NOTE: you can watch the video that goes with this audio on youtube at https://youtu.be/BuHa8bEzNws

• in 2009 i quit a job with no backup plan. one cold winter day in connecticut, i had one quarter and no ideas left. the call home to my mother in arizona cost 35 cents. i refused to call collect.
• in this episode i tell how that walk home started my self-employment. i cover the custody issue that took me across the country, and the radio station job i walked away from. i also talk about the first client i kept for 10 to 15 years.
• i also talk about the two best managers i ever had. both were in sales. one of them, c. eagan, subscribed to my linkedin newsletter, the art of getting free, today. i explain why i tell everyone to get basic sales training. and i explain how i work intuitively instead of on a content schedule.
• the doorway into all of it is the orelhão, brazil's "big ear" phone booth. chu ming silveira designed it in the early 1970s. i still find them in inland bahia. this morning, the wall phone in my condo rang right after i'd planned to post about them.
• music: "tira o cavalinho da chuva," my original song. the brazilian idiom means forget about it, that's not happening.

Sisi in Brasil • conhecida como Courtney C. nos EUA • faafo.app

what happens when you stop traveling like a tourist? in this episode of brasil: behind closed doors, i'm sharing part one of a day trip to a quilombo in bahia with leo. we talk about non-curated experiences, practical magic, freedom, and even retainers and self-employment. there's more to this conversation than traveling!

-- "what if some of the most memorable travel experiences are the ones you never planned?"

-- "the kind of experiences that aren't packaged, scripted, or designed around a tourist itinerary."

this is a shortened, ad-supported preview. read the full blog post for more history, personal reflections, and related resources:

https://foolaroundandfindout.com/what-happens-when-you-stop-traveling-like-a-tourist-a-quilombo-day-trip-in-bahia/

for the extended ad-free recording, visit faafo.cc.

courtney crosslin • sisi in brasil

Part Two picks up where Antoine and I left off, but the conversation moves beyond travel and into a bigger question: what is your time actually worth?

-- You can listen to Part One at https://rss.com/podcasts/brasil-behind-closed-doors/3087744 --

Antoine has built his life around a choice that runs against the usual American career script. He prefers short-term contract work, makes his money, leaves, and returns to Colombia rather than maximizing every possible working month and every possible dollar.

That opens a much larger conversation about money, freedom, aging, retirement, residency, property ownership, military benefits, skilled trades, and what younger people should be thinking about as technology changes the labor market.

Antoine is also very clear that his version of freedom requires planning. He talks about building a nest egg, creating residual income, buying property in Colombia, and eventually reaching the point where he no longer has to return to the United States to work.

His logic can be summed up pretty well by this:

“Anytime a contract ends or if I lose a contract or anything bad happens... I go on vacation.”

And after imagining being offered a mansion and a Bugatti on the condition that he stay in the United States:

“I’m like, nah, I’ll take the $50,000 and I’ll just go overseas.”

Underneath the jokes is a much more serious calculation about time:

“I look at my life in an hourglass, and that motherfucker is tilted.”

In Part Two, we talk about:

• Choosing freedom and short-term contract work instead of working year-round
• Retirement, building a nest egg, property in Colombia, and long-term residency
• Military benefits, skilled trades, and alternatives to the traditional college path
• Why Antoine thinks drones, robotics, and artificial intelligence will reshape trade careers
• The places and experiences that changed how he thinks about actually living, not simply working

And yes, the conversation eventually goes completely off the rails again. That is also part of the point.

More from me: FAAFO.app

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