We sat down for a virtual catch-up with one of the most exciting travellers we have met. Nate Explores is a streamer, content creator, and storyteller who lives a life many of us have dreamed about. Taking the road less travelled and living life to the fullest, cycling his way around the world.
What do you do, and what originally inspired you to do what you do?
My name is Nate, but online, everyone knows me as Nate Explores, a digital explorer eager to discover the world and share it to a growing community. I’m a former digital professional from one of the BIG 4, expatriated to Asia since 2018.
As long as I can remember, I’ve always wanted to travel and create content. There’s an old map annotation used for hundreds of years: Hic Sunt Dracones. This was used to represent areas of the world that were (at the time) unexplored and where monsters (supposedly) lived.
In 2024, these territories are no longer unexplored by man... but some remain little-known to the general public, and their web coverage is sometimes non-existent. That’s where I come in.
When COVID hit, it created the perfect conditions for me to start making content. Back in 2021, when I first started streaming, first on YouTube, then on Twitch, my content focused almost entirely on a little-known game of the time: GeoGuessr - but all this was in English.
Then, in September 2022, I decided to only create content in French, because after all, being an expatriate in Asia (Singapore at the time, then Taiwan) can be much more interesting for people who know very little about it.
This is when everything changed, and I decided to “play” GeoGuessr in real life, producing only travel and adventure content. Those first few months of French-language streams allowed me to turn the tide and quickly become a Partner on Twitch.
Time went by and one adventure followed another, but it was in April / May 2023 that everything changed, when I decided to leave Taiwan to launch myself full-time on the platform.
A few weeks later, at TwitchCon in Paris, I announced my plan to cycle across Taiwan and South-East Asia, live on Twitch, something that had never been done on the platform before.
Seven months later, we've covered more than 5,000 km on this journey, more than half of which was streamed. We've discovered many unique places, for the first time on Twitch, such as the Angkor temples in Cambodia, the Taroko Valley in Taiwan, Ninh Binh, Phong Na and their beauty in Vietnam, the 4,000 islands of southern Laos, and so on...
What is your biggest goal in your chosen path?
My goals are simple: to travel and share it with the world, so everyone discovers the beauty of the big round thing we live on and like to call Earth. I’m aware this isn’t an easy task, but am willing to make the right efforts to meet these objectives.
What draws you to keep doing what you do?
Some community members recently shared stories with regard to the content I make:
A Twitch viewer with physical disabilities has shared that they're able, through me, to travel and explore the parts of the world they’ll never be able to get to.
A YouTube subscriber recently shared that a video I produced on the history of coffee production in Laos helped them understand the importance of buying from ethical producers that support such areas of the world.
A Twitch viewer and long-time supporter of the channel has shared how my live streams helped them cope with crippling depression - allowing them to better themselves and get out more.
Some other subscribers on all platforms have shared how my content made them travel to the destinations I had introduced online (Taiwan, Laos, Cambodia, etc.).
As content creators, we sometimes forget that the people who watch our content also go through their own load of stuff daily… and that what we produce sometimes has a much bigger impact than we can imagine. Isn’t that a good enough reason to keep going forward ? 🙂
How would you describe “flow state,” and how do you achieve it?
I live in a constant state of flow, as my travels are my life and my life is my content. I believe that all content producers reach their “flow state” the moment they’re not thinking anymore about making, but are simply and naturally doing what’s needed to achieve their goals. Needless to say that tools such as the espressoDisplay greatly help to achieve this by helping to get immersed into the content we create.
With a coffee and an espresso Display one can easily reach a state of flow.
How many locations do you work from in any given week, month or year?
When on the road, I have a new office everyday. Of course, I sometimes need to take longer breaks to get things done - but I’d say my year is made of more than 300 different offices - sometimes dark, or sunny - but never unproductive.
If you could choose anywhere in the world to work from, where would it be and why?
Given the internet follows me wherever I go, I’d decide to work at the peak of a mountain or at the bottom of a natural cave - and funny enough, I’ve already done both. 🙂
This probably won’t be much of a surprise, but I like nature… especially when it’s untouched and undamaged by mankind - as are such places (most of the time…).
What excites you most about innovation in interactive technology?
As a former digital professional from one of the BIG 4 in Asia, tech is running through my veins. Although it sometimes might evolve too fast, I believe it helps us all achieve more and better.
In addition, as a live streamer and online content creator, interaction is one of the main reasons I produce anything. Therefore, interactive technology is, in my opinion, here to help mankind better itself and help humans stay connected anywhere at any point in time.
Tell us about what makes for a good experience when you’re focused on work.
Working online can easily become troublesome when too many distractions arise. From mobile push notifications to billions of videos and other forms of content available online to entertain us, it’s sometimes hard to focus and do anything.
As a person with attention disorders, I attach great importance to the way I work, and this is why segmenting tasks is important to me. This helps me remain focused on the task of the moment which I complete in one go (most of the time). 🙂
What is your work-from-anywhere toolkit in terms of products and software?
To work from anywhere, I use a limited number of softwares, such as Canva (for anything visual), Artlist (for anything creative), DaVinci Resolve (for content editing) and communication tools - this, in addition to all social networks, of course.
When it comes to the products I use, it’s even simpler: an iPhone, a couple of cameras and streaming stuff, a macbook and an espressoDisplay Touch 15 - with a bunch of cables here and there, but only one needed to use the portable monitor.
How do you use espresso Displays products?
I use the espressoDisplay Touch 15 almost everyday, even when I’m not in a conventional accommodation and am camping, for example. My best use of the portable monitor is for content editing, especially when dealing with a large number of videos and visual elements.
Having a complete view on ongoing projects greatly helps me produce and deliver on time. The monitor is also great when making research for videos, or simply plan for my cycling itinerary. Google Maps on the left, Komoot on the right, and click click. 🙂
Anything else to add?
Shoutout to the espresso Displays team for allowing me to work better and achieve more in such a simple way… One cable, and you’re ready to go - that’s truly awesome. Cheers.
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You can check out Nate's adventures here:
Website:https://explores.tv/
Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/nate_explores/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NateExplores
