The Rv Entrepreneur With Heath Padgett

The Dream: A Hospitality Business on Wheels Back when they first wanted to start RVing, Josh and Brittain bought and renovated an 88 Airstream. Then they picked up a rare '87 Airstream motorhome to renovate and rent on Airbnb. They dreamed of creating awesome unique glamping experiences for people who want to enjoy the outdoors. "We had the vintage camper, but we didn't have the land," explained Brittain. That's when they connected with a vintage campground in Tuscon to park one of their Airstreams on site. They worked out a 50/50 revenue split and all the fine details and continued traveling in the RV, making their Airstream rental almost completely passive income. Josh and Brittain are very open about numbers, so they share a ton of insights behind how much they paid, earned, and profited as they've built this business. I highly recommend listening to the episode to year all the nitty-gritty details on finances. Now they have four vintage trailers and recently found a new home for their rental business

Would you live in a 39-inch trailer? Check out photos and video of the trailer at heathandalyssa.com/hitch-hotel In March of 2014 while driving down the road, Geoff had an idea and immediately called his friend Gil. How could they build a collapsible (but stable), a lightweight (but sturdy) trailer for camping and mountain biking? But bringing a dream this big (or this little, really) to reality would take time. They had four things they need to do to get the first Hitch Hotel created: Develop prototypes Establish funding Patent their invention Find a manufacturer This process has taken seven years, but the amount of time and capital it's taken hasn't slowed Gil and Geoff down. Like everyone, they have bad days, but every morning they wake up excited to finally bring this product to market. What Heath and the guys cover in this episode: How Gil analyzed the opportunity in the 60-billion-dollar camping industry How Geoff built the first prototype on his own (and fixed it when he learned that he di

When we ask people how they want to make money while traveling, one idea always comes up: making passive income through real estate investments. IT'S THE DREAM. You only work a few hours, you have a property to come back to when you're done traveling, and real estate is a great way to diversify your portfolio. It's a no brainer. But it's also a completely daunting and intimidating prospect. You have to buy a house. Get it ready for tenants. And then let strangers live in it. Heath and I have wanted to get into real estate investing for years, but the magnitude and upfront costs always scared us off. So today we're interviewing realtor Jordan Knoll on her experience renting and managing seven rental properties (while she was RVing in Mexico, no less!). --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

If you want to work on the road, you need RV internet.  Today we are bringing back experts Chris and Cherie of RV Mobile Internet to share the best options and updates on internet for RVers in 2021. Chris and Cherie are OG full-time digital nomads and have been traveling for nearly 15 years! They both work on the road and knew that this lifestyle couldn't work long-term without solid internet. After years of testing and experience, they've become the gold standard for understanding and finding gear for internet for RVers. In this episode, Chris and Cherie dive into the major changes internet for RVers has faced in the past few years and how to get internet on the road this year. They cover: How to stay connected for working remotely Creating redundancies so you always(ish) have internet How unlimited data options have changed Who the top 2 carriers are for data (and it's not who we thought!) How throttling works What 5G even is How close Starlink is to nationwide internet access To see the

At the beginning of the year, we got a voicemail from a listener asking for advice. How do you balance between doing the work you love and the work that pays? In this short episode, Heath & Alyssa share their very different answers to this question. Before we get into the podcast, I want to share some of the links and resources we mention since they are BIGGIES: Anchor - where to leave us a voicemail for future episodes Create an Etsy Printable Course - digital products are an amazing passive income source and Etsy is a huge marketplace! Get 25% off the course with the code RVE How to Self Publish Your First Book on Amazon - our complete course on how to self-publish with Amazon KDP --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Paige loves the law. She's been working in the industry for over 20 years, but once she made it to the top—general counsel—she suddenly realized that she made it to where she wanted to be. And now she was free to pursue something else. She didn't hate her job, she just wanted something a little less conventional. Sitting in Italy eating cannoli and sipping a cappuccino, she had an idea...sounds like the perfect way to think up your new business idea, doesn't it? Wanting to find a way to spend more time in Italy, Paige came up with an idea: start a lawyer translation business. It's something I've never thought of before, but there's a need in the industry for reliable translations of legal documents. What if I decide to buy a campground in Iceland and need the contract translated to Icelandic? Paige at Online Legal Translations can handle it (from her van or from her home in Italy). But she didn't just jump into business on her own. She wisely started as a side hustle, finding other translation agencies and of

Sometimes you come up with a great business idea. It's something you know you would use. And when you get someone else to test it, you realize that it doesn't solve the right problem. This is what Reet faced when he launched Trip Outside, a platform to find and book outdoor adventures online. After a quick pivot, the marketplace serves outdoor outfitters by helping them rent and sell gear and acts as a one-stop-shop for adventurers looking to book rentals and experiences for their next vacation. But Trip Outside isn't the only company Reet runs with his wife, Julie. They also run Seva Stray, an e-commerce company with a big vision. After visiting India and volunteering and even adopting stray dogs, Reet & Julie decided to combine their love of dogs and their business knowledge. With Seva Stray, they sell beautiful, unique, ethically sourced, vegan products, and 20% of all sales go toward organizations in India that take care of stray dogs. These donations go toward vaccinations, spaying and neutering prog

Our annual year in review episode! These are some of our favorite podcasts to record. Alyssa joins me today to reflect on our past year.  In this 30-minute episode, we talk about the best parts of 2020 (because there really were some good things that happened), all of the hard moments, and some of the biggest life lessons we took away from 2020.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

How do you get Mindy Kaling to wear a sweater you knit in your RV? Krista has been knitting for years. After graduating college, she started teaching knitting classes at yarn shops. One day as she was working from home, knitting while watching TV shows about travel, she realized she could knit from anywhere. So she convinced her husband to retire early and travel the country with her. Most knitters go for a platform like Etsy when they want to start their own business. But everything on Etsy is so underpriced, Krista says. "I see a scarf that I know the yarn cost $7 and they are selling it for $8." Plus you need to carry tons of inventory to ship. She knew there was no way that could support life in the RV. She also made custom things for people who came into the yarn shops where she worked. But with the hours it took to make each piece, she still wasn't making much profit from each piece. Then a friend saw a posting on Craigslist for a knitter and shared it with Krista. She reached out and connected with a c

Back in the corporate world, Camille thrived in HR. She focused on job placement, helping people get off welfare and into the workforce, and course creation for corporate training. So it makes complete sense that now she runs an online business focused on helping RVers find remote jobs. But it wasn't so easy for Camille to go from full-time career to starting her own business. But before we get into the episode, I want to share Camille's free masterclass on finding remote work. This free masterclass is designed to work you through the framework to start searching for the right remote job for you. Sign up to attend the free How To Find Remote Work in 90 Days or Less and you'll get a discount code for Camille's Remote Work 101 program too. The 101 program will guide you through making a plan, refreshing your resume, finding job opportunities, and even interviewing for your remote job. You can get the course for 50% off when you attend the free How To Find Remote Work in 90 Days or Less masterclass :) --- Sen

After emigrating with his family from Israel, Erez was disenchanted with living in suburbia. One winter he and some friends all went to Destin for a vacation where the home rental owner shared how easy it was to make money renting on the Florida coast. Erez was intrigued. So he bought a house. And then another a year later. And then another. And now he and his wife actively manage four vacation rentals in Destin while they RV full-time. He even gets photos of his properties texted to him by his cleaners so he can manage landscaping and home details from a thousand miles away. In this episode, Erez shares some major insights into managing an Airbnb remotely. Like How one house can bring in $100,000/year How to calculate what you charge nightly + for cleaning fees What yield management is and how it affects bookings Why Erez doesn’t use management companies or channel managers to run his home rentals remotely Why being a good communicator trumps being skilled when it comes to hiring Plus he shares all

Five years ago, oil was booming in Texas. And with the boom came oil workers and their RVs. Sites in the area without full hookups were going for $450/month and Eric instantly saw the business potential. Eric owns a mortgage company in Houston and once he enough money in the bank, he found partners to invest in a new RV resort. One that has been forwarded to us by everyone we know after it was featured in Business Insider (because it's modern and gorgeous in a way that you NEVER see at RV parks). In this episode, Heath interviews Eric from Eric & Jay's RV Resort on how they built and started a luxury RV park in Houston, Texas. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

It's a few days after Halloween and today's episode is all about death. Well, how two entrepreneurs market the death care industry from their RV. We dive into what digital marketing really is, how to sell your service to customers, and how to successful price your business. I bet you're dying to listen to this episode (okay I'm sorry, I had to) --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Brandon, his wife, and his two kids were house shopping when they took an unexpected hard pivot. Now they've been RVing full-time since 2015 and even added a third kid to the mix! It all started when Brandon was working full-time and building up freelance work as a graphic designer. He noticed people being let go and started working more and more hours on the side so that when he was eventually let go from his job, he could seamlessly transition to client work. How do you manage a full-time job and a side hustle and two kids at home? "It just came down to less sleep," say Brandon. (And every other parent ever.) In this podcast episode, Heath and Brandon talk about a lot of the changes that come with taking your family on the road and having a baby on the road. Things like: Why RVing has helped Brandon's daughter come out of her shell How much easier it is to make friends as travelers than in "normal life" Fulltime Families and how it's a must for any RVing family As well as diving into the business

This is uncertain times. It's a cliche to even mention that.  In this talk from our RVE Summit, Kathy Holcombe shares her lessons from building a thriving photography business during the Great Recession and how we can push forward with business (and life) amidst uncertainty.  Follow Kathy and Famagogo on Instagram here: @roadtriptough --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Earlier this spring Alyssa and I had to cancel our in person conference and replan the entire event in 4 days. A week later, we sat down at a campground in Alabama and decompressed from the craziness of having to navigate the whole experience. In this episode I share:  How to communicate during a crisis moment (whether you’re talking to customers or attendees at a conference) Parkinson’s law and how our work tends to expand to fill the amount of time available for it Why hosting a virtual event was anticlimactic (for us) And some of the specifics of the tools we ended up using to host our virtual event (if you plan on hosting a conference) To leave a voicemail for the podcast, you can do so here. It's fun hearing from you through audio! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

As entrepreneurs sometimes we feel like we have to wait until everything is perfect to ship our product. No matter how many times we hear that "you should be embarrassed of your first prototype", we still push back bringing our idea into the market. In this episode I chat with Sarah and Kevin (co-founders of TheDyrt) about how they took the most simple version of their idea and brought it to market. They didn't procrastinate or over analyze, they just went with version 1.0 and got started. My hope for this episode is that it can be a kickstart for whatever idea you're pushing off into the future. About TheDyrt: The Dyrt has one of the largest and most reviewed campground databases, with over 40,000 campgrounds and 1m reviews. It is the #1 grossing travel app in the IOS store with a new user joining every 26 seconds and over 1.5m people who visit The Dyrt every month. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

I meant to take a week off of recording the podcast in March, but it somehow turned into six months. I've been incredibly grateful for all of you who have reached out this year and asked when/if the show was coming back. Tbh, I wasn't sure if it was.  However, I missed you and making these episodes. I'm so excited to be back to recording RV Entrepreneur.  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Today on the podcast I bring on my friend Cortni from the Flipping Nomad. Cortni's story is unbelievably inspiring.  Six years ago she was borderline homeless, struggling to take over her dad's businesses (who recently had a stroke), and moved into a fifth wheel as her only housing option.  Just six years later, Cortni has built a thriving RV renovation (aka flipping) business and recently partnered with Keystone to create a truly unique and never before seen fifth wheel. Some people even refer to her as the "Joanna Gaines of the RV industry". In this episode we talk about how: Cortni stumbled backwards into RV life and then made the most of a bad situation Pre-sold her RV renovations on Instagram Went from zero experience in renovations to making $5,500 in one week on her favorite flip ever She caught the attention of one of the biggest RV companies who extended a once in a lifetime opportunity for her This podcast was a blast to record. I hope you like it. If you do, give Cortni a shout on

This episode is all about how to stand out from the noise and stay front of mind when you're trying to attract and work with large brands.  I talk about: The one thing I believe is a disproportionate way to get in front of and actually win over potential brands/clients How we originally pitched Winnebago on partnering up and they said no (but ended up doing a lot more work together) Ways you can boost the odds of hearing back from brands you're interested in working with Brittany and Adam both left Voicemails in my Anchor inbox and I was able to pull both their questions into the show and answer them (best I could).  If you want to leave a question and be included in an upcoming episode for the RV Entrepreneur, you can drop a voicemail here. :)  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message