How To Work Abroad and Travel the World - Tips from a Global Career Expert

Sneak Peek:

Mike:    00:00:00    I think with travel, when you go to a destination, most people, you know, they go for one or two weeks, they kind of get the insights from a tourist perspective. If you're going as a digital nomad, you go a little bit deeper, down more of a local lifestyle. But again, working abroad is one of the only ways that I've seen that you can really get the full 360 viewpoint of what it's like to live in a another country is working with the locals.  

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:    00:00:46    Hey there, Kristin Wilson from Traveling with Kristin here and welcome to episode 262 of Badass Digital Nomads. My guest today is Mike Swigunski, who is the author of the book Global Career, How to Work Anywhere and Travel Forever. Mike has been working and traveling full-time since 2011 and studied abroad back in 2009. His journey has taken him to over 100 countries and during this time he's worked in a variety of different jobs. Currently a nomadic entrepreneur who has multiple revenue streams. So if you've ever wanted to know how can you travel the world full-time while working either in person, in foreign countries or working remotely, then this episode is for you because Mike explains how he's had all different jobs from working at colleges and universities to interning to working online for a tech company and today having his own online business structure. So we're going into detail about that and he's also sharing a lot of travel tips with us in the lightning round at the very end of this episode.  

Kristin:    00:02:06    Plus we're taking a deep dive into culture and we're talking about the places where he's fit in the best and the places that he's struggled with adapting to the local culture. This is a great conversation. I am so excited to share it with you. But before we get started, I just wanna give a shout out to Matt Obia who sent me a message about the podcast. He says, I recently came across your channel and podcast. I've listened from most recent to older episodes and am currently in July of 2022. You can say I've been binge listening. I work from home in Montreal and fell in love with Italy during my honeymoon in 2022 and have been trying to learn the language since I got back. Thanks so much, Matt, for binge listening to the show and I'm so glad that you've been enjoying it for all of you.  

Kristin:    00:02:58    We have 262 episodes here, so if you missed any then feel free to go back into the archives on badassdigitalnomads.com, search for any topics or keywords that you're interested in and I hope that you enjoy some of the older episodes as well.

Podcast Interview:

Kristin:  But today, let's welcome Mike who is joining us from the country of Georgia. I'm so excited to welcome today's guest, Mike Swigunski. We were just talking before we started recording here about how we've been trying to make this interview happen probably for at least three or four years. So welcome to the show.  

Mike:    00:03:37    Yeah, Kristin, thanks so much for having me. And I've been following your journey around the world and also listening into some of your, your DJ sets. So excited to finally catch up and chat a bit about being a digital nomad, working and traveling around the world and uh, you know, all the fun things that go with those.  

Kristin:    00:03:54    Oh, that's amazing. You know, you never know who's listening out there. <laugh>, I've definitely been following you for a long time. I have your book, love What you've been doing, really inspired by how much you've traveled. For people who haven't heard of you yet or haven't been following you, can you just give us like a condensed version of all of the different jobs that you've had and how long you've been traveling the world?  

Mike:    00:04:20    Definitely. The, the short version is I started with studying abroad in, in university, then had my first job overseas, working locally for a university teaching economics. And that was kind of the light bulb moment where I was like, oh, I can just show up in a new country, get a job that pays me, you know, enough money to travel, gives me a lot of flexibility. And so I just started doing that until I was able to transition from like living in a country, working a physical job to living in a country, working a remote job and then working a remote job that allowed me to travel anywhere and then starting my own businesses. And that's kind of like the past 10, 11 years or so was doing that and doing it, you know, working and traveling in more than a hundred different countries up to this point.  

Mike:    00:05:12    But also really, you know, working, studying and living in different hubs has been great because I think with travel, when you go to a destination, most people who have, you know, they go for one or two weeks, they, they kind of get the insights from a tourist perspective. If you're going as a digital nomad, you go a little bit deeper down more of a local lifestyle. But again, working abroad is one of the only ways that I've seen that you can really get the, the full 360 viewpoint of what it's like to live in a another country is working with the locals. So that's kind of a, a very unique experience that I've had and whether you're working or volunteering overseas, again you can really connect with a lot, lot of people that way and that's how I've been able to make and create some lifelong friends is through people I worked with, uh, when I was living overseas.  

Kristin:    00:06:05    And what was the first year that you studied abroad?  

Mike:    00:06:08    So I studied abroad in 2009 in Bergamo, Italy, which I'm actually going back to next month, uh, which I'm excited about.  

Kristin:    00:06:16    Oh, amazing. I also wanted to study abroad in Italy but ended up in Costa Rica. How would you describe your career today?  

Mike:    00:06:26    Yes, I think the easiest way to describe it is a nomadic entrepreneur would probably be the, the best phrase or you know, description. And again, I think that falls into like the digital nomad umbrella, which isn't very specific, but there's so many cool people under digital nomads. There's remote workers, there's freelancers, there's people who have remote jobs and uh, remote entrepreneurs. And so I guess my biggest shift was I started off as an employee and then transitioned to building businesses and now running and owning my own like portfolio of online businesses.  

Kristin:    00:07:03    Can you share a little bit about what some of those businesses are or revenue streams? And then are you a hundred percent working for yourself now or do you still have any remote employee jobs?  

Mike:    00:07:14    Yeah, so fully a hundred percent working for myself as far as like revenue streams. I've got a handful of software businesses that are just essentially acquisitions. So a bit of background about myself is I helped build the company called Empire Flippers was employee number four there, scaled it to hundreds of employees all around the world. It gave me unique insight because it was a marketplace to buy and sell online profitable businesses. And so after about four years of working there, I had written and published a book, acquired my first software business and then decided to just go off on my own. And so now I've got seven different sources of income through book sales, through course sales, through software, uh businesses, through consulting and through a variety of other platforms like affiliate sales. Again, like every type of business model out there, I've tried it, I've failed at it, <laugh> at a lot of 'em, but uh, again, I just kept going and software has been kind of the, the area where I've had a lot of success. So that's something that I've been doubling down on and again, it's uh, a very cool space because I love building businesses from scratch, but that can take two to three years to really get off the ground running. So, and if you wanna really quick start something, you can buy a business that's already cash flowing and just focus on growing it. It has the product market fit and it's already been proven. So that's kind of what I, what I do these days.  

Kristin:    00:08:43    Yeah, that site's really cool. Empire Flippers, I've seen some videos about it. My ex-boyfriend bought some sites from, I think it was from that website and he makes tens of thousands of dollars a month in passive income. And I wish I was more, I'm sure I could learn, but it's like, it's never something that has been a core competency for me to get involved in software businesses or drop shipping or anything like that. But I definitely admire anyone that is able to do that. But what I love about your story is how you and I kind of started the same with not even knowing what to major in in college and both of us ended up on the international business track. Both of us got MBAs, yours was in South Korea, mine was in Florida and we both studied abroad and then we just kind of went out into the world with no idea what we were doing and just taking jobs as they as they came along.  

Kristin:    00:09:41    And it was fascinating to hear about all the different types of jobs that you had that led to what you're doing today. And I think sometimes people feel like they need to have it all figured out, but you are proof of hey, you know, you can spend 10 years or so tinkering around with other jobs as long as you have a goal in mind and that you are selecting jobs based on the fit of that job with your skillset and with your career goals. But you've done things like teach finance at a university in Prague and work for political organizations in Ireland. I mean <laugh>, tell us a couple of the jobs that you've had in the past because I think sometimes people think that, you know, they just have to know exactly what their 10 year plan is, but you don't know where you're going to get if you, you know, don't take that first step.  

Mike:    00:10:39    Yeah, I would say like the first thing is happy to get in some of the jobs, but the kind of mindset I got was like I'm enjoying the progress and I'm also like I internalize like I'm getting paid to like learn about this new industry. I'm also able to give a lot of value just 'cause I'm gonna show up and give a thousand percent effort and grow and learn along the way. And I think if you go in it with that mindset, you'll be very successful if you're able to do that over a number of years. And so, like some of the jobs I had were, my first job outta college was teaching financial economics at a university in Prague to people who were actually, like most of them were, my students were older than me and in the summers I was working at a pub crawl on Croatia.  

Mike:    00:11:19    So it was like professor by day pub crawl expert by night. And again, it was just one of these things where I was able to set a focus and a priority on travel where that was the number one priority for me. And then being able to fill things around that everything just kind of came into to working, right. So if you do have travel as a priority, meaning you're saying no to other things in your life, right? You're sacrificing maybe going out for the weekends, saving up money, stuff like that. If you're able to sacrifice those things, you can put travel as a higher priority and then if you're able to have a more flexible job, it just all is gonna work around your life to build a better, more flexible lifestyle.  

Kristin:    00:12:07    Yes, and and also I love that you took geographically dependent jobs. Now this digital nomad lifestyle was possible back in the, you know, 2009, 2010, I actually started working from home. I was just doing an interview for a researcher in Australia last night and she was asking me, when was the first time that you ever worked remotely? And I thought, well technically, I guess it was 2008 because I was working from home in Costa Rica and I was selling properties in Nicaragua. So it's kind of crazy to think that that was even possible then, but it was definitely not something I intentionally did. Like I didn't know I was working remotely. There was no term for that or anything, but I love that your background was with all physical jobs that you had to be there in person. Pub crawl expert is a new one that I didn't know about but teaching at university, it's kind of like the old school way of traveling the world and and working, which is what people did forever until the remote work revolution.  

Kristin:    00:13:12    But I think so much attention, myself included, gets put on remote work and the digital nomad lifestyle that I feel like people have forgotten about all of the other ways that they can work and travel the world and having those authentic experiences, as you mentioned, working with local people, staying for an extended period of time. Sure you have to go into the office or you have to commute to work or whatever, but I like that you had so many years of that and as I was reading your book, I thought, why didn't I do that? You know, I kind of fell into my own remote businesses. But after reading your experience, I thought I almost taught English in Japan. I almost did a lot of in-person jobs when I was traveling and I just that I had done that. So what would you say are a couple of ways that people can get an in-person job, even if maybe they're working remotely, like maybe they're freelancers or maybe they have a side hustle or something, or maybe they have a remote job but they have some extra time and they're like, Hey, you know what, instead of spending a week in each country or a month in each country, what if I volunteered on an organic farm?  

Kristin:    00:14:30    Or what if I applied for a job at a university or a market research firm or whatever that is. Can you kind of give us like some tips for the younger crew? Like under 30 and then over 30?  

Mike:    00:14:43    Yeah, I would say like under 30, the, the easiest way is with remote work and travel visas. Uh, so like Australia, New Zealand are two of the biggest ones where you can essentially get a visa to go live and work there for a year. There's a few other stipulations, like you need to have a college degree for some of 'em, but for New Zealand it's basically like you can show up there and do any job <laugh> that a New Zealand person can do for a year. Most people go in with the mindset to do fruit picking or to do some type of, you know, manual labor. I didn't want to do that. Literally just like wanted to go in and have a job that I could learn and grow my sales and marketing experience. So I went in it with that mindset, which was I can go into a new country within a few weeks, find a, a job that's going to be fun, something interactive where I, I'm learning and also getting paid well, having some flexibility and as far as like if you wanna find in-person jobs, each country's gonna be a little bit different.  

Mike:    00:15:43    I would say teaching English is usually the easiest way to kind of show up in a new country and have everything set up. I was like, not really. I was just showing up in places and, and getting jobs that way. So a lot of networking, going to hostels, figuring out what people are are doing to find jobs because if they've been there, you know, a year they, they really have things a lot more figured out and if you show up on day one you can kind of download everything that they've learned. So connecting with those other travelers that are, have already kind of been through and done that. A great other way to do that is to just get on local Facebook groups and just ask around for people who, who've been working as you know, on these like working holiday visas for over 35, again, I would say like under 35, try the working holiday visas.  

Mike:    00:16:33    I believe 30 is the cutoff, but anything over that, probably the best options go to be teaching English as a second language. If you wanna actually go to places like Korea or Japan, they, they usually pay quite a lot and you can sometimes work part-time as well. Like I know a lot of people just do 10 or 15 hours a week and then they have their, their online business or their day job or, or whatever. If you don't want work, if you just want to volunteer, uh, I believe it's called the WWOOFing. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Have you ever tried that Kristin?  

Kristin:    00:17:03    I wanted to, I almost did it. It's um, I forget what, what the acronym is it WOOF? Something about organic farming, Worldwide Organic farming. Yeah. I was going to do it when I, I wanted to take a sabbatical from real estate and do that for a year, but then I had the idea for my relocation company and that kind of took off and then I did that for 12 years. So I never got around to the organic farming, but maybe, maybe sometime in the future I wanted to do one in the southern part of Costa Rica and the Ossa Peninsula because it's so tropical and beautiful there. You're in the most biologically intense place on earth and it's on the beach, you can go surfing. So, but there's farms all over the world and it does seem like hard, hard labor, but I think it would be a really rewarding experience, uh, from what I've seen.  

Mike:    00:18:01    Yeah, for my understanding the way it works is you, you basically get free food and board. Sometimes you might get paid a little bit, but it's usually just a free stay and then in exchange you're doing usually some manual labor, but it can really, I think vary from like backbreaking stuff to, you know, more casual stuff like just doing chores or helping out around the house. So I think it, it all depends on the host and kind of, I do believe they have like a review system where you can kind of know what you're getting into before you get there.  

Kristin:    00:18:29    Yeah, and and like you mentioned, it really is about your mindset and intention going in because when you think about how long it takes to get a job, let's say in the US it could easily take six months to a year if you're applying at different companies around the country even to get a physical traditional job. And the remote job search can also take a really long time. I've had clients when I was doing career coaching in the past that it would also take six months to a year. And so if you think about it, if you invest that time and energy in trying to get a job overseas where going in person to the country can be really helpful. If you're cold contacting companies and trying to get sponsored for a work permit, it might even be faster, you know, to go get a job in Australia or Japan than it would be, you know, searching around Los Angeles or Minneapolis or New York. What were some of the salary ranges that you were working with? Because I think a lot of people also are, you know, afraid of, can I pay my bills? Can I afford to live there? They might not be getting those San Francisco salaries that they're used to.  

Mike:    00:19:49    Yeah, so like the salary ranges are, are interesting because every city and every location's gonna have a different cost of living. So again, like I was able to make six figures, uh, when I started working remotely and started working for this tech startup, right? And so that was kind of the salary range that I was working at when I was moving overseas. And that's kind of why I went in with this mindset is like, hey, I want to do either a job that's really fun or something that's going to, I'm gonna learn and move my career forward. And so I went out with that mindset where like I almost had a competitive advantage when I went to Australia and New Zealand 'cause 95% of people were going after the fruit picking jobs or like all the backpacker jobs where I was like, no, I want to, I want the like the tech startup job where a lot of the people were like, oh, you're American, I can see that you're a hard worker.  

Mike:    00:20:39    And it's a little bit different than their culture there. Like Australians and New Zealanders are just a little bit more laid back so they could see, okay, this guy's gonna be a hard worker and he is gonna be able to help us grow the company. And I also had some marketing experience, so within one or two weeks I was able to find jobs because one, I didn't have a lot of savings so I, I was like, it was either sink or swim. So I was spending 40 or 50 hours a week applying for jobs and I had a really good resume and kind of system built to actually do this where I think most people struggle because they'll, they'll fill out a job application like maybe once or twice a week. But you know, I was just like, my full-time job is trying to find a job.  

Mike:    00:21:19    And so when I moved to Australia and New Zealand, you know, I had the work visa already set up. I had the bank accounts, tax IDs address and everything. So within two to three weeks in each country I was able to land a, a high paying job and the first job was like flexible part, remote part going in the office. The second job was fully remote, but I needed to stay in New Zealand in Auckland. So again, there's a lot of opportunities out there and again, if you wanna work remotely or if you wanna work in person, there's so many options out there, especially if you're Americans to go to these other countries and and live and work as like a local wood.  

Kristin:    00:21:58    Yeah, and I love how one of the strategies you mentioned in the book is that you, you signed up with 20 employment companies or employment firms and I thought that's a great way to cover your bases. And I thought of, I've been thinking of doing that with video editors. I thought if I just delegate videos to 10 different editors at the same time or 10 different companies, maybe they'll all be done at the same time rather than 10 videos to one editing company that could take, you know, they're doing one at a time and it's taking forever. But yeah, just kind of going out there, spending one or two weeks, 40, 50 hours a week, just get it done and start your job I think is a really good strategy that people can take a lot of tips from.  

Mike:    00:22:45    Yeah, local, local recruiters are definitely a great way to go. 'cause then it's, you have like a team kind of working for you <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:22:51    Yeah, you're basically hiring your own recruiting team. And there's actually a subscriber that was working for me part-time and he went to the Netherlands and got a job with a big tech company and moved right in. We got free housing for the first couple months and then bought an apartment. It's like just set up a new life there. And he had been a digital nomad for quite a few years, but he wanted something more stable.  

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Mike:    00:25:25    Yeah, I would say so I studied my MBA in South Korea. That was like the biggest culture shock for me because again, if you go to Seoul, especially now it's, it's fairly international, but this was back in like 20, let's just say 2015, 2014. And I was studying in Gwangju which is not a, it's not a small city, but it's not a big international city. So like people are just kind of staring at you. You know, there's a lot of grandmas who like, maybe you're just the first white person they've seen. So like again, all, all eyeballs are on you when you walk down the street. The language barrier was pretty heavy there for the, let's just say, you know, people over 40. But luckily the MBA program there was like really international, it was all in English. Like all my classmates were so welcoming, they treated me like family.  

Mike:    00:26:15    So initially the first few weeks were tough, but once you kind of got into the rhythm, the rhyme, like I always had people that were willing to, to go above and beyond there. So I really enjoyed my time, but it was the first time I'd been to Asia and I moved there from Australia. So it was definitely a big, big difference between the different cultures and, and different foods and languages and weather and everything. You know, was, was quite an adjustment, but once I was able to learn how to adapt, it was, it was really a great experience.  

Kristin:    00:26:48    Yeah, I can remember going to Macal back in 2015 and everyone was trying to take pictures with me, but I didn't know why. I just thought people were being really nice <laugh>. Yeah. And just walking around going to the casinos and I was by myself Hong Kong, Macau and people didn't do that in Hong Kong, but once I got to Macau there were a lot of mainland, uh, Chinese citizens that came in and I guess they had never maybe seen a blonde person. So that was interesting. And now I have all these pictures with random people I don't know in, in casinos in Macau, <laugh>, but um, <laugh>. Yeah, I've heard that in other rural parts of Japan, China, different countries. Uh, what about some of the other places like let's say Australia and New Zealand? I assumed that the culture in Australia would be really similar to the US and I haven't been to New Zealand, but I did find that it was quite different. Yeah. How was your time adapting there and what were the differences you noticed between Australia and New Zealand?  

Mike:    00:27:59    So I would say the biggest, so if most Americans understand American culture, Australia is just like, they're effective, they're efficient, but they're not like, let's just work, work, work. But they get things done right. They get things done in like a, a semi efficient way and they're fairly laid back where work life balance just seems to, to do pretty well there. I would say New Zealand's just even a little step more laid back where maybe they sacrifice productivity to like be a little bit, you know, like, I don't know, a little bit less focused on just work, work, work or hustle. It's more like, let's enjoy life but let's also enjoy work, right? So they kind of have a good combination. An example that I like to share is like, they have mandatory vacation in both Australia and New Zealand where like you can get in trouble for not taking vacation.  

Mike:    00:28:55    Like they will force you and stop paying you until you take vacation. Wow. So I think that's the biggest example that I can share is like, hey, you have to take, you know, your 30 days off or whatever before you know, or else you're gonna get in trouble. And so like I talked to my, my friends who like got forced to go on vacation because they forgot to take it. So they're like, you literally can't come into the office until you've done that. So that's the biggest differentiator I would say between the US and New Zealand's. Just a little bit more, I would say laid back than Australia.  

Kristin:    00:29:28    Yeah. And no one's reminding me to take vacation <laugh> <laugh>. Yeah. Or paying me to take it. Yeah. Were you in Sydney and Auckland or any other areas you were working in?  

Mike:    00:29:40    Yeah, so the majority of time I was in, uh, I was living in Bondi in Sydney and then in Auckland as well. So essentially I was in both countries for six months and four of those months were working and then the other two months were, were traveling. So like I hitchhiked the whole south island of New Zealand and I spent, you know, two months traveling the east coast of Australia. And it's, they're both countries are absolutely amazing. I would say like Australia is probably more fun for somebody in their twenties and thirties. New Zealand is probably, it's great for everyone, but as far as like, there's probably less fun stuff to do as far as like things going on. There's more nature and hiking and stuff, which is also a lot of fun. But it's a, I would envision like twenties and thirties in Australia, if you wanna start a family or like retire New Zealand's like the perfect place for that. It's just a lot less people.  

Kristin:    00:30:32    Yeah, I've been thinking of going to New Zealand for a few months because I never made it there, but I already did the, the 20 years old, 21 years old Australia party scene <laugh> in Server Paradise. Yeah. So I had quite enough of that. I just found some of my old photos since I'm back visiting my parents. And it is interesting that you have traveled, you know, you studied abroad and you've lived with big groups of people or mingled with big groups during your university studies and your jobs, but then you've also done a lot of solo travel. What do you see as being the pros and cons of each? And do you prefer one or the other or do you still do a little bit of both?  

Mike:    00:31:13    Yeah, I would say like in your twenties, everyone should try solo traveling just because I think it's a, I don't know, it's an essential skill to learn how to push yourself, get outta your comfort zone, uh, and just learn how to show up in a new city. You know, get acquainted with people, socialize. And I would say it's taught me a lot about what I like, what I don't like, and you know how to push myself outta my comfort zones. And that's like where a lot of your growth can happen. So I still enjoy solo traveling, but I've definitely gravitated more towards group travel. I have a girlfriend, so we travel a lot traveling with family and friends. But again, if you wanna go somewhere and if you wanna travel a lot, so like over the past 10 years, my sort of process is like, Hey, I'm gonna book the ticket if you want to come along, I would love to have you. If not, you know, no worries, no sweat. And like, I've done that for a lot of trips even in the past few years where I just, you know, people had stuff coming up and I just went and solo traveled. So I went to Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan recently, which was a lot of fun and solo traveled around there.  

Kristin:    00:32:24    Oh, I really wanna go there. How was that? I,  

Mike:    00:32:27    I love the stand area because it's like, it's fairly developed, it's very safe, good quality of life, great cost of living, so your dollar goes a long way. And the people are very friendly. There's definitely a bit of a more of a language barrier I would say than, you know, western Europe or somewhere. But if you know a little bit of Russian, it can go a long way there. But in general it was a really cool experience. Kazakhstan's a little bit or where I was at in Al Mati is more pedestrian friendly, very walkable city. Again, I, I hear the winters are pretty brutal, but I definitely liked Almadi. And the cool thing about BK was like within 30 minutes you could be in the mountains snowboarding or skiing, so Oh wow. It's like 20 minute taxi ride and then you take a gondola up into the mountains. It was like, wow. That's phenomenal.  

Kristin:    00:33:19    Were there many people up there?  

Mike:    00:33:21    Um, yeah, it was like the end of ski season, so it was like, I wouldn't say it was crowded, but it was, I think it was like a midweek towards the end of ski season, so there's still snow on the mountains and I just went up there to have a coffee and like walk around <laugh>. But it was really like, you know, just afternoon in the mountains, you know, it was very, very cool experience  

Kristin:    00:33:41    Day in the life of this lifestyle for sure. Well first, uh, how much was your trip? So without airfare, how long were you there and how much did you spend approximately?  

Mike:    00:33:54    Good question. This was a few years ago. It was fairly cheap, especially in Bishkek, but in general, I, because I'm flying from, I was flying from Georgia, they had direct flights from Tbilisi to Al Mati and then Al Mati to Bishkek. There was direct. So I think round trip airfare was under $500. Let's just say accommodation for I think it was seven or eight days, probably under 50 to $60 a night. 'cause I think I did use points for this, but yeah, in general it was fairly cheap.  

Kristin:    00:34:29    I read that you can live there easily under a thousand dollars a month.  

Mike:    00:34:33    Yeah, in general, like anywhere in this part of the world is the cool thing is it's like you kind of have the European culture vibes, but it's like Southeast Asian prices, <laugh> and the safety of, of Europe or, or Switzerland. So that's one thing that's uh, that's really cool about this region.  

Kristin:    00:34:51    Yeah, it sounds very underrated. And you also are a big fan of Georgia. Have you spent a lot of time there? I actually saw an article, I think it was on some mainstream news site about this guy lived in Georgia and oh, you know, lives this life. And then it was you <laugh>?  

Mike:    00:35:09    Yeah, no, it was, uh, CNBC actually, funny story, like somebody's, uh, my friend's mom was trying to get in touch with me for like a birthday surprise and she just googled Mike Toi and then like I was the person that came up and she was able to like message me on Facebook and we were able to like throw a surprise party for my friend. But yeah, this article or this uh, video is about, uh, basically a day in life in Tbilisi. I was by CNBC Make It, which was a really cool series. I've been living in Georgia for over three years now, and a lot has changed over the past three years. A lot of it to do with a huge influx of people coming from Russia due to the war. So Georgia's a small country of 4 million people, a few million Georgians live in the United States and overseas, but about 4 million people.  

Mike:    00:36:00    And then with the conflict in Ukraine, about a half a million Russians have come here, which has thrown a lot of, let's just call it supply and demand of the local economy. So a lot of people who come here now are like, oh, well, you know, this is kind of like, let's just say central Europe prices or Eastern Europe prices. It's not as good of a value, but it's still, it's kind of going back to be a little bit more normalized than it used to be. So in general, it's like the, the reasons I love it here is on arrival with your passport, you get one year you leave, you come back, you get another year. So it's like one of the easiest places to come as a American expat. And they have about 20 or 30 other countries that are eligible for this. So it's very welcoming to international, longer term, longer term, ex-pats and digital nomads. You just show up, you don't have to do anything online and you get a year.  

Kristin:    00:36:57    And is that's where you're based right now?  

Mike:    00:36:59    Yeah, that's where I'm at right now. So this is the hub, let's just say seven or eight months outta the year.  

Kristin:    00:37:05    Okay. Are you still living in Columbia at all?  

Mike:    00:37:09    No. So I, I moved here from Columbia in 2020 and I've basically been here ever since. So, uh, I spent Covid here was locked down here for about, I think it was like 470 days or something that they had the country locked down. But it was kind of cool because, you know, you could stay in five star hotels for $20 a night here and you go to the most popular tourist destinations and you had the whole place to yourself. So Georgia is a very beautiful country. It has beautiful mountains, beaches, deserts, it has like every type of landscape. And I, I say it's like Switzerland, but a hundred times cheaper.  

Kristin:    00:37:49    Is that why you choose to live there? Because it's so easy, it's affordable and it's beautiful.  

Mike:    00:37:55    Yeah, I would say it's a combination of the visa. Another combination is it's one of the highest quality of life for the best price, right? You can go to places that are really, that are a lot cheaper, but the quality of life just isn't nearly as high here. It feels like a, you know, kind of like a European, an eastern European city more or less. And it's statistically as safe as a country like Switzerland. So that was a big concern while living in Columbia for a few years, you just hear, you know, story after story. So it did be a safety did become a little bit of a concern there. So that, that was one reason. The other reason was I just, I enjoy being central. It's a great travel hub. The other thing is, when you get into this kind of nomadic lifestyle is like you want to have a little bit of roots, but you also want flexibility to travel.  

Mike:    00:38:46    The one year visa here makes it not so much of a transient city like Columbia or in Thailand because the people who come here, they're going off the beaten path. They're usually coming here for an extended period of time where some of these other digital nomad hubs like, oh, all your, you make new friends and then they leave the next month, which is cool 'cause you have friends around the world, but longer term you usually want to have a, a hub where people are a little bit more invested. And so that's another thing that I love about, about Tbilisi,  

Kristin:    00:39:16    Definitely I wa I was actually thinking of going there the year of the pandemic. I wanted to do some snowboarding there and stay in Georgia for a while. So maybe I'll do that this year. It's been on my list for a long time. Do you feel like your friend circle is a mix of foreigners and locals?  

Mike:    00:39:37    Yeah, so definitely a combination of both. In general it's pretty easy to integrate here with the locals. Most people under 30 speak good English. Uh, so in general, I'd say like every destination is gonna be a combination of like, okay, in Korea, you know, I had 70% Korean friends, 30% ex bet friends, you know, some places it's just harder. Even in the US I hear this a lot of times, like after thirties, it's just really hard to make friends because people have their friends from high school or college, they're just less open to making friends. But in general, I think, you know, being in a good expat hub, people are always willing to, to get up, grab a coffee, you know, there's events happening a lot at, at coworking spots, so there's no shortage of of stuff to do here. But one of the kind of good attractions I like about Georgia is it's like where I can have a really optimal routine where there's enough fun stuff to do, but not so many distractions. Like if you're in Bangkok or something, right? There's just like shiny objects everywhere and here it's like, okay, I can kind of get into my routine. I've got like my life optimized as much as possible here. So that's one of the reasons that I, I love coming back here and things just work well here, right?  

Kristin:    00:40:55    Yeah. And you're living a high quality of life for a reasonable cost of living. And I feel like over the years I've really tried to balance the digital nomad hubs with solo travel because I just get exhausted. I, I can't go to that many networking events a week <laugh>. And um, there's always something going on, like if you're in Bali or Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Bansko, Lisbon, which is great if you're going for those reasons, but it can be hard to get in that routine because there's always like a once in a lifetime experience happening that, you know, you don't wanna miss out. So yeah, I kind of do the extremes. Like I go on Nomad Cruise and I'm with 500 other people for a month and then wow, I leave and go to Estonia for a couple months by myself because I just need to like decompress. Yeah.  

Mike:    00:41:53    Detox. Yeah.  

Kristin:    00:41:54    Yeah.  

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Mike:    00:43:35    Yeah, that's a great question. I, I definitely still, you know, feel like an American. I'm very proud to be American. I've very fortunate about all the opportunities that growing up in America has given me. And I think that's one thing that's like very clear when you travel is like, wow, I, you know, I, I am very thankful that I even have the opportunity and lifestyle to be able to afford to travel. And so I would say I identify as American, but I think home for me now has just been in Georgia. I've been here for over three years, have a lot of friends here and just really enjoy it. It's like the, I don't know, I feel very welcome. One way that I've never felt so welcome in in a lot of countries is like they just want people to be here and they're happy to have you.  

Mike:    00:44:21    And one example of this is like when you showed up three years ago, they had, they stopped doing this, but when you showed up, they gave you a bottle of Georgian wine, stamp your passport and then like, hey, welcome to Georgia for the next year. I was like, I've never seen any other country where they stamp your passport and then give you a bottle of wine. Like that's just the coolest thing ever. And then allow you to stay in their country for a year. It's just very rare to get something like that. And Georgian wine's really delicious. They actually are accredited with inventing wine, which is cool.  

Kristin:    00:44:51    That's what I've heard. I mean, I didn't know that they gave you a bottle of wine when you got to the airport. I've never seen or heard of anything like that. I wish more countries were more welcoming and didn't just interrogate you when you come in and act like you're some kind of intruder, you are like, Hey, I'm here to spend money and enjoy your beautiful country. But yeah, I have heard that about the wine in Georgia, so I'll have to try that out. Bulgaria as well has a long history of wine. And um, how often are you going back to the US every year? Are you staying out to get the foreign earned income exclusion or are you just kind of doing your own thing?  

Mike:    00:45:29    Yeah, so I always stay within the FEIE sort of ranges. So typically two weeks in the US and it's been around two to three weeks max over the past 10 years. So yeah, definitely spent a lot of my adult life overseas. And for me it's just, I can have a better life overseas. I can save more money, I can invest that money into businesses, I can retire earlier, I can have more flexibility. So it's just like if you ProCon it for me, it's the best option, right? I'm not saying this lifestyle's for everyone, but it, it should be something that I think should be presented to more people as an option, right? So that's kind of what the mission is, like, hey, there's such a linear path in the us let's have more options presented to people, right? And this is another option, it's not forced upon people, but here's the pros, here's the cons and here's the, the kind of lifestyle that you can have, right? It's not all sunshine and rainbows as I'm sure you're aware of, but it is, uh, in my opinion, a a better path for what the alternative path is, right?  

Kristin:    00:46:36    Definitely. And that's, I think why we're here having this conversation is this attempt to normalize not just the lifestyles that we're discussing today, but any lifestyle that people want to invent for themselves. Like this permissionless lifestyle where 99.9% of the rest of the world might not get it or understand what you're doing, but you're just pinching yourself every day because you live the life that you want and you've structured and, and designed it in a way that it really works for you. So that's amazing. And I know that from reading your book, that family is really important to you. It is for me as well. I've, I've struggled over the years with, you know, how much time to spend back in the US visiting them versus being abroad. How do you balance that? Do family members come out to visit you or do they just expect you to come home two or three weeks a year and and that's when you see them?  

Mike:    00:47:36    Yeah, so like anything, I try to optimize this whole thing. And again, like everyone's family situation's different, I can only speak for myself, but pretty much the cool thing about my family is they all love to travel. They're all very uh, you know, like willing to get on Zoom calls and stay in touch via text and you know, through social media we can kind of keep in touch, but again, you can never replace that in person. So usually I go home around Christmas time, everyone's in the same rooms, in the same building, they're off, you know, from their jobs. People are like, anybody who's out of town is also coming into to St. Louis. So it's just like a great place to catch up with friends and family all at once because there's not as a lot of distractions and everyone's, you know, pretty much on vacation.  

Mike:    00:48:23    The other way that I do it is my family loves traveling, which is great. So we usually do one or two trips a year. And again, for me it's like I'm creating unique experiences and memories with uh, my family members. And so in general, I guess I justify it is 'cause I have, you know, I see people who live outta state. I don't think I would live in in Missouri if I was living in the us So I'm kind of spending as probably more or as much time as a typical person or a typical family. It's just those experiences are gonna be two weeks in Italy or you know, traveling around Georgia. It's just a little bit of a different time. And again, I love that that time because it's something that's very memorable for me and for my family members,  

Kristin:    00:49:09    Right. If you were living in the US you might be living in New York or some other city, Chicago and not being next to them anyway. Yeah. Well you've always also probably had some crazy experiences while traveling. You mentioned that you recently got to go to a digital nomad mansion in Thailand and that you were also trapped in Morocco. So can you tell us a little bit about what happened there?  

Mike:    00:49:35    Yeah, so I'll start off with Morocco. This was like after Covid, you know, like where you could travel, but traveling was with all these crazy forms and stipulations and stuff. So I'd really wanted to go to Morocco for a long time. People had really hyped it up and I was in Spain and it's very easy to go from Barcelona to to Morocco, right? Yeah. And as I was going to board my flight, my friend sent me an article was like, Hey, all inbound flights are being canceled to Morocco. And so I was like, okay, my flight's still going. Like of course the airline, my outbound and inbound flight are still scheduled. So what, you know, what else can I do? And so as I'm boarding the plane, I'm like, okay, what's the worst case scenario here? <laugh>. I get stuck in Morocco for a few weeks or a month or whatever and I was like, okay, let's, let's just go with it.  

Mike:    00:50:28    This will be a fun story, whatever. And anyways, we get there and immediately like almost like four hours after I'm there, they start canceling all outbound flights. The thing that I was a little bit unsure about is all the news articles were saying they were only gonna cancel inbound flights. So in my mind I was like, okay, well you know, my next flight's in four or five days, it's still scheduled. They'll keep those flights right and maybe after a month just cancel all the flights. But again, they started canceling all the outbound flights. And long story short, I had to book five or six alternative flights. I called the US Embassy and I actually had more intel than them because I was staying at a Hilton resort. The Hilton person knew all the flight attendants and pilots and so he was getting more direct intel than the US Embassy  

Kristin:    00:51:23    <laugh>. Oh my god, you, this could be your next job working for the CIA <laugh>  

Mike:    00:51:27    <laugh>. Yeah, well, a lot of people, yeah, a lot of people, a lot of my friends are like, you a spy, right? So I get that a lot.  

Kristin:    00:51:35    How long were you stuck there?  

Mike:    00:51:37    Uh, so it was only five days, but the main reason was all my flights kept getting canceled. And so initially I went to the airport to see if I could get on the next flight out of there the next day. But it was fully booked. Luckily, I think it was like my fourth flight I booked and they were all pretty cheap, but I was just like, okay, I'll get it refunded if they canceled it. So I just kept booking flights and it was only five days, but it was just like, if I would've gotten stuck there another few weeks, I would've missed out on a friend's wedding. I had like, you know, Christmas time with family. So it was just like not an optimal time to get stuck in a place, but it was just like some variant from Covid. So they just decided to just on a whim, cancel everything. <laugh>.  

Kristin:    00:52:24    Yeah. And some people got stuck for months or a year in certain places, so it wasn't a far stretch. And it's that, that un uncertainty of being somewhere and not knowing when you can get out and having all the flights canceled. I'm sure that caused a lot of anxiety and maybe interrupted some of the fun of the trip as you were just Yeah, booking flights all day.  

Mike:    00:52:47    <laugh>, no, it definitely, definitely threw a little bit of a damper, but I still had a few days to explore and relax, so in the end it worked out. But you know, this was like, I think it was like a year, maybe six months after Covid had kind of stopped. So like it was just like, oh, not again, not like, you know, Omicron variant or whatever, <laugh>, whatever that was going on.  

Kristin:    00:53:08    Yeah, there's always a new, there was a new one like every month it seemed.  

Mike:    00:53:12    And then I think you mentioned about the kind of villa in Thailand was the, was the other question. Yeah. So yeah, basically in the winters I usually try to chase the sun, avoid the cold dark winters anywhere in the world. And me and four other groups of friends, we basically rented this amazing villa in Ko Samui, Thailand, and we're all online entrepreneurs. So it was kind of the idea was we can work, we can help each other's out on our businesses, we can help each other grow. You know, everyone's really into personal development, you know, improving their, their fitness, their, their, their mentality, their, their business, everything that goes into life, right? So it was just kind of this really great experience of living in a villa altogether with some friends, being able to work on your, your business by day, go to the beaches, do some fun activities, and kind of just have like a fun little work to life balance. Where we had a chef, we had like a cinema room, pool table, poker table, and yeah, I was just like, went on a bunch of scooter trips, explored the island and you know, just had an amazing month. So planning to go back there again to Cosa movie this year. So I really liked it there. Have you been?  

Kristin:    00:54:31    Yes. I love, I think it's my favorite part of Thailand actually. Yeah, I'll go When is it? In December something? November. December.  

Mike:    00:54:40    Yeah. So I think we're gonna go back in early January is the plan. Oh,  

Kristin:    00:54:45    Okay. Well keep me posted because I love going to masterminds and retreats and things like that. It sounds really fun. I was actually looking some up the other day, but sometimes, I mean, people will charge like $12,000 for a weekend somewhere or something crazy. So it makes sense to just get your own house, split the cost. Yeah. And yeah, live in the dream. Yeah,  

Mike:    00:55:13    Exactly.  

Kristin:    00:55:13    Well, let's do a quick lightning round. Since you're such a travel pro, do you have any flight booking hacks or a favorite website that you use?  

Mike:    00:55:24    Yeah, so as far as apps, I love TripIt and Flighty to stay organized and then Google flights for finding cheap flights. That's the pretty much where I find everything. And then if I'm looking to pay for cash or with a credit card, I'm using Google Flights to find a cheap or discounted flight. If I'm not, if I'm, a lot of times I'm booking international flights with points. One of the best points redemptions out right now is QSuites on qar. You can fly from, you know, a huge amount of major hubs in the US to Doha, and you can do that for 70,000 points on business class, uh, in a Q Suite. So that's one of the best redemptions out there right now at the moment.  

Kristin:    00:56:05    Wow. Using which points?  

Mike:    00:56:07    Uh, so I transfer from Chase points to British Airways, from British Airways to Qatar. It's a bit of a finicky system, but you can find some great, great redemptions there.  

Kristin:    00:56:17    Yeah, that's amazing. What is something that you can't travel without besides your phone and laptop?  

Mike:    00:56:25    Ooh, good question. I would say headphones are a big one for me. I think that's like a too easy of an answer.  

Kristin:    00:56:34    I have a million headphones and earplugs, everyone knows I have, if you've seen my packing video, I have like 13 pairs of earplugs stashed in every bag. <laugh> in case of noise, so, and the noise canceling headphones, so, we'll, we'll let that one count that, that's a big one.  

Mike:    00:56:51    Yeah, I, I like, I have these Jabra, they're the 75t.  

Kristin:    00:56:56    I have those and  

Mike:    00:56:57    I have another pair. They're pretty good. But the Jabra 75t's are just like unbelievable. You know, they're very minimalistic and good noise canceling, but I think for traveling you need to have a good set of headphones. And then I use these wired ones because they have a good mic and you know, they're, they're analog.  

Kristin:    00:57:15    Yes, I love, I have the wired ones on too. I love some analog cabled ones as well. And I do have the Jabra, so we'll link to those in the show notes because I went through five different pairs of wireless earbuds. I don't like the AirPods Pro because they fall out of my ears. And I tried so many other ones, the Beats ones, like just I, I kept returning them to Amazon and I finally landed on the Jabra. I think I have the Jabra 8 Elite and they're like borderline too big for my ears, but they stay in so I don't care. And they're great quality.  

Mike:    00:57:52    I like the Jabra sound profile, like the air pods are good for podcast and like, I don't know, phone calls. They have a good mic. But the Jaber, if you're like really into like electronic music or anything like that, I think the Jabers just have a much bigger base and sound profile in general.  

Kristin:    00:58:11    Yeah, definitely. They're underrated. How do you define yourself? Do you think of yourself as a entrepreneur? Expat nomad?  

Mike:    00:58:22    I would say like the term I use, I, I mean maybe I invented this term. Let's see, try to get a popular is nomadic entrepreneur. Okay. I think is the term that I, I kind of identify as, which is under digital nomad, there's so many different areas, freelancers, remote workers, entrepreneurs, but then there's like, you know, entrepreneurs that have local businesses. Then there's online entrepreneurs, but I'd say like nomadic entrepreneurs.  

Kristin:    00:58:47    Okay, I'm gonna take that and use it as well. Or I could be a s somatic entrepreneur.  

Mike:    00:58:53    <laugh>. Oh, there you go. New  

Kristin:    00:58:55    Words.  

Mike:    00:58:56    Yeah,  

Kristin:    00:58:57    I'll add those to the dictionary. <laugh>, do you have a favorite place that you've traveled to or maybe a place that surprised you that you really loved?  

Mike:    00:59:09    Yeah, so I was just in Lviv, Ukraine last week. That was definitely a beautiful city. It's historic, it's colorful, like parts of the streets look like you're in, in parts of Italy almost. So I really enjoyed it there, amazing food, amazing people. It was just overall like a beautiful stay. I of course wouldn't recommend people for safety aspects to go there now. We were visiting my girlfriend's family, they hadn't seen each other for three years. So just a bit of context with that. But once things become safer, I would say it's, it's a place I would highly recommend people to go. It's beautiful, beautiful city. Uh, Prague is another one of my favorites. It's where I, I kind of got started. I was just back there. I got invited to teach as a guest professor at this university, uh, that I used to work at. So that was really cool going back there. It's still again one of the most beautiful cities in the world. Again, I love Europe. I also really enjoyed Malta and Italy. So those are a few destinations that I, I really like.  

Kristin:    01:00:12    Nice. And what about overrated destinations? Have you ever been really excited to go somewhere and then you got there and were like, eh, maybe not for me.  

Mike:    01:00:22    I think this is a hot take, but I think Paris is one of the most overrated destinations in the world. <laugh>,  

Kristin:    01:00:28    Yeah. I've actually think that it's, when I went there, I thought I, yeah, I can see how it's very cliche. Like you'll literally, literally see some very beautiful, well dressed Parisian woman with a poodle walking by eating a croissant or coming out of a bakery or something and it's like, wow. But I, I really love it, but it's very expensive and crowded and everything.  

Mike:    01:00:53    Yeah, I would say again, like everyone has different things. Like I never wanna talk somebody out of going somewhere, so like, go see for yourself, see if you like it. But there's a lot to do there a lot of nice museums and art. But I'd say like in general, I think maybe my expectations were too high from movies and TV and you know, all like culture that maybe I had too high expectations at the time and I'd been there multiple times and I'm just like, I don't, I don't see the appeal. Like I've been to, to Paris like way too many times, maybe like 10 times or something <laugh>. And I'm just like, okay, this is gonna be a time where it clicks for me and it just never clicks. It's like, yeah, you know, this paradise. And for some reason I think it's, it's definitely more of a, I don't know, women seem to really love it. It's like this romantic kind of city and maybe it's just, maybe it's just not for me. I don't know.  

Kristin:    01:01:39    Yeah, no, I love, I love hearing other people's opinions about places because like Meine Columbia somewhere that seemingly everyone loves. I've never met anyone that doesn't like it <laugh>. But for me, I didn't, I didn't feel like, oh, I really wanna come back here. Yeah. Like I enjoyed my stay, but I didn't feel that emotional connection where I wanted to stay for the next year, which a lot of people feel. So I, I like to get, you know, everyone's perspective, but what's, what's next on your bucket list or what's your next trip you have planned?  

Mike:    01:02:13    I would say what's high on my bucket list is Antarctica. It's last continent for me. Kind of saving that for later. I think. I'm not in like a hurry to go to every continent, but it is like something that seems cool. I've talked to a lot of people who have been there and it's just like you can see untapped part of the world. And I've been to Patagonia, which is kind of a, I guess the doorway to Antarctica in some ways. So I think that'll be a really cool experience. High on my bucket list is exploring more of like the stand countries. Like I really want to go to Tash Kent, I want to go to Turk Stan, which is kind of like a pretty hard place to visit. So I love these like destinations that are a little bit more unexplored or off the beaten path or just like a little bit more exotic. But next month going to Italy. And I would say that's something that's high on my list because I'm going to a few new places. I've been to maybe 30 cities in Italy or villages and going to a few new places this trip, going back to Bergamo, Italy where I first studied abroad in 2009 and I haven't been back there. So gonna try to reach out to some of my Italian friends there and like it'll just be cool to see how the, the city's kind of developed over the past decade or so. It  

Kristin:    01:03:30    Definitely, I'm sure will have changed quite a bit. And if you need any travel tips on the stands, then reach out to Eric Prince, the minority nomad on Instagram. He's been there a few times and spent a lot of time there and so he could probably give you some contacts. Oh,  

Mike:    01:03:48    Cool.  

Kristin:    01:03:48    And then what are you excited about right now? Is there anything that you're looking forward to in personal life? Business life in general? What, what are you excited about?  

Mike:    01:03:59    Yeah, good question. Uh, as far as like what gets me excited is I just gave a TED talk, so I've been focusing on promoting that. That's something that's like really exciting for me 'cause I see people who, it's kind of like, let's imagine my book, but summarized in like 18 minutes and a little bit more extended where the book left off. It, it kind of goes a little bit further. So one of the things that I'm really excited about and things that I love is public talking, giving speeches, doing events and conferences. So I spoke at the University of Missouri this year and then I just spoke at this university in Prague. They invited me to come back again next year. So I'm excited to do a lot more public talks and public speaking and to be going to, uh, hopefully a few more events this year. Nothing firmed up, but I got a few big potential, uh, conferences, baby.  

Kristin:    01:04:54    Very cool. Is your TED talk out where we could watch it on YouTube?  

Mike:    01:04:58    Yeah, it's on YouTube now. It's on the TED channel. So if you just search Mike Swigunski on YouTube or Mike Swigunski TEDx, uh, it should pop up.  

Kristin:    01:05:07    Alright, we'll link that. How long did it take you to prepare for that?  

Mike:    01:05:12    Oh, it took a while, <laugh>, and I've given like, you know, 'cause I used to give, I used to work for the University of Missouri and I used to lecture at this university in Prague and I've given a lot of talks, but this was a lot different. So it took about six months of prep. I was practicing so much that my voice actually started to disappear and quite close to the actual TED talk. So in general, yeah, I put a lot into it. It's very emotional, heartfelt talk. So I think a lot of people will understand a little bit more about the motivation of why I enjoy traveling and why I kind of the direction I've gone into. So I I, I definitely think it's a good watch if you're looking to get maybe inspired to take your next big trip.  

Kristin:    01:05:59    Amazing. Well thank you so much Mike for sharing so many tips and stories with us today. Where can people get a copy of your book and how can they follow you on social media?  

Mike:    01:06:10    Yeah, so the best place to go to is globalcareerbook.com and you can get a free version of my audio book on there or you can buy, get links to the e-book, the paperback or hardcover. And as far as social media, if you go to globalcareerbook.com, you can find all of my social media tags on there. I'm Mike Swigunski on pretty much every platform, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever. And I love hearing from people. So if you shoot me a message, tell me that you, you listen to this podcast and I'll, I'll get back to you.  

Kristin:    01:06:44    Great, well thanks Mike. Hope to see you somewhere either in Georgia or Thailand or who knows. It's been great to connect with you and congratulations on all your success and my team and I will definitely be following.  

Mike:    01:06:57    Yeah, thanks Kristin. It was really great to chat with you as well. And uh, hopefully we, we see you here in Georgia.  

Kristin:    01:07:04    Kristin here. I hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Mike today and that you learned a lot and got a lot of ideas for how you can work anywhere in the world while traveling full or part-time. If you want some help finding online flexible hybrid remote jobs, then check out our deal with FlexJobs where you can get two weeks of access for just $2 and 95 cents. I'll leave that link for you in the show notes. And if you're looking to save up to 80% on your international flights, then check out FareDrop as well, which you can also find in the show notes or at TravelingwithKristin.com/FareDrop. Since I became a member, I've been learning so much about points hacking as well, in addition to getting these amazing flight deals sent straight to my inbox and phone as they have an app as well. So make sure to check that out and like Mike and I, you can have your remote job plus saving money on flights as you travel the world. Thanks for spending time with me today. Leave a review if you love the show and I'll see you again next week.