Eric & Brittany Highland (RV Wanderlust)

Eric & Brittany Highland (RV Wanderlust) 11

Age:45/28

Travels: Full-time

Traveling Since: February 2014

Business Name: Knektion, LLC

Blog: hourlesslife.com

Occupation:Online Marketing Specialists for Small Businesses

Here is Their Story

The Income

Money doesn’t drive us, but ironically we’ve got to have it to keep the wheels rolling.

We have a boutique online marketing business targeted to small business owners. We’re small business owners ourselves, so we know how tough it can be.

What do we do?

*We manage businesses’ accounts on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Google+ etc.
*We provide reputation management services on Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google+.
*We create WordPress blogs and small business websites.
*We offer content creation and optimize web pages for search engines using “white hat” search engine optimization techniques.
*We consult business owners and bloggers, and have done quite a bit of public speaking and presenting at conferences and conventions.

We travel for our clients as needed, which usually ends up being a few times per year.

We’ve earned most of our clients through referrals from existing clients. We’ve been blessed to have a steady stream of long-term clients and are typically on a waiting list!

Eric & Brittany Highland (RV Wanderlust) 12

Getting on the Road

Getting on the road was a pretty simple transition, all things considered.

Our company has been around since 2011 and we’ve been nomadic since 2014, so we already had an existing client base when we started our RV adventure.

When we approached our clients about working nomadically, they were incredibly receptive to the idea.

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The Fears

Connectivity was one of our biggest concerns. We weren’t sure we’d have enough data, or that there would be enough coverage in the places we wanted to stay during our travels.

So we opted to get two different types of coverage (AT&T and Verizon), with sufficient data for our business needs.

We also use Technomadia’s app, “Coverage?,” before moving to any new location. That app is indispensable for anyone Internet-dependent who wants to work nomadically.

The Awesome Side

How much time do you have? Imagine working from your laptop on the beach and taking a break to eat lunch at a unique restaurant. After coming home to finish work, you get to explore some incredible place that folks save a year’s worth of vacation and thousands of dollars to see. Guess what? You actually “live” there for the time you are there. It is genuinely incredible.

The awesome side of this life is adventure! Like most others who have taken this leap, we’re stricken with wanderlust. We love having the freedom to explore our amazing country, while earning a living, and we’re blessed to have long-term clients who make the lifestyle tenable for us.

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Challenges

Our biggest challenge may be time zones. Working from Savannah with someone in Seattle is a bit of a challenge.

The easy fix is simply to adjust our own work schedule to cover all of our clients’ needs, which allows us to maintain the response time they require to be successful.

We’ve found that by waking up early, we’re able to get our non-time-sensitive work done first. Then we’re available to respond to our clients during the heart of their workday.

Technology is a marvelous thing. With our laptops and smartphones, there is very little we can’t do even after hours, if needed. We have an existing understanding with our clients, where they know they can text us directly should an “online emergency” arise. They rarely do it, but when they do need us, we’re there.

For the Aspiring

Working nomadically will be different for each individual, depending on what type of work they plan on doing. The good news is there are so many of us out here doing it, and most of us are willing to answer questions and share about the lifestyle.

You’ll find that, in the RV community, folks are generally very kind and willing to offer a helping hand in their respective areas of expertise. So our advice is to find someone who is actively living the full-time lifestyle, maybe someone who is doing something similar to what you plan on doing, and reach out to them directly.

The only other suggestion I would offer is to not forget to give yourself vacation in your contracts with your clients. We never really planned for that part of it, and we went years without taking a vacation. Crazy, because folks think we’re on a permanent vacation. Truth is that we work, every single day. We earn a living just like folks sitting in a cubicle somewhere. We just happen to do it from wherever we like. Now, when we take on new clients, we make sure to include a vacation clause in our agreements!

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In the End are we Happy?

When someone asks us, “How long do you plan on being a full-timer?,” our answer is always, “Indefinitely.”

It isn’t for everyone, but if you think it is for you, talk to someone. Heck–reach out to us! We’ll be happy to share the good, the bad and the ugly with you. Transparency is key and knowledge is power.

Sure, the lifestyle has it’s challenges. But if you have wanderlust like we do, there is simply no substitute for it!

If you decide to take the leap, reach out to us and let us know you are out there. See you on the road!

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