Sep 3, 2026 · 58 min · 10 segments
In this episode of *The Layover*, we sit down with **Joe O’Connor**, a full-time traveling dad, worldschooler, and co-founder of **Global Family Home Rentals**, or **GFHR**—a community-driven rental…
Well, maybe you can take me back to the beginning a little bit.
Where did you grow up? Um, and then, you know, how did you end up, uh, well, what got you excited about the idea of, you know, nomadic living? Um, you know, we see a lot of that behavior amongst young people, but you know, when you start, you know, uh, getting kids and starting to think about the implications, it just feels maybe a lot more distant than when you're a young person.
um but i've met plenty of people like you who've been able to pull it off so i'd love to hear a little bit about more more about your background and kind of you know how did you start thinking about this idea like what would it be like to you know go on a long-term adventure for the family and then let's get into you know what you learned and why gfhr was the solution to this problem that you were that you had kind of encountered in the real world as nomadic family living
yeah for sure so it's it's definitely been a journey but to go back to uh back to the beginning um yeah i'm originally from upstate new york i grew up just outside of the syracuse area and then my partner lynn she's from buffalo um we met each other in college we both went to a small um now division one was division two at the time jesuit school in syracuse it's called lemoyne college I graduated with a dual degree, business management and leadership and information systems.
And then pretty cool, Linz, after she graduated, she went abroad, lived in the UK, played some volleyball over there and actually started an international sports agency.
What they do is they help student athletes from the States, once they're done competing and studying, travel to the UK, get your master's degree, continue to play the sport that you played in college, and then have the ability to travel the world.
And when she was over there, she had people reaching out and they were like, man, how do we do this? This is incredible.
I say that because After I graduated, we reconnected and I had the opportunity through Team Glees to move to Australia.
So I lived in Sydney for almost a year, got my master's, continued to play some basketball.
So what was cool about it is I was in an international environment, plus all the people that were in it.
So I thought that that was just really cool and you need to experience it in that way.
Well, maybe you can take me back to the beginning a little bit.
Where did you grow up? Um, and then, you know, how did you end up, uh, well, what got you excited about the idea of, you know, nomadic living? Um, you know, we see a lot of that behavior amongst young people, but you know, when you start, you know, uh, getting kids and starting to think about the implications, it just feels maybe a lot more distant than when you're a young person.
um but i've met plenty of people like you who've been able to pull it off so i'd love to hear a little bit about more more about your background and kind of you know how did you start thinking about this idea like what would it be like to you know go on a long-term adventure for the family and then let's get into you know what you learned and why gfhr was the solution to this problem that you were that you had kind of encountered in the real world as nomadic family living
yeah for sure so it's it's definitely been a journey but to go back to uh back to the beginning um yeah i'm originally from upstate new york i grew up just outside of the syracuse area and then my partner lynn she's from buffalo um we met each other in college we both went to a small um now division one was division two at the time jesuit school in syracuse it's called lemoyne college I graduated with a dual degree, business management and leadership and information systems.
And then pretty cool, Linz, after she graduated, she went abroad, lived in the UK, played some volleyball over there and actually started an international sports agency.
What they do is they help student athletes from the States, once they're done competing and studying, travel to the UK, get your master's degree, continue to play the sport that you played in college, and then have the ability to travel the world.
And when she was over there, she had people reaching out and they were like, man, how do we do this? This is incredible.
I say that because After I graduated, we reconnected and I had the opportunity through Team Glees to move to Australia.
So I lived in Sydney for almost a year, got my master's, continued to play some basketball.
So what was cool about it is I was in an international environment, plus all the people that were in it.
So I thought that that was just really cool and you need to experience it in that way.
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