Passionate Travellers Meet Healthy Work-Life Balance: An Interview With WiFi Tribe

Are you looking to re-design your life, work on projects that matter to you and you are passionate about and travel the world at the same time? Just need a gentle push to get going?

With many different coworking and coliving retreats doing exactly that and which are popping up all around the world, the choice is yours today!

In this interview, I am speaking to Julia, Co-Founder of WiFi Tribe, a community of like-minded traveling entrepreneurs and creatives to find out a bit more of what they do, who this is for and what a day in the life of a WiFi Triber looks like!

#1 Please Introduce Yourself and Your Team and Explain What WiFi Tribe Is All About. What Do You Offer?

WiFi Tribe started as a very simple thing: we got stuck in a rut, and wanted to redesign our lives completely.

After investing a lot of time into a previous project that didn’t succeed, we looked back and gave ourselves the classic failed startup consolation: “Well, it wasn’t wasted time because we learned a lot from it, right?”

But the reality was that we had given up a lot more than we wanted to. We barely had a social life, often couldn’t recall anything memorable about the last days, weeks, or months, and both our motivation and inspiration were at an all-time low.

For the most part, we were isolated. Sometimes we found ways to travel, but usually on our own. The months went by, and our personal networks shrank, instead of growing.

Something just wasn’t working.

When this became so obvious that we couldn’t ignore it, we decided to do a radical change. We would change three things in our lives:

1. we would surround ourselves with great people
2. we would work on something that we were passionate about
3. and… we would do all that while travelling the world.

I guess what we were looking for was a tribe of extraordinary people, that would take on the world with us.

That’s what the WiFi Tribe is. A long-term community of passionate young travellers, who join up to share a journey, knowledge, and happiness.

We slow-travel the world together, spending 4-6 weeks in each location. This gives us the time to experience a new country and build new friendships while staying productive and moving ahead with our ambitions.

We’re careful to keep flexibility and freedom because it’s such a major part of this lifestyle. That’s why we invite people to join us in any location at any time, be that for two weeks, or a year.

The WiFi Tribe team is there to bring these people together, to reduce friction in planning and organising, to make sure the WiFi is working, to help people achieve a better work-life balance, and to carefully foster an environment where the community can grow.

#2 Who Should Attend Your Coliving Events? Who Is the Right Person to Join? What Sort of People Have Joined in the Past?

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” – Jim Rohn

A major part of re-designing our lifestyle was to surround ourselves with genuine, down-to-earth people that would inspire us. That’s why we are so focused on getting the community right.

There’s an application process that every member goes through, and the ultimate decision of inviting a new member to join us, is made by the community itself.

So who are we looking for?

We don’t want a group that is too homogenous. There is much more excitement and potential for collaboration, or for learning new things when members have diverse professional backgrounds.

Currently, the majority of our members have an entrepreneurial background, but there are also several software engineers, marketers, writers, photographers, investors, designers, and many other interesting professions that our members are rocking remotely.

What we really look for is a personality and core values fit.

WiFi Tribers are open-minded, passionate, community-oriented people. They are respectful, supportive, and humble. There is no space for big egos in our tribe.

They don’t just work to travel. They do something they love, and they’re blessed that they can do it from anywhere. So they do. We believe that is important because interesting conversation can only happen with people who are interested.

When we’re not working, we are a bunch of young, curious, adventurous, and high-energy freedom-lovers. We’ll explore a new country together, try exotic foods, learn to surf, enjoy a good night out, and just take in everything life has to offer.

#3 What Does a Day at WiFi Tribe Look Like?

We’ll share with you a day in Nicaragua… Imagine waking up to the sound of the ocean and wildlife around us, as the sun makes its way through the windows. Two of your new-found friends are sitting outside by the pool with a coffee, taking in the morning breeze and the ocean view.

Waking up is easy, because every day feels like a new adventure. You’re excited about seeing the sunrise, about sparking a new friendship, or about learning from someone who’s an expert in that field that you’ve been struggling with.

Another member asks you if you want to come down to the beach for an early morning swim, and start the day with yoga and meditation to collect energy and focus.

The next part of the day is entirely up to you. Find your routine to mix work, socialising, and relaxation. Choose that spot where you feel comfortable and productive, start conversations that could lead to new collaborations, or join in for a knowledge exchange session with another member.

After a productive day, the tribe wants to head down to that nearby village to relax with a few drinks in one of the lively beach bars.

That’s a typical weekday… On the weekends we’re chasing adventures! Motorbiking on a volcano island, learning to surf, visiting a buzzing party town, or just exploring a beautiful place together.

#4 In Your Eyes, What Is the Biggest Benefit of a Coliving / Coworking Retreat?

If we had to identify the biggest benefits of this lifestyle in two words, it would be happiness and serendipity.

We decided to build this community because we were unhappy, and this was our way of fixing that. We believe that there are two fundamental ways to find happiness: changing your mindset to choose to be happy, and chasing things that will make you happy. For the best results, do both!

Being surrounded by extraordinary, friendly, down-to-earth people makes us happy. Travelling makes us happy. Adventures make us happy. Working on something we care about makes us happy.

For those people who feel like they could find happiness in these things too, we believe that we’ve stumbled upon a wonderful lifestyle design formula that brings all these parts together in one community.

Serendipity is the idea of something happening by chance in a happy or beneficial way. Basically, a happy accident!

Our mission is to set up a welcoming community where random conversations can lead to wonderful, unexpected things. Whether that’s friendship, love, wisdom, business opportunities, or all of the above.

When you share a house with fascinating people, who have a similar worldview, but diverse professional backgrounds, there are endless opportunities to learn from each other.

#5 Tell Me About an Amazing Success Story You Experienced with WiFi Tribe or from One of Your Attendees.

We’d love to tell you the story of an entrepreneur who joined us in Nicaragua.

Marc built a company that automates 70% of the drop-shipping process. The reason he joined us, wasn’t because he wanted to travel. In fact, he actually preferred to stay in Nicaragua. What drew him to the tribe, was his search for like-minded people.

So when he heard that we would be in the same country, he decided to join the tribe for a month.

The results?

Marc found three other members of the community – a designer, a filmmaker and a digital marketer – who are now working with him to boost different parts of his business. He also taught everyone in the house about drop-shipping, and two of the members are still using his software to automate their dropshipping and earn a remote side-income.

Marc is now joining us for an entire year, and has accepted that part of this lifestyle just happens to be travelling. The desire to find live with a community of interesting people has made him redesign his own lifestyle, and is drawing him out of his base in Nicaragua.

Thank you, Julia for the great interview! If you want to know which destinations WiFi Tribe is hitting next and where you can join them, have a look at their website to find out more!

Would you like to consider a group of like-minded remote workers and travel around the world?