Living Limitless with Matt Bailey

Living a Life in Full is a conversation you always wanted to have with that person who gave an amazing TED Talk or the author of one of your favorite books, or that inspirational Olympian you always wanted to know more about. It's graduate level conversations with those making a difference in the world and in the lives of others. This show brings you new ideas and approaches so that you can live a life in full. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Stout and I hope you enjoy this episode. This episode of Living a Life in Full is brought to you by ATI Physical Therapy. If you need physical therapy, choose ati. ATI offers exceptional care, trusted expertise and remarkable outcomes customized to your needs. ATI has over 800 clinics coast to coast in 25 states. When want to start feeling better fast? ATI can help address chronic pain or recovery from an injury or surgery expertly, quickly and conveniently. ATI's first program uses a performance based methodology to safely return injured workers to their workplace. FIRST is designed to increase strength, endurance and cardiovascular functioning. ATI's sports medicine provides athletic training services to help athletes get back in the game. ATI has hundreds of professional collegiate, high school, middle school and club relationships nationwide. ATI also offers a variety of specialty services including home health, hand therapy and women's health. To Learn more about ATI's advances in evidence based practice, clinical outcomes and their innovative new smartphone app, please visit atipt. Welcome to another episode of Living a Life in Full. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Stout. I'm very excited to have our guest Matt Bailey on the show today. You may have heard of Matt before. He's a world traveling writer, photographer, travel consultant and marketer. He's founded and hosts Canada's road to 150, 150 day Canada wide multimedia road trip celebrating Canada's 150th birthday. He's also started Canadian Free Flyers, a membership site that teaches Canadians how to travel the world cost effectively. And he also runs Live Limitless. Matt studied management and international marketing at the University of Lethbridge where he met his wife. His studies took him to Southeast Asia and Denmark. But really, Matt has been all over the world, which we are going to discuss in detail. Matt, Nat, it's great to have you on the show.

Yeah, it's great to be here. Thanks for having me.

You bet. So you have lived and done a lot in a short time, my friend. Can you kind of discuss your origin story that for folks that aren't familiar with you or Live Limitless?

Yeah, for sure. So I think it all Started like I grew up in a pretty small, small mining community in northern Alberta. So kind of the. It's funny cause my wife's from Mexico and she says I kind of have that stereotypical Canadian kind of background. Where I grew up in a mining town. I had the northern lights. I had the really, really cold winters in those times. And then, I mean, I liked it. But once I hit kind of between 18 and 20, I kind of felt that yearning to see more and more, see what was out there. And I actually started off by just enrolling in university. Just gave me an excuse to leave, I guess. So I moved to a city called Calgary. It's only about 8, 800 kilometers south of where I was, but it was a much bigger city and it just kind of allowed me. I didn't know anyone there. I didn't have any friends yet. I felt like I had this opportunity to. To reinvent myself, I guess. And so I started trying all these new things. Once I got to the new city, I saw. Anytime I saw something that sparked my interest, I got into it. So I saw a poster one day advertising for trying out for the Olympic speed skating team. And I thought, that sounds fun. I mean, I've never speed skated before, but why not? I played hockey. I know how to skate. And. It was a cool experience anyway. And I kind of knew I probably wouldn't make it, but I just wanted to have the experience of trying out.

Good for you. Was it. Was it intimidating? Was it scary? Or did you just say, hey, this is a lark and I've got nothing to lose? Or.

It was intense.

Yeah.

It was kind of funny at that time. Like I was going to university and I had a roommate and he chose to have a party that night. So I couldn't even sleep. So I went to the. With very little sleep. And it was a whole. It was like four hours off ice and four hours on ice.

Oh, man. Well, imagine, Matt, I mean, if. If you hadn't had that party, who knows, man? It could have been Olympic gold.

That's.

Yeah, that's. That's right. Well, I just. It's funny you should say that because I just did an interview with a fellow John Coyle, who is a US Olympic speed skater. And, you know, just to kind of hear about the. What his training was like and his competition was like, you know, it's just. The training was grueling and the competition just sounded terrifying. You know, the speeds you guys get up to and stuff. And just, you know, on these, you know, like killer blade like literally killer blades, you know, and it was just like, you know, that's. That I tip my hat to you, man. That just seems very, very scary and intimidating. So, so I was just gonna say so you, you also. I've. In doing some background on you, I've also seen that you've talked about the desire to kind of go from ordinary to extraordinary and to try and develop a limitless mindset. Can you tell us about that desire and, and how it's fueled you?

Yeah, it was kind of. I think it all stemmed from like, it's similar to that experience with, with the bobsleigh. I just wanted to start trying to do as many cool things as I could. Anything that sparked my interest and one thing led to another. I started off, you know, like with the Olympic bobsleigh tryouts. But then I also, I had always thought, like, I wondered what acting would be like. So I found an acting agent at that same time and wow. Started started getting small roles like, like background, really extras. And then I went and tried it. I got a lead role in a comedy movie though it was just a student flick, but it was, it was an awesome experience.

Wow.

For a month and then, and then. It's funny though. Throughout university, I guess there was two things I must have kept saying to friends because I remember in the end they said, well, why don't you just go do it? You keep talking about it so much. So one of them was a 12 week fitness challenge that I had always wanted to do it. It was called the Body for Life. It's kind of a, it's still active now, but it was more popular back then. And then I had always wanted to go to Australia for some reason. I don't know if it's just because it was the opposite side of the world, attracted me in some way.

Wow.

So I started off with that 12 week fitness program and I completed it and I, I did really good. I. After college I was in about like 20, I don't think 24 body fat, something like that. So I was starting to get a bit overweight and I dropped myself down to about 10W in 12 weeks. And I think just by completing that it gave me such, such confidence to start doing more things. And then eventually I booked that, that trip to Australia and it was kind of there. Actually. I started off in New Zealand and I think the first day we arrived, my cousin joined me for the first three weeks and then I went solo for about four or five months and I signed us up for, for skydiving. That Same day we arrived and we signed up. We signed up for the next morning. So there was no way to cancel without losing money. And I mean, it was like terrifying. But having that not being able to. To get out of it in a way, yeah, really helped. And after doing that, it was kind of one of those things where, wow, I just survived skydiving. I never, I never ever imagined myself as a sky skydiver ever before. But then throughout that trip, I started, I ended up going bungee jumping, hang gliding. I learned how to scuba dive with. Actually even went scuba diving with sharks at night.

Wow.

In Australia. And I think every time I did one of those things that really brought me out of my comfort zone, it just gave me more and more confidence to try new things. And that's why, that's what kind of led to starting the blog Live Limitless. As I just thought it really. I don't think it matters if you wanted to be an entrepreneur or if you want a normal career. I don't think it matters. But just like being able to get out of your comfort zone and try new things, I think is a really good way to experience life.

That's great. How did you. Were you still in university when you went to Australia or were you graduated out by then?

I was, I believe when I went to Australia, I still had two semesters left.

Okay. Did you, did you travel hack Australia? Because I can't imagine that would be an inexpensive flight or trip or spending that much time at that time.

No, I didn't actually know what travel hacking was yet, but I had saved up enough for the flight and then actually got a work visa as well. Although I didn't use it as much as I should have. But I, I did everything kind of on. On the cheap for the most part. Sometimes I stayed in a town for a month and I'd work at the hostel like volunteering small hours just for. For rent, basically.

Brilliant.

And yeah, traveled around like that. I found Australia is one of those places a lot of people go and it's really popular for road trips. So you can often find people that are looking for someone to hop in their car with them and you just share. Share the expenses of gas and stuff like that.

That's great.

So it can be cheap. Yeah.

So you kind of. Did you kind of like go coast to coast or where all did you visit while you were there?

Pretty much. I almost did the full circle. I kind of regret not doing.

Wow.

I regret not doing the. The whole west coast because I tried. I flew over to Earth, and that's the west coast is the more isolated region. And I found someone there, some, some people from England that were making the road trip and they had bought this, this beater car and I jumped in with them and I think we only made it one night and it broke down.

Oh gosh.

And then I was just, I don't know, I, I was so kind. It was a slow season at that time of year and it was hard to find people, so I ended up. It's funny now to think of it this way, but they told me about a place called Bali, which at that time I had never heard of. I didn'. About Indonesia. But it was only about a two hour flight from Perth, so I booked that and ended up going there.

Nice.

But it's that trip that kind of sparked me to keep traveling.

I can imagine. So is this what, like what years was this?

I kind of want to, this is in 2009.

Okay. So there was some tech, but it's not as ubiquitous as it is today. And what not where you're. No.

And there was no. It's funny, I, I just, I remember starting a WordPress blog at that time.

Uhhuh.

And I don't think there was, there was Facebook yet. I, I, I think Facebook was around, but it was kind of, I think it was in those stages where it was just open to colleges.

Right, right.

University. So yeah. It's kind of interesting.

So were your folks worried about you or what? What was it like for them? Did they say, you know, or, you know, they support your wonderlust or what was that like?

Yeah, I think so. I don't, I mean, I think, I think they, they have a little bit of worry, of course. But I tried to, to keep in touch at least once a week and we still let them know. I, I don't think I told them if I was skydiving in advance. Tell them later.

Why is decision. Oh, and by the way. Oh gosh. So were you blogging on the road then? Or did you, did you start the WordPress blog after, like after you gotten back? Set us a frame for that.

I was. So I was blogging on the road, but I don't think anyone was reading it at that time. So it's kind of like. Actually, I'm not sure if it's still active. I should try to see what stories were like. But yeah, I don't think, I wasn't taking it, you know, super seriously. Gotcha. But, but I definitely kept kind of a journal.

We'll do a little Recon on it and see if we can find it. We'll put it in the show notes unless it's too embarrassing or something. It's interesting to kind of think about the longevity of an archive of a semi public or very public kind of diary kind of from whence you came on that initial voyage. That really sounded sort of a springboard for this lifestyle of travel that you've had.

It's interesting to now that I compare travel and compared to how I travel now because at that time I wasn't really into photos. I had a small. One of the cameras that can fit in your pocket. There was no iPhone yet at that time or I think the first one had just arrived. But I just remember, I think I took about 80 photos in that whole six months and now, now I probably take 80 photos a day when I go like mirrorless camera and I have all this, this tech. And at that time I was not planned at all. I just showed up and kind of worked it out.

Yeah.

On a day to day basis. Whereas now a little more in the planning stages before I go.

But yeah, that's great. So did you also trap. Was there travel related to your time at university?

Yeah, well, just so I don't know what year it was probably 2005 or 6. I. I got a scholarship to study in Denmark for two weeks. So that was, that was actually my first trip out of Canada. I hadn't even been to the US at that point. And then, and then in 2012 I actually went. I. I went and completed my, my last semester of university in, in Malaysia.

Oh wow. And so did you get to travel while you were there too? I suppose. Or not.

Yeah. So we ended up. So by 2012 my. Well, my wife now. But I had met her in 2009 in university. She had moved here from Mexico and she wasn't allowed to work for a year. She had to wait for her work permits here. So I was like, well, she's bored obviously. And I still had university and they had some partnerships with universities around the world but because of the classes I had left it was, it was Malaysia or Poland and it was in the winter and for me it was actually a hard decision in the sense that you know, Poland's got a lot of interesting history as well.

Right.

But everyone was like no, you should totally.

Yeah, Malaysia.

Yeah. The. It was only four months and we ended up staying a year and wow. Back backpacking around all of Southeast Asia and China.

Wow. Again on a similar kind of work a little bit and live a Little bit or. How did you. How did you know?

At that time, it was just. Just ourselves. We. We saved up before going.

Wow.

And. And of course, like, Southeast Asia is quite, quite cheap in a way anyways. But we definitely, at that point, we. We racked up a little bit of debt and came back and got to work to pay it off. But, yeah, even at that point, I actually had. No. Had not heard of travel hacking yet.

Yeah. Wow. You were doing it, you just didn't know what it was called. So. Yeah, that's great. It's sort of like the proverbial. Like, I did the. Between junior and senior year, backpacking through Europe with a couple of friends of mine. You know, it's like one of the. Living on, you know, just very dinky dollars a day kind of a thing and losing a lot of weight. But, you know, it's a great. You know, you feel very independent and you just. You feel that, you know, it's not that you're needing to stay in a Shangri La pension or a hostel or a tent, which we, you know, camped out or we tried to sleep on trains, you know, going from one place to another. And again, that was very much pre, you know, travel hacking kinds of things. And, you know, it worked out and, you know, people have been doing it for decades, so I tip my hat. I think it's kind of that fun chance and opportunity to be able to do those kinds of things early on and if you get the bug, then to be able to develop it into a variety of other kinds of aspects of your life. So did you ever have any, you know, dicey situations or anything that you had to troubleshoot or was everything pretty much unicorns and butterflies?

Yeah, pretty much, like, surprisingly, surprisingly in all the places we've been and we've never had any issues where we've been nervous or something like that.

That's great.

You know, there's always, like, smaller issues that come up, but nothing I've had nothing that would make a great story.

I've had some guests that have done traveling worldwide on motorcycles, and one fellow had done it solo and another had done it solo, but then met who had both become his future wife. And then they did it together and. And just, you know, wonderful stories and almost kind of the opposite of dicey situations. I mean, the problems would be things like mechanical breakdowns or bad roads or something, but anytime they did have a mechanical breakdown, it'd be like, you know, strangers would come up and, you know, offer to help and, you know, give them a Ride and, you know, just really a lot of kind hearted people, you know, just other travelers on the road. And you sort of share, even though you may be from different places or different walks of life or different, you know, ages or what, you have the common thread of being travelers in a welcoming but different land. And it really kind of reinstates my faith in human nature and people being good to help people and do things while they're on the road or what have you.

Yeah, it's one of those interesting things where if you talk to people who've never traveled, they probably, they'd probably be a bit scared of it. Right. Just because of everything you might hear.

Right.

And then if you talk to people who have traveled, almost no one has ever had a bad, bad situation. I remember even listening to a podcast with one of the cameramen from the Anthony Bourdain show. And I mean, they visited a lot of countries over their time over like a decade. And he said the only time they ever had any kind of issue was actually in a really like, remote village in Africa where they, you know, they're coming in there with cameras as if they have a lot of money. And I think when they left and they didn't give any money to anyone, people started to like throw rocks at the vehicle. And that was it. That was it of a whole 10 years of visiting all the continents.

Pretty amazing. So, so speaking of 10 years, I mean, if, if you, if Australia was sort of your, your maiden voyage, so to speak, speak, and really kind of got you into the travel aspects of life, it will soon be 2019, so almost 10 years of travel. And by my count, you have been to at least 35 countries. I know you've been all over the United States, you've been to every province in Canada. So tell us about that. How do you pick where to go and what's travel like for you today in 2018, 2019 versus what it was like in 2009?

Yeah, it's kind of, it's always been hard to pick where to go because there's so many countries we still like, like to visit. Sometimes it revolved around maybe one destination. Like when we chose that, when we chose going to Tanzania. We had always wanted to go on a safari, so we ended up going to Tanzania and then, then I'd look at the map and see what was around. So we ended up adding Uganda into the mix. We could go see the gorillas and Ethiopia sounded like a really interesting, interesting country. So we added that in. And then, so there's no real roadmap for planning where to go. Over the last year or two, we've been a little more focused with trying to grow the website and the online business. So that's why we kind of focused on Canada as our, our niche for mustdocanada.com Gotcha. And yeah, it's kind of, it's hard. It usually comes from choosing, choosing one country. And then because of travel hacking now, now that we use a lot of points for flights, we usually try to work in stopovers and layovers along the way.

Brilliant. Yeah, I think it's, it makes a lot of sense because usually for people in North America, you know, the basic biggest expense is getting to whatever other continent it is that you want to go visit. And then once you're there, like for Europe, for example, you know, there's a lot of, you know, just like short haul flights or whatever that are very inexpensive. And certainly Eurail and Eurail passes and things, if people are a certain age or if they're students or whatever can take advantage of that. And then like you said in Asia, oftentimes, you know, food and living expense and staying in a hostel or even staying in a, you know, very nice hotel can be relatively inexpensive. And so it's, it, once you've made it over, then it makes a whole lot of sense to, you know, see as many countries or see as many, whatever it is that you want to see or do while you're there. I think that's, that's brilliant and it's

interesting when you focus on a place like for Canada, for example, even last year when we did our 150 day road trip, even that was only kind of like the highlights of each place. And as you meet people, it doesn't matter whether it's here in the US or overseas, they start to tell you about other places. And I mean, you could probably focus a year on one country and not see it all.

Yeah, yeah, I think that's true. I think a lot of times, well, like again, some past guests that I've had will spend time, you know, in a community because maybe they're working or, you know, they need to, you know, get a squirrel away some dollars to be able to, you know, make the next journey, leg of the journey. And it really gives them a very fine grain, you know, warm personal experience that you really do know the place that you're in that you're not. You stop being a tourist and it's, it's almost like you stop being even a traveler. You sort of become a part of the fabric of that community for, you know, a few weeks time or a month. And, and you know, people establish friendships and relationships that they maintain, you know, to this day. I think that's just so again, back to the, you know, makes me feel good about human nature and people connecting that way. So the where you're at today now is this where like Canadian Free Flyers comes in? Tell us, tell us about your knack for, for that and to create something specifically for Canadians.

Yeah, well, at the time. So I actually started, I actually launched Canadian Free Flyers from. From Asia. From Southeast Asia, of course. Yeah. And it was.

That's cool.

It's funny too, because I ran into so many problems because the reason why I, I was working on it on the road a little bit, but I wasn't putting in like a lot of effort because it's more focused on the travel. And then all of a sudden I had an email from one of the biggest newspapers in Canada. I wanted to do a story, like a feature story.

Wow.

On the website. So I was like, well, I better get it. Better get it together. That's good. I started working on it and then we were in Myanmar and I, I opened up my, my PayPal and all of a sudden my whole account was closed instantly. I don't know if it's still the case now, but at that time the US had really, really tight sanctions with. With Myanmar. And I guess just the fact of me opening up my PayPal there was shut down and it took me like three weeks to get it back up and running.

Wow.

I had to phone into PayPal and tell them I wasn't money laundering.

Yeah, I'll be darn. Well, there's an interesting. Who would have thought, you know, that's why. Wow.

And then after Myanmar we went to. Up to China and that's. And that's when it was launching. And all of a sudden I couldn't access WordPress because they have the firewall against all that kind of stuff. So I didn't know what was happening.

Wow.

It worked out.

Oh, that's good.

But it's kind of so fitting for, for what it's about. But no, I started Canadian Free Flyers because at that time I. There was. There was already lots of websites that were catering to. To American travel hacking. And for some reason the, the kind of. The credit card industry does seem to be much more popular in Canada and the US than, than other places. So in terms of earning, earning points is definitely the two best countries. And just due to the population, the US has a lot more opportunity. So most people usually focus on the US and I thought there wasn't anyone doing it for Canada. So maybe if I niche down it would allow me to have a different market kind of thing. And it was also what I knew best. Like I knew what the best credit cards were here, whereas in the US I didn't unless I followed someone else's website.

Right.

So that's why I focused down. And it's a much smaller market but it did allow me to kind of stand out as the expert.

Well, I think that's really important. I think everybody, some people try to unsuccessfully try to be all things to all people and I very much encourage when I'm doing consultations with startups or whatever to really get, you know, kind of niched down to become the go to trusted authority, expert, spokesperson, you know, for you know, whatever it is that, that, that entity, be it a startup or be it an individual to focus on. Because it's just, it's, you know, my way back when as a psychologist I did a lot of consulting for people getting their private, their practices started, private practice. And you know, people said, well I treat everything, I treat all ages, I do this, I do that. And it was sort of like you just then just get lost in the noise of all other therapists as opposed to when someone says I have this kind of problem, who's the expert? Well then you know that, that I think is much more successful for people with, you know, entrepreneurs like you, be it, you know, travel industry or you know, people with a clinical practice. So I think that's, that's very, very smart. So, so the kind of deconstruct for us. What, what like how does Canadian Free Flyers work? Like do people like follow it as a blog? Do people sign up, is it a subscription service or if someone want to take advantage of it, what, what, what would they do and how would they be able to use it?

Yeah, so it's kind of changed over the Originally it was kind of an online ebook that people paid for. Then it became a membership site where I was sending out deals every month. But I kind of started to realize like there's not a lot of deals every new month, every month. So I've since changed it back to a one time fee and it's basically once they pay the fee there's like an online course, basically all different kinds of some video tutorials and that kind of stuff where I just teach them what, like what travel hacking is, how to utilize it, what, what the best credit cards Are depending where they want to go, what points to focus on. And then I think one of the most important aspects is learning how to redeem the points.

Yeah.

A lot of people don't realize, for example, that with, when, when you book a flight with points, you can often add stopovers and layovers in for free. So like in, you know, when we were flying to Costa Rica, it would be 40,000 points from Canada, but you can actually add in Mexico. So we ended up going to Mexico for a month as a stopover and then to Costa Rica and then home for the same amount of points. So you're basically getting it free destinations.

That's great. So there's not, I mean, for a month. That sounds really significant. That's great. That's.

Yeah, it's fine. And I think that's the thing too. A lot of people think stopovers are a day.

Yeah.

Or something like that. But they can actually be. I mean, it depends on where you're flying to, but they can almost be as long as you can. As long as it's under a year.

That's fantastic. So when you go, when you like go on a. And maybe I don't know if you do this anymore, but like, do you still do like long, like. Well, obviously if you did this, we were a month in Mexico. How do you manage bills and you know, the day in, day out kinds of stuff that, you know, that drive all of us crazy. How do you do that remotely?

Mostly I switched most of any bills I can to to being online, and a lot of them are automatic. So with, with our apartment, for example, in Calgary, we. We have it set so that for taxes, as one example, you can pay each year or you can just pay by the month and they'll automatically like, take it out of your account.

Oh, okay.

So I try to set as many things up like that as I can.

Autopilot kind of set it and forget it kind of a thing. So.

Yeah, pretty much. And if we went on, on longer trips, we actually like, rented. At one point we actually rented out our apartment for a good four to five years because we knew we. We'd be only coming back for a few months at a time. So we just end up staying with family.

That's great. That's a great.

It just made it easier, I would imagine.

Yeah, I think that, you know, those, those kinds of things, if people aren't creative or don't hear people, you know, like your story that, you know, it feels like one of those burdens where, you know, just yet another Reason of why I can't go do that. Well, what am I going to do with my apartment? Or what am I going to do with my cable bill? Or what am I going to, you know. And then when you find out that, you know, people like you and Amy Scott, who's been on the show, you know, there's, you know, a variety of different kinds of just very straightforward, easy to use kinds of tools to be able to do that. So that's fantastic. Do you ever have problems like getting funds when you're in another country? Do you just use like a debit card and go to an ATM or any issues with, with getting cash, so to speak, wherever you're at?

Yeah. No, I think it's actually always been more or less easy. The only place I ever remember being difficult was Myanmar, but that was at that time. I think it's actually since opened up and it's probably changed a lot, but that was actually one of the things I liked about it at that time. It was the one country I've been to that had no ATMs and no banks for foreigners. So you, you actually had to bring in mint condition US currency. I'll be done. That was no older than 2006.

Oh, gosh.

So it's just, I remember going to a money exchange in Thailand and I, you know, I said I needed I think 1500 in US because you had to kind of like try to math it out what you would need. And he started to pull out some US money and then I mentioned is Myanmar and he put it all away and he went into a different box which, which, which had, which had all the mint conditions.

I'll be d. That was, that was very helpful. That's there. That would have been terrifying to get there and go, your money's no good here, sir.

So, yeah, there's nowhere to get. But I, I think now they have ATMs, but other than that one problem, that's. It's. Would they take, really benefit.

Would they take credit cards or not back then?

No. There, there was nothing at the.

Gosh, wow. You feel like you have to kind of like, like have one of those, like silver briefcases handcuffed to your wrist, you know, as you're entering the country with your, your suit, your briefcase full of cash. Wow. That's.

And we, we do rely on credit cards quite a bit, but they're actually not, they're, they're not as widely accepted outside of Canada and the U.S. even in a place like in Japan, which is one of our favorite Favorite countries. It's very modern country, but almost no one uses credit cards. It's a very like cash based society.

I'll be darned. Wow. Well, and you know, those are probably,

and actually go ahead in Japan can actually be a bit tricky. I don't know if it's changed, but when we were there, the only ATMs that would accept American or I guess any foreign credit, any foreign debit cards was a 7 11.

That's wild. Wow. Well, and it's, I suppose then it's these kinds of experiences and these, these are some of the benefits of, you know, taking your course and being able to learn these kinds of things. I mean those are the, the spooky kinds of things that you really don't want to learn. That the hard way, you know, once you're in country or something go, oh, you know, I would have done this, I would have, if I would have known this, I would have done something a little bit differently. So I think those are not, it's not just the issues of, you know, what are, what are good ways to use points and things like that, which are huge. But then also just these sort of interstitial little kinds of, you know, quirky things about this country or that country. Like the, you know, the, the cash exchange guy in Thailand knowing to give you more, you know, fresh recent currency US dollars.

Yeah.

That's great. Wow. So in, in these 35 some odd countries, do you have a. I, I hate to say, it's like you're saying a favorite child or something, but does an experience stand out or, you know, was there some, you know, was it, was it, is there any country that, you know, just really stood out to you? Like, you know, oh, you know, I'd love to go back there all the time or I'd love to live there or this was the, you know, the, this is a highlight on my highlight reel of travel. This would be the, you know, the first place I would think of.

Yeah, no, I, Yeah, it is. It's very hard for sure. I know we've kind of summed it up as we really love both like North America and Asia. Asia was, I don't know if it's because it was our, our first trip together or not, but it's like it still stands out as the most iconic of any of the places we visited and it would be hard to pick one country. I know we both really love Japan. I find it's, it's one of those countries that's, it's so modern but yet I Don't know. They still remain so iconic.

Right.

You know, like, you can, you can arrive there and you really feel like you're in a, a different country.

Yeah.

Everyone's really friendly, the food's great and, but it's hard. Yeah. I, I, there's, there hasn't been a place I haven't liked for sure.

Yeah.

That's good.

So do you like where's next? Do you, do you have plans of where you might venture forth to next?

Not yet, no. No, we actually haven't. So after last year, after the, the big road trip, we've kind of, this is the one time we've, we've said that we want to focus on some of the projects.

Sure.

We're trying to complete before traveling again. We're now kind of, kind of in that stage two of trying to start a family. Stuff like that.

So wonderful.

I find, I find myself looking at some of the family blogs to, you know, to keep reminding myself that I can continue traveling with kids.

Yeah. Yeah, that's a, well, that might be maybe your next, next niche, you know, so that, learning how to go about doing that, I've, I've read some and, and there's actually some great YouTube videos and stuff of families managing that, and it's just like, wow. You know, I remember when our kids were little, it was just like, you know, a big adventure to go, you know, see grandparents, like across the state line kind of a thing. So, you know, I just know that they're. But, you know, people do it all the time. I tip my hat. I know it's not easy, but it's also not impossible.

So that's, that's, Yeah, I can't imagine the logistics.

Yeah.

Especially for some of the larger families with five or six kids, but yeah.

Oh, gosh. Yeah, they do. It's amazing. It's.

I would really like to get to Antarctica soon just because that's the one continent I haven't made it to yet.

And I had a friend who just went there and just, she was quite the photographer and just, you know, it was just amazing, you know, the kinds of things that she saw. But, you know, it's one of the last things on most people's travel list because it is certainly not easy to get to and can be quite the adventure. I remember I had a friend who was quite the runner, and they were going to do a marathon in Antarctica on Antarctica and the passage. They were going over via boat, and the passage was so bad that they couldn't make it, so they decided they would run their marathon distance on the deck of the boat, which I just thought, oh my gosh. So it's, it's, it's still kind of the, you know, the untamed territory kind of thing. I mean, just the, you know, the kind of no matter what with jets and great boats and icebreakers and whatevers that, you know, there's a lot of adventure in the aspect of getting there as well as being there. So I, I have not been myself, but it's, it is certainly, you know, on my, my travel bucket list. So.

So. Yeah, and even one of my goals was to try and scuba dive there as well.

Oh, gosh. Oh, man. Oh.

Which requires for much more training.

Gosh. Yeah. So you've done sharks and did you do, I presume, like the, did you do the Great Barrier Reef and stuff when you in Australia?

Yes. Yeah. That's where I learned how to, how to scuba. Okay.

Got. Yeah.

So even that, even that just kind of, you know, it came out of nowhere. One of the guys staying at my hostel or at the hostel I was staying at, he, he had went and done it the week before and was telling me about it and I had never envisioned myself scuba diving. It wasn't even a goal I had at any point in time, you know, because I'm, you know, I never just wasn't those things that stood out.

Right, right.

Yeah. And he mentioned it and it sounded like something cool to do. So I signed up for the course and went out and it ended up becoming like a, you know, probably one of my all time favorite hobbies.

I bet. Wow. And it's one of those things where I think you can kind of do it, you know, kind of over your lifetime too, you know, I mean, there's always going to be some place to see or some, you know, new exotic locale or, or what have you. That's, that's fantastic. So, you know, I, with, with Live Limitless, I think that was one of the first things that really kind of caught my eye about your work and your activities. And if people that know me, I am very much into lists. I'm very much into life lists and bucket lists and you know, doing those kinds of things. And you. If. Help me get my facts straight if I misspeak this, but I believe you've. You had a 100 item bucket list or life list or life resume to do list that you wanted to do and I believe you accomplished all 100 of those. Is that correct?

Yeah.

Give us a sample. I know you've jumped out of an airplane. I know you've scuba dived in the Great Barrier Reef and with sharks, but can you. Can you think of a few others?

Kind of.

And you've been an actor and you've, you know, I mean, it's just really. It sounds like, you know, just a, you know, great, rich experience of life and the few years that. That you've been living. So. So what else was on that list, Matt?

I know one of my last ones was actually speaking in front of a large group that was also something like I grew up with. I've always had kind of a. Kind of a stutter a little bit. Like, it's not as bad now, but I grew up with one, so. And I always admired when I saw people speak on stage, and especially if they're really good at it, I thought that, I don't know, for some reason, it just stood out as something I'd love to do one day. And one of my challenges that I did when I moved to that new city was I took a kind of a public speaking course with Dale Carnegie class kind of thing. And so it made me a little more comfortable, but still, I had only spoken in front of those smaller groups. And then a friend had. Had asked me, hey, do you want to speak about your story in front of. We do these. These monthly events? And I said, yeah, I'd love to do it. And I thought it was going to be maybe like 30 or 40 people. And I had already told him yes. And then after, I was like, I should probably ask him how many people this is. And he said it was like 400.

Oh, gosh.

And I was like, wow.

Oh.

But, like, it's a good thing. I think I had already tried out everything else because, you know, there might have been a time where I was too nervous and said, no, you know, try to make up an excuse. But I always thought, well, I'll just. I'll commit to it and try it out and good for you. And it worked out, and it was something. It was a big thing for me to be able to speak in front of that many people.

Yeah, that is very scary and intimidating, but especially with that. And I. I would think, you know, maybe you're, you know, you've also now acted and, you know, that sort of a thing, too. I mean, those. Those must have been very high anxiety things at the time. So. Brav. Bravo. I really applaud you for, you know, it's definitely getting outside of your comfort zone in most all these kinds of things.

And even. Even another One it's not, it doesn't seem as big as like visiting the Amazon or, or hang gliding and that kind of stuff, which, which we're all awesome goals, but one of them was just like selling something door to door because it was, it was, you know, that's for me that it's terrifying.

Yeah. Oh, I would hate to do that. Yeah. I'm not a fan of rejection, so that's just asking for it. Wow.

I took a job one summer and I ended up doing, doing very well at it and they brought me back as, as a manager for the next season. But even still, even after doing it for, for two years, it was never like in my comfort zone.

Yeah. Not a natural.

Every time I went up to a door, it was just like a challenge. But I'm glad I did it because it's just one of those, I find anytime you overcome something like that, like a big fear, it just helps, helps build the confidence for the next one.

Yeah, that's good. It's good that you can be able, you know, to kind of scale those kinds of things. It's sort of the, the psychological or emotional version of how you travel. You know, it's sort of like then you, you travel to one country, but then you get to do a variety of other things in other neighboring countries or whatever. And it's the same thing. You take this one skill set and then, you know, get, gain strength and resiliency from it to be able to, you know, apply it and reapply it or use it in other kinds of areas. That's a good, good life skill to be able to have. So I guess most recently then you did the Canada's road to 150 and so you traveled across the span and it was it like in 150 days as well too, as a homage to the 150th birthday. So what, what spurred that idea? How did you. I think that's so clever and creative. How'd you come up with that?

Well, yeah, we were, we were actually, I think it was. We had just came back from traveling in 2016 and we were trying to think of like what to do next. And I just, I wish I had thought of it a bit earlier because there was a lot of like funding available, that kind of stuff.

Yeah.

Darn it. Yeah. I thought everyone's like, there was so much, so much marketing being done for Canada's 150. And I had already had a website called Must Do Canada at that time. And at that, at that time it was kind of my, it was just like a, a hobby blog because we had done a previous road trip across Canada that was only about a month long and I thought, oh, you know, for marketing purposes we should do 150 day road trip. Try to do every single province and territory and we'll write about it and we'll interview people along the way to find out like what, what makes Canada special. Because there was all these articles starting to come out from different countries just because of the birthday, trying to find out why Canada is the way it is. And so I thought that'd be cool. What if we just go ask people and, and I thought well, we're going to need funding for this somehow. So I, I came up with a list of maybe 2 or 300 different big companies that I thought could maybe sponsor this. I started with car companies because it made sense for the, for needing a car. And there was a few that expressed interest but it didn't work out. And then some rental car companies also expressed interest but it didn't work out. And it's funny, we had got down to, I think it was, it was March or April and we would have had to start May. And it was a lot of planning. So I almost gave up. I think I gave myself like a week left. And then it turned out I got a phone call from Best Western hotels and they were like we're, we're looking for something to do for Canada's 150. So this, this looks pretty perfect.

Wow.

Set up a call with them and they ended up being our, our biggest sponsor and it was enough to get me to start planning the trip. So then I reached out. It was pretty crazy. We only had about six weeks to start planning it. So we, we continued to plan it as we go. But we ended up deciding to do video. And at that time we had no idea about video. So we hired someone that we had just met on a different project and he joined us for the whole 150 days and filmed it for us.

Wow.

And it worked out and it was a big, it was one of those big things that really kind of was like an ignition for the website.

That's great. So what, what would like a typical day of travel be like, like I'm sure there's sometimes like just going from point A to point B. But did you would then spend some time in, in rural areas or urban areas or all the above or what, what was that like?

I guess all the above. But it was so, it sounded like a lot of time at the beginning, but Once we started planning, really only came down to like, maybe 11 or 12 days in a province which. The provinces are quite big, so it's not always a lot of time. I know. We drove 27,000 kilometers.

Wow.

In those 160 days, we spent about 250 hours in the vehicle. So there was some days that we're just driving, especially in northern Canada, it was often like 26 hours between a town and another town. But, yeah, a lot of it was. It was. We never had a day off. We always thought at the beginning, okay, we'll give ourselves a day off every week, kind of thing to get caught up.

Right.

But then as you get to a new place, someone says, oh, you should go see this. You shouldn't miss this in the video. And then we're like, oh, that does sound pretty good. So we ended up not having any day off. So we usually.

Wow.

Wake up from eight till five. Let's say we'd be out experiencing stuff and recording it. And then in the evening, one of us would be either writing about it or editing it to put on social media, and the other one would be reaching out to companies in the next province to see if they'd sponsor us for the videos. It was a lot of. And we're lucky because the guy we hired to film and edit it, thank God he doesn't get car sick because she was. He was editing as we drove.

Oh, my gosh.

It's the only time to find time. Like, we bought all this stuff to. So we could plug it into the vehicle. And he had the. This black kind of mat around his part of the thing so that he couldn't see outside and just like, focus on the video for 12 hours straight.

So would he. Would he upload stuff daily?

Not. Not. So how we ended up doing it was we were. We. We. We made one video for each province and territory. So pretty much every. Every two to three weeks, we'd upload. Wow, a video. And we'd be doing, like, social media every day, but not video.

That production just seems grueling. And bless his heart, to be able to do it in a. In a moving car, that's really amazing. Gosh.

And I, we bought a. Just before leaving, I. I bought a drone as well. And I didn't, you know, because I saw it. I can't. I think I just saw it online. I thought that'd be cool. And then he said, oh, you should. That would. That would really add to our production value. And I bought this drone and I'm happy we did because it really does add some amazing footage. But I didn't realize all the laws around having a drone. Oh. And it really added to the. The headache, especially because we were doing a lot of work in national parks, and I think it's the same in the U.S. the national parks are really strict for. For drones, and it helped that we were doing a project for Canada, I think. So a lot of the national parks actually sponsored our film permits.

Oh, wow.

That kind of stuff. So. And. And I'm lucky because you also have to get drone permission from Transport Canada to. To be allowed to have anything in the sky. Right. And. And that was starting to take so long. I ended up phoning them and telling them about the project, and I think they. They moved my. My application ahead and approved it. So it all worked out in the end. But it was really added to the head.

Gosh, good for you. I mean, you. You are quite the problem solver. So. So if a listener hears this and they get kind of the Canadian curiosity, if they, let's say, had a week to travel, they didn't, you know, doesn't necessarily have, you know, great, you know, chunks of vacation time or something, where would you recommend for them to go?

So if you only had a week, I definitely focus on one, like, one province. It'd be hard to pick one, but for me, definitely our favorites were. We love the east coast, so Newfoundland was one of our favorite provinces. And I don't know, I might be a bit biased because my dad's from there, so I do.

Okay, Full disclosure. Full disclosure.

But even my wife and. And the filmmaker we hired, we all love Newfoundland. It's just a. I don't know, it's just so. It has such a different vibe from the rest of Canada. They. They have their own music, they really have their own food, they really have their own culture. And because it's an island, you know, if you're there in the springtime, you can see all the icebergs.

Wow.

Off the coast, if you're there in the summer, you see a lot of whales and that kind of stuff, so there's just a lot of cool things to do there. Also, Nova Scotia, if you don't want to go as far, was an awesome province. Alberta, my home province, just because of the Rocky Mountains. I mean, they're. They're always. They're. They're always amazing to see.

Yeah.

I find. And of course, also bc if you want to be on the coast, because it's all mountains and coastline and, you know, there's there's lots of things, there's lots of things to do. Yeah, so it'd be hard to pick, but I'd probably focus on either Atlantic Canada, Alberta or B.C. if I just had a week.

Gotcha. Okay, good, good advice. So, and we'll, we'll hook up all these things in, in the show notes and, and get your videos and you know, are, are they on a site, are they on YouTube or if, if someone can't wait for the show notes, what, what would be some places for them to check out some of your footage?

So we do, so we do have a YouTube channel called called Must Do Canada. So all our videos are there. They're also on the website as well. But yeah, they're definitely on YouTube and we actually, we produce a new video every, every two weeks on YouTube. So.

Awesome. Good. We'll definitely get links for that in the show notes.

So.

So what's next, Matt? I mean, a new 100 item bucket list or. It sounds like parenthood is in the dice, but what new bucket list or what? What's next?

Yeah, so there's, I guess a couple bigger things. I do have another list of 100 things that I'd like to do. I knew it. I knew it. I've made them much more harder this time. Much more difficult. I mean one of them is, is to become a dad. That's a big thing.

That's a big one. Jumping out of an air, it's just about as terrifying,

much longer lasting.

That's true.

And then, yeah, we're just, we're launching our first physical product just now from musty Canada. So it's a saver card. So it's basically like a physical card for your wallet that, that has discounts at various activities, attractions and adventures all across Canada. And so we're just launching that and I've never, I've never launched a physical product before. So it's, I just did like the soft launch last week and. Yeah, so that's going to be awesome. Learning curve, I'm sure.

Great. It sounds with your experience, you will master it in no time. So that's, that's fantastic.

Hopefully.

Great. Well again we'll get links and do what we can do to support that too. That's fantastic. So just to kind of, you know, wrap up here, I don't want to, I could, you know, go down, I could talk about every single country with you and spend, you know, the rest of the weekend, you know, chatting about this. But so for listeners that want to learn more about you or to follow you or get involved with Live Limitless. What are some of the best ways for them to do so?

Yes, I'd say the two main websites are livelimitless.net or mustdocanada.com I'm on all the social media channels usually as Matthew G. Bailey.

Okay.

So on like Instagram, Twitter, and then also under Must Do Canada, like on Instagram, YouTube, Facebook.

Awesome.

I try to be everywhere.

Good, good.

Well, there's a lot of platforms.

Yeah. And I think, you know, my experience, too, we try to do the same with the show that, you know, people sort of have their favorites. You know, some folks, you know, love Instagram and, you know, are cool to other platforms. Other folks are, you know, power users of LinkedIn or Facebook or, you know, what have you. So it's kind of nice to be in all the different places so that you can, you know, have support and reach to audiences, you know, to wherever they're at. So bravo with that, and I wish you the best, Matt. Let's keep in touch. So good luck with the next adventures. Good luck with the card, and it's just been a real treat to be able to have you on the show, my friend. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Yeah, thank you. It was awesome being here. Thanks for having me.

Living a Life in Full is a production of Stout Media, a subsidiary of Gordian Knot, LLC. Assistant producer Gracie Wong Music Dan O' Brien executive producer and host Dr. Chris Stout to learn more, stop by our website at lifeinfull for show notes and please recommend us to your friends and subscribe on your favorite platform. And as for the obligatory disclaimer, this podcast is for general information uses only and does not constitute the practice of psychology, medicine, nutrition or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical or psychological advice. No doctor patient relationship is formed. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, I take conflicts of interest seriously. For all of my disclosures as well as show notes, please see livingalifeinfull.org podcast and my LinkedIn profile. Thanks. And until next time,