The Wayward Home Podcast
The Wayward Home Podcast
29: The Van Life CEO: How to Turn Your Passion into Profit with Sierra Eberly
Lots of people wonder how to make money while living the van life. Sierra Eberly did just that by ditching the corporate 9-5 life and creating her own business on the road called Boondock Consulting. Sierra is the first to admit this wasn't an easy process, and she had to overcome fear to say goodbye to her steady paycheck and go out on her own.
In this podcast, Sierra gives tips and tricks for becoming a CEO from your campervan, and what she's learned along the way.
Find Sierra here:
Join my BRAND NEW course on creating a profitable niche site from anywhere:
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
It was worth a little bit of fear to try something new than to just sit in something that I wasn't happy with. Life's too
Kristin:short. Starting your own business while living in a van can be a scary experience. In this episode of the Wayward Home Podcast, how Sierra Eberly confronted her fears and made her dream life a reality. Let's go.
Sierra:Welcome to the Wayward Home Podcast, all about Van Life. Boat life, and Nomadic Living. We'll bring you tips, interviews, and. From the road and on the water. Now here's
Kristin:your host, Kristen Haines. Hey there. It's Kristen Haines with the wayward home.com, and I spend half the year in my camper van and half on my sailboat. Right now, I am actually floating around in the Sea of Cortez, Mexico on my sailboat. This episode of the Wayward Home Podcast first appeared in the Vanlife Virtual Summit. I put on an early 2023 with Project Van Life. Now if you are hearing a little bit of background noise right now, it's cuz it's really windy and the wind is just blowing all around the sailboat and the lines are shaking, the boat is moving around. So forgive me for, for any of those sounds that you are hearing in the background. So I get a lot of emails from people wondering how to make money on the road. This is a huge concern and I always love bringing guests on the podcast who have made it happen and have an inspiring success story. But before we get started with Sierra Eberly's interview, I wanted to let you know that I've just released a brand new course about how to start your very own niche website, just like mine. The wayward home. My website makes a full-time income and it's mostly passive income, which means it makes the same amount of money whether I work or don't work. It's really amazing and it is a dream come true for me. So I built a course that shows you step by step how to create your own profitable niche site or blog, as some people call it. You can check that out@thewaywardhome.com slash course. That's the wayward home.com/. All right, so let's get into our chat now with Sierra. Here's the replay from the Van Life Virtual Summit. Super excited that Sierra Eberly is joining us to talk about creating a business on the road that she has called Boondock Consulting and also some other tips and tidbits about Van Life. So yeah, I'm so glad you're here. And I wanted to just start from the beginning and see like what, what got you into Van Life in the first place? Like why'd you start
Sierra:living in the van? Oh my goodness. Yeah. And isn't that the question of the hour for everybody? Totally. I've actually been considering Van Life for like over 10 years. Um, I grew up in the middle of nowhere with no running water, no electricity, and um, so like camping and Van life was just kind of like in my blood, you could say. Uh, and I had been working remote for another company, um, for about three and a half years prior to the. So I already had that ability to kind of be mobile and for whatever reason I was too scared. And then the pandemic hit and yes, I'm a pandemic baby when it comes to van Life. I realized that everything that I loved about where I lived was taken away. I worked remote. I had the stable job. I figured, what the heck, what's the worst? It'll happen. I'll by van and I'll start out and I'll hate it and I'll sell it and go back and have my apartment. So I was very lucky to have like kind of that stability to. Um, so that was my trigger on starting band life, cuz I've been thinking about it forever. I loved to trail run with my dog. I wanted to explore the country. I've owned homes before. I didn't know where I wanted to buy land again. I was just like, okay, well let's just go explore everywhere and figure it out.
Kristin:Totally. That's amazing. And so you were already kind of primed to live Van Life, so did you purchase a vandal already built out or did you go through that whole conversion process? I
Sierra:built the van that was already built out because, uh, I had the ability to do so. I wanted to build my own. Um, I actually owned a construction company at one point too, so I'm, I'm familiar with building things, but I had nowhere to build it. And I didn't really have the time cause I was working my full-time job, but I had the finances, so I ended up buying one. I would like to build my own out someday when I have time again.
Kristin:I totally, yeah, that's a good reason because we're building ours out in the middle of nowhere and it has a challenge
Sierra:and so now I'm actually really glad that I did it this way because I have. I've been in the van now for over two years and I have such a good idea of what I like about the build and what I don't and what I would change. So like in my next build, I would definitely do some things very differently. So it's been good to just kind of have something done and just try it out for a while and then really put the effort into what I really want. Yeah, and
Kristin:it's really cool. You already had a remote job. Um, What was it like to transition that job from where you were living into a van?
Sierra:Yeah, it was really stressful on my end because my, I, I worked for a consulting firm. I was in human resources and recruiting and, um, the company had more of like an old school mentality and they didn't like the idea of me being remote. So really it was only my boss and a few other employees that even knew that. Gonna be traveling in my van. Um, so I pretty much had to just, uh, pretend that I was still in my apartment most of the time and I was always stressed out that I wouldn't have inter internet connection or something would go wrong or whatever, and they'd find out and get mad at me. And it never did. It always worked out pretty well, but it was definitely stressful just. Trying to figure out where to find self service and figuring out the whole connectivity and wifi and all of that stuff. Yeah. So what did you do in the
Kristin:beginning for, for all those things? Did you get a hotspot or what did you do about internet at
Sierra:first? Yeah, I, I've tried multiple different things, but the thing that worked the best for me was getting multiple sim cards for a hotspot, cuz this was before starlink was a thing. Um, and I had I think four different sim cards for a hotspot because after, even they say it's unlimited speed, as we all know, there's really no such thing as unlimited high speed when it comes to cell phones. So I had to rotate my cards cuz I had a ton of video calls and I had to have a high speed. It wasn't just like I needed connectivity for email and web browsing or whatever. And then I had a hotspot on my phone and on my iPad. So I had like two backups and then my. Cards, four gigs of, or four different, um, cards that Yeah, I think they each had 30 gig at the time. So I was going through 120 gig a month at minimum high speed internet for my job. And, uh, I always had a backup plan for. Finding somewhere that had cell service, and if that place wasn't good enough, then I had a backup plan to go, you know, if I had to backtrack a half hour or go somewhere else or whatever to make sure that I had somewhere to just park for the day so
Kristin:I could work. Yeah. So you had like, was this like a nine to five job where you had to be available for eight hours a day?
Sierra:Yeah. Yes, very much so. More so available like 10 hours or more a day. Like it was eight to five. But I managed a team throughout the US so I had people on the east coast and the west coast that reported to me. My boss was on the west coast, so we had the same hours. Um, but sometimes I even had to coordinate calls over abroad, like with Paris cuz our company was based out of there. Um, but it was very much like they knew I was working Pacific time hours and I had to be available in online and respons. Within reason between 8:00 AM and 6:00 PM usually. Yeah. I'm wondering
Kristin:what that was like. You know when you have to, you know, how much driving van life is. Both of us know that, trying to find a campsite, like how did you do that? Like, what was that
Sierra:like? It was really stressful. Um, I typically would just find somewhere that had really good self service and I'd park for the week. I'd park Monday through Friday, or sometimes if I had calls, um, that were spread out more during the weekday, I would go into town and make like Tuesday my town day, and then I'd have my call from 10 to 11, and then I'd do. Laundry and then have a call from, you know, noon to one and then go do my grocery shopping and shower and then have my call from three to five and then drive out somewhere. But I typically just did my errands on weekends when I had the day off, and then I would just go and park and sit for a week. Cuz with the water that I have in my van, I was able to keep that and not have to have to leave for that amount of time. Yeah. So that, how long did you keep that up? A year and a half. Yeah. The first year and a half I was pretty much doing the. The corporate grind while I was in my van. Wow.
Kristin:Wow. And then, so now you do something completely different. I'm just wondering, um, how did you make that switch from having that corporate job to trying to go off on your own?
Sierra:Yeah, I, um, I've been in HR and recruiting for a very long time, and. I originally, the firm that I had worked with originally had been acquired by this larger firm, so I had purposefully kind of taken a step backwards in my career about five years prior to work with a smaller firm and to have like more of a close-knit team and to have a little more autonomy with the work that I did. And then as happens, especially in Seattle, which is where I was at at the time, um, the firm got acquired by the large global firm and a lot of things changed and it just wasn't, um, wasn't really aligning with what I liked. I loved the team that I worked with. My boss was amazing. My team that I worked with were great, but I wasn't really resonating with the type of work that I was doing. Um, so I was quite honestly miserable with my corporate job, but it paid the bills, so I took. A hobby, which I thought it was going to be. I wanted to start my own business and I thought, okay, well I want to support businesses that support, you know, nomadic living and off-grid lifestyles and sustainable living and things like that. I wanna be really purposeful with what I support. Um, I love to write, so I had no portfolio. Uh, I had a like personal blog that's about six years behind at this point. But, um, I thought, Hey, I'm just gonna put myself out there. And I've done project management and admin work. I've done all sorts of things. I'm like, maybe I can just support and do like some weird admin work, one-off stuff like project based for small businesses, make these little packages that they can afford. And maybe if I get, you know, 10 of those people with the small enough packages, then I could make enough money as. One big job, right? So I made an Instagram account and a website, and I started just kind of writing some stuff to keep me happy, more like hobby and um, people started reaching out to me. Apparently, it's really hard to find a good copywriter, and I didn't know this. And exactly what I wanted is what was resonating with these businesses. They loved that. I am nomadic. They love that I live in the van, they love my background. They love that I can more or less speak their language and speak to their clients. But because of my corporate background, I also had that business sense so I can also speak to the business themselves and kind of be that in between person. And it worked really well. So I started doing some work and was just offer. Hey, I'll do this project for you and if you don't like the first one, uh, you don't have to pay me. If you do like it, here's my rate. And so far, I've never had anyone say no to me. Um, and people just keep reaching out and wanting support. It's been really incredible. I was doing that for. About three months. And, um, I then I couldn't do both. I had more and more clients reaching out and I had a little bit of money saved, so I decided to take the leap and my boss knew I wasn't happy, and she knew that I was probably gonna be leaving at some point anyway, but I gave them, A good notice, I think about a month's notice and, um, transitioned out of the role and decided I would focus on my own business with hopes that it would work. And in the back of my mind, I was like, I knew I had the skills to where the worst that would happen is I'd go find another job that I hated, but it would pay the bills, right? So the worst that would happen is I'd go through some savings and then I'd go right back to what I was doing. You know, nothing lost, but a little bit of money. But, That hasn't happened, so it's been amazing. Such a
Kristin:great story. I think a lot of people want to go from corporate to starting their own business, but they're scared or they don't know where to start. Like how did you, like, what kind of fears did you have when you first started to go
Sierra:off on your own? All of them for sure. Um, a again, I feel like I'm very, I was very lucky to where I did have some, a little bit of money saved to where I knew, like, even if I had zero work for six months, like I wasn't gonna die. I wasn't gonna starve. I might not be driving as much, but like, I'd be able to feed my dog and myself. Um, I knew that with my skillset that I could go and get another job and it might not have been as high paying as the one that I had, but that I, I knew I could go be a recruiter somewhere or do HR project management or something. But yeah, I was terrified of failing. I was terrified. Trying something and just having it not work or writing something for a client, having them hate it. Um, everyone, I, that's just normal to have those fears, I think. But for me, the alternative was worse of not trying and then wondering a year down the road as I'm. You know, completely unhappy and hair's falling out from stress and having anxiety attacks or whatever from not enjoying my other job. That what it was worth. Um, a little bit of fear to try something new than to just sit in something that I wasn't happy with. Life's too short.
Kristin:Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. Life's too short. So, yeah. So I'm wondering, um, so you didn't have to go out and do like massive amounts of outreach, right? People just started learning about you were doing this through word of mouth or how to, how people found you mostly.
Sierra:Yeah. It's crazy. My first three clients were all through Instagram, Instagram's, where it's at, you know, hashtag there in life. Um, I made. Instagram account. Um, and I followed some businesses that I was interested in and I, you know, messaged a few people and just asked what they were interested in and if they needed support with anything and had a few offerings. And, um, people reached out. I had, within the first month, I had three different clients reach out to me directly and say, Hey, you know, what do you, what can you do? How can you support me? So I did that, and then I was very purposeful with an email. And I went out and, um, like was going to different websites and gathering emails of businesses that I wanted to support, that I really believed in and I thought would be really great. And every time I send out anything email wise, I end up with somebody replying to me saying that they, you know, saw my website. They're excited, they need help with writing whatever. It's been really incredible and I, I mean, it's a tiny little list, like maybe 60 to a hundred, and most people have like thousands and thousands of emails, right? And I've been very purposeful with that. So I think that's helped tremendously as being that niche and being really focused on. What I wanted to support.
Kristin:Yeah. That's really interesting that you created kind of a custom list. And is that something like if someone was gonna break out on their own, is that how you'd recommend doing outreach, is just finding those companies that you really, or people that you really wanted to work with and then creating a list and reaching out to them
Sierra:individually? Yeah, I do. I think that having custom packages, I think that's what people want now. Um, there's so much business out there that's so Im. And I feel like taking that extra time and really learning about someone's business and making things more targeted, um, absolutely is helpful. And I think that comes from my recruiter background. Like I never just did blanket emails to candidates that I was interested in just because they had something on them. I'd actually look at their resume and their background and I would write something personable and relatable. And um, it's the same thing with business. And I think that niche is very important as well. A lot of people are afraid and they wanna do this huge blanket thing. Offer everything to everyone, or they don't know where and when you can really hone in and focus on something that you know you're good at and that you are going to be passionate about and that you really enjoy, um, I think you're just gonna be more successful by default by doing that.
Kristin:Yeah, for sure. And I'm thinking about someone that, that works at a, a corporate job and they really wanna go off on their own. Um, what would be some starting tips for them, like in identifying, um, what route to take with starting their own business? Like what to even do, like, if you had any
Sierra:advice. Yeah. Um, man, I am a rabbit hole girl. I do my research and, uh, I would. Choose that thing that you really love. Think about, especially if you're starting off something, you're gonna be doing it a heck of a lot more than 40 hours a week. Like it's not just a, you know, Monday through Friday, eight to five job, when you're starting your own thing, it's hours of resear research and late nights and waking up at 2:00 AM with an idea and jotting things down because you don't wanna forget about it and it's all on you. It's not like you have, um, a boss to bounce things off of, or, you know, coworkers to talk about ideas with. Um, I think it's really important to just take the time to do that research and if it's something that you enjoy, it's gonna make it a lot. Um, and then reach out to your community. I've learned so much from other fellow entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, nomadic, people that are owning, that have owned their own businesses or that do freelance work, and just asking them questions. Um, a lot of what I do now, honestly, I knew nothing about before, and I've learned from other people who've been doing it for. You know, 10 years, but they don't have bandwidth for more. So they're like, Hey, I'll take an hour and teach you how to do this, and if you have questions you can ask me and we'll flip each other some work or what have you. I think that's huge as well. Um, is just leveraging resources that you have and realizing what those resources are. I think a lot of people don't realize how many resources there are out there that you can use. They think it's all on them. If someone
Kristin:is identified like, oh my gosh, I wanna be a writer. They don't think they quite have the skills or they wanna do a P Z A. Like what would you suggest that, that they do if they're feeling that way? Do it
Sierra:anyway. Yeah, do it anyway. Honestly, um, I personally didn't have a portfolio. I literally had my personal blog. I offered up work for free because I wanted the experience. I gave people really good deals in the beginning because I just wanted the experience under me. Um, I also did a ton of research. People who did the work that I wanted to do and looked at their style. And like for me it was, I looked at other blogs that were really interesting and learned about their writing styles. I did a ton of research on how to learn how to write blogs and what the heck is an age two heading and what is seo? And I just did a lot of research. And again, I feel like it's coming back to my recruiting career, right? Because I had to recruit for things that I knew nothing about. And there were many times in my career, I'd be interviewing like a candidate that was for, uh, an accounting role. And I still count on my fingers. Like I'm not, not a math person, not an accountant. And I'd have a candidate say, um, oh my gosh, how long were you an accountant before you were a recruiter? And I would just laugh and go, I've never been an accountant. They go, well, you really know what you're talking about. And the reality was, is. I had no idea what I was talking about, but I knew what to say and I knew how to do my research. I knew what questions to ask and I knew what the answers would be. Um, so it was just learning the language and learning what people needed, um, and then just taking a chance and trying it. And the worst it'll happen. It won't work. Um, yeah, I guess that's it too. Just, uh, accepting the fact that if you fail, you failed, but at least you tried. It's not really failure if you tried in. Yeah, totally. And I like
Kristin:your idea about getting practical experience. Cause I think a lot of people think, oh, I gotta go take this$2,000 copywriting class, but for you, you just jumped in and you aren't getting experience as you go. Right?
Sierra:Yeah. I've always been very hands-on and self-taught. Um, I was also homeschooled, so that says a little bit about that too. It's a very different mindset than a lot of people who went to a more traditional school. Um, so. Yeah, I mean, the information is out there. I mean, we have these little computers in our pockets that tell us everything we can possibly ever need. It's just a matter of having the attention span to, to do it, and then knowing what to look for and, um, retaining it, I guess. And, uh, yeah, it's just lot, lots of research time and you, you don't have to pay all the money for all the classes and all the certifications depending on what she, I mean, some. They do require certain certifications. Like obviously if you're gonna go be an electrician, you should probably be a certified electrician, right? Um, but for a writer it was more just like, well, here's my writing style. Do you like it? Um, here's some things I learned that I can help you with it. And. Go from there. Kind of prove yourself. Yeah.
Kristin:Yeah. And that, oh, another thing I wanted to talk to you about is you have, um, I know some people go with like a per project, you know, fee or a per word fee, but you operate more at a retainer fee. Tell me a little bit about the benefits mm-hmm. Of, of doing that versus like a per
Sierra:project, um, structure. Yeah. Well again, cuz I was targeting small businesses, I knew that most likely these small businesses wouldn't have a budget period. Um, and the budget they did have, if, if any, would be very. Um, and it's just me. So it's not like I even have, I have a budget for just to be able to survive, right? So, um, I decided to figure out how much money I needed to be able to pay my bills and still have a little extra money to, you know, buy some ice cream every once in a while if I wanted to, and then be able to figure out how much I needed per month. And then I'm able to prioritize my time based off of a client that pays me on a retainer. So if I have a client. Pays me$125 a month, or 500 a month, or a thousand dollars a month, then I prioritize them and they pay me ahead of time, so I know my bills are paid. Do all that work. And then if there's other clients, I'm just like, well, you know, I don't, I don't really wanna commit to a month, but can, do you have time for this project? Then when I do have that extra time, I'm able to come back and say, yeah, I can do that blog or I can redo that website for you right now cuz it's a little slower right now and I've finished up on my other work. So it works out well for both ends. Um, because on the bu the clients are also able to budget more and, and understand what they're getting. And I'm also able to give. A little bit of a better deal than if it's a per project base, cuz I know that money's coming and I know the work that I have to do. So it's more planning on my end too.
Kristin:Oh, well that's a really interesting idea. Cause I think a lot of van lifers are wondering like, oh, how am I gonna make that next a hundred dollars or something? And they get freaked out. Yeah. If you have retainers with a variety of people, you know you have that money coming in and then you can. Budget.
Sierra:Exactly. Yeah. And then I'm able to scale and, um, shift a little bit as needed. And, uh, the retainers I have now, like I've been very lucky that I had one specific client that I started out with early on, and they were my largest retainer. And it was literally like, That wasn't enough to pay my bills, but it was enough to make me feel like I wasn't gonna starve to death. If I had nothing else except their money coming in each month, it was like it would, it would pay for a most important bill, and I still had savings, so it was okay. So it gave me a little bit of wiggle room to. Put myself out there and spend more time marketing myself and, you know, maybe putting together some other things that I could repurpose to other clients and stuff like that. Yeah.
Kristin:Is it hard to like, um, manage all the pieces? You know, I, I know that when I went on my own I had a hard time figuring out like when I would work, when I would have fun, when I should take time off. Have you had issues with like Yeah. Scheduling your, your life around
Sierra:your own business? Oh my God, I'm so glad you said you had a problem with that or a challenge with that, cuz Yes, that's honestly. My biggest challenge on working for myself and starting my business. Excuse me. It's not been, not me even been finding the work or it's been hard like to figure out what do you even charge people like you go and do research and it's like people will do anywhere from, I'll build your website for$10 to, I'll build your website for$10,000. Right? Trying to find that middle ground of, okay, what's realistic for me? The biggest challenge has been prioritizing my time cuz I've been just focus mode of Monday through Friday, eight to five, and now the work that I'm doing is very different. And yeah, I've really struggled with learning how to prioritize my exercise and time with my dog and. When I get into that tunnel vision of doing research for myself, there's times that I'll start at eight in the morning and then all of a sudden I look up and it's dark outside and I'm like, where? Where'd the day go? Because I'm, it's fun and I'm enjoying it, but it's sometimes I literally have to like set a timer or an alarm or put something on my calendar to remind me to go out and take a walk, do some stretching, or go for my run or whatever. Um, and it's literally taken almost this entire year for me to get in a groove and finally figure out, like, I don't do well in the mornings. I never have my entire life, but in corporate life you have to. So now it's been accepting that, okay, well it's fine if I'm in a mood and I'm up working until 2:00 AM cuz I can sleep in later. And just allowing yourself to do that and listening to your body and, um, Knowing when to pause and, and when it's okay to just dive in and do a full day of work. So yeah, totally.
Kristin:It definitely takes a lot more, uh, setting up boundaries than having a normal job where, you know, you have the weekend off and a certain time of day in the evening. I know that I love to work and I get really into it, and then my partner Tom is like, Hey, it's like time for happy hour. It's time for a walk. So I do have that influence saying that, Hey, let's go do something. So, yes, I think that's, yeah, I'll hand of my
Sierra:dog. It'll bark me if it gets too late. So, which is great, but sometimes it's like, no, I'm not call, I'll be quiet.
Kristin:Like, so how does that compare to you? Cuz you started out having a remote job and you're living the van life and work in the stressful job to having your own business and has it's own stresses. But how has it been now? Like do you prefer this and how, how's it different from Oh yeah. Your last
Sierra:position. Yes. I love this. I am. I am so lucky and I literally, I feel like I pinch myself every day because I still can't believe I'm literally living my dream like I am. I'm happy, I'm supporting myself. I have this incredible, beautiful little home on wheels that I can take wherever I want and park in the middle of nowhere and do my work and support businesses that I. Love, like there, there isn't one client that I have that I don't resonate with, and I just absolutely am proud to be able to, to help their business grow. I, I love having the flexibility and having a friend be like, Hey, do you wanna go for a hike at two o'clock on a Wednesday? And me say yes because I can and not have to worry about, you know, somebody getting upset. Um, obviously if I have calls with my clients, I keep those, but I try to plan those out accordingly throughout the week. I love it and I, I hope to grow my business to where I can support other people and other nomadic, um, entrepreneurs and freelancers and stuff as well. More.
Kristin:Yeah. Yeah. I think that it seems like having one's own business. It fits better with Van Life than, than working at corporate jobs. Yes, that's what it seems.
Sierra:I'll, I'll answer that for sure after I do taxes for the first time this year, so that, that'll be interesting. I've owned my own businesses before, but it's never been like a hundred percent my own business. It's always been like I've had a job and my own business or. What have you. So it'll be interesting this year doing, doing taxes.
Kristin:That's a good thing to to mention as well. When you start your own business, you need, you know, a separate bank account. You need to track your expenses and your income, like with QuickBooks, like what I do, and then you're wall up with a self-employment tax. So, It's just all the, you have budgeting and be aware of for people listening to us today.
Sierra:No kidding. And that's something I feel really lucky to have known about too, is cuz I did have my own businesses before I learned like the basic stuff. Like I knew that I needed to make it separate and I need the business account and the business banking account and make sure everything is all lined up that way. So, But yeah, it's a lot and it's very overwhelming.
Kristin:Were you surprised that you got so many clients within your first year of business, especially in the
Sierra:nomadic space? I was shocked. I had no idea. Mainly because I didn't, again, I didn't know that apparently it's hard to find a good copywriter or content writer. I spoke to so many companies that said, oh yeah, like. All the freelance copywriters or content writers that I work with, they just, they don't respond to me. They'll tell me they're gonna have something done, and they don't get it done on time. They just, they don't communicate well, they don't respond to my email, like all these things. And I was just shocked. I'm like, well, that's no way to run a business. Why would somebody be not responding? So, yeah, and I have had some referrals, which has been absolutely amazing. Uh, that's my favorite to, you know, have someone refer you that's like the best compliment you can get. So,
Kristin:yeah, I think that's, that's really cool. And it's important to have somebody that understands nomadic living, like you were saying in the beginning, like so many people I've hired a ghostwriter before, which I don't do anymore, but they would write these posts for my site that didn't really reflect, um, the lifestyle. I'm like, this isn't, Funny.
Sierra:I actually just had someone reach out to me and wanted to do just like one blog a month on their site, and it was for something nomadic as well. And they're like, yeah, we have someone else doing it, but they're not nomadic and I'm just not really happy with what they've written. And it was something as simple as I read through their blog and they referenced like, How there's all these places to park for free and you can park at every Walmart, every Cracker Barrel. Like they were listening off these things and I'm like, that's like, that's also not true. Like you can't, that's not true these days. There's plenty of Walmarts and cracker barrels that you can't park at. So to say that the, all of them can, like, I'd hate to send someone out on their first thing and them show up somewhere and then get kicked out right away. Right? So little things like that, it's really nice to have a little bit of. Knowledge to be able to help the companies right the way that they
Kristin:want. Yeah, for sure. And so now after you've been doing this for a while, you've been on the road for a couple years, what internet do you now recommend for other No. Well,
Sierra:if you need consistent high speed internet, starlink is absolutely worth the money. Starlink has been amazing. I've been able to be with a zero cell service and sit there for 10 days, 14 days, and be able to do all my phone calls, zoom calls, Google calls, upload, download, everything. It's, it's been amazing. Um, if you don't need. Honestly, a hotspot's gonna be just fine. Um, if, if you can find self-service most places, if you're comfortable being off grid for a day or two, as long as you download offline maps and stuff like that, it's fine. But, um, if you can afford it and you need that, starlink is where it's at. It's totally worth it.
Kristin:Yep. I totally another vote for starlink over here. I use a hotspot as well, but the, the link is just consistent and fast and it works off grid. You can go out in the middle of nowhere, you know, which is phenomenal with, I mean, what a dream as you.
Sierra:No kidding. It's incredible. It doesn't, it obviously, as you know, it doesn't work if it's like blocked on the northern skies. So like in the Pacific Northwest, it's difficult where there's trees like where my parents live, my dad's in the middle of nowhere and his cabin is just like trees all around. There's no cell service. And I was like, well, I'll try. Maybe starlink will work. And yeah, didn't, it was like, it would, it would work, but it was like losing service every couple minutes and it was like not, it was losing it so often. It was just not even worth it. So, um, but the majority of the time it's, it's right there. It's amazing. Oh, such an amazing thing for
Kristin:US nomads. So yeah, what you were saying before you here hope for your bus. I know. So yeah. So you're hoping to expand and hire other nomads. What's your vision for your
Sierra:business moving forward? Yeah. My vision is to continue to support businesses that encourage the nomadic and tiny living and off grid sustainable lifestyles. Um, I. I have found that because of my background, I am really good at, um, I hate using the word manage, but I don't know what other word I write. I write, and I can't think of the right word. Um, I'm really good at managing people and wrangling people and just organizing. Um, and I've found that I've met a lot of nomads that are freelancers that are really great at doing the work, but they don't know how to market themselves or they're not comfortable with it, or they're not really great with just the business side. Like they're great at producing amazing content and work, but maybe they're not great with those conversations or organizing the. So my hope, and I already have some people that I'm working with this way, is that I can continue to, if I can't do the work myself, then I flip it to another freelancer who is also either nomadic or, you know, sustainable, tiny living, whatever, somehow related to this lifestyle. And, um, they can do the work. And it goes through me and my clients don't know the difference. It's still, I'm still doing that final approval stamp on. I'm still, you know, the main point of contact, the one giving all the direction, but I'm able to give them more work so they can make money. My clients are happy. They don't know any different. And, um, I'm able to help the community by giving them more work as well. So that's my ultimate goal. And it's already starting, which is incredible, is just to grow my little, my little nomad network with even more people to help me out when I can't meet all the needs that are there. Cool.
Kristin:That's just so exciting and inspiring for people to hear that wanna start their own businesses. That it is possible. Um, cuz you're doing it and it's only been a year and you're, you're successful already. So that's really inspiring. Great for people
Sierra:to hear. Yeah, I, every time I meet someone that's talking about it, I'm always encouraging them. Like, do what? Do it. Just, just try it. You got nothing to lose.
Kristin:Do you have any other advice to give people that we didn't touch on yet? Gosh, no. Just, um,
Sierra:don't be afraid to ask questions. I think that that's huge and that's where so many people, I think pause is they, they don't wanna act dumb or they, they don't maybe just ask questions on what should they be asking. Sometimes they don't even know what to ask. Um, I think that's huge is just to consist. Try to learn and leverage your peers. Ask other people that have their businesses and stuff, and. Talk to people, see what people need, figure out how you can adapt to it. Also,
Kristin:where can people find
Sierra:you online? Yeah, so my business, uh, website is Boondock Consulting and it's also Boondock Consulting on my Instagram. And then my personal Instagram is Sierra's Traverse. Uh, it's pretty much just pictures of my dog and I running through the wilderness. So if you like white dogs and mountains, um, that's what that one is. If you can reach me through any of those mediums. Very
Kristin:cool. Well, thank you so much for coming on and talking about this. I think a lot of people are wondering. So yeah, it was great. Thank you. Thank
Sierra:you so much. It's been wonderful chatting with you and I hope, uh, hope this inspires some people to get out there and
Kristin:do what they love. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of the Wayward Home podcast. I'll add Sierra's links in the show notes below. And remember, if you want to check out my course about how to start a profitable niche site, just go to the wayward home.com/course. I hope to see you there.