If you've thought about becoming an entrepreneur, one of the most helpful things you can do is learn from the footsteps of others who've walked this path. 

In this podcast episode, I talk to you about what a Roadpreneur is, my term for an entrepreneur that RVs as often as possible, and why it matters to you.

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Transcript: What is a Roadpreneur?

I'm so thrilled to be kicking off episode one of the roadpreneur podcast. Welcome. Welcome. I'm thrilled that you are here and thrilled to have the opportunity to be sharing these ideas with you. It's truly such a gift.

I have been a business owner and entrepreneur for almost a decade. And throughout that time I've been behind the scenes, helping others build their businesses by being the proverbial wind in their sails.

I started out as a copywriter and have evolved to now have two companies — one e-commerce business and a membership creator where I teach other RV here's how to start and scale their business with monthly marketing templates, guides, and strategy.

This podcast is really designed just to teach you what I know, or as much as I can teach you across all the episodes.

I'm going to be giving you strategy. I'm going to give you be giving you copywriting tips. I'm going to be giving you lessons learned. I like to fail forward and I don't mind failing a little bit publicly and getting really vulnerable about what failures look like. I believe that that's actually really healthy and really valuable.

And so I am here to share it all with you. And we're kicking things off with my backstory, because if you don't know who I am. You're probably wondering who the heck this girl is thinking that she can go and teach our viewers how to grow a business.

I am an RVer myself, though not full-time. I'm a weekend warrior kind of girl, although I dream of someday living on the road.

And I am a business owner. I've owned my own business for, like I said, almost 10 years. I started out almost a decade ago and, the way that I started out was a little bit bumpy. It was not something that I chose and strategized for and saved for, and really just planned as the perfect business plan before launching in the world. It is actually quite the opposite.

It was messy, as it should be, and it was clunky and it was rushed. You know, all the things that we're taught, we don't ever really dream about for our business. And yet I would not change any of that for the, for the world.

Before we get into that story, let me start by sharing a glimpse into my past.

I actually started my career overseas in Denmark working for a startup software company. We grew from 1 million users to 5 million users in a very quick time. And when that happened, I got picked up by one of the investors over there. But then... I moved back to the United States, which is obviously where I'm originally from, as you can tell from my accent. I decided that I wanted to try my hand at management.

I love people. I love working with people, the management gig though, just wasn't quite right for me. That's because, I love watching people's behaviors and understanding their motivations behind why they act a certain why, and understanding what prompted them, what incentivized them, what triggered them to take that action.

And so I decided I needed to go back into the marketing world. I love business, and I love working with people and marketing lets me have all of that. So I found another startup software company and because it was the startup world as the startup world is, is very, um, uncertain and one afternoon. My boss at the time poked his head into my office and said, "I'm not going to be able to pay you this Friday. I'm not gonna be able to pay until next week because when we get our investor money, because you're married and so you have somebody to support you, I'm not. So I need to take the money for myself."

And while that might have been true, and I have a lot of compassion that was just not a place where I could work. I could not continue working and showing up and giving my best and then not being compensated fairly for it. And so I thought, you know, I need to take a step back and I need to find something else. That's when I found myself at this round Oak kitchen table staring out the window thinking, what comes next?

And in that moment, my neighbor actually messaged me and said, "Hey, do you want to go for lunch?" She had no idea that any of this was happening. You can call it divine time and you can call it whatever you want. But in that moment I said, "you know what? Sure. I've got nothing else going on." And so we went out for lunch.

I told her what was happening. I told her I needed to find something else. And she asked if I had ever thought about freelancing? I thought not really, no, I haven't. I've always wanted to start my own business, but I had no clue what that would look like. And that's when she asked the pivotal question — what about freelancing?

Having nothing to lose, I decided to give it a shot. 

I got my website up and running, created a basic site using WordPress, and installed a free template. Then, I just started doing what I do best — write. 

Soon after, I landed my first gig. Then my second. Soon, I found myself ghostwriting for clients. If you Google, Kimberly Crossland, you're not going to find a lot written by me, but I'm the voice behind a lot of these different blog posts and articles and emails out there.

I started to pick up more and more clients and I fell into this business of copywriting and absolutely loved it.

Fast forward a few years. I had , enough to cover my startup fees and my paycheck for that first year — and I haven't looked back since. That first year was a whirlwind, but I finally found my rhythm — that was, until I got pregnant with my first child. And very soon after that, I got pregnant with my second child. My two kiddos were very young, very close in age, and not quite Irish twins, but almost, and I was very overwhelmed. As you can imagine, being in the trenches of motherhood, growing a business from home, it was a lot going on. At the same time we dreamt about, and we had big goals for our family to hit the road and take our kids are being from a very young age.

Travel has always meant a lot to me. I grew up traveling. I will travel every second that I possibly can because I just believe so strongly in hitting the road and seeing the world and meeting new people. I. Diving into new cultures. It just means so much to me. And so we were traveling, we were RVs. We were, um, I was trying to work and stay afloat.

I was in the motherhood trenches, not really sleeping. And that got a really awesome offer from one of my clients. And at the time the offer was just an absolute gift and he offered to bring me on as many hours as I could give. And then, in exchange for that, I would then not be able to take on any other clients.

And so what happened was I went all-in with one client and it felt really good. I was learning a lot from this client. I absolutely respected this client and I actually still do work with the client because they're just that awesome. But, after a few years, I had found my rhythm. I had settled in and I realized that I wanted to go back into the entrepreneurial world, even though I had been given all the flexibility in the world, I still didn't feel like I was very flexible.

Actually, I felt like I was missing out on something. I felt like I had this opportunity within me that I wanted to seize and I wanted to pursue this dream. And so I had this out-of-body experience. January 2020, I messaged them on Voxer and said, I don't know if I can do this anymore. 

And they were so full of grace and so full of kindness. And they said, absolutely give us what you can and we'll work with you. And that's where we are today. 

I had been helping others behind this. So long that I decided it was time to grow my own thing. Well, then the pandemic hit, and then I had another shiny object opportunity pop up and I took advantage of it. And then I realized I need to do my own thing. I need to teach. I need to help others. I need to go walk hand in hand and coach others through this amazingly beautiful journey and teach them what I know, teach them how to do copywriting, effectively, teach them how to do marketing at the same time.

Just partway through this in July 2020. I also had an idea. We were driving home from, it was about a 12-hour drive home from Durango back to Arizona, which is where we live. And. All of a sudden, I looked at my husband, we had no cell phone service or in the middle of the Navajo reservation, a gorgeous, gorgeous landscape.

I looked at my husband and said, I want to start a camping business. Surprisingly, he said, okay! I know you're going to crush, whatever it is that you set your mind to.

But I decided to start an e-commerce business. This was totally new territory. And I thought you know what? I got this, I know how to start a business. Well, I was very quickly humbled and which is a good thing. And I was so out of my element phase, trying to figure out all the pieces, all the moving parts that I had not anticipated.

And through that, I learned so much. And so I was coaching service providers and, um, and freelancers and other coaches and helping all these people bring their business ideas to life. And then I was also. Over here, bringing my own business baby to life a second business baby, to life, with mocha, with my e-commerce company, cruisin and campfires.

And it was amazing, but I realized again, I was working for somebody else. I was in somebody else's programs. I was, I was doing the work for another person, afford other company and decided, you know what, it's my time to step back out. And I need to not be scared. I need to just go forward with this idea.

And so October 2021, I started Roadpreneur. Roadpreneur started out as just a course where I could do these micro-courses and teach the things that I knew, but I realized very, very quickly, I'm talking within weeks, I realized that a course was not going to cut it for me. I needed to be in the trenches.

I needed to be able to answer questions and needed to be able to walk with people, shoulder to shoulder, side-by-side and help them through the struggles that continuously come up. So that is where we are today. That is where I went from sitting at that round oak table, unsure of what was going to come next to now.

I have two companies that I run. Plus I continue to work with some really, really, really awesome clients that I get to choose. I don't have to say yes to every single opportunity that lands in my lap. I get to choose where I know I can show up the most fully. So my company, the e-commerce company, number one is cruising and campfires, this company, which I will do a full episode on a little.

It has gone through already so many iterations, with so many lessons learned. But right now it's a gift box company all centered around camping and they have a subscription box as well. And so the subscription box is where I'm leaning in really, really hard right now. After that I'm going to be going right back into the gift box company and really leaning into specifically boxes that can be sold at campsite stores can be sold and gifted from one family to another.

When someone buys a new RV or when you're celebrating a birthday at campsites, and those are all coming. I have lots of ideas, but again, that's going to be a whole other episode. Then I also have Roadpreneur, which is now a membership.

I've had several people actually reach out to me who have looked behind the scenes and peeked behind the curtain. They have commented that I could teach this information to any business owner, and indeed I have. But I really am formatting specifically for RVers, because like I said, in the beginning, one of my absolute core values is to travel.

And specifically, our mode of travel is to go RV and hit the road and be outside as much as possible and breathe and all that fresh air. But I know. The specific challenges that come with that, I know that sometimes you're off-grid and he doesn't have any cell service or internet access, or sometimes the wifi that you do have is two weeks to be able to upload your videos.

And I know all these different things that go into our vein and building a business, and I'm here to teach them to you. I'm here to teach them to you through this podcast, through membership. And I'm also here to shine a light on all the mistakes that I am making in all the businesses, because of course they make mistakes.

I still make lots of mistakes. No one's ever going to do it perfectly. And I'm never going to be that person that pretends that I do it perfectly. You're going to be the first ones to know about some of these, these challenges that I bump up against. The epiphany moments. And I realized I probably should have done that a little bit differently, and here's what you can learn.

So you don't make that same mistake. And I'm going to be once in a while, I'll be bringing on some really awesome guests that can also help shine a light on their own journeys and what you can learn from. So I'm super excited that you are here.

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