Interview With Location Independent Entrepreneur Will Peach – Founder Of My Spanish Adventure

My latest interview in the Location Independent series is with Will Peach, one of the site editors at Gap Daemon, the gap year travel website for backpackers and young travellers. Will’s new project is My Spanish Adventure, a website following his journey in Spain where you can also find him answering the question “is Spanish hard to learn?” among others. Thanks Will!

What Were You Doing Before You Became Location Independent And What Made You Want To Change?

Hey Nicole! Thanks for inviting me to chat about my travelling and work endeavours. Let me start off my saying a massive “Hi” to your readers and best wishes for the year ahead. 2012 is going to rock hard. I’m sure of it!

Going LIP has been a dream of mine for quite a while now but only something that I’ve managed to flirt and get to grips with quite recently. Before I embarked on that pursuit I was already a fully-fledged traveller, having completed stints studying abroad (the University of Miami) and working abroad in Saigon, Vietnam, both as a staff writer at expat lifestyle magazine The Word and teaching English.

After my time in Vietnam was over I came back to London (I followed a girl – we’re all a bit foolhardy sometimes) and wound up working on the “multimedia team” of a trade press publisher for six months. At this company I made and developed websites, handled social media, did some PR, photography, video and otherwise dabbled in lots of different areas. Needless to say my heart wasn’t really in the subject matter and so I left to embark somewhat closer to the path I’m on now.

After leaving that company I went to work at Gap Daemon, a start-up social network focused on young independent travellers where I worked as Assistant Editor. There I stumbled across many amazing travel writers who first introduced me to the concept of location independence. After working there for a year I decided it was time to get out and travel myself and start building more relative experience as a travel editor. Thankfully Gap Daemon still keeps me on and makes my travel and writing dreams a possibility.

What Steps Did You Take To Become Location Independent?

Arranging a remote work agreement with my former employer (as I just mentioned) was the big one. I had to take a massive salary cut but am still supported quite well financially. In order to do this I simply remained honest about my plans and my wishes. I told my editor well in advance about what I wanted to do and how I thought I could help them. This seemed to work quite well as I’m still going strong for them now!

Aside from that however I also had to find other income streams. That’s when I really ramped up my freelance SEO writing business (I also just starting to get into consultancy) to help bring in another strong source of income. To help me figure all this out I joined a community called Location Rebel, which is run by the location independent blogger and entrepreneur Sean Ogle. The material and the community out there helped me get started by recommending reading material and actionable points that could help me find clients and pitch to them. I’ve also, through networking, managed to gain some healthy referrals.

To prepare for LIP I had to do a mountain of reading and save up quite a fair bit beforehand. Learning about the different ways in which you can help bring in money while travelling or living abroad, as well as contacting and introducing yourself to people doing exactly that, was definitely the best way I prepared.

How Are You Now Supporting Your Lifestyle?

I support my lifestyle now with a few little streams of income from different places and employers. Aside from the work I do as an independent freelancer and for Gap Daemon I also make a small income as an Associate Editor at Vagabundo Magazine, where I am in responsible for social media, editing the site content and digital magazine. Some of my new online projects, specifically My Spanish Adventure, are beginning to yield income from advertisers too.

I’d say the best way I support my lifestyle however is by living incredibly frugally. I never make big purchases, I couch surf or stay with friends if I can and I always try my best to keep my daily expenses low. Don’t get me wrong; I don’t live like a monk or anything. I still eat out and pay to see local attractions and things like that. I’d rather spend my money on travel and education than anything else. It helps that I also enjoy doing what I do for work!

What Does A Typical Day In Your New Life Look Like?

A typical day would involve waking early (6am – that’s easily my most productive period) and working up until the early afternoon (around 2pm). I start my day working for several freelance clients (now for example I have a massive ongoing writing task that I have to dedicate a certain amount of time to each week) for the first two to three hours. From there I’ll then move on to my travel writing and editing work (often doing my Gap Daemon work in this time) before then moving on to work on my own projects.

I’ll often spend the afternoon (2pm-8pm) chilling out, seeing the sights, grabbing something to eat, exercising or whatever. At the moment I’m teaching myself Spanish so that usually takes up this period of my time.

In the evening I’ll then come back to do a bit of work, read around the web a bit and start thinking of new ideas. I’ve got a massive to do list at the moment, which I’m using this time to try and whittle down.

Basically my day is pretty flexible and open. If I want to switch something around so I can do something else it’s easy. That’s what I love most about LIP and why I wouldn’t swap what I’m doing for anything else. To me it’s total freedom!

Thanks Will, I look forward to keeping in touch and good luck with that to do list!

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