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Episode 012.
What do you want out of life? Distilled down to its simplest form, what would your ideal lifestyle TRULY be?
Gary Collins has lived a wild and unique life. He’s worked in military intelligence, in the U.S. State Department Diplomatic Security Service, in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, as well as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. He has taught at the University College level, consulted and trained college level athletes, and been interviewed for his expertise on various subjects by CBS Sports, Coast to Coast AM, The RT Network, and FOX News to name a few.
He now lives off-the-grid part of the year in a remote area of northeast Washington State, and the other part of year exploring in his travel trailer with his trusty black lab Barney.
Gary is the writer of the best selling Living Off The Grid and The Simple Life book series. His books blow the lid off of conventional life and wellness expectations.
“Today we’re bombarded by too much stress, not enough time for personal fulfillment, and failing to take care of our health… there has to be a better way!”
How can you run your business while living the most fulfilling life possible? Listen now!
Find out more about Gary Collins: https://www.thesimplelifenow.com
Find out the business events secrets for growing and strengthening ANY company: http://brianjpombo.com/secrets/
Full Transcript
Gary: What I’m teaching is not the norm, challenging. It’s challenging in the sense that it’s more that you have to look inside yourself and go, okay, am I happy?
The statistics say that Americans are not happy. They’re not living the life they want to live.
I was one of those people. And I finally said enough of this. I’m tired of it. I’m going to do something about it. And I did what I did.
It isn’t it perfect for everyone. I just tell you my story.
Podcast Intro: If you’re someone who refuses to go along to get along, if you question whether the status quo was good enough for you and your family.
If you want to leave this world better off than you found it and you consider independence a sacred thing.
You may be a prepper, a gardener, a homesteader, a survivalist, or a farmer or rancher, an environmentalist or a rugged outdoorsman.
We are here to celebrate you whether you’re looking to improve your maverick business or to find out more about the latest products and services available to the weekend rebel.
From selling chicken eggs online, to building up your food storage or collecting handmade soap.This show is for those who choose the road less traveled the road to self-reliance for those that are living a daring adventure life off the grid.
Brian: Gary Collins has a very interesting and unique background and includes military intelligence special agent for the US State Department Diplomatic Security Service, US Department of Health and Human Services, and US Food and Drug Administration.
Collins’s background and expert knowledge brings a much needed perspective to today’s areas of simple living, health, nutrition, entrepreneurship, self help and be more self reliant.
He holds an AAS degree in exercise science, BS in criminal justice and MS in forensic science.
Gary was raised in the high desert at the base of the Sierra Nevada mountain range in a rural part of California. He now lives off the grid part of the year in a remote area of Northeast Washington state and the other part of the year exploring in his travel trailer with his trusty black lab Barney.
He enjoyed and considers himself lucky to have grown up in a very small town experiencing fishing, hunting and anything outdoors from a very young age. He’s been involved in organized sports, nutrition and fitness for almost four decades.
He’s also an active follower and teacher of what he calls life simplification.
He often says today we’re bombarded by too much stress, not enough time for personal fulfillment and failing to take care of our health. There has to be a better way. In addition to being a best selling author, he’s taught at the University of college level, consulted and trained college level athletes and then interviewed for his expertise on various subjects by CBS Sports, Coast to Coast AM, the RT network and Fox News to name a few.
His website www.thesimplelifenow.com. Best Selling, Living Off The Grid and The Simple Life Book Series.
His total lifestyle reboot blows the lid off the conventional life and wellness expectations and is considered essential for every person seeking a simpler and happier life.
Gary Collins, welcome to the Off The Grid Podcast.
Gary: Thanks for having me on Brian.
Brian: So why don’t you tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do?
Gary: Well with that great bio, which I did not write, but basically what it says, you know, I grew up in a very small rural town, grew up poor, single wide trailer and wanted to better myself and what I’ve always been exploring life in that sense.
And my journey, I left the government and started a health business. Bought 20 acres off up here in Northeast Washington.
He’s like, Oh, hold on here…all of a sudden the record screeching right and I went Yeah, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. You know, I grew up very rural, and I’m looking for quiet just to get away. I’m not looking to hold myself up like Ted Kaczynski and right some Manifesto.
I fell in love with area years and years ago and basically did an interview and people asked me what the heck I was up to other host did and I said, well you know, writing a book, or not writing but I’m building a house off the grid.
But you know, just get away just quieter life, easier life, simpler life.
And so it started. I decided to document I got a bunch of emails, asking me about it, how I was doing it, how I found the land.
Gosh, here’s my next book. And I wasn’t really a writer, I still don’t really consider myself a writer.
I mean, I didn’t go to school for English if you couldn’t tell, I’m a dummy. And I’m a math guy. That’s more my thing.
And so kind of document it, wrote it and it took off.
I mean, I guess it was right place right time. And that kind of pushed me off into another direction. I’d written three health books prior in a health program prior to that, but the health books for mainly for clients.
I had a marketing guy who said, Hey, throw them on Amazon. And if you’re an aspiring writer, never just throw something on Amazon. That’s just to give you some good advice. It will be there forever.
Yeah, I look at those things and they’re still sold used.
I took them all off and got rid of them and burned every copy I had even though the content was good, but I didn’t know what I was doing and they’re still out there.
So luckily people still enjoy them. Shockingly enough, even the used version so, you know, they were for clients primarily.
And so this was going off the grid was my first real thought out book. I mean, I had a professional cover done, layout and put some thought into it.
Not that I didn’t put any thought into my other ones but more of the professional or professional looking side of it. It would be the best way to put it and like I said, it just kind of took off and next thing you know, I’m off in a whole nother life direction and everything I was pursuing was life simplification.
Even though I was and still am primarily a health guy, because that’s what I preached for everything right?
But as I kind of moved on, I realized my message was getting a little bit confusing company wise, you know, after working with clients and on the health side and writing blogs and articles and speaking on all that.
I realized I needed to change the direction of the company and basically relaunched it less than a year and a half ago.
So new website new domain, the simple life book series had to come out establishing the brand.
Anyone who’s done this, anyone who owns their own business knows how difficult it is. But if you’re not willing to pivot when you need to, you’re going to suffer and people who are following me or suffering too, and that’s what I noticed is they were confused.
They’re all, What the heck is this guy doing you know, is primal paleo health guy. And then there’s this off the grid book. And, you know, the next book after that was RV living.
And then you know, I had to rebrand so I put out the health book, buttoned it up and put some more stuff in there and changed it around.
But the simple life is what it is. That’s the series.
I’m three books into it. The fourth book is done. I’m going through a different process on this one. So it’s taking a little bit longer, and I’m glad but yeah, and a simple life and then the off the grid stuffs a little bit separate.
I did a book with Mothers Earth News this year. And that’s the workbook for living off the grid.
And then I did a follow up called Living Off The Grid.
Those books, I consider them a little bit separate, even though the simple life pieces all fit within that, but that’s its own series.
And as it unfolds, people kind of…it’s hard when you only have two books out and then you know once a health book once an RV living book and what the heck is this guy doing?
What’s the simple I book series, RVing and a health book, you know, this makes no sense.
As it unfolds, it will make more and more sense. The pieces will all come together.
The next book is financial freedom, The Guide to Financial Freedom.
The book before that was, Decluttering Your Life. Which is the newest book, and the financial freedom one I’m excited about because there’s never been a financial book done this way.
I use all math and basic math and numbers and basically show how the average American is destitute or broke or poor partially by design, but also by us not paying attention.
I’ll take you through growing up as a kid, step by step how the system is set up to take a chunk out of you every step of the way, financially.
And if you’re not paying attention, you end up how we are today, where 60% of Americans don’t even have a retirement savings. They can’t even pay for an emergency.
So we’re in a bad spot financially, even though economically everything looks rosy, the average Americans in a bad place.
And that’s where I kind of go through and I break out the math on how the average American loses money on their house. And people freaked out on that one.
I was on a coast to coast and the lines lit up when I said that, what’s he talking about?
The American dream and I go, Hey, man, I had real estate license for eight years. That was my side hustle. And the government was real estate. So I’m no dummy.
And I’ve owned several properties. So I know how the game works. And not only that, but I own commercial properties too.
Brian: Oh, wow.
Gary: Yeah. And if you don’t understand how the system set up, it’s going to take you and like said, it’s a little peace here, little peace there.
Next thing you know, you’re 25, 30 years old, you’re in debt that you can’t get out of.
You’re literally in a perpetual debt cycle.
That’s how the system set up. So I’m really excited to kind of bring that about. And you know, it’s not a tin hat, or tin foil hat book, don’t get that.
Like said, I prove it all with basic math and show you how the numbers work.
And it ended up being around a million and a half dollars average american will waste during their life, waste get nothing out of, we’re all millionaires, and we just don’t even know it.
And not only that, but I prove, you know, obviously, the minimum wage is a big deal right now.
$15 an hour. And you know, there’s arguments on both sides. And remember, I grew up poor.
I started my first job at 13, making $3 and 35 cents an hour. So Trust me, I know how wages work.
I had a comment someone got on me one time said he has no idea what a living wage is.
No, you need to read my background before you open your mouth. I’m a little blunt sometimes.
So if you’re gonna say something stupid, I’ll let you know that hey, you might want to look into my background before you say something like that.
But average minimum wage is $31,400 a year if you only work 40 hours a week. Well guess what the richest 1% in the world, the line there, it’s moved a little bit. I think it’s now it’s around 34,000 because countries are developing very rapidly, their economies, but our poorest people in this country are considered the richest 1% in the world. Let that sink in.
I mean, that’s why I had to write that financial book. Because I’ve made all the same mistakes, too. Okay.
I’m not perfect at all.
But financially, I’ve realized that compared to most of Americans, I’m lightyears ahead and I didn’t ever considered myself that way. Breaking out the numbers. It was it was eye opening to see where we spend our spend and waste our money. I know I went off on a tangent.
Brian: No, that’s awesome. I mean, that’s right up the alley, I think most of the listeners here when you plan on having that financial freedom book out?
Gary: Of all goes well, six weeks. I just uploaded for the audio version to have a narrated. I don’t do my own narration, people want me to, I just don’t have the time and energy to try and do because then once you start you got to do all your books.
Brian: Yeah.
Gary: So plan to do them hopefully at some point. It’s just right now I can’t it’s too much to add on.
But yeah, it’s done. It’s been edited. It’s all done.
And we’re working on layout right now covers done. It’s very, very close in.
I just think it’s a book that had to be written because it’s not about most financial books are about how to invest right how to create wealth.
Well, I’m saying we already have the wealth. It’s just we’re pissing it away. That’s the problem.
That’s the primary problem.
You can invest if you don’t have any money to invest.
So you have to look at your personal finances first. And I think all of us without investing one dime would be very, very well off.
If we just paid attention to how we spend our money. It’s a consumer economy.
Brian: That’s sounds great.
And people always say, well, if everyone went out and saved all their money and didn’t buy all this useless crap that we tend to buy, well, the economy would implode or just I go, No, it wouldn’t it would change, it would adapt, it would turn into something healthier, something better for all of us.
Businesses would be more mom and pop again.
That’s problem today, too, is consumers is driven by very large companies who have an agenda.
You know, I worked in the health industry, I worked in the biggest health industry in the country, the Health Department of Health and Human Services.
We spend over a trillion dollars a year on health care, and we’re one of the sickest developed countries in the world, let that sink in.
We spend the most money by almost three times the next developed country, and we’re some of the sickest people in the world. So we’re going about it wrong.
And I’ve always said I say this on almost every interview I do. There’s no money in healthy people.
And that’s what you have to understand is I don’t like to rally against people.
Companies I use them too but they’re geared to make us spend money we really shouldn’t be spending making us waste our time on things that we should not be wasting our time on and people who know know what, how my feelings are social media do I use it?
I use it as a tool. I do not use it as something to waste time.
You know, I don’t even use Facebook anymore. I gave that up over a year ago.
I never used it personally that much if at all.
On the business side, I just got sick of the typical why can get this information free?
I can reach out and ask you a question for free. I go no, no, absolutely. Actually, you can’t.
I’m not going to play that game. You know, I run a business just because I run a business doesn’t mean you can just reach out and ask me random questions. Don’t troll me and call me nasty names and that kind of that game. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.
When I grew up, if I want to get in touch with an author, anyone you know, I looked up to I had to write them a letter and I may get a response back. I think I wrote one author a letter when I was a kid, once I’ve never been a celebrity guy could care less.
It’s just, times have changed. It’s instant access to everyone. It’s dysfunctional voyeurism is what I call it.
Focusing on your own life instead of focusing in on others, that’s what you should be doing. And that’s kind of where all this project came from.
I mean, that’s, honestly, in a nutshell, where it came from, is kind of where society’s gone. And I’ve just said enough. Now for the noise. I don’t want to deal with it.
Brian: So you were talking about how your writing process has evolved at where it’s at right now. Do you see yourself writing more books?
Do you enjoy it with where it’s at right now?
Gary: It’s evolved in the sense that I’ve had to learn a lot.
I’m primarily self published and have been, which means you get to make a lot of mistakes that everyone gets to see. So that’s a little rough.
You know, I didn’t go to school for journalism. I had to learn this on the fly.
English is not my strong point far as writing. Like I said, I’m a math guy, I’ve got a scholarship from Bank of America for God sakes. I started off as a mechanical engineer. So trust me, yeah.
And then I end up criminal justice. I always pursuing my love.
Then being a mechanical engineer was not exactly fun.
Brian: Yeah.
Gary: But I realized that in the writing process, it’s just evolved in the sense that I’ve learned more, it’s getting better, I’m getting more more efficient.
I just hired a whole new team for this financial freedom book.
So it’s new editor, new cover guy, new layout. All this is all brand new for this book.
So I’m starting almost starting over and this is pretty common with authors especially self published as you go through these steps and this journey, because there’s no publishing company holding your hand telling you what to do. You just figure it out.
You put a book out and people go, you suck, I hate you.
Or you know, they go I love it, or it’s a split. It’s actually always a split.
You always got a question the books where it’s all five star reviews go you know, on ones that perfect. But also what I write can be considered a little, I wouldn’t say divisive, it’s more of you have to expand your mind and think a little bit wider.
You know, what I’m teaching is not the norm.
Brian: It’s challenging.
Gary: It’s challenging in the sense that it’s more, you know, a little more introspective, that you have to look inside yourself and go, okay, am I happy? The statistics say that Americans are not happy.
They’re not living the life they want to live. I was one of those people. And I finally said enough of this, I’m tired of it. I’m going to do something about it. And I did.
What I did isn’t perfect for everyone. I tell everyone I go, I just tell you my journey. I tell you what I’ve learned the lessons. You know, I spent half my life in the federal government. I’ve been all over the world. I’ve been in the military.
I have some experience.
And I didn’t just come out and have some life altering event as a 20 year old and now I’m a self help guru.
I’m pushing 50 I’ve been around and so I’m just sharing because people wanted to know, so that’s what I did. Trust me, I could make far more money doing something else. But it’s also my life purpose.
Now, I get pleasure out of educating, helping people. People helped me, you know, that’s part of the process too. I get to learn along the way.
I’m always learning. I tell people if you’re not learning or dead.
And that’s another problem we have in society today, people aren’t learning, what they’re learning or what they call learning is just basically garbage in, garbage out. Or getting caught into political tribalism or getting caught into the celebrity vortex.
I call it false prophets.
You go and follow someone you shouldn’t be following who’s giving you really bad advice, but they’re a celebrity.
Well, what are they a celebrity for? Being a celebrity?
I always use the Kardashians, a perfect example. They’re famous for being famous.
That’s not a skill.
That’s just slick marketing and tricking you. The fact that you follow him and you know, the whole thing where she’s gone and gotten people out of prison, has Kim Kardashian.
That’s a that’s great. But the skewed guy in me goes, she’s doing it for PR more than likely.
She may be doing it for a part of it for a good purpose, but also the other purposes.
She wants a camera on her. That’s what she does. That’s why she’s famous.
You know, do you really want to follow those people? Are they making you better?
They teaching you lessons that you can use?
You know, I try and tell people follow someone who you respect. Something that you want to aspire to.
All the people I follow all the people I look up to, I’m trying to better myself and learn the lessons from them. And that’s why our society was based was learning from our peers. Right, right, Brian, that’s basically how we learned everything from our elders.
They were the ones with the wisdom they had the time in, you know, they’d learn the lessons, they share them with us. And today, I’m not seeing a whole lot of that, more of, who has the fanciest marketing campaign who can blow as much smoke up your butt as they possibly can.
In a lot of it’s basically placating to you and telling you what you want to hear.
I call it the telling you….kind of reinforcing what you want as opposed to what you need.
There’s a big difference, you know, I want a Ferrari, do I need a Ferrari?
No, that’s how I look at it. And today, we’ve just kind of lost our way a little bit on that sense.
And the false prophet syndrome is a troubling one, to me.
It’s hard because there’s a lot of people peddling a lot of BS out there, and they sell a lot, you know, they’re multimillionaires, or you kind of go, oh, boy.
And that’s what’s hard about what I teach. Because there I tell people there’s no BS here. It is what it is.
Either you like it or you don’t.
And if you don’t, I’d prefer you not say nasty things and just move on your way because that’s not the way to live your life either.
But that’s another problem we have today too, as people have lashing out at other people that they just don’t agree with or they don’t quite understand. And you see it a lot specially in the on the political side.
And I don’t talk about politics in any of my books. I was there I stood next to some of the most powerful people in the world.
I’ve been in senators and congressman’s office, I’ve heard their private comment, you don’t want to know.
Brian: Yeah.
Gary: Both sides are not on your side. Let’s just put it that way.
And I see people get spun up and waste a lot of energy on that. I’ve done it, trying to get out of that.
That’s basically what I teach. I just teach you to look at life from the perspective of, how can you be better?
You know, how can you treat other people better?
How can you be a better person?
How can you make what’s around you better your family, your friends, your community?
That’s what basically what I teach what the simple life is all about.
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BrianJPombo.com/secrets and now back to the conversation.
Brian: Fabulous.
You went through so much there, we’re going to have to have you come back sometime. We have more time unpack some of this, cuz there’s a lot of great wisdome there. And a lot there that I think business owners, in genereal face a lot.
And yes, they’re being encouraged to be more in that way of distracting people and playing to the bad side of people and honestly lying to people. And people enjoy being lied to.
And it is I mean, there’s a lot of deep stuff there that that needs to be discussed and talked about.
And it’s great that you’re delivering some of that tough love, that tough truth to people.
It’s a tough road to hoe to get attention that way because you push a lot of people away but you sure I’m certain you draw a lot of people to you because you’re saying things that other people aren’t willing to say.
Gary: Well, that’s part of it.
But I also tell people, if you want to do things right, it’s going to take you 10 times as long to succeed.
That sounds like, kind of a little bit of poop in the punch bowl. But it’s not because doing things right.
It’s not get rich quick. It’s not the fast road. It’s the right road, the right road takes time.
Because as you know, when I started, I didn’t know anything.
I’d been running a business before but as a real estate business, it was a little different. You know, I wasn’t doing a lot of marketing. I wasn’t writing books.
So it was a whole different process.
As I evolved, I had to figure this stuff out. So a supplement line, I’ve had a supplement line I teach, you know, I worked with clients.
The last thing I wanted to do is do any harm to someone.
I was always really, really careful with what I did, what I sold. And to this day, I don’t even advertise my supplement line. People are shocked.
It’s a terrible business model. But my supplement line is to the benefit of my followers. That’s it.
I have the background in it. Everything I sell, everything that’s on there is the best quality I could possibly produce. And it’s things that I’ve used personally and have used with clients that I know that work.
I do not want that stuff coming back on me. I just don’t.
I’m not here just to sell you something. And I think we get caught in that especially as entrepreneurs when people step out, and I wrote a blog post about this and it’s about turning pro being a pro.
And a lot of entrepreneurs I found this that they have their day job and they hate it right?
Just most Americans, I think it’s like 70% say they hate their job.
So they go I’m going to run my own business. And I go Okay, that’s great.
But what have you been doing in the job that you hate?
And they go I hate it. I go, are you screwing off?
Are you blowing time?
What are you doing?
And I have a lot of friends so I know. I let them talk to me I guess what do you do at work all day. I know you don’t like your job and they spend most their time wasting their day figuring out how to not work.
And I’ve seen people do this and they go out and they create their own business but they take within those bad habits.
I go, you have to look at working as a stepping stone.
If you’re going to be an entrepreneur, you’re going to run your own business.
Again, it’s becoming a good follower before you become a good leader.
Well, you have to be a good employee before you can be a good boss. And they go all hand in hand together.
So I go, what you need to do is….even if you hate that job, you have to go there and act like you own that business.
You go in there, you use it as a learning experience. You pick up the tools, you’re going to need to run your own successful business.
And what they do instead of doing that, they go in, they complain, they gaff off their entire day.
There on Facebook, social media screwing around.
Guess what they do when they start their own business. They have no ability to plan their day.
They have no ability to prioritize.
They get caught in all these rabbit holes and vortexes of timewasting, and they can’t figure out why their business fails.
That’s why.
And not only that, but they weren’t. I always say you better have a year savings to live comfortably before you start your own business bare minimum.
Because as we know, to entrepreneurs, it takes three to five years before you know your businesses even going to work.
And everyone just thinks, Hey, man, I watched the Shark Tank.
You know, I watch the Donald Trump show whatever the heck that was…
Brian: The Apprentice, yeah.
Gary: Yeah, there you go.
I thought that was the dumbest show known the man. And they watch that and they think everything’s instant success.
You just fall out of bed one day sit in your bathrobe and you make millions of dollars on the internet.
If you’re a crook, probably.
But if you’re honest, not a chance in the world, not gonna happen.
So it’s about learning in and kind of taking the steps and that’s what I you know, I made a lot of mistakes, but I took it slow.
I got out you know, I worked. I did had jobs in between kind of figured out what the heck I was doing.
You know, didn’t rely purely…and that’s another thing, if you jump out and you’re relying purely on being a business owner and entrepreneur, well, if you gotta feed your family, feed yourself, you’re not quite making it.
Well, human nature makes you start cutting corners and doing things that you probably wouldn’t do otherwise, because now you got to pay the bills on your own.
So that’s where those ethical dilemmas come in.
And I tell people, you know, make sure you don’t get in that position. Because as a former criminal investigator, and I did a lot of white collar investigations, and people will be shocked.
But these were legitimate business owners who you probably are neighbors next to doing very illegitimate things.
And what I found is once you cross that line, it’s over.
There’s no going back, you’re done.
So once you start going that route, what are you going to do, you can try and take a step back or I’m going to be honest now. No, it’s too late.
And not only that, but as an entrepreneur, you have to realize that you depending what you’re doing, you’re causing harm to other people in order for you to benefit.
You’re causing harm to someone else. You’re taking something from I call, it’s just straight out stealing.
If you’re being dishonest.
Yeah, that’s how I kind of look at the the entrepreneur business model. And what I try and teach people is, you know, take it slow, learn, yeah, be patient.
Brian: That’s great advice.
But really important and not said often enough for sure.
The way that I actually found out about you was because you’re going to be a speaker at the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany, Oregon. What are you looking at covering their?
Gary: August third and fourth, Saturday, Sunday in Albany, Saturday from 10am to 11am.
I’ll be doing an introduction to primal living and eating how to live a healthier and happier life.
And Saturday from five to 6pm, I’ll be talking about decluttering your life.
And Sunday 330 to 430, start your journey on the simple life live off the grid and change your health.
I talk about a multitude of subjects and I don’t like being a one trick pony.
I’m a very, I get bored very easily.
So I tend to learn many things, some not so well. But also for people who are coming to realize none of my speaking engagements are the same. I do not run off PowerPoint, PowerPoint, had good presentations in the government and sit through enough of them, it actually makes my eyes glaze over.
I can’t do PowerPoint anymore. So what I do too, is I gauge the audience and their experience level not only with what I do, but the subject matter.
And so I’ll tailor the discussion within the first five minutes to my audience.
I like to keep at least 20 minutes to questions and answers because that’s where we learn the most, I feel is from the questions awesome.
Brian: So have you been to any of these before?
Gary: Yeah, yeah, I’ve been speaking out of all year.
Brian: Oh, fabulous.
Gary: Yeah, I speak at all of them all their fairs on that. So I didn’t do one the one in Asheville, North Carolina because I had another engagement but yeah, speak at all.
Brian: Very cool.
What do you hope that people walk away with? After watching when your presentations, what do you hope they’re going to walk away with?
Gary: You know, it depends.
And that’s why gauge to to see where the audience is primarily in the journey.
Each city’s different each towns different. Each presentation I choose different.
The biggest thing I want people to get away from what I teach is that anyone can do it don’t have to be rich, you don’t have to have any special powers.
The life I live in what I teach others to live is something anyone can do also today in our society, it’s about not waiting for someone to do it for you.
You know what I mean?
We have a lot of expectations that it should just happen. Nothing works that way.
You have to go out there and do it.
And in the lifestyle I live. Trust me it is in the beginning. It is very difficult because there’s you have to basically change everything you do, how you’ve been living your life, and what we’ve been taught and what we follow in society today.
What I live is quite a bit different than that and not not not in a better way, not in a worse way. It’s different.
It’s a different type of lifestyle.
It’s quiet, I like things quiet. I’m getting older. And I don’t like all this noise.
It’s about focusing in on things you can change, not worrying about all this noise around you the things that you can’t change.
So I hope that’s what they get out of it is that anyone can do it and it’s like that financial freedom but prove a very valid point.
Anyone can be a millionaire in this country, anyone.
We still live in the freest…and we got a lot of problems, trust me, we got a lot.
But still, we live in the freest nation in the world.
And I don’t think we’re taking advantage of that instead of getting better.
You know, it seems like we’re getting a little worse. We don’t treat each other very well.
That’s another thing I like to teach too is you be nice. We don’t need to hate on each other.
It’s wasted wasted energy. We should hope that everyone can be successful.
Brian: Awesome, great message.
Now, why are you doing this? What is your highest hope for attending these? And putting on presentations like this?
Gary: It’s teaching. It’s what I do.
And not only that, but public speaking is kind of my strength. It’s what I’m barely good at. I like doing it.
This is the most fun I have the funnest part of my job is interviews in speaking to me. And guess what the two worst things most authors find in their job speaking and doing interviews.
So I’m the opposite.
And not that I don’t like the writing. I actually do like writing. I like the process and and I do enjoy it. Otherwise I wouldn’t do it.
And that’s something people need to learn about me too.
I don’t do things because I have to. I do things because I want to know, does that mean there’s things in there that I don’t like you know, so much that no, I still do them because I got to get them done.
It’s part of the deal. It’s the good, the bad comes with the good here and there. B
But what I choose to do is what I want do.
Brian: Yeah, that that really ties in with your whole philosophy.
I mean, you’re talking about personal freedom.
You’re talking about life simplification, it’s really designing your own lifestyle, right. And sticking to that.
Gary: Absolutely. And that’s the thing too, is that’s why I always emphasize it, hey, just don’t mimic what I do.
It’s your journey. Your journey is specific to you.
I can only give you the pieces that I share.
You take what you want, put it together into into your lifestyle.
Living off the grid is a wide, wide swatch of different types of lifestyles. You talked to someone who lives off the grid and you get a whole group of us together. Everyone does it differently. Everyone.
There’s no template to living off the grid. It’s it’s different philosophies.
It’s different lifestyles, different family situations.
It varies across the board. It’s basically about freedom.
And that’s why I tell people what I teach is your own personal freedom. And understanding that what’s wrong with pursuing the lifestyle you want long as it doesn’t cause any negative impact on anyone else.
That’s how I look at it.
If I’m not causing any harm to anyone who cares, why get wrapped around the axle?
You know, it’s like a good example it this is not do not take this the wrong way, gay marriage, right?
People have very strong beliefs in it and and I just go does it affect you?
And what’s the answer you get?
Well, no.
Then why do you care?
Why do you care?
Why are you getting all spun up on this?
And I just use that example people. Please don’t take that as any religious belief or anything like that.
It’s just a pure example of where people just gets on up on something. And that’s what I teach to is live your life.
Don’t worry about everyone else’s, you know, that’s going to get you nowhere. I’ve done it too, again, I’ve learned lessons from this too.
You know, authors use this as we always talk about compared it is kind of it when you compare yourself against other authors, right?
If you’re an entrepreneur, you’ve compare yourself against other entrepreneurs.
And what it does is it gets you?
Very depressed very quickly.
Because you’re looking at someone who’s doing better than you, right?
You know, are they doing better than me?
Man, their books suck, or, you know, that guy doesn’t auto run a business, what’s going on?
You gotta, yeah, that’ll take you down quick focus on what you can do, how you can improve your life, how you can improve your business.
That’s basically in a nutshell of everything I teach is focus on the things you can focus on. all that other stuff, just a waste of time.
Brian: Great.
We have a lot of listeners that span all the way from people interested in starting a business all the way to seasoned business owners and executives. Do you think it’d be worthwhile for them to do something similar to write books to speak events like the Mother Earth News Fair, would you encourage them?
Gary: Absolutely.
Here’s my attitude. If you’re passionate about something, and there’s something you want to do, do it.
This is your life, and as far as we know, this is it.
We don’t know what’s on the other side.
Again, don’t take that as a religion. I just don’t know.
No one’s come back and told me, you know, once we’re done, we’re done.
And I hope there’s something, I really do. I hope there’s another something on the other side, I really do.
But I live life as a sense of, I don’t know.
So this is the only thing I’ve got that there’s not going to be any reincarnation. I’m not going to know, I don’t know, I’m going to live this life fullest.
And that’s what you should do anyway, even if there was something we knew was on there.
So you still should live it to your fullest.
So sure, but here’s the thing if you do not like public speaking, and you would rather not do it, and it makes you very uncomfortable. Maybe that’s not your thing.
That probably means though that something, you have a strengthen another area.
And I’m not saying don’t focus on weaknesses.
Now, if you have a business model where public speaking is an integral part of it, well, you better get good at it and you better figure it out.
But I never tell people don’t force yourself to do something that you absolutely hate and don’t enjoy.
It’s like physical fitness.
The easiest way to stay physically fit is to do things you enjoy.
That doesn’t mean sitting on the couch twiddling your thumbs picking lint out your belly button eating donuts.
What it means is getting out and if you like swimming, there’s your exercise, go swim.
I like riding bikes, I ride bikes.
That’s the stuff I like to do. I like going hiking. It’s the same thing.
If you’re going to stick with it and do it well do something you enjoy you know don’t force yourself do something.
Yeah, absolutely attest. So yeah, absolutely.
The Mother Earth News Fairs, the speaking, if you’re a speaker, it’s very diverse group of people there and I love it.
The more diverse my audience though. I just enjoy thoroughly, because that’s pretty killer.
Brian: Yeah. Fabulous. So do you have any….you’re attending all of these fairs?
Do you have any logistical tips, especially for someone with a background and traveling and so forth?
Gary: Yeah. Luckily, I’ve traveled a lot in my life for the government.
But it’s been a while. I haven’t done a lot of travel like this in a while.
But I still have my systems flights are tougher today.
It’s when you know, when I was in the government, I could get direct flights coast to coast easy, they’re hard now. And if they exist, they’re pretty expensive.
You know, they’re not cheap.
What I do is I just prepare my day, I have to leave here usually by three in the morning, to get to the airport and be able to get to my destination the day before, because then I speak the day after.
I just plan my workday around a little bit, just fill in that time with something productive. I’ll sleep for the first couple hours on the plane. And then after that, I have my laptop with me. I right. I get work done.
And that’s what I would do. Make sure you’re productive.
Travel, eat healthy, don’t go off the rails taught a lot of that traveling eating.
I always get asked that question, well, when you travel, how do you stay healthy and I go, same way you do at home, you don’t eat the junk, stay away from the garbage.
But obviously, it’s not perfect with that try and I tell people work out as soon as you hit.
That’s one of my things too is I get straight to the hotel and I go, either, you know, if they don’t have a gym, try and see if there’s anything around.
If not just go for a long walk and just walk around there.
Check it out, spend an hour so walking around, get some exercise, get the blood flowing.
And that’s what I recommend to you know, try and stay in a in a healthy routine because people who travel a lot, it’s very easy to get stuck in that travel itis as well.
Where do you just say, ahh screw it? When you eat crap. I’m not going to exercise.
I’ll do it when I get home.
Don’t do that. It makes it a lot easier and actually keeps you sharper, as well.
Brian: Fabulous. So you’re going to be at the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany as well as the ones following that.
Gary: I went home right here. Oh, glad that Topeka, Kansas October 19 20th oh and Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, September 13 and 15th. Those are the last two, after Albany.
Brian: That’s great.
How else can listeners find out more about you and your products and so forth?
Gary: Just go to my website, thesimplelifenow.com.
Don’t go to the simple life you’ll probably end up at Nicole Richie in Paris Hilton’s website.
I forgot that when I came up with the name but yeah, thesimplelifenow.com.
I sell all my books on my website.
My supplement line my blog has a ton of information. I’m sold worldwide amazon books are pretty much everywhere digital just started did my first audio book, the guide to RV living is out.
It just came out maybe a week or two ago and audio so I’m starting to do those.
Like I said earlier, the next book will be audio as well. So yeah, you can always find me my websites the easiest. Don’t look for me on Facebook.
Brian: Well, hey, Gary, this was a great conversation. I can’t wait to have you back. Dig more deeper into some of your concepts there. Thanks for coming. Thanks for being on the off the grid biz podcast.
Gary: Oh, thanks for having me on, Brian. I really enjoyed it.
Brian’s Closing Thoughts: Gary Collins, wow!
He’s just full of ideas and concepts. So, so interesting.
Can’t wait to have him back on the show. Like so many others. He’s got just this larger than life character.
He’s a renaissance man. He’s got kind of that no BS attitude that’s very colorful, very earthy.
I don’t mean that in a degrading way at all. I mean, I think it’s really, really cool.
And I think it endorse him to his audience. I love how he says his opinions on everything from celebrities, and discussing people marketing to what you want versus what you need.
I mean, these are concepts that aren’t talked about often enough.
And I think they need to be brought out there. I think we need to dig into some of these ideas.
There just wasn’t enough time to get into it with him.
But I can’t wait to be able to talk to him in the future.
And I love his concept of don’t do what I’m doing. Don’t just follow me and do what I’m doing, go and develop your own lifestyle, and develop the program that you want out of your life and make it happen. That’s inspiring. There’s a whole bunch of points I want to point out here.
One of them is how he creates his content and his energy behind his content.
Just his writing alone. He how he takes the questions from people to be able to create the content that becomes the books in the future and that he is mechanical engineer, I think he said, and he said, I’m not a writer.
I’m not an English major, but you go on amazon.com. He’s got nine different books up there, let alone the ones that he says he’s getting ready to publish.
That shows you you don’t have to be the greatest writer in the world. You don’t have to have an English degree.
It’s all about putting your concepts out there, putting your ideas out there, putting your personality out there, and seeing what people relate to and what they don’t.
I love how he says, All I do is I just tell you my journey.
I’m not saying you have to do it my way. This is just me.
I’m just saying what I’ve done up until now.
That’s very refreshing to because I think a lot of us when we sit down to create content, we sit down to write, or put our ideas out there. We think that we have to be something special, that we have to be something far and beyond.
All you gotta do is just tell people what you’ve done, and let them take it or leave it for themselves. He gets pleasure out of educating out of helping people and that speaking, interviews and writing, those are the things that energize him, he enjoys that and the things he wants to do.
There’s always things that you don’t want to do that you have to do.
But he’s been able to create a life that allows him to also do those things that he loves to do. It’s important to have that in your business. Don’t forget that.
Next I like his mindset hacks is what I call it.
The things that help keep him focused. His whole idea is focus on the things that you can change. Focus on just what you need to focus on. Oftentimes, as entrepreneurs, we let these things escape us, because we get distracted easily, but it’s important to keep these things in mind. Look at how he uses an in terms of social media, he uses it for business, he doesn’t waste time with it.
He doesn’t use it as a time suck in his life. You know, and I think a lot of us can sometimes get sucked into social media instead of using it for what it is and not letting it waste our time.
Also how he says, Be nice hate is wasted energy. It’s a good practical way of looking at the whole idea of getting caught up in politics and all the things of the world.
If you’re hating on something, if you’re getting obsessed about something, it’s wasted energy, just practically it pulls you away from the things that are useful from the ways that you could be helping people through your business.
Finally, I like how he says he doesn’t allow any type of instant access to himself. And he makes reference to the idea that free information is creating kind of entitlement and people out there that people think that they should have all the information for free because so much of it is free out there.
It’s important to stand up to that to put a price on the information that you’re providing out there regardless of whether that’s your main product or not.
One of the things that we promote here constantly and the things that you’ll hear, especially on these interviews regarding the Mother Earth News Fair, is how information has a value. Put a good price on the information that you’re providing and people will respect it more.
You’re going to hear more from an interview later from Christopher and Kirsten Shockey.
Christopher mentions the same concept of about free information. Overall awesome conversation.
I’m making a lot of great friends that I can’t wait to meet in person over at the Mother Earth News Fair in Albany Oregon.
Outro: Join us again on the next Off The Grid Biz Podcast brought to you by the team at BrianJPombo.com, helping successful but overworked entrepreneurs, transform their companies into dream assets.
That’s BrianJPombo.com.
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Our theme music is Cold Sun by Dell. Our executive producer and head researcher is Sean E Douglas.
I’m Brian Pombo and until next time, I wish you peace, freedom, and success.