The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders

How to Become a Digital Nomad and Build Community Around the World as a Solo Traveler with Janessa Klatt

·1 hr 3 min·5 clips

Janessa Klatt reveals how building global friendships makes solo travel sustainable beyond just a year.

The episode begins with Janessa Klatt emphasizing the role of community in making the digital nomad lifestyle sustainable. Host Matt Bowles introduces the show and offers a free resource on building a location-independent business. Janessa shares her background as a remote podcast manager and full-time digital nomad since 2019. She recounts her grandparents' immigration from Berlin to Canada in the 1960s, including the loss of their belongings when their ship sank. Growing up in Winnipeg, Janessa was involved in triathlon and traveled extensively for sports. She studied abroad in Melbourne, Australia, where she fell in love with coffee and street art, and obtained her scuba certification at the Great Barrier Reef. After returning to Canada, she pursued a career in sports science but became disillusioned, leading her to take an adult gap year. Janessa moved to Berlin on a working holiday visa, working at a craft beer bar and reconnecting with her German heritage. She traveled around Europe spontaneously, including a trip to Prague booked at 5 a.m. and a visit to Auschwitz in Poland. During the pandemic, she transitioned to working as a deckhand on private yachts in the south of France and Greece, later becoming a dive master in Tenerife. Janessa explains how listening to The Maverick Show inspired her to become a digital nomad. She saved $20,000 before quitting her yacht job to start a podcast management business. The discussion highlights the importance of both online and in-person communities, with Janessa mentioning co-living spaces like Co 404 and tools like WhatsApp groups and the Pangea app for connecting with other travelers. The episode concludes with a teaser for part two of the interview.

As heard by us

A thoughtful episode on how community can make solo travel feel more sustainable.

Janessa Klatt's conversation with Matt Bowles is strongest when it treats solo travel less as independence for its own sake and more as a practice sustained by repeat connection.

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Why you'd press play

You want solo travel to stop feeling solitary? Start with Janessa Klatt's close-friends-all-over-the-world version of the road.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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