The Strategy That Got Her From California to Living on a Boat in Caribbean for Less than $2,000 a Month with Author Liz Shipton | EP 52

What if your monthly expenses could drop below $2,000 and your office view changed from tropical island to pristine beach every few weeks?

Ryan welcomes Liz Shipton, a former Silicon Valley tech worker who traded her high-paying job and California rent for life on a 43-foot sailboat. 

Liz shares how she and her partner sailed from Santa Cruz to the Caribbean while she built a thriving career as a self-published fiction author. You'll hear about the real costs of boat life, the truth about working remotely from the water, and how she funded her dream through creative Kickstarter campaigns that raised over $34,000.

Chapters:
00:12:07 - Living Expenses and Off-Grid Setup
00:20:22 - Kickstarter Success and Book Funding
00:24:45 - Life Logistics, Travel Choices, and Dog Limitations
00:31:33 - Challenges of Boat Life and Shipping from Islands
00:35:14 - Community and Friendships Among Sailors

Ryan digs into the practical side of this unconventional path, from dealing with hurricanes and monkeys to finding WiFi and shipping packages between countries. If you've ever wondered how to actually make location independence work without a massive nest egg, Liz breaks down exactly how she went from struggling musician to financially free writer living in paradise. 

She reveals the six-year planning process that made it possible and the honest trade-offs that come with choosing adventure over convenience.

Whether you're dreaming of sailing the world or just looking for proof that there's another way to live and work, this conversation delivers real strategies for building income streams that travel with you. 

Listen and Learn how one couple turned a crazy dream into a sustainable lifestyle that costs less than your rent while living on the water in the Caribbean.

Connect with Liz: https://www.lizshipton.com/

Grab Your FREE Guide - 7 Steps To Launch Your Digital Nomad Journey - https://www.thedigitalnomadcoach.com/

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DISCLAIMER:
Listening to stories of beachside zoom calls, mountainside work views, and island-hopping entrepreneurs may cause severe wanderlust and an irresistible urge to turn your laptop into a passport to freedom. Side effects include daydreaming about tropical co-working spaces, working with Ryan to learn how you can start working and traveling and buying a one-way ticket to Bali. Get ready to start living your dream life today!

Transcript

[00:00:00] 

Ryan Mellon: Welcome to Digital Nomad Nation, where we inspire and empower you to achieve location independence and live life on your own terms. Today we have Liz Shipton. Welcome, Liz.

Liz: Hi. Thanks for having me.

Ryan Mellon: ~It's always good to have another sailor on the~

Liz: ~Yeah,~

Ryan Mellon: ~So, uh, you, we, we were chatting briefly before we hit recording.~

Liz: ~I.~

Ryan Mellon: ~telling me about, uh, something that happened while you guys were sailing in Panama. Tell me, uh, a little bit more about that.~

Liz: ~Yeah. Um, all right, so this is the, this is my, my dog meeting. Her first, uh, monkey, which happened in Panama. Um, Um, there was, they have like big calor monkeys there, so we had take, we have to take her as shore in the dinghy, obviously, to like use the bathroom and run around on the beach and all that stuff. So, um, there's this little island.~

~That, uh, very easy dingy landing. We kind of just drifted in. It's very gentle. It's calm. The sun is out, it's beautiful. It's white sand, palm trees, and the dog hops out and she jumps in. She's doing her thing on the beach. And then my partner, Trev, who's in, who's sitting in the dingy with me, we're both just kind of chilling, sitting on the shore in the dingy, waiting for her.~

~And he goes, babe, look up over your head. And I look up and there's a monkey, a big hower monkey, and it's. I mean, I'm showing listeners can't hear, but I'm showing a quite small distance and it's literally that far from my head hanging in the tree looking down at us, and it's just like starting to bear its teeth and we're just like.~

~Oh, oh no. Like what? Oh my God. What is about to happen here? And the dog is still on the beach having no idea what's going on. Just running around, rolling in the sand, doing her thing. So happy. And we're both like Alo. The dog's name is Aloi. Come here, get, get in the, get in the right now. Come here, come here, come here.~

~She comes running back and she sees this monkey in the tree, and she just stops. Dead.~

Ryan Mellon: ~no.~

Liz: ~she's never seen anything like this before. And usually her response when she sees something like in a tree like an animal or whatever is to bark or go crazy or try to chase it or whatever, but she just went totally still.~

~Frozen in place, staring at this monkey. Meanwhile, we're still both screaming at her. Get in the ticket, get the ticket. We need to go right now. Right now. And she's just standing there staring at this monkey, which is becoming increasingly like, obviously doesn't want us on his beach. We finally, I just like get out and I grab her and I like haul her into the dingy and we push off and we like paddle away and everything was fine.~

~The monkey gets outta the tree and kind of, you know. Don't come back. Um, but yeah, that was, that was for sure a memorable moment.~

Ryan Mellon: ~yeah. So it seems like maybe the monkey was like three feet away from you, like, like how were you~

Liz: ~It was.~

Ryan Mellon: ~that point?~

Liz: ~It was quite scary. I was, we'd seen monkeys and we've seen 'em like all over Costa Rica. Um, there's all different kinds, you know, and they just kind of, they'll come through town and they're on, they're hanging out on like chain link fences, outside liquor stores and stuff. Like, no big deal. But this one was big.~

~Um, and just kind of had a vibe of like, he doesn't want us. Right now we should, we should leave. Um, yeah, so it was a little scary, but cool. You know, cool to see something, uh, so close up.~

Ryan Mellon: ~Well, always a fun story after the fact, right? There's,~

Liz: ~Yes. Yeah. Yeah.~

Ryan Mellon: ~not so great during the time. Yeah. I've had so many close calls with, uh, all kinds of different monkeys and i'll in Asia, Southeast Asia especially, and like they~

Liz: ~Mm.~

Ryan Mellon: ~be super chill. Or they can be like super aggressive and they can also~

Liz: ~Yeah,~

Ryan Mellon: ~that switch so fast that you're like, man, it's~

Liz: ~yeah,~

Ryan Mellon: ~you know, you feel like you're in a bad neighborhood.~

~You gotta be really careful, especially when they start grouping up on you, you know?~

Liz: ~yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.~

Ryan Mellon: Well, cool. So you're a digital nomad and you're living and sailing on your sailboat. Is that right?

Liz: Yeah. Yeah. So we live on a 43 foot Morgan,~ uh,~ center cockpit sail book called Loki. We bought the boat in Santa Cruz in 2021. ~Uh, ~wait, no, when did we buy it? 2019, I think.~ Um, ~and we had it in Santa Cruz for two years before we actually like moved onto it and we set sale in 2021.~ Um, ~and yeah, have been living aboard full time and sailing full time since then.

Ryan Mellon: That's amazing. So what was the catalyst to let's you know, like, get rid of our stuff, get rid of our apartment, let's do this. Like what happened to make you guys wanna live this lifestyle?

Liz: Yeah. ~Um, ~well, [00:01:00] so my partner Trev,~ uh,~ has sort of grew up sailing a little bit,~ um,~ and had some, a little bit of background in it. And then when we, we went to school together in San Diego, he went to San Diego State and they have a sailing program there. And so he kind of got back into it,~ uh,~ in college and, and discovered he really loved it.

Ended up loving it so much that he got a job at the, at the teaching center there and started teaching sailing. One thing kind of led to another and he ended up getting a job as a skipper over in Croatia for one summer for this, this thing called the Yacht Week, which is like a big flotilla party thing.

And he had a really good time doing that. He did it two summers in a row. He did one in Croatia and one in Greece. And that was around the time that we kind of started talking about like, well, you know, that would be kind of cool to maybe sail and live on a boat. And he really loved it and I. Just kind of was like, yeah, traveling sounds fun and I would love to live, you know, cheaply and, and all that kind of stuff.

So we started talking about it and then it, it took really like [00:02:00] probably six years almost of from, from that first kind of seed of the idea to actually leaving, you know, it took a lot of work and time and planning and, and saving of money,~ um,~ to, to actually make it happen.

Ryan Mellon: so you guys were both working,~ uh,~ at the time, like in person jobs while saving up for, I guess buying a boat or, and savings for traveling.

Liz: Yeah, well, so actually when we first came up with the idea, he, so he was teaching sailing. I was teaching music, so I actually have a degree in music from uc, San Diego. And I was working in San Diego as a like gigging. Performing and teaching musician. ~Um, ~and he was teaching sailing and we kind of came up with this idea.

We were like, we would love to sail and live on the boat. And so at that time we kind of realized, well, we're gonna need maybe real jobs at least for a little while in order to save up some, some money. 'cause like being a musician and a sailing teacher, we were fairly broke. ~Uh, ~[00:03:00] so I actually quit music and I started teaching myself to code.

I went through a coding boot. I went through a coding bootcamp in San Francisco,~ um,~ um, which was super intense, crazy like most crazy three months of my life. ~Um, ~came out the other side, ended up getting a job in Silicon Valley. ~Um, ~and I worked in tech for about five years. And,~ um,~ TRV quit teaching sailing and he went into,~ uh,~ electrician work and was doing a lot of,~ uh,~ like electrical work and that kind of stuff.

~Um. ~So we, we kind of, it's weird. We, we walked away from the sort of,~ um,~ job you love type thing to go into a more, you know, in-person everyday nine to five regular thing specifically with this goal in mind of buying the boat and ultimately leaving and, and getting on it and sailing away. And so yeah, we spent five years just kind of saving, saving, saving.

~Um, ~working, you know, super hard all the time, as much as we could. ~Um, ~and [00:04:00] yeah. And then, and then set sail in 2021. And a big part of actually what motivated this was,~ um,~ I mean we, we live, we were living in California at the time, and like anyone who, I mean the whole United States is kind of crazy right now, but California especially is insane in terms of like housing costs.

Rent was sky high and we were looking at, at buying a house and it was just like, this is crazy. Like maybe we could swing this, maybe we could do this mortgage thing. But it does seem like we would be spending an awful lot of money on our mortgage and not much else. And like, do we really wanna do this?

And yeah, so that was a big,~ uh,~ motivating factor as well.

Ryan Mellon: Okay. Yeah, no, California is super expensive to live in and you know, it has gotten more expensive in general, like across the whole us especially

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: ~Um, ~like, so give us some examples of like, let's say you guys, so ~uh, ~the Morgan 43, right? Is

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: like a two, a two bedroom, [00:05:00] apartment

Liz: a,

Ryan Mellon: right?

Liz: yeah. Yeah, you could say that. And we've only ever before this, we only ever lived in like studio apartments, so we were very used to having like one room, one room, two rooms between us. But yeah, it has a rebirth in the front that we actually mostly just use for storage. And then the nice thing about the Morgan, it's a center cockpit, so it has this nice, they call it a state room in the back that has like a double bed.

It's an actual kind of bedroom. ~Um, ~there's a bathroom attached to that that actually has been converted into a workshop. And again, is really just storage at this point. ~Uh, ~we call it the garage. It's where all the tools and, and all that kind of stuff lives. It is a nice, comfortable boat for,~ uh,~ two people and a dog for sure.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah. So would you compare like maybe a small two bedroom in where you were living in California and price to your cost here?

Liz: Oh my God.

Ryan Mellon: boat.

Liz: There's no, there's no comparison. We would not be able to do what? Like, ~um. ~Yeah, I don't [00:06:00] think we'd be able to live in California, honestly, right now. ~Um, ~so I mean, obviously buying the boat, that was a, that was a, an expense and we bought at the very kind of upper limit of what our budget was for, for the boat.

But it was still like nowhere near in comparison to like a house in California, even a small starter home, you know, like it was, it's, it's nothing in comparison. ~Um, ~and then, you know, our monthly costs living on the boat are, are very, very low. We've mostly lived in, you know, we spent a year in Mexico. We spent a year kind of coming through Central America.

We've now been in the Caribbean for two years and,~ um,~ you know, we anchor for free. In almost everywhere we go. ~Uh, ~very occasionally we'll pay to stay at a marina. ~Um, ~but you know, we, we try to do things very much on a budget, so we're mostly anchoring for free. ~Um, ~our greatest expenses are kind of like our groceries and our dog, and we just actually hauled out and did, you know, like a big painted [00:07:00] at the bottom and took care of a bunch of projects and that kind of thing.

So like it's boat maintenance and it's,~ um,~ and it's. You know, day-to-day grocery type costs for the most part.

Ryan Mellon: But how, how's your utility bill Bills? 'cause you're off grid, right? So how's that

Liz: Yeah. ~Uh, ~we have solar panels,~ um,~ and we, we don't have a water maker,~ uh,~ so we do have to take on water and diesel, so we'll stop to do that maybe like once a month. So, ~um, ~those costs are not too high. ~Um, ~I don't have exact figures. I could actually just check in with my partner right now if you want me to get exact figures on what our

Ryan Mellon: like some ballpark figures of your monthly cost, that's good

Liz: Sure. One second. Can Trev, what is our, like when we fill up with diesel and water, is there like kind of an average that we would be spending on that? He says less than $200 to fill up with our diesel and water for maybe like a month. And it depends. Like

Ryan Mellon: Okay.

Liz: [00:08:00] diesel, we usually, yeah, our tanks, our water tanks will usually last about a month.

Diesel kind of depends on, on like really what the wind is doing as like how much sailing we're doing versus how much we have to motor the boat. But yeah, I think, I'd say $200 a month is pretty average as far as grocery costs. It's not more than two or three, like maybe $400 a month. And then eating out, we, we eat out very occasionally, like maybe once a week.

So those costs are also very low, especially in places like Mexico. ~Um, ~maybe another one to $200 a month on eating out. ~Um, ~the haul out cost that we just did, it was. I think around two grand or so for everything total, but was including, so you have to put the boat up in a boat yard,~ um,~ and then there's like cost of paint and labor in the yard.

And so all of that total together I think was around a [00:09:00] little over $2,000. But that's the first time we've done that in a few years. So that's kind of like a big cost that doesn't happen very often.

~Oh, uh oh.~

Ryan Mellon: ~there?~

Liz: ~frozen again. Oh, yeah, I am.~

Ryan Mellon: ~Yeah. All right. Hold on. I'm trying to maybe pause the upload on my side. That might help.~

Liz: ~Oh yeah. Yeah.~

Ryan Mellon: ~Um, let's see. Okay, I paused my side uploads. That might help. All right, so you just told me, you were just telling me your diesel costs.~

Liz: ~Mm-hmm.~

Ryan Mellon: ~cost and you're talking about eating. You told me groceries and then you were talking about eating out.~

Liz: ~Gotcha. Yeah, so we eat out very pretty sparingly, maybe, you know, once or twice a week. Um, and again, that's also fairly cheap because, you know, places like Mexico and and Caribbean, it's not crazy expensive. I'd say maybe another $200 a month for eating out. Um, and then I was just talking about the cost of the boat yard.~

~So, you know, we hauled out, we had to do a big, we had to repaint the bottom, which is definitely an expense. Um, and,~ but I think total with the yard and the cost of labor and the cost of paint and all the projects and stuff and parts we had to get shipped in. Was three grand to kind of get the boat really squared away, and that'll last us another few years.

So like that's a, that's an expense that really only comes around every three to five years.

Ryan Mellon: Okay. Yeah, no, and that gives the listeners a great idea of kind of what their, your total costs are. So

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: like it's easily under a thousand dollars a month for the both of you.

Liz: It depends. Yeah, and I mean it also depends on things like we don't, we don't fly home very often. We maybe fly home like once a year, but obviously you kind of have to budget that in as well. 'cause if you wanna see a family, you're gonna need to go see them at some point. ~Um, ~but yeah, I think for [00:10:00] the most part we are able to keep it around, around a thousand dollars a month.

It may be. I think it's been creeping up. I think when we first started it was easily around a thousand dollars a month, but I think at the moment it's probably closer to two. And that may be just because the cost of living here in the Caribbean is like slightly higher than it was in Mexico.

Ryan Mellon: Okay.

Liz: ~Um, ~but yeah, not more, definitely not more than that.

Ryan Mellon: but still all encompassing, like all your costs for two people, you would never be able to get away with that in California or

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: most states really

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: people. So that's really great. And you're living, you know, waterfront property every day with new views,

Liz: Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: that's pretty awesome.~ Uh, ~and you talk about flying home. Do you ever have guests fly to you

Liz: I.

Ryan Mellon: you had guests on the boat before?

Liz: We've had, our families have come out to visit a couple of times. They actually came out at the beginning of this year to come and,~ um,~ sail around the Caribbean with us. ~Uh, ~Trev's family also came down when we went through the Panama [00:11:00] Canal because you need,~ uh,~ line handlers. You need people on the boat with you to help with the lines and manage lines of the boat as it transits through the canal.

Through the locks. So they came down to help us with that. That was, that was crowded. 'cause it was, there was all of us on the boat, plus the dog, plus the, um, there's a, uh, an advisor that has to come through you with the canal. So that was, that was a crowded couple of days for sure. ~Um, ~but yeah, we, we don't have too many guests.

I think when we left we kind of thought like, oh. So many people are gonna wanna come out and do their vacation with us, but like, honestly, people have like very busy lives and so we don't actually get that many guests. ~Um, ~but our families have come out, I think probably once a year or so. Yeah, about, about about every year.

We've had one of our families come to spend some time.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, cool. And that's cool. You have the ability for it. And you know, a lot of people at home only get one week, you know, [00:12:00] and if you've gotta

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: country and then get on the boat and depart and all this, it's,

Liz: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: cut into your very short time off. So it can be a little bit challenging, whereas you guys have. Pretty much all the time in the world, right? You're on the boat, you're working from the boat and between

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: and running the dog shore for bathroom

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: like that, like that's kind of the day-to-day stuff. So,

that's awesome. So tell me something that you wish you knew before you started this journey.

Liz: Oh man. ~So many things. Um, what. Do I wish I knew~

it's hot in the Caribbean in the summer. ~Um, ~for sure. Like a lot of the places we have been have been extremely hot like we were in, uh, carna. A couple summers ago because you have, you have to be in certain places for like hurricane season to be safe from hurricanes. And actually I have a story about that I could share.

~Um, ~when Beryl came through the Caribbean last year. We were very nearly hit by a barrel because it [00:13:00] was so, ~uh, ~unprecedented. It was in a, a part of the world and at a time of the year when hurricanes are not usually coming through. ~Um, ~and we, we had done everything we thought you're supposed to do. We had gone far south out of the, the usual zone, and it was really early in the season, and we were like, great.

We had to fly home for Trev's brother's wedding. So we leave the boat in Grenada, we fly home. Two days before we're set to fly back, all of a sudden it's like, there's a category for hurricane heading for your boat. ~Um, ~and it was, it was pretty scary. Trev,~ um,~ scrambled onto a flight back,~ um,~ and basically like, you know, got the boat pulled down all the sails, battened all the hatches, got the boat like really tied up.

We were in a, we were in a marina for that,~ um,~ time. And then him and the dog were on the boat during the hurricane and luckily we were very lucky that it passed. Just north of us and did, we didn't get really get any damage, but that was, that was for sure kind of like a, a, a scary, scary reminder of like, yeah, the [00:14:00] lifestyle is definitely cheap and awesome and great and beautiful, but also you might get hit by a category for hurricane, which, yeah.

But then again, that can happen if you, that can also happen if you live in Florida or North Carolina, so,

Ryan Mellon: Yeah,

Liz: you know.

Ryan Mellon: I'm

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: and we, we get hurricanes every year. We have, ever since I was a kid. So kind of used to it, but like I feel like you probably feel a little bit more comfortable taking on a hurricane in your house,~ uh, than in, um,~

Liz: ~Yeah. Trev, can you just close the patch for me? I'm getting some. I'm getting some. Some. I think it's that. Yeah. There we go. Okay.~

Ryan Mellon: ~There we go. All good. I did a lot of filming on my boat and the sun kept changing for~

Liz: ~Mm-hmm.~

Ryan Mellon: ~was crazy for the editor for my course. He was really not happy with me.~

Liz: ~ Yeah, I have the same issue. 'cause I do, I do a lot of social media and I get quite frustrated some days when it's like. I was doing this last week, it's, it's so hot in the boat and I just have to shut all the hatches and shove like towels and stuff into all the windows to stop any light coming in. And then I have to turn off all the fans 'cause you can't have the fan noise going in the background.~

~So I'm just sitting here trying to film my stupid tiktoks, sweating my ass off with the sun, like coming in at odd angles into my eyes. Just, yeah, it's a little frustrating for sure.~

Ryan Mellon: ~Uh, yeah, especially when it's warm outside. Right.~

Liz: Yes.

So like, tell us, uh,~ uh, like how are you guys making money now? Like what, what, what's, what is work? Like,~ what does work look like on the boat for you?

Liz: Yeah, so I am our, our income provider. ~Um, ~I started out writing,~ uh,~ free freelancing basically, so I was able to take some of my,~ um,~ previous experience as a software developer and kind of parlay that into a bit of technical content writing. ~Um, ~and that was how I got started. I was, you know, just finding gigs on like Pro Blogger and Upwork,~ um,~ places like that.

~Um, ~got a couple of a few clients that way. ~Um, ~writing [00:15:00] sort of, you know, software articles, tutorials, that kind of stuff.~ Um, ~but what I really wanted to do and what I started doing soon after we,~ um,~ got on the boat was writing fiction. So that first year when we first set sale, I basically wrote a book that was based on our, it's here actually.

Based on our,~ uh,~ travels and like sailing journey, it's kind of a, it's a dystopian,~ um,~ kind of like sci-fi thing, but sort of told through the lens of sailing it's set in the water world,~ um,~ in this like futuristic world where climate change is kind of like made the sea levels rise and the only way you can get around is by sailboat.

So I was taking kind of all of our experiences that we were having that first year on the boat and sort of filtering them through this, this lens of the book. I ended up really, really enjoying writing so much that I just kept going and I ended up writing like eight more books in that series. ~Um, ~and I self-published it.

Yeah, it got a little, it got a little outta hand. ~Um, ~I think [00:16:00] I self-published.

Ryan Mellon: what's the name of the boat for people that can't see us right now?

Liz: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. So the name of the first, the name of the first book is, is Salt.

Ryan Mellon: Okay, awesome.

Liz: and the, the series is called the Scholastic Series.~ Um, ~and so basically, yeah, I just, I started out self-publishing that way. ~Um, ~and I got on TikTok and Instagram to start kind of pro trying to promote the books a little bit,~ um,~ and kept writing.

And I wrote another, a series of short stories. and then I wrote, uh, this book slash Magic, which I just got. It was picked up last year for an actual, like trad published book deal. So I signed a contract, I got a deal, was a publisher in the uk,~ um,~ that just came out in August. So now I have, oh, and then at the beginning of this year,~ um,~ I launched a Kickstarter to publish a series of short stories that I had written and that that funded at like 34 and a half thousand dollars.[00:17:00] 

So I was like super successful. ~Um. ~Kickstarter is a way that like a lot of authors, especially like self-published and indie authors are, are, are publishing now, are doing, are getting their books out there and are funding, you know, their work and their lives. ~Um, ~so yeah, it's gone, it's gone pretty well so far and it's kind of getting to a point where it is sort of like things are, are picking up and I'm doing a lot more now of the fiction writing than I am of the freelance writing.

~Um, ~some of that is to do with. With social media, I had a lot of success on social media. Around the end of 2023 and through 2024, I went viral, like extremely viral with some comedy videos that I was doing that were relating to the books and to writing. Um, and that was kind of what got me my face in front of my agent, which ultimately led to my book deal, which is kind of now stuff's, you know, picking up in, in kind of that world.

Ryan Mellon: That's awesome. Well, congratulations on getting,~ uh,~ that recent book published [00:18:00] by a publisher. And walk us through,~ um,~ the Kickstarter deal. Like let, let's say

Liz: Hmm

Ryan Mellon: who's listening is loves to write and they wanna

Liz: mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: doing. Like

Liz: Yes.

Ryan Mellon: maybe you can explain that a little bit more so that someone else could do similar, go down that similar path.

Liz: Totally. Yeah. Kickstarter is for sure. Um,~ Um, ~it, it is a huge part of like the indie publishing world. So essentially there are readers who. Who use Kickstarter as a way to find books. So, okay. I guess, let me back up and, and just explain, I guess, what Kickstarter is for. Maybe people who dunno that, because a lot of people kind of assume that Kickstarter is a little bit like GoFundMe, where you're, it's like you're raising money for a cause or a charity or something.

It's really not like that. It's more that people who are interested in reading your book will,~ uh,~ pay kind of in advance for the book. ~Um, ~and then [00:19:00] you basically publish the book. So the book that I published had already been written. All of the stories had already been written. ~Um, ~and I was basically compiling them into like a hardcover anthology,~ um,~ that I then put some really nice artwork with.

~Um, ~and,~ uh,~ kind of, you, you wanna make it like. Like kind of a special edition, like a, like a, a fun, cool, like a hardcover with a lot of beautiful artwork with kind of some, some bells and whistles on it. ~Um, ~that's what people on Kickstarter are really, really interested in. So I compiled all these stores together, put 'em into a hard cover anthology.

They were all already written. And then you, you, the Kickstarter and you promote it. And obviously I have a fairly large social media audience. Who know me from my videos. So I was able to promote the Kickstarter on social media and through those videos,~ um,~ ended up getting, I think around 650 backers who are basically paying for the.

Book [00:20:00] plus some art prints that go along with it. ~Um, ~I also sold the complete set of my other series as well as like an add-on. I have like a t-shirt that I sold as an add-on. ~Um, ~so you're making these like, ~um. ~Bundles of rewards. So you can have someone either pays for just the ebook and that's like $10, or maybe they want the paperback and that's like $29.

Maybe they want the hardcover that's $50 or I can't remember exactly, but like, and then if they want the hardcover plus the art prints, that's like $69. And then if they want like everything all together with all my other books and the t-shirt and a sticker and a bookmark, blah, blah, blah. I forget the price.

I said it was a hundred and something dollars, right? So people come back at these different price levels. The campaign runs for like a month, and then at the end of that campaign, you have all that money that you have raised from people backing and supporting your project. Out of that, you pay to print and [00:21:00] ship the book and all the rewards, and so you get to walk away with about a little over half.

So I funded at 34 and a half k Out of that, I pay to print and ship the books out to people. ~Um, ~and then my profit was something 17, 18 something thousand dollars or whatever. And like, that's enough to fund a fair amount of our cruising for the next, you know, however long it may be.

Ryan Mellon: ~Yeah. I love it.~

Liz: ~So, yeah, it is.~ And the, I mean the, the cool thing is like authors, most indie authors are doing this a couple of times a year, right?

So I already have my next Kickstarter planned. I know what it's gonna be in January or February, probably of next year I'm gonna launch another one. Then, you know, after that I'll probably do one more around the end of next year. So it's kind of, you start to, you start to see,~ um,~ sort of how things. The first Kickstarter can sort of help fund the next Kickstarter, and then that one helps to fund the one after that, and then you just kind of keep doing a couple of them a year and that, that keeps [00:22:00] you, keeps you going.

Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: awesome. Yeah, I like that. I like that you can kind of get some,~ um,~ help getting it out there like before

Liz: Right.

Ryan Mellon: technically out there. And then I imagine, is there like some,~ uh,~ website that you use that will help, like just like print and like ship this stuff to them so that you don't, you know, you're not on the boat, like receiving books and then shipping them all over the country?

Right.

Liz: Yeah, well, so this was my first one. That's actually funny you you say that. This was my first time doing it, so it was a bit of an experiment. And so yes, there are companies that you can, I use a company called IngramSpark for this project. I did anyway to print and drop ship books directly to people basically.

And the same with t-shirts. I use a company called Printful to print and drop ship t-shirts. ~Um, ~the thing that was tricky about this one was I also had these art prints that needed to get packaged up together in like a specific way, depending on what people had ordered. ~Um, ~and then some of them got a sticker in a bookmark.

Some of them didn't. Some of them had all the [00:23:00] prints, some of them only had a couple, so that I had to get all the prints. Shit we had to sail to Puerto Rico. We sailed to Puerto Rico so that we could use the US Postal Service because. Like some of the islands, you know, Grenada, French islands, they're not necessarily gonna have, some don't have postal service to everywhere in the world.

Some, the postal service is incredibly slow, it's very expensive. So we basically sailed to Puerto Rico, got these prints shipped in to us on the boat, spent two days kind of packaging everything up, and then took 'em to the post office on Puerto Rico and shipped them back out to all of the, the backers who had backed the campaign.

Which was kind of an ordeal. It was, it was certainly, certainly a lot of work I have since learned for the next, for the next Kickstarter that I'm doing. I've learned that there are,~ um,~ like fulfillment companies, basically. This is like a, this is a huge business for a lot of authors. I mean, you're, I'm planning for the next one.

I'm gonna be getting the [00:24:00] books printed in China.~ Um, ~shipped to the states to a fulfillment company who will then kind of handle all of the packaging and shipping and, and delivering and forwarding on to the backers. And then that fulfillment company just takes like a percentage of whatever your final thing on Kickstarter is.

Ryan Mellon: That's cool. And you don't even have to have one book on your boat if you don't want to, 'cause you've,

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: all taken care of.

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: ~Awesome. Love that. ~So when you guys are,~ uh,~ uh, moving and traveling, like how, how do you pick your destination? Like what factors into that?

Liz: Oh, that's a great question 'cause we're struggling to do this right now.~ Um, ~at first it was easy, right? It was like we were in Santa Cruz and we knew we were just gonna go to Mexico. So it was like go south. ~Um, ~and then we kind of just kept going. ~Um, ~a lot of our. ~Uh, ~decision making has been influenced, honestly, by our dog,~ um,~ because we have a dog on the boat and it kind of, we kind of decided that trying to sail across [00:25:00] a major ocean with her wasn't really gonna work for us.

People do it. ~Um, ~a lot of people do kind of take their dogs across the Pacific to the South Pacific and, and places like that, but it is, it's hard, you know, it's a long.

Ryan Mellon: It's

Liz: Passage for her and the import can be quite difficult in some places like New Zealand.~ Um, ~so we ultimately decided not to cross the Pacific and we went through to the Caribbean instead.

And so that was a big part of why we ultimately chose to do that. It's also why we haven't sailed across the Atlantic to Europe, which is something that we would really like to do. ~Um, ~so a lot of it is currently sort of. Being dictated a little bit by our dog. ~Um, ~it's also, I mean, you know, there's places that we wanted to see.

We really wanted to go to Baja,~ um,~ California, and that was beautiful sailing up on,~ uh,~ and around the Sea of Cortez. I think that's still some of my favorite cruising that we have done. ~Um, ~parts of of that place are just [00:26:00] so remote. Feel really, really special and really, really beautiful. The Caribbean is really nice and we've actually been here for two years, kind of bouncing back and forth between the islands just because it's, it's so easy.

All of the sails here are very short hops. Like you can get between islands in like a day or less. So that makes it, you don't have to do like a long overnight passage if you don't want to. Um, and you can kind of bounce around to a lot of different islands. ~Um, ~and you kind of have to actually, because all of the islands are different.

So, you know, like we went to Puerto Rico to use the post office and we also went to Costco while we were there, which is like, great, we've done our Costco run. Now we're gonna go to one of the French islands. So that we can spend a week eating croissants and we can buy a lot of cheese, and then we're gonna go south to Grenada because that's out of the hurricane zone and we know we have to be there for a certain amount of time.

But the, you know, they don't have the cheese, so we're gonna have to go back to the French Islands to get the cheese, you know. So that's kind of [00:27:00] been our, our lifestyle for the last couple years is, is sort of just, just bouncing around between these different islands.~ Um, ~getting, getting familiar with all of them, which has been really nice and, and seeing what each different one has to offer,~ um, which is pretty cool.~

Ryan Mellon: not a bad life bouncing between islands,~ uh,~ based on if you want cheese or you need,~ um,~ a Costco run or a specific coffee or like some,

Liz: Right.

Ryan Mellon: some sort of food, right.

Liz: It is kind of strange to have to, it is kind of strange to have to like go to a different country. To like mail, mail postcards, you know, like you're like, I have to a different country to get that thing.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, not everything's available, especially when you're dealing with smaller countries and smaller islands. ~Um, ~things are limited and everything has to be shipped in, so things can get costly as well.

Liz: That's true. It is definitely, um, that can be for sure difficult. ~Um, ~having, having to source parts and stuff, like for the haul out that we just did, we had to get a lot of [00:28:00] stuff shipped in and that was definitely complicated. ~Um, ~when I just actually launched the book that I just launched, the publisher wanted me to sign a bunch of, they call them book plates because I can't sign books, right?

Like I can't get books shipped to me and keep them on the boat and sign them myself. I basically signed these like stickers that then people can stick in the books. But even shipping those was extremely complicated because the island we were on, there was no coast office at all. ~Um, ~I had to take a ferry to a completely different island. buy and print the stickers there, ship them from there. It ended up costing me, I wanna say like $300 just to ship these like stickers. Yeah, it was kind of crazy. ~Um, ~but you know, so that's. So that's the, that's the situation.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, yeah, no, definitely. ~Um, ~you trade other headaches for boat life headaches, right? You're

Liz: Yes.

Ryan Mellon: out there mowing grass, you're not paying a mortgage. It's just

Liz: No,

Ryan Mellon: You're switching, you're switching your headaches up to different [00:29:00] types of headaches, so.

Liz: exactly. Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: What advice would you have for someone who might be interested in like learning to sail and cruise and wanna live on a sailboat?

Like what would your top advice be for someone who's like fresh into this, like the thought popped into their head 

Liz: I would say definitely I was very lucky in that my partner already had sailing experience,~ um,~ and kind of knew going into it, a lot of stuff and had taught and all that stuff. I would say if you don't have that and if you don't have your own experience, definitely it's worth taking some classes.

~Um, ~and. Two. I think always my main kind of advice is that spending a lot of time planning upfront is, I think important. I think there's a lot of advice out there for like digital nomads in general that's always like, just go. Like just, you just gotta, you just gotta go for it. ~Um, ~and like, that's kind of true, but it goes a lot better.

I think if you've done a [00:30:00] fair amount of planning and research and preparing before you just go right. At some point, yes, you do have to just go, but you need to be, you need to be ready. Like it took us, honestly, almost six years to, to really be ready to go. So.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, like having that savings built up, knowing the type of boat you want. Like I'm sure you guys looked at a million boats before you f found the right one. And like,

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: big deal. It's a, it's a big lifestyle change. ~Um, ~and, and I think it's a little bit.~ Uh, ~barrier entry's a little bit higher than if you're just maybe like backpacking where you're just jumping on a flight and staying in an Airbnb or, or

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: or a co-working, right?

You know, because you, you've gotta buy this boat and then now you have to learn how to keep. Sail it, not only just sail it, but then to maintain it and to keep it clean and to keep, keep it

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: So it, it's a lot more involved. ~Um,~

Liz: Yes.

Ryan Mellon: does come with a freedom that. Other forms [00:31:00] of travel and being a digital nomad don't come with,~ um,~ you usually don't have like dolphins swimming next to you when you're on that bus through the mountains, you know? So like, it

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: and downsides and beautiful sunrises on the water and,

Liz: Yeah. As with anything, you know, it's a, it's, it's trade offs. All of it. It's all, it's all trade offs. You know, sometimes like when I have to, we have to take the dog out, you know, to walk a lot, and I'm like, I wish I just lived in a van so I could just open the door and step onto the ground.

Like, that would be so convenient. ~Um, ~but yeah, it's,

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, they,

Liz: trade offs.

Ryan Mellon: have the trade offs. Yeah, for sure. So how do you guys maintain connection? Or like, you, how do you find friends or like have a sense of community while you're, while you're on the boat? Is that

Liz: Hmm. Yeah. ~Um, ~I will say that I'm not the best at that. I tend to be a bit of a hermit. ~Um, ~I think that's probably partly why I'm out here. Um, but my partner is, is much better at it than I am. He is not, like, Facebook [00:32:00] groups actually are, are pretty crucial, like for just staying in touch. There's a lot of cruiser.

Facebook groups, like per location, and then you'll, you'll kind of find a lot of the same people throughout those groups. ~Um, ~and you'll, I you'll just, you'll run into people again, you know, like maybe two years down the road. ~Uh, ~there was a couple we met in Mexico. Oh man, I forget how this worked exactly, but basically we had been in Mexico and we'd met some people there.

We wanted to get a package shipped to us in Mexico, but unfortunately it didn't arrive before we had to leave and sail on. So another boat picked up the package for us and then they had this package on their boat for two years. While they sailed from Mexico through Central America, basically doing the same path that we had done, but they were just a little bit behind us and so we never, we never managed to meet up with them again until last year when we were in Grenada and they came to our boat and they were like, here's your package with your book and [00:33:00] your tea in it.

We've been carrying it for you for two years. So that was kind of cool. That's like kind of an interesting like aspect of the lifestyle that you will run into people. Like that couple now I think is, I think they went through the canal and I think they're going to the South Pacific, you know, and they're gonna meet up with folks over there that we've run into over here.

So. It is very dispersed. And I would say that for me, I struggle to kind of maintain because you, you, you see people so infrequently, but there is also kind of a nice,~ um,~ feeling of there being a network of folks out there who are also doing this like you,~ um,~ and who you might run into in Bali or you know, whatever, when you're, when you're over there, even if it's two years down the road or whatever.

Ryan Mellon: ~Yeah. Yeah. When,~ when you see a boat on, uh, on the app or going by you in the water or in Anchorage, like I know that boat, I, we,

Liz: Yeah. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Ryan Mellon: before. You know,

Liz: Mm-hmm.[00:34:00] 

Ryan Mellon: a lot, I feel like.

Liz: Or you'll see, for me, it's always, I'll be like, I recognize that dog, that dog standing on that boat there. I've seen, I've seen him before.

Ryan Mellon: yeah, that works too.

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: So, ~uh, ~you, we, we were chatting briefly before we hit recording.

Liz: I.

Ryan Mellon: telling me about,~ uh,~ something that happened while you guys were sailing in Panama. Tell me,~ uh,~ a little bit more about that.

Liz: Yeah. ~Um, ~all right, so this is the, this is my, my dog meeting. Her first,~ uh,~ monkey, which happened in Panama. ~Um, ~Um, there was, they have like big calor monkeys there, so we had take, we have to take her as shore in the dinghy, obviously, to like use the bathroom and run around on the beach and all that stuff. So, ~um, ~there's this little island.

That,~ uh,~ very easy dingy landing. We kind of just drifted in. It's very gentle. It's calm. The sun is out, it's beautiful. It's white sand, palm trees, and the dog hops out and she jumps in. She's doing her thing on the beach. And then my partner, Trev, who's in, who's sitting in the dingy with me, we're both just kind of chilling, sitting on the shore in the dingy, waiting for [00:35:00] her.

And he goes, babe, look up over your head. And I look up and there's a monkey, a big hower monkey, and it's. I mean, I'm showing listeners can't hear, but I'm showing a quite small distance and it's literally that far from my head hanging in the tree looking down at us, and it's just like starting to bear its teeth and we're just like.

Oh, oh no. Like what? Oh my God. What is about to happen here? And the dog is still on the beach having no idea what's going on. Just running around, rolling in the sand, doing her thing. So happy. And we're both like Alo. The dog's name is Aloi. Come here, get, get in the, get in the right now. Come here, come here, come here.

She comes running back and she sees this monkey in the tree, and she just stops. Dead.

Ryan Mellon: no.

Liz: she's never seen anything like this before. And usually her response when she sees something like in a tree like an animal or whatever is to bark or go crazy or try to chase it or whatever, but she just went totally still.

[00:36:00] Frozen in place, staring at this monkey. Meanwhile, we're still both screaming at her. Get in the ticket, get the ticket. We need to go right now. Right now. And she's just standing there staring at this monkey, which is becoming increasingly like, obviously doesn't want us on his beach. We finally, I just like get out and I grab her and I like haul her into the dingy and we push off and we like paddle away and everything was fine.

The monkey gets outta the tree and kind of, you know. Don't come back.~ Um, ~but yeah, that was, that was for sure a memorable moment.

Ryan Mellon: yeah. So it seems like maybe the monkey was like three feet away from you, like, like how were you

Liz: It was.

Ryan Mellon: that point?

Liz: It was quite scary. I was, we'd seen monkeys and we've seen 'em like all over Costa Rica. ~Um, ~there's all different kinds, you know, and they just kind of, they'll come through town and they're on, they're hanging out on like chain link fences, outside liquor stores and stuff. Like, no big deal. But this one was big.

~Um, ~and just kind of had a vibe of like, he doesn't want us. [00:37:00] Right now we should, we should leave.~ Um, ~yeah, so it was a little scary, but cool. You know, cool to see something,~ uh,~ so close up.

Ryan Mellon: Well, always a fun story after the fact, right? There's,

Liz: Yes. Yeah. Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: not so great during the time. Yeah. I've had so many close calls with,~ uh,~ all kinds of different monkeys and i'll in Asia, Southeast Asia especially, and like they

Liz: Mm.

Ryan Mellon: be super chill. Or they can be like super aggressive and they can also

Liz: Yeah,

Ryan Mellon: that switch so fast that you're like, man, it's

Liz: yeah,

Ryan Mellon: you know, you feel like you're in a bad neighborhood.

You gotta be really careful, especially when they start grouping up on you, you know?

Liz: yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

Ryan Mellon: All right, well as we wrap up, I just have a couple rapid fire questions. tell me what's one of your number one or go-to apps for either sailing or traveling or worth? Do you have anything that's like a go-to for you?

Liz: ~Um, ~for me, so I would say for my partner who is the, the captain and [00:38:00] does all of our kind of route planning and, and maintenance and sailing and stuff like that, he is ver always on windy checking wind and weather. ~Um, ~and then he uses Navi for a lot of our like, navigation stuff. For me personally, I, I use Inscribe, VPN, and that is like pretty huge for me, being on social media, needing to get in front of a US audience,~ um,~ and living outside of the us.

I would say that VPN is, I mean, it's, I'm always, always, always behind A VPN whenever I am doing anything on social media or online, so that's probably my, my number one.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah, VPN is a must for all digital nomads plus security as well too.

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: so it's, it's, it's super important. Do you have,

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: have like a go-to method for staying healthy while you're constantly on the move?

Liz: I, I've recently gotten back into working out. I used to be much better at it and then I kind of slacked off for a couple of years 'cause it was just really hot. ~But yeah, I,~ [00:39:00] I try to swim every morning. I do some laps around the boat. I do my, my sit-ups and my pushups,~ um,~ and all that kind of little, little body weight exercises.

And then we just eat, as you know, we've always eaten pretty healthily. We don't eat a whole lot. ~Um, ~we try to eat locally, especially here because. The produce that gets shipped in is so expensive, so you're kind of forced to buy the local veggie. So we eat a lot of eggplant and cucumber right now because that grows locally.

~Um, ~and yeah, just, you know, simple meals and walking the dog also definitely helps.

Ryan Mellon: Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. tell me, what's one place in your opinion that has the best food?

Liz: Ooh, Mexico. I like God. I wanna go back to Mexico so bad. The you, I mean, just like the dollar tacos, the, the meat. It's so good. ~Um, ~I, I loved Mexico, where the food, and then we got to go into like Oaxaca and try some of the,~ um,~ I can't remember any of the names of any of the dishes. I'm so sorry. But,~ um,~ yeah, really, really good, good food In, in [00:40:00] Oaxaca?

Ryan Mellon: Oaxaca's amazing and a great place if you like. ~Uh, ~mezcal, it's

Liz: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Oh yeah, there was a mescal shop. I mean, literally every other shop front is like a mescal shop in Oaxaca. It's crazy. Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: I spent many days just tasting mezcal. It was a great time, but a

Liz: Yeah.

Ryan Mellon: little city. Very, very like getting more and more popular by the day. It

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: on the radar as much. It is, it is now. But yeah, like I loved Oaxaca, so Awesome. Well thanks for taking the time with me today. So where can people find you?

Liz: Yeah. ~Um, ~my website is liz shipton.com. You can find all links to all my books. You can find links to my social media, to my Patreon, all that stuff you can check out. Actually the Kickstarter if you're interested in seeing how that funded. 'cause it's Kickstarter leaves the projects up. ~Um, ~and then if you wanna follow me on social media, I am at Liz Shipton, author basically everywhere.

I'm on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook threads, [00:41:00] YouTube.~ Um, ~yeah.

Ryan Mellon: Awesome.~ And what was, what If they're looking at the, um, the. What was the name of it? Uh, kick Work.~

Liz: ~Kickstarter.~

Ryan Mellon: If they're looking for the Kickstarter,~ uh,~

Liz: Mm-hmm.

Ryan Mellon: What's the name of the Kickstarter project?

Liz: It's called Tales of Mischief and Fuckery. It is a,~ uh,~ so before warned, it is a Spicy Romance project, so it's like a comedy. Very body, very raunchy, set of short stories. So please, and, and artwork, like very much not safe for work. Kind of bonkers, crazy funny, very silly comic artwork. So prepare yourself for that.

Actually, if you wanna look at a less, a slightly less bonkers one. ~Um, ~the, I'm running a Kickstarter for the THO series, which is the other series I have. ~Um, ~and you can find a link to that on my.

Ryan Mellon: I really appreciate you taking the time today. It was a great conversation and I hope you enjoy the rest of the day on your boat, and I'll see you soon.

Liz: Yeah. Thanks so much. Thanks for having me. This was fun.