Nate Ginsburg and I met on Twitter a few years back after launching our businesses. We would discuss the growing pains of being entrepreneurs, our love of photography, and future plans to mix work with travel. Fast forward two years and we are both living in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Nate is an incredible guy with a variety of marketing skills that have enabled him to work in places like Chile, Israel, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. And recently, he packaged his knowledge of Pinterest into a online course.
If you are interested in learning what Pinterest can do for your business, Nate’s course isn’t an opportunity to miss.
Enjoy this interview about Pinterest, working abroad as a location-independent entrepreneur and making dreams come true.
Meet Nate
1. Please introduce yourself!
Hello! I’m Nate, a location independent internet marketing consultant and entrepreneur. I help businesses leverage paid traffic to scale and recently finished a course helping businesses use/leverage Pinterest.
2. What is your definition of a location-independent entrepreneur?
Someone who has their own business and is not tied to any physical location.
Phuket, Thailand
3. Why did you decide to become an LI entrepreneur?
A few years ago I was backpacking in SE Asia and I met my first location-independent entrepreneur or ‘digital nomad’. It totally blew my mind that this kind of lifestyle was an option and I immediately knew that was what I wanted to do.
4. What are some of the obstacles you deal with concerning the management of your business while traveling or living in foreign countries?
At first, while I was still new to the whole work/travel thing, I found it difficult to concentrate and stay focused on biz when I was in a new place. However, after a while it became more ‘normalized’ which made it easier to focus and work. Now, the biggest challenges I find are at times shaky internet and dealing with time differences.
Bohol, Philippines.
5. What are some of the benefits of the LI lifestyle?
Oh man, so many! Where to start.. I guess the biggest ones are freedom and the community. The freedom to live/travel/work anywhere you want.. not answer to anyone but yourself, set your own schedule/goals/future is invaluable. It’s gotten to the point that I couldn’t imagine life any other way.
Also, the people that you can share the journey with are beyond incredible. It could be a lonely road traveling by yourself all the time, but thankfully we have the DC (Dynamite Circle) which is a group/network for location independent entrepreneurs. The quality of people is SO high. Everyone is so smart, genuine, encouraging and similar in ways that make us different from a lot of other groups of people. The community is so great for personal reasons, making what I know will be lifelong friends. And also professionally, getting to network with some of the smartest, most successful people in their respective fields.
DC’ers hard at work.
6. You have just released an online Pinterest course, can you tell us about it?
Yah, Boards For Business is a training program to help business owners understand and leverage Pinterest to drive traffic, sales, and exposure for their business on Pinterest.
I got started playing around with Pinterest about a year ago for a project of mine and very quickly started to see success. We’d see traffic spikes of 100+ visitors in an hour! I was hooked and it turned into a deep dive on Pinterest.
The more I experimented, the more I learned the ways Pinterest could be leveraged for business. And, when I spoke to other business owners about Pinterest it seemed no one else had a clue. So, that’s why I created Boards For Business. To help others achieve the same success I was having on Pinterest for their businesses.
DC’s at the monthly Junto.
7. In your opinion, why is Pinterest so vital to a business’ social strategy?
Few reasons, first, it drives traffic like no other social network. Not uncommon to get 100+, 200+, 500+ visits a DAY from Pinterest. I’ve never seen that sort of traffic coming form other social networks. And, since Pinterest is still relatively new, it makes it easier to stand out and get noticed. This allows you to establish yourself/your business more easily as well as provides opportunities to easily connect with people.
Finally, and very importantly, people are on Pinterest looking to BUY. The way the platform is set up it’s often used as a wish list where people pin (bookmark) products they are interested in to come back to and buy later. That buying intent is powerful and leads to massive sales numbers generated from Pinterest.
8. What is unique about your course in comparison to others?
It provides valuable and actionable information for people at all levels of experience with Pinterest. If you are new to the platform, you’ll get walked through the basics.. how it works, how to set up your profile etc. If you are already familiar with Pinterest you can skip to ‘the good stuff’ and watch the modules on ‘how to drive traffic’, ‘how to make sales’, ‘how to build your list’ etc.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
9. How has Pinterest amped up your business?
Pinterest is a huge referral source for my biz. It’s the first place I go to for content marketing and has allowed me to connect with some amazing clients. Since the platform is still relatively new and uncrowded, it’s allowed me to stick out more and has generated unsolicited interest in myself/my business.
10. Your course is being offered for a limited time – can you tell us about the special?
The first 100 signups get it at a discounted price of only $37!
Working in Cebu, Philippines.
11. What advice would you give to business owners who are interested in getting to know Pinterest?
For a quick run down, check out my article ‘5 Minute Pinterest‘. I break down the basics (in 5 minutes) on what to do for Pinterest success!
12. What advice would you give people who are interested in the LI lifestyle?
If you are interested, just do it!! It’s really not as scary as it seems some people think. The first step is to take that plunge. Hope on a plane and join us in Saigon! You’ll figure the rest out 🙂
