Nomad Cruise Founder Johannes Voelkner on Kitesurfing, Brand Loyalty and Building Nomadic Communities (Ep 22)

Learn how embracing failure, distributed teams, and intentional culture can turn an event into a truly loyal community. ============================ Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds. ============================ ON THIS EPISODE Johannes Voelkner takes us on his digital nomad journey, which started in 2010. He shares many of his initial failures and setbacks, all of which led him to start what would become one of the largest Facebook groups for digital nomads. He explains how that ultimately lead to the founding of The Nomad Cruise, which now attracts nearly 500 participants per voyage and is one of the largest ‘workation’ events in the world. Johannes then takes us behind the scenes and talks about how he runs and grows The Nomad Cruise as a business. He explains his process for identifying and hiring his team, his process for managing distributed staff and volunteers across time zones, the project management software he uses, and the operational systems he has developed for organizing the Nomad Cruise conference. He also explains why he incorporates a “night of failures” on every cruise and shares his personal belief in the importance of repeated failure in order to create the eventual outcome of success, and wanting to foster a supportive environment on the cruise for people to talk about their failures. He also reflects on how he has been able to cultivate fierce brand loyalty from customers, staff and volunteers who continually return for cruise after cruise, and why building ‘community’ is his core passion and driving inspiration. He also discusses his personal day structure, work routines, and his passion for kitesurfing as a destination sport that inspires many of his personal choices in travel locations. → 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!