12- Erik Kennon. Five months/year he organizes tours in Portland and the rest of the time, he travels the world cooking with Grandmas

I met Erik when we were both living in Chiang Mai, Thailand. It had to be CM, of course. The epicenter of small creative digital entrepreneurs. He told me that one day he asked himself that famous question, “If he had enough money to stop working, what would he do?”. And he realized he would travel the world to eat delicious food.

He noticed his most precious “eating and cultural” experiences had happened when grandmas were in charge. So he started a youtube channel called “cookin with grandmas” just for the fun of it, to share these experiences with his friends. And now, not only he has thousands of followers, he got a contract for his own TV show!

I’m sure his story will inspire you, to go after your exciting career!

SHOWNOTES

03:50 About Portland

5:25 How he started the cooking youtube channel on KickStarter.

7:4 what he was doing before

8:7 How he identified his talents: public speaking, hosting, storytelling

14:43 improving it in Spain, Mexico, USA, Portugal, Thailand

19:4 his plan for monetizing his projects. Affiliate vs companies' sponsorship.

23:42 his work routine

24:25 Reasons he looked for a coach.

26:40 why use Amazon Direct Video, Patreon or E-books with videos

31:05 Why working on tourism can be so gratifying and profitable.

36:31 Why Trip advisor, Yelp and LinkedIn are example of valuable tools

37:43 Mentors. Mindset coming from his mother, who is another entrepreneur.

43:38 Products ideas. How traditional business are going digital, like doctors and hospitals

45:28 Homework for the listener: if you won the lottery, what would you do? How could you make money from this?

QUOTES

1:45 "I asked myself if I won the lottery [...] what would I do. and the answer was: travel around the world and eat"

04:15 "Portland is the island for weird people"

7:6 "I wasn't making much money, but I felt like I was wealthy with time"

7:41 "I couldn't do any of the jobs I do now without the power of Internet"

07:50 "I tell kids: nobody knows your talents like you do"

14:30 "I think people should list their talents first, and then find ways of monetizing secondly. But talents first"

23:19 "For me the greatest wealth is lifestyle"

25:08 "That's why you need a coach: someone to help you figure out where are you going"

25:18 "I spend money if it is going to make me more money"

38:58 "Don't end up into a job where you have only 2 weeks of vacation. That would be a waste of your life"

LINKS

Cooking With GrandMas YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/CookinWithGrandmas

Secrets of Portlandia - Portland's Free Walking Tour company - https://secretsofportlandia.com/

Amazon Affiliate Program - https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/

Patreon - https://www.patreon.com/

TasteMade - https://www.tastemade.com/

Anthony Bordain - http://www.anthonybourdain.net/

Jamie Oliver - http://www.jamieoliver.com/