Meet Your Host: Remote 9
We’re delighted to welcome one of the bravest ventures listed on nomadretreats.co. Welcome Andreas Machado and Giulia Verdinelli, hosts of Remote 9.
Machado: Hi Federico and Alessio, we’re very happy to have this chat with you too!
NomadRetreats.co: What you’re building with your company is truly inspirational: through conscious road trips, you’re gathering the most awesome humans to build remote nomad villages around the world. Now, that’s what we call a mission! How do you each contribute? What are your roles in Remote 9?
Machado: I’m the founder and Chief Goofball Officer. I think that makes me the mascot, too?
Giulia: Hahaha, for sure, Machado, we all love you! I’m the co-founder and resident mamma. While Andreas will leave you ROTFLing, I’ll be the one with the apron, making sure you eat until you’re happily in a food coma.
NomadRetreats.co: What a team! I’m sold already, but let’s go deeper for our readers. Let’s find out more about you and Remote 9.
Remote 9 has had a unique journey so far. What drives you and sets you apart from others?
Remote 9: Thank you for starting with this question. We are so passionate about what we do and love sharing our “why”.
We are driven by the pursuit of happiness and true connection with other humans, and we want to gather other people who are conscious, aware, and authentically themselves.
Some of the main challenges of our modern world are loneliness and isolation, a lack of sense of purpose and belonging, and a general sense of dissatisfaction. This is messing with our mental health as a species, and that’s not cool.
But we live in thriving cities where all our desires are met, have cool jobs, and travel to exotic places. So why do we still feel so miserable when we have it so good?
We believe it’s because we are obsessed with producing, chasing status, and being cozy in our comfort zones. We forgot our roots, and our priority shifted far away from just being, living, and enjoying.
NomadRetreats.co: Like the cavemen…
Remote 9: Exactly! In our cavemen days, living in tribes was the only way to survive. You know, humans are used to gathering in communities, sharing resources, protecting each other, and hunting together. This way of life is so ingrained in us that our brains still reward us when surrounded by others we can depend on.
Not only that, pursuing their authentic passions and personal growth while contributing to the successful longevity of the tribe gave cavemen a sense of satisfaction and purpose beyond themselves. Think of how every person had a unique skill vital to the survival of the community: the healers, the blacksmiths, the hunters, the craftsmen, etc.
Fast forward to today.
To feel truly happy and fulfilled, we need a sense of purpose and a sense of belonging.
What drives us is re-establishing a more community-based, purpose-driven way of living. That’s why we’re building the closest and most empowering modern tribe in the world.
We want to belong to a global family of like-minded badass people who support and elevate each other, have a butt load of fun together, and contribute to something greater than themselves.
What sets us apart is our lifelong commitment to this mission and to make this lifestyle a reality for as many people as possible.
We’re different in the care we place in the curation process, the unconventionally, and the “best friend boot camp” program we run on our experiences.
We don’t believe that deep, long-lasting connections can be built by spending 7 days in a villa on a beach in Bali, and we don’t believe in selling tickets to a retreat.
It seems like your dreams come true with Remote 9. What is the vision behind your travel program?
Remote 9: Our vision and mission is curating and building the closest and most empowering global tribe of digital nomads in the world. Possibly for life, or at least for the next 15-20 years.
Our experiences spark a lifelong journey of belonging to an intimate community of best friends who nomad together and live an unconventional life of purpose and expansion, supporting each other.
After the spark is lit, our goal is to create an ecosystem that nurtures and supports the deepening of these relationships over the next decades to ensure the flame grows bigger and brighter.
We will do this by hosting non-profit, community-building co-livings and events where community members can gather for months at a time and truly experience a communal, purposeful community.
NomadRetreats.co: Are these the villages you talked about?
Remote 9: Yes, eventually, we’ll create villages and hubs worldwide where the community can reunite and have a place to return to and call home.
Imagine having multiple, affordable, paradise-like bases worldwide where you can live for months and explore different parts of the world.
Imagine growing older, wiser, happier, healthier, wealthier, and absolutely loving life with people you deeply resonate with and become your family.
Places where you feel a deep sense of belonging and peace, where you know you’ll always find friends so you won’t have to do life alone because, let’s face it, that sucks.
What’s the inspiring tale of your origins?
Machado: When I was about 16 years old, all fresh-faced and youthful, I went on a beautiful holiday to Thailand.
On the one hand, it was everything I had dreamed of. Pristine beaches. Tropical surroundings. It looked pretty close to paradise.
But on the other hand, it gave me what I like to call ‘an introduction to depression.’
Pretty much everything I had been told to strive for in life was available to me on that holiday.
When they retire, most people aspire to go and relax on a beach in Thailand. Of course, Thailand was amazing, but I left that holiday with a real sense of ‘is this all there is’?
I felt like I’d seen the top of the pyramid, and it didn’t exactly inspire me to go and slave away for the next 60 years of my life, get a mortgage, have kids, and wait to retire… just so I could go back to that same beach.
I knew I needed something more from life.
At the time, I was working as a dishwasher in a local restaurant on 12-hour shifts and weirdly, I loved it.
Sure, the work was tedious and tiring… but I left every day with a smile on my face.
NomadRetreats.co: Why?
Machado: Because of the people I was around, the laughter we shared, and the tribe I felt part of. It was at that point it all made sense.
For me, it doesn’t really matter what I’m doing or where I am as long as I am around the right people – a community that has my back, that lifts me up when I’m down, and that I know I can rely on.
So, from that point, I knew my life needed to be about creating a community.
A community that transcends countries, nationalities, and languages.
A community full of people we’re all proud to call friends.
At first, I helped run backpacker trips all around Australia 10 years ago.
Then, in 2019, I co-founded one of the first digital nomad retreat companies.
Starting Remote 9, the first company for digital nomads and remote workers focusing on road trips, is like releasing my third album. The culmination of all I’ve learned and a chance to really start making the impact I want.
NomadRetreats.co: Then Giulia enters the picture.
Giulia: Yes, thanks to your recommendation!
I joined one of the retreats Machado was running, and we became really good friends.
At the time, I had just quit my well-paying and comfortable job in London and left an abusive relationship to follow my dreams of traveling the world and reclaiming myself and my purpose.
After spending 10 years surrounded by toxic, superficial, and transactional relationships, I knew that I was missing a sense of true, deep connection with people I could feel safe around.
I’m like an Italian mamma; community is in my blood as much as carbs, and after joining that first retreat with Machado in Portugal, everything fell into place.
There, I met people who helped me get my spark and joy back. People who were like-minded, inspiring, authentic, accepting, and genuinely wholesome who motivated me to pursue my happiness. And that includes you, Fede!
After experiencing such an impactful transformation, I understood what the right environment and the right people can do for a person.
I promised myself to help people by creating a safe space and nurturing an environment where they can be authentically themselves, flourish, and find true, lasting happiness.
NomadRetreats.co: Fast forward a few months after this first retreat, it comes as no surprise that when Machado asked Giulia to help him co-found and run Remote 9, she had to think about it for a whole 2 seconds before screaming “HELL YES“!
What is Remote 9’s magic recipe for unforgettable experiences?
Remote 9: What makes our experiences unique and unforgettable is the people you get to meet.
We carefully and thoroughly curate each group to ensure every participant shares the mission and wants to bring the right energy to the group.
Since our main goal is creating a community and a more human-centered lifestyle where people can feel true happiness, everything we do in our experiences is designed to foster connection.
We know that the deepest relationships are born while feeling strong emotions, growing, and overcoming challenges together. That’s why we run unconventional, adventurous road trips in remote destinations.
We laugh until our bellies hurt, we cry and hug over childhood trauma stories in the hot tub, we get the adrenaline rush as we dip into ice-cold water, and we feel immense gratitude and appreciation for the other humans looking at the northern lights next to us.
NomadRetreats.co: So, the whole road trip vibe and bucket list activities are central to your travel experiences?
Remote 9: Sure. We know that these circumstances activate all the good hormones in our brains and help us to truly bond. Humans grow in discomfort and can form deep relationships when we feel like we can deeply rely on each other in a foreign environment to survive.
Our experiences are like a “best friend boot camp,” a greenhouse for development and happiness where people can be unapologetically themselves.
Obviously, the stunning places we visit are the perfect background for such a boot camp. We go to off-the-beaten-path places where nomads don’t have easy access.
Places like Iceland, rural Japan, sailing adventures, and we’re planning even more improbable places like Guatemala, Nepal, Kyrgyzstan. The more remote, the better.
Who are these experiences tailored to?
Remote 9: We are looking for people who are open to unconventional, adventurous experiences and seek discomfort to grow.
People willing to contribute to co-creating the experience. People who come in with an open heart for sharing and connecting with the community want to play an important part in this lifetime of adventures.
These experiences aren’t for everyone, and we’re looking for a specific type of person to join our community. Our aim is to gather our tribe of friends, and curating this process is our priority.
We are hell-yes people. We’re a community of authentic, driven, and seriously inspiring souls.
We open our hearts, we get vulnerable, and we create those rock-solid relationships that mean something. There is no judgment, just pure acceptance and unconditional love. We encourage everyone to be their most authentic self and let their quirky traits shine.
If this resonates and your heart is screaming hell yes, these experiences are for you.
NomadRetreats.co: Machado and Giulia, we believe that what you’re doing is truly awesome and very needed in our overly complex times. Your mission really inspires us, and we can’t wait to see what you’ll accomplish in the future.
As you explained so beautifully, this is more important than a week-long escapade from the routine. This is a lifelong show you don’t wanna miss!
It was our greatest pleasure to talk with you today and get to know Remote 9’s mission in such detail.
Remote 9: Thank you for having us, we had such a good talk!
If you are screaming HELL YES in your hearts, head to NomadRetreats.co right now and book your life-changing experience with Machado and Giulia of Remote 9. Who knows if you’ll become one of the remote villagers one day!
