00:00:00
just how does one become an expad what things must
you do first gain travel experience and we did it
00:00:09
with kids we did it with luggage we were carrying
like we did it the hardest possible thing for
00:00:14
the longest possible time search for the ideal
location live abroad in many different places
00:00:21
I lived in Texas for a long time and lived
abroad quite a bit Western got last pen nck
00:00:33
part one of an exceptional xad story I've
spent the past year and a half driving my
00:00:40
motorcycle through Latin America living in each
country for a minimum of 6 weeks this has been
00:00:47
one of the most difficult projects I've ever
embarked upon and I really hope you enjoy all
00:00:50
this content coming at you [Music] now it is two
:0 on Friday December 8th we find ourselves at
00:01:02
the famous Pita beach the beach right next to Leon
major capital city of of the Department of [Music]
00:01:15
Leon and we are looking at the pretty much
empty Beach on actually a holiday strangely
00:01:28
enough I did not expect it to be be like this I
was thinking that this place would be just packed
00:01:34
full of people because it is a day off national
holiday but this is a good looking Beach looks
00:01:43
like it's a bit more populated over off in that
corner over there we are in front of a place I
00:01:48
was recommended to stop at which is called I think
Jake's on the beach was the name of it therefore
00:01:53
I'm going to try and do my interview here with
the one and only Scott lives in m AUA the famous
00:02:00
YouTuber and we're going to be having this at his
new restaurant that he's going to be inaugurating
00:02:06
or has already inaugurated but he is opening
he did the St opening recently so let's see if
00:02:10
he's [Music] around it's of December there's
a traic jam we made each Road cross H over J
00:02:30
on the beach and whatever this is Kasa people are
waiting in line for something I'm not sure what it
00:02:37
is you're getting a bag of food I guess for
free or something that's I am very happy to
00:03:03
be joined by the very famous and talented person
that lives here on the western side of Nicaragua
00:03:10
where I currently am doing my videos for generic
expats now we're going to be meeting this friendly
00:03:15
fellow right here getting a bit of his story
and seeing what he has to tell us about this
00:03:20
very unique and Undiscovered Country all right so
let's go ahead and get his main details let's get
00:03:26
your name where you're from how old you are and
how long you've been living here in nadaga all
00:03:30
right well I'm Scott Al Miller uh I am originally
from upstate New York in the Rochester Buffalo
00:03:35
area uh I lived in uh Texas for a long time and
lived abroad quite a bit I originally I'm 47 and I
00:03:41
originally moved to Nicaragua in 2015 was here for
a little while moved to Europe after that um and
00:03:49
then uh during Co we decided uh my wife and I and
our kids decided we wanted to move back here that
00:03:54
Nicaragua really spoke to us and was the place
that we wanted to be like it just fit our needs
00:03:58
so we've been back almost three years continuously
now uh but over a span of eight years we've been
00:04:03
in and out of the country okay so your first trip
was as a tourist did you think of coming here to
00:04:08
like just visit or did you think it would be maybe
a place that you would end up living in uh we we
00:04:14
kind of had this idea that maybe we wanted to
live somewhere but we didn't really have a good
00:04:18
concept of where we wanted to go it was early
on in us living abroad so we had been living in
00:04:23
Panama I absolutely loved Panama's amazing and
we we had a good short stting p Panama I had
00:04:30
to returned to the US for work for a little while
and when we were done we said you know what Panama
00:04:34
was fantastic we need more of Central America and
Panama is not really Central America but we wanted
00:04:38
more of that kind of region and let's not go back
to Panama and Costa Rica didn't really speak to us
00:04:43
it's too touristy it's too well known and it was
too close we had lived really close to the border
00:04:48
so said well we had always had like this idea that
Nicaragua had like something interesting going on
00:04:54
it was fairly close it was like the next logical
step was affordable and uh so my wife's like
00:04:59
I could start searching for something I said yeah
take a look see what you find and she found this
00:05:03
beautiful house Casa losarcos in Granada and she
sent it to me and it's like Beau beautiful pool in
00:05:08
the living room it was just it was perfect it
was in the tourist zone I'm like get it let's
00:05:13
let's just rent that place and figure this
out and we ended up not falling in love with
00:05:18
Granada but fell in love with the country and
so we weren't confident at that point that we
00:05:23
wanted to live here but we really knew we wanted
to live somewhere we kept exploring and then after
00:05:28
going to a number of countries eventually we
said you know what I think Nicaragua but not
00:05:32
Granada is where we need to be and now we're
out west quite far from Granada and it's it's
00:05:36
been fantastic now stop right there because I
currently am living in Granada and I want to know
00:05:40
why you didn't like Granada so Granada is a nice
city like I don't want to say it's not um and to
00:05:45
all the people in naraga who live there like it's
no Granada is cool um the thing about Granada one
00:05:49
is it's a much smaller City it's half the size
of Leon so um it's just there's just a lot less
00:05:54
to it and it's a very touristy City and that's
great if you're here for a short bit of time
00:06:00
you're going to get a lot of access to things
really quickly and it's more Central so you
00:06:03
can get to the capital easily you can get to
Messiah easily you get to luno De a poo all
00:06:06
that stuff like really close that's fantastic and
it's got the ferry to the island um but if you
00:06:11
live especially downtown and it's your lifestyle
living in Granada the thing that I found that we
00:06:17
found is that um one everything's more expensive
all there's a great variety of restaurants but
00:06:21
they cost double what they do here not quite but
a lot 50% more at least yeah and and but they
00:06:27
do have great variety and one like evenings but
because there's so many tourists driving the uh
00:06:32
the the the economy in town There's No nightlife
of significance after the restaurants closed so
00:06:38
this is completely different than what we wanted
we wanted fewer restaurants a lot more nightlife
00:06:42
here everything's open till 400 am it's a party
every night it's it's amazing berata kind of
00:06:47
shuts down they're getting a little bit better
but it very much shuts down um and living in
00:06:50
the tourist Zone we found that we were treated
as tourists all the time we never integrated
00:06:55
we never like met people we met a few expats who
were like long-term people living there and they
00:06:59
cool like that's great but we never became part
of Granada we were always just more Gringos living
00:07:05
in the zone and that was fine but you were very
much apart and living in other parts of Nicaragua
00:07:11
basically any other part of Nicaragua except
for San Juan Del sir you you really are like
00:07:15
oh you're this unique Gringo you're this unique
expat but why are you here now you're part of our
00:07:21
community you don't have that oil and water thing
that Granata has because they're so used to it all
00:07:25
these people pass through they'll go away we'll
still be here but out here in Lyon for example
00:07:30
you know really quickly it was we made lots of
friends we became part of the community like
00:07:35
people recognize us as part of the community we
we participate differently it's a it's a totally
00:07:39
different vibe and it's not that Leon is cool
it's just that Granada has this so many tourist
00:07:44
thing that it's but we love going there for like a
weekend like so I'm gonna give my little two cents
00:07:49
on that and 100% agree with you I have lived
in places exactly like what you mentioned Rio
00:07:53
Deo hug in Brazil Cancun and Mexico I absolutely
loved the place hated living there hated living
00:08:01
there being treated with this attitude that buy
this right now buy this this excursion you know
00:08:06
you need to go do this and like I just I'm going
to the bank or I'm going to the gym right now like
00:08:10
I don't really want to you know go on a boat
cruise around the islands of these late like
00:08:15
I'm I'm cool for right now so anyways yeah I
totally understand that makes sense to me I
00:08:19
actually chose the place because of location I
would have chosen Lon had I known what I know
00:08:23
now Leon is really um for those who are looking at
at traveling to Nicaragua Granada is a great home
00:08:30
Leon is a beautiful city I love living here it's
very livable as a city but it is remote if you
00:08:35
want to explore Western Nicaragua of course it's
the capital of Western Nicaragua right it's the
00:08:39
Heartland um and there's only Leon its satellite
cities in Chinandega and its Satellite City and
00:08:44
that's it and so this little area you want to hit
all this absolutely Lon is your place but if you
00:08:49
want to see like Nicaragua as a whole rat is your
best home base as a tourist who needs a little
00:08:55
bit of infrastructure and if you're like being
a local Baga is the heart of the of the country
00:09:00
um and it's amazing to me I'm always amazed by
how many people are scared OFA like I'm not going
00:09:04
to go there and then but for some reason I'm also
Amazed by every person who's like I'm moving and I
00:09:10
want to move to managa and I'm like what made you
choose managa I feel like I'm the only person who
00:09:16
likes it but a lot of people actually choose it
and they they never look at anything else and I'm
00:09:19
like but I guess they just look at the capital
in the big city and say that's where I'm going
00:09:23
to go but most xats are like anywhere but managa
and really it's a nice city it's just it's it's
00:09:28
Unique I was pleasantly surprised by managa
itself was exactly what you said like people
00:09:33
give it this horrible name I drove the roads the
roads are amazing it seems really well organized
00:09:38
like the the the driving at least that the malls
are really nice I mean the nicer areas are super
00:09:42
nice and like it seems well organized and people
don't drive that crazy it's like I was like man
00:09:46
what is this place it's not like Mexico City or
Guatemala City way different you know I wanted to
00:09:50
talk more about you and how you made it here but
let's talk about your life back in the US so you
00:09:55
said you're from New York you also said you lived
in Texas right what did you do back in America
00:10:00
so in the US uh for at this point 25 years so
almost 20 years before we moved here uh I worked
00:10:07
in a business and technology consultancy so we
primarily did software services for companies
00:10:12
a lot in like hospitals uh and it Outsourcing
so um really commonly our kind of our bread
00:10:18
and butter is that companies will come to us and
either Outsource an entire it Department to us
00:10:23
or large chunks of it like uh a discret like maybe
all their help desk maybe their CIO Services could
00:10:28
be anything but smaller companies will be like
just everything um and so we've been doing that
00:10:32
a long time yeah um and then obviously the next
question is what do I do here and because of that
00:10:36
type of business like we just moved a bunch of the
executive staff here um so we've been here doing
00:10:42
the same thing I've I've had no break to that in
25 years okay so this is a business you started
00:10:48
back in New York was it it is and I started it
in uh with a business partner in Upstate New York
00:10:54
just outside Rochester for those who don't know
Avon New York uh in 1999 so been doing this a long
00:11:01
time that's fantastic well it's good to hear that
your business has had such a long run and it's
00:11:04
still running strong and you can do it from here
as well having that flexibility and that ease of
00:11:09
work online and with the modern day technology is
fantastic isn't it I'm able to do what I'm doing
00:11:14
because of that as well do you also have other
jobs in the US or other projects that you're
00:11:18
doing uh everything I do in the US is through
that company so um kind of no but we we over
00:11:24
the years we've we've broadened quite a bit so we
have um web hosting and telepan companies we do
00:11:29
marketing and and Staffing and a lot of different
things so we have a pretty broad base of things
00:11:34
that we do remotely because we've always been
remote actually even in the 90s we started as
00:11:39
an all remote company and that was one of our our
kind of initial tenants was it could be remote and
00:11:46
our very first customers were major hospitals that
needed remote systems and so we started building
00:11:51
those and we just never ended up having uh offices
and so we built um kind of the whole company
00:11:56
around that as being a better place to work with
better working environment and it's been it's
00:12:01
been fantastic and so we've branched out in what
services we offer but we've always done it through
00:12:06
through the same everyone's working remotely
and and now we've become a very large company
00:12:10
which is very exciting you're one of the OG remote
workers one of the digital Nomads like the the guy
00:12:16
that kicked it all off yeah I mean honestly um
I started uh I was I was doing more traditional
00:12:22
work in like 97 to 98 and then in 99 when we did
this we were like okay we can do customers in town
00:12:29
that was in like February by June our our biggest
customer was in Washington DC which only like six
00:12:35
hours away from New York but it's not around
the corner and uh so we were working remote
00:12:39
at least part of the time from basically day one
almost and it was forced on us we didn't have any
00:12:44
option and and it it was never a uh we're going
to work remote and it's like this specialty thing
00:12:49
it was just this is how you work at that point
yeah like what else could we do um and then we
00:12:55
because of our growth and being a small company
um all of our Founders were like well I got to
00:12:59
live in Pittsburgh and work and I got to live
in Washington DC and work and we're all working
00:13:03
together remotely all the time so it just it was
very organic it always worked like that and it's
00:13:08
always been very easy to to work in that way
huh yeah um and I think when you when you start
00:13:13
off that way when you grow up with that right
because I was young at the time that we started
00:13:16
the company um it was just we had to get our work
done and especially being entrepreneurs it's like
00:13:21
if you don't work you don't eat so we were we were
working really hard and and collaborating with
00:13:26
each other and and working with our customers and
trying to find new customers and we had customers
00:13:31
all and down the East Coast uh in those early
days we were relatively I mean it's probably a
00:13:36
800 mile Zone but it was it was a big Zone and uh
we would run around and you couldn't lose contact
00:13:41
with other customers you had to always just do
all those things so it was it felt very normal
00:13:46
and uh I don't know never really occurred to us
but then when we had the ability to have offices
00:13:51
it was like well that doesn't make any sense why
would we pay for that as an entrepreneur imagining
00:13:55
taking money out of my pocket and saying oh $1,000
a month for an office that no one needs I don't
00:14:01
want to do that right that's like no wasting
money that's that's a really interesting story
00:14:06
and I didn't realize you had that background I
you have a lot of videos about technology and
00:14:10
stuff I checked out some of that stuff and we're
going to get back to that a little bit later about
00:14:13
your YouTube let's talk about what made you first
start to travel abroad move abroad and what places
00:14:19
you went to when you did that sure um so I grew up
in Western New York and and where I grew up like
00:14:24
Canada is right there right so growing up the
idea of leaving the US and going to Canada was
00:14:29
even a what do you feel like doing for dinner
tonight my family would actually do that sometimes
00:14:33
like oh Friday night got home early Toronto we're
off and so we had this kind of like it's easy to
00:14:38
be International um but we never went overseas or
anything like that my my parents were were kind of
00:14:44
the first of of moving more distant than a lot of
my family because we're from the Midwest and um uh
00:14:51
when I got married my wife and I always talked
about oh we'd really like to travel the world
00:14:55
some but it took us a long time before we did it
we were married for about four years we had a big
00:14:59
client that that took me and and moved us to to
Wall Street and I worked actually on Wall Street
00:15:04
representing one of the Wall Street firms for a
long time and uh fantastic experience like that
00:15:09
was wonderful while we were there it really gave
us um both a financial ability to be like ah we
00:15:15
could take a trip and all of my customers were
in London so they're like oh yeah uh you want
00:15:20
to go to London and work out of the London office
knock yourself out so I had an office in London I
00:15:24
had an office in Belfast and so we're like we're
just going over and exploring we had never been
00:15:28
anywhere but the US and Canada and we flew over
and it was all work like everything was work but
00:15:34
we went and saw a bunch of England went and saw
Northern Ireland and had this amazing time and
00:15:39
we're like it was so easy to go over and we're
like why have we avoided this why have we felt
00:15:43
that there's this barrier that we had to like I
don't know overcome something to go yeah we got
00:15:47
to do this more and uh my job kept me very busy
I visited uh Germany because I'm a history buff
00:15:53
and I went for a really major anniversary in 2009
spent a bit of time traveling solo which I just
00:15:59
the YouTube video about my solo I watch that one
very good very good thank you um and that was that
00:16:03
was like eye opening to me like I can just go it
doesn't matter what I do like these things are
00:16:08
easy right and we had done a lot of domestic
travel it was just the international it kept
00:16:11
feeling like there were barriers like I don't know
what they were but something makes it you can't
00:16:15
just hop a plane and go somewhere of course it's
not true it's that cultural thing of the US kind
00:16:19
of like thinking that we have everything inside
why go outside right it's well I think that's
00:16:24
part of it at least that's certainly for a lot of
people I think for us um and something that I've
00:16:27
sensed a lot for example I just went to South
America for the first time last month and and
00:16:33
I know that this is a factor so I'm like I know
once I go to South America I'm going to constantly
00:16:38
feel like South America is around the corner but
until I go to South America it feels like a far
00:16:42
off place with a bunch of unknowns I don't know
what those unknowns would be like obviously it's
00:16:46
just as easy like I live in Nicaragua how can
like Colombia be exotic it's not and I used to
00:16:51
live like a hundred miles off the Colombian border
obviously it's not exotic I could like you could
00:16:56
smell it like ah is that is that street F going
on coffee right coffee wating over yeah so so like
00:17:04
obviously those places are not exotic in that way
but it's still feels that way but I just flew uh
00:17:09
through Lima and I went to laaz I was all over
Bolivia and suddenly all of of the top half of
00:17:15
of South America feels like at the drop of a hat I
could ZIP down there and of course it's funny like
00:17:20
I so I know this about myself and I think a lot
of people are this way I still feel like Chile and
00:17:25
Argentina are like super exotic and hard to get
to I could have driven there right like they were
00:17:30
so close but you have this barrier feeling so for
us like getting to Europe like first to the UK and
00:17:36
then to Continental Europe was like breaking down
this barrier wait we could go anytime and then um
00:17:41
I was really busy with work that was the hardest
thing is I was I didn't have vacations I was
00:17:45
working um seven days a week I was on call because
I was um I was the last point of escalation for a
00:17:51
lot of stuff on Wall Street and because of that I
I really could never be away easily so in 2012 we
00:17:58
we we managed to get this big block of time and
we had a year that we knew it was coming it was
00:18:03
just a long thing with like all my schedule how
it worked out it worked so we knew we're going
00:18:06
to have two months to do something so I worked
out with work I'm like I'm going to Europe we're
00:18:10
doing this thing and they're like cool so we we
spent a year planning an epic backpacking grand
00:18:17
tour of Europe and we knew that we at that point
we already had this like really strong feeling
00:18:22
that we wanted to move abroad we wanted to we
were starting to have kids um I have two kids
00:18:25
now they were very little at the time the one was
a baby in 201 she was born in 2011 so when we went
00:18:31
in 2012 it was she was in a backpack right we were
backpacking it was a child we were backpacking and
00:18:37
uh we wanted to answer a bunch of questions about
living abroad all in one go so we did um a number
00:18:43
of tourist things so like okay here's we have
to see this we have to see that like I had to
00:18:47
see the Ryme um we had to see uh Vienna there was
all these places I felt like I just needed to see
00:18:53
and I didn't want to right like our personal
bucket list stuff um um Barcelona was huge
00:18:58
my wife especially and but then so we did half
the trip of that and half the trip of these are
00:19:03
places that we researched that felt livable and
so one of them was like the alsas in in France
00:19:09
like what if we want to live there maybe that's
and one was Northwestern Italy what if that and
00:19:14
and so was Portugal and so we mixed this trip
and we spent two months backpacking Europe and
00:19:19
just went everywhere did everything and that just
took all mental barriers that we had and just got
00:19:26
rid of them we felt like we could go anywhere do
any anything anytime with confidence we could take
00:19:31
trains planes that just everything was easy and
we did it with kids we did it with luggage we
00:19:35
were carrying like we did it the hardest possible
thing for the longest possible time um and after
00:19:40
that we were like okay we got back I told my
job by next year I'm moving abroad one way or
00:19:45
another if I can stay with the company great and
if I can't tough um and then when the time came
00:19:50
they're like ah we decided you can't move and I'm
like well and they're like I know and I moved on
00:19:56
I ended up taking another job and it took us a
little little while before we could move away
00:20:00
but shortly thereafter we we ended up moving first
to Spain um and then moved around kind of bouncing
00:20:06
back and forth between Europe and Latin America
uh but basically we we more or less left the US
00:20:13
essentially at the beginning of 2015 2015 okay so
it's 2023 it's about eight years ago be nine years
00:20:19
nine years now yeah a couple weeks so let's talk a
little bit about your job that you just mentioned
00:20:22
this was your company you were working for before
did you separate from your company when you went
00:20:26
to Spain that time I did not no so um so for a
long time uh my company was relatively small like
00:20:32
if anyone has ever started their own company right
there's a lot of times where you're like ah paying
00:20:35
the bills is tough right so um we got really
lucky that one of our partner companies this
00:20:42
is going way back this is early 2000s um one of
our partner companies came to us and said look we
00:20:47
know you guys have a lot of flexibility because
you're entrepreneurs and like you have a lot of
00:20:50
expertise we've got a position that we can't fill
can you potentially do this kind of as a favor and
00:20:56
they actually originally said I we don't even
need to take the job just do an interview win
00:21:00
the job you can turn it down if you want we just
have to prove that it's not us like they failed
00:21:04
to give you a good enough offer I'm like all right
this is this is an important favor and I ended up
00:21:10
absolutely loving the team that I interviewed with
and everything went great and they made such an
00:21:14
astounding offer that were like look you know that
I own my own company or there was some I don't
00:21:19
know how much we divulg but there was like they're
like yeah none of that a problem we're just going
00:21:23
to pay you through that company and like do it
all that way so we ended up uh basically taking
00:21:27
on a Wall Street as a customer just in a very
isolated way so I was still with my company I
00:21:32
at no point had to um you know separate from my
company do anything like that to do this it was
00:21:38
always stuff we were able to work out um I did
take from time to time hiatuses from working for
00:21:43
myself because like I worked for a company that's
like ah you don't have to get rid of your company
00:21:47
you don't have to stop but you can't do it during
the day had a little bit of that but very little
00:21:51
um and then I did take in Spain for a little while
I took a nonprofit job for months and it was like
00:21:58
okay we're going to try out a nonprofit thing see
how this works and it was toxic as all get out it
00:22:02
was a California firm it was absolutely the worst
working environment I was so spoiled from working
00:22:07
on Wall Street which I know when people haven't
done it a weird thing to hear Wall Street New York
00:22:13
City there's a bunch of things that people are
like I don't know about this the reality is is
00:22:17
that while the working hours are long while it's
a high pressure environment they also recognize
00:22:22
that and it tends to be a very healthy working
world where people are super professional they
00:22:28
care about about you doing a good job which sounds
weird but like as as opposed to The Wolf of Wall
00:22:32
Street when you watch that don't watch that if
you're if you're trying no I'm sure that's an
00:22:36
exaggerated example also kind of real but it's
there was a lot of crazy stuff for sure um but
00:22:42
it's also like people really cared about each
other they'd be like you know money wasn't the
00:22:46
bottom line the company wasn't everything like
it was a completely different culture than you
00:22:49
imagin and then you get out to California and
go work for a nonprofit and everything's toxic
00:22:54
everyone's out to hurt each other no one's a team
it was nobody cared about anything all they cared
00:22:59
about was fake team building exercises that
alienated people it was um it was awful it was
00:23:04
absolutely terrible and so I was actually working
for them when I was in Spain and in Panama I went
00:23:10
back to the United States to work for them for a
little bit uh at that point my company was like
00:23:13
you know always we got some ideas you could come
back um full-time and uh uh the company that I
00:23:20
was working for said oh we don't know about you
working in Panama we decided you have to move to
00:23:24
San Francisco and I'm I'm like and I decided to
move into Nicaragua so so tough that's good for
00:23:30
you and it's good for me I'm not moving there I'm
actually moving to Nicaragua goodbye and that was
00:23:34
the end of it I'm like never again that was it
was so toxic that I'm like ah that wasn't it was
00:23:39
great that I was I got to have an office in Spain
did a couple interesting things wasn't all bad but
00:23:43
it was short lived and and really proved that it
was worth working for ourselves all the time and
00:23:49
I managed to move into a lot more of what I
wanted to do I was a lot less in the trenches
00:23:53
so me having some time separate really let the
company mature because they've been dependent on
00:23:58
me for a long time which is which is tough as an
entrepreneur like you you tend to get pulled into
00:24:02
those things and the my co-founder gave up he left
the industry because he couldn't take it um being
00:24:07
the owner um and so uh when I came back I really
moved into an education role a training role I
00:24:14
did a lot of writing I worked for a lot of our our
customers in kind of a Content creation all very
00:24:19
technical right nothing nothing interesting and
fun but um it was it was a great experience for
00:24:24
me so I got to spend a lot of my time writing
and doing that kind of stuff um which then LED
00:24:28
my first year here I actually wrote a
book as part of my first year so [Music]
