 And so while we were up there, we were up there actually shooting a lot of videos and I shot Robin's video. Robin, come up here. You don't have to hide back in the background. And as soon as I met Robin and I got to know her personality, I knew she was going to be great on YouTube. So I encouraged Robin to get on YouTube and you've had a little success. It's been great. I guess a little bit. I don't know what it is. It's weird. It's a very weird thing to be on YouTube. Anyway, you've done well and I'm really, I'm excited for you. I'm going to turn it over to Robin, but let me announce that Robin does not want you to film. If you do not have specific permission from Robin to video, please do not honor her desires and respect her. And there are a couple guys here that do have her permission and they are going to film and they are the only ones that should be. Thank you. Okay. And I'm going to turn it over to Robin. Appreciate it. I have nothing. I hear a knock on that. Okay. Great. Oh, yeah. Welcome to the first seminar of the 2019 before who's here that this is your first time here. The last year, the rubber trap rendezvous literally changed my life and I'll tell you I came and I thought, okay, I want to go to a couple of seminars, you know, pick up the information I wanted, but I didn't want to talk to anybody because I mean, believe it or not, I'm kind of an introvert. But to tell you that I parked next to a couple of great people that are right here and they were so great to me that they helped me come out of my shell and then I met Bob and I met a bunch of other people. So I really encourage you all to do the same. Just get to know the people that are next to you, man. I'm excited to see how the rigs drive up today. Weren't you guys to see what everybody is rolling up here in and I got really curious about what kind of a life all these different people are leading. Are they already on the road? How long have they been on the road? Do they want to be? So before I start my thing, let's just get to know each other just a little bit. So who here is a full-time nomad in an RV or a van or a tent or anything? Wow, so about half, right? So that means the other half of you should I go away? Should write who's interested in living mobile at least part of the time. Oh, that's great. Okay, the people that are already on the road, who's been on the road less than a year? Hi, girl. Who's been on the road more than two years? Nice. How about more than five years? I see a lady in the back. And how about, oh, well, Jude, how about more than 10 years? Wow, look at these people because they don't talk to anybody more than 20 years. Wow, that dude, I give it to you guys. I have to tell you, I did not even know that this was a lifestyle choice that was available for me or for you or for anybody until about five years ago. And so I'm going to tell you guys what my story is. If you're not familiar with my story and let's just talk about how being a nomad, even part of the time can really change your life. So I'll just tell you about me really quick. I've got some of you already are familiar with this. I'm echoey. Okay, got it. Here's the thing, you guys. I think that in life, people do what they're exposed to, right? Okay, can you hear me? Should I do a dance? What? I don't know what he said, but my boyfriend just went, what the hell? Once that guy, sorry. Hey, why don't you turn to the person next to you you don't know and say hello? Hello, can you hear me now? Is this thing on? Okay, cool. Is it too much? Okay, great. Well, see that was meant to happen, you guys, because you got to know some people around you, right? And later when you walk around, if you want to be social, you'll see people that you saw here and you can sit by the campfire and ask each other about your lives and, you know, what you want out of it. And if you want to be a nomad, what that means to you and get some advice from them. Okay, so what I was saying a second ago is, should I step back still? Okay. How's that? Better, you guys? It's better up here. I felt like I was going to literally shoot off the ground up here. There's vibration. Good? Okay, okay. So, like I was saying, you can tell me if you disagree or if you agree, but I think that in life, people do what they're exposed to. You know, now that I'm an adult, I think if I had known that there were other careers as a kid or, you know, paths as a kid, I would have maybe made different choices, right? Like, I say if my parents were rock stars, I probably would have been a rock star, right? Or, you know, a rocket scientist, but my parents were an insurance, you guys. It's very exciting. So, I wanted something different out of my life. I knew that I wanted to be a writer at a really young age. I studied that. I got my degree in that. But finally, I sold out to the man and guess what I went into? Insurance. Right. Because it's what I was exposed to. I just didn't know that there was a way for me to make it as a writer and pay all my expenses in a normal house, right? So, I, you know, I got my degree in writing. I worked as a freelance writer and as a literary agent and as an editor. And at night, I would try and go home to work on a novel. But, you know, that just wasn't happening because you're exhausted, right? I'm sure a lot of people out here have some aspiration for a business or to do something artistic. And it's just hard when you're working a 10-hour day and you're dealing with your commute and your bills. But I thought I had to do that to pay the mortgage, right? Well, you know, finally, I went way deep into corporate America and I had this job I absolutely hated in Seattle. And, you know, I thought that my corporate life was going to be for two years. Can anybody relate to that? You know, and I looked up over the edge of my cubicle like 20 years later and, you know, I was in my 40s and all that time had passed and I had never written that book. All the books that I could have written just had gone. They're gone now. They went away. I lost that opportunity. But, you know, I bought a condo in downtown Seattle and, you know, lived that life and had to pay the mortgage. And then one day, my co-worker and I were going to lunch and he wanted to stop by an Airstream dealer. This is probably six years ago. And I mean, I never wanted RV. I had never been in an RV ever. I never drove one. I was never in one until the one I bought online and flew to South Dakota to pick it up and drive it home. It just wasn't on my radar. When I saw people in RVs, they were retirees who looked to me like they were living in a parking lot, right? Next to each other. And I thought, well, who would want to do that? I don't even want to do that when I retire. It wasn't even something I thought about or considered, but then I walked into one of these Airstreams. And I saw this little dinette with the windows and I thought, wow, I could write there. I could write with the trees around me and my whole mind just opened up. And, you know, if you have watched my videos or read my blog, you may have heard me say before that I was never going to do it. I was never going to be a full-time nomad. It was BS. It was an escape for me. I went home at night for my corporate job for four years and dreamed about being a nomad. Because it gave me something else to think about beside my corporate job. And the more that happened, the more salty I got. I was an unhappy person. I was an unhappy camper in my corporate job. You know, when I got my condo, my boss looked at me and he smiled and he said, well, great, I love debt equity. And I said, what's that? And he said, well, now I've got you for 30 years. And the only thing I could think of was that song, you know, I sold my soul to the company store. If you guys have seen that one and I thought, I'm insurable on a wheel. I'm just working that job to pay the mortgage so I can live in the neighborhood where that job is. And it wasn't getting ahead. You know, you think that you're going to do that and you become financially sound. And that it's a road to somewhere, but I wasn't the road that I wanted to be on, right? So I planned and I planned because, you know, that's how I relax. I do research, as you know. But then like a lot of people I've met on the road and probably a lot of you out here, I had a catalyst that changed my life and made me go on the road. And I'm going to tell you it was the best thing that ever happened to me. I mean, you know, my boyfriend is not on the road with me, but he's here. This is Doug. Say hi, Doug. He, the poor thing, the poor thing. He's had pee run all over his hands. I've got bruises on my arms. I don't know where they came from. We got here. We had to have an emergency guy come yesterday because our water pump was broken. Now we have no hot water. Our batteries are fried and I just picked my rig up from the shop before we came here. It's all broken. And still, I woke up and said, I love this life. Couldn't be happier. I remember one time a flashlight fell on my toe and I think I broke my toe. You know, because you don't know to check if you overhead compartment. People that are now. You put heavy stuff up there and you open the compartment and stuff falls out and you get hurt. And I remember I was like, you know, in tears and I thought, I still love it. I still love it. It's the best thing that ever happened. So the catalyst that got me to hit the road was that my sister died. And some of you have heard this story before, but my sister was 46, two years older than I was at the time. And she was very competitive like I am. Her corporate nickname was the bulldog and she also worked in what? Insurance. Insurance. So she hated her job and she too had what she thought was the path out and that was to get her MBA. So she worked these days and at night she got her MBA and about two months before she graduated, she felt a pain in her side at 46. She found out she had terminal pancreatic cancer. So, you know, I thought if anybody could be cancer, it would be my sister, you know, but it wasn't possible at that point. So I took care of her for her last six weeks. And like I've said, that's when my sister, Terry, changed my life because while she was dying, literally I think it was three weeks before she died. She turned to me and she said, do you like that job? And by the way, I have to tell you, they asked me to interview to be higher up at that job. And my sister wanted to like prep me for the interview and I just wasn't into it. I'm like, this is a terrible time and she's very supportive. And she said, do you like that job? And I said, no. And she was two years older than I was. And she said, if you were going to live for two more years, would you keep that job? And that was the second that I was like, what the hell am I doing? This is not what I want out of my life. Nothing is guaranteed. If I'm only going to live two more years, damn it. I'm going to do it the way that I want to do it. And I had the path filled with this. She would have loved this better. Okay. I wish you guys could all have met her. She was amazing. And actually after I said, no, I don't like that job. She goes, oh, well, I've always imagined you in Paris with a sketch pad. In fact, I have recorded a bunch of House Hunters International for you. And I wish I had told her at the time that I was looking at this RV life, but I didn't. I still wasn't telling anybody. Anybody can relate to that because I thought they would think I was nuts, right? But I knew I had the path. I lasted six more months at my corporate job. The whole time I was planning. And I, look, I'm not retired. I still had to work. And so I had to find a way to make a living on the road. And it wasn't possible for me to actually hit the road for two and a half more years. So I went back to Colorado, which is where I'm from. Six months later, I quit that job. I sold that house. Unfortunately, my mom also got cancer at that same time. So I went back to Colorado and I wrote my first two romance novels. Because I decided I had represented romance novels. I knew them. I thought it's a huge market. You know, I can make a living at that night. I liked writing them, but I thought I would write three in one year. The first one took me a year and a half. And the second one took me a year. And I didn't think I'd meet somebody great during that time, but I did. And yes, it's possible to have a relationship if you're a no-bed and your person isn't. We make it work. But the second book was released and I ordered my RV and I hit the road and I never looked back. And I want to tell all the people that are thinking about doing it that it is the best life for me ever. And I did not know what the hell I was doing. I didn't know anything about boondocking or batteries or where to get water or safety or any of that. And I'll tell you that I binge watched YouTube people like Bob and Carolyn and all kinds of people for like five years trying to get little nuggets of information. Like, I'd be wondering something and I needed to get that little nug, you know? And I couldn't find it and, you know, I'm a researcher so I started doing all this research and making spreadsheets. And finally I hit the road and this is what I've learned. You want to know what I learned? Somebody's phone's ringing. I swear it's not mine. It's not mine, right? Okay, this is what I've learned about being a nomad. There's only one right way to camp. There's only one way. Boondocking. No. Your way. Your way. And I mean, yeah, boondocking because I have boondock, girl. Like, I have boondock. But my way doesn't have to be your way. And you don't, if you decide to do this, you don't have to camp like me. And you don't have to camp like Bob. And you don't have to camp like anybody else that you see on YouTube. Like I thought, like first of all, I saw these like solo female RVers, you know, that went out onto these dirt roads and I was like, wow, really? That's great. And I thought that's how I had to do it because I was a solo female traveler, right? Like what you're exposed to. And that is what's good for me. But I want you to know that there are as many ways to be a nomad as there are stars in the sky. And what you choose to do is up to you. And I thought that, you know, if I don't do it that way, or if I, you know, if I go off the road for a month to visit my family at Christmas, that I would be a poser, right? That is not true, you guys. I met a lady earlier today, and I won't say her name just in case. She, she's here. She literally keeps her van in the driveway of her house. In case she wants to watch Netflix without her husband. Right? So I mean, yes, I'm a full timer and I can't ever imagine having a house again. I mean, this, I can't even tell you guys how much I love it. It really is a way that you can live the life that you want to live. But while you're thinking about that, just know you're going to find your own way. That's one thing that I really want to tell you about my experience. You, you're going to find what's good for you. So don't let anybody else tell you what's good for you. And with that being said, there's a million different pieces of information flying at you, right? There's a lot of information and it's a lot to take in. So of course we're going to gravitate towards that one little thing. Better. But I'll tell you this. How many people out here are not retired that want to be on the road? Quite a few, right? Are you, how many people just want to make some extra money while they're on the road? Okay. Well, that was one of the biggest concerns for me. And I want to tell you guys that this is the first time in history that you are able to do that from the road. So it's a very exciting time for us now. I said that once in a video and somebody said, what about the covered wagons? They're not going to make a living. They're not making a living from the covered wagon. I mean, if you go back in history, there were nomads in the 1800s, you know, the Lohar blacksmiths of India or the Irish travelers or, you know, show men, they would make their living from their caravans. But for us, now we can make a living from our RVs because of the internet and because there are so many different rigs. So when you look at the span of history, you're pioneers. And you should all be really proud of yourselves. And, you know, you have to make a conscious choice to become a nomad, whether that's part-time or full-time. And most people don't make a choice. And so I want to say to you guys that I'm proud of you and you should be really proud of yourselves and you should be proud of each other because there's a lot of people out there sitting on their couch who aren't nomads yet, but they didn't even come, you know, they're not making any conscious effort to go out and do this. And you guys did, or the people that are already on the road, it's hard to change your life. It's hard to make a choice and do that. And you did that. So that's all really exciting and you guys should be really proud of yourselves. Give yourselves a hand. Okay, so the other thing that I wanted to say about, you know, being a nomad and changing your life for the people that want to do this in the future, maybe some people that are already on the road have found this. When I fantasized about being a nomad, I actually envisioned myself in a totally different way. Right? And that's not reality. Wherever you go there, you are. Right? When you're alone with yourself in the middle of nowhere, you really find out who you are. And being a nomad, I think, is not a panacea for all that ails you. You know? It doesn't mean like you're going to go out and eat healthy food if you like junk food, right? You're not going to be better with money, because, you know, you're a nomad. But you are going to be who you are. But being a nomad can be a conduit to live the life that you want to live. It does free up your budget. It does give you freedom on your time and how you look and who you hang out with. And it can be the highway that gets you to your dream life. So getting out there and doing this can be a first step, whether it's full-time or it's part-time. You know, there is a lot of information out there, and you're not going to know what's right for you until you actually hit the road. Am I right? I know a lot of people really stress out about what rig to get, for example. And I've interviewed, oh gosh, I don't know, dozens of nomads now. And one constant that I found is that almost all of them want to change their rig after a year. Because it's not right for them. Like, they thought that it was right for them, but, you know, they didn't really know until they got out there. So one thing is you just have to get out there, even if it's part-time and start to do it. And, you know, join some forums and meet some other people and ask them what worked for them. And at the end of this, you know, we're going to do some questions, and I'd like people who are already on the road, either part-time or full-time, to stand up and say, I'm a nomad, this is how it changed my life. It could be bad, it could be good. I just want other people to know that. For me, it really made me discover who I am. You know, I thought that I would, you know, be relaxing, just leaning back in a chair, watching a bird fly by, that I would learn to relax. I work harder now than I've ever worked in my life, because that's just me. Like, I like to do stuff, right? But everybody's not going to be that way, so you just have to do it the way that works for you. And it's hard, because, like, again, we only do what we're exposed to, and there's a lot of information out there that's going to fly at you. Like, you might know a friend that's in a van, and you go, yeah, I want a van, right? And then you meet somebody who has a converted horse trailer, like my new friend Gary over there. And now I want a horse trailer, man, right? But you have to be exposed to all this different stuff to know, and it's really hard to get all the information out there. So that's why I did a series on YouTube called Be a Nomad, Change Your Life, because I wanted something all in one place where I could put all the information that I wish I had known before I hit the road. So to that end, I have a giveaway for you guys. You want to know what it is? Okay. So I have written a book called Be a Nomad, Change Your Life. Tonight at midnight, it's going to be free for the first thousand people. Now, I did it at midnight because I know that, you know, the data slows down here. And I... So sorry, guys, you'll have to wait up. But I get charged for the delivery charges on the book. So I could do a thousand. I couldn't do it for everybody. So if you're interested in the book, you know, download it. It's great. It has over 200 links. It's going to be a living resource guide. So every quarter, I'm going to go in and actually update the links for you. So as you're on the road, you can use it. But I've taken all of the interviews I've done and all of the questions I've gotten on YouTube and I've put them into the book. Like some people go, I could care less about retirement. Like I'm just living my life. And then other people go, don't tell people to check out a society. What are they going to do? They won't have any social security. So there's everything in there. I have five different ways to save for social security or save for retirement outside of a 401k. Seven different ways to get health insurance. Every discount club. What do you do if you see a bear? You know, the basics of batteries and boondocking and everything, social groups. All the things you have to take into consideration, budget, all that stuff. It's in the book. So the book is called Be a Nomad, Change Your Life. It's going to be free tonight on Amazon at 12.01. You know, it could be a couple of days before 1,000 are gone. It could be tomorrow morning. I just, I don't know. So the first 1,000 are free and I wanted to offer it to you guys because the thing I wish I had, I mean everything. Like you guys are going to be like, don't you sleep? So that's what I've got. And here's the thing, you know, here's what I want to leave you with. If I had never found this life, I'd be miserable right now. Maybe I would have found another way. But I feel really, really lucky that I found this life. And so if you guys are thinking about it or you're, you know, you're just now doing it, this is what I would wish for you. You know, question the status quo. Question, if you have to do it the way they say you have to do it. Do you? Maybe you don't, right? It just depends on what you want out of your own life. Like who are you? What do you want from your life? What do you want from your life today? Think about that stuff. And rattle your chains, you know? Rattle your chains and figure out what's going to work for you and get out there. And I'm going to take questions and I want people to tell me about helping to know how to change their life. But before I do, I just want to say to everybody out there, have happy travels and be free.