Becoming a Digital Nomad. Our Long Road to Overnight Success.
WE MADE IT.
The main reason we want to share our story is to show that "overnight success" is only perception and that in almost most cases takes several years to accomplish. I remember looking at other people online thinking they were lucky. What I didn't know was their full story. Here's ours.
Our 5 Year “Overnight” Success
step 1: save money; quit job; travel.
2013: Made a plan, put it in to action.
2015: Quit jobs to travel.
2015-2016: Traveled 1 year around the world
2016: Ran out of money. Learned in order to be fully fulfilled we need to be able to sustain traveling by working from the road. But how?
Step 2: Figure out a way to work and travel.
2017: Worked 9-5; moonlighted online business.
Before our trip around the world I worked for an HR Tech company. When we came back from our trip around the world I reached out to old clients and began world as an outside consultant so that I could work from home. Tim got a very low paying 9-5 sales job at a marketing company. While his salary was low it had everything we needed: he was walking distance to work, he was able to come home every day for lunch and he was home every day no later than 5pm.
Because Tim's job was so "clock-out at the end of the day" it gave him the true Other 8 Hours (game-changer book if you haven't read it) to build his own business. Tim got our Amazon store up and running during the evenings and weekends after his 9-5 salary job. Once Tripped Travel Gear was off the ground 10 months later, Tim was able to put in his two weeks and leave his job! Also what he describes to be the most important, memorable and proudest day of his life.
step 3: FULLTIME TRAVEL.
2018: Renovated an RV in Florida then drove to Alaska while working fulltime from the road.
Which brings us to:
STEP 4: FIND BALANCE.
2019: Sell the RV. Move to Mexico.
We are so fortunate that now the success of our business can support all three of us from anywhere in the world. No meetings with clients, no timezone differences, no "hours for dollars" mentality. After a year of RV travel we decided that RV living doesn’t provide the right balance of work and travel that we are looking for.
We found it very challenging to stay connected to the internet and, after the excitement of international travel from the previous trip, felt limited to just North America. You can watch this video here to hear more about or honest review of RVing.
Moving to Mexico for the next several months provided us the flexibility take a break from driving and enjoying hopping month to month across the country.
How to live a life of travel
I guess the biggest thing we'd like to share is -- this is our FULL story. Don't look at our pictures and think - "wow they’re lucky". Begin the story from before we turned on a camera or back to TRIPPED Season 1 Ep1 in Europe. With only a little cash in our pockets and a backpack on our backs you’ll see two kids who have no idea to what’s in front of them.
We left job security behind to hit the road with the biggest fear of "not finding a job when we got home". Every small step of the way was one step closer to continuing to reach out for something we knew we wanted.
Our only hope in sharing our story is that it inspires you that we were once just two Chicago mid-westerners chatting about our crummy $500/week internship over happy-hour. Look at us now. If this is what you want, take the leap, and get on the road.
Love you all and all of your CONSTANT kind words and messages. XO
Fin.
PS - why did I just sign this like a letter.