Brandon Campbell is a 31-year old entertainment and creative media attorney who recently spent a year traveling to 13 countries through a program that offers group travel around the world.

 

In that year, he visited: Croatia, Czechia, Portugal, Bulgaria, France, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, and Mexico.

 

We had the chance to speak with him about his experience and how he managed to keep working while traveling.

 

 

Travel Noire: What made you decide to spend a year traveling and working remotely?

Brandon: Really, it was a bit of serendipity and destiny I’d say. Me and my homeboys have a group chat. One day, one of the homies, Joel, tossed a link in the chat that featured a program that offered group travel around the world to different countries each month for a year. When he first put it in the chat, I honestly thought nothing of it. Some of my other friends briefly discussed the possibility and how dope it would be, but it was so farfetched to me that I didn’t even take time to consider it seriously until a couple months later.

 

Related: The Black Expat: Mastering Living Abroad Without Giving Up Life Back Home.

 

Wonder eventually took over and I clicked the link to see what it was about. I decided that I would apply, put it in the back of my mind, and not think anything of it again unless I was called back. Once I was contacted about an interview, my eyebrows raised a little bit. After my interview, that was the first time I realized: “Oh, this thing is really a possibility.” I found myself quickly going from “yeah right, this would never happen” to ” I have to make this happen.” After talking to my brothers, I realized this opportunity was directly in line with what I had proclaimed to be my life’s mission: to create things to help contribute to a more empathetic society.

 

To do that, I needed to see more of the world, have more interactions with people, and experience a variety of cultures first-hand.

 

Travel Noire: How did you manage to work during the year?

Brandon: Well if we’re talking bare connectivity, each city that I was in was extremely Wi-Fi friendly. Because the remote work community is growing exponentially, many cities have workspaces where you can pay a fee per day, per week, or per month and have a dedicated space to work.

 

Travel Noire: Can you walk us through an average week for you during that time?

Brandon: Ok, so boom, I’d wake up and try to hit the gym or do some sort of workout if I were in a place where I wasn’t in close proximity to a gym. I would get something quick to eat and then hit either the designated workspace for the month or a local café because that was a good way to explore as well. Then, depending on the day, schedule, country, and time zone I was doing some sort of experiential tourism at least one to two days of that week.

 

I might be paragliding above the South Pacific Ocean on Monday and hiking in the mountains on Saturday. But even in a week where there wasn’t much going on, the beauty about LIVING in another country was a new experience.

 

 

Related: The Black Expat: I Gave Up Luxury To Live Abroad And Travel.

What positives or negatives did you face as a Black man abroad?

Brandon: One thing, in particular, that was frustrating was my inability to have regular human moments as opposed to some of my peers I was traveling with. I believe I was initially incredibly engaged with the intention to forge meaningful bonds with everyone in my cohort but what I realized after time is that if I had a bad day, it was “What’s wrong with him?” If someone else had a bad day they were more likely to excuse it as just a bad day or be more understanding. I don’t really have to say more for you to understand how that goes. I honestly didn’t expect that to be the case and I’m sure it wasn’t intentional but it was what it was.

 

However, in the communities of most of the cities I explored, I experienced this immense embrace from strangers like never before.

 

 

Travel Noire: Would you take this journey again? Why or why not?

Brandon: While I don’t think I would go to a different place for each month for a year again, I definitely look forward to implementing longer periods of travel into my lifestyle. Ideally, I’d do a minimum of 6 weeks in places I’d like to explore. I believe 6 weeks gives you just enough time to live a full-time working remote lifestyle while still enjoying and exploring the culture to a degree of sufficiency that allows you to have a base level of perspective, understanding, and appreciation of what’s happening in that particular place.  

 

Travel Noire: Where can our audience reach you on social media?

Brandon: I can be found on all platforms at Bcamboss. To catch initial pieces of my docuseries highlighting my interactions with cultures in various countries find me at youtube.com/extendedfamily.