The Work Online and Travel the World Course – Bucketlist Bombshells Review

by Katie Hart | Mar 26, 2020 | Resources

The Work Online and Travel the World Course – Bucketlist Bombshells Review

I currently have the freedom to work from anywhere in the world (with wifi!), whether I’m wandering cobblestone streets in Europe or confined to my house due to a global pandemic. But I wouldn’t have this freedom if it wasn’t for the Bucketlist Bombshells.

I first discovered Cassie and Shay, founders of The Bucketlist Bombshells (a life-transforming online education company), back in 2017. I signed up for their Design Skills (which I’ve reviewed on this blog in the past) and Tech Skills courses, followed by their main course, the Work Online and Travel the World Course.

Affectionately dubbed the WTC, this course does what it says on the tin – it helps you build an online business and then take that business anywhere you want to in the world! Many “work from home” opportunities are just that – locked to your location by product inventory or in-person clients.

Now, more than ever, it’s important to build a business with a little more freedom than that. If suppliers dry up and you can’t reach your clients in person, will your business still thrive? Cassie and Shay show you exactly how to build a business that is truly online so you can grow as the world changes.

This isn’t some instant business scheme. Right in the introductory module of the WTC, Cassie and Shay recommend that you set aside at least 3 hours a week to start building your business with a strong foundation.

Each of the modules contains video lessons and worksheets, as well as links to additional resources.

Module 1 – Defining Your Online Skills

This module mirrors the Bucketlist Bombshells’ free workshop (which you can check out here!), with helping you blend soft skills and hard skills to figure out which type of business is right for you. I am a huge fan of personality typology, so I love that they use Myers-Briggs to help students identify their soft skills.

Module 2 – Rock the Freelancing World

Take the first steps to build your skills and grow your experience with online freelancing sites. While I didn’t use this strategy, it’s helpful if you’re feeling a bit apprehensive about getting paid for your services. It also offers tips you can use outside of these freelancing sites.

Module 3 – Build & Launch Your Online Business

This module moves away from working for rates others determine to setting your own rates – with lots of help and advice! From researching competitors’ rates and finding out the cost of living in destinations both local and global, to using the calculator they provide to analyze your lifestyle and needs so you can know your rates will provide enough to live on (and not be surprised by business expenses and taxes along the way). There are also videos to help with two key aspects of signing clients – one lesson on deliverables and client expectations, and another on landing clients via video calls.

Module 4 – Find, Network & Land Clients

This is one of the meatiest modules in the entire course. Not only do you learn how to to set up your packages, Cassie and Shay walk you through everything you need to include on your website, and then offer an hour-long tutorial to get everything set up on Squarespace! On top of that, they show you how to start finding clients outside of freelancer sites, sharing the insider tips they used to build their own businesses.

Module 5 – Running & Rockin’ Your Online Biz

Setting up smooth processes is absolutely key to wowing your clients and growing your business (without going insane trying to remember everything)! Cassie and Shay walk you through SIX of their favorite programs to keep things organized, as well as outlining a workflow and a finance sheet (complete with tutorial) to track everything.

To be honest, I already owned or subscribed to different software than the ones taught within this module, so it wasn’t as useful for me. Also, many of these programs have their own video tutorials, which are keep more up-to-date. The biggest benefits of this module are that it helps you to figure out the types of programs your business needs (a way to send proposals, a way to schedule calls, etc.) and gives you tips on how to use these programs for your specific business (what features are important, what can you ignore for now).

Also, while the finance sheet will help you get a great overview of your business and its money, you’re going to want to invest in some other sort of accounting software soon after you get a client or two under your belt (or before).

Module 6 – Run Your Biz & Jet Set Around the World

Finally we get to the Travel the World part of the WTC! This is where the course differs radically from many other “start an online business” courses and programs. This module is full of practical advice like choosing where to go, how to book accommodations in your new place, how long to stay in one area, and more! They also keep you on track with your business during this transition – remember, you’re not on vacation here!

One of the main points of this module is moving somewhere with a low cost of living, so that you don’t have to worry about bringing in as much money while your business is still growing. Also, it’s up to you how soon you want to jump into the travel part of this after you start your business.

My situation was different. I have little desire to live in many of the locations they suggest (which are often in hot climates – I prefer 60F/15C weather!) and wanted to explore Europe more instead. While some countries in Europe are lower cost than others (generally warmer spots too), it still would be a big investment, as I was also planning to keep a shared apartment back in the US so I could spend some months of the year near my family.

Instead, I found a different option to make my specific travel dreams come true – house sitting! I have a whole post about it here. I’m watching people’s homes and pets (usually cats) while they travel. My sits can last anywhere from 4 days to 2 months, and I’ve stayed in England, Scotland, Ireland, Germany, and the US this way.

Bonuses

The Work Online and Travel the World Course includes a number of bonuses (more if you pay in full), but the best ones are included for all students – the student Facebook group and monthly live masterminds!

In my opinion, these outweigh the value of the course itself. Wherever you are in your business, it’s amazing getting personalized advice any time you have an issue! You can post within the group to get tips from other students, alumni, and community managers. This is great when you have more simple questions or those that could use a quick response. But the mastermind sessions are amazing when you have a more complicated or in-depth question about key parts of your business and life as an entrepreneur.

There are also literally dozens of past sessions full of helpful advice! And if you’re not able to make the live masterminds (which are generally at 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern – so 1am or later when I’m in Europe), you can submit questions ahead of time and watch the replays.

Conclusion

I highly recommend signing up for the Work Online and Travel the World Course from the Bucketlist Bombshells if you want to start an online business! This course will take your from idea to packing your bags! However, there are some people who won’t benefit from this course as much as others.

If your business is already established. This course is aimed at beginners, and while you may greatly benefit from the monthly masterminds, the bulk of the course is about setting things up in your business.
If you’re looking to market products, courses, or coaching services. The focus is on setting up a business model for virtual assistant, design, web design, social media management, and similar services.
If your focus is on being an influencer or blogger. If you want to make money with paid sponsorships or ads, this course won’t help you with that.

But this course is for you if you want to use the skills you already have to start getting paid by clients, if you’re willing to put in the work, and if you want a framework to follow to build a solid business!

If you have any questions about the WTC, leave me a comment and I’ll answer!

Disclaimer: I received compensation for this review, however, my opinions are my own and I had already purchased and benefited from this course years prior.

3 Things I Needed to Go From Wannabe to Successful Entrepreneur

by Katie Hart | Sep 16, 2018 | My Tech and Travel Journey

3 Things I Needed to Go From Wannabe to Successful Entrepreneur

I should be on a plane right now. Heading back to Pennsylvania, ready to resume my 8-to-5 on Monday.

Instead, I’m sipping tea at my lovely house sit in Oxford, waiting for my clothes to air dry (because dryers aren’t really thing in Europe), deciding what I want for dinner, and strategizing about how to grow my business.

Location independence was a dream of mine for so long, but I always had this fear in the back of my head that it wouldn’t happen. I was smart, but not special. Creative, but lazy. Great with ideas, but not ambitious in the slightest.

So I maxed out my two-week vacations with trips to Europe and NYC and Chicago, gradually started investing in better courses online from people who were living the life I wanted, and began hanging out in communities online with people who were starting businesses.

But I still had no clients, and it felt like I would never have a successful business. Then 3 things changed.

These are the 3 things that changed for me between “wishing” for location independence and it actually becoming a possibility!

1. I found a tribe. The Bucketlist Bombshells were all about having location independence, but not having to work for years and years to get to that point. Through their courses I rediscovered my love for design and learned the best way to start earning a steady income while traveling – an ongoing service-based business.

2. I found a niche. I was completely intrigued by the idea of being a Pinterest manager, but it seemed almost too good to be true. So I signed up for a course, and then a few others. We’re still bit of a newer thing, so Pinterest management often gets grouped with social media, even though it’s not very social. What I really loved about focusing on Pinterest was a) it used my design skills, b) I could do the work whenever I wanted due to scheduling aka complete time freedom, and c) it provided a tangible result for clients – more traffic to their websites.

3. I found a mentor/client. After a little success with Pinterest design, I knew I would need to have some ongoing management clients to bring in steady income. The problem was, while I knew so much about Pinterest from the courses I’d taken, I had no experience actually managing a Pinterest account for someone else! Enter Susi. I shared in her group promo thread an offer I was trying out – 50% off my services for 3 months – and she took me up on it! And she has shared about my work in her group several times, leading to additional clients. I’ve also gained so much from what she shares, from improving my mindset to making travel more affordable with house sitting!

That’s it. Those are the 3 things that changed for me, between being a wannabe entrepreneur to the beginning of an actual business!

How long did it take? I found my tribe in April 2017, and it took a bit before I bought their courses and started doing them. I first heard about Pinterest management in November 2017, and bought my first course in January 2018. I had my first Pinterest design client within a month, while I was still finishing up the course, and Susi became my first management client in March 2018.

Want to know more about my journey? Join the Create Wherever Female Entrepreneur Facebook group!

Want to hire me as a Pinterest Designer and Manager to help you get more traffic, leads, and income for your blog or business? Check out this page to see what I can do to help you grow!

31 Days of Blogging

by Katie Hart | May 31, 2017 | Digital Nomad Skills

31 Days of Blogging

Here it is – day 31! I reached my goal of blogging every day in the month of May!

What I learned:

Blogging isn’t easy. I mean, I know it wasn’t, but actually having to come up with new content every single day took a lot of energy and a lot of hours.

I have a lot to say about certain subjects. Some blog posts could have gone on much longer, but for sleepiness and the clock approaching midnight. Others I felt like the one blog post was enough for the decade for me.

I knew I write to discover. I didn’t think through how rambling that could make my blog posts, especially since I come up with the title first. I may try keeping a blogging journal offline, and reformatting sections of that into better-structured blog posts.

What I regret:

Spending so much time blogging. I figured out about 10 days in that daily blogging isn’t what I want to do – not when I’m also learning and trying to build a business. But I finished out the month out of stubbornness – and the victory feels a bit hollow. I could have finished the Design Skills course this month, but I’m only about halfway through. I could have been sending out proposals to perspective clients and creating beautiful items for my portfolio. Would I have if I hadn’t been blogging instead? Maybe.

Coming up with a solid list of topics before the month began. I knew I wanted to review Design Skills modules, but some were very in-depth, so for most of them there was no way I could watch the videos, complete the projects, and blog about the module in one day. Or even two days. Especially with a full-time job. So blogging about the modules and Bucketlist Bombshells in general only used up about a quarter of the days when I was expected it to be more like half. I ended up wracking my brain for ideas at 10pm some nights.

No time for design and promotion. Since I was spending my hours creating content for this blog, I had little free time to work on the design. I did do a few things here and there, but until I had a 4-day weekend over the holiday, the site didn’t look great. And I still have tons more to do. Not only that, I was embarrassed by the design and some of the shorter posts that didn’t provide much content for my readers, so I didn’t want to share posts via social media. Toward the end I shared about the site a bit in different groups, but I still felt embarrassed.

Have you ever reached a goal that probably wasn’t the ideal goal for you? What did you do about it?

Want to hire me as a Pinterest Designer and Manager to help you get more traffic, leads, and income for your blog or business? Check out this page to see what I can do to help you grow!

BB Design Skills Course: Module 5

by Katie Hart | May 26, 2017 | Digital Nomad Skills

BB Design Skills Course: Module 5

I am finally starting the next module of the Bucketlist Bombshells‘ Design Skill Course! I am still working on Module 4, since logo design is such a huge endeavor – I’ve had a lot of fun trying out different font variations, and I even bought some new fonts to play with!

Module 5 focuses on branding style boards and guides. Basically, you are putting everything you created from the previous module into professional documents to deliver to your client. As such, this module is a lot shorter (less than half an hour of instruction over 4 videos) and only teaches a few things.

Cassie explains the differences between a board and a guide – a branding style board displays all the branding elements in one document and a branding style guide tells you how certain elements should be used (namely fonts) and provides codes for color palettes. She provides a beautiful template for you to use for each document, and walks you through how to add items you’ve previously created.

She also shows you how to add some graphic elements to the board – like line art and a website button – to provide that extra bit of value to your client. She also explains how seeing everything together can help you spot a few things to tweak before the branding style is finalized.

Near the end of the lesson she explains how you need to save each element as a separate document to deliver to your client as .png (for transparency), .jpg, and .ai (Adobe Illustrator) files. She suggests placing all of these in a Dropbox folder you can share with your client.

I was a little disappointed that this module didn’t have more content, but all of the concepts presented were covered thoroughly.

Do you have a style guide for your own business?

Want to hire me as a Pinterest Designer and Manager to help you get more traffic, leads, and income for your blog or business? Check out this page to see what I can do to help you grow!

Online Communities: Bucketlist Bombshells vs. Skillcrush

by Katie Hart | May 23, 2017 | Resources

Online Communities: Bucketlist Bombshells vs. Skillcrush

Building a solopreneur career you can do from home or anywhere in the world can get lonely at times. Fortunately, you don’t have to do it alone! Hundreds of online communities exist, and today I’m going to talk about 2 of my favorites – Bucketlist Bombshells Tribe and Skillcrush Alumni.

The two communities have some similarities and overlapping topics, but with a different focus and style. I’ve been a member of Skillcrush Alumni for about 10 months as of this writing, and joined BB Tribe (formerly Globetrotting Girl Bosses) two months ago.

Platform

While Skillcrush uses Google Groups for their individual classes, after taking a blueprint (3-month course), graduates are invited to join the Alumni Slack. This was my first experience with Slack, and I love the platform! Everything is so clean and organized and searchable. It does set a business-like tone, but gifs and emojis are available to lighten the mood.

One of the downsides to Slack is that the free plan has a message limit. You can save resources and conversations within the community, but after a few months (depending on activity) they disappear. I set up a Zapier action to save messages to a Google Sheet when I star them in Slack to mitigate some of this downside.

BB Tribe uses a closed group on Facebook, a platform with which I am familiar and have had mixed results. The Facebook algorithms sometimes make it hard to find posts, but photos and videos are included more easily. They are also able to utilize live video within the group while Skillcrush needs to use an outside service.

Membership

Skillcrush Alumni are truly that – to be a part of the group, you must have signed up and completed (more or less) a Skillcrush blueprint. At a current price around $400 a blueprint, that is no small entrance fee, but they still boast nearly 1500 members! Not all interact on Slack, since joining is portrayed as an end-of-course bonus, but for me it is one of the most valuable parts of the blueprints. Because members have invested so much into starting a career in tech, topics tend to be more business-like and ask for specific advice. Questions generally are more intermediate or advanced.

BB Tribe is free to join, since part of its focus is to build interest in the Bucketlist Bombshells courses. It is a newer group, and recently grew by 50% (3000 members to 4500) thanks to a feature in Forbes. Much of the membership is more aspirational, and questions tend to be at a beginner level.

Side note: I was looking for opportunities to be a mentor within the Skillcrush group, but I wasn’t finding many since most members are at my level or ahead of it, since we all had completed blueprints. BB Tribe gives me more chances to help out, since I have knowledge from the Skillcrush blueprints that BB members may not have.

Bucketlist Bombshells courses also have their own individual groups, which are much smaller and focus more on class questions. I am a part of the newer two of the three.

Demographics

BB Tribe targets millennial women who want to travel the world and are willing to build a business that will allow them to do so. As an older Millennial, I feel a bit too old for the group, as most are fresh out of college or have only spent a few years in the workforce.

Skillcrush began with a female focus, which is still evident in its branding, but the blueprints are open to everyone and a small percentage of alums are male. It targets women in their 30s and 40s who are looking to make a career change.

Goals

Skillcrush wants to prepare you for a career in tech. While freelancing is a viable option and the best way to get started earning money with the new skills they’ve taught, a decent portion of the discussion in the Slack group revolves around resumes, interviews, and tech meetups. So this group is valuable whether you would like to get a remote job for a company or build your own business.

Bucketlist Bombshells wants to prepare you to earn money anywhere in the world. They focus on helping you create a profitable service-based business with skills you already know or can quickly learn. There is a strong urge to jump in with both feet, and they suggest staying in a low cost-of-living country when first starting out to minimize expenses as you grow your client base.

Interaction

Both groups are fairly active. Currently BB Tribe has more activity, thanks to the Forbes article, influx of new members, and ramp up to their once-a-year relaunch of their signature Work Online and Travel the World course. They also host weekly live coffee chats about important topics and interviews with other solopreneurs, with plenty of Q&A time. They have different sharing and challenge posts every week, and are doing a book group discussion.

Both Bucketlist Bombshells founders are actively involved in the group, and they have a great community manager. The vibe of the group is positive and upbeat, if a little naive. I hope that it keeps its same happy, anything is possible spirit as the group grows and matures.

Skillcrush Alumni has busy days and quiet days. Many members spend their time working on their own portfolios and gaining new clients, so they may only pop in occasionally with a question. There are monthly Alumni Hours, which offer training and information on different topics.

The company founder stops by occasionally, and instructors and mentors jump in frequently to answer questions. There is also an Ace program (of which I’m a part) where alums earn points for tech-related tasks, sharing Skillcrush posts and events on social media, and posting resources to Slack. The points are added up monthly, and winners earn prizes to help them on their tech journey.

I love both these groups and am so glad to have found two great communities for help and encouragement as I look to build a business!

What is your favorite online community?

Want to hire me as a Pinterest Designer and Manager to help you get more traffic, leads, and income for your blog or business? Check out this page to see what I can do to help you grow!

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