Tag: business

Client Highlight: Creating a Photography Business

Today I thought I’d take some time to highlight one of our clients. Pam has been a close friend of ours for several years. Last summer she decided to take her love of photography and create a business. She came to Joel and I for business coaching, bought Joel’s book, The Commonsense Entrepreneur, and has made excellent progress.

We started having weekly coaching calls to help Pam define exactly what she wanted to do and how to accomplish that. We currently have a call every other week. When we decided to start our nomadic lifestyle, Pam generously provided note cards of her photographic art work for us to use as thank you cards as we traveled. People all over the country have one of Pam’s note cards that we’ve left behind to say thank you for allowing us to stay with them.

Pam also took some informal photographs at our daughter’s wedding last month. I specifically asked her to take photos of Joel, Fiona and I and here’s the favorite.

The Canfield Family

Please check out Pam’s work at her website, Get The Little Picture. I know you’ll enjoy her blog posts as well.

No Back; Only Forth

Leaving Sacramento after our daughter’s wedding, Sue pointed out that this was the real beginning of our nomadic life.

Up ’til now, everything has either been a dress rehearsal (our month in Vancouver) or a trip (to Montreal) or a temporary holding pattern until we had to go back. We always had to go back.

This time, there’s no back, only forth.

We’re not going somewhere we have to come back from. We don’t have any specific places we have to be, or be back to. Nothing to hold us to any particular spot on the planet. Nothing to do that isn’t exactly what we’ve chosen.

Joel braves 70mph winds at Bray Head, Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Joel braves 70mph winds at Bray Head, Valentia Island, Co. Kerry, Ireland
Forth. Only forth. We go forth to house sit for someone who wasn’t an existing connection. Forth to spend real time near the place I was born but have rarely seen since then. Forth to August in Canada (I got my wish, again.) Forth to the easternmost land on this continent, to balance our standing on the westernmost land in Europe.

Our time here in Phoenix feels all too short, but before it ends in one week, we’ll have passed the 6-month mark in our nomadic life. The past 6 months have been the greatest period of change in my life, and in my head. I didn’t know it was possible to know Sue any better, and I do. I thought I knew where I was going with our business. Turns out that the greatest leap was to something that’s not a business at all, but a reason, so April 19th I’m launching a Great Big Thing that will be our primary business focus, despite the fact that it’s not a business at all.

During the past 6 months, I’ve forgiven myself for a lot of things. I’ve found things in my head that I didn’t even know were there, and found things I thought I’d lost. If we settled down in a little village somewhere tomorrow, I would still be changed irrevocably.

When you travel, the greatest discovery is yourself.

Reflection: consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose

I’m sure all our fans and readers out there are eager for a new post. We’ve noticed that when we post daily we have more visitors to the site. When we’re settled in a bit and nothing new is posted, there’s no reason for you all to come stop by, visit and say hi. So here’s my post dedicated to all our loyal readers – thank you!

Merriam Webster defines reflection (one definition) as: consideration of some subject matter, idea, or purpose. Today I’m taking a bit of time to reflect, or consider, what we’ve been doing as nomads, the purpose of it and how we continue to adapt to our nomadic life.

When we left from home in California September 30, 2010, we had a destination in mind – Montreal (actually about an hour outside of the city). We knew we had friends graciously awaiting us to stay with them for a few weeks and we wanted to be sure we had time to get there, visit, and get out again before the snow stuck to the ground. As a result we had a rather hurried trip from California to Canada and did not get to spend much time along the way visiting with friends and neglected to spend as much time in our business as we needed.

Once we knew we had a few weeks in Quebec, we settled in and started reconnecting and got busy with work again. Now that we’re leaving Quebec in 6 days to head back to California, we’re planning to take more time visiting with people on the way back. We also need to spend time in our businesses each day. So to all our gracious hosts – thank you! We do plan to spend more time visiting with you. Please remember too that we will need time each day to get down to business as well. That’s how we’ll afford gas so we can make it to your place. :)

One reason we chose to live a nomadic life is that we love having control of our time and schedule. We love being able to work from anywhere, teaching Fiona along the way, connecting with new prospects and clients in person. Sometimes things come up that require us to adapt and that’s okay. I keep reminding myself to live this moment and not worry about the next.

What are some of the things we’ve been able to do and plan to do in the coming months? Remember, our goal is to continue to be able to work from wherever we’re at. It’s not our goal to be sight seeing adventurers. Of course we’d love to be able to see some sights. But getting to know people is so much more important to us.

We’ve connected with some great people as we’ve traveled. Some we knew from online business connections and other we’ve met in places we’ve stayed. It’s been great staying with Cristina Favreau and her family here in Quebec. Not only has Fiona made great friends with her children, Joel and I have been able to help her with her business ideas. Another new connection we made was with Sonja Stiefel. She’s an artist we met in New Mexico and has since become a client.

We’ll be staying for a bit with Joel’s mom again in Wisconsin during November. We’ll be back in Roseville, California for about a week the first part of December. Then we head down to San Diego to be with my mom since she needs knee surgery. We’ll be updating you soon with a complete itinerary.

Working Remotely: Business as Usual

Someone sent me a message today wishing us a great vacation in Vancouver. We’re not on vacation! We’re working remotely and it’s business as usual. That’s what’s great about being a virtual worker. As long as we have internet access we  can work from any location on the globe.

Today we are doing a special event on location though. The Client Communication Clinic in Vancouver, BC at The Network Hub starts at 9 am. If you didn’t have a chance to register here, you can still get all the same great information – in person!

Joel and I will be in the Vancouver BC area through most of August. We’d love to meet you in person. We’ll come to you anywhere in the greater Vancouver area and meet with you as long as you like and provide you all the materials from the clinic for the same price as if you had attended the clinic – only you get personalized attention. Just use the contact form and let us know when and where you’d like to meet.

We’ll also be visiting various Waves Coffee Shops in the area so watch for us. We’ll be at the  one at Kingsway & Edmonds Monday August 9th at 12:30. See you then

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

Today Fiona heard Daddy say something about a friend who still doesn’t know what he wants to be when he grows up. Fiona then said, “I know what I want to be when I grow up!” So we asked her what she wanted to be. Her reply, “I want to do everything!”

She’s been exposed to a lot of different ideas growing up in our household. We’ve run several businesses from home since she first started walking. As she continues to grow, we want her to be exposed to other opportunities as well. Thus, the travel.

So, what do you want to be when you grow up?