Meeting New People & Saving Them $6,000
I bring you today’s vlog as the world’s most sunburned gringo…
I was reading a book at the pool for barely even two hours, on a cloudy day, and got absolutely roasted.
I’ve lived in Australia for six months, spent weeks on the beach in Mexico, and hardly ever wore sunscreen. But that Colombian sun got me good.
Anyways…
Since moving down to Colombia, I’ve been making a conscious effort to speak to as many people as I can.
This is for two reasons:
- Many people down here are expats and online business owners who I can learn a lot from
- To learn Spanish
(Re: point 2… You should have seen me and my friends at the club Saturday night… Think about those awful rejections you see at regular clubs, then try to imagine those same rejections between a gringo trying to speak Spanish. Pretty brutal, but equally hilarious.)
So I’ve been working out just about every day in my gym’s apartment. (Don’t be too impressed, all they have is a stationary bike) Since I’m trying to talk to everyone I can, I’ve struck up a few conversations and recently met a WordPress developer from Germany as well as a local Colombian who is also a website developer and designer. Two awesome connections, boom.
Last weekend, I was buying groceries AKA Google-searching what items I was looking at. I was attempting to order a kilo of ground beef in broken Spanish and a couple and I started talking. He asked what I did, I told him I was a web designer and it turned out that he needed web design help. We exchanged numbers then two days later I went to meet with him to see if I could help him out.
Juan, the guy I met, owns a franchise of Colombian make up stores, equivalent to Forever21 in the states. He just had his website done, and had a few questions related to eCommerce, which I haven’t worked with before…
Well, lucky for me, the German dude I had met two days prior was a WordPress developer that focused exclusively on eCommerce.
I gave him a call and he talked me through a few things so I could communicate effectively back to Juan. So that was sorted. Awesome. Next issue…
Juan had just paid for the new website but the company he hired was unresponsive and slow for the most part. Worst of all he was paying $500 monthly for “updates” which for those of you who don’t know, is an absolutely absurd amount of money. Monthly website updates typically range anywhere from $10-60. Even $100 is pushing it.
I told Juan that price was ridiculous and told him what info we needed to get from the company to maintain ownership of the site and quit paying the monthly updates. He told me to get on the phone with the company and tell them I was a representative from the franchise’s corporate office. I did, and they agreed to send over the information.
BOOM! I had just saved Juan $6,000. Additionally, Juan was going to hire me for the other updates that he needed, which I will be able to coordinate with the Colombian designer and developer I had met a few days prior.
These are the types of moments that I love – why I love traveling and meeting new people.
As I’ve mentioned, I’ve been speaking to 50+ millionaires, entrepreneurs, professional athletes, best-selling authors and more the last few weeks and compiling their advice to their 20-something self.
One quote that really struck me and directly related to this story was the following from my friend Ronnie, who runs the very popular travel blog, ManyManyAdventures.com:
“Go see the world and really talk to the people that you meet. Listen to their stories and appreciate the miracle it is that you’re both sitting in that specific spot and that specific time having a conversation.”
How beautiful is that? Really. Let that sink in for a second.
A few months ago I never would have thought I’d be in Colombia. But here I am, the world’s most sunburned gringo, and I was able to help Juan and his business save $6,000. On top of that, I’ll be getting paid for future work.
This is what travel is all about: getting out into the world, experiencing new things, new places and new people.
Until next time, amigos.
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