Bryan McAnulty [00:00:00]: Have you ever dreamed of selling everything and traveling the world full time? Well, that's exactly what Michael Motametti did. Along with his wife and his three year old daughter, Michael spent the past three years living a digital nomad lifestyle, exploring the world while building a business and growing an audience of over 400,000 fans online. Michael is a travel creator, chef, podcast host, and former MasterChef Canada contestant who turned his passion for adventure into a thriving brand. Oh, and for a whole year, he. He let an AI choose every move that him and his family made from which country to visit next to what dish to try for dinner.

Michael Motamedi [00:00:34]: And when it comes to travel specifically, don't think the hotels are gonna pay you because they're not. Don't think the restaurants are gonna pay you, because they're not. Just go out there and create videos that you know people are gonna fall in love with. And don't give a about your followers, care about your content, because the brands do not care. They just care about the videos that you make.

Bryan McAnulty [00:00:54]: Today, Michael's here to share his experiences as a digital nomad, including how he earns while traveling full time, how you can do the same even with a toddler. Welcome to the creator's Adventure, where we interview creators from around the world, hearing their stories about growing a business. Hey, everyone, I'm Brian McAnulty, the founder of Heights platform. Let's get into it. Hey, Michael, welcome to the show.

Michael Motamedi [00:01:20]: Thank you very much, Brian. I appreciate it. Thanks for having me on, man. I'm excited.

Bryan McAnulty [00:01:25]: Yeah. So my first question for you is whether there's some. What are some of the biggest things that either you did, you are doing that has helped you to achieve the freedom to do what you enjoy?

Michael Motamedi [00:01:37]: I love that question because I get it all the time. You know, everyone's like, who's this rich kid with the silver spoon traveling around the world, these villas? I'm like, bro, if you only knew the amount of work that went in to get here. You know, I think a lot of people think that the stuff they see on the Internet, it's easier for them to say, like, hey, it was handed to them because it makes them feel better about themselves. But in reality, I think for the most of us that are out there that are doing what we love, it's fucking hard. I'm sorry, am I allowed to curse on here?

Bryan McAnulty [00:02:09]: Yeah, yeah, go for it.

Michael Motamedi [00:02:13]: You know, what I'm doing right now is, I think, the most impactful on the way that I live my life. I mean, I've had a couple great Companies that I was a part of and helped found and helped be a part of in my past life, which I was working 12, 14 hour days. And you know, we had some exits over there which were always nice, but I don't necessarily think that those exits were, are part of my everyday life, you know what I mean? Like yeah, they gave me a nest egg so I can feel comfortable, but it's not necessarily what I do on my everyday life. And so two very important things, sorry for the long winded way, but two very important things for everybody out there in my opin opinion is one, live within your means. Okay. I think most people answer the question of like, how am I making money, what am I doing, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, which I think you can do. You can travel full time, you can live the life that you want by first living within your means, finding out what that is and then living within it. And secondarily, from an income standpoint, I'm all about the small wins, man.

Michael Motamedi [00:03:17]: You know what I mean? I am all about the small wins. If I can do a brand deal for a 1500 bucks or if I get a project or a restaurant or a bar or hotel, that's going to net me out three or four grand a month, I'm good. Like that is like ideal sweet spot for me. I'm extremely diversified, you know, from fixed income CDs to, you know, distributions in the market, to being in hospitality and bars and, and in hotels and in real estate. Like I have like a plethora, a plethora of different things that I do and I think it really has helped me to be that diversified because if one thing falls or if one month is bad in any situation, I don't really feel the impact. So I think those are the two main things, you know, live within your means and diversify. Diversify, Diversify.

Bryan McAnulty [00:04:11]: Yeah, yeah. I think especially when you're living this kind of digital nomad lifestyle, that's helpful because the last thing you want is to just be some completely random place and then suddenly your, your income is gone for whatever for that month or, or until who knows when I remember myself traveling that probably one of the most stressful times was because I did not yet have enough different income streams and I was going through problems with some clients and stuff I had then and that created a lot of stress that I didn't have once I had those other streams of income. Even if they were all just different little small things.

Michael Motamedi [00:04:53]: Yeah, you know, I think a lot of people, especially starting out are looking for that big thing. Right. I'm going to make 40k a month. I'm going to have a $10 million exit. I don't know, whatever arbitrary number you want to throw out there that fits your dream. And what I realized is that comes and goes not only, but also you're putting yourself all into something that might not necessarily hit. And I'm saying, don't do that. I have done that in the past.

Michael Motamedi [00:05:23]: But just remember that if it doesn't hit, you got to get back on that horse fast, you know?

Bryan McAnulty [00:05:30]: Yeah. I. I'm much, much more like, the idea of, how can I live my life the way that I want to now without having to first put everything into maybe achieving that and then maybe ending up that I wasted time not being able to do the thing that I wanted.

Michael Motamedi [00:05:46]: Yeah. Because I think you only hear about the winds. You know what I mean? You only hear about the Zucks and the musks and the. You know what I mean? Or the Ubers or the Airbnbs. Like, there was a hundred AirBnBs before there was Airbnb, you know what I mean? Thousands, if not hundreds, you know? And I think better understanding what your goals are are probably the first and foremost thing that you have to tap into. Right. It's kind of knowing yourself. Just like I was saying about knowing your.

Michael Motamedi [00:06:21]: Your means. Right. Living within your means, you also got to know yourself, right? Like, if you're not going to be happy without that. PJ. If you're not going to be happy without that $20 million penthouse. Okay, bro, Go all in. Do what you got to do and keep doing it. Right? I came to a place in my life where I realized I figured out what I needed, right? Like, what I wanted out of life.

Michael Motamedi [00:06:44]: And I. I. In the early. In my 20s and my early 30s, I was like, I need a. I need a. I need a private jet. I need this, I need that. And it's like, I got a wife and I have a daughter, and it's like, you know, now it's not necessarily about purchasing things, if that makes sense.

Michael Motamedi [00:07:01]: It's really about living. And I think sometimes people lose grasp of that. And I don't necessarily mean that traveling the world full time is everybody's dream. I'm just saying find out what that is, where you're going to be the most happy, not where you think you're going to be the most happy. Right. Because the end goal is happiness. And I feel like the more and more I talk to people, especially in the Us, because I'm from the coast in la, right? And I got a lot of friends in New York and, you know, San Fran. It's like the goals in their mind seems to be money.

Michael Motamedi [00:07:37]: And I'm like, okay, what do you. Why do you want money? Well, I want to be able to do whatever I. Yeah, well, I want to do whatever I want to do. Why do you want to do whatever you want to do? Oh, so I can be happy. Okay, well, if. If you're. If the end goal is to be happy for everybody, right. Well then figure out what that is and find the path leads resistance to get there.

Michael Motamedi [00:07:57]: Now, I have met individuals where happiness isn't their own goal. I have been partners with people like that and they're. And it's usually legacy, you know, and legacy is a difficult thing to attain and it might never be able to be attained. Right. I mean, I just watched Troy last night. The whole entire movie is just about this guy who wants to like, go and murder people because he wants his name to be held into the ages, you know, for thousands of years. And guess what? He accomplished that. So, you know, if you're ready to go and murder people so that your name is, you know, remembered for thousands and thousands of years, by all means, go for it.

Michael Motamedi [00:08:34]: Right?

Bryan McAnulty [00:08:36]: Yeah. So I, I think you brought up a really good point because I think it. It's hard to. To figure out for yourself what you really want. And it's also something that I just think not enough people actually have done. They haven't really thought clearly or been able to discover for themselves what it is that really makes them happy or what they really enjoy. And I know, like, for myself, I feel at maybe a younger age than most, I put a lot of thought into that and trying to discover that for myself, like, and a lot of conscious effort. I wonder what advice you have for somebody who's trying to discover that, who feels like maybe, maybe they don't know what that is.

Bryan McAnulty [00:09:21]: And I think maybe another way to like, compare that is. I've given thought to some people who they. They see somebody else who has these flashy things or these expensive things, and they think to themselves, oh, well, I, I wish I had that right. But I think for a lot of people, if somebody kind of realizes themselves getting caught in that, it's actually kind of showing maybe that they haven't thought as clearly about what they want. And because I think for most people that you can live like within your means, as you talked about, but have like one or two things where you spend kind of disproportionately compared to other people because of what you actually enjoy. And so when you see something that somebody else has that you think you. You really want that or that that would be really cool. Like, is.

Bryan McAnulty [00:10:14]: Is that the truth? Like, does that mean you. You've been spending money on the wrong things already? Or does that mean that you've realized for yourself that actually you want this thing more than others? Or maybe it's like a private jet and it's just really, really expensive. But, yeah, I'm curious about your thoughts on that.

Michael Motamedi [00:10:32]: I have a couple of things to say about that because I find it super interesting. 1. First and foremost, I think people tend to forget, including myself, that happiness and wants and desires and needs are a moving target. Okay. And it's okay for those things to change. I think sometimes people get caught up in this. I want this. So this is who I am.

Michael Motamedi [00:10:59]: You know, I always, like, go off on my wife. I mean, I was like, oh, I really love that pizza place. Like, she's like, last year you hated it. I'm like, well, now I like it. Like, who cares? You know what I mean? Like, there's no rules to life, people. You know, I think that's really important. And so once you kind of hone in on those things, I think you're 100% right, I think. But I'm gonna flip it on its head a little bit because I think it's a little bit easier for people to think about it in this way.

Michael Motamedi [00:11:24]: Depression doesn't discriminate. Grief does not discriminate. Anxiety does not discriminate. Right. All these negative things that are. You're feeling and you're having in your life, you're still going to have them. If you are not healthy on the inside, okay? If you're in the Ferrari, if you're in the Lambo, if you're in the pj, okay, you are still going to. If you have a drug issue, you're still going to have.

Michael Motamedi [00:11:49]: You probably have a more a worse drug issue when you have the money, you know, so it's like. And you might even have more depression and more anxiety because you're maybe have some imposter syndrome, or maybe you feel lazy or unproductive or whatever. I mean, there's a. So many things out there that are going to hit you no matter what. So finding that inner peace and asking yourself those hard questions is really going to help out in long term. And by the way, it's never too late, right? I think people Think about. It's never too late when it comes to making money. Well, it's never too late also to like, find out exactly what you want out of life, right? There are a lot of dads out there that have, you know, a family with kids in a two bedroom bungalow in the middle of Texas with a piece of land and just know themselves and are like, I love this, you know, and then there are a lot of dudes who are, you know, living that same exact life, but are in a $50 million home and every car they want to drive and.

Michael Motamedi [00:12:53]: And are depressed as hell. Right? I mean, so I think figuring that out early on is obviously better, but at any moment in your life you can, right? I mean, I did a full kind360. When I asked my wife, I'm like, should we travel the world? She's like, I've been waiting my whole entire life for you to tell me that. When are we fucking going? Let's go now. You know? I'm like, well, you might not be able to have the car. You might not be able to do that. She's like, I don't care, dude, if I have you and I got our kid with us, I'm fine, you know, So, I mean, it's a little bit easier for people like my wife because they are kind of perpetually content, which is a very beautiful place to live. I think certain people have that.

Michael Motamedi [00:13:36]: I definitely am striving to get there. Right? And then lastly, I think it's an important note and I think it's a little controversial. I've had conversations with friends about this. I think ambition is the death of contentment in some cases, right? You're just. You're continuously trying to get more. You're trying to be more trying, you know what I mean? And at some point you lose, like, what was it? Where was I? What was I doing? Am I cool? Like, is it cool if I just go and grab a drink at my regular bowl? That makes me super happy, you know, Go into a bar and somebody knows my name. I didn't mean to quote the song, but, but literally, like, I mean that like makes. That makes me happy, you know?

Bryan McAnulty [00:14:23]: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think that is really interesting, con content and ambition, because I find myself that it's. It is a difficult balance. And I feel like at some points, like I got so comfortable with being okay with things that I lost some of that ambition and that I have to be more ambitious about stuff to like, I shouldn't be okay with this if I want to, like get to that next level and things like that.

Michael Motamedi [00:14:55]: That goes back to balance though, right? Balance is like. Yeah, everything, you know, that's the scary part. Like they say, what's the secret of life? Just balance, you know?

Bryan McAnulty [00:15:07]: Yeah. Yeah. Well, actually, I want to talk more about the traveling. So you've been traveling full time with your wife and your daughter for three years. Where are you located right now?

Michael Motamedi [00:15:17]: Right now I'm in San Miguel de Allende, which is like a small pueblo in central Mexico. It's about a three hour drive from Mexico City. It is definitely one of the most beautiful towns in central South America and Latin America that I've ever been to. I mean it's right up there with Cartagena. For me, the only thing it's missing is an ocean. But I think that if there was an ocean here, this place would have been with. Filled with more expats and more tourists and probably a little bit of that charm. It's already filled, but a little bit of that charm would have been gone too.

Bryan McAnulty [00:15:54]: Yeah, that's really nice. I have not been there. I've been to Mexico once just for a very short time, but I haven't have not been there. I'm curious, like, what are the, some, some of the biggest lessons you've learned with your family on the road? And maybe especially focused on like, like having a family and a young daughter because I think not as many people maybe are doing that or are sharing that. But I'm, I'm interested in that especially because I have a three year old daughter and, and she's traveled with us quite a lot. We, we really took advantage of the, the infant being able to fly for free time before she was 2 and she got, she went about 50,000 miles before turning 2, so.

Michael Motamedi [00:16:37]: Oh, wow.

Bryan McAnulty [00:16:39]: Yeah.

Michael Motamedi [00:16:40]: I don't know the amount of miles she has, but I know her passport's almost full, which is kind of terrifying. But yeah, I do agree with that, the free seat thing, because obviously, obviously. But I fly first and she's not old enough to throw her in coach yet. You know, you gotta wait till she's like 12 or 13 or you don't deserve this. Get back there. So she's a three year old flying in beds in Delta one. You know, it's kind of annoying. But from a lesson learned perspective, I mean, I can tackle that from two perspectives.

Michael Motamedi [00:17:15]: Right. One, from a family perspective, I think the growth that I've seen in her when I compare her and obviously I'm extremely biased. Brian, let's just be very honest. Here. But I try to put my objective hat I'm not answering questions like this. The, the kind of emotional intelligence, social intelligence, open to new things. Like she is in love with oysters, she's in love with octopus, she's in love with sushi, she's in love with uni. I mean, these are weird things for a three year old to like, right? And so when I see her around other three year olds, whether in any, any country that we visit or back home in the us I see a drastic difference.

Michael Motamedi [00:17:53]: And it's not because I'm doing math quizzes with her or anything. She's just living a different life, she's smelling different air, she's meeting new people, she's eating different foods. And so that's been a huge benefit for me, right? And I think going back to our earlier conversation, just the fact that I'm able to spend every day with her, even if I'm on the computer a couple hours out of the day, you know, or filming a couple hours out of the day for my content, my channels, that's priceless. I mean, that is just absolutely priceless. I mean, I grew up in a household where my dad was a broker, stockbroker, my mom was insurance. Like, you know, my dad was out of the house. We were, lived in the US so my dad was out of the house at 4 or 5 in the morning. It wasn't back till like 7pm, right.

Michael Motamedi [00:18:35]: And then when he was back, he was in his office, right? And he had to do what he had to do. He didn't have these decisions, right. He immigrated from Iran when the revolution happened. I was a first generation born American. These guys, my parents, every parent, any kind of first generation American born American knows this. These parents, they, they threw everything at the wall. They did everything they possibly can. So it's for, and that's the obligation that I feel that I feel like now I have to live my life to the fullest.

Michael Motamedi [00:19:02]: They, they, they sacrifice so much. If they did it for nothing, what am I doing here, right? And then like from learning, just from being in the different countries that we live in, I think the biggest thing that I want people to grasp is we are all way more similar than we are different. We all laugh at the same jokes, we all love great food, we all love great wine, you know, maybe once in a while a tequila shot, maybe for some more, you know what I mean? It's just like I interact with individuals from Greece and from Portugal and Bali and Japan. It's like once you get to that little bit of burial, cultural difference. You're still cracking up, you're still high fiving, you know what I mean? You're still like, where's the best, you know, sushi? Where's the best, you know, sandwich that I can get? I feel like in the US a lot is, is the propaganda that surrounds it is doing a lot of detriment to the people who live there, right? Like, I just did a video called Is Mexico Safe? And it was about a couple days ago, little triggering. I wanted to. That was the title of the video. And I just talked about this beautiful romantic night that I had in San Miguel.

Michael Motamedi [00:20:22]: And a lot of the comments were just like, what are you talking about? You're in the most gentrified place, you don't know what the fuck you're saying, blah, blah, blah. You know, these kind of crazy ass, crazy comments from these keyboard warriors. First of all, they don't know who I am, you know, they don't know where I've traveled because they just see one video of mine and they kind of assume. But most importantly, it's like, they're like, do you know how many murders happened there? Do you know? And I'm like, buddy, do you know how many murders happen in la? Do you know how many murders happen in Chicago? Do you know how many murders happen in St. Louis and Detroit? Like, but there's bad everywhere. There is going to be bad everywhere. It doesn't matter what country you go to, you can get robbed in France. The first time I ever got robbed at gun, not the first time.

Michael Motamedi [00:21:04]: The first and only time I ever got robbed at gunpoint, I was like 18 in Canada. Okay, does anybody say anything bad about Canada? Of course not. Right? So I think that's the biggest lesson I can share with everybody. Go out, take a little bit of Anthony Bourdain. When you go and travel a place, I love that quote, don't order the burger, don't order the club sandwich. Go and experience and get to know people and just understand that we are all much more alike than you think. You know, I think we have these guardrails of especially the way the politics are going right now and so how polarizing they are. I don't care if you're a Trump person or not a Trump person.

Michael Motamedi [00:21:47]: I don't care, to be honest with you. I miss the days where, you know, when I was growing up, my dad was a Bush guy and my mom was a Clinton guy or whatever, right? And it's like they were still married. Now they Got divorced. They still had conversations, you know. And you, who people that you disagree with, you can still have conversations with. Just because our government says we don't want immigrants doesn't mean you can't like immigrants, you know, I mean, it's just like, chill out guys, we're gonna be okay.

Bryan McAnulty [00:22:19]: Yeah, I, I think that's really interesting and I agree with a lot of that because I think for somebody especially like someone like I imagine living in the US who hasn't maybe traveled that much internationally, if, if not at all, it's really hard to imagine like what it's like. And like it's especially because I think it's even at a point where you could be able to actually get along with and, and relate to some of these people in other countries better than maybe your own little town. Because like, your own little town, especially if you're like in the suburbs, you're far away from everybody. You're not, you're not even really connecting or interacting with people that often. And you kind of get a superpower as somebody traveling because like, you are this person from afar, from somewhere else. And so that's a small enough reason as it is a reason to communicate or connect with the like waiter or waitress or wherever you're eating and things like that. And yeah, I think, I don't know how to describe it, but I agree with you. So I'm trying to figure out how to communicate it that I've had these incredible experiences like meeting these people in these other countries and, and getting to know them like while living there for a bit.

Bryan McAnulty [00:23:37]: And like, it's just, it's an incredible experience. And as far as the safety part, I can relate to that as well that when I first started traveling, I had not even turned 21 yet. And I decided, okay, I'm gonna try this travel thing, red part of the four hour work week. Enough of it to like understand that okay, this is possible. And so I went and tried it. And my parents, while thinking that would be cool for me to learn, were also nervous and were like, don't go somewhere dangerous and all that. But where I stayed, like, I felt so much more comfortable pretty much everywhere I stayed to walk out on the street at like 2am in the morning than I would have in my own hometown where I grew up. And so I, I think, yeah, most of the world is very safe and has really incredible people.

Michael Motamedi [00:24:35]: And I would, I want to take it one step further. Just, I, I don't want to preach, but I think it's. Sorry So I don't want to take it one step further. I don't want to preach, but I think it's important to, you know, that same feeling that we have. We. And. And you're going to have travel aboard, whoever it may be, is to bring it back to your hometown, right? When you see an Indian person with an accent or a Chinese person with an accent or a Mexican person with an accent, I don't care where you from, okay? And. And they're difficult communicating.

Michael Motamedi [00:25:09]: Guess what? You were that person. You know, you were also that person when you traveled. And then they show you grace. Did they show you humanity? They show you that. Were they welcoming enough for you? Right. And so don't get frustrated and don't let this craziness that we see on the Internet of people being mean to immigrants be cool. Like, it's not cool. Like, you're an asshole, dude.

Michael Motamedi [00:25:33]: You know what I mean? Because somebody really wanted to come to your country and visit your country. You know what I mean? And they don't know exactly how to speak the language or don't know the culture or might not want to wait in line or stand too close to you because their distances are different. You know, their. Their kind of human interactions are different than yours. Just be cool, dude. Like, it's gonna be okay. Like, you're not marrying this person, and maybe you will, who knows? But for the time being, you're just, you know, at a restaurant. And this person might be a little bit more rude because their culture is different.

Michael Motamedi [00:26:04]: I mean, people interact with waiters and servers differently, and they tip differently. And they, you know, a lot of times they'll stand. You know, you go to countries and, like, the distance in lines is like this. And I want my space, you know? But, like, you gotta remind yourself to just chill.

Bryan McAnulty [00:26:20]: Yeah, definitely. So I saw something that during your travels, you handed over decisions both big and small to AI, like where they go next to eat and things like this. And you did that for, like, a full year. Can you share a little bit about that and, like, why you did it and how it worked out?

Michael Motamedi [00:26:39]: Yeah. So it's Guide Geek, which is an AI travel assistant that's based on a ChatGPT API, but it's tailored and there's a team behind it. Live and not that adjusted to specifically. And program it specifically to do with travel. Right. And what was really awesome about it is that you can communicate it with. Through WhatsApp and through IG message and DMs, etc. And Ross, the CEO of Matador Network and Guide Geek was telling me about it.

Michael Motamedi [00:27:11]: I'm like, dude, I want to take this on the road. I think this would be on the forefront of travel and it's going to obviously play a big role in travel in the future, albeit maybe slower than AI and other kind of experiences or jobs. So we just kind of let go and we said. We started off by saying, what country should we go to? This is kind of what we're looking for. And it gave us some options. We picked one. When we got there, we asked what to do, where to go, what, you know, et cetera. And it told us where to go.

Michael Motamedi [00:27:39]: Sometimes it was wrong, sometimes it was right, but every time we had an experience of a lifetime, and that was, I think, the end result of it, right? It was like, okay, is the technology at that time, this was about a year or two ago, maybe it's not perfect because it was kind of drawing on, on. On Google Maps from the past. Now it's like, you know, ChatGPT has come such a far away that I don't think it's going to be making those. Makes those mistakes anymore. But, but regardless, like, I'm in the middle of the Medina in Marrakesh asking for a haircut, and it's taking me down this road and I'm like, where? That there's no freaking haircuts here. You know what I mean? And I just asked this one guy, I'm like, hey, do you give haircuts? And he's like, yeah, sure. I went up to his house, he gave me a haircut in his house. Okay.

Michael Motamedi [00:28:22]: Like, I was like, this is definitely not what Guide Geek was recommending, but this was freaking awesome, you know? So I think it was like a balance of seeing what. Let's be the guinea pigs of AI and travel for a little bit. And I think the end result happened that no matter what you do, what you use, what you read, what recommendations, even if you have the best Google reviews and you go to a restaurant and it's horrible food, you're still going to have the time of your life.

Bryan McAnulty [00:28:52]: Yeah. Yeah. I love that. Some of my favorite experiences while traveling have been where we just kind of threw a dart at the map and decided where to go and then, like, didn't plan anything, like booked a place to stay, booked a flight, but then didn't plan anything, didn't have any idea of what to go see, and it kind of just discovered it from there.

Michael Motamedi [00:29:15]: Isn't it funny? The worst memories. Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt. I apologize.

Bryan McAnulty [00:29:19]: No, no, go on, go on.

Michael Motamedi [00:29:21]: It's funny that the worst experiences become the best memories. Isn't that strange? Like you have like this horrible experience. You have to walk 10 hours, somewhere down the line, someone trips, falls, hits their head. You're freaking crying, your baby's crying. You missed the bus, you missed the train. The flight is, you know, like the food sucked, you know, whatever. And. And then like a year later, you're six months later, you're telling you out of all the stories that you tell, you tell that story and you're in stitches and you're laughing and you're crying, and everyone around you is laughing and crying too.

Michael Motamedi [00:29:56]: You know, it's just funny like that. Like, I have amazing experiences ever. I go, all the stories that I tell are always the ones that things ended up very, very badly.

Bryan McAnulty [00:30:08]: Yeah, yeah, that's true. That's interesting. I think one big question that people have is like, how do you make money as a digital nomad? And so I'd love if you could share a little bit about that because you built this entire business while traveling. Can you share more of, like, how that works, what you do?

Michael Motamedi [00:30:26]: Yeah. So like I said, it's diversification for me is important. I can tap into a couple of them. I think that could help from a content creation standpoint, which I think is maybe nowadays a little bit what everybody wants to do. They think that's the kind of the best route to take. I think that the market's changing, the industry is changing. So just be careful out there on how much you kind of spend on growing followership as, you know, like TikTok doesn't really care about your followers anymore. They just care about the videos that you make.

Michael Motamedi [00:30:56]: And so just go out there and create videos that, you know, people are going to fall in love with. Now if you're going to go through TikTok and Instagram, your. Your brand deals are really going to be your bread and butter because the pays per views are extremely low. Now if I were to start it all over again, I'd probably just put all my eggs into YouTube and go hard on YouTube because the RPMs, which is revenue per thousand, is just astronomical. I mean, the YouTube guys that you see out there that have the followers and the subscribers and the views, those are the guys that are making the real money through the views. So it's really determine what your, what your end goal is. If you're trying to go out and find brand deals, then just go the short form, which is an easier route. You don't have to have professional long form videos like you have to have on YouTube.

Michael Motamedi [00:31:42]: YouTube. If you're trying to go after the views and not be dependent on brands, which is probably what I would recommend because brands come and go and industries change and also markets change. Right? Brand deals are kind of coming less and less and less for all creators out there because they know that they can go and pay $500 for a clipper out there to be able to just go and post videos or repost their videos and get hundreds and thousands and five, hundreds of thousands of views like the streamers are doing, like Aiden Ross or whoever it may be who are just paying people to re, reuse their original content and they might end up going viral and if they go viral, they get paid a little bit more. But brands are realizing that that's not necessary. So really figure out what your goals are if you want to just be autonomous. YouTube is really the way to go from a content creation standpoint. And then, you know, for me, I feel like it's been beneficial for me not to put all my eggs into the content creation basket because I've seen the ebbs and for flows, especially in travel, right? Travel is a, a very interesting niche when it comes to content creation because it's a little bit more high brow and I don't mean spending money, I mean intellectually, a little bit more highbrow, right? Somebody who's interested in food and in culture. And you know, I've been, I've been hit up by a lot of production companies that do a TV show when they go to network, they say travels out.

Michael Motamedi [00:33:03]: We're not doing travel shows anymore. And that's because the population is becoming more and more dumb. I mean even if you look at your own feed right now, pick up your TikTok, go into your feed and you're gonna see the stupidest shit that's there. But you watch it anyways, right? It's just this kind of mind numbing thing that they've done to us and we've accepted. And so I think outside of content creation I would just again look for those small wins. I'm a big cash on cash guy. I don't really, really anything that I do. I'm a cash on cash ROI guy.

Michael Motamedi [00:33:35]: That's the only metric I look at, how much money am I putting in and how much am I getting out? And that could be I put in 10,000 bucks and I make 800 bucks a year. That's a 10, I mean almost a 10% ROI. You know what I'm saying? And so if you just can, if you look at my, this is my own personal opinion. If you look at things from a cash on cash ROI for perspective, you don't really look at the dollar amount anymore where you're like, well, it's only 10,000 bucks. I'm only going to make $1,000 a year, right? 10% ROI in any industry, in any market, in any venture capitalism, outside of an exit, I'm talking distributions, is absolutely amazing. People stop looking at it from a dollar perspective and start looking at it from a percentage perspective. And every thousand dollars a year adds up, right? So every time you get 10 grand, go put it in again. If you, if you have a steady place where you can put 10 grand in and make $1,000 a year, you just keep putting it in there for the rest of your life.

Michael Motamedi [00:34:43]: I mean, obviously this is a strange, you know, example that probably doesn't exist out there. But for a mentality purposes, I think it's important for people to understand. Think about your cash roi. Think about the small wins. Don't think, oh, I need to go, I need to save $500,000, dude. There are houses out there in middle America that you can buy for 40k with 10% down, which is what, four grand, right? And you'll make maybe, hopefully you'll make like 400 bucks a year or something, or a thousand bucks a year on four grand. I mean, that is an amazing, amazing roi. So until you get to the place where you have enough money to play with the big boys, which is obviously a lot more fun now for the big boys out there, I say the same thing, right? If I'm looking at a property whether, I mean, in this market right now, it's a cash buying market, right? In a real estate perspective, right? Like you're just not gonna be able to get the interest rates out there.

Michael Motamedi [00:35:39]: The ROI that you're gonna look for, you might, you know, make it on the back end. But I'm a big, like I said, the monthly income is so important to me. And then always again, like right now you have a, you know, a money market savings account, a Chase CD. Chase CD is paying, you know, 4% on 250,000. And AB, if you just don't, just please don't leave your money in your savings account. I don't care how much money it is. Every single dollar is going to count and add up, right? I make, if I put 250k in a CD and I'm making $1500 or. I mean, if I put $500,000 in a CD and I'm making 1,500 dollars a month or something like that might not sound like a lot of money, but before I figure out what to do with that, I still don't want that to be dead right.

Michael Motamedi [00:36:27]: And so I think it's diversification. I think it's looking at the ROI first and foremost. Think in percentages and not in dollars. And if you're going into content creation, be ready, be ready for an uphill battle. And don't give a about your followers, care about your content, because the brands do not care. And when it comes to travel specifically, don't think the hotels are going to pay you because they're not. Don't think the restaurants are going to pay you, because they're not. Okay, they have very, very thin margins.

Michael Motamedi [00:36:56]: They might give you a night or two for free, but don't think you're going to travel the world and do that. And trust me, all the people out there that are saying that they're making all this money and they're showing their receipts, a lot of them are bullshitting. So take a breath and just be methodical and make sure that you're doing what's right for you. Sorry, I didn't mean to ramble.

Bryan McAnulty [00:37:15]: Excellent advice. No, excellent advice. So for somebody who is interested in the idea of going and traveling, maybe not complete digital nomad, but some kind of like extended trip at least, but they kind of don't know how to get started, what would your advice be for them to kind of help them make that first trip.

Michael Motamedi [00:37:35]: Okay, so it's pretty interesting you say this, and we never tackle this, and maybe you want to, but there is an argument out there that, you know, traveling even full time is cheaper than staying in the US in certain cities. And I think the misconception of that is pretty scary. You know, I like to call it the. The new American dream. Right? The new American dream for me is making US Dollars and spending it in different countries, unfortunately, because our dollar goes a long way outside of our country. That's terrifying to me. You know, I could be in LA and have $1,000 a day and not even blink. You know, I think I did a video on that too.

Michael Motamedi [00:38:16]: It was like a hundred. $150 for a men's haircut. It was like $105 for gas. Hundred dollars on dry cleaning, 60 bucks on two old fashions in West Hollywood, another 200 on dinner. And I'm like, God, I have to get out of here, like, to get out of here, like, now, Right?

Bryan McAnulty [00:38:40]: Yeah.

Michael Motamedi [00:38:40]: So I think first and foremost, get rid of that insecurity or that fear that it's going to be very expensive. It not necessarily has to be. You don't have to stay at Four Seasons, right. You can go and find a really nice place to stay. And I think going long term, again, counterintuitive, is going to make things way, way cheaper. So what we did when we started traveling full time was stay at least one month out of one month at a time, at least in every country that we visit. What that does for us is it spreads out our plane tickets and our flights. It allows us to kind of pre.

Michael Motamedi [00:39:12]: Book in advance. Not only that. Most important advice is that if you are booking through a platform like Airbnb, which I do really love, the discounts that you get on a month rate is much, much more. Like, a lot more. So you could be spending somewhere between two or three hundred dollars a night if you go for a weekend, or you could be spending 100, 150 if you stay for the month. Right. And that's.

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:35]: Don't look at the. Don't go to Airbnb and say, oh, I want to go and travel for a month. And then see that says 300 a night. And then think, you've got to multiply that by. By 30 or something.

Michael Motamedi [00:39:46]: And don't forget, you can always. Sorry, one last thing. Don't. On the Airbnb thing, don't forget you can always negotiate with the hosts.

Bryan McAnulty [00:39:53]: Yes, yes.

Michael Motamedi [00:39:54]: DM them, message them, be like, hey, my budget. This place costs three grand. My budget's 2500. Are you cool? Nine times out of ten, they're gonna be like, it's fine.

Bryan McAnulty [00:40:04]: Yeah, exactly. And yeah, so when I first started traveling way back in 2010, Airbnb, like, barely existed, especially in most international countries. And I think they even for, like, longer term stays, they always wanted you to kind of message the host before you booked it anyway. And so that's exactly what I did. I would go and find like 20 places, message all of them and say, like, this is my budget. I want to stay here like one, two months or two to three months or something like that. And a lot of times, yeah, they would negotiate and I would be able to get a great rate from that. And this was back in like 2010.

Bryan McAnulty [00:40:43]: But that first year, like, full year I spent out of the U.S. my total cost was like $25,000. And so, like, paying rent in, like, California, like, as you Said like would be potentially more than that already. And so this is flights, transportation, food and like the basic necessities to be able to live and travel. And that was for, yeah, 12 months across like Asia and Europe.

Michael Motamedi [00:41:09]: Yeah. And let's not forget about the other things. Specific, let's talk about specifics. When it costs, when it comes to cost of living, right? Like we have a child, so we always try to find a daycare or a preschool that we can put her in for a month. Unlike the US they don't care. I don't have to give this initiative fee. I don't have to be on a waiting list. Like you're, they're like, ah, sure, I think we have some space.

Michael Motamedi [00:41:30]: Oh, maybe my friend down the street does, you know what I mean? And like, instead of like spending $1500 to $2000 in some cases, $2500 a month for child care in, in, in, in america it's like 600 bucks. You know, let's talk about health care, right? You can buy a travel insurance, healthcare from World Travel or one of these other companies. You can spend 1200 bucks for emergency health cares as $1200 for the entire year for emergency healthcare and then for checkups and for prescription. Yeah, $12 for the entire year for emergency health care situations. And then while you're in the actual countries, you don't have to care because it's 20 bucks to see a doctor. It's 50 bucks that like I get, I have an asthma spray that I bought that if you don't have insurance in the US costs like $250. I get it from Columbia for 30 bucks. You know, talk about groceries.

Michael Motamedi [00:42:23]: Not only is in most cases the especially in Europe or even in Latin and South America, a lot fresher, right? I mean they might not be pristine, beautiful looking apples. The tomato might look like, you know, a tumor, but it tastes absolutely fantastic and it's very fresh and very, very cheap. I mean you gotta like kind of like really do your research. Don't let what people on the outside tell you are this kind of stigma of what you think things are and then just not do them. Like go look up like how much it is to live in Lisbon. It is very, very reasonable. And it's one of my favorite cities in the world. Right.

Michael Motamedi [00:43:01]: Or cities in Spain. And by the way, you don't necessarily. Another big piece of advice is you don't necessarily need to go and stay in Paris. You know, you don't need to stay in Madrid, you don't need to Stay in Barcelona, go find a small town in Spain or in Lisbon, I mean, in Portugal. And, you know, go into the city every once in a while. Like, a lot of people are like, what are you going to do in San Miguel for a month? Or, what are you going to be doing in Cartagena for a month? Or I'm like, I'm just living. Like, what are you doing? Like, I'm like, what do you do in Santa Clara Clarita for a month? Like, what do you. Like, what do you do, you know, in Van Nuys for a month? You know, like, I don't know.

Michael Motamedi [00:43:43]: I'm just going to be living. I'm going to be working, and I'm just going to be in a different place and I'm going to be trying different food. I'm going to be meeting new people. So it's not just about this sightseeing thing for me. It's really about living in a different place.

Bryan McAnulty [00:43:56]: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, one of my favorite things when going to a new country or a new city for the first time is, like, going to the food stores and, like, seeing how they're different, seeing what they have there and everything. And. Yeah, so definitely. Incredible. I think we're about at time here. So the last question I have for you is something I like to ask everybody on the show, and that is if you could ask our audience anything, whether something you're curious about or kind of just want to get people thinking about, what would that be?

Michael Motamedi [00:44:27]: That's a good one, man. I think it would be. This is hard. Is it hard for everybody? Is it only for me?

Bryan McAnulty [00:44:42]: I didn't give you too much of a heads up. I give some people a heads up.

Michael Motamedi [00:44:46]: That's a good question, though, I think. Okay, I'll go here. It's a little deep. And I always like to ask this question from people when we're having dinners. Is death a motivator for you or is it a deterrent? Like, is it more of a fear? And the reason why I say that is because once I flip the switch of death being a motivator for myself, everything became so much more clear. Like, half my life is done. If I'm lucky, I could die tomorrow. Why the fuck am I not doing what I want to do right now? Like, everything in my bones needs to be doing everything possible to get to a place where I'm doing what I want to do and I have to get there as fast as possible.

Bryan McAnulty [00:45:50]: Yeah, I love that. So that's Michael. Thanks so much.

Michael Motamedi [00:45:56]: A little deep. Sorry about something.

Bryan McAnulty [00:45:58]: No, that's. I love that. Something great to think about. Thanks so much for coming on the show. Before we get going, where else can people find you online?

Michael Motamedi [00:46:05]: So I'm on TikTok, I'm on Instagram, I'm on YouTube, all under Michael Motametti. And we are in season two of my podcast, which I'd love to have you on at some point. It's called no Fixed Address, because we don't have a fixed address. And we interview in actual places that we go, which is really actually cool. So we bring our podcast gear, our equipment, our mics, everything, our mixers, everything with us, and we will end up, like, in small towns in the Philippines, in restaurants in Colombia, you know, on side streets in Tokyo. So it's a pretty immersive, interesting. It's a. It's very meta.

Michael Motamedi [00:46:42]: It's a travel podcast that travels, and it's. It's pretty cool. I mean, we don't meet anybody famous. We're just meeting interesting people that we meet along and we want to hear their stories. So it's pretty awesome.

Bryan McAnulty [00:46:56]: Thanks so much, Michael.

Michael Motamedi [00:46:57]: Appreciate it, man. Thank you so much.