How Danny Flood Launched a Global Movement from a Mountain Village in Nepal

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation! JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, the only daily show interviewing the top entrepreneurs seven days a week. Today, we'll be breaking down how Danny Flood launched a global movement from a mountain village in Nepal. To drop these value bombs, I brought Danny Flood into EO Fire Studios. Danny is a nomadic entrepreneur and founder of Nomad Basecamp Nepal, a summit and co-living experience that brings nomads, online workers, and entrepreneurs together to connect, grow, and create with purpose. And today, we'll talk about bootstrapping with limited resources, top lessons from 15 years as a nomadic entrepreneur, how to create luck and miracles in your life.

0:44And oh, by the way, an opportunity to join myself, my father and other amazing entrepreneurs in Nepal this late August, August 27th to 31st. And it's going to be such a magical event and so many other things are going to be involved. So tune in for that as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession-resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Visit Franocity.com, that's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to book a free consultation and start your franchising journey with expert guidance.

1:25Danny, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. with? Hey, John, and hello, Fire Nation. Thank you so much for having me back on this podcast. Well, I will say when I was younger, I used to believe that success meant a bunch of goal setting, you know, to acquire things that I didn't have. And as my entrepreneurial career has evolved, I have changed to change how I feel about everything that I do have, where I am, what I get to do when I wake up today, the sound of the birds, the feeling of the sunshine when I go outside for a walk, and the moments of fun and freedom in my day when I get to play or talk to someone like you or talk to a friend.

2:12And I'm not saying you have to swear everything off and come a month, but if you want to do that, it makes you happy. There's nothing wrong with that. So I guess what I'm saying is that you get to choose your own definition of success and the rules of the game because I've learned that when you play by other people's rules and other people's definitions of success, you're always going to be comparing yourself and you'll never really be happy. So that's my definition of becoming successful. It's powerful. And I will say it's such a critical revelation that we come to Fire Nation sooner than later is that at the end of the day, we're playing a game and we get to choose the rules.

2:47Danny gets to choose the fact that he's a nomadic entrepreneur, that he's just a nomad, just traveling the world, doing his thing. He chose that. He could have stuck it in a nine to five cubicle with a soul sucking job. He decided not to because he wanted to play his own game. I decided to play that game as well when I, you know, decided I'm opting out of the traditional world and I'm launching a podcast 13 years ago. Now I'm in Puerto Rico and doing my thing. I mean, we're playing our game by our rules if we so choose. And the whole comparison thing you're talking about, Danny, it's so key. Compare and despair, Fire Nation.

3:18If you compare yourself to anybody, you can and will despair. I mean, no matter how successful you are, the most successful person in the world, like they can compare themselves to somebody who's taller, shorter, better looking, has this, has excess. I mean, and they can despair. So, I mean, it's insane. Like you only compare yourself to one person. That's you yesterday. And if you're winning that comparison, not every time, but most times you're moving in the right direction. So, let's talk about launching a global movement from a mountain village in Nepal. And you're bootstrapping an international event with limited resources.

3:54I mean, you got me, JLD, my father. We're both attending. We're flying out to Nepal in August. It's going to be an amazing adventure. I can't wait for it. So talk to us about the challenges you faced with this as well as some of the wins. Well, I will say that it can be quite interesting, the turns that life can take you in. And whenever I've been presented with a fork in the road, I just decided to take it, you know, like, screw it. Let's do it. like Richard Branson said. I was always 100 % fully online entrepreneur, you know, running businesses out of my backpack, working for clients back in the US.

4:28I didn't expect that I would be in Nepal, you know, hosting retreats there and things like this. But a few years ago, I was in Greece and I was staying at this gorgeous villa overlooking the ocean. And I just had this idea, like, why don't we bring these people, you know, digital nomad entrepreneurs, remote workers to come here and just, you know, co-work here in paradise. And so I just created this little side project and it just took on its own life. And I continued my journeys and found myself back in Nepal, which a place, a place has always left an impression on me and it leaves an impression on everyone.

5:02And it's absolutely one of the most magical places I've ever been. And so I ended up creating a retreat business in Nepal as well. And for the last two, in the last two years, we've organized nine different retreats. We had around 30 people at the last one this spring. Um, and so it's, it's grown a lot. And, uh, I guess you asked me what the challenges were, right? Exactly. Well, trying to get people from all over the world to, to come and live their best life in Nepal is definitely been a challenge. Um, I, I find that, you know, people love the idea of something like you say, like, Hey, I want to do this.

5:35Um, and they see the pictures and they're like, Oh my God, this is like a dream come true. And they say, I have always wanted to go to Nepal. Oh my God. Like that was such an, That's such an amazing dream. Here's the link to sign up. And then they say, oh, okay, well, I got to check. You know, maybe my dog's been a little sick lately or, you know, then the excuses start coming out. So that's been the challenge. And I realized that, you know, if you want to create a dream like this, it's not all roses and sunshine. You know, you got to do all the boring work, all the follow up. You got to be picking up the phone.

6:07You got to be calling people. So there's a lot of stuff that happens behind the scenes to make this vision a reality. I can honestly say I've been a part of a lot of these things. And it's always difficult because listen, people are leading very busy lives, very, you know, I want to say intentional lives in a lot of ways, but they just don't leave a lot of room for the spontaneity. I mean, you look at anybody's dating site and everybody's first thing to say is I'm spontaneous. No, you're probably not. Because if you were spontaneous, you'd be doing a lot more spontaneous things. Now, I've actually already been to Nepal.

6:40I've been to this exact location that Danny's holding this event. I've done this trek. I did a 12 day Annapurta trek back in 2008, which I just spoke so highly about to my father that he was like, we've got to do that someday. And finally the day came because Danny said, Hey, JLD, I'm throwing an event in Nepal. And I'm like, Oh my God, this is it. And like the stars are aligning. Let's go. And so we're on board. We're going, we are, tickets are bought. We are locked in. Like we can't wait. We're having a blast and anybody listening right now, like just strap up those boots and go. If you're being called, it's going to be the adventure of a lifetime.

7:15It's a four day event with again, yours truly and some other amazing entrepreneurs. We're going to be having so much fun outside of the room as well. We'll be learning inside the room, but we'll also be having adventures outside the room with a track and paragliding and there's a lake there and there's so many amazing things. Sure. Yeah. So I think I got you because I had a great email subject line. I think that was the key because it's always those great email subject lines that end up changing your life, you know? So I think I asked you, like, I'm just in keynoting next year in Nepal. And I think I grabbed you with that.

7:47And I've had people pitch these great email subject lines to me. And I ended up having the most successful partnerships like AppSumo. They contacted me a couple of years ago, like AppSumo promotion to 1 million entrepreneurs, like that really got my attention. And so I think I got you and some others because I had a really great subject line. So just wanted to add. And if people want to go and they want to find out more about what we're doing, we have the website digitalnomadsnepal.com for the summit. And we also host a co-living in the spring and autumn. It's at nomadhouse, H-A-U-S, nepal.com.

8:26And we can put the link to that on the webpage. Absolutely. And Fire Nation, just want to say it. I'd love to see you there. Now, we have a lot more to talk about around this topic and more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Starting your own business can feel intimidating. Where do you start? How do you grow? When will you start generating revenue? All valid questions. If you love the idea of creating wealth and freedom, but you're not sure if starting from scratch is the way to go, then I'm excited to tell you about Franocity. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession, resilient businesses and create legacy income for their families through franchising.

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9:31Visit Franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to give you a free consultation and start your journey with expert guidance. All right, Danny, we're back. And listen, you've been an entrepreneur for over 15 years, well, specifically a nomadic entrepreneur for over 15 years now. Give us a couple of your top lessons that you learned during this timeframe. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so many lessons. I've been an entrepreneur since I was like seven. My father was an entrepreneur. My mother was an entrepreneur. But as a nomad running businesses out of a backpack, I think the most important lesson I learned was always get your customers or find your profit from the first day, from day one.

10:12I know a lot of people, and I've done this myself, creating content, and they never really get monetized in the way that they'd hoped or made it big. And if you're relying on your content going viral. I've been waiting a long time doing a lot of just free labor. Second, I've learned that leverage partnerships. I think the most successful ventures from a financial perspective I've always been involved in with well-established partners. Either they had access to capital or a large audience that I could promote my product to. Third, I would say that nomadic life can be really lonely. I have best friends in many different countries.

10:53And it was when I created this new project based on community that I realized what was missing from my life. And I realized the value of relationships and how much value they have, even if that's not a monetary value and that life is more rewarding and interesting when you have like-minded people to share it with. And I think as entrepreneurs, we tend to sacrifice these relationships to get ahead. And I guess the last lesson I want to impart is that ask yourself if you're really excited when you wake up and you go to work and are you building something that really excites you and that you're passionate about?

11:29Because, you know, you can work for 10 years, make a lot of money. But is it really worth giving up 10 years of your life doing something you don't enjoy just to make that money? And I think that our work really has an effect on our soul. And I think that if you can maintain a young mind and a young soul, then you found the meaning of life. Like if you wake up at 45 years of age and you still feel like a 25 year old where you're having fun and you're excited and hopeful and you get to do something that you really believe in and you feel serendipitous. And I think that's really the meaning in life.

12:00And I think the worst thing that can happen to us is that we arrive at the end of life and look back with regret and just think of all those years that we wasted. And so for me, like Steve Jobs said, I want to stay hungry. I want to stay foolish. And so that's why I take on these projects and just kind of go in different directions that sometimes. And I love going back again to the fact that this is a game. We should be playing by our own rules. Don't get to the end of your life and realize that you've been playing a game this whole time that you didn't even realize that you had control of, that you could make the rules in.

12:38So just take control and make it Fire Nation. Make this game the one that you want to play. Now, Danny, travel is amazing for many reasons, many, many, many reasons. But for you, travel taught you to create luck and miracles in your life. Tell us more. Yeah. And if I can just add one thing to that previous answer, I would say that it's a litmus test when I make decisions. I think to the end of my life, you know, the last day of my life, would I regret not taking this chance? You know, like, and if I say yes, then I'm going to take that chance. And so, like, going back to travel and luck and miracles, I guess I would say that I've made so many amazing experiences and had incredible things happen to me that it seems like luck.

13:26And I think it really comes down to being clear about my intention and what I'm hoping for. And the circumstances would find a way to work themselves out in my favor. And what travel does is it forces you to really get out of your shell and to ask for help and to feel perfectly fine doing so. Asking people for directions when I was in Buenos Aires on my first trip before Google Maps was even created. Or you say that I'm going to the city next week and then locals will come out to offer to take you around. Or they say, oh, my brother can host you at this place. And you just realize how the world is always supporting you.

14:01If you have a clear direction in life and you're not shy about communicating, you allow these things to happen. And that's really how I ended up starting this retreat in Greece a few years ago. I made a friend at a coffee shop in Athens and I told him, like, I want to go to the Peloponnese, but they don't have a lot of options for hotels. He's like, I have a house. You can come and stay for free. No problem. You know, stay, come and stay for a couple of weeks. And I just met this guy like a week ago. And, and that's kind of how I ended up starting this retreat there. We ended up becoming partners.

14:33And so, yeah, I guess, you know, as long as you have a clear intention for the direction that you want to go in your life and you're willing to, to share this intention out to the world, then good things can come your way. Man, fire nation. I really love all this stuff because it just shows you the serendipity that can exist in this world when you make it happen. And Danny, let's not tell a really long story, but if you just had to maybe zero in on one concise one, what would you say is one of the biggest miracles that ever was created through your time as a nomad entrepreneur? I've gained so much from everywhere that I've been and all the people that I've met.

15:14You know, I'm right now I'm in Thailand and I've learned so much from the culture here, learning from Thai people, and you realize that everyone and everything has something that they can teach you. We tend to judge people by how successful they are, but I feel like everyone has something that they can teach us, whether it's an 80-year-old fisherman or a clerk working at the bank or something like maybe they have some positivity that they can share about about doing their job joyfully or whatever it is. And I just try to open my mind and my eyes to all of these little things. Now you've launched successful in-person summits before.

15:59So what exactly does it take? If anybody's listening right now, they're like, I feel like I want to host one maybe in my town, in my city, where I live in some country that I'm at right now. What would you say to them? I've organized a lot of different events and talks and retreats. This the summit is a little bit new, but I will say that you really need to hustle hard and be willing to pick up the phone and reach as many people as possible, do what it takes. If there's something big or something exciting you want to create, you got to be able to set up everything to support that. You got to be able to spend the hours in the trenches doing the boring work and following up with people.

16:40And so I do a lot of outreach when I do these kinds of events, like, you know, try to contact at least 200 people every day, for example, and let them know about your event. And that's how you find the people. I believe that the people, your people are out there, but you need to make sure you reach enough people to find those people. I mean, think about that number, Fire Nation, 200 people a day at times. I mean, that's consistent effort because you have to expect 198 no's. But guess what? If you can get two people to say yes in one day to your event that you're throwing in Nepal, that's a good day.

17:20So you need to realize this is a numbers game. And Danny, you shared a lot of value throughout this entire conversation. what's the one piece of advice the one key takeaway that you'd want our listeners to get from our conversation today businesses always grow from conversations and so you want to have create conversations proactively create conversations that's how you find your people and in terms of life it's like everything I said earlier you know you don't want to arrive at the end of your life with regrets so if you're wondering whether you should take a chance just think about the last day of your life and look back.

17:57And are you going to regret that you didn't take that leap or you didn't make that chance or you didn't talk to that person, whatever it is, you know, don't live your life harboring these regrets. And you don't want to wake up one day when you're 90 years old and thinking like, ah, I didn't, I messed up that one chance I had or I had this chance to do this and I didn't. I mean, Fire Nation, I'm going to be out in Nepal for three weeks. This event happens August 27th to August 31st. I'm there a week before and two weeks after. I can't wait. It's going to be so much fun. So Danny, last time, where would our listeners go to find out more?

18:35Yeah, so you can go to digitalnomadsnepal.com. You can also connect with me. My name is Danny Flood. My social media ID is dandanflood. Shoot me a message. I'm active on Facebook, Instagram. And for the Nomad Summit, we have a week of workshops, masterminds, adventures. We have all kinds of interesting people coming for this. We have yoga, kirtan. And whatever it is that you're looking for, whatever your intention is, whatever you're hoping to find, I'm sure that you're going to find it here. And like I said, if you encounter a fork in the road, take it, take a chance. And I'd love to meet you.

19:18I'd love to hang out with you. Come hang out with me and John Lee Dumas. And we're going to have a great time. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with DF and JLD today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Danny in the search bar and the show notes page will pop right up. And Danny, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Danny for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation.

19:52Are you an entrepreneur on fire who's looking to share your amazing message with the world? If yes, we are now accepting applications for entrepreneurs on fire. So to learn more about becoming a guest, visit eofire.com slash guest. And I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Franocity has helped hundreds of people leave unfulfilling jobs, invest in recession, resilient businesses, and create legacy income for their families through franchising. Visit franocity.com. That's F-R-A-N-O-C-I-T-Y.com to book a free consultation and start your franchising journey with expert guidance.

20:30Thank you.