Mastering Time, Travel and Living Free: Lessons from Guest Drewbie Wilson

In this inspiring interview with A Lady Well-Travelled host and creator, Shannon Bednarova, author, podcaster and businessman Drewbie Wilson shares his journey from a challenging childhood to successful entrepreneurship, emphasizing the importance of intentional living, time management, and embracing freedom through RV travel. Discover practical tips on how to optimize your life, control your time, and pursue your passions while maintaining balance and remembering the truly important things in your life.

Learn about Drewbie Wilson's personal journey and how he overcame adversity and a troubled childhood and adolescence to find success in the sales world and in business

Learn the importance of intentional time management and the 4-6-24 framework

Discover how embracing the RV lifestyle can enhance freedom and family bonding

Hear lessons from the book of Job and how to remain faithful during tough seasons

Get practical tips for controlling your time and living purposefully

Read Drewbie's books to learn more about his life and his businesses, listen to his podcast and watch his YouTube videos for more information!  You can also follow Drewbie on Facebook and Instagram!

LINKS:

Sales Humor, Motivation, Apparel, and More... – CallTheLeads

callthedamnleads.com

DISCLAIMER: All opinions, recommendations and experiences shared on this podcast are solely those of the creator and/or her guests.  Please do your own research and consult the appropriate professionals before making any decisions based on content shared on this show. 

Thank you for listening!  I welcome your feedback and suggestions or you simply let me know if you are enjoying the show. You can reach me at Shannon@ALadyWellTravelled.com

Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:28

Hello, this is a lady well traveled. I'd like to welcome you to our podcast. I'm Shannon Bednerova, your host and creator. And if you've never joined our podcast before, this is a show in which we try to help you transform your travel into something more meaningful, less stressful. And we want you to have a life-transforming experience. Today, I want to introduce you to our guest, and his name is Drewby Wilson. When he approached me about being on our podcast, I looked up his profile on Podmatch, and he's very impressive. He's a businessman, an author, father, husband, fellow traveler, and podcast host. He's written a lot of books. Very successful guy. He approached me about being on my show. And I really hesitated because I was looking at his profile and I said, Wow, this is yet another kind of Tony Robbins guy. Slick. He's good looking. He's a marketing slash sales guy. He's got something to sell me or my my listeners. And that's great. But what does that really have to do with travel? What does that really have to do with helping people transform their travel experience? I'm gonna be vulnerable here here. I have been in marketing and sales my whole life until I started this podcast venture. And so I have to say, I bring all of my business baggage into this. I've dealt with a lot of marketing and sales people who have wanted to uh let's say politely bring all their stuff, and then as soon as they get what they want, they vanish. Drewby and I corresponded and we talked. And I was like, okay, well, let's see. So we decided to have a pre-interview. And you know how people are when they first meet, they present their social media face, and we're all like, hey, how are you? We started talking, and after we got over that first few minutes of the elevator pitch, I really liked Drewby and we had a wonderful, wonderful conversation. We just really hit it off. So it is my delight and my pleasure to introduce you to Droby Wilson. And Droby, I hope that that introduction doesn't put you off at all because you definitely passed my test.

SPEAKER_03 3:02

Well, Shannon, I will take that compliment wholeheartedly. I will receive it and I'll hold on to it for the rest of my day because you're a sweet art. There are so many people out there who are coming on shows like this and that are creating content with the sole purpose of trying to sell you something to get you to buy their programs, all of that. And of course, I have books, I have programs, I have all that I could sell you. But at the end of the day, what I really do this for is because I had a life-changing experience.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 3:30

I've had an opportunity to do things that I never, ever, ever would have thought possible growing up the way that I did. And so to me, if I get the opportunity, if one person hears this show and they decide to go out and change their life and do something different, then it was well worth it to me. Because at the end of the day, I've met people that have made more money than they can spend in a lifetime. I've had the opportunity to make lots and lots of money and do all the cool things that go along with that. But there's still something to be said about just enjoying life for what it is and not making it about the rat race for the money or the material stuff. And I just hope that whoever's listening today that I can share one little valuable piece of information that allows you to go out and do something incredible with the time that you have left on this earth because God knows we're not guaranteed anything. And so if we get to wake up today and be blessed enough to have that opportunity to do great things, then by golly, I hope I can help encourage you to do that.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

I love that. Thank you so much. You have an amazing story. Would you like to start telling about yourself? I left out quite a bit, and uh it might sound like you've got this just incredible. Hey, I it was like a rocket for you, but I know there's a little bit more to you than that. So please tell our listeners about your rise to success.

SPEAKER_03 4:51

I would be happy to, and I'll give you the the too long didn't read version. So if you guys do want to read it, yeah. I have seven books that I published, so there's plenty of content out there, podcasts, all that. But the long and short. I grew up in a broken home. Mom raised me and two brothers basically by herself. My dad was in and out of the picture. As I got into my teens, I was overweight, I was depressed, I was dealing with all the traumas that go along with that sort of upbringing. And I don't mean to down talk anyone. My mom was an amazing human. We've had people in our lives that have always been there to support us. But when you're going through that as a kid, you don't really you don't know how to handle it. Right. And so as I got into my later teens and early 20s, I was overweight, unhappy, you know, I I just took whatever job would give me an opportunity. And I think the biggest thing that I learned, especially early on, was that nobody's coming to save you. And so as I got into the workforce, I kind of realized that I was blessed with an opportunity to be here, so I really need to just work my butt off to earn it. Because, like, you know, when you grow up without, you always feel less than, like, you don't deserve certain things. There's a scarcity mindset that's involved there. And so I always knew that if I just worked really, really hard, things would happen for me. And that's what I did. And I spent many years as a nuclear pharmacy technician. I was one of the youngest in the country to ever have the certificate to work with radioactive materials and use these things, and it was all well and good, but I was working third shift. I ballooned up to 315 pounds, I wasn't taking care of myself, drinking all the energy drinks, all the sugar, all of that. And so I realized like I had to take control of my own life on more than one level. It wasn't just like, oh, I can work hard and make enough to survive. It's like, no, I truly have to do things that are putting me in position to grow further to receive other opportunities. Which it did. I went from night shift at the pharmacy to working at a bar as a bouncer, and I did that for many years. And with that, I got an opportunity to get into retail sales, which is kind of where I cut my teeth because growing up, I was in sales, but I was more on like the street pharmacy side of sales, not the legitimate side of pharmacy. So I kind of grew up the hustle culture and just learning to make money on whatever I could. But I got a little older, met a pretty girl, started the journey, right? I had started losing the weight, met the the girl, she ended up becoming my wife. We had some fun for many years, and then she got pregnant, and I started realizing that, oh my gosh, this is really serious now. I've got a not just me, but I've got a family, I've got someone who depends on me. And in I want to say it was about 2017, I was overweight again. I wasn't doing the things that I needed to do to be a good husband, father example for my son, who was, you know, only six months at the time, but I looked up and I realized I didn't want to be the dad who was sitting on the park bench staring at his phone, not running around playing with my son because I was overweight, out of shape, and I felt distracted because there were other things that were more important. So that was when I started my personal development journey reading, podcasting, working out more consistently. And the moment that I got really intentional about my time, all of a sudden all the other things in my life started falling into place. It was like, as you said, it was kind of like a rocket ship. It was like all this time putting everything together, and then I look up and flying, job opportunity in Texas, move the whole family across the country, go all in on entrepreneurship, and I made a lot of money and I got to do a lot of cool things. And then my wife slapped me in the face on Christmas Eve of 2019 and handed me her wedding ring back.

unknown 8:31

No.

SPEAKER_03 8:31

And said, Listen, I love you, we love you, we will always support you. But you're gonna have to make a decision on if you want the fame and the fortune for this entrepreneurship journey that you're on, or if you truly want the life that you keep talking about publicly of family, growth, travel, all these things, but that we're not really doing as often as we should. And that was really for me a very eye-opening moment in terms of what is my time worth, where am I spending it, and what's the ROI on that investment? Because money isn't always the thing that you see valuable, and that was for me, I think, why we started traveling and living the life that we did, right? So I exited the company I moved to Texas for, bought a fifth-wheel RV, big old truck, and we started traveling around and enjoying life and seeing all the spots that we could until we got a call that her dad was sick with cancer.

SPEAKER_02 9:24

Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:25

And I can't tell you, Shannon, how blessed we were to have I'm gonna use air quotes for those of you not watching, but freedom. Right. To be able to come back and be here to support him and help him through treatments and be able to have the opportunity to still be there for the people that were there for us. And so that's again kind of the the too long didn't read version, but we're at a point now where we're really getting to settle in and enjoy the moments. Right. I think so many people are just forward thinking, they're like, Oh, the future, this, that, whatever. And retirement is the carrot that they dangle at the end of the stick that they says, Hey, if you work really hard for 30 years, then you won't ever have to work again.

SPEAKER_02 10:05

Right.

SPEAKER_03 10:05

And I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of people who had retired early on, and most of them, like, they went back to work. They their friends were dying of boredom, literally. Like they didn't have anything to do, and they would pass away. And I just thought, I don't want that. I'm gonna just focus on how can I wake up every day and crush the day before it crushes me.

SPEAKER_02 10:26

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 10:26

So it's it's one of the phrases I use because listen, you can wake up, you can look at the news, politics, all the stuff that's going on in the world around you, and it will just absolutely crush your spirits. Yes, it will. Or you you can just wake up and say, Hey, I'm gonna make the most of the time that I'm blessed with today, because I don't know if I'm gonna wake up tomorrow. And that's kind of my spiel when it comes to like, hey, what can I sell you on? Hey, let me sell you on understanding how valuable your time is, because at the end of the day, that's the only thing that we're limited by our time, our energy, and our effort. That is Shannon. Hopefully that helps explain a little bit of my story, but it's been quite the ride.

SPEAKER_02 11:04

It has been. I love that. What a roller coaster ride of teachable moments, and how you have been to say, wow, God has placed a lot of things in my path, and you've learned from them. I love that you have actually said, Hey, I'm gonna listen, learn, and take the time and reassess. You've done a lot of reassessing in your life.

SPEAKER_03 11:30

The Lord has humbled me for sure a couple of times because it's easy to get that ego and that pride going, and then all of a sudden, life changes on a dime.

SPEAKER_02 11:38

Amen. And you know, you and I, when we spoke the first time, we both talked about how God can quickly take you from the top to the bottom, change your life, remove all the things that you thought were permanent in your life, and quickly make you rely on Him and how how incredibly important that is to your life perspective. I love that you've shared that story with everyone. Thank you. It's very interesting.

SPEAKER_03 12:08

One of the things that I've started doing recently, because you know, I my faith in general, I I kind of grew up in a broken faith, like it was there, but it wasn't really there, and so I kind of had my ins and outs. Um, but I started reading the Bible recently. Because I thought to myself, you know, there's all these stories that I've heard and all these references and quotes and phrases, and I'm like, this is all well and good, but like I've never seen the movie. Yeah, I've never actually gone through and actually know, like, I don't know what's going on here. Yeah. And so I'm I'm in the middle of reading it, and it's interesting that the conversation has shifted here because I'm in the middle of the book of Job. And it Job, Job, I think. Yeah, Job. It talks about yeah, book of Job, right? And so it talks about here's someone who had everything. Everything. And it was stripped away from him, and at the end, he still referred back to saying, you know what? Take everything, make me sick, all the things. I'm still gonna believe in God. And and for me, that's been a big part of the journey is understanding that there are seasons and reasons for everything. And it's it's hard to know what that reason is in the moment, but when I look back over all the trauma and all the things that I dealt with, and and all the blessings and the great things too. Sure. Yeah. I realize it's really just setting me up for the future of what's still to come. And I think that's something that a lot of people are they're struggling with. Yes. They're in their season right now, things are difficult, there's stuff going on that we can't control, which I think is the scariest part, Ren. There's stuff going on that you have no control on. Right. But the one thing you can control is what you do with your time every day. And so you can read, you can write, you can make content like podcasts and have amazing conversations with people like yourself, Shannon. And I think that's the thing I always encourage people to focus on is look around you and and just have gratitude for where you are, because the more gratitude you have right now, the more that you're going to be blessed with in the future.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

Absolutely. So let's talk about how learning how to control your time changed your life.

SPEAKER_03 14:05

So I live by something called the four sixes.

SPEAKER_02 14:08

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 14:09

And the way that I break this down is there's four areas of life that are really important to me. And I think a lot of people will kind of understand this. All right. And there's 24 hours in a day, right? We can all agree on that. There's four areas that matter. You know, like I can't stay up. I used to stay up for days on end partying and like rest and recovery is number one. And then for me, my family really is like the most important thing, right? I love my wife, I love my son, I love my mom and brothers and all these people, and I want to make sure that I'm doing right for them first. And for most entrepreneurs, I think the I'm gonna use air quotes again, the legacy is why we all do what we do. So we have rest and recovery, family and relationships, then we have business. Because listen, I don't have unlimited funds. I don't know about you, Shannon. If you just are a multi-billionaire and you can just do whatever you want. Right? Like, so I realize that money is a tool and a resource that is required to provide the life and the opportunities that I want for me and for my family and the people that matter. But what most people do is they put the business and the family above themselves. And so this is where you see people that are self-sacrificing and they're always doing for others, but then they're burnt out, unhappy, they start getting out of shape or unhealthy because they're not taking care of themselves. And and what I realized for me is if I'm not showing up the best version of me, then how can I say I'm showing up the best version for everybody else? Sure. And being a travel podcast, most of you have probably been on an airplane before in the last, you know, 12 months. The first thing they tell you is you have to put your own oxygen mask on first. Right. Because if you don't, guess what? You become a burden to everyone else around you when you pass out.

SPEAKER_02 15:50

That's a great analogy. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:53

Thank you. It's it's a really scary realization when you sit back and you look at yourself and you say, Hey, am I doing the things in my life that matter? And as I mentioned, I fell victim to the grind hustle culture and the work, work, work, work, and earn, earn, earn, and and they'll be there later. Like, forget all that. There's 24 hours in a day. I don't know if I'm for sure gonna wake up tomorrow. I'm gonna ask the Lord to give me some blessings and put me on this earth tomorrow, but like I don't know for sure. So if I want to live a air quotes, balanced life, I can spend six hours a day sleeping, six hours a day with my family, six hours a day for me, and six hours a day on my business. That's 24 hours, and that's about as balanced as it's ever gonna get. And what's really interesting to me, and I think most people aren't realizing, is that six hours is a pretty good chunk of time. Like if you've ever had an opportunity to go on a cruise and they let you off at the port and they're like, cool, we're leaving at X time. You got six hours. You can do all kinds of cool things. You can spend a lot of time, do this, do that, what have you. Or if you're with somebody that you really love and you're having such a great time, six hours goes by in a heartbeat. And so what I realized is that if I was just really intentional with my six hours in these different areas every day, I was living about as balanced of a life as I could live. And ultimately, I was getting more of the results I wanted.

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 17:12

Because if you do an audit on your time, right? So this is kind of the the giveaway I want everybody to think about here.

SPEAKER_02 17:18

I like that.

SPEAKER_03 17:19

This is your this is your takeaway. Takeaway. Over the next seven days, I want you to audit your time. And what I mean by that is put an alarm in your phone for like the top of every hour, and take five minutes to sit and write down all of the things that you did during that hour.

SPEAKER_00 17:36

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 17:36

Maybe you got up, took a shower, had breakfast, maybe you scrolled your phone for ten minutes, maybe you used the restroom, you had to put your makeup on, get pretty, all the things, right? So like this all takes time. And if you audit it, you probably won't get to seven days, just to be very frank with you. Because by day two or three, you're gonna realize how much time you're wasting on things that aren't getting you closer to the life that you want to live. Absolutely. And that's where you can really start changing the way that you approach the day, right? So if you want to crush the day, go into it with a plan. From this time to this time, here's what I'm gonna do. And from this time to this time, here's what I'm gonna do.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

Right.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

And what's cool is if you put it on the calendar and you kind of treat it like Tetris, there's just little blocks of time that you move around, it becomes a game. Right. And I love games. Like I grew up playing video games. It's one of the things that I've learned that when you can gamify something and you can track and keep score, it's just more exciting.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Yeah. Like, how did I do with the game today?

SPEAKER_03 18:34

Exactly. And that's the thing, is like at the end of the night, you can look at your your paper and say, Hey, what did I do today?

SPEAKER_01 18:40

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 18:40

Well, that makes me feel good. That's really productive. Oh, that's something that I'm doing for someone that I love and care about, so that's gonna make me feel good. Here's something that I really didn't want to do, but I did it. Yeah. And boy, do I feel great about it. You know, and that's what it is. It's just gamify it and have fun with it. And this is where I really think people are missing the opportunity, is they're so focused on tomorrow and the next day instead of what am I doing today? So that's my big takeaway for you guys. Just figure out what you're doing with your time and realize that you control it and you can get more out of it if you want to.

SPEAKER_02 19:13

I love that. I'll be frank. I will sit down and go, I'm gonna take a break and look at my phone. It's an hour later, and I'm still looking at my phone. And I hate that. I'm a night owl, typically. I have energy at night. So instead of scrolling my phone or watching television, that is a time where I'm writing and working. And that's something that makes me feel very, very good. And I I live at the beach and I enjoy being outside during the day. I like to go for a walk on the beach. I like sitting outside, enjoying the sunshine. If I want to work from like 7 to 10 or 7 to 11, why not? It's it's okay. And I feel very productive. And then I get up the next morning and I'm like, wow, I've got all this ready so I can get started the next morning, and I feel great. That's one of the things I've really been trying to do is take that evening time that I've been wasting, and I've got a lot to get done. I'm really trying to approach this with a more intentional way of doing things. So thank you for that help and coaching.

SPEAKER_03 20:24

Yeah, well, there's there's two things I want to take out of what you just said that I think are really important for the listener.

SPEAKER_00 20:29

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:29

So you mentioned you're you're a night owl. That's where you feel most creative, that's where you feel like you can get the work done. I'm the opposite.

SPEAKER_00 20:37

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 20:37

By 9 p.m., I'm sleepy. You're not. I'm not trying to stay up late. Like, I don't want to do that no more. I did that as a kid. That's not my thing. I'm up at 3 30 a.m. every day, like clockwork, seven days a week. First thing I have to do every day is I read, I pray, I meditate, and then I go get my workout in. There you go. I want to start my day off getting all of the things that prime my mind and my juices so that I'm feeling positive. And then listen, if I don't do my workout first, I'm not doing it the rest of the day. Like, just to be very frank, like I'm just not going to. I'll find every excuse in the book. And so the reason I bring this up is because there's something called a sleep chronotype. And everyone has a different sleep chronotype. And what that means is that for you personally, the times of day that you are most productive vary based on who you are and how your mind works. So Google it, because I don't remember where it came from. Sleep chronotype and take the test. It's free, there's it's fun, there's a couple different ones. It'll break down for you where you're most likely to be productive throughout the day. Okay. And so once you figure that out, then you can, as you said, plan your day. It's like, all right, well, I know if I'm productive from seven to ten, I'm gonna wake up at this time, I'm gonna do this, this, and this because that's gonna make me feel good and do the things that I want to do, so that by the time I get to when I need to be productive, my mind's not in two places at once.

SPEAKER_02 21:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03 21:57

And that was something that I learned in business. Was I'd be at work worrying about all the stuff I had going on at home with my wife and and all the things that were you know going on there. Then I'd get home and walk in the door, and immediately I'd be thinking about all the things I should have done at work and that I didn't finish. And so it was like this weird switch. And I was like, when I'm here, I need to be here. Yes. I need to be mentally where my feet are, and that shift made a big difference in my life. And the other side of what you were saying is that you control the way that you work, you get to pick, hey, this is where I'm most productive. Right. And when you start setting those boundaries for yourself, it's really interesting. At first, people don't like it because you're like, no, I can't do this. I'm not showing up to that event, like it's past my bedtime, or I've got things going on. Like, I can't tell you, Shannon, how many times I've been like, hey, I love you, but I'm not coming to your birthday party because I'm not going to the casino at 10 30. Right. Sorry. I'll see you at lunchtime or breakfast, but like, I'm not doing that. And and so it does create a little bit of tension, but the freedom to be able to say, I'm doing this at this time, and nothing is gonna change that, you know, barring some crazy god c you know.

SPEAKER_02 23:10

Yeah, right, sure.

SPEAKER_03 23:12

And and that's the thing that I think most people are missing when it comes to freedom is like our perspective of what success looks like, right, gets so muddied by what's on TV and what's on social media and all these things where it's like success is a perspective.

unknown 23:27

Right.

SPEAKER_03 23:28

My version is gonna be different than yours, Shannon. Right. And if we went way back in time to the day we were born and we went to that hospital room and we were to look at our parents and say, hey, when I get older, when this beautiful baby that you just had gets older and they're super successful, what's their life gonna look like? It would be so drastically different than what we're doing right now because things change. Life is always changing. And so the fun part of this is realizing that and getting to know, well, I can control however I want my life to live as long as I'm willing to be intentional and consistent. And that's the far the part that I think is really the most fun for me.

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Absolutely, and I think that's something our listeners can definitely take away. And I'd love, love, love if if some of them would try this and let us know how it turns out because I I'm gonna give you an opportunity to share your contact information. Now I want to change gears and ask you because this is a travel podcast, I want to ask you about the time you spent in your RV. Would you share about the challenges of living in an RV and traveling? I would love for you to talk a bit about how picking up, selling everything, and packing it in an RV went. And for those of our listeners who are considering perhaps doing that, maybe give them some tips and things to consider before doing so.

SPEAKER_03 24:54

I would love to share my experience because I 100% did it all the ways they tell you not to. At the start of 2023, and my wife and I had been traveling, we had gone on all sorts of like private jet trips across the country, and the businesses I was in warranted us a lot of cool opportunities to travel and do cool things.

SPEAKER_02 25:13

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_03 25:14

And what we realized though is that we would go and do these events and I would be speaking and we'd have to hire a babysitter for the weekend, which is not cheap. And finding someone to literally take care of your precious baby, not always easy because we were in Texas and all our family was in Ohio, so there wasn't like a family connection that we could leave him with. We realized that was kind of expensive, but then we'd be on the beach in Cabo or we'd be hanging out at the Bellagio fountain in Vegas and we're FaceTiming him and talking about it, like how cool it is, and he'd be like, Yeah, that's great. I'm here with the babysitter, and you guys are all having fun. We did take him on a couple of trips and we had some fun with it, but we realized like, how can we do this in a way that leaves the most lasting memories? And her and I kind of looked at each other and were like, Well, in our childhood, what do we remember the most? And it was always going camping. Like, she grew up at a camp, her dad had a seasonal camp spot, and I grew up going camping with my mom every once in a while, and so like camping was always something that we could look back on and say, we've got some very fond memories. So at the start of 2023, we bought a 26-foot micro mini Winnebago travel trailer and a truck, and we started just doing some some camping. Okay. And absolutely fell in love with it. We would go anywhere within three to four hours of our house in Dallas. We saw Glenn Eagle's Dinosaur Park, and we literally put our feet in the tracks where dinosaurs walked through the riverbed, which was like really, really incredible. My son's super into um like old time history, so we went to lots of battlefields and different historical places and learned about them. We went down to San Antonio and went to all the missions and learned about them, and so we had that experience. It was super super cool. Four or five months into it, we realized hey, this 26 foot is definitely not big enough for us. So we went and traded into a bigger one, a 36-foot, which was really expensive. So let me tell you guys, they tell you to go bigger than you think. We made the mistake of going small first, and it was expensive. We traded in, we had to eat the butt the bullet on that, which again, here nor there, but we got this the 36 foot, continued traveling. At the same time, the corporation that I was with was going through some restructuring and there was some kind of things going on behind the scenes, and by December of 2023, I was approached and told, listen, the the big salary, residual income that you have, it's going away. You're gonna have to cart back at zero essentially and build your way back up. And and I thought to myself, like, I don't want to do that. I worked really hard to get where I am and to earn all the things that I had earned, and to know it's being taken away from me, that was the trigger to say, hey, I'm gonna go and do something on my own. I'm gonna go and build my own business. And so your listeners may be in one of those situations where they're looking around right now and they're asking themselves, hey, if I've been at this company 15, 20, 25 years, do I have enough time left to get to retirement, or am I gonna come in on a Monday morning to a pink slip because they outsource my job to some sort of AI tool that exists?

SPEAKER_02 28:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 28:10

That is a real thing that is happening a lot right now. Sure. So I left that position, started my business on December 26th of 2023, because you can't start a business two weeks before Christmas. That's crazy. No one knows that. Uh so we we started it basically at the new year, launched it, put our house on the market. So we had just bought a home in 2022, right at the peak of the market. Yeah, of course, you know, way overpaid. Like, we we're in a$375,000 house that we paid$575 for. Like, go figure, right? But we we're not alone. A lot of people are in that situation.

SPEAKER_02 28:49

Heck yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

And so we said, all right, well, what do we want to do with ourselves? Because like we're not really tied to Texas anymore. I didn't have the job there. Like, we loved our home, but honestly, it was not our dream home. And so we put it on the market in February. Went traded the 36-foot trailer in for a 43-foot fifth-wheel toy hauler because we knew we were gonna live in this thing. We were like, let's go all in. We we know some people that are doing the full-time RV thing, we love traveling. I can build my business from anywhere that I have a decent Wi-Fi connection. So, shout out to Starlink, that's been the lifesaver for us. Yeah, and and so we sold our house, moved into the RV in March, then started traveling. And one of the biggest things that we realized, kind of going back to your initial question, you don't need as much stuff as you think. Absolutely. We were in a 2,000 square foot three-bedroom home, we had furniture stuff, like we had a storage unit, too. I think we just had so much stuff.

SPEAKER_00 29:49

Of course.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

And when we started going through it all, we really had this realization that was like, we've spent a lot of money on things that just sat on a shelf. We looked at once every three to four months, and it was just kind of like, huh.

SPEAKER_01 30:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

So that was a really interesting shift of like, what do we literally need to live on a day-to-day basis? Or like for a couple weeks at a time. Very interesting. You start packing all your stuff into these boxes, and you're like, well, it's gonna sit in the storage unit.

SPEAKER_02 30:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:18

And so that was a big realization, and then we started traveling, and we went from Dallas to Hot Springs, Arkansas. We were headed north to Ohio to see family for the summer. Got to North Springs, Arkansas, and woke up one night and the power was going out in the trailer. Well, Shannon, I'm not a handyman. I'm smart, like I work with my brain, I don't fix things because I'm sure I hulk out. Like, I don't know if anybody else has this problem. Like, I get real mad and I break stuff because it doesn't work the way that I think it should.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Frustrated, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:47

Yes, exactly. And and so that was very quickly my entry into you're gonna have to learn how to fix things. Because we made a couple of calls, like, hey, I need someone to come and fix this, and it's like six hundred dollars just to show up and no guarantee that I can fix it. And I'm like, Damn, I'm I don't think so. Yeah, and so we we fixed it, got to Nashville, Tennessee, and stayed at the grand old RP uh grand old Apry RV park for Memorial Day weekend, had a blast getting to see Nashville and going down Broadway and showing our son all the cool stuff that goes on there, and then Memorial Day morning woke up and we couldn't get the slides in on the trailer. And they're like, Yeah, you guys gotta be out of here by you know 12 p.m. or whatever, because we got someone coming in. And very quickly I learned how to go in and do electrical work and rewire the converter kit or whatever it was that needed to be done. And and so the big takeaway when we moved into the RV was once again, no one's coming to save you. You're gonna have to figure things out. Yeah. And shout out to YouTube and all of the content creators that are putting out these things on like, hey, here's how you replace a converter, here's how you do this, this, and this. And so if you're listening and considering it, do not quit your job, sell your house, and do it all at the same time. Like, that's a crazy idea. Don't do that, but do go for it. Yeah. Because you never know. And the people that we've met, my son had more friends and fun living in an RV for the nine months that we were in it full time, he met and played with more kids there than living in a neighborhood next to a school for two years.

SPEAKER_00 32:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:21

Where we never talked to the neighbors, everybody just kept to themselves, there was nobody really like hung out. And I found that was so interesting because when you start surrounding yourself with people who truly embrace freedom in terms of we go and we do and we have fun, and you know, there's a little bit of a stigma around it, right? You see trailers and and people are like, oh, a bunch of hillbillies and whatever, but like you don't realize you pull into these parks, that's a half a million dollar rig park next to you.

SPEAKER_02 32:49

Easy, easy, easy, ma. It's just a lot of money.

SPEAKER_03 32:54

I have it is yes, and yeah, and the people that we met, the stories that we heard, they're so inspiring. Because it's like when I told people, hey, I'm walking away from a multi-six-figure business in corporation to move into an RV and travel, you know what they said? That sounds like a dream.

SPEAKER_02 33:11

Yes. Good for you.

SPEAKER_03 33:14

I promise you, it it was as much a nightmare sometimes as it was a dream. Because it's like anything. Things break, you learn, you're hauling your entire life behind you, and it's bouncing all across the road like crazy. But it the the coolest thing to me is knowing that as my son gets older, he's 10 now, uh, he was like eight and nine while we were traveling more so. When he gets older, he's gonna be able to talk about how we traveled across the country, went to Florida and walked the beaches and got to see space shuttles and got to you know do all of these different things. And he's learned. Like we've set up at shot like at campgrounds, and then he runs a lemonade stand and he makes himself 150 bucks so that he can hang out and do whatever for the weekend. Like, yeah. We've got the opportunity to teach him what it means to have real freedom at a very early age. And I think that to me is one of our most I don't know how to put it, it's like one of the things we're most grateful for.

SPEAKER_02 34:07

Right.

SPEAKER_03 34:08

Because he's gonna learn and get to see here's what real success in life looks like, not what everybody force feeds you as you gotta go to grow up, get a good grade in school, go to college, get a job. Like, I'm not saying that I'm not against those things, but this is the real world, there's opportunity everywhere, and if you're willing to go after it, yeah, you're gonna get it.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

That's right. So if I were to ask you what are the most important lessons that you learned, and what would the top five recommendations be for someone who is considering adopting the RV lifestyle? What would you say? Can you top of your head?

SPEAKER_03 34:52

The number one thing that you need to learn is patience. Okay. Because things don't move fast in the RV world, right? You you slow down a lot. Okay. Especially when you're hauling a 20,000-pound camper behind you, right? You're not rushing anywhere. No.

SPEAKER_02 35:08

You're not gonna be hustling down the road at 85, are you?

SPEAKER_03 35:12

No, you shouldn't do that. We learned that lesson the hard way. So don't do that. Don't be crazy. Top five things. I would say you don't need as much as you think. Okay. That's a great suggestion, too. You're gonna learn to adapt to your surroundings. You will have a deeper appreciation for the real beauty that exists in this country that so many people just drive by at 85 miles an hour every day and never take a moment to really reflect upon. Right. The memories that you create now become the stories that they tell about you later. The the the stories are the things that people really appreciate. They don't care about how much money you made, they don't care about the stuff that you had. If you create stories and memories, that's the real treasure in life. Amen. And what would be the last thing? It's not as hard as you think.

SPEAKER_02 36:08

Yeah, there you go. Just try and do it. Just take the chance, take the leap.

SPEAKER_03 36:14

That's it. I think so many people are afraid of being judged or looked down on or to decide to change their identity into went from you know corporate rat race to living in an RV. I'm gonna use the old SL. You remember that that scene where it's like, you're gonna live in a van down by the river. Still by the river. And it was like the worst thing in the world was like, You're gonna live in a van down by the river. But like, now I can legitimately say I lived in a van down by the river, and it was one of the greatest experiences we ever had. So take that for what you will.

SPEAKER_02 36:48

I love it. Well, thank you, Droby. This has been amazing, as I knew it would be. So before we close, please share with all of our listeners all of your social media, your website, some titles of your books, and where they can contact you if they'd like to.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

All right, here's how we're gonna do this. I'm gonna make it really easy on you guys that are listening. And Gauss. If you enjoyed this, if you think that the the crazy stuff that I said today was kind of interesting in any way, what I'd like for you to do is share this episode on social media, whichever platform you hang out on, right? I don't care if it's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, wherever you hang out and spend your time, share this episode, share a link, picture, whatever. Tag me, tag Shannon. Let the world know that you got something valuable from this, that you invested your most important asset, your time, 45, 60 minutes, however long we've been going now, and that it was worth it. Because if you can say that you got something out of this and you're willing to share it, that means the world to me. That's why we're here today. And ultimately, sharing the stories is what allows us all to learn and grow. So share this on social media. Tag at CallThe Damn Leads. That's our business. We work with a lot of sales professionals and business owners, entrepreneurs. And if you want to check out more of my books, they're on callthedamleads.com. That's our main website, our hub for everything. You can also find them on Amazon. Call the Damn Leads, that's my flagship. If you're in business, entrepreneurship, sales of any sort, that will be a fantastic read for you. If you're looking for something to say, hey, I'd like to know more about his story, his upbringing, some of the stuff that we kind of glossed over early on. Crushing the Day is the first book that I released. And it's crazy to look back and say that was five years ago now that I released my first book. I have seven now. The most recent one is actually a collection of stories from all of my podcast guests that I've had on in the first season. It's called Lessons from the Boiler Room. That literally just came out on April 10th. And that is one that is not really about me, but it's about sharing all of the interesting things that I've learned from talking to, in that specific book, 50 different sales professionals, entrepreneurs, and small business owners about how they built a life of success for themselves. And so check any of them out, check all of them out. If you do, I would love nothing more than for you to send me a message and say, hey, here's what I got from it. If you like it, awesome. If you hate it, that's okay too. Tell me why you hate it. I'm always looking to learn and grow and get better. But I think that anybody that takes the time to read them will pull at least one or two things out that they can use in their life to go and create their version of success. And Shannon, I just can't thank you enough for the opportunity to get here and get to run my mouth. Because I know you weren't sure about it, but I hope it turned out better than you thought it would be.

SPEAKER_02 39:35

I tell you, it's been awesome. And thank you so much for being on my podcast. I'd love to have you back anytime you say the word. Thank you. As always, you can reach out to me at Shannon at Aladywelltravel.com. That's Shannon at Aladywelltravel.com with you elves. And we're on all the streaming platforms. And I'd love to know what you thought of the show, this one, or any of our episodes. And as always, God created this big, beautiful world just for you. All you have to do is get out there and see it. So until next time, bye bye.