Kayleigh Franks The Seeker

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Ibi

Hello and welcome to ITV’s Digital Nomad Stories, featuring real conversations with professionals who’ve cracked the code to sustainable, nomadic lifestyles. These people aren’t beach and Wi-Fi chasers. They’re building competitive advantages that traditional employment could never match. Global mobility, income diversification and the freedom to capitalize on opportunities anywhere. I’m Avi Malik, your favorite digital nomad consultant. And today I’m joined on the show by Kailey Franks, someone who didn’t stumble into nomadism.

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Ibi

She hunted it down. 2016 Chiang Mai. She spent three months interviewing digital nomads for her university research 24 interviews, 90 minutes each studying them like specimens. And then she made it her life’s mission to become one. So she played the long game, got an office job, showed up every day, built skills, established foundation. She spent years planning and building.

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Ibi

And when she finally did it, it wasn’t what she expected. Airbnb’s isolated her. The magic she had observed in Chiang Mai was missing until she discovered co-living. Finally, after eight years of chasing it, the thing she’d been building towards was real. This is what happens when you plan for a decade. In reality, it still surprises you. Is Kaylie, you wrote a thesis about being a digital nomad?

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Kayleigh

Yeah.

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Ibi

Why?

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Kayleigh

Why? My bachelor degree was business. Tourism. And those two things were combined. Created to know.

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Ibi

What year was it.

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Kayleigh

That I wrote in 2015?

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Ibi

How did you even know what a digital nomad was in 2015?

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Kayleigh

That was the first of its kind. No. My brother, looks really in the scene, and he talked to me about it, and it fascinated me. So I decided to research into it. And Nomad List was up at the time.

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Ibi

Really?

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Kayleigh

It was and it said the number one hub was Chiang Mai. So I flew to Chiang Mai and spent three months, interviewing digital nomads. I think 24 different interviews were an hour and a half. And yeah, I got to know what it was like to be nomadic.

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Ibi

In 2016.

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Kayleigh

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Ibi

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Kayleigh

No, I had the idea in 2015, 2016, I actually execute. Yeah.

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Ibi

Or, And what kind of stuff that these Nomad obviously they’re in. What country is Chiang Mai?

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Kayleigh

It was in Thailand.

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Ibi

So obviously they were in Thailand. What do you think of Thailand? Nomads.

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Kayleigh

Well, at the beginning, it was pretty incredible, like creating this community where there was no co-living or anything like that, which I think is one of the main differences now versus back then. But we did live in a certain apartment where other nomads would live as well. So it kind of had a similar feel where, we were living in our own apartments, but it would run into each other in the corridors and stuff like that.

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Kayleigh

And with me at certain cafes for, co-working that day.

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Ibi

What do you mean? We.

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Kayleigh

Me and the other people in the buildings.

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Ibi

So you were a nomad in 2016?

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Kayleigh

Well, I wasn’t nomad. I wasn’t technically a nomad because I wasn’t working. I was studying them, but I integrated.

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Ibi

You were studying them.

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Kayleigh

Yes.

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Ibi

What did you observe in their natural habitat?

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Kayleigh

That a lot of the catalyst to becoming a nomad. Well, for many of them, it was reading the book before our workweek. Probably not quite. Not as happy.

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Ibi

Tim ferriss, Tim ferriss.

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Kayleigh

Wow.

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Ibi

Really? There’s good old Tim.

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Kayleigh

Yeah, he’s.

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Ibi

Talking the original nomads.

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Kayleigh

Yeah, but they they didn’t agree with a four hour workweek because, I mean, he his concept is like being location independent and having control over that kind of thing. But they were, I guess, skeptical about the four hours per week because actually you have to really put in some work.

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Ibi

To spend longer than four hours. And I worked longer than four hours, longer than four hours.

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Kayleigh

A week. Yes, I.

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Ibi

Got what do you do?

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Kayleigh

I do digital marketing. I see. And yeah, I run strategies, implementations, budgets, I kind of thing for meta Google.

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Ibi

What do you guys know right now?

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Kayleigh

My main clients a universities and. Yeah, I drive leads for them, for new students.

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Ibi

Interesting.

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Ibi

All right, so you started as a digital nomad researcher, and you research them as part of a bachelor’s thesis?

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Kayleigh

Yeah.

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Ibi

Was it just an excuse to hang out with cool nomad people?

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Kayleigh

I mean, I guess it was a bit of an excuse. It was cool to go to Thailand and understand, but, yeah, it became my life’s mission after that to actually become one myself. So I chose based my whole career on how I could choose something that would allow me to become location independent.

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Ibi

So you are pure blooded.

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Kayleigh

I am a pure blood.

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Ibi

You’re a pure blooded nomad.

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Kayleigh

Respect through and through. But I didn’t do it for a few years. I decided to build my career in, in a, I guess, location restrictive job so that I had the skills to be able to do what I do now.

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Ibi

Through that. What does it mean? I know what you mean, but help us understand what that means.

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Kayleigh

Well, I decided to work for an agency in Sydney, to be able to build up my skills. But they had to have me in the office every day, because, that doesn’t align with me at all. But I knew I thought it was a good way to establish a foundation that would allow me to travel at my own will and then and then Covid hit.

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Kayleigh

So I was restricted then. And then after that, I was like, there is nothing stopping me now. So I quit my job. I went out on my own. And yeah, it actually well, I did that a year prior and it was all working out really well. And then I was able to afford myself and my partner to travel the world.

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Kayleigh

Wow.

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Ibi

I like that.

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Kayleigh

Yeah, that’s super cool.

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Ibi

What do you think of nomadism as a career choice?

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Kayleigh

What do you mean.

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Ibi

Like, you meet a lot of people who fall into being a nomad. You’ve meet a lot of people who are like, oh, that’s a great thing. Maybe that I could do. You meet very few people who are like, this is what I want. I’m going to go and get it. I’m going to make it happen. I have a structured plan for X number here as well.

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Ibi

I’m going to work in Sydney and do X, Y, Z and get my skills up, and then I’m going to do it. Very few people do that. How do you feel about that whole journey. Like it’s a very different way of thinking about the nomad existence. You’ve set yourself up for it. Deliberately and in a calculated way.

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Ibi

Do you think it’s good. Do you think it’s bad. Does it serve you.

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Kayleigh

To be honest with you? I obviously spent so many years anticipating this kind of lifestyle, and then I started doing it around, bit in Europe, but mainly in, like South America. And I actually didn’t enjoy the way I did it. And I was like, what have I done? My whole life I’ve trained well, I’ve worked towards it and it’s not what I expected.

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Kayleigh

Why? Because and I know why I decided to travel, renting out Airbnbs. So it really restricts who you interact with, for one. And I think for me, a lot of the beauty to nomadism is actually connecting with people and similar mindsets and that kind of thing, but it really isolates you when you’re an Airbnb. So unless you’re going to like events, the co-working places are setting up or maybe going to co-working space.

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Kayleigh

Yeah. There’s so many ways to be nomadic. I don’t think that was the right way for me. Whereas now, obviously being more introduced into the co-living co-working space, you get to spend time doing really things that you would never think of doing yourself. And skill sharing. And I think opening your mind to like how so many other people think, rather than being more isolated.

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Kayleigh

I think when I when I was studying, that was a big part of the community back then, they really struggled with connecting. Because obviously you’re not at home at all. And so connection with people is a big part of feeling like you belong in an area. And one way that you can combat that is actually going to the same cafes every day so that, you know, the the staff there.

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Kayleigh

Like for example, I used to go in Thailand, I went to this one local place every day. By the end of my a few months there, I had one. I this like old woman who would hug me every. She wouldn’t speak English, but she would sit down with me, chat with me, and then hug me every day. And it just makes you feel like you belong.

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Kayleigh

Which is a big part of the pain of being nomadic. I think one thing that stayed the same from then and now is that they always traveled, I did in a month period. So that used, let’s say, Chiang Mai as a hub that stay there for a couple of months and then go away for one month and then stay specific locations a month at a time and then return back.

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Kayleigh

That’s one way of, feeling that you still have a home away from home. But the other thing right now, I’ve noticed a lot of people say something similar where you only have you’re only able to connect with people to the depth that you’re looking for after ten days. So if you’re only in one place for, yeah, a week or something, you don’t get the same sort of experiences.

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Kayleigh

Plus you’re working the whole time, so it gives you less time to connect. So yeah, traveling months at a time, I think is really important for this community to really thrive.

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Ibi

We’re more similar than I might care to admit.

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Kayleigh

So why? What makes you think that?

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Ibi

I was also 2017 when I discovered the nomadic existence.

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Kayleigh

Oh, really?

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Ibi

Yeah. And I based my whole life and career choices around it, and I structured myself to get the skills I needed in London. And then I hit the road, and I only discovered code of things in November 2024. Did you discover codings? I mean your.

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Kayleigh

First is my first.

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Ibi

So it took you from 2016. It took you from 2016 until 2025.

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Kayleigh

I mean official code living I’ve lived in places where people are working and we have like common spaces. But what’s the definition of a co-living?

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Ibi

Let’s not get into that. I have a whole video and I.

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Kayleigh

Know.

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Ibi

It’s a feeling I.

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Kayleigh

Saw that.

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Ibi

It’s a feeling.

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Kayleigh

Okay.

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Ibi

Did you get the feeling?

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Kayleigh

Yeah. Here. Yeah. Oh, my God, it’s been so incredible. The connections I’ve made, the laughter, the like, aliveness, the creativity, the inspiration, the mind opening challenges that I’ve had, the space that people give in emotionally. I just think it’s been a life changing.

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Ibi

Almost all that happened in the last month.

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Ibi

The same last month that I had.

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Kayleigh

Yeah. You just got to open your eyes and make sure that you create the magic every single day.

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Ibi

What is the magic?

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Kayleigh

The magic is what you feel inside of you.

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Ibi

The feeling.

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Kayleigh

The feeling. Feeling of aliveness. That’s the magic. And I think newness really does help create that, obviously. But you can also choose to create it yourself on a daily basis.

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Ibi

Let’s go back to the nomadic existence. So do you think now that you’ve experienced a co-living, it’s a sustainable form of living this nomadic lifestyle that you have been working towards for nine years or ten years?

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Kayleigh

I think it’s much more sustainable than the way I was saying it. Go for like that didn’t actually appeal to me at all. What kind of felt empty. And now, having experienced co-living this way and I the I also had this feeling previously, even though technically it wasn’t a co-living, that I definitely could see myself doing it in months, like one month or one month on, I would still like a base where I go back to and like have more of a homely feel and then, like, I have an apartment in in Spain, so I’ll go back there for like a month or two and then go to another co-living.

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Kayleigh

And that’s, I think, how I visualize the, the best way for me.

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Ibi

Interesting. When I discovered co-living in November 2024, I did exclusively co-living for just under a year.

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Kayleigh

Wow.

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Ibi

One month on one month, one month.

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Kayleigh

Attack. How was that?

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Ibi

Very intense.

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Kayleigh

Very intense. And staying co-living the whole time.

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Ibi

I was one month on, one month off for six months. Then the last three months, I was, three months on. And then after that, I realized one month in a co-living wasn’t enough. Because even though a month seems like a long time, it’s really not.

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Kayleigh

Oh, yeah. This month’s gone so fast.

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Ibi

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Kayleigh

And I loved every second of it and I would extend it as well. But not possible.

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Ibi

Fair enough. Yeah. It’s actually a very interesting observation because people like we talked before about how ten days is the minimum you need to connect with people. And a month could be a good amount of time. I can see a month working, but I feel like as a sustainable lifestyle choice, changing everything every month is an absolutely intense activity.

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Kayleigh

I would definitely agree, especially mixing that in with working. Yes. Efficiently. Productively. It is. Yeah. It’s very difficult to actually keep that productivity up if you’re constantly changing.

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Ibi

How do you maintain such a high productivity while you’re traveling?

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Kayleigh

I make sure I have a routine. So I think it’s really important that, well, I work with Australia, so I get up quite early. But I make sure I have a routine before I start work to keep a clear mind and then, yes, a certain amount of hours. Otherwise. Okay. The day gets away from me.

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Kayleigh

You’re always surrounded by people and fun things to do. So you have to make sure that you give yourself enough time to actually do the work that’s required.

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Ibi

How much do you work? Like, I don’t know, 35 hours a week or four hours a day, or 6.5 hours a day on average.

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Kayleigh

On average, I would say five hours a day, four days a week. I don’t believe in a five day workweek. I think we need a bit more play in our lives.

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Ibi

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Kayleigh

Yeah.

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Ibi

I actually think personally that something like five hours a day, four days a week is actually pretty much what, a 9 to 5 Monday to Friday an office employee works.

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Kayleigh

Oh for sure. There’s no way that like any more than that is efficient at all. There’s no way.

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Ibi

I agree. Yeah. It’s interesting.

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Kayleigh

I almost feel like being an employee at a location restricted place is like being in a time prison.

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Ibi

Describe that.

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Kayleigh

Well you don’t necessarily need to be there. Imagine if you finish your work you don’t need to be there. But you have to pretend that you, like still are doing things when you’re probably not and you’re wasting so much time. And then you learn how to you, you become, habitual with wasting time and scrolling or doing inefficient things.

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Kayleigh

So then, yeah, I think it influences your life to become a bit more unproductive overall.

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Kayleigh

Strong opinions.

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Ibi

Do you think digital nomadism is the solution?

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Kayleigh

I think it’s one solution. I think company structures do need to change.

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Kayleigh

But I think.

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Kayleigh

Digital nomadism kind of gives you a reason not to stay. Well, other than you’re not in a time prison because of the location, but there’s actually something exciting most days. So you feel like you want to get the work done and be efficient and within a certain amount of time so that you can actually spend the rest of your evening not watching Netflix, but actually interacting or living life to its fullest.

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Ibi

How does it feel to have made it?

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Kayleigh

What do you mean made it?

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Ibi

Well, it was 2016, 2015. You heard about these digital nomads, then you went to Thailand and you did your thing. Then you observe them in their natural habitats, grazing in coffee shops and writing whatever blog posts, whatever they did. And then you build yourself up and you moved over to Sydney and you got everything, got your skill set and everything’s ready and, you know, perfected.

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Ibi

And now you are living in a French castle, working Australian hours, with freedom of location, to do what you like. And considering whether this is something you can do a want to do, it sounds like you have that freedom that you have desired. You’re working five days, four days a week, five hours days. You’ve made it, babe.

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Kayleigh

Yeah.

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Ibi

How does it feel?

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Kayleigh

Wow. You saying all of that really brought up a lot of joy in me? I really loved how I just. I guess I just never really stopped to think about it that much. I just think this is what I need to be doing, and that’s it. And. No, but I love. I’m so grateful for my life. Honestly, I feel like I’m one of the luckiest people.

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Kayleigh

I mean, also, you create your own luck, but I do feel like I’m very lucky and grateful for being able to like this year, choosing. I’m like, where do I want to be in March and April? Like, what country do I want to be in? It’s just like, what a gift that is. Yeah. And talking to to, like my family in that they’re like, well, every other sentence you talk about a different country like like it’s nothing.

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Kayleigh

Like. Yeah, it’s just incredible that I get to experience so many different places and people. And yeah, I have my eyes wide open walking through.

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Ibi

That is the digital nomad reality, is it not?

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Kayleigh

Yes. I mean, that’s a good part of it. There’s also the other side of it where it’s difficult changing environments all the time. You might come across more difficult people than you would in your day to day, and that’s maybe not true, because I think people are more in a similar.

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Kayleigh

Sort of mind frame.

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Ibi

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Ibi

Do you think anyone can do it?

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Kayleigh

I think the idea of it appeals to a lot of people, but I think living it wouldn’t appeal to as many of them.

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Ibi

Why? What would they find that they didn’t like? What would the idea tell them that then what to expect? And then what would their reality show them that they didn’t like?

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Kayleigh

I think the idea of moving countries and like experiencing the world is just obviously that’s what a lot of people want. And that sounds really exciting and thrilling. But the other side is that we are still working. And, so you have to balance traveling, working, meeting new people. And I think there’s a lot more different kind of stresses that come up that may not suit someone else.

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Ibi

Name some of the stresses and how you deal with them.

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Kayleigh

Some of the stresses.

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Ibi

You mentioned, some of them, the constant meeting new people, the constant traveling. There’s obviously the the main stresses that nomads often come across, like loneliness, productivity, fear of missing, this kind of stuff. I think this is all fairly common stuff. Is there anything else that you think are some of the main stresses, and how do you deal with these things?

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Kayleigh

I mean, it’s exhausting, like different languages, trying to communicate with people from that country. What the, where you need to go for the supermarket, the gym. Like all mundane things, they can get exhausting consistently looking for how to live your routine in the new place.

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Ibi

And how do you do it?

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Kayleigh

Can I ask you questions?

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Ibi

Yeah, you can.

00:23:31:14 - 00:23:36:00

Kayleigh

What attracted you to becoming nomadic in 2017?

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Ibi

I listen to a podcast called World Wanderers. I was working in the HSBC Tower in Canary Wharf in London. HSBC is obviously a big, massive bank that treats its employees like numbers. And I was. Waking up every day, leaving for the office at six. Getting back at eight. Sleeping. Just, you know, to wake up the next day and do the same thing and it was exhausting and intense.

00:24:06:12 - 00:24:28:11

Ibi

And at some point I was doing some work and listen to this podcast about these two people that were traveling through Asia, and they were writing blogs and making money online. And I was like, I want to do that. So I started setting up my life in that way. And I started, really drilling down on location independence.

00:24:28:11 - 00:24:49:00

Ibi

And I had a five step plan of how I was going to ask my director, to let me be location independent. And when I’d finally put all those things together and jump through all of the hoops that I create for myself, he very simply said, no, it’s not in my model for people to be working remotely.

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Ibi

So I couldn’t launch my own business.

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Kayleigh

What did you launch?

00:24:52:14 - 00:24:53:21

Ibi

An Egyptian drum company.

00:24:54:00 - 00:24:58:07

Kayleigh

Oh, that’s right.

00:24:58:09 - 00:25:00:19

Kayleigh

So you need.

00:25:00:21 - 00:25:01:16

Ibi

I am unique.

00:25:01:17 - 00:25:09:04

Kayleigh

And what attracted you to that lifestyle? Like.

00:25:09:06 - 00:25:16:04

Ibi

Honestly, what attracted me to the lifestyle was that it was on my own terms.

00:25:16:06 - 00:25:16:18

Kayleigh

Yeah.

00:25:16:20 - 00:25:39:12

Ibi

That everything existed on my own terms. Because, growing up in a specific system, you kind of get used to just going through the process. You go to the right school, you go to the right uni, you start the right job, you do the right stuff, and then you have the right life and you marry the right person.

00:25:39:12 - 00:25:46:19

Ibi

You buy the right house. And it was all pretty much set up for me to do all of that. But I wanted some choice.

00:25:46:21 - 00:25:48:06

Ibi

That’s what attracted me to it.

00:25:48:08 - 00:25:51:18

Kayleigh

And do you think it’s lived up to your expectations?

00:25:51:20 - 00:25:55:07

Ibi

Yes, very much so.

00:25:55:09 - 00:26:03:04

Kayleigh

Very much so. The only downside is that you didn’t predict.

00:26:03:06 - 00:26:27:20

Ibi

The struggles of maintaining relationships, both friendships and romantic interests. I find harder than I thought I would find them. The work side has always come well to me. I, I I’m good at that side of things.

00:26:27:22 - 00:26:28:15

Ibi

Yeah.

00:26:28:17 - 00:26:34:23

Kayleigh

And how do you feel it’s impacted you? The struggles with maintaining friendships and relationships?

00:26:35:00 - 00:27:18:04

Ibi

I think with the constant moving, the constant, prioritization of oneself, you inherently become more selfish, that you have absolute freedom to pick your own path. And with that freedom, you are effectively always choosing yourself. As the nomad, you are the one that leaves. For example, if you go and move to the city and you’re in, let’s say Berlin, you’re in Berlin, you go and you meet people and you make friends.

00:27:18:06 - 00:27:40:01

Ibi

But they are Berlin people and you are a nomad. So at some point you leave, you choose yourself. You’re like, okay, I’ve set my life up in such a way. The same works with romantic relationships. You go somewhere, you meet someone, you fall in love. But at the end of the day, you always ask yourself, I have absolute freedom to go anywhere I want.

00:27:40:01 - 00:27:48:20

Ibi

Do I want to be in this one place right now? And as a committed nomad, you may often say no and leave.

00:27:48:22 - 00:28:00:11

Kayleigh

And how do you think you’re going to? Do you want to come back that do you want to have longer term relationships?

00:28:00:13 - 00:28:04:12

Ibi

I don’t know the answer to to be honest. I have not yet worked it out.

00:28:04:12 - 00:28:15:20

Kayleigh

Like, does it impact you? I suppose in a way that you’d rather it not?

00:28:15:22 - 00:28:24:23

Ibi

Sometimes humans make decisions which we don’t know if they’re the right decision or the wrong decision for us.

00:28:25:01 - 00:28:39:06

Ibi

And when you constantly make those decisions over a period of years, they start to build up into something. And the more that they build up.

00:28:39:07 - 00:28:43:02

Ibi

The further you get down that whole.

00:28:43:04 - 00:29:27:06

Ibi

And you still never really know if you’re making the right decision or the wrong decision. But now you’re so deep into a certain home you don’t even know what’s right or wrong anymore. So I would say for most of my life, I genuinely thought to myself, I can’t be in a relationship because I want to be going somewhere or traveling this and that, and I’m still finding myself at exactly that point, having tried a few things, having, you know, experimented and having, having my heart broken many, many, many times, sometimes much, much stronger than other times.

00:29:27:07 - 00:29:36:08

Ibi

And I still don’t know the answer. And I still don’t know whether every time I make the decision it’s the right decision or the wrong decision.

00:29:36:10 - 00:29:38:04

Kayleigh

Is it worth being nomadic?

00:29:38:06 - 00:29:45:12

Ibi

You. Yeah, because I get freedom of decision, which is what I wanted in the first place.

00:29:45:14 - 00:29:56:18

Kayleigh

And that’s I feel the same. And I feel like that’s the only way to really feel liberated from the structure of society.

00:29:56:20 - 00:30:02:06

Ibi

Then technically, we’re at a time.

00:30:02:08 - 00:30:05:15

Kayleigh

You’re welcome. Free interviewing you.

00:30:05:17 - 00:30:06:23

Ibi

Plus, the pleasure doing.