The Rv Entrepreneur With Heath Padgett

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Alyssa Padgett. Alyssa is a co founder of the RV Entrepreneur community and  has just published her second book: RVing Across America: A Quest to Visit All 50 States. Back in 2014 when she and Heath got married Alyssa convinced Heath to take her to all 50 states for their honeymoon. Somehow he go her into doing it all in an RV.  While traveling, Alyssa directed and produced Hourly America, their documentary film about their 50-state honeymoon, and Heath’s working an hourly job in each state that was featured on CBS, CNN, Fox, People, Yahoo, Huffington Post, and more. After visiting all 50 states in  that year, Alyssa fell even more in love with travel and spent the following years RVing all over the world. Today Alyssa and her family still travel as much as they can and will actually be enjoying Italy when the book and this podcast release. In this episode Alyssa and I talk about: How this book is the memoir version of the documentary and why she felt the desire t

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Brooks Smothers.

Brooks is a marketing consultant by day and a podcast host for a show called RV Out West by night. Born & raised in the Pacific Northwest he grew up camping; from backpacking, car camping, van life (before it was a thing), to a tent trailer and now with a travel trailer. In this episode Brooks and I talk about:
 Some of the pros and cons to a geographically focused podcast - his is focused on the Pacific Northwest How as a content creator you need to create and play within your own sandbox, not worry about the castles everyone else is building in theirs How you can bridge the search engine gap between storytelling and information about a specific location How Brooks identified his target audience and then took one specific metric unique to them - average one way commute - and  has tailored his podcast to fit that time span I hope you enjoy the episode! Connect with Brooks:

 Podcast: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1716271 
 Website: https:

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Sharee Collier.
 Sharee is a 9 year RV life vet, who combines running a remote RV lifestyle business with seasonal jobs and project management. She the bestselling author of Live Camp Work: A Beginner’s Guide to Workamping- book 1 in a series that details how to grab seasonal jobs so you can travel now for super cheap! Sharee is known for her creativity and willingness to step out-side-the-box as you’ll see in this episode, and enjoys planning digital and in-person events. She hosts multiple Virtual Summits throughout the year, including Rethinking Remote, The RV Family Summit, Ready to Renovate | RV renovation Summit, #VanLife Virtual Summit just to name a few.  In this episode we talk about:  How the Colliers started off in the RV lifestyle and Sharee’s experience with the Amazon Camper Force How that experience led them to clearly define the types of work they wanted to do and ultimately carve out positions for themselves at RV resorts for 3 to 5 mont

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Kristi and Spencer Stevens  
Kristi and Spencer quit their corporate jobs in 2020 and hit the road with their son Kade. After spending six weeks of a paid sabbatical traveling in New Zealand and Australia they knew they wanted to rearrange their lives to spend more time together as a family. They leveraged their past experiences in  product marketing, brand marketing, digital marketing strategies, and brand influencer management to start up a boutique marketing business. Along with their commercial clients they also work with brands on the adventure brand - Adventuretunity. In this episode we talk about how: - They focus on small businesses and how relationships often start with an audit - small brands pay them to find holes in their current marketing and to come up with ways to make a bridge to where they ultimately want to be. -  Working together as a team allows Spencer and Krisit to offer a full package to their clients and not have to contract o

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Kimberly Crossland who is the founder of Roadpreneur and Cruisin' + Campfires, two companies designed to keep families together and living in freedom through travel and entrepreneurship.  In this episode we dive into how Kimberly built a physical product based business, called Cruising + Campfires, stemming off an awesome experience on a family roadtrip. How that business has adapted and morphed into a subscription based model and  why that leads to to easier scheduling, less stress, and more satisfied customers than an on demand one. Kimberly also has created an online community call Roadpreneur where she is gathering and coaching other entrepreneurs  through digital content and virtual community building. We discuss the differences, pros and cons to both product based business and digital based business and how some-timing rv travel is a real sweet spot between weekenders and full timers. We also cover how failing forward can grow your credibility

This weeks episode we have a super awesome interview. This is the first time I've done a live interview and it's also the first time I've co-hosted an interview. We've got Heath Padgett back on the podcast and we're interviewing Andy Robinowitz from RV Life.  If you didn't see the blog post the RV Entrepreneur podcast has been sold to Andy and the RV Life team.  All three of us were in the Dallas, Fort Worth Texas area so we got to sit down together, have a conversation in the same room and it's really cool to hear both of these gentlemen speak. We get to talk a little bit about how the transfer of the podcast went from Heath to Andy, and then we spend the rest of the time talking with Andy about RV Life and what he's grown the business into.

Andy is a repeat customer on the podcast.  (Episode 120: https://anchor.fm/rve/episodes/RVE-120-How-Andy-Built--Monetized-the-Largest-Online-RV-Community-ea37a9/a-a4g5npd) He was one of the early guests several years ago, but since then has created and

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Kristen Sargent from Legit Trips, a travel company that runs international group trips.  Kristen says she is living her wildest dreams. She owns an international travel company with her best friend and also travels domestically every day with the love of her life in their RV. She's on a mission to help people feel curious, alive, and free to try or do new things. In addition Kristen shares her personal adventures on Instagram and Youtube as Perpetual Moves in an effort to inspire others to go after their own dreams no matter how wild or unconventional.  What started out as a hobby in planning international trips with friends has since turned into her full time gig and it turns out it is also a perfect fit for traveling full time in an RV. In this episode we talk about how Legit Trips came to be and why this side hustle succeeded in becoming her full time career.   Kristen has a unique story about going against traditional business advice and formin

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Edzui Szumowski who is currently traveling the country performing with the Vernardo Circus! Edzui (Edge-U) is a performer and ran away with the circus- TWICE. Once on a train in 1993 and this time in an RV in 2021. He’s lived on circus trains, mega cruise ships, flown over 1000 times in a decade chasing ships around the planet and is now living full-time in a Winnebago Micro-Minnie rocking his vaudeville dreams touring with a real live TENT SHOW CIRCUS!  This interview is slightly different that past guests - Edzui isn’t currently an entrepreneur - but he was during COVID and its a good case study of the opportunities that are out there and how different situations in life have different seasons. In this episode we talk about:  How the live performance industry was affected by the pandemic and Edzui’s pivot into entrepreneurship to flex with the market and stay relevant from a distance How circus life fits so intimately into RV life and some of the b

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Nate Ritter from RoomSteals.com Nate has travel hacked with his family of 5, around the US and Western Europe for 10 years without paying for a flight or hotel. Now he’s found another hack having to do with wholesale hotel prices, and he’s sharing it with the world while they travel North America full time in an RV.  In this episode we talk about how there are massive discounts to be had in the hotel industry, regularly 20-25% but sometime up to 95% discounted rates for those who know where to look. 
We talk back through Nate’s past and find out how he got into travel hacking, what exactly travel hacking is, and why he is so enthusiastic about it. Nate tells how the “entrepreneurial disease” caused him to see an opportunity in the market and the steps he took to create Room Steals into a sustainable travel business only months before the pandemic shut down most travel yet the business model they run has been able to sustain it through to the other side and the

I’m excited for todays episode with  Aaron and Chris Willers. They are a married couple who have lived full time on the road since January 2019.  They left their high paying corporate careers in their mid-thirties to live life to its fullest through travel and experiences.  In preparation for working on the road they launched their new business, Irene Iron Fitness, where Chris coaches clients 100% online as a NASM Certified Personal Trainer and Pn2 Level Certified Nutrition Coach.  Aaron drives their entrepreneurship spirit with his enthusiasm and technology skills to run the back office of the website as well as all of their YouTube production for Irene Iron Travels.  Together, they practice the healthy lifestyle that they preach and love helping others live their best life out on the road.  The Willers are planners and methodical executers - they spent a few years building their reserves so that when they launched they had almost 5 years of runway available. 

They started

I’m excited for todays episode, I’m joined by Demian Ross. Demian is a repeat guest on the podcast but this time around he is a bit more of an RV Entrepreneur than the last go around. Demian has created two magazines for the RV community - Rootless Living and the newly launched RV Today Magazine. While his first magazine, Rootless Living, that was for digital nomads, by digital nomads was successful, Demian noticed that there was a huge hole in the market for RVer’s and there was no independent magazine who’s mission it was to serve the rv community from an unattached standpoint. RV Today is a magazine for RVers, by RVers and because its not tied to any other RV organization it is truly an independent magazine in all sense of the words. In this episode we talk about: How Demian created his own hashtag that is now being used throughout the entire RV community and how #rootless is sometimes misunderstood What its like building a very niched down magazine and podcast and what lessons he’s learned from Rootl

One of the things I really like about the rv lifestyle is that it can be very minimalistic, and yet can also satisfy the inner gear nut in me because there are a ton of different products and ways to solve solutions that arise.  While at the 2022 Tampa RV show I came across a product that absolutely blew me away. It was created by a fellow Fulltime RVer and it solved a need that full timers face in such an eloquent and simple way that I really was scratching my head - no one has done this yet? I got to talking with the inventor and founder and really connected with his story and invited him to come onto the podcast. Today’s guest is Jim Phelan from AirSkirts. A software engineer by trade, Jim started AirSkirts in 2020 after solving a real-world problem he encountered with full-time RV living. In 2016 Jim sold his home in Brooklyn, NY along with most of his possessions, and began traveling the US in his Airstream travel trailer.  Unwilling to compromise and use an inferior method to camp in cold

Today we get to talk with Dustin and Nicole Schroeder who are the current owners of Fulltime Families.  Dusting and Nicole Schroeder are nomadic entrepreneurs that run multiple businesses from the road. They have traveled Fulltime with their family of 5 since 2017 and  are very engaged in the RV community through their company Fulltime Families. Fulltime Families  hosts over 12 events each year, in addition to  providing resources for new and veteran rvers, they focuses on creating connections for families to help sustain the nomadic lifestyle. Nicole is also a cofounder of the RV Family Virtual Summit which is something we’ll touch on later in the episode. We talk about how their personal rv travels led them to becoming more involved in the RV community and the story behind how they became the owners of the decade old rv community. Before we get into the interview I’ll say that Fulltime Families runs a ton of Facebook groups - pick out a number in your mind as to what a “ton” of Faceb

Today we have the pleasure of talking with Jason and Abby Epperson from RV Miles. Jason and Abby are hosts of the RV Miles Podcast, the America's National Parks podcast and the See America Podcast. They are also the editors of RVMiles.com and every week share the latest in RV and camping news on the RV Miles YouTube channel. On the road full-time since 2016, Jason and Abby share this adventure with their three boys and can often be found exploring National Parks or finding the best local pizza and beer. In this episode we chat about:
 How splitting their long form podcast episodes onto its own channel and away from the short news briefs has allowed each approach to flourish and provide value to potentially differing audiences The staggering difference between retention rates between long form podcast shows and many shorter YouTube videos How the pandemic forced their hand in the topic of their content creation and how it might have saved them years of split focus Covering RV industry news might just ha

Today we get to talk with Eric from Hourless Life, a threepeat guest on the podcast! (Episodes 53 &124) Eric, Brittany, and Caspian Highland are currently driving around the world on a 10-15 year journey. They've been traveling full-time since February 2014. That means their son Caspian who was born in 2016 doesn’t know anything other than life on the road. Known first as RV Wanderlust, then Jeepsies, the Highland family is now known as Hourless Life.  Here's a few points of what we talk about today: • Lifestyle design – how Eric and Brittany don’t HAVE to work and how that plays into their work/life balance • What’s the hardest part about traveling the world by Jeep • How creating a family mission statement allows them to avoid decision fatigue • How life just isn't about stuff, It's about memories, experiences and it's about the legacy that you leave behind for others • The insights Eric gleaned from Billionaires in the professional boxing world • The best way to establish and nurture sponsorshi

The RV Entrepreneur podcast is BACK!  … with a caveat, there is a new host! In this episode Heath interviews the new host, Joshua Sheehan, and officially hands over the torch as host of the podcast. They dive into Joshua’s background, how they met and what he’s doing on the road. Heath and Joshua also talk about a scarcity versus an abundance mindset, how Joshua and his wife, Kolie, are planning to raise their kids on the road in their RV, and about how to pick names for things like your blog, podcast, or YouTube channel and why sometimes names matter and sometimes they don't. Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883   Check out Joshua’s personal brand, Gander Flight, here: www.ganderflight.com/youtube & www.ganderflight.com/instagram  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

Today we’re catching up with the RV Entrepreneur's founder Heath Padgett and getting an overview on the past half a year since he ended the podcast and also a few status updates on current projects.

Specifically we discuss:   -  Heath’s experience ending the podcast and his reflections on closing it down -  How taking a single action can change your whole life and how many relationships steamed out of the podcast -  If Heath is going to get back into content creation and if so, what that might look like -  Overview and reflections on the Campgroundbooking.com acquisition -  How easy it is to get wrapped up in projects and the difficulty in not attaching your identity to projects -  Brand Names: The opportunities and challenges to niching down in a name or staying broad  -  Heath’s idea for a new podcast focused on starting a campground -  Futuristic mindsets that are a benefit in business but can be challenging to be present and how RVing can help ground your

Heather Ryan is the owner of The Tax Queen, a tax firm supporting entrepreneurs and digital nomads. As a federally-licensed Enrolled Agent, she supports her clients year-round with tax preparation, tax planning and bookkeeping. She's been traveling in a 5th wheel with her husband and two dogs since September 2016. In this episode Heather tells us about being an enrolled agent and that means versus an account or CPA. We talk about the challenges of switching into a nomadic lifestyle and how she has grown her business while on the road. We get into how being a digital nomad herself allows her to better serve her clients and what her services offer over a more traditional tax preparer. There are a few things that we as entrepreneurs can do to make the tax filing a smooth interaction and Heather goes into the biggest issue she sees with clients and ways to solve those problems. We talk about how detailed our descriptions of individual line items need to be and several deductions folks often miss out on when

In this episode we talk about: How the RV lifestyle allowed them to pivot and adapt when their industry was thrown a curve ball How they are integrating their travels and their gigs into the Harvest Host network How the transition to a nomadic lifestyle didn’t go as planned How to balance work and life when spouses work on opposite ends of the week Enjoy! ~Joshua You can reach Dave and Jacqueline at: https://linktr.ee/theborderhookups https://www.theborderhookups.com  Connect with the RV Entrepreneur Community here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/116253535383883  Follow the RV Entrepreneur on all your favorite social networks: www.therventrepreneur.com  --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message

After 233 episodes, this is my last episode of The RV Entrepreneur podcast. In this episode I share why I’m ending the podcast, what’s next for us and some details around our 2021 RVE Summit that we’re hosting in Colorado. It’s been an incredible journey, thanks for joining me. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/rve/message