In this episode host Jeff Ross sits down with Michael Catlow—a once overworked small business owner turned full-time digital nomad. Together, they unpack what it means to find purpose, build authentic relationships while traveling the world, and create a life of clarity, connection, and contribution. This episode isn’t just about travel—it’s about transforming your mindset, shifting from hustle to harmony, and truly living with intention.
“Shut up and demonstrate.”
“Trust is at an all-time low—and clarity is the antidote.”
“A phone charging block is a must.”
Michael Catlow – Purpose-driven digital nomad, coach, speaker, and freedom lifestyle pioneer.
Find The Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show on your favorite platform:
📺 YouTube | 🎧 Spotify | 🍏 Apple Podcasts
Feeling stuck in your 9-to-5? Ready to shift from “Sucksville” to “Awesometown”? Tune in and discover how you can create your own freedom lifestyle—starting today. Then tag us @jeffreyross.live with your biggest takeaway!
Jeff Ross (00:00) Well, good day, legends. Welcome back to another episode of the Laptop Lifestyle Dad Show. I'm your host, Geoff Ross here tuning in from Tasmania, Australia today. Proud father of three amazing boys. And today we're going to dive into a journey of love, entrepreneurship and global exploration. Before we do that, I'd like to just give you a little snippet each time of something that you don't know about me. One thing that people don't know about me is in my twenties, I used to write bulls and I was a radio clown.
I'd to hear a little bit more from you because we're to talk a little bit about this later on. We're to talk about clarity and connection, right? And that is our number one asset. You know, I actually personally met Michael Katlow back in 2021 on a trip in Hawaii and got to know Michael and Katie from that experience. And I've just watched their journey, you know, transform their passion from travel into a thriving business.
Michael Catlow (00:45)
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (00:58)
while embracing the integrated lifestyle of freedom and location independent lifestyle. You're not necessarily being stuck in one place and being able to be free and go where you wanna go. So today we're gonna unpack this story. We're gonna discover how you can do this too and turn your dreams into a reality. So let's get started. we've got Mr. Michael Catlow here from overworked small business owner turned to Globetrotter Digital No-Bad.
having traveled to, I believe, over 63 countries, and correct me if I'm wrong there, Michael, and six continents now. And I'd love to just dive straight in, shall we? How did you take your individual journey? How did that lead to where you are on this path of digital nomadism, if that's even a word?
Michael Catlow (01:49)
Yeah, yeah. Well, Jeff, it's an honor to be here again, when we first met in Hawaii. I mean, we had talked on zoom, we had talked on Facebook Messenger, but to meet in person in a beautiful destination like Hawaii was so great. And to follow your journey over the past couple years as well has been awesome. So it's an honor to be here. And yeah, man, back in 2010, I believe it was I read a book called The Four Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. Never read that book, right for anybody listening or watching on the subtitle is
Jeff Ross (01:54)
Okay.
Mm.
Michael Catlow (02:18)
⁓ escape the nine to five, live anywhere and join the new rich. And when I read that book, pardon my language, it pissed me off like when I read it, because I was stuck, you know, going to meeting to meeting and traffic here and there. And there's got to be a better way. And so that book was really the starting point for me to, you know, be able to live anywhere, join the new rich and escape the nine to five.
Jeff Ross (02:33)
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, wow. So I always like to unpack the origin story, right? So, you know, just let's go back, you know, before this whole, you know, experience of globetrotting around the world now, what was life like before this turning point?
Michael Catlow (02:57)
Yeah, so life was actually really good. ⁓ I actually, from the time I was born till the time I was in third grade, I moved nine times. So this idea of like travel and being around, I guess was kind of born and bred into me with my dad's work. We moved around a bunch. From third grade until graduating high school, I was in Maryland, right outside of Washington, DC here in the United States. And then I moved to North Carolina to go to college. And while I was in college,
Jeff Ross (03:13)
Hmm.
Michael Catlow (03:25)
I decided to get into the business school and, you know, thought I would go work for a bank. would be a corporate executive or something like that. And I ended up starting a little small business as a school project in one of my college classes. they said, if you could do anything in the world and get paid to do it, we're going to do that as a semester long project. And I ended up starting a mobile DJ business, ⁓ kind of a joke, but then that turned into a 14 year business where I had 19 people that worked for me. ⁓
Jeff Ross (03:45)
Ha ha, cool.
Michael Catlow (03:52)
between DJs, photographers, videographers, full service wedding and event planners. so with doing that amount of events, my life was, you if you think about travel or you think about taking a vacation, but in the event space, all my events that I were, was booking were six months to a year to 18 months in advance. So if I wanted to plan a vacation, I had to plan it two years in advance because with this event business, I had to build the business Monday through Friday during the week.
Jeff Ross (03:53)
So.
Michael Catlow (04:21)
And then at night I had to meet with my customers because they had to work nine to five jobs. And then I did the events on and so I was working seven days a week. So that idea of the four hour work week sounded farfetched, sounded way too, you know, out there, but it really inspired me when I read that book. So life was, it was good. I was making a ton of money. was having fun. was partying for a living.
Jeff Ross (04:25)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (04:45)
but there was no way that I could take a vacation. There was a big, bold, beautiful world out there that I wanted to go see. And so that book was really the start to it.
Jeff Ross (04:53)
Yeah, okay. So life was good. you were working, hustling and grinding pretty hard by the sound of it. And things were going in the right direction. And did you have a sense of purpose while you building that DJ business though?
Michael Catlow (04:57)
Yeah.
Yeah. And actually let me back up for a second because when you're there, there's an old phrase that says like, when your income goes up, sometimes you think your IQ goes up. And so I thought I was smarter than I was. So thinking back during that timeframe, I also ended up in $297,000 of credit card debt because on a, had a bad real estate transaction that went bad, blah, blah, blah. So yes, everything was good.
Jeff Ross (05:28)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (05:36)
And then it was not really good. And so I was reading that book. I was also in the space of I've got to restart my life because when you ask about purpose, when I first started that business, like I was like, this is the greatest job in the world. get to be part because there's really only two times in a person's life where all your family, your friends, your coworkers, like the people you love are together. One is a wedding and one is a funeral. And I get a chance to
Jeff Ross (05:38)
Yeah.
Mmm
Michael Catlow (06:01)
part of this celebration of two families coming together and I felt very purposeful. But over time, as I had gotten involved in other projects and stuff like that, that purpose had started to wane, which is actually where I started to do some other projects. And that's where I got into financial troubles and so forth. And so it was like, all right, I need to restart my life. And if I was going to restart my life, I actually want it to be a
Jeff Ross (06:07)
Hmm.
Michael Catlow (06:27)
like fulfilling purpose driven approach. And that's what then said, I just wanna travel the world, help people and do really cool things.
Jeff Ross (06:35)
Yeah, I find that like we essentially go what we're talking about is the second stage of life, right? Where we have a deeper sense of mission, if you will. And it's, you know, the mission matters most. It's not necessarily transactional. We'll do whatever it takes to achieve the mission. And so what you're doing now in the travel space and, you know, helping others to do the same thing. What is the mission behind what you're doing?
Michael Catlow (06:40)
and ⁓
Yeah, so ⁓ I'm gonna start with a selfish side that then leads into the selfless way. ⁓ Yeah, growing up with ⁓ like very, very, very low middle class kind of upbringing didn't have money. It's funny when I was in ninth grade, I only owned
Jeff Ross (07:07)
Yeah, of course.
Michael Catlow (07:19)
two pairs of shorts and two shirts when I was in high school. And that would only equal four outfits in a week. And I remember on a Thursday, I won't mention the name in case this person happens to watch the podcast, but a friend of mine named Leslie, I won't say her last name. I heard her whispering to a friend, I wonder what outfit Mike's gonna wear tomorrow, because there was only four combinations that you could do. This was on a Thursday. And so it was at that point where I was like,
Jeff Ross (07:44)
Thanks.
Michael Catlow (07:45)
man, there's gotta be something
more right than like being poor, being stuck, being frustrated, because that's kind of where my upbringing was. And so the selfish side is as I started to change my goals, my purpose, my mission, my goals, my just things that I wanted to do, I wanted to go see the world. And as I did that, was like hiking Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa or scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. ⁓
Jeff Ross (08:07)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (08:15)
internal transformation that happened for me to be able to accomplish this thing that I had dreamed of doing since I was six years old, you know, watching the National Geographic channel that has led into I like, I know what it's like to struggle. And so I also know what it's like to use that struggle as fuel to then move forward to do the things that we want to do. So selfishly, I want to see all the really cool things in this world. I want to do lots of really neat experiences.
And I know how it transformed me. So I know there's 8 billion people on planet earth that I have to imagine have dreams, goals, desires, things they want to see as well. And so if there's anything that we can do to help either just inspire, encourage, or provide tools and resources and connections to help them achieve those dreams, for me, it's in the space of travel, right?
Jeff Ross (09:05)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (09:07)
There's people that love health and wellness and all that. To me, it's really about travel and experience and creating memories with family and friends. So yeah, it's that selfish side to achieve that, but then pass that on to others.
Jeff Ross (09:18)
And I find that's where the real mission starts, right? It's a core need to transform your own life. And then when you get into that space, it becomes bigger than you. And then it's about helping others to do the same thing. And this is leadership. Leadership has influenced nothing more, nothing less. leadership in this true positioning is that it's guiding, right? You're guiding people to help them get out of Sucksville and take them to Awesome Town where you are now. So I love that.
You know, this conversation where I'm taking this now is to get into the, some of the technical around on how to do this. Right. So it all starts here. Right. We have that dream to transform our lives, to, be something bigger a purpose than what we're in now stuck in the rat race, so to speak. You know, there's more to life. You know, for me, I'm very passionate these days about helping find their voice, you know, because I know my own voice was
not necessarily been able to express in a clear, concise way. you know, I had such a yearning and a burden to be able to just burst out of there and share the gift with the world, to be able to help others to do the same thing. And I know when we can find our voice, we can find purpose and we can get clarity around that. Right. So we all, we all have this, this mission, you know, there's something, this calling, if you will, that's something that's on our lives.
Michael Catlow (10:28)
amazing.
That's right, yeah.
Jeff Ross (10:42)
And very few actually go, you know, don't achieve it. Very few actually want to start to achieve it. So let's talk to that. You know, let's get from the point of sucks Phil, which whatever that looks like for you, you know, stuck in your nine to five, stuck in your grind, stuck in your hustle, stuck in that bird of some lifestyle that essentially got you the foot on your neck, keeping you small to then transition.
into live living this life full of purpose and mission and going out there and creating a life by design, you know, to our entrepreneurs that are just starting to, to venture out into this space, you know, a lot of frustrated network and affiliate marketers, a lot of people wanting to learn how to make money online and create that freedom of purpose for their lives. What advice would you have to someone who's just getting started in that space?
Michael Catlow (11:37)
Well, Jeff, I wrote down ⁓ Sucksville and Awesome Town. I love that language. And as you were sharing and bringing that up, I asked my wife, Katie, to go grab something from a little tub that we carry around with me. And so, and what'd say?
Jeff Ross (11:53)
Now I just start laughing.
Michael Catlow (11:55)
okay. So, you know, some people create vision boards or dream boards and so forth. And I used to do that as well. But as we traveled around, cause we don't have a, we don't have a fixed home. We've chosen a life of adventure instead. I had to bring something that I could carry around with me. And so I have a vision book, but there's a couple of things that I want to show on here. So if you can see I'm Michael Katlo, I'm on a mission to positively impact as many people as possible. And then in here.
Jeff Ross (12:07)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (12:21)
there are like affirmations and things like that. But the real thing, because as I travel around the world and I talk with people, sometimes I don't even know who they are, just random question to like the server at the restaurant or whatever. When you said everybody has a voice, I believe that with every ounce of blood in my body to the depth of my soul, every fiber of my being, but I think a lot of people don't think about it enough. They forget it.
Jeff Ross (12:41)
Yeah.
No.
Michael Catlow (12:47)
So anybody who's got that little flame, you know, or a little spark inside, like they need to, they need to ⁓ put air on that flame. They need to bring it back up. And the way that I figured out to do that for me was I had to come up with what I wanted, right? In a dream world, in a pretend world, in a fairy tale world, if I could have it all my way, what would I want it to look like? So that's on the front, but on the back, I have Michael Katlo shut up and demonstrate. ⁓
Jeff Ross (13:10)
Mmm.
I love it, show you don't
tell.
Michael Catlow (13:16)
Yeah.
Instead of just talking about it now, like I have to talk about it in order to figure out what I want or what I don't. But, it's like, just shut up and nobody else who cares what anybody else thinks about your dreams, about your goals, about your strengths, about your gifts. Like they're yours. They're your gifts. They're your goals. They're your gifts. And when I realized that like, even like, just said,
Jeff Ross (13:21)
course.
Mm.
Michael Catlow (13:39)
If I don't do this stuff, I'm gonna go to my grave with regret and I didn't want that. And so to me, it's you gotta, yeah, you gotta dream about what you want and then just shut up and go do it. So this is a book I carry around with me everywhere I go.
Jeff Ross (13:47)
Powerful Motivator.
I love that and the visual reminders that are there in your face is tangible. Yeah, really, really awesome. So something else is. ⁓
Michael Catlow (13:59)
Yeah. Well, sorry, one other quick thing
on that. So also I don't want it to sound like pie in the sky because there's dark days, there's down days, there's sad days. So in addition to that, when I have those moments, I also have in the back of my book, a list of the cool accomplishments that I have already done. So that way, if I'm
Jeff Ross (14:08)
Yeah, yeah, of course.
Yeah, well done.
Michael Catlow (14:23)
If I'm not feeling inspired or very dreamy, can go, you know what, Michael, you actually have done this and it doesn't have to be traveled to 60 countries. It started out with, you know what, you actually made the decision to go travel and then it builds from there and builds from there. So it's the dream. It's the reminder that you are capable and it's the demonstration of just going to do it.
Jeff Ross (14:39)
Yeah.
Yeah, it's the be, do, have, right? And so that doing part is where a lot of people seem to stumble over though. Like they get up in their own heads and they get into the excuses and the blame or whatever it was. But as I'm reflecting here, I'm just reflecting, like I met you in Hawaii in 2021 in person. We started the whole journey in January, 2021. And like I came into this space with all of the excitement, all of the passion.
And, you know, some skill sets, but I totally sucked at it when I first started. Right. And so what I had to come to realize was I was attached to other people's opinions and B that attachment was setting me up for, to make sure I was performing, you know, in performing to other people's expectations that I had put on myself. So, you know, social media, it's, it's a beautiful tool.
And, you know, people have created massive influences on it today and, and massive businesses on it today. So, um, you know, it's a very competitive space though, cause it's very noisy. So, you know, this is why I do what I do to help people to find their voice, to elevate themselves out of the noise, to raise above it. But I love to hear from your experience, from your wisdom, you know, let's talk a bit, a bit more about the social selling attraction marketing side. You know, how would you help someone get started and what advice would you have for those people?
Michael Catlow (16:11)
Yeah. So, ⁓ we'll take it from a couple of different angles, but the first angle is, ⁓ so we listened to a lot of podcasts as well. And, specifically Gary Vaynerchuk or Gary B. Right. I love, love his content. And when he said, ⁓ social media is like networking on steroids. before social media, all of my business was done face to face networking with small business owners. And then something that he shared that we just kind of operate by this philosophy.
Jeff Ross (16:22)
Yeah, I love that one.
Yes.
Michael Catlow (16:40)
He said, if you're a local town gave you a free page ad in the newspaper every single day and it was free, you could put whatever you wanted. Would you take advantage of that? And the answer is yes. Now, what if it was in your state? What if it was all across your country? What if it was all across the world and you could do a free full page ad, would you do it? And that's what social media is. And then the second thing that has really stood out to us, because we don't have huge followings like the millions and millions and hundreds of thousands of people.
But a whole nother shift that's happened and you can elaborate on this way better than we can, but the whole interest media versus followers. Like if you put out the content, yeah, as niche as you want, as specific as you want, then the people that are looking for that are going to find it or those that are in that kind of space will find you. And so that was the thing we had to get, we had to overcome was, well, do we need to build this whole following or build this whole list? And the answer was no, you just need to
Jeff Ross (17:17)
Yes.
I'm glad you picked that up.
Michael Catlow (17:38)
love what you do and put out content and those that are going to be interested are going to find it. And so it's love what you do and be as loud and proud as you can. And you don't have to be like gregarious and lots of energy and all of that stuff. Cause some people do it just through writing on LinkedIn or whatever. whether it's audio, video writing, you know, scripted or off the cuff or a TV show or a podcast, it's just find your voice and like live it, breathe it and do it.
Jeff Ross (17:56)
Yeah.
Yeah, I love that. And then that's the whole thing too, right? When we get out of this whole performance anxiety and the fear around trying to perform, trying to sell people, and we shift to go to just being of service and just being a person who genuinely connects with people and is genuinely there to serve and help people move forward. That is the big shift. And so what I wanted to really unpack, and you've done that beautifully, is social media is just a tool. It's just a platform to help us to express our voice, right? To connect with.
Michael Catlow (18:33)
That's right.
Jeff Ross (18:37)
people around the world globally. So, you know, let's talk a bit more about shifting from sales to service, because I think this is a big conversation that needs to be highlighted, especially in our world. You know, a lot of people come into this and what I see left, right and center, I'm sure you do too. And one of the reasons I do what I do is to help to combat this issue is there, you know, a lot of people just get into people's inboxes and they direct pitch, they link spam. And I think it's because they don't know any better.
Michael Catlow (18:39)
That's right.
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (19:07)
Right.
So what would be some advice that you would give to someone to help them to avoid having to do that? Because that's all they know how to do to help them to shift into this space of service instead.
Michael Catlow (19:15)
Yeah.
Yeah, well, a mentor of mine years and years and years ago, this was an old school philosophy, but it's way it's just as applicable with social media. So in the United States, for those of you who don't know, we have American football, and we have something called the Super Bowl. And the Super Bowl is like the biggest, you know, game, you know, million, 10s millions, hundreds of millions of people around the world, watch it, whatever the numbers are. And this mentor of mine said, Alright, if you had 30 seconds at the Super Bowl, like in the arena, right in in the stadium,
and you had a like a bullhorn or you had the microphone and you can make an announcement about your service, your product, your good, your offering to the world. Would you try to, cause you've got millions of people watching, would you try to sell every single one of them that are there in 30 seconds or would you just be looking for those that are looking for you? And you would say, Hey, whatever affiliate program or network marketing program or whatever.
Jeff Ross (20:09)
Hmm
Michael Catlow (20:16)
If this product is of interest to you, meet me at exit number two. If you'd like to sell this product and make money, meet me at exit number five, right? And that's all you have is 30 seconds. So it's really just like, this is who I am. This is what we do. This is what we have. If it's of interest to you, let me know. And so it is this blend though, cause sometimes you can make a post, but a lot of people will post and hope as they say, right? Hope that he's going to do that.
Jeff Ross (20:24)
Yeah, yeah.
Michael Catlow (20:45)
So sometimes there is a direct message in there, but if that direct message is, want to sell you something versus an engaging question, that's not a scripted question. You know, I mean, it can be a scripted question, but it has to be asked in the way that is of service and about that person. think it makes, I think intention makes a lot of difference and people can feel that a mutual friend of ours ⁓ in Australia, actually, ⁓ he had said to me years ago, he said, Mike,
Jeff Ross (20:53)
Mm.
So.
Michael Catlow (21:13)
people's bullshit meters are really, really high. And so stop BSing people. Like just be you, be real. Is this of interest? Cool. If not, cool.
Jeff Ross (21:16)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah. And I actually say to people that trust is an all time low. You know, so we have a responsibility as leaders in whatever industry and aspiring leaders to focus on connection, to build trust and, you know, trust leads to influence, which then leads you to into position of service. Right. So, yeah, that's our ultimate goal is to go build trust first. I love that. Thanks Mike. So you and Katie, you travel around the world, you know, you're on the road all the time. You're in a beautiful location.
Michael Catlow (21:39)
Yes.
Yeah.
Jeff Ross (21:53)
Where are you right now?
Michael Catlow (21:55)
We're in a boring location today, but I say boring just because it was my hometown. We're in Charlotte, North Carolina just for a few days before heading back out. ⁓ Katie's nephew is graduating this weekend. So she's going up to Vermont with her dad for the graduation and so forth. niece, not nephew, I'm sorry.
Jeff Ross (22:03)
Okay cool, yeah cool cool cool. Where are you off to next?
nice.
Yeah, well that's good that you can still stay connected with family at times and go off then to another exotic location. So where are you off to next?
Michael Catlow (22:23)
Well, we've got several options planned. So we've actually got a trip to hike the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu plan, which is one of the seven wonders of the world. That's been a dream of mine to do. We've got an adults only cruise that we've got booked. We've got a trip to Cancun, Mexico that we're actually bringing a group down there with us. ⁓ We are with our house sitting that we do. We have this ridiculously like spectacularly beautiful house.
Jeff Ross (22:31)
wow.
Yeah.
Michael Catlow (22:50)
on the Gulf of Mexico down in Florida for our 4th of July, which is our Independence Day. We're thinking about doing an Ireland castles tour in September. So we've got lots of things coming up.
Jeff Ross (23:02)
Brilliant. I'm actually off to Japan with my son Harrison next week. Yeah, five days away. So yeah, we're heading over to Tokyo, Kyoto and Osaka. So it's gonna be cool. You been to Japan before?
Michael Catlow (23:06)
A couple days. Yeah, couple days. Yeah, it's all amazing.
Nice. Yeah.
No, but it's on our list. We, you know, we ask people all the time, if you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? And like the past year, there's been probably the number one answer people give is Japan over the past year. It's been, yeah.
Jeff Ross (23:26)
Yeah, really. Yeah,
well, I'm really looking forward to it. It's going to be a different cultural experience for sure. So, you know, how do you take how do you guys maintain a healthy working relationship while working with each other, traveling together like you, you know, most most people can't be in the same room for, you know, all that time. So how do you guys maintain that healthy relationship?
Michael Catlow (23:31)
Yeah.
⁓ yeah, I think that the, the phrase that I would say is self awareness over everything. And so the things that you may not be applicable for somebody who's listening or watching. Right. So for me, if I am in the same place for an extended period of time, I go bonkers and then I am not a pleasant person to be around for my wife. So I have to know for my, just kind of rolled her eyes in a funny way, like behind the computer.
Jeff Ross (23:55)
Yeah.
Yeah
Michael Catlow (24:16)
So for me, I know now at 49 years old, I'll be turning 50 next year. Like I have to have an adventure planned. have to have something like that. Yeah. And then also like figuring out our roles. And sometimes that, I mean, it sounds as cliche as it is, but if I try to do things that she's good at and she tries to do things that I'm good at sometimes as a solopreneur or freelancer or small business owner or affiliate marketer, especially like a ⁓ partnership or a couples.
Jeff Ross (24:25)
Yeah, working towards something, yeah.
Michael Catlow (24:45)
You sometimes have to do those things when you're working together, but it spirals us downhill really quickly. So when we get to stay in our lane and I get to hang out and talk with amazing people like Jeff, right? And ⁓ do cool things like this, I become my highest and best use, which then makes me a better partner for my wife and business partner.
Jeff Ross (24:49)
Mmm.
Yeah,
self-awareness is key, right? Knowing, understanding your strengths and your weaknesses, what lights you up and what puts you in toxic environments. it's ⁓ been definitely one of those things that have helped me as an entrepreneur and, you know, working from home. Yes.
Michael Catlow (25:15)
That's
why I keep this around as a reminder, yeah.
Jeff Ross (25:19)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So for our listeners who are tuning in and they're wondering, you know, how does Michael and Katie, you know, travel the world, be digital nomads? You know, they may be looking to embark on a similar journey. First of what advice would you have for them and how can they get started?
Michael Catlow (25:38)
Sure, and we get asked that question a lot and then we also get some pushback with that question. So I want to frame it a little bit differently to do what we do, which is make money in the travel industry, like as a side hustle, a part-time income, or even a full-time income. The vast like 99 % of people are not digital nomads, right? They are not traveling around the world. They have their house, they have their kids, they have school, they have that and so forth.
Jeff Ross (25:51)
Mm.
Yeah.
Michael Catlow (26:06)
plenty of ways for people to make money in the travel industry. Now, for those that want to be maybe nomadic or location independent or home free or travel the world, you know, having epic experiences. First thing I would say is it's actually cheaper than you would think it to be. between Katie and I, we've been to over a hundred countries between the two of us. We've been six continents. haven't done, haven't yet done Antarctica. It's coming up on the list soon. ⁓ but our, our most
Jeff Ross (26:23)
Mm.
Michael Catlow (26:35)
epic year that we've ever had 22 countries, six world wonders like we were on a flight every seven days. If you average that out, like we spent a month in Brazil, a month in Mexico, but then we were in Australia. ⁓ That whole year, every single dollar that we spent for everything, six continents, six world wonders, 22 countries like the Colosseum in Rome, like the Eiffel Tower, all this stuff. It was cheaper to do that.
than it was to live in Charlotte, North Carolina with a mortgage, insurance, gym membership, all that stuff. So if somebody wants to be like home, home free, a digital nomad, location independent, you just have to have that spark. And if you have that desire, and if it's like a eight out of 10, maybe a seven and a half out of 10, you'll figure out a way to do it. If it's a six out of 10, figure out how to get to a seven out of 10 from like a burning desire. And then you'll figure it out. There's a gazillion ways that people can do it.
Jeff Ross (27:07)
Yep, I believe it.
Yeah.
Yeah, like, Sarah and I are looking to do it in the next few years. The other reason we're not doing it sooner is because we've, you know, we've spoken to our boys, they're really settled in school. They're like their friend groups. And we don't want to, you know, be selfish and take them out of that space. So, you know, we have chosen to park it for five years and revisit it then, but that's definitely something that we want to do too as well. ⁓ So what is the, you know, to wrap up, what is a must have travel gadget? You just have to have in your kit.
What's a gadget that everybody needs when they're traveling?
Michael Catlow (28:04)
So a phone charging block is one and we have a solar powered and one that can plug in via USB. There you go. Yep. Is yours? Does yours have solar power on it as well?
Jeff Ross (28:11)
Yeah
No, doesn't have solar power. I didn't know you could get solar powered ones.
Michael Catlow (28:17)
Yeah. Yeah. So our
Yeah, we got it in the US we use Amazon a lot. So we got it. It was like 50 bucks or something like that. So a cell phone charger, you know, that is a must that can charge like two or three phones in one day just in case so that that's a must. The other thing would be a I would say, ⁓ very versatile clothing, clothing that you can that you can wash in the sink, right and that will dry
Jeff Ross (28:43)
Okay
Hmm
Michael Catlow (28:47)
That makes a big difference if you're full-time travel.
Jeff Ross (28:50)
Yeah, yeah, that's a good point. I went to India last year and we definitely could have done with versatile clothing over in India. So, yeah, just one last question. What's your favorite destination you've been to? I bet you this is a hard question to answer.
Michael Catlow (28:56)
Yeah, yeah.
It's a hard one because each location is different, right? But Santorini, Greece is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places in the world. The pyramids of Egypt blow me away. You have to see the pyramids at some point. And then for me, I love Mexico. I love the Mexican food. It feels like Hawaii, but it's about a tenth of the cost. yeah, Santorini, Greece.
Jeff Ross (29:27)
Yeah.
Michael Catlow (29:29)
⁓ The pyramids of Egypt and Mexico are three favorites.
Jeff Ross (29:33)
Yeah, brilliant. Cool. Well, let's wrap it up. I always like to close up with a bit of a dad joke, you know, to keep the dad's spam in there with the laptop last on dad. So here's one for you. ⁓ I married my beautiful wife for her looks, just not the ones that she gives me these days. You'll have to use that one one day. ⁓ well, my thank you very much. And for our listeners tuning in, thank you very much for your, your support. We really appreciate you.
Michael Catlow (29:49)
Good.
Jeff Ross (30:00)
This podcast is brought to you and hosted by the Los Angeles Tribune Podcast Network. My name is Jeff Ross. We've been talking to Michael Katlow today and make sure you go and hit all the normal social channels, Apple, YouTube. What is it? Spotify. And make sure you go and subscribe and share this episode out with the world. Hey Michael, before we go, I believe what's, what's the website, where can people connect with you and how can they get in touch with you?
Michael Catlow (30:24)
Sure, across pretty much all social media, just thecatlows. So Katie and I share a profile. So I mean, I have my own personal ones, but most of our stuff is thecatlows. ⁓ So thecatlows.com and then at thecatlows pretty much across all social media.
Jeff Ross (30:40)
Awesome. All right, guys. Well, if you've been interested to learn how to become a digital nomad traveling the world, make sure you connect with them at thecatlos.com and I will make sure those links and details are in the show notes for you. And you can go and explore how you can turn your passion for travel into a profitable venture for your lifestyle. Remember, the journey only starts when you take the first single step. Thank you for your time and bye for now.