We wanted a better life – freedom, financial independence, the ability to be full-time artists & thinkers.
We started having these really interesting philosophical conversations over morning coffee, about where the world was going, and the intersection of technology, society, and consciousness.
We could imagine a better future, but we weren’t sure how we were going to get there.
For a while, we kept trying to make it in Vancouver – finding jobs and freelancing gigs, just trying to make ends meet.
But as artists, Vancouver priced us out.
One day, we found this book “The Four Hour Work Week”, and that was our lightbulb moment.
We decided to start an online business doing website design and content creation, and become digital nomads, and in 2012, after we got our first recurring client, we sold everything we owned and bought 1-way tickets to Thailand.
After we arrived, we sat on the beach in Krabi, Thailand on our first day, and thought “We fucking made it.”
We continued struggling with client work and freelancing, but we now had a taste of freedom. We bought our time back, were able to pause and reflect more deeply on life. We read tons of books, and spent more time meditating and doing personal development.
That’s when we started our podcast “Future Thinkers”, having conversations with global thinkers and visionaries.
On our travels, we got plugged into a community of entrepreneurs doing all sorts of businesses and it opened our eyes to what was possible, outside of what we knew from the freelancing world. We also got into crypto and met some people building really big things.
Over the next several years of nomading, we visited and lived in dozens of countries, and started to understand culture and different ways of living from a much more immersive lens. We noticed what was different and what was the same across cultures.
After so many years of traveling we were feeling the pull to find roots and be in community. At the same time, the podcast was growing, and we were getting access to more and more hard to reach and famous thinkers from around the world. We started interviewing more people about possible future societies, regenerative cultures, and where the world might be going.
We started to get the picture that a new way of living was actually possible by combining new ideas and technologies with older and more established cultures and philosophies. We began conceptualizing a physical community and learning center for a new way of living.
And then, life threw a wrench into our lifestyle.
We had our first child.
Mike’s mom got cancer.
Covid hit, and we got scared that we would be stuck during lockdowns and not be able to see family during a hard time.
We made the decision to end our travels and move across the world again, with a newborn to be with our family.
After nearly 10 years of nomading, we returned to Canada. For us, it was the end of an era.
The first thing we noticed after we returned to Canada, was the increased drug and homelessness problem, inflation, and pessimism about the future. Even in the airport, the TV was blasting doom and gloom.
We’d also both lost a number of friends in Vancouver to suicide and drug overdoses.
Clearly, something was deeply wrong with society and the culture.
At the same time, we’d seen first hand during travels that there are different ways of living and structuring society. We saw an opportunity, clear as day.
We saw a rare chance to blend technology, ancestral wisdom, creativity, culture design, health and wellness, and a supportive multigenerational environment for raising kids.
So, in 2020, we assembled all of our materials and began fundraising to build a smart village in BC.
My sister found this golf course and RV campsite for sale. It wasn’t the typical choice for starting an ecovillage – not a ranch or a retreat center.
But we saw that there was a unique opportunity for this infrastructure to support a village. The ability to host a large number of people, hold events, and have a hospitality business model that sustains the land.
We succeeded in crowdfunding the land, and convinced our family and friends to move there with us, and in 2021 we moved.
So, in 2020, we assembled all of our materials and began fundraising to build a smart village in BC.
Mike’s sister found this golf course and RV campsite for sale. It wasn’t the typical choice for starting an ecovillage – not a ranch or a retreat center.
But we saw that there was a unique opportunity for this infrastructure to support a village. The ability to host a large number of people, hold events, and have a hospitality business model that sustains the land.
After more than a year of campaigning, we succeeded in crowdfunding the land, and then convinced our family and friends to move there with us in the summer of 2021.
It was a huge milestone. Again, we thought: “we fucking made it!”
But this is when the real challenges had just begun.
It felt like we knew nothing about how to operate and run things. Everything was constantly breaking. We were cold, wet, dirty, exhausted, and covered in bugs.
We were navigating conflicts. Having major financial difficulties. Just barely making it by the skin of our teeth.
We clearly bit off more than we could chew.
But somehow we managed to get through it. Nearly 5 years later, we’re still here and still doing it.
We have learned a lot, the hard way.
We learned to fix and build infrastructure. We installed irrigation lines, built a geodesic dome, barrel sauna, garden, maker space, and a lot of other things. And we hosted thousands of people on our land.
The experience of starting the village has taught us more than any school or any mentor could.
We learned how to learn, how to work as a team, and solve high stakes problems on the fly.
In other words, meta skills.
We also gained physical and practical skills.
And became stronger and more grounded after living in a multigenerational community, now as parents of two. We earned real resilience.
It feels like after years of talking about these ideas on the podcast, we actually learned all of it from our own experience. This is no longer just dreams and theories. This is real.
So, what now?
We’re getting ready for Phase Two of our village project.
Hosting bigger events and festivals. Creating art installations. Building new cabins and community structures.
Starting a membership program, and hosting more seasonal residents.
Inviting bigger collaborators, investors, partners.
So this is where we’re at.
If this has been inspiring and you’d like to explore co-creating this next phase with us, let’s talk.
