Today’s interview is with Kiwi Gordie Rogers. Gordie is a long-term China expat, lifestyle design blogger and English teacher. He shares his experiences and advice living in China and trying to build a successful blog. Gordie Rogers is definitely one of the most prolific lifestyle design bloggers out there. I see his comments on blogs everywhere. It is great to hear more about his life.

Please tell us about your blog LifestyleDesign4U.

I started LifestyleDesign4U on April 1st 2009. It is a pragmatic lifestyle design and personal development blog. It doesn’t go overboard and hold too rigidly to some dogma such as minimalism or Zen-Buddhism like many lifestyle design and personal development blogs do. LifestyleDesign4U is about learning what works for you. It’s about finding good and practical stuff to apply to your life from many systems, ideas and theories while discarding the rest. Simply put, it puts practicality first. It’s also quite a broad ranging blog covering such things as entrepreneurship, blogging, health and fitness (new) philosophy, living in China, etc on top of lifestyle design and personal development. I’m also going to start doing some lifestyle design experiments on it, and let people get to know me a little better. Up until now, I haven’t shared much about myself on my blog.

What is your definition of lifestyle design?

I define lifestyle design as being able to get everything good out of life. That means experiencing as many things that make you happy, while causing you…

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I had the opportunity to host Cody McKibben’s Digital Nomad Blog Carnival this month. There is a great collection of submissions so please visit the sites. Don’t forget to comment on, Stumble, Tweet and Digg the posts you like. Support all these great writers!

Living By the Rules versus Living on Purpose
Cody McKibben of ThrillingHeroics.com shares a fantastic essay from long term-nomad Steven Roberts of Nomadness.com

“Your life is either driven by a grand, magnificent, all-encompassing design… or it isn’t.”

[Review] Lapham’s Quarterly: Travel (and the Demystification Thereof)
Brilliant article on the philosophy of travel.

“You can travel to the ends of the earth (a certain breed of tourists pay more and more money to travel to corners more and more remote) and still walk around staring at your shoes, or you can walk through your own neighborhood and see it as you’ve never seen it before.”

6 Stages to Successfully Design Your Lifestyle
Veteran nomad and life coach, Carmen Bolanos of Nunomad.com offers valuable lifestyle design advice.

How to Go from 9-5 on Friday to Aussie Bum by Monday
David Damron of LifeExcursion.com shares his experiences living and volunteering in Australia. He also offers extensive advice for aspiring Nomads.

Soultravelers3: Lifestyle Design a Winter in Spain!
The world famous Soultravelers3 talk about some of their recent popularity and give some great advice for living cheaply in Spain.

How To Live An Awesome Life Abroad WITHOUT Having a Job
Jonny Gibaud of TheLifeThing.com explains how his ‘Light Touch Living Philosophy’ has enabled him to live the good life in Thailand.

The…

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Location independent professional coach, Carmen Bolanos is currently living in Brazil with her children. Carmen literally wrote the book on a digital nomad lifestyle; it is called The NuNomad. She shares her story and offers some great advice in this interview.

Please tell us a little about your background.

Well, my mother worked in foreign service in Colombia and my father was probably one of the original location independents, traveling for 18 years without returning and making his way on the road, so I’ve always thought I am genetically programmed to wander. However, I really didn’t wander much growing up. I did the traditional education, became the first college grad in my family and went on to get a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology. I was in private practice in Austin, Texas, had 2 children and our 3rd on the way when my aunt in Connecticut told me about a training program in coaching for psychologists. I soon realized that because coaching could be done by phone I could let go of having the brick and mortar office, be home with my family more and BE MOBILE!

Previously in private practice if I missed even one day of work it was a major blow to our monthly income. I felt completely trapped – unable to take breaks. My husband’s family had a beach house in Connecticut and we couldn’t even visit because it cost me too much to lose work. With coaching everything changed for me. We were soon…

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Interview with Naomi Dunford of IttyBiz.com

Whether you are interested in travel, lifestyle design, or competitive basket weaving, we all need to earn a living. There is no better source than Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz.com for making money from a small business. Naomi has managed to build a $200,000 a year business in just a couple of years. Part of her success stems from her ability to make great business content humorous and entertaining. Her blog posts always manage to get a few chuckles out of me. I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

Please tell us a little about your history and how you started IttyBiz.com.

I started IttyBiz in late 2007 after realizing I was completely unemployable. My son had just turned one and I didn’t want to send him to daycare. Plus, my earnings capacity at that time was basically zilcho. I knew if I was going to make any money, it was on my head.

The reason I started IttyBiz.com instead of HowToKickAssAtMacrame.com or TheProblemWithCannibalism.com because there was a massive hole in the market when it came to marketing. People were giving big biz advice — advice to marketing executives at companies like Coke — and “small biz” advice — keeping in mind that the government definition of small business is one with fewer than 500 employees. 500 employees is “small”? You’ve got to be kidding me. Nobody in the online sphere was really helping the little guy. When you consider that 80% of the companies in…

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I was 27 when I left Canada to see the world. It is very easy to give up everything and move abroad when you have few obligations, no family and little career experience. However, now that I am married, have a business with customers relying on me and I am approaching 40 years old, those drastic changes are harder to make.

This interview is with DeeAnne White, a financial professional of my generation. DeeAnne has been traveling across Europe for the past six months and is proof that a dream lifestyle is possible if you have the courage and desire.

Please tell us a little about your background.

I’ve been in the investment business all of my career, starting as a stockbroker in the 1980s, and my most recent position was Executive Vice President of the Financial Institutions/Independent Planner Channels at Allstate. I ran the internal and external wholesaling in the US of their fixed and variable annuities, as well as their short lived mutual funds. Our clients were banks and planner firms, including HSBC, Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo, SunTrust, etc.

I began college with a major in Political Science, and a minor in International Relations. I never graduated, and didn’t begin my career until both of my sons started elementary school. I was extremely fortunate that someone was willing to take a chance on a completely inexperienced 26 year old.

I’m in my late forties, divorced, and have grown sons that are 28 and 26. I now also have a…

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I have recently had the opportunity to read an inspiring book on lifestyle design and the future of work called, Juggle: Rethink Work, Reclaim Your Life. Author Ian Sanders has some great ideas about the some of the biggest career and lifestyle design issues we are all facing. The book is loaded practical examples about how to live a “portfolio lifestyle” including quotes and interviews with Gary Vaynerchuk and Saatchi & Saatchi CEO, Kevin Roberts.

“You can choose to become a Juggler, to throw the rules out of the window, to create a life where you mix stuff you do for love and stuff you do for money. A life where you re-define success not by a salary package alone buy by freedom, enjoyment, flexibility and lifestyle. Where work is an extension of You, reflecting your personality, your talents and desires; where you juggle different projects to be stimulated as well as to earn a living.”

Think PassionS NOT Passion

Many of us are looking for our true calling in life. If only we could find that one thing that we are so excited about, work would be become joy. With endless career options available, it is hard to narrow it down to one single choice. Ian Sanders has a better way to look at it. We all have a plurality of interests and goals, rather than shutting off different parts of our lives we can really have it all. Ian provides many examples, including…

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Travel writing seems an ideal occupation for any aspiring Jet Set Citizen. What can be better than getting paid to write about places you visit around the world? Professional travel writer, Anja Mutic of EverTheNomad.com explains how her career started and offers some insights into her life.

How did you get started in travel writing?

It’s been quite a journey: At 18, I moved from Croatia to England to work as an au pair. The following year, I enrolled at University of Kent in Canterbury to pursue an undergraduate degree in philosophy and comparative literature. I always wanted to work in publishing so during my last year at uni, I started a paid internship in a publishing house in London and worked during all my holidays to gain experience.

When I moved to the States in 1997, I continued in publishing. Granted, not the kind of publishing I thought I’d be doing – it was entry-level editorial work on statistics and economics textbooks and reference books – but it paid the bills and gave me some experience.

In 2000, I got my first job in the travel writing industry through a New York Times ad, as an online editor for RoughGuides.com. I enjoyed it at first, particularly commissioning stories from travel writers scouring the globe. I soon started to get itchy feet and a serious case of wanderlust. In 2002, I convinced my bosses to let me leave the office for a research trip, to experience life on the other…

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Interview with Internet Marketing Expert, Samantha Milner

We all are looking for ways to make money online, but with all the competition and options available it can be difficult to capitalize on opportunities. I turned to Internet marketing expert, Samantha Milner to give some insight into her decade long experiences with all aspects of Internet marketing. Samantha has created a countless supply of successful products to cater to a wide variety of niches. If you want to learn how to make money online, this interview is the place to start. Thanks Samantha!

Please tell us about your background and why you got started in Internet marketing?

My name is Samantha Milner and along with my husband Dominic we own DSM Publishing limited which is a family owned Internet marketing company. We live in southern Portugal in The Algarve with our eight year old son, Kyle.

Like many other people we ventured into starting our own business as we realised that the rat race was simply not for us. Even though we didn’t have high debts it always felt like the little money that we made from our employers wasn’t going very far after paying the endless bills that we had to cover first.

We spent a year doing Kleeneze (door to door catalogues) and at this point realised how much we wanted our very own business. We grabbed a copy of a business opportunities magazine and decided to see what we could achieve.

You made £30,000 from your first Internet marketing product, back in 2000, please…

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Most of us hate our jobs. We hate dealing with irate customers, inept bosses, lazy co-workers and work that is mind-numbingly tedious. Work sucks so we fantasize about magical places where we can do whatever we want and make wheel-barrel loads of money, maybe even get our picture on the cover of a magazine somewhere. That is the life the life of the entrepreneur. Digital nomads or location independent professionals have it even better. They get to travel to exotic locations around the world while earning a great income from anywhere with an Internet connection. Ah… the good life indeed!

Is the Grass Really that Green?

The problem is that starting your own business or working from another country still involve the very thing you are trying to escape: WORK. In fact, working for yourself generally has more responsibilities and requires more hours and effort than working for others.

I have been running my own businesses and living abroad for more than a decade, so I can definitely recommend both choices to anyone. However, I feel it is healthier to approach big lifestyle changes like entrepreneurship and a nomadic lifestyle from a personal growth perspective, rather than just escaping your job routine.

If you are unable to find good in the work you are currently doing, it is unlikely that you will find it in starting your own business or trying to work from exotic locations around the world. Work…

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In 2006, Nora Dunn sold off her possessions and gave up a lucrative career to travel the world full-time. She has co-written a best-selling book and writes for numerous publications and sites. Hobo Nora has become a celebrity in travel and finance circles and I have a feeling this is only the beginning. Nora offers extensive details about her experiences in this interview.

You sold your possessions to begin a nomadic life of travel, where did that decision come from?

I was living in Toronto Canada, running a successful financial planning practice. I really enjoyed helping other people realize their goals and dreams by helping them engineer their finances to get them there (personal finance is about more to me than just saving money…it goes deeper).

But somewhere in the mix, I lost sight of my own goals and dreams of long-term travel. As with so many things, life got in the way of my plans of traveling after high school, and I always figured I’d “do it later”.

So over the years while I tried to fill an ever-growing void inside of me with activities, I also filled my schedule a little too much. When my health became compromised, I was forced to reevaluate where I was and where I wanted to go. Did I really want to wait until “retirement” decades away, to make my dreams of travel come true?

The mountains of the world that I want to climb would probably remain unclimbed if I waited.

The…

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