Hey friends,

I get asked a ton about my experiences as a Nomad. I built a business which allowed me to travel the world working when and where I wanted.

It changed my life.

Today is a long one on the exact process I used to achieve that lifestyle and how anyone can do the same.

You don’t need a $100m exit to be able to travel the world.

$5,000 a month and a 4-hour work week will do the job.

Here’s how I did just that and travelled to 24 cities in 2 years (without roughing it in a hostel)

Many people want to travel the world but don’t have enough money, time or remote jobs.

Travel is one of the best ways to gain experience and live a fulfilling life. Stepping outside of the tiny village I was brought up in was the best decision I ever made.

Many people crave a similar experience. But they don’t know how to make it happen.

They think you either need to slum it like a backpacker or go once you’ve made your millions.

There’s a third option.

I know because I’ve been there and figured it out.

We’ve all been there. Sitting at work on a Monday morning scrolling Instagram. Some influencer pops up reviewing some treehouse hotels in Bali. You know the ones, with the smug look on their face as their breakfast is sent floating to them across the pool.

Looks great right? But most don’t have the luxury of an unlimited budget or huge audience to snag exclusive accommodation.

Jacking in your job and spending the last of your savings on hostels in Cambodia isn’t so appealing either. Maybe if you’re 18.

I knew neither would work for me. 

I was bouncing between jobs, daydreaming of my huge ambitions. 

I was stuck at home. Watching people float along the conveyor belt of life, totally unaware or fulfilled. 

Moving from school, to university, to job, family, Volvo life and so on, wasn’t appealing to me. 

I craved adventure. 

But I was also ambitious and wanted to build a business.

How I was going to create that was still a question mark. 

One day it hit me. I stumbled across the 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris. It changed my life. I instantly knew that was the lifestyle I was craving at the time. I didn’t need to wait years to accumulate millions. I needed a steady, cash-flowing business which didn't require me to be there 24/7. 

I obsessed over this book daily. Here’s how it went down..

Escaping the matrix

The goal was simple: leverage my time back through a sustainable income stream to fuel your travel.

$5,000 a month of regular income goes a long way in certain parts of the world. Especially when you’re not tied to your laptop all day. Having the freedom to choose your schedule and go out to explore is the key.

Looking back, I should have been more ambitious. But the sleepy village vibes of the UK lacked the Silicon Valley energy. Starting a business was frowned upon, so forget telling someone you want to make $50,000 a month. 

I figured I’d get to $5,000 to begin, escape and figure out my next move.

The next step was how?

Here’s a framework I followed to reverse engineer the nomadic life by design:

Step 1: The vision

Firstly you need to know where you’re going. Start with the end in mind.

The key questions which need answering:

• What do you value?

• What are you good at?

• What does the world need?

• What does your ideal day look like?

• What would you do if you could not fail?

You can go deeper but these are the key questions you should focus on first. Don’t rush this part.

I knew I could have a great time earning $5,000 a month and only have to work less than 5 hours a week.

Step 2: The Model

Now you have clarity on the end goal, it’s time to generate some ideas to get there.

The Japanese have a concept called “Ikigai”.

It’s an overlap of:

• What you're good at

• What the world needs

• What you can get paid for

Your idea should be the intersection of these 3 things. Don’t follow something just for the money or because someone else is doing it.

The key is to find the path of least resistance and do what comes naturally.

Something I would add to this: what are you already doing? Chances are, you can do something similar.

For me, I was working in real estate so creating my own real estate portfolio made sense. I already had some knowledge and contacts, which will speed up the journey.

If I had to do it again, I’d start a service business which can be run entirely on the Internet.

Work with what you’ve got. 

Step 3: One-page business blueprint

Business plans are dead.

If you’re clear on the end goal and your model, all you need now is clarity on the plan.

Let's assume you’re starting a service business, how many clients do you need to hit your freedom number?

For most internet service businesses, 2-3 is likely all you need. Let’s assume you want to systemize the business and bring in help to reduce your hours and add on another client to be safe.

A blueprint should be made up of:

1. Marketing

2. Sales

3. Success

Create a north star for each area.

• How much traffic do you need to hit your sales number?

• How will you deliver on those clients and track progress?

• What levers do you need to pull?

Don’t overcomplicate it.

Write it down and be specific. Then book it into your schedule to execute (covered next).

My real estate blueprint looked something like this:

The North Star: $5,000 of monthly profit working max 5 hours per week.

If I could generate $1,000 per rental property, that meant I needed 7 to cover team costs, and taxes and leave me enough profit. 

My daily levers: 

• Marketing: direct mail campaigns, networking with agents and fellow developers

• Sales: I crafted an offer to landlords which was hard to resist and made sure it was a win-win

• Success: I hired a team to fulfil management, maintenance and leasing. 

It was a scrappy process and mostly focused on generating leads until I secured the first few deals.

Step 4: Project Log: Execution

The fun part is over. Now you gotta work.

Give yourself a 6-week sprint and create a schedule:

• What levers do you need to pull?

• When will you work on them?

• How many hours each week will you spend?

• Where will you do the work?

• What do you need to help you?

Create a default diary and block the time you allocate in there. Don’t compromise. If you decide to work at 9 am every Monday at your local cafe, then start the night before. Keep your Sunday nights clear so you can prepare and get an early night.

Consistency is the real goal. Without it, you’ll never achieve the vision you’d mapped out. 

Step 5: The Storm Phase: Generating Revenue

The storm phase is all about finding leads and generating sales. Forget everything else. You need to create revenue. 

It’s messy, hard work and tiring. But necessary. 

My days were made up of: 

• Instructing VAs to scrape listings and pump out mailing campaigns

• Phoning agents to build relationships and ask for leads

• Visiting properties to assess them  

The perk of Internet businesses is that you can do all this remotely. 

The point is, to get your first few sales through the door before switching to delivery and systems. The revenue you create will pay for that. 

Step 6: The Perform Phase: Automating Your Business.

Hitting this stage is a massive win. Sales are hard when you’re starting from scratch. Keeping clients happy is more straightforward. 

But don’t overlook this stage, without the right systems, things can quickly fall apart. 

I’ve found this out the hard way. I’ve encountered various fires which could have been prevented through better training and systems for my team.

The cornerstones of managing a remote real estate business for me: 

1. Maintenance: 

• Tenants have a single point of contact to log issues

• Issues are responded to in less than 24 hours (except for emergencies)

• All issues are logged in CRM to track progress 

2. Leasing: 

• Available rooms are immediately advertised online

• Our salesperson handles all leads, and viewings and secures a new tenant

• They pass them to the admin team for referencing and move-in instructions  

3. Finance

• Monthly P&L produced by the accounting company

• We compare monthly rents and costs to the budget

• Adjustments made where needed

4. General

• Team all use Asana for task management

• Notion and Google Drive for wiki & file storage

• Slack for communication 

• Everyone has their role and KPI to measure

• Automated reminders for compliance renewals

5. Managing the team

• My focus is to look at the data

• I aim to keep the team's morale high 

• I’ll adjust or make plans but aim to avoid operating

You can read a deeper dive into the flow here. 

Your system will vary depending on your business.

My advice would be to focus on the high-impact tasks which you do the most frequently and build as you go. 

Tips for removing yourself from the business:

• Hire VAs and team members to outsource as much as possible, but know that you’ll lose some of the quality. 

• Keep things simple and avoid complex systems

• Set clear KPIs to track progress

• Understand how to incentivise your team

• Leverage tech to automate repeat tasks like Zapier

Once you have the revenue flowing in, you’re one hire away from removing the stress of delivery. 

Some resources, tools and ideas:

• Zapier: great for automation between software.

• Calendly: call booking software.

• Notion: your 2nd brain.

• Zoom: for calls.

• Google Calendar.

• Stripe: accepting payments.

• Virtual assistant: run your diary, email management, invoicing, manage automation,

Step 7: The enjoyment phase

If you execute this with intensity, you’ll have a cash-flowing business and time freedom quicker than you think. It won’t happen overnight, but you can change your life in 6 months. 

There will always be something to fix, improve and work on. That’s the nature of business. This is why it’s important to stop, reflect and look back on how far you’ve come.

There are some downsides of working for yourself which doesn’t get spoken about enough:

• It’s hard to switch off

• You’ll always feel the need to do more

• You’ll never feel like you’ve finished your work

• Your worth can become attached to your work output 

• It can get lonely and you’re ultimately accountable for everything

My advice for this: embrace it. Avoid being perfect. When things are running smoothly, go enjoy life, it’ll be way more adventurous than the matrix you’ve escaped. Sure there will be tough times, but that’s part of living a rich life. You experience massive highs and lows. 

Business is also a great way to meet interesting people, explore the world and learn more about yourself. Forget self-development books, building a business will bring up your insecurities and issues. 

The Big Takeaway

You’re only a few clients and a VA away from living a nomadic and adventurous life. What you do after that is up you to. You can scale further if you love the hustle and create an empire. Or you can explore, and spend more time on your hobbies and with loved ones. 

Business is the vessel to unlock all those things. With time and headspace, you can discover your higher purpose which brings you joy. 

I travelled for 2 years around the world. I learnt a ton in that time. I met some amazing people, saw incredible places and made memories for life. It also taught me a lot about what I want out of life. I found clarity on how I want my life to look over the next 50 years. I discovered what I’m good at, what I’m bad at and where I should channel my energy. I wouldn’t have discovered all that if I didn’t pick up the 4-Hour Work Week. 

Now I’m back and building something new, which I know is the right thing. It’s not for money or because it sounds cool. It’s because it’s my purpose. 

I want everyone to experience that. 

Resources 💌

🇿🇦 Here’s why Cape Town should be top of your list for the Nomad life.

🛠 Travel easy with this Nomad system

📚 Channel your inner creative with The War Of Art

P.S. If you’re interested in having a newsletter like this written for you, then let’s chat.

Thank you for reading Tom’s Letter. I hope you find it valuable. If you did then forward it to a friend or share it on social. If you were a lucky one who had this forwarded to you, subscribe here.

Have a great week,

Tom ✌️

P.P.S. What did you think..