How to Travel the World and Live a Life of Complete Freedom (On Your Own Terms) with Natalie Sisson

Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Brad Hart and we're here to interview the game changers, the future makers, the co collaborators and creators who are here to collaborate with one another towards a better future for all of us. Enjoy the show. We've got a great guest coming up for you right now. Welcome to Make More Marbles. My name is Bret Hart and I'm here today with Natalie Sisson who is the suitcase entrepreneur. And I'm super stoked to have Natalie on the show. Hi, Natalie.

Hi. That was very energetic. I loved it.

Well, you know, we got to make the people get, you know, excited like I am because you know what, we've kind of had a similar journey, you and I mean, I haven't gotten quite as crazy as you. You've gotten to 70 plus countries and been all over the world. I think I've done about 23 myself in 43 states. So I've been all over the US too, lived in a lot of places. But you have really just gone pedal to the metal on the whole travel thing. I guess my first question is, how the heck are you?

I'm fantastic. I'm actually really fantastic because I've had like a 180 degree flip since we probably even spoke or caught up and that's really exciting. So as you pointed out, I'm now in the shire. I'm not really, but I do feel like I'm in middle Earth New Zealand and it's pretty beautiful. And I'm just really loving the new shift in life and the new sort of found freedom because as you know, freedom's always been my number one value. When I was traveling. It was just ultimate freedom to be wherever I wanted, whenever I wanted and travel the world and run my business. And now it's like just the freedom to be in this beautiful place and surrounded by nature and a different, just a different type of lifestyle. So it's exciting, it's energizing and it's different.

Yeah, I kind of feel the same way about San Diego. I kept going all over the world. I go to Portugal, Spain, France, New Zealand, Australia, and I keep getting called back here and I really needed to make it painful enough to stay here and just dial in. And now life has been opening up in ways I couldn't even imagine. It's like you're exploring outer space versus inner space. Do you have that similar kind of.

Yeah, that's a really beautiful way of putting it, actually, I think. And you couldn't be in a better place in San Diego. Let's face it. I remember when I was there and I lived there for about a month and I was like, this place is just too easy to like. Like, I think I'd be comfortable there. And it's just so easy because the weather's like, you wake up every day and you're like, ah, blue sky, sunshine, boring. Not that, you know, is there any time problems here?

Like, we need massive obstacles to overcome, just different elements.

But no, it's a beautiful spot. So beautiful.

Oh, unbelievable. Yeah. I'm looking out at the ocean right now. We got a beautiful 180 degree panoramic view. I'm so blessed and coming from where I came from, you know, it's Long island, but it's Long Island. You know, it's like, it's a little different here. I really appreciate it, having lived in the city and all over the place. I mean, I like to. I have a saying. I've been to where bed is and this isn't it.

I like that. That's a good one.

Natalie, let's tick off your first. You know, it's hard to pick a place, I'm sure, but like, what are your top few places that you've been or lived that you'd really like, really consider moving? If you are in Wellington, you're near Wellington, not in Wellington.

Yeah. I have always loved Portugal and so I've been there for ultimate beach, ultimate Frisbee tournaments for the last couple of years and kind of fell in love with the people. The pastel de nata, which is like this really great pastry, which if you eat too many of them, you certainly notice it. And just the way they kind of live life, it's not dissimilar to New Zealanders. I feel like they're a little bit like the European New Zealand, you know, that big brother to Spain and we're big brother to Australia. And they always have that rivalry. They have beautiful coastal lines, great surfing, great wine, great food, beautiful people. Really honest and friendly, but not arrogant. And it just sort of has a special place in my heart. And so last year when I was there, I ended up buying a house, as you do, because I was trying this, you know, I need a base. I want a base. And so I have a base there now, really close to the surf beaches in this cute little town. And so that is definitely a place that I intend to spend more time time and go back to etf.

I love it. And so people kind of have some grounding about your business and what you did to get here. Like what are the pieces that have allowed you to say, hey, I want to travel and live my life according to my own terms and freedom's my highest value. And now I have a house in Portugal, I have a house in New Zealand and probably some other places as well. Like, what are the key pieces that people need in order to set up a freedom lifestyle, if that's what they value?

I honestly think, Brad, that it comes down to having a really clear vision of what your ideal lifestyle looks like to you. So, like you a couple of years back, it was traveling the world all the time. Like just that freedom to just be in a new place at any time, meet new people, go there for different events, explore a country you've never been, to experience a new culture. And so I was really clear on that, that for me, I wanted my business to travel with me, to not weigh me down, to be portable, to show other people how to do the same. And now it's just, I think after six and a half years of full time travel, it's like now I just really value a base, base that's surrounded by nature, which just makes me feel like happy every day. Lots of space, lots of greenery, lots of blue sky, lots of peace and quiet and just right on the doorstep to adventure. And also for me, having a puppy, which is pretty crazy because all those years of traveling, all I wanted was a puppy. And now I do.

Where is your puppy?

Well, normally she might make an appearance. She knows how to open every door now, so she might just bowl on in here with her big, white, fluffy German shepherdness and get in the way.

I can't wait. We have unbelievably beautiful dog named Hercules. This big Saint Bernard that just comes in, ones with the giant paws that just like, I'm here now. You never know they're there, but they're always there. They're beautiful. So I've been to Wellington. I went there last year about this time and I went to a place called Monsoon Poon. Are you familiar with it?

Yeah, I am. I haven't been there like eight years. I tried to go the other day and their wait time was like 40 minutes. So I was like, see you later.

Solid. It's good food. They have really good Thai and Vietnamese type food there. And I really enjoyed it and I love saying the name, so I was gonna say it.

Monsoon Poon. Monsoon Poon, yeah. Right in the heart of the city.

If people are coming to New Zealand, especially the north island where you are, what are some of the things that they can't miss. Besides the Shire, obviously, that's the easy one.

Do you know what's pretty crazy is about a 10 minute drive from our house is where they filmed a part of the Lord of the Rings where there was the. Sorry, I'm gonna completely screw this up now. But it was basically the elven area that is just along here where they did all the horse rides and everything. So I think there's little SN of Middle Earth and Lord of the Rings movies throughout north island that you can definitely see. But for me, Bay of Islands is gorgeous. It's up north and it's just where all the yachties are. It's just a beautiful part of New Zealand. Gorgeous Pahutakawa trees. So imagine like red flowers, green trees, white sandy beaches, beautiful blue waters. It's just very, very relaxing. I think also Tauranga is a great surfing spot and just anywhere around that coastal area is perfect. And then you're coming down into sort of the Bay of Plenty is a gorgeous area. There's also lots of wineries. So you just get so many good places. Where can I ask? Taupo is really great. Beautiful trout fishing, really amazing cycle race that happens there every year. And Rotorua if you want. Quite a lot of New Zealand culture. Really, really strong Mori population live there. They have all the hot pools and the thermal areas and some really cool things that you can go and see the hot pools and the mud bubbling and it smells like, you know, bad rotten eggs the whole time. And it's just. Just because of the sulfur and it's just really unique. It's amazing.

Yeah, I did. We did Wellington. We popped up to Marlboro for a night and then we went the Shire Napier up to Auckland and we kind of did that whole thing. We just drove everywhere in between. It was super fun trip. Yeah, I would definitely go back. I love New Zealand. It was awesome. We just missed that giant earthquake they had on the South Island. Oh, yeah, it was pretty gnarly. But yeah. So all right. Being from New Zealand, traveling the world, Aussies and Kiwis especially, really get that sense of travel and adventure and wanderlust. You never see them not traveling. You think that's more of a cultural thing? Do you think that's individual choice? Are there people that don't travel that are from these places? Like, I really like to get a sense of like, is it born or is it learned?

It's a good point. I think there are definitely New Zealanders and Australians who don't leave the country. They just love it here or they're a little bit more colonial and local. But I think it's because we're on top of the world and everybody's so far away from us because we're so awesome. So we have to kind of go and explore them. That's the way I like to view it. Everybody's like, new Zealand's such a long way. I was like, we're on top of the world. Everything happens first here. Like, we're coming to you from the future. Right now. It's already, you know, whatever day, but I think just a general sense of, you know, so many New Zealanders are from other countries or their parents are. And so I think a lot of people want to kind of go and explore where their culture and their heritage is from. You know, lot came from United Kingdom, so there's a lot of people from there. And I just think that's potentially why also, it's just sort of a thing to do after school is to go and actually go and explore the world, mainly uk, Europe, and then going around from there. And I think because we have a beautiful, beautiful country ourselves, sometimes I think you just have to go out of it to really make sure that it is the most beautiful country in the world. And so when you go away, you appreciate and come back and go, okay, yeah, I'm in the right place.

I think you guys will be on the forefront of the Modesty awards this year. I sort of got. We come from the future. Awesome and amazing. Everybody wants to be near us and we have to go to other places in the world just to double check, like, are we still the best? Okay, just check and I'll go back now.

I know probably sound a bit pompous, but, you know, I was just in the US and I really enjoy visiting and I have so many good friends. But New Zealand is such a safe haven right now. Like, there's more and more Americans buying up land and property here because they kind of planning their escape route. And it does just feel like, you know, it's paradise on earth. There's definitely things that aren't right in this country, but on the whole, it's. I probably wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now.

And what's the business climate like? So I have a friend named Sean Simpson who runs the Kiwi launchpad. So it's like bringing Kiwi companies to the us Specifically Silicon Valley, so they can launch in that marketplace and navigate that whole thing. And she's awesome, by the way. I'd love to connect you with her because I think you two have a lot to talk about. But additionally, like, what do you see as being the climate there? What are the differences from the US or other places you've been that make it so attractive for people that are coming there?

Well, this is not me just talking it up right now. There's numerous studies almost every single year for the last four years, New Zealand's won or been in the top three for starting a new business, for ease of starting a new business. So we do make it really easy here to set up a company, you know, get your taxes in order and do business. I think there's just less paperwork, less bureaucracy. We're very flexible, very innovative and really welcoming of new businesses. And just case in point, a couple of my friends here are the founders and pioneers of the first ever global impact visa, which they've awarded to people coming over from overseas can get instant residency in New Zealand if they apply to get this visa through the Edmund Hillary Fellowship. So it's just cool things like that that we're constantly innovating and being open to. How can we get great talent over here? How can people start businesses that we really want that sort of fill a gap in our market? Banks are really, I think pretty, pretty flexible. You don't have to prove earth to them that you can actually get set up here. And then there's just lots of hubs, accelerators, co working spaces and I guess programs here that are popping up to really help entrepreneurs flourish. So those are some of the great reasons I think from that perspective. Plus our tax rates aren't too bad. And just yet ease of setting up a business and doing business here, plus a lot of people love it because it's almost like an incubator space, you know, like if you. New Zealand doesn't have obviously a huge population, so if you can make something work here and test it, you're not going to be. It's like a good little place to do that without bombing or, you know, making any silly moves. And if it does start to fly here, then, you know, you can expand and scale big time overseas.

Well, I learned that there's 2 million people in Australia, in New Zealand, and there's 6 million sheep. So there's one thing, there are four.

And a half million people in New Zealand. Look at that. Double overnight. And they used to be 60 million sheep, now there's like 15 million. So, you know, so the sheep to.

People ratios, slowly they're closing the gap.

Got it.

And then I heard at some point maybe like we should have a myth busting of what Americans think about New Zealand for a second. I heard they were giving away land at one point in order to get people to move there. Was that a thing?

I don't know about that. We're pretty. Pretty precious about our land now. But I think it was easier for sure. Easier to get here. I don't know at which point they did that. I know they've been doing that a little bit in Spain and things in these little villages where they want people to come in and take.

You're willing to invest half a million dollars, they'll give you sp. Residency, not citizenship. That was distinction.

Yeah. Yeah.

Italy too, in Sicily, they were starting to give away castles. Like, if you're willing to go and deal with this giant liability and the things falling apart, you can go and live there.

Yeah. And what. They look so attractive on the outside, but what they don't tell you is it all the taxes, all the municipal things that you have to go through the town consent, the maintenance.

Try fixing a castle one day.

Exactly. Yeah.

Expensive it is to get castle maintenance done.

It does sound pretty cool. I live in the castle on the hill, you know, that's my moat. You have to come through my moat.

Oh, that. That guy? Yeah, he's just the mafia. We just deal with him here. He could take some. You can go like the irs. You can try not paying him, but it will work out for you. So, Natalie, where. Where do you still want to check off on the bucket list? Like what's next for you or what's the next piece want to really get to? Like, I know you're enjoying your being inner space thing and you got your dog and you got your land and all of your things and chickens. Chickens on top of it.

Yeah. Five chickens and one resident rooster who we didn't ask for, but he seems to be pretty cool. I just have to tell you a really funny incident yesterday, by the way. Have you ever seen a white wolf? That's what we call Kayla, our German shepherd. A white wolf chasing a white rooster. And his fat tail feathers like this far away from her mouth. And it just went by because we have a barn here and we've turned it into a co working barn. And all I could see was this like this thing just going past at pace and I just laughed my head off. Like the rooster was just flying just in front. She almost had him. Not good. I digress. So a couple of the countries that I'd love to go to still, I always had Japan, China and India on my list is the big three. And I spent seven weeks in Japan a couple of years ago. And India and China. I've been to Hong Kong, but that's not China. So those are two that are still very much on my list. And I quite like to do like the Great Wall of China marathon or something kind of auspicious to mark the occasion there. I have a few friends there now as well that I'd love to visit. And then India is. I still feel that's like one of those things that you're going to go and you're going to do the all too common, you know, meditation retreat or the silence retreat or learn about yoga. And I just kind of feel I want a little bit more time if I'm going to go there. And I also want to do some volunteering there. Look at the right to freedom aspects of that. So I think those trips I've put off because I feel they've got different pronged approaches for me, like they're a business and a personal sort of aspect to them.

Are you a runner as well? Is this something that you like to do?

I'm not actually. I freaking hate running. I don't know why I said want to do a marathon, but I feel like going up and down a wall sounds like not a lot of fun, but a great challenge.

The reason I asked is because I actually did the Melbourne marathon. That's the reason we went over there in the beginning. We went to Melbourne, went to Sydney, we kind of bounced around a little bit down there and then we popped over to New Zealand, of course, because, hey, you're right there. Three hour flight. So that was the reason. And then, yes, yes, China, China. Hong Kong is China, if you ask Hong Kong. Hong Kong is Hong Kong. And it's a much better and different feel for me at least. I didn't like China very much. Not because China's bad. It's because I don't like any place where you don't want to drink the water and you don't want to breathe the air and you don't want to eat the food and they don't really value freedom that you seem to like so much. It's like you want your coffee a different way. No, I did learn how to negotiate like a Chinese person.

Just no. Oh, really? Good to know. Yeah. I think it would just open my eyes to what freedom isn't and just kind of look at what they do have there. On that note, though, I do love chasing. I love running after things like tennis balls. Or Frisbees. So ultimate Frisbee is my thing, and that involves a ton of running. But it doesn't seem as bad because you're running after something or somebody.

Got it. And the rooster can always. The white rooster go after. And what's your dog's name?

Kayla.

You and Kayla can go after that sucker. You know, trip her at the last second so she didn't actually catch them. It's like a dog chasing cars. What would they do with it if they actually caught it?

That's true. That's a very, very true point.

Okay, somebody who's listening to this podcast, Natalie, I'm sure their question is, well, how do. That's all great, Natalie, but how do I set something like this up? I want to create this life for myself. What have you found to be the best marketing channels, the best sales channels to get enough clients to make sure that you actually can pay the bills and scale your company, even if you're traveling the world?

Yeah, I mean, it obviously totally depends on your business, but I built my whole business on social media, for which I'm really thankful, and that's also where my audience was. So the best marketing channels, as you know, are typically where your audience are hanging out. And it's pretty much probably going to be Facebook, given that it's, what, 1.4 billion people on there now. So it's fairly likely that your ideal customer is there, but then you know, different. Different places for different businesses. So LinkedIn is great for professionals, consultants, coaches, software, engineering, you know, like anything related to super business professional services. And then you might find that things like Instagram is great if you are marketing yourself as a brand or you're an author, once again, a coach, sort of an influencer type any of those social media sites where you can get your message out, YouTube, etc. But ultimately, at the end of the day, it's like you need a whole digital marketing strategy behind it. It can't just be one thing. It's really got to be where the audience is, as you know, and hitting them up with multiple different forms of content. That's why I love podcasting, because it's fantastic. But, you know, with the video podcast, you can then strip out just the audios, then you've got an audio, and then you can transcribe that into a blog post, you can transcribe it into a book, you could create little PDF workbooks. You can just create so much content in so many different ways so that it does hit people on the mediums that they Listen to most or watch. And that's one thing. It's not a scattered approach. It's like, how can you take something that you're doing that's going to provide massive value and split it out into 5, 6, 7 different formats and then use that as a great lead generation, lead content so that you can then in turn turn that into hopefully, sales for your products or services.

And are you selling your products and services via webinars mostly, or how do you typically do that?

Well, yeah, it's a great question. So I actually typically do it through podcast calls to action, followed up with blog posts that are specific to the thing that I'm going to be releasing or launching. So with calls to action within that, sometimes a free workshop and then talking about the actual product or service. A workshop as in a webinar. And I really love Facebook Live right now. I'm actually trying to get into doing that regularly, every single week and having a really strong, clear call to action or reason for doing that. So for me it's just about consistency. That and obviously email with your community as you start to grow it and build it. I really have loved in the past blog challenges. I think they're fantastic for being able to provide a lot of great content, expose you to a lot of different people, grow your email list, and then have a really good reason as to, you know, what was the content of that blog challenge or whatever challenge it is. And then how can you sort of make sure people take action and follow up and once again work with you in whatever way it is that you have within your business?

I love that. What do you think are two or three things you wish everybody was reading or consuming or just paying attention to that wants that similar lifestyle that you wish they would know?

I was almost gonna say I'd love it if they weren't reading or consuming or listening to as many things. But I do think we've got a mass consumption problem right now and we're super scattered because of it because we're. All we're doing is filling our inboxes and our minds and our social media feeds the things that we think we should be reading and we're not actually taking action. So I do love.

What's that bias for action, I like to call it.

Yeah, absolutely. So I do think, you know, there's a couple of fantastic books, but once again, it totally depends. I'm really. I always love the classics like Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich. Whenever I need a mindset, shift up or switch, I have a number of books up on my bookshelf right now, like Bold, which I'm wanting to read. And Peter's book changed my Life.

Back in 2011, I read Abundance on a road trip from San Francisco to New York, and it changed everything about the way I view the world. It's incredible. I still follow us if you guys check out Abundance Insider, Peter Diamandis. That's worth signing up for, for sure.

And I'm also reading just I get a ton of books sent to me by friends who are also authors. And so I really make time to read through those. A lot of them are entrepreneurial, like entrepreneurial View, which is a really good one. I'm reading Women Rocking Business right Now by Sage Savine. And just I think it's whatever sort of comes across my path that I'm really, really interested in at the time or when I need a refresher. And then I love reading, as you said, like futurists or just people who aren't in my niche at all, just to get a completely different outside perspective. So what I think people should spend their time consuming is doing some of these fantastic courses online, like through edX, where you've got things like Harvard and Berkeley University and other universities around the world who are giving out free or very affordable courses like the Science of Happiness, where just delve into learning some new things that can actually shine more of a light on the business that you're doing, but in a different perspective. So I'm less about huge consumption, but more about diverse consumption of things that will expand my mind.

Well, mindful consumption, like you pointed out, mit, Harvard, they put all their best stuff online now. You don't have to go to Harvard to go to Harvard.

You can do.

And guess what? If you actually reach out to the professors, they'll probably answer your questions. You know, it always blows my mind when I reach out to people and they're like, yeah, sure, we'll do that. It's because you asked. You have a device pocket that didn't exist 10 years ago. It's basically a supercomputer that connects you to everything. You have magical superpowers. It's not gonna always be, eventually it's gonna get so now noisy and so loud. But you have an opportunity right now to reach out to whoever you've ever wanted to reach out to. You just have to care enough to do it.

And in five years, that'll probably be like a little microchip in our arm, and we'll just be like, Brad, Brad, you here? Over. See this Thing.

Natalie, I'm here. I'll teleport to you now. Exactly. Can't wait. The future is cool. I gotta say. Like, what are you most excited about? Because you're reading Bold, right? And that's a great book. Have you checked it out yet?

I'm gonna say I haven't.

Okay, got it. So Bold is all about how to, like, create abundance through solving problems and, you know, solve a problem that affects a billion people. You make a billion dollars. The math checks out. And Peter talks about the ways you actually do that. He talks about crowdfunding. He talks about the line of super credibility, how to get an idea above that line of, like, okay, that's a real thing, and all those pieces. And, you know, I think it's so fascinating because we get to really, like, let's say, you know, somebody such as yourself who's already kind of mastered the basics of business, right? And they really understand how to create a business that fuels their lifestyle. What if you wake up tomorrow, you say, I want to solve a grand challenge, right? And that affects a billion people. It's really the playbook for those people who have that stability in their lives now, are looking for something that's more fulfilling, perhaps, or just different than what they've always done. So I think it's a huge read. It doesn't mean that they have to have it all figured out yet or have to wait to start, certainly, but it's just. It's such a great toolkit. It just is, you know, and they're going to continue to add to it over time. So I recommend that book highly.

I've got to go, Greg, because I've got to go and read that book, it seems. No, I'm just kidding. What am I excited about in the future? I'm actually really excited about AI I'm a bit scared about it as well, but I'm excited about it. If it gets into the right hands. I think it has the potential to allow us to do a lot more amazing stuff while, you know, AI robots are doing some of the really cool stuff that faster and better than we ever could. I'm also excited about bots once again, if they're used in the right way, I think for engagement and just being able to sort of start to learn the patterns of how we're thinking and how we can help people automatically. So there's a couple of things. And then I, you know, I started crowdfunding five, six years ago for my book, and it's come such a long way since then. And I thought it might have its time and be on the out on the out way. But instead, like, I just invested in the company in Ireland through Crowdcube, which is really cool because I think it's changing the way in which people invest. So everyday people who, even if they only have a little bit of money, can invest in big companies and get equity in those, as opposed to just leaving it for the angel networks and that traditional archaic model of investment. So what I feel that means is that people can take these big ideas out on a world stage and have, you know, thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of everyday people supporting it and contributing to it. And I think that's. That's where crowdfunding has huge power.

I don't think I've heard of Crowdcube. Can you give us a little bit of an understanding?

Yeah, fundraising.

Fundraising, like in the sense of fundraising.

For companies trying to raise it round. So rather than going to a private angel investor network or venture capitalists, you can put up very much like. Well, very much like Kickstarter, except you're not buying, hey, I'm going to get an end product. You're actually buying shares and equity in a company by credit card. It's crazy. So I just think it's opening up the ability to be able to invest in companies. Facebook could have used it if it was around years ago as well.

Yeah, they're very tight. So it's really interesting that they're allowing that in different jurisdictions and you have somebody from New Zealand investing in somebody in Ireland across jurisdictional borders. I don't know how they figured that piece out, but if it's working.

Working it is. And, you know, there was a huge amount of documentation that came with it you had to oversee, but it's all been set up and it seems to be going pretty well. So I love the idea of it. I think it's fantastic. It's just putting more power into people's hands and letting, as I said, everyday people have a piece of security. Successful companies, hopefully.

And then what would be a secondary market for those shares? If you wanted to go sell them at some point in the future, I.

Think you can sell them back via the company. I'm not sure I haven't fully looked at all the wonderful bits of paperwork, but very much like any other company, if you have the right to exercise your options, you can sell them or, you know, they'd buy them back from you at a discounted price or whatever it may be. There were a bunch of things in the long bits of paperwork that I haven't looked at because I was jet lagged, but it all seemed pretty kosher on the front end.

No, that's pretty cool. And that's a problem that in the US we've been trying to solve between accredited and non accredited. My background is in investing and hedge funds and it's a nightmare. It's a rigmarole, you know, and I just remember it being so much easier to raise money from Switzerland and other places like that where it's just like, hey, we want to give you money. Okay. That's all it had to be, you know, sign paper.

Well, you know, way more about it then, but you should definitely check it out. I think it's really cool.

Absolutely. Okay, Natalie, so if you were giving yourself some advice and you're not Natalie Sisson of today, but you're Natalie Sisson of 10 years ago, what would you tell Natalie back then? Like what would you know, what would be the advice that you give to your former self and thereby hopefully giving some shining some light on some of the people that are just getting started in their journeys as well.

Wow. So 10 years ago I was literally starting out as an entrepreneur and co founding a technology company. And I think my advice to myself then and would still be the same now. It's just, you just got to back yourself and you've just got to have full confidence in your abilities to make things happen rather than sitting around waiting for all the conditions to be perfect, rather than going, I'll just wait until this or something will come along or waiting for permission. I really just wish that I backed myself sooner and had faith out of faith in what I was doing even if I wasn't necessarily on the right path at that time. Because at the end of the day, nobody else is going to help you to succeed than you initially and nobody else is going to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. And with your own personal self belief, you can seriously move mountains.

I love it. Natalie, and what are the next pieces for your journey going forward? What do you see yourself looking at in the next one to three to five years?

I'm really excited that you asked that question because my basically my life just kind of changed in the last couple of weeks as well. I don't know if you saw, but I made a big announcement to say that I'm transitioning from the suitcase entrepreneur which I've run and loved for seven years and has given me amazing opportunities and tons of freedom and success and transitioning into just being me. So Brand Natalie Sisson and really, really following on with the Quest for Freedom podcast blog. And so I huge, huge ambition now to help bring personal freedom to everybody on a daily basis. So that is my new mission. I guess it's not related necessarily to business, although that's part of it. I don't want to be teaching people necessarily how to build online businesses anymore. I want to teach people how to have just more personal daily freedom. So when you were touching on over consumption before, that's dead in my heart. So I'm talking about rituals, habits, routines that give you just a little bit more freedom back in your day. Because I am seriously worried about the amount of overwhelmed stress, anxiety, diabetes, people who are just working 70 hour weeks and, and just not even enjoying their life anymore. I think it's become a bit of an epidemic and I think it's going to need to stop. And so I want to be one of those people to help people to start realizing that it's all within our control. We just have to start adding more discipline, routine and structure into our lives to actually have that freedom, joy and happiness.

Can you give us a little bit of like one or two little tidbits that you're going to be sharing on this new venture of yours?

So over on the podcast Quest for Freedom, so far I've been looking at, for example mindset freedom is coming up right now in season four. I'm looking at lifestyle freedom. So that is actually about structuring your day, working a different working week, just like going outside the traditional norms to really focus on what you want and how you can design your perfect life around your career or your career around your life. And also I've looked at things related to just like mindfulness meditation, yoga, etc. But it's going to go even beyond that. I think it's just going to be a lot of it is going to be around mindset and valuing your mission in life and really getting really clear on your perfect picture of how it should look. And then it's going to be around just these little hacks that really help you in terms of habits, routines, tips to kind of keep you on track and keep you focused. Because as you know, if you want to build a perfect lifestyle or your ideal lifestyle, it's going to take a and work. But just how can we start relinquishing some of that work ethic right now to actually focus on this little moments of joy and happiness and freedom? I think a lot of the work is going to cross over into research around Happiness. And one thing I'm excited to build is the first ever world global study on freedom. And from that, a freedom framework that people can kind of look at, position themselves and not lock themselves into, but look at where they are on the scale of freedom and how they can move to the, the next level. So there's a whole lot of work going on behind the scenes and I'm really excited to hopefully be able to share that bit by a bit as well. So I'll be releasing some of that data and some of that research and some of the findings and then building cool tools to help people use it better.

It's almost like a freedom spectrum, if you will, like the freedom framework. And there's another guy who's from, I believe his mother's Chinese and he's from Australia named Roger James Hamilton. I see it almost looking like that. Wealth Lighthouse is his metaphor.

Yeah, I actually spoke. Oh, wonderful. Really nice. And I love wealth dynamics.

And I love wealth dynamics. Which one are you?

I guess, are you a star? Yes.

How did I know? It's because I geek out on this.

Yeah. What are you?

I'm a supporter.

So we're like, there you go, I.

Just gotta let you shine. And that's. And I'm good, I'll just support you anyway.

I think I shine the light on others. So this is a good thing. Yeah, I love his work and that's kind of the path that I've gone down. Myers Briggs, how to fascinate wealth dynamics.

I know Sally. Yeah, yeah, I love Sally Hox.

Just all those areas. I think it's really neat. People love, most people love doing those profile type tests. But I think for me this is going to be a deeper one. This is going to be about intrinsic freedom and you know, there's internal freedom and then there's external freedom and this is the one that you can control. So.

Okay, well then how can we support you as marble makers? We're all about collaboration and connecting. Resources, opportunities, people, systems, crops. It's my little acronym to move your mission forward faster. So what is the. What are the things that you could really use, Natalie, for us to bring to you since you've been so generous and kind to us, sharing your time and expertise.

Thank you. I would love it personally if people went to writetofreedom.com which is R I G H T and then the digit 2. So I think everybody has the right to freedom. There's a really short, simple survey on there and I've had about six or seven hundred people fill that in so far. And what we're trying to do is gather the data from that and ask very simple questions like, what's your definition of freedom? And I'm trying to get an aspect on where people are in the world, where they were brought up versus where they are now versus how free they feel. And from that, that's how we're developing the framework. So it'd be fantastic if people felt like filling that in or sharing it with people around the world in different countries. We've had about 100 countries represented. But I want more, and I don't want it to be biased in a particular way. And then obviously, listening into the Quest for Freedom podcast would be amazing, obviously, as well as your podcast. But it's a great way to keep on top of it, where we'll be sharing some of the research and some of the insights, along with tips and tools and just really interesting stories that will hopefully resonate with people.

Yes, absolutely. And, Natalie, where can people find you now on this new venture? I know they can find you at suitcase. Sorry, yeah, suitcaseentrepreneur.com Correct.

Yeah, they can definitely still find me there. I'm not going anywhere. But surprisingly, nataliesisson.com and I'm Natalie Sisson on Twitter and Instagram and Facebook and pretty much just me. So that would be fantastic. But nataliesisson.com would be great.

And we're going to make sure that we share you and shout you from the rooftops and tell everybody how great New Zealand is.

It is.

It's the best in the world. It's really a ridiculously awesome country. Can we just get a little video shot for the people watching the video outside? Yeah, like, just to see that she actually lives in the shire. It's pretty rad.

Well, this is just one part of, like, even our washing out there, but it's pretty gorgeous.

Oh, my God. So beautiful.

Lots of green grass, lots of trees, lots of hills and mountains in the background. Yeah.

Thank you so much, Natalie, for taking the time today. It's been an absolute pleasure on behalf of everybody at Make More Money Marbles. We love you, appreciate you, and we thank you. Thanks so much for listening to the Make More Marbles podcast. For more tips, hacks and strategies to create an amazing, abundant life in your health, wealth and relationships, whatever that means to you. Head on over to makemoremarbles.com, check out our cool explainer video about what we're about, and join our community of entrepreneurial game changers. We want to help you level up your life in every possible way. And don't forget to subscribe to us on itunes, Stitcher or Google Play wherever you listen to your podcast. And please do leave a review. Thank you so much and we'll see you on the next podcast.