Last week, before I packed up everything to move again, I had a great chance to talk on the phone with Karol Gajda from Ridiculously Extraordinary, phoning in from Wroclaw, Poland.
Karol is one of my favorite bloggers out there, and I haven’t shared his stuff enough. Karol lives life on his own terms. He travels where he wants to, lives where he wants to. He’s not afraid to be himself, to curse once in a while, he gets philosophical and vulnerable about the challenges of living a life of extraordinary freedom, and he digs into some really, truly valuable strategies and tactics for improving your life.
What’s in store for you in this excellent interview:
- 2:00 – What is ridiculously extraordinary freedom?
- 2:45 – Karol’s trip to Goa, India, to build a handmade guitar
- 3:18 – All about his guide How to Live Anywhere
- 6:36 – About Karol’s long career in affiliate marketing and info product strategies
- 8:26 – Specific tactics for earning money with your blog
- 10:55 – All about hustle
- 12:32 – Secrets to exploding your blog & Karol’s secret for guest blogging on huge sites
- 17:02 – Karol’s travels to India, Thailand, and Poland this year (see Karol’s guest post The Beginner’s Guide to Minimalist Travel on Zen Habits)
- 19:20 – What it’s like traveling and living in Wroclaw, Poland (Karol’s birthplace)
- 23:35 – Networking and using Couchsurfing when you travel
- 24:30 – What’s up next in Karol’s travels, BlogWorld conference
- 25:25 – How a Gameboy at age 8 helped Karol realize an extraordinary method for achieving goals
Download the MP3 here to listen on your own computer (right click and “Save As”)
How to Live Anywhere: The guide I wish I’d written
The last thing I want to mention is that I read Karol’s truly incredible guide How to Live Anywhere: The Official Guide to Ridiculously Extraordinary Freedom while I was in Bali with my girlfriend a couple months ago now. Even as someone who’s already living the location independent lifestyle, I found several valuable strategies for making more money online and insights into improving my mindset, for example.
Update August, 2011: Unfortunately Karol has made his excellent guidebook unavailable, so if you want great lessons, interviews, case studies, and tools for how to live anywhere, make sure you become a part of the Thrilling Heroics Inner Circle (it’s free)!
Make sure you follow Karol Gajda on Twitter and check out these awesome articles on Ridiculously Extraordinary:
That’s an inspirational podcast, thank you for sharing!
The only thing I would mention in “what would I do differently” area is being more specific & structures.
Because abstract philosophical thoughts about freedom and generic advice about promoting right things are of course good. But it would be great to understand the actual actions that led to success better.
Good point Maxim, we’ll try to get more specific in future interviews, but also, that’s what Karol’s guide is for—How to Live Anywhere—it’s packed with some really solid strategies for adding income streams or making your online marketing efforts more profitable. Thanks for listening man.
Hey Cody! Thanks so much for doing this interview and thanks for all the awesome things you wrote here.
Maxim: regarding actual actions. You hit on it right there. Take action. There are many paths to freedom and you won’t find yours unless you take action.
Cheers,
Karol
No problem Karol, it was fantastic to finally catch up with you on the phone, and it was a fun conversation. Thanks for your time too buddy! You’re sharing some truly valuable things with your audience (and now mine too!)
Hey Cody,
Cool person to interview. I haven’t listened yet but I’m about to go get it.
Thanks for sharing this link with everyone.
Peace,
Darren L Carter
Sure thing Darren, hope you enjoy this podcast. Karol Gajda is a rockstar, and I hope you follow him at Ridiculously Extraordinary if you haven’t yet. His stuff is truly great, and his ebook makes me jealous!
Thanks for the comment man.
It´s always nice to hear and read Karol´s advice.
I liked to hear his explanation on how his links to Amazon work on a specific article.
I´m all about couchsurfing too, I learned a lot from Karol´s e-book on couch surfing, and I´m hosting all the time now.
Karol, if you go to Brazil, I´ll just say that you´ll find trully friendly people
(I´m from BRazil…)
Karol’s ebooks are packed with good, concrete, actionable information. Glad that you enjoyed our great discussion Marilia, thanks for the comment! And I wanna make it over to Brazil one of these days too!
Thanks Cody, lovely to hear Karol’s voice although I think I’ve heard him speak before:) Also a big fan of Karol’s lifestyle, writing and philosophy. Thanks lads:)
Thanks Annabel! You rock!
Thanks Marilia! I plan on being there in January.
Great interview Cody. Big fan of both yourself and Karol!
Cool man, thanks for listening, and thanks for the positive feedback, love it Vinay!
Hey guys, thanks for the interview.
Karol, can you share your income sources and a range of how much you make?
I’m trying to figure out for the Yakezie Lifestyle vertical what we should aim for, for our 2nd Yakezie Challenge.
Cody has shared with us $1,000-$1,200/month, and I feel that’s a good level if you are living in SEA. I’m just wondering if we should shoot for $2,000-$3,000 extra a month in online income since most of us are personal finance bloggers and there is a ton of advertisers in the space by default.
Thnx!
What a great interview! There is some very valuable info in there.
Living and traveling as a minimalist for me has been nothing short of fantastic and even though I have yet to really use the full power of CouchSurfing I can’t wait to try it. I think it’s a fantastic way to meet new people and see some really awesome things.