Ep. 294: How This Social Scientist Created A Free Range Life As A Full Time Traveler with Blake Miner
In this episode, I speak with Blake who is a social scientist, entrepreneur and full-time traveler who writes about the psychology of personal freedom, exploration, and location independent business. He’s the founder of Flâneur Life, an internet home for free range humans.
Listen on to find out how this social scientist has been able to create a free range life as a full time traveler.
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Transcription:
Debbie:
Hey everyone, thank you so much for being here. I am so excited to speak with my guest today. I’m here with Blake.
Hi Blake! How are you?
Blake:
Hey, Debbie, I’m doing great, thank you. It’s a cold and cloudy day here in Lima but I got like, two sweaters on right now, but just getting ready to head out for a weekend road trip to nicer weather.
Debbie:
Oh my gosh. I’m excited for you for that cause I’m also freezing here. So, I’m like, “Yes!”, you know, as much as I like it up north I’m like I’m ready to go down south too.
So, can you tell us more about you, Blake and why you live an offbeat life?
Blake:
Sure, I live an offbeat life because I consider myself a global citizen.
I have a strange background where I grew up and studied in Canada. I did my master’s degree in Hong Kong. I started my first business in South Korea and since then, over the years, I travel to more than 50 countries now, and live permanently across four different continents.
So, it’s been a journey since I think it was 2008 when I read the ‘4-Hour Work Week’, which really changed my mind set. I know that’s the same for a lot of location independent entrepreneurs, up until when I sold my first business in 2017.
Now, I work in the web free space and I slow travel around the globe.
Debbie:
That is an incredible journey that you had! And there’s a lot to unpack here, because you’ve lived multiple lives already in the span of just a few years.
So, how did you even know that location Independence was right for you? Did you see this online? Did you have friends or was it just something that you kind of sought out for yourself?
Blake:
It’s really strange because my goal growing up was always to be a medical doctor. So, since high school, I always had that dream, you know, I was an ‘A’ student in high school, I studied really hard to get into good universities and then that was my goal, the whole way through. I was never thinking about location dependence, about travel, or about business at all.
So, this was something that came about in the last year of my studies in university. I started realizing that, I guess sensing maybe the anxiety of all my colleagues, the stress around MCAT exam, trying to get into medical school and I just didn’t feel ready. I also felt kind of the sense that I was doing something that maybe wasn’t so authentic to me and I just wanted to buy myself more time.
So, I investigated different options for myself and what I had landed upon was the opportunity to go and teach English overseas. As I started investigating more, I narrowed in on South Korea, I realized that they could pay for your flight ticket to go over there and I didn’t have much money. I was a student, right?
So, graduating after doing summer classes and the whole nine yards for 4 years straight, and yeah, so that was like a big opportunity for me. And actually, one of my good friends ended up deciding the same.
So, at the time I was on a big, you know, self-improvement binge is reading lots of different books and I actually met up with a few cool friends when I arrived in this whole new world in South Korea, I never traveled outside of my home country of Canada.
Yeah, there are, you know, this new circle, we started meeting up every Sunday, we discuss topics like how we can improve our lives, what are our goals right now, kind of the idea of a mastermind and one of the books that we first started talking about, was the ‘4-Hour Work Week’. And once I read that, I discovered this whole other world was possible and that immediately became one of my new focuses.
Debbie:
Yeah, it’s so interesting how most of the digital nomads and location independent individuals I talk to, it’s like the ‘4-Hour Work Week’ is everyone’s bible, like, it’s the start of the beginning, and it’s so interesting that it has changed so many people’s lives and Tim Ferriss is like pretty much like the the epitome of of what it has become.
So that is awesome to hear because I read that too and it changed my life as well. But you, before you even read that you took this leave and you decided that, “I want to do something different, I don’t want to just do this, I want to see something else in my life”, and you never even left Canada, so what made you kind of have this, just push for yourself to go to Korea because that’s a big leap going from like Canada to a completely different continent, that’s all across the globe cause it’s like, okay, why not go to the US or something, somewhere a lot closer to you right?
Blake:
Right. Yeah, thinking back, I don’t know honestly what I was thinking, I mean part of it was inspired by just this overwhelming sense that I needed to change something and also the the fact that I think, you know, reading the books I did I was compelled to take a big risk in my life where I was up until then I’d very much like followed a set path for myself or kind of going down a path that a lot of others I think wanted for me and I think this was an opportunity for me to like, I don’t know, it’s something, it’s the whole idea of it scared me, but at the same time, it intrigued me.
I knew it was something I needed to do for myself. Not only the thought of like moving to an entirely different country where there are so many unknowns, that was a big leap for me, but also the idea of like getting up in front of a classroom and teaching and all of it was so hard to imagine but at the same time I just really felt compelled to make that big change and to try something new for myself and then once I did, I realized that’s exactly what I needed and actually never ended up going back to Canada. The plan was to go back after a year, I never went back. I like had a going away party with all my friends, I said, “See you in a year.”, and now it’s turned into yeah 10 + so.
Debbie:
That’s pretty awesome. So what made you decide to stay there and keep going? Keep traveling, keep making this into a lifestyle for yourself, instead of just like a gap year?
Blake:
I attribute a lot of that to those early influences that I met. So, I consider, you know, a few of those people that I met really early on other expats in South Korea, or others in a similar situation to me, that they were really good influences for me in that way about thinking differently. They were all really smart people who were designing their own lifestyles or talking about business or these concepts that I may have not have been introduced to until that point. And, you know, just hanging around with them, I think you are the average of the five people, you hang out with most. And I just started to think differently.
And yeah, I just, once I tasted a bit of travel, so during my year there, my first year, you couldn’t travel at all because the schedule is pretty full on with a teaching job. So, I was working 5 days a week, kind of 9, 10 hours, a day. There was really no freedom and no vacation days but after a year, when I started traveling more, I realized I don’t know, it’s the sense of freedom that I got from it or just the sense of wonder recapturing that childlike wonder in a new place and kind of, I don’t know, this strange looks from people on the street, the strange food, discovering new cultures, I just became obsessed with that and I knew that business with the way that I can maintain that lifestyle.
Debbie:
That’s one of the things about travel and meeting new people, you just don’t know what’s going to happen, you don’t know who you’re going to meet, who’s going to change your life and that’s exactly what happened with you, because you could have easily just gone back to Canada, became a doctor and your life would be completely different than what it is now.
Blake:
And I’ve thought about that since then, it’s funny, yeah I had another opportunity to go back to school and I was debating it, this was a few years later, and I remember it was a big price for me because I got an interview opportunity at a really good school that yeah, I was selected, you know, it was really hard to get into, anyway and I flew back, I was really torn on it and I actually got in and I was faced with the decision, “Okay, well, do I give up?”, this was three years into this lifestyle now and I still hadn’t earned my location independence to be fair. What do I consider do, do I continue down this path where I’m aiming for this goal? Or do I take this opportunity and now move back? And I remember I debated it for years, one of the hardest decisions I made.
Debbie:
So, going to that, when you are faced with two different paths, two different roads and one is a risk, right, but, you know, it’s a life that you ultimately want and the other one is something that’s kind of like the American dream or it’s what people see as a success, and I’m pretty sure that that’s what the other would look like is from what you’re saying about the really good school and all of that good stuff.
So, how did you finally decide which road to take? Because like you said, it took you a whole year and that’s a really big decision for somebody.
Blake:
Yeah, and the reason I bought myself a year is because I basically wrote them a letter and asked them to please defer my enrollment for a year so that I would have that space to think about it. And it really still came down to the wire. I remember a lot of conversations with family, a lot of conversations with some of those friends that I respected and I was overseas at the time.
There was no major catalysts for making the decision, it was just I was forced to with the time and I think it was good to have that time crunch. They started emailing me confirming that I was going to be coming in September and at that point, I was forced within 3 days to make a decision and with a gun to my head, I just knew in the back of my head, I don’t want to, it was just more of a feeling than a logical reason.
I just knew I have to go for what my dreams are, and they have changed since the time when I applied to that school.
Debbie:
Yeah and one of the things that for me, when I make a decision, it’s like in the back of your mind, you already know, right? You already know what you really want but there’s that fear that, “Okay, what if it is too much of a risk? or what if it’s the wrong decision?”, and whenever there’s like that big hesitation that you have, it always tells me like my gut instinct is telling me that it’s not the right path and I think that that’s probably the reason why you deferred it cuz you were like, “Yeah, this is, I know it’s not, I don’t know, but I do.”.
Blake:
Yeah, I’m laughing because it is exactly what you were saying, like looking back now, it’s a lot more obvious that that’s what it was. It was the fear of missing out, the fear of what if and what if things went horribly wrong and with my business goals because I had not been successful to my standards by then. Yeah, what if, what if all of that didn’t work out? What am I missing out on here? Or what does that mean for my future?
Debbie:
Yeah and that’s the beauty about life. There’s so many uncertainties and if you take one path, it could completely change the outcome of your life and it absolutely did because you wouldn’t be where you are, you wouldn’t have been able to leave a life that you didn’t even know, or lead a life that you didn’t even know existed and now you have these businesses, so, talking about that Blake, what business did you end up really moving forward with? And how did you make that sustainable so that you can make this a life for yourself?
Blake:
Yeah, so, I had started, after I read that the “4-Hour Work Week”, I started experimenting. I started blogs, like I think a lot of us do, just setting up different websites and things and my first blog was a travel blog, basically, only my friends and family read it and then I remember a few others that failed or did it work out in various ways or trickled out, the first one that really, it was actually like two steps because I was in South Korea, so, I was starting to think on like, “Okay, what’s what’s my niche? What’s the one thing that I can talk about that no one else can?”, and with my friends, who ended being my business partner, we started a website around how to rent an apartment in South Korea and it’s such a niche topic, but it was like, we figured it out, the rental system there is super complex, you have to put down what’s called ‘T-money’, there’s all of these steps involved and especially doing it in a foreign language, it was really hard to do and we actually found that was the first business where I set up products, a little funnel, an email sequence, and I still remember the day when I woke up, it was freezing cold, it was winter, I woke up, I check my phone and there was a notification from PayPal that I had a deposit in my account and I remember that was a game-changing moment for me.
We didn’t end up selling that many ebooks up that website, not enough to change my lifestyle anyway, but that motivation that that gave me was a reinforcement to push forward. So, thinking along those lines at the same time, I started a second business which was around one of the topics I studied in school psychology and the fact that I was learning the Korean language at the time. So I distilled all of my techniques that I had used to learn the alphabet and learn to read Korean into an ebook and I put that online and I started building an email list and it actually ended up becoming really popular.
People love the techniques that we taught through that ebook. I ended up building a course around it, and then that over the next four years of hard work, it ended up becoming the business that finally earned me my freedom. So, it’s a language learning business, with an online portal and an app attached to it.
Debbie:
Wow and you know, you wouldn’t have been able to realize that without really experimenting, without failing several times to land to where it was your business, that was going to allow you to have this type of life.
Blake:
Yeah, that’s so true, I agree, just all those websites that didn’t work or just even learning how to set up the websites and blogs without all that, all of that knowledge, it wouldn’t have been possible to make this, because this business actually started in a weekend off of a random idea that I had. I was reading a book, I actually had just come back from Canada and I met Tim Ferriss in person at a meetup event in Toronto and he had his new book out called “Four Hour Chef” and I was reading about it and it had one section about language learning and I thought, “Hey, this is really cool. I have an idea for this, like, I’m just going to steal all my thinking that I used to “Learn To Read Korean Really Quickly”, I’m going to write it down, I’m going to put it online with a landing page.”, and without all the knowledge I had learned, I wouldn’t have been able to do that.
So yeah, it was up in 3 days and then that kick-started things. So, that’s so true, all of that experimentation, all of the learning I did up until that point made that so easy to do.
Debbie:
Yeah and also because you already created different content for websites, it actually trained you to start this business, you know, without even knowing, right? That’s the beauty about learning different skills is that you don’t know where it’s going to lead you, where those skills are going to be put in place and how it’s going to help you in the long run.
Blake:
That’s really true. I think looking back too, one mistake I would say like that I would do differently in the future, or for anyone who’s still in that learning phase too is, I think experimenting was the right move but honestly, if I delayed too long before I started experimenting, I was too obsessed with consuming information and watching all these programs, studying reading online probably for a year before I implemented and I think the takeaway I would have for myself as like as you learn something, apply it kind of right away because you never know if you just make that landing page or set up that email list, what it could turn into a few years down the line.
Debbie:
Yeah, and I think that happens with a lot of people, especially analytical people because you always feel like you always need something more to learn because you don’t want X Y Z to happen or to avoid certain failures or mistakes. But then actually, making those mistakes makes you learn more ironically, instead of just like there’s only so much you can read, there’s only so much you can watch, there’s only so much you can hear before like you had to take that stuff, like you have to absolutely take the action, otherwise it’s just going to be an idea for the rest of your life or like you had mentioned, Blake, it’s going to just be delayed over and over and over again before then you’re like, “Okay maybe I don’t want to do this anymore.”, because sometimes you talk yourself out of it too, if you keep doing things, you know, like that.
Blake:
That’s so true and I think the same thing applies when you’re talking about business or language learning. It’s the same thing when you’re learning a new language, if you don’t go and apply, it’s so hard to remember it or to get those quick wins that compel you to take the next step and I think that feedback you get from just doing it is what compels you to continue so I yeah, I can’t stress the importance of just kind of getting started experimenting as much as you can in the early stages alongside your learning.
Debbie:
Yeah and I loved that you mentioned ‘feedback’, because that really is what it is that you want and I think, you know, for me, when I was starting working online, starting a business, one of the things that I was afraid of was the feedback, because you don’t want to be told that what you’re doing is not right. But that’s actually what you need because that’s going to help you get better a lot faster when you get that feedback.
Blake:
It’s so true, it’s those little emails and things you get from anyone who’s, if you’re creating content, consuming your content or your materials or whatever it is even a little comment, or a note from somebody to thank you is enough to compel you to keep going, even though you’re not having any financial success or results and that manner yet, it’s enough to make you want to keep going. Whereas, if you don’t have any of that feedback, it’s really hard to motivate yourself to keep blindly pushing forward.
Debbie:
Yeah, absolutely.
So, Blake, is this the business, the language learning business, is this a business that you sold in 2017? or are you still working on it?
Blake:
Yeah, so that once I ended up selling. So, the quick story behind that is, I realized that I wanted to do something else, so I just felt it was kind of time to move on.
It took me a while to accept that that was what was happening, but luckily out of a really understanding business partner and we ended up coming to an agreement where I just sold my portion of the business to him. And then from that point, it was kind of a year of exploration for me. So, I did a lot of traveling, had a lot of really in-depth conversations with people I trust, with new people, with strangers on the road and it was really just about information gathering and deciding what my next purpose, what my next step was in the business world.
Debbie:
So, what ended up happening once you sold it and then you kind of explored it, I feel like it was another gap year, you know, similar to what you had before to try to figure out what your next step was.
Blake:
Yeah, that’s exactly what it was and I think those periods are important in life. You don’t always have the answer right away what the next step is and I found value in kind of waiting until that’s a lot more solidified.
So, a lot of the deep thinking, a lot of the soul seeking adventures that I went on that year, kind of showed me that one thing I want to do is to blog. So that actually, in that year, that’s when I started a new blog of mine, where I just decided this is what I want my home on the internet to be. This is where I want to write about the topics that I’m passionate about, whatever that is. So, that was born out of that aap year and I just realized that I wanted to travel more than I had been.
I’ve been very based in Asia for such a long period that I think I wanted to expose myself to new environments and new languages and new cultures. So I did, I explored South America for the first time. I got out of Asia. I went to Europe and yeah, kind of was deciding not only business-wise, “what do I want to do next? Where do I want to be situated? Where do I want my home base to be? Do I want a home-base?”, and it was really about answering all of those questions for me.
So, after a lot of that exploration, what I ended up deciding was, well, I was going to base myself in South America, I was going to take on the challenge of learning another language and I was going to start working in tech.
So, my background up until that point with all the skills I learned set me up nicely to to know marketing quite well and I teamed up with some really talented tech entrepreneurs and started working in the web3 space.
Debbie:
What is web3? Can you explain that to us because I have no idea.
Blake:
Yeah, sure.
I think, I’m not an expert by any means either but I think an easy way to look at it, it’s like web1 was ‘read’, like, you know, that was like, dial-up internet, you could go on Wikipedia, consume information, web2, ‘read and write’, blogs, YouTube, social sharing, podcast, that unlocked this new layer to the web and then web3 is, ‘read, write, own’.
So, it’s adding this ownership layer to the internet and some of the terms people might have heard are, like, cryptocurrencies, blockchain technology, NFTs, it’s the idea where you have the ability to capture value creation through the ownership.
So it’s like, yeah, you actually, or the metaverse, maybe that’s another term,
Debbie:
Yeah, that’s what I was going to say, “is it like the metaverse?”.
Blake:
Yeah, no, that’s it.
Debbie:
That’s big now, right?
Blake:
Yeah, that’s big now, right!
So, that’s just like, what’s being touted as the future of the internet, so really, if you were to dumb it down, I think we’re still really figuring out what that is, like, what is the metaverse? How is that going to change things? But a lot of the key words or buzz words in the space are ‘decentralization’, ‘ownership’ and ‘community’ is a big one. I think it just adds a lot of value to the way we create these online communities, because now, you’re not only part of the community, but you can have more of a say, and a financial upside in the community as well.
So, I think it adds a lot to what we’re building in the online space.
Debbie:
Yeah and it’s so interesting. And I even heard, who was it that I heard this from? But like people were buying properties in the metaverse, I was like, “Wow that’s a little quirky.”, I’m like, “Can you own property? First of all, how do you own it? How do you get there? Do you sit on it, what? What?”.
Blake:
Yeah, I remember that because people heard that Snoop Dogg had purchased virtual land and decentraland or one of these metaverse platforms and everyone was scrambling to buy up the property around him. So, yeah, I remember hearing about that.
Debbie:
Oh my God, that’s hilarious! I’m like, “Snoop Dogg is the best!”. I love Snoop Dogg, I’m like, he’s a vibe, because yeah that’s a whole another episode of the podcast because like,
Blake:
He’s so cool. Yeah, he’s everywhere. He’s got his hands and every piece of the pie such a smart entrepreneur.
Debbie:
He is!
Blake:
So yes, I have mad respect for Snoop Dogg.
Debbie:
And I feel like he can get along with anybody. I’m like, “Come on, he’s friends with Martha Stewart”, so like okay, he is, he’s the man! I’m like, “That’s it. Hands down, the coolest guy ever.”.
Blake:
Yeah, I can’t disagree with that.
Debbie:
I love that.
So now, what are, you know like what’s the future for you, Blake? Like what do you hope to do? And I know you had this new business venture, I know, it’s still in the works, like what do you see yourself doing in the near future?
Blake:
I think it’s still very early in terms of how this web3 space is evolving, I currently work with a talented team of developers and creatives at a platform called “Drop Space”, which is a launch pad for web3 projects.
So it’s basically, we take care of all of the tech and token gating for brands. We worked with ‘Jarritos’, like the Mexican flavored soda, they recently launched an NFT token and we did that for them and we help brands like that, enter the space.
So we’ve created the technology for them to be able to do that and to manage it in a scalable manner. So I envision things will keep evolving, I think new ideas will come up because things are so early, and new problems to solve will arise, but for now that’s what I’m doing. I’m observing, I’m continuing with what’s working and I’m just staying alert for what the next step is.
Debbie:
Yeah and that’s a lot of exciting things, especially with technology there’s always something new that happens every single day and something else that’s being discovered, being brought to the public and I think it’s so crazy how everything is evolving and I feel like it’s so fast, but not so fast, you know? So, like it’s so interesting to watch everything unfold.
Blake:
Yeah, a week in the space is, feels like, you know, a month or even maybe a year in the real world, everything is changing so quickly and I think we’ll see a lot of it become a lot more mainstream and we’ll all have less of these questions. It’ll just become the way we interact online and we won’t even think about it as web3 or NFTs, it will just become the new norm.
And I think when it gets to that point, that’s when everyone will be using it.
Debbie:
Yeah, it’ll be like a crazy new world, you know, that’s like almost alien, but, at least for me.
Blake:
Yeah, for sure.
Debbie:
So, let’s fast forward to maybe 40 to 50 years from now, Blake, and you’re looking back at your life, what legacy would you like to leave and what do you want to be remembered for?
Blake:
This is a great question. For me, personally, I want to be able to look back and say that I achieved my highest potential in life, that I took risks, that I confronted my fears. And that I set an example for those around me in creating my own path, my own way of thinking in life and perhaps, more importantly, that I contributed to making the world a better place.
Debbie:
Yeah and that’s a good way to live cause, you know, if we only have one life to do it, you may as well, leave your mark right? And do it in the way that you want to.
Blake:
Well said.
Debbie:
Love it.
Well, thank you so much, Blake, for joining us today. We really appreciate you! If our listeners want to learn more about you, where can they find you?
Blake:
The best ways to reach me is on my website flaneurlife.com, F-L-A-N-E-U-R or on my Instagram @blakegoesplaces.
Debbie:
Perfect! Thanks, Blake, we really appreciate you!
Blake:
Thanks, Debbie!
Listen to Blake’s extended interview where he talks about 3 pathways to achieving location independence.
What you’ll find:
In this extended interview, Blake talks to us about 3 pathways you can take into achieving location independence.
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