Cities
There is no single best city for every marketing agency owner. Micha's journey connects Bali with building, Valencia with balance, Rio with adventure, Medellín with focus and New York with the US market.
Bali suited building and community. Micha loved the entrepreneurs, villas, sun and low costs. Chaotic traffic, getting sick early and people constantly leaving were the tradeoffs. The experience changed after he moved from a hostel into a villa with founders. The lesson is not that a particular island automatically creates a successful marketing agency. Community can support the work, but the marketing agency still needs a niche, an offer, sales conversations and a delivery system. The base supports those decisions rather than replacing them.
Valencia represented balance and closeness to home. It was beautiful, calm and easy for friends and family to visit, with less business community. Rio de Janeiro represented adventure: beaches, energy and unforgettable experiences, alongside noise and less service. Micha's Copacabana apartment had thin walls and needed earplugs at night. Not every place that looks good also feels good. A city guide based on his experience should include those tradeoffs, rather than turn the journey into a list of places everyone is expected to love.
Medellín represented focus and scaling, with spring weather, warm people, value and overlap with Europe and the US. Safety and neighbourhood choice still required attention. New York represented doing business in the United States, with energy, ambition and proximity to that market, but it was expensive. These are Micha's phase-specific observations. They are not a promise of the same lifestyle costs or business results. Before choosing a destination, ask what this phase of your own life and marketing agency is for.
Location independence means sales, delivery and team communication can happen online. It does not mean travel logistics disappear. Slow travel beats fast travel in the book's approach because repeatedly moving can compete with the focused work required to build a marketing agency. Design a freedom calendar rather than treating every week as a holiday. Choose a base that fits the phase you are in, and consider whether you need community, balance, adventure, focus or proximity to a client market.
Before choosing a base, check internet, time zone, cost of living, safety, community, health, climate, flights, rules for staying and the overall vibe. These are questions to investigate for your circumstances, not a fixed city ranking. Taxes, banking, insurance and visas need attention. Ask qualified professionals where necessary rather than treat a book or a guide as personal legal advice. A place can be beautiful and still make the working week difficult if its time zone or living arrangements do not fit your needs.
Loneliness can be part of the nomad life. Micha describes six lonely weeks in Bali before finding a different community. Choosing bases with entrepreneurs, living with founders and keeping a fixed call with family are practical responses from the book. Freedom becomes more meaningful when you can share it. His time in Valencia included visits from friends and parents and being there for his mother's sixtieth birthday. His New York chapter included a visit from the sister who had always dreamed of the city.
Delivery should become a process another person can follow. Deliver useful work for the client, then document the steps as standard operating procedures. A document is only helpful when it describes the work as it actually happens. Keep selling while the delivery system is being built. Otherwise a successful first contract can become the comfortable trap Micha describes: the existing work absorbs attention, outreach stops and the marketing agency depends on the next renewal rather than a continuing flow of conversations.
Outsource before you hire. In the book's sales sequence, closers come first and setters follow. The purpose is not to remove responsibility before the process works. It is to hand over repeatable work once you understand what good execution looks like. Let it be eighty percent as good rather than insist that another person does every detail exactly as you would. A marketing agency cannot grow beyond its owner's hours if every small difference pulls the owner back into the task.
The sales machine includes lead sources, booking, show-up, the call without you and follow-up. Each part should have a clear place in the process. AI and freelancers can help the system move, but a missing step does not become complete because a tool has been connected. Look at the handover between tasks. If a lead is routed instantly but nobody owns the conversation, the workflow has automated activity without solving the practical problem. People still own the relationships and decisions.
The Bridge means building next to your job with a twelve-month plan. Keep your income while you learn, validate the niche and begin finding clients. Set a quit trigger so leaving is a decision connected to recurring revenue and a financial buffer, rather than an emotional deadline. Find ten focused hours each week and check your employment contract before taking clients. A slower transition is not a less serious commitment. It can give you room to make better decisions while the marketing agency is still taking shape.
The Leap means saving capital and giving the marketing agency your full attention. Micha chose that path, and his savings ran out faster than expected. His story includes support from his parents and a freelance contract that later ended. That is a reason to plan a larger buffer, not a reason to expect the same support or outcome. The business itself may cost very little to start, but your living expenses continue whether or not a client signs this month.
Calculate runway before removing a salary. Separate the cost of running the business from the monthly cost of the life you want. Include the practical buffer you need for your own circumstances. The book's freedom number example uses an eight-thousand-euro monthly target and a fifteen-hundred-euro monthly client price, which rounds up to six clients. That arithmetic describes revenue, not take-home income. Taxes, business costs and a buffer belong in the target. It is not an earnings prediction.
The first fourteen days focus on foundation: calculate a freedom number, choose a niche, make validation calls, write a one-page offer and build a list of more than three hundred prospects. The list supports the outreach phase rather than replacing the research. A large list of irrelevant businesses is not the same as a clear market. Keep the positioning specific and use the validation conversations to make the offer more connected to what that type of client actually needs.
Days fifteen to forty-five focus on first clients, with outreach and sales calls every day and the aim of signing the first one to three clients. Days forty-six to seventy-five focus on delivery, documenting standard operating procedures and continuing to sell. Days seventy-six to ninety introduce first automations, a first hire and a possible next base. This is a working sequence, not a guarantee or a deadline for results. Move through it with attention to the work, not an obligation to manufacture a milestone.
The ninety-day plan connects the whole NOMAD model. Niche and Offer belong at the beginning because Meetings are harder when the positioning is unclear. Automate follows delivery because a process needs to exist before it can be handed over. Depart is designed around the marketing agency and the life you want to build. You can learn these stages together, but do not use an attractive destination as a substitute for the client work or the financial buffer that would make travel a calmer decision.
These are Micha's own numbers from his own marketing agency, shared to show what is possible. They are not a promise of results.
No. You can build a marketing agency on the side with The Bridge, a 12-month plan, and quit once client revenue makes it a calm decision. If you have savings and want full focus, The Leap is a 7-step plan for quitting now. The mentorship helps you choose one.
The accelerator is based on Micha's book. It lays out the full path: the NOMAD model, The Bridge and The Leap, and how he built Leadstars from Bali. Micha is also the author of "De Vrijheid van Remote Werken" and "Go Remote or Go Home".
The Out of Office Forever Program is a 1:1 program to set up a marketing agency you can run from anywhere. Book a free strategy call to see whether it fits your situation.
Book your free strategy callThe program is based on the book Out of Office Forever, the complete playbook behind the method.
View on Amazon