Rob: Today we have the pleasure of having Tammy Camp on the line. Tammy has figured out what a lot of you guys want to do. She has figured out how to create enough passive income to be able to retire, live her dreams on her terms and she’s actually done some really cool stuff with that time like becoming a champion kite surfer which we’re going to talk about. So she kind of has what everybody is really after and that’s why I hunted her down and she if she was willing to do this interview. So Tammy, are you there?
Tammy: I’m here. Thanks for having me.
Rob: You’re welcome. So let’s talk a little bit about your lifestyle because I think you’re a really, really cool girl in general. You’re definitely in the minority.
Tammy: Thank you.
Rob: So I want to talk a little bit about your life and how you’ve set it up. We were talking last week on the phone and you mentioned that you were getting ready to go off to the Dominican Republic to do some kite surfing and then you’re coming back and you had to go to DC to be on the panel with Tim Ferriss and some other entrepreneurs. So, you know, you got a very full life and I want to talk a little bit about how you…we’ve covered just a minute ago how you’ve set it up but I want to talk about what it’s really like to live it. So are you spending multiple weeks in different cities, travelling? What does it look like for you?
Tammy: Right. I was spending multiple months full of travelling. I started kite boarding…
Rob: Oh, I’ve been saying kite surfing…it’s kite boarding.
Tammy: It’s either, it’s interchangeable. Kite surfing, kite boarding, whatever you want to call it (laughs).
Rob: Okay, cool.
Tammy: It’s all the same. I started kite boarding 4 years ago, but the truth of the matter is that I was working so much because I’m a bit obsessive about it sometimes so my girlfriend took me to Dominican Republic. I had no idea where I was going. I got on the plane literally not knowing where Dominican Republic was. She had to take out a map in the front seat pocket and point it out to me (laughs), like, “Okay, great!” So I rocked out there and what turned out was supposed to be a 10-day trip…ended up being 6 months. So I just dropped everything and spent 6 months down there. And then the 2 years afterwards I’ve spent…I was kite boarding all over the world. I went to 13 different countries in 2 years.
Rob: Let me back up because this is important so I want to make sure I get this. So you’re killing yourself working like crazy, your girlfriend steps in like Superman and says, “You need help. We’re getting you a life. You’re getting out of here and we’re going to go to the Dominican Republic.” And you go there and you fall in love with kite surfing.
Tammy: Yes.
Rob: And you made a decision because you had the ability economically to say, “I’m not going home. I’m going to stay here for 6 months.”
Tammy: Yeah, absolutely.
Rob: So by the way, there’s like 1/I,000th of a percent of the world’s that does things like that. You know that, right?
Tammy: No, I don’t (laughs). Everyone that I know lives this life so I had no idea. It’s just like very normal.
Rob: Well, it’s normal for you but I’m going to tell you you’re a bit of an alien and that is not how most people function. And they don’t function that way because of all the rules that they have in their head about what life is supposed to be like and how it’s supposed to be lived and all of those things. That’s one of the reasons why it was so important to me to get someone like you because it’s kind of like, “Yeah, so what?” And somebody else needs to understand that. It’s like once the 4-minute mile was broken, like it hadn’t been broken for like, I don’t know, like since Greece, since the 1st Olympics and that one year, Roger Banister, a high school kid breaks the 4-minute mile…in the Olympics, Roger Banister breaks the 4-minute mile and that year like 50 high school kids broke it as well because they were able to see it’s possible so that’s why it’s important for me to kind of get inside your head a little bit.
Tammy: Yeah, absolutely. Even before that I was spending months in London, you know just running around the city of London and then working and then going out and having lunch, you know sitting at the Oyster Bar at Herod’s. I love that place.
Rob: Alright, back to the story…so now here you are…you’re in the Dominican Republic and you’re 6 months in. Did you just rent a place on the beach or…where did you live?
Tammy: Yeah, I rented a place on the beach. I actually still have an office there right now on Kite Beach. It’s amazing.
Rob: Alright. You have an office there and is it an office that’s empty so that’s available for you when you want to go or is it something that you have employees in there currently?
Tammy: It depends on what project I’m working on. So right now, at this moment, no one’s there but in the past, yes, when I’ve been working on some project that needs to be ramped up or in a different language because a lot of people are very transient there from Europe so it’s like you have all the Dutch, you have all the Germans and French and Spaniards and all that so it’s like if I wanted to do something it’s like a multilingual product. It was so cool. I could execute it there.
Rob: That’s very interesting so you would have access to all the people who can help you with the language and create the product.
Tammy: Yeah, cool. And they’re like surfers so everybody’s cool, you know. I worked with all these people that II enjoyed hanging out with so it really depends on the product that I was working on; but right now it is empty but I have my surfboards there, I have my clothes so like when I leave. It’s like I’m in a Skype call right now and then jump on a plane and be set there for 6 months. So you know, I geocache my clothes so basically I can…it’s a cool concept. So you have, in the places that you visit frequently. You know, you just keep clothes or keep all the things that you need and stash in those places so I have little clothes stashes all over the world so I can just pop on a plane and go. I don’t really have to pack anything.
Rob: So how high-browed do you get in terms of setting up places around the world? In other words, are you fine with something that costs a couple of thousand bucks a month that’s near the beach and you know, to 1 bedroom place or are you fancier and you want it all decked out?
Tammy: Oh, when I mean Geocaching, I don’t mean spending a couple of thousand dollars a month. You know, I just mean like having something very, very small like $100 or $300 a month, not $2000. So you know, just having like a storage. I actually know…the same girl that took me to the Dominican Republic, her father does a lot of business in Brazil so he keeps office suits in a hotel that he frequents every month. They do that for him.
Rob: Oh, okay. You’re not actually talking about having a physical place. You’re talking about just putting your clothes in some storage?
Tammy: Right.
Rob: Okay, I got it. I was thinking more of like an apartment.
Tammy: Yeah, but I have had apartments as well all over the world so you know, you have to catch me on the right time (laughs).
Rob: It depends on what you’re doing.
Tammy: It depends on what I’m doing, yeah. You know, it’s always changing.
Rob: Most people will say, “To live the life that I want to live, I need a million dollars in the bank, I need $150,000 a year in income, I got to take care of my retirement, I got to make sure I got enough money coming in each month.” What’s the reality of what you really need and sort of lived the life that you’re living? Could you do it on $5000 a month, $10,000 a month or…what do you really think? Do you think most people got it wrong that they think they need so much more than they actually do because it’s so inexpensive in other countries?
Tammy: Yeah, absolutely but you know, you can do it for $3000 a month or $2000 a month. I’ve seen it done before. I mean, travelling abroad I’ve seen European kids or people rather just come over and they make it work. I think we have this preconceived notion that travelling internationally…ooh, it’s so expensive! It’s really not you know. I can hop on a plane to the Dominican Republic for like $300. That’s less than going to San Francisco or California.
Rob: You’re right, it’s ridiculous. I mean I have people who can go to New Jersey but they can’t go to the Dominican Republic. In many cases, it’s cheaper to go to the Dominican Republic.
Tammy: Right. It’s less travel time.
Rob: Less travel time, exactly. Okay, now that we’ve laid the foundation down for ways that you can do it and talk a little bit about the lifestyle. This is not somebody taking a week or 2 off, you know, to just chill and drink pina coladas and surf. You are actually productive when you’re…we’ll call them taking this mini-retirements around the world and there were certain tools that you use in order to be productive to run your empire. So take it from there, obviously, you’ve got a Blackberry.
Tammy: Absolutely. I have a Blackberry and I think that’s the number 1 tool for international travel. So on my Blackberry, they have this service called BBM and anyone that’s on that network, you know, you can exchange texts and photos and voice messages for free. So I’ve collected friends all over the world. Some are in London, my sister’s in Kuwait, my best friend’s in Portugal. I have all my friends in my Blackberry and it doesn’t cost me anything to stay in contact with them. And I don’t think a lot of people know that within the US, it’s a very international tool, the Blackberry messenger. That would be my number 1 tool.
Rob: Compare that by the way to the iPhone, which is kind of what everybody got in their hands these days.
Tammy: I have both and at the same time, statistically, there are 2 tons more Blackberry on the market than there are iPhones. I mean, iPhones are great. I guess I like both but it’s more of like my “fun toy” for me. It’s not something that I actually utilize to work from.
Rob: So certainly, internationally, the iPhone gets turned off and the Blackberry goes on?
Tammy: Oh, absolutely.
Rob: Yeah, and if you’ve ever tried to use the iPhone internationally, you’ll get the $800 bill that will give you a cold shower real quick.
Tammy: Yeah, that’s what I’ve heard.
Rob: Yes, it’s pretty unbelievable.
Tammy: I definitely turn my iPhone off when I go international.
Rob: What are some other tools that you use?
Tammy: There are many tools that I use and I guess I just want to say one thing. Neil Patel from Quicksprout.com has a great post. It’s called The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Web 2.0. it’s The Top 25 Applications to Grow your Business. I send a lot of people to that post because I think it’s great.
Rob: So let me get it again from you. Let me say it again so I don’t get a bunch of email on this. His name is Neil Patel, it’s Quicksprout.com, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Web 2.0
Tammy: I love Google Apps. I’m a huge Google Apps fan and what that is, it’s basically Gmail and Google Docs and Google calendar specifically for small businesses. So whenever you have your domain name, that is actually ran on Google Apps. You can actually host your domains instead of tammycamp@gmail. I have my whole business running off the back end and I think that’s a great tool. You can sync your calendars to your Iphones, your Blackberrys, that’s all interchangeable and you don’t have to pay for it. What I love most about it is you do use Blackberry or even iPhone. You don’t have to have a Microsoft exchange license for it. You know, your Blackberry license for it so it just syncs. Like everything syncs if I’m entering into my Blackberry, it automatically syncs to my Gmail Apps so I think that’s great. In having everything in the Cloud, I’ve found is essential. So I can literally pick up. I don’t have to take my computer with me. I can access. Having complete access to all of my data, all of my files, everything in the Cloud and that means not just Google Apps. Like for instance if you’re using tools like 37 Signals or Sales Force, you know, your CRMs.
Rob: By 37 signals, you’re referring to Base Camp?
Tammy: Yes, I’m referring to Base Camp.
Rob: You know, one of the questions I get all the time is, “Well, aren’t you nervous about putting something if you don’t have a file on your desktop? You know, you might lose it.” In 5 years that I have been online, I don’t think…in fact I know there’s not one file that’s ever been lost. You don’t lose it in the cloud. In fact you’ll lose it if you put it in your computer and your computer will crash.
Tammy: You don’t even understand how much money I’ve spent on data recovery services (laughs).
Rob: It’s ridiculous, I know.
Tammy: Now that I’ve put everything. Now that I’ve put everything in the Cloud, it doesn’t happen and it’s awesome.
Rob: It’s a non issue. Okay, I understand that there’s a media tour that you’re sort of either finishing, starting or where are you with that?
Tammy: Well, I’m travelling a lot. I’m making a lot of appearances at conferences this year. You know I have been travelling internationally in the past few years and now I’m ready for everyone to see my face again (laughs). Conferences like the Summit Series, Renaissance Weekend and Mai Tai. I’ll be going to Mai Tai with just Bill Tai and Susi Mai. Bill Tai is like a venture capitalist from Charles River. Susi Mai is like one of the top female kite boarders. They actually have an event that they get all of the tech entrepreneurs and all the venture capitalists who kite board and I get them all together in one place and I’m actually going Maui in five days and that by far is like the best event. And you know it’s a small, small group of us because I mean, hey who kite boards? But during that there’s definitely interviews and all that. You know Forbes is there interviewing why it is that entrepreneurs or even tech entrepreneurs are so drawn to the sport.
Rob: You know what, I get emails all the time from people saying how, from me personally, “How you live this life, how do you travel the way you travel, I’m envious.” My life is in sh*t compared to what this girl is doing (laughs). She is killing it. And I’ll tell you. If you do yourself a favor, sign up for her Twitter feed and I’ll have her give her website in a minute but she will keep you up to date via Twitter in a very elegant, sexy, interesting way and if you just want to live vicariously or you just need inspiration for what’s possible. This is absolutely my number 1 recommendation of the person to follow in terms of living life that most of the members of the site want. So Tammy I just want to thank you so much for taking the time with us today and being as open and candid as you have been.
Tammy: No worries! Thanks for having me.
Rob: You’re welcome. If people want to get a hold of you, how do they do it?
Tammy: Well, I’ve maintained a personal blog at tammycamp.com and that’s about entrepreneurship and adventure travel and kite boarding and just you know, everything that I do (laughs). And also, you can follow me on Twitter. I usually tweet about my adventures so you can do that at www.twitter.com/tammycamp
Rob: Tammy, thanks again and I hope that our paths cross somewhere in the air over Tarifa, kite boarding or something like that. It will be really, really cool to actually meet you.
Tammy: Likewise!
