Traveling the world is the dream for most people, but the one aspect that is constantly overlooked, is creating a life itinerary and collecting data from your travels in order to select a location to live that fits your life itinerary.
Brandon J. McGill was fortunate enough to play basketball overseas and lived in England, Australia, and Germany, before settling in Bali in July 2019.
“These experiences gave me a comprehensive world view because living in another country for a year allows you to really integrate into their culture and pick up on behavioral patterns, and decide if this environment brings the best out of you or not,” McGill said. When deciding where to live after his basketball career, McGill decided to embark on a world trip to create more choices and experiences to make the best decision.
In January 2019, McGill began what could only be described as the ultimate bucket list trip. The trip started in London and the first flight was to Amsterdam; from Amsterdam to Dubai; from Dubai to the Maldives; from the Maldives to Phuket, Thailand; from Phuket, Thailand to Bali; from Bali to Perth, Australia.
“Growing up those were all the places I watched on TV every day throughout high school, and to actually visit and explore them was very surreal. Returning to Perth, having lived there from 2015 to 2016, was actually the main priority of the trip ”.
The trip was cut short due to a family emergency, so he had to fly back to his hometown right outside of DC.
However, that trip had a major impact on what happened next.
“Once everything was good with my mom, I decided to book a one-way ticket back to Bali. Initially, I thought I would spend 30 days there to celebrate my 30th birthday, but deep down I knew I would be living in Bali long-term.”
With the initial trip halted prematurely, McGill felt like picking up where he first received the news just made sense, but in reality, the 10 days spent in Bali really provided a powerful experience that he felt needed further exploration.
“I was deciding between Thailand and Bali because of the nature surroundings and the low cost of living, but Bali had an energy that I never felt before and I knew that with everything I had planned that the Island of the Gods is where I needed to be to bring those dreams into reality”.
Brandon has been living in Bali ever since and experienced the entirety of the pandemic on the island, while creating a 6 figure company since the island closed.
“Based on my travels and everything I’ve read over the years, I knew we were heading toward working from home and a gig economy, but the world essentially shutting down expedited that timeline tremendously
Since I left for London in 2012 to pursue my masters at the University of East London, I’ve always kept multiple journals and from that, I was able to activate a business idea I had been sitting on for around 2 years,” McGill added.
As the island closed the company opened for business and generated 6 figures in its first year and currently in the process of launching on Shopify.
