How To Blog From Paradise: An Interview with Ryan Biddulph
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Kicking off our Beyond The 9-5 Series is the man behind the popular Blogging From Paradise website, which has been featured in Virgin, Forbes, Neil Patel, Fox News and Entrepreneur among others. Ryan Biddulph is a vault of knowledge who helps people retire to a life of island-hopping.
If you’re dreaming of spending the rest of your life spending months at a time in an island paradise, then he’s your man.
We personally hold him in high esteem. Whether by coincidence (if you believe in such things) or synchronicity (ditto), he happened to be there when we were close to experiencing complete burnout and with two emails, talked us off the blogging ledge without even knowing it.
So, without further ado, let’s go have a chat with Ryan.
On starting out
So Ryan, how did you get into blogging?
I began blogging to make money online, really.
My prior job had been all about long, boring hours to score overtime and make some dough.
Blogging seemed like a way to profit passively and to enjoy my freedom, versus working up to 90 hours a week sometimes. I chose blogging because someone told me to LOL!
No joke.
I followed a mentor’s advice. But I did see potential for branding and opening many income streams as well.
As far as the niche, I chose it in 2014 because I wanted to share how to retire to a life of island hopping thru blogging, as I had. But I began blogging in 2008 in the make money online niche.
Did you enrol in workshops, get mentors, join clubs or take courses?
No, no, no, no 🙂
OK, I did have a mentor but he cared less about me.
I winged it like a total fool and struggled horribly until I worked on my energy, slowed down, calmed down, blogged mainly for fun – taking my time and trusting in the process. All my struggles occurred because I did not vibe fun-ease-trust-abundance, and when I felt deep fears, and cleared ‘em, I cleaned up my vibe, relaxed, did what felt fun and ran with it.
What was the journey like for you?
Fun.
I loved building a brand and business from the ground up.
Just having fun helping people because of my business and brand feels most rewarding to me.
Challenges include having posture with branding, not chasing any money-making opportunity, and being patient in building business the right way.
I managed these challenges by failing horribly, struggling terribly, and flipping out.
How?
During these panicked, frenzied moments I had to FACE, EMBRACE, FEEL and RELEASE my deepest fears. Sans these fears, blogging and life became easier and easier. Branding became easier. As did business. Everything gets easy when you genuinely face your fears and feel these unpleasant emotions.
Everywhere gets more difficult, when you do not.
What are some tips you’d like to share?
For employees, spend 2-3 hours daily having fun creating helpful content and connecting with other bloggers by promoting them and by commenting genuinely on their blogs.
Money = value + friendships.
Monetizing is easy – any channel you feel good about works fine – when you create and connect.
Ditto for full time bloggers, but increase the number to 10-12 hours daily and make sure you have fun, trust and relax.
12 hours of fear-frenzy work leads to failure, and 12 hours of relaxed play leads to success.
Blogging From Paradise
Your blog is full of inspiring posts where you consistently make the point that it’s the energy you are being rather than the things you are doing that can make or break you, was there a specific situation or experience that brought this home to you?
A few moments in life made me realize everything is energy.
3 separate times I lost all of my money. Right to zero. I also went bankrupt.
My mom being diagnosed with a terminal illness was another situation.
I also recall a few times I screamed, punched walls and nearly broke my hand.
Boy, am I a lucky guy LOL!
If you see someone whose life looks like a movie, 100% of the time, they faced their deepest fears, felt the most unpleasant emotions humans can feel, released these emotions, then, this crowd realizes life is energy.
Vibe love and abundance to live your dreams and live a sweet life.
Or, own the fact that any problems in your life are 100% rooted in deep, horrifying fears you refuse to face, feel and release.
Once you feel your terrors, money gets easier, business gets easier, marriages get easier, fitness gets easier and life gets easier.
You mentioned in a post that you used to feel overwhelmed trying to write 1 post daily but that “slowly leaving my comfort zone and nudging into deep, palpable fears helped me write 1, 3 and more posts daily”. Can you tell us more about this process? I know for a fact that I, and many other bloggers, feel the same overwhelm for exactly the same reason. We’d love to know your secret to writing 3 and more posts daily and still being relaxed about it.
It’s not really a process – nudging into fear and writing more. It is just a decision to do uncomfortable things. You just have to develop a better relationship with fear and discomfort.
No process here, no steps, no logic, no robotic thoughts….just doing uncomfortable stuff, regularly.
I suggest deep yin yoga, meditation, exercise, and deep breathing as techniques to help you become aware of when you puss out and avoid uncomfortable feelings, versus nudging in.
You mentioned in your site that you thought you made a big mistake when you were first starting out. There are many bloggers who experience great moments of self-doubt and fear. Can you give any advice?
As for self doubt and fear…feel it, and proceed.
Be gentle with yourself, and proceed.
If something scares you, nudge into it, and do it.
Simple, effective, 100% success rate here, for knifing through fear.
How do you compare your early blogging experiences to your current situation?
As for early blogging to now, the only difference is 40,000 hours of commitment to blogging 🙂
I decided to blog 10 years ago and not to make excuses.
Here I am.
Can you share with us what exactly made you fall head over heels in love with blogging?
I just LOVE helping people through blogging and I also enjoy expressing myself through the medium.
You have quite a few eBooks and a course too. Which one/s would you recommend to someone who is: a) thinking of starting on this journey and b) who has started but isn’t getting much traction?
The 11 Fundamentals of Successful Blogging Audio Course is the best purchase because you listen to 11 steps for becoming a successful blogger from the inside-out. I include mindset tips and practical blogging tips to inspire you to be unstoppable.
As for eBooks I have quite a few; I advise folks to scroll through and grab what sings to them
These both apply to any blogger because whether you are new, or struggling, fear is the only thing stopping you and my course and eBooks help you develop a better relationship with fear.
Do you have any upcoming events/activities (ex., webinars, workshops)? Where else can avid readers find you?
No webinars of workshops, guys; all you need from me is on Blogging From Paradise.
Personal life
Aside from Blogging From Paradise, what else are you working on? What else keeps you busy?
As far as my personal life, Jade, deep yin yoga and exercise play HUGE roles in my happiness and blogging success. I spend 90 minutes doing deep yin daily and 90 minutes doing brisk power walking.
They are not hobbies; they are a part of me, both something I have learned to do involuntarily, like breathing.
Aside from being a blogger and freelance writer, what else would you like to share about yourself?
I love Netflix and also, am completely obsessed with Bigfoot aka Sasquatch, as I listen to or watch 30-60 minutes daily to learn about these fascinating people-creatures that are as real as deer, squirrels or heck, pigeons. Most humans are living in the matrix on this one; not I LOL 🙂
Me and my wife Kelli love to circle the globe. Thailand is our favorite country and Thai food is a passion when we visit, although I cannot bring myself to pay $20 for a dish of New Jersey Thai versus the $1.25 I pay for a superior dish in an off the beaten path Buddhist vegetarian restaurant in Chiang Mai, Phuket or Bangkok.
Can you give us a peek at what your day looks like?
My day is always fluid and changing, just like life. I usually tend to do a lotta writing because it is fun.
Thank you very much for taking part, Ryan.
Final words
And there you have it, ladies and gents: how to blog from paradise, straight from the master.
If you want to know more about Ryan and / or read his writing, he’s also active on Twitter and Facebook on top of his blog.
Thanks a lot for sharing this post as it has been very helpful.
Hi Kevin & Jade,
Ryan did it right. By facing his fears he could change his life.
Something which most people are not doing and continue living in survival mode.
May people be inspired by this post.
Thank you
Erika
Thank you for kind words, Erika. We’re happy this resonated with you.
Wow, what an inspiring story! Some days it is just so hard to keep going when nothing goes right, but knowing it is ok to fail and that everyone does help me realize its time to keep pushing through if it is something you really want. Thanks for such an inspiring post. Love the new series, Jade!
Hi Jenn,
Thank you very much for your comment. It’s easy for us to get intimidated by the success of others and this story is a good example. Ryan is so successful now that it’s hard to think of him as experiencing difficulty when first starting out. But we all go through the learning curve, don’t we? And we just need to be patient and not to give up…and especially, to enjoy the process. 🙂
Jade
Jade this was so much fun 🙂 Thanks!
Thanks, Ryan. It was a pleasure. 🙂
Oh how I would love to blog from my paradise and never have to worry about money! I like the freedom of all that is being said and abandoning my 9-5 is one of my number one objectives. Hopefully by the end of the year I should be blogging from paradise too!
I have learnt that trusting the process and patience is the key to success. Value + Friendship= MONEY. I love this.
I have started blogging and I must take the advice of having fun, trusting and relaxing. Above all, doing uncomfortable things to get comfortable in the future.
Thank you for giving us such an awesome interview with valuable tips.
Yes! Exactly this, Carol. Keep going, stay consistent, don’t give up. You’ve got this!
Inspiring, encouraging and informative…. lots of good take aways for me from your article, thank you. As one who is working on the wonderful world of blogging, I found the interview with Ryan not only enjoyable to read but seeded with many useful nuggets of knowledge on the subject. My imagination is now scanning the scenes of me on a beach or in a cool cabana putting down volumes of meaning messages for a waiting crowd of followers. Thanks again!
Myles, that’s an awesome goal. Keep us posted!
WOW!!! Great article, enjoyable experience to make it, helping people, building brand and having fun of it, really am motivated by your write-up with this,everything gets easy when you genuinely face your fears and feel these unpleasant emotions,I will make it by doing the difficult things regularly, I can say, so far your article is one of the best have ever read. Thank you for this helpful write-up
Thank you, Abayomi. We’re really glad you like it.
Thank you for this great post! I love it when I come across others who have done what I’m looking to do and are where I want to be. It gives me a boost of confidence that I’m heading in the right direction.
My end-goal, as far as retirement goes, is to be in Alaska during the summer and on a boat in the tropics during the winter (and, of course, I’ll sprinkle in traveling around the world). That’s why I started blogging because I can do it from anywhere as long as I have an internet connection.
It’s kind of funny, I got into it to make money at the start but I’ve found that helping others is very rewarding in itself (I know that sounds like a sound bite but it’s true) and it’s contagious.
It’s nice to know that the difficulties life throws at you can be overcome and that I’m not the only one to experience them (not that I’m glad Ryan had to go through them, it’s just nice to know other’s have shared my pain and frustrations).
Thanks again, this was a great read,
Scott
Thanks for sharing your experience, Scott. Success leaves clues as they say and most successful people want others to succeed too. Blogging especially is a highly collaborative venture, which we’re really happy about. Good luck on your blog and do keep us posted. 🙂
Excellent article you have up here and I did learn a lot through this Ryan. I must be honest, reading about successful people who faced all the hurdles of life talk about their fears and challenges that pushed them to success is always a great way to push myself beyond the limits. Blogging from anywhere (paradise) is seeming like a dream to me but I must surely achieve the dream. His lifestyle inspired me a lot. He even writes more than 3posts in a day, that’s massive! Wow! I wish I will get to that level too someday
Yes, we met because I came across a post on his blog and commented about how I feel blogging overwhelm. He wrote me an email containing a link to a blog post he just wrote to answer my question. I was very impressed and that’s really what blogging is all about – making relationships. 🙂
Just keep going. Stay consistent and eventually, you’ll get to his level and you won’t even have noticed it. 🙂
Hi Kevin and Jade,
I’m happy to read your article today to learn more about how to leave my 9 – 5 job and start a new career writing a blog.
Thanks for sharing this interesting interview with Ryan, I took some note from your article and I will keep in my mind to start working on my blog for 2 – 3 hours per day and enjoy the work I do on it!
As my blog grows I will keep working longer hours on it, a good tip is to have fun and make friendships!
Now, I’ll take a look at some other articles on your website!
Alejandra.
Hi Alejandra, glad you found our post helpful. Consistency is key so if you carve some time out that’s dedicated to your blog, you’ll soon find that you’re getting there a lot faster. Thanks for commenting.