Traveling over 20+ countries while Running a 12k/month remote agency

Hey Guys! - Mave from Lazy Virtual Office - where we interview founders who don't compromise freedom for money and time, through automation, delegation, and systems.

Today, I have an amazing interview with Michael Gardiner, who is currently CEO of Nomads with Solutions (www.nomadswithsolutions.com) and runs and operates a handful of other small businesses.

Michael Gardiner is a 20-year-old serial entrepreneur, speaker, investor, philanthropist, Eagle Scout, and self-proclaimed “adrenaline junkie”. Michael specializes in digital marketing, having three years of experience, and having a combined following of over 1,000,000 followers.

Quick business summary

Business model: Social Media Marketing Agency

No. of employees: Contractor only team

Location independence: Yes

Revenue: 12k/mth

Tell us a little about yourself and what you’re working on right now?

My name is Michael Gardiner, and I am a 20yro digital nomad and serial entrepreneur born in Stuart, Florida. I have been an entrepreneur since the age of 15, when I started my first business.

My main business is called “Nomads with Solutions” and it is a digital marketing agency specializing in Facebook lead generation. Our customers pay us to find them qualified leads that in turn make them more money.

I have been able to leverage this business to meet incredibly successful people, travel full time to over 20 countries (+10~ independent territories) by the age of 20, and build myself a multiyear safety net. I can safely say, starting young in business was the best decision of my life.

What’s your back story and how you got into this space?

When I was 15 I was a sophomore in high school and primarily interested in normal kid things, including basketball, track, skateboarding, video games, hanging with friends, etc.. I happened to get injured playing basketball and in my free time applied for a job at a local pharmacy store. I have a terrible interview process where the person interviewing me took very little interest in me and I thought to myself that I wanted to make money on my terms.

Although my family has no entrepreneurs, nor did I know any, I got an idea for my first potential income stream. I had always followed themed accounts (nice cars, luxury houses, travel) on Instagram and figured I could build a big page to make money with eventually (and show off to my friends). Short story, I ended up growing a network of Instagram accounts to over 1,000,000 followers within a year and sold the network and used that money to fund my other ventures (of which most failed).

During that period I had the advantage of having two great loving parents who provided all I needed, so I could put all my money I wanted into business, for this, I am grateful. During that time I also worked some jobs, including working for a library, elementary school, and a rehab center.

Out of all the businesses I started with that money, the one that consistently did the best was my agency, Nomads with Solutions. Since then I have started 20+ businesses, and have had most fail, some do ok and a few do good, but Nomads with Solutions has always been the leader

What makes your business unique or different from the rest?

My business is not that unique. I don’t believe in re-inventing the wheel. I took a model that worked, improved upon areas such as client acquisition, and ensured my clients were getting the best results possible, then worked to make my business as systematized as possible.

What made this an easy source of revenue for you? What motivated you

This was not an easy source of revenue, I don’t think “easy revenue” is something that is real.

My main motivation in business is freedom, this includes time, financial, and location freedom.

Is your business location independent? Could you tell us more about it? If not location independent, why don’t you do it?

My business is location independent. I have people working for me all over the world, ranging from the United States to Bangladesh to the United Kingdom. I travel full time (traveling to over 15 countries in 2019) and my business is built to handle this type of travel.

What were some of the greatest challenges you struggled with? And how did you overcome it?

The largest challenge in a social media marketing agency for most people is consistent client acquisition. This is something that I have done well with by creating outreach methods that do not involve myself. My team does outreach to around 200-300 businesses per day, and the majority of this does not involve my time, which allows me to work on my business, and not in my business.

How many hours do you spend per day working on your business? How did you make your day more productive?

For this particular business, I spend around 10-15 hours per week working on my business.

The main reason I do not have to work more is because of the systems I have in place, and the contractors I leverage. I have separated my time from most lead generation, some sales, and all fulfillment.

As far as making my day more productive, I am a big believer in waking up early, having a clearly defined schedule, and also having planned downtime, so you have something to work towards.

What would your advice be for someone who’s just starting out?

Don’t underestimate the power of small improvement. One of my favorite sayings is “1% better every day”. It’s easy day today, to look at yourself and your business and feel like you have not gotten better or improved, and then put less effort in as a result. I believe this is the death of most entrepreneurs. Taking action (even if it’s a small action on a day you don’t feel motivated) is key. Most people who are “overnight successes” have been preparing for years. Try to go through every day getting slightly better as a person and a business owner.

Calculate the cost of your ideal lifestyle. Many people think that being an entrepreneur means making $100,000s of dollars and living a luxury playboy lifestyle. While that certainly can be the case, I think it’s important to understand that someone who makes $50,000 a year with their own business but uses their time freedom to be a better father is just as successful as the person who makes $500,000 a year and drives a Lamborghini. Consider the life you want, figure out how much you need to live that life, and use this figure to set your goals. For myself, if I made $1,000,000 a year I genuinely would not know what to do with the money, I am a very low maintenance person, who values freedom over anything else, so I base my cost estimate and goals around this.

Be obsessive about learning. Learning is free, you have books, podcasts, YouTube, and many more forms of content that can be used for learning free and at your fingertips. There is no excuse to not learn, you don’t need to go to a fancy private business school to learn the cutting edge strategies, you just need to do a YouTube search.

What were some of the mistakes you made?

The biggest mistake I made when first getting into business was not focusing enough. I tried to start multiple businesses at the same time, and because of this, I ended up having my focus split between too many ventures. This led to multiple failed businesses, and other businesses having slower progress than they should have.

What are some resources you’d recommend for beginners who want to do what you do?

One thing I have started doing this year (2020) is reading 1 book every week. As of (6/7/2020) I am almost finished with my 27th book. I think reading is one of the best things you can do to not only become a better entrepreneur but an overall better and wiser person. Some of the books that I have enjoyed the most are:

“Four Hour Work Week” by Tim Ferris - A book everyone should read at the beginning of their entrepreneurial journey (especially anyone interested in travel)

“The Happiness of Pursuit” by Chris Guillebeau - A great book discussing unconventional approaches to life and happiness

“The 10X Rule” by Grant Cardone - The best motivational business book I have ever read

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