“There’s a big difference between being a tourist and a true world traveler,” writer Matt Kasum once said. It’s a common sense-sounding truism that brings up more questions than it answers: What is a ‘true’ world traveler? What is a tourist? What actions do each of them take that the other does not?
These are philosophical questions that are hard to answer, but the line surely exists inside of Matt Kepnes, who is more popularly known through his books and his website as “Nomadic Matt”. Kepnes has been a professional traveller since a trip to Costa Rica in 2004. In a decade since that trip, he has become one of the forefront voices for the traveller who seeks not only the road off the beaten path, but also for the person who lacks the traditional financing to find that road.
“I have to travel a little differently,” Kepnes told me from the Virgin Islands. “You go on vacation, I don’t…when I travel, I spend more than I tell people to spend, because I do everything. That’s how you figure out what’s cheapest. So in that way, travel isn’t always about a budget for me. I have to do everything and distill it into a way you can do it yourself. I have to create the puzzle and then build and then put out the instruction manual that you use to put it together. I like figuring it out that way, I like figuring out the puzzle…If I take a cab this way, or hitchhike, what will the time and costs be? One way, it’ll be $7.50, the other it’ll be nine but I’ll save half an hour. What works the best?”
While travelling has always come naturally to Matt, no one is born with an eager web community eager to help you and each other out. You’ve got to earn that. For Kepnes, there was no magic “Hey, a lot of people are looking at this website!” moment. It was a gradual build with the occasional big bump, like an early story by the New York Times. In an era where comment sections are quickly becoming things of the past, Kepnes is quick to jump into his with agreements, arguments, and helpful recommendations.
Having a desk is somewhat counter-intuitive to Kepnes’ business model, but he finds that that is exactly what he needs sometimes, which is why he’s grateful for WeWork. “I really like the events, the community aspect of WeWork. I’m not at my desk for months on end, but I’m paying for the space because I love coming back for the happy hours.” Another one of Kepnes’ travels have taken him around his dream location of the Galapagos Islands, so while WeWork spaces can’t quite match up, they’ll do in a pinch.