The Workamper Show Podcast

Crazy Horse Memorial, which is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, hires about three dozen Workampers annually and pays them starting at $15 per hour. They also receive a $550 bonus after 90 days and, if they fulfill their agreement, Workampers receive an end-of-season bonus amounting to 25 cents for every hour they worked. Workampers don’t really require any special skills or training for the jobs other than being team players with a desire to help guests learn about Crazy Horse and the memorial’s significance.

Full-time RVers Allen and Margie Lundy teach people how to use proper nutrition to lose weight and get healthy. Part of that involves showing people how to make minor changes to their diet, like better portion control, and to embrace more nutritious food rather than relying upon the convenience of fast food and processed foods. Eating is just one aspect of a healthy lifestyle. The others involve exercise and proper sleep.

Six Flags needs ride operators, food and beverage workers, people to sell tickets and work at the front gates, staff retail stores, run games and provide other support services, such as cleaning the park.

In 2017, Larry Jorgensen wrote The Coca-Cola Trail: People and Places in the History of Coca-Cola to capture and retain stories behind how the company grew from one man’s secret recipe into a multi-national corporation. He is looking for Workampers who would like to sell the book independently to other people, like RVers, or by encouraging stores to carry copies. There are two ways to make money. Buying books at wholesale and selling them at retail prices, or earning a 20% commission for simply taking an order and allowing Larry to ship it to whomever ordered the copies.

When Roger Ford started repairing RV refrigerators in 1984, he kept hearing stories from RV owners about service centers telling them they needed to replace their refrigerators, which is an expensive repair. Yet, when Roger looked at the problem more closely, he discovered he could repair about 98% of the units instead for a few hundred dollars. Today, Ford RV Refrigeration Training Center has produced a series of videos RV owners can access for $25 per year which will show them how to diagnose and fix many problems with their RV refrigerators by themselves using common household tools.

Ashley Logsdon is an influencer who runs several businesses from her RV, has her own podcast and has developed some online classes for people contemplating the RV lifestyle. The family started RVing in 2016. Within two years, they had visited all 48 lower states. But, before they embarked on the full-time adventure, the family tried the RV lifestyle for 90 days to see if they'd like it. That led Ashley to develop an online course to help families prepare for the full-time RV lifestyle.

Jared Creach and his family have been RVing since 2014. Today, he supports his family by serving as a mobile RV technician. There is often plenty of work to keep him busy by just fixing RVs at the campgrounds they visit. In fact, he has received calls for service within 20 minutes of his arrival. Once he arrives at a campground, Jared drops off a stack of business cards with the office staff and places a few in the mail area as well. Generally, just word-of-mouth that a mobile service technician will be staying at the campground for a while is enough for other guests to anticipate Jared’s arrival.

William Floyd works for the Glacier Park Collection, which is an adventure travel company providing guest services to people visiting the national park. The company provides lodging as well as retail and food services plus other activities for guests to enjoy the most from their visit to Glacier National Park.

For 22 years, Katherine Hampton has been managing the volunteer program at 30 Idaho State Parks. That may be a small number compared those in other state parks in the Pacific Northwest, but Kathryn plans to bring on between 300 and 400 volunteers to serve as campground hosts as well as working in volunteer or seasonal jobs. There are hundreds of volunteers needed for 2022 and Kathryn would enjoy speaking with you about where you would best fit in to the Idaho State Parks system.

Today’s episode features an interview with a man who operates a marketing business to help local companies do a better job in building awareness of their products and services.

Brian Ostrovsky and his family started RVing about a year and a half ago. Originally from Sacramento, Calif., he and his wife raise five children ranging in ages from 4 to 13. They travel in a KZ Durango fifth wheel bunkhouse, which ensures everyone has enough space.

Brian created a marketing workshop program with which he works with local chambers of commerce and main street businesses. His wife was a teacher, but now she coordinates the roadschooling activities of their children. He describes some curriculum their family uses to assist in educating the kids so they learn effectively in whatever subject level they are learning.

When the family started RVing, Brian was traveling from community to community to equip businesses to become more effective in their marketing. He has a masters of business administration and a passion for helping small businesses, especially after seeing the internet was making it more difficult for them to compete effectively.

Brian also developed software to help businesses with their marketing, which he distributes as well. It creates a robust web platform to help firms collect more reviews, send email newsletters and help leverage the power of a business owner’s own network. Currently, 7,000 small businesses utilize his software.

He authored a book called Marketing 3-4-5 which targets small business owners who may not be experts in marketing. The book describes three reasons any business must do marketing, four reasons customers opt to support a business, and five ways customers can find businesses.

Brian outlines a series of easy steps owners can take to advance their companies with 15-minute activities. It gives them insight into simple things they can do reach more customers. For example, he developed templates and prompts which help people create interesting blog posts.

One of Brian’s biggest challenges is maintaining an internet connection, and he outlines some of the things he does to juggle service providers to maintain consistent service wherever he may be.

Changes in technology have made it possible for professionals like Brian to manage 7,000 customers from the road – and still have plenty of time to enjoy family activities.

He tries to schedule business meetings and important phone calls in the middle of the day, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., when the children can be outside. That schedule also gives his family more time to explore a local area in the afternoon.

The family has faced several challenges on the road, especially when the truck that hauls their home as well as the seven family members, decided to act up during the middle of a trip. But, thankfully, they were able to find an independent service center to fix them up and get them on their way.

As a general rule, the family moves to a new location every week and tries to travel on weekends. To make travel more fun, they spend a lot of time in small towns where they seek out local ice cream shops on various main streets. In fact, Brian estimates his family has visited more than 250 small towns and main streets on their journey.

Spending time in small towns also gives the family a completely different perspective of an area rather than zeroing in on bigger cities. Not only is it more challenging to tow an RV or even park a larger truck in big cities, but Brian finds that they enjoy a more authentic experience by spending time in smaller communities.

To learn more about Brian and his company, visit www.locable.com. His book, Marketing 3-4-5, is available on Amazon. Brian says information in it could be adapted to RV-based businesses as well.

I wish the Ostrovsky family the best of luck as they continue their quest to find the ideal ice cream wherever they may travel. You can follow their adventures on Instagram by connecting with ostrovskys.outbound.

Today's episode is sponsored by The Dreamer’s Journey, it is an online course and community produced by Workamper News. Life is way too short to keep your dreams on hold, so don’t be held back by fear because you were designed for more!  Get started in the RV lifestyle the right way with this comprehensive guide.

For just $29.95 for one year of access, Dreamers have unlimited viewing of 50-plus videos to learn things like what type of RV to buy, goal setting, how to budget for the adventure, developing a positive mindset, setting up a domicile and operating a small business on the road, plus everything about Workamping and how to find the right job for you. Each video is 30-90 minutes long to give in-depth coverage on each topic.

There’s no wrong time to get started.  For more information, visit www.rvdreamersjourney.com.

That’s all for this week’s show. Next time, I will be speaking with a representative from Idaho State Parks about a number of Workamping opportunities available in 2022. I will have details on the next episode of The Workamper Show.