The RV Entrepreneur

This weeks episode we have a super awesome interview. This is the first time I've done a live interview and it's also the first time I've co-hosted an interview. We've got Heath Padgett back on the podcast and we're interviewing Andy Robinowitz from RV Life.  If you didn't see the blog post the RV Entrepreneur podcast has been sold to Andy and the RV Life team.  All three of us were in the Dallas, Fort Worth Texas area so we got to sit down together, have a conversation in the same room and it's really cool to hear both of these gentlemen speak. We get to talk a little bit about how the transfer of the podcast went from Heath to Andy, and then we spend the rest of the time talking with Andy about RV Life and what he's grown the business into.

Andy is a repeat customer on the podcast.  (Episode 120: https://anchor.fm/rve/episodes/RVE-120-How-Andy-Built--Monetized-the-Largest-Online-RV-Community-ea37a9/a-a4g5npd) He was one of the early guests several years ago, but since then has created and established himself as a leader in the RV industry with his software and his forums and RV Life, the overarching umbrella of all his RV related content. I'm really excited for you guys to hear the conversation between the three of us. And I feel humbled to be in the room with these two gentlemen.  Enjoy! -Joshua


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Check out everything Andy and the RV Life team are doing over at www.rvlife.com!

 Be sure to join the RVE community on Facebook: therventrepreneur.com/facebookgroup And we’d love to hear from you - send us a voicemail! therventrepreneur.com/voicemail www.therventrepreneur.com

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Kristen Sargent from Legit Trips, a travel company that runs international group trips.  Kristen says she is living her wildest dreams. She owns an international travel company with her best friend and also travels domestically every day with the love of her life in their RV. She's on a mission to help people feel curious, alive, and free to try or do new things. In addition Kristen shares her personal adventures on Instagram and Youtube as Perpetual Moves in an effort to inspire others to go after their own dreams no matter how wild or unconventional.  What started out as a hobby in planning international trips with friends has since turned into her full time gig and it turns out it is also a perfect fit for traveling full time in an RV. In this episode we talk about how Legit Trips came to be and why this side hustle succeeded in becoming her full time career.   Kristen has a unique story about going against traditional business advice and forming her partnership as 50/50 ownership and we get into whether or not she would execute the formation of a business that way again. 
We go into the growth of a passion project and what it’s like to hire team members to replace you as the face of the business on the actual trips you’ve organized and sold clients on. Kristen firmly believes that the nomad lifestyle, and specifically RVing, is great for anyone in the travel industry and she goes into detail why she thinks this is the case. Then we wind down the interview talking about her personal brand, Perpetual Moves, and how that plays into the lifestyle.

I hope you enjoy this interview with Kristen from Legit Trips! Legit Trips www.legittrips.com  www.instagram.com/legit_trips Perpetual Moves www.perpetualmoves.us  www.instagram.com/perpetualmoves  ~~~~~
 Be sure to join the RVE community on Facebook: therventrepreneur.com/facebookgroup And we’d love to hear from you - send us a voicemail! therventrepreneur.com/voicemail www.therventrepreneur.com 


Today we have the pleasure of talking with Edzui Szumowski who is currently traveling the country performing with The Vernardos Circus! Edzui (Edge-U) is a performer and ran away with the circus- TWICE. Once on a train in 1993 and this time in an RV in 2021. He’s lived on circus trains, mega cruise ships, flown over 1000 times in a decade chasing ships around the planet and is now living full-time in a Winnebago Micro-Minnie rocking his vaudeville dreams touring with a real live TENT SHOW CIRCUS!  This interview is slightly different that past guests - Edzui isn’t currently an entrepreneur - but he was during COVID and its a good case study of the opportunities that are out there and how different situations in life have different seasons. In this episode we talk about:  How the live performance industry was affected by the pandemic and Edzui’s pivot into entrepreneurship to flex with the market and stay relevant from a distance How circus life fits so intimately into RV life and some of the benefits and struggles of living while working with a traveling show The opportunities for future generations of performers and how entrepreneurs can successfully fulfill live and virtual market slices while on the road in their RVs  The struggles of live performances on the road with a society that is so connected and tethered to our devices all the time To connect directly with Edzui check out his website: https://www.edzui.com/  
 Make sure to check out The Vernardos Circus:

Tickets & Locations: https://www.venardoscircus.com/
 Want to work with Edzui and travel with the circus? Check out opportunities with The Vernardos Circus: https://www.venardoscircus.com/jobs ~~~~~
 Be sure to join the RVE community on Facebook: therventrepreneur.com/facebookgroup And we’d love to hear from you - send us a voicemail! therventrepreneur.com/voicemail www.therventrepreneur.com 

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Nate Ritter from RoomSteals.com Nate has travel hacked with his family of 5, around the US and Western Europe for 10 years without paying for a flight or hotel. Now he’s found another hack having to do with wholesale hotel prices, and he’s sharing it with the world while they travel North America full time in an RV.  In this episode we talk about how there are massive discounts to be had in the hotel industry, regularly 20-25% but sometime up to 95% discounted rates for those who know where to look. 
We talk back through Nate’s past and find out how he got into travel hacking, what exactly travel hacking is, and why he is so enthusiastic about it. Nate tells how the “entrepreneurial disease” caused him to see an opportunity in the market and the steps he took to create Room Steals into a sustainable travel business only months before the pandemic shut down most travel yet the business model they run has been able to sustain it through to the other side and they’re now seeing a big upswing in user travel. 
I was very intrigued at how he step up room steals to allow both consumers and professionals to utilize the service and that travel agents who use the platform can almost double their commissions instantly with this service.
 Jump into the episode and let me know what you think about the “rolling Monday” way to keep on track with travel days!


Connect with Nate:
 twitter.com/nateritter  twitter.com/roomsteals  roomsteals.com  youtube.com/channel/UCTVDHqwgRbc0fzKtBMSIXww  instagram.com/nateandtilly/ ~~~~~
 Be sure to join the RVE community on Facebook: therventrepreneur.com/facebookgroup And we’d love to hear from you - send us a voicemail! therventrepreneur.com/voicemail www.therventrepreneur.com 

I’m excited for todays episode with  Aaron and Chris Willers. They are a married couple who have lived full time on the road since January 2019.  They left their high paying corporate careers in their mid-thirties to live life to its fullest through travel and experiences.  In preparation for working on the road they launched their new business, Irene Iron Fitness, where Chris coaches clients 100% online as a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Pn2 Level Certified Nutrition Coach.  Aaron drives their entrepreneurship spirit with his enthusiasm and technology skills to run the back office of the website as well as all of their YouTube production for Irene Iron Travels.  Together, they practice the healthy lifestyle that they preach and love helping others live their best life out on the road.  The Willers are planners and methodical executers - they spent a few years building their reserves so that when they launched they had almost 5 years of runway available. 

They started their entrepreneurial journey from square zero - their corporate jobs had nothing to do with what either of them are currently working on.

They started out in a airstream van, spent a summer overloanding in a rooftop tent and are now finding their new normal in a 26 foot travel trailer that is the perfect place to welcome home their newest edition, a basenji pup named Louie!
 Online Coaching with Chris @ www.ireneironfitness.com 
IreneIronTravels @ YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/ireneironfitness)  IreneIronTravels @ Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/ireneirontravels)  IreneIronTravels @ Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/ireneirontravels)  HealthyRVLiving @ www.healthyrvliving.com
 HealthyRVLiving @ YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/c/HealthyRVLiving)  HealthyRVLiving @ Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/HealthyRVLiving)  HealthyRVLiving @ Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/healthyrvliving)  Be sure to join the RVE community on Facebook: therventrepreneur.com/facebookgroup And we’d love to hear from you - send us a voicemail! therventrepreneur.com/voicemail www.therventrepreneur.com 

I’m excited for todays episode, I’m joined by Demian Ross. Demian is a repeat guest on the podcast but this time around he is a bit more of an RV Entrepreneur than the last go around. Demian has created two magazines for the RV community - Rootless Living and the newly launched RV Today Magazine. While his first magazine, Rootless Living, that was for digital nomads, by digital nomads was successful, Demian noticed that there was a huge hole in the market for RVer’s and there was no independent magazine who’s mission it was to serve the rv community from an unattached standpoint. RV Today is a magazine for RVers, by RVers and because its not tied to any other RV organization it is truly an independent magazine in all sense of the words. In this episode we talk about: How Demian created his own hashtag that is now being used throughout the entire RV community and how #rootless is sometimes misunderstood What its like building a very niched down magazine and podcast and what lessons he’s learned from Rootless Living that is now being applied to launching RV Today How equipment advances have put the power of production at a super attainable level for everyone We talk about why Demian doesn’t think he’ll ever hire “full time” staff for his businesses The generator genesis and how it sparked the creation of Demian’s RV related magazine Connect with Demian and his teams:

 Demian’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demianross/ 

 RVToday Website: https://rvtoday.com/  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rvtodaymag/  Rootless Living
Website: www.rootlessliving.com Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rootlesslivingmag/ 
~~~~~~~~~~ Leave us a voicemail!  anchor.fm/rve and click on the “message” button - we’d love to hear from you! Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com 

One of the things I really like about the rv lifestyle is that it can be very minimalistic, and yet can also satisfy the inner gear nut in me because there are a ton of different products and ways to solve solutions that arise.  While at the 2022 Tampa RV show I came across a product that absolutely blew me away. It was created by a fellow Fulltime RVer and it solved a need that full timers face in such an eloquent and simple way that I really was scratching my head - no one has done this yet? I got to talking with the inventor and founder and really connected with his story and invited him to come onto the podcast. Today’s guest is Jim Phelan from AirSkirts. A software engineer by trade, Jim started AirSkirts in 2020 after solving a real-world problem he encountered with full-time RV living. In 2016 Jim sold his home in Brooklyn, NY along with most of his possessions, and began traveling the US in his Airstream travel trailer.  Unwilling to compromise and use an inferior method to camp in cold weather, Jim set out to design a better way to skirt the bottom of his rv – AirSkirts is a series of inflatable tubes that inflate under the RV, creating an insulated, reusable, and installation free skirt.  In this episode Jim tells us about the product development journey of Air skirts and some of the struggles and lessons he learned along the way.

We get into what its like to own a business that is physical product based versus the digital marketplace he previously worked in and I love how Jim bootstrapped the whole thing and is still on the fence whether he would do it that way again or not - it really shows his down to earth nature and is a struggle that all of us entrepreneurs can relate to.
 Enjoy the show!
-Joshua Check out Air Skirts here: https://www.airskirts.com/?ref=rve Phone: 833-475-4787 AirSkirts Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/airskirts/    If you’re interested in checking out AirSkirts yourself Jim has graciously provided the RVE community a discount code for Airskirts - enter the word “entrepreneur” at checkout and receive $150 off any kit order. Leave us a voicemail!  anchor.fm/rve and click on the “message” button - we’d love to hear from you! Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com 

Today we get to talk with Dustin and Nicole Schroeder who are the current owners of Fulltime Families.  Dusting and Nicole Schroeder are nomadic entrepreneurs that run multiple businesses from the road. They have traveled Fulltime with their family of 5 since 2017 and  are very engaged in the RV community through their company Fulltime Families. Fulltime Families  hosts over 12 events each year, in addition to  providing resources for new and veteran rvers, they focuses on creating connections for families to help sustain the nomadic lifestyle. Nicole is also a cofounder of the RV Family Virtual Summit which is something we’ll touch on later in the episode. We talk about how their personal rv travels led them to becoming more involved in the RV community and the story behind how they became the owners of the decade old rv community. Before we get into the interview I’ll say that Fulltime Families runs a ton of Facebook groups - pick out a number in your mind as to what a “ton” of Facebook groups to facilitate would be to you and I’ll check in with you afterwards to see where our numbers compare. We talk about how many folks expanding from Facebook groups and how Fulltime families is accommodating that shift in their audience and how two people facilitate 10 to 15 in person events and so many virtual communities - as I’m sure you can guess - its not alone. 
 With events being a major portion of the business model we get to chat with the Schroeders about the major obstacles and benefits of running a business that  doesn’t host events in the same Location each time. Dustin also owns a retail store in Minnesota so we jump into a few aspects of running a sticks and bricks retail location as a nomad and the challenges and growth opportunities that situation can provide. If you want to check out Heath’s episode with the founders of Fulltime Families, Kimberly & Chris Travaglino, please check out episode number 42. Please check out Fulltime Families through the links below! Website: www.fulltimefamilies.com  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fulltime_families/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FulltimeFamilies/  

Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com 

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Jason and Abby Epperson from RV Miles. Jason and Abby are hosts of the RV Miles Podcast, the America's National Parks podcast and the See America Podcast. They are also the editors of RVMiles.com and every week share the latest in RV and camping news on the RV Miles YouTube channel. On the road full-time since 2016, Jason and Abby share this adventure with their three boys and can often be found exploring National Parks or finding the best local pizza and beer. In this episode we chat about:
 How splitting their long form podcast episodes onto its own channel and away from the short news briefs has allowed each approach to flourish and provide value to potentially differing audiences The staggering difference between retention rates between long form podcast shows and many shorter YouTube videos How the pandemic forced their hand in the topic of their content creation and how it might have saved them years of split focus Covering RV industry news might just have saved their sanity and added a few years back onto their lives After 5 years of full time travel - they’re still figuring out how to do it How you work as a couple and team in your business as a family with young kids You can connect with Jason & Abby on any of your favorite podcast players or on any of the platforms below:
 https://www.rvmiles.com   
https://www.youtube.com/rvmiles https://www.facebook.com/groups/rvmilesgroup  https://www.instagram.com/rvmiles   https://www.tiktok.com/@rvmiles  
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rv-miles-podcast  Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com 

Today we get to talk with Eric from Hourless Life, a threepeat guest on the podcast! (Episodes 53 &124) Eric, Brittany, and Caspian Highland are currently driving around the world on a 10-15 year journey. They've been traveling full-time since February 2014. That means their son Caspian who was born in 2016 doesn’t know anything other than life on the road. Known first as RV Wanderlust, then Jeepsies, the Highland family is now known as Hourless Life.  Here's a few points of what we talk about today: • Lifestyle design – how Eric and Brittany don’t HAVE to work and how that plays into their work/life balance • What’s the hardest part about traveling the world by Jeep • How creating a family mission statement allows them to avoid decision fatigue • How life just isn't about stuff, It's about memories, experiences and it's about the legacy that you leave behind for others • The insights Eric gleaned from Billionaires in the professional boxing world • The best way to establish and nurture sponsorships for your endeavors and projects Be sure to check out Eric, Brittany, and Caspian at Hourless Life:
 • https://hourlesslife.com/  • https://www.patreon.com/hourlesslife  • https://www.youtube.com/c/HourlessLife  • https://www.instagram.com/hourlesslife/ Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com