Life Out of the Box: Spears Business alumni enjoy careers, marriage as digital nomads

Thursday, February 12, 2026

Media Contact: Hallie Hart | Communications Coordinator | 405-744-1050 | hallie.hart@okstate.edu

Jonathon and Quinn Button say hello in a virtual meeting from the 30th floor of their high-rise apartment building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

With midnight approaching in their time zone, city lights twinkle outside the couple’s window. Merdeka 118, the world’s second-tallest skyscraper, watches over them, the sleek silhouette of its distinctive spire piercing the night sky.

During the day, the Oklahoma State University graduates follow the city’s cadence, wandering into local cafés and thrift shops when they aren’t working. 

“For us, an adventure is going outside our front door,” said Jonathon, who has his master’s degree and doctorate from the Spears School of Business.

That’s because the Buttons’ front door leads to a new place — usually, a different country — each month.

In the 1997 book, “Digital Nomad,” authors Tsugio Makimoto and David Manners describe the dawn of an era in which technology allows people to live and work while moving from place to place. The lifestyle has grown popular over the past three decades, but more than 50% of the United States’ digital nomads stay in the country, according to Jessica Elliott’s article for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. 

Quinn and Jonathon Button, Ph.D.s, hopped around 16 countries last year alone.

The Buttons sold or donated most of their belongings, carrying the rest in two backpacks and two carry-on suitcases to chase a dream. With no home base, they live primarily in Airbnb rentals around the world, striving to spend 30 days in each place. This is Life Out of the Box, which doubles as the Buttons’ motto and the name of the business they built as OSU students. 

“In entrepreneurship and in business, you hear a lot of times, ‘You’ve got to think out of the box,’” Quinn said. “It’s one thing to think outside of the box, but it’s another thing to actually act on it, to actually take your life out and do something with those ideas.” 

The couple relies on multiple income streams — business consultations, speaking engagements, investments and savings from previous corporate jobs — while pursuing their ultimate goal. They want to build Life Out of the Box, which started as a blog, into a virtual community of travel enthusiasts. 

With growing accounts on YouTube and Instagram, Life Out of the Box merges digital innovation and authentic in-person connections. 

OSU inspired the Buttons to invest in both. 

“Jonathon’s research in entrepreneurship and Quinn’s research in design took them beyond the normal landing spots of Ph.D.s and into the galaxy of digital nomads,” said Dr. Craig Watters, clinical associate professor and international entrepreneurship chair in OSU’s School of Entrepreneurship. “They have taken social entrepreneurship into the 21st century, linking technology and cyber-business with their social mission. 

“They have become truly inspirational.”

Cute as the Buttons

In May 2019, Quinn and Jonathon gathered their families and friends for a graduation party in Stillwater. 

At OSU, the sweethearts from Northern California added “Dr.” to their names. While Jonathon obtained his Ph.D. in business administration with a focus on entrepreneurship, Quinn earned hers in human sciences with a focus on design. 

By the end of the party, those milestones weren’t the biggest news.

Quinn and Jonathon discarded their caps and gowns to reveal her wedding dress and his suit coat with a bow tie.

“Surprise! You’re actually at our wedding right now,” they announced.

Although they suddenly spilled the secret to their proud guests, the bride and groom orchestrated this moment for months, coordinating with small businesses in Stillwater to bring the details into place. 

This is how the Buttons live. They thrive on spontaneous planning, able to turn a brilliantly wild whim into a strategic process they can execute. 

One such idea led to Stillwater. 

Early in their relationship, Jonathon was looking to continue his education after earning his undergraduate degree in business management from the University of Hawai‘i. His search for online master’s in entrepreneurship programs yielded a promising result. 

“I calculated, ‘What is the highest ranking with the lowest cost?’” Jonathon said. “Very quickly, the Spears School of Business became evident as No. 1 in the nation.”

At the time, Spears Business offered an online stand-alone master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Degree programs have evolved since then, but Spears Business has stayed at the forefront of online education, reaching the top 10 for both undergraduate and MBA programs in U.S. News & World Report’s latest rankings.

For Jonathon, his flexible online program allowed him to take Stillwater-based classes from Nicaragua, Guatemala and Morocco as he and Quinn built a business. 

Inspired by TOMS Footwear, the couple partnered with artisans around the world to sell bracelets and other handcrafted products. Each time a customer purchased an item, school supplies went to a child in need.

Quinn and Jonathon called it Life Out of the Box.

Jonathon balanced the international startup with his coursework, but his degree program didn’t feel complete when he turned in his last assignment.

He had to visit Oklahoma at least once. 

In 2014, the sweethearts flew from Morocco to the United States for Jonathon to cross Gallagher-Iba Arena’s graduation stage.

They also met his faculty mentors, including Watters, who encouraged Jonathon and Quinn to bring their startup into the business incubator in OSU’s Riata Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

Before they knew it, they were living in Stillwater as OSU students. 

It was Quinn’s turn to get her master’s degree in entrepreneurship. Over the following years, Quinn and Jonathon then obtained their doctorates. They grew their business, provided opportunities for student interns in the Riata Center and donated thousands of school supplies through LOOTB. 

“It was one of the most serendipitous, beautiful moments of our life,” Quinn said. 

By 2019, the newlywed Buttons had four OSU degrees between them.

Education led to lucrative opportunities. 

Quinn has held positions that include chief operating officer and strategic advisor for media companies, and Jonathon runs a company allowing restaurants and their customers to track rewards using a digital stamp. The Buttons have taught entrepreneurship courses and invested in Web3 technology and startups that ballooned into successful businesses. 

Ultimately, the Buttons’ entrepreneurship degrees inspired them to bet on themselves. What could their lives look like beyond the corporate world?

Together, they chose to find out.

Letting go of the box(es)

Quinn and Jonathon spent a lot of time traveling for work.

Only a couple of weeks after a business conference in Portugal, they had another coming up in France. Going home to the U.S. between European trips didn’t make much sense, so the Buttons made a new plan.

Instead of renewing their lease where they lived in Florida, they put most of their belongings in a storage unit, sold their car and embraced the digital nomad lifestyle. 

“That was three-and-a-half years ago,” Jonathon said. “We haven’t stopped since.”

Recently, the Buttons sold or donated possessions, including their mattress and TVs, to empty the storage unit. The Life Out of the Box founders literally said goodbye to their boxes, except for a few sentimental items that stay with their parents in California. 

Now, they’re booking Airbnbs, navigating airports and adjusting to new time zones while documenting the journey online for aspiring adventurers. At first, the Buttons strived to visit as many countries as possible, but that’s no longer the priority. 

Jonathon and Quinn travel with purpose.

Building on its beginnings of selling handcrafted bracelets, Life Out of the Box continues to work with international entrepreneurs, now through consultation and promotion. Although the Buttons often live near famous landmarks, they gravitate toward the small businesses around those iconic sites.

“What we look for is, ‘Where do locals gather and why?’” Quinn said. “Is it the food? Is it the culture? Is it the celebrations?”

These questions guide Life Out of the Box’s engaging, slice-of-life content on  Instagram, where they have 11.3K followers, and YouTube, where their top video from Vietnam has 14K views. Many of their videos focus on cuisine, spotlighting local vendors while offering tips for travelers. 

After working various jobs and making investments to fund their dream, Jonathon and Quinn are pursuing brand sponsorships to make Life Out of the Box’s digital channels a full-time priority. It’s a new chapter, but the Buttons are no strangers to change.

From Greece to Turkey to Thailand, they remember the temporary yet formative home that launched them into this exciting phase of life. 

Quinn and Jonathon still talk about OSU at global conferences.

They communicate with Watters on a near-daily basis and stay connected with Riata Center director Chad Mills. 

Most of all, the Buttons have the lasting memory of family, friends and love from their graduation-wedding day in Stillwater.

That love endures today.

“When we’re choosing and deciding what opportunities to pursue, a big part of it is, ‘Will we be able to do this together, side by side, on our journey?’” Jonathon said. “If it makes sense that we can do that, then we’ll take the step forward and we’ll push through the risk. We know to our core that the one thing that needs to be stable is having each other as each other’s rock.”

Jonathon and Quinn encourage readers to reach out with questions about living and working abroad. To connect with the Buttons, send them a direct message on Instagram @lifeoutofthebox.