Should you’ve been following us from the start of our journey into this freedom-filled way of life (since 2008!), you’ll know that we didn’t begin off as coaches, bloggers, creators, or enterprise house owners.
We had been simply two, 24-year-old finances backpackers with 65L packs, a dream of journey and freedom, and no concept the place it might all lead.
Should you don’t know our story… right here it’s from 2008 to now:
Again in 2008, we give up our jobs in Canada, bought our condominium, our automobile, and principally the whole lot we owned. We swapped a 9-5 at a company workplace and graveyard shifts at a packaging plant, for one-way tickets to Southeast Asia and a lifetime of whole freedom on the highway.
After that first style of journey, we had been hooked. We knew we needed to construct a life round journey…we simply had to determine how.
Now, right here we’re 17 years later…greater than 80 nations visited, and residents of Bulgaria. Alongside the best way, we’ve constructed 4 companies, and created 4 on-line programs.
We’ve taught over 1,000 individuals methods to launch their very own private manufacturers…and 50 individuals have personally been coached by us.
That is the story of how we went from finances backpackers to private model coaches, and the way Goats On The Highway grew, shifted, and reinvented itself over greater than a decade on-line.
The Backpacker Period (2008 – 2012)
Let’s rewind a bit right here. All the best way again to 2008.
Like I mentioned, we had give up our jobs and we had been backpacking world wide – residing on $30 a day at one level.
We’d sleep in bamboo huts, trip on the roofs of buses (not really useful!), and doc our journey on a free weblog platform and Fb for our household and associates again residence.
Throughout these years, we backpacked throughout Asia, the Center East, Africa, and couple of locations in Europe. The longer we stayed on the highway, the extra we fell in love with the approach to life.
However, we had one slight downside…our cash was operating out!
We didn’t wish to return residence. We had been terrified that at some point we’d have to return to our regular jobs.
And so when the cash did begin operating out… I truly ended up having a meltdown on the seaside within the Philippines.
Being on the highway had turn into our way of life and I couldn’t envision myself working again in Canada in an workplace, underneath florescent lighting all day.
We would have liked to determine one thing out. And quick.
So, we regrouped and dove head-first into determining a solution to earn a living on the highway doing one thing we cherished.
The Distant Period (2012 – 2015)
Throughout that point on the highway, we realized we didn’t wish to simply journey. We needed to earn an earnings overseas and construct a life-style round freedom – to turn into digital nomads … bear in mind… this was earlier than the time period “Digital Nomad” was even a factor!
I bear in mind it prefer it was yesterday, we stopped in at darkish web cafe in Delhi, India. The form of place we’d go to get a wired web connection (this was again earlier than accommodations and hostels even had wifi, and we didn’t have a smartphone).
It value round $1 per hour of (very gradual) web.
I searched “methods to earn a living for journey” and up popped a weblog submit by, Johnny Ward of OneStep4Ward. He mentioned he was making $1,500 a month from his weblog!
I turned to Nick: “Can you determine methods to construct an internet site?!”
And so it started!
We ended up educating ourselves WordPress and fundamental coding so we may construct our web site and model “Goats On The Highway” – which we began in February, 2012 from a seaside hut on the island of Koh Phangan in Thailand.
We shared our journey tales, how-to’s, images, and movies on our weblog, YouTube channel, and Fb web page.
We didn’t understand it then, however this was the start of our private model.
Whereas we had been build up Goats On The Highway, we taught English in China for a yr to complement our earnings. And whereas we loved that period of our lives, educating English was solely a stepping stone for us – we knew we weren’t going to work for another person after that.
As soon as we began creating our web site, writing content material and networking with different bloggers (there have been solely a handful of us!), we realized we actually loved it. We had a sense this might have potential and we knew this might be our solution to earn a living on the highway.
We’d be our personal boss, make our personal schedule, and proceed our dream of journey and the unconventional way of life we’d been main.
The Development Period (2016 – 2018)
Sharing on-line is one factor, however to show our private tales into an precise enterprise, we would have liked actual abilities. So, we expanded our skillset and spent a lot of time researching and investing in programs & elearning.
We realized web optimization (SEO) and had been even requested to discuss it on podcasts, and at digital occasions…and ultimately, we created a course round it.
We additionally realized e-mail advertising and the ability of social media, and naturally, we continued with storytelling – one thing we’d been doing since 2008.
We stored displaying up on-line, networking, studying and sharing. And slowly…momentum occurred and it was like a snowball rolling down a hill, gathering velocity and rising because it went!
Our model began incomes actual cash by way of promoting and affiliate internet marketing.
And, since Goats On The Highway was well-known, with a loyal viewers, and plenty of guests coming to our web site every month (500,000 individuals/month 🤯)…tourism boards and corporations flew us world wide to inform tales about their locations and companies.
It was surreal!
Our imaginative and prescient for creating a life-style of freedom by way of our personal enterprise, whereas sharing with others and doing one thing we cherished was coming true.
The little weblog we constructed from a rickety seaside hut had became our full-time earnings.
The Training Period (2018 – 2019)
With the enterprise rising, we felt the following pull: train others methods to do what we do. That is what we’ve all the time performed – we do, we grasp (or attempt to), then we train it.
So, we advanced once more.
We grew to become so enthusiastic about running a blog, web optimization and constructing a private model, that we needed to share it with the world. We couldn’t consider extra individuals weren’t doing it!
So we began to share about methods to begin blogs, develop with web optimization, and construct private manufacturers. We shared about methods to train English overseas, get freelance jobs, and construct on-line earnings streams.
If we’d realized it and lived it…we shared it and taught it.
Our web optimization course was our first actual paid course and the purpose was to assist others begin and develop on-line manufacturers of their very own. Greater than 1,000 individuals joined our programs, and the suggestions was unimaginable.
(In case you’re curious: Sadly, we stopped promoting the web optimization course on the finish of 2023. We really feel that web optimization has been taken over by AI and doesn’t have a future, so we don’t wish to train it if it’s not a viable enterprise anymore.)
Little by little, our college students began emailing us and telling us they had been incomes sufficient cash to give up jobs they didn’t love.
They had been making a side-income so they’d extra cash whereas at residence, and/or, they had been travelling full-time from the earnings of their manufacturers!
Receiving these messages was the second it actually sank in for us… that one thing we created may truly assist another person’s life in a significant approach.
It shifted the whole lot. It wasn’t about us anymore, and that realization genuinely humbled us.
Seeing numbers on a display is one factor…like pageviews, followers, and analytics.
However then, when individuals begin emailing and saying they’d taken our programs and made sufficient cash to give up jobs they’d been wanting to go away for years….
… that meant the world to us.
These years had been a whirlwind. Our web site was rising, our programs had been doing nicely, and our little nook of the web was serving to individuals construct new lives.
It felt greater than something we anticipated once we first began out with backpacks and a dream.
However then, the world shifted…
The Trade Shift (2020 – 2022)
These couple of years had been a problem for everybody. However, I’m specializing in our journey business particularly.
A world pandemic paused all journey…and companies associated to journey actually suffered throughout this time. With that, lots of our affiliate partnerships dropped off – that means our earnings took a nosedive.
On prime of that, Google rolled out devastating updates which meant that our web site wasn’t displaying up on-line like earlier than.
New short-form video platforms grew to become common (TikTok), which meant that focus was shifting from blogs to fast movies. Then got here ChatGPT and a flood of AI instruments.
All the things modified in a single day!
We shortly realized that this wasn’t simply one other pattern… issues had been altering and we needed to pivot if we needed to maintain doing this job we love.
We needed to evolve once more.
Most individuals panicked, and so did we for a bit, however our panic didn’t final lengthy. We had constructed quite a few abilities over time and will pivot. We simply didn’t understand how at first – then it hit us.
Diversifying our Earnings
With journey at a standstill, and nobody looking for journey associated issues, we determined to create two new manufacturers round two matters that weren’t associated to journey.
The matters had been two of Nick’s passions: fly fishing and guitars.
We had been nervous to start out one thing new, however let’s be sincere, we had numerous time on our arms!
We constructed up an internet site, Instagram, YouTube channel and e-mail listing for the fly fishing web site, and for the guitar/string instrument web site, that was principally only a assessment website and didn’t have a social media presence.
Inside simply a few months, we noticed progress with the fly fishing model. This was undoubtedly thrilling and gave us the push to maintain going.
Throughout this time, we additionally pivoted Goats On The Highway to focus extra on the distant work and methods to earn a living on-line facet of issues, fairly than specializing in the journey facet of our model.
And it began rising once more.
We additionally began spending extra on social media, e-mail, and YouTube. Successfully diversifying our enterprise throughout extra platforms than simply the weblog.
Throughout this era, we realized the exhausting approach that platforms can collapse. Algorithms can change. Associates can come and go. World occasions can impact the whole lot. Complete enterprise fashions can disappear.
However there was an upside and constructive takeaway to our expertise: we remembered that our private model, our story, our abilities, and our data are issues that no platform or pandemic can contact.
The Teaching Period (2023 – Current)
In the direction of the tip of 2023 and begin of 2024, we felt the net world as we knew it was about to fully change. For higher or worse, AI was right here to remain, and video was (is) the medium of alternative.
Paradoxically, 2023 was our greatest yr ever financially. However we nonetheless felt like there was a shift coming.
So as an alternative of clinging to what used to work (running a blog & web optimization), we leaned into what we had been good at and what we’ve all the time been about: Serving to individuals lead a freedom-filled way of life, whereas incomes cash doing one thing they love.
However this time, we needed to have extra of a reference to our viewers and followers, and actually present extra arms on steering.
That’s when our subsequent period started.
We took the whole lot we all know from over a decade of being profitable from what you recognize, constructing private manufacturers, rising social media, e-mail advertising, and creating digital services…
…and turned it into a brand new enterprise: Creator Kickstarter Teaching Program. It’s a blended mannequin with the “3 Cs”: Coaching, Course & Community. We provide reside calls with us, pre-recorded course materials, and a non-public neighborhood.
At first, we had been tremendous nervous and uncertain if anybody would even have an interest. What if we launched this program, however then no person joined?! We had been truthfully so frightened.
We had an software kind, after which would hop on Discovery Calls if we felt just like the individual could be a very good match for this system.
Like most individuals really feel when beginning one thing new, we felt that imposter syndrome creep in, adopted by self doubt. Who had been we to show this?!
To not point out, doing reside calls was one thing completely new for us and it was undoubtedly out of our consolation zone.
It’s loopy how the thoughts can trick you into believing you’re not ok – irrespective of what number of abilities, or years of expertise you will have.
We’ve been operating the Creator Kickstarter Program and Group for nearly 2 years now… and we’ve had 50 superb individuals enter into our neighborhood!
We train individuals what we’ve lived over time: that freedom comes from constructing a enterprise primarily based on who you might be.
We love serving to individuals develop impactful manufacturers that in flip, assist others. Serving to individuals assist individuals – that’s the ripple impact. And it’s probably the most significant chapter of our journey to date.
The Future
If we’ve realized one factor over our many years on this business, it’s that you just want to have the ability to evolve and pivot within the on-line house, and most significantly: private manufacturers aren’t going wherever.
And really, the net teaching and e-learning markets are projected to develop considerably over the following 5 – 10 years…making this an enormous alternative for anybody constructing a private model and providing programs or teaching.
We’ve been feeling it for the previous few years now. We’re undoubtedly coming into the largest shift the web has ever seen – and the individuals who begin sharing their story now would be the ones main the house later.
Those that construct a private model right this moment would be the ones with the liberty to journey, work from wherever, and run a enterprise that doesn’t depend on a single platform, or doesn’t get taken over by robots.
For this reason we’re so enthusiastic about displaying individuals methods to launch their manufacturers, step-by-step.
As you’ll be able to inform from studying this text, these previous seventeen years have been a wild trip for us. We’ve tailored and reinvented our enterprise(es) a number of instances, and introduced you alongside each step of the best way.
Thanks for being right here as we proceed to evolve and share with you! Who is aware of what the following period will convey…