The Remote CEO Life Podcast

Build Your Online Business Whilst Travelling The World with Ryan Mellon

• Sophie Biggerstaff • Season 3 • Episode 19

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Are you dreaming of becoming a digital nomad, building location independence, or even achieving financial freedom - without sacrificing stability?

This episode of The Remote CEO Life Podcast reveals how Ryan Mellon, a digital nomad coach and serial entrepreneur, did exactly that.

Ryan shares his journey from working two demanding full-time jobs and flipping real estate, to building a thriving rental business and living a location-independent lifestyle - part-time on his sailboat and part-time in Bali, a true digital nomad hotspot. Learn how he transitioned into coaching, built remote income streams, and created systems that support travel without sacrificing stability.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

- How to transition from the 9–5 grind to a life of freedom with remote work.
- How to structure a location-based business (like property) to support the digital nomad lifestyle
- Mindset and strategies for building a purpose-driven digital business from scratch
- Practical steps to overcome fear and start building your remote work income streams

If you’ve ever wondered how to make the leap into digital nomad life - what it really looks like to quit your job, work remotely, and live life on your terms - this episode is your roadmap.

Tune in to discover how to shift your mindset, create systems, and build a fully mobile lifestyle that gives you the freedom you’re craving.

Connect with Ryan Mellon:

📸Follow Ryan on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/TheDigitalNomadCoach

💻Website: https://www.thedigitalnomadcoach.com/freeguide1

🎙️Listen to Digital Nomad Nation Podcast: https://www.digitalnomadnation.com/blog/ep26

About The Remote CEO Podcast:

This podcast is for freedom-seeking online entrepreneurs, offering practical, actionable advice to help you step up into your new role as CEO by building an online business that works for you - not one you work for.

Hosted by Sophie Biggerstaff, an online business mentor, e-commerce founder, mental health advocate, and full-time digital nomad. 🙋‍♀️

👆Want to start an online business? Take my quiz to help you get started

👆 Want to achieve more freedom in your life? Find out how you can make it happen in my free masterclass.

👆Need online business advice? Get my best business tips directly in your inbox by signing up to my newsletter

👍 Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share to hear more conversations about starting and growing an online business.

🔗 Stay Connected:

📸 Follow me on Instagram

🎥 Follow me on TikTok

🗣️ Connect on LinkedIn

...

Sophie Biggerstaff (00:00)
Hello and welcome back to the Remote CEO Life podcast. I am recording today with Ryan Mellon, who is a Digital Nomad coach and serial entrepreneur who transitioned from working two demanding jobs, 14 hours a day, six days a week, to building a life of freedom and adventure. Now he's based in Bali. He spends half the year traveling and has worked remotely from 23 US states and 23 different countries.

Through his coaching business, the Digital Nomad Coach, Ryan helps others design their dream lives by achieving location independence. Now, obviously Ryan and I have quite a lot in common because we're both nomads. I actually recently featured on his podcast, which is called Digital Nomad Nation. You should definitely go and check that out where I give you all of my best tips on how to become a digital nomad. Really excited about this conversation today because it's a topic so close to my heart. Travel and helping people live the life they love.

and living a life of freedom. So let's get in to the episode.

Sophie Biggerstaff (00:58)
So hi, Ryan welcome to the podcast.

Ryan Mellon (01:00)
thanks, thanks for having me.

Sophie Biggerstaff (01:02)
Excited to chat. Obviously, we've spoken before when I was a guest on your podcast. So you know a bit about my story. So now it's time to hear your story. So I'd love if you could give us a bit more of an introduction about who you are, where you've come from, and how you ended up being a digital nomad.

Ryan Mellon (01:18)
Yeah, so it's quite a journey, but I'll give you the short version. We can dig in more if you want, but I was working two jobs, 14 hours a day, six days a week for about over 10 years and really got tired of that and started doing some solo traveling. Really got excited about seeing the world while still working those jobs.

Then I decided I really needed to make some changes and I started to get into real estate and real estate investing specifically built up a business in real estate investing while traveling the US and Yeah, it became a digital nomad. I've been a digital nomad for about Seven years now. So working from 23 US states and 23 countries and Right now I'm at home living on my sailboat

for the summertime.

Sophie Biggerstaff (02:04)
Amazing. And I know you've just spent like the past few months in Bali, right? So where else have you been? know you've traveled a lot in the US and you've traveled a lot outside of the US. Where's been the places you've been to so far?

Ryan Mellon (02:17)
So yeah, I just spent six months living in Bali. I also stopped in the Netherlands and Amsterdam on the way home for the first time, visit to there to visit some friends. But I've been all over Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, Singapore, China, a lot of Asia, couple of places in Europe, Denmark, Greece.

and the Netherlands, tons, I've spent tons of time to, at least a year's worth of time in Mexico and central and South America. So quite a little bit all over the place.

Sophie Biggerstaff (02:52)
Yeah, nice. And you've obviously gone through some various different business changes and things that you've been doing. At what point did you think, I'm going to take this digital, I'm going to become a digital nomad and start working while I'm traveling?

Ryan Mellon (03:08)
Yeah. So it started out with, me just really wanting to quit my jobs. I did a two week backpacking trip to Costa Rica solo in 2016 while still working both my jobs. And when I came back, I was like, I've got to stop what I'm doing. This is killing me. I hate it. And so I decided from there, I was going to make a big change. And I talked to my friends, my best friend and his wife into us setting a date from a year from now.

And us all just saving up enough money to do a one year road trip at the US and an RV. And we were just going to quit our jobs and then figure it out when we came home, like either get our jobs back or get new jobs or whatever. So that was the game plan. And that's exactly what we did. We saved up enough money so that we didn't have to work and we could do that road trip at the US for one year. And we did that.

And but halfway through that road trip, I started realizing like, wow, this is ending very quickly. This is going to come to an end and I'm going to have to get my old jobs back or I'm going to find new work or whatever. I had my real estate license that I was doing a little bit of real estate stuff as an as a real estate agent while working my two jobs previously.

So I got with a good friend, my friend Lori, who was a big real estate investor flipping lots of houses, buying lots of rental properties. I called her and I said, there any way I can help you find deals while I'm traveling on this road trip? She's like, absolutely. I don't care if you're here or not, if you can do the paperwork, make the deals happen, let's do it. basically I started, I turned my real estate agent job

Sophie Biggerstaff (04:46)
Thank you.

Ryan Mellon (04:50)
I used my real estate license to start doing deals while on the road. And we did about 20 to 25 deals in the last six months. And then when I got home, I realized, wow, I don't have to go back to work. I don't have to go back to my old jobs. I can keep traveling if I want. And then I started kind of traveling six months out of the year when it's winter here. I would come home during the summer and I would buy houses. I would flip them and sell them.

and I would buy houses, I would renovate them and keep them as rental properties. And so I, over the years, even with me traveling, I built a portfolio rental properties that brings me some fairly passive income. It still involves work, to cover my monthly costs. and I've also created, additional, money and wealth through flipping properties, wholesaling properties.

and then now I'm also doing coaching.

Sophie Biggerstaff (05:48)
amazing. And feel like that's a prime example of how you can use your existing skill set and things that you've done in life careers to benefit you in your current circumstances as well. think that's a really good transition. And that's how I feel like I definitely started like that. was like, right, okay, when I when I start my business, what can I do thinking I don't have any skills, then as soon as you look back at the skills that you had in your actual full time job, you're like, well, all of that is

variable. It's just about putting yourself out there for opportunities, which is clearly what you did.

Ryan Mellon (06:20)
Absolutely. Yeah, no, I mean, both my jobs were in-person jobs. So was working as a fast food manager, which you can't do remotely. And I was working at UPS in the warehouse as a supervisor. Also, you cannot do that remotely. And most people would, most people would tell you if you're a real estate agent, you can't do that remotely either, right? You got to be there to hold people's hands and walk them through houses and this and that and the other, but that's...

Sophie Biggerstaff (06:35)
Yeah.

Ryan Mellon (06:47)
not the case if you work with certain clients. So I was able to take my skills from all three of those jobs and kind of transition them into and building a business around making sure that I can travel those six months out of every year as a digital nomad.

Sophie Biggerstaff (07:05)
Yeah, exactly. You had the goal, the vision of what you wanted your life to look like and you worked backwards from that. I'm all about that. That is exactly what I like to teach people how to do because I think so many people build the business because they want to find money or they just want to travel. But they don't necessarily think about like the whole picture of exactly what they want their lifestyle to look like. They only get one of the elements of freedom and it sounds like you've been able to get.

Ryan Mellon (07:24)
Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (07:29)
most of the elements of the freedom that you were desiring. So how have you been able to manage that business whilst you've been travelling and on the move?

Ryan Mellon (07:37)
So yeah, it's all designed so that any boots on the ground stuff that needs me specifically only happens in the summertime when I'm home. So like for example, I don't let any of my leases expire until the summertime time. So people generally are not moving in and out unless I'm here. I have had some move out in and out.

unexpectedly while I out of the country, but I was still able to manage that with help of contractors. So, but most of like, if I have any big projects or big renovations or big move outs or anything, it's all made so that it happens when I'm home. And then when I transition into travel during the winter, things kind of slowed down a bit. There's not people moving in and out.

I just address issues as they come up. The toilet's broken, the heat's not working, whatever. so I build it so that I have some people that can help me when I need it and that it's not too much, because I do manage all these properties myself. I don't have a property manager. It kind of slows down during my travel season. that's, I kind of built it to do that.

Sophie Biggerstaff (08:52)
It's super interesting because I've seen people have property businesses, but I've not seen them go and travel at the same time. So it's interesting that you've been able to design that to work for you. It's like you've got a physical business somewhere, but you do not have to physically be there to be able to manage it. You've set up all the systems, you've figured out the way of managing it that works directly for you. And again, another prime example of you knew that you're going to go back every summer. So it makes sense for you to have those check updates. So you've set all of the

Ryan Mellon (09:21)
Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (09:21)
and set all of the requirements to work for you, which is super, super important and very, very impressive actually.

Ryan Mellon (09:27)
Well, thank you. Yeah, like when I was building it, like I was looking through the lens of like every system and everything has to be in place so that when I'm gone, it's not a crazy, you know, I'm not crazy stressed out or it's not a big headache and I can still handle everything.

Sophie Biggerstaff (09:44)
Yeah, super cool. And then obviously you've got your digital business. So talk me through some of the differences of like you up the physical business where you're running it digitally. But then when you were setting up your digital business, was that a new world for you where you had to kind of relearn how to set something up on the online space? Talk us through the comparison of both of those business setup journeys.

Ryan Mellon (10:05)
Sure, so yeah, the real estate was very hands-on and learning a lot of in-person networking and meeting with people and going out and see properties and managing renovations, very different. But once I accrued enough properties and stuff where the money was coming in, it kind of transitioned into just managing remotely. But as far as like me being a coach and helping other people to become digital nomads,

That was a totally new space for me. Just figuring out like the websites and building things right now I'm building out a super comprehensive course. It's nine modules. It's like five to 10 hours of video and over like 700 pages of like slides, worksheets and scripts. Like it's significant, like taking people from where they are now to where they want to go.

And so I've never done, I've done, I've been coaching for, you know, two years now, one-on-one, but building all this has been completely new. Figuring out the systems and selling a digital asset online is totally new to me, but it's something that I think anybody can do who wants to figure it out. And there's so many resources out there to help you figure it out that if you have some knowledge and you want to put something together to sell remote, you know, sell online.

like a digital asset, it's really great because you can do that 100 % remotely from anywhere. So that's what I've been working on and it has been quite a bit different than the real estate business, but I'm enjoying it. And I think that's the most, biggest thing about it is I started doing this to help other people to live the life that I am living.

So it's rewarding. It's more rewarding than the real estate. The real estate is financially rewarding, but at the end of the day, no one really comes to me and it's like, you you changed my life. Of course, like providing housing is important, right? I provide housing for people. It's super important, but like no one comes to me. It's like you've changed my life. You know, like, like when I do have coaching clients who went from like,

a job they hated to being able to travel all over the world and live the life that we live, that's life changing and that's much more rewarding than my other business. So that's kind of how I got in that space.

Sophie Biggerstaff (12:37)
Yeah, I guess it gives you an extra layer of purpose, right? Like you feel like you've got a new found purpose. Is that what inspired you to start your coaching business or what was that transition? You obviously had the real estate business set up. What made you then start the second one?

Ryan Mellon (12:53)
Yeah. So the real estate business, just like, if I, I, I was like, man, if I renovate one more three bedroom, one path, I'm like, I can do it in my sleep and it's not, it's not exciting anymore. And, just realizing that I did need something more purpose driven. And then I had a friend who I met, a couple of years ago traveling. and I helped him become a digital nomad.

because he wanted to do what I was doing. So basically he was working. I met him in Mexico. He's Mexican citizen and he was working for a business like in-person digital marketing company where he had to go to the office every day. So I helped him turn his skills that he had at his work into freelancing businesses on the sites like Fiverr and Upwork. And within six months he was able to leave his job

travel the world, any 5X to his income, in one go. And after that, I realized, well, if I mean I can help a friend do it, I can help anybody do it. So that's kind of how it started.

Sophie Biggerstaff (14:06)
Nice, yeah, I've got a very similar story there actually. Like when I decided I didn't want to do e-commerce anymore and I wanted to start helping people work online and be able to create a business around the lifestyle that they wanted to live, it was very much like, well, what do you get complimented the most on? And I'm like, well, a lot of people come to me and tell me that for whatever reason, I've said something, I've dropped something into conversation that's accidentally changed the whole course of direction of their life. And I think it's...

is really important when you are setting something up online to if you don't know what to set up or if you've got an inkling but you're not 100 % sure, go back to the things that you've done organically because they're the things that are coming from like a really authentic and purpose driven place rather than you trying to force something to happen that doesn't necessarily align with you. So it makes a lot of sense as to why you've gone down that route if that was something that you're already doing quite naturally.

Ryan Mellon (14:56)
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, the things that you enjoy and that you're good at, like if you can build a business around that, you're going to be great at it.

Sophie Biggerstaff (15:04)
Yeah, I completely agree. all about everything you've said. if you built your first business based on skill, the second one based on like passion and like what you enjoy and it's all to give you around like your dream lifestyle. So it makes perfect sense. All sits with alignment. And what are people coming to you? So at what stage are people coming to you? Are they already started to travel? Or are they like new travelers? Are they already nomads but not making money? How are people coming to you and what?

point to you work with them.

Ryan Mellon (15:32)
All of those things. So I get people that are working in a job that they cannot, that is not transferable at all, like doesn't work remotely. I have people that are already working remotely from home, but they're just worried about all the logistical things of getting out on the road and getting started, like, you know, what to do with their house and their things.

how to deal with visas and taxes and safety and travel and all that that, you know, we need to deal with. And I have people that are kind of in the middle. They've already started to build, build like some freelancing on the side or they've done a little bit of short trips and kind of tested it out, but they, need some help. So I get people in very different stages of transitioning to digital nomad life.

And yeah, it's great to just be able to help them look in from the outside and maybe see some things that they're not seeing help them get through some maybe self-limiting beliefs or some things that they're having fears about that's just holding them back from really getting out there and

and making it happen 100%, you know, making the leap and getting all in.

Sophie Biggerstaff (16:47)
Yeah, it makes sense. So they mostly in the US, they're trying to travel internationally.

Ryan Mellon (16:52)
Most of my clientele is in the US, but I have helped people outside of the US. My content course and a lot of my information is geared towards the US clientele, but I do have people from outside the country, so I can help people from anywhere.

Sophie Biggerstaff (17:10)
Yeah, it makes sense. And obviously, I'm sure you've faced the challenge of trying to build an online business whilst you're in different time zones of people, especially if you're in Bali and you're trying to work with the US. I know that's quite a big, big time difference. How did you, how did you cope with that? And how did you, how were you able to build your business regardless of the time zones?

Ryan Mellon (17:22)
It's buried.

Yeah, so it's very significant time change in Bali, anywhere from 12 to 13 hours, depending on because we changed the time one hour in the US. So like half of my trip, it's 13 hours ahead, half it's 12. So it's just making sure that my clients know what my schedule is and what timing like if it's in person meetings for me for them, it's going to be in the evenings, which is usually works well for them because

Maybe they're working a nine to five or whatever. So they're not going to have time to really jump on calls with me during the day, but they do after work in the evenings, which is my morning there. And so, and then when I'm back in the States, we're both pretty much on the time zone. Give, give one, you know, we have three, four times. And so, um, we're close. So it's, it's easier. And my availability opens up even more if someone's available to me during the daytime. So.

I've been able to manage it okay. Just making sure that you set the expectations that the time that you're available is going to also be work for whoever you're helping.

Sophie Biggerstaff (18:39)
Yeah, definitely. I think it's all about setting expectations when it comes to things like that. And just from your own personal perspective, how has that been setting up a new business whilst you're on the move? I know that you travel a little bit slower and you stay in one place for a period of time. Has that been difficult or have you found that quite straightforward?

Ryan Mellon (18:58)
Yeah, I would say, so this last trip was the first time I've ever stayed in one place for so long. Like I'm starting to slow mad, like all the professional nomad, professional digital nomads eventually seem to start slowing down and sticking to a couple of their favorite places. just because it is stressful and it is a lot to jump around. Like my first year, I think I did eight countries in six months.

Sophie Biggerstaff (19:12)
show.

Ryan Mellon (19:24)
And that was a blast, like, I can't, there's no way I'd be doing that anymore. So, staying slow matting and like being in one place longer. And with the advent of digital nomad visas that allow that, you know, there's over like 60 countries now that have digital nomad visas. That wasn't a thing when I first started in 20, my 2019, I think was when I went international and the 2018. So.

I'm just staying in place longer makes a big one place longer makes a big difference in it and it's not has it been too challenging.

Sophie Biggerstaff (20:00)
Yeah, I agree. think, like you say, most nomads that do this full time eventually get to a point where we're like, we want we actually kind of want to roll with us and go back to having some stability, thing that we've been escaping for the past few years. But it's never normally back to the home country. It's normally somewhere like that they can stay for six months a year, a couple of years. I've done exactly that. Like I've been fast traveling for the past two and a half years. I lived in Bali before that for 18 months. And now I'm like,

Okay, I'm ready for some stability now. Like, I'm quite tired of thinking about all of my things I have to think about on a daily basis on top of running a business. That's why I was asking the question. For me personally, I found it near when I first started Nomadium, I had a business that was very well established. I didn't need to set something up from scratch. But where I've been in the past nine months to a year,

Ryan Mellon (20:39)
Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (20:52)
pivoting my business and basically rebuilding, although I have all of the foundations from my old business and I kind of have all the lessons learned, it's still essentially like I'm restarting something. And I think for me, that would have been near impossible had I have also been living the life that I was living last year. I actually tried to set up a second business over the past two years whilst I was fast traveling and it was so hard, like so, so difficult. And that was more of like an e-commerce business. So was even more demanding than what I'm.

what I do now. yeah, I think going back to kind of what you said at the beginning around like, you you already had your property business set up essentially, and then that was just maintenance as you went along. think that that's way, way smoother transition into nomad life than trying to set something up as you go. Have you had any experiences with that with any of your clients? Or what would you suggest in those circumstances if you're starting something new and want to travel at the same time?

Ryan Mellon (21:46)
Well, I I kind of did build my real estate business while traveling, albeit like just six months out of each year, you know. And I would say to my clients, definitely it's much more it can be done. can like if you've got some money in the bank and you got some savings, you can start earlier and you can hit the road and build a business while traveling.

But I wouldn't suggest it. It's definitely just adds an additional very big stress factor into the whole situation, especially when you're new nomading. There's a lot to take in and a lot to figure out. Like once you've been doing it a couple of years, you can kind of pop into a new country in your sleep and figure it out. It's not, it's still, there's still stress there. It's still a lot to do, but you know, you know the ropes.

and it's not as hard as when you're new. So I always suggest if possible to build out the business and have that income and be kind of fully remote before you hit the road because you're gonna be much more successful at it and it's not gonna be as stressful.

Sophie Biggerstaff (23:00)
I would agree with that advice for sure. And you mentioned like some of your clients sometimes have limiting beliefs that prevent them from taking that first step. Did you also go through something similar? Did you experience any limiting beliefs or mindset blocks when you were starting out in this journey?

Ryan Mellon (23:14)
That's a good question. So I would say that.

No, not really. No, I was just like, really, I had to think hard about that. I was really gun ho about like after that Costa Rica trip and me just hating my the amount of in person work that I was doing so much. I was just like, I'm going to do this at whatever cost and I make this happen and figure it out along the way. And I did exactly that. And it wasn't always easy.

there was definitely some moments where I was doubting myself or like where income got low or things got stressful or things went sideways. But that's just life in general. Like that's going to happen to you, whether you're traveling or sitting at home, watching TV every night after your job, like that, that's, that's just life. So, I, I really just went for it and, figured it out along the way.

Sophie Biggerstaff (24:09)
That's super interesting. I love that. I love that answer you thought about it. And it's like, no, actually, didn't. That's so good. Because I don't think I've had one person that we've spoken about mindset that hasn't said that they had something that was like preventing them going forward. So it's super interesting to hear that from from your perspective. love that. So good. And I mean, not everybody is going to have those mindset blocks. Like I think I definitely

Ryan Mellon (24:27)
Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (24:32)
I think I had subconscious ones, I didn't have conscious because I was very much similar to you in the sense of if I've got an idea in my head, I'm going for it. Like there's no one really stopping me from doing that. there is definitely what I see it more is like an unconscious patterning where I'll be like trying to do something, but for whatever reason, it's not working out. And then when I really deep dive into why it's not working out, it's because there is that limiting belief holding me back. So there's not necessarily always conscious ones for me. It's normally been.

Ryan Mellon (24:58)
Hmm.

Sophie Biggerstaff (25:00)
unconscious actually but I think yeah.

Ryan Mellon (25:02)
Yeah, I think that happens with a lot of people.

There's some things that are holding them back that until you talk it through with them and kind of really figure out what's going on, even they're not aware of it, right?

Sophie Biggerstaff (25:15)
Yeah, for sure. There's a lot of things we're not aware of, think, as humans. The more that we become self-aware, the more that we become aware of our unconscious patterns and behaviours, I think the more we can see it and then as soon as we see something, we can work through it. So I think that's super.

Super important, especially when running a business and living this nomad life. I think there's so many things that are all mixed into one. There's obviously going to be times where you doubt yourself for sure.

Ryan Mellon (25:45)
Yeah, most definitely. It comes up and you just deal with it as it comes. Just like in non-nomad life.

Sophie Biggerstaff (25:49)
Yeah.

Definitely.

And obviously you've created a lot of levels of freedom in your lifestyle. It clearly sounds like you've got the financial freedom, the location freedom, and I assume some time freedom in there as well. What do you enjoy most about the lifestyle that you're living at the moment? Is there any specific places that you like or experiences that you like to experience? Why do you value this freedom so much?

Ryan Mellon (26:14)
Yeah, I think it's just having the variety and the change. Like, so I love being home on my sailboat and hanging out with friends. I have a lot of people that come up in the marina from the Bahamas during summertime for hurricane season that aren't here during the winter. So I have a good group of people to hang out with here. And I get to see my friends and family that I've grown up with. And then being able to go to somewhere like Bali where it's

very inexpensive and beautiful and like completely totally different culture and and vibes from the US 100 % and just being able to make make new friends. It's different, know, I'm not making really new friends and connections when I'm home. I'm just hanging out with People I've been hanging out with forever. And so when I go to a place like Bali

I'm meeting other nomads and I'm meeting locals and building relationships and new friends, dating in both places. And it's all different. It's nice to be able to just switch it up. When I get to the end of the six months at home, I'm really ready to go to Bali. And then when I'm at the end of six months in Bali, I'm really ready to get back home and get on the boat and go sailing.

hang out my friends in the marina and stuff. like, think just having a little bit of variety and, and, and then also the biggest thing for me is the weather. Like I hate the cold. So I, I'm with me doing like a Bali or a Mexico or Columbia or it's always somewhere warm Thailand during the winter. It gives me like 10 months of summer and I have like two months of like fall.

Sophie Biggerstaff (27:32)
Yeah.

Ryan Mellon (28:01)
in there before I leave and that's it. So I'm pretty much in warm weather all year round and I love that.

Sophie Biggerstaff (28:07)
I couldn't agree more. do this lifestyle purely for the weather, The weather and the, like, I'm the same. I love the fact that I get to meet new people all the time. Like, even on Crope Yang, I run a community here of co-working for nomads. And like, literally, I meet probably about 20 new people every week. So it's quite intense sometimes, and sometimes social battery does run a little bit low because you're almost socializing a bit too much.

Ryan Mellon (28:11)
me.

Yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (28:30)
But you'd never have the opportunity to meet some of the people that you meet when you're travelling and when you're nomading than you would if you were back in your hometown for sure.

Ryan Mellon (28:37)
Yeah.

100 % yeah, no, not meeting anybody new here. It's rare. I need to, I do, I do have an office at a coworking space 20 minutes from here. and I go there often, but I'm like, I usually stay holed up in my office cause it's private and I'm super productive, but that we do have like a happy hour every day from four to five. And depending on who's out there, I can go out and have

Sophie Biggerstaff (28:42)
⁓ Yeah, maybe start like a nomad, nomad club, whoever you are.

Ryan Mellon (29:07)
couple free drinks and socialize like that, network like that. But yeah, it's nice to be able to have that. Like, co-working spaces are huge, whether you're traveling or even at home.

Sophie Biggerstaff (29:19)
Yeah,

I agree with you. I agree with you. think it's sometimes different depending on like if you're in the big cities, for example, if I went to a co-working space in London, it would be very different than if I went to one in maybe Barcelona, because Barcelona, there's the community of nomads. So some of them go to the co-workings, but if you go in London, there's no nomads. It's just like mainly just office workers that have just found themselves in a co-working situation. So yeah, I think it's you don't always meet the most like-minded of people, but there is opportunity to meet new people, which is nice.

Ryan Mellon (29:41)
Right.

Correct. Yeah. Yeah. No, a hundred percent. No one's usually like traveling through or from another country. It's generally just locals, but it is nice to meet with. It's a lot, generally a lot more entrepreneurs in that, in those spaces that are, paying out of their pocket to, be in that atmosphere. So that is nice to meeting like minded folks as far as entrepreneur and, and, and less of

Sophie Biggerstaff (30:00)
Nice.

Ryan Mellon (30:15)
The traveler digital nomad.

Sophie Biggerstaff (30:16)
Yeah, it's super important.

Have you noticed a difference between like the places that you are living in? Obviously, you've lived in Mexico, for example, you live in Bali. Like, have you noticed a different type of nomad go to certain locations? Because for example, for me, I definitely felt in in Latin America, for example, there were way more kind of remote workers, people more focused on like the travel part, and then they had a job.

rather than entrepreneurs. Whereas if you go to Bali or if you come to Thailand, for example, there are so many entrepreneurs here where you can kind of connect on a different level because you're going through similar things.

Ryan Mellon (30:50)
Yeah, I would say that different countries, like some countries are just known to be digital nomad hotspots and like Thailand and Bali and even Da Nang and Vietnam now. You've got these hotspots where, you know, they have good internet, they have lots of good amenities, the prices are good, the weather's good, and that a lot of digital nomads congregate.

But then when you can get into other places that don't really have those box, you can't check those boxes. It's more of the backpackers or travelers and it's, less nomads and any place that's more remote where internet is spotty, you're always going to have way less nomads because we got to have good internet to make things happen. So I think that plays a big role in a, in a lot of

countries, like developing countries, internet can be spotty except for like certain places, right? So if you're outside of those places, you're going to find more of the folks that are like taking a sabbatical or on an extended holiday or something like that.

Sophie Biggerstaff (32:02)
Yeah,

I agree with you definitely. And have you got a favourite place that you've travelled to as a nomad?

Ryan Mellon (32:09)
Well, of course I love Bali because I keep going back there, I'm into it. I felt like some other magical places for me was.

Peru and Vietnam. Peru and staying in Cusco, which is like a little town near Machu Picchu that's like, know, 10,000 feet or, you know, like 3,300 meters above sea level, old city, cobblestone streets and llamas.

Sophie Biggerstaff (32:20)
Mmm.

Ryan Mellon (32:40)
on leashes and stuff like that, like very cool places that have some really cool views and like getting to check out Machu Picchu. also like Vietnam, like I did a four day motorcycle tour called the Hai Giang Loop in the north of Vietnam and through the mountains. And that was just an absolutely amazing experience traveling through like the north that's very much like

It was a hundred years ago, mainly just farmers and people plowing the fields with like one ox and one plow. And the kids are herding sheep and yeah, it's just like untouched nature. And so those are some of the like places that feel magical to me other than Bali, but I've been to a lot of cool places, but yeah, those are some of the experiences that really imprinted on me, I would say.

Sophie Biggerstaff (33:32)
I

have had the opposite experience in Cusco. I had the most severe altitude poisoning, altitude sickness ever. So like I loved it as a place. I think it's beautiful. I love what you're everything you've said is like it's 100 % true. How I felt that was the complete opposite. I was so unwell, but it is beautiful for sure.

Ryan Mellon (33:43)
⁓ no.

Yeah.

It's hard. It's hard. I spent three weeks there and I actually did a hyperbaric chamber session once and I went to an oxygen bar another time. And like one of them was just like me being like super hung over, which made it like 10, 10 times 10 times worse. But the other time was just like I wear an aura ring, which

Sophie Biggerstaff (34:13)
I think if you ever hike over there, it's even worse. Yeah, I guess.

Ryan Mellon (34:23)
tells me my SPO two levels, which is oxygen level in the blood. And it got down like below, like in the low nineties, which is not good. And so I did a hyperbaric chamber session in the basement of a fancy resort hotel. wasn't that expensive one hour. And then I could see instantly my oxygen levels were boosted back up. And that made a big difference. But like after three weeks, I was ready to get out of there because it is such it, it

Sophie Biggerstaff (34:29)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Ryan Mellon (34:53)
It is hard and like it's a very hilly city and you're walking a lot of places and you just get burnt out quick because there's not enough air to breathe out there.

Sophie Biggerstaff (35:03)
Yeah, you are

preaching to the choir like I was in pain. But that would have been a great idea had I have gone to one of these these oxygen places like that would have really helped me out.

Ryan Mellon (35:07)
you

yeah, was just like,

I was just like, take my money. I just need to feel better.

Sophie Biggerstaff (35:17)
Yeah, no really, make me breathe again. I did the opposite. I booked a

flight straight out. I was like, no, this isn't for me. We've got to go back to Lima ground level. No, that was a struggle, but I'm glad you enjoyed it. that's everything you say about Vietnam also true. That area of the world is pretty magical. So super cool. Okay then. So for listeners that are ready to kind of quit their jobs and go and travel and work.

Ryan Mellon (35:26)
I don't-

I don't blame you, yeah.

Yeah.

Sophie Biggerstaff (35:44)
around the world, like what practical steps would you recommend someone actually takes to get them to that stage?

Ryan Mellon (35:50)
Yeah, I would say just start following digital nomads on social media, reading blogs, listening to podcasts that talk about this stuff, educating yourself, maybe get a list of places that you want to go and digging down and see how much it's going to cost to live in these places. A lot of times, as long as you're not going to like expensive places, which there are lots of

amazing places that are way cheaper than wherever you are probably living now. And if you're making like US dollars or pounds or euros, your money is just going to go so much farther. So do that research and figure out like, what's it actually cost to live in some of the places that you want to travel. And you'll start to realize that it's way more doable than you might think, from a financial perspective. And then if you're not working remotely, start

I'm thinking about what skills do I have that I can transfer into remote work or freelancing or building a business. And that's something I help people go through and build like a skills inventory and stuff like that as well. So they're happy to reach out to me if they need any help with that. like those are the biggest things I would say to start thinking about and just getting that.

getting energized, getting inspired for the lifestyle, but then also figuring out like, what are the details? What does this look like? How can I make it happen?

Sophie Biggerstaff (37:12)
Yeah,

amazing. Definitely. think it's all about gaining clarity before you take action. So some really good, good steps there to take. Amazing. Thank you so much for that. was all super, super inspiring, super helpful. So tell us how can people connect with you if they want to go deeper with you.

Ryan Mellon (37:28)
Sure, so [thedigitallnomadcoach.com](http://thedigitallnomadcoach.com/) and I'm also the digital nomad coach on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. And then I have a podcast called Digital Nomad Nation where I interview other digital nomads to inspire people's journey. And just like you have been on it and Sophie has a great episode, so check that out on there. yeah, that's how you can find me.

Sophie Biggerstaff (37:51)
Amazing.

Well, thank you so much. It was great having you on.