Discover What’s Possible by Losing Sight of the Shore with Noah Scott

Or in the case of today, it's in the people that we meet.

Like when I got to sit down and talk with today's guest, Noah Scott.

His view on life, that was the breath of fresh air that I needed to remind me of wow, this is what life is all about.

And that conversation with Noah is inside of today's episode.

Welcome to the Lowdown with Kevin Lowe, the podcast shining light on the inspiring stories of ordinary people choosing to live out anything but ordinary lives.

All in the hope that you will be inspired to live out your best life.

Because this life is meant to be lived.

And this podcast is meant to inspire you to do it.

Hey, what's happening?

Welcome back to the podcast.

This is episode 87 here on The Lowdown with Kevin Lowe.

Glad to have you back again for another amazing conversation with another super awesome person.

Matter of fact, I say super awesome because, well, this guy is kind of like the coolest guy I've met in a really long time.

His name is Noah Scott.

And let's just say me and him, we hit it off immediately.

And well, it took a couple of times to record this episode because Noah is living as a nomad.

Yes, that's right.

Noah has no home.

Hey, that kind of rhymes.

Noah has no home.

And instead, Noah is living around the world, kind of more or less, wherever he chooses to live.

At the time of today's recording, we tried once, we couldn't make it happen because he chose to be hanging out in a remote area where we weren't getting the best Wi-Fi signal.

So instead, we tried again for today, and I think we ended up with something really magical.

Because today's episode is more than one just about Noah and his story, and more about the importance of living life to the fullest.

If I could sum it up, I would say it like this: this is a truly heartfelt, insightful, motivating, encouraging conversation that is a reminder to us all to never give up on chasing our dreams.

That all of our dreams, they're worth us making come true.

And it's so important for us all to never stop doing it, to never stop living, to never stop chasing our dreams, not until the day we die.

I was reminded of a quote throughout my conversation with Noah today, the one about we can never discover new oceans unless we have the courage to lose sight of the shore.

That's what I just kept thinking as I listened to Noah's story.

And uh, I don't know.

It's just pretty awesome.

I can only hope that you come away with the incredible feelings that I did after meeting Noah.

And who knows, maybe we'll have you setting off on your own adventure because Noah, he's gonna tell you about some amazing opportunities for you to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new, something in the realm of a luxury escape.

And uh, so, anyways, you'll have to listen up to find out what that is.

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SPEAKER_01: Noah Scott, welcome to the podcast, man.

Yes, brother.

Thank you so much for having me here.

And, you know, just really delighted to just dive right in with all the good stuff.

SPEAKER_00: Well, awesome, awesome, man.

Well, well, dude, you know, first and foremost, I mean, you're a nomad.

So where are you at today?

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

So today I am, well, it's it's kind of funny.

So this is the second time we've been recording for the listeners.

I don't know if you're gonna give them that preface, but the first time I was over on the Caribbean at this like epic resort, and the Wi-Fi just decided to be a nasty little bugger, and uh, we weren't able to finish the session.

So this time, I'm on the Pacific side in Ecuador in a little surf town called Montanita, and I've got some fiber optic Wi-Fi ready to tackle this interview.

And yeah, just after we're done, I'm gonna go get a coconut somewhere.

SPEAKER_00: Well, that's awesome.

I was gonna say, because I think the first time it was kind of like that moment of reality checking.

And I'll set this stage for for you who were not with us the first go round.

Is there was a lot of background noise, a lot of the wind, and you you could totally get the feeling of where Noah was.

And I kind of felt like it was the universe saying, Noah, look where you are.

Get off of the podcast and get out and enjoy this place, you know?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's been a lot of that.

And it's really that's that's really a tough balancing act that you have to do as you're out experiencing, exploring, like going to all these cool destinations.

It's there's a constant temptation to get out and play and just see as much of the world as you can and and like go out and party and enjoy all the scenery and the culture.

And but also at the same point in time, there's the responsibility to build your dream, to do the work that you're gonna, that you're that you're sort of meant to do on this planet.

And, you know, finding that balancing act I is kind of like a seesaw, back and forth, back and forth.

And or like a I guess a better analogy would be like a flight of Icarus.

So sometimes you're gonna get too close to the sun, and then you gotta kind of all right, let's let's strengthen things up, let's build the discipline.

And then, you know, when you start to get a little bored and depressed, and all right, let's let's let's go back to the sun a little bit.

So exactly.

That's kind of what life on the road has been for me.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, that that's awesome.

Well, well, man, I would love to get a little bit better understanding before we dive into life for you today and and here recently, to get a little bit better idea of kind of you know where you've come from and what's kind of led up to what you're doing today.

And so, so I guess we'll kind of start basic and you know, where did you grow up at?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so I I was born in Oregon and then I I grew up as a baby.

I grew up in a little town called Palm Springs, kind of like one of these resort towns.

All this, all the people from Canada will come there in the winter.

It's the desert.

So I grew up chasing lizards, climbing mountains, and just building things in the desert.

It was it was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.

That's so awesome.

So now growing up, did you guys travel a lot?

SPEAKER_01: Not really.

We we we had a big family.

So I was the youngest of five.

And so that's a that's quite a big commitment to travel with that many kids.

So we had a big like 80s van that we'd roll around in.

It was it was one of those converter vans.

Okay.

And it was like, it just put the whole family in there.

We had a little table and a fridge, and like I would drop things out the window in the back, just you know, being being a little mischievous kid.

But we'd go to the beach, we'd go to the mountains, we'd go up to Oregon quite a bit.

And the the adventure really kind of kicked in in my 20s, actually.

Uh, as I was in college, I was studying Japanese.

It I just love this idea of learning another language.

And in high school, I studied French.

I was like, all right, let me learn something cool and different.

So I was thinking about what other language to take.

My brother spent some time in Korea, and so I was like, okay, let me take Korean.

They didn't offer it at school, so I'm like, I was flipping the page from K to J.

I saw Japanese and I said, that looks cool.

And flash forwards, flash forward several years later.

I've got a degree in Japanese and I'm I'm traveling there every year and uh really just enjoy the culture.

I that was probably the catalyst for me to realize that as I'm out exploring the world and embracing other cultures, I'm learning so much about myself and I'm finding a greater sense of identity in the exploration of other people's cultures, cuisines.

And it really just gave life more color.

It was almost as if the version of life that I knew was black and white.

And then now that I'm diving into this other culture, now I'm seeing it with another shade of vibrant color.

It was really just, I think that was the first tipping point for me to say, all right, I want to see what's out there.

I want to explore other cultures.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.

So what was it like for you?

I mean, kind of growing up, not really, you know, traveling a lot, and then to start traveling, you know, as as much as going somewhere like Japan.

I mean, how how were those trips for you?

Were those just solo trips to Japan?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

So the first couple trips were like I would, I would go with some friends, and from there, it was like definitely a little bit of culture shock.

But I had been prepared because I'd been studying the culture and the language before going.

So it wasn't a complete culture shock.

But even just moving to LA, like in college, I moved to LA, and it was like, even though it's a two-hour drive from where I grew up, it's still like now I'm surrounded by all the different flavors and cultures.

And I moved in the middle of it, like Chinatown.

It was, it was just interesting to now have this exposure is totally there.

And so I think being in Japan, it was like this drinking the fire hose of adventure and being delighted at the taste of it and saying, I can't stop with this.

I want more.

And so eventually I decided as I was in my 20s, I was going through a lot of soul searching, and I spent like that entire decade.

I think I was while I was exploring the language and the culture of Japanese and trying to get my degree, I was also kind of going through a dark hour of the soul where I spent a lot of time seeking validation by going to parties, drinking with people that I thought were going to be very influential and helping me move my career forward.

When in all actuality, I was I was on a downward spiral towards being broke, being depressed.

And eventually, because I was putting so much like the validation for my self-esteem in other people's hands or in external places, what happened was I got completely lost and alienated and just felt like, okay, this isn't going anywhere.

So one day I I'm looking at just the trajectory of my life.

Just got in a motorcycle accident and you know, just dumped all my savings into medical bills.

And I'm like, I'm going to Japan.

I remember reading the textbooks in school and being completely fascinated by an artist named Hiroshige.

And so he painted this, he painted this series called The 53 Stations of the Tokido.

And the Tokido is like a pilgrimage road if you think of the Camino de Santiago as a place that has a lot of historical and spiritual meaning, where people throughout the ages would walk from the beginning to the end of this path.

And on that journey, they would undergo some kind of transformation.

And so I decided I would walk that path.

And along the way, I would look for the modern day locations of Kiroshike's paintings.

And I'm like talking to my friends about this.

They're like, bro, you have to, you have to record this and make like a little documentary.

I'm like, okay, here I am.

I don't know anything about video or film or anything.

So I'm like, I'm just gonna bring my iPhone.

And so I downloaded iPhone 4, downloaded some apps on there, and so I could edit while I was on the road.

But that that journey, so I end up there, I had like 15 bucks when I get to Kyoto, where I was gonna start.

There was a couple checks that were gonna come in later in later in in the journey, but I'm like, all right, let's do this.

And I am just completely naive, thinking that everything's gonna be fantastic.

I'm gonna walk into a little countryside town, and they're gonna be like, oh, look at this tall blonde guy.

Come stay with us.

Oh boy, was I in for a surprise.

I realized that that is not the case.

Uh, you gotta actually have a little bit more preparation when you do show up in a place.

And so I got, I got, I got knocked around a little bit.

And the reality is that eventually, every time I would get to the point where I was about to give up, somebody would just show up out of the blue, whether that was I'd I'd spend my last$10 on um to get a beer or a sandwich, and I'd be in the cafe and somebody would come up to me and say, Hey, what do you, you know, do you want to have a job teaching English at my friend's studio?

Do you want to have a job cleaning sake bottles in my friend's sake brewery?

And these little these people would show up and give me the courage to keep going.

And that's kind of the lesson that I think I learned from that is that no matter how bad things get, there's always gonna be somebody who's gonna show up and help you out.

And so having the courage to take that risk and explore the adventure, it might be scary and it might be a little bit exciting, and you might be a little naive in terms of of what you're gonna expect.

But by doing that, you're gonna build so much resilience and so much courage that it'll give you the like the self-fulfilling or the uh the self-fulfilling prophecy to keep doing it.

The more risks you take, the more that you're gonna be stronger after getting through those risks.

And then that gives you the courage to take bigger risks down the road.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely, definitely.

I love that.

I love that.

So now I'm curious, you mentioned earlier about the more that you traveled, the the more, you know, the people that you meet, the more that you end up learning about yourself.

Can you expand a little bit on what you meant by that?

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: So I think that journey in particular, I was really searching for something that I could call my reason to live.

And being familiar with Japanese culture, there's there's a thing called ikigai, which basically means like if you take a cross-section of the things you're really good at, what you enjoy, and what you can get paid for, as well as what society needs, you'll find that sweet spot, which is your reason to be.

And I think I was searching for that in in Japan because I knew that bartending wasn't really getting me anywhere.

I wasn't I wasn't fulfilled when I had a job working at the grocery store modeling, I just forget it.

That was that wasn't a career path that was actually gonna pay me anything.

And so here I am, like, I gotta figure something out because something's gotta change.

And being out on the road, I think this is it's the novelty of new destinations.

What happens is you're on that path of adventure, you're rewiring the circuits in your brain to see things from a different perspective.

And you're quieting the same routine as you're forcing yourself to go into the unknown, into the edge of what you know, and expose yourself to the synchronicity that that might happen, right?

So you walk into a town, you have no idea who you're gonna meet, but you embrace that with a full surrender that says, I believe that I'm gonna meet the people that I need to meet.

And they might not necessarily be the people that you think are gonna be right for you, but they might say something or they might trigger you in a certain direction that's gonna help you discover what it is that you that you need to figure out.

And it's only by really shaking your brain up, so you you're seeing these new perspectives, that you're gonna actually uncover the gold that's deep within you already.

And if we're in our routine, if we're in the mundane, day-to-day life, sometimes we don't have that perspective that will give us that clarity to see things from a new way.

And so adventure, the idea of getting out and seeing something in a new lens will enable you to find that perspective in a way and that's much faster than if you're just trying to do it like on your own, just hanging out in your room.

It's a lot easier to see through the, I don't know, what you want to call it, the resistance when you're out on the road and you're just kind of traveling.

SPEAKER_00: Definitely, definitely.

I love it.

It's kind of like when we talk about, like you said, that comfort zone is is is I think of, I think of like the the situation where you think of uh think of like an athlete, a coach, a coach who's who's working with somebody.

And it's that scene in the movie, you know, where they're pushing them to literally their breaking point.

And though it's at that moment that the person has the most clarity, you know what I mean, and understands their purpose and and and finds this bigger reason why.

It's almost like you said, it's it's comfort is great, but you can't stay there too long.

You know, and and because there is more, and it is so important for us, I think, to continue in life, continue stepping outside of that comfort zone and really testing it, and like you said, leading to identify who we truly are.

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01: And it's it's interesting too because we think it's the other way around.

And and I'll just share a story of like two times, and we we'll look at it from the both lens.

Like, this is through personal experience.

Like the me in my in my 30s, I've had two chapters.

One chapter was a bold adventurer, an entrepreneur who built an incredible video production company from the ground up by literally just taking a leap and just going with it.

The other chapter was a chapter where I found some strange pull towards security and comfort.

And I began a job working in a marketing agency.

And I used that as a safety blanket for nearly five years.

And in both of those chapters, there's there's a lesson.

You know, if if we look at the early half of my 30s, this big, bold, reckless decision to just say, I'm gonna start a production company, I'm gonna gather a bunch of friends together, we're gonna get out there and we're gonna make movies.

And not having any experience whatsoever, somehow being able to translate that through a lot of hard work, pushing myself, grinding while I had an internship uh half the day, the other half of the day, I was sitting here learning everything I could about editing.

I was learning everything I could about movie making and then building the website, building the business.

And eventually we got to the point where this thing was supporting the careers of several of our staff.

We had 12 people working with us, we had enough funds through our business to actually produce a feature film.

And all none of this would have been possible if I didn't have that crazy, reckless idea to say, I'm going to start a business.

I'm going to start a production company.

And through that adventure of exploring into the unknown and saying, I'm going to achieve this incredible, crazy goal, what happened is I learned a lot.

I learned a lot about an entirely new skill set, which in hindsight now I have the skill set that enabled me to not only figure out how to run a business, but also create a bunch of content.

So we were producing podcasts, we were producing content for other people as well.

And that I was able to leverage that into the marketing career, right?

So granted, at the marketing agency, I learned a ton.

I learned a lot about how to button things up, how to create marketing from a standpoint of experimentation, what works, what doesn't work.

But I was also, like I said, there was that, there was that part of it which was safe.

And having the nine to five, eventually what happened was, you know, I could, I could kind of see myself falling into a state of atrophy.

And if you're in that position where the challenges that you have in life aren't stretching you, it's time to introduce a little bit more risk.

It's time to introduce some stakes to the equation.

And, you know, just case in point, like what when I'm sitting here in this agency, I'm like realizing that, okay, I kind of have this cushy environment.

Let me add some stakes.

So I started, I learned how to paint.

I decided to write and publish a book.

And you can use this idea of like a life-changing goal.

You can make it every single year.

I try to introduce something that will be if I do this thing, if I accomplish it, it will change my life.

And I'll look back at it and say, great, that little notch on my belt is something I'm proud of.

And, you know, so every year I just try to have that.

And like this year was I'm gonna, I'm gonna quit my job and I'm gonna start a business where I'm I'm hosting retreats and I'm gonna host three retreats in cool, exotic destinations around the world.

Last year was I'm gonna write and publish a book.

The year before that was I'm gonna learn how to paint and hold an exhibit.

And so that that added the stakes for me in terms of being like, all right, I got this job.

I'm sort of flatlining, I'm not exactly pushing myself or challenging myself.

I've learned as kind of as much as I can learn here.

If I really want to learn more, I'll have to jump into a leadership role.

And I'm like, yeah, it's not really what I want to do.

I kind of want to do my own thing.

And so you might need to find some external sort of ways to add those stakes so you don't flatline.

But I think, you know, case in point, the bigger your goal is, the more you stretch for it and the more you reach for it every single day, it's going to create scar tissue.

And that scar tissue is gonna turn into strength down the road.

And it might be challenging and it might be, it might be fearful.

You might, you might get totally intimidated to the point where you're gonna freeze in hesitation and and like paralyze yourself with like, wow, this is too big.

That's good.

Keep looking it in the face and keep taking one more step.

Every time you take that step, it's gonna build strength, it's gonna build resilience.

And then before you know it, you'll have cross the other side and look back and say, wow, I did it.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.

And what what I love about what you're saying here is it kind of goes against what society has told us to do with our lives.

Where society kind of views the the people who are continuing to do new things, change career paths.

You know, take on these new risks as that's crazy, that's reckless, that's irresponsible, it's time to grow up.

You know, versus what the you know, society has told us we should be doing is we should go to college for said career, we should get in that career, and we should work in that career until we retire.

You know, and what I love about what you're saying is is kind of this idea of even if you're working that same career, but doing more so and continuing to grow as a person and realizing that, you know, this life, there's a whole lot of life to live in every single year we're blessed with.

And so keep expanding on yourself, you know, and and you may realize things about yourself that you never even knew before.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's a really good book that kind of talks about this topic about the conventional attitude of zeroing in a one thing and having that be your main specialization versus dabbling in a whole bunch of different things.

And the guy that wrote this book, it was called, it's called Range.

It's by David Epstein.

And he draws one story of the difference between athletes and and Robert Federer, for example, was a late bloomer.

And he dabbled in all these different sports until he eventually came on on tennis.

But, you know, he was kind of just decent at all these other sports.

He was experimenting, he was playing, he was adventuring, he was adding different elements in.

And then what happened is he was able to consolidate all of that knowledge from all this range and bring it into his career in tennis.

And him exploring and skiing and all of these other sports added the flavor that he needed to figure out how to learn tennis faster, how to do it at, you know, at a at a pace that's just different than other people.

And, you know, I kind of feel like that's that's something that we don't get told to experience all that's on the buffet of life.

We kind of get told to go to college, pick a career when we're 18.

And like, who knows what they're gonna do with their life at 18?

We're all things are gonna change so fast.

And I think that whole idea of you're stuck in one thing, that's why we see these lawyers that are just like, all right, I I gotta change this.

And, you know, they just walk away from their law job with like hundreds of thousands in debt, and they're like, go become a life coach.

It's it's it's kind of crazy when you really think about it, that we're expecting ourselves to have everything figured out at 18 when the journey is really about accumulating as much experience and adventure as possible so that we are able to then make an informed decision based on how we see the world and what we what we've enjoyed in that journey.

And then once we've once we've finally kind of accumulated a lot of diverse skills, diverse background, we can pool those together and and create, you know, the ultimate, the ultimate painting through all the colors that we've accumulated in life.

Now we're gonna add that to our canvas and be like, boom, this is my masterpiece.

But until we get that experience, we're kind of making the decision based on what either other people are telling us or, you know, really just a blind, a blind faith that that it'll work out, but I don't really know for sure.

And okay, I'm I'm just gonna go with this path.

And then, you know, if you think about a job as being secure, it's really crazy because at any minute you could, your boss could decide that, okay, uh, we need to, we need to save budget in these departments and these departments, and you're kind of on your own.

Whereas if you build a business, uh, you know, that is that's it, that's your own sort of ability, your own skills at supporting yourself, and you're no longer at the mercy of a full-time job.

You know, so that's kind of some perspective in terms of just like, hey, this is where I think like you could definitely benefit from shifting the mentality a little bit.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

And and and I will tell you what what I love about this, and it and it kind of hit me as we were just talking through this.

And because I can tell you that, you know, where I'm at right now in my life, you know, I it's one of those things where I kind of feel like, you know, I've got the podcast going.

I've I've started, you know, at the time that we're, you know, recording this, you know, I've started getting into life coaching and and and I've got these these different, you know, all these different little things going and in and my mind, you know, wants to be like, you know, okay, like get a grip.

Like, you know, what what are you doing?

You, you, you know, you're floundering.

But but then when I'm just sitting here talking to you, you reminded me of something, or conversation reminded me of something, of the fact that you know what, Kevin?

Keep trying it, keep doing all these little things that seem seem like they don't make sense right now, because it's all working out for a bigger picture.

And and I share this because growing up, I was the kid who did everything, you know, and and my mom, my mom will tell you that it was very aggravating as a parent who had a kid who, okay, this week I'm into skateboarding.

And so I've got the skateboard, I've got the knee pads, the helmet, you know, everything is skateboarding.

And then all of a sudden, a couple of months down the line, now, oh my gosh, I want to start surfing.

And so now I've got the surfboard and and and you know, and buying all the equipment for that.

And now I'm transitioning to, oh, I want to do street hockey.

And you know what I mean?

And all these different things.

And none of it made sense until I was 17 and I went blind.

And my life totally changed.

And I look back and I see now that that's why God made me the kid that He did was because I got to try a whole bunch of stuff before I would lose my eyesight.

Wow.

And so now today it's just kind of like this reality check for myself.

And I'm thinking, Kevin, don't get so caught up on having to have it figured out.

Just try it, see what sticks.

And because there's a point to it all in the end.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

Wow, that's that's just moving me because we never know when either we're gonna lose somebody that we care about, or things are just gonna stop.

Like today, the even just running on the beach, I get a Charlie horse in my leg.

We never know what's gonna show up and just derail us from what we think is gonna be safe and comfortable.

There's there's no guarantee.

And it's so powerful that you brought that up.

And I'm that's like, uh it's just moving.

It's yeah, I'm glad that you're able to have those experiences and share them.

But yeah.

The more we can get out and explore and experience, that's what it's all about.

Like the play in life is so valuable and creating memories and creating the opportunity to share those memories with other people, because who knows, people might be stuck in something.

And like, I just heard from somebody the other day, like, I really appreciate you sharing, you know, all of your travel stories because that you being on this journey and you doing this, like living for your dreams, it really is inspiring me because here I am, I've got I've got kids, I've got debt, and I can't leave the country because of X, Y, Z.

So by seeing your journey, I'm really just invigorated and and and motivated.

And it just that really brought so much tears, like tears to my eyes, literally, just realizing that wow, other people are actually being able to be inspired by me just going out and living life.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely.

So, so I think this is like a perfect opportunity for for me to ask you, because this is all kind of of talking about something big that you did in your life where you really kind of took what we're talking about to heart by deciding to become a nomad.

And so tell me, tell me how did that even come about?

Because it sounds crazy, it sounds kind of cool, but I'm like, how did this guy even begin to do this?

So, so so what was happening in your life at the time that you decided, you know what, I'm gonna sell everything and just start traveling?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm gonna first start with a a motivation that kicked in recently or a reflection that kicked in recently.

So, as Americans, as Europeans, we are incredibly privileged.

And sometimes we don't realize how blessed we are by just simply having the ability to visit any single country we want with almost no hassle.

Whereas here I am, and about three weeks ago, four weeks ago, I was I was in a little hotel in Colombia and talking to one of the Colombians there, and and she's just telling me how her and her friend were telling me how challenging it is for a Colombian to just even see another country, like go to America.

They have to travel to Bogota, get a uh application for a visa, which they have to spend like $300, and then whether or not they get they actually make it through the application process, then they have to pay for the visa.

And all that's just to just to come visit America.

And it's crazy that as an American, you can go to just about anywhere.

And the fact that so many Americans don't travel just really kind of makes me frustrated because the the the backbone of like a lot of these places, their economy is built on tourism.

And so they're you know, you look at you look at places like Belize, Belize can't make coffee, so all they really have is tourism to keep them afloat.

And, you know, it all right.

So let's now let's okay.

After I got that out of the thing, I this morning I was sitting here thinking about how I could bake in some purpose into the business.

And I really thought about that being the creme de la creme, right?

If I could just shave off a portion of the profits of my of my business and devote it towards paying for visas for underprivileged people in either Africa or South America who want to see the world, who want to travel, who want to actually have the same opportunities as an American.

That's kind of what I'll I'm I'm gonna put my mission towards now moving forward as I'm building the business out.

But how did it start?

You know, I think it was it was it was back in the pandemic.

I'm I'm in my my awesome awesome pad in Hancock Park, where I've got this this really cool, like big space that I could use for entertaining.

Because I've always loved hosting, I've always loved bringing people together, throwing dinner parties.

And so I got this awesome pad, signed up, signed a lease for it, and then boom, pandemic comes.

I'm like, great.

Here I am stuck at this house, can't really, can't really entertain anymore.

And one day it just hit me.

Why am I paying all this money for rent?

And just, you know, I've got a car that's sitting in the driveway, I've got, I've got my my my big rent here just accumulating junk.

And one day I just said, you know what?

I could just go rent an Airbnb and be, you know, steps from the water instead of being stuck in my house.

Why don't I just do that?

I'm working from home anyway.

Let's let's just go.

So I I found someone to sublease my apartment.

I threw a big party, and I just I just had all my friends take a box full of my junk and just like, here you go.

I don't need this anymore.

Let's go.

And and it really just you really like when you let go of that stuff, it really gives you so much freedom.

We don't realize how much the things we own start to become roots that are weights, really holding us back from actually taking risks and taking making a big change in our life.

You know, sold my car and boom, here I am in Mexico on Playa del Carmen and Tulum, bouncing around, having an epic time.

Also spent some time in Costa Rica.

I went out there so I could finish writing my book.

And through that process, I realized that wow, there it there's an option that I didn't know existed before.

And that option is by simply being a nomad, you can experience just by living your life, having a 30-day rental in an Airbnb in a different country.

You don't have to go and take a vacation to see another place.

You can actually just live there like a normal person, have your job.

And, you know, as long as you have a place where your mail's going, you can use a virtual mailbox.

You can actually just shift everything and see the world, expose yourself to all this stuff, but still have the convenience and comfort of having a place to live and absolutely just living the exact same life that you would be living back home.

But now you're either, you know, 500 stones throw away from the water or you're in some cool jungle.

As long as there's Wi-Fi, why not?

SPEAKER_00: That's awesome.

That's so awesome.

So, so what did what did your family think of this idea?

SPEAKER_01: I mean, at this point, they're used to everything.

So Okay.

I really, I really tested the the the waters.

I've always been a little bit reckless.

And so for me to say, I'm doing this, it's just kind of one of these things, okay, Noah.

They're no longer surprised by the things I'm doing.

SPEAKER_00: So wow, wow, wow.

So now visiting somewhere, and and even, you know, like when you went to Japan and and you were there for a long time, we always know that we're going back home.

How is the mindset differently visiting somewhere, knowing that, you know what, I could stay here as long as I want.

It's so liberating.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

Wow.

It it's so liberating because it's literally like that.

I have a blank canvas now in terms of where I'm going.

And it's the ultimate freedom.

There's nothing feels better than knowing that I, you know, I moved my residency to Texas.

I have a I have a virtual mailbox in Texas, and I have no reason to really go back to Los Angeles other than the people, right?

So if I go back, I can spend a week visiting all my friends, hanging out, but I don't need to stay there.

There's no obligation for me to return.

And and I have everything that I need in the suitcase.

I have everything I need either online.

So as long as I have the computer and the internet, I'm able to create, continue to create content.

So I'm able to grow my business.

And I have a few things that, you know, that I have to be at.

So when I'm doing the retreats that I have, you know, I know I have to be in Mexico in two weeks.

I know I have to be in Morocco in May.

But other than that, it's a blank slate.

And if I want to be somewhere, I can be there.

And if I need to take a plane somewhere, it's it's usually just a few credit card points away.

And it's yeah, it's I think that's something that because I can do this, there's almost like an obligation that I should do it.

Because so many other people, they have kids, it's a lot harder for them to do that.

And knowing how big the world is, knowing how much there is to see, I don't, I don't want to let a month go by where I'm not experiencing life to the fullest, where I'm not challenging myself to explore and add some adventure into the mix.

And so, yeah, if I find a place that's completely magical, which I hope happens, like for me, Columbia's, Columbia's been that.

I was I was blown away by by the culture, by the food, the convenience.

And it's become a special place.

And I know I'm gonna go back every year to Mediji.

And it's just one of those magical cities that I wouldn't have known how much happiness it brings me by being there if I didn't actually roll the dice and go.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.

What is that the big draw for you, Noah?

Is is the culture, the people versus the actual location.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I think the food is for sure.

I love, I love yeah, okay, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_00: I should have mentioned the food.

SPEAKER_01: Yes, okay.

Food's a big one.

I don't really care about shopping.

I'm not I'm not big on sightseeing.

Even like going out and doing excursions and adventures, it's kind of like I have it's a toss-up between being able to get my work done and and then going out and taking like a five-hour bus ride to some hot springs in the jungle, which is cool.

I can do a little bit of that, but there's I love I love to work, I love to create also.

And so uh there's a there's a constant temptation to go out and do all this touristy sightseeing stuff.

But for me, the draw really is being able to connect with other people.

It it's those moments where you know you pull up a desk at a cafe, and you know, the other I was in Medellin my last day, I was I was heading up to a spot in the mountains, and I'm sitting down at at a brunch table uh with a friend, and across the table, there are these really wasted guys drinking tequila shots out of a shoe.

And the guys call me over, they're like, bro, come over.

Meanwhile, this is 11 in the morning.

So, you know, I'm getting brunch, I have my laptop open, I'm about to do some editing for my podcast.

But you know, I know that I can come back to that.

And so we sit down, and turns out this guy owns like three nightclubs in Bogota, and he's just like tatted up from like his entire face.

And he He's just he's got the biggest smile on his face, loving life.

His other friends are a DJ, and then his other friend is like some entrepreneur guy.

And so we're sitting here in the morning, like he keeps trying to take tequila shots out of his shoe.

His friends keep slapping the shoe away.

And then they're pouring tequila shots for me.

But now I've got these friends that I'm like, all right, if ever I go to Bogota, I know who to call to have a great night out.

And I can, I, you know, I can go to the clubs and be like, great.

And I can do that.

Which is also just a cool story.

You know, you're able to share and like see this guy's perspective.

And like these people are like, wow, how do you guys live this life where you can just drink until they were drinking all night?

And like for them, that's that's their way of of living.

But it's those, it's those random moments that really make it special.

And you know, there's that's one example of of a sort of a debauchery moment.

But then there's other moments where I'm I'm hanging out with a buddy in Quito, and he's sitting here, like, you know what?

I love your vision for your retreat.

I think I have like three people that would want to come to your retreat, and he's connecting me with people that normally like I wouldn't be connected with.

And it's by again putting yourself out there and just listening to other people's stories, you're able to now open up this pathway towards unlimited potential that you wouldn't have before.

And my friend Jen Nash, she's actually speaking at the retreat.

She she has a book about you know the big power of tiny connections.

And she basically talks about this how you really don't know who you sit down next to, who they're connected to, how they're gonna impact your life.

And if you just open yourself up to listen and to actually have a great conversation, before you know it, they might be inviting you to some backstage concert at some Celine Dion concert, or they might be inviting you to, you know, a private trip across the Sahara.

Like there's so many possibilities that are just waiting for us to fall into their lap.

And that only happens when we actually put ourselves out there.

And practical, you don't have to travel the world to have this stuff happen.

One of the greatest things that I've done this last year is start my podcast, as I'm sure you can attest, is we get to meet all these cool people and become friends with them.

And so, like, we're creating this connection, but it it takes a little bit of risk.

It takes a little bit of getting out of your comfort zone to send that email and say, as, I'm starting a podcast.

I don't, I'm a nobody.

Do you want to be on my show?

And then surprisingly, you're gonna get, you know, maybe after you send 10 emails, you're gonna get one that comes back and says, Absolutely, I love what you're doing.

Let's go.

And then the more you do it, the better you get.

One connection leads to another.

And then sometimes you'll have guests on the show start to refer you to other people.

And that is all the result, again, of challenging yourself to add a little adventure into your life.

Go out and talk to people that you didn't know before.

And those connections start to lead to more connections, they start to lead to more opportunities, and then you develop friendships.

And so ultimately, I think the moral of the story is put yourself out there and you'll find the people that need to be there to guide you to where you have to go.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

And and what what it reminds me of is is something that I quote all the time is the fact that what truly matters in this life are the experiences had and the relationships made along the way.

You know, and that is what truly matters in this life.

Yeah.

So, yeah, you know, I mean, I mean, it is, you know, it it's I mean, we're we're all we we we can all fall victim to the wanting of things.

Because that's easy to do.

But it is, it's truly when we think back on our lives, what do we remember?

We don't remember the gifts we got at Christmas or for our birthday.

No, but we do remember the vacations we went on.

Or we remember, you know, how much we loved, you know, that family member or getting to meet that person.

You know what I mean?

That's what matters.

SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.

You know, it reminds me also of a Marcus Aurelius quote that I that I constantly come back to when he wrote, the true meaning of success is having good character and doing good deeds.

Yes.

And it's interesting when you think about what that really means, is that if you do have good character, you're gonna kind of be forced or you're gonna be tasked to actually push yourself beyond the comfort zone to do bigger and better deeds, right?

So you're you're gonna know that if you're if you're kind of half-assing it, it's gonna be like, all right, I know I can do more.

But so if you have both of those happening, right, you're you're doing good things for other people.

It doesn't mean you have to become like, you know, Buddha, but it just basically means like, all right, put some active effort into doing as much as you can to be of help to other people.

And you're gonna feel really good about it by you challenging yourself to do that.

You're gonna gain skills that are then gonna add more leverage that you can use to do more good.

And it it's like a virtuous cycle, like all things.

When you put yourself out there and you challenge yourself, it just adds more power for you to then do better things.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, I love it.

I love it.

Well, talking about bigger things, better things, tell me about the big possible.

What is this?

Yes, what is this?

We we we want to hear all the things.

All right.

SPEAKER_01: So that this name, the big possible, kind of came when I was I was at the gym one day and I was really just trying to figure out how I'm gonna call this.

I like I used to have a dating podcast, and what happened was I got I felt pigeonholed that I wasn't able to play on the field that I wanted to play on, which was ultimately how do I explore the frontier of life and and and help people figure out how to live to their fullest.

And so I'm sitting here like, all right, I need a good name for this.

I want to create a show that's that's so started as a podcast.

And this is also a reflection of me feeling a little flatlined in my in my day job, a little feeling like I'm not I'm not taking enough risks.

I'm not I'm not experiencing as big of an existence as I'm capable of.

And I was playing it safe.

And so I'm sitting there doing some like bench presses or something, and then it just hits me.

I was like, I was meandering in this idea of possibility, right?

Like, I know you're possible of doing more things.

I know you're possible of doing bigger things.

And then it just like, I, you know, I was up at the top of the bench press, and it was just like, you're possible, you're capable of the big possible.

And I was like, whoa, that's that's the name of the show, right?

And so then, yeah, I just I just got that idea, came back, I started a podcast.

I didn't, I wasn't ready to do guests at the time.

So just I was doing just solo reflections.

Didn't really matter if anyone was listening.

I'm like, I'm just gonna create, use this as a as a place to dump all my reflections as I as I build this concept of a retreat.

I wanted to create a sort of a social club where people could hold each other accountable to do great things with their life.

And for me, uh, you know, again, adventure's always been a big part.

The dream I've had for the last 10 years is to own a small boutique hotel chain one day and have that be a place where all my friends from around the world can come and gather and hang out and have like truly exceptional experiences.

But I've always been afraid of how I'm gonna make that happen.

And one day I'm I'm talking to my coach and we connect the dots.

He's like, you know what?

I see you, I see you, bro, I see you being like this this retreat facilitator, you know, kind of not quite like uh, you know, too spiritual, you know, you're not wearing some white robes or anything, but you're adding an experience.

You're creating, you're creating this environment where people feel safe, where people feel that they're able to be a little vulnerable, ask some big questions, have a great adventure, and then go home with a big shift.

And it was really moving because that is exactly the phrase that I've been writing in my life vision for the last decade.

I would write down these ideas of I'm hosting retreats around the world, I'm hosting workshops where people are coming together.

And and I don't know why, but I always thought I wasn't worthy of that vision.

I had to do some kind of penance in before I could be ready to actually sink my teeth into it.

And I think through the process of having my coach, who has my own happiness and his best interest as well as mine, we we were able to kind of together discover that I don't need to keep paying the dues.

I don't need to keep doing the baby steps, but I'm ready now.

And with that courage of that realization that wow, actually I do have I have all the skills that I need.

I've I've created experiences already.

I've been hosting dinner parties for the last decade.

I know a thing or two about business.

I'm ready to do this.

And so that day I remember just after we got off the phone and I worked up the courage.

I went and I just did some research.

I found an epic villa in the coast of Puerto Vallarta on the south south side of the town.

And I pushed reserve on the on the checkout link.

Yes.

And then boom, you know, dropped all that money.

I'm like, I'm committed.

This is happening.

And so I had this vision, you know, I built the website already.

And here we are now, flash forward three months later, and I'm completely sold out.

So I had the retreats in two or three weeks, completely sold out for this first event.

And the caliber of people, I so I'm doing this for entrepreneurs who are playing on that frontier of life.

Fellow pioneers, right?

They're they're out there exploring, they're they're trying to adventure, figure out how they can leverage their skill set, make some new connections.

And so they're all coming together.

Somehow they all had enough faith in what I'm doing to say, all right, I believe this is going to be a great experience.

I'm going to connect with like-minded peers.

Sure, I'll have a little bit of vacation and you know, and and and kind of go do some snorkeling, go do some ATV rides in the jungle.

But the real thing is about that connection.

Because so many times we get stuck in uh in our own lane, we we don't have that perspective.

And it's so important to get a community together of people who are also playing at the frontier of what's possible.

And that instead of feeling like a solo journey where everything is up to you, all the struggles of your business are relying on your shoulders.

Now, you know, by being in a community, you're able to feel like a member of a fleet instead of being out there alone.

And so you're able to leverage the insights of other people.

And so that's kind of what I've created.

And and you know, here we are.

The big possible ultimately is just a a place of asking other cool entrepreneurs their story on the show, just kind of like you're doing.

And then the retreats.

So we have an exotic destination every two months.

Right now, at the time of recording, we'll have Mexico happen.

Then there's going to be Morocco coming up, Agadir Morocco later in May.

And really, it's just about how do we, how do we just how do we just connect with other cool people that are doing cool things and stay motivated to push ourselves to that next level and really achieve the biggest thing possible that's out there for us.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it.

I love it.

And what I love about this idea is because the worst thing that can happen for somebody who has an entrepreneurial mindset who knows that they're they're supposed to be some doing something bigger, something more monumental with their life.

The worst thing that can possibly happen is for that person to be surrounded by people who don't share that same type of mindset.

Because it can totally be a suck on you.

It just drains it out of you.

And so that's what I totally love about what you're talking about is we're combining what we talked about earlier in the conversation, this idea of having amazing experiences while at the same time forming relationships, while at the same time helping us on our own individual journey of figuring out what we're doing, making our dreams come to life, because we're going to be at this one house along with these other people, just harnessing ideas and in just, I can only imagine just like the epic mastermind type retreat, you know, this

could be for somebody.

SPEAKER_01: And absolutely.

And I think I think the most important lesson or the takeaway here is that this is happening as I'm walking into 40.

This is this is not something that, you know, I knew right when I got out of college that I was going to do.

This is a culmination of all the failures, all the adventuring, all the experimentation that happened along the way.

And finally, after all of that experimentation and adventuring and exploring, uh not only am I finally discovering the courage to actually take this risk, because it's a big risk.

I'm I'm putting a lot on the line for this, you know, and I'm definitely going to lose money on the first one.

Second one, I'll probably break even.

And then by the third one, you know, there should be some profit.

But it's about, it's about that, again, like finding the courage and formulating a plan through all the experience.

Like, you have to fail a few times.

You have to dabble in a little bit to know like really what you're capable of.

Because that's how, that's how we build frameworks in which to prevent failure from happening in the future is by experience.

And sometimes that experience we have to learn the hard way through the school of Knox.

Other times we're able to leverage the experience of other people.

And that's, I think, the magic that really happens.

You can kind of shortcut the experimentation phase by hanging out with people who have already done the experimenting.

That's really the biggest part of why I wanted to create this mastermind is that by leveraging all of those, that knowledge, but also the network of other people who are playing the game at the same level as you or even a little bit higher, you're able to shortcut that incubation phase.

And so now you're able to tap into the ability to play the game at the biggest level that you can.

You know, because if if sometimes if you're trying to scale your business really fast and you're just trying to do it in a silo all alone, it might take you two or three years to actually get to a point where you're, you know, you're you're hanging out with the people that you need to hang out with.

You're you've hired the people that you need to hire.

Whereas if you're at a situation like this where you're in a club with other people who are, who are of a like-minded place, they they have connections, they have experience, they have knowledge.

They might be able to give you what it is necessary to shortcut that from three, four years of failing experimenting, maybe to six months.

You know, maybe they're gonna be able to introduce you to somebody who can get you whatever funding you need or get you a big client that you need.

And those kind of breakthroughs only happen when we ask for help or we put put ourselves in situations where the people that are gonna show up that can help you are there in front of you.

If you try to do it in a silo, you're you're left to your own devices.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

It kind of goes back, I'm thinking of a quote that we've all heard versions of it, you know, many times of we have to have the courage to lose sight of the shore in order to discover new horizons.

And that's kind of, I feel like this this common theme throughout our conversation today is truly just having the courage to let go, to lose sight of what has been safe, knowing that there's so much more out there.

There's more life for each and every one of us to live.

No matter what age we are, no matter what point we are in our life, there's always something more out there.

And I can only hope that, you know, somebody listening to our conversation today, that that's what they come away with.

Is that, you know what?

Maybe it's time that I quit playing it safe and I start chasing after those dreams that I've kind of kept on the back burner for way too long.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

The worst thing that's gonna happen is you're gonna get knocked around a little bit.

Yep.

The best thing that might happen is maybe you're gonna, maybe you're gonna really succeed.

Maybe it's really gonna work out.

Maybe you're gonna figure something out that you never knew before.

Maybe you're going to achieve massive wild success.

But if you don't take the risk, nothing's gonna change.

And I think that's the biggest risk of all.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

Absolutely.

Noah, man, such a joy, such a pleasure to have the opportunity to meet you.

And uh, you know, man, I just I want to thank you for taking the time out of your day while in the midst of a little piece of paradise with the little birds in the background.

And but uh, you know, just truly uh thank you for for coming on the podcast and and sharing your story and and insights on life.

It uh it means so much to me.

Kevin, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01: I I I really appreciate the opportunity and just absolutely just love everything you're doing.

SPEAKER_00: Awesome, awesome.

Well, Noah, thank you.

And for you listening, I want to thank you tremendously.

This podcast is is for you.

It's made possible because of you.

And well, I can only hope that today's conversation with Noah Scott has has left you with something, something that's that's got a little bit of you kind of sparked, a little little fire lit inside that you know what?

Maybe it's time for me to chase after that dream that I've not been doing in a long time.

Because I don't care if you're 20 years old or you're 85 years old, there's more life to be lived.

So get out and live it.

And that's the lowdown with Heaven Low.

I hope today's episode inspired you, motivated you, and excited you to get out and enjoy life, no matter what obstacles may be standing in the way.