GrowingFREE Gave Me Back My Life

Yeah, That sounds a little dramatic, Yes,……..Because It Is. I am nearly 24-Months into this GrowingFREE Transformative Adventure. Using the term Transformative Adventure is quite fitting. Post 60-Years Young, My Thoughts About Things, About People, About Place, and About Life started to wander. I started to wonder What’s Next. That far off label of “Retirement” Seems Scary, and Old. And,…….I did not have sufficient savings to “Retire” or so I thought, until doing a couple of sessions with Laura Oldanie. Laura runs a coaching consulting business, Rich and Resilient Living,……Laura is the Real Deal, She Lives What She Preaches, and she has an elegant way of delivering the message. What I learned was I in fact did have enough savings and resources to start the GrowingFREE Journey.

What Was the TradeOff

New Patterns are part of the GrowingFREE Transformative Adventure. For me, I knew I needed to Crush My Housing Expenses. And I was looking for a adventurous pattern to do that. I researched RVLife and OffGrid Life for some time, and I already owned a small OffGrid Cabin in Northern MI. So, as our business of 22-years wound down in mid 2021, I sold stuff, gave stuff away, and moved my things into a 20’x20′ Quonset Hut in UpNorth Michigan. I spend my Winters at the OffGrid Cabin, Writing, Hiking, Meditation, and Stillness in Nature. It is Decadent.

In the Spring, Summer and Fall, I live in a 27′ RV, in a quaint campground at Indian Lake OH, where I grew up. Shortly after my transition started, my oldest daughter asked me What’s Next Pop’s, and at the time I was staring into the woods each at the Cabin. Brenda suggested I come back to the Lake and help them with their family business. Both my daughters own and operate small family businesses, so it seemed to fit. the RV is quite comfortable, for me, Olive the Cat and Bert the Dog.

InCome Stacks

What came next were a series of Income Stacks. We talk expensively about Stacking in our Book GrowingFREE, and our coming GrowingFREE Course. Stacking functions are a core permaculture design principle that anyone who wants a healthy garden can and should practice. The idea is pretty simple: Every element of your garden (plants, animals, insects, fungi, water, etc) serves multiple functions. Minimum inputs for maximum outputs in your garden, landscape or farm. The same Patterns apply to Money/Income, and many other facets of our lives.

UrbaneFarm was born. UrbaneFarm is a purveyor of 250-Small Batch Hot Sauce Brands, Fish Sauces, Salsas, BBQ Sauce, Bloody Mary Mixes, Rubs, Gourmet Salts, Beef Jerky, Summer Sausage, Eclectic Art, Vintage Cast Iron Cookware, New Lodge Cast Iron Cookware , Revolution Stunt Kites and Cut Flowers in Season. It was a natural Stack for Brenda’s Boutique Consignment Store, The Depot with 60-Venders in Downtown Lakeview, OH, population 1,200. It was an excellent Stack for me, as I had loved the HotSauce Business, and this was semi passive. Once the products are set up, The Depot handles all sales, collections, website, shipping for onLine Orders, and processes a monthly Commission Check to the store vendors. It’s a pretty sweet deal, with low barrier to entry costs, other than inventory.

We also have a Grill Trailer, BackAlley Eatzz and sling Vienna Beef Dogs and Polish Sausage on Thursday and Friday in the summer season at The Depot in Downtown Lakeview OH and at the Market on Main Farmers Market every Saturday Morning, coupled with HotSauce Tastings and Sales. These SideHustles are growing into a sustainable SideHustle, with predictable CashFlow.

We also created a Picture Me Photo Booth at my younger daughters business, The Costume Shop. Picture Me is an all around modern photo booth rental company for weddings, parties, brands, corporate events and more. We are a fresh take on an age old idea and offer photos, prints, Boomerangs, GIFs and video. Guests can instantly send and share their favorites, while an online gallery keeps it all in one place for everyone to enjoy. We invite you all to gather around, let your hair down and celebrate while Picture Me captures the moment! Again, this Stacks well with Amy’s Costume Rental Business, and with me, as it too is most semi passive, and is growing into a sustainable SideHustle with predictable CashFlow.

Those are a few examples of SideHustle Income Stacks. I am also an Adjunct Instructor for onLine Courses at Drexel University, and have written a couple books,…………….

**The Second Act Entrepreneur. You can help support that effort by purchasing the book here.

**GrowingFREE, I also was a Contributing Author can help support that effort by purchasing the book here.

About Eric

Eric is an Entrepreneur, A Published Author and Writer. Eric lives a Nomadic Lifestyle and is an OffGrid Practitioner. He is also an Adjunct Instructor Drexel University. Eric is well seasoned in urban housing development. He has built and developed over 14,000 market rate apartments on a national scale. He founded Urbane Apartments in 2000 and oversaw new business, general operations, marketing and branding at the company until retiring in 2021. He was long recognized by the multi-family housing industry as a vanguard of cutting edge social media marketing. Eric’s social media marketing and branding strategy has garnered national media attention with feature articles such as Branding on a Budget in Entrepreneur Magazine. Urbane Media digital marketing innovation was also highlighted in Business Week Magazine and Eric was named as a Voice of Innovation in Social Media by Bloomberg Business and also landed in the, New York Times and the Harvard Business Review.

Reach Out to Eric;

eMail; EricBrown.Urbane@gmail.com

FaceBook; EricUrbane

Twitter; SecondActMyLife

Instagram; MyOffRoadAdventures

Web Site; TheSecondActEntrepreneur