Hear what traveling without a phone taught her about simplicity, human connection, and reconnecting with family roots. ============================ 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 Irina Papuc takes us through her upbringing in Chicago, her experience living and traveling through Europe, and her decision to move to Taiwan for a year to teach English. She shares her lessons from her time in Taiwan including living with Buddhist nuns and learning the value of minimalism and simplicity. She then shares her experiences on her travels through Asia, including water-gun fights on Buddha’s birthday in Myanmar and the Holi Festival of Colors in Vrindavan, India. Next, she takes us on her motorcycle trip through Nepal, including her experience living with a Shaman in the mountains and learning Nepalese Shamanic rituals. Irina then shares her journey slow-traveling the Silk Road without a phone, and detaching from the outside world. She tells stories of staying in yurts and drinking hot horse milk in Kyrgyzstan, attending a Tajik wedding near the border with Afghanistan, sleeping on rooftops in Uzbekistan, and crossing the Caspian Sea on a commercial ship. She then shares her experience hitchhiking around Georgia, avoiding mines in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, traveling to the Syrian border in Turkey, touring the town of Hasankeyf before it gets submerged under water. She also reflects on the conclusion of her journey when she eventually made it back to Romania to re-connect with her roots and meet some of her family members for the first time. Next she talks about co-founding Galactic Fed, a multi-national digital marketing agency, and explains how she selected the right business partner. She explains why she founded it as a fully-remote company, how she differentiated her business and scaled it to nearly 100 staff in 3 years, and explains the biggest mistakes businesses are making today with their SEO. She gives tips on managing a fully distributed team and shares her personal productivity, nutrition and fitness routines. → 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!

Slow-Traveling the Silk Road, Shamanic Rituals in Nepal, and Co-Founding Galactic Fed with Irina Papuc (Ep 108)

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Hear what traveling without a phone taught her about simplicity, human connection, and reconnecting with family roots.  ============================  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  Irina Papuc takes us through her upbringing in Chicago, her experience living and traveling through Europe, and her decision to move to Taiwan for a year to teach English.  She shares her lessons from her time in Taiwan including living with Buddhist nuns and learning the value of minimalism and simplicity.  She then shares her experiences on her travels through Asia, including water-gun fights on Buddha’s birthday in Myanmar and the Holi Festival of Colors in Vrindavan, India.  Next, she takes us on her motorcycle trip through Nepal, including her experience living with a Shaman in the mountains and learning Nepalese Shamanic rituals.  Irina then shares her journey slow-traveling the Silk Road without a phone, and detaching from the outside world.  She tells stories of staying in yurts and drinking hot horse milk in Kyrgyzstan, attending a Tajik wedding near the border with Afghanistan, sleeping on rooftops in Uzbekistan, and crossing the Caspian Sea on a commercial ship.  She then shares her experience hitchhiking around Georgia, avoiding mines in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, traveling to the Syrian border in Turkey, touring the town of Hasankeyf before it gets submerged under water.  She also reflects on the conclusion of her journey when she eventually made it back to Romania to re-connect with her roots and meet some of her family members for the first time.  Next she talks about co-founding Galactic Fed, a multi-national digital marketing agency, and explains how she selected the right business partner.  She explains why she founded it as a fully-remote company, how she differentiated her business and scaled it to nearly 100 staff in 3 years, and explains the biggest mistakes businesses are making today with their SEO.  She gives tips on managing a fully distributed team and shares her personal productivity, nutrition and fitness routines.   → 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!

The Maverick Show is a global travel podcast about what really happens when people cross borders and build lives across cultures. Hosted by full-time world traveler Matt Bowles, each episode features intimate, unfiltered conversations (often over a bottle of wine) exploring the human stories behind global travel and what the journey teaches us about the world and ourselves.  Guests include expats, digital nomads, women and diaspora storytellers, worldschooling families, and human rights advocates, all sharing travel stories that are funny, moving, and deeply human.  In addition to hearing about extraordinary places and the people who live there, you’ll learn what it’s really like to move abroad, build an expat life, or travel long-term, as guests open up about their personal journeys navigating culture, race, power, identity, and belonging in an unequal world. If you’ve ever felt that travel changes you in ways no one talks about, you’re in the right place.  The Maverick Show hit the Top 100 on Apple Podcasts (including #1 in Places & Travel), was ranked in the Top 1% of podcasts globally by Listen Notes, and was named the #1 Digital Nomad Podcast and #1 Remote Work Podcast by Million Podcasts — with hundreds of five-star listener reviews.

The Maverick Show: Global Travel Stories & Life Beyond Borders

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