IBIs Digital Nomad Stories

Guest: Jocelyn Macurdy KeattsCareer: Political Communications SpecialistBased: NomadicInstagram: @jocelynmacurdykeatts  Episode DescriptionJocelyn Macurdy Keatts spent ten years trying to save the world from inside Washington, DC. She worked as a political consultant, produced events for politicians, reported on protests, and built a career in progressive activism. But the system swallowed her whole. Networking became performance. Activism became about who you know, not what problems you're solving. The power center's ambient narcissism and daily energy tax drained her creativity. So she left. She told herself she just wanted to travel, write media advisories from Greek islands, take a break. But what she discovered was something deeper: distance gave her clarity that insiders never have. Being outside the US made her more effective at US politics, not less. She could think long-term instead of chasing viral moments. She could focus on problems over profit. She could build stability instead of reacting to whatever Twitter was talking about that week. Now she runs political campaigns from co-livings across Europe, more effective than she ever was in DC. She produces Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, teaching nonviolent resistance tactics. She's discovered anti-fragility, collective nobility, and that curiosity compounds exponentially when you're surrounded by courageous people. This conversation explores how leaving a power center can make you better at changing it, why comfort is the enemy in the modern economy, and what happens when you stop assuming everyone else is right and just try things. Timestamps00:00-00:33 Introduction00:33-01:37 Guest introduction01:37-02:08 Political consultant for ten years02:08-02:52 Burnt out on Washington DC power center02:52-03:48 Activism distorted by power networks03:48-05:08 Left to travel, discovering deeper reasons05:08-06:24 Daily energy tax of maintaining normie existence06:24-07:36 Creative liberation from leaving07:36-09:51 Berlin and different assumptions09:51-11:28 Anti-fragility concept and building resilience11:28-13:32 Comfort is the enemy, disruption is the law13:32-14:52 Nomadic mindset and capitalizing on opportunities14:52-17:18 American left's problem, replicating failed strategies17:18-18:42 Problem over profit mindset shift18:42-20:42 Solving problems vs making money20:42-23:56 Objectivity from distance23:56-26:26 Resistance Labs with Congresswoman Jayapal26:26-28:38 Building stability vs chasing viral moments28:38-30:18 Surrounded by people you respect30:18-32:31 Courage and collective nobility32:31-34:47 Curiosity compounds exponentially34:47-35:13 Closing About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/tuJIZKaTcOU  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~35 minutesPublished: 3rd April 2026Episode #10 Guest Reflection The Political Activist Who Realised Leaving America was the Best Way to Save it I sat down with Jocelyn at Chateau Co-living in Normandy, where we'd been living together for six weeks. She'd just spent the morning strategising media campaigns for American political activists. From a French castle. Whilst most of her colleagues were stuck in Washington DC traffic. She told me about spending ten years in DC politics, wanting to save the world. About getting trapped in narcissistic power networks where activism became performance. About leaving because she thought she just wanted to travel. And about discovering that distance didn't make her less effective at changing the world. It made her more effective. This is the story of someone who left the system and found she could fight better from outside it. Wanting to Save the World At 19, Jocelyn got into progressive politics for the reason most people do. "I wanted to save the world. That's what everybody wants when they're 19 years old." Good reason as any. The world needs saving. She spent ten years building a political life in Washington DC. Producing events for politicians and activists. On-camera reporter for protests and campaigns. Helping candidates and activists build media profiles. Doing the work she thought would change things. What she does specifically: helping progressive candidates and activists navigate America's right-wing media bias. Building strategies so the left can get the attention they deserve in a media landscape tilted against them. But somewhere in those ten years, something shifted. "I don't think I really realised, but I was actually just completely burnt out on Washington politics specifically." The Power Center Trap "You're a Londoner so I think you know the specific burnout that you can have from big power centres where there is this kind of ambient narcissism and everything costs thousands of pounds." She was right. I knew exactly what she meant. London. New York. DC. The big power centres where networking becomes performance and actual work gets distorted by influence. "You go into this world and there are so many people with power and money, and instead of saving the world, you're trying to form these relationships and keep these relationships and it becomes increasingly unclear, okay, is this leading to anything, or am I just stuck in this narcissistic social system?" The trap isn't that people are malicious. It's that the system itself distorts everything. Your activism becomes about who you know. Your strategies become about what's worked before, not what works now. Your energy goes into maintaining networks instead of solving problems. "I feel like being baked in this big American power city had kind of wounded my relationship with activism in a lot of ways. It felt like the things that I wanted to do were being distorted by all these layers of influence and networks of power and funding." Ten years in. Career established. Connections built. And increasingly unsure if any of it was leading anywhere real. "I was just like, what if I just left? Like, what's the worst that could happen?" The Unconscious Escape When Jocelyn left DC after COVID, she told herself a simple story: she wanted to travel. "I'm gonna write my media advisories from the Greek islands. Sounds nice." That was the conscious reason. Pack up the freelance work she could do from anywhere. Travel for a while. See what happens. "But as I travelled more and met other travellers, I realised there was actually something much deeper going on with why I left and why I was staying away." What she discovered wasn't just about wanting to see new places. It was about escape from something specific. "When you have a career that's based in one place, your life ends up being weighed down with all these concerns that feel so important, but they aren't. Maybe you need to have this expensive flat or car and you're seeing all these people every week and then there's not really a lot of energy left over to be creative, to be intrinsically motivated to really think about, what am I doing with my career?" She described it as the daily energy tax of maintaining what she called a "normie existence" - the constant low-level drain of keeping up appearances. Maintaining the right flat. Seeing the right people. Playing the networking game. All the things that feel necessary when everyone around you is doing them. Creative Liberation When that daily energy tax disappeared, something unexpected happened. Her creative and intellectual energy became far more available. Not because she was on permanent holiday, but because she wasn't weighed down anymore. She was careful to be honest about the transition. There's an adjustment period - maybe a few months, maybe a year - where you're acclimating to constantly switching countries and you won't be terribly productive. But after that? She was shocked by how much she suddenly took on projects that were more important, more exciting, more challenging, and more aligned with what she actually cared about. Why? Because she wasn't stuck in a limiting idea of what it meant to be a political activist. She wasn't in a sphere where everybody said the same things and did the same things. Meeting people constantly. Being challenged daily. New perspectives from different cultures. It wasn't just liberating. It was professionally transformative. The Anti-Fragility Advantage Jocelyn introduced me to a term: anti-fragility. It's an economics concept that rose in popularity during COVID - the idea that systems can sustain catastrophe but still be resilient. She thinks about it constantly in relation to nomad life. If you're going to be a serious professional and become a nomad, you're building anti-fragility. Becoming more aware of what you want to create, what problems you want to solve, and how to actually do that - versus relying on your network to tell you what to do. Here's the key insight: normal people assume a great life is built on figuring it out. But that never happens. You get older, the economy changes, technology changes. Even if you stay in the same place your whole life, comfort is a complete illusion. The advantage nomads have? Your life changes every month or two, so you're no longer allergic to the idea that things can be totally different. She saw this in DC constantly. People would do something that worked, then spend the next five to ten years trying to replicate it. But the world had changed. As nomads, you can't fall into that trap. You're forced to adapt constantly. "In the modern economy, comfort is the enemy. Disruption is the law of the modern workforce. And I think you should just internalise that

Guest: Kayleigh FranksCareer: Head of Digital MarketingBased: NomadicInstagram: @kayleighrfEpisode DescriptionKayleigh Franks didn't stumble into digital nomadism. She hunted it down. In 2016, she flew to Chiang Mai and spent three months interviewing 24 digital nomads for 90 minutes each, studying them for her bachelor's thesis. Then she made it her life's mission to become one.She took the long route. Got an office job in Sydney. Showed up every day. Built her skills in digital marketing. Established a foundation. COVID hit and restricted her further. When it lifted, she quit her job, went freelance, and finally started traveling.But it wasn't what she expected. Airbnbs isolated her. The magic she'd observed in Chiang Mai was missing. Then she discovered co-living. After eight years of planning and building toward this life, she finally found what she'd been chasing.In this conversation, we explore what happens when you spend a decade preparing for something and reality still surprises you. We discuss the time prison of office work, why one month is both too long and not long enough, and the trade-offs between freedom and connection that every nomad eventually faces.Timestamps00:00-00:35 Introduction00:35-01:33 Guest introduction01:33-02:08 Writing a thesis about digital nomads02:08-02:43 Chiang Mai 2016, 24 interviews02:43-03:34 Integrating with the community03:34-04:23 Observing nomads in their natural habitat04:23-05:00 What she does now: digital marketing05:00-05:33 Life's mission to become a nomad05:33-06:25 Building career deliberately in Sydney06:25-07:02 COVID restrictions07:02-08:12 Deliberately calculated approach08:12-09:09 First attempts: Airbnbs and isolation09:09-10:44 Connection and belonging, the cafe lady10:44-11:03 Month-long stays and hubs11:03-12:23 Ten-day connection threshold12:23-12:52 Discovering co-living in 202512:52-13:24 The magic and aliveness13:24-14:19 Sustainability of co-living lifestyle14:19-15:34 One month co-livings back-to-back intensity15:34-16:25 Maintaining productivity while traveling16:25-17:17 Five hours a day, four days a week17:17-18:08 Time prison of office work18:08-18:56 Digital nomadism as solution18:56-20:12 How does it feel to have made it?20:12-20:59 Gratitude and creating your own luck20:59-21:50 Challenges and difficulties21:50-23:15 Slow travel vs fast travel preferences23:15-24:29 Community building in co-livings24:29-25:44 Deep connections vs surface connections25:44-27:48 Relationships and nomadism trade-offs27:48-29:45 Freedom vs connection, making decisions29:45-30:06 Worth being nomadic, liberation from structure30:06-30:23 ClosingAbout This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice.  To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/yev3GdVSrhk Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams.Episode length: ~30 minutesPublished: 20th March 2026Episode #9 Guest Reflection Halfway through our conversation at Chateau Co-living in Normandy, Kayleigh did what came naturally. She'd been answering my questions for twenty minutes when something shifted. She paused, smiled slightly, and asked: "Can I ask you questions?" It was the researcher emerging. The woman who spent three months in Chiang Mai in 2016 interviewing digital nomads, studying them in their natural habitat, understanding what made them tick. Old habits, it seems, die hard. After nine episodes of guests being interviewed, perhaps it was time someone turned the tables. But before she did, Kayleigh told me her story. About deliberately building a life around nomadism years before most people knew what that meant. About the rocky start that nearly made her question everything. And about finally discovering that the thing she'd been chasing for a decade was real. Studying Nomads Before It Was Normal In 2015, Kayleigh was doing her bachelor's degree in business and tourism when her brother told her about something called digital nomadism. The concept fascinated her immediately. "I decided to research into it. And nomadism was up at the time, and it said the number one hub was Chiang Mai. So I flew to Chiang Mai and spent three months interviewing digital nomads." This was 2016. Before COVID made remote work mainstream. Before digital nomad visas existed. Before co-living spaces were everywhere. She conducted 24 interviews, each an hour and a half long. Sitting in cafes, asking people why they'd chosen this life, what Tim Ferriss's Four Hour Work Week meant to them (spoiler: they didn't actually work four hours), how they made it work. "I wasn't technically a nomad because I wasn't working. I was studying them, but I integrated." She lived in an apartment building where other nomads lived. They'd run into each other in corridors. Meet at the same cafes for co-working. There were no formal co-living spaces then, but they created community anyway. Self-sufficiently building connections when the infrastructure didn't exist yet. What she observed changed everything. "It became my life's mission after that to actually become one myself." The Long Game Most people fall into nomadism. Job goes remote. Partner suggests trying it. Life circumstances change and suddenly it's possible. Kayleigh didn't fall into anything. She built towards it deliberately. "I based my whole career on how I could choose something that would allow me to become location independent." After returning from Thailand, she chose digital marketing specifically because it was location-flexible. But she didn't go remote immediately. She did something counterintuitive: she got an office job. "I decided to work for an agency in Sydney to be able to build up my skills. But they had to have me in the office every day. That doesn't align with me at all. But I knew it was a good way to establish a foundation that would allow me to travel at my own will." Years of showing up to an office she didn't want to be in. Building skills. Getting experience. Creating the foundation that would eventually let her work from anywhere. Then COVID hit. Everything went remote anyway. When restrictions lifted, she saw her moment. "After that, I was like, there is nothing stopping me now. So I quit my job. I went out on my own." It worked. Within a year, she was earning enough to support herself to become a digital nomad. The long game had paid off. When I asked how she felt about being one of the few people who'd planned it this deliberately, her answer surprised me. When It Didn't Work "I obviously spent so many years anticipating this kind of lifestyle, and then I started doing it. And I actually didn't enjoy the way I did it. And I was like, what have I done my whole life? I've worked towards it, and it's not what I expected." Years of planning. Years of building skills. Years of anticipation. And when she finally did it, travelling through South America and Europe, she hated it. The problem? Airbnbs. "It really restricts who you interact with. I think for me, a lot of the beauty to nomadism is actually connecting with people and similar mindsets, but it really isolates you when you're in an Airbnb." She could go to events. Visit co-working spaces. But it wasn't the same as what she'd observed in Chiang Mai, where community formed naturally through proximity and repetition. "When I was studying, connection with people is a big part of feeling like you belong in an area." In Thailand, she'd found an old woman at a local cafe who hugged her every day. They couldn't speak each other's languages, but the woman would sit with her, chat in Thai, hug her goodbye. That daily ritual created belonging. "It just makes you feel like you belong, which is a big part of the pain of being nomadic." Going to the same cafes daily. Staying in places for at least a month. These weren't just preferences. They were survival strategies. "You're only able to connect with people to the depth that you're looking for after ten days." One week somewhere? You're still a tourist. A month? You might actually build something real. But Airbnbs, even with month-long stays, kept her isolated from the very community she'd spent years working towards. The Magic of Co-living Then she discovered proper co-living spaces. Not just apartments where nomads happened to live, but intentionally designed community spaces. Chateau Co-living in Normandy, where we sat talking, was her first experience of a true co-living. "It took you from 2016" to discover this, I pointed out. Years of being nomadic before finding what she'd been looking for. The difference was immediate. Activities she'd never think of doing herself. Skill sharing. Opening her mind to how other people think. The opposite of isolation. When I asked her to define what co-living actually is, she struggled. Like Edouard before her, finding words for it proved difficult. Eventually, after some back and forth, we landed on what came up in Edouard's episode: it's a feeling. More specifically: "It's like a family feeling. Everybody has a different definition of family. But for me it's like you feel good here with other people. It's not permanent because everybody's going to move on with their life and go different places. So it's for a few weeks, a few months. But yeah, it's like family feeling." She was passionate speaking about her experience at the chateau. The magic of it. Being surrounded by people on similar journeys, creating space to actually connect deeply despite knowing everyone would leave eventually. This was what she'd observed in Chiang Mai back in 2016. What those early nomads had built without infrastructure. Now the infrastructure existed, and it was every

Guest: Dave NealeCareer: Game Designer and WriterBased: Home in Cambridge but also NomadicWebsite: www.dneale.comInstagram: @davenealewriter Episode Description Dave Neale did the sensible thing. He studied English literature at university, got a PhD in psychology from Cambridge, became a Cambridge professor, and built a proper academic career. Then one evening, he rewrote the rules for an old Sherlock Holmes board game, not for money or career advancement, but just because he wanted to see people play it. He sent it to a publisher on a whim. That casual email changed everything.Today, Dave designs narrative games whilst living nomadically across Europe. His work ranges from text-heavy narrative games as long as novels to jigsaw puzzle mechanics where you build maps piece by piece. I experienced one of his creations firsthand: a 36-hour murder mystery in a French castle that left me and the other guests absolutely stunned.In this conversation, Dave shares his philosophy of play: making things because the process itself is worthwhile, not because you're demanding specific outcomes. We explore how childhood dreams of writing and travel got buried under "real life" practicality, how making a game just for fun accidentally became a career, and why following what's interesting leads somewhere interesting.This is a masterclass in trusting that doing what you love will lead somewhere worthwhile. Timestamps00:00-00:27 Introduction00:27-01:28 Guest introduction01:28-02:06 Are you a nomad?02:06-03:18 Writer and game designer03:18-04:55 Story or game mechanics first?04:55-06:31 Childhood dreams and routes06:31-07:11 Travel fascination as kid07:11-08:08 Discovering nomadism in 201608:08-11:22 2016 era vs post-pandemic nomadism11:22-12:50 Power of play and nomad life12:50-15:19 Play, bonding, and community15:19-17:54 Psychology of play in groups17:54-20:20 Play mindset: process over outcome20:20-21:37 Game designer nomads21:37-24:32 Location independence in game design24:32-26:33 Cambridge researcher and professor26:33-28:57 Sherlock Holmes game and first contract28:57-30:28 Win-win philosophy and non-neediness30:28-33:22 Second career path and future33:22-34:04 Closing About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.  Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/nJvCTvB9g8U  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~34 minutesPublished: 6th March 2026Episode #8  Guest Reflection The Storyteller Who Stopped Planning and Started Playing I found myself talking with Dave at a co-living chateau in Normandy, the kind of place where conversations naturally drift towards the unconventional. He'd just run a murder mystery that took us 36 hours to solve, and I wanted to understand how someone goes from Cambridge University lecturer to creating intricate games whilst travelling the world. His answer came down to one word: play. Play as in trying things without demanding they become anything. Play as in doing what you love because the process itself matters. Play as in the opposite of strategic career planning. It's the philosophy that accidentally gave him back the two childhood dreams he'd buried years ago. The Dreams That Got Practical As a kid, Dave dreamt of telling stories and travel. He wanted narratives and adventure. "I remember as a kid having these ideas about travel and being fascinated by travel, just thinking about hiking across the UK or travelling around in a van. That travel idea was in my mind. The idea of the exoticness of travel and the people you might meet." Then adolescence arrived with its practical questions. What will you study? What career makes sense? How will you support yourself? "I guess it felt like a childhood idea that sort of faded out in my teens, and when I went to university and into adulthood, it became more like, oh yeah, in real life you pick a place and you live there and you do a job. It's more stable." Real life. The phrase everyone uses when they mean conforming to what's sensible. Dave went to university for English literature because he still wanted to write. Then graduated and hit the wall every creative hits: you can't just apply for a job as a novelist. Publishing doesn't work that way. You need something practical whilst you figure out the writing part. So he did a PhD in psychology and went on to work at Cambridge University. By that point, the childhood dreams were properly buried. He'd found his thing. "I kind of thought, okay, I found my thing. I like research, I like science, academia and academic discussions and debates and philosophy." The writing dream? Shelved. The travel dream? Occasionally thought about but never seriously pursued. So he thought. The Game He Made Just Because Whilst working full-time at Cambridge, Dave discovered an old Sherlock Holmes board game. He loved the concept. Solving mysteries. Following clues. The intersection of storytelling and puzzles. So he started writing new mysteries for it. Changed some of the rules. Made it work better. Created an entirely new version, essentially. When I asked why, his answer was immediate: "I wanted to make it. I wanted to see people play it. I wanted to experience that. I didn't do it because I wanted money or because I wanted to change my job. I did it for the love of doing the thing." He wasn't building towards anything. He was a full-time academic with a stable career. This was just something he did on the side because he enjoyed doing it. Then he noticed a publisher was republishing the original Sherlock Holmes game. On a whim, he sent them his new mysteries. Casual email. No expectations. Just: I made these, if you're interested. They were interested. They offered him a contract for his first game. That email, sent without any strategic intent, became the pivot point that changed everything. The Win-Win That Became a Career Here's what makes Dave's story different from most career transition narratives. He didn't position himself strategically. He didn't study the game design industry or build a portfolio or network at industry events. He made something he loved, shared it without demanding anything in return, and let the outcome be whatever it would be. "It was almost a win-win. If I made those mysteries and made that game and it never changed my life, but I'd made it and I'd seen people play it, I'd felt great. I wouldn't have lost or failed or anything. And the fact it did completely change my life, even better." Win if nothing happens beyond the satisfaction of making it. Win if it changes everything. That's the opposite of how career advice usually works. Most advice is about optimising for outcomes. Build the right skills. Network strategically. Create work that demonstrates market value. Position yourself for opportunities. Dave optimised for the process. He made something because making it felt meaningful. The outcome, becoming a published game designer, was bonus. That first contract led to more. His niche became clear: writing and storytelling within games. "My kind of niche in the game design world is writing and storytelling and combining games with stories and figuring out how best to tell a story through a game format." The variety in game design keeps him interested. Every project requires different skills and approaches. The Second Dream Returns In 2016, during his PhD years, Dave discovered digital nomadism. The concept that you could work whilst travelling. That work and location didn't have to be permanently tied together. That childhood fascination with travel, the one he'd dismissed as impractical, suddenly had a framework. "I discovered the concept of digital nomadism. So that was in 2016 and went on one trip. I kind of knew about it, but I still wasn't in a place to really do it." At first, he could only do short stints. Go to a co-living for a month. Return to Cambridge. Do it again later. He was still anchored to academia, still building the life that would eventually let him travel properly. But even then, he knew. "It was calling to me the whole time. I just didn't set out to build my life around it that much, but I knew I wanted to do it if I could." After leaving Cambridge and establishing himself as a game designer, the second dream became possible. He kept a room in Cambridge, somewhere to return to with his stuff. But he spent most of his time travelling. Co-livings became his base. Writing mysteries and designing games from different countries. Meeting people. Experiencing the adventure that had called to him as a kid. There's a connection between his play philosophy and nomadic life. Both require the same mindset. Play means trying things without demanding specific outcomes. Nomadism means going places without needing them to be perfect. Both require being comfortable with uncertainty. Both reward curiosity over control. When I asked about being a nomad, there was a slight pause before he confirmed yes. The pause? "I do have a home base. I do have a place I rent in Cambridge, just like a room in a house that I keep so I can go back, and it has my stuff in it. But at least for the last couple of years, I have spent most of my time travelling." He's not ideologically committed to pure nomadism any more than he's ideologically committed to one particular career path. He does what makes sense right now. Keeps a room because having a base feels important. Travels most of the time because that's what he wants. That openness, that willingness to try without fixating, works for both

Sarah Cols: The Dream CatalystGuest: Sarah ColsCareer: Experience Designer & Dream Catalyst | La Casita de la Magia CreatorBased: Nomadic (Co-living spaces across Europe)Project: La Casita de la Magiawww.lacasitadelamagia.comInstagram: @lacasita.delamagia Episode DescriptionSarah Cols spent six years as a career counselor in Brussels asking unemployed people about their dreams—questions most had never been asked. She was brilliant at helping others chase their dreams whilst feeling increasingly trapped in her own role. Then the perfect job offer landed: everything she wanted on paper. Her body said no. She walked 900 kilometres across Spain on the Camino de Santiago with no preparation and an injured knee that had already required three surgeries. She went expecting solitude and physical healing. Instead, she discovered that transformation happens in community, not isolation. Strangers walking together for hours without even exchanging names had deeper conversations than she'd ever had back home. In this conversation, Sarah shares why she turned down her dream job by improvising on a phone call, how the Camino taught her to be grounded in the present instead of planning the future, and why collective experiences spark more growth than solo inner work. We explore the golden cage of job security, the magic of spontaneous decisions, and how she's now creating La Casita de la Magia—a travelling sanctuary helping nomads reconnect with forgotten dreams. This is a story about listening to your body when your mind says yes, trusting intuition over rational answers, and becoming a catalyst for others whilst building your own dream. Timestamps00:00-00:27 Introduction00:28-01:31Guest Intro01:32-05:29 Career counsellor in Brussels05:29-09:37 The breaking point09:37-12:55 Career breaks and discovering workaway12:55-15:23 Second breaking point15:23-20:02 The spontaneous phone call20:02-22:39 The Camino decision22:39-25:56 Walking the Camino25:56-28:12 From career counsellor to dream catalyst28:12-31:32 Community over solitude31:32-34:37 Current work and lifestyle34:37-38:46 The journey is the dream38:46-38:59 Closing About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.  Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/GOa2BPv7_VU  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~39 minutesPublished: 20th February 2026Episode #7  Guest Reflection I sat down with Sarah at Chateau Co-living in Normandy, where she was working as a community facilitator and living as a guest. Over our conversation, she told me about helping unemployed people find their dreams whilst stuck in corporate herself, the moment she realised the importance of listening to your body, and why walking 900 kilometres across Spain taught her that community, not solitude, is where transformation happens. This is the story of someone who realised that helping others chase their dreams only works when you're brave enough to chase your own. Today, she creates La Casita de la Magia, a travelling sanctuary helping nomads reconnect with their dreams. The Career Counsellor Who Asked About Dreams For six years, Sarah worked as a career counsellor in Brussels helping unemployed people find work. "I would help them and guide them back to employment. But hopefully also, one of their dream jobs. That was always my purpose, at least." Whilst the system saw numbers and mandatory appointments, Sarah saw people with dreams they'd forgotten. "I would start the interviews with that. What is one of your biggest dreams? What makes your heart beat?" Many had never asked themselves. But Sarah never stopped asking. The irony was that she was helping others find their dreams whilst feeling increasingly trapped in her own role. When Covid Changed Everything The first two years were brilliant. Then Covid forced everything remote. "I was missing the human contact and the human connection. That was one of the reasons I got into that job." Many people she worked with weren't comfortable with technology. Some didn't have the technology. "I felt more and more disconnected from them." When they returned to in-person work, the job had fundamentally changed. Ministers made decisions without understanding what was happening on the ground. People became numbers. The system wanted efficiency. She wanted to help. "We had to do more and more interviews a day with less and less time. How are we supposed to help people if we don't have the time to understand their living situation?" "I felt that in the working environment, I wasn't aligned with their values anymore." One perk remained: career breaks. She could take up to five years off, unpaid, with job security when she returned. "I always loved travelling. That's like my soul, what nourishes my heart." It was her safety valve. Until it wasn't enough. The Body Says No Sarah applied for new jobs. Working with young adults might reignite her purpose. She had interviews. One went very well. They wanted to hire her. "On paper, it was everything I actually wanted or thought I wanted." Then she got the call offering her the position. "I started really listening and paying attention to how I felt and also paying attention to my body. I didn't feel that sense of excitement, which really surprised me." They wanted her to start in a month. She asked for the weekend to think. "Monday arrives and I'm like, I have no clue what I'm going to tell them because I don't have a rational answer. I'm just going to pick up the phone and see what comes out of my mouth. Usually when I'm spontaneous, that's when I speak from the heart." When it was time to call them back, she still didn't know her answer. She let her intuition take over, trusting that the right answer would come as soon as she started speaking. It did. The answer was no. "I knew that I wanted the freedom to be able to travel. And I knew that that job wouldn't give me that." Sarah chose uncertainty over security. Freedom over safety. The Camino: Where Stories Changed Everything After declining the job, Sarah needed space. A friend had walked the Camino de Santiago the year before. "Suddenly it hit me. I was like, okay, I think I want to go walk." She had no walking experience. No physical preparation. "I told my friends and family, I'm just going to go walk a few days and see where it leads me. But I ended up walking the whole thing and walking for six weeks and 900 kilometres." Initially, she went for physical reasons. A knee injury, torn ligaments, three previous surgeries. She wanted to prove her body could heal differently. But the Camino gave her something unexpected: presence. "All you're thinking about is, do I want to walk today? Do I want to rest? You're scanning your body. So you're not thinking at all about the rest. That grounded me so much." And then there were the people. "The Camino is all about encountering people. I loved asking them why they were doing the Camino. What brought them here? What are they looking for? That's when I realized, I love hearing people's stories and helping them reconnect with their dreams." Sometimes they had deep conversations without even exchanging names. "It was not about your identity. We were having deeper conversations, and sometimes it was even easier to talk to people that I didn't know." What amazed her most was the resilience. "People are so resilient. They're always choosing the positive side of things. Even though they've gone through a lot." The Camino showed Sarah what she wanted to do. Create spaces where people felt free to explore, to be vulnerable, to dream. And to witness the resilience that emerges when people reconnect with themselves. Community Over Solo Healing Before the Camino, Sarah assumed transformation required solitude. "I was like, oh, I'm going alone on this healing journey. But actually, that's where I learned the most. That was the missing ingredient to my personal growth." The missing ingredient was community. "We're stronger together than alone. Inspiration thrives when we're all together. When you're having fun, when you're being playful, creative. That's where usually all the answers came to me." This insight became the foundation of her work. Co-living spaces offer community for nomads who are constantly moving, constantly starting over. And Sarah realised that's exactly where she needed to be. Living the Dream Whilst Helping Others Today, Sarah is a full-time nomad. She splits her time between working as a community facilitator in co-livings, organising get-togethers, trips, and activities, and living as a guest in these spaces. But her real work is something called La Casita de la Magia. The Little House of Magic. It's not a physical place. It's a living experience that moves with her, a pop-up workshop concept that exists wherever she goes. As Sarah describes it: "A sanctuary in the making, part dream, part becoming, created to help people reconnect with their dreams, deep desires, intuition, and their joy." She designs immersive, playful, poetic experiences inside co-livings. Guests become dreamers, invited to explore what truly matters to them in a playful way. It's the perfect manifestation of everything the Camino taught her. Community over solitude. Play over rigid structure. Dreams reconnected through joy, not force. "Freedom is one of my highest values. Being able to travel and meet super interesting people from all different sides of the world. It's what nourishes me. So in order for me to live my dream life, I also have to li

Katia Dimova: The Catalyst Guest Katia Dimova Co-living Founder | Remote Work PioneerBased: Normandy, France (Chateau Co-living)Website: https://chateaucoliving.com/Instagram: @chateaucoliving Episode DescriptionKatia Dimova pioneered remote work years before COVID made it mainstream, managing a distributed team across Greece, Turkey, and Bulgaria with nothing but Facebook Messenger. She never planned to coordinate refugee relief across three countries—she just went to drop off donations and stayed for a meeting. Today, she runs one of Europe's most sought-after co-living spaces in a literal castle in Normandy. In this conversation, Katia shares how she accidentally built a location-independent business whilst avoiding telling clients she didn't have an office, why nomads made perfect volunteers during the refugee crisis, and how being comfortable with chaos became her greatest professional asset. We explore the schizophrenic feeling of living in two separate worlds, the dinner party question she dreads most, and why nomads benefit communities more than most people realize. This is a story about not planning anything, showing up anyway, and becoming the centre of everything that matters. Timestamps00:00-00:39 Podcast introduction by Ibi00:39-01:33 Guest introduction: Katia the Catalyst01:33-01:49 Opening: together in the castle, rumours and stories01:49-02:26 When did digital nomad journey start? Hard to put year on it02:26-03:26 Corporate job with long business trips, company apartments03:26-04:35 Gave flavor of not being in one place, then itchy feeling04:35-05:35 Location independence before it was a thing, freedom claimed illegally 05:35-06:51 Quit corporate job, started own company based in Istanbul06:51-07:21 Driving weekly to Istanbul, not planning to be location independent07:21-08:21 Scarcity mindset: travel while we still can before office08:21-09:14 Senior team, absolute separation of tasks, people knew each other09:14-10:13 Working for big corporate clients, not serious without office10:13-11:12 Managing remote team: small, senior, trusted people11:12-12:51 No tools for remote work: Facebook Messenger, no Zoom12:51-14:36 Lebanon electricity cut, no backup, super unprofessional execution14:36-15:28 Not letting client see what's behind the scenes15:28-17:49 Came from big design agency, people assumed comparable17:49-19:17 Small senior team advantage: fast, agile, no approval layers19:17-21:07 Pre co-living: corporate work and nonprofit work21:07-22:45 Syrian refugee crisis, small human effort, got consumed22:45-24:18 Went to drop off donations, joined meeting, met best friends24:18-25:10 Facebook group exploded to thousands, no official entity25:10-26:27 Remote skills helped coordinate logistics across countries26:27-27:11 Nomad volunteers: flexible, saw need, stayed to help27:11-27:59 Bridging two worlds: corporate and nomad finally connected27:59-29:54 Nomad mindset shift: flexible, agile, challenges normalized29:54-31:31 Wild stories seem normal until you see reactions31:31-32:39 Connection between corporate world and social work32:39-34:15 Carbon footprint can be mindful, different ways to care34:15-36:55 How nomads benefit places: longer stays, support local, inspire36:55-38:08 The dreaded questions: where from, where live, what do38:08-38:49 Closing: absolute pleasure, Chateau co-livingAbout This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.  Host Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/2E04dNlMu2o Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~38 minutesPublished: 13th February, 2026Episode #006 Guest Reflection Katia and I sat down for this conversation in her co-living chateau in Normandy, where many of these podcast episodes are filmed. Over our talk, she told me about accidentally pioneering remote work years before COVID made it normal, coordinating refugee relief across three countries, and why the question "what do you do?" has become impossible to answer. This is the story of someone who doesn't plan, but somehow becomes the centre of everything that matters. Before Remote Was a ThingLong before COVID normalised working from anywhere, Katia was already doing it. Not because she called herself a digital nomad or chased location independence. It just happened. She'd been travelling extensively for her corporate job, spending months in different places with company apartments and drivers. When she left to start her own company with a business partner, the plan was simple: base the company in Istanbul where most clients were. But in the beginning, whilst waiting to set up an office and navigate the administrative difficulties of starting a company in a non-European country, they worked remotely. Just three of them at first. "The mindset behind was the company will be based in Istanbul. But we were like, yeah, until it's time to have an office and to hire more people, why don't we just do whatever and just live wherever?" Visa restrictions meant she couldn't stay in Turkey full time anyway. So she opened a map and thought: what's close to Istanbul, has seaside, nice weather? Greece. She'd drive to Istanbul almost weekly for client meetings, then return to Greece to work. "The plan was not to be totally location independent. Because it was not a thing at the time. It just never crossed my mind that it's possible." She worked with a scarcity mindset: soon we'll have an office, so let's travel as much as possible whilst we still can. But slowly, that assumption started to crack. "Why? Why do we need an office? Why can't we just do this and just live whatever and work with people that we trust?" One team member bought a house in a village and moved there. The rest kept travelling. At some point, thinking about a traditional company in traditional ways just didn't make sense anymore. The Chaos Behind the ProfessionalismThe work was high-level. Big corporate clients. International projects. The kind where perception matters. "At the time, it was extremely not serious if you don't have an office." So they never advertised their setup. Clients would never come to meet them anyway. They'd always go to the clients. If asked where they were based, the answer was vague: everywhere, which was true. "They didn't need to know that we came up with their strategy whilst we were laying on the beach in Greece. What they need to know is that this is the best strategy and we are giving it to them." But behind the polished deliverables was absolute chaos. This was pre-Zoom, pre-Slack, pre-everything. They coordinated on Facebook Messenger. No proper record of discussions. No documentation of who said what. When I asked how they managed, Katia was honest: "It worked like magic because we knew each other and we could trust each other. But if something went wrong and you need to go back on it, that wouldn't have been possible." The internet was unreliable. She remembers being somewhere in Lebanon with a massive file to submit on deadline day, and the electricity cut. No internet. Pure panic. "We didn't have backup servers. We didn't have proper spacing. In that sense, looking back at it now, it was super unprofessional the way it was executed. But the clients didn't know what is behind the scenes." That philosophy, keeping the chaos discrete, not letting clients see the pain, has stayed with her. Even now, running a co-living, the same principle applies: guests pay for the experience, not to see the work it takes to create it. The Donation That Changed EverythingThe volunteering work wasn't planned. Nothing in Katia's life seems to be planned. Things just come at her, and she responds. It was the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis. Institutions and governments across the Balkans were unprepared. Katia decided to do something small, donate something. She can't even remember what. "It just started with a very small, very human effort to do something. That was not at all planning to do it in a larger scale." She went to drop off donations. The plan was simple: drop them off and leave. But someone asked if she wanted to join a coordination meeting. People thinking about how to help. She said yes. "And then I met some people there, which to this day are some of my best friends. And then we just clicked very quickly. We started bouncing ideas. We started, okay, we can do this, we can do that." They had very different backgrounds. They took it on as a common project. And then it escalated. "Once you get involved, once you're like, oh, I can do something small to help, then you get involved and then you understand the scale of it. And then you are like, oh, no, this is big. Oh, I have some contacts. Maybe I can help. Maybe I can organise this." It started small, something on the side. Then it consumed her completely. "It totally consumed me to a point that I stopped working because I just couldn't work anymore. I couldn't focus on anything else anymore." But when you see how much need there is, how little has been done, how many human lives are on the line, you can't stop. Every day you think: maybe I can do this little bit more. And before you know it, you're the centrepiece of a massive project that was never planned. Coordinating Across Borders"We were just like a group of newly made friends." They started a Facebook group. First just for themselves, then close friends who could help. Suddenly the group had thousands of people. Katia became a contact point for multiple organisations, coordinating logistics across Greece, Turkey, a

Yello Balolia: The Optimist Guest: Yello BaloliaPublishing Company Director | Co-living FounderBased: Cornwall, UK Website: froomies.orgInstagram: @froomiescoliving Episode DescriptionYello Balolia started a publishing company 15 years ago with zero business experience, zero publishing knowledge, and zero qualifications. His strategy? "How hard could it be?" Today, he's published 12-13 books on diabetes and weight loss, lived on a boat for years whilst working remotely, and is opening an 80-acre co-living farm in Cornwall. In this conversation, Yello shares the power of unrealistic optimism, the dinner party moment that made him realise he sees possibilities where others see hurdles, and why boarding school prepared him for community living. We explore his unconventional journey from London to boat life, his obsession with vibe coding that turned a £799/month app into a £50,000 custom build, and why being unrealistic isn't a flaw—it's an entrepreneurial necessity. This is a story about giving things a go without regard for complexity, making ideas physical before they're finished, and building a life where obstacles simply don't exist in your imagination. Timestamps 00:00-00:26 Generic introduction 00:26-01:40 Yello's introduction 01:40-01:43 Are you a nomad? 01:43-02:42 Living on a boat for 3-4 years 02:42-03:19 Escaping UK winters to co-livings 03:19-03:47 Boat journey: London to Oxford 03:47-03:57 Location independent definition 03:57-04:31 How he makes money: publishing company director 04:31-04:57 15 years, 12-13 books, diabetes and weight loss 04:57-05:32 Role: business side, project management, making it happen 05:32-06:43 Zero MBA, business, or publishing qualifications 06:43-07:12 "How hard could it be?" philosophy 07:12-08:13 First edition was awful, six editions later it's great 08:13-09:28 Unrealistic optimism as necessary entrepreneur quality 09:28-09:50 Blessing and curse of being unrealistic 09:50-11:06 Dinner party revelation: seeing opportunities vs. hurdles 11:06-11:42 Eye-opening moment about different thinking styles 11:42-13:15 Making ideas physical: Canva book cover technique 13:15-13:58 What motivated starting the business: love of creativity 13:58-15:07 Passion: making something from nothing 15:07-16:26 COVID: leaving London two days before lockdown 16:26-17:25 Working hard during lockdown: website, YouTube channel 17:25-19:09 Boat life: nothing plumbed in, working hard to survive 19:09-20:37 Slower pace, not conducive to high productivity 20:37-20:50 Missing ease of living in a house after couple years 20:50-21:24 What is Froomies: 80-acre farm in Cornwall 21:24-23:18 Journey to co-living: living it, then wanting to create one 23:18-25:11 How co-living operators define co-living 25:11-26:13 Boarding school ages 10-18: co-living for kids 26:13-27:34 Thriving in boarding school environment 27:34-27:57 Struggle maintaining friendships when living alone 27:57-28:44 Why open Froomies: means, will, drive to add co-living 28:44-30:16 Future plans: flexibility, creative projects, festivals 30:16-30:24 Always having business ideas 30:24-32:09 Vibe coding: building Froomies guidebook app 32:09-33:17 Waking up at 5am excited to vibe code 33:17-34:27 Built £50,000 app with ChatGPT for $20/month 34:27-35:55 Future of vibe coding: profession appears then disappears 35:55-36:09 Closing thoughts About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/xeT0LDCW2Sc Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~36 minutesPublished: 6th February, 2026Episode #005 Guest Reflection Yello and I sat down to talk during his stay at a chateau in Normandy. Over the conversation, he told me about building a publishing company with zero business experience, living on a boat for years whilst working remotely, and why seeing the world without hurdles has been his greatest advantage. This is the story of someone who proved that being unrealistically optimistic isn't a flaw, it's a superpower. How Hard Could It Be?Fifteen years ago, Yello started a publishing company. He had no business degree, no MBA, no publishing experience, and absolutely no qualifications in either field. His business partner, a dietician, came to him with an idea for a book about diabetes and weight loss. Yello thought it was brilliant. So naturally, he decided they should publish it themselves. "I just thought, how hard could it be? You write a book, you design a book, you get some printed. Is it really that complicated? I just thought, let's have a go." The first edition of their first book was, in his own words, absolutely awful. "It was terrible. I didn't know what I was doing. In hindsight, there were loads of things that didn't look great. There were just so many things that were really not great about it. But it was out there and it was helping people. People could see the value in it, even though it looked a bit crappy." Six editions later, that same book looks completely different. Today, their visual carb and calorie count book is their flagship product. They've published 12 to 13 books over 15 years, all written by Yello and his partner, all selling steadily within the diabetes sector in the UK. When I asked how his confidence levels evolved over those 15 years, whether they dropped after the initial optimism wore off, his answer surprised me. "I guess I'm quite unrealistic in quite a lot of ways. And I think that is almost a necessary quality for an entrepreneur to have. Overoptimistic, unrealistic. If people knew how hard it is to do these things, they would never get started if they were really realistic about it." The Blessing and the Curse "My confidence levels were maintained all the way through because I am not realistic about how long things take and how much effort it takes and how many decisions need to be made and details go into doing something like this. And even to this day, projects I work on now, I'm still unrealistic about pretty much everything." When I asked if this was a blessing or a curse, he didn't hesitate. "It's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because I will give things a go where other people maybe wouldn't. But it's a curse because things do take a lot longer and I over-commit in my diary and sometimes over-promise a little bit, which is not obviously great to do." But here's what makes Yello's approach so interesting: he's completely aware of this trait, and he's not trying to fix it. "Some people would say, you know, I need to curb that. And it's not doing me very much benefits. But I would say no, I think the world needs people who give things a go without regard for the complexities of what is going to unfold." It's a radical perspective. In a world obsessed with realistic goal-setting, careful planning, and measured expectations, Yello is arguing the opposite: that unrealistic optimism is exactly what allows people to attempt things that actually matter. The Dinner Party RevelationYears ago, Yello was at a dinner party having a conversation that would become a pivotal moment in understanding himself. "I was talking about just the concept of having an idea and then visualising how things go over time. I said, you know, I have an idea and I can see that it leads to this and it leads to that. Wow, yes, I can see the amazing outcomes this can lead to." But the other people at the table described something completely different. "One or two of them said their experience is actually quite the opposite. They have an idea and then they see a hurdle and a hurdle and then another hurdle. And one of those hurdles will just be too big for them to comprehend. And they'll be like, no, this idea is never gonna work." This was revelatory for Yello. "I just never knew that other people think like that. This was years ago, and that was a real eye-opening moment for me. Like, wow, okay. Having an imagination without the hurdles is such a helpful way to think. And I guess I maybe naturally do that anyway and feel blessed by that idea. And I didn't realise that everyone didn't do that." When I asked how someone could learn to think this way, to see opportunities instead of obstacles, his advice was surprisingly practical. Making the Future Physical "Make something physical that you can show yourself. That is a prompt to think about the endpoint, the successful endpoint." His example was specific. A friend came to him struggling to write a book. Yello's advice wasn't about writing strategies or productivity systems. "Go into Canva. Make sure you've got a title for your book, a subtitle for your book, create a cover for the book in Canva. Even if you haven't written it. Doesn't matter. Do the cover and then have it somewhere, preferably print it out and put it, wrap it around a real book." The point isn't to have a finished cover. The point is to trick your brain into believing the future is real. "So you've got this kind of mock-up of your real book in front of you. And I think that really helps visualise something further down the road. You can almost feel that like, oh my God, this is my book in my hand, rather than it being this abstract thing way in the future with loads of hurdles in the way." It's a technique that transforms the distant and difficult into the tangible and achievable. And it's exactly the kind of thinking that's powered Yello's entire approach to building businesses and life. The Mobile Home Nomad After 20 years in London, COVID happened. Two days before the first lockdown was announced, Yello sensed something was coming. "Nobody knew that there was going to b

Mathilde Andersen: The Virtual HR Consultant Guest: Mathilde Andersen Virtual HR Consultant | Freelance Human Resources Expert Based: Worldwide (Currently Paraguay)Website: mathildeandersen.comLinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/mathilde-andersen-virtualhrServices: Virtual HR consulting for Swiss companies Episode DescriptionMathilde Andersen left Switzerland with no clients, no business plan, and zero freelancing experience. Today, she runs a thriving virtual HR consultancy serving Swiss companies from anywhere in the world. In this conversation, Mathilde shares how she transitioned from three years of backpacking to building a location-independent HR business without any remote work experience. We explore the practical realities of making HR work remotely, the financial requirements of nomadic life, the emotional challenges of constant travel, why she chose Paraguay for residency, and the importance of connecting with local communities wherever she goes. This is a story about taking the leap before you're ready, figuring it out as you go, and building exactly the freedom you envisioned. Timestamps 00:00 Introduction00:27 Guest Introduction01:39 Background: travelling family, three years backpacking01:59 Zero remote work experience before starting02:40 "Opening a Pandora's box": all the questions03:34 Left Switzerland before getting clients04:14 Where nomads actually are: the hubs05:53 Spain then Brazil06:44 Language barriers and connecting with locals07:49 First invoice moment: "This is actually working"08:15 How she found her first client on LinkedIn09:11 Making HR work remotely and what virtual HR means10:17 Financial requirements: €2,000/month minimum12:01 The emotional side: loneliness vs. alone14:01 What freedom looks like15:12 Spontaneous meetups and flexibility15:34 Meeting people on Instagram: "Let's just go"16:27 Co-living culture and community19:20 Deep conversations and common struggles20:01 Too many options: getting lost21:23 Dating as a nomad and managing emotions22:30 Evolution and cousin's romantic success story24:35 The nomad community mindset26:49 Paraguay residency: process, costs, and connecting with locals30:16 Closing About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice. To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/zaSpZYyFTCM  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~30 minutesPublished: 30th January, 2026Episode #004 Guest Reflection Mathilde and I sat down in a co-living chateau in Normandy, where she told me about leaving Switzerland with no clients, no business plan, and no experience in freelancing. Today, she runs a thriving virtual HR consultancy serving Swiss companies from anywhere in the world. The Escape Plan Mathilde Andersen didn't ease into digital nomadism. She dove in. After spending three years backpacking around the world until COVID hit, she returned to Switzerland and faced a reality many travellers know too well: the job waiting for her felt suffocating."I really didn't like the job I had. So I needed an escape, and the best way to escape was to turn my profession into something I could make money off and to travel the world." The problem? She had absolutely no idea how to do it. "Before COVID, I was just backpacking, living off my savings. I didn't have any idea about being self-employed, about freelancing, about marketing, about anything. Absolutely no idea." What followed was a complete leap into the unknown, what Mathilde describes as "opening a Pandora box." Where should she register her company? What about residency? Insurance? Client acquisition? Website setup? Positioning? "I just went all in. Step by step, I just got there. I actually manifested it. I saw myself living this life and I thought whatever it takes, I'm going to get there." Starting Without a Safety Net Most people transitioning to remote work do it cautiously: negotiating remote arrangements, building a client base on the side, testing the waters before jumping in fully. Mathilde did none of that. She left Switzerland before securing a single client. Her reasoning was strategic, even if it felt reckless: "If I really want to get into that digital nomad life, I have to get there where the people are." Switzerland's high cost of living meant few digital nomads stayed there. She needed to be where the community was. Her first stops: Spain, then quickly to Brazil. The First Invoice: Making HR Work Remotely Mathilde's breakthrough came from an unexpected approach. She didn't wait for the perfect HR freelancing opportunity. Instead, she started by offering administrative services. Her first client came from scanning remote job postings on LinkedIn. When she found a company looking for administrative support, she sent them a proposal: "I can do that, but as a freelancer." It worked. "I explained why they should collaborate with me and why my services or the way I operate is beneficial for them." The pitch was simple: no employee costs, no office overhead, just a clear hourly rate or project fee. That first invoice was transformative. "Wow, I'm actually getting paid. This is actually working." The answer to making HR work remotely: she followed the market shift. "COVID sort of shifted how some companies work. Small businesses especially didn't want the overhead of a full-time HR employee. I have a set price as a freelancer. You just pay by hour or we agree on a package, but that's all the expense you're going to have."From there, she expanded to her true passion: HR strategy, recruitment, talent development, and organisational consulting, all delivered virtually. The Financial Reality of Nomadic Life When I asked how much a digital nomad needs to earn to sustain this lifestyle, Mathilde is pragmatic. "I think it really depends where you are. If you're in Bali or Thailand or Vietnam, the cost of living is much cheaper." Her estimate? Around €2,000 per month minimum. In Europe, €2,000 wouldn't be enough. But in Southeast Asia, or if you're willing to house-sit or volunteer for accommodation, it's possible. The key is flexibility. "It depends on what you spend your money on. If you cook, if you work for your rent, you can get by with €2,000." The Emotional Side: Freedom, Loneliness, and Deep Connections The practical challenges of digital nomadism (taxes, visas, client acquisition) are well-documented. Less discussed is the emotional landscape. When I brought this up, Mathilde was refreshingly honest about loneliness. "If I would tell you I never felt lonely, it would be a lie. I have been lonely." But she's quick to clarify: "I like to be alone. Generally, if I'm alone, I actually enjoy my me time." For her, the freedom outweighs the isolation. "The less I'm attached to a place or to something, the more freedom I have. If I can just travel with one suitcase and my backpack and just go wherever I want without any strings attached, that's just pure joy.""I can go wherever I want, whenever I want, with whomever I want." She describes the spontaneity of nomadic life: seeing someone post on Instagram that they're in a nearby city and deciding to meet up the next day. To manage the balance between social connection and solitude, Mathilde alternates between co-living spaces and Airbnbs. "I cannot only do co-livings or only Airbnbs. I like to change. That's how I keep my balance." Co-Living: Where Deep Conversations Happen Co-living spaces have become central to Mathilde's nomadic life. But it's not just about shared accommodation, it's about the quality of connection. "For me, it's to share the spaces, to share your time with like-minded people. We're all here for the same purpose, but we're all so different. Maybe we would have never met in other circumstances, but we are all people from different places that live under the same roof and all just want to share experiences." The conversations in these spaces go deeper than typical small talk. "The kind of conversations we have are so deep because we all have the same issues, the same struggles, the same experiences." When I asked what they actually discussed, the topics ranged from finding partners while constantly travelling to the internal struggle of wanting to settle down versus the urge to keep moving. The paradox of having too many options. "You have so many options that you get lost because you don't know in which direction should I go, what should I do, where, when?" Choosing Paraguay: Community and Connection One of the practical questions many aspiring digital nomads face is where to establish residency. For Mathilde, the answer was Paraguay. "I am from Switzerland, but I don't live in Switzerland anymore. I officially live in Paraguay."The residency process was straightforward. Working with a local facilitator, she received her temporary residency in less than three months. Requirements were minimal: birth certificate, criminal record, fingerprints, and a photo. But the decision wasn't purely logistical. "For me, it's important to feel welcome in a country and to have a connection with the locals and with the people and with the culture." Paraguay delivered exactly that. "The people are so friendly. They're so welcoming. You walk down the street, they want to talk to you." She's built genuine friendships there. "I don't just want to be in the digital nomad bubble. I like to have a little bit of both." The outsourcing philosophy applies here too: "People outsource HR to me, I outsource this to someone else. Everyone should do what they do best." Lessons from the Journey Looking back on her transition from backpacker to business owner, Mathilde's path offers key

Jeanne Fontaniere: The Slow-mad Guest: Jeanne Fontaniere Digital Nomad | Co-Living Host | Former Events ManagerBased: Normandy, France (3 months on) | Worldwide (3 months off)Role: Community Leader at co-living châteauInstagram: @colivingforalivingLinkedIn: Jeanne-Elise-Fontaniere Episode DescriptionJeanne Fontaniere didn't plan to become a digital nomad. She was just bored during Paris's second Covid lockdown. So she convinced her events agency boss to let her work from Madrid for two months whilst learning Spanish—despite working in an industry that required being on-site. Four years later, she's built a career that didn't exist before: hosting a co-living château in Normandy three months at a time, then travelling the world the other three months. In this conversation, Jeanne shares how she negotiated remote work in a non-remote industry, transitioned from stable employment to freelancing, and why she believes you need to live the nomadic lifestyle yourself to authentically host it for others. This is a story about communication, calculated risks, and designing work around the life you want rather than the other way around. Timestamps00:00-00:29 Generic podcast introduction00:30-01:24 Guest introduction01:25-01:55 Introduction to Jeanne01:55-05:15 Background: events manager in Paris during Covid lockdowns05:15-06:45 Decision to learn Spanish and work from Madrid06:45-09:05 Landing in Madrid, discovering freedom09:05-11:40 First week realisation: "This is the life I want"11:40-13:55 Moving to Lisbon, discovering Wi-Fi Tribe13:55-16:55 Meeting the digital nomad community16:55-19:15 Returning to Paris office, feeling trapped19:15-22:10 Quitting to become freelance events manager22:10-24:35 Seeing château hosting opportunity24:35-27:05 Juggling both roles: freelance + hosting27:05-29:10 80-hour weeks flying between Paris and Normandy29:10-30:45 Decision to leave events agency30:45-33:25 Full-time château work with marketing/comms33:25-35:05 Negotiating 3-on, 3-off structure35:05-36:46 Why hosts need to stay nomadic themselves36:46-End Communication, negotiation, and building trust About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice.To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/hl8icJPZiIE  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~37 minutesPublished: 23rd January 2026 Episode #003  Guest Reflection Jeanne and I crossed paths at a co-living chateau in Normandy, where she works as a community host. Over the course of our conversation, what struck me most wasn't just her journey from Paris to the nomadic lifestyle; it was the strategic series of negotiations that made it all possible. From convincing her boss to let her work from Spain during Covid lockdowns to crafting a unique 3-on-3-off model that lets her live two lives at once, Jeanne's story is a masterclass in the power of asking for what you want. The Boredom That Started It All It was the second lockdown in Paris. The kind where you could go to work, go home, and do little else. Jeanne was sitting alone in her apartment, her roommates were out, and the city had ground to a halt. She was completely, utterly bored. So she made a decision: she was going to learn Spanish. Not just take online classes from her Parisian flat; she was going to learn Spanish *in Spain*. And she was going to do it without losing her job. There was just one problem: Jeanne worked for an event agency. A job that, by its very nature, demands you be on-site, managing productions, meeting with clients face-to-face. Remote event management? That wasn't a thing. At least, not until Covid forced everyone's hand.   Negotiation #1: Making the Impossible Remote When Jeanne approached her boss in early 2021 with her proposal to work from Madrid for two months, there was pushback. Quite a bit of it, actually. "There was a lot of pushback because I was working for an event agency, which is a job that literally asks you to be on site and to be on the production side. Plus client facing." But Jeanne had done her homework. Covid had forced her small event agency to pivot hard into digital and online events. They'd developed virtual team buildings, online event strategies; anything to keep the business alive when in-person gatherings became impossible. And crucially, Jeanne had been there from the beginning as an intern, watching these new formats take shape. Her pitch was simple: "I can still do those even if I'm outside of the country. The clients don't have to know. I can still produce the same way that I'm doing in Paris, at least for two months.” It worked. In April 2021, Jeanne landed in Madrid with her laptop and a two-month window to prove that an events manager could work remotely. She found an apartment, dove into Spanish classes, and started working from a city she barely knew."I had no idea what Digital Nomad was. Co-living was like; I had just was like, I want to learn Spanish and I want to do it in Spain and I don't want to lose my job."The irony? She ended up in a shared flat with all French roommates. Zero Spanish speakers. Her language learning plans didn't exactly pan out. But something else did: within the first week, Jeanne realised this was the life she wanted. The Co-Living Discovery After Madrid, Jeanne started searching for something she hadn't known existed before: a community of people living and working the way she was. She stumbled across Nine, a co-living space in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. In October 2021, she arrived at her first official co-living for a two-month stay. And this time, she wasn't alone in her lifestyle. There were others; digital nomads, remote workers, people who'd figured out how to untether their income from a fixed location. The feeling of "I'm the only one" that had followed her through Madrid evaporated. The experience was transformative. The community, the lifestyle, the sense of belonging. It planted a seed. If living in co-living spaces felt this right as a guest, what would it feel like to work in one? Negotiation #2: From Guest to Host Fast-forward six months. Jeanne was scrolling through Facebook groups when she saw a post about a chateau in Normandy looking for a community host. It was one of those moments where curiosity meets opportunity. "I don't know. I just thought, okay, maybe that's my sign. Like, maybe that's the place," she remembers. Natural curiosity kicked in. She sent an email. Within days, she was on a call with the owner. And before she knew it, she had a three-month hosting position lined up. But there was still the small matter of her events job in Paris. When I asked how she approached that conversation, Jeanne didn't hesitate: she went straight back to her boss with another proposal. Three months in Normandy. Still close enough to Paris that if there was an event emergency, she could return. And this time, she wasn't asking to do her existing job remotely; she was asking to split her time between two roles. The answer was yes. Again.  The 3-On-3-Off Model: Living Two Lives at Once What started as a three-month experiment turned into something more permanent, but not in the way you might expect. Jeanne didn't leave her event agency job immediately. Instead, she tried to do both: hosting at the chateau during the week, then flying back to Paris every Tuesday, returning Friday, and working weekends at the chateau. "Every week I was going on Tuesday to Paris, coming back on Friday here and working during the weekend here. And I did that for two months," she says. It was intense. 80-hour work weeks. Constant travel. The kind of schedule that burns you out fast. Eventually, she had to choose. But rather than choosing one life over the other, Jeanne negotiated a third option: she would work at the chateau full-time, but in three-month blocks. Three months on-site as a community host and marketing manager. Three months off, free to travel, visit other co-livings, and maintain her digital nomad lifestyle. "I really felt that to be a good host and community leader, I needed to understand the lifestyle and keep living it for myself."It's a model that shouldn't work, but it does. Because she understands what the guests are going through. She's lived the loneliness of working from an Airbnb in a foreign city. She's experienced the magic of walking into a co-living space and immediately feeling less alone. She knows what it takes to maintain focus while travelling, to balance work and exploration, to build community quickly. When she's hosting, she brings that empathy to the role. When she's travelling, she's gathering insights to bring back. It's a feedback loop that makes her better at both.   Communication as a Superpower Throughout our conversation, one theme kept surfacing: communication. Every major shift in Jeanne's journey, from Madrid to Nine to the chateau, happened because she asked for what she wanted. "You can always ask for something. It doesn't mean you're going to have it, but you can always ask for it; there is no cost in it." She's built her career in small, agile environments, first at an event agency during its early growth phase, now at a co-living chateau where roles evolve organically. These aren't places with rigid hierarchies or formal review processes. They're spaces where clear communication isn't just valued; it's essential. But it's not just about asking. It's about trust. Jeanne admits she struggles with boundaries; she invests deeply in her work, building close relationships with the people she works with. She's drawn to projects at their beginning stages, where she can grow alongside them. "I alwa

Tracy Bellevue: The Hustler  Guest: Tracy Bellevue Digital Nomad | Marketing Consultant | Writer Based: Worldwide (Travelling through Europe)Instagram: @bellevueabroadSubstack: substack.com/@bellevueabroad Episode DescriptionTracy Bellevue quit both jobs, broke her lease, sold her car for cash, and left America with nothing but savings and a book she needed to write. No clients. No remote work experience. Just a determination to escape 75-hour work weeks and an empty nest. In this conversation, Tracy shares how she transitioned from burnt-out single mum to digital nomad, building multiple income streams from marketing to tutoring to Substack. We explore the raw reality of her first 30 days abroad, the mental health memoir she's writing, the healing that only distance could provide, and why co-living spaces became essential to her journey.  This is a story about radical reinvention, confronting your past, and building a life where you ground yourself in yourself.  Timestamps 00:00-00:28 Generic podcast introduction00:29-01:29 Guest introduction01:30-01:53 Introduction to Tracy01:53-06:14 Background: working 75 hours/week, two jobs, full-time mum06:14-06:41 The moment: "I'm going to die if I keep doing it this way"06:41-07:54 Kids moving in with dad, empty house, identity crisis07:54-08:51 Cousin's Europe trip invitation08:51-09:33 Quitting both jobs, breaking lease, selling car09:33-10:15 No plan, no income, just savings10:15-11:36 Immigrant hustle mentality: "Thousand ways to make money"11:36-12:42 The book she needed to write, leaving August 202412:42-13:48 How she makes money: marketing as primary income13:48-16:00 Multiple income streams: candle campaigns, tutoring, Substack16:00-18:30 Income fluctuation: hard months vs. abundant months18:30-19:49 First 30 days: crash landing in Switzerland19:49-22:34 Going from constant movement to complete stillness22:34-25:48 The book: memoir about borderline personality disorder25:48-28:12 "I was just a monster" - except as a mother28:12-30:12 Owing vindication to people she harmed30:12-31:38 Leaving America with no close friends31:38-33:54 Europe as space to write and heal33:54-36:20 Meeting people as just Tracy, not connected to past36:20-38:40 Why the book must be finished in America38:40-39:53 The bridge between two lives39:53-41:31 Going home: "Nothing feels like home anymore"41:31-41:54 "I am my home as a traveller"41:54-42:44 Closing thoughts Connect with Tracy Brand: Bellevue AbroadSubstack: Co-living reviews and travel insightsServices: Marketing consulting for small brands About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice.  To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/52djR3kKEK8  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~41 minutesPublished: 16th January 2026Episode #002 Guest Reflection During our time together at a co-living chateau in Normandy, Tracy and I sat down to talk. She told me about selling her car for cash, breaking her lease, and leaving America with nothing but savings and refused to accept there's only one way to make money. This is the story of how an empty nest, 75-hour work weeks, and pure hustle led to complete reinvention.   The Breaking Point "I was working two jobs, about 70 hours a week in America. I was a full-time mom to two teenage boys. And I remember thinking, I'm going to die if I keep doing it this way." Tracy Bellevue had reached her limit. But she couldn't see a way out until the universe made space for her. Last summer, her two teenage sons decided to move in with their dad. Suddenly, Tracy went from full-time motherhood to haunting the halls of an empty house, working 75 hours a week with no one to care for. "I was realising that because I was such a young mom, my entire life and identity was wrapped into taking care of others and being a full-time caregiver. At that point, I realised, hey, I really lacked an identity." Her cousin, also her best friend, was burning out of an Ivy League tech career and planning to escape to Europe for six months. Tracy's response was immediate: "I'm just going to go with you." The Hustler's Leap: Selling Everything for Freedom "I come from a family of immigrants, my family immigrated from Haiti to America. And I think watching my parents' work ethic has taught me that there's a thousand ways to make money. You just have to be willing to get creative and get out there." Most aspiring nomads ease into the lifestyle. They negotiate remote work arrangements. They build up savings. They test the waters. Tracy did none of that. "I quit both jobs, broke my lease, sold my car for cash, cashed out all my savings, and I said, let's go. And I really had no plan. I had no income. I just had my savings." The hustler mentality, inherited from Haitian immigrant parents, gave her the confidence to leap before the safety net appeared. She knew how to make money work. She just had to be willing to figure it out as she went. There was one thing driving her forward: a book she needed to write. "I really wanted to write a book. But I knew that I couldn't write that book in America. It was just too close to the memories that I was going to be writing about." So in August 2024, Tracy and her cousin booked a co-living space in the Swiss Alps and left. Those First 30 Days: The Crash The lead-up to departure was chaos. Working double shifts. Wrapping up an entire life. Selling everything. Moving nonstop with very little sleep. When I asked about those first 30 days, Tracy described the crash landing: "I think right when we got to Switzerland, I kind of crashed. I was so exhausted. I mean, it was like walking into a postcard, but it was also very difficult to go from that kind of movement to complete stillness." It wasn't the Instagram-perfect start many imagine. It was silent. Reflective. And exactly what she needed. The Hustler's Playbook: Multiple Income Streams "You really need to be willing to put yourself out there to make connections, ask for help, and try things you never have before because you never quite know if you're good at something until you jump into it." When I asked how she makes money as a nomad, Tracy doesn't have a simple answer. She has her hands in many dishes. Marketing is her primary income. She helps small brands build campaigns, manage Google ads, create strategies from nothing. "I've helped build some brands from nothing. I took a candle-making idea into an entire campaign." She's also tutored. Tried various projects. Built a Substack blog where she reviews co-living spaces. Subscribers pay a set amount, creating a small but growing passive income stream. Her philosophy is pragmatic: skills from one field translate to others. "I think you may work in one field, but your skills can apply to many others, and you have to take the chance and try." The income fluctuates. "There are definitely hard months where the income is not as big as I would like. But then there are some months where I can budget and save and I make a good amount. It really is kind of a make-as-you-go philosophy, but it allows me the freedom to travel in this way. And I think it's worth it." After a year and a half of nomadic life, Tracy confirms: it absolutely can work. You just have to hustle. The Book: Writing Through the Darkness Tracy isn't just travelling to travel. When I asked what brought her to Europe, she revealed she's writing a memoir called The Apology Tour about her years with undiagnosed borderline personality disorder, from age 16 to 24. It's about the relationships she destroyed, the people she hurt, and the person she was before therapy. The book is structured as a collection of letters to real people in her life, with each chapter dedicated to a different person. "It's called the Apology tour. As someone with borderline personality disorder, I was very bad at relationships of any kind." "Borderline personality disorder is one that skews your version of reality. And so you constantly are on guard, and you can be very manipulative and very self-centred and narcissistic in some ways. During my period from 16 to 24, I was really just very detrimental to the people around me who were all trying to help me and loved me." The only relationship she managed to protect during those years was motherhood. "I really prided myself on being a good mother. But outside of that bubble, I was just a monster, to put it lightly." After therapy and recognising the damage she'd caused, Tracy felt she owed those people vindication. The book is unflinchingly honest. "It's very candid. It's really ugly." The final six chapters focus on family, and their real names will be in the book. She wants them to read it before publication. But she needed to be in Europe to write it. "The space from America allowed me to write the book, have a peaceful place to write the book in which I wasn't a mother or a sister or something connected to somebody else. I was just Tracy Bellevue." Finding Community After Isolation When Tracy left America, she had no close friends. Years of keeping people at arm's length meant she'd built walls around herself. Europe offered something different: the chance to let people in. "When I came to Europe, one of the things I wanted to pursue was friendship. Relationships again. Really to let people into my life. And I was very lonely and looking for community." Co-living spaces became the answer. Meeting people who only knew Tracy Bellevue the person she is today, not the person she used to be. "It's you can know you're healed and you can believe it, but sometimes it takes having that outside perception to solidif

Edouard Renard - The Maverick Guest: Edouard Renard Online Robotics Educator | Former Robotics Startup Co-FounderBased: Nomadic (Currently planning co-living space)Teaching Platform: UdemyWebsite: www.auluscoliving.comEpisode Description Edouard Renard walked away from a thriving robotics startup just before they were set to raise outside investment. Today, he teaches robotics online to students worldwide. Now he's opening a co-living space, proving that success isn't always measured in revenue. In this conversation, Edouard shares how he left his co-founded robotics startup to travel and teach, built an online course business that serves students globally, and why he's starting over again with a completely different project. We explore the reality of "passive income," the importance of making education accessible, and what it means to measure success in student testimonials rather than investment rounds. This is a story about walking away from the conventional definition of success to find what actually fulfils you. Timestamps00:00-00:23 Introduction00:23-01:28 Guest Introduction01:28-02:07 Why did you want to become a Nomad?02:07-03:16 Co-founding robotics startup, three years of building03:16-04:20 Educational robotic arms: 10-20x cheaper than industrial04:20-05:43 Why he left: not aligned with industrial market direction05:43-07:21 Walking away before raising investment07:21-08:14 First destination: Mexico, having a backup plan08:14-09:22 Giving up Paris apartment, organizing nomadic life09:22-11:17 The skill set combination: robotics + marketing + teaching11:17-12:09 Starting with written tutorials and SEO12:09-14:06 Trying own website vs. Udemy: platform won14:06-14:56 India as second market, geo-targeted pricing14:56-17:00 Success measured in testimonials and impact17:00-19:06 When it felt like it was working: enabling the lifestyle19:06-20:15 About a year to leave unemployment benefits20:15-23:13 Five years in co-livings, solving workspace and community23:13-26:56 Not passionate about robotics teaching anymore26:56-29:16 Why open a co-living: looking for more purpose29:16-30:54 Co-living values: homey, authentic, family feeling30:54-34:50 Defining co-living: "It's a feeling"34:50-36:34 Track record of projects, where he'll be in 3-5 years36:34-39:48 "Passive income" reality: maintenance and adaptation39:48-40:29 Closing thoughts About This PodcastReal conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff. HostIbi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice.To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/aK7KLCQ72fs  Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams. Episode length: ~42 minutesPublished: 09/01/2026Episode #001 Guest Reflection During my time at a co-living chateau in Normandy, Edouard and I sat down to talk. He told me about walking away from a robotics startup just as they were about to raise outside investment. Today, he teaches robotics online with geo-targeted pricing that makes his courses accessible to anyone who wants to learn, regardless of where they live or what they can afford. He's also opening a co-living space. This is the story of someone who kept redefining success until he found what actually mattered. The Startup That Worked Too Well Edouard didn't leave his robotics startup because it was failing. He left because it was succeeding, and that success was taking it in a direction that made sense for the company but wasn't where he wanted to go. "Nothing did go wrong. I just decided I didn't want to continue anymore. And I wanted to travel. And also I was not so aligned with where we were going. I was very motivated at the beginning, but then at some point I didn't really like where we were going. It made sense to go where we were going. But I didn't really like it myself. I didn't feel that motivated to continue." The startup had built educational robotic arms, 10 to 20 times cheaper than industrial ones, selling them to universities for around €2,000 each. They were doing well, growing steadily, positioning for the next stage. Moving from education to industrial markets was the logical next step for the business. But it meant certifications, regulations, complexity. Managing engineering teams. Raising venture capital. It was the right move for the company, but Edouard realised it wasn't right for him. "If you go into that deal, you stay for like seven, ten years. It doesn't make sense as a co-founder to just quit after that. So that was the right moment for me to just quit."When I asked what triggered the decision, he told me about a trip during university in 2014 where he'd spent two months travelling through the US and Canada as part of a work experience requirement. "When I did this, I realised, oh, I want to travel. Not just going one week holiday somewhere, but spending like one month, two months in one place, meeting the people, discovering the culture of the people. It was kind of like an awakening." But then came the startup. Three years of building, no time to travel. By March 2019, burnt out and needing a break, he took a two-week holiday to Vietnam. "I was like, okay, I needed this break. I'm going to be recharged. I go there, it's nice, I come back. I don't feel recharged. I came back, it was like the first day. I was like, oh my God, no, no, no." The Vietnam trip re-awakened something he'd been longing for since that university trip five years earlier. He told his co-founder a month or two later. Stayed for another five or six months to properly transition out. Left in September 2019, right before they would have raised investment and locked himself in for years. The Backup Plan: Teaching What He'd Learned Edouard had a backup plan before he left. He'd learned robotics deeply through the startup. He'd taught himself marketing from scratch to sell those robotic arms. He'd done private tutoring before and enjoyed the educational side. "I think when you have different skill sets that are not necessarily matching, it can be a very good combo. How many good robotics engineers are going to be good at explaining what they do? How many engineers like marketing? Not so many." His realisation was specific: "I wouldn't say I'm an expert in robotics. I'm an expert at teaching robotics online. It's not the same thing." After leaving the startup, he took two months to do nothing. French unemployment benefits covered basics whilst he started writing technical tutorials. Then he began recording courses. When I asked how he validated the concept, he was matter-of-fact: "I started to get a bit of money from that. Nothing that was enough to break the government money, but it was starting to work. I kind of validated the concept quite early." He tried selling courses on his own website first. Premium pricing, full control. It didn't work. Then he put them on Udemy. "I had double the sales with no marketing." The platform model worked better, but not just for the obvious reasons. The ₹400 Course: Making Education Accessible Everywhere Edouard's second-largest market after Europe isn't America. It's India. "You cannot say to Indian people who are learning to code, pay $100. They're going to say no." But Udemy has geo-targeted pricing. A course might cost ₹400 in India, about $3, making it affordable for students there. "It's quite nice in a way that everybody in all the countries can actually pay something that's affordable for them. So in the end you just get customers from all over the world." This wasn't just business strategy. When I asked about what success looks like now, revenue wasn't the only thing he mentioned. "It's not just about the numbers. It's also when you get nice reviews of people saying, 'Hey, thanks to you, I could actually get my career into this.' That motivates me. Like, 'This motivated me to do this project. Finally, I can understand.'" The shift from startup founder to teacher changed what success meant."Success for me is not just about business. Success is also just living the life you like, spending good time, helping people."By 2020, after about a year of building courses, he'd stopped needing government unemployment benefits. His business was growing steadily. "It was never like a big bump, like a big buzz or whatever. It was always kind of linear growth. But I like stable growth. It's like, the more work I put in, the better the result." When "Passive Income" Isn't Actually Passive The online course business gave Edouard something the startup couldn't: the ability to travel. To live in co-livings. To work from anywhere. But when I asked if it was passive income, he pushed back on the term. "I don't like that word that much. The money I earn this month has nothing to do with what I'm doing this month. That's how I define passive. It's because of the work before. But if I stop working on it, it's going to go down." Software and robotics evolve. Courses need re-recording every three or four years or they become obsolete. Platforms change their commission rates. Competition appears. AI changes how people learn."Can I keep having this lifestyle with this business? Yeah, for a few years. And at some point it's going to crash. Five years, ten years, I guess." Current maintenance: about ten hours per week. Enough to sustain his lifestyle whilst having time for other projects. Which brings us to why someone running a successful online education business, living exactly the nomadic life he wanted, decided to start something completely different. Five Years in Co-Livings: From Guest to Builder When I asked why he's opening a co-living, Edouard was refreshingly honest. "I was talking about teaching robotics and stuff. I'm not that passionate about this anymore. I d