Thanks for chatting with me! Where have been working from lately?
I’ve been in 5 countries in the past two months: Spain, where I’m based right now, Norway to do a wedding video, India for a wedding video, the Netherlands for a business conference, and Italy for a design conference. I usually have a business related reason for my travels because I love traveling, but I don’t love vacation. I feel lazy when I’m on vacation, and I can’t stand it too long. In these places, I was either working or learning – or both!
Here’s the big question: how do get to travel the world and work from anywhere?
Sure! I get asked that question all the time. First of all NO, I don’t have a sugar daddy! I serve clients all over the world by doing creative digital services such as graphic design, video making, and even voiceover work. My clients find me either through my website or on Fiverr.com where I have a profile, but I’m going to stop using Fiverr because I have developed a large enough clientele that I don’t need their exposure anymore. It’s enough work serving all of the clients I have already, as they keep coming back for more work. Naturally, after we’ve work together once or twice, they’d rather work with me directly than through Fiverr which takes a 20% cut of everything.
Your business is growing, that’s great! Have you thought about hiring to help lighten your workload or increase productivity?
Yes! I have hired two amazing women that work with me on a freelance basis. My business growth would not have been possible without them this year, so a word of advice: do not undermine the power of outsourcing! (And if any of my clients are seeing this, I only outsource the repetitive time-consuming tasks, not the creative decisions!)
So how is it being someone’s actual boss at age 25?
It’s crazy! The women I hired are older than me, but they totally look up to me, which is so odd and humbling at the same time. But I actually told them that they are fired at the end of the year because I’ve been mentoring them to start their own businesses. They are so talented and intelligent that they deserve to have their own employees and benefit more for the work that they can do. With me, they’re replaceable, so I’d rather watch them grow to their full potential than keep them to myself.
That’s very kind of you… so how will you continue to run your business without your employees?
Great question! They are currently helping me set up a business with an automated funnel that sells itself, so hopefully by the end of the year, I don’t need employees anymore, other than a virtual assistant from time to time. The business is essentially an eLearning platform where you can buy online courses to enhance your business and career. It’ll include instructional videos and templates. We’re putting a lot of thought and work into these programs so I can’t wait to share them with people. And fortuitous, the courses that we are creating teach the same processes that I am using to mentor them toward having their own remote businesses like me.
What else can you tell us about the online courses that are coming out and when can we expect them?
So we’re developing two courses at the moment. The first one is called Anywhere Careers, which is the one I just mentioned. How to start an online business by leveraging high profit skills with little to no experience or investment. It’s the exact process that I wish I had when I was starting out and took me years of trial and error to figure out. I always had creative skills but never had the business insight to know how to sell them effectively. This course teaches a combination of both! And the second one is called The eCourse Guru which is for a more advanced audience, people who already have a following, either online or in person, and want to monetize their skills by creating a profitable online course in any subject. Both of them will be available by January 1, 2020 if not sooner. We’d love to finish before the holidays, but it’s my baby so I want it to be perfect when we launch.
Those courses sound very interesting. You mentioned they would come with templates, so what kind of templates are going to be included?
Well my educational background is in filmmaking and graphic design. And in starting my own business, I have learned the value of “visual branding” which is using visual elements to stand out in business. For example, my resume is not just a plain word doc; it actually shows my personality through the design! And another example, my Fiverr account exploded with traffic when I was brand new to the platform because people loved my promotional video. I know this because they told me so. I attribute a lot of my instant success to having a professional looking video and resume. So I, along with my team, have spent months creating templates for things like that, and so many other applications. Users will be able to drag and drop elements to customize them and use for their own businesses. We wanted templates that were modern and complete but would look original and different when different people customized them. So we also teach people how to utilize their unique brand identity to select colors, fonts, and images that really communicate their brand to the audience they are trying to attract: in both cases, with freelance businesses and online courses.
And what else can we expect from the tutorial videos you mentioned?
So yes, branding tutorials for sure, and it’s different for the two programs. In the case of Anywhere Careers, it includes how to decide on a skill, a niche within that skill, the basics of how to actually do the work required to do that service well, advanced tutorials on how to present yourself online, and advanced business techniques to grow your business as smoothly as possible. And in the case of The eCourse Guru, it’s a little more hands-on because by the end of the program you will have created your own entire online course, using templates provided, which you can then sell and profit from, and we also break down the exact steps needed to sell it. I think they are both an amazing investment, but of course I am totally biased!
They sound very interesting! Once you get these courses up and running, what’s next?
Like I said, the business is mostly automated, but there will be a lot of work in keeping tabs on the customers. I don’t want it to be a product that people just buy it and never hear from me again. I want to see what people are actually doing with it and give them feedback. And everyone who enrolls will have access to a community where we inspire each other and keep each other accountable, so I’ll be leading that full time. And that doesn’t feel like work, because that’s what really gets me up in the morning. It’s so important for people to have a likeminded community and accountability partners on this entrepreneurship journey, so I couldn’t leave that element out of the business.
I’m also getting ready for a speaking tour next year and preparing for that. I don’t have many details yet, but I’m confirmed to speak at three different entrepreneurial conferences.
Well thanks for sharing your business plans with me. My final question, where is your next destination? I’m doing a little tour over the holidays. My next flight is booked to New York city, but I’m then traveling to Chicago for fun, to LA to visit family for Thanksgiving, to Guatemala to visit the homes of my employees and see where they grew up, then back to LA for Christmas. I haven’t decided when I’ll come back to Barcelona, but I don’t like planning too far in advance. It’s fun to be spontaneous. One of the many benefits of being a digital nomad. For more info check out www.brittanynew.com or connect on Instagram @brittanyvnew.