IAM450- Nomadic Entrepreneur and Podcast Host Encourages Others to Follow Their Calling

Debbie Arcangeles is a nomadic entrepreneur and the host of The Offbeat Life. A podcast where she interviews individuals who are location-independent. She aims to encourage others to follow their true calling and take a chance on themselves. Debbie has been featured in Refinery 29, Forbes and much more for her expertise in travel.

• CEO Hack: (1) Tools- Evernote, Trello, and To-do  (2) Book- How to Win Friends and Influence People
• CEO Nugget: Never be afraid to fail
• CEO Defined: Creating something and to see it work

Website: http://theoffbeatlife.com/

Instagram: @theoffbeatlife

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Transcription:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I am CEO podcast, I have a very special guest on the show today, Debbie Archangeles of The Offbeat Life podcast, Debbie, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Debbie Archangeles 0:39

Thank you for having me. I'm really excited to talk to you all.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Definitely super excited to have you on. What I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about Debbie so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. Debbie Archangeles is a nomadic entrepreneur and the host of The Offbeat Life podcast. This is a podcast where she interviews individuals who are location-independent, she aims to encourage others to follow their true calling and take a chance on themselves. Debbie has been featured in Refinery 29, Forbes and much more for her expertise in travel. Debbie, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

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Debbie Archangeles 1:09

I am really ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:11

Awesome. Let's do it. So they kick everything off. I want to hear a little bit more about your background and what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started?

Debbie Archangeles 1:18

Yeah, so I kind of went about this in a really long way. I failed several businesses. I'm sure if you're an entrepreneur, what this is like? Yes, I kind of just started grasping at different things in the beginning, because I was passionate about everything that was in the arts, but everyone told me that it wasn't going to work because you know, starving artists type thing. Especially I came from an immigrant family, I'm also an immigrant. I was kind of just trying to see what was, going to stick as they say, so all of my 20s I probably had, I don't know, 1520 jobs that I kind of started. Then three to four businesses failed. I finally said to myself, well, I need something that's more stable, I'm getting older, and now I need to do something.

So I ended up being a therapist. Even though I enjoyed it, in the beginning, I knew that it was not something that I wanted to pursue in the long run. Also, the fact that I was literally having panic attacks every four months, was like clockwork, it was just all the time. So then I started to really reevaluate everything. I knew that every time that I was really ultimately happy was when I was talking to people who were location independent, who worked online, they had the freedom to do whatever it was that they wanted to do. They could also travel whenever they wanted. So that was kind of like the double rainbow.

So then I was speaking to a friend at the time, and he introduced me to podcasts. I was like, why can I do this, I should just do this and interview those people that I really wanted to talk to you and really admired. That's how the podcast started. About six months later, I had sponsors coming to me to pay me to do this. And that's when they realized that I could make a living out of this. So it was kind of like an accident that actually monetized itself. Then two years later, here I am. I'm doing this full-time, and this is my full-time business.

Gresham Harkless 3:26

Nice. I absolutely love that just because I think that so many times when you hear an entrepreneur story, a lot of times, people on the outside think that you have to have it all kind of perfectly planned out. But a lot of times things just happen organically, you start to try different things, and you figure out what works and what doesn't work. I definitely give you the most respect for being able to try stuff because so many people who are listening might want to try something, they're thinking, Oh, it has to be the perfect time perfect plan, all these things have to be in place. But a lot of times you just have to try it a lot of times it will kind of come to fruition.

Debbie Archangeles 3:57

Yeah, absolutely. I tell all of the people this not just my listeners, but also even like my little younger cousins who are just starting out in their life. I say to them, whatever it is that you are really, really excited and passionate about. It doesn't matter if you feel like it's gonna make money or not just see where it leads you because honestly, with all of the businesses, I failed all the jobs that I had gone through, even though it was a lot of pain, and sorrow and like a lot of hard work, it led me to where I am. It made me learn so many different things that actually made me succeed in the long run with my business because without those I would not know so many things that I know now.

Gresham Harkless 4:35

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's kind of like nothing is specifically kind of independent in and of itself. It's like you're kind of building those bricks, so to speak to where exactly you want to be. So I appreciate you for kind of sharing that and reminding us of that because sometimes we can lose sight of the process and the process of life, the process of definitely running a business, and how we take so much from our past to kind of show the skills that we have at that specific moment.

Debbie Archangeles 4:58

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 4:59

Nice. So I know you've touched on it a little bit I'm super excited about it because so many people don't know about this idea of location independence. So could you define that a little bit more about exactly what that means and what you're covering in your podcast?

Debbie Archangeles 5:09

Yeah, absolutely. So there's a misconception about location independence, meaning that you're constantly traveling right? You are often in so many different places. So for me location independence, personally, it just means I have freedom, freedom to work wherever I want, whether it's in one location, or new locations every single month, but it's just freedom to work whenever you want. If you're really lucky, whenever you want. Really, that's what made me really love this lifestyle because I have that freedom. If you have your own business, then you also have the freedom to work. You know, at night, in the morning, in the middle of the day, you could take a nap. Whenever you want. Obviously, it's a lot of work to get to this point as well.

Gresham Harkless 5:56

Yeah, that makes so much sense. But I love the fact that you, you kind of started to interview the people, and then all the sponsors and everything came looking for you. Because a lot of times when you're kind of following a niche that people are so interested in and they want to know so much about it. You are kind of like that connector because you allow people to meet that you interview those entrepreneurs, but you also have those businesses that want to connect with that audience as well.

Debbie Archangeles 6:18

Yeah, it's really true. I am a huge believer in doing something, and I really believe that the money will follow. For the most part, it's not always it's not always all the time. Believe me, I do my share of pitching and all of those things to sponsorships and brands as well. But if you have a niche market, if you have a niche audience, the brands will definitely want to be a part of that as well.

Gresham Harkless 6:43

Yeah, absolutely. Because a lot of times they want to reach those niche markets in those niche kinds of audiences. It's one of the most beautiful things about I guess this time and age is that you can create a niche around whatever topic you want, whether it be a podcast, blog, whatever. Then you can build that tribe, so to speak. Then, people that want to reach, those businesses and brands will kind of reach out to you, and then you can reach out to them as well, too.

Debbie Archangeles 7:06

Yeah.

Gresham Harkless 7:07

Nice. So I wanted to ask you for what I call your secret sauce. This could be for you personally, or for your your podcast and your business. But what do you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

Debbie Archangeles 7:16

I don't know if it sets me apart. But honestly, I call myself a lazy entrepreneur. That's kind of like what I call myself. So, I do a lot of outsourcing. Obviously, in the beginning, believe me, I worked 16-20 hours to get to this point. But I only did that because I'm extremely lazy. I don't want to do everything myself. I firmly believe that I could not succeed without a team behind me to help me do all of these things.

Honestly, if you're going to be an entrepreneur, you cannot do everything, there's so many different facets to a business, that if you want to do this all on your own, you're not going to grow very fast, it's gonna get really overwhelming. I know that because I've done this with like three to four other businesses. I thought like, I'm the only one who could do this, no one else can do this better than me. What I really learned was that you have to kind of let go of certain things with your business, right?

So it's kind of like saying to yourself, is it going to be worth it for me to kind of make sure that I do everything, but then never get anything done really, and just one or two things? Or can I let these things go, it's not going to be perfect the way I want it, but it's still going to get the job done. But it's going to get me to grow even more. It's gonna allow me to focus on monetizing my business to create better ideas for my business when I don't have to do this on my own. So at the end of the day, I never feel like being lazy is like actually a bad thing. Because it actually makes you think better. Thanks to that things will flow a lot faster and smoother, because you don't want to ever do all of these things, on your own. So really, that's my secret sauce being a lazy entrepreneur.

Gresham Harkless 9:07

I definitely appreciate that. It's funny that you mentioned that because I read an article or something. It was years ago, but it talks so much about how I'm not sure if it said lazy but it's kind of the same concept where he talks about how people like that, that understand, like they only want to focus on maybe those top-level things, those things that actually move the needle forward, and they're willing to delegate or push off other things, they are able to be super-efficient because they want to make sure that they maximize their time.

So while it might seem like a disadvantage, in reality, it's an advantage because you're not going to be the person who's going to try to do everything. When you're running a business, that is actually what can make you fail if you try to do everything and say I can only do it as well as I wanted to do it. So I'm not going to hire anybody and I'm just going to spend these 30 hours in a day that don't exist to try to get things done.

Debbie Archangeles 9:54

Yeah, absolutely. I say this to a lot of people all the time. Why are you doing a $10 job when you should be doing it? 500 An hour job, right? It's really about valuing yourself and your skills, you can definitely outsource somebody scheduling things on social media. I mean, that's ridiculous, you shouldn't be able to do that. But I say this once you actually create income from your business, because you also don't want to keep spending money on your business, and you have nothing coming in.

That's why I say it took a long time and a lot of man-hours for me to get to this point. There are definitely people who have financing to do that, if you can afford it, do it. But if you don't just bear with it, and stick with it as much as you can until you can finally outsource.

Gresham Harkless 10:40

Nice. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit. I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an app or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Debbie Archangeles 10:50

Okay, I am a huge list person, I love creating lists, and I love creating to-do lists. I have to say that one of the things that I use is Evernote, and then another one is to do, those two things are really incredible. So there's Okay, so if you're an entrepreneur, you're a CEO. I said, SEO because I've been working on it.

Gresham Harkless 11:14

I didn't even notice it I worked with so yeah, so I didn't even hear it.

Debbie Archangeles 11:18

So like I just proved my point, there's so many things in my head that's going on, right? So I don't have a to-do list like I cannot like I can't remember anything. So I have Evernote to help me to do to help me, and I have Trillo for me, my outsource tasks for my assistants. So they're just really an order for me to understand what's happening with my business. Because this is another thing. If you have assistants and you have all of those tasks that are being done, you also need to make sure that they're getting done, right, because you just don't want to pay somebody and you don't know what's happening.

So I have my own task list, which I do with Evernote, I have Trello for the people that I outsource. So I look at that every single week, whether it's getting done what we need to do all of those things. So really, that's for me, it helps me really get things done. Now a book, How to Win Friends and Influence People was a huge, huge book for me, just dealing with clients and dealing with people in general, whether you have a business or not, I mean, I feel like everybody should read that book. It's an incredible book. Obviously, Tim Ferriss four four-hour workweek is like everybody's go like the Bible to do all of this stuff. Yeah, so those are the MY GO twos, for sure.

Gresham Harkless 12:34

Nice. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or a piece of advice. Or if you could happen to be a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self,

Debbie Archangeles 12:44

Every failure that you have is going to help you. So never be afraid to fail, I think you should embrace it because you learn so much from it. Honestly, if I hadn't failed as much as I have, I would not have learned as much as I have. That's one of the huge advantages that I that I had. When I had I started this company that I have now because I failed so much that when all of those different struggles, that came my way happened, I already knew how to handle them. Because I failed so much I already knew it was gonna happen. Okay, if a b and c happened, oh, that already happened to me. So this is what I'm gonna do. So I would say Never be afraid of it. I think I've spoken to too many people that said, I'm really afraid to fail. I don't know what if this happened. I say let it happen.

Gresham Harkless 13:32

Nice. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Debbie what does being CEO mean to you?

Debbie Archangeles 13:42

So I think I touched up on this a little bit in the beginning, I think for me, it's just freedom, right? I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there that are like myself, who are not really, okay, we're just being told what to do. Right, you kind of are a little bit different than other people, you step outside of the box, and you are an individual thinker. You want that freedom to be able to think for yourself to create something that you really love and see it come to life. For me, I see Oh, is someone who is able to do that, who is able to create something and has that type of I don't know, it's just like, you have that fire within you, you know, to create something and just see it work and to have that freedom to be able to have that freedom to say what and when and how. It's really exciting to be able to do that.

Gresham Harkless 14:36

Yeah, absolutely. You kind of have the paintbrush in your hand, you can paint whatever picture that you want. I love and I didn't expect it, nothing less than what you just said about the word freedom, especially with the location independence. It's just so beautiful that you have the opportunity with all these technologies and all these things that we have at our fingertips to be able to kind of paint that picture, create our own life, and do it in the way that you want. So I appreciate that definition and I appreciate you, of course for doing it. even more.

Debbie Archangeles 15:00

Oh, thank you.

Gresham Harkless 15:02

You're welcome. You're welcome. So, Debbie, thank you so much. I appreciate your time. Even more. So what I wanted to do was pass on the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional, you want to let our readers and listeners know. Then of course, how best they can get ahold of you find out about all the awesome things you're doing, and subscribe to the podcast.

Debbie Archangeles 15:17

Oh, yeah, sure. Thank you so much. So, I really believe that if you want to do it, you should go for it. Never be afraid of failure. Never be afraid of fear itself. I think that's a horrible way to live anyway. Right? You may as well just stay in your house if you don't want to. If you don't want anything bad to happen, which I don't think it will, you're gonna be okay. If you want to learn more about being location independent, or if you want to know how to be location independent entrepreneur, digital nomad, or remote worker, make sure to check out my website. It's called offbeatlife.com you're gonna find my podcast there, I have a ton of resources for you to look at as well. I'm also on Instagram, again, The Offbeat Life.

Gresham Harkless 15:59

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, we'll have those links and that information in the show notes as well too, so that everybody can follow up with you. But thank you so much. I appreciate the call to action. If you have something that's on your mind that you want to start, just do it. Sometimes we build up failure in our minds and it's not half as bad as sometimes we think it's going to be so try it. And then you just have a learning lesson. So thank you so much again, Debbie, and I hope you have a great rest of the day.

Debbie Archangeles 16:20

Thank you so much.

Outro 16:22

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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