Adventures of a Location Independent Entrepreneur, Accidental Digital Nomad and Former Dropshipping based eCommerce business owner now turned full time traveler.
I'm writing a blog post to share what I think is the best kept secret in Thailand. I've lived all over starting in Phuket, then Koh Tao, Koh Lanta, Chiang Mai and have spent significant time in the other popular spots including Bangkok, Koh Samui, etc. But there's a new favorite city for me that I've been living in now for the past 3 years. I'm a bit shocked how undiscovered it is as it's just an…
Today I attended the 2026 Nomad Summit conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I came as a regular attendee, sitting in the back, mostly anonymous to those there. The people to my left and right had no idea I was the founder of this event, and one of the first digital nomads to populate this city and turn it into the digital nomad mecca it has become today. Back in 2013 when I first came to Chiang Mai…
Ten years ago, when working online, and traveling the world as a digital nomad was still a new concept, there was a doubt planted in people's minds if it was all a scam or not. I was the target of a lot of that discussion, as I was the founder of the Nomad Summit, which was the first ever conference for digital nomads, and the first one publicly talking about how great being a digital nomad in…
From 2008 - 2022 I traveled the world looking for the "best place to live." My only guide was word of mouth of asking around, and following my gut, experience and intuition. I checked out all of the famous places that people were moving to including Austin, Texas - Barcelona, Spain - Canary Islands, Lisbon, Portugal - Bangkok, Thailand - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Bali, Indonesia - Alanya, Turkey…
I never thought I'd get back into eCommerce again after successfully selling my dropshipping stores, especially not here in Ukraine...during war, but here we go again! With the money I've been getting renting out my apartment in Kyiv, it goes into a separate account that I had decided to reinvest back into Ukraine. Yes I bought it with my own money, and would love to live there and enjoy it, but…
I've said this before, but I'll say it again for those who still don't understand... Before February 24th, 2022 I liked Russia and Russians, I liked Russian food, language, culture, movies, music, etc. There was no reason legitimate for Russia to actually invade Ukraine and there was a lot for Putin to lose if he attempted. For those who don't live in Ukraine and don't understand the complicated…
Every day I get messages from people who write me or comment on my posts and videos saying "XYZ" is the reason why Russia invaded Ukraine. The majority of these people have never even been to Ukraine and definitely haven't lived there for as long as I have. Normally I just ignore these comments, or even block them if they are an obvious Russian bot or Paid Propaganda Troll, but the problem is when…
It's been a long journey, but as of a few days ago, I am now a green card holder of Ukraine, which makes me a Permanent Resident. The process technically started in March 2021, but in reality, it's been something on the back of my mind for a lot longer than that. In 2008 I left my life in California to travel and live aboard. I was perfectly happy living in endless summers, on beautiful beaches,…
"For those who argue that some people in Eastern Ukraine wanted to be part of Russia. Some people in New York wanted the USA to be an Islamic state. That doesn't mean we should welcome more 9/11 bombings." I'm so tired of people online asking “WhaT aBouT UkRainiAns BomGIng DonBaSSS since 2014 CiVilINs” as a reason for Russia murdering hundreds and raping of thousands of civilians in Ukraine in…
If you've been following my social media and YouTube videos these past few weeks, you'll know that we hit the goal of raising $10,000 through the GoFundMe that I set up with Dan Leal. Over the next few weeks the goal is to send all of that money, directly to help Ukrainians who need it quickly and the most. I believe that if we all extend our own personal networks to help people we personally have…
I never thought that my travel videos on YouTube would be of any significant use besides a bit of entertainment and fun. I especially didn't think small cities in Ukraine like Irpin, or even the large but relatively unknown city of Kharkiv would be on the minds of millions of people world wide. To be honest, my videos didn't and couldn't even capture how much beauty, joy, and happiness there was…
A big misunderstanding people have is the difference between being cheap and frugal. A lot of people often wonder why I "seem cheap" even though technically I have a lot of money. Some people think that if you have money you should spend it, and if you don't, you are either secretly poor, or that you're being cheap. In this blogpost, I'm going to share my financial mentality with you, and clear…
I've been getting a lot of requests to meet with me in Kyiv (Kiev) lately and have felt bad ignoring so many people's requests. The problem is that for every cool person that I would genuinely enjoy having a meal or drinks with, there are 3 or 4 people who will bombard me with questions and it becomes very one sided conversation about investing, real estate, YouTube, Bald and Bankrupt, online…
If it seems like I haven't been posting much on my blog, or recording many episodes of the podcast Travel Like a Boss, it's because I've focused my time and energy exclusively on my Youtube channel. Even though it seems like diversifying into 14 streams of income with all of my various businesses was a great idea, in reality, it was my greatest failure. Doing a dozen things decently well is no…
I know this sounds trival, but I promise that it sums up a lot in one little thing. One of the things I hated about living in America is how few public pull up bars there are in the country. This one seemingly little thing sums up why I hate living in the USA, and is just a host of reasons why I moved out of the country. The mindset of why they don't exist are as follows: 1. They are dangerous,…
Every year I spend a few hours on my birthday or the day afterwards to sit down and reflect on not only what I learned that year, but also how I grew, what I did well, what didn't work out, and what my goals are for the upcoming year. This year was a big one. Turning 40 in America marks officially being old. When you're in your late 30's, you can still kind of get by and fit in without being the…
It's been so nice to be back in Ukraine, especially since I've finally gotten the keys to the apartments that I bought and have finally been able to move in...sort of at least. The last time I sat down to write a blog post, I was traveling in Turkey which is an experience I still think about today. My life, goals, and priorities have changed a lot in the recent months and years, and hopefully in…
I never considered Turkey to be a country to travel to, mainly because growing up in America, we never heard anything good about it. All we knew was that it was a Muslim country somewhere in the middle east and that it was most likely dangerous and in the middle of a desert somewhere. The funny thing is, now that I've been living off and on in Ukraine, going to Turkey is almost as easy and common…
Happy May everyone! Summer is officially here and I have never been so excited to see the sun again. It's crazy as one of the reasons I left Sri Lanka was because I got tired of the heat and endless summer and needed a change. Coming to Ukraine in March was a shock as I went from +37c to -7c which is the equivalent of 98f to 18f degrees. It was interesting to see a change of season, a bit of snow,…
Yes I know it sounds crazy, but it's official, I bought my first ever piece of real estate. It's my first home, my first condo, whatever you want to call it, and I paid for it in cash. I still remember being inspired by my middle school friend David during a random lunch catch up when I was back visiting San Francisco. This was in 2012 and I was completely broke. He told me that he had bought a…
Happy April everyone! It's officially the start of Spring, and it's been exactly 30 days since I arrived in Ukraine. I'm both excited and hesitant to calculate how much I spent this month as I have a feeling it'll be 2-4x what I've been spending in Sri Lanka all of last year. But it's also exciting as I've been able to live a European standard of life again, eat Western food, and do a lot of…
It's still hard to believe that I stayed in Sri Lanka for over a year, and honestly it would have been longer if it wasn't for a day with no WIFI that pushed me over the edge to book a flight to Ukraine. My original plan was to stay in Sri Lanka until summer or longer, maybe to visit Ukraine when the weather would improve in Europe by then. From my Youtube channel, I was traveling all around the…
I get a dozen emails or messages a week asking me for an interview, and I say no to 95% of them, mostly because of their lack of reach or audience. The tricky thing is, declining or saying no, is also a waste of time and actually ends up making that person more angry, upset, or annoyed than if I had just ignored and not responded in the first place. But here's the reason why most people worth…
It's crazy to think about it, but it's been over a year since I first landed here in Sri Lanka back on February 6th, 2020. Even crazier is that this is the longest I've spent in any single country since I first started traveling and living aboard full time in 2008. It's been on one hand one of the best years of my life, as well as one of the worst. Sri Lanka itself is like what Bali or Thailand…
Happy February everyone. I'm sure that this year so far has been just as strange for you as it's been for me. The funny thing is, for the past six months or so, people kept wishing for 2021 to arrive already and for Trump to leave office. But I knew that nothing would magically change or suddenly get better just because there's a different president sitting in the oval office, or there being a…