Ep. 19 Building Business on the Road Series: Networking & Community Building while traveling

Let’s get honest: RV life isn’t all campfire chats and instant friendships. In this episode, Sarah Jones opens up about the surprising loneliness that comes with life on the road - even for someone who seems outgoing. She shares her journey from feeling isolated to intentionally building community, both online and in the real world. From volunteering at local organizations to joining industry rallies and making small talk in unexpected places (hello, Walmart pen aisle!), Sarah reveals how she’s learning to be “present” and create connection wherever she parks her home. This episode is packed with practical strategies, real-life stories, and encouragement for anyone craving deeper relationships while living a life of adventure.

🌟 What You Will Learn

• What it means to be an “extroverted introvert” and why travel can feel unexpectedly lonely
• How RV life exposed Sarah’s blind spots and inspired personal growth
• The difference between haphazard online posting and intentional relationship marketing
• Why in-person connection is more important than ever - even in a digital world
• How to use local chambers of commerce as a free networking tool
• The power of volunteering at food banks, library sales, and community events to build authentic relationships
• Blending in-person moments with online community for lasting connections
• The value of industry-specific rallies (Grand Design, HDT, Sturgis) for finding your tribe
• Sarah’s “word of the year”—present—and how she’s practicing it in everyday life
• Real stories of connection: from helping a stranger find a plant at Walmart to chatting with farmers market vendors

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Traveling Towards Wealth, the podcast where money meets adventure and freedom is always on the horizon. I'm Sarah Jones, financial coach, full-time traveler, houseplant lover, sourdough maker, and your guide to building a life that's as rich in experiences as it is in peace of mind. Each month, we dive into a new theme, whether it's real money stories, the ins and outs of full-time travel, building a business, or multiples while on the road, or finding wellness and simplicity wherever you are. Here, you'll get practical tips, honest conversations, and a gentle push to spend, save, and live according to your values, not someone else's rules. If you're ready to design a life you truly love, one where you can travel more, stress less, build financial confidence, shop safer, and wake up every day feeling like you're exactly where you're meant to be, then you're in the right place. So grab your favorite drink, settle in, and let's start traveling towards wealth. One story at a time. Oh, hey, welcome back. Today I want to talk about networking and community building while on the road. I will be honest, this has been a huge challenge for me. A lot of people look at me and say, Oh, you're such an extrovert. It's you probably talk to so many people while you're out traveling, and you probably meet so many people, and that is unfortunately not the case with me. I am, what do they call it, like an extroverted introvert. I do not do well with talking to people that I don't know. I'm not one to start a conversation. When I feel very comfortable with you, when I know you, then I'll talk your ear off and really spend a lot of time, and that's how I build friendships and community. But I'm not just a person that goes out and just talks to anybody. That's a that's a huge challenge for me. And while traveling, it's really showed me some of my weaknesses. I didn't see that so much as a weakness before because I met people more slowly before. And I think I was more familiar with my surroundings. So I was more familiar with my neighbors. One new neighbor moved in to the neighborhood. It's quote, maybe it felt easier to go over and get to know that person because I already knew everybody else, right? In different groups that I was in, I participated in those groups because I already knew people. And so things just felt more familiar and dare I say a little bit more comfortable. And looking back, I don't I did not take enough advantage of that situation for sure. But building and building community and networking on the road has again posed some challenges for me. I for many years had an online presence, but not in a way that really built community and not in a way that really networked. It was very sporadic, uh, not intentionally done. I didn't necessarily belong to groups on social media, I just posted haphazardly, kind of those things. And with now getting on the road, I have had to really step into that online presence. And I've done a lot of trainings, I've tested things out. I'm getting much better at online. In fact, a lot of people look up to me, a lot of people ask me questions. They say I do relationship type marketing very well. I do a pretty decent job of sharing my story, of connecting with people, of making people feel safe and not judged, of really showing that I care about people. And to do that online, I think is not something that everybody is good at. And I'm very proud to say that I have developed that, and I think I'm relatively good in that area. I've had to, I say had to because uh I always want to be aware of the language that I use, but I felt like I really needed to step into more networking online and being more intentional with what does that look like? And networking isn't just about building business, my friend. Networking is really about connecting with people and connecting other people to those people. I think a lot of times networking, online presence, and networking kind of gets a bad rap when it comes to business because people are trying to sell so often and it comes across in genuine. And I find that the most successful people when they're really selling, when they're signing clients, when they're selling their products and services online, the ones that are doing it consistently and are growing and really seeing their efforts come to fruition, right? They're seeing the fruits of their efforts, are the ones that are putting others first, are the people that are really building that relationship marketing, that are connecting people with other people, that are sharing that they really do care, not just to make a dollar, right? And networking online has been, and that's changed since 2020. 2020 is forever the year that the world changed, right? No matter what you believe, it is forever the year that the world changed. And more so now than ever before, I find that we are online more, but we want more in person. We crave people's actual energy, we want to be in rooms with people, and for me, I do as well, and that has been challenging for me on the road. So I do a fair amount, again, of online networking, which can be great. I'm still working on perfecting that process. I am by no means an expert at networking online, but I believe I'm pretty good at developing relationships and really starting to build more community online. But I need to evaluate what does that look like with being on the road and what does that look like for in-person networking? What does in-person community look like for me while traveling? When we are in Arizona, when we winter in Arizona, that definitely feels like we've built a community at the RV resort that we stay at during the wintertime. We've built amazing friendships with people that are there, and that is completely invaluable to me. And that's really shown me that I can step out and have conversations with people, that I can get to know people. Everybody's got a story, everybody is got something to offer, or is looking to be offered something. It's our job to figure out which one. And what are they looking for? So building community again has been a challenge, and we've built an amazing community during our winter months in Arizona, but dare I say the rest of the year I don't feel like I've got a lot of community, and that has been that's been really challenging for me. I have said that RV life has felt pretty lonely, and talking on the phone with your friends, that's great, sending text messages or memes back and forth, like that's fine, but it's different than going on a walk every day with your neighbor, which I used to do, your neighbor, which was one of your best friends, losing that familiarity, losing that connection, that in-person connection has been really challenging for me. And James and I have been talking about what we can do to get out into the communities more. One thing that we've done several times now, it hasn't been consistent, and I want to make it more of a consistent thing is checking out the local chamber of commerce, going in, introducing ourselves, asking if we can be a part of a meeting, getting to know other businesses, see what other businesses are around, what are the challenges that businesses are facing, what are they working towards, how's the community support? Use all of those things to just get around other business owners. That's important for me. And so I want to be more intentional with the places that we are going to check out the chamber. Another thing that James and I said that we were going to try and do, which is indirectly related to business, but we don't have quote unquote a lot of dollars in our money plan to give to charity, to donate to organizations. But that holds a special place in my heart that I want to be able to do more. And if we don't have the dollars, then we can certainly make the hours, the time to donate. And so we talked about each location that we're in to finding an organization that we can go and volunteer time. Maybe it's at a library book sale, maybe it's at a local uh food bank, I don't know, but I think that's a great way to network while on the road to start to build community, even though we're not in these communities for a long period of time. I think the impact that they can make on us and we could make on them could be significant, right? And it's not necessarily the length of time that you're there, but it's really the impact on which the experience that you that we are gaining from them, and that hopefully the impact that we can impart on other people. And maybe then that turns into more of an online following, right? An online community or networking online because you're meeting people in person, but then you can stay connected while online. And I think it's what we did before, right? What maybe you're doing, right? You've got your best friend that you're connected with online, but you also see in person. You've got your neighbors that you're friends with on Facebook, but you also see each other at the neighborhood barbecues, right? Like you're doing this very similarly already. I think for us, I I kind of lost sight of that, and it's time for me to be a little bit more intentional in those areas. And I'm really looking forward to like seeing how this all kind of plays out. My word of the year is present, and James has mentioned that I don't talk to anybody when we're traveling, and he's not wrong. I said it before, like having a conversation with somebody that I don't know is not easy. Sometimes having a conversation with somebody I do know isn't easy, but I've been more intentional with like being present in the moment. I have had the other day in Walmart, and this might sound like nothing to you, but for me, it really was a big deal. I was out in the garden area looking at some plants, and a lady, an older lady, said something, and I just started chatting with her, and she was looking for a specific plant that she called. They Walmart told her that they had it, but she couldn't find it, and she couldn't find anybody to help her. And I was like, I know what that plant is. Let me walk around and let's see if I can find it for you. Maybe you missed it, whatever. And James came out and saw me helping her, and he actually said afterwards, said I was really surprised. And that kind of hurt my heart a little bit. I don't want my husband to be surprised that he sees me helping somebody in person, right? But I've gone into my shell so much that that's not something that he sees me do often. And then later that same Walmart shopping trip, I was looking at pens and a lady started chat. We kind of started chatting and we stood there and we talked for a little while, and that is not something that I do often, and it felt good. It felt good to be present in that situation, right? And to just be present with them. Went to a farmer's market by myself on Saturday, had conversations with several vendors. It just really embracing that present theme, really embracing this idea of connecting with people, of having conversation, because you never know what's going to turn into maybe a community that you are part of. You never know how that connection is going to turn into a more of a networking opportunity. And I'm just embracing this opportunity of literally connecting with other people. Some people belong to different groups when they travel. James and I don't. Not yet, anyways. And we've talked about is there a group that we would not that we would fit in, but that felt like it would part of our values that would be beneficial. And we just haven't come up with one yet. We are, however, going to a couple of industry-specific rallies. So a grand design, we have a grand design solitude, our fifth wheel is made by grand design. And so we are going to a grand res grand design national rally, uh first part of September. So that is a community in itself, one that we've been a part of, but very indirectly. And so we're gonna be just around all other grand design owners, never know what the people that you meet, right? And then we're going to the HDT national rally in October, and that's for the heavy-duty trucks, right? We pull our fifth wheel with a semi-heavy-duty truck, and there's an HDT rally in October that we're going to go to. So that is part of community building. I'm looking at it that way. Um, we have worked the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally a couple of years and have started to build community there with the people that we work with, the people that we meet there. We might only see them for those couple of weeks and maybe very sporadically in those couple of weeks, but sometimes you just connect with people. You just feel this uh I don't want to say connection again, but it really is. You just feel this connection to somebody else. You have maybe similar interests or uh backgrounds and connecting and getting to know people there has been really great. It's been good networking opportunities for me as well of getting to know other people. What do they do? What are they business owners? Do they work for somebody else? What who are they looking for? Do I have somebody in my network that could maybe help them? Do can I maybe help them? Can they help me? Do they offer something that I can benefit from, right? And so it's just really taking a look at who are you around, what have you done intentionally, where have you been lacking? Because I've definitely been focusing on that area lately, and just being honest with yourself, and I think it all comes back to being intentional, building community and networking on the road hasn't been easy. I'm pretty good at doing things online, but getting better at doing things in person, and a part of this journey is about experiencing life, living a fulfilled life, and all of this changes as we get older, as we have new lived experiences, and our needs will continually change. And I think being aware of that and then taking the steps to fulfill those new needs is important, and so that's the area that I'm stepping into in this community building and networking while on the road era. So I hope that was helpful. I would also love what have I forgotten? What have I missed? Do you know me and you're like Sarah, girl, you could be doing X, Y, or Z, shoot me a message, comment, send me an email, let me know. I would love to hear your thoughts, your comments, and if you have questions, put them in there too. I would love to answer them and interact with you. If you found this episode helpful, send it to a friend, save it, share it. You know, I always appreciate that. It is free to do, takes just a second of your time, but it does help the other people that you share it with. I appreciate you. And with that, I will say goodbye for now, my friend. Thanks for joining me on Traveling Towards Wealth. If today's episode sparked something in you, I'd love for you to subscribe, leave a review, or share the show with a fellow free spirit who's ready to design a life they love. Want to dive deeper? I'd love to connect with you. Book a free call with me to chat about your money, your dreams, and your next steps. No pressure, just a real conversation. You can find the link in the show notes or on my website. And let's stay connected on socials. Follow me on Instagram or Facebook for behind-the-scenes RV life, money tips, and a little gypsy spirit along the way. Remember, your money, your journey, your rules. I'll see you next Tuesday for another story and some practical steps to help you travel further towards wealth, freedom, and a life you live. Until then, keep wandering, keep growing, and keep spending on what matters most.