Why a Lifelong Nomad Started Connecting the World

Ever since I was born, my family moved houses every 1 to 2 years. As a child, I kind of remember always switching schools a lot, being a new kid on the block, and then always trying to break into a new social circle. Yeah, I mean, it was really, really tough. As a kid, you wanna, you wanna belong, you wanna be part of something. It was almost like every 1 to 2 years, I was this new kid. I was an outsider, feeling lonely, disconnected. Then I realized that I've actually gotten to the point where I can find home anywhere in the world. I've experienced all that and I found a solution. What better way to live life than actually solve this problem for other people going through the same thing? Today with Steven. Wait, shades on. Shades on or shades off, you know. So great to have you. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. And we're gonna introduce this beautiful spirit to the, to the world.

Thank you.

Steve, I've completely noticed about your vibe.

It's very unique.

Unique multicultural multi-layered being, right? Yeah. So, um, how did that even start? Like, did you have that in the—

from the beginning?

Ever since I was born, my family moved houses every 1 to 3 years. As a child, I kind of remember always switching schools a lot, being a new kid on the block, and then always trying to break into a new social circle. So I grew up mostly in Korea. I was first born in the U.S. My My dad was getting a PhD of economics in the US, so he proposed to my mom. They're originally both from Korea, South Korea. They moved to the US and they had me and my sister. And when I was 2 and a half, 3 years old, around that time, we moved back to Korea. I remember a lot of my childhood was like filled with, you know, like just feeling a bit different, being different. And at the same time, I would get bullied a lot. Yeah, I was like, oh, you know what, I need to like get out of here. And then the first place I thought of as a kid is like, okay, the US, right? Obviously, because I had an American passport. Initially, I finished high school on the East Coast, and then I went to California for college. Chicago, LA, San Francisco, and New York. And then for the longest time, I was like, you know what, New York is like my home. You know what, it's great, but I just don't feel home there. I think I was searching for something that I didn't even have an answer to. I started traveling around Europe. So it's really a mix of like my constant traveling— you know, moving around a lot? And me not feeling I've found home yet. So because of that, I'm always trying to meet other people who I can connect with so that I feel sense of belonging at home! Yeah right?! Guys guys game games... Alright, so this game is called The King Of First Impressions. Impressions. The reason why we do it is sometimes like you don't really know how you come across to other people. When it comes to connecting with other people on this like deeper level, it's just good to know, you know. Yeah, we go around and we say like, okay, let's start with Chris. Everyone tells him what their first impression of Chris was. So, Julio, what do you think of when you first met Chris? So when I first met Chris I thought he was a purse slut because he was just buying a shit ton of purses. First impression of him, yeah? Yeah, first impression. His looks, his visual was really strong to me. Like this look. He rolled the weed for me, and that's like the first contact I had with him. And so like 2017, I moved to London for business school.

Yeah.

And the reason I decided to go to business school was because I just wanted to really evaluate my career path. I also came across this amazing personal development program that you actually recommended me. Really going through that personal development program and taking a deeper dive into like what my past experiences were like and how I'm wired, how I operate my life. And everything, and it really helped me identify my higher purpose in life. I want to actually really build a truly connected world, you know, and in order to do that, I need to like actually walk this path of entrepreneurship because I want to solve a problem of like loneliness and people feeling like disconnected, kind of like what I've been experiencing as a child. What better way to live life than actually like solve this problem for for other people going through the same thing. Then my co-founder at the time and I, we're like, okay, where can we go? Well, Bali is like this like rising digital nomad hub. So let's go there. It's almost like a new world, you know? It's like a whole new segment of people trying to manifest their dreams, you know? Yeah, when I moved to Bali, I was like, you know what? I really felt like another version of home there. Yeah. So I was living in Bali in 2021 for 8 months during the pandemic. And at the time I got a, a 4-bedroom house near the beach. And at the time, I was also working on a, like, little startup around connecting people online, right? Instead of me and my then co-founder, like, getting house and just the two of us living together, we said, hey, why not get a bigger house and invite other people to live with us, right? Also, instead of just inviting random people, let's try to find other startup founders, you know, or like other, like, entrepreneurial, like digital nomads to come and live with us, right? We had this big wooden table in the living room and we were kind of like always working together. And then one of us would always be like, hey, like, I'm very curious about what you're doing, you know, tell me more about like why. For example, I was building this pitch deck for raising money for our startup back then. And then basically a friend of ours was like, hey, like, why are you laying out this problem this way? Like, why are you so excited about solving this problem? And like, what about— have you thought about this? 'Have you thought about this?' So like, he would kind of show me these like perspectives that I never would have considered, you know, if we hadn't had that conversation. And then basically this was happening not only me, but then like at multiple levels, not only professionally, personally. I was also in a position where I could help someone else out, you know, in terms of like navigating their personal life or relationships or career as well. So it was just kind of like a multilayered, I guess, environments where everyone is sort of like stepping into everyone's life and kind of like have them achieve breakthroughs. That's when I really, really got inspired by this whole like, damn, this whole problem that I've been looking to solve this whole time, like solving the loneliness of digital entrepreneurs and nomadic entrepreneurs, people move around a lot, it's actually like this, you know, like we live together, you know, had this focused bonding experience and really kind of stepping into each other's lives and help each other evolve to the next level. That experience was just so monumental and pivotal. And because I was like, you know what, like, we're not just doing our own stuff, but like, we're working together, we're living together, we actually learn from like how they think about the world, how they navigate their, their career paths. So like, you know, it was just like such a wholesome environment. So that really kind of cemented the foundation. For what I'm like kind of building right now with House Manifest. That was kind of like the seed, you know, planting the seed. And then I discovered this, uh, like 10-bedroom beautiful house in Lisbon, Portugal, um, November of like 2021. Yeah, I got a deal for it. I just happened to be in town for a conference, right? And then something spoke to me, you know, my intuition told me I kind of want to get this house and invite other, you know, business owners, creators, entrepreneurs to come like live with us. Let's make it happen. And that became Season 1. I realized it's actually way more than just living together, talking about like what we're going through on a daily basis, um, helping people out, you know, from like a professional standpoint, personal standpoint. We're always like elevating each other, you know. Then I realized, you know what, like it's about manifesting. We're helping each other manifest. Our wildest dreams. So yeah, that's when House Manifest was born. But I want to hear from you, like, you're really successful at what you do and like you can be anywhere, like why House Manifest again and like why Thailand again? Like what's the vibe there?

I love this idea of traveling together.

Like what was going through your mind, you know, where you were at then and now, and then like what's happened, you know, since then?

It's quite hard to describe, I guess, in a way, because when, uh, when we were hanging out in Chiang Mai in last fall, I was really just loosely gathering new ideas. But I think setting the vision straight where I want to go maybe kind of helped with finishing the tracks, you know. And of course, this beautiful environment also helped.

Essentially, the vision we're building here is To go fast, go alone, but to go far, go together. If you're a human being, like whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, you are a social animal. Like you need people around you to get to wherever, right? And if you are someone who's working tirelessly on your art or music career, or if you're an entrepreneur, or if you're just someone who wants to explore the world as digital nomads and you want to like really connect with other people, like your journey is inherently quite lonely because like you're kind of doing your own thing. There's not a lot of people around you, and especially if you're doing that remotely, you're moving around a lot, you're constantly kind of uprooting yourself. So it's hard to really build a solid support system. Collectively, we have an opportunity to kind of have this one conversation, and this one conversation can entirely change the the way you look at the world. For me, a lot of it is about like a very much of a focused community bonding experience where we come together and we really focus on getting to know each other. You know, there's many different things that you can manifest, right?

Yeah.

Career, relationships, you know, health, wealth, all of that, you know. You can expect to follow along the footsteps of like our incredible house manifestors. The impact that I want to have on this world is that no matter who you are, like, even if you don't feel like you're different, you sound, you know, different, or like, you know, you feel isolated, you can come to a place and you feel like, you know what, like, it's— I know how to live a very uniquely extraordinary life, and like, I don't have to feel alone. I have other people around me, you know. Not only like with other people, they have like a very strong way to actually deepen their relationship with themselves and the world as well. Essentially, I want this movement to kind of like live on, you know, after I die.

Thank you, brother.

Thank you. Appreciate you. Appreciate it.