The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders

Learn how systems, hiring, and creative discipline can keep a service business growing as you travel around the world.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Lydia Baikalova tells her story of growing up poor in Ukraine, learning to speak English at age 13 and developing her entrepreneurial drive out of necessity to make money. She then shares her acting trajectory which eventually led her to Los Angeles. After years of modeling and acting, she explains how she decided to start a wedding photography business that she eventually scaled to over 25 staff. She explains how she built the systems and processes and infrastructure that now allows her to run it remotely while traveling the world. She shares specific tips on hiring, systems building, and scaling a service-based business as well as artistic and creative businesses. She then offers tips on how everyone can take better photos, for Instagram or anywhere else, and look fabulous. Lydia then goes on to talk about her passion for travel and the nomadic lifestyle. She shares her insights on personal growth, relationship building, and dating while traveling the world as a nomad. She also recounts some of her top travel experiences, adventures, mishaps, and favorite places. She talks about her love for tango, free-diving, and her passion for learning new skills as she travels. She also recounts her experiences in South Africa, explains how “Burning Man” events have impacted her life, and shares her views about having “nice things”. She also discusses the expansion of her business, the opening of a boudoir division, and why that is so significant to her. She also shares her specific morning routine, day structure, and productivity tips.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

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FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

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Learn how automation, focused work, and audience building can create income streams that fund a sustainable nomad life.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Johnny FD talks about his latest travel adventures and begins by explaining why he loves the value destinations of Sri Lanka and Nepal in South Asia, Ukraine and Bansko, Bulgaria in Eastern Europe, and Lisbon, Portugal in Western Europe. Johnny then goes on to talk about his strategy for building businesses that can be automated, and building (or buying) assets that generate passive income. He debunks the most prominent myths about “passive income”, and describes his tenacious work ethic, morning routine, exercise and nutrition regimen, and explains what it really takes to build functional streams of passive income. He explains how he has now built a dozen streams of passive income that finance his lifestyle and world travel. He breaks down the details of how he does affiliate marketing, how he creates online courses, how he builds audience and monetizes his blog and his You Tube channel, and why he chooses a long-form interview format for his podcast even though it makes him less money. He also gives tips on avoiding “shiny-object syndrome” and spreading yourself too thin. Johnny then talks about his latest course “Income Boss”, who it is for and the value it provides. He then gives specific tips on personal brand building. Next he talks about why he loves travel so much, how he selects his locations, and how he designs his lifestyle. Finally, he explains why he expanded the Nomad Summit to take place twice a year on different continents, and why it now includes an optional post-Summit meet-up for up to a month afterwards and how you can participate.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

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ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Hear how persistence, creative focus, and relentless networking helped him break into film and build a remote company.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Michael Thelin takes us on his journey coming up as a trader on the CBOE (Chicago Board Options Exchange), explains what that unique environment was like on the inside, how he managed the rollercoaster of stress and euphoria, and the personal life lessons he took from the experience. He then opens up about how he pivoted to become a writer and director, lived on unemployment for a year as he grinded away, and finally had his breakthrough when he sold a show to NBC. He explains how he built his own path to success through networking, staying creatively focused on producing high quality work, and never taking a vacation. He talks about how he landed fortune 500 commercial clients like BMW, Amex and Coca Cola and landed production consulting work for Warner, Universal and Fox. He then talks about the projects that won him Clios and Emmys and shares some behind the scenes mishaps. He then explains how he built his business, “MTP”, a film and television production consulting company that he scaled to over 20 staff, which now oversees the production of Google’s premium streaming content that is competing with Netflix and Amazon. He explains how he built his business with a location independent infrastructure so he can run it remotely while traveling the world. He then shares his creative process for co-writing and directing his first feature film Emelie, which released theatrically in 2016. He shares what it was like on set directing the film, explains the incredible stress level and how he managed to stay focused and complete the project to critical acclaim.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Hear why walking away from a dream job led her to rethink success, build automated income, and design life on her terms.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Marisa Meddin shares her experiences as a brand marketer at Pepsi for 6 years, and describes what life was like throwing celebrity parties for influencers, walking red carpets at the Grammys, Clios and Golden Globes, and regularly interacting with her A-list clients. She distills down the business lessons learned from managing the $1.5 Billion Diet Pepsi brand, and breaks out the core principles of Pepsi’s brand-building strategy that are applicable to businesses of all sizes. Marisa then explains why she left Pepsi in her late 20s and walked away from what everyone saw as “the good life” and the “dream job”. She takes us through her career and life transition, why she decided to start over and how she taught herself to build location-independent businesses from scratch. She takes us through her journey of becoming a real estate professional and then building a completely automated business that now generates enough passive residual income to cover her lifestyle expenses while she travels the world as a full-time digital nomad. Marisa emphasizes the tenacious work ethic required to learn, build, and automate successful businesses, and then breaks down the specific tactics for how she executed her product development, focus grouping of her target market, copywriting and marketing, and building effective sales funnels. She also goes deep into tactics for creating the right mindset and how to surround yourself with the right stimulation and create powerful incentives to succeed. She then talks about her move into the life/career coaching space and her love of working with people to help them create lives they truly love. And finally, she shares some of her top travel experiences and conveys the crucially important role of ‘community’ for long term world travelers.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Learn how work ethic, cash-flow discipline, hiring, and remote teams can turn an entrepreneurial leap into real scale.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Ben Lakoff takes us on his journey of becoming a Division 1 Golfer, getting into corporate finance, and then becoming an entrepreneur and helping build one of Thailand’s most popular Cryptocurrency exchanges. He shares his experience helping to raise $2 million dollars through an ICO (Initial Coin Offering), and becoming the CEO of Intelligent Trading Foundation which develops sophisticated tools for cryptocurrency investors. He then shares insights on making the entrepreneurial leap, the work ethic required to build a start-up, cash-flow management strategies, scaling and hiring, and tips for communicating with and managing a distributed team. He also talks about being an angel investor, how he evaluates investment opportunities and the most important thing for him to invest in a company. He then explains his overall personal investment portfolio strategy, including alternative investments like Indie-films, and what he sees for the future of cryptocurrency. He also talks about becoming an Under Armour sponsored athlete and being named “Thailand’s Fittest Man”. Ben then shares his experiences traveling to over 60 countries and living outside the U.S. for 8 of the last 10 years. He tells stories about hiking the Himalayas to Mt. Everest base camp, scuba diving around Komodo Island (Home of the Komodo Dragons) in Indonesia, Racing a Moto-Taxi down the World’s Most Dangerous Road in Bolivia, and participating in the “Running of the Bulls” in Pamplona, Spain. He also gives his tips for staying fit while traveling the world, reducing stress and optimizing productivity.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Learn how lean growth, clear metrics, deep work, and defined culture can help entrepreneurs scale without losing focus.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Maria Sirotkina shares her entrepreneurial journey, starting with co-founding her first company, J-Study, in her home country of Russia, and running it as an 18-year old CEO. She explains how she and her partners scaled that business to 8-figures in annual revenue and what her biggest leverage points and breakthroughs have been. She provides tactical strategies for bootstrapping a lean startup, growth hacking, and paying attention to the right metrics and KPIs. She also explains the concept of co-living, how she developed her passion for it, and why she founded her Co-Living business ReStation in the Canary Islands, which she has now scaled up to 4 buildings that have housed over 1,000 nomadic travelers. She shares both the real estate and business lessons she has learned from operating her co-living space, and why it is crucially important to co-living spaces to establish a clearly defined culture. Maria then explains why she co-founded her third business, Nomad Train, which takes groups of Nomads from Moscow, Russia to Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia on the Trans-Siberian Railway. Maria also shares her passion for nomadic travel, why she chose to study Arabic, how she met her husband in Cape Town, and what her top 3 favorite travel destinations are. She also explains the concept of ‘deep work’ and shares her productivity strategies, including the specific tactics she uses for running three businesses in different countries while being a wife and mother of two who prioritizes her family.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Hear how rebuilding his confidence sparked a career pivot, business growth, and a mission to help disadvantaged men.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Colin Randall shares his experience working in real estate and explains how he quickly rose up the ranks right out of college to start selling million dollar homes within 3 months. He then tells the story of how he landed a billionaire real estate investor as a mentor and he shares the real estate investing lessons he learned working for him over the years. Colin then opens up about some of the biggest challenges and setbacks he faced and how, at his lowest point, he discovered that dressing well, wearing fashionable suits, and taking pride in his appearance had a powerful impact on re-building his self-confidence. He then talks about his major career pivot into producing music videos in Los Angeles. He explains the specific strategies and leverage points he used to quickly rise in the industry to start landing major studio contracts to produce music videos with 6-figure budgets for A-List musicians like The Back Street Boys, Pitbull, Enrique Iglesias and many others. He then explains how and why he decided to start traveling the world full time and running his business remotely. He shares the tactics for how he continues to run the video production business from different countries around the world, the unexpected benefits of doing so, and how he was able to 4X his income in his first year of being a full time digital nomad. Colin then talks about how he decided to start a second business selling fashionable men’s suits, including a charitable component that donates suits to homeless and other disadvantaged men, and shares how he even took the charitable component around the world with him as well.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Learn how coaching over judging, open communication, and accountability can transform leadership and workplace culture.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Dr. Laura Gallaher shares her path to becoming an organizational psychologist, then an entrepreneur, and finally a nomad traveling the world with her executive assistant and running her business remotely. She explains how she got hired by NASA early in her career to help change the cultural influences that were deemed to play a role in the Space Shuttle Columbia explosion. She shares what those 8 years were like behind the scenes at Kennedy Space Station and how she was able to positively influence culture, develop leadership capacity, and improve organizational performance. She explains how she was later hired by Walt Disney and helped manage the radical changes in their performance management process and philosophy. She then talks about founding her own business, Gallaher Edge, which helps business leaders create cultures of accountability and grow from the inside out. She shares actionable tips and advice for business leaders about the importance of open, honest communication, creating cultures of accountability, team cohesion, “radical collaboration” and why there needs to be a serious revamping of “performance management” to re-focus on ‘coaching’ instead of ‘judging’. She also opens up about her personal entrepreneurial journey, the setbacks she experienced, and how she ultimately built a thriving consulting business. She then shares her nomading experiences and explains how she decided to travel the world with her executive assistant. She opens up about the challenges of trying to run her business remotely, but also the unique business developments that the remote work environment inspired her to create, the personal growth she experienced, and the evolution of her concept of “home”.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Hear how losing everything led to family nomad life, 12 years in Haiti, and a new real estate career starting at age 58.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Bill Manassero tells his incredible life story which begins with him getting elected to public office at age 18, becoming a corporate VP by age 21, then becoming an entrepreneur, gravitating into the tech space, getting hired by one of Meg Whitman’s companies, and then losing it all when the tech bubble burst in the late 90s. Bill had 5 kids at the time and decided to make a major life pivot, become a professional musician, and travel the world long term with his wife and kids. Homeschooling his kids and teaching them life lessons through travel, Bill shares what life was like for his family as itinerant nomads for over 3 years before moving to Haiti where they would be based for the next 12 years. Bill explains how he and his family founded “Child Hope International” which established medical clinics, orphanages, schools and entrepreneurial trainings for the people of Haiti, and ended up getting his family featured on a CNN special with Soledad O’Brien and interviewed by Oprah. He explains how incredibly challenging yet incredibly rewarding life was for his family in Haiti. Bill then talks about how he transitioned back to life in the U.S. and started investing in real estate in 2014 at age 58 and explains how he has acquired 88 units since then. Bill gives his top advice for real estate investors over 50, and shares tips on analyzing and conducting your due diligence on out-of-state rental properties. Bill then explains why he started the “Old Dawg’s REI Network” podcast and shares his biggest takeaways from it.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!

Learn the marketing principles, relationship-building, and resilience behind his unconventional entrepreneurial journey.

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Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds.

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ON THIS EPISODE

Seth Greene shares his entrepreneurial journey from being a magician to a financial advisor to founding his own direct-response marketing firm, Market Domination, LLC.  He explains the marketing principles he discovered that radically improved all of his business results. He then tells the story of how he met, “kidnapped”, and effectively pitched Shark Tank’s Kevin Harrington, which led to a lasting business relationship including Kevin and Seth co-hosting the “Sharkpreneur Podcast”.  Seth explains the most effective strategies for pitching and networking with celebrities and other high profile people. He also shares his experience as a judge on Pitch Tank, the live version of Shark Tank, and what he has learned from interacting with billionaires like Steve Forbes and other highly successful businesspeople.  He also shares his opinion of the top 3 marketers today that every entrepreneur should be closely following. Seth talks about some of the biggest mistakes he has made along his journey and what he learned from them. He also shares how he manages stress and entrepreneurial setbacks, and how he separates work from family and prioritizes his wife and kids.  Seth then goes on to discuss parenting and how he is raising entrepreneurial kids. He explains how his 10-year old daughter Ella, who co-hosts a YouTube show with him, has already published her own book, been on the local news, and has paying clients. And finally, Seth shares exactly what he would do if he had to start all over with no money, no following, no list and nobody knew who he was.

→ Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here.

============================

FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE

Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests.

============================

FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU

See my Top 10 Travel Apps

See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel

See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual)

Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn

See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend

See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use)

============================

ENJOYING THE SHOW?

Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation

Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally

Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!