When his last son left home, Scott could finally decide what he wanted to do now that he had no responsibilities. He flew to Morocco. The next two years he went from Norway to Ukraine, from Ireland to Jordan and many places in-between.

The U2 song: "Still haven't Found What I'm Looking for" comes to mind. After 7 years visiting SE Asia, Mexico, Central and northern South America, Europe and Northern Africa, is he still traveling because he hasn't found what he's looking for or because he has?

Social media links

https://www.youtube.com/@bookscafe-freeebooksdotnet8010/

https://www.facebook.com/freeebooksdotnet

Link to website

www.Free-ebooks.com

Primary Topic: Introduction and Personal Background

- Introduction to the podcast and guests

- Scott Paton's definition of introversion

- Scott Paton's current location and travel experience

- Scott Paton's hobbies and interests during his travels

- Scott Paton's experience with house sitting and its benefits

Primary Topic: Misconceptions About House Sitting

- Scott Paton's experience with people's reactions to house sitting

- The responsibility and importance of caring for pets while house sitting

- Scott Paton's positive experiences with house sitting

Primary Topic: Scott Paton's Business and Work Experience

- Scott Paton's business divisions and roles

- The importance of respect and mutual values in business partnerships

- The role of competency in building a reputation and securing client recommendations

- Scott Paton's approach to taking on new projects and saying yes to opportunities

- The impact of focusing on the right tasks and delegating responsibilities

Primary Topic: Recharging and Self-Care

- Scott Paton's love for hammocks and recharging in nature

- The benefits of alone time and quietness for introverts

- Scott Paton's contrast with his extroverted mother's need for social interaction

- The presence of hammocks in Scott Paton's travel experiences

Primary Topic: Crafting a Career Based on Energy and Preferences

- Scott Paton's unintentional alignment of his career with his energy levels

- The importance of prioritizing time and energy as an entrepreneur

- Different ways people have crafted their careers to match their needs

- The intersection of art, science, and business in Scott Paton's work

Bonus Topic: Hotdogs as Sandwiches

- Scott Paton's opinion on whether hotdogs are considered sandwiches

Primary Topic: Finding Scott Paton Online

- Information about Scott Paton's website, FreeEbooks.net

- Scott Paton's role as president of FreeEbooks.net and their mission

- Contacting Scott Paton through LinkedIn for further discussions on travel, house sitting, and being an author

Closing Remarks and Podcast Outro

Hello and welcome to another episode of the travelling introvert career conversations. Today, joining me is Scott Patten. How are you today, Scott?

I'm doing great. Thank you.

Welcome to the show. So The question that I ask everybody, and I haven't had the same answer yet, is what does introversion mean to you?

Well, it's pretty simple for me. It's, I get sorry about that. Okay. I get, I get charged up when I'm alone, particularly if I'm in a forest or on a beach. And not that I don't mind or like being in crowds or with lots of people or talking to people, but, a big part of what I find is that's Energy draining. So that's how I define introvert. I can't believe hang on just a second. I'm looking after 2 dogs.

I'm looking after 2 dogs, and they're quiet.

Until then, not

Until I'm recording something. It just blows my mind.

That's great. Well, it proves that you are a real human, I'm not talking to an AI. I have no problem with life interrupting because that is what it does and my show is very much Yeah. Unscripted and, life life happens. So I'm I'm all Not

a peep out of them for 2 hours at least. And I gave him a treat just 20 minutes ago so that they would be not hungry, and they would be happy. And And, of course, someone walks by and they bark. So I apologize for that.

Human. Human. Human. No. Not a problem at all. So can you tell me a little bit about, what you're currently doing?

Well, I'm currently in the country of Panama in Central America. And one of the and I basically left home 7 years ago. I lived in Vancouver, Canada. And when my youngest son left home and got his own place, I said, well, I'm finally grown up. What do I want to do with my life? And I bought a ticket to Morocco. And so in the last 7 years, I've been all over Europe, North Africa, Central America and Mexico and northern part of South America, Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia predominantly. I wanna go further south, but just Kinda go where the wind blows, and it's been blowing in Central America for the last 2 years. So

That is great to hear. So in general, what you're doing, Is it just travel? Do you do do you have any hobbies that you're following? What is inspiring this travel?

Exploration is really inspiring to travel. And, I have my own business, and it's got a couple different divisions. And so that kinda keeps me from being bored. And I love to hike and I love to walk along the beach. And this where I am now is a pretty pretty good place to do all that. The other thing that I do the way I travel is I house it predominantly. Not not every day of every month but Many days of every month. And what I found is it's just a great way to see parts of the world that I would never ever go to.

Okay. And so, You know what? Are there any misconceptions people have about house sitting?

I don't know. I mean, I don't I don't I don't talk to peep whenever I talk to people, they just go, oh, that's cool. And then nobody says, well, aren't you afraid of this? Or aren't you afraid of that? There's a lot of responsibility because, you know, you're looking after what is probably in the top 2 or 3 or 4 most important things in people's lives, which are their pets. And, But usually they're, they're fine. Like you can kind of see a routine that they've got and I try to just fit into that routine and follow it. And, And I've never had any problems.

Lovely. And so with, you mentioned to you that you have a business Keeps you from getting bored. Is there anything that you do regularly that has improved that business over the years?

I think it's just showing up to be quite frank, and being competent too. Right. I mean, if you're really bad at what you do, you know that your reputation is everything and and people will not recommend you. So one of my I call it a division because it's, these are just a lot of the stuff I do is very, very different. So, but I have 20 people in the Philippines who do work for real estate investors. So they can, they can cold call, they can do some social media, they can post a house for sale, That sort of thing. And it just started totally and continues totally by word-of-mouth In that somebody that I know or that knows me says, you know, Scott, can you talk to this person? They're like overworked. They need someone to help them.

Now I talked to them for a while, and a big part of what we talk about actually is the idea of respect. Because my best friend is married to a Filipina, so I've known them the whole time. And they just got married last June, After about 8 years of knowing each other, but I've known their whole relationship because I've known him for over 30 years. And in the beginning it was, she was just treated awful by the people that she was work working for. And then she just helped her get better and better jobs. And, and so I've always had that in the back of my mind that and I know another Filipina who went to Dubai and when she's decided she didn't want to stay there any longer told her person that had hired her and the person Called the police and she spent 2 years in jail for no reason. Right? So, our conversations are all about mutual respect and making sure that Everybody's here to work together and pull together. And, and of course, my people that I know that are recommending these other people, That's who they they are very respectful people and they buy into all these types of values.

So of course they're going to recommend people that are the same, but it becomes a real bonding thing. And then when we talk to our clients, you know, 6 months or a year later, it's Noah, what do you think of, you know, Maria working for you? Oh, I love Maria. She's so good. She does such a great job and she's such a sweetheart and they go on and on and on. And of course their businesses are growing rapidly because they're not doing I believe the eightytwenty rule, right? I think we spend 80% of our time Doing things we should not be doing in our business and only 20% of our time doing the things that we should be doing. So I tell our clients and potential clients, Our job is to take over 80% of your business because that's all the stuff you should not be doing. You know, we can do it and give you a report. And instead of Spending 2 hours on something you spend, you know, 40 seconds reading it and you're working on things that are really important to the growth of your and stability and Financial security of your business and all that sort of stuff as opposed to, nobody can edit a video as good as me.

So I guess I better just do it even though it has nothing to do with your business. So that's that's kind of that story.

Okay. And after You just told us about something that you do regularly. I really appreciate the values aspect and making sure that The clients you deal with and therefore the extent basically an extension of what you do is based around that. Is this something that you say no to?

Not enough. I had I had the, misfortune of Spending some time with a mentor like 30 years ago who said, Scott, whenever anybody asks you if you can do something, You say

yes. And then figure it out later.

Figure it out later. So I and I and I am a lifelong learner. I I am an instructor on udemy.com and I have over 130 courses on that platform. All but 2 of them are not me, Generally speaking, I mean I might be on their part a little bit, but I'm not the main teacher. I'm really a course producer. And so what I loved about doing that was All these diverse topics that these people would be teaching on are things that I had never heard of or didn't know about or didn't really understand. And They would do these courses and I'm going, wow, this is really cool and really interesting. So, I tend to be like, I I I believe that you should focus on, like, 1 or 2 things only.

But I'm the sort of person that has been focusing on multiple, Like lots and lots of different things. So I should be saying no a lot more than I am. Mhmm.

And so So

I say no to smoking and no to And no to drugs. Drugs. No drugs. No cigarettes.

Hey. It's Say no to something. It's a good thing.

That's right. I just popped in my head that, oh, yeah. That's it. I just say no to that.

And so You mentioned that, yes, you say yes to a lot of things, and you have a business and everything else. So how do you go about recharging and having time to do that?

Hammocks. I love hammocks. And where I am right now, she has 2 hammocks. So And she wasn't using them at all. So I told her I'm not putting them away because you need to sit in you need to lay down in your hammock. It's the most beautiful, wonderful thing. This time of year in Panama. And it's I'm so happy it's not doing it today, but usually around 3 o'clock, which is my time right now, Clouds roll in and there's big thunderstorms and downpour of rain for about 20 minutes to an hour.

And so, I love going into the patio, which is covered. And as long as there's not a huge wind Laying in the hammock and just listening to the thunder and you can see the bolts in the distance and, And it's fun. So it's really just about taking time. And for me, it's about taking time and being quiet. And it usually happens throughout the day. You know, in the afternoon I'll go sit there and in the evening I'll go lay in the hammock and and I just find it put a little music on We're not. Listen to the birds. And it really recharges me.

My mom is the opposite. It would drive her crazy Cause she's an extrovert. She wants to go to church or to 55 plus or some other group or bridge and, You don't have 10 or 15 or 20 or a 100 people around her laughing and joking and all that stuff, which I'm more like my dad, Rather just sit by a tree, by a creek.

Is that something you look for specifically in your house sitting? Like, do you have a hammock?

I do ask the question, but it doesn't it's not a criteria for whether I'll go host it or not. There are a few places where I've housed that and I thought, you know, you need to get a hammock because they have lots of space. Right? And it was a great view, but they got these uncomfortable chairs. They're comfortable for them, I guess. You know, we're all different. But, when when the COVID pandemic hit, I was in Medellin, Colombia and I was going to be going to Ecuador, Cuenca, Ecuador. It's a world heritage site city. But they closed the border 3 days before my flight, so I couldn't go.

And I realized that, oh, like this whole thing is getting kind of serious and I don't really want to be in a small little hotel room with a small window. It'd be JL. Mhmm. So I went on Airbnb and I and, of course, everybody's cancelling all of their their hotel reservations. Right? Because they're not allowed to, They realize they're not allowed to leave. Yep. And about 10 minutes from my hotel there was a studio apartment on the roof of an 8 floor building. It was half studio apartment, half terrace.

And so I I got there and it was a gorgeous view of the City, you know, it's in a valley and you got to see the mountains and but I said to the owner, you know what this roof needs? He goes, what? A hammock. Yeah. He was, yeah. You're right. I says, well, you find it. I'll buy it. And he says, okay. So at this point in my travels, I knew, like, 17 words of Spanish, and I didn't know my way around Medellin.

I would never ever have found a hammock on my own. But the next 2 or 3 days later, here's your hammock, Scott. So I spent the 9 months on top of a roof, looking out at this gorgeous city and the mountains, in a hammock. And the starry the starry nights. Right? It was just Gorgeous. Clear nights.

Man. That that you Created a really good situation for yourself there and I'm glad that worked out. Yes, I've been to Medellin and I'm like Yeah being in the middle of the city wouldn't be the best. I love rapping and everything gets delivered which is awesome. Yeah. We've talked with and and a little bit of rainy season, but not all of rainy season. Sounds wonderful.

Yep. There was, no one was allowed on the roads. So there was no cars on the streets. It was amazing. So you had none of that regular city noise And I'd be up on top looking down. And there was the odd time you'd see 1 person walking or someone with a motorcycle. Delivery people were were around. Right? Because there was a lot of people who's who didn't have any work.

So what they did is they realized there was People like me who needed food, and they'd say, okay. You know, here's a menu for next week, Scott. How, you know, how many do you want? And I didn't realize, You know how big the portions were. And in a week, my fridge was packed. So I had to, like, stop ordering. And then then we're I had too much food. Right? But fortunately, I I didn't I didn't root you know, I ate it all.

So Yeah. Wow.

So Not at one sitting. Not at one sitting.

And so before you had your current business, what kind of work did you do?

I grew up in a grocery store. So when I was in high school, I was a bagger and then I went to university, got my bachelor of, honors degree in business and, actually did some traveling before I Started my career. I went back to Australia. I've been there when I was in grade 1, 2, and 3. Loved Melbourne. And, When I got back, they said, well, you've got this degree, you've got 5 years experience in the business. We'll put you on a fast track management program. And Before you know it, I was managing stores in Winnipeg where I grew up and then later on in British Columbia.

And so would you say that you've crafted your career To be in line with what works for you energy wise.

Oh, that's a really interesting question. I I would certainly not consciously. I would say certainly not consciously. No. No. I wish I wish you'd asked me that question 20 years ago.

What would you have done differently?

I think I would have been a lot more intentional on on things. I would have been like, first, you have to be aware of your energy. So I I I am I am often aware of my energy but 20 years ago when which is when I really started on this path, I I I wasn't thinking about that too much, I don't think. Yeah. That's a great question. I'm going to be thinking about that for a week.

Okay. Well, please feel free to circle back with me and let me know What are your thoughts on that? Because, yeah, in general, like as entrepreneurs, People start off with they have to do everything and they've got to wear all the hats and do all the things. And as an introvert that can be great because you want to be master of all, but also can be detrimental to you because there's no space to breathe or to be creative. Different people I've spoken to have crafted, maybe unintentionally, but all or drifted into careers or businesses that they have more control over their time or their energy or like when they spend the best part of their day, yada yada yada. So it's really interesting to to find different ways that people have done that.

When I was deciding what to take at university, my first choice, they they said fill out this form and 1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice. Because if your first one isn't available, we'll put you in the 2nd. Mhmm. So I went I went art, science, business. And then 2 weeks before the deadline, I went and changed it to science, business, art. And then the day of, I changed it to business, Art, science, and I ended up in the business school. So I'd always been really liked art, never very good at making stuff, but You know, I like pottery and I did paintings and and my dad was his hobby was painting, oil paintings. And I've the the science you know, like, I was very good at chemistry and physics and that sort of stuff, so I was always fascinated by science and geography and geology and all that stuff.

And, and then the business was, you know, just being in business was something that you need to be, you want to make money. And, So now I feel like I'm in all 3 because there's a lot of art to the stuff that I make and that I create and that my staff makes and creates. And then there's the business and the e commerce and all of that. And then there's the whole internet technology stuff and AI now that's going on. That's all very sciency. I I think we live in a Star Wars world to be perfectly honest. But anyway, I feel like That was kind of my goal. And, you know, when I went back, when I went to the university was those 3 things were the 3 most important.

And I feel like I'm spending some time in all three.

Awesome. All right. So, surprise bonus question. In your mind is a hotdog, a sandwich.

Okay. The first thing that popped in my head when you asked that question was no. Mhmm. That's I'm going to stick with it.

Alright. That is. Thank you so much, Scott. It has been a pleasure Talking to you and hearing you describe the the green and the lushness and the beaches and everything like that is making me, wanted to travel again. Please can you let everyone know where they can find out more about you and the things that you do? Oh,

probably the the best website to go to It's free ebooks.net. I'm president of that company and we give out no, we don't give out. We have 40,000 books and if you join for Free. You can download up to 5 books a month and it's a great way to discover authors who, You know, don't that are just starting out. We what we really want to do is support new authors coming into the into the Into the book world and also support, readers who are avid readers who are just tired of reading Books from the same old, same old people because the publishers feel it's too risky and expensive to take a chance on another, unknown author. And, LinkedIn probably would be the other place. Just search on my name and If it says he's in Vancouver from Vancouver, that'll be me. And you can send me a message there if you want to talk about travelling or house sitting or Being an author.

Wow. That is a much needed resource. Thank you so very much, Scott. I really appreciate it. So this is Janice from the careerintrovert.com, helping you build your brand and get hired. Have a great rest of your week.