How to Move Abroad (with No Job or Money) - Live Podcast with Expats Everywhere

Introduction: Welcome to Badass Digital Nomads, where we're pushing the boundaries of remote work and travel, all while staying grounded with a little bit of old school philosophy, self-development, and business advice from our guests.

Kristin: Today's episode is sponsored by me. Did you know you can now shop my favorite remote work tools, video production equipment, and travel accessories directly from your Amazon account? It's true. Just go to TravelingwithKristin.com/amazon to check out all the products I use and love.  

Kristin:    00:00:49    We are live with another episode of Badass Digital Nomads, but today's guests are not technically digital nomads. Well, they are new digital nomads. Um, they are actually long-term expats, which means that, like me, they've been living and working in foreign countries for many years. Josh and Kalie, a duo that founded a website called Expats, Expats Everywhere. And so they are here today. Well, half half of the couple is here today to tell us some of their tips about how they've been able to live and work in different countries for so many years and how they help people do that today. So before we welcome Josh onto the show, I just wanted to ask everybody who's been listening to Badass Digital Nomads to please take a moment to leave a review about how the guests or the show has helped you in the past. And I'll just read a couple reviews from some of my subscribers.  

Kristin:    00:01:54    Remember that we have podcasts on YouTube as well as on Spotify and Google Play and Apple Podcasts, so people are commenting and reviewing from everywhere. But we are really looking for some more Apple Podcast reviews. So if you're an Apple person, holler at your girl <laugh>. So here we have Balkan Music who commented recently and said, thank you so much for this video, Kristin. This is the best video I've ever seen made by people from another country. Thank you very much for showing your subscribers and the rest of the world how beautiful my country is. This is from Bulgaria, so thank you so much for leaving that nice comment. I do read all of the comments in response to all of the comments, so feel free to comment on any of my videos. Also have a new review of the podcast by Reci. She says, inspiring Kristin's podcast is inspiring and important for anyone to listen to who is or aspires to be an entrepreneur, digital nomad, or even just someone who wants to find ways to have the opportunity to travel more.  

Kristin:    00:03:07    She has a wealth of knowledge that almost anyone can find and benefit from. So thank you. Hello Reci for writing that review. I really appreciate it. And today our guest is Josh from Expats Everywhere. It's kind of a tongue twister and I will read their bio. They're a group of expats that have desire to help people move abroad for the first time, or help other expats transition to a new country. They know just how hard it is to move abroad, especially for the first time. So they help people by giving extensive information about a number of different countries through the eyes of expats who have already lived there. They have years of experience moving and transitioning all over the globe. They know how important it is when you move to a new place to basically get a new comfort zone. And they're here to help people do that. They provide information about the move. And as we know, anytime you move to another country, there's a lot of logistics. So without further ado, let's welcome Josh to the show. Welcome, Josh. 

Podcast Interview:

Josh:    00:04:25    Hey. Hey. Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. You're  

Kristin:    00:04:27    Welcome. So give us a little bit of context. Where are you right now in the world?  

Josh:    00:04:34    So currently my wife and I are back in Florida. It's not my home state, it's kind of her home state. Uh, but she's pregnant and we had planned on spending the holidays back with family 'cause we haven't done, you know, Christmas and Thanksgiving, New Years in 10 years since moving abroad. And we decided, uh, back in, gosh, like the summer really last year, that we wanted to do this. And then we find out that she's pregnant around this time and realize it's probably best to just stay here and experience this with family and then move abroad again, <laugh>, we'll not be staying in the US <laugh>,  

Kristin:    00:05:11    No, are you going to have the baby in the US or have it be a dual citizen?  

Josh:    00:05:16    The plan was to have the baby abroad, but you know, you make your, you make your plans and then other things happen. So that's kind of what happened with us. So we'll have the baby here in the us.  

Kristin:    00:05:28    Okay. Yeah, I think that's one of those things that you don't know until you get into the situation. You're like, what am I gonna do? But I haven't been in that situation yet. But yeah, I have friends who've had one kid in one country and one kid in another country and it can get, uh, <laugh> a bit hectic. So, but this is the world we live in though. I think either way it's a lucky baby because it will get to travel a lot and live in a lot of different countries.  

Josh:    00:05:57    I hope so. That's the goal.  

Kristin:    00:05:58    So give us a a bit of background on how you guys have been living abroad for 10 years. There's not many of us who've been living abroad for 10 years at such a young age. What gave you the idea to live in a foreign country back in the day? I mean, what gave you this idea and how did you make it happen the first time?  

Josh:    00:06:22    Uh, well for one, I'm, I'm not as young as I look, I shaved just before we, we came on. So that's why I look so young. Uh, I'm 36. So started when, uh, when I was 26 I was already finished with university and it really, the, the, the starting point for me went all the way back to university. Being in university, I was a college soccer player that had a lot of teammates that were from all parts of the world, speaking different languages, being from different cultures. And that really got me curious about just travel and, and confronting these new cultures. And then I had an opportunity in college to, uh, travel abroad and do a, a summer abroad in Italy. Did that. And I realized that, you know, this small town boy could, uh, move away for a little bit of time and not feel homesick.  

Josh:    00:07:10    And then that really emboldened me to start looking at how to get abroad and travel more. And kind of along along that path, uh, I met my future wife and she also had that same desire. So what had happened was we wanted to move to, uh, Europe together. And she found a job as an au pair in Spain. And the family that she was going to work for, they were the ones that really instrumental in getting me at least in the same city. 'cause I was gonna go to Barcelona and she was gonna be in Madrid, but they told me about this university program in Madrid. And that was, uh, that was really awesome because I could do this university program that was focused on education. It was, uh, bilingual, multicultural education. And then also I could work. So I was going to school, earning a wage, working, I got a visa from it. It was really difficult back then as well for Americans to get work permits to work in Europe. Um, you really had to have family or something. And yeah, it was, uh, it was awesome. So spent two years in Madrid and loved it. And then it was kind of it for us. We realized that we didn't wanna move back, that we wanted to move forward and go to another place. And that's when we did, we started to look at Asia.  

Kristin:    00:08:31    Oh wow. Take me back to the, your first time, um, in Italy. 'cause that was actually the first country that I went to at 17. It was a, a graduation present from my grandma whose entire family immigrated from Sicily. So kind of like a rite of passage. And my grandparents worked for the airlines for Pan Am. So it's kind of, uh, the travel bug is like a little bit in our blood. But I think that experience of being in Rome and like Tuscany and Florence and Venice and all those places, I mean, that changed me forever. And so at what moment when you were a college student in Italy, did you think like, I don't wanna stop doing this?  

Josh:    00:09:17    Yeah, I actually had a really clear moment. It was, uh, when I was fiddling around with those international phone cards, you know, scratching the number off and then having to punch it into the, the, the phone I was using and like burning credit and realizing I don't even, uh, my, I, my parents see this, they're gonna kill me, but I don't even, I'm not even really that interested in calling home right now. Like that I would rather be out with, you know, all my new friends that I've just made or, you know, walking the Tuscan Hills and drinking wine and enjoying food Then, you know, stuck here in this little phone box trying to, to get ahold of them. And that was really my epiphany. And that was, that was four weeks into the trip. So yeah, it was, it was pretty crazy.  

Kristin:    00:10:03    What did your friends and your teammates and your family members think? How did they react when you kind of broke the news that like you were gonna stay abroad or you were going to extend your trip? Uh, what was that like?  

Josh:    00:10:20    Yeah, I don't think my teammates were shocked 'cause these were a lot of foreign guys and they, and they kind of, they knew me. They saw me maturing and they saw also how curious I was through my years in university. But certainly my friends, my hometown friends and family were always asking the question like, when are you gonna come home? When are you gonna come home for good? And it's like, I don't know guys. Like I have no desire to, I really enjoy the life abroad and the things that I'm getting to see are just amazing.  

Kristin:    00:10:50    Yeah. I don't know if I had a dollar for every time someone asked me like, when are you moving back? I think they gave up at some point, but that's a very, uh, common reaction from people who just want the best for you. Of course. And how did you kind of manage those expectations and what was your rebuttal? Like, did you feel a lot of pressure coming from them or were you very steadfast in your decision and it didn't matter what anyone else said, you were committed to this idea of living life on your own terms in a different country?  

Josh:    00:11:28    So this is interesting because my wife's family was much more traveled and they kind of understood. Her brother actually was living in England, uh, while we had gotten our kind of foreign life started. So they were, they were understanding, um, my parents on the other hand a bit different now. My dad had a passport so he could travel, but my mom and my sister, uh, still to this day do not. So those two were the ones that kind of fell last. And it wasn't up until my wife and I moved to Saudi Arabia that they really stopped asking the question. And that was year number five.  

Kristin:    00:12:06    Wow. So  

Josh:    00:12:07    Yeah,  

Kristin:    00:12:08    You guys lived in Saudi Arabia. That's crazy. I I've heard it's a very challenging place to live.  

Josh:    00:12:15    Absolutely.  

Kristin:    00:12:16    Let's talk a little bit about how you guys were funding these travels. So how many countries have you lived in, let's say for more than a month or so and what were your jobs or sources of revenue throughout the years, both you and your wife? 'cause that's always something really helpful for people to understand. What are the different ways of even making something like that work?  

Josh:    00:12:40    Sure. Well, up until five years ago, Expats Everywhere didn't exist. So our experience was, and we've, we've only lived places for at least a year. So we spent a couple of years in Madrid, Spain. We spent a couple of years in Busan, South Korea. And then that's when we got the itch to check out the Middle East and we ended up basically falling into jobs in Saudi Arabia. And we did that for a year. We had quite a specific reason for being there. And, uh, some other great things happened while there. And when we were living in Saudi Arabia on a trip to Singapore, I just opened our eyes to how awesome Singapore is. And the first night we were there in Singapore, I told my wife Kalie that I really wanted to live there and find jobs there. And that night we started looking for jobs and that same night we applied to a job that we ended up getting.  

Josh:    00:13:35    We've always, uh, well I've always been in education up until now and my wife spent her first two years abroad as an au pair. So a live-in nanny. She was living in the northern part of Madrid outside of the city center. And then I was living in the city center proper. We would see each other on the regular. And then she transitioned into education, into ESL work. When we moved to Korea, funding the travel, I mean we always had like jobs within the country, so we were making very, very steady income. You know, it wasn't like having to do business consulting where one month might be awesome and another month it might be pretty thin.  

Kristin:    00:14:13    Uh, what type of income were you getting in these countries? I mean, Singapore, very expensive. Korea's quite pricey. Yeah. What were kind of your wages in Europe and in Asia?  

Josh:    00:14:26    Okay, when we were living in Spain, it was extremely low. It's actually hilarious thinking back now that we lived on the wages we did, we were maybe just above backpacker budget in terms of whenever we would travel. We did backpackers a few times, but um, she was making 600, no, not 660 euros per week, but she wasn't having to pay for housing for food, basically it was just pocket money. And from what we know, unless you're with a really affluent family, that's pretty standard. Yeah. Is to just be getting a bit of pocket money. It'll pay for your transportation card, maybe eating out with friends. Spain's quite cheap so you can go eat and drink, you know, out with friends on the weekends and you'll be fine on 60 Euros. Now you might wanna pick up some like English lessons on the side. That's a different thing.  

Josh:    00:15:18    The university program I was doing, I was making around, um, 800 euros and that was the first year. The second year I was finished with the university program and I was just working and I was making 16, yeah, about 1600, which was a lot of money actually for Madrid at that time. This was before, yeah, this was before the crisis. Before like the city of the, the city center got shut down with all the protestors and everything. Like we left actually as that stuff was going on, people that were making a thousand euros were doing quite well for themselves. We moved to South Korea, we were making about 2000 USD, but we also had our housing paid for. So 2000 USD you can save about half of it. Both of us were in education. We had really strict schedules. They weren't very flexible, but always paid the bills and, and paid the bills on time.  

Josh:    00:16:14    We were able to travel a bit. The problem with South Korea is it's expensive leaving. So your, your flights out of South Korea, you, you always pay a bit more as opposed to Europe where you can catch a, a cheap, uh, Ryanair EasyJet flight or Wiz Air, whoever, you can catch those pretty cheap. Leaving South Korea was, was expensive. Saudi Arabia obviously, as, as your viewers I'm sure know the wages there go up, we were working at a university there now both of us doing ESL work and we were making over 3000 plus housing was included and we were on the low end of the spectrum. I mean, there are some people that go there and they're making five, 6,000 and on up. If you work at Saudi Aramco, you can make much more. Then in Singapore we were working at a Christian international school. I was doing physical education and my wife was still doing ESL but at that point we both had our Florida State teaching licenses that we did, uh, completely online and we were making a good wage, but it was still one of the lower for Singapore. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> top wages in Singapore might be at like an SAS Singapore American School where you're making really good money, uh, a dulwich or one of those kind of higher caliber and much more expensive international schools. Our our international school was actually known for being kind of one of the, the cheaper ones.  

Kristin:    00:17:47    And how much are people making at the top of that? Of scale?  

Josh:    00:17:51    Six figures. Yeah, that's pretty well documented that you have international school teachers making six figures and getting really, really good, uh, housing stipends as well.  

Kristin:    00:18:02    That's interesting because I have a lot of people in my Facebook group, uh, long-term digital nomad success. And what I see a lot in the remote work and expat Facebook groups is there's a lot of people looking for ESL opportunities and any kind of teaching opportunity abroad. And it's good to know that, you know, it doesn't have to necessarily be online work. Like there's still a lot of physical location dependent teaching jobs in all of these countries. And even if you make maybe a low wage, you can still cover your cost of living. And even when I was in college, I think in Japan you could teach English for about 80,000 a year. So people were saving quite a bit of money, uh, by doing that. And I think it's really striking when you think of the poverty line in places like the us how much money you have to make to cover all of your monthly expenses in the US and how you can live abroad for a fraction of the price and potentially have a much better lifestyle. That's something that just doesn't seem to be like mainstream knowledge, but it's good to to talk about that and and share it with people.  

Josh:    00:19:18    Absolutely. We've met people that have have done teaching for 10, 15, 20 years doing it internationally and they've made it to these top schools and they're millionaires.  

Kristin:    00:19:29    Yeah. Yeah. I mean you can save so much money that way and just living a simple lifestyle and still having so much fun. What are, what is like the, if you had to pick one place, let's say like you guys are maybe moving again after having the baby, but in the past, what has been your favorite place to live? Where you just woke up every morning and you're like pinching yourself. Like, our lifestyle is so good, how is this real? Like I know I've had that feeling. Where did you have it and why?  

Josh:    00:20:01    Oh, hands down was Singapore. Uh, it was the longest place we'd ever stayed as well. We, we, we stayed there for four years. Granted, I don't love the humidity there, but uh, I'd rather be hot than cold. So the hu I could get over that and actually worked outside most of the day as a PE teacher, so I got over that. But sometimes I would have, you know, pinched myself moments where I'm, I'm walking to school or I'm just walking around and it just feels like I'm in a resort. It's that, you know, that type of weather you feel when you're in a resort. That's the way I felt and it was phenomenal. Yeah, there are gonna be other people that completely disagree with me. They're gonna say the humidity is disgusting. They sweat all the time, they hate it. But for me, Singapore  

Kristin:    00:20:49    And, well, there's that movie that came out recently. What was it about Singapore?  

Josh:    00:20:55    Crazy Rich Asians.  

Kristin:    00:20:56    Crazy Rich Asians. Yeah. And I actually have a lot of friends who live there. I've only been through the airport a couple times, which is good enough. Like I could live, I could live in Chenge airport, like no problem. I'll call me in a month. I'll be like, okay, I guess I'll go outside now. But, um, that if you guys haven't Googled that airport or watched YouTube videos about it, it's so cool. They have like, it keeps  

Josh:    00:21:19    Getting better too. They have a new terminal. They Yeah, the Jewel. Unbelievable.  

Kristin:    00:21:23    It's like fitness centers, pools, gardens, a theme park or something like, I don't even know <laugh>. It's so crazy. It's crazy. Yeah, yeah. But the people who live there, the expats who I know who lived there or had lived there, they're like depressed when they leave. Like I have friends, they were in Singapore I think for like eight years, they moved to Colorado for work and they're just like, we miss Singapore and they're always going back to visit their friends. So I need to really go and check that place out. And it's good to know that you can go and not, you don't have to make $200,000 a year. Like you can make 5,000 or less a month and you can live there.  

Josh:    00:22:04    Yeah, definitely. There there is, there is a way to live in Singapore. I know Singapore's very expensive. It is notoriously expensive, but there is a way to go to Singapore and still enjoy yourself without having to really break the bank. Locals do it. Now granted they do get some subsidies, especially with housing. And housing is really the most expensive thing, but there's a way to do it definitely on two incomes. Like if you and your spouse or life partner work, then you're good as a single. It's possible, but you'll have to have roommates.  

Kristin:    00:22:37    Yeah, yeah. And that there's a bit of a trade off there 'cause you know, but it's just like living in a rural area. Like if you live in a city like Toronto or New York, like you're gonna maybe have to have roommates, but if you move into the suburbs, you don't <laugh>. But it's a trade off with the, with the quality of life. So you've lived in some amazing places, but as we know with travel, things never go as planned. Almost never. And sometimes they can go really wrong. You've had these pinch me moments when you're walking down the street and it's like beautiful and perfect weather and you're like, I can't believe this. But what about the opposite? Have you guys ever had any times where you were thinking, maybe we made a mistake, maybe we should move back home, quote unquote, or any times where you're like, this has just pushed me to the limit and I don't know if I can keep up this lifestyle anymore. Or maybe we're in over our heads.  

Josh:    00:23:37    Yeah, that's a, that's a great question. I think philosophically first, Kalie and I are both, we're both very competitive people. Both of us played collegiate soccer. We don't like to lose. And I think that that, you know, helps strengthen our mentality. So when we make a decision, we really want to stick it out. So if we make a commitment to something, whether it be for a year or two years, whatever that contract is, we just go ahead and suck it up. Now saying that, I'll say that the first day that we were in Saudi Arabia was, was really difficult. It was more difficult for Kalie than, than me. It wasn't until like two years later that she actually told me this happened. But we arrived in Saudi Arabia and this really has nothing to do with Saudi Arabia. I think it more has to do with just a perfect storm of the logistics of the company that was helping us settle in.  

Josh:    00:24:29    And then also Saudi being so foreign and the ideas that we had about Saudi in our heads not being kind of sorted out yet, but we arrive, uh, late at night. The person that's supposed to meet us at the airport to take us to our compound is not there. However, on a pole is a piece of paper, uh, a janky piece of paper with our names. So we walk up to this pole, your man's not there, and we're like looking around and there's this guy that motions like, and points and he's basically saying like, he's gone for a coffee or something, or tea, dunno. So we're just standing there and we stand there for a few minutes and then he comes up and, and he's, he doesn't look very professional, super nice guy, find this out later. Super nice guy. <laugh>, but he doesn't look very professional.  

Josh:    00:25:19    So it's like, oh gosh. So we get in this van, it's really dark. Everything is just, it's dark and foreign and we're driving down the road very fast. The road doesn't have lights. The the, the van breaks down twice. We're both looking at each other like, what is going on? Like, are we, are we dead? What's happening? We pull up to the compound a couple hours later, probably at least an hour, hour and a half longer drive than it should have been. And we've been traveling for a while, you know, like we've been on the road trying to get to our compound for a while from leaving the US to coming to Saudi. So we were exhausted and the guy just kind of like went wafts his arm towards the apartment like, this is something that's gonna be amazing. And we're like, okay. So we walk up, walk inside, it stinks.  

Josh:    00:26:12    It, it doesn't look like much of anything and we're just bummed out. So I just tell my wife, I'm like, look, I'm going to bed. Like I'll, we'll sort this out in the morning she sit at the kitchen table. I had no idea of this, but she sits at the kitchen table and cries, Aw. Doesn't even go to bed and just cries and thinks like, what have we gotten ourselves into? The morning comes though, we get thrown into work and we, we get in our routine and everything's fine. But you know, there, there were days that were, we're trying and there were days that were just frustrating 'cause of cultural differences and barriers. But like it's, it's okay. It's gonna be okay. And fortunately I think we had each other as well. I think for a single woman to go there and have that same experience, maybe without someone to say like, Hey, it's gonna be okay or I've got you, it could be different. But for us being together with each other, it made the world of difference for us.  

Kristin:    00:27:07    What advice do you have for people who are a bit intimidated by the idea of moving abroad or they think, how could you go somewhere alone? Or what if you don't know anyone? Or how do you deal with culture shock? What are, what are some, some things that people can keep in mind from your experience? Does it always turn out to be a positive outcome  

Josh:    00:27:30    From personal experience? Uh, yes. But I know that people that we've talked to and people that we've helped, it's not always been a positive experience. Uh, that's life, right? But there's also a way that you can react to it. Going back to your initial question though, it's really difficult for me to answer because Kayleigh and I started this together. You know, we moved abroad together and we're doing this together. So I would say a couple things though. One is try to convince somebody else to go 'cause they're gonna have a ball doing it with you now maybe after the initial year or two. 'cause we've met people that have done this after the initial year or two of living in a new place. Maybe you find that one person loves it and the other person doesn't. And you part ways, but at least that initial hurdle you had someone there with you. The second thing is, and I think this is really crucial and this is very different than our experience when we first moved abroad. We've got things like FaceTime and Skype, which are really good now. Uh, especially FaceTime. Uh, if you're an Apple user, you know, just one simple press of a button and you're calling your family and friends wherever. Yeah. And you're able to have that, like that video FaceTime. It's really important for helping with homesickness and just feeling connected to your people back home.  

Kristin:    00:28:48    Yeah, you  

Josh:    00:28:49    Don't have to, you don't have to cut everything off whenever you move abroad. You still need those relationships and getting into a new place and then also still having those relationships can be really nice. It can help you assimilate quicker in ways. It could also be a crutch, but I think it, it's, it's really important so that you don't feel overwhelmed.  

Kristin:    00:29:08    Yeah. I can remember standing at Payphones with those scratch off calling cards and I mean, <laugh> a payphone, like a disgusting, the worst payphone, it's like germs on it and you're like standing in the middle of the street, like it's not that safe actually <laugh>. And yeah, just trying to avoid that or having to go to like an internet cafe to send an email and it's like, today we're really so spoiled and you know, if it doesn't work out you can always go home. But after helping well over a thousand people move to different countries, I've never had anyone say that they regret it, even if it was only for a month or they ended up ultimately deciding it wasn't for them. Have you, like, how many people have you guys helped with relocating to a new place and have you gotten that same kind of response?  

Josh:    00:30:00    Yeah, we've, we've helped a ton of people. I, I can't think of, of anybody that has, I can't think of anybody that's had, uh, a truly negative experience where they want to give up. They'll have negative experiences, but not to where they'll want to give up. I think that there's something about those that want to, to make this jump. There's something in like within us that allows us to get through those bad because we can see the good over the, you know, just over the next hill or hurdle. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:30:33    Yeah. I had an interview recently and they were asking me how I deal with problems that arise while traveling. And I was like, if I am really annoyed and something's going ultimately like very wrong at this point, I've seen so much and I've had so many bad experiences that I'm like, am I alive? Am I safe? Okay, good. Everything's fine. Yeah. Like as long as your life is not legitimately in danger, which has also happened to me <laugh> a few times, then that just kind of keeps everything in perspective. Like, this too shall pass. And yes, there are annoying days where you're hot and your flight got canceled and you're hangry and whatever, but like you'll get through it and then you'll kind of forget and keep going. And all these other good experiences will kind of fill in the blanks, but it can still be intimidating. And so I would love to talk about some of the practical tips that you have and, and ways that you help people. Things like how do you integrate with a culture when you first move to a city? How do you get to meet people? I think, well let's start with that. Like, I think one of the biggest things for people is how to like, figure out their way around, find what to do and establish a community so that they're not feeling like they're all alone.  

Josh:    00:31:53    Okay. So I, I assume that integration, we're talking about language as well. Do we wanna dive into language?  

Kristin:    00:32:01    Yeah. Do you think that people have to learn the language? I mean, this is a big question. Uh, I know that becoming fluent in Spanish has made my life a thousand times easier because there's so many countries where I can communicate with people and I do feel like a fish out of water in other countries. And sometimes my brain tries to default to Spanish even if I'm in Japan or something. 'cause it's like, oh, switch out of English, but then there's no language under there. So yeah. What do you think? Is it a necessary, is it polite or is it just like optional?  

Josh:    00:32:36    Ooh, all the above everything. No, I think if you don't know English and you don't know the local language, then it's gonna be very rough. Then you're talking about a completely different experience. But most places if you know English and you're willing to try the local language a bit and just be open to learning some new words, it can help out tremendously. But it's not obligatory. It, it wasn't obligatory in Spain. And at the time in Madrid, I would say that their level of English was atrocious. It's gotten better. Yeah. And even by their standard, if you talk to, uh, local Enos that, that know English well, they will say about their own countrymen, like, we're terrible at English. Yeah. You know, and there's a, there's, there's definitely a historical reason for that. But there, if you know, Spanish life does get easier. There are things that open up to you because you do, but it's not necessary in Korea was the same way. There are enough people that know English that you'll be able to get along. But if you know Korean, wow, the doors that open for you are tremendous.  

Kristin:    00:33:47    And do you hang out with these locals? Like do you hang out with locals in each country or are you guys mostly hanging out with the other expat teachers?  

Josh:    00:33:55    It's been a big blend. So when we were living in Spain, we had probably 60 or 70% of expat friends and then 30% Spanish friends. But the, the funny thing about our Spanish friends is they were so much people of the world. They could be expats as well. You know, they could go on and leave Spain and become ex-pats and some of them did or they had and they, they had come back. So there was this kind of, I guess, centralizing way of life or way of thought that that made us friends in the first place. In Korea, we only hung out with Koreans that knew English just because our Korean was nothing. I mean, I learned how to read Korean quite early on and that helped out a ton. 'cause then I could order whatever food I wanted because I, I knew like what the food was called, but maybe me trying to order it spoken would be a bit dodgy. But a lot of times in Korean restaurants you can just point to it or you'll like check off on like a check boxes off on a, a menu to order your food. So once I could do that. Amazing.  

Kristin:    00:35:06    Kind of like Japan <laugh>.  

Josh:    00:35:08    Yeah, yeah, exactly. 'cause you're experiencing the food, which is interlaced with the culture. So that was great. In Saudi, uh, we, because we were on a compound, we really only only interacted with the people in the compound. And then our students. And our students were all, Saudis had a couple of Yemeni students, amazing kids. I, I, I loved them. They were, they were a lot of fun. And then in Singapore, one of the official languages is English. So yeah, that was a piece of cake. Singapore's Asian light, everyone calls it that. It's, it's Asia light. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:35:42    Asia Light. And how do you avoid kind of getting ripped off in the places where you don't speak the language? Do you ever get gringo priced out of these places?  

Josh:    00:35:52    Absolutely. I had an instance in Egypt where it happened. Um, we were, we were there actually just before the, the Arab Spring when all that stuff was going on. We left about 48 hours before the UK and the US were flying people out. Like so things were getting really bad. We weren't near that part. So it was very strange being disconnected from the news and like knowing that in tar square, like stuff was about to kick off. But we didn't know why. We were like, what's happening here? You know, why do people seem so angry? But anyways, back to the gringo price. So near our hostel was uh, just like a, a corner store, a convenience store. And for three days in a row I had gone into the store to buy the same bottle of water. And I had gotten four different prices, <laugh>. And the last time old man was sitting there when the younger guy told me what the price was and he just like whacks him and tells him that's not right.  

Josh:    00:36:53    You need to to give him the lower price. So it was like he was telling me 20 pounds and it should have been five. And the old man whacked him and told him like, no, it needs to be five. Which was the original price I had paid for it three days before. Now how do I deal with that? I recognize like at the time it wasn't really that much. Like we're talking about the difference between 50 cents and, uh, no, it was like 15 cents and 50 cents. I mean you go into any, any major city in the west and you're gonna be paying $2 for a bottle of water in a convenience store. So I was just kind of like, ah, whatever. But it can be very annoying. It was annoying. Like for the principle of it, it was annoying, but I had to just calm down and recognize like it's not that big of a deal, not the end of the world.  

Kristin:    00:37:42    I think that, yeah, people, like one of the things that I've helped people with with relocations is helping them get a more fair price, especially in Spanish speaking countries for example. Or it's like, you know, you know, or I'll know the area, I'll know the comps and that's just really hard if you're coming from another country to be able to know that kind of local information. But I have witnessed some of my expat friends get really, really mad because they got overcharged by a taxi driver or something like that and they let it ruin their trip. And so I think for me it's like the gringo tax. Sometimes it's built in a little bit. Yeah, maybe it's not fair, but it's also, yeah, sometimes you don't know people's situations or, or what's going on. But I think it's very interesting and very telling that the older gentleman kind of told the younger kid like, don't do that. That's dishonest.  

Josh:    00:38:39    It was crazy.  

Kristin:    00:38:40    That's that kind of family or you know, older, younger dynamic. That for me is just a reminder of how people are the same like all over the world. Like no matter what culture or what language you're speaking to kind of be like a witness to that little lesson there I think is really intimate.  

Josh:    00:39:05    Yeah, it was, it was, it was a sweet moment because I mean, maybe some people would've thought it would've been the other way around. Right. But yeah, it was really nice. Well we've seen the, we've definitely seen the uh, the gringo tax. Absolutely. It is a thing. Yeah. <laugh> for sure. Whether it be, whether it be at restaurants that don't have their prices listed or real estate trying to negotiate rent because automatically they, they see your face or your passport, they know your passport, they know that you have more money and they'll charge you more for it. Or a taxi.  

Kristin:    00:39:37    Yeah. Or crossing a border or a bribe or something like that. It can be tough. I think you deal with it on a case by case basis and um, just try to get the best outcome and then let go of the outcome. So if you don't get your way, just move right along <laugh>. And so now that you're back in the US something that people don't think about very often is when they go to another country, whether they're going just for an extended expat assignment, so they're just going for a few months or a year or so where they're kind of moving permanently and then they come back to visit for a vacation. Uh, let's talk a little bit about reverse culture shock. Have you experienced that? Into what degree? Because I know that the first time I studied abroad, when I came back to college, I was, I had a tougher time coming back from the foreign country than leaving my home country to begin with. Uh, it was, it felt like more foreign to me and then I felt like I didn't fit in anywhere. So how have you experienced that? How have you dealt with that and what kind of advice do you give to your clients and uh, to the listeners and viewers?  

Josh:    00:40:51    Yeah, I think first and foremost, 100% it is a thing and it hits people differently. So I don't know if there's necessarily like a cookie cutter answer for it, unfortunately. I think being aware is really important. There are gonna be struggles that you have, especially when it comes to relating to people that have never had that experience. Because you come back and you're all excited about sharing your experience and you're automatically making comparisons between the country that you lived in and the experiences that you had and then your, your home country and always trying to communicate those things with people that have not had those experiences you have, it's probably really annoying from their point of view. So you might find that people are gonna want to hang out with you less if you continually talk about it. So one of the coping mechanisms that we recommend is, is making sure that you stay in touch with your expat friends that are still abroad so you can talk through some of the things with them. 'cause they're gonna want to hear about it 'cause they understand the experience a little more than those friends that have never left before. So you're not getting on their nerves because you're really gonna wanna integrate or reintegrate back with those people. But you also have to understand sometimes you just won't, you'll have learned and grown so much that you've just grown apart from that person and that's okay. You just have to go make new friends.  

Kristin:    00:42:22    Yeah, that's definitely relatable. And you can feel like a foreigner in your own country for sure. And  

Josh:    00:42:29    Grocery stores <laugh>. Yeah. My goodness. Walking into an American grocery store, we had an experience where my, my stepmom, we were shopping with my, not stepmom, my mother-in-Law. We were shopping with my mother-in-Law and she was like, go pick out a peanut butter. And then you look in the peanut butter aisle in an American grocery store and it's like, which one? There's like 40 here. Whereas when you're abroad there's like one if you're lucky <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:42:56    Yeah. I'm always surprised at like all of the new snacks that America has invented. I'm like, what is this like a combination of other snacks and it's always very addictive and like very, not nutritional, but what are some of the things that you still miss from being back in the US even though you've been gone for 10 years?  

Josh:    00:43:18    Things I miss about the US Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:43:20    Whether it's like foods or, uh, something cultural or access to something or a product you can't live without.  

Josh:    00:43:29    Yeah. The, the main thing that I missed was the sports. Uh, it was very difficult staying connected to American sports. So I'm a big like college basketball, college football fan. It's really difficult depending on the time zone that you're in, when, where, wherever you're living abroad. Now in saying that, I'm also a huge EPL fan, so the English Premier League. Oh. So I love watching soccer and being in the US it's a bit easier to watch matches, but if you go to the wrong time zone, then it becomes really difficult. Like in Singapore, all the matches kick off really late. So it messes up your sleep patterns, but it's worth it.  

Kristin:    00:44:09    <laugh>, I'm sure Kaleigh might have a different answer to that. Is she as big of a sports fan?  

Josh:    00:44:15    Uh, she's a really big sports fan. Not so much US sports. She loves soccer. She would probably talk about some of the, it it, it actually doesn't exist so much now, but maybe some of the, the female products now you can get everything anywhere. That's true. True. More or less. I mean, unless you're living in a really remote area. When we first moved abroad, it was difficult. You couldn't find the right type of deodorant or for her, you couldn't get the right tampons, whatever. But now, like we've not run into that problem in five years.  

Kristin:    00:44:45    Do you guys own a home anywhere or have you ever  

Josh:    00:44:50    Oh goodness, beautiful question. So, uh, we, we kind of fell into real estate a bit because I, I had a house that I bought, uh, in my hometown when I was graduating university. I won't get into that story, but we had owned this home and then we, we moved abroad and we needed somebody to take care of the house. So my sister did and my sister did an amazing job, but she's not a property manager, you know, so bless her heart. She, she took care of the house for us. But it was a headache, it was a massive headache. So we owned this house and then finally this summer we, we got it sold. But in the meantime we, we learned so much about real estate. We started investing in real estate, but like proper real estate investment where we do buy and holds, we build teams and we invest in houses that will cash flow. Whereas this first house didn't cash flow. So yeah. <laugh>,  

Kristin:    00:45:44    Where is home for you?  

Josh:    00:45:46    Home for me is on the border of Virginia and Tennessee in a, in a town called Bristol.  

Kristin:    00:45:51    Oh, okay. But like, do you still consider that to be your home or where do you identify with the most as like home? Is it just where you are or is it a physical destination?  

Josh:    00:46:03    Yeah, definitely. So I'm currently stateless when, when people in Orlando ask me where I'm living, I'm like, uh, I don't know. I, I mean, because I'm not gonna tell them like where I'm currently staying. 'cause that doesn't really feel like home. It's like why actually I'm, I'm between countries right now and I know that sounds weird, but that's how I feel. I felt most at home in Singapore, though I could go back to Singapore, uh, in a, in a blink of an eye. I went back in October, uh, for business and oh, I just, I loved it. I felt at home. I hit Cheney, the smell of the airport, you people that have been to Cheney, you know what I'm talking about, the smell of the airport, I was like, I'm home.  

Kristin:    00:46:44    Yeah. I think that sometimes choosing where you go, people always wanna know what is the best destination, what's the best country to live in? And sometimes it's not logical, you know, sometimes it's just part of a, a heart decision or a soul decision or a gut decision and you can't necessarily explain it. And you just fall in love with a place. And sometimes you have high expectations for a place and you get there and you're like, this isn't that great. Or I, this isn't resonating with me, or I don't see what the big deal is about this place. And you might like somewhere that other people don't understand why you like it. And I think that's the part of the amazing time that we live in now, is that we can decide for ourselves what we like and where we fit in. And who knows, maybe you had some relative a long time ago that like lived there and that's why that piece of you feels like at home in this specific country.  

Kristin:    00:47:42    And you might not ever know the reasons why, but it's a special thing about this time. Well, I would like to get into a couple of, uh, technical questions for people to kind of understand more about how they can have this kind of lifestyle and then we'll do the lightning round, which is always really fun. And if any of the live stream guests have questions, drop them in the comments. So you guys worked for 10 years in physical jobs in foreign countries, winging it, just applying for jobs when you landed and, you know, having all these cool experiences. At what point did you decide to start your company, uh, Expats Everywhere. And how have you been able to build remote, uh, online revenue streams that allow you to remain in the US while you have your kid, for example, and then choose to go somewhere else after? How did that transition happen and how have you been able to build an online income from scratch?  

Josh:    00:48:42    Okay, so Expats Everywhere was started when we were living in Saudi Arabia. As, as many people in the, at least in the teaching game in Saudi Arabia. They will tell you that if you don't have a hobby then you go crazy. So you've gotta get into something because there's a lot of downtime, uh, in a lot of these jobs. And maybe unless you're at an international school, um, there can be a lot of downtime and if you don't fill that downtime with good stuff, then you might fill it with bad stuff. So we started to um, just kick about ideas on what we can do as a hobby. And what had happened was we were looking at transitioning to another country and we were going through applications and researching visas and doing all of that. And it's a ton of work. I mean, your listeners know it is a ton of work.  

Josh:    00:49:38    And I was so fed up one night, I was like, I would pay somebody to do this. And then the light bulb went off. It's like, well, if I would pay then maybe other people would pay. And that was kind of where the idea started from. And then we, we started looking around to see what was out there and who was doing this. And we realized kind of one niche that wasn't really out there online was within YouTube there's not a whole lot of people that are talking about a variety of countries from the perspective that we wanted to hear about. There were people that were niched into one country, maybe they were living there and they had a show about living in that country, but there was no one doing an interview with people that were expats in that country and they were giving their expat experience.  

Josh:    00:50:30    So that was kind of the marriage of this expat business consulting and this YouTube coming together, this YouTube page of Expats Everywhere. The second part to the question you, you asked about how we kind of grew it out, really we're, we're still in the midst of that. We're still a small company. It's not our only source of income. We also have other business investments that we do. We, we have our real estate, which gives us some residual income. And then I just started a coffee company out of Singapore with my business partner in Singapore. So we do green coffee import export, so that's another, uh, stream of revenue. Uh, as far as being back in the us both of us have digital jobs where we can work from home. So it's like we do 50% Expats Everywhere, stuff 50% digital work. My wife works with compliance for relatively large company that does legal work for other companies. And then I do data entry kind of online consulting for healthcare.  

Kristin:    00:51:31    And where, where did you guys find those, uh, remote jobs?  

Josh:    00:51:34    Um, my wife's was through her mom. Her mom, uh, works for this company and  

Kristin:    00:51:40    Okay.  

Josh:    00:51:41    Mine is through my sister. She, yeah, she works for the company. So through families  

Kristin:    00:51:46    Your personal network is so underrated.  

Josh:    00:51:50    Absolutely. I mean there, there are tons of jobs out there.  

Kristin:    00:51:52    Yeah. People overthink it. I'm like, yeah, just reach out through all the people, you know. Have you texted everybody that you know, have you messaged them on Facebook? You've gotta know somebody. You probably know thousands of people by the time you get into your like thirties for example. Just start asking. And then today I had a, another guest also in Florida actually, and he said he hires people off of Reddit. So imagine if you said, okay, every time I go on Twitter or Reddit, I'm also going to inquire with someone about a job or offer to work for somebody. Like you'd probably have just job like 10 jobs a week, wait, different ways to make money. But I think that what you said about having different income streams is really important right now. And a lot of people have side hustles. I think I just saw some crazy stats on that.  

Kristin:    00:52:45    Like basically everybody in the US has a side hustle now. It doesn't have to be driving for Uber. Your side hustle can be an import export coffee company in Singapore. It can be a data entry, it can be a, starting a YouTube channel. It can be really anything that you want it to be. If you learn how to make $1 online, you can learn how to make a thousand dollars and then $10,000 and then a full-time income. So I would just recommend people just go for it. 'cause hey, you never know. You don't have to identify exactly with one specific job. You guys went from teaching into real estate into, uh, expat consulting. Like we can define it as we go these days. That is the beauty of this time that we live in. So that's awesome to hear.  

Josh:    00:53:31    Yeah, that was the thing is, is we had a goal in terms of how we wanted to work and then we let people in our network know. And then that's when the two jobs came up. Like, oh, there's, we have openings at my company right now. Cool. Send me the link.  

Kristin:    00:53:48    Yeah, you gotta ask. So that was it. Yeah. We can create our own reality and it doesn't have to involve like meditating on top of a vision board. Just practical reach out. I got a job with a website that I love, the Daily Stoic. I just emailed them and I offered to help them with work, with research, with writing. And then like a month later they were like, Hey, we have this project, can you work on it? Yes. How else would they know that I existed if I didn't email them? That's right. And say like, hi, this is who I am, here's my experience. Here are some links to my writing. I would love to help you guys with some research projects or whatever. There you go. Open your own doors, <laugh>.  

Josh:    00:54:33    Yep. That's it.  

Kristin:    00:54:34    I've spent way too many years waiting for things to happen or thinking or hoping that something would happen until I realized if I didn't do it, it wasn't happening or I wasn't gonna wait 50 years for luck to just fall in my lap. You know, if you wanna win the lottery, you have to play <laugh>. You have to play the game people. Okay. What kind of services do you guys offer for, for anybody who's looking to get some assistance moving to another country?  

Josh:    00:55:02    We're actually in the middle of, uh, of shifting what we do as a business because we're looking to, uh, start doing, uh, a bit more affiliate links and then also connecting expats that are, that we've filtered and that are living in the country that the people are wanting to move to, if that makes sense. So we're, we're hoping to connect people that are living in like, let's say place that we've never lived. Bulgaria, for example, connecting someone that has, has lived in Bulgaria with someone that wants to go to Bulgaria and then taking a sourcing fee. Now in the past we have done one-on-one consultations, and then we go into the, the internet and dig up information the same way they would or we reach out to people within our network that can give us the information. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, uh, and our network is huge, but what we realize is all of that takes a lot of time and it won't allow us to remove ourself from the process and allow it to keep going. And that's really our goal is to be able to get to the point where we built something to where we can remove ourself from the process and the business still runs.  

Kristin:    00:56:09    Exactly. So  

Josh:    00:56:10    We're wanting to take it from being just a job, but into like an actual proper company. And then those people that are doing the consulting as part of Expats Everywhere, they're getting the majority of the pay. Um, but we're making that connection for them so they don't have to.  

Kristin:    00:56:26    Yeah, I think that is a great way to go about it. And both you and I being like pretty much same age, lived abroad for more than 10 years, started our own businesses and realized that if we wanted to grow a real company, it couldn't just be on exchanging time for money. And that is the consulting trap. And it does create a good living. I had a good living. I didn't have to change anything, but there's only so many people you can help when you're doing it on a one-On-one basis, there's only so many property searches I could do in a day. There's only, you know, so many consulting calls you can do in a day and that's why this conversation, like I'm sharing with the internet <laugh> for free because this is how you can reach more people. So we had this conversation with so much value for more than 25 years of living in foreign countries in one hour.  

Kristin:    00:57:24    We just basically brain dumped, delivered all of this information that would take people years to figure out if they just kind of went and did it, like trial and error, which is fine too. That's part of the adventure. But like people want some reliable information. And then of course there's, there's ways to monetize this content, which is, uh, something that I think both you and I are are learning how to do. And yeah, it's, it's exciting because of course when you're monetizing your YouTube channel, it's an exchange of value. You're providing value and then you're also offering additional solutions to people who wanna go a bit deeper. Like there's some people who just wanna watch the video go off and do their own thing. And then there's other people who want different levels of advice and a consultation and, and that is what many people are doing right now.  

Kristin:    00:58:16    And I think it's a great business model. So, so everyone should, uh, just think about how you can create something that can pay dividends literally and figuratively and create a ripple effect and impact in the world. And, uh, yeah, it's just so, it's so emotional. Like when you get messages from people and you get comments across the world that you change their life or that you help them in some way that you would never otherwise interact with them, that is just, yeah, it's never been possible before, so it just never gets old and it's so much fun. So everybody dive in. Jump in, start getting involved in the remote economy and the online economy. Get out there, travel, meet people. Don't be afraid. Keep going when you feel uncomfortable and when you're, some weird person is holding a pole with your name on it is standing in a air sketchy airport. <laugh>, <laugh>. Keep going. So, okay, let's do a quick lightning round and then I'll let you go. Favorite morning beverage.  

Josh:    00:59:21    Go-to morning beverage has to be water. It's the first thing that I grab and I learned about the health benefits of drinking water before eating anything else. So pe I think people would think, I would say coffee because I sell it, but water.  

Kristin:    00:59:36    Are you a lemon water person or a plain water?  

Josh:    00:59:40    I tried, but that means I've gotta like wake up, cut a lemon and no, I've got my water sitting right next to my, my bed. And anywhere I've lived since I've started this habit, I've, I've just had my water sitting there, so as soon as I wake up I hit the water before eating or anything else.  

Kristin:    00:59:57    Are you a member of any travel loyalty programs or frequent flyer programs? And if so, which ones?  

Josh:    01:00:04    100%. I am a core through and through A core is coming out with the all program, which is a core live limitless. That's gonna be brand new in 2020. Hope they pay me for this. They're not paying me for it, but they should. Uh, we found a, we found all or a core when we were living in Spain and it was a super reliable hotel and they uh, or super reliable hotel chain and they've got really cheap hotels up through like, you know, your five stars. And we found that um, you have some just, you know, really easy to access benefits with it. Plus they're pretty much everywhere but North America, which was fine because that's where we were traveling. We were traveling everywhere. But North America,  

Kristin:    01:00:46    I've stayed there before. That's A-C-C-O-R for anybody unfamiliar with that brand?  

Josh:    01:00:53    Yes. Yeah. And that's the parent company. So they have, uh, their high end hotel is like Sofitel. Their lower end hotel is IBUs or ibis if you're Spanish ibis. So yeah.  

Kristin:    01:01:04    So no airline frequent flyer, huh?  

Josh:    01:01:08    We have Delta, but it's been kind of useless because we just don't travel Delta enough. Yeah, we have 'em all, but we're, we have no status with any of them.  

Kristin:    01:01:17    Yeah, I'm Delta too. You gotta, you gotta commit as otherwise. Yeah, it's not, it's not worth it.  

Josh:    01:01:25    And we do global entry, we just got approved for global entry, so we're gonna go do our uh, interviews with those folks soon.  

Kristin:    01:01:32    Oh my god. Global entry is one of the best travel hacks ever. I actually postponed, this is like a dual lightning round answering my own questions. I actually postponed my global entry interview because I was all freaked out that I was gonna get on some list with like the deep state <laugh>. Then I finally did it. Now Global entry TSA precheck. I'm not waiting in those lines. It's lovely. What is your favorite travel or airport indulgence?  

Josh:    01:02:08    Probably going to the, uh, the lounges.  

Kristin:    01:02:11    Which lounge?  

Josh:    01:02:12    Uh, well I mean any lounge I can get into <laugh>. Um, Amex has great lounges. Yeah. But yeah, any lounge I can get into, even janky ones. Love it.  

Kristin:    01:02:23    Yeah, you gotta get that free food. <laugh> and free drinks. That's a good hack. 'cause you can save hundreds of dollars a year on overpriced airport food if you just join a lounge or even pay the day rates worth it. Sometimes  

Josh:    01:02:36    Just being able to kick your feet up too is amazing.  

Kristin:    01:02:38    Yeah. What is, uh, one of your favorite productivity tools or habits?  

Josh:    01:02:45    Every morning I get up and I write my goals out. It's the same goal, so I'll have like, kind of, yeah, I'll have goals that speak to different parts of my life and some of them are long term, some of them are medium term and I just write those down every morning. So it just kind of reminds myself like, this is what I'm working towards.  

Kristin:    01:03:05    That's awesome. I'm obsessed with  

Josh:    01:03:07    Goals. So like right now, for example, one of them is, and I always have it in the, the affirmative, uh, I have a YouTube channel with 10,000 subscribers. So I, I don't actually have a YouTube channel with 10,000 subscribers. I want to, so if you guys are want to click and subscribe,  

Kristin:    01:03:22    We'll put a card up here. Um,  

Josh:    01:03:25    Yeah. But, but I think just having that in the affirmative, like I have it, it's mine. Not right now, but it, it's in the future but I'm just saying it like willing it into existence.  

Kristin:    01:03:35    You're getting close. Yeah, we both are.  

Josh:    01:03:38    Yeah, we both are.  

Kristin:    01:03:40    Okay. Name your three favorite foods in the world that you've, or, or meals. Like it can be like a food with a country or a food with a city or a restaurant, like your three favorite, um, culinary experiences.  

Josh:    01:04:01    Got you, got you. Okay. Uh, Illa Buco with a mushroom risotto. Amazing Smo. Then I would have to go with Japanese Udon with some nice pork. I love that, that, oh man, it's like soul food. And the other one would be, I feel like I'm forgetting something. I'm gonna go with Southern Barbecue. That just reminds me of home. So yeah,  

Kristin:    01:04:29    I just got back from Austin, Texas and had a lot of barbecue, so that's a good one. What was that first one you said? Is that in Italy?  

Josh:    01:04:38    Yeah, Buco via Buco. It's uh, like lamb. Yeah. Shank.  

Kristin:    01:04:43    Amazing Italian food. Love it. Okay, so you said your favorite place to live is Singapore. What is your favorite vacation destination?  

Josh:    01:04:55    That's rough. Um, most recently we have been on this like island traveling kick and all the islands we've been to have been phenomenal. But I would say if someone else is gonna pay for it, I would go back to the Maldives in a heartbeat.  

Kristin:    01:05:14    And what is your favorite brand of luggage or digital Nomad Tech backpack.  

Josh:    01:05:20    Alright. They're not paying me for it, but they should be because I don't know how many I've sold. It's the, uh, Osprey Transporter 60 liter because that thing will fit on any, in any overhead storage and you can pack it out and um, it's really, really strong.  

Kristin:    01:05:37    I'm a fan of the Osprey bags too. Are you a carry-on only person or a checked bag person?  

Josh:    01:05:44    Love being carry-on. Only gets you in and out of airports so fast. Yeah, I don't really bother with bringing a lot of liquids, so that's never really a thing.  

Kristin:    01:05:52    Okay. I gotta do that someday. I've always checked bags, but I get free luggage because of, of my Sky team membership. <laugh>, I always get free bags. Any other travel hack that you can recommend?  

Josh:    01:06:09    I think the most important travel hack that I've started to incorporate has been, uh, taking a a jacket to the airport and whenever I'm passing through the security line, I take everything outta my pockets, uh, whether that be my wallet, my belt, you know, keys, whatever phone I put it into the pockets of the jacket and then I take that off and put it in the, the the bin or whatever it is. And it just makes it much easier to pass through instead of having to then grab all that stuff singularly out of the, the bin. It's just all in your jacket. So that's, that's a good one for me.  

Kristin:    01:06:45    Uh oh yeah. You just reminded me. I did a live stream in my Facebook group the other day and I was in San Diego airport and it, I was thinking about those security lines and I was like, what is the fastest way to get through here and think, depending on where I'm going and like what I'm wearing, like if you are wearing anything with metal, it's such a pain. Like you gotta make sure you have shoes that don't have metal inside. So I, I'll wear Uggs through the airport. I don't care. Uggs leggings like I'm trying to get through without setting off any alarms. <laugh> trying to get through really fast. Guys have it harder 'cause you usually have stuff in your pockets, but, um, yeah, I recommend no belt, no metal shoes, no like jewelry or anything crazy. Just try to get through as fast as you can in, in the TSA pre-check line.  

Josh:    01:07:35    Yep. That's it.  

Kristin:    01:07:37    Well thank you so much for coming on. You guys can check out Expats Everywhere on YouTube. We will link to that. And what is your website and how else can people reach you?  

Josh:    01:07:50    They can reach us at expatseverywhere@gmail.com and the website is www.expatseverywhere.com. But YouTube we respond to virtually every comment, uh, if it's worth responding to. 'cause y'all know some comments aren't worth responding to, but if you ask something genuine or you say something nice, we'll respond. Yeah, if you curse, we'll delete it.  

Kristin:    01:08:16    <laugh> <laugh>. And can we buy your coffee online?  

Josh:    01:08:19    Um, so it's green coffee, so we sell to roasters.  

Kristin:    01:08:23    Oh, okay. You sell the green coffee beans?  

Josh:    01:08:25    Yeah.  

Kristin:    01:08:26    Um, okay.  

Josh:    01:08:27    Yeah, so we, we source the coffee, it gets shipped from Istanbul, which is where the hub is over to the distribution hub hub for Southeast Asia. And then from there it goes to roasters. They roast it and turn it into a product that is drinkable.  

Kristin:    01:08:43    So do you have a favorite type of coffee, like a favorite roast of coffee?  

Josh:    01:08:49    I'm definitely more on the medium to light roast. I didn't start out that way. Um, but as, as I've started to do more in coffee education, I've recognized that the darker the roast, usually it tastes a little burnt or has a bit of a carbon taste. It, it's often over roasted when it's dark roast. So I tend to go towards the medium and I find myself a huge fan of Colombian coffee, Colombian specialty coffee. You, you a coffee fan.  

Kristin:    01:09:22    I'm gonna prepare my coffee for tomorrow. I'm such a coffee fan. I once went a year or so without drinking coffee, but then I addicted myself. But I I, I first started drinking it when I lived in Costa Rica learning Spanish as a college student and then I continued drinking it through grad school, <laugh> and then into working. It's really hard to learn a foreign language. You need a lot of coffee.  

Josh:    01:09:45    Going to coffee shops is great to meet people and, and have conversations in a foreign language.  

Kristin:    01:09:51    This is the thing like food and coffee and tea and all these kind of rituals bring people together and when you travel the world this much, you realize that everybody loves the same things. I was talking with, uh, the founder of Remote Year on the podcast earlier, Greg Kaplan, and we were saying how people are the same. When you really get out there, you realize like everyone has families, everyone has hopes, dreams, fears, everybody gets hungry, everyone wants to fall in love, like everybody gets depressed sometimes or whatever. Like we all have this spectrum of human emotions and these like life situations and this is one thing that can really bond all of humanity. So thanks so much for, uh, coming on and sharing all of your travel stories and making it realistic for people who have this idea but aren't quite sure how to make it happen. And like giving them a little bit of encouragement to take that first step because that's all you need.  

Josh:    01:10:52    Absolutely. It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me on.  

Kristin:    01:10:55    All right. And thanks everyone for coming into the live chat. Make sure to subscribe, share Badass Digital Nomads with your friends, leave a review and leave nice comments for both of our channels and we'll respond.  

Josh:    01:11:07    A hundred percent. Thanks.  

Kristin:    01:11:09    Bye everyone. Bye. Larry, thank you for being a Patron. Thanks so much for listening to help support this podcast and help it grow. Please leave a review in the Apple podcast store and send this or your favorite episode to a friend for weekly travel videos, live streams, and even more interviews. Make sure to subscribe to my YouTube channels at youtube.com/digitalnomad and Traveling with Kristin. See you soon.