Cross USA: Living the Four-Hour Work Week… Tim Ferriss, I Thank You!
August 17, 2007 by Erin Blaskie
Filed under Traveling VA Website, The Cross-USA Trip
On April 1, 2008, my husband, my two dogs and I will be setting out on a journey across the USA. It’ll take us 31 days and we’ll visit 28 cities and drive 8,000 miles but this isn’t your average vacation. We’re both self-employed. We don’t have vacation pay and we can’t take a leave of absence. I’m a virtual assistant and my husband is a lumberjack.
So, how are we managing this? Well, I’ve outsourced my outsourcing.
As a virtual assistant, I help manage businesses’ around the world. Entrepreneurs, speakers, coaches, authors, busy professionals and big businesses outsource their daily tasks to me so that they can work less. Well, after doing that for three years, I decided that I can do it too! So… I hired a virtual assistant’s assistant. I manage the incoming work and requests and the outgoing completed items and she does the work. It’s a beautiful relationship!
As I travel across the USA this coming spring, I’m going to be doing a few things:
- Documenting the life of having a ‘nomadic’ career and showing you that what Tim Ferriss crafted in the 4HWW (The Four-Hour Work Week) is not only possible but you can do it at any income level.
- Managing my business via a project management tool called Basecamp.
- Working with my assistant who will be back here at my office.
- Visiting my clients who live and work all across the US.
- Enjoying myself while I earn an income and while I see parts of the world I have not yet seen.
There’s more exciting news to come but I’m going to hold that inside for now.
If you want to stay up-to-date, just enter your e-mail address in the sidebar on this site.
What I do want to let you know is that I would L-O-V-E your help. If you’d like to help spread the word about my journey, I’d love it if you blogged about what I am doing or added me to your blogroll… Whatever you can do to help! Some people are even adding the image you see in the sidebar, the summary of our journey, to their sidebars on their blogs with a link back and I thank them for doing so!
This isn’t a selfish project… I’m going to be using this site as a means to give back and join forces with some reputable and worthy charities. More on that to come…
I just can’t wait to prove Tim Ferriss RIGHT! Not that he needs proof that his ideas work - he’s living the life!
Check out Tim Ferriss’ blog and make sure to check back here often too! I’ll be outlining everything I do to make this work (and what I go through that doesn’t work) so that you too could set yourself up with a virtual, nomadic career.
Technorati Tags: The Traveling VA, The Traveling Virtual Assistant, virtual assistant, virtual assistance, Tim Ferriss, Timothy Ferriss, The Four Hour Work Week, The Four-Hour Work Week, 4HWW, outsourcing, outsource, outsourced, assistant, assistance, CN8, lumberjack, Erin Blaskie, Steve Blaskie, Trina Lamarche, VA Assistant, Basecamp, project management, new rich
Erin this is just Awesome. I admire you so much for being a fantastic example to Virtual Assistant’s everywhere! We don’t have to be slaves to our businesses just because we help others cut down on their work hours, it just makes sense.
I will add that little graphic to my blogs sidebar and blog about your journey, how exciting!
Angela Wills
http://www.StarVA.com
Way cool Erin! If you’re going to be in Milwaukee, let me know. I’d love to grab lunch with you and your hubby!
Safe travels!
Thank you Angela for your support! I appreciate that a lot!
Phil - I’d love to say that we’d be going to Milwaukee but I think the closest we’ll be is Chicago!
If you think you might want to come down to the windy city for dinner, let us know 
Thanks everyone for your comments!
Erin Blaskie
The Traveling Virtual Assistant
http://www.thetravelingva.com
Hi Erin,
Saw your emails regarding this site and wow - you have had a change of heart since your previous posts on Timothy Ferriss! That’s great and safe travels on your adventure.
Have fun along the way
Lori
Hi Lori!
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, I have had a change of heart for most of what Tim writes about. I still think that he should promote VAs in the US more as opposed to just overseas providers but that being said, a lot of what Tim says is valuable.
I really believe in his mini-retirements and living the ‘new rich’… I’m striving toward something like that for my life and being more nomadic and truly virtual
Erin
Hi Erin,
We wrote a post about Tim a few months ago, feeling the same way you did. We were so excited to start implementing his strategies. http://thepillargroup.ca/blog/?p=15
Shortly after we saw your post http://bsetc.ca/blog/2007/05/25/a-virtual-assistants-thoughts-on-outsourcing-to-india-and-the-4-hour-work-week and we wanted to respond, but realized that you would soon see the true message of his book. We since have had the pleasure of working with Tim, and we have learned so much about living the NR lifestyle, and doing such virtually!
Your website is exciting, we are so glad that you are now implementing these strategies. We will keep checking in on your adventures!
Warmly,
Amy Ewart
The Pillar Group.ca
Hi Amy!
Thank you for your comment!
Yes, my earlier post did touch base on that one aspect of Tim’s book which I did not agree with but being someone who openly accepts new concepts, I started reading Tim’s blog and watching his videos and feel like he and I actually are a lot alike.
I’ve been doing what Tim talks about in his book but just didn’t realize there was a term - new rich - for it! It’s exciting to know that people exist out there who are a lot like yourself.
That is excellent that you are working with Tim! I’m glad to hear he’s using the services of a more local company and not just those companies that are in India.
Thanks again for the comment and certainly do check back - we’d love to have any representative from Tim Ferriss on board with this
Sincerely,
Erin Blaskie
The Traveling VA
http://www.thetravelingva.com
[…] PS - Thanks to all the recent comments on the latest Cross-USA trip… Miss it due to all of the Montreal photos and updates? Catch it here. […]
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