“Why I Joined Location Rebel”

This is a guest post from Drew Jacob of Rogue Priest, who is getting ready to walk across two continents.

When people talk about going location independent, there’s another topic that always comes up: “I hate my job.”

It’s almost biblical. You cannot sing the hymn of location freedom without preaching the psalm of the evil corporate existence.

Well, call me a heathen, but I frickin’ love my job.

Job title: Corporate Relations Associate at a major art museum.

Job duties: Major fundraising. Equal parts selling sponsorships, writing grant proposals and mingling with corporate VIPs who like the idea of supporting art, education and culture.

I’m incredibly happy there. It’s partly the museum environment and knowing that we do good work, but it’s also my coworkers. My boss and I started within weeks of each other and we get along well. She has 20+ years of experience on the corporate side of corporate relations, and she has made it clear she’s there to mentor me and build up my career. My other colleagues are mostly fun, humorous liberal arts types. I legitimately enjoy coming to work 9 days out of 10.

But I just announced that I’m quitting that job, biking out of Minneapolis, and launching a series of pre-trips before I walk to South America.

Why the hell would I do that?

It’s simple. I’ve realized that no matter how great a job is, if it’s holding me down and inhibiting me from living my dreams, I will regret staying there.

I’ve had the dream of this incredible walk at least since college, and wanted to travel Latin America far longer than that. Every month of working my fun museum job is like a weekend at a carnival: it’s fun, I see lots of cool things and meet lots of rad people, but at the end I haven’t really accomplished any of my goals. If I want to live my dream, I have to do it – now, not in some mythical “later.”

So, heartbroken as I am to leave my job, I also wake up every day thrilled with excitement at the prospect of my adventure. And I’ve taken quite the interest in strategies for location independence.

Which is why I rolled my eyes at Sean Ogle.

We met at the World Domination Summit. A few of us met up at a café and started talking about the projects we’re involved in. “I’m launching a program that teaches people how to be location independent and run their own business,” he explained.

Yeah right, I thought.

I’ve seen a lot of location independent business guides. Some free, some pricey. My opinion is that they follow a pretty standard breakdown: 40% promises, 30% anecdotes, the rest all rah-rah motivational talk.

That’s not teaching.

But as Sean talked about Location Rebel, I leaned into the conversation. “This isn’t just to cheer you on to launch a blog,” he said. “Everyone’s saying you can start a blog about your passions and make a living. All those people are broke.”

Was I hearing this right? LI life coaches aren’t supposed to point out that blogs and businesses fail, and that dreams die with them. You just say, “it takes dedication” as your disclaimer and sweep it under the rug. If I heard him right, it almost sounded like an honest word had just come out of his mouth.

He went on. “I make money online, but not from a blog. There’s affiliate sales. Search engine optimization. Design. Lots of actual jobs you can do anywhere. You have to put in a solid day’s work, and it might not be exciting, but if you can do it from wherever you go that’s a big step up from a desk job.”

And hell, I almost finished for him, then you can write your hobby blog whether it’s a moneymaker or not.

I wasn’t sold, but it made sense: I don’t really mind putting in work for somebody else, as long as it doesn’t hold me back from travel. The first thing I told my boss when I said I was leaving was that I’d like to keep doing my job remotely. That got poo-poo’d, but here was Sean saying there were plenty of jobs like that. I can’t say I wasn’t intrigued.

The big factor is always money. Sure, I can afford a $300 purchase, but I’m trying to get ready for a big move here (and, essentially, for launching a business). When I bike out of Minneapolis I will have some money saved, but very little – a couple thousand dollars. My first stop is Milwaukee, Wisconsin where I sink or swim. If I’m going to spend money on learning business skills, I have to make sure it’s a good investment.

Well, last week I made that investment.

I had some profit from my book, Walk Like a God, and instead of cashing it in I decided to reinvest it. I’ve spend the months since the World Domination Summit researching lots of different programs to learn the skills I need, and none sounded as promising as Location Rebel. And since LR comes with a guarantee, I gave my characteristic “fuck it” shrug and signed up.

So how is it?

I’ve only just begun, but so far I’m amazed. Sean wasn’t bluffing; he’s deeply involved in this project and he’s there to guide us members through whatever we need. His email turnaround time is lightning quick and besides the actual instruction, he’s made a huge effort to include community-building in the program. I don’t feel like I’m in just a mentorship or class, but like I have a collaborative joining forces around me.

As I charge toward my quest to meet the gods, I know my reason for going LI. But what about you? Don’t give me the “I hate my job” schpiel. What is it you want to do once you quit? What brought you here to read Location Rebel and what’s going keep you going if you take the plunge and quit your job?