Living the Nomadic Dream: The Story of ‘Digital Bromad’ Riley Bennett
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Living the Nomadic Dream: The Story of ‘Digital Bromad’ Riley Bennett

Prepare to be inspired as you hear the remarkable journey of Riley Bennett, an independent entrepreneur who transformed his dropshipping company into a flourishing Amazon private label business, all while living his dream life as a digital nomad for the past 8 years. With a burning passion for travel and a relentless pursuit of success, Riley has established himself as a shining example of what it means to truly live life on your own terms.

Through his YouTube channel, Livin That Life, he has inspired countless others to chase their own dreams and embrace the digital nomad lifestyle. In this podcast, you’ll learn about the

  • Eventuality mindset
  • The art of building a global channel on YouTube,
  • The power of the 4-hour workweek
  • The crucial first steps to becoming a digital nomad.

Get ready to be motivated and empowered to take charge of your own destiny!

Becoming A Digital Nomad – A One-Way Ticket To South East Asia

What is Digital Noamd?

A digital nomad is someone who chooses to travel while working remotely from their laptop. This allows them to enjoy a more exotic lifestyle while keeping costs down and investing more in their online business. It’s a truly liberating way to live!

Riley and his business partner Parker discovered this incredible lifestyle back in 2014 while attending an eCommerce conference in Chiang Mai, Thailand. They quickly realized that Amazon selling was their key to unlocking the freedom they craved.

For the next 5.5 years, Riley explored the stunning sights and sounds of South East Asia, from the bustling streets of Bangkok to the tranquil beaches of Bali. But for Riley, this was just the beginning of his adventure. His dream of seeing the world was only made possible through his determination to succeed as a digital nomad.

Starting a nomadic lifestyle

Prepare to be moved by the incredible resilience and determination of Riley and Parker as they faced some of the toughest challenges on their journey to success. At the beginning of their new life as digital nomads, they found themselves dangerously close to running out of money.

The thought of having to give up on their dream and return to traditional jobs was a crushing blow. In 2015, their first Amazon private label product was unexpectedly canceled by the supplier, leaving them with a $2,000 investment and no clear path forward. They were facing rent deadlines with almost no funds in their account. It was a daunting and overwhelming situation.

With Chinese New Year looming, they knew they had to take a risk and invest what little money they had left into a single product. It was a make-or-break moment. But against all odds, their gamble paid off. The product took off, bringing in $100 of profit per day within a month of its launch.

Their perseverance and hard work paid off even further as they continued to refine their product, creating a 2.0 version that still sells successfully today, over 5 years later, bringing in over $2,000 in profit per month. Their journey shows that even in the face of adversity, anything is possible with determination and a willingness to take risks.

“Like any business, it takes a combination of a good idea, execution, strategy, and a little bit of luck in there…. And a little hail mary faith” 〜 Riley Bennet

The Eventuality Mindset – An Entrepreneur’s Right Of Passage

Riley has observed from his interactions with solopreneurs and entrepreneurs in the real world that it often takes multiple attempts before finding a winning strategy. When it comes to Amazon, he advises people to expect the unexpected, and not to be surprised if things don’t go according to plan. For instance, an account could get suspended or flagged for seemingly no reason at all. These setbacks are part of the entrepreneurial journey, and one should be mentally prepared to tackle them.

Life, according to Riley, can be unpredictable, with both good and bad luck happening at random intervals. However, those who keep trying, even in the face of obstacles, are the ones who ultimately succeed. Riley believes that success is inevitable, and not just a matter of if, but when.

The 90:5:5 Principle, a common business saying, suggests that only a small portion of what one does yields a large percentage of the desired results. Therefore, persistence is key, and one must continue to take action until something works. Riley himself always had an eventual mindset, which enabled him to persevere and achieve his goals as a digital nomad.

Building a Global YouTube Channel

Riley’s Youtube journey and motivation

From a young age, Riley had a natural inclination towards creativity. Even in middle school, he would use his MP3 player to record various sounds at school and use GarageBand to splice them together, creating comedic mixtapes that he would sell for $5 each. He enjoyed documenting, creating, and recording different experiences.

When Riley moved to Chiang Mai, he started daily Snapchat vlogs to document his new life. He began to gain a following and was soon known as “the guy living in Thailand.” However, during a visit back home, he realized that he had been capturing so many memories on his phone, but should have been doing so in HD quality. So he decided to invest in a vlog camera for $600.

This purchase proved to be life-changing for him. When he returned to Asia, he started documenting his digital nomad life in Saigon via vlogs. With one edit per week, he gradually attracted a substantial following, now totaling over 60K subscribers. His motivation came from documenting his experiences and memories as something to look back on and reminisce about.

Riley was genuinely interested in the culture, street food, and digital nomad lifestyle, as it was the first year of living his dream life. The camera allowed him to capture his experiences in a way that he could revisit them in the future and relive the moments that made his life enjoyable.

“As quoted by Tim Ferris ‘I was scratching my own itch’” 〜 Riley Bennet

Since his teenage years, Riley has been an avid follower of travel vloggers like Casey Neistat, one of the most popular vloggers with over 12.5M subscribers. Riley was inspired by Casey’s filming, editing, and content creation style as a creative person and tried to replicate it in his own travel adventures. Other travel vloggers, such as PassportHeavy and FunForLouis, also influenced his nomadic travel vlogs. Riley had been following PassportHeavy for over seven years, and FunForLouis’s daily travel vlogs, which ran for 900 consecutive days, had fascinated him.

After launching his travel vlog for about a year and a half, Riley began receiving questions from his viewers about how he was able to travel so frequently. He would respond by saying, “I sell on Amazon” or “I have a private labeling thing.” These responses eventually led to further inquiries, prompting him to write a blog post on his website titled “How we make money while traveling.” As a result, his viewers began asking for mentorship and requested to purchase his course. This led to Riley and Peter creating their own private label course in 2016. Eventually, they expanded their business by interviewing other digital nomads about their online income streams and business models.

Although Riley never intended to transform his YouTube channel into a brand, it evolved into a “one-stop-shop” for anyone interested in the digital nomad lifestyle due to numerous requests from his viewers.

To those who want to start a YouTube Channel

He advises those who want to start a YouTube channel to share content that they are passionate about. In the beginning, Livin That Life was just an outlet for Riley to scratch an itch, and he did not envision it as a brand. However, he discovered that if he put out content that he was genuinely interested in, others would be interested as well.

While Riley’s creative side is free-flowing and serendipitous, his business side is very intentional. The private label model was a critical component of his business’s success. Although there is no single way to create a YouTube channel, Riley suggests that you create authentic content, listen to your audience’s requests, and respond to them.

Stress Management

Tim Ferris’s 4-hour workweek

Riley has been inspired by Tim Ferriss’ book “The 4-Hour Work Week,” which teaches to view stressful situations as positive and exciting opportunities. As an entrepreneur, building a brand can be stressful, especially during challenging times like the current pandemic that has caused a 50% decrease in sales. However, it’s essential to have a positive mindset and remember that it’s “mind over matter.” You can choose to see the situation as a hindrance or as an opportunity to come up with new ideas to create more income streams and balance things out.

When faced with obstacles, you should ask yourself how you can capitalize on the situation and turn it around to come out even better than before. Your mindset is the key factor that can determine your success or failure in any given situation.

Riley believes that challenges and roadblocks are part and parcel of being an entrepreneur, and we signed up for them when we decided to become our own bosses instead of working a regular job. Therefore, it’s crucial to be excited when the roller coaster of entrepreneurship goes down because those challenges are what we signed up for.

The First Step to Become a Digital Nomad

Riley found success by purchasing a conference ticket six months in advance, which was scheduled to take place in South Asia in 2014. By doing so, he committed to a specific date, which served as a starting point for his new lifestyle.

You can do the same by attending the Nomad Summit in Chiang Mai, Thailand every January or the Bali summit held every June.

According to Riley, buying a ticket and committing to an event is the first step in building a new path forward. It not only makes the goal more tangible, but it also provides an opportunity to meet like-minded individuals.

By attending events like these, you can connect with others who share your interest in “Living That Life” and make your dreams a reality.

Connect With Riley:

Alright, guys, that’s it for now!

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