Meet Our Brand Ambassadors: Ty and Michael King!

Starting in 2022, Landing is thrilled to be partnering with members from all over the country as they travel, explore, and live their best life while staying with us. Ty King, a poet, rapper, author, and editor, and Michael, an artist, producer, chef, and stand-up comedian, have added a new descriptor to their impressive backgrounds as Landing members!

Read on to learn more about Ty and Michael’s travel plans for the year, how they spend their days as part of their flexible lifestyle, and their advice for other people considering the digital nomad life:

How did you come to start living with Landing?

Ty: Michael is from Montgomery, Alabama, and I’m from Jamaica but I was raised in Miami. We each traveled around a ton and we met in Alabama. Then, we moved to Huntington Beach, California, which is where we were living when we entered the #LandingLife contest to win a free year of rent and wound up becoming runners-up! 

We’ve been living in a Landing since March in Henderson, Nevada, right outside of Vegas. We wanted to start our journey in Las Vegas before the heat kicked in! It also gave us the opportunity to reconnect with some old friends we haven’t gotten to spend a lot of time with. 

Las Vegas offers a lot of excitement, from its comedy scene and open mics to its music and food scene. We also just attended First Friday, which is big here. The city of Las Vegas shuts off all of these streets downtown, and there’s food and music. We love that kind of stuff! 

What are your travel plans with Landing this year? 

Ty: This year, we’re planning on spending three months or so in a few different places. Right now, we’re in Henderson, right outside of Vegas, then our next cities will be Denver, Austin, and somewhere in Florida. It’s funny to be like, “We’re going to summer in Denver, and then spend the fall in this place!” It sounds very rich. 

The opportunity to spend time in all these different places and grab hold of all these different cultures is one thing that drew us to enter the #LandingLife contest. We’ve never lived in Vegas, Denver, or Austin, and even though I grew up in Florida, it will still be nice to explore new places, reconnect with family, and see things through a different lens while we’re there. 

How did you decide which cities you wanted to live in?

Michael: It was a process! We did a ton of research and spent a lot of time Googling things to find out specifics like the best time of year to visit, what the economy was like, and whether the city had the kinds of things that we were looking for. 

Ty: Even years ago, we had a list of places we wanted to move to when we were trying to decide where we wanted to go after living in Alabama. We always kept that list. There were places in North Carolina where we’ll probably still end up, and Portland was actually on our list for a long time. We just decided that we’re going to use some of our Landing travel days to go there! 

It was definitely a process of elimination because there are so many places we’d like to see. 

I also read a lot of Landing blogs and trolled Landing’s Instagram page to see where people were living. It was helpful to be able to read about other people’s experiences of where they lived, what they liked, and what they saw, then compile those things into a spreadsheet. 

What kinds of things are you looking forward to as you travel? 

Ty: We definitely want to explore the hidden gems in every city, especially as it relates to food and music, which are both high on our list of important things. I also would love to make it to HAAM Benefit Day, a day that highlights Austin musicians, when we’re in Austin and see the Hoover Dam while we’re still in Henderson. 

Michael: I want to see something unexpected—something that’s like, “Oh wow, didn’t know this was here!” I’m planning on talking to locals because they have the best recommendations for things to do. I like a lot of what people call “nerdy, geeky” stuff, like sci-fi, anime, and comic books, so I’m going to try to find some sort of hub that caters to that. 

What do your days typically look like? 

Ty: Every day for us is kind of random. Usually, I’m doing publishing stuff, and then I might get a request to record a voiceover, a poem, or a song feature. Our Landing has great insulation, so recording has been a breeze.

We try to get done with work around 2 p.m. so we can go out and explore the city. We might go to downtown Henderson and walk around on Water Street to see what is going on, or we might go to the Strip. Every day looks pretty different! We also might walk down to the clubhouse in our apartment complex or go down to the pool, just to make sure we’re always seeing something. 

Landing’s whole “Unlock Life” mantra really works for us because we do feel like we get to change up our routine and fit our work around our life instead of trying to have a life after we’re drained from work. 

What have you liked about your Landing so far? 

Michael: Having a TV in every room is really cool! Our in-unit washer and dryer setup is also priceless. We also enjoy that we got to meet Cherise and Chris, another Brand Ambassador couple, through this process and it’s great to watch their adventures as they land in different parts of the country.

Ty: We have our own laundry room! In our other places, we didn’t have a laundry room—the appliances were just off the kitchen and not really spaced to be in there. We actually just made a video of us dancing in the laundry room because we can. We also have a really big kitchen counter, so it’s always nice to see Michael doing his chef greatness in there. 

The community here is also really nice. The apartment complex has great amenities, and the people in the leasing office are really nice and always putting on activities. It’s great to have a community for people like us who may not know anybody or not know many people. We can use the clubhouse to meet new people and create community as we go. 

We’ve also appreciated the communication we’ve had with Landing so far. Landing is able to be our concierge and our middle person between us and our complex. It’s also great to have the ability to reach out to someone and say, “Hey, we want to go to Denver next. Can you help us narrow down our options?” 

Do you have any advice for anyone considering a more flexible lifestyle? 

Michael: If you are going to do this long-term, be prepared to part with a lot of stuff. We got rid of 90% of our stuff, and we still have too much! We have to trim that down a little more. It’s great because you have everything you need in your apartment, so you don’t have to think about buying a TV, bed, or any type of appliance. I’m able to breathe now when I go through the electronics section or the family home section of stores. I’m like, “Don’t have to get this! Won’t be getting this! Won’t be getting that!”

Also, if you have two vehicles, you’ll want to plan on how you’re going to handle that. Right now, we have two cars and our plan is to see if we have to make an adjustment after six months. When we drive to our new cities, we’re just trailing each other. The next trip we’re making is going to be almost 12 hours long. I think it’s going to make a decision for us either way. 

Ty: Start your process early of deciding what you absolutely must take with you and what you can part with. And then just be flexible! The end result of this lifestyle is that you get more freedom to explore new places. There are so many people who said to us, “Oh, I could never do that!” and I’m like, “Yeah, you can! Go to hellolanding.com! Come! Join us! We welcome you.” Just be flexible and be excited.