Name: Colin Wright
Blog: http://exilelifestyle.com/
Twitter: @ColinisMyName
Email: colingwright [at] gmail.com
How do you go about selling all of your possessions? How can you amicably and respectfully break up with your girlfriend (or boyfriend) to live the mobile lifestyle? How can you streamline your business by cutting down the number of clients, cutting down hours worked, and still maintain the same revenue stream? Do mobile artists live from paycheck to paycheck or do they make more than enough to save money for whatever they want?
Colin Wright answers ALL of these questions and more. I really respect Colin for his wisdom, kindness, and business savvy. Trust me, you’re going to learn a whole lot from this interview.
Here’s a summary of our summary:
How are you breaking the template lifestyle?
Colin decided to “invest” in himself by selling everything that he owns and taking his business on the road to Argentina. He now runs his business in a new country every four months. He then lets his readers vote for what country he goes to next.
How long into your business did you decide to take it on the road?
After 2 years into his business, Colin reached a point where he did not have to promote himself anymore. Once he got into the right groups in LA, it became “too easy” to get clients. I was fun, but he was working 100 hour weeks.
How did you optimize your work so that you could maintain the same level of income but work significantly less hours?
Colin applied the 80/20 principle to his business. He pin-pointed the clients that were bringing in the most revenue and decided to only focus those types of clients. Clients that could not afford Colin’s rates were referred to other designers that Colin trusted and recommended.
Colin then increased his price-point per client through bundled packages: design work, brand work, illustrations, marketing, and social media grouped packages.
Colin also set firm guidelines and milestones with his clients so that he would not have to get on a call with them every week.
What is the best way to sell my possessions?
It was a full-time job for a couple of months to sell everything. Most of the sales came through friends.
Colin had a garage sale room and would invite every friend that came over to take a look at the items in the room and purchase what they liked.
What is a break-up party?
Colin had an idealistic relationship with his girlfriend at the time. They mutually decided to part ways because their lives were going in completely different directions.
Their break-up party celebrated their parting of ways because of the love and respect that they have for each other.
How did you move to Argentina without knowing anyone there and without knowing the language?
Colin has a rule when he goes to a new country:
He reads the Wikipedia article about the country, and then talks to people about the country. He does not do any research beyond that because he does not want to spoil the experience.
Do you feel everyone has the potential to do what you do, or do you feel that only certain skill sets have the ability to live the mobile lifestyle?
In the mobile lifestyle path, you will usually find the usual suspect: freelancers, teachers, designer, developers
If your current skill-set does NOT currently have a mobile trajectory, then you need to create it or you need to learn skill-sets that will allow you to live mobile.
If a mobile version of your job doesn’t exist, it’s up to you to create it.
Great quote
Is it me or does Colin have the voice of a 35 year old veteran journalist(in the best way possible)…
The interview is fantastic…beyond the location independence…the segment on realizing your worth and leverage that was spot on. Being able to harness what you do and be bold enough to step out from the comfort of your job and rely on your skills and abilities is a huge turning point for any entrepreneur.
Big fan of both Colin and Jun!!
interesting interview. You know the question about…can anyone do this is? Is something that I am questioning to, I am currently unemployed and I am reading the 4hourworkweek. I am on the automation chapter and I am just trying to figure out how to just start my own internet business but I don’t see how I can do this with no income.
Should I keep blogging until I can get some income through it or should I get a job in my career?
It really depends on your current situation:
1. How long can you survive w/o a stable income?
2. Do you have a family that depends on you?
3. What business ideas do you have?
4. Have you previously started a business?
5. Do you have the capital to invest in your business?
If you have a family, then you need to get a job.
If you can only survive the next 2 months w/o a stable income, then you need to get a job.
Your blog will most likely not provide you with stable income.
What business ideas do you have?
Good stuff Jun. Keep up these interviews, they are very enjoyable to watch.
Best, Sam
Great interview Jun, I love what Colin is doing it is so inspiring! This really motivated me to get more mobile 🙂
Great interview Colin and Jun! I love hearing the story direct from the source. Even though I am back home gearing up for my next hop around the globe you keep me inspired and motivated to stay mobile and minimal. Awesome work guys 😀
Interesting video. I’d like to add that all of us can become Exiles or whatever we dream, we just have to learn the simple art of Manifesting.
Manifesting starts in your imagination. Your imagination is the most powerful tool that was gifted to you upon birth. It has no boundaries! Everything else in your life surely has some limitation, whereas the power of your imagination is only limited by you. Since I’ll be talking much about this topic throughout my blog, I won’t try to explain the entire process in this post, since it would be exhausting. But here’s a rundown.
Imagine what you desire in the greatest detail possible. Imagine your best life, your perfect job, your ideal relationships, etc. If you really want to do yourself a favor, write these details down. You will thank yourself later. How do I know this?
I used the message to get where I am now. A little over one year ago, my life was in the dumps. I was “trapped” in a town in Idaho that didn’t care about my existence in the least. Every day was boring and lonely – even though I had a loyal girlfriend, things just weren’t going my way.
So, feeling pretty helpless, I gave this idea of manifesting a shot. I wrote down every single detail I could think of to describe my ideal life in a sort of checklist. I envisioned that I’d be living in a warm location in a nice house surrounded by nature. My social life would be great, members of my family would be nearby, and I’d be living with successful poker players. I’d have a healthy diet and go to the gym twice a week. Money would come easy.
Flash forward to my life now. You guessed it, all of those things came true. Right around the time that I wrote all these things down, my life began to change. New opportunities presented themselves, including an invite by fellow poker players to move to a million dollar lake house near Austin, TX. I still have the checklist, and it’s absolutely mind-blowing to go back and look at what I ‘wished’ for and to see how it came true. Seriously.
I’ll stop there for now. Do subscribe to my blog so you can be immediately informed of updates… http://kyleswarren.com
-Kyle
I’ve been slowly but surely digging into Colin’s story and following Exile Lifestyle and have really connected with his story. I’ve really enjoyed learning about how he’s transitioned his business and lifestyle and the crowdsourced method of selecting new locations is really cool.
Rock on, Colin!
Excellent site. Thanks for the info will be very useful. Keep up the good work. Hope to see more soon.