SandyFeetMessyHair - Love At First Sight Turns Into A Life of Nomading

Skye Khilji 0:19
So I'm really, really happy to be talking to Sat and Dan from SandyFeetMessyHair on Valentine's Day. So first of all, Happy Valentine's Day guys,

Dan 0:26
Such a romantic time, thank you for having us.

Saterra 0:28
Thank you.

Skye Khilji 0:29
It's my pleasure. So I love these guys. These guys are my favorite digital nomad couple. And, you know, I really love these guys, because they're just real. They document their life as it is. And I think a lot of people need to see that. It's not all cocktails by the pool. I keep using that phrase. They show you the real side of what life looks like. And I just love them. And I'm delighted to have them with me on the show today.

Dan 0:53
Thank you so much, what an intro, we feel honored and almost celebrity. Thank you so much yeah.

Skye Khilji 1:01
Very, very welcome

Dan 1:02
Thank you yeah.

Skye Khilji 1:04
My pleasure. My pleasure. So let's just jump straight into it. So what everybody wants to know, right out the gate is Who are you and where are you from?

Saterra 1:12
So my name is Saterra, and I am from a small town in northern Alberta, Canada.

Dan 1:18
And I'm, sorry I thought you were going to say a bit more and do a full introduction. My name is Dan. I'm 28. And I'm from Middlesbrough in the northeast of England.

Skye Khilji 1:29
Yeah. All right. Brilliant. And how did you guys meet? How did you get together? What was I want to know a little bit about life both individually before you kind of embarked on this journey, and then how you guys found each other?

Dan 1:43
Okay, cool. Well, I'll go first, because I see I'm always wanting things to talk a lot. I always say the camera on Instagram and I'm always wanting to chat in and yes, I was born in Berlin, England grew up in Scotland. I'm the youngest of two older boys. There's an old sister. And we're an army family. To be honest, I came from an army background. And my two older brothers did Iraq and Afghanistan, both serving and my dad was in Northern Ireland and his granddad was in the war and it kind of became a sort of natural progression for me to join into. And through school, I sort of watch my brothers and watch them get older and they saw when and when they were in the army and came back with kit bags and bags full of stories. So that was kind of what I aspire today. So soon as I kind of went to school to send all that sort of good stuff and then decided instead of university that was going to give it a crack and see if I liked it. So that off, I went to Germany, and seven years later in the artillery, and then finally out and itas actually in Canada where I was working with the army in 2018 23. Now get mixed up my years.

Saterra 3:01
Yeah, I think is

Dan 3:03
a 2018 Yeah, so it's like sometimes 2018 I was deployed to Canada for my last my last year in the army actually, I'd already had in my notes and said I wanted to leave and change direction and I was in Canada for six months and one of my weekends off on a boys weekend up in bump, which is one of the one of the ski towns and whilst we're in for a taxi because the snow was too thick. We saw a car romantic I Yes, yeah. And then it just saw went off from there I am. Such just inspired me. So it was just this ball of energy and ball and knowledge that I never seen before. And she just intrigued me and I couldn't. I couldn't stop thinking about her and we saw did long distance for a little bit. I went back to Germany. So I tied up on the loose ends and the question was wedge gotta go. Next thing. So then.

Saterra 4:02
Yeah, um, so I'll kind of tell my side of the story, I guess. Me in the middle? Yes. Okay. Um, so yeah, I grew up in a very small town in a very cold cold part of Canada. After graduation, I went to hair school in the city closest to me, and decided I was going to work in that field for a little while and didn't like it so much, because I didn't want to necessarily put it all that time and all the effort because I knew that I just wanted to travel and I wanted to get that started right away. So I went back into my little like, notebook of things that I have the qualifications and stuff, and found that lifeguarding was going to be my ticket to save money fast. And I looked into that and found a good gig in the city, earn some money saved a lot, and I was actually on A a birthday party like trip to bounce that weekend when we met from the girl that I had my best friend that I met working at the pool. So that weekend we were all out drinking and I met down at three in the morning outside the McDonalds

Skye Khilji 5:19
Modern day romance

Dan 5:22
it doesn't get much classier.

Saterra 5:23
Yeah

Skye Khilji 5:24
Right.

Saterra 5:25
Bless his face, I guess.

Dan 5:28
But yeah, then we basically just bounced off each other. And we both we both really shared high ambitions and definitely sort of stepping out of your lane kind of thing from both our backgrounds. We were both sort of working class backgrounds. And we wanted more all the time. We were like, this can't be it. This can't be it. We can't be settling for this kind of thing. We don't want what our friends want. And then we knew we'd never saw a conform into a sort of local template. We knew we weren't destined to sort of stay in one place. And our chemistry for that. Just kind of mix massively, and that then led to led to a sporadic Well, almost sporadic one way ticket to Bangkok.

Saterra 6:11
May 18 I think

Dan 6:12
2019 Yeah.

Saterra 6:14
So we had done eight months of long distance before then went down, packed up and went back to Germany only a week after we met. and a month later we visited when I was backpacking, with my best friend in Amsterdam, and then eight months after that he arrived in Canada on the plane and we had a few months together to just hang out and and really get to know each other face.

Dan 6:44
Really funny story we were so we I landed in Canada, it's minus 40. Minus minus 40 Celsius outside and I look like someone from Cool Runnings with all my gear on Charlie And leading me on. We get to the hotel because it's today and we couldn't go back to luck rubbish. It's a four hour drive north, I think. Yeah. And so we stayed the night in a bad weather. And so this is the first night we're together. And we're in the elevator, we're in a lift on the way up to the room, and we get stuck in the elevator. So there's me saw an American and Chilean guy stuck for two and a half hours in an elevator while it got fixed and a maintenance guy got called out through the snow. And that was like that was our sort of so yeah. Let's get to know each other a bit. So that was really funny. And then it worked out in the end. We got some free drinks and the hotel so sorry, for that little inconvenience, but we Yeah, we quickly got to know each other We haven't we've been inseparable since whether it was going through Bangkok sucks. First time in the back of a school it was through Bangkok, Russia, our trust in me to sort of navigate my way through the traffic and then we kind of just took each adventure as it came after that, really.

Skye Khilji 8:17
We need somebody to make a movie of your story.

Dan 8:23
This movie would have more sequels than the Fast and Furious.

Skye Khilji 8:26
ha, ha, ha, I love that. So I wanted to zoom in into one detail. So yeah, you doing the long distance thing and you both kind of realized that you know, this templated life as you put it down, it wasn't for you. A lot of the Nomad couples I talked to they tell me about how they met and they did some exercises like dream lining or you know, planning their goals for the future. So when you were in that that stage before you finally made the leap, what kind of conversations were you having? What type of processes were you were going through?

Dan 9:02
We were going through? That's a really interesting point of our relationship, actually.

Saterra 9:07
Yeah, it was, I think we both came to that exact same decision and path right at the right time. For both of our lives, like Dan had just finished his career, and he was finishing kind of closing that chapter of his life, and wanted more adventure. And I was kind of just starting out, like, I'd done my schooling and knew that I didn't want to get into any career until I've seen the world and traveled the world. So we both kind of just when we met, it was both at the exact like right moment in our lives to set off and go and both of us were just so ready that as soon as we kind of made that hint like hey, do you want to travel the world and start working both of us were like, yes, that's exactly what we want to do.

Dan 9:50
And like you were going through a lot of you had a lot of self help and sort of self motivation. Yeah, almost that kind of guidance and Just listening and being in that environment alone, I was completely alien to it. I had no idea about that sort of encouraging environment that you can be around and you should be a lot of books, especially by John C. Maxwell. Yeah, he was such an inspiration to me at the time because I'd never even come across anything like this. This seems to be like, this was my ticket. This was the sort of, I'm a bit lost. Not sure really sure what I'm doing but I know that I shouldn't be settling here and all them. And so John C. Maxwell stuff really hit home and really men realize that you've got so full of potential that you shouldn't, you shouldn't have to sell anything and I the go giver, that kind of book series really hit home and I was reading I went from reading zero books to reading...

Saterra 10:49
You read like one a week.

Dan 10:51
Yeah, I was just firing through them. Yeah, I was addicted. And, and I loved it. I loved that. I loved that. So freedom. I love The ability to be able to go like, right what what am I doing, I don't have to conform to what my school says I don't have to conform to what my friends are doing. I can go away and I can literally write, I can actually write my entire saw a new path and not have to follow anyone else. And when we started to delve deeper into that, and dove into the sort of content creator, social media side of it, we realized that we weren't the only ones. And we were This is exactly where we need to be. Yes.

Saterra 11:26
We just need to do anything to just figure it out like this is we had a calling and both of us knew it. And we knew this is where it's supposed to be. But now it's just time to figure it out. We don't know where we're going, but we know that we'll get there.

Skye Khilji 11:41
Yeah, definitely. I think the internet is just played such an important part for all of us in just knowing that this lifestyle is possible. And you know, there's there's definitely books John C. Maxwell is great. Tim Ferriss, The Four Hour Workweek,

Dan 11:57
Yes, I remember

Skye Khilji 11:58
when I first got that book, It was just like a light was shown on a pathway that was possible and it just made such a difference so the the belief is is definitely the first part of the process seems to be this this you know life is is normal as it is then there's this inner turmoil of I kind of want more the path then becomes clear the next step that I typically see after that is how do we travel the world and make an income at the same time. So talk to me about your transition How did you prepare for it and how did you plan to be able to go on that journey?

Dan 12:34
So we are huge wingers to be the black and white of it but no we so we decided this we decided this not long after we got together obviously and I just saw buckled down and seven because I was in a masala monthly which was was pretty. My monthly wage came in all the time. I didn't have to worry about it. So then I'm Do that I'll be okay. On the seven sauce. I think you ought to, you ought to really dig your heels and didn't Yeah, yeah.

Saterra 13:05
So for me, I came from, like, you work for what you want and kind of family not like Dan didn't or anything, but I was playing sports my whole entire life and never really had a job or anything. It was just sports and family and that kind of thing. So finally, like being out in the real world, I was hard to like, get back on my feet at some point in my life fresh at New leap house here, kind of just started starting to figure it out and who you want to be and where you want to go. So yeah, I ended up working two jobs really, really long hours just knowing that if I can do this, all I need to know is that I need money. And that's, that's it and then I could kind of just figure it out from there. So when Dan and I were living together and can more before we left traveling, I was working from four in the morning till Midnight, seven days a week to save, say where it is. Yeah, just trying to figure it out. And since we left on our travels, it's just been, okay. What do we need to do now we need to learn how to do this. It's all about learning. So we dug our heels in, we started really like

Dan 14:19
we really took really took the edge out of when we were talking earlier about the John C. Maxwell stuff and the four hour workweek, you end up with a schedule, and you end up really journaling and really scheduling your days and scheduling your time. And it's such a gift to be able to do that. And then we took the financial side of that and put that really at the forefront of what we were we ran into ads and so we were writing down our finances our outcomes and increments. And so then like when we did get can My God, it was a case of me becoming a saw housewife/motivational speaker every morning. Start we need to go with it. Let's go. I know there's a foot of snow on your car outside but I'll go get that off. You just saw jump in the shower and you can like, you know, and it was like, it will get that think of the flame flame, think of the journey. Think of the

Saterra 15:07
Think of the end goal think we go it's like you'll be okay. This is it was hard if it was easy, everyone would do it. So I think like, let's work these two jobs. Let's get through it. And we just drove each other

Dan 15:20
Honestly was the cheesiest part of it all

Skye Khilji 15:25
Dan, you're a good man.

Dan 15:27
Thank you.

Skye Khilji 15:31
Alright, so we're hustling. We're doing the two jobs. We're getting the savings together. So at some point, you guys head out to Bangkok. Tell me why you chose Bangkok. What was the thought process behind that?

Dan 15:43
Bangkok was me really I think I probably influenced. A lot of I've got a lot of friends who've been there and a lot of a lot of good stories have come out of there. A lot of good experiences come out of there. And it just seemed to be it seemed to be like the chaos Say that we wanted Yeah, the stapled chaos and we wanted we wanted that amazing experience of a culture shock. Just the wildest foods, the craziest, nicest people you could ever meet. And just this atmosphere that was completely against the ground different. Yeah. And we wanted something that was just because just to really solidify that one way ticket, I think it was, I think we needed an extreme destination where it's like, We're going here and really put a stamp on it. And neither of us had been to South Asia now revisit sob into that that part of the world now. So it was we were guarantee that cold shock and we kind of calculated it was just fire away for both of us, Canada and the UK. So if we get a one way ticket that far then and it was we were driven towards that that experience that we've never had before it was and that's what sort of drove our passion for this whole thing was because we were coming from such regular backgrounds will come from so Sort of nothing like this, basically, and to then go Oh, by the way, I'm get a one way ticket to Bangkok and I'm going to make this work. Yep. was like what? What do you mean? Like, explain to me how this is happening. And we became just sort of spinning that story at parties and going to their parties, and

Saterra 17:19
We were the crazy ones in our families going and doing something totally different.

Dan 17:23
But the drive is that Yeah, then everyone was saying like, I would love to do that. I would love to do that. And we were like, he can't like I don't know why, you know, why you saying that? You can't just solve, just look at your life and then plan it out because it can happen. And it's so easy. It goes by so quick.

Saterra 17:42
You need to do things that you want to

Saterra 17:44
The followers just kept coming in. Yeah. And we started doing, we began doing vlogs on YouTube actually started enhance, sort of Christian LeBlanc and what the sheik and all the other sort of barley best content creators that we follow that time. We're really sort of you all you need is a GoPro, the right attitude, sort of not having to go for like a good camera, your phone, and just just the just the content for people in the nation and the inspiration to people to be able to do this. And we've logged the entire journey from day one Bangkok to our flight into Australia actually, so the whole selfie stage was on YouTube. Yeah, just like you know, post not in the learning. Right Dan was, you can see the difference at the start and finish.

Saterra 18:33
Yeah, no hard just getting together those videos. Everything on the iPhone just using in shot just trying to edit the video every day to be able to post a video every day.

Saterra 18:45
And the feedback. Yeah, the fuel because all I get was amazing feedback. Guys. What about this and is this like, that looks amazing. Tell me more about this. This like how have you managed this? And we love that and we were like, this is what was fun. be doing where outspoken and like anywhere in like positivity kind of sense. And we just love being able to create our message and send out to people.

Skye Khilji 19:09
Absolutely love that. And I want to circle back on a couple of things you said, I think we're really, really important. Yeah, I see a lot of parallels in all of the nomads lives, including my own. There's the stage where you're ready to go and the people in your life, they do two things. They question how you're going to make it happen. And they also tell you, they'd love to do it. Yes. You know, they just haven't seen that potential. And that's why you know, you guys do what you do. It's why I do what I do to shine that light and absolutely show how it's possible. But interestingly, the one way ticket to Bangkok is exactly what I did. Yeah. Right. Right. And there's definitely something about what I call burning the boats is a one way ticket. There's no going back. We have to make this work. Yeah. So when you guys chose Bangkok was there a financial aspect back to that decision in terms of you know, the living costs being cheaper than the typical Western world.

Dan 20:05
I think definitely, I think that that was definitely the one of the key factors because we weren't sure what we were doing. And it was kind of that safety net of knowing that we aren't going to be burning that candle as fast as we thought we'd be.

Saterra 20:18
And when we decided we were finally that's what we're going to do, we're going to go traveling all that stuff. I think we only had about four months since we made the decision to actually save. So it was okay, if we're gonna go let's go somewhere cheap that could last us our small amount of savings. And I just try and make it work. And yeah, I think being cocky just kind of called both of our names. And that was kind of like that was our drive to is that we we were living on a budget that wasn't extreme to assault to a normal server. Yeah. Or a normal like a regular income household or anything. It was quite achievable.

Skye Khilji 20:58
Thailand's awesome the $1 meal is the best $1 meal you'll ever get.

Dan 21:06
Any day, any day. We were lucky enough to go to Koh Chang and do a cooking class. And we did. We were also lucky enough to it just feels to me, Lady instruct in the class. So we had a personal lesson on uncle Chang islands and, and to know that what the complexity of the pod tie to sell it for $1 you're getting a bargain for your money. I'll put it that way.

Skye Khilji 21:34
Absolutely. That's it is just a wonderful, wonderful city in a great country.

Dan 21:39
Unreal.

Skye Khilji 21:39
So I want to dig in a little bit deeper. So you're in Bangkok, you've got a few months worth of savings, you've got the budget, you're you know, making sure you stretch that as far as possible. And I guess you're doing the tourist thing. You're taking the pictures, you're creating content. What I'm interested in is that content creation path, it takes a while to manage ties. So were you doing something else on the side to maintain your lifestyle? How did you deal with that challenge?

Dan 22:07
Yeah, so we, we started looking online and we started looking over influences to see what see what they were doing as you do. And saw the main thing that kept popping up over and over was teaching Japanese online. So we hooked up an interview found the company settled into a good Wi Fi connection and started to well applied and then start teaching Japanese online. Yeah, basically.

Saterra 22:29
And then since then, we've been trying to grow our blog and our YouTube and our website, getting the content out there as much as possible learning constantly learning we're always trying to so we're self taught with camera and editing and web design and everything, but it's just, we've grown so much already. In the last however many months we've been traveling almost a year now. Yeah, I think we've grown so so much. And we've dedicated 2022 to building our brand is building Building building and seeing how far we could get from now until December 2020. And yes, since teaching online once we ended up kind of going through our savings we hopped over to Australia and have been working some local jobs just to keep the funds topped up as we're building our brand on the side,

Skye Khilji 23:20
Yeah, I think that's really important to highlight that and I love that about your Instagram at Sandy feet messy hair that you you show that entire picture is not just you know, we're influences living this lifestyle. You're showing look, we're working on the farm Also, we're doing this other thing that pays for our lifestyle, so we can build the thing that we really want. Definitely. Yeah, I think that's so important to show

Dan 23:43
really, really, really, really, really important and I think that the whole smoke and mirrors thing that you can cut you do occur with, with Instagram and that kind of thing. It's really good to see the behind the scenes. I like when people love that people love the behind the scenes stuff, so why not be behind the scenes constantly. So people can see how achievable that is Yeah. And then we will follow in so we had a big following of a content creators and influencers that were our idols and two of our idols were actually married Mary and Jax and they, we read into their story we idolize their content yeah idolized everything about them and we looked, we took it a bit deeper into their sort of financial situation and they were doing seasonal work down in Australia. However many What was it? What was the ratio?

Saterra 24:30
Four months of work and the rest of the year they traveled and we we found out actually that they've been doing that only up until this past May Yeah, so just knowing that kind of gives you a little bit of a booster like okay, these people they're real, you know, they're doing the same thing as us. It's all just how much work you put in and

Dan 24:48
and their work is unbelievable, insane. It is just an inspiration to be able to see that and we love that insight. And we really, really loved that insight and they they showed the Fun they lived in while they were here. And they showed the funny videos and the funny pictures behind scenes. And yeah, like you said, I think it's so important to show people that behind the scenes and that raw side of it just so just so people are clear on it because it took us a lot of very early on we we were under the influence and the myth. I think there are quite a few people are that you can monetize from the followers on Instagram. Yeah, definitely. And that was sort of our biggest sort of misconception when it came into here and came into this situation and it's learning it's learning them real life details and not so like being naive about it that you are so I've been quite heavy situation, but you can make it work if you need work out. Totally.

Skye Khilji 25:45
Yeah, I think there's two really great points that you guys have hit on and I just want to touch on those for a moment. So one point is, choose your idols or the people you look up to wisely. Choose the wrong person, you'll always find yourself competing yourself to them and very good minimizing your achievements. What I love is that not only did you choose people who were, you know, living the lifestyle you wanted, but you went further to actually understand how they did it and they were transparent enough to show that and I think that's so important.

Dan 26:16
Yeah, absolutely. These are the kind of people who, and we've tried and tested it through our journey so far where you'll send them a DM or you send them a personal message with a question or get loud or just the guys like I love your content. Thank you very much sort of thing and, and the reply back. And it's, that's the best part is where you, you get that social aspect. Surprisingly.

Saterra 26:43
To know them first.

Dan 26:44
Yeah. And you get to end up with that personal relation. And it's that, yeah, absolutely. Being able to relate to them is so important.

Skye Khilji 26:52
Definitely. I think the other thing that you mentioned, which is really great, is for everybody out there who's listening and who's thinking that Becoming a content creator is one of the potential paths you know, out of that nine to five. The thing that makes people connect is when you're real. So the people who document their life rather than trying to be fancy and I'm channeling my inner Gary Vee, as I'm saying this, but it's it's that documentation of just being real that helps people connect with you. And actually, that gives you everything that you want. It gives you followers, it gives you likes, it helps you build that audience.

Dan 27:26
Absolutely. Just genuine all the way. It's really honestly the best is the best policy. And you, you become just genuinely likable. If you just put your personality forward, people see a mile off, then they'll they'll notice when you know

Saterra 27:41
and like the best part of that and when you're being real. You don't have to put it's not effort anymore. It's effortless to do it because it's something that you love because you just being wrong. You're just being real, and it's so easy to just get out there and just be you instead of putting on a face all the time and instead of the other wonder how many likes as far as gonna take, you take it for the love of ticket

Dan 28:04
and you take it for the love of just having the time and in the moment and capturing it, and just wanting to share it as a message to the people. That's, that's what's becoming lost slowly, which is quite sad.

Skye Khilji 28:17
Absolutely. That definitely comes through in your content. The word personality is exactly what I feel whenever I'm watching your stories on Instagram and seeing so much there's so much personality and it's just so real and it's um, it's really a lesson to everybody, everybody out there needs to go and take a look at Sandy feet messy hair on Instagram, because you'll see how it should be done. It's really true words from from me.

Dan 28:42
Thank you. Biggest shout out. Thank you very much.

Skye Khilji 28:45
So guys, you're in Australia. Now talk to me about where you're headed next. What does the next few months and years look like for you guys?

Dan 28:52
Okay, so we've discussed this every day,

Saterra 28:56
actually. Yeah. So one big thing. We're both very very excited about that's recently come into our lives is the Institute of code it is a school in Bali with Do you can explain it to social media market and yet course all they do a web development course. And they care of all the students. I think it's a three or four to one ratio from teacher to student.

Dan 29:22
Yeah, they have organized yoga in the morning and specialist dietary requirements food throughout the entire course with live-in accommodation. And we were lucky enough to connect with them over Instagram and we were lucky enough furthermore to win a scholarship to their academy doing social media marketing, so that meant that we won $1000 US dollars off each course for the cost that was running in February, and this week and the surprise for us was Marion and Jake Snow we're gonna be that way elevant cos at the moment and we were we were going to be doing the social media course next to them. Yeah. And but we we were, we were we had a big trip for people who don't know we had a big trip through January where we spent four weeks traveling in a big circle from the east coast to Sydney. We drove up to Bundaberg upon to the northeast, or then on the not the northern eastern side correction of the east coast of the Bundaberg and then we went inland to earlier and Dan's Alice Springs and that sound barrier. And then we came down to Adelaide and did a big loop around followed by

Saterra 30:43
two week in New Zealand, which is really cool. So we were a bit financially tied when we got back. Yeah, so about Bali wasn't quite in the question. They gave us a second option. So yeah told us that if we weren't able to make it in in February Then we would get half of our scholarships. So $500 off each if we went in August, so we decided that's probably the safer option we could work. We're working on a blueberry farm right now in near Melbourne and Australia. And yeah, we'll save a little bit some money and then hopefully head there for August.

Dan 31:18
And then we'll be good. Yeah. And we've got, we've got the blueberry farm and the girl. We've got our development of our social media going on at the moment. We're hoping for a second job to try and you've got your online business going on to Saturn in our bond at the moment, which is fantastic for both our health. Moreover, yeah, tenfold. But yeah, so at the moment, that's always sort of outlook on this year. We were kind of like sat touched on it earlier that this year was going to be our year to sort of figure out what we were going to do and how we were going to work with this and we're really going to dig our heels and we felt we had so many ideas and so much in Creation and we just had so little time and we said, right, let's just say just use this sort of time now that we're working, and just dig in and really sort of put our content out there. And because we've, we know so much, we wrote a skewer from the South Vietnam to the north, just as to a single one to five cc scoop. And so I did the, for the English view is that the whole top gear journey up north fula, and even the nitron. And we've logged it, but we want to write it down. We want to tell people about it. I want to get it out there that you can do it yourself. And it's a lot cheaper than you think. And it was one of the best experiences our entire lives. Yeah,

Saterra 32:37
Absolutely.

Dan 32:38
And so we want to we really want to have time to get all these ideas out. And really start working our working ourselves and work on this and just make it work. This is our sort of our grind time back in. We had our little play in January. And now we're back to the grind of it all and get really just passionate about getting work down and kind of showing people what it's all about.

Skye Khilji 33:00
You're definitely hustlers you guys from the 4:30am wake ups back in Canada, through to what you do now. So what is that split between work and downtime? Because again another, you know, myth is that four hour work week. I mean, everybody knows there's no Four Hour Work Week. Yeah, yes, what does your work versus downtime look like at this point?

Dan 33:21
And so it was quite a shock when we Well, it wasn't really a shock but it was quite funny because you're, you're kind of escaping the nine to five to, to welcome to an even bigger work week, but it's doing something you love, so it doesn't turn into work. So our entire life and our entire day. So just enjoyment really, and we wake up every morning. Our routine is we get up in the morning coffee is essential at this point, and then this is about 4:30-5 o'clock in the morning, I think Yeah. And we we do our work. We like to start the day, get some content out there, get the ball rolling, get mine rolling, because because when we go to work, we have a blast at work. It's awful and with all of you that saw workers yeah it's a really really great atmosphere we love working there and

Saterra 34:07
so yeah every morning our little rituals to get up and make a coffee and we sit out our window sale cuz that's wherever we get service and this our home at the caravan park, we sit by the window and we do our work so let's check Instagram we'll make our posts will write up blogs will sit down and talk about ideas and kind of just get the day going. And by the time that we go to work and finish work, we come home and we have some time for ourselves. In the afternoon we cook dinner together and we hang out and it's kind of a good balance between like relationship our digital nomad kind of content creating world and then our work life. We found that we're always most alert in the morning. I guess I'm like have the most creativity in the morning. Two of us have both Yeah.

Dan 34:57
Always after coffee.

Saterra 35:03
And then have our work time make our money to fund our dreams. And then yeah, have some time and build their relationship in the evening because it's nice

Dan 35:12
in the morning to because we like to be goal driven. We like to know where we're going. We don't want us our work season adjusted the rest of our lives. We literally have a poster of our itinerary for the week of our goals and dreams in front of our bed. Yeah, on the wall. So it's the first thing we see when we wake up and then to the top left to there is a is one of the helmets that we used for Vietnam and a fund that we use to keep us cool on the public transport there too. And it's a little reminder in the morning to sort of keep yourself motivated. So those days that you get up in the morning and this is a really good tip for anyone who's working the nine to five is to sort of chase the dream in the morning and for a couple of hours you wake up and even if you just get inspired by your Instagram feed when you're scrolling through and you're like ah like you get really psyched because you scrolling through you like that's where I want to be. That's what I want to do. Take the time out in the morning, so Remind yourself why you working that nine to five job and why working them hours might not be so palatable our social sites sociable. And that's why we do get up early. It's because it's to it's to remind ourselves each morning what we're doing it for. And we're prepped and now we're ready and when we hit the dare sort of ready and to earn money and so I live the lifestyle I want to live and then we come back and we carry that on and we and yeah, we have a blast doing it. And our relationship is probably stronger because of it actually. Because we're more. We're as cheesy as it sounds, business partners, best friends and so on. That's a Valentine's Day stuff thrown in.

Saterra 36:38
You're doing a great job.

Skye Khilji 36:42
So there's, there's a couple of things you said I want to touch on. One is that that power of those visual cues and those visual reminders in your physical space, my version of that is my screensaver on my phone. I have the word create and that's my reminder, don't be a consumer. Be a creator. And it makes a difference. It made a big, big difference for me just seeing that every day. You know, it gives me that mental check in of have I created today absolutely consumed and you know when you see it, it lets you realign the rest of your day or the rest of your week. So that's a great tip there. Then the other thing you said that I really liked is kind of wake up in the morning, seize the day. I think Brian Tracy calls that eat the frog, the frog in the morning, get out there, get that thing done. And especially when you're working nine to five or you're doing a side hustle. That time in the morning when you have the most energy you're full of coffee is a really, really great time to get things.

Dan 37:37
Absolutely. That's the biggest part. I think that for me, especially when it came down to planning and Covenants that world of really working for your passion. That little tip is probably one of my strongest bonds and writing things down and just write it down and tackle them a time and a place where needed and especially in the moment and like you said it's amazing.

Saterra 37:58
Yeah, and just like feeling like making the decision and the change that you have the power to do. So if you're wanting like the dreams that you want and where you want to be follow those people that inspire you on Instagram don't fill your feed with negativity fill it with inspiration and and goals and, and follow those people and follow those journey who just make you like as soon as you open your social media, because let's be real everyone, everyone checks Instagram every day. And you go on there and you see all this amazing content in these these people doing these amazing things and you're like, Yes, I want to do that. That's where I want to be. And if it's

Dan 38:35
you don't have to get up at 4:30 in the morning. If you're not a morning person. You're not a morning person. Yeah, at the end of the day like it's that can come down to a biological level. I think in fact and you just find little little habits through the day, if it means on your lunch break. All I'm going to focus on is what I'm going to do tonight when I get home and just spend a quick 10 minutes are when you get home, spend a quick 10 minutes just doing that Something just putting something in place setting the foundation for that goal and that dream because that five minutes every day it does I do. And if you go Okay, well our plan an hour here and an hour there, and I was can be quite a long time and it's in a busy schedule. So start small, honestly start small, put these little things in place in the morning. If it isn't to check social media, it's a distraction, then don't turn it on in the morning, have that little sort of habit and then it's just all about them, them sort of things and building them up and build them up and you will eventually get there. Yeah,

Skye Khilji 39:33
Definitely. That's great advice. It's really about that consistency of five minutes here, five minutes there. Those together. I think a lot of people have that all or nothing mindset where they think they have to spend, you know, three hours working on that thing. But over the week, you know how many times they actually get that done? Absolutely small little sections bump together. They just make all the difference.

Dan 39:55
I mean, one of the things that the moment that we're doing is we're trying to create our own Instagram is using, I think it's spark air that Facebook's just introduced. And that's quite a big learning curve for myself on the research on coding and anything like that. So the College of YouTube is really helping me out there. And it's, that's it was a huge task. And I couldn't, couldn't seem to find the time and I kept delaying it and delaying it and delaying it. And I realized that a week had gone by, from when I'd actually initially planned it. And I was like, This can't happen. So what I was doing was I scheduled in every day that I do 10 minutes just sitting on it, regardless of where I was on it. If I completed it, I didn't, I would just do 10 minutes. And I said from the hour till 10 past, I'm going to work on this. And then I'm going to stop it even if I'm on a roll. I'm going to stop it because that little on a roll edge is your motivation. See you next time. So it's Yeah, definitely.

Skye Khilji 40:49
Absolutely. I love that. I think that's so important to maintain that. That consistency and college of YouTube. I love that I'm going to steal

Skye Khilji 41:00
Do anything. Right?

Skye Khilji 41:02
Exactly. Exactly. That's the power of the internet. We really have no excuses. These days, the internet, you know, shows us the path and every single question you could ever have is answered between, you know, Google and YouTube. So there is no excuse for us anymore.

Dan 41:17
Scary. Absolutely.

Skye Khilji 41:19
So Sat, I want to talk to you for a moment. It's Valentine's Day today.

Saterra 41:22
Yeah.

Skye Khilji 41:23
And you touched on working together as a couple. And on my side, I'm about two months in with my significant other traveling through the world. And you know, you learn and you adapt. And I think you had a post a few days ago, talking about we've survived we've not killed each other yet. And I really love when I read that. Talk to me about your journey as a couple went and you know, those new experiences together?

Saterra 41:47
Yeah, yeah. To be honest, it's been a lot smoother than I thought it would be. Like you never know when it was so crazy because when we first met from the time we met So the time that Dan moved to Canada for us to be together, we had seen each other in person for seven days. I think we we counted in total with him nine months and him like the time between the time that we met and him moving, we only saw each other for a total of seven days in prison, so that was like crazy and scary and exciting all at once. And yeah, when he got to me in Canada was just, it was so weird first to seeing him physically in front of me. I'm so used to hearing his voice over FaceTime and phone calls. But having him physically in front of me was just so cool and different. And I don't know it's such an intense feeling. I don't think I've ever felt that way before. But living living together for it was three months, I guess, before we started traveling. It was really just getting to know how we are like I'm a little bit more of a messy person and Dan's a clean freak invite go is a little bit of a challenge getting to know each other, and how we live day to day living together and being together all the time. But honestly, I don't think since he moved to Canada, I don't think that we spent a day apart. And it's been, it's been really, really good just from like, you kind of have to trust that person a lot. Like we went off, we left my family and we left my home, to go just experience all these new things together and just being able to give yourself and let yourself just fall into that trust. It felt really good and it was so it was so fun, just like being like, yep, you know what, I'm going to give all my chest to Dan like getting on that back of that scooter. And being cocking and buying these tickets and just saying yet Screw it. Let's just go here instead and who knows what's going to happen but I will just grab hands and go

Dan 43:55
Put it this way, I had a pretty tough Dad talk.

Skye Khilji 44:02
Share that with Dan then come on!

Dan 44:07
Its not for the podcast I'm afraid!

Saterra 44:12
Yeah, it's been an amazing experience. And like every other couple, you have those arguments, you have this disagreements, but we actually were talking about this today. Being doing long distance at the beginning of a relationship, I think was the best thing that could have possibly happened. Because we really learned how to talk to each other, just how to communicate. So now that we're with each other, and we're actually like spending our lives together, we already have that part down. We've already learned those things about each other. So whenever something comes up, where we really need to, we really need to talk or there's an argument or a disagreement or anything. We know how to figure it out. We know how we're like whether we have to take five minutes and come back to it or it always ends in I love you and that's all that matters.

Skye Khilji 45:03
Yeah, I think that's just the key is so important to come back to that and at the end of the day there's really nothing else matters. There's no problem you can't solve beyond that. Definitely resonate with that in my life and and in our life. So I was reading on your blog this morning, I love the blog, but I was reading one of the guides about the, you know, the travel essentials, the cameras, the SD card readers, yeah, that kind of stuff that you you travel with. So I want people to go to read the blog. I want them to come and check out your blogs, follow your Instagram. So where can people find out more about you?

Saterra 45:39
Yeah, that will be SandyFeetMessyHair.com messy hair calm. It is being updated right now. We're still kind of tweaking it but we're about to put a about us blog post up to so that'll be up soon. As well as Instagram. We are on Instagram every day. Yeah, try to post on our stories. Every showing what we're up to what we're eating. We were huge foodies and vegan and we love yeah we just love to share food and everything as well as our blog so on YouTube at SandyFeetMessyHair as well on YouTube you'll find our entire vlog of Southeast Asia I included the Bangkok the school arrived in the Koh Chang Island experience the cooking classes on their Korea South Korea's on their Vietnam school and north south to north is on there including the sleeper train and including some of the Instagram spots yeah we've logged on was everything everything

Dan 46:34
every single day we've logged so if you ever want to know the ins and outs of Asia or sort of see it from a humble in not necessarily glitz and sparkle more street food and real experience point of view then definitely check out our blog on YouTube Yeah, but our man so I think at the moment is his Instagram and the blog Yeah, yeah.

Skye Khilji 46:56
All right. Love that. So guys, you heard what to do You heard where to go. Definitely Go and check out SandyFeetMessyHair on all the socials and on Sandy feet messy hair.com. So Dan says it's been an absolute pleasure. What I'd love for you to do is just close with some words. What advice would you give to that person out there who's in that nine to five job who's in that life that they know is not for them, and they're not quite sure how to go about it. How to make that money. Give us some words of wisdom.

Dan 47:25
Yeah, um, where do we start?

Saterra 47:27
Yeah, thank you.

Dan 47:28
What a whirlwind, thank you so much.

Saterra 47:31
I would say just trust your gut. That is my biggest thing. I've always been that person where you just you've got to trust your instincts. If there's one thing that you could do for yourself is say yes to you. You want to go out there and you want to live your dreams, and nobody is stopping you except yourself. So just know that everything will work out as long as you say yes to you. That is my biggest biggest advice. I tell everybody that That's gold.

Dan 48:01
I think I can't I can't talk that you nailed it. That's awesome. Yeah, absolutely. If you just follow your dreams, you got it.

Saterra 48:13
Just Just say Screw it. Sometimes it's never, you're never going to be ready. That is so huge. It's, you're never going to be ready. You're never going to be able to save as much as you want. You just have to throw yourself in the deep end sometimes and it's always going to work out

Skye Khilji 48:30
Words of wisdom. You heard it here first. Guys love you so much. Thanks so much for joining us.

Saterra 48:35
Thank you so much.

Dan 48:36
We really appreciate all of this. We appreciate time and we appreciate you guys listening say thank you so much.

Skye Khilji 48:42
All right. Thanks, guys.

Dan 48:43
Thank you. Bye.