The Rv Entrepreneur With Heath Padgett

Jonathan runs FortySeven Media, a web design and development shop, and has traveled across the country with his family of four in an Airstream for more than four years. And while we talk a lot about Jonathan's business in this episode, what I loved most about our conversation was this idea of balance.

Josiah and his wife Ashley were ready to jump into real estate investment. They were meeting the right people, moved to an area with a great market—but then a mentor asked Josiah one question: "What value do you bring to a real estate deal?" This question gnawed at Josiah for weeks until he realized the honest answer. Nothing.  In this episode, we dive into how Josiah ended up building Investor Deal Room, a software solution for real estate investment deals.

Eight weeks after the birth of her daughter, Amber went back to her full-time job. Shortly after, her husband Chris was offered an executive chef position at a new restaurant. As you can expect with a new baby, this was really tough. So Amber quit her job to give freelance web development a chance. In this episode, we really dive into where that one decision has taken her family—from a Wordpress freelancer to running a marketing agency doing branding, SEO, design, and more. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

If you've ever tried to store your RV, you know that it's nearly impossible to find quality RV storage. Howard ran into the same issue—but instead of getting angry and calling a dozen more storage places begging for a parking spot (not that I've ever done that or anything), Howard came up with an idea: high-end storage for RVs. That's when RV Loft was born. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Shooting weddings every weekend is emotionally and physically draining. And after years of being a professional photographer, Katie was looking for something that gave her a little more freedom. That's when a friend mentioned photo editing. Choose your own clients, work from anywhere—it's the perfect mobile business.

In the six years he's been running his remote account firm, Chad has read something like 18,000 resumes. So you could say he has a little bit of experience with hiring. Chad runs Live CA, a fully remote accounting firm in Canada that boasts over 60 employees. In this podcast episode—which is Chad's mainstage talk from our 2019 RV Entrepreneur Summit—Chad dives into the five stages in the hiring process. 1. Value 2. Hiring 3. Onboarding 4. Support 5. Offboarding --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

When was the last time you took a moment to audit your life? After a few weeks of going all-in on full-time travel, Cyrus had an internal crisis. He wasn't working, he wasn't making money, and he was spending his days traveling aggressively—Something was off. What Cyrus learned was something that I've confronted myself in the past year. When you put your identity in one thing—your job or being a full-time RVer, for example—you end up feeling lost when that thing ends.

If you own an RV, chances are you've heard of RV Trader. I personally am on RV Trader every single day, since Alyssa and I are currently trying to figure out what RV we want to own next. So I probably account for 500K of the 18 million searches their website gets each month. This episode (which isn't sponsored by RV Trader by the way) is all about the RV buying experience and some really cool data RV Trader has collected about the process. If you nerd out about RVs like me, you'll love it.

Abby Holcombe recently won 4th place at the World Championships for Freestyle Kayaking, she is the youngest person to ever kayak the Grand Canyon, and she's been RVing full-time since she was 10 years old. Together with her parents, the Holcombe's spend over 300 days a year on the water doing what they love—kayaking. I wanted to bring Abby on the show to hear more of her story and everything she's accomplished BECAUSE her parents decided to uproot their life in Colorado in favor of life on the road.

After living and working in the Bay Area, the high cost of living and monotony of their work gave Ken and Ellisa the idea to hit the road. Ellisa’s bandmates were all moving on to different stages of life and Ken always had a love of music—together they decided to play shows across the country. Over 160 shows in a year!

In 2014, after their 3 kids had graduated from school, Eric and Tami quit their careers, sold the house, and bought their very first RV. It didn’t take them long to realize they didn’t want their RV life to end any time soon, so they had to find a way to afford it long-term. Less than one year after becoming RVers, they bought an e-commerce site, TechnoRV.com, and although they had no online business experience, they have successfully grown it 16 times over, all while traveling the country in their R --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

When Joe and Kait first started RVing, they had no intentions of making money on the road. But then they started a Youtube channel as a hobby which quickly turned into a business... A business with MILLIONS of views on their van life videos. Today we cover a few of the challenges that come with treating Youtube as a business like lowering and managing your burn rate and finding ways to diversify your income. Plus Joe shares the one thing you need in order to really make money as a content creator. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

I’m excited to be back in the saddle recording episodes! For the first time since I started this show back in early 2016, I’ve taken the past few months off to spend time with our brand new baby girl—who is sleeping soundly in the other room.  In this short episode, I wanted to give you a brief update of what's been going these past few months while I've been on paternity leave. Thanks for listening!

On today’s episode, I chat with Jenni Reichert about how instead of just creating another Amazon dropshipping business, she decided to build a brand that can outlast the ebbs and flows of Amazon competition. We dig into the beginnings of her business Baja Baby, which started as a baby product rental company and grew to include her own line of organic baby products, and also what it has been like to transition this business for life on the road. A few things we cover in this episode: How Jenni got the idea to start a baby product rental business What you need to do to start and build an Amazon brand that lasts What goes into creating the formulas for organic baby products  How Jenni has transitioned her business to fit the RV lifestyle Connect with Jenni and learn more about this episode here. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Today’s episode was recorded live from our RV Entrepreneur Summit that we hosted in March at Lake Guntersville State Park. In this interview, I sat down with Jamie Sorenson, who runs the Advanced Technology team at Winnebago, to talk about their new innovations in RV design. This small team at Winnebago has created a movement of Accessibility Enhanced vehicles, essentially opening up the RV life for people with disabilities who otherwise may not be able to travel. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Today’s episode is with my friend Emily Burton. Among being a friend and full-time RVer, Emily is also a top 1% seller on Etsy through her shop called The Paper Giraffe. With over 1,300 reviews, Emily has been able to carve out a niche for herself by largely selling printables on Etsy. If you’ve never heard of printables, they are actually a pretty incredible business for travelers because you carry zero physical inventory  — you’re selling just that — digital designs for cards and invitations that people can print off at home. A few things we cover in this episode: What Emily would do differently if she were starting her Etsy store today What she’s done to differentiate herself on Etsy Which of her products have sold the best and why Connect with Emily and learn more about this episode here.

Today’s episode is with Ashley Mann. Ashley runs RV Inspiration, which is a blog focused on RV decor ideas and inspiration, among other useful advice. She started the blog back in 2017 and it’s now providing a full-time income for her as she travels with her husband Josiah in their fifth wheel. If you’re wanting to build any kind of content channel (whether it’s a blog, YouTube channel or podcast), I think you’ll really enjoy this conversation with Ashley. A few things we cover in this episode: Why it's okay to pivot in your entrepreneurial journey How to write content that will help your audience and grow your blog Where to find your target audience and how to identify their problems How to monetize your blog and treat it like a business Connect with Ashley and learn more about this episode here. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

On today’s episode, I’m interviewing a dear friend of ours named Dr. Samantha, author of the book "Overcoming Overwhelm". Alyssa and I met Dr. Samantha how we’ve met a lot of our friends over the past few years. We were passing through her city and she invited us to park our RV in her driveway. Even though we just stayed a few days together, there have been so many things that Dr. Samantha shared with us that have stuck with me, specifically around self care and our health. While she’s not an RVer, I brought her onto the podcast because she specializes in the area of overcoming the feeling of overwhelm and she works with many entrepreneurs. A few things we cover in this episode: Understanding stress and overwhelm Identifying where it is coming from in your life Determining your values and what is most important Using your values and other insights to overcome overwhelm Connect with Dr. Samantha and learn more about this episode here. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

On this episode, I'm interviewing Chuck and Michelle from the Status Crowes. We first met them a few years ago at our first RV Entrepreneur Summit and since then they have hit the road full-time in an RV and booked shows all across the country. How to make money as a musician on the road is a topic that pops up sometimes in our Facebook group, so I knew Chuck and Michelle would be the perfect people to speak on this subject and offer advice to other musicians. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

In this podcast episode, I bring Alyssa on the podcast to talk through how we changed up our process for setting goals in 2019. We struggled more this year than any other year to set goals and establish a direction for the next 12 months—namely since we are currently in one place instead of traveling full-time and have the big uncertainty of our daughter coming this spring.