Behind the Scenes: Full-Time Freedom Week

I have been dreaming of full-time freedom for over a year now.

And I know I’m not the only one.

So when it came time for my husband and I to really start “making moves,” I started harassing the crap out of my friends.

What is domicile and is it contagious?
Is it really that hard to book a state park in Florida the first week of January?
Health insurance can’t be that expensive, right?
Workamping is a dream job, no?

Then one day it hit me.

Not every one pursuing this lifestyle has my resources. They don’t know the President and VP of Escapees. Or feel comfortable enough to straight-up PM Heath or Alyssa Padgett. And worst of all (gasp!), they may not even know any full-time RVers!

Why don’t I just get all these friends together on Facebook Live and they can answer my questions to a larger audience? To other clueless people in pursuit for full-time freedom?

It would be so perfect! (not to mention great for my website visibility…yeah, I said it!)

Full-Time Freedom Week was born

And because I have such a winning smile and incredibly good looks, 80% of the people I asked (or got people to ask for me) said yes! They were in!

That’s when the real work began.

I went into full-on plan mode. Being a trained educator, I was thrilled for the opportunity to plan out a full week of LIVE content. But being a trained principal, it felt damn good to delegate tasks and see them executed perfectly.

The Full-Time Freedom Team is AMAZING, y’all.

Seriously. I feel like I’m part of a super hero squad.

Here’s the full line-up.

Lindsay McKenzie of Follow Your Detour. This girl is a sweet soul with a can-do attitude. She created all the amazing graphics for the event. She also set it up on Facebook and kept the audience up-to-date on the event. And amazingly, she never said no when I kept asking her to do “just one more thing.”

Julie Chickery of Chickery’s Travels. What a woman! She did a lot of the dirty work for this event. She looked up legal issues, created forms and landing pages, and ensured winners were drawn on time each day. I am certain I’m forgetting something but I’m also certain she will forgive me.

Camille Attell of More Than A Wheelin’. This lady is who I aspire to be. She’s calm, collected, and compassionate. She was the project manager, hands down. She never failed to communicate with contributors for the event, reach out to sponsors, and keep the rest of us on a timeline.

Liz Wilcox of The Virtual Campground. That’s me and now that I write this all out, I am not sure I did much…I think my job was to mostly just come up with more stuff for the other 3 to do. (They say I’m the one with the vision.)

…and the amazing contributors who took a chance on us little guys. (Seriously, I’m still not sure how we convinced them to give us their time, talent, and products.)

Bryanna Royal of Crazy Family Adventure

Heath Padgett of Heath & Alyssa

Kyle and Olivia Brady of Drivin’ & Vibin’

Joe Hendricks of The Giving Print

The event kept getting bigger

While creating the event, I knew I wanted a giveaway. The ladies on my team thought that was a great idea.

I got in touch with Campanda to ask them to give away a weekend RV rental. Without hesitation, Nik said they’d do it. (Nik is seriously the best.) Then this guy challenges me to find more giveaways. (Nik is sometimes seriously the best.)

So we all got to work, reaching out to any one and everyone we knew that had something to give away.

We ended up with $1,500 in prizes to give away!

RV Health promised three 3-month memberships.

Nomadic Life Films gave us two tickets to NomadFest and five hard copies of RV Nomads: The Full-Time RV Life Explored.

The Giving Print pledged two photo prints for two winners.

Escapees offered a yearlong membership and access to their online university for two winners.

Fulltime Families presented a package with ebooks, a yearlong membership, and discounts to their events.

And bigger…

I also knew I wanted to do live interviews once or twice a day. I asked the girls on the planning team to go live with me and they obliged.

Then in the final days before the event, I convinced them to reach out to more people for interviews.

We secured (before and during the event!):

Less Junk More Journey (holy crap! How did that happen? They’re like actually famous.)

Travis and Melanie Carr (THE PRESIDENT AND VICE PRESIDENT OF ESCAPEES!!)

Ditching Suburbia (Woah! They are total experts on everything!)

Kimberly Travaglino (The co-founder of Fulltime Families. Seriously, this is incredible.)

Eric Odom (The producer of the upcoming RV Nomads film!!)

Exploring the Local Life (my personal favorite YouTube family!)

And it was super awesome!

We had over 1,000 attendees, hella participation, and so much fun.

Personally, I went LIVE 9 times for over 11 hours! Holy data usage, y’all. Other team members and contributors went LIVE and together, our views are almost 10,000! Each video has at least 100 comments. (I mention all of this of course, to stroke my ego.)

 

I can’t say for certain this is unheard of for a Facebook event, but I don’t know any one who has done it before aside from mega-brands or bloggers. (Which none of us are…yet!)

I also met some incredible new friends through the event! Like a couple hundred of them. That is by far the most amazing thing about Full-Time Freedom Week.

 

The Full-Time Freedom Bundle

Of course, all 7 contributors and myself pulled together to create something incredibly special and heartfelt for the event and beyond.

We put all our products together in a bundle for a discounted price. Then, in true online entrepreneur form, discounted it again. The bundle is worth over $300 and was sold for half that price.

It includes 9 products from all the contributors to include:

Programs and books on how to finance RV life.
Books and courses on how to create your own business or find remote work.
Photography tips to help you gain sponsors on the road for extra income.
Music to keep you inspired and having fun.
A holiday cookbook specifically for RV kitchens.

And of course, the full version (PLUS AUDIO) of my collection of hilariously crappy RV stories, Tales From the Black Tank.

But don’t worry, you can still get it for 20% percent off with coupon code 20percent. That gives it to you for less than $120!

Read more about it in full detail here.

The process was just incredible.

Sure, there were internet problems, last-minute schedule changes, and stuff we completely forget to do until we were on air, but it was one of the most amazing things I’ve ever been a part of.

I learned so much about business, team building, entrepreneurship, and RVing during the event and in the months leading up to it. I’m so glad I decided to act on this idea I had and I’m even more grateful for the fantastic people that jumped on board with me.

Interested in learning more?

Click here to join our Facebook group where we give one on one advice, interview the experts, and are creating a wonderfully supportive community!

 

 

Here are all the videos of Full-Time Freedom Week!

Liz’s Lunch Time Tips:

Monday: Intro to the event and Top 3 Things I Wished I’d Known Before RVing

Tuesday: RVing with Kids

Wednesday: Internet Connectivity with Camille Attell and Interview with Escapees on domicile, health insurance, and campground discounts.

 

Liz’s Virtual Campfire Chats:

Monday: Camille Attell on working remotely and Crissa Boyink on workamping

https://www.facebook.com/lizagna76/videos/10101159649106192/

 

Tuesday: Dan and Lindsay McKenzie on RVing with pets and how RVing has transformed their marriage

 

Wednesday: Julie Chickery on cooking in the RV and Eric Odom on the reason behind the modern RV nomad movement

 

Thursday: Why I’m grateful for RVing

 

Friday: Grand Finale with interviews of Less Junk More Journey, Fulltime Familes, Exploring the Local Life and Campanda COO.

 

Contributor Chats:

Camille Attell on how to find remote work.

 

Bryanna Royal on how to create your own virtual business.

 

Interview with Heath Padgett on what it takes to be an RV entrepreneur.

 

Follow Your Detour’s advice on budgeting.

 

Chickery’s Travel’s advice on affording the RV lifestyle.

 

Drivin’ N’ Vibin’s advice on staying creative on the road.

 

Joe Hendrick’s photography tips.