“I finally got to stay in the NOMAD prototype. I’m sold. In all seriousness—the second these are open to the public—I’m moving in.” - Scott

One of Scott’s favorite hobbies is Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Some of us attended a lesson at our last NOMAD meetup in Buenos Aires.

One of our most active and early members, Scott Sorensen, was born in California and raised near Seattle, Washington. He later attended university in Utah, where he earned a degree in Economics, with a minor in Business. Scott now lives in Raleigh, NC and runs a startup–SodaBox, a “soda bar” startup, full time.

Scott’s first professional role was at a startup called GoalZero, a power solution company which was one of the fastest growing companies in the space at the time. Being one of the first 10 employees at a successful early stage business gave Scott the opportunity to watch a company's growth from the ground up all the way to fruition. This experience of seeing a simple idea turn into a business powerhouse–successfully–is a major part of what led to Scott’s own journey as an entrepreneur. He also credits Tim Ferriss’ book The 4-hour workweek.

Though Scott has had early success thus far in his career, he wants to make sure that aspiring entrepreneurs know that the path isn't always easy nor seamless. Over the span of the last decade, he’s created over 10 companies, yet not all were huge successes. Regardless, he still credits a range of those–with varying levels of success and failure–as his favorites!

Some of these examples include Copper Urban Marketing which he’s owned for 10 years. It primarily focuses on ecommerce, website builds, design, marketing, and branding. (An interesting note Scott shared is that the name was inspired by a visit to Boston, where he took great affection for the green copper color used in the local architecture.)

Another company on that list was Proto Toys, which created various fun orientated products like: Fortsy, Build or Boom, and more. Weasel Wallet, on the other hand, was a high end leather wallet and stand Scott created and eventually sold.

Last but certainly not least is his current project, the up-and-coming startup SodaBox. 

When asked about how the idea came about Scott said that he always loved energy drinks. During the pandemic, Scott became a bartender and began learning a lot about menus and mixed drinks. Though this started as a fun nightly activity to get him out of the apartment, he began studying drink combinations obsessively to better understand bitters/sweets and how different flavors layered. This led to the idea of starting a soda shop, initially out of shipping containers, and incorporating family-friendly fountain sodas mixed by hand.

While Scott’s current company is brick-and-mortar, he loves working from coffee shops to work and tries to keep his role as remote as possible. This helps him ensure that he can be “replaced” within the day-to-day business operations, which is essential for any scalable company. He credits the NOMAD NATION meetups for forcing him to figure this dynamic out.

In fact, Scott credits the Tulum NOMAD meetup and its wild restaurants, cafes and bars for his inspiration to make his SodaBox shops more compelling, instagrammable, and visible to customers. His visual displays are one of the main complements he now gets from visitors!

Scott loves being an entrepreneur combined with having the ability to be a “digital nomad.” In his words, the reason why he loves being a member of the NOMAD NATION is because “a trip is going to happen whether I am going to go or not. People often don’t use their vacation days because they have nobody to travel with. It helps force you out of the regular swing of things, and to visit a new country with an amazing group of like-minded people.”

For example, Scott said that he would have never personally considered going to Buenos Aires, Argentina (our Q1 2023 trip) yet it has now become his favorite place that he’s ever been! “I was so impressed by the city and the people. The most stunning fusion of European class and style and also latin energy. It was so vibrant, fun, romantic, and also felt so safe. My initial thought was that ‘I could live here.’ There were so many incredibly smart, hard working, and successful people.” He said. Scott has also attended our member meetups in Playa del Carmen, Tulum, Cartagena, & Park City.

When asked about his thoughts on the NOMAD NATION concept, he said, “It’s the future. There really is no alternative for someone who wants to live a nomadic lifestyle. Rent alone can price you out of travel, even at a regular apartment, so I’m really looking forward to when I can profit share my vacant space when traveling to others. And most importantly, NOMAD brings the platform for the community aspect.”

Lastly, when asked about Scott’s weekend in the prototype unit, he said “I finally got to stay in the [NODE]. I’m sold. In all seriousness, the second these are open to the public, I’m moving in.”

Scott at our Playa del Carmen NOMAD Meetup

Stay connect with Scott by clicking to links below:

Scott’s Instagram

Scott’s Linkedin

SodaBox Instagram

Product pages:

www.wezelwallets.com / www.proto.toys / http://www.buildorboom.com/

Brooke at last year’s NOMAD NATION Q4 meetup in Park City, Utah

Brooke Beneze is a native of New Hampshire, but currently resides in Raleigh, NC with her beloved Corgi (Romy) and her cat (Ivy). At the risk of sounding redundant, she has a huge passion for travel and exploration–making it her top priority this year, alongside fitness. 

This isn’t anything new; she first realized how much she loved to travel when her mom took her on a trip to Europe (Paris and London) at the age of 12. She also attributes a large portion of her wanderlust from TV shows she watched growing up, hosted by Samantha Brown, a travel channel television host who built a name touring exotic places and documenting them. 

“I always thought, I want to do that,” she explained while discussing her background with us. 

The goal of traveling for a living seems to be a common thread within our community.

When Brooke graduated college in 2016, she jumped straight into the corporate world where she worked as an accountant. However, like many of us starting out, quickly realized she didn’t love what she was doing. The silver lining was that this job led Brooke to Raleigh, NC; where she decided to get her personal training certification. 

Brooke eventually left her corporate job at the end of 2022 (!) to launch her personal training business and online program, while simultaneously working on a real estate venture–making her a great candidate for our Member Monday series!

Brookie B Fit, is the name of her fitness program that officially launched this month. The program she started is primarily oriented around building habits, and is excited for the launch of an app later this year for her programs. That said, she has already begun filling up her schedule with multiple clients (to start your habit-building journey now, contact her through Instagram for a consultation).

Brooke’s first group course started on January 9th, this month, which has personalized programs including works outs, meal plans, grocery lists, journaling, and figuring out your “why.”

As an advocate for combining mental and physical health, Brooke centered the fitness program around helping people focus on those, rather than just dieting or losing weight. “It’s about living a healthy lifestyle and loving yourself.” Her mission statement is: to help people gain structure and confidence with exercise while building a sustainable, balanced lifestyle. 

So far Brooke has visited 15 countries, and her goal is to add a new country every year. Her favorite place so far is Hamilton Island, Australia, seconded by Greece (a place she’s visited more than once). One of her all-time favorite memories was cruising on a boat at night between Greek islands, “It makes you actually slow down for a minute,” she said, “the inclination to be able to pause and take it all in, this is why I love to travel.”

During the pandemic Brooke wanted to get out of Raleigh and decided to take a solo trip. She went to Tulum (where we happened to host last year’s Q1 meetup!), spending most of her time there alone, but did manage to make a few friends along the way. These new friends ended up being far more than new acquaintances, and they now go on many different trips together, a phenomenon that many of us have experienced. This is part why we think building a global, digitally-connected community is so critical.

Brooke has done a handful of solo trips as well, and would highly recommend them. “There are moments when you’re lonely, but in those moments you reflect and get to know yourself better than ever before. One of the best parts is that there are no rules. You have the flexibility to do whatever you want.” Her advice is to be intentional during these times, and really try to figure yourself out.

Brooke says with the launch of her online business, she’s really on her way to being a “true nomad.” According to her, this is a major part of why she joined NOMAD NATION in the first place. “I am so excited about the option to hop from these tiny villages all around the world, with incredibly flexible leases.” 

She thinks that people who have the unique energy to live a nomad lifestyle are incredibly special and wants to spend more of her time around them, “they take more risks, are ready to book flights on short notice, are often entrepreneurs, and almost always genuine, incredible people.”

As soon as she saw an article about the group, she immediately called Zach (NOMAD founder), whom she had never met, saying “I need to join!”—she did shortly thereafter. 

Brooke loves that the community continues to bring in people who are creative, ambitious, driven, culturally aware individuals, and is looking forward to its growth.

Business Instagram Link

THE PROTOTYPE IS HERE

First things first—the NODE, our ‘tiny house’ prototype, is finally complete—and it’s going to blow you away.

NOMAD NATION members will get exclusive access to NOMAD’s first prototype unit for the first 100 days of this year. We will also be heavily discounting our standard nightly rates for members forever, and hosting a free monthly meetup at the location for every month that we do not have an international meetup.

Our first official tour of the NODE *for NOMAD NATION members only* is next Friday the 13th (details on our public Open House down below).

NOMAD NATION MOBILE APP (BETA)

When we started the NOMAD NATION community in 2021, we said we’d invest in building a custom mobile app for members after we our 100th sign-up.

Our mobile app is now in beta and will be providing access (to NOMAD NATION members only) shortly. Send us a message if you’d like to be at the top of the list.

THe Village

Did you know that our village announcement was RALToday’s most popular article of 2022?

We are still on track to begin construction on the village within the next 90 days or less (Q1 2023). This is based on the City of Raleigh’s published permit review periods and a number of other factors we’ve taken into account.

We have been working with Michael Moorse, Franciska Belamendia, and April Pollack for the architectural plans, The Site Group for Civil, and Tyler Pitt & Don Shaape as our current and future General Contractors.

We’ll keep you updated as we narrow down on specific ground-breaking dates.

ALL BLACK EVERYTHINg

We are simplifying our NOMAD NATION membership offering by sunsetting the middle and lite tiers.

The current Gold (premium) tier will become the standard and only available tier, and we’re rebranding it as “Black.”

While all existing members will keep their buy-in plans whatever they may be (so don’t worry, nothing will change for you), all new members will have the same, all-inclusive membership.

NEW ROLES

We are adding roles!

Lucia Le, a former NOMAD NATION member, then NOMAD investor, will now be head of member experience for 2023. Lucia will help us focus on meetups, engaging with new and existing members, and making sure everyone feels welcome! Check out Lucia’s Member Monday feature here.

Spencer Ryan, now Head of Aesthetics at NOMAD, is a micro influencer in the tech product display & desk setup realm. He will be helping us capture the essence of our units, our tech, and deliver it in various photo and video formats for the world to see and enjoy! Spencer came onboard last month, and has more than doubled his social media follower count since. Check out his Instagram here—it’s epic!

OUR 10th NOMAD Circuit Meetup

This years meetups have been a blast—Tulum, Mexico (Q1), Cartegena, Colombia (Q2), Barcelona, Spain (Q3), and Park City, Utah (Q4).

Our 10th official NOMAD NATION meetup will be hosted in Buenos Aires, Argentina from February 16th-19th. RSVP by the 20th to guarantee free lodging!

 

The NODE (PROTOTYPE) OPEN HOUSE

Interested in touring the space? Member or not, come check it out during our Public Open House on January 27th from 5:00 - 8:00 P.M. Please RSVP at team@nomadnation.co

“The culture, music, and energy of the city [on the Colombia NOMAD trip] was incredible. Enjoying all of it with an incredible group made it even more amazing.” 

Walter W. Cole is currently a resident of Raleigh, NC. He spent his formative years growing up in Germany.

After his time in Germany, he attended the University of South Carolina where he studied psychology and elementary education. After graduating, Walter set his sights on Raleigh, NC, with intentions of working at its renowned booming tech and pharmaceutical scene in RTP (Research Triangle Park). While initially working within the Wake County Elementary School system, he finally landed a role at Lenovo, accomplishing his goal.

However, as is so common with so many entrepreneurial types–Walter felt like he plateaued in Corporate America & craved something more. Serendipitously, whilst looking for a new job he ended up getting laid off during a company merger. He actually credits this as one of the best things that ever happened to him. It was at this moment that Walter committed to the journey of entrepreneurship and “making his own money.”

He immediately immersed himself within Raleigh’s thriving startup scene and, after working for a few startups, was able to shift his focus toward drones—an industry that meshed his passions for tech, innovation and artistic expression. Fast-forward to today, Walt is the owner of Skyport Drones, a drone videography studio primarily servicing commercial real estate, where the studio focuses on video production and digital design for his clients.

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“I view NOMAD NATION is a visionary product and one that, much like Uber, Facebook, and the smart phone can truly revolutionize and forever alter how we do things. Covid obviously disrupted the way we live quite a bit and while it was bad, there was a least one positive outcome that came from it. It accelerated society in a lot of ways, It’s now become more acceptable for people to work remotely and the NOMAD NATION project fits right in with where things are headed. I am excited to see the community and company grow.”

Walt has been able to attend multiple NOMAD meetups, including our most recent Q4 meet up in Park City, Utah. While he has enjoyed all of them he sites, Cartagena, Colombia as his favorite NOMAD adventure so far was. “There’s a vibrancy to the city, the culture, the art, the music and the city as a whole has an incredible energy to it. Plus enjoying all of it with an incredible group made it even more memorable.” 

His home base is in Raleigh, but he is completely remote, and often travels to different locations for work. For Walt, day-to-day has been different since covid; most time is spent making connections, freelance marketing, and finishing his latest project (more explained below). 

“I love the ability to be location independent; I can pick up and travel and still make an income, it also always for a great work-life balance which is a core value for me.”

When asked about his motivation to join NOMAD NATION he said, “It is amazing being surrounded by people who are “doers” and are excelling in their respective fields. I’m a big believer in the old adage ‘You are the sum of the 5 people you surround yourself with most.’ NOMAD NATION is an incredibly great group that continues to inspire and motivate me.”

Today, Walter is most excited about his latest project, The Skyport Institute. Utilizing his background for education, The Skyport Institute offers training and educational for consumers and businesses wanting a turn-key solution to start their own viable drone business–including: How to price services, payment methods, the hottest emerging industries to get into, what to expect on your first paying job, and much more. Make sure to follow him to stay updated on this new offering!

Walt’s Instagram

Info on his Drone Business

“To me, NOMAD is the future tied into traditional real estate, and the opportunity to bring together multiple generations and communities”

—Lucia Le

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For today’s Member Monday, we’ll be getting to know Lucia Le–a real estate guru, mother of three, and as of recently: a NOMAD member, investor and advisor of the startup. 

At the start of Lucia’s career, she had what most might think was the “right job” in a big city.  She attended a prestigious master’s degree program in Advertising, then worked many years as an Art Director at a large Ad Agency in her hometown of Washington DC. Yet even though it had been her life’s goal at the time, it didn’t make her happy. So she followed her gut, quit her job and started her own Boutique Advertising Agency—little did she know this was only the beginning of her creative entrepreneurial journey. 

Having also founded (and sold) a corporate dog-walking company, developed an online digital weight loss business and now running her own real estate firm, it’s fair to say the entrepreneurial spirit has been an integral part of who Lucia is.

Fast forward to today: in addition to being in the Real Estate industry for 18yrs and owning her own firm for about half that time, she now manages multiple investment properties, operates her own rental car fleet, invests in various businesses, and travels constantly–all on top of being a mom to 3 little ones!

The transferable skills from her marketing studies and her genuine love of people allowed her to be extremely successful in multiple businesses where both industry knowledge and “people skills” are equally important.

Given her forward-thinking nature, when Lucia started her firm years ago, she had already realized that an office building was not necessary and that remote working made more sense financially, was better for herself, and her employees.

That was the beginning of her transition to a fully-remote entrepreneurial lifestyle.

“What’s really cool about this group is that it brings people to places they might not go otherwise.”

Currently Lucia’s home base is Cary, NC but like so many of us, is always traveling.

Her favorite place on earth so far is New Zealand–she found the islands to be “visually spectacular” and was blown away by the nature and beauty–which she felt to be virtually untouched. She’s excited to visit the Caribbean, Iceland, Peru, and Greece this year.

Lucia suggests that the key to her success was “doing whatever it takes.” Her work ethic is what has allowed her to live the lifestyle she dreamed about, and gave her the ability to travel and truly enjoy life to the fullest. Her advice?

“Work hard and be patient–everything will fall into place.”

Lucia originally became interested in the NOMAD organization because of the real estate business model–one she had initially thought of herself–and the overall idea of doing something to support the “nomadic lifestyle.” “What’s really cool about this group is that it brings people to places they might not go otherwise.” 

In fact, when Lucia joined as a member and attended her first NOMAD NATION meetup, she loved the community and concept so much she decided to become one of NOMAD’s largest investors.

Offering to contribute both her time, skillset, and capital as an investor and new advisory board member, Lucia is excited to help shape and contribute to the exponential growth that will happen this coming year.

We’re honored to have her onboard!

Follow Lucia by clicking the link below!

Lucia’s Instagram

Pardes in Malibu - Photo by Peter Duke

MEMBER MONDAY - FEATURING:

PARDES SELEH

“This organization single handedly changed my life”

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Pardes Seleh formerly resided in Washington, D.C. writing full time for politicians, until the pandemic when she moved  to Austin, Texas. This move led to a series of events that changed her life forever.

Pardes in Colombia

Pardes always liked the idea of working remotely and having more freedom to travel and a more flexible schedule, but like for many aspiring nomads, it can be difficult to take that leap. 

At the start of the pandemic, Pardes was able to buy her first property and use a tactic called “house hacking.” She rented out the other two rooms of her new home, to help counter the costs she was paying monthly. This went better than expected, so she was able to purchase a second rental property—helping her get closer to her goals of financial freedom and the lifestyle she wanted to achieve. However, life happens, and she ended up having a lot of unexpected expenses pop-up & extra construction that had to be done, leaving this MBA student & business owner working extra shifts at a restaurant just to get by.

She joined Nomad Nation this past year, and wasn’t able to go on the Cartagena trip due to the construction at her properties, but she did make it to the Tulum event. During our trip, Pardes was surrounded by members of the organization doing exactly what she wanted to do, and realized she didn’t need to wait to start living the life she wanted. She was able to learn and take advice from members during the trip which she suggests were pivotal in her reaching her goals. After eventually finishing her second property, she realized she was able to rent her own place and reduce her expenses enough to work remotely in more affordable locations around world.

After these trips with Nomad Nation, inspiration from some of the members, guidance from the NOMAD team, and hard work, Pardes now is now traveling full-time with two rental properties up and running smoothly, a real estate investment fund, and a Music app in the works. She is currently with her partner in Colombia, enjoying trying new food, exploring, and learning some dance moves on the way. 

“During our trip Pardes was surrounded by members of the organization doing exactly what she wanted to do, and realized she didn’t need to wait to start living the life she wanted.”

— Pardes

Her advice to anyone pursuing real estate or anything they are new to is to “not feel bad when you get told no. It takes time to see results, but have faith in what you’re doing. I felt bad when I didn’t succeed in other traditional jobs, and it is because it wasn’t what I was meant for.”

Lastly, Pardes is extremely excited about the growth of the NOMAD organization she has seen while she has been a member and can’t wait to see the first community up and running. She is excited about “the inclusion of smart home technology in the properties and the innovative concept behind these communities.”

Follow Pardes by clicking these links below!

Pardes’ Instagram

Pardes’ Twitter

“I DON’T COUNT MY COUNTRIES—I MAKE MY COUNTRIES COUNT.”

- MITCH

Mitch in the Dubai desert

Mitch Summers is from Raleigh, North Carolina—but in true nomadic fashion, you’ll rarely find him there. Mitch joined the Nomad Nation earlier this year, and subsequently made it to both our Q2 (Cartegena, Colombia) and Q3 (Barcelona, Spain) meet ups this year. He left from Barcelona this past month directly to Canada.

Mitch is also a *bit* of an internet personality - across all of his social channels, he has a total of 1.5 million followers and over 1 billion views! How’s that for global impact? On top of being a master of snapchat shorts, he’s an incredibly enthusiastic member of our organization and manages to get everyone smiling within seconds–part of the reason we chose him for our first Member Monday feature!

Mitch spends most of his time as a content creator, telling stories, and connecting with his community. Check out his most viewed video by clicking the link below and we’re sure you’ll understand why people love following along with his adventures. This specific episode covers his experience meeting and interviewing a man from Texas named Paul who is most commonly known as the “Man in the Iron Lung”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUCqsl6JROg

One of the best things about being a remote worker is the flexibility. As mentioned above, Mitch is always on the move and at the top of mind on his travel wish-list are New Zealand and Thailand. According to Mitch, he loves being a part of Nomad Nation because it has allowed him to build relationships with likeminded people and build an even larger network of people to travel and enjoy experiences with.

“It’s about a community of people who prioritize travel and relationships. There are so few people who you can say ‘let’s go to Colombia?’ and then they do it. The adventure and culture brings people together from all walks of life. I’ve been able to visit places that I never would have thought about going. It is awesome to have amazing trips planned and handed to you and I love that it is an unexpected journey because of that.

The long term goals of this organization are really exciting, to create a physical space where people can connect, live, and work from all around the world is incredible.”

Despite traveling more this year than usual, he’s been having record months with his business and continues to scale. That’s what we love to hear for each and every one of our members—and we will continue to do whatever we can to facilitate this liberating and successful lifestyle for as many people as possible!

If you like adventures, exploring the outdoors, content creation, and self-improvement make sure to follow Mitch, because these are just a few of the many topics he shares about on a daily basis. We hope you enjoyed learning about one of our amazing members. Check back biweekly at nomadnation.co for more Member Monday posts!

Mitch’s Instagram

Mitch’s Facebook

Mitch’s Youtube

Mitch’s Twitter

Mitch getting some work done at our Cartegena, Colombia meetup

Originally Part Of The NOMAD NATION Newsletter

2021 was a busy year for us! 

2022 will be much busier.

1. Started The NOMAD NATION Community

The NOMAD NATION Discord & Founding Members

In early 2021, some of our team took a trip to Mexico to work remotely for a few weeks and visit various co-living & co-working spaces in nomad hubs. 

What we found was somewhat surprising: amazing co-living spaces for digital nomads we had never heard of… and they were relatively empty. 

We took this as a sign of caution - marketing our spaces was going to be just as important as making incredible spaces. 

Thus the NOMAD NATION was born, as a concept - which would allow us to better connect with and learn from our target market prior to development. Eventually, our members will help fill our first physical spaces - and we’ll make it well worth it for those who joined early. 

We took the year of 2021 to test out various concepts and offerings for our members (detailed below). 

2. Built An App

The NOMAD NATION Custom-Built App

From the beginning, our entire vision has depended on utilizing both software & smart tech to enhance the real-world experience of our members. 

If we are going to build a world-wide subscription network of remote-work-friendly spaces, we need to use the Internet as a platform to do more than just facilitate daily interaction with our spaces - but to assist in connecting our members and in developing a more permanent sense of community, connectivity, and belonging. 

Building and prototyping a custom app to enhance our members’ experience was a necessary step, and we still strongly feel it will remain a pivotal part of our business model.

3. The NOMAD Circuit

In order to offer more value to our community, we came up with and tested out the NOMAD Circuit. This program, of all of our experiments, received the most praise from our members - so we’ll be focused on hosting bigger and better events in 2022!

The Concept:

NOMAD hosts quarterly meetups somewhere interesting around the world, and offers FREE accommodation & bonus activities to all Premium Members of the NOMAD NATION. 

This Year’s Locations:

Raleigh, NC - We kicked off the concept at Drive Shack

Capitol Reef, Utah, USA - We rented a Luxury Desert Cabin

Playa del Carmen, Mexico - We rented a Penthouse with Ocean Views

Medellin, Colombia - We rented both a Luxury Airbnb & Co-Living Access

Lisbon, Portugal - We rented both a Luxury Airbnb & Co-Living Access

We spent more than $1,000/person on our most active members! 

4. “Digital Nomads” - The NFT Series

We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again - the Digital Nomad Community IS the Crypto Community. Not getting involved in Web3 is not an option. 

One of the other well-received perks that we tested out was an NFT series titled “Digital Nomads” - a series of pixelated NFT art pieces, customized to each of our members personalities. We custom-designed every one of our Digital Nomad NFTs for our Premium Members on a custom-contract on Ethereum Mainnet. 

Eventually, this project will open the door for us to shift to a token-gated community, where members will be able to use their personalized NFTs for a multitude of fun and useful features within our physical spaces. 

5. Plans & Permits 

Sneak-Peak Rendering Of Our First Dwelling Unit

This year, we were awarded a building variance (we had to hire attorneys & the whole shebang) with a 4-1 vote to build on a lot we purchased for our prototype unit. This unit will be the basis - our standard unit - for our members to live in across the country in our co-living villages. We are expecting final building permits any day now for this model.

We received permits to drill a well, install a septic system, and build above a floodplain (we specifically designed the foundation on our first unit to do so).

Our Site Plan - One of the many documents we submitted for approval to build our first prototype dwelling unit!

6. Started Planning For Our First Co-Living Village

Last but not least - we are tentatively scheduled to close in this month on another property in Raleigh to build our first co-living village. 

We are doing this alongside our first outside fundraising round.

Details to be announced soon!

View fullsize

The cabin we stayed in over the last weekend in August as part of the Nomad Circuit.

For the month of August, we chose to visit an Airbnb (also listed on our app) that was built by one of our members, Nick, in Torrey, Utah, or Capitol Reef National Park. Photos and videos really do not do this place justice - it almost felt as if we were staying at a space hotel on some foreign red-rock planet. The environment was otherworldly. Plenty of hikes within 10-20 minutes driving distance from the cabin, and great local restaurants. The design of both the inside and the outside of the cabin was incredible (link to video below).

We’ve uploaded a few photos and videos of the experience that we took. For those of you who missed this month’s circuit destination, you can still book for discounted rates through our app!

Photo Credit: Jose Ortega, one of our members, taken from the cabin balcony.

Digital Nomads - The Exclusive NFT Series

Over the past few months we’ve been discussing with you and hearing feedback about what you are most interested in getting out of the NOMAD NATION. 

Here’s what we’ve found:

• For the most part, networking with other digital nomads, travelers and entrepreneurs is the primary reason you’ve joined the community. 

• Traveling tips & questions answered by the community is up on the list.

• Discussing and learning about investments - particularly in the blockchain & crypto currency space - is a keen interest amongst a vast majority of our members.

We already have a Discord Community, and we are constantly working on improving our Web App that allows our users to post tips on a map, download or create guides, and stay up to date on other members’ travel plans. 

However, besides a crypto channel in the Discord, we have not released much of our plans for our involvement in the Web 3.0 space - until now! 

Non Fungible Tokens

What are NFT’s?

If you’ve heard of Bored Apes, Crypto Punks, or Decentraland, you’re more familiar with the NFT space than most. While relatively new as a popular concept, some of our members already own NFT’s worth tens of thousands of dollars. 

An NFT is a digital asset that lives on the blockchain and represents real-world objects like art, music, in-game items and videos. The longer term impacts of NFTs on other real-world aspects of life & business is still yet to be known, as the industry is still incredibly early - but we believe they will be massive, especially in the Real Estate Sector in regards to things like insurance, titles, identity verification & more (digital real estate being an entirely different subject).

Now, as a “token” of our appreciation, we’ll be designing and minting our first 100 (out of 10,000) “Digital Nomad” NFT’s as exclusive, customized Founder Series digital assets for our Premium NOMAD NATION members. We’ve already made our first 20! 

Look, it’s a Digital Nomad! 

Send us a profile photo you like, a background of any kind, and we’ll design & mint you your very own customized NFT! Like Josh, here.

A Deeper Focus on Web 3.0

• Along with this fun experiment, we’ll soon be releasing more guides & courses on how to better understand & purchase crypto currency, NFTs, DAOs and the overall Web 3.0 movement. 

• Our app will include crypto bounties to collect around the world (and locally, for our tenants in our Nomad Houses). This only scratches the surface of what we’ll eventually incorporate.

• A private channel on Discord for Digital Nomad NFT Holders.

P.S. - Soon we’ll release more information on the Nomad House, our first physical product.

Stay tuned, & stay with us. We’re moving - we just pulled our well permit.

Don’t forget to try out our Web App at https://app.nomadnation.co

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Thanks to those of you who came out to our first covered event at Drive Shack in Raleigh! 

The next part of our NOMAD Circuit will be in Torrey, Utah on the weekend of August 28th, at this cabin (click for Airbnb link): 

Spots are filling up. Let us know if you can make it. Free of charge for Premium NOMAD NATION members!

One of the most obvious and provocative reasons to become a digital nomad is the enticing reality that one can maintain roughly the same salary held in one’s current country, while cutting costs of living dramatically—all-while living in a more fun, interesting, and potentially safer place. 

This month, for only a month, I decided to move to Ukraine - and it got me thinking once more about that difference.

It’s clear - the disparity has only grown since I became fascinated with the lifestyle 7+ years ago.

Here’s a rough breakdown of what my personal costs of living are in the United States, vs. what it would be like to live here in Lviv, Ukraine, (for example). Keep in mind, this is for a married couple with no kids:

USA in an “affordable” city, Raleigh, North Carolina

Mortgage: $2,200/mo

Property taxes: $200/mo

Homeowner’s insurance: $100/mo

Car insurance: $150/mo

Health insurance: $550/mo (almost no coverage until $8,000 deductible)

Cell phone bills: $150/mo

Electricity / water / sewer: $150/mo (this is only due to the fact that we built an eco, nearly off-grid house on well & septic)

Gym membership: $80/mo

Co-working: $300/mo (no desk) 

Food: $200/mo minimum

Gas: $100/mo minimum

Internet: $70/mo

For the sake of this example, I will not include entertainment or other activities. 

Total base-cost of living per month in the USA: 

$4,250/mo

That’s $51,000/year

Now, most of these are conservative estimates - but the largest amount that could be reduced from this equation is the mortgage. Eliminating property taxes, homeowners insurance, and mortgage payments, we’d deduct $2,500 from this amount - but rent for 2 people in a decent place would likely still cost around half of that, say $1,250 - and this rate is growing every year, whereas our mortgage is fixed and about $1,000/mo goes towards principle. This assumes all cars are owned in cash with no monthly payments.

Ukraine in a “destination” city, within a UNESCO neighborhood, Lviv

Mortgage or Rent: $800/mo or less (for a luxury, 3 bedroom apartment centrally located)

Public transportation + Uber: $200/mo (used liberally every day)

Health insurance: $80/mo (great coverage)

Cell phone bills: $16/mo (literally $8/mo with unlimited data per person)

Gym membership: $20/mo

Co-working: $120/mo (with dedicated desk)

Food: $100/mo minimum

Internet: $6/mo

For the sake of this example, I will not include entertainment or other activities. 

Total cost of living per month in Ukraine: 

$1,342/mo

That’s $16,104/year

Now there are obvious reasons to pay more money to live in areas where more opportunities exist - nearly every nomad understands this. Oftentimes, it’s worth paying 5x when you can get a 10x ROI. The question here becomes - how much of a ROI are we actually getting for living in the US (especially depending on the city) compared to some of the other nomad “hubs?” 

It’s a question worth seriously asking yourself. 

In addition, this gets compounded when you consider the costs of having a family in the USA - what would our costs look like, if we were a family of 4? 5? Primarily - the health insurance, childcare, food and utility costs would more than double. This would make the case for working remotely as a digital nomad in Lviv exponentially more compelling. That said, a majority of digital nomads we encounter today are still younger, slightly majority single, with more “flexibility and freedom” - but how long will this last?

When families start making the move to the nomadic lifestyle to take advantage of even greater cost / reward benefits, the so-called nomad movement will quickly and inevitably change from a fridge concept, to commonplace—or perhaps for many—a necessity. 

A new look at Structurally Insulated Panels.

STANDARD SIPS (STRUCTURAL INSULATED PANELS)

AIM TO MAKE PRE-FAB CONSTRUCTION MORE EFFICIENT. THE GOAL WITH NOMAD BLOCKS IS TO TAKE THIS CONCEPT TO ANOTHER LEVEL, BY:

1. Consolidating more of the trade portions (electrical, plumbing, finishing) of home construction into the assembly-line and/or automated manufacturing processes

2. Passing the resulting cost, time, and energy efficiency savings to the homeowner, by equipping them with a smarter, greener and more self-sufficient home

3. Modularizing the home, allowing users to replace, upgrade, and customize the home with ease and without the dwindling, costly, unpredictable and often unreliable assistance of tradespeople

4. Introducing a whole new world of possibilities in regards to home applications & amenities.

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This post details three "Moonshot" projects related to real-estate that the founder of NOMAD Living came up with, and would like tackle within our lifetimes. 

TERRAFORMERS

ter·ra·form ‘terə,fôrm = transform (a planet) so as to resemble the earth, especially so that it can support human life.

Mars is currently a cold, radioactive wasteland. Yet, some seem to have as much hope that Mars will become our secondary (or necessary future) home, because we’ll surely “destroy” our own planet, than the possibility that we could reverse the destruction process of it. That’s ridiculous. One can’t have one without the other. That is why NOMAD Living wants to make “Terraformer Architecture” a real thing. Imagine a metropolis denser than Manhattan. Now imagine that as a land filled with hike-able trails, waterfalls, hills of green grass, birds and wildlife abundant throughout. Imagine a city that recycles CO2 and filters pollution (which kills millions of people each year, at a growing rate) naturally through vegetation. With a ‘passive solar’ approach to urban design, this could be the future of urban landscapes, and it’s a moonshot goal for NOMAD Living to make that happen. Terraforming has been, for the most part, considered a thing of science fiction. More recently, entrepreneurs have seriously discussed goals of terraforming other planets, such as Mars, to become hospitable for humans in the future. Some even think of this as a necessary step for survival; the future of the human race. Applying this concept to the Earth could be equally as intriguing. For the past decade at least, we’ve all heard doomsday scenarios played out on repeat - the planet is getting hotter, energy consumption is growing, and we’re ravaging more and more natural habitats till the ends of the earth (no, the earth is not flat, that’s a figure of speech).

PARKING DECK VILLAGE

This one is simple. The top floor of the parking deck is the least attractive floor. It takes forever to get up there, and it’s more susceptible to rain, pollen, dust, heat, whatever. Throw in a future with driverless cars, the top floor of parking decks are the least attractive piece of useless real-estate. HOWEVER - throw a neighborhood up there, and you’ve got something special. Beautiful views, a safe environment for children to play around, and a rock-solid foundation - Parking Deck Villages are just a no-brainer. (Yes, we’re currently seeking candidates!)

3D - PLUMBING

Pneumatic Tubing is nothing new. You know, those things that you used once at a bank drive-through, that sent your parents a pod containing their bank receipt when you were a kid? Decades ago, Prague used to send its postal mail via Pneumatic Tubing before the pipes flooded and became obsolete. When the founder of NOMAD Living built his first house, it blew his mind how “magical” the process of ‘regular’ pluming, or unlimited running water was when one really thinks about it. Five-thousand years ago, clean, running water (the most valuable yet abundant resource on the planet) would have been equivalent to printing money. Nowadays, we don’t give it a second thought. Now - imagine a faucet that, when you pulled the lever, food appeared. Or maybe life-saving medication during an emergency. Imagine ordering sushi for dinner via an app, and having it appear in a container within minutes in your apartment or house - and when your roommate has an allergic reaction to shellfish, an Epi-Pen appears less than a minute later. Applications for mail, food, bathroom, kitchen, and medical supply delivery are abundant. It’s the 3-D Internet - and we want to make that a real thing in our lifetimes

The crypto-hype has died down quite a bit since BTC neared $20K, (and for good reason) but there are still real-world outlets for crypto-investing - specifically via the tokenization of assets, even in "boring" spaces such as real-estate.

We reached out to one crypto company, MyBit, which aims to enable anyone to directly invest "in the technologies of the future" by integrating Ethereum Smart Contracts into a platform that will allow us 'regular people' to invest in a variety of IoT products. Because most of us are 'regular people,' most of us don't even know that we can't legally invest, at least in the U.S. in many cases, in companies even with $500,000 dollars cash and no debt (you can thank the SEC for that one). Apparently, there are some arbitrary thresholds that the government decided make you worthy of making reasonable investment decisions. Hopefully, blockchain tech will offer a longer-term workaround to such two-tier society bullshit tactics, which is part of why we are interested in the MyBit platform. 

Our thought was that we potentially have a relevant fit with our "micro-hotel" project, which we intend to build multiple times around the world, assuming we integrate adequate IoT tech (and potentially something like AirBnb's API) that will allow investors to seamlessly monitor the success or otherwise of our business model in real time. 

They responded to our request with one of their own, which was to update them once we have a functioning prototype. We fully intend to do so. 

Stay tuned.

Here is a quick PDF we've put together, hinting at some of our plans.

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Some Crypto-Inspiration

It's been a big year for crypto-currencies. Anyone who "got in" around January, wether in ETC, BTC or most any of the other popular ICO's or crypto-currencies (that were not scams) made some serious returns without much effort. Myself and most of my family (everyone who participated) did really well. 

After visiting multiple countries in Eastern Europe this summer where crypto-currencies were all-the-rage (mostly in Kiev, Ukraine), watching bitcoin hit $6,000, learning about Estonia's more than serious e-Residency program, I wanted to venture further into the possibilities that digital decentralization offers us. 

To note, not everyone investing in crypto-currencies at the moment do so for the same reasons. Some are driven purely by seeking ROI, others by the technology, others for fundraising, others for anonymity, and many others for purely political reasons. If you'd like to get a good quick lesson on blockchain and the history of Bitcoin - watch "Banking on Bitcoin" on Netflix. You'll get a glimpse of why the 2008 housing crisis actually played a big part in the rise of BTC and why banks, government institutions, and many other players are on the edge of their seat deliberating their next move on the matter. 

The possibilities are endless. The consequences for the status-quo are also potentially endless. Decentralization of currencies could theoretically lead to a more fair world. One can imagine why that isn't always a good thing for certain players.

Taking It A Step Further

Nowadays, nearly anyone can put together a well-designed white paper, create a new currency and make some money on an ICO. Many liken it to the dot-com boom. You'll see a lot of new, seemingly interesting platforms and coins in the coming years, some of them having more merit than others. As crypto becomes more of a "fad," the more we'll begin to see stale, ripped-off concepts that aren't really helping move the needle anymore. 

Recognizing this to be an already occurring pattern, I thought it would be fun to stretch the possibilities of this new trend to new territory. Hence our over-indulgence in designing a new theoretical country. We even put together a mini constitution, automated the monetary fund & banking at-large (The Treasury), came up with some bad-ass branding tools, and put together a plan of action. 

During a time of rampant political corruption, nationalistic uprisings around the globe, borders shutting down, walls being built, migrant crisis's occurring around the planet - Nomadia is an idealists dream come true. It's a borderless nation that theoretically works. It's citizens' wealth proportionately augment by helping out other citizens. It's not communism, it automatically rules out crony-capitalism, and it encourages investment in its people to all of its people. 

Decentralization of Banking

This is one of the most radical and interesting concepts, in my opinion, of the Nomadia project. We've heard about the decentralization of currencies. That's huge. I've already touched on the potential for the elimination of direct meddling of your wealth by government institutions. 

With peer-to-peer lending already on the rise, why not use blockchain to automate banking at-large?

Who needs 'em anymore? 

See the document for a visual explanation of the project. 

Think about it, and let me know your thoughts.