What I'm Learning About Being a Slow Traveling Nomad: Lessons from the Bridge

Here's the thing nobody tells you about building a business while employed: the constraints are actually the gift, it’s called the Parkinson's Law. I have maybe 90 minutes a day after my morning ritual (Coffee, Email, LinkedIn, X, Calendar) and before I jump on work calls. That's it. So I can't afford to overthink. I rant into SuperWhisper for 5-10 minutes about whatever's on my mind: My visa strategy, the 183-day rule, why standard productivity systems fail nomads, and turn it into outlines for blog posts, YouTube scripts, and a week's worth of X & BlueSky content. If I had quit my job first and had "all the time in the world," I'd probably still be researching the perfect content calendar instead of actually shipping.

The other thing I'm realizing is that my decade at my current job wasn't wasted, it was training. I spent 10 years optimizing systems, building frameworks, and solving logistical puzzles for clients. Now I'm doing the exact same thing, but for myself. The ATLAS framework (more on this in later posts) exists because I lived the problem: Trying to use other systems to track what I needed for traveling has forced me to build a location-aware system that tracks logistics and compliance alongside everything else. Corporate consulting taught me to see patterns and systemize chaos. Turns out, that's exactly what digital nomads need, they just don't know it yet.

I'm also learning that family complexity isn't a liability, it's credibility. My wife is Colombian, recently naturalized as a US citizen. My son's custody means I have him summers (June-August). My extended family is scattered across The US, Europe, Mexico, and Colombia. I'm not theorizing about cross-border life; I'm living it while planning our April 2026 move to The Balkans and our eventual push for Spain's Digital Nomad Visa. Every visa I research, every tax residency question I solve, every logistical nightmare I document is content. That's the Bricks & Borders brand. I'm not selling a fantasy; I'm showing the blueprint while I'm still drawing it.

The hardest lesson is building in public while protecting what you're building. I am starting to post ATLAS teasers on X, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and other platforms, just enough to create intrigue. I share my transition from consultant to creator, but I don't give away the full playbook until it's packaged and ready for you to use and benefit from. Some days I nail it. Other days I wonder if I'm sharing too much or not enough. But every night at 9 PM, I journal, capture what worked, adjust, and keep moving. Ultimately, I want to deliver a system that works!

The uncomfortable truth I'm sitting with right now, is that this might not work. Bricks & Borders might not replace my jobs salary. The newsletter might not hit 1,000 subscribers. The Balkans might be a disaster. But the bigger risk is the one that keeps me up at night, which is staying in the golden handcuffs for another decade and never finding out. So I'm building the bridge while I'm walking on it. I'm documenting the transition as the content. And I'm betting on the fact that if I can solve this for myself, the systems, the visas, the sustainability, the freedom, then I can help thousands of others do the same.

Ready to build your own bridge?

Head over to BricksandBorders.com to follow my journey, get actionable systems for location-independent life, and join a community of people who are done theorizing and ready to move. Subscribe to the newsletter for weekly insights on visas, tax residency, productivity systems, and the real logistics of building freedom.

Tools I actually use (and recommend):

• GL.iNet Travel Router - Create a stable, secure network anywhere. Essential for stealth remote work.
• Surfshark VPN - Protect your connection and access content from anywhere. Non-negotiable for nomads.
• US Global Mail - Your US address that follows you worldwide. Critical for maintaining financial and legal ties.
• StarLink - Reliable internet in remote locations. Game-changer for true location independence.

These aren't aspirational purchases. They're the boring infrastructure that makes the dream actually work.