Ep. 139 How these travel podcasters are able to encourage others to see the world with Amanda and Ryan
In this week’s episode, I speak with Amanda & Ryan who are travel podcasters and hosts of The World Wanderers podcast.
They fell in love with traveling on their first big backpacking trip around the world in 2011. Since then, they have traveled all over the world together! In 2016, Amanda & Ryan took their work online so that they could travel more full-time and more sustainably.
They created The World Wanderers as a way to share their travel adventures to encourage and inspire other people to get out and see the world, and to have great conversations with like-minded people.
Listen on to find out how Amanda and Ryan are able to travel more sustainable as full-time remote entrepreneurs.
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Transcription :
Debbie:
Hey everyone, thank you so much for joining us. I’m so excited to be here with Amanda and Ryan. Hey guys, how are you?
Ryan:
Hey Debbie, thanks for having us.
Amanda:
Hey, we’re excited to be here.
Debbie:
Thank you for being here. Can you tell us a little bit more about you both and why you live an offbeat life?
Ryan:
We are Amanda and Ryan and our main thing is that we’re the host of The World Wanderers podcast, which is a podcast about long-term travel, working location independent and kind of just every weird thing we have going on in life. Our story and why we have a bit more of an offbeat life is that when we finished college, we both graduated in 2011 and that’s where we met, we both had this like strong desire to go traveling and we went on this really long, really cool, backpacking trip. And for us it was like this break of life before going to real-life type of thing that’s kind of common. And on that trip, we both fell in love with traveling and we both were kind of like, “How can we go back to real life?”
And that kind of passion continued and there were some like corners and twists and turns and work and all sorts of stuff in between that. But we kind of fell in love with traveling in our twenties and decided that we wanted to make a life that we could incorporate travel into. And so starting in 2016 we’ve been living and working as nomads. So we’ve been from the Southern States to Asia, to Canada, to Mexico to Central America and now in Panama where we’re basing ourselves now traveling and working from all over the world, which I think is a little bit offbeat.
Debbie:
That is definitely offbeat and one of the things that I usually get from a lot of people, especially when they hear stories like yours is how did you prepare for this? Because most of us are told to go to school, get a job, and so forth. And for most people, this is not usually the first go-to, right?, Is to just backpack, leave, and then, work remotely. How did you both get to the point where you can actually make this more sustainable for yourselves?
Amanda:
Yeah, absolutely. It was 100% a journey for us. It kind of came from having done two big backpacking trips with a stint of work in between that we weren’t super passionate about and we started asking ourselves like, “How can we make this more sustainable?” On our second backpacking trip, I turned 25 which I’m almost 31 now, so it’s like 25 feels so young. But at that point, it was like, “Oh my gosh, I’m like having this quarter-life crisis and I need to figure out something that’s more stable than just going traveling and spending all my money and then, coming home dirt broke and needing to take whatever job I can and working to pay off debts and stuff from my travels and then save and go again.” Like there must be a better way to be able to travel in a more long-term fashion. And so, Ryan and I strategically moved out of the city that we were living in at that point, which was Calgary, Alberta and we moved into a little mountain town.
So we kind of looked at how we could create a more a happy lifestyle or like a lifestyle that we liked a little bit more. And what we did is we both got jobs that didn’t require a ton of our mental energy. So I worked in a retail store, I ride and worked in a cafe. They paid the jobs, paid all of our bills, but it gave us a lot of time outside of work to really think about what our next move was. And in that period of time was when we started The World Wanderers and we started having these deeper conversations around travel, meeting more people who were also traveling. And it took probably, I guess it was pretty close to a year and a half before we made our way into the U.S. At that point Ryan had a work visa for a job he was doing – I did not.
So I was kind of thrown into this like digital life right there. Like, “Hey, you need to figure out how to work without being able to work like in a store, in a restaurant, in an office or any physical location. And basically, from there we just started building and one of the things that were really helpful for us, Being from Western Canada where it’s super expensive, was knowing how to travel and being able to go to these locations that were much more affordable than our home country. And so people think like, “Oh, you must be super-wealthy to be able to travel.” But we spent tons of months in really affordable Asian countries. It’s really helped us build up our remote work and start creating this lifestyle that we have now.
Debbie:
I think that’s one of the biggest misconceptions for a lot of people is that they think you need a lot of money to start this lifestyle. Yes, I always feel like you do need a little bit of something, but like you, you said, Amanda, you can just go to a country that’s not Canada or the United States and you’ll be pretty well off even with just a thousand dollars a month or even a little less than that. It goes such a long way.
Ryan:
Yeah, it really does. I think that like thousand dollars a month number is a really good one because that’s the type of salary that if you’re trying to live and work on $1,000 a month in L.A., New York, Atlanta or in Calgary, Alberta, it’s going to be really challenging. A lot of people listening probably pay more than that for their rent. But if you’re making $1,000 a month and you’re in Chiang Mai, Thailand or Mexico city or other parts of Mexico, Mexico City, maybe a little bit tougher, but so many places around the world where you can have like a really good quality of life for $1,000 a month. You can go up for dinners, you can go to movies, you can go on weekend trips and getting to $1,000 a month is a challenge if you’re starting from scratch like trying to freelance or do something completely new and try to create a job for yourself. But it’s definitely doable. So I think that, yeah, it definitely is a misconception and definitely one of the big advantages of it.
Debbie:
Where would you say is the most digital-friendly place and city that you have both moved to that is really great for everything, whether it’s Wi-Fi or affordability?
Ryan:
I think that the first thing that jumps to my mind is that there’s a lot of really digital-friendly places now. I think that maybe 10 years ago it was like the world was in a place where some places really weren’t digital-friendly. We just spent some time traveling in Costa Rica and traveling around to some smaller towns in Costa Rica definitely not great for digital work as long as you don’t have to do video calls, you’d be fine. But really any major city, Capitol city or a big city is going to be pretty good in most places around the world.
Ryan:
Right at the top of the list are places like Chiang Mai, Thailand, other places in Thailand: they have really good Wi-Fi, the food is amazing and it’s affordable, the rent is great. Bali, Indonesia: there are amazing coworking spaces, again, great food, a healthy lifestyle, Wi-Fi is good as long as you’re in the right place. And then I think I would say that there’s a lot of great places in Mexico as well, and Mexico is a place where you can get good Wi-Fi, amazing food, awesome travel experiences, and also stay kind of close to home.
Debbie:
Yeah. Mexico is so close to the United States and Canada and it’s probably a lot less time to travel if you want to dive into that, in the beginning, it’s probably a little safer.
Ryan:
It’s so cool really being there. I think if you were from Florida or you’re from Texas, going to Mexico City, going to a lot of places in Mexico, are way quicker and more affordable than going to Seattle or Portland, right? Like people think of it as like almost this other world, but you can find really affordable flights from a lot of American cities. You can get down there really quick and once you’re there you can find an apartment, you can stay for six months. It’s really easy to get set up and the lifestyle is just so much higher in terms of the value per dollar you’re making.
Debbie:
I know that you guys travel more long-term. How do you usually find the places that you’re going to be staying at your apartment, et cetera?
Amanda:
That’s a great question. Usually, we land on a city based on either something that we’ve heard from other people that we know who work in travel or maybe from our own research or a blog or something like that. So, once we find the city, we always start by booking an Airbnb and if we know we want to stay there pretty long-term, like a couple of months, we usually book Airbnb for about two to three weeks. That’s usually in our experience has been like a good amount of time to find somewhere to live. One of the things about finding somewhere to live in a country that’s not your home country, and I think this probably applies even to your home country, is it’s really nice to be able to go and look at the place just because homes are built differently and rental agreements work a little bit differently everywhere.
And so, it’s nice to be able to go and like have the conversation with the landlord and see the space and that sort of thing, get a feel for it. So we always do Airbnb to start and then find places to live and it’s very different depending on the city and the country really. In the U.S. we’ve used HotPads it’s one that we found like sublets or kind of like that shorter term, I guess longer term than Airbnb, but a shorter term than like a year-long lease type thing. We’ve used like just going around to places and looking where it says like for rent or going to leasing offices.
Here in Panama we actually worked with a real estate agent, which is super common for finding rentals. That was something we’d never done before. In Mexico City, we used InterNations, which is a really great international website where you can go find hubs of the city that you’re in. Sometimes we’ve done longer-term Airbnbs, so every city has different regulations around Airbnb.
So sometimes you can get Airbnbs for like three to six months because of regulations in a city. So honestly it really depends on where we’re going. And it usually just takes a little bit of research. But our first stop is generally Airbnb and we’re not sponsored by Airbnb. We genuinely love them.
Debbie:
It’s like Airbnb if you’re listening to this – sponsor.
Amanda:
Yeah, if you want to sponsor us we’re down because we love you.
Ryan:
Yeah, it’s like our dream sponsor.
Debbie:
Well that’s the main thing, right? Another great thing about the digital age is that you can do all of these things. You have things like Airbnb to really help you out because otherwise, before, it would have been a lot of footwork for you to go from one place, real estate agent or real estate office, to the next to really look for something. And now you can do this from anywhere before you even move there. You get a little taste of what it’s really like.
Ryan:
Yeah. And you can budget for it. I can’t even imagine if you were trying to do something similar, right? Then you show up and you need to stay in a hotel somewhere for a couple of weeks. Staying in a hotel for two weeks is typically going to cost more than like two months of your rental in a lot of places. So yeah, it’s such a blessing to have that as an option.
Debbie:
Have you guys ever tried house sitting at all?
Ryan:
I guess you could say in one sense that we haven’t tried because we haven’t ever done it. There was a point in time where we did a few interviews on our podcast where we talk to people who were house-sitting is kind of another means of extending a long-term trip and a few people who had really good experiences with it, whether they were animal lovers and got to go take care of some pets house. So, we talked to some people who are having really good experiences and we thought like, “Oh Hey, we’re going to give this a try.” And we were in our twenties at that point, like 26, 27, I think. And gave it like a bit of a try, like applied to house sitting places and just didn’t really like have that much luck.
And it kind of was just like, “Hey, you know what? Airbnb is pretty affordable. We like the flexibility it affords us. We’re not gonna keep worrying about this.” But it is something we’ve heard from a ton of people who have done it and had really good experiences. It’s really cool and interesting way to get a different experience of a city if you’re staying in someone’s house and maybe taking care of their animals, taking care of their plants, that type of thing. But yeah, we haven’t tried it or actually done it ourselves.
Debbie:
Yeah. I mentioned this because one of my friends is actually doing this right now and everything that she’s been doing lately, she’s here in New York City and because of all of the house sitting that she’s doing, she’s only going to be spending $300 in three months, which is crazy if you think about it in New York City. That’s nuts! That’s incredible.
Amanda:
That’s amazing. We have some friends who have done quite a bit of house sitting and they really enjoyed it. I think one of the key things for house sitting is that you do have to be pretty flexible, especially the start. And then I think after you build a reputation, a lot of opportunities start to come your way. I signed up for one at TrustedHousesitters I think, and I was building my profile out and I was like, “Man, like I don’t have any reviews or anything.”
I’ve got lots on Airbnb but it’s kind of like this sort of like almost when you go into your first job like you’ve got to get somebody who will take a chance on you to get that first review. And I think to get that you have to be willing to be like, “Oh you need somebody in this city at this time. Yeah, we’ll go do that.” And I’m a little bit like I plan a lot for the both of us cause it’s definitely one of my strengths. And so I feel like it’s always like, “Oh, but we already have plans at this time.” So yeah, I think being like a more “go with the flow” person should be a good fit for that.
Debbie:
Yeah, absolutely. I think that’s one of the things, because she also didn’t have any experience and it was all like last-minute stuff and that really worked for her, so I was like, “Wow, that’s amazing.” I guess also you’re building up recommendations and all of those things as you do that. So that’s pretty amazing to me when people do something like that and they barely spend anything for like months and you’re actually living in-house.
Ryan:
Yeah, that’s so cool. Especially if you get a bunch of good reviews on one of those house sitting sites. It’s almost like this asset, like money in your savings account that isn’t actually financial because of you kind of know, if you want to you can find somewhere to stay without paying much money.
Debbie:
Absolutely. Now, you guys travel quite a bit. What do you do with travel insurance? Have you ever found something that’s really comprehensive?
Ryan:
Yeah. So we are lucky to be Canadian, which makes it a lot more straight forward for us. But yeah, we always have travel insurance because it just gives us a lot of ease of mind. Not needing to worry about the complexities of it. But yeah, it does make it a lot easier. Just the fact that we have kind of public health insurance to start with.
Debbie:
You guys are super lucky because I’m an American and we definitely don’t have that. And especially as a digital nomad, it can be such a headache to find out the different requirements that are needed when it comes to health insurance. That’s why I’m really glad that I found Integra Global and their comprehensive plans. They don’t ask their members to build a plan because how do you know what we’re going to need when we’re traveling all over the world?
Their insurance covers it all and everything is built-in. So if all of you guys want to know more about travel insurance, check out IntegraGlobal.com and see how they can give you the coverage you’ll need. And maybe some you never knew you would because that’s so important right now.
Amanda:
Yeah, absolutely. We definitely recommend traveling with travel insurance for sure. Being Canadian, we’re not covered in the U.S. so we have to get travel insurance when we go to the U.S. and Ryan actually had to have his appendix removed in an emergency surgery while we were down in the U. S. four years ago. So if that’s not a good enough reason to get travel insurance, I don’t know what it is.
Debbie:
Absolutely. And I think we often think about travel insurance like, “Oh, if your baggage is lost,” those things are great if you’re traveling for a week or two. But especially with you guys, since you are digital nomads, it’s so crucial because you don’t know what’s going to happen and especially if you’re in a different country, it’s so scary.
Ryan:
Yeah. And especially if you’re trying to like start off as a nomad and do something more entrepreneurial and you don’t have something to fall back on. And yeah, any type of medical emergency comes up knowing that you’re covered for that. And it’s also helpful too if you’re a digital nomad like for us, we’re traveling with our computers, we’ve got an iPad, we’ve got podcast equipment. And so we found travel insurance that covers theft for a decent amount off of electronics. So that gives us a lot of peace of mind too knowing that like, “Hey, if something got stolen, we don’t need to empty out all of our savings to replace all of our equipment that we need to do our jobs.”
Debbie:
Yeah, that is such a great idea and I think we don’t think about that enough for sure. Now, when you guys have been doing this, you’ve been traveling for quite some time, you’ve been digital nomads for a few years now, what has been the biggest setback that you both encountered and how do you usually deal with them?
Ryan:
That’s a good question. I’ll go first and I’ll let Amanda go after. For me when I think about the biggest setback, I don’t think there’s really been for us that I can remember, like any one large setback. I think that the experience for me and then, maybe for us, and I think maybe other digital nomads as well, as kind of like this experience of maybe you trying to run in the sand. And so it’s like sometimes you get like a few really good strides and you’re like making a ton of momentum and then you fall on your face and then you start slipping and then you’re like, Oh, “I’m going backwards. What’s happening?”
This experience of trying to build a steady income when you’re relying on a bunch of different things. I think is always like up and down. So, like we’ve both had kind of like contract jobs or freelance jobs that we’ve had and then lost that we didn’t like plan to lose. Things like that, which kind of create a budget challenge. I’m trying to think of anything else, like the big setbacks. Does anything come to mind for you, Amanda?
Amanda:
No, I feel like we should knock on wood because we haven’t had anything like super bad happened to us while we’ve been traveling. So we’re really, really lucky and fortunate with that. But yeah, I would say the money thing has been definitely a challenge. Like the first time we kind of heading out as digital nomads while we were in Asia. I mean I was not making very much money and so there was this like pull around like, “Oh we want to do things,” and we also kind of need to do things ’cause we run a travel business but then it’s also like you want to save money and so it’s just like pull between having great experiences and then also sticking within your budget, which for us was quite low at that point.
And then there’s also this learning to balance your work with your travel because it’s like, “Oh I have to do work to get paid and I can’t just spend all my time exploring.” Which is how I’d always thought of travel before. And then there’s like, “Oh, you get into a role and then the role is not there anymore.” Or you finish a project, you kind of have to learn to budget your money based on like, “Oh I’m doing this project this month but it’s not there next month.” And so that can definitely feel like hard sometimes. Like we’ve certainly had the conversation around like, “Should we just go back to Canada and get full-time jobs and like take our three weeks paid vacation.” And obviously we always come back to this like, “No, our lifestyle is awesome and we’re really lucky and if we keep working hard things will come, which they have.”
But there definitely have been those moments of when you’re technically like under the poverty line in Canada and you’re like, “Okay, I need to make more money. Like how do I do this thing?” And I think that that’s one of the things that can be really scary about people heading into this lifestyle. They know they’re not happy with their full-time job. But then it’s also scary to think about not having that safety net to fall back on. And for us, that risk has always really been worth it. And the reward outcome has been really great but I totally understand when people are like, “I’m terrified to make this leap,” because it is scary.
Debbie:
So when you’re both faced with that, what do you usually do to motivate yourselves to keep going? Especially when it gets really hard because I definitely know where you’re coming from and I know if people are listening to this who are freelancers, they also have that up and down. One day you have all this money from all of these freelance jobs and then the next month there’s nothing coming in.
Ryan:
Yeah. So I think for us, something important has just been trying to like build balance into our lives. I think we both notice what we’re doing really affects the way we think about our lives overall. So we really tried to find a good balance of going out, exploring, having activities in the places that we’re going and visiting. For example, we take Spanish classes that require us to go to a different part of the city every other day, every weekend, once a week we’d go on like a hike, we’ll go to a new area, a new part of town and get to explore that and that I think experience of being somewhere new and digging in and finding more out about the place you are I think always energizes us and makes us feel like, “Okay, like I get why we’re doing this”
Because sometimes when it’s been like four days and you’ve been in your apartment building just working and you’re kind of like, “Why am I not just doing this at home?” And you kind of lose a bit of that spark for the travel that was really a motivation. I think for us as well as setting ourselves up for longer-term in places has been really helpful so that it’s not as much of a struggle of like when you’re traveling quicker, usually your expenses are higher and maybe you have a little bit less of a community and you have maybe a little bit less of that work routine built-in.
Ryan:
And so being in places like we spent seven months in Mexico City, we’re planning on being here in Panama city for quite a while and being in places over the long term allows you to get your budget down so that when things like that happen, you’re like, “Okay, I’m still going to be fine.” And also it allows you to build a bit of a support system so that you’re doing better work anyways and that if something happens, you can connect with people if that makes sense.
Debbie:
One of the things that I really love to talk about to people like you and Amanda, Ryan is mental health when you’re constantly traveling. I know for people who are doing this solo, there’s a lot of loneliness that happens throughout your whole journey. What is it like for you both as a couple and what kind of things do you go through? Because there are so many things that we see on social media, how it’s so great, it’s so perfect, but what does it like behind closed doors? What do you both have to go through as a couple in this journey?
Amanda:
That’s a really good question and something that’s definitely been an evolution for us. I think it really comes down to good communication, which is not something that we just innately had many years ago. It’s something that we’ve actively worked on because they think that the times when you’re not communicating what you need to, your partner are the times where you build up this resentment and then it comes out over something stupid. Like, I dunno, a spill on the kitchen floor, the toilet seat being left up or something that’s so dumb. And then the other person’s like, “Oh, what on earth is wrong with you?” And then you have to have this conversation where you unravel like all this stuff that’s been bothering you. So we really try to have open, clear communication and that really helps us too with the fact that like there are lots of places we go to where we don’t have friends other than each other.
I think, too, we make an effort to meet other people. So like for example, we’re going to a language school right now. They have activities after class every day. And so we try to go for like happy hours or on one of the things that they offer, go to meetup type events and stuff like that so that we can connect and meet other people. And then for us, it’s also been a big journey to understand each other’s personalities. Like Ryan’s definitely more naturally introverted. I’m more naturally extroverted. So something that was really challenging for me when we first started traveling together was Ryan would be like, “I just don’t really want to talk and hang out right now. I just need some time to myself.” And I was like, “Oh, did I do something wrong?” And part of this is being young as well ’cause we started traveling when we were 21 and 22 but something for me has been really learning to understand like, “Oh okay, it’s not about me.” Like he just needs some space and finding my own ways to fulfill myself on my own or to recharge.
So having our own personal kind of activities, things that we like to do has been really important. I think the final thing I’ll say is as a woman, it’s been very important for me in places that we go to, to not feel like I’m dependent on Ryan to keep me safe. So we usually spend, when we get to a new location, we usually kind of walk around together. Usually, at night when it’s dark out, do things together. But I always try to go out on my own and just get a feel for what that place is like because it makes me feel more confident; feeling more confident with myself means that I can bring a better version of myself to our relationship. So, those have been kind of the top things for me.
Ryan:
Yeah. And I guess if I was adding on, echo what Amanda was saying, it’s really awesome to be able to travel with someone and share experiences together and have that shoulder to lean on of someone else along the way. I think that it does like going from kind of a more traditional setting at home where you have a partner who you see evenings and weekends ’cause you’re away in the office all day to traveling and if you’re trying to both work remotely and you’re doing it from like the same Airbnb and maybe it’s like a studio apartment like that can create lots of opportunities for conflict. And I think there’s a process of figuring that out too, of how do you work, how can you create a set up so that you’re able to function in the same small space while all this other stuff is going on, which I feel like over the long term adds value to the relationship.
And then I guess the final note I’d add is it’s really awesome to be able to travel someone and we know a lot of solo travelers who are traveling and working for a long time, who feel really acutely like, “Hey, it can get kind of lonely on the road by myself.” But, also, I think there’s a comfort level that comes from having your partner there while you’re traveling that sometimes takes you away from some of the best travel experiences you can have.
Sometimes that loneliness is like the fuel for the really amazing travel experiences. And sometimes people in places you’re traveling to engage with you so much more if you’re by yourself. And when you’re with a partner, it can be easy sometimes because you’re getting your needs for connection met that you can say like, “Oh, Hey tonight let’s just hang out and watch something and let’s just go for dinner.” And over time maybe you don’t connect as much with the community versus being by yourself where you have to go out and meet new people to connect and to find out more and you’re going to get like deeply embedded in that community in a way that sometimes it’s easier not to if you’re in a couple.
Debbie:
That’s such a great point that you made Ryan because it’s true. When you’re by yourself, people are more drawn to you. They feel like they want to include you in so more things like my fiancé and I have been together for 16, 17 years and I tried to do at least one month out of the year to travel solo by myself because first, being with somebody for that long… you can’t be with them all the time. And second, you do have a really different connection when you’re on your own than when you are with your partner. And those are such great points to make. So, if you’re all listening to this and you’re afraid of doing this solo, it’s so true, you get really good connections. I mean there’s definitely loneliness with it and it comes and goes, but there’s a lot of positive things from it as well.
Ryan:
Yeah, I think that it is so easy to become kind of interdependent on the other person in the partnership and then you kind of get accustomed to it, which is natural, but you kind of forget all the things that they bring. Like when you’re together with someone for a long period of time, you rely on their strengths and they rely on your strengths and maybe some of your weaknesses get disguised by the things that they’re good at, which is one of the great parts about being together. But then maybe we can forget and not appreciate that as much because we always have that person by our side.
So, it’s so helpful for just the relationship and it’s always interesting, we kind of joke, but it’s actually true. Like when we walk around together, people don’t really interact with us too much. Like obviously you get normal attractions, we’ll talk to people at places we’re going, that type of thing. But then as a single female traveler, obviously you get kind of hit on more when you go out. And as a single male traveler, I noticed that like a lot more people sell me drugs when we’re not in a couple.
Amanda:
Tried to sell him drugs.
Ryan:
Yeah. A lot more people offer me drugs.
Amanda:
He’s like, ” Did you get offer drugs walking on the street?” And I’m like, “No, I just got whistled at.” I was like, “You got offered drugs?” He’s like, “Oh yeah. Anything I need.”
Ryan:
All of a sudden it’s like coming out of the shadows. They like sniff you like, “Hey man, you wanted me? They want to know what you want,” – just out of nowhere.
Debbie:
That’s when things get real.
Amanda:
Yeah, totally.
Debbie:
Let’s fast forward to 50 years from now and you’re both looking back at your life. What legacy would you like to leave and what do you want to be remembered for?
Amanda:
Oh, that’s such a good question and such a hard question ’cause you don’t want to say the wrong thing. I don’t want to disappoint 80-year old Amanda. I guess the heart of everything that I kind of do and believe is like I never wanna look back on my life and feel I didn’t do the things that I wanted to do and I didn’t take the chances that I could have taken.
And I feel I’m so fortunate; where I was born and the family I was born into and the circumstances that I have to be able to travel the world. And I feel like I want to take advantage of being able to meet new people and see other cultures and try new foods and all that good stuff. And so I think that I really just want my legacy to be people remember me as somebody who lives life fully and completely and took those chances and took those opportunities and had adventures and that sort of thing.
Ryan:
Yeah. I think for me, when I think about that, looking back at my life, I’ve always kind of, maybe not always, but approached life with the idea of like we’re kind of here at an all-you-can-eat buffet, right? There are so many opportunities to try things and you’ve got to balance out trying new things, but not getting stuck on any one thing and not getting too full of any one part of that buffet.
And so, I want to look back on my life and just see that I’ve lived my life my way and not been swayed by what other people think I ought to be doing with my life, whether that’s getting a job at a big company or making a ton of money or like buying a big house or doing all those things, like having a family and having really meaningful connections with other people is important and that’s I want to look back on as well. But also just looking back and knowing that I prioritize my values and that I did the things I want to do when I wanted to do them because they were important to me and not because I was trying to impress anyone or not trying to live up to some type of role in society. But more so just because I was true to my values and shooting my interests.
Debbie:
I love those types of goals and legacies that you both want to live. And I always feel like whenever I ask these questions, the same question to my guests, there’s always one thing similar. It’s really living outside of that little box that people kind of give us from the start and really learning how to live the life that you really want to live, which is amazing. And that’s why I love interviewing people like Amanda and Ryan is because we have the similarity when it comes to that. And it truly is an offbeat life that you both are living.
Amanda:
Oh, well thank you.
Debbie:
So are you guys working on anything currently that is really exciting to both of you?
Amanda:
Yeah, we’ve got a couple of things on the go. I don’t know when this is going out but it’s the start of January 2020 and we are getting ready to launch a digital nomad series. Talking a little bit more in-depth about these types of conversations. Most of them are going to be on our Patreon feeds. So, specifically for our Patreon supporters, a couple of them will be on our main podcast feed, but most of them will kind of be behind the scenes type content. So we’re really excited about that.
We’re going to have some interviews and be talking to some cool people. We’ve got a ton of cool episodes coming out for The World Wanderers over the next couple of months. So excited about that. And then kind of separate from The World Wanderers. I also run a yoga business: yoga, teaching yoga, and the business side of yoga is something I’m really passionate about. So continuing to work and grow that is something that I’m really excited about for this year.
Ryan:
I would definitely echo what Amanda said around our projects together, but for us, personally, we have set ourselves up here in Panama. We just got here a bit over a month ago and Amanda was back in Canada for the Holidays. I’m really excited to explore a new country. I think there’s something always really challenging about showing up in a city without any friends and trying to make it network and all of that. But it’ll be really cool over the next year to kind of go to places all over this country and get to know it better. I think it’ll be really exciting.
Debbie:
Yeah, that’s really exciting. There are so many amazing things that you guys are doing and I can’t wait to hear more about it in the future. If our listeners want to know more about you, where can they find you?
Amanda:
They can head on over to TheWorldWanderers.com or they can search “the world wanders” on any podcast feeds: Spotify, Stitcher, Apple podcasts, all the good stuff. Wherever you find your podcasts, you should be able to find our podcast. And then we’re also on Facebook and Instagram @theworldwandererspodcast, and we have a private Facebook community for travelers if they want to connect called “World Wanderers” – a community for travelers.
Debbie:
Perfect. Thank you so much for being here and talking to us about your incredible journey. I really appreciate it.
Ryan:
Thanks, Debbie.
Listen to Amanda and Ryan’s extended interview where they share how to make long-term travel more sustainable with remote work.
What you’ll find:
In this episode, Amanda and Ryan discuss how to find different ways to supplement your income, how moving to one specific place can help you extend your travel, why it is cheaper to move abroad, and much more!
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