The RV Entrepreneur Summit: How to Own Your Day in 2017

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In the summer of 2015 Alyssa and I embarked on an RV road trip through Canada and up the road to Alaska. Alaska was our 50th state in 53 weeks (yes, we were so close to doing all 50 states in exactly one year).

Through sheer luck and a 4th degree Facebook connection, I landed my 50th job of Hourly America with the national park service in Denali National Park. They had a mission the next day where they were taking a helicopter up to base camp, rescuing a climber from 17,000 feet and bringing down a group of volunteers who’d been on the mountain for 30 days.

And they invited Alyssa and I to come along.

I remember getting the phone call from the Chief of Climbing for Denali National Park (yes, his real job title… so epic), asking me to come and work my last job with them. We were actually a day’s drive away from Denali, all the way down in Seward, Alaska. But I told him there was no way I’d pass on the opportunity. We hopped on a bus the next morning, rearranged our Delta flight, and made it to Talkeetna, Alaska just in time to chopper up to base camp.

The helicopter dropped us off at base camp for Mount McKinley (now called Mt. Denali) and we were to shadow the park rangers, stay the night on the glacier in a tent, and fly out the next morning on a small ten-seater airplane.

Being on the mountain was like a dream land.

Sitting in the tent, before falling asleep, I told Alyssa that I couldn’t believe what we were doing. If we had stayed in our jobs and listened to “conventional wisdom” I’d be selling software in an office and she’d be in New Orleans working at a non-profit. Instead, we were sitting at basecamp for the tallest mountain in North America after having traveled to all 50 states.

This moment made me realize how easy it would have been to let this opportunity slip by. One little decision to forego travel would have changed the trajectory of our lives. The scary part is that nobody would have cared. Friends or family would never given us a hard time if we’d stayed the conventional route. But if we had, we’d have missed out on this once in a lifetime experience.

Instead, Hourly America and the RV lifestyle gave Alyssa and I a chance to chase after our crazy dream of traveling to all 50 states. It gave us a chance to experiment with income streams while on the road, figure out life as a newly married couple, and even start our own video production business.

And over the course of the past two and a half years RVing has given us a chance to take ownership of how we spend our time. We don’t have to answer to a boss, a landlord, or anyone else. We get to wake up each and every day to do work we enjoy and travel to places we’ve always dreamed of seeing.

We own our time, our schedule, and our days.

How You Can Own Your Day Too

I first heard the term “own your day” while interviewing Michael Boyink from Ditching Suburbia on my podcast. This phrase stuck in my head and hasn’t left in the past year. Why? Because it’s the reason why myself and so many other people decide to travel full-time in an RV. It’s about freedom. Sure, we love seeing beautiful places, but just as much we love being in control of how we spend our time, not answering to anyone and owning our lives and our days.

The path to Alyssa and I owning our days consisted of learning how to replace our previous income, convincing all of our family and friends we weren’t crazy, creating a plan to travel to all 50 states, finding sponsors, starting a video production business, a few breakdowns and much more.

And from interviewing over 40 full-time RV entrepreneurs on my podcast this year… I know others have had to make similar sacrifices to own their day.

To help aspiring or new travelers own their days, Alyssa and I decided to put on a small conference and bring a bunch of us together. Next month in Fredericksburg, Texas ( February 24-26th) we’ll be hosting the first ever RV Entrepreneur Summit!

Over the course of the weekend we’ll have a group of 100 full-time and aspiring nomads gather together to share advice, experiences, and expertise on how to grow a full-time income and smoothly transition into being on the road. The weekend will revolve around 8 keynote talks from full-time RV entrepreneurs, as well as panel discussions, a night photography workshop, a workshop on how to grow traffic to a blog, and more.

The theme of the summit is (surprisingly) “Own Your Day.” The entire purpose of the weekend event is to teach new travelers how to make the transition into the full-time RVing lifestyle while continuing to earn money and build a remote business.

Note: Our first batch of 30 tickets sold out in a few hours and we’re only selling 100 tickets! You can check the Eventbrite plugin below to see how many tickets are remaining (it updates every time someone purchases a ticket).

A few things we’ll be covering at the Summit:

  • Ideas on how to grow your business while traveling
  • How to cut costs while on the road
  • How to grow a blog, podcast, or Youtube channel
  • How to leverage social media to build your business
  • How to balance work and travel on the road

Over the course of the weekend, you’ll also have direct access to all of our speakers to ask them any and all the questions you like.

A few of our speakers:

Eric & Brittany Highland, Professional Bloggers at RV Wanderlust and The Austinot

Eric and Brittany Highland run their client-based social media marketing company from their Class A motorhome. In addition to being full-time nomads, they founded one of the most popular blogs in Austin, The Austinot, that receives millions of visitors each year. Eric and Brittany are masters of social media, blogging, and all things selfies.

Jill Sessa, Founder of Ultimate WP Help & Vespa and a Laptop

Jill Sessa is a solo female traveler and a WordPress expert. She runs UltimateWPHelp, a company that helps small businesses improve their websites and get noticed online. Jill has been traveling full-time in her 1973 Dodge Travco along with her Vespa and her chihuahua, Logan.

Joe Hendricks, Award Winning Photographer & Full-Time Airstreamer

Joe Hendricks is an award winning photographer who travels full-time in an Airstream with his wife Rhonda and son Austin. His work has been featured in Newsweek, Time Magazine, and Airstream Magazine. Joe specializes in wedding photography and you can see more of his work at joehendricks.com.

Kyle Kesterson, Cultural Anthropologist, Tech Entrepreneur and Photographer

Kyle Kesterson is a cultural anthropologist, using storytelling, art, and product to study and impact the world around him. Being a serial entrepreneur, and full time nomad that manages teams remotely from his Winnebago Travato, Kyle has created companies that have raised venture financing, and reached customers around the world from all different walks of life. His works have garnered acclaim from outlets like Forbes, Engadget, Inc, New York Times, BBC, Mashable, the Jimmy Fallow Show, and many more.

[To see a full list of the speakers, you can visit our event page.]

 

Why Should I Attend?

I attend the World Domination Summit every single year. It’s a conference for creative entrepreneurs and I can tell you there’s one main reason why I go back each year: the friendships.

Sure, I get inspired and get helpful advice as well, but relationships have made it all worth it. My hope for The RV Entrepreneur Summit is to not only provide a ton of value for RV entrepreneurs, but also connect a group of like-minded people together so attendees can form long-lasting relationships.

Considering there are only so many of us, the fellow attendees are the people who are going to understand what you’re going through at any given time and can provide encouragement/support when push comes to shove.

Plus, if you’re still in the planning phase of hitting the road, you’ll gain a wealth of knowledge and experience from full-time travelers who you can consult as you prep for RV life.

Will I Learn About the Logistics of RVing (i.e insurance, internet, mail-forwarding, what RV to buy, etc)?

The focus of the summit is around growing your business and transitioning into full-time travel. However, a big component of the RV lifestyle is figuring out how to file an LLC while traveling, where to get health insurance and what kind of RV to buy. This is why each day we’ll be hosting a Q&A panel with the speakers at the end of the day so you can ask any question you like (business, RV, or travel related). So to answer your question, yes, you will have the chance to learn about more nuts and bolts of RVing.

Do I Need an RV to Come?

No, the campground we’re hosting The RV Entrepreneur Summit at in February also has cottages and tent camping available (although many of the cottages have already been booked). You can also stay at a nearby hotel/motel in the town of Fredericksburg.

By the way, Fredericksburg is an adorable little German town and has an abundance of wineries in every direction. If you love good wine, you’ll be coming to the right place.

How Much Does It Cost?

Tickets for the Summit are $165/person for the weekend. Tickets include:

  • Access to all keynotes
  • Workshops
  • Opening party and wine tasting
  • Meet ups
  • RVE Summit t-shirt & conference swag

Event Details:

To view a schedule of the weekend, you can jump over to the event website here!

Time: February 24-26th, 2017

Place: Texas Wine Country Jellystone Park Camp-Resort

Snag Your Ticket

Have any more questions about the summit? Drop us an email and will be happy to chat.

2 Responses

  • I’m so disappointed I’m just finding out about this summit…and I live in TX! Are you guys planning one for next year? Is this site the best way to follow you guys?

    • Hey Connie! Yes, the best way to learn about the next Summit is to make sure you are on our email list. Would love to meet you there next year! 🙂

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