From $10/hr to Digital Nomad: My Entrepreneurial Journey! #shorts

25 Jul 2026 · 2 min

Watch on YouTube

1:52

In this YouTube short, Charles Cormier recounts his transformation from a low‑paid hustler working multiple $10‑an‑hour jobs to a digital nomad entrepreneur. He describes how a chance sales job led him to make hundreds of cold calls daily, earning a promotion to VP of Marketing despite many failures. Together with the CEO, they launched a marketing agency, Initial Medias, in 2017. While studying abroad as an exchange student in Hong Kong, Charles realized he could earn a living from his laptop across time zones, escaping his parents’ house and gaining financial independence. He later spent five years traveling with his wife—whom he met in Mexico—running remote agencies and enjoying the freedom of a location‑independent lifestyle.

Chapters

That was my first understanding that, oh, entrepreneurship can have me earn way more money than my $10 an hour that I was paid at my 2 or 3 jobs, right? Like I was already a hustler back then. And I landed this job for this very odd guy in sales. He was a lady, like company CEO, and he was like, go and do some cold calls for me. So I started doing 100, 200 phone calls a day for him. I failed a lot, but that taught me so much. And he was impressed with me because he made me his VP marketing, even though I failed at making calls. And then we launched an agency together, eventually a marketing agency called Initial Medias. I was like in 2017. And at the same time, I became an exchange student for my university. They sent me to Hong Kong, right? So I had my businesses. I had a couple of jobs. I was a student back then and Hong Kong was great because I needed to run away from my house, right? From my parents, bunch of teenagers Majors will understand the situation here. And Hong Kong was in a foreign country. I've had a culture shock with a random time zone that's not so friendly to AST. And I was making money from my computer on the other side of the world. So that was another big insight, right? The first insight was like, oh shit, entrepreneur can have me make more than my job. And then like Charles with a laptop can make money at the other side of the world while all the other students were studying and not making money. That was a big insight, right? And fundamental. Until he taught me that, oh, from a laptop I could make money, right? So could tell the rest of the story, but it's basically being me being a nomad for the rest, for the next 5 years with my wife that I met in Mexico, making very good money from my laptop, from my agencies, and just having a blast while doing it.