sunday mornings. I get on the computer and I'm not getting agency emails. I've got a few contracts with agencies now and you know like those are, as most of us know. Those are great to have but they're demanding. So my weeks aren't as peaceful but I do enjoy the work. I know some people say that and it's not the healthiest thing, but I love being busy and I like working log hours and, like you, I don't like surprises in the morning when I get up to check anything. So whenever possible I'll look at stuff at 10 o'clock at night, that to not have the anxiety of like what am I going to walk into first thing in the morning.
Anne Claessen:Exactly Because that is what I used to have when I was working European business hours. I tried to do a little bit more like the nine to five hours in Europe, but then my clients would always always email me after I already like signed off and I wasn't checking my email anymore and every morning I was like what's going on, no idea, okay, cool. But that's also really interesting to hear that you took some of the lifestyle that you had pre-digital nomad life into your digital nomad life, and I'm also really curious how did you translate your private investigator skills into a nomadic career and into what you do now? I think that's just such an interesting profession to me and, yeah, I really want to learn more.
Lee Payton:Yeah, so I, going back to, I was in the military for a while, right out of high school, and then I worked for our government for 16 years, 20 years total. I was able to get out early and then I transitioned to the private investigator job. So I was a government investigator, I was a federal agent here and then I transitioned that into the private sector because it paid a little bit more. Little did I know, or I should have known, that private investigator clients are very demanding. You know the wealthy people that want you to follow their spouse around on a weekend in Miami or something like that. So that was a whole dramatic thing in itself and some of the some of the work's very boring, you know, like any job you hear of and I was like man, that sounds really cool. There's probably a lot of neat stories. Maybe 5% was cool, fun, and the rest of it was boring and arduous and long hours. So thank you that going from the government to the private sector Taught me through a lot of trial and error that how to set up a new business and how to do a little bit of marketing.
Lee Payton:I did my own marketing with that. I didn't do the best job, but you know, I built my first crappy website for my investigative agency and I kind of took it from there and then we had a nonprofit that I helped with. So, to answer your question, like none of it really relates other than just the ability to kind of teach myself new things and and start marketing. It's just kind of growth things and let's just trial and error. Yeah, a lot of a lot of meetings, a lot of you know marketing functions that I wouldn't have done anywhere else. So it doesn't relate on the actual the process of copywriting. It has no relation there, but just kind of not being afraid to try something new, knowing that, hey, if I don't know how to do something this morning, I could watch YouTube and probably figure it out by tonight. So just the organizational thing and being able to deal with employees and things like that really helped out.
Lee Payton:When I left Florida two years ago, like I said, I figured like there's people making money writing. I should be able to do it too. So I had professional licensing, because you have to have a license to be an investigator anywhere in the States. So I I gave that up, I sold everything, I got rid of all my stuff so and I went to Playa del Carmen, mexico, and just kind of immersed myself in Copywriting groups, like our beautiful friend Francis with the TNC the dramatic copywriter, and I figured this is it like? I have to figure this out or you know, I don't know, I guess I'll be bartending, which is not a great place for me to be, so I kind of had to immerse myself into it.
Lee Payton:But the experience is, I think, just just being a little bit older and a little bit more mature than I used to be and starting a few businesses From scratch kind of helped me launch into this and just that overall feeling of the confidence that you get From and I we talked about imposter said when we first jumped on but the confidence that you get like, hey, this client needs me to do something. I've never heard of that platform. I don't know what they're looking for, but I'll email them sure I'll get back to you tomorrow and just knowing that if you need information it's available anywhere and you can make anything happen.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, exactly. So it's part that experience that you had, like figuring stuff out and like building a website without any knowledge about building a website and like doing that for the first time. And then I'm also hearing you say that it's also just like pushing yourself by selling everything, moving to a different location and just you have to make it work right. It's like you just kind of have to. There's not really not really in plan B, I think I hear in your story.
Lee Payton:Yeah, and it was scary, but I don't know that I would have done it otherwise, because you know, when you start something new We've all been through this a couple times but you know, starting something new like that and you're not really sure if it's going to work out, if you have a fallback, you know, like me, I'm a I'm a very Impulsive person. So it re knows this, because every time we have a new idea with something we're working on, I'm like, yeah, that's great, let's do it. We have to do it. Then, two days later, he's like that's not a good idea. I'm like, yeah, you're right, that's not so. But just just had this BB. Knowing and knowing myself as an impulsive person, I had to give myself that barrier. Some people are much better at it. You know there are people that can just run with something and learn. But I think it sounds like a cool story now because it works in my case. But it doesn't always.
Lee Payton:Like I would have had to go back and start from scratch back there, back in the US, on another job, but but definitely having full time. I had enough money in savings because I sold my car too. I had enough money to survive in Mexico and live pretty well for a few months and just really getting into it. Like I spent morning and night, you know, learning up as much as I could about marketing and copywriting. I'd also stopped drinking, which is a big part of my, my origin story.
Lee Payton:I'd stopped drinking when I first got to Mexico and now there's so many more hours in the day when you're not sitting out of stool and your brain's functioning and not hung over the next morning. So, yeah, it really like being able to get over there and just like go into what Reese calls month mode and just being able to focus and come out the other side. But there were, there were months there where I wasn't getting any clients, nothing was coming in and in, like most freelance gigs, it's nothing for the longest time and then all of a sudden it's, it's everything all at once. But but I needed that personally. I needed that, that first few months of just no distraction, just get into it.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, really interesting. So when we started this interview, I said we have so much in common. We have so much in common like I also locked myself in an Airbnb in Vietnam to start my business. I also gave up drinking so before I think sweet, and a half years now. So it's, you're totally right. There is so much time in the week that you spend like getting and like getting drinks, drinking being hung over, just I don't know like everything that comes with that and I didn't realize that like I just stopped because you know I wanted to focus on my business, like you said, and it's it's just best decision ever, I think, huge, huge hack for any entrepreneurship, productivity hack right here. Ries, how was your transition from working in London I think you mentioned you worked in SEO, right? So SEO to copywriting I feel like maybe you already had some relevant experience then as well, or how did that transition go for you?
Rhys Harris:Yeah, I was so lucky compared to a lot of people that are working entirely different jobs in completely different industries. In that, yeah, I had four years of marketing experience, so it was all on me really to win or lose in that scenario. It was SEO. That was my main focus. Beforehand, However, the agency I was working in was fully it was Omni Channel, so they had every single channel, a marketing channel to drive customers for businesses. So I learned a lot from being around the other departments and speaking to clients on multiple, about multiple channels also, as well as SEO. So it was a case of me wanting to do something a bit more creative. Seo is not as interesting.
Rhys Harris:It's just yeah, I mean it's. Yeah, it's funny, I mean there's a lot of it's technical. It is funny enough, you know, it is all about people at the end of the day still, in terms of what people are looking for and what they're searching for. But you don't get the same level of creativity as you do when you're writing an email I like a marketing email, of course. So copyrighting floated up. I think I found a nomadic copyrighted program. I can't even remember how I came across Francis, but I saw his landing page and I was like yeah, that's the one and went for it. And fantastic program, really well laid out. I'm not plugging this Like I'm not being told to plug this. This is genuine comments and that gave me a little bit of confidence, I think, to go out and then, you know, get clients. So, yeah, it was a good runway.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, did you also already know clients that you could then sell your copywriting services to, or was that, or like did you already have a network of potential clients that you could take to your new business?
Rhys Harris:Not for copywriting. I still did a little bit of work for my old agency for like some project management stuff. So I don't get me wrong, like I had a bit of security going into it, it definitely wasn't enough. So like I still had the hunger and drive to be like cool, I need to get the income up to cover everything. And how that materialized was using cold email to get the clients.
Rhys Harris:And I didn't do it the right way. I got away with it, but I didn't. You know, I didn't really warm up the domain properly and all of that technical stuff. But I did just start sending out five emails a day, 10 emails a day, got to 30 emails a day at one point and they definitely would not personalize emails. At that point I was just like sending them out and, yeah, two agencies eventually became clients.
Rhys Harris:I think I had like 20 calls and then, yeah, two agencies said yes, both in the US, both still working with today. So we're nine months into a relationship which is great, and we're, yeah, looking at they've expanded with them, doing different things with them. So it definitely goes to show how, once you have that client, the work is important, but the relationship you build with them, I think, is as important it's not more important, because everyone can improve what they're working on over time but I don't think people necessarily put as much attention to the human being that's at the end of the email address or the phone, and so that's something I've definitely focused on and hopefully that will continue and I don't need to do any more calling.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, I think that's a really good point and something that I definitely learned in like years of running a business. At first I had no idea what that would look like exactly, but how do you do that, like? How do you build those relationships? Are there any tips that you can give other digital nomads who are more at the start of their solopreneur journey or looking like getting into copywriting or another sort of freelance career?
Rhys Harris:For sure. I think it's looking at it the same way you look at the customer in marketing. They are your customer. You are in an analogy itself of marketing, like you have a customer yourself. So you put yourself in that customer's shoes what are their pains, what are their desires and what they're trying to do, even with their business, and keep and work on the strategy yourself to realize, well, okay, this is my position now I'm doing copywriting for this client. This client has these pains or these desires. They want to take the business in this direction. I'm pretty confident, even if not now, I could service them in three months, six months, as they grow to also do these things.
Rhys Harris:So, understanding that, and how did you do that? Well, you listen to them and make sure you get on calls with them. You over deliver the work. That will help you get them to notice you more than just another freelancer that they're using. You want to position as cliche now, but you want to position yourself as a partner and keep using the word relationship and that's what you're interested in. Because if you're just interested in just doing the copywriting, whatever service it is, you'll always just be that person to them as well.
Rhys Harris:But if you actually step up and be like cool, this is where your business is going in the next three years. Well, yeah, in a year I want to be writing all of your copy, or I want to be managing accounts, I want to be working on strategy and if you show that enthusiasm and you're good, like you know, obviously this is on the base of the assumption that you are putting out good work, but everyone has the potential to do that. So, based on that assumption, if you do that, it's a lot easier for them to hire internally than it is to have to keep looking for people. So, if you do want to put yourself in a strategy position in the copyrighting context, yeah, over, deliver, step up, nurture that person as your customer and listen to what they want and what they're afraid of, because it's likely that you would be a very good candidate in the end for those positions, and they'd much rather pick someone that they already know, they trust and is already working for the company, even in a freelance capacity.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, absolutely. Is that also a big reason why you chose to work for agencies? Because you have that chance to also do something else within the agency. You can grow with the agency, compared to working with clients directly.
Rhys Harris:Not necessarily.
Rhys Harris:The main reason I chose agencies was because copyrighting was relatively new to me.
Rhys Harris:I knew that the bigger breadth of clients I got in a short period of time in different industries would improve me quicker. And it's going back to that point on where I'm saying all of that is based on the assumption that you're good. The quickest way for me to get really good, I thought, was an agency who's got 10 to 20 different clients across all sorts of industries selling all sorts of products. So instantly I'm like having to write for all these, all these brands. Now someone can sit at home and pick 20 brands and write the copy for them, but they don't get the experience of having feedback rounds, having someone who's reviewing that copy, and those are really important stages. Like you can write an email for Nike at home for a portfolio and that is useful, but in terms of knowing if it's good, like you don't have any kind of back and forth and if you just go to clients, unless you're going to handle 20 brands at the same time, it's going to take you years before you get the breadth that I'm talking about.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, exactly, yeah, that's pretty interesting. So you got your first clients the two agencies that you work for through cold emailing. Lee, how about you? How did you eventually? Because you mentioned that it took some time. Right, it took a few months before you got your first few clients, but where did you find them?
Lee Payton:So I tried everything and I know people have different opinions about the work platforms like the Fiverrs and the Upwork type platforms. I had really good luck on Upwork and again, I didn't know anything at the time but a little bit than anybody else know that I had a long work history to show, but not necessarily in the marketing or copywriting, so I kind of exaggerated my experience a little bit. I got on there and, like I mentioned earlier, I started taking on clients, even if I had no idea. They have somebody who's like hey, I need a press release, and I'm like sure I got you and I had to go Google how to do a press release. You know, figure that out. So I started with those platforms and all those clients I had on Upwork. There's still clients of mine now we've just transitioned off the platform.
Lee Payton:But I think it's what Rhys was saying is very important for people to understand it doesn't actually take that much to stand out, to be valuable to whoever you're working for, whether it's an agency or a private client, and just showing up to certain things. I think there's not all, but there are some people that like, hey, you're just paying me for this, I'm not going to show up to the office meeting. You know I don't need to do those things because that's not part of my job. But you know we're all human beings and I'll give you an example like the agency that I work for the most now, it's a pretty large agency and I was one of five freelancers that were on the outside doing freelance work for them and when the internal role opened up, they offered it to me, not because I'm a better writer than anybody else. Some of these guys had a lot of experience because we all read each other's copy to help you see it. And I was just taking a little bit of extra effort getting to know the managers. I mean, some of it is office politics, but there's no harm in that. Like, I would ask the manager, like hey, I'll put it a few hours over the weekend, do you need something? And along those lines, you know, just kind of showing up a little bit more than everybody else. And they offered me the position. And now now I'm on the hiring team on the inside and I'm seeing the same thing. It doesn't take much to stand out, it really doesn't, and just a little bit of extra. This like reset over, deliver, and just if there's an office meeting, show up to it, be the first person to reply to a message if something needs to get done. But that's important, I don't want to gloss over that. So that's the biggest thing that we see, especially now on the inside as part of the hiring team.
Lee Payton:But my first clients came from Upwork and I know people have different opinions on that. But the thing between you know, cold emails is exactly that. Cold direct messaging is exactly that, like you don't know, like that client that you're sending emails to. I mean, I know it's a bit of a numbers game If you send out 100, you'll probably get a reply back from one, but those people may not need a writer when they get that email from you. So it's just a chance you have to take. And I found luck on Upwork and Fiverr because those are hot leads. You know those are people that are actually seeking out. So I went that route. It worked for me and I found that to be the quickest way to get clients and kind of move off the platform that way.
Anne Claessen:Awesome. Well, I think it's really interesting to hear that you had different ways that worked for you to get those initial clients. But what I'm also hearing is that, because you focus on building relationships and over-delivering, that you have still the same clients like those same clients, like they keep coming back to you for more work and different work, and I think that's really interesting and like a great takeaway for today, especially Cool. So I'm also wondering how did all of this go while traveling? So I know that, lee, you moved to Mexico while you were going through all of this, so like looking for clients going through the course to learn more about copywriting, rhys, how was that for you? Did you already move out of London while you were figuring out how to get clients and everything like that? Or did you stay in London and you mentioned your work for the same agency for a little bit, part-time? How was that travel-wise?
Rhys Harris:So yeah, I mean so I didn't stay in London. If I did that, I would have been screwed within about three weeks because I would have spent all the money that I'd saved up.
Rhys Harris:It's ridiculously expensive there. I went to Spain Maybe that's quite typical as a Brit I went to a co-living space in the north-east of Spain, near Valencia, and it was a pretty good way to start that adventure. I'd always looked at co-living spaces and thought that would be really cool, and this was a rural cottage, pretty affordable, and I thought cool, I could afford to stay there for three months and not get single-piant. So it's not the end of the world if I don't make it in that time period, which is something to consider if you are about to take the leap or thinking about it Like, work out your worst-case scenario, because that might just be like OK, it didn't work, I'm going to get on a flight home and find a job, or even go back to your old job, if that's an option.
Rhys Harris:I went to Spain and my old agency became my client, so I had that work coming through and I just hit the emails whilst I was there, and it was a very good place to do that because there were no distractions. I wasn't in a city. It was also not only was the place cheap, there was no bars around to go out drinking or anything like that, and nothing to go spend money on a pasta and food. So it was quite an affordable way to start it and also easy no distractions. So it was really easy to focus and actually get all those emails out. The emails are the least time-consuming bit. There was obviously then the research. I did a bit of work in the beginning putting together some samples so people could have a look at that. But, yeah, I took the leap. Took the leap to our flight, to our flight to Spain in the countryside, but it was 100% worth it.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, it sounds pretty cool. And also what you mentioned, it's such a cool way to cut expenses quite a bit, moving from London to Spain. You're there with beautiful weather, close to Valencia, you can just work on your new business while also cutting costs significantly. So that's pretty cool.
Rhys Harris:Incredible, Could not be more privileged. Wow yeah, insanely privileged.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, very cool. How did you go from there, from Spain?
Rhys Harris:I was hoping you would ask me that because it's all a massive jumble. Every time someone asks me, I'm like I don't know, I actually went Are you still in Spain.
Anne Claessen:No, right now I'm just, this was last week.
Rhys Harris:Yeah, funnily enough, I am at home with my parents right now, which is why I don't have the best backdrop. As other people may have experienced, as they get older, their room starts to get taken over, so I have less and less space if I hold my own bedroom. Thank you. I went home straight after that for Christmas, because I was there in November into December. I then went back to Spain afterwards, somewhere else in the Pyrenees, which is very beautiful, and from there I went to Albania, which was fascinating.
Anne Claessen:Cool, awesome. And do you have any plans for the foreseeable future where you want to travel next?
Rhys Harris:I'm actually looking at spending some more time in the UK just because I have dotted commitments here and there in the next two months. So instead of flying back and forth in and out of Europe, I may just base myself here. But it's also a nice feature of living this life is that it's not just okay, cool, I'll live at home or I'll go back to London. It's like, oh, I could actually experience the UK like my home country in a way I never really thought of, because you see all the place names so like you know what they are, but actually I've never spent a month in Liverpool or Manchester. I may have driven past them.
Rhys Harris:So it's nice to think cool, I can experience the culture in other cities in my own country. And definitely when I arrived back in Oxford last week I had a reverse culture shock. I was at an ale festival in the English countryside, which is very English as an event, and it felt so strange to have come from like Italy, southern Italy eating gelato and drinking wine, to like proper or like countryside English accents drinking ale. So it would be nice to have experience in other places in the UK and actually maybe understand my own country a bit better.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, very cool. That sounds really cool. What about you, Lee? Where did you go after Mexico?
Lee Payton:Well, we spend. I travel with my girlfriend. So we spent the six months in Mexico, because their visa is the longest, and then came back to the US. I'm actually in Detroit now. I'm actually in somebody's basement now too, so we shouldn't feel bad. I'm hanging out with some family as well, hence the fancy curtain back here.
Lee Payton:But after we spent last one summer in the US, went over to Tenere, which is in Spain, there, spent a few months there and then had to come back for some family commitments and that was wonderful. I mean, it's Spain but it's not really Spain. It's kind of like we have Hawaii and they have Tenere. It's actually off the coast of Africa there. That was wonderful, that was a wonderful time. I would like to get back to Spain eventually. And then, anyway, we came back here for a little bit and then went back out to Bali, which was just wonderful. I mean it is a little crowded now and all the things you hear about it. There are some issues, but just the friendliest, best food, just a wonderful place to be.
Lee Payton:Went from Bali to Kuala Lumpur to kind of regroup in like the city setting, have some actual stores to buy things at and kind of recenter ourselves there. Then we went on to Vietnam for three months to Da Nang, and I had a great setup there too and I love Southeast Asia. I would love to get back. It is a little challenging with the meetings and just being able to set up with client work In the beginning. Like I was mentioned before, you really do want to try to show up to every meeting, so that kind of sucked having to get up for meetings that were at Eastern time. I was setting my alarm for two in the mornings and waking up and attending those and of course you're a little foggy and all that. But other than that, like the whole region was just amazing. It was fairly inexpensive and we just were able to kind of have like the 10 times what we could have here. We were living in a hotel in Da Nang Beach, for example, and I could just hop in the elevator and the gym was down one floor, then go up to the rooftop bar if I wanted to.
Lee Payton:So if it's been Tenerife, bali, kuala Lumpur in Vietnam and now we're back in the US for summers and, if I can help it, I do not stay in the US for the wintertime. We do have Florida and we're fortunate that we have a lot of different climates within our country, but it's not a cheap place to be, so the quality of life definitely can go down a little bit, especially if you're staying in Airbnb's or whatever connections you might have. We don't have a car, so if I had to rent a car, that's another $1,500 a month or so. But future plans right now that's a little bit up in the air. They kicked around the idea of maybe going to Costa Rica for a couple of months. We also have to plan because Reese and I have never met in person, so we have to plan some type of in real life get together with our little group that we have. So we're working on that at some point too, and I'm thinking we'll probably head back in the direction of Europe and Spain and all that.
Lee Payton:But again, like he was saying, that's the best part, it doesn't matter, it's not something I have to worry about. Today, when you live this life, you could see a great YouTube video or a story. It's like kind of a place looks really cool and then book your flights and you're off. You don't have that stress of worrying about where you're going to go next and, like he was saying too. You see things a little bit differently, especially for the US, with all the crazy stuff we always have going on here. When I come back, I'm like this place is great, the stores are packed All the things I used to complain about. I love about it here. So it kind of reset your mind a little bit, leaving your home country and going back. But yeah, as far as future plans go, that's still to be determined and I love that.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, awesome. Yeah, it's totally true. You just see things. You see different things, I think, when you come back to your home country or if you go to a place twice. I think just the experience is always really interesting. Which brings me to my last question for you today, because Nomad Live is awesome. I love Nomad Live, obviously, I have a whole podcast about it, but it can also be different than what you expect and maybe there are some parts of it that are not so great. Is there anything that you experienced over the past I think two-ish years for you that was just really different than what you expected, or just one part of Nomad Live that you just don't like?
Lee Payton:This is going to sound like a spoiled American thing to say, but we're so used to here. If I need something, I can click on the Amazon app and have something delivered later in the day usually. But aside from that, once you plan ahead you kind of get the hang of what you need to take with you versus what you can purchase in other locations. That's been a little bit challenging to stay healthier and have the supplements that we want to take with, because we leave the country for nine months at a time and, depending upon what vitamins and things you take, we have a whole separate duffel bag full of stuff like that. So just some of the availability of certain things in certain places. Aside from that, we haven't had one negative experience. I mean, every place has been lovely, the costs have all been reasonable the people, the food. It is sometimes you forget like we're on the road and we're loving every minute of it, and where we're at right now is kind of our home base in the States and it is nice. Like I'm looking around now, all my stuff is here, I don't have to worry about what we're packing and what we're taking and all that. So there is an element of that that it is nice to have a little bit of a home base. But there haven't been, fortunately, any negative experiences yet or anything that I would.
Lee Payton:You know plans I regret making Now that could change in a couple of years. You know I'm 43. Now the intent is to do this as long as possible. I'd rather travel at my age now than most people wait till they're in their 60s or 70s after retirement, which is okay too. But you know, exhausting this could be sometimes dealing with time changes and running through airports and everything else. I can't imagine doing it 20 years from now as possible. But other than that, I've loved every minute of it and just the freedom, just being able to jump to wherever we want to, even now. Obviously technology makes that easy. Now you know you can get on apps and there's platforms and everything else, so when you're planning your next trip you can do all that ahead of time. But now it's just been. Overall it's been a wonderful experience.
Anne Claessen:Awesome, very cool. What about you, Ease?
Rhys Harris:Yes, I have not been doing it for as long as Lee, but it is fantastic. The places I've seen like after Albania, I've done Bulgaria, I've done Cyprus, I've done Portugal more of Spain, a lot of Spain and it's a very, very good way of meeting people that are similarly like mine did and for me, that's not necessarily even been other people doing this, but other people that are by nature of the places I've stayed, that are travelling in some form, and that is obviously a consistent theme across people doing what we do is that we all love travel and that's been amazing to do because, you know, I think that's one of the reasons people tend to leave a place as well, which is home, because you know they haven't been with people that want to go out and travel. So they have to go out and meet those people. And yeah, I mean I came back last week. Like I said, it was like a bit of a reverse culture shock, but it is.
Rhys Harris:I think one thing I didn't expect to experience, and I think a lot of people won't necessarily think about, is when I came home and saw everyone. It's like you know, all the people that I was used to be or am friends with. But, like you know, they move on. They do their lives of moving at a different pace, and he is something to consider, that you will have that experience with people that you used to spend a lot of time with. Like you know, you left. They're going to have to get on with their lives, so things will be different.
Rhys Harris:And that was like it's just not really something I thought about and I was like, oh yeah, like of course, but it's like, oh, that's really strange, because now things don't just like necessarily resume as they were and, especially if you're going out again, like that's going to happen every time you go away and come back. But I think it's just more reason to lean into the relationships you build as you travel, and you will be very lucky to be putting yourself in a position where you meet like-minded people. So keep them close, because I think you do create very special connections that last a long time but also are around the world. So whenever you go back to location, you've kind of got a bit of a network there.
Anne Claessen:Yeah, I think that's a really good point. That's also something that I did not expect, but I totally hear you. Like it's. I feel also that people, a lot of people, still don't really understand what we do. My dad asked me for two years when I will come home and get a real job. Took him two years to stop asking that. Yeah, so I feel like a lot of people don't really understand the lifestyle. So, yeah, I totally hear you. I think it's really great to meet people who get it completely and who choose to live the same life Absolutely Well. Thank you so much, both of you, for sharing your digital nomad story with us today. Before we hop off, can you tell us where people can find you and where people can find the Solo Venture podcast, too, over to?
Rhys Harris:you on the links, or, yeah, can we say links in the description? I don't know if we can.
Anne Claessen:Yes, we'll also add all the links in the show notes.
Rhys Harris:Okay, amazing, but definitely email us.
Lee Payton:Yeah, and most of our content is on our YouTube channel. We have the video podcast on there and we're available. Our addresses are on there. We do, you know, some one-on-one coaching for anybody who's interested in getting into the type of work that we do, anybody who's and that's the best part about us having this joint venture is that anybody who's my age, that was working a long corporate job, that doesn't think they can do this, I'm proof that you can do it and more than willing to help out with that. And it resides its own beginnings, going to university and then ditching all that and heading out. So that's our spread, that's our demographic spread on the people that we're here to help out.
Anne Claessen:Awesome Sounds good. We'll make sure to add the link to your YouTube channel in the show notes, so definitely go there, watch older videos. I just listened to your latest episode on the Solo Venture podcast, just like episode with the two of you, which was super fun, so highly recommend it. Thank you for coming on today and thank you for listening. See you next week.
Rhys Harris:Thanks, Ann Awesome Thanks.
Anne Claessen:And that's it for today. Thank you so much for listening. I appreciate it very, very much. I would appreciate it even more if you could leave a review on Apple podcasts for me. That way, more people can find this podcast, more people can hear the inspiring stories that we're sharing, and the more people we can impact for the better. So, thank you so much if you are going to leave a review. I really appreciate you and I will see you in the next episode.