In this episode of the Smart and Simple Matters (SASM) show, I have the privilege of hosting Colin Wright of Exile Lifestyle.
This conversation with Colin proves once again that we can't control all the events in our lives (and that we shouldn't even try). For example, when the doorbell rings while you're in the middle of recording an episode of Smart and Simple Matters and your two dogs start freaking out – running around and barking – make the best of it by pausing the recording and hoping your editing skills are up to the task. Now you know why there's a strange edit about five minutes in.
If you like fountains, wisdom, or fountains of wisdom, you'll love my chat with Colin. Whether it's building your personal brand, why you should live like a sphere instead of a box, or how the “team” you're on can cloud your view of the world, there's something for everyone.
And besides, nobody else I know can seamlessly drop a Final Fantasy IV reference to Palom and Porom in a relevant way and make me almost have to stop the conversation to laugh hysterically.
Listening to this is fun but, more importantly, it reveals some insight that's sorely lacking in our lives. There are a number of reasons I think we all should be more like Colin, but here's one of my favorites from our talk straight from his mouth:
Anybody can replace a writer, or replace a designer with somebody cheaper, somebody outsourced, or a robot sometimes. But nobody can replace Colin Wright because I have this unique collection of skills and experiences.
He says this humbly and he's damn right. And now I'm off to try a diet of cake icing. You'll understand what I mean after listening to the episode.
What You'll Learn
Besides why you should shoot Colin an email to say hello, you're getting a ton of stuff in this one.
In this episode you'll learn about:
- The smartest way to start building your personal brand.
- The “grandma” test for an ethical business.
- How telling people what you're not is putting you into a box.
- Why the majority of people everywhere are almost identical to you …
- And how the small differences are as delicious as icing on a cake.
- Why religion, sports, and politics give people a “team” to be on.
- Why it's dangerous to look at business as something separate from yourself.
- Colin's view on the importance of curating (and it's not what you think).
- What kind of accomplishment it takes for Colin to stop being so damn modest.
- The majesty of road tripping across New Zealand (and an awesome travel hack).
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Resources and Items Mentioned in This Episode Include:
- Websites: Exile Lifestyle, Asymmetrical, Exiles
- Colin's Books: Iceland India Interstate, Real Powers, How to Travel Full Time, Start a Freedom Business, How to Be Remarkable
Topics
- [03:50] What got Colin started as a globetrotting entrepreneur
- [08:14] Building your personal brand
- [12:16] Why differences in religion are dwelled upon so heavily
- [21:15] The organic evolution of life and business ethics
- [29:14] The muse for Colin's books
- [32:19] Old school videos games like Tetris and Final Fantasy IV
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Transcript
- Click here to download the transcript
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I wish you had the transcript! Colin sounds so interesting, and I’m going to have to wait to listen to it!
So far I’ve always had the transcript ready on the same day the podcast is published. That is, until today. My transcript guy is hard at work now on it and I’ll send a tweet out when it’s available. One thing is for sure though Shanna. Colin’s a cool dude.
Can’t wait to get this onto my iPhone (Downcast is my podcast curation app of choice) and listen! Thanks for your hard work on this podcast Joel.
As you know Ethan, recording the podcast is the easy part (or at least it is for me now). 🙂
It’s all the prep and post-production stuff that’s a ton of work, even when part of it is outsourced. But these episodes of Smart and Simple Matters are so frickin’ fun and so useful to a number of people it’s well worth the work. I hope you dig it when you have a listen.
FanTASTic interview. I’m really glad you introduced me to Colin. It’s not too often I hear someone that I really resonate with. I will definitely be following him more closely.
The guy really knows how to give a dynamite interview, write a fanTAStic blog post or book, and a whole host of other things. He’s a multipotentialite for sure, although I’m not sure he’s familiar with the term.
Oh man, gotta wait until I get home and have my iPod! Or until the transcript is ready. But this interview sounds like something I’ll especially enjoy. Looking forward to it!
It’s comments like this that make me want to keep better metrics on the number of people listening to episodes of SASM vs. the number of people reading the transcript. I have the transcript professionally created because I know at least a few folks appreciate it, but perhaps the number is higher than I think. Hmmmm. Time to start testing this out.
I’m pretty confident you’re going to dig this one Erin.
Great conversation you had with Colin.
It sounds like he’s one of the most well-rounded open-minded people ever.
I still have a hard time grasping the whole personal brand that doesn’t have a niche thing.
He’s a graphic designer that travels, helps people with branding, writes books, publishes books, speaks, designs tshirts.. and so on. And I see a lot of this type of lifestyle online, and part of me gets it. Because I do have multiple interests and skills, myself. However,I still find it all confusing.
I’m not sure I would be able to keep up with so much! But, seeing how he is also somewhat minimalist, maybe it’s more simple than I’m thinking. Would you say that doing all those things that he loves has a lot to do with having that simple lifestyle? Living with less, etc.? Do most of us take on too much junk that we really don’t care about leaving us less room for stuff we love?
Hey Denise,
I can field your last question about taking on too much junk that we don’t really need, but I’ll have to leave the others to Colin to answer.
Yes, we all take on junk – in more forms than just physical – we don’t really care about. The difference is some folks minimize it or don’t let their current loads hold them back while others don’t bother assessing if they have too much junk or what kind of impact it’s having on their lives. In Colin’s case, he’s forced to live with few possessions to enable his lifestyle. He doesn’t see that as a negative thing though. His desire to lead the life he has empowers his simple living. And his simple living drives a continued desire to keep loving life the way it is. This is what I call a victorious cycle or the polar opposite of a vicious cycle.
Now to try and get your other questions addressed. Paging Colin Wright to this comment thread! Colin to the comment thread.
Hey Denise-
You nailed it. Living simply is not just a whim thing for me: it enables everything else I do. If I had to deal with the upkeep and burdens associated with a lot of the everyday stuff other lifestyles require, I wouldn’t have the time, energy, or resources to do the things I do. And then I wouldn’t have nearly so much fun 🙂
I imagine you wouldn’t, makes sense! Thank you both for the responses 🙂
Yeah, that was worded more concisely and better than I could have. Thanks for answering the page Colin!
Hey Joel & Colin – thanks for the awesome listening material for my road trip.
I particularly was struck by the concept of not defining yourself by the things you’re not. Having defined myself as “not spiritual” for the last 12 years, I’ve been struggling now that I find myself drawn to things that are more “woo” lately. I will definitely be dropping the ‘nots’ in the future and letting myself out of the box.
Also, anyone who knows what ‘Sega’ is, is clearly one of my people.
Awesome episode, you guys – As Joel knows I hate listening to things and prefer reading, but this was a pleasure.
I bet you liked the Final Fantasy reference too Sarah. I wonder if I should do a panel podcast where all we talk about is old school video game systems and our favorite games. That might be a little too “niche” for most folks who listen to the show though.
I was stoked to have Colin elaborate on his article Tell Me What You Are, Not What You’re Not. You know I read a ton of stuff online, but this was one of the more memorable posts for me in the past three years. I’ve reread it at least five times and it constantly reinforces that I want people to know what I stand for, not what I don’t stand for. There’s a ton of power behind that.
I did, although I never played FF2 so I didn’t know that moment he referenced… but yeah, I’m a big nerd. 🙂
Colin & Joel:
You just made a trip to the gym more enjoyable for me.
What an interesting guy Colin is – and someone whose core beliefs about people and ethics I can really relate to.
I also enjoyed the relaxed, conversational tone of the interview. So may podcasts feel heavily produced, forced, and DJ-like. This one sounded like a couple guys chatting over some coffee or maybe a few beers. Very easy to listen to, Joel.
I’ve read some of Colin’s work before, but this definitely has me wanting to dig deeper.
Well done!
Hey Gary,
I’ve very intentionally designed these episodes to feel like a couple of old friends chatting over a beverage (which just happens to be recorded). Even when it’s with people who I’ve never spoken with before, which is what Colin was before we recorded our chat. And that’s also because I don’t know any other way. I’m a very laid back dude who wants nothing more than to enjoy the natural, relaxed substance and tone that comes from reversing the buttoned up style that a lot of people approach each other with. I’m glad my subtle efforts to keep this chill and appreciated and being recognized.
If you’re planning to head into the Exile Lifestyle archives, make sure to read Tell Me What You Are, Not What You’re Not and Ethical Business Practices and Your Stomach. These were the two articles that formed the basis for a couple of questions I had for Colin and that he just knocked out of the park with value.
Joel & Colin,
Let’s meet for coffee. Love the casual conversation as if you were in my kitchen and intriguing me with this philosophy of life and it’s people. “You cannot be well rounded if you decide what you’re not” – Love it! This should be on a T-shirt. Thanks for this interview.
Did you know Colin makes T-shirts Jane? A whole bunch of them. I bet if “You cannot be well rounded if you decide what you’re not” isn’t on one you might convince him it should be.
And yes, let’s meet for coffee. I’ll be in Edina, MN for the next few decades or so and making special guest appearances around the world as my business and public speaking career take off. Just in 2013, I’m going to be at New Media Expo in Las Vegas from Jan 6th – 8th and at WDS in Portland, OR from July 5th – 7th. We probably won’t see each other there but I hope we can meet up in the not-too-distant future.
I’m going to catch this on iTunes soon. I’m subscribed! I’ve heard a bit of Colin before and like his stuff. Looking forward…:-)
Beating the mongols… definitely more fun than randomly shooting things.
“Religion or sports or politics, they all fill the same role in a lot of ways – it gives somebody a team. I think we need to
realize that we’re all on the same team, as corny as that sounds.”
What a great quote – not corny at all. I think it accurately describes religion, sports, and politics. Which is really, really sad.
Ah, but I digress. Great interview, and inspiring. Cheaper to travel than to live in Missouri? I’m in! Well, probably.
I hope Sandy didn’t set back your plans to move to another country soon. Maybe Colin could give you enough tips where you could live off what you already have going on for you?
I wish more people thought with their stomach like Colin. A mensch.
BTW Joel, If you and the family make it back to NZ one of my favorite inexpensive, high value memories: hiking thru the Hapuka Estuary Trail at dawn and dusk: its part of the much larger UNESCO world heritage site in the Southland. Amazing birdlife and scenery and not another human for miles. But alot of NZ is like that. We happened to be there a year they had very little rain so the weather was on our side.
Colin is a total mensch. And there are few people over the past five years who have been more influential on my personal and business life than him.
Thanks for the tip on the NZ spot to hit the next time I’m there. I’m desperate to go back, but I don’t think that will be anytime soon (unless something crazy, like major SimpleREV related action, happens there).