Matt Bowles: This is episode number 200 of The Maverick Show, and it has been such an exciting ride to get to this point. The Maverick Show was recently ranked the number one digital nomad podcast in the world by Web Work Travel. We now have listeners in over 152 countries, and we have some incredible episodes coming up for you. But I thought I would just take this episode number 200 to check in with you, catch you up a little bit on what’s been going on in my life, share my upcoming travel plans. If you want to try to meet up with me somewhere in the world and give you some updates on The Maverick Show, what we’ve got coming up and share some special offers for you to start off with. Though if you have not yet left a rating and review for the show, it would mean a lot to me if you could do that, especially if you could do it on Apple Music, even if that’s not your primary platform where you listen to the podcast, if you could leave an honest rating and then write a review of the show there, that would help the podcast out significantly. I read every single one. Sometimes we even feature them on The Maverick Show website. So that would be amazing. And also, if you’re enjoying the show, if you can help to amplify the reach of the show by sharing your favorite episodes on social media, recommending it to people, helping to get the word out, that would be super incredible, and I would really appreciate that as well.

All right, so let me catch you up on what I have been up to since I started traveling again after the pandemic quarantine, which for me was about November of 2021. And if you’ve been listening to the show, you probably have a sense of some of my trajectory. But basically, I started November going to the Piedmont region in Italy with Jen Magee, who, if you have listened to the show since the beginning, you definitely know her. If you have not, you should go back and listen to her episodes; they were #05 and #36. She is an amazingly good friend of mine, also a super brilliant entrepreneur, an amazing world traveler, and she and I went for a month to the White Truffle Festival in Alba, Italy, which is also right at the base of the Barolo and the Barbaresco wine regions. And so, we figured that after about 18 months of quarantine, it would be good to emerge in style. And. And so we had a really amazing month there in Italy.

And then after that I went down to Buenos Aires, Argentina. The government of Buenos Aires was actually sponsoring a conference there called Nomads BA and they brought in a bunch of really incredible nomads to speak. I was humbled to be one of the keynote speakers there and was just an incredible crowd. Hung out in BA for about a month. And then I went to Mexico in January, and I moderated a panel at the Nomad BASE conference in Playa del Carmen about investing for digital Nomads, which was incredible. Has a powerhouse speaker on that panel, it’s really good time. Then we went over to Puerto Escondido on the other coast, which was also fantastic. And then I went to El Salvador for the first time for about a month. And then I went to Colombia for a couple months. I spent a month in Medellin, and I spent a month in Cali, Colombia, both of which were just fantastic. I did some really cool interviews along the way in those spots.

And then I went to Portugal for a month, was based in Lisbon, and spent my birthday in the Portuguese wine country, which was just completely incredible. And then from there I went over to Bulgaria, and I spent the month in Bansko. I was invited to give the opening keynote at the Bansko Nomad Fest, which was really cool. People from all over the world, about 500 plus nomads, descended on Bansko for this week long event festival. It was really cool to see a lot of wonderful friends and meet a lot of very cool new people there. And then after that I went through Paris, and I met up with a good friend of mine who now travels the world with Lady Gaga and runs the audio for her concert tour that she’s on right now. And so that was an amazing time. I got to go to the Gaga show and got pretty much the front row seats for that, which was amazing. Really cool time and always great to be in Paris. And then from there came back, did a swing through the United States, which is where I am right now.

And I am preparing for my next travel venture, which, by the way, if you’re not following me on Instagram yet, that’s a really cool way to keep up with the stuff that I’m up to. It’s also a way that you can just message me and stay in touch with me directly there if you’re not following me yet. My Instagram handle is that’s at mattbowlesmaverick. So yeah, give me a follow there, shoot me a DM say hello, let me know you listen to the show. It would be awesome to connect with you. And speaking by the way of these different keynotes that I’ve been giving around the world or panels that I’ve been moderating and stuff like that, people have been asking me about how to book me and get a hold of me for that sort of stuff, as well as having me as a guest on their podcast and things of that nature. And so, if you’re interested in that, I have now a media kit which is on The Maverick Show  website along with the way to book me for any of that stuff. If it’s a keynote speech at a live event or if it’s an interview for a newspaper, or wanting me to be a guest on a podcast or any of that kind of stuff, you can just go to themaverickshow.com/bookmatt and there you will find my media kit and the ways to book me for any of this stuff. So, you can check that out.

And speaking of really cool media stuff, by the way, my very good friend Kristin Wilson, who has been on the show multiple times, just published the Digital Nomads for Dummies book in the Super Uber Famous for Dummies series. She was the one who got hired to do the book on Digital Nomads and she did an incredible job. It is the most comprehensive book I have ever seen in terms of pretty much everything you need to know and prepare for and attend to in the digital nomad lifestyle. And so, I’m actually super humbled to be quoted in the book a couple times. So that was really fun. But definitely encourage you to check that out. I will link the book up in the show notes. You can order it anywhere you get your books, but we’ll put a link to it in the show notes because even if you’ve been traveling the world as long as I have, I still learned a bunch of stuff in there because Kristin has been traveling the world for even longer than me and she has also consulted a number of really incredible people to put the content of this book together. So, I was learning stuff as I was reading through this book. Really awesome resource for pretty much everything you need for the nomad lifestyle. So, we’ll link that up in the show notes as well.

Another really cool thing that has been increasing lately is the number of both Maverick Show guests and Maverick Show listeners that have been buying rental properties through my company, Maverick Investor Group. And so, if you don’t know how that works, basically we are a licensed real estate brokerage. This is the primary location independent business that I co-founded all the way back in 2007 and that I have been running as I have been traveling the world over the last decade. And what we do is help people to buy cash flowing rental properties in the best U.S. real estate markets from anywhere in the world. Okay. And so, these are single family rental properties, and they come fully renovated with tenants and local property management already in place. Okay. We call it turnkey rental properties because you don’t have to be the rehabber, you don’t have to be the landlord, but you get all the benefits of, of owning the deeded hard asset, the actual physical house.

But you get the leapfrog over all that upfront risk of stabilizing the property and fixing it up and all of that kind of stuff. You just get to come in, do your inspection, do your appraisal, and then you close on a property that cash flows from day one. And you can own it from anywhere because you have local professional management company that’s handling the maintenance request from the tenant, those collecting the rent, all that stuff, it doesn’t go through you, it goes through the professional management company that you’ve hired to manage it for you. And so, we help people to buy those turnkey properties in the most investor advantaged US real estate markets from anywhere in the world. And so, if you are interested in that, we offer free video consultations and we like to get to know every single one of our clients individually on a personalized basis to understand your real estate investing goals, your buying criteria, your financial situation, and all that kind of stuff. And then we work with our clients over the long term to help you build a portfolio of cash flowing rental properties over time and to diversify across markets.

We’re working with a lot of people that started buying from us over 10 years ago and they’re still buying from us today. And so, if you are interested in that and you would like to do a free consultation with us to learn more, you can register for that at themaverickshow.com/consult. The other option is if you’re not ready to do a consultation, but you’d like to learn a little bit more about how all this works, there is a free white paper that we put together that I wrote and you can grab that for free as well. It’s called Real Estate Investing for Digital Nomads. How to Buy Cash Flowing Rental Properties in the Best US Markets and Finance an Epic International lifestyle. If you’d like to read that, you can grab that at themaverickshow.com/nomad and of course we’re going to link all this up in the show notes. So, you can just go to themaverickshow.com and go to the show notes for episode number 200 and there you’re going to find the links to all of this stuff just listed right out there for you.

All right, I will now give you an update on my upcoming travel plans. I am getting ready to fly to Cape Town, South Africa, and I’m going to be on the continent for the remainder of the year. I’m going to be based in Cape Town for September. I’m going to be based in Tanzania for October. I’m going to be based in Kenya for November, and then I’m going to be based in Senegal for most of December. But I am going to go to Accra in Ghana for the week leading up to and including New Year’s Eve because there is a whole bunch of amazing stuff going on there. Accra is first of all one of my favorite cities in the world, so it’s always amazing to go at any time. I was there in the opposite season. I was there in the summertime, in July 2019. But this time I’m going for New Year’s week because they have the Afrochella Festival and the Afro Nation Festival both on the same week leading up to New Year’s Eve.

And those are legendary Afrobeat festivals. And I am also going to a Black-tie gala in Accra that same week, which I get access to from this NFT collection called the Royals, which is now sold out, but you can buy them resale on Open Sea or whatever platform you buy your NFTs on. But there’s a number of people that I know that have also purchased that NFT many of whom have been interviewed on The Maverick Show, which is actually how I learned about it. Shout out to Ivy Xu, who initially told me about the project and that she had already bought it and she was going. I then went and bought it and then I told other people and they have gone and bought it. So, there’s going to be a whole squad rolling up to this black gala in Accra right before New Year’s Eve and then of course New Year’s Eve itself. And New Year’s Day is just going to be absolutely epic and amazing. And so that is where I’m going to spend New Year’s Eve. If you’re interested in coming through. Definitely hit me up on Instagram and we’ll make sure to connect and bring you into this ever growing squad that is going to be there for New Year’s.

But prior to New Year’s, this four month that I’m going to do in Africa this time is actually part of a Remote Year program. I’ve spent a couple years on the continent prior to this and I’ve actually been to all four of these countries before. But this time I’m going as part of a Remote Year program, which I’m super excited about. If you have not heard me talk about Remote Year before. Remote Year is a company that facilitates an international itinerary for remote professionals, okay. So if you are a remote professional, meaning that you can work remotely and therefore can work from anywhere, Remote Year, the company brings a community of remote professionals together that don’t know each other to start and then you travel the world together as a community and Remote Year takes care of your accommodations and your access to a co working space with 24/7 Wi Fi, all of your airfare travel from each country to the other country, transportation to and from the airport, all of that stuff, they take care of it. It’s basically like turnkey digital nomading with a built-in community of amazing people.

So, I did my first Remote Year program back in 2016 and it’s called Remote Year because when they launched the program they only offered 12-month itineraries which is what I did in 2016. And it was the best year of my life, hands down. Absolutely incredible. We lived in 12 different cities across four continents and traveled together for the entire year and just had amazing extraordinary life changing experiences. And we’re just doing once in a lifetime bucket listing every single month. I mean it was amazing. And then as an alumni, I have the ability to plug into other Remote Year programs for a month. Let’s say they’re 12-month programs that are orbiting around the world and you can just plug in for a month and join and become part of their group for a month. And I’ve done that a few times since then. But this is my second full program that I’m doing with Remote Year and now they offer four-month programs. So, you don’t have to go for the full 12 months, you can just go for four months. And this is their first time running an all-Africa itinerary. So, I was super excited to support that and jump on that and roll with the types of people that wanted to also jump on that. So totally, totally stoked about this.

And by the way, if that sounds interesting to you and you would like to learn more about Remote Year, I’m going to put a link in the show notes because if you go through my link as an alumni, I can get you a $1 credit off of your first remote year program. And as I said, they have 12-month programs, they have four-month programs and they now even have one month program. So, you can literally just go for one month. And so, if you want to do that, you can go through the link in the show notes and get $100 credit on your first remote year program. And if you’re wondering what types of people Remote Year do, what is it like, I can tell you that exactly because I very recently interviewed the co-founder of Remote Year who gave me updated demographic stats on exactly who is doing Remote Year right now. And so over the last year, the Remote Year participants have come from 50 different countries. The ages have ranged from 21 to 77, with the average age being mid to late 30s. Remote year participants are majority people of color, Remote Year participants are majority women and Remote Year participants are about 12% LGBTQIA identifying. So that is the demographics of the latest over the last year of the people that are currently doing Remote Year. So it’s a very cool community, very diverse community, super interesting people. I have interviewed a number of Remote Year participants on this, this podcast. So, you have surely if you’ve been listening to the show for a while, heard about different people’s experiences on Remote Year and all that. So, if you’re interested in that, there will be a link in the show notes where you can get your 100 credits for signing up for Remote Year.

And since I am now packing for this trip, I have decided to do an updated video training on stylish minimalist packing. If you have never seen one of my minimalist packing workshops before, I have done them live and I have also done them recorded on video. I have just completely updated the minimalist packing training, and I just rerecorded it to feature all of the latest things that I am packing in my luggage right now. So, you’re going to get a complete luggage audit of everything I’m taking. And if you’re not familiar with any of my previous presentations on this, basically I travel the world with carry-on luggage only. So that is for me super important. And in my carry-on luggage I am able to pack for beaches, to pack for ski trips and to pack for dressy nights out, right? So, I can go to any climate, anywhere in the world with just my carry-on luggage. And I will show you how to do that. My carry-on luggage includes a three-piece suit, it includes an espresso maker, it includes a professional podcasting studio, et cetera. Okay. And I will show you how to travel the world full time if you want to do that, or however long you want to travel the world for. But I show you how to pack so that you could travel the world full time with carry-on luggage only without, without sacrificing fashion and style, right?

Because that’s really the kicker when you are condensing and minimizing your luggage. And so, I have been doing that workshop over the years. But as I continue to travel, I of course continue to learn new things, pick up new techniques as well as new products and all this kind of stuff. And I have just done a completely updated video training on that, totally free for you to check out. Just go to themaverickshow.com/packing and you can check the video out there. Also, because of popular demand, we are launching The Maverick Show newsletter. So we’re going to be able to communicate with you by email and this is a space where I’m going to be able to share with you by email the latest travel hacks and tips on remote entrepreneurship and investing, recommendations for travel gear, gadgets, books, that kind of stuff, as well as information on work, travel programs, nomad conferences I might be speaking at, invitations to meet up with me around the world, just cool stuff that I want to share with you guys that I’m learning, that I’m experiencing and that I think could add value to you. So would love to have you join that newsletter community. You can go to themaverickshow.com and there you are going to see a spot to opt for that and would love to build that community and have some really cool folks there. And I will do my best to share the coolest stuff with you and that’ll be another great way for us to communicate and to stay in touch.

And finally, I want to get your opinion on The Maverick Show and to get your feedback. That is how I’m able to make it an increasingly better and better show and deliver more value to you. So I have created a survey and it would mean the world to me if you could just take a few minutes and complete this survey because it’s going to ask you stuff like what have you liked the most about the show, favorite episodes or topics, what I can do to improve the show, that sort of stuff, what you’d like to see less of, what you’d like to see more of. And just give me your feedback on whatever you’ve listened to so far of The Maverick Show. I would really love that. I read every single one personally and it helps me and guides me in continuing to get certain types of guests or talk about certain types of topics and move the show in the direction that you want to see. So, if you could take just a few minutes, go to themaverickshow.com/survey and fill that survey out. That would be incredibly meaningful to me.

And as a thank you for doing that, I would like to offer 20 people a video call with me. Okay. We’ll call it a 20-minute Zoom call and I’m going to offer 20 of them because this is the 200th episode. So, we’re going to do 20-minute Zoom calls with me for the first 20 people that fill out that survey and then direct message me on Instagram and let me know that you filled out the survey and you would like to grab one of the video calls with me. And then we will set that up at a time that’s mutually convenient and we will hang out for 20 minutes and we can talk about anything that you want, okay. If you want to talk about building your business or real estate investing, or you want to talk about the nomad lifestyle, or maybe you’re preparing for your travel or you’re in a transitionary moment or you’ve got challenges or obstacles, you want to talk through something, or maybe you just want to drink wine and share travel stories and talk about hip-hop and Afrobeats and, you know, whatever it may be. So, it’s totally up to you.

It’s going to be your time, and I just want to do that, number one, because I want to really connect with the people that listen to the show. I want to get to know you and who you are and what you like about the show and learn about you and what you’re up to and all that kind of stuff. So, for me, that’s super fun and I would love to meet you and, and to do that. So, for the first 20 people that fill out the survey and then message me on Instagram. So again, it’s at mattbowlesmaverick on Instagram, just follow me, direct message me. There let me know that you filled out the survey and that you’d like to do one of the video calls and we will schedule that for a time that is mutually convenient.

And as we come to the end of episode 200 you will notice that we have not run a single or sold a single sponsorship in the first 200 episodes, which means that all of the production costs for the show have come directly out of my pocket. And as you can imagine, producing a show, especially at the professional caliber that we produce, The Maverick Show takes a huge amount of time as well as a huge amount of resources. And so, it would really help us out a lot for the production cost of the show if you could make a one-time financial contribution. If you have gotten value out of these first 200 episodes, you can do that very easily by going to paypal.com and just using the recipient email paypal@maverickinvestorgroup.com and we will link that up in the show notes as well.

And with that I want to thank you so much for listening to the show and for being part of the Maverick community. I am looking very forward to meeting the 20 people that get those video calls. That is going to be amazing and hopefully meeting up with some of you around the world. We are going to put every single thing mentioned in this episode into the show notes so you can just go to one place  at themaverickshow.com, go to the show notes for episode 200 and there you will find direct links to every single thing we talked about on this episode. Thank you, so much and good night, everybody.