Farewell & Hello! Joshua’s Last Episode and an Introduction to Jim Nelson
With Jim Nelson – The RV Entrepreneur Episode #298
Your Host: Joshua Sheehan
Today we have the pleasure of talking with a NEW HOST for the RVE Podcast: Jim Nelson! Jim Nelson and his wife Rene Agredano have been full-time RVing and working from their fifth wheel home office since hitting the road in early 2007 with their dog Jerry after he lost a leg to cancer. They planned and budgeted for a year off, giving their Chief Fun Officer the road trip of a lifetime. Sharing their own adventures at LiveWorkDream.com, Jerry started creating a following of his own at Tripawds.com. Jerry then loved life on three legs for two years. They soon discovered workamping to help support their nomadic lifestyle. And since then they have grown Tripawds into a full-time labor of love. And their Tripawds Foundation now hosts largest support community for amputee pets and their people. Jim and Rene tell the whole story of why they hit the road and how they grew the Tripawds niche community in their book, Be More Dog: Learning to Live in the Now. They share more helpful tips for working from the road for RVers and digital nomads in their comprehensive workamping guide and fill-time RVing handbook, Income Anywhere!
- Live. Work. Dream. Full-time RVing and Workamping Tips Since 2007 https://liveworkdream.com
- Workampers Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/weloveworkamping
- Be More Dog: Learning to Live in the Now https://bemoredog.net
- Tripawds Pet Amputation Resources https://tripawds.com
- Tripawds Foundation Assistance Programs https://tripawds.org
Listen to The RV Entrepreneur Episode #298
Subscribe to The RV Entrepreneur Podcast on your favorite listening platform.The RV Entrepreneur #298 Episode Transcript:
Joshua Sheehan: Awesome, Jim. Welcome to the RV Entrepreneur podcast. This is a super special episode. Very exciting to talk with you. We’ve got some changes happening to the RV Entrepreneur and you are coming on as one of the new hosts. I am finishing out my tour with the RV Entrepreneur and you are stepping into, you know, kind of fill in my shoes, but also walk your own path. And so the goal for today is to kind of get to know you, who you are, what you’re doing, how did you get to the point of now becoming a host on the RV Entrepreneur. But welcome, Jim. Jim: Thank you. It’s an honor to be here. And I do believe those are some big shoes to fill and I’m really honored to take it on and see how we go going forward. Joshua Sheehan: Yeah, definitely. So give us a little history. Who is Jim? And where did the RV life start with you and your family? And how did you get, kind of walk us through your RV path, but then also if you sprinkle in your business, your entrepreneurship path as well, that’d be great. Jim: Sure, how long do you have? We’ve actually been on the road more than 16 years ago, is when we first hit the road. And prior to that, my wife and I had run our own business from home. So we’ve been entrepreneurs and a working couple of entrepreneurs forever. And we had our favorite dog. Our dog, Jerry, was our chief fund officer of our company. And in 2006, he was diagnosed with cancer. And we were just devastated. And He went through an amputation, lost a limb to osteosarcoma. And Renee, we were kind of at a point of growing our business. And I was getting kind of burnt out on the business. It was a full service marketing firm and graphic design firm in a 3,700 square foot Victorian house with our business downstairs. And Renee sent me down one day. I got an idea. And I was up for anything at that point. And she said, let’s sell the business. Let’s sell the house. Let’s sell everything. And let’s buy an RV. And let’s buy a new truck. And I was just. immediately on board. I was like, okay, I’m ready for a change. And the idea was to give Jerry this road trip of a lifetime to pay him back for all that wonderful times he gave us camping and such. So we were just going to travel the country for a year. We budgeted and planned for a year off, we got a new fifth wheel and a truck and Jerry ended up living two years. And so by that time, we had traveled around the country once. And somewhere after a year or so, we were starting to burn into our savings and we discovered work camping. And listeners may know that work camping is traditionally where you work somewhere and they give you a place to camp and you may or not make some money, but Jerry kept on hopping on and we started to grow this little blog we started for him called Tripawds with the paw in the middle. So Tripawds.com. really kind of blew up once I installed discussion forums. And then I had a live chat and then we decided to start a podcast. And then there was all this content. So we’ve started making information products with eBooks and such. And now, you know, fast forward 15, 16 years, there’s a Tripawds Foundation and I host more than 2000 three-legged dog and cat blogs. So that one little niche blog idea has blossomed into our full-time labor of love really. And we still do it all from our fifth wheel headquarters, wherever we are. And we’re now at our next big major life change where we are downsizing from the fifth wheel into a truck topper camper, which I can’t pull a fifth wheel with. So we actually have this mobile home studio up for sale now and we’re moving into a truck topper camper that we’ll be able to get out there and do some more. kind of hub and spoke travel if we get a smaller travel trailer and get off the beaten path a lot more like we like to. Joshua Sheehan: Wow, that’s pretty cool. You’ve been in the content creation business for quite some time. I bet the landscape is totally unrecognizable. Jim: You know, it’s crazy how it’s changed. In 2006, when we started researching this stuff, there wasn’t thousands of RV influencers on YouTube. Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: There, you know, there wasn’t a lot of information out there. There were some popular discussion forums, but doing the research really took some doing, and it was a lot of trial by error. And especially with the working from the road, we kind of fell into it with following our passion, which was helping people understand what to how to cope with the amputation for their pets and fulfilling that purpose and helping others. But it’s changed so much now. And we had a rally of escapers quite some time ago. And all of that up and coming YouTubers were there and someone had asked us, oh, you have a YouTube channel? And Renee just kind of immediately said, no. And I’m like, Renee, we have hundreds of videos at Live, Work, Dream. Do you not remember? We just kind of stopped doing that and focusing on that because… our niche business had grown and Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: we’re just like, there’s not much difference running a business on the road except all the challenges that you face when you’re on the road. Joshua Sheehan: Talk to me about some of those challenges. What were some of the ones that you remember that stick out 15 years ago? What were some of the big ones early on when you decided, hey, we’re gonna give this digital nomad life a go. I’m imagining the answer, but what were some of the big hurdles at the beginning? Jim: Sure, sure. I envisioned what those challenges might have been when we were doing our thorough planning. So internet at the time especially would have been a huge challenge. But before we even left, like our first stop in the rig the very next day was to install a Moto Sat satellite internet dish system. So we did a lot of homework beforehand and we had satellite internet in 2000, late 2007, mid to early 2007. Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: And at that time that bandwidth was expensive. I mean, it was Joshua Sheehan: Yeah. Jim: expensive system and getting online was simple. We push a button and we could find our satellite and work from anywhere. And that was wonderful. But, you know, that was a cost prohibitive in some times and, and video was really with the latency and that’s kind of thing. That was kind of difficult. So internet was a challenge at the time, but honestly, one of the biggest challenges was finding that balance of live and work. It’s kind of why we coined our live work dream website. It was originally a blog to sell this live work experience as this dream experience. And Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: then we turned it into the blog, but we’d be in these beautiful places and have to work because we need to fund this lifestyle. So the biggest challenge was, you know, maintaining the lifestyle, growing a business on the road and being prepared for the curve balls that this life. throws to you, like being a newbie and burning out your brakes. I mean, a few months into pulling a trailer for the first time, I replaced all of our rotors and pads. And that was a very expensive, you know, stupid tax life lesson. Since Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: then, we learned a lot about RVing. Joshua Sheehan: So you started out and it was a road trip to kind of give your dog this last hurrah, kind of go see the country. You ended up living longer than you had expected and exhausted the savings to where we’re now in a position where we kind of like this, we want to keep going. We need to figure out a way to do this. And so you, is this correct in that you started the blog first and then you started the tripod stuff? Jim: It is. You must’ve read our book. We kind of told our whole story in the first book we wrote called Be More Dog, Learning to Live in the Now. And that’s because we learned a lot of lessons from Jerry. And you’re right, we planned for a year off. So we had actually budgeted. And the idea was to go around the country and research areas. And we had a little spreadsheet and checklists of where we might want to quote, settle down. Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: And we loved Burlington, Vermont, and we loved certain places in Texas and certain places in Colorado, and we soon discovered that there’s no one perfect place out there. Meanwhile, we were just blogging for fun at first. And I was trying to do a couple of client stuff here and there, but I really wanted to let go and use this time to kind of reset our life and find that next place where we wanted to settle down, but there was no perfect place. So meanwhile, we were blogging about Jerry’s adventures. And I started getting all these emails from people going through this difficult situation. Oh, my dog’s losing a leg to cancer. But I had one type of dog with one type of cancer. And I started hearing from people with great Danes or a pug with mast cell cancer. And I had a German shepherd with osteosarcoma. So I put in discussion forums and that’s when the little hobby blog started to kind of turn into a business. And one of the funniest stories we tell, or I like to tell is, um, we started, thinking about how to monetize our niche blog, which had turned into a niche community. But this is a sensitive subject. These people are facing big high ticket items and they’re distressed and they don’t want to, they’re already spending tons of money. So we never really wanted to market to our audience, which is difficult. So we have, you know, things we want to sell, but we don’t want to sell to them. So Tripawds, three-legged dogs, benefit by having a harness. to get in and out of vehicles and such. And we Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: used a harness with Jerry. So I contacted Roughwear, a manufacturer of harnesses one day and said, you know, we’d love to sell your harnesses but we can’t stock them. And you know, we’re in an RV, would you drop ship for us? And they said, oh, sure, you’ll need to sell, you know at least a dozen or so a year. And like, well, I don’t know, but sure. Yeah, let’s become resellers. So we became resellers and we put up a little store on the site and the very next day we got our first sale. And that. blossomed into one of our major revenue streams, which was product sales that we’ve personally tested that are helpful items to our audience, but it was just one of the things because we learned early on that one of the best things for the RV life as entrepreneurs was to develop multiple revenue streams, unless you have that remote job or that perfect idea that you’re already growing into a business. Like I said, we kind of discovered work camping. We had the blog that was starting to grow with some product sales. Then we had the live work dream blog that we were tying monofly with affiliate stuff and we’d put all these irons in the fire. And the one that started to glow was the Tripawds community. So we blew on that one. And then we focused our efforts in selling information products and kind of grew the product mix out of that and eventually got into a podcast. And then that became very expensive to start hosting. So we formed a nonprofit foundation. to keep it all free for folks, because we really didn’t like asking people for money. Joshua Sheehan: It’s really cool. I enjoy talking with entrepreneurs and highlighting the fact that the thing that we know people for or what seems most successful for them is usually not step one. You know, they’re on step 15, 26, 152, and there’s all these little things that people who are looking to get into entrepreneurship want to achieve. They want to get to this finish line or even not even a finish line because that denotes an end, but more of like this point on the path. But they really have a hard time seeing like, hey, you just got to start somewhere and you got to start with something because 99% positive that that’s not going to be the thing you go with, but Jim: Mm-hmm. Joshua Sheehan: you’re going to learn the skills and more likely than not through that avenue, you’re going to make a connection or your community is going to tell you, hey, we’re really looking for gear to help with our Tripawds or whatever it may be, the community that you make, the connections that you make, the people that you encounter are going to lead the step three, four, five and six, but you wouldn’t… achieve that opportunity if you didn’t start with step one. And so I think sometimes we get very narrow minded of like, I want to start at the end. Well, you can’t start Jim: Mm-hmm. Joshua Sheehan: at the end because you can’t, not as sometimes you can, but not necessarily can you always see the end. And so sometimes just taking step one into the dark allows you to get a little bit closer. And then, you know, maybe you get past a wall you didn’t see and you can see a light off to the right or to the left. So it’s really cool that your community kind of helps shape that. And that you guys were paying enough attention to see that iron was the one that was glowing. Talk to me a little bit about how choosing to focus on that iron, obviously that takes away time and resources from the other irons. How did that feel and how did you guys mentally cope with, you know, you had this passion project over here that was going to be kind of put on the backburner a little bit to make the Tripawds and all the things that came out of that more successful. Jim: You must be reading my mind and you said a few things there that are really on point because that first step you take is often a leap and that leap is often into the void. And it’s, you really have to have, um, an understanding that you can fail and probably will fail and be prepared to fail and have some sort of backup plan. Like when we first hit the road, we thought we were going to start, you know, focus on LubeWork Dream and growing that into what has become this incredibly competitive marketplace of RV educators, influencers, courses, coaches, that sort of thing. But it’s, I think it all comes back to purpose and the Japanese call it Ikigai, it’s, it’s your purpose for being and helping others. And once that kind of aligned with our direction. The whole live work thing that we do, there’s this balance of live work, but if you are doing it to help others and it’s something you’re passionate about, it doesn’t really feel like work so much. Like Renee will be sitting up in bed on for the last few hours of the day, communicating with our community members in the forums. I’m like, stop working. She says, I’m not working, but she is working, but it’s not necessarily work when it is your passion. So the really… The key focus is finding that purpose, finding your Ikegai and finding what it is that really makes you feel like a more fulfilled life. We took the first big leap into the void way back when in our previous lives. I was a marketing manager in Silicon Valley in the nineties and we were living in San Francisco and we decided to quit a very comfortable default life and move to rural Eureka, California and start working for ourselves from home. And those are the type of things that stem from your passion. At the time, mine was graphic design and graphics and printing. So we bought a big printer and I got into something that I loved doing. And when we hit the road from that life in our RV for the first time, I just burst out laughing and if, if you would have asked me at the time in, in 10, 15 years, you’re going to be managing an online community with 2000, three legged dog and cat blogs and. supporting a lifestyle living in a fifth wheel on the road, I would have been laughing pretty hard. So it’s a matter of kind of taking that leap, having faith and understanding that you have to find that purpose. And the purpose often finds you as it did with us. Joshua Sheehan: You’ve said this several times and this is a very technical question, but I want to clarify. Two to three thousand individual blogs, not like… That seems like an insane number. Jim: Correct, so the Tripawds network is built on a WordPress multi-site community. So WordPress multi-site is what powers WordPress.com. People are familiar with WordPress.org software you can install and create your own blog. And in those settings, if you get into the network settings, you can turn on the multi-site functionality. And what we’ve done is allowed people to create their own blogs to share their stories. And… We were at a blog pause conference. This was an organization, um, like mommy bloggers or food bloggers, but it was pet bloggers and in 2009 or so I was speaking at that about Facebook groups or how to build community. And we ended up talking, we didn’t know it at the time, but she was the keynote for the next day and we met her at a mixer the night before and we’re talking and she goes, so what’s your business model? And this was early on in the travels and we were traveling and trying to build this little community. And we both kind of looked at each other, Renee and I, and she looked dumb, found it, and it just popped in my head. I go, we operate a freemium business model. I had heard that term. And the freemium business model is where you give away tons of information, tons of stuff for free. And if you want the bells and whistles, you pay a certain premium. So with our WordPress multi-site network, we offer free blogs to people to allow them to share their story, share their photos. document the progress of their pets recovery and it’s free. And there might be some ads running on it. And they might have limited space to upload photos. You pay a little premium every year and all of a sudden you get lots more space to put in the photos and have more bells and whistles and plugins for your blog. The same thing goes with our content. You mentioned being content creators before that was a term really, but we have massive amounts of content with interviews with oncologists and orthopedists. and we have specialists that are absolutely free for anyone to find all the answers they need about amputation recovery. But usually you’re pretty stressed out and in a hurry. So we took that and created a number, a series of eBooks. So the information is free, but for a little premium, you can download the eBook and have all the answers at your fingertips. So our business model is a freemium business model when it comes to this community. I think we’re up to 2,200 some individual. blogs at tripawds.com. So when someone joins, they get their own blog at, you know, my dog.tripawds.com. And then there’s the community website, tripawds.com that has a directory of those and the forums where people can cross reference. And now we have a page all about cats. We’ve got more than two, almost 200 cat blogs now with really good people with really good cats sharing their stories. And the key thing that you said that I wanted to address is the word community. The best product that Tribods has to offer is a warm fuzzy feeling. It’s a place off of social media. It’s a safe space with other people that understand what you’re going through. And it’s those niche communities, kind of like RV Life is about, you know, and especially the RV Life entrepreneur and the RVE summits and such. It’s that sense of community that really help you, help ground you and help you feel more fulfilled in your purpose of your business, no matter what it may be. Joshua Sheehan: Yeah, very much so. I’m trying to think of how I want to take these next questions because I’ve got two questions that I’ve been mulling over and I want to get both of them. So we might circle back a little bit. Let’s jump back to how you had mentioned, you know, this was an iron in the fire started glowing and that’s a good analogy. I like that. At the same time, I can also see the same analogy of plates spinning on the top of sticks as Jim: Hmm Joshua Sheehan: an applicable one. How did you? find that it was balancing all of those plates in the air. As you mentioned, having diverse sets of income is really beneficial on the road, because if one falls or if one burns up, you’re not left high and dry. But at the same time, I can imagine, it gets, I know from my own personal experience, it gets hard trying to divide your attention to each individual iron in the fire or plate in the air. How did you guys achieve? a working balance so that you didn’t drop those plates or let the irons burn down. Jim: The short answer is we didn’t. We dropped some plates and you’re bound to, and I kind of view it as juggling. Um, you’re juggling a chainsaw, three balls, a knife and a flaming torch all at once, and you are going to drop some plates. And the idea is to focus on the most valuable plate. You’ve got the fine China plate spinning really fast and you don’t want to drop that one because Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: it is the most important plate and you might have to let some of the other plates go because they don’t. make as much money or don’t fulfill you as much, which is kind of more important to us. So how we did it was focusing on what really makes us feel good. So in monetizing all of our sites, the Live Work Dream and the Tripawds community, there was a phase, especially during the blog pause days where you learn how to monetize and do sponsored content and that sort of thing. We kind of pulled back the reins on those, but we have done it. We did… some major sponsored content campaigns where sponsors would get video production and blog posts and ads on the website. But it got to a point where it started feeling disingenuous and we were doing it for the money. And I’ll tell any entrepreneur out there, if you’re getting started and you’re doing it for the money, find something else. Because even if you do end up making money from it, you’re not gonna be as fulfilled and in the end, it will fail or you’ll fail at it. Unless your idea is to make a ton of money, sell it and do something else, um, which is, you know, happens, but it’s rare. So the idea was to focus on those things that really, um, make us feel more fulfilled and along the lines, adjusting the priorities. And I like to say, I like to call it, um, redefining success. A lot of people think success means you’ve got more money in the bank. Well, we’re currently. making probably a lot less money than we did as entrepreneurs at home with our business, working from sticks and bricks, where we were making more money, but it was for other people. We were doing projects and they’d turn out fun and they’d, we’d do a lot of creative things at trade shows and then printed materials. But then when it was done, you know, it was, it was theirs and it was for their customers, what we’re doing now just really helps us feel more fulfilled. So we are prepared. to drop a few plates. We’ve diluted our business so much as one coach, kind of phrased it recently that, in the sense of planning and going forward with the business and staying on track and succeeding and making that money, it’s a little different for, I think, the solopreneur especially, or the couplepreneuers that Renee and I are, if that’s a term, because you focus on the life. You know, that’s our whole live, work, dream. We’re living a dream life while working. We’re working to make life work. And it’s that whole balance. And to keep those plates balancing, you gotta drop a few and focus on the ones that really matter. Joshua Sheehan: So it sounds like this community has grown to the point where it started with Jerry, but it’s no longer about Jerry. And so I’m curious to know what you guys have done or how you’re thinking about taking yourselves out of the equation. The Tripawds community is, if you and Renee were to no longer be here tomorrow, how are you making it so this community just continues to go by itself? And what was the process of decoupling yourself mentally? Mostly from like, Hey, this is Jerry’s story and people found value in it to now we’re providing this service that other people can have their emotional journey and their experience with this same type of scenario. But it’s not just about Jim and Renee anymore. Jim: That’s a tough one. And you must be reading our whiteboard because, you know, for a few years now, there is the whole exit strategy that we need to address and being tied to it. So personally, yeah, it was Jerry’s story. And then we published the book about Jerry’s story and, you know, it’s all, you know, in my heart, it’s still because of Jerry, but then We had Wyatt, Wyatt was our second tripod spokesdog. He was missing a rear leg and you know, he lived 12 years. And now we have Nellie who’s a three and a half legged dog. So it’s not about Jim and Renee, like you said, but that’s one of the reasons, you know, especially in this sort of, um, socialpreneur niche community environment that we live in. It’s the reason we created the nonprofit foundation so that we now have a board of directors and we can keep meeting to talk about. What happens when Jim and Renee are gone? Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm. Jim: And it really comes into play at times over the past year and a half, specifically I’ve changed platforms for our supporter blog network, this premium, premium model I was talking about and hit my head against so many brick walls and so many roadblocks that there were times we had a serious discussion about what if I just turned, what if it all just went away? What if it turned off? You know, but, it being our purpose and our passion, it was worthwhile to, you know, bleed some money literally for a while and a lot of tears and hair getting pulled out because we’re not doing it for ourselves. We’re doing it so that other people never have to feel like we did that first night left alone in the hotel room. So the idea is to find that purpose and the whole extra strategy part is still up in the air. How we’re going to do that, we don’t know yet. The foundation has a lot to do with it because that will be an entity that can carry on as The brand instead of Jim and Renee But it’s funny because we’ll get calls through our helpline or for when people are asking about gear and they think Tripawds is this large organization and they want to talk to The the gear department or they have troubles with their blog. So they want to talk to tech support and guess what? That’s that’s us. It’s just Jim and Renee. Jim: Yes, as a matter of fact, and I’m also the guy on the Facebook page. But in these days, when the brand and the personality are so enmeshed, I’ve always been the man behind the scenes. And we have a coach and a coaching community that we belong to that are all, you know, the brand is the personality. And the idea is, well, it should be about Jim and Renee. People should know it’s only Jim and Renee and that they are up late. in bed on the forums and that Jim is pulling his hair out trying to get free blogs working. So it’s a fine line. It’s kind of like I want to just be behind the scenes and make things work, but this environment we live in is about the brand being the personality, personality brands. Joshua Sheehan: Mm-hmm, for sure. So that all sounds fantastic and it sounds like you guys are very successful at that and that it’s providing both value to you in a community aspect and lasting legacy aspect and also financially. Talk to me about how you guys got integrated into RV Life and where the paths with Andy, Patrick and the team crossed there. Jim: Yeah, so we kicked this off by introducing Jim Nelson as one of the new hosts of the RV Life entrepreneur podcast. And I worked with RV Life long ago, helping out with their newsletters. But Rayne, my wife, has written for RV Life for quite a few years and has one of her own sites. RV Life is a network of RV centric forums, communities, and blogs, you know, niche. trailer blogs and class A blogs and class C blogs and air stream blogs. All a lot of them with their own forums. And Renee is a content creator, creating content for a number of their sites. Editor. She’s actually the editor now of the RV life, you know, editorial team and has taken on one of the new sites that they recently acquired as her own. So RV life has kind of always been over my left shoulder. And I recently had a chance to meet with Patrick and, or Andy rather, at, in person. And Renee had not met him in person. So we actually had a chance to meet. And I think he kind of caught on, you know, to the fact that, yeah, we’ve written a book called income anywhere and oh, we have been operating our own business from the road for 16 plus years. And then when word came about that you’re moving on to your own endeavors, he just kind of put it out there and said, Hey, let’s meet with Patrick and they, we After about an hour on the phone, they said, let’s do this. Because I had the tripod talk radio podcast experience and we have a number of appearances as guests. So I’ve got some big shoes to fill and I’m really excited to get on board and do this. Joshua Sheehan: That’s really cool. And it is very testament to, again, taking those steps. And one step leads to another, leads to a connection or an introduction. And that’s, that’s very cool. Very cool. Jim: That’s all part of the entrepreneurial journey is it comes back to community and you know, getting out from behind the curtain, which I’ve always had a hard time doing, but getting your name out there and being known as, Oh, the guy that does the three-legged dog stuff or the guy that wrote that, you know, income on the road book. And then he knows two friends and they know two friends. Next thing you know, your two degrees of separation from the people that will take you to your next level. Joshua Sheehan: So why say yes? Why, you know, this door presented along your path, it opened up as you got to it, why’d you walk through it? Jim: Because I am a glutton for punishment and I spread myself way too thin all too often and I have a hard time saying no But more importantly, I see what RV the RV entrepreneur has been and what it can be again I mean the show is consistent. It’s got high listener numbers and I’m passionate about the topic I have been an RV entrepreneur before even knowing that was a term and there’s so many of them out there. One of the things I haven’t mentioned is that I manage the work campers. I mentioned work camping, but I manage the work campers group on Facebook, which has grown to over a hundred thousand members. And even over the past few years, I’ve seen the numbers grow more explanationally daily with so many more people either wanting or needing to hit the road. And a lot of them, needing to make money or wanting to know how to keep supporting their nomadic lifestyle. So it is in my wheelhouse and I, and I don’t know if you’ve been able to tell so far, but I could talk forever and I love to talk about myself and what I do, but more importantly, getting to know other people and I think the RV Life Entrepreneur Podcast is an excellent way. Joshua Sheehan: Most definitely. I would say that you will be highly satisfied in that and that the conversations I’ve had over the past year, year and a half have been absolutely fantastic. And it’s really cool that we have this platform where we can jump on a call and have a conversation. Podcasting is its own special unique type of content because you can do it while you’re doing something else. Most of the time I listen to podcasts while I’m out for a walk or while I’m mowing the grass Jim: Mm-hmm. Joshua Sheehan: or doing the dishes. If I’m working under the RV, I can put my earbuds in and listen to a podcast where I don’t have to be visually engaged. However, you get deeper into conversations. It would take a lot of Instagram reels or YouTube shorts for a community to get to know Jim as much as they have in the last half hour. So I think it provides a super cool opportunity that we can have these conversations almost like sitting around that digital cam flyer. just get down deeper into some of the things and just be exposed to different thoughts, different ideas, different ways of making money and traveling. With this podcast specifically being RV focused on entrepreneurship, of ways to do that digitally, remotely, and also just create community. Being able to attend a summit and then host a summit, it’s something that is you get in a place with other people, other RV entrepreneurs, and things just start. clicking. And I’m sure that you’ve felt that at a campground before. But it’s almost indescribable, but there’s an energy to it and a vibration that stuff just starts happening. And it’s very cool. And I’m excited to be refocusing on some of my own projects, but that, I think the conversations of being able to have this one-on-one, get to know Jim better, get to know Sally, Jim, and Bob better. in that half an hour, 45 minute conversation, but then also be able to share that with the community is really cool. Jim: And that’s what it’s all about, I think. You keep saying community, but it is true. It’s getting to know and explore the other people out there and sharing those with others. Cause some are veer out there, some no man out there, some dreamer might have an idea. But once they find out that there’s a guy traveling with a vinyl cutter in the back of his bus and running a very successful sticker business and going to shows, it might just trigger them to take that leap of faith and do it themselves. Joshua Sheehan: Yeah, it absolutely is kind of one of those things where you’ll hear something and you’re like, I never thought about that. Jim: Like three legged dogs. Joshua Sheehan: And it’s not even like, you know, three-legged dog or vinyl cutters. Like it may not be that I want to go cut stickers in the back of my RV, but I can substitute stickers for bracelet bead making or whatever it may be. But it’s, it’s something obvious when you look in hindsight, but for whatever reason, the lens didn’t present itself that you could see clearly. And conversations like this and listening to the podcast, sometimes just realign those lenses so ideas just spark. And I think that’s, of the feedback that I’ve gotten being a host of this podcast has been, those have been the cool ones. And people were like, I just took connection A and connection B and I was out on a walk this morning and they just, they clicked. It was like Legos snapping together. And I’ve got this plan and we’re moving forward. And I think just hearing those stories and being able to help be a part of that story of providing opportunities and inspiration. and sharing other people’s stories has been really cool. Jim: Oh, for sure. And I think that right there is what the entrepreneurial spirit is all about. I’ve talked with lots of people and they say, well, how do you do it? And I like to tell them, you know what? You’re an expert at something. You know more about something than everyone else, whatever it is. And if you can focus on that and share that to the people who want to know more about that, you’ve got the beginning of an entrepreneur show. Joshua Sheehan: most definitely. Well, Jim, I know that the audience in the community is going to get to know you over the coming months and years in the future. If they’re interested in checking out what you’ve done in the past, the other projects that you’re current in, where are the best places for them to seek you out online? Jim: So in the RV hat that I wear or in the RV community, liveworkdream.com is where you can find everything that Renee and I are doing from the road to operate a business. And we are at Livework Dream on all the social channels. But we talked a lot about our number one passion project, which is Tripawds. That’s paw in the middle, P-A-W, Tripawds.com and Tripawds.org. for everything you might need to know about amputation, recovery and care for cats and dogs. Joshua Sheehan: Awesome. I’m excited to hear the episodes that come out with you as the host, Jim. And thank you for taking the time to be here. It’s excited to connect down the road, hopefully in person at some point. Jim: Indeed, it is an honor to be here and I look forward to carrying the torch forward. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The RV Entrepreneur is presented by RV Life – Tools that Make Camping Simple https://rvlife.com You May Also Like: The RV Life Podcast https://podcast.rvlife.com/ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Hear All Episodes and Subscribe
Jim and his wife Rene have been full-time RVing since first hitting the road in 2007. They share their story and tips for supporting your nomadic lifestyle @LiveWorkDream and in their book, Income Anywhere! Jim joined the RVE Podcast team as host and website admin in 2023.
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