58 | Bigger Business, Smaller Team – AI, Freedom and the Turtle Nomad Life

What if growing your business does not have to mean building a bigger company?

In this episode of the Nomad Summit Podcast, Palle Bo sits down with Gal Tzhayek – entrepreneur, speaker, software founder, and what he calls a "turtle-like nomad," currently traveling with his wife and three children.

Gal has built, acquired, and scaled education businesses that reached more than 30,000 students and generated millions in revenue. But after growing one company to around 100 people, he realized something uncomfortable: the bigger the business became, the further he moved away from the work he actually loved.

Today, Gal is focused on a different kind of growth – using AI, automation, systems, and smarter business design to create more impact with fewer moving parts.

This conversation is especially relevant for digital nomads, freelancers, consultants, speakers, and remote founders who want to build meaningful businesses without accidentally creating a new office, a heavier life, and a job they no longer enjoy.

Gal also shares how his company Speaka helps speakers find paid speaking opportunities around the world, why public speaking can be a great fit for location-independent professionals, and how AI agents can help match speakers with the right events and companies.

We also talk about slow travel with a family, why not every business task should be automated, how to use AI without chasing every shiny new tool, and why deep expertise may become more valuable – not less – in the age of artificial intelligence.

Key Takeaways

• Growth is not always the same as freedom. A larger team can sometimes create more complexity, more management, and less personal flexibility.
• Many entrepreneurs start businesses to do work they love, but end up spending most of their time managing people, processes, and internal problems.
• For digital nomads and remote founders, the goal should not just be a remote business – it should be a business light enough to support the life they want.
• AI and automation can reduce the need to hire, but only when used with proper systems, processes, and clear goals.
• Gal warns against chasing "one prompt wonders." Instead, he suggests thinking about AI like hiring a person – define the role, train it, test it, and monitor the output.
• The best tasks to automate are recurring tasks that do not require your unique expertise, taste, judgment, or "genius zone."
• Deep domain expertise still matters. AI can help with surface-level work, but experienced humans still provide the insight, nuance, and strategic judgment that make projects succeed.
• For freelancers and solopreneurs, Gal suggests thinking of yourself as a business made up of different roles – CEO, accountant, marketer, assistant, creator – then identifying which "employee" you dislike being the most and automating tasks from that role first.
• Public speaking can be a strong nomad-friendly business model, especially when it leads to corporate work, consulting, products, or other paid opportunities beyond conference exposure.

Relevant Links

• Gal's speaker page: https://gal.speaka.io/en
• Gal's LinkedIn profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/galtzhayek/
• Gal's company website: https://speaka.io