Unlocking Freedom: The Digital Nomad RV Lifestyle Explained

Dylan Silver (00:01.123)
Hey folks, welcome back to the show. I’m your host, Dylan Silver, and today on the show I have a returning guest and digital nomad, self-described digital nomad, Thomas Rendleman. Thomas, welcome back to the show.

Thomas G. Rendleman (00:19.0)
Hi, thanks for having me back. I guess we’ve got a lot of interesting things to talk about today.

Dylan Silver (00:25.793)
Absolutely. On the last episode, we delved into the digital nomad lifestyle and what that is and what that entails. But just as a quick recap for folks who might not have been able to catch the last episode, how would you describe what a digital nomad is for folks who may not be aware?

Thomas G. Rendleman (00:44.834)
Well, it’s having freedom. The thing is that if you’re living in a house and you’ve got things tying you down, you can never really be free to do the things that you’d like to do. so basically, if you’re living in a house, you can’t choose your neighbors, you can’t choose the location, and if those things are all good, then that’s good. But as we know, things tend to change.

don’t stay the same. And so after I got a divorce, and this was about a little over 10 years ago, I decided that I was going to be a digital nomad, which means that I can get up and move. I don’t like the neighbors, get up and move. If I want to go somewhere, get up and go. And the way that that’s done is you have to make it where

where you’re not stuck in something that you don’t want to be stuck in, if that makes sense. And you do that.

Dylan Silver (01:51.647)
That’s In your case, is it an RV? How were you able to logistically do this?

Thomas G. Rendleman (02:01.068)
Yes, this is an RV as you can see it’s 100 % RV and I just get up and go whenever I need to go People think that there’s a lot more work to it than having a standard house and I can tell you it’s not it’s deeper

Dylan Silver (02:17.55)
Huh.

Thomas G. Rendleman (02:19.71)
And as you you kind of do the similar thing Where you can get up and go you can still have the broadcasts? With the internet that the way it is today Ten years ago. We couldn’t do this without me going to a house and having a cable attached you know to the or at least

Dylan Silver (02:32.013)
Yeah.

Thomas G. Rendleman (02:43.596)
be on cable because of the speeds. But with the speeds today, you can almost go anywhere as long as you can just get a little bit of internet. And in fact, the type of system that I have, it reaches out and it’s quicker than the cable is. So it’s, I mean, I can download like terabytes of stuff in just, you know, a very short time.

Dylan Silver (03:13.463)
Do you have like the T-Mobile or the Starlink? I know they both have their versions of it.

Thomas G. Rendleman (03:19.276)
Yes, I have the T-Mobile and it runs similar to having a hotspot on your phone. So when you’re using your phone and you want to see something, it’s to that speed and much quicker. And it’s a little bit different technology, so I think it is a little bit quicker than any kind of hotspot that you could get and more reliable.

Dylan Silver (03:42.895)
I actually, I think it was due to our conversation we had previously, it must have been, because how many people are gonna bring this up, where for the ranch that I’m living on, sometimes there’s Starlink, we have a Starlink, right? It isn’t always, you know, I would say up to snuff, and sometimes we get connection issues. So said, I’m gonna go try this T-Mobile, because I had a guest say, and that was you, right? So that’s coming here Friday, we’ll see how that goes. So thank you for the recommendation there, but.

Going back to RV life, this is actually something that is interesting to lot of real estate investors, right? Because RV parks are now very much an area of interest for real estate investors. You have some very upscale ones, have some ones where people are living there for long periods of time, then you have distressed ones as well. As someone who travels, right? And you’re able to move from one place

to another? it relatively simple? it relatively easy to find a place to park an RV? Or is it like moving homes?

Thomas G. Rendleman (04:47.374)
Well, you still have to put things away because otherwise you’ll, you you can kind of see I’m moving around and it’s moving with me. You have to have things put away or you’re gonna have breakage, okay? And so, yeah, an hour worth of taking things and putting them away in their proper places, lots of bungee cords.

Dylan Silver (04:54.852)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (05:00.441)
Yeah.

Thomas G. Rendleman (05:11.404)
And that sort of thing, but it’s not that difficult. In fact, I was talking to a wellness center, which is a brand new one. And basically what a wellness center is, is they use alternative methods to get healthier. That might be yoga. It might be some kind of devices that help with arthritis or whatever.

Those things are that type of place needs to have business just like everybody needs to have business But it’s way out in the middle of nowhere and when I say way out in the middle of nowhere Took me an hour and a half with GPS to find this place and when I found it, it’s only about 30 minutes off the road, but It still has internet

So I literally can drive my RV slowly because there’s a lot of potholes and ups and downs and I can get full-blown internet out there and so It allows you a lot of freedom

And of course, if I decide to work with this couple on their wellness retreat, I could trade them off for rent, basically just living on their land. And that would be a year to a year and a half of work for them. It’d take me probably two to three months with an assistant. But it allows me to live there.

Dylan Silver (06:38.178)
Wow.

Thomas G. Rendleman (06:46.732)
Rent-free where are you gonna get rent-free or with a trade? You’re not Yeah, and you can’t do that from your house because typically you’re still gonna have the bills going on I don’t have bills. I just get up go there and You know hook up to electric if there is electric this one there is electric And then that’s pretty much it. So

Dylan Silver (06:51.427)
You’re not.

Dylan Silver (06:57.934)
Yeah.

Thomas G. Rendleman (07:12.48)
Some of the challenges are just the mental challenges of thinking, you know, I don’t know how to do this. No, you just get up and go and you learn along the way. There’s a little bit of a learning curve, but it’s not something that everybody can do this. It’s not that difficult. having that…

Ability to be free will get you more transactions whatever you’re doing because It’s hard to drive a long distance It’s it’s easier just to get an RV and go

Dylan Silver (07:50.255)
How difficult it is to find a new RV park. If you’re going to a new area in the United States and you’re looking for an RV park, is it something like you can do it in a week or is it like apartment searching where it takes forever?

Thomas G. Rendleman (08:06.764)
No, it’s pretty quick. To give you an example, I was in one town that was very small, and when I went to that town, I just drove out there. I looked at the setup, and I moved like a couple weeks later. And you can move almost immediately. There’s a lot of people that don’t even have a car. They just have an RV. It’s a little bit more of a struggle to go to the store, but…

It’s you can get a dolly right behind your car or behind your RV with your car in most cases and You just you just do it you make the decision and you just do it. It’s that simple a Lot and and so it’s not something that takes a lot of time and when I came to this RV park that I’m in right now Which is in Ash Fork, Arizona?

That I just came up here, looked at it, and made the decision. And I went back down, got my RV, and came up here. So it’s not very difficult. And here’s the funny thing for the real estate investors. RV parks are some of the best things that their cash flow.

Incredible and so you can buy an RV park You need to kind of look at the electrical in the water and make sure that it’s not something that’s falling apart, but there’s people that buy every day and There are more and more people going to RV or going into RVs than there ever has been in the past because people are tired of the the lifestyle of being stuck in one area and especially when

Dylan Silver (09:22.637)
Yeah.

Thomas G. Rendleman (09:52.562)
you get towards retirement, you want to see more things. You want to do more things. You can’t do that very easily if you’re stuck in a house.

Dylan Silver (10:02.741)
Now you you can’t, you know, and I think we’re going to see more of this RV, just alternative living in general, because with everything with the price, and I’m a real estate, we’re real estate guys, right? I’m of course, pro real estate, but with everything with the price of homes, and just looking at market conditions, then, you know, wages and everything, I think we’re going to see more ADUs, alternative dwelling units, we’re going to see more

people looking at the RVs. We’re going to see more, I don’t know if you’ve seen some of these tiny homes. not manufactured homes or mobile homes, but they’re just tiny homes, right? And so we’re going to see more of these alternative ways where people can call a place home. And I think it’s going to be very interesting. it does…

sort of, know, coalesce with being a digital nomad quite well, right? You talk about higher speeds of internet connectivity and basically being able to do this anywhere, I mean, it’s true, right? You can now, from your phone or from a hotspot or from, you know, a type of remote wireless connection, run so many kinds of businesses, whether it’s, you know, real estate or, you know,

you know I’ve heard people doing tax strategy, hard money lending, Marketing, so many different things and I’m just touching the surface. I’m just getting into this myself here. But Thomas, pivoting a bit here, before we hopped on you mentioned, you know, one of the businesses that you’re involved in and writing books. Let’s dive into that here.

Thomas G. Rendleman (11:44.846)
I’m assuming you’re talking about the the one that we talked about last time. I have a friend and he Markets to doctors now. This is he’s a real estate person been that way for Probably 30 years and when I say a real estate person I’m talking about he had hit or he has his license so he earns a commission off of of Trans transactions, okay

Here’s the problem with real estate when you have a license when you have a license typically

You’ll get a client and then maybe you’ll get a repeat client if they liked you or if they remember you 30 days after The close because a lot of times people just don’t remember you So there’s a couple things that you have to do number one. You have to to constantly Mark it and when I say mark and I’m not talking about trying to hammer somebody into the ground and tell them You need me you need me what it is is that you want to provide service. So let’s say for instance

that you you wind up getting a person to buy a house you want to just send them updates for their neighborhood you want to send them information on what’s going on in the real estate market and and don’t

Don’t be like a lot of agents now I was a broker so I can say that a lot of agents will try to hammer hammer hammer hammer and then you just closed a Transaction they aren’t going to use you for a long time But what they will do is they’ll look at your information and it will keep their attention on what you’re doing So that when they do wind up buying later or selling or they have a friend that asks they will

Thomas G. Rendleman (13:40.318)
Remember you and so it’s to provide service And I forgot the yeah about the book. So here’s here’s the problem. Yeah, I get off on these tangents. Sorry about that the the issue that he had is he would he would do a sale and then

Dylan Silver (13:41.891)
That’s right.

Dylan Silver (13:48.793)
Yeah.

Dylan Silver (13:53.167)
He

Thomas G. Rendleman (14:04.942)
Five, ten years later, they’re gonna buy again or sell or whatever. But that’s too short of a period, I mean too long of a period of time. So what he wanted to do is have a book written that will keep the client focused on him and.

The dot in this case it was doctors and the doctors will buy multiple houses. So maybe they buy one a year And it doesn’t take too many of those repeat customers in order to

Order to make more commissions right because the problem is is that if you’re spending all your time searching for a new customer a new client a new sale You can’t be showing houses and writing contracts as easily

Dylan Silver (14:59.929)
That’s right.

Thomas G. Rendleman (15:00.768)
So I wrote that book for him and then at the end of this podcast I’ll give you the the where you can kind of see what I did from a video and It’s the similar idea real estate agents They they want that repetition, but they don’t know how to work it because Most people aren’t going to be able to buy a house every year. So that was and I wrote a book for

him. Now why is a book important? Because if you don’t write a book or have a book written for you, in his circumstance he couldn’t write the book. He’s a second, what is it called, English is a second language and it’s difficult to talk to a doctor that it’s a native unless

You have a book written. So now it shows that he’s an expert and here’s the top key of any kind of marketing The top key is is you’re gonna make this big long information Informational post the problem is is that it doesn’t update itself So what you do is you put a QR code or a link in the PDF so you can send this book out for free It doesn’t cost you anything. You just email it

And it’s got all these links in it. So if they want to see I wonder what my neighborhood’s doing this week They hit that with their mouse and it goes right to a website and it gives them the information that they want It’s an evergreen product That’s the most important thing on marketing next to getting attention Because you want to have updated information and how are you gonna get that with a regular book?

Dylan Silver (16:47.33)
Mmm.

Dylan Silver (16:53.443)
You can’t.

You know, one of the interesting things, Thomas, about the way these topics come together is how do you, as a digital nomad, establish a presence? Well, one of the ways is social media. You talk about writing a book that updates really itself. And so to some degree, and of course you may have multiple, you need to write one book with the right format. It updates itself. people who listening, well, how’s the book updating? Just to repeat.

it’s a QR code or effectively a link that directs them and you could then change the content on the website, right? So it’s updating in that regard. So people are able to get ahold of you through social media, of course conventional email, phone. They’re also able to see a book, you know, and then you’re able to start, you know, doing a following. And, you know, for me, I’m learning from you. So I’m kind of saying, how do I become a digital nomad? You know, I think it’s semi-

doable. And so, you know, what are the steps that I need to take? Thomas, one of the questions I wanted to ask you is for someone who maybe has a W-2 job, very traditional, right? And you know, maybe they’re working for a bank, right? And maybe it’s a brick and mortar and they’re thinking, you know, how do I, how do I become a digital nomad? It maybe seems impossible. What are some of the first steps that you would advise someone to take?

Is it, you know, write a book? Is it establish yourself online? Is it find something that is easily, you know, digitized? What would be your guidance to folks?

Thomas G. Rendleman (18:32.404)
If you wanted to do that and you were a w-2 person You

You have knowledge that other people don’t have okay, so that’s the most important thing to understand Maybe it’s about taxes. Maybe it’s about getting a loan Maybe it’s about credit repair I mean there’s a lot of different things But you have to provide value and when you provide enough value people will contact you it’s you just have to do it consistently and The way that that’s done is through a lead magnet, which I’ll talk

about shortly but I wanted to explain the idea you have to provide value because if you don’t provide value why would they listen to you so whatever it is you can provide value on that for banks for a lot of different companies you can do phone calls right from your your RV so it’s it I mean we’re going all the way from customer service all the way up to the vice president

Dylan Silver (19:32.225)
Mmm. Yeah.

Thomas G. Rendleman (19:39.902)
or president of the company they can all do that if you get permission from your your Bank or whoever your boss is and the way that you do that is you explain to them? Hey listen I think I can be more of a value if I’m doing this from my my place. I’m more comfortable I can produce more and you have to actually do that you can’t just make it up and hope hope that they’re going to allow you to do that but

There are a lot of people that are doing that. I I’ve got a neighbor down the road that works for a mobile company and they just pick up the phone and they’ve got their computer there and they can link into anything that they need to link into. And it’s very secure. It’s not like it was 10, 20 years ago. It’s changed so much.

Dylan Silver (20:33.071)
We are coming up on time here Thomas, but before We we head off here. I wanted to ask you about lead magnets. You mentioned this just now What is a lead magnet and describe to us how people can utilize one?

Thomas G. Rendleman (20:48.27)
Most cases I’m not gonna say all cases because sometimes I don’t do it. Okay? but what a lead magnet is is let’s say for instance that I had a Document that talked about how to become a digital nomad and I said here’s what you’re gonna do if you’re interested in this I’ve got a free download for you go to this website you type in your your email and it sends it to you

The reason that that’s important is because you have to touch so many times that person with a message. If you don’t, they’re going to forget you. And so it’s better to have a

that where you can market over and over and over again with an email and you don’t hammer them you give them good value and once in a while you throw in something that you’re trying to sell or something but the the general idea is you don’t do it where you’re hammering the person what you’re doing is you’re providing value so that they remember you in the future will they all remember you no will some of them remember you the

the that want to work with you, yeah, better clients and just a better overall experience because you’re not hammering them. Yeah, just better not to hammer.

Dylan Silver (22:12.068)
Yeah.

That’s exactly right. you know, inspiring for me to talk with you, Thomas, because when I’m thinking about, know, what I want to do, I want I love travel. I got a passport two years ago, kind of changed my life. And so thinking, how do I how do I prototype this life? I don’t see every day, you know, people who are able to do this talking with people like yourself really inspires me. So congrats on your success and to your to your continued success.

And thank you for coming on the show here today. Before we go, where can folks get a hold of you, Thomas?

Thomas G. Rendleman (22:49.346)
Well, I’ve got a website that is started.

And so you need to go to this exact address because it’s behind the the front page There’s no front page right now, but it gives you my exact phone number It gives you things that I’m doing that I can show Because if I’m doing them for a client, I can’t show them because it’s a non-disclosure issue That’s and that’s called early exit for pros.com

Dylan Silver (23:15.257)
Sure.

Thomas G. Rendleman (23:22.764)
forward slash and these are all lowercase forward slash Simple so early exit for pros comm forward slash simple

And what that is is that just shows some of the things that I’m doing. Know there is no lead magnet on there. If you’re interested, you’ve got my direct number. If not interested, at least you get an idea of what is going on out there. Because if you don’t know what people are doing to create freedom, you can’t create it. And you have to let people know what you do. You can’t be a secret agent hiding.

under a rock you’ve got to show them hey this is what I can do for you if it works for you great if it doesn’t work for you at least you have an idea of what can be done for you or for your friends or family and getting a real estate license I know that a lot of investors don’t like that idea and it’s it’s

It’s kind of a double-edged sword because you have to yeah and and people will understand that that’s in the the real estate field because real estate agents typically It’s not a good idea to do investing But if you’re gonna do it you can do it in a number of different ways so that you can still get the benefit and When maybe we can talk about that another day

Dylan Silver (24:32.034)
It is.

Dylan Silver (25:00.121)
Thomas, thank you so much for coming on the show here today again.

Thomas G. Rendleman (25:05.026)
Yeah, thanks for having me. if you have any questions about marketing, just go to that website. That page will be up for a very long time. And we can talk.

Dylan Silver (25:16.857)
Thomas, thank you so much.

Thomas G. Rendleman (25:18.616)
Thank you for having me on. We’ll talk to you soon. Bye bye.