Can Ad Agency People Get The Hell Out Of Town?

I’ve been thinking about living and working in a foreign country. I am not alone. It might be a life stage for me (I sold my ad agency a couple of years ago and do not have to live in any specific locale — although I do live in Portland, America’s coolest city.) I also run a ‘nomad’ consulting business and was able to base  my work out of three continents in the past couple of years.

Sell Your Ad Agency & Get Out

A few times a year I talk with ad agency owners that want to get the hell out. They want to do this for various reasons: They’ve had enough; they are 61; they want to try something else; their agency is not performing well; agency margins suck; there are too many competitors; they don’t like dealing with HR issues and paying for everyone’s medical insurance. And, on and on.

Move To Mexico Or Chaing Mai

My wife and I started to scout out Mexico last year. We spent some time in Mexico City, San Miguel de Allende and Ajijic. San Miguel was the winner… Here is Huffington Post’s take on San Miguel: “10 Reasons Why People Fall in Love With San Miguel de Allende.”  We’ll do more scouting this winter when we vacation in Sayulita and Puerto Vallarta. We’ve selected Mexico for a bunch of reasons. It is Mexico and if you dig Mexico like we do then it is a no-brainer. Mexico is also: close to friends and family via many non-stops; has a sweet cost of living; is in our time zones (which works for my American agency clients); has a very rich and diverse culture; has mountains and beaches and big cosmopolitan cities; has great food; has warmth (on many levels); has a rich art scene and is community oriented. However, it has spotty Internet service which I realized when I was working out of an AirBNB rental in San Miguel de Allende. I got over this issue quickly via evening shots of tequila and mezcal. Two other big reasons to dig Mexico.

Nomad List

I was surfing the Internet this morning in my never ending quest to learn about places where I can live and work and came across Nomad List. Nomad List is an information website and community for nomads. Nomads like 30, 40, 50 and 60-year-olds that might not want to work anymore on Madison Avenue or in SOMA or Austin.

The site lets you put in your criteria as in COL, weather, air quality, activities and Internet speeds. Check it out and realize that you can actually work from anywhere in the world. Nomad List also points you to co-working spaces. Most ad people have portable skills…. why not move them overseas.

Need a start? I punched in some personal criteria and Chaing Mai, Thailand came out on top. It has been on my move-to list for years. Play with Nomad and find out why.

So, get out.

Need more push? Check out this article… “Succeeding from Anywhere: 5 Trailblazing Communities for Digital Nomads”