photo credit: DDFic

My journey to Location Independence began out of frustration. Frustration with how wasteful the business world ran, and how poorly most old-school businesses leveraged technology. There may have been a girl involved too. I’ll get to that later.

Several jobs and self-employed businesses made up my work history. They always followed the Standard American Dream 9 to 5 model. Jobs brought with them the same mundane things: the commute, the office space, the far-away promise of retirement someday, the Mondays. My forays into self-employment were not much different, because I was using those models.

At the time of my change, I was a well-paid salesperson at a manufacturer in a field that I loved. What could be wrong? Like most traditional jobs, I had to be there in an office when they wanted me there, and they wanted me there a lot. This left me little time to travel or enjoy life outside of work other than the occasional weekend. I could not find a way to look forward to another 50 years of this life. I knew there was a better way.

Leaving the Office

That corporate sales position got traded for another company as a self-employed contract salesman. I didn’t need to come into the office, but would have to visit various customers all over the state, and pick up new customers along the way. It was in the same field I loved, and a step in the right direction toward my freedom, but still very wasteful in many ways.

If you’ve ever sat in traffic in Los Angeles during rush hour, you know what I mean. If you’ve ever had to drive back and forth all over Los Angeles, you know that rush hour last all day. That’s what I did. This wasn’t an ideal solution.

The face time at customer’s shops was just how things had “always been done” in the industry. I weaned the existing customers off these regular monthly visits. Orders were not affected at all, and I had a lot more free time to spend on things apart from driving.

I would still regularly check on them, but now I only made a quick call or email reminder instead of hoping they’d be there when I made the trek out to their shop. They liked it better too. I was able to spend that extra time getting new customers and increasing sales, with only occasional visits to shops.

(A similar strategy is in Tim Ferriss’ best-selling book The Four-Hour Workweek. I had just never heard of the book at the time, and was only making this up as I went.)

Making Travel Possible

Now that I arranged my work so that I didn’t need to be anywhere in particular, I was able to travel more. I had taken regular vacations to Florida from my home in California. By this point, my intent was to make a permanent move.

Remember the girl I mentioned earlier? Yeah, it’s a long story, but she lived on a different coast when we accidentally met. Remember, life is not all about work, so these things are important.

I was now able to be in Florida for ten days at a time every month. While there, I was able to pick up new business in the state, all while still serving my west coast clients. It was no longer technically vacation, as I was always available by phone or email, but it was now just the life I was making happen.

There were still some obvious inefficiencies with my system, but it was infinitely better than having to be on a particular spot on a map for 75% of my waking hours. Using the internet and email, with only a laptop and a cell phone, I could go virtually anywhere and still make a living doing almost exactly the same job.

The Next Level

After making this up as I went for a year or two, I finally got really smart* and looked around online. It turns out that there are thousands of people using the technology available to us in the 21st century, who are doing a far better job of being Location Independent. I was on the right track, but there are better ways of becoming Location Independent than the stumbling path I took. When I finally found my way here, I learned a tremendous amount, and have made quite a few changes to the way I do things.

really smart* – This is sarcasm for “What I should have done in the first place before stumbling around on my own like a buffoon.”

I started this journey by looking for a way to spend more time living my life, traveling, and enjoying the world instead of sitting at a desk all day. I did make the move to Florida several years ago. We are now working on deciding where to go for longer than extended vacations.

Whether we travel overseas indefinitely or start with exploring North America by RV, we now know that we don’t have to wait for that someday when we retire to live our lives.

How I Freed Myself from the Office to Become Location Independent is a post from: Live Collar Free

photo credit: Matthew Simantov

One of the many nice things about being based in central Florida is being so close to Kennedy Space Center. Even though I live on the other side of the state, it is only 100 miles or so to the East coast, and with clear skies, I can see the launch from my front patio.

The Shuttle program is ending soon. There are only four remaining daylight launches scheduled. NASA had set the last scheduled night launch of the Space Shuttle (STS-130) for Sunday, February 7, at just after 4 AM EST.

On the Friday night before, we talked about it for all of two minutes before deciding to head out to the Space Coast to watch the launch. We tend to “plan” our trips and adventures at the last minute, and stay flexible on details and trivial nonsense like where we might sleep, if at all.

Not only was this the last scheduled night launch, but we heard that also in the area were at least two different couples I stalk follow through their blog travels and on Twitter. Chris and Cherie from Tales from Technomadia live in a custom Oliver Travel Trailer they had built last year. I knew they were in town visiting family, and I suspected they would be watching the launch. They were already in touch with Louise and Sean, who live in a beautiful German tour bus converted into their rolling luxury home. They write about their adventures at Our Odyssey.

I sent a message off to Chris & Cherie, and we set about getting together Saturday evening. Louise & Sean had already found a perfect viewing site directly across the water from the launch site. By Saturday afternoon, the Technomads had parked Orion next to them, with room for us to park behind when we arrived.

None of us had met in person prior to that night, but we had a great evening. A documentary crew from Motherboard.tv was out to get footage of the shuttle launch and the viewers. They discovered the story of our Nomadic convergence and shot additional interviews with the nomadic couples during tours of their homes. We ate across the street at El Leoncito and talked there for hours. After dinner Louise & Sean decided to sleep and wake up early, while the rest of us stayed up late in the Oliver to learn about our different projects and to keep Kiki entertained.

The launch ended up being scrubbed at the last minute due to low clouds that moved in during the night. There were many disappointed people leaving that morning after coming out to watch. We were not upset in the least. We had a great time with new friends that were old friends from the internet. We got tours of 2 versions of nomadic homes we’d only seen online, giving us ideas on how we might want to hit the road. We each had old friends come up to watch the launch, as well. We car-camped for a few hours before heading back to the gulf coast Sunday morning.

We had a fantastic time, and the two Nomadic couples were able to stay another night to see the launch Monday morning (they were home already). They each posted about their experiences with accompanying videos: (Technomadia & Our Odyssey).

We were up at 4:14am Monday morning to watch the launch from our front patio. We may not have been there at camp to watch from up close, but we were still there.

Nomadic Serendipity and the Space Shuttle Launch is a post from: Live Collar Free

Leaning back in the lounge chair writing, I found myself unconsciously humming along to the song playing somewhere in the atrium below. It may have been coming from one of the restaurants surrounding the fake walls of the reconstructed fort of St. Augustine below the balcony where I worked. The music in the huge air-conditioned space enclosing the back of the hotel was partially drowned by the sound of the several waterfalls, but I was pretty sure it was coming from near the sailboat.

Wait, working?

Being location independent for me means that I have structured my work to make my geographical location essentially irrelevant. I can write from anywhere. Most of the planet has internet access for email and online chores. Cell service is relatively cheap for the few times I need to talk to clients. My “office” resides in a backpack and has everything I need.

When my partner was sent on a 3-day business trip for some training at a nice hotel across the state, this freedom to work from anywhere showed one of its better qualities. It allowed me to join her on this pseudo-vacation.

With a regular job, I would not likely have been able to take the time off to join her through the middle of the week. I still had work that needed doing, but at least I could have my choice of two pools to enjoy on my breaks.

Her company was footing the bill for mileage, her meals and the cheapest room in the very nice hotel where the training took place. I had to pay for my own meals (like I always do), but otherwise work for me went uninterrupted.

The hotel had internet access to allow me to deal with emails, a nice balcony in our sixth floor room and other nice areas to relax while I wrote. Everything I normally have when I work was still with me, I was just in a nicer location for a few days.

They even upgraded our room for free simply because we asked. We travel as often as we can and have learned it doesn’t hurt to ask. They either say yes or no, so it’s either the same or better than not asking.

More work got done in those 3 days while I enjoyed the restfulness of the surroundings. The evenings allowed us time to enjoy the nightlife at the resort, and catch up with friends in the area.

It works best for me to change up the scenery every few days or so, even if that means simply working in another room. Staring at the same wall each day is not good for me, so sometimes the situation takes me to even nicer places than I usually frequent, and the ability to flow smoothly with these change of plans is priceless when we can work anywhere.

Unplanned Working Vacations when Location Independent is a post from: Live Collar Free