Freedom, Travel, and Never Missing Happy Hour: 5 Things LocationRebel has Given Me

This is a guest post by my good friend and community manager Liz Froment. 

When she isn’t working on her own content creation business, working on marketing automation or helping me out, she’s tweeting away at @lfroment.

With that, I’ll let her get to it! Take it away, Liz…

To say joining Location Rebel has changed my life for the better is a massive understatement.

For a long time, I thought there was something wrong with me. I had dream jobs working in corporate finance, the dream resume, making good money, an awesome career trajectory, you’ve heard it all before.

But something was missing and I couldn’t figure out what it was.

I became somewhat of a job jumper, which in corporate finance is sort of ok since it’s the perfect way to leverage a higher paying income, yet like clockwork, 18 months into every single job I grew miserable.

Until, I found Location Rebel.

When I started I didn’t know what I wanted to do, I had a million ideas. I wanted to be a famous travel blogger, create an app that focused on the Freedom Trail, and try my hand at selling affiliate marketing products.

I just knew I never wanted to sit in an office and be bored and miserable ever again.

It’s been just over three years since I pulled the trigger on joining LR, and just over two years since I left the 9-5 world.

Looking back I have done way more than I even dreamed I would have been able to do when I started.

I still have a way to go, and plenty of more dreams to reach, but thus far, these are the five best things about being a Location Rebel.

1) Having an Awesome Mentor

One of things that made LR a no-brainer for me was that I was already an active reader of Sean’s blog.

After I found it one day, I read the entire thing over a binge session at work (yup, I was that bored) and instantly connected.

It was almost a light bulb moment, this guy was just like me and he did this crazy thing to change his life, so why couldn’t I?

That first weekend, I emailed Sean to just say thanks and tell him I was so happy I found his blog. To my shock, he emailed right back and the rest, let’s say is history.

Now, I’m the community manager of LR, and am so lucky to be able to have someone like Sean guide me and support me with my own business plans the last few years.

2) Traveling Whenever I Want

Travel has always been a huge passion of mine.

The funny thing is, I’d never even really left the country until I was in college when I went on a spring break trip to London. To say I was bit hard by the travel bug was an understatement.

My second trip out of the US was to Amsterdam, for a six month study abroad, so you could say I pretty much jumped right in!

Not being able to travel was one of the things about having a standard job that really wore on me.

I hated having to beg for vacation days, and would spend my trips feeling guilty I wasn’t working. Then of course that utter dread before I returned, knowing I’d have a huge pile of crap (and at least 27 “emergencies”) to deal with.

Now, I’m pretty much able to travel whenever I feel like it.

Even though, like Sean, I still stay home much of the year, the simple idea that I could jump on a plane makes it so worth it. Plus, I’ve been able to go on some pretty cool trips.

In the last year, I’ve spent a week in Vegas for Thanksgiving with British and Australian friends, hung out for three weeks in England and Scotland, spent a month in Portland after the World Domination Summit, hopped on a last minute cruise with my sister to Bermuda, and done a couple of trips to New York to visit old friends and meet some other Location Rebels with Sean.

Next month, I’m flying to Dublin where I’ll make my way through Europe for a few weeks, before heading back stateside to do a bucket list trip to Red Sox Spring Training in Florida.

So yea, looks like I solved that travel bug issue! Obviously, I wouldn’t have been able to do this if I were still in my day job…

3) Meeting Amazing People

Before I found Location Rebel, none of my friends from home were into the whole online world like I was. They all had traditional jobs that most of them had been in for years, when I would be on my third or fourth company.

When I got into the LR forums I had finally found a group of people who were like me.

Not gonna lie, it was an awesome feeling!

I’ve made friends, like really good friends, with at least a dozen LR members.

These people I chat with all the time, have been lucky to meet many in person, and would have no problem crashing on their couches if I happened to wander through their respective cities and countries.

Not only that, but finding a huge online community has been such a boost for both my personal confidence and my business goals.

Now, I have no problem Skyping them or shooting off a note asking for help, confident that I’ll get a response. It’s been pretty cool to expand my circle and really make great connections with so many people in a way I never thought was possible before.

4) Expanding my Knowledge

Holy crap I know how to do a lot of stuff now!

Chances are, you do too and you don’t even know it.

Before I started Location Rebel I knew what a blog was, that was it.

It is truly amazing once you surround yourself with people who want to have successful businesses how much you can pick up and learn.

Just in the past few weeks I was explaining how to set up email autoresponder funnels, made a slide share of a popular Location180 post, offered suggestions on a good plugin to use for a WordPress site and researched a potential Kindle book project.

Two years ago, I would have thought I’d never in a million years know how to do any of that!

Being able to learn new things and practice hands on has been a huge way to help grow my skill-set and my online brand.

Plus, it’s great to be known as the person who can get x, y, z done. I used to scoff at the idea of a relative expert, and once you are sort of immersed in the online world it is easy to forget just how many people don’t know a fraction of the things we do.

So much of it I learned just by simply hands on doing it, I used the blueprints and forums to figure out how to do it then just went for it. Yup, the learning curve can be huge at times, but I’ve been able to attack (and accomplish) some big projects.

So get out there and capitalize on it!

5) More Freedom

When I used to think about the reasons why I wanted to be out of a traditional job I’d always have a ton of them, but everything really boiled down to one thing: freedom.

Having the freedom to do what you want when you want is liberating.

Now I can go to sleep when I want and wake up when I want. I don’t live my life by the grind of an alarm clock anymore.

If I feel like working in my pjs, I can!

I can take long lunches with friends and never have to worry about being late for happy hour because I was stuck working on a last minute project.

I can decide to go to a conference at the last minute, or roll into Starbucks at 3pm to start working.

I don’t have to grocery shop on the weekends when everyone else is there, I can get my hair cut at 11am on a Tuesday.

It seems kinda trivial, but in reality, it’s all those really small things that, for me at least, have dramatically added to my quality of life.

I love having the freedom to work on my own time, I never realized how much of it I had lost until I was able to get it back.

Of course, I could go on, but I think you get the gist!

Now, when I hop on Sean’s blog and read the posts, I realize his life and my own aren’t so far off anymore (of course I play waaaay less golf).

Yes, it’s been a roller coaster at times, but I can say without hesitation I’ve never spent a second thought wishing I could go back to an office. It’s amazing what the power of finding one site can do.

Now it’s your turn. For those Location Rebels in the house, what has being an LR given you that you never thought possible?

Liz Froment

Liz Froment is a full-time freelance writer and the one who keeps Location Rebel running like a well-oiled machine. If she's not writing something informative or witty for her clients, she can most likely be found reading a good book.

Keep Reading

Explore more →

How Location Rebel Academy Changed Liz Froment’s Life

Liz Froment joined Location Rebel Academy and quit her job less than a year later. A decade since then? She's still working for herself.

How Derek Halpern Helped Me Make Over $500,000

Derek Halpern of Social Triggers gave me on piece of advice years ago. That one piece of advice has led to me making over $500,000 in the last few years.

LRA Member Story: How Natalie Replaced Her Day Job Income in 8 Months With Location Rebel

Natalie replaced her day job income within 8 months of joining Location Rebel Academy. Here's how she did it and how you can too.