IAM1308 – CEO Creates Businesses that is Remotely Run

Rax Suen is a nomadic entrepreneur and creative director who works with global clients on design and content strategies. He also runs NomadsUnveiled, a travel, and remote lifestyle information site. With a curiosity for the world and human perspectives, he hosts the ChatWithNomads Travel podcasts, featuring conversations of world travelers and nomads.

• CEO Story: Rax started with tech startups but when he discovered his true passion which is freedom – traveling. He began setting up remote businesses like design studios and content strategies.
• Business Service: Graphic design, creative content. Share knowledge and experiences on his site with regards to remote work and travel.
• Secret Sauce: Seeing other people’s perspectives.
• CEO Hack: Practising gratitude. Ability to catch negative parts.
• CEO Nugget: Things take time, you want to monitor your micro growth but make sure you don’t over-judge yourself.
• CEO Defined: Responsibility. How to align a company’s interest with personal interest and be able to help people grow.

Website: www.nomadsunveiled.com

www.roovstudios.com

@nomadsunveiled

open.spotify.com/show/4P0sXPW88vMjRO2HuW4jRl

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Transcription

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00:23 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:50 – Gresham Harkless 

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Rax Suen of Nomads Unveiled. Rax, super excited to have you on the show.

00:59 – Rax Suen 

Yo, Gresham. Thanks for having me on. Excited to be speaking to you.

01:03 – Gresham Harkless 

Yes. I'm definitely excited to have you on as well too. We were talking a little bit before we got started, and you're doing so many things. So I'm super excited to dive in and hear about all the awesome things you've been able to do, and, of course, we can learn from you. But, of course, before we do that, I want to read a little bit more about Rax so you can hear about some of those awesome things.

Rax is a nomadic entrepreneur and creative director who works with global clients on design and content strategies. He also runs Nomads Unveiled, a travel and remote lifestyle information site. With a curiosity for the world and human perspectives, he hosts the Chat with Nomads travel podcast featuring conversations between world travelers and Nomads Rax. Super excited again to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

01:44 – Rax Suen 

Yeah. For sure.

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01:44 – Gresham Harkless 

Awesome. Well, let's do it then. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, a little bit more on how you got started, what I like to call your CEO story.

01:52 – Rax Suen 

Cool. So basically what I do these days is that I travel around the world and I try to build a lifestyle that is, you know, free, free, geographically, financially, mentally. That's what I'm trying to achieve in general in life. And it all started back a few years ago when I was first in the startup scene, running tech startups. That was always my background. Try it for a bit and then kind of at the end of the day decided that, hey, this is not working out because, we had the team, but then not really the domain expertise.

And I realized back then that freedom was something that I actually valued quite strongly after going through the process. So I was like, Scootie's, let's go and do something that I really want to do. And I have always joked when I left when I graduated from school, that I'm going to just take off and travel around the world. Haven't really done that, but I was thinking, you know, now is the time. So I started building businesses based on the idea that I could get things done remotely. Obvious trend.

So even before the whole COVID pandemic and everything, I always knew that remote work and tapping on global resources would be the future of stuff. So that's how I kind of started building off the fact that let's start different operational models that can kind of test this theory and see how things can be always done remotely as much as possible.

And, of course, in the last few years, we have seen it grow especially because of the pandemic. So I now run a design studio that is fully remote, serving international clients. All my team is remote, and I also run an information site talking about travel and remote work, obviously. And similarly, the team is global from everywhere else. And that's why I love the idea of looking into the story of different people, which is similar to what this podcast looks at, but I'm more interested in traveler stories. And so that's why my podcast focuses on, like, traveler stories and how they run that freedom lifestyle and what freedom means to them.

03:55 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. Absolutely. I love love love it. And like I mentioned, before we got into the conversation, I hit record. Like, I think so many times when you're running a business or even, frankly, living your life, sometimes you could forget about why you're doing what you're doing. And I love that you really sound like you came to that word freedom, and you started to realize, like, how can you kind of create that freedom, while still being able to sound like and I don't wanna put words in your mouth, have that purpose, have that to make an impact in all of those things. So I love that's how you led it. And I think so many times we forget that we too can, you know, pick up the I always say pick up the paintbrush it creates the life we ultimately want to have.

04:34 – Rax Suen 

Yep. Yep. For sure. For sure. I think a lot about this is also taking the leap of faith to try it out. There was no back then, of course, the famous term today for this group of people is called digital nomads. right? And sometimes when I go on other podcasts, they will ask, like, why did you decide to become a digital nomad? The fact was that when I did this, I didn't know about digital nomads. It was not the intention to be a digital nomad. I said, I wanted to travel and I have to find a way to make it, like last. And a lot of people feel like it's a huge, big leap of faith, so why not just take a few steps and test it out? If it doesn't work out, there's you can always go back to your original plans.

05:40 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. And I appreciate you so much for talking about your story, but also breaking that down. And I think, as you said, there are so many times a misconception that, if I wanna be this, I have to do X, Y, and Z. If I wanna be that, I have to do A, B, and C. And we sometimes forget that kind of fluidity, the creativity of being able to do it for yourself. And I think when you said you didn't necessarily say I wanna be a digital nomad. You said this is what freedom is for me, and this is how I wanna create it. And then you get those terms, you get those titles. But I think we lock ourselves in sometimes when you say, I need to be this, and it needs to be for four years because so and so did it for four years that you sometimes lose that creativity and that freedom that you ultimately were trying to do everything for.

06:22 – Rax Suen 

Yep. Yep. So it's really a self-awareness game, kind of like knowing what you want and also knowing that it's going to change. Like, like, it's not going to be the same forever. You might just want to do this right now. Right? And then obviously, and I believe this is almost always the case, the moment you start traveling, especially when you see the world, you meet other people, your perceptions will start to change and travels and digital nomads is that when you start at first, you're enthusiastic about traveling. Right? So you go like, I'm pretty quickly, you know, you're just at a new place every every other week or stuff.

But as you do it for the longer term, it's not about moving that frequency. It's not about checking off that checklist. It's about, like, staying in one place, understanding the people, forming the connections. It's no longer about seeing the attraction but meeting the people that create the memories. No one remembers that rock somewhere in the world, right? When you think back, you remember the time you spent with friends and the people you met, but you never remember, like, I saw them rock somewhere that looks like a queen's head or something. You know?

07:29 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. I love that, and I think we forget so much about that experience piece. And I feel like a lot of that might be, and, I guess, ingrained in the idea that, okay, you have this amount of weeks for vacation. You have to work your nine-to-five and do all these things. So you have to go to as many places, see as much as possible just so that you can check it off your list and do all those things, but actually be ingrained, and see things, have those is we sometimes forget, like, it's really exciting to see and do those things, but it also is even more exciting that the change that happens within us as a result of having those different experiences, perspectives and seeing the world, from a different perspective and angle, it seems like.

08:08 – Rax Suen 

Yep. Yep. I think that's addictive. I think one of the phrases that I always say, and you can see on my website is that I was writing about this paragraph when I did like six months in, I was writing that the world is actually bigger than the geographical aspects of it. The world is bigger than we can fathom because the world is actually formed out of billions of gazillions of perspectives, and that is what's really triggering long-term travelers. It's not about seeing the world physically, but it's about meeting the people and understanding that each one thinks differently and feels differently. And from there, I think you learn a lot, not just about business, you learn about life and you suddenly realize that everything starts to change.

08:49 – Gresham Harkless 

Yeah. Absolutely. I wanted to drill down a little bit more. I know you touched a little bit on your site and your show and all the awesome things. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about that, what we could find on your site, what you're doing, and then what you feel maybe even is what I like to call your secret sauce and sets you apart and makes you unique.

09:04 – Rax Suen 

Yeah, for sure. So, there are two main things that I do. One, I run a graphic design team, a pretty straightforward business model, and get clients to design, right? And that is kind of what I want to do an engine that can consistently produce creative content, not just for clients, but then subsequently in whatever I want to do. Right, the other one is a nomads on view site is where I kind of started it to share basically the experiences and knowledge that I have with regards to remote work and and travel.

And the podcast in it was interesting because I started it during COVID. One of the triggering factors was that I actually love hanging out in hostels. It's one of my go-to accommodation options apart from Airbnb and stuff. Not just as safe, and I miss the feeling of talking to people. I go to the hostel, you love to hear the story. So I was like, and now they do not travel. They are grounded. Now they have a lot of time. So I was like, that's an advantage.

Now I can just ping all the travelers, and then we can just, chat about whatever, right? So that was very interesting, for me to pick it up. And of course, there was also a challenge in terms of, like, coming in front of the camera and stuff, because that was never like what I like to do. I was never a very outward public person. But when I started doing it, it was just fun to do. And on the website, we started doing content. I wanted to write, but I started realizing one of my main focuses was always about perspectives, like like seeing other people's personal perspectives. If I write a blog, it's just gonna be my perspective. So I was like, maybe that doesn't make sense.

And to be honest, practically speaking, it wasn't super efficient because writing is not my strongest forte. That's for sure. I don't write, like, like, super fast. So I was, like, thinking maybe you should more be of an info site together with some of my experiences, and then I can, of course, share a lot more of my own personality through the podcast because that's what I enjoy doing. I enjoy speaking, and, of course, my views are portrayed better that way compared to just writing. So now, I focus a lot on, like, creating content that is just useful based on what people want or what they're looking for.

11:42 – Gresham Harkless 

Absolutely. I love that. And so I wanted to switch gears a little bit, and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. You might have already touched on this, but this could be like an app, a book, or a habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

11:56 – Rax Suen 

For sure you also, like, to touch upon, which is, practicing gratitude. But I would say that probably the precursor to that is the ability to catch negative thoughts. I think that's important. I've talked about that a lot, and that is something that I really know that I consciously practice. It took me years to practice this, and I still do it every day in the sense that now whenever I feel something negative, I will be able to catch it almost instantly because of the years of practice.

But at the start, it obviously takes some time to get used to it. Even when I'm just queuing for singing bar tickets, I'll be like, shit, man, why is this cute movie so slow and stuff like that. Right? Time. But now I realize that whenever I feel that I'll be like, oh, now I'm feeling impatient and feeling that negative thought has no use at all to my life or anyone else's life. Right? So then you start having empathy for the people who are serving the counter. It might be a bad day. It might be a busy day. You know? It's not like a straightforward process. Right? Sometimes it's as complex as life. You know, emotions are the same. Sometimes it needs to get go one whole round before I get back to the same spot.

And that's okay. I think year-over-year growth for all businesses when that was never actually the case in the past. You know? Things take time to make sense, but, of course, in this tech world and stuff and fast pace. So everyone tries to have like like a super hyperbola growth, like, you know, within a few years. And then when you don't achieve it, you feel like, oh, I'm shit. Like, I don't I don't I didn't manage to get all this. And I've seen quite a few entrepreneurs that I follow in terms of content that when they talk about the twenty-twenty-one reflection, I just saw that team coming across, quite regularly. And I also realized that, you know, hey, it's you know, things take time. Right? You want to monitor your micro growth, but you also wanna make sure that you're not just over-judging yourself and stuff.

14:11 – Gresham Harkless 

That's awesome. Well, now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping to have different quotes, unquote CEOs on the show. So, Rax, what does being a CEO mean to you?

14:21 – Rax Suen 

I'm seeing this challenge of, like, helping other people grow, being a very interesting aspect of it. And I'm thinking, obviously, I'm still learning it, but this is something that is very intriguing to me, I would say, in the in the last few months, because as I do it, there are new challenges to it. And it's almost about sometimes breaking the sort of foundational stuff that created your first level of success, redefining it, and then setting a new foundation that will bring your business or your life to a higher stage. So I think today looking at it, what I'm really trying to see is that as a CEO, how can you really align the company's interest with personal interest and be able to help other people grow? I think that's probably the interesting the very interesting back of it.

15:13 – Gresham Harkless 

Rax truly appreciate that definition, that perspective. Of course, I appreciate your time even more. So what I wanted to do now was pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional that you can let our readers and listeners know and, of course, how best they can get a hold of you, listen to your show, and all the awesome things that you're working on.

15:39 – Rax Suen 

That's where you can get all the information. The podcast is linked there, but otherwise, you can find it on Shopify, Apple, and whatever. I do not just call and chat with Nomads. You can probably connect with me on LinkedIn. That'll be straightforward.

15:52 – Gresham Harkless 

We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes so that everybody can get a hold of you and contact you, subscribe to the podcast, and all those awesome things that you're working on. Truly appreciate that perspective, Rax. Of course, appreciate your time even more, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:07 – Rax Suen 

Yep. Thank you for your time. It was a really fun conversation. I'll be looking forward to interacting with you more for sure.

16:13 – Outro 

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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