What The Hell Do We Do Now? Finding Money On The Road.
Everybody wants to be rich and famous, right? Well... we're not either. In fact, we're almost broke, and might even be getting less well-known. That's a recipe for disaster, but interesting fodder for an unusual episode of our weekly travel podcast.
SHE: Hold on. Before we start the show: two things.
EVO: First, a HUGE thanks to Jessica, Rocco, JP, Jeff, Don, & Mica for recently signing up to get a post card from us each month. It's really the only way this show brings in income (and we're going to talk about income today), so we greatly appreciate your pledges. For the rest of you lot now feeling guilty, ShEvo.wtf/postcards is where you can sign up. Ya cheap bastards.
SHE: Second, this episode is going to be a little... weird. It's probably not the best experience for first time listeners. Maybe try the one with us riding in the back of the police truck in Thailand, or our beer walking tour in Spain. Once you know the kind of show we produce, come back and listen to this episode. It'll make more sense.
EVO: Can we let Patrick do his thing now?
SHE: By all means.
[intro]
EVO: So yeah. Weird. As you heard, it's been six months, almost to the day, since we took off and left damn near everything -- and everyone -- behind for what we hoped to be the start of a lifetime of travel. But a lifetime is a mighty long time. Is it working?
SHE: Told you it would be a weird show. But Evo's right. Our numbers are flat on... just about everything. Maybe it's the summer. Maybe it's that our content is vastly different than what people expect. Maybe we just need to wait a little longer for our stuff to reach more of the right people.
EVO: But that doesn't mean we're not enjoying the living abroad lifestyle.
SHE: Sadly, we still don't live in a post-scarcity world and everyone -- even us -- has to worry about money. More so us, because we've ignored it for the better part of six months.
EVO: The trick, and our newfound area of concentration, will be figuring out how to make money and keep doing the things -- and producing the content -- that keeps our primary audience happy.
EVO: Spend time doing the things we want to be doing. Ok, so that's not really much of a revelation. But it was good for us to say it out loud and to each other. I'll spare you the hour-plus audio debate of what we do and do not like producing and just leave you with this: Expect some changes.
SHE: Changes to our content. Changes in our focus. And of course, changes of our scenery.
EVO: What won't change is our commitment to each other and our commitment to complete the year abroad we'd planned.
SHE: Planned. That's a nice word. Maybe, we should have done that around this time last year?
EVO: Yeah... maybe. Hey, here's an idea. Let's get the hell out of here for a few days.
SHE: OK. I hear Phuket's nice this time of year.
EVO: Nowhere in southern Thailand is nice this time of year, but I appreciate you trying to make me feel better.
SHE: Anything for you, baby.
EVO: We'll be back next week. Probably. And we'll probably feel better. Probably. Normally I'd say "cheers" here. Still not feeling very cheers-y. So... yeah.
SHE: Funding for our endless world tour is provided, oddly enough, by postcards.
EVO: Give us five bucks, and we'll send you a hand-written postcard from our travels abroad every single month. Get on the list at ShEvo.wtf/postcards.
SHE: And we save a ton of money by housesitting. It's freeand beats living in hotels. Want super cool people like us looking after your pets and property while you're traveling? Visit ShEvo.wtf/stayforfree to register, either as a housesitter or a home owner. We do it, and we love it! Thanks for listening to this episode. I’m Sheila Dee.
EVO: And I am Evo Terra. Our theme music is "On the Ground" by Kevin MacLeod at incompetech.com. All other sounds, voices, and odd bits you hear were most likely created or captured by us. Visit ShEvo.wtf to get more goodness from us and to see where opportunity will take us next. Thanks for again for listening and tell a friend about us. Now would be good.
New episodes of the The Opportunistic Travelers Podcast are available every Tuesday. Of course, Tuesday can be a very different thing depending on where we are in the world. Cheers!