Yo yo, I’m Erik, and this is my place.

For starters, thank you and welcome.

It means the world to me that you’re here, and it’s an honor to have your readership.

(And apologies for the whole double-yo thing.. 😬)

So, you’re here because you wanna learn how to find remote dream jobs, nix the neverending 9-to-5 office grind, and make money online so that you can finally get your goddamn life back.

I hear that.

But first, you wanna know a little more about the human behind this blog that’s supposedly going to help you achieve these remarkable things that you never thought were possible.

I appreciate all of that and totally agree that it would be a disservice if I didn’t share some of my story with you.

Still, writing this About page is not an easy exercise because, for me, sharing things about myself has always been a little awkward.

I feel a lot more comfortable hanging out behind a computer screen or camera – okay, more like hiding out – thinking about business strategy, taking artsy photos, and writing for and about other people’s projects.

Perhaps you can relate.

Oh, and another thing about me:

For as long as I can remember, I NEVER wanted to spend my life toiling away in an office.

Let’s just say I saw the movie Office Space at a very impressionable age.

The idea of wasting my time and money commuting in traffic or cramped public transportation, stuffing my lanky body into a stiff collared shirt and tie, and figuratively kissing a boss’ crusty tuchus every day just never appealed to me.

I can’t imagine I’m alone here.

Not to mention that the idea of working for only one company and having only one income stream just didn’t seem like a very smart, secure, or satisfying strategy to me.

But it’s not like I never experienced that corporate office life.

From 2016 to 2018, I was the Head of SEO and Content Marketing for a startup tech company – a B2B SaaS for ecommerce merchants – where I did have to commute and kiss tuchus, although I got away with rocking a t-shirt and jeans most days.

There, I scaled a niche startup-style blog from the ground up, writing 100+ articles and guest posts while growing an email list from zero to five figures worth of subscribers.

Inside the boardroom at my old startup, with a view of the Statue of Liberty (zoooooom in, yo).

Learning the ins and outs of running a B2B SaaS marketing team and working hands-on with the best SEO software, content writing tools (long before the days of AI writing tools), project management tools, CRM software, and other powerful platforms gave me exceptional experience in content marketing, search engine optimization, choosing and using powerful business software, and more 21st century, recession-proof skills.

Ultimately, though, I was helping someone else scale their business in a narrow market while sacrificing myself to a six-figure salary and the luxe corporate lifestyle.

There it is: the cushy office I worked in.

Sure, my credit score was soaring from having paid off all my debt thanks to my new, stable income, but even in an office with catered lunches and unlimited snacks, thrilling ping pong breaks, and spectacular views of the Statue of Liberty and the iconic NYC skyline, I knew deep in my soul that the comfort was making me complacent, the commute was eating away at my time, and I was living small.

But damn, I do miss the view of One World Trade Center and Lower Manhattan in all its glory…

And that view up north, with the Empire State Building looking all teeny tiny in the distance.

Clearly, the scenery was incredible, and the steady paycheck and piles of perks made it tough to want to leave — but I felt like I was wasting my life.

Thankfully, after building the company’s blog into an automated lead-generating content marketing machine and devoting nearly 30 months of my life to the company, in a surprising twist of fate, I was “strategically” laid off in July 2018.

The unexpected shock to my system was just the jolt I needed to wake the F up.

After getting the ol’ boot, I committed once again to being a full-time freelancer, consultant, and entrepreneur, with no plans to return to an office. Ever.

Because for some people, the office just isn’t where they want to be.

I much prefer the freedom of working from home (or a swanky hotel), in my robe, with the autonomy to make a snack, do my bizness, or self-medicate — any time I damn well please.

For the past 12+ years, other than the outlier office stint I just shared, working remotely has transformed my life in so many ways and helped me get back on track when my situation was a whole lot shittier.

Fortunately, after some serious struggles, I was able to carve out a pretty cool and cozy life without having to sacrifice my time to soul-sucking commutes to and from 9-to-5 office jobs, all thanks to remarkable remote work experiences.

Now, I have the power to wake up early and exercise (or, you know, sleep in), make my own schedule, and do business only with people and companies that are a proper fit in the sense that they inspire, challenge, and motivate me to do my best work.

I can also charge a reasonable rate for the value I provide, something that you don’t always have the luxury of saying when you’re locked into a salary.

Plus, I now own skills that can make me money in my sleep, something I’m testing out with this very blog.

Simply put, working remotely has positively transformed my existence, and I know that it can do the same for you.

One of my past remote “offices” on a terrace in Maui.

Because being my own boss has been such a life-changing, expansive experience, I believe that everyone in the world should benefit from the time, flexibility, and freedom that freelancing and remote work offer —

And now I want to teach you how to copy exactly what I’ve done.

That, in a nutshell, is the purpose of Erik’s Guide.

Sooo, how did I even get into a position to build this place?

If you really wanna understand my unconventional and unexpected career path, buckle the fuckle up because I’m about to breach my comfort zone and take you on a long and winding trip through time to show you where my transformation began.

Please take heart that I’ve never shared the painful details of how I broke free from what felt like an unexplainable perma-funk and started working remotely for the first time — until right now.

My journey has always felt so oddly personal and rife with failure, and for a long time, I felt ashamed of the roundabout route I’ve taken.

But I’m over that now.

I decided to take the leap and spill the tea on me because I think it’s important for you to understand this one simple fact:

If I could somehow find fulfilling remote work and free myself from embarrassingly low hourly wage work and the 9-to-5 office grind – especially after I made some pretty questionable life choices – then you’re in a prime position to succeed yourself, no matter where you’re at in life, how old/young, experienced/new, or educated/self-educated you are, or whatever else you might think is holding you back.

Because with the right mindset, anyone can create the right conditions to find a dream job and work from anywhere, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been slogging away in a corporate commuter job for what feels like forever.

Of course, for optimal results, it’s best to learn the tools, tricks, and secrets that will simplify the process and help you master the remote work world faster while making it your own — which is why you’re here, after all.

So, without further ado, you’re about to hear how I went from feeling like (and almost being) the biggest bust of all time to finally finding my first-ever footing as a freelancer and getting my life together.

Fix yourself a snack, snuggle up, and spark one:

Cuz it’s story time, y’all.

~~~~~

Erik’s story: Conquering fear, learned helplessness & imposter syndrome on the road to a remarkable remote work lifestyle⚡

You may already know that I’ve had some wild work experiences while holding a wide variety of what many would consider “dream jobs” over my decade-plus work-from-anywhere career.

Opportunities that, to some people observing from the outside, appeared to come out of nowhere, and left a lot of those who knew me feeling strangely confused and uncomfortably envious.

But here’s the truth:

It took me a long, long, looong time, lots of false starts, and many a humbling failure to even begin my journey to getting that first dream job.

Before discovering the secrets to living the life I always wanted, the sad truth is that:

• I threw away 5+ years of my life earning between 8 and 13 bucks an hour in dead-end jobs to help someone else’s dreams come to fruition.
• I wasted tens of thousands of dollars (and 5+ more years) on useless conventional (and questionable) education.
• I struggled through countless moments of cringe, frustration, and serious self-loathing because I knew I could be doing more with my life, but I just couldn’t get the F out of my own way.

Just look at my sad former self:

This is me revisiting my freshman dorm kitchen a couple of years after graduation. You can see the sadness brewing in those eyes..

There was so much sputtering out, with my only consistency being a consistent failure to launch.

Hold up a sec… WTF is a “dream job,” anyway?

Oh yeah, I’m happy you asked.

In my mind, a dream job is any work that:

1. Fits your skill sets and expertise
2. Tickles your passions
3. Comes with autonomy
4. Does NOT monopolize your entire day/week/life
5. Lets you work other jobs simultaneously
6. Helps you expand your know-how and boost your value
7. Pays you handsomely
8. Is 100% remote

Doesn’t that all sound pretty close to perfect?

Bonus points if it comes with a healthy helping of creative freedom and the chance to work with your significant other, if that’s something you’re into.

So, listen:

Back in 2010, I never thought any awesome work opportunities like that would ever fall into my lap.

At the time, I was a self-loathing line cook with scant self-awareness, living in cramped quarters with my mom and drowning in over $35,000 in student loan debt.

All the while, I was earning an earth-shattering $13 an hour in a fine-dining restaurant where a single steak cost more than my shift pay.

Simply stated, my career could have been a whole lot better at that point.

This was Miserable Me at the start of yet another mundane Monday shift..

But these days?

Miraculously, I’ve managed to build stable income streams over the past 11 years through a creative mix of skill sets, such as freelance writing, SEO strategy, content marketing, conversion copywriting, and high-end event photography, which each fit my dream job criteria.

Now I get hired to drop knowledge on award-winning agency design sprints for $1,400 a day, I earn hundreds per hour as an SEO content creator and conversion copywriter, and I land five-figure consulting contracts through LinkedIn — without even leaving my house.

What’s that? You want some more examples?

I mean, sure: I guess that way you’ll have a better sense of what I mean by this whole “dream job” jam.

So here, check it:

Wait, not the feets…

Some of the most dreamy + remarkable remote roles I’ve had are:

• Freelance Food & Travel Writer for major media outlets like BuzzFeed, USA Today, and The Daily Meal, where my life partner and I took luxurious trips across four continents and got paid to document them.
• Freelance Cannabis Writer for High Times, where I got to parlay my affinity for fumando la mota (and astrology) into a fun gig that allowed me to write under the most stonerific pseudonym of all time, Smoky McBlunts.
• NYC Restaurant Reviewer for six glorious years for the defunct (but still-alive-in-my-heart) Blackboard Eats, where I’d get paid to feast with friends and write about it.
• SEO Content Creator, Consultant & Copywriter for Fortune 500 companies like Mastercard, Oracle, and Amazon, along with Vitamix, AWAY, Neil Patel Digital, and other nifty brands you know, where I earn hundreds of bucks an hour doing what I do best.

Now that’s what I’m talkin’ about. (Those gorgeous feets is what I mean..)

But wait, there’s more:

The most mind-boggling, hectic, and rando experience had to be when the two of us had the opportunity to photograph one of our biggest inspirations, modern-day philosopher and marketing legend Seth Godin, doing an interview at his office with CEO/blogger Dean Caravelis, who I met in Seth’s altMBA course.

I only say “hectic” because we were super pressed for time, since later that day Dean was scheduled to interview Wait But Why creator, Tim Urban, back in NYC, and I volunteered to “chauffeur” them over the Brooklyn Bridge into Manhattan as Dean interviewed him in my backseat and my partner documented it while sitting shotgun.

I was all set to get Tim to his next meeting in Hell’s Kitchen Crazy Taxi-style, but unfortunately, we got stuck in gridlock traffic during a freakin’ flash flood, and he ended up bolting from my Chevy during the torrential downpour to hop on the subway to get there faster.

Let’s just say that things have been known to get a little surreal with this remote work lifestyle thing.

Now, fast-forward to today:

On top of doing SEO content strategy consulting and sharing my expertise as a freelance writer, my partner of 14+ years and I run an award-winning luxury wedding photography company that’s been featured in Vogue, Brides, The Knot, Martha Stewart Weddings, and more.

As destination wedding photographers, we photograph stylish and sophisticated couples and travel to mind-meltingly magnificent bucket-list destinations like Maui, Tuscany (see image above), Miami, Ireland, and Palm Springs for legitimate high-paying work — sometimes even for celebs on their superyachts.

(I wish I could tell you who…)

Okay, so at this point, you’re undoubtedly wondering:

“How the hell did you go from being so damn loserly to getting all those sweet gigs?!”

The truth is, for most of my life, I never believed that doing anything like that for work was even remotely possible.

And for years, I was at a standstill out of intense fear, deep insecurity, and a severe scarcity mindset.

Here’s a little background:

Growing up in Queens, NYC, in a lower-middle class household as an only-child with a single mom, I didn’t have money or connections and I sucked at sports…

…but I was a stellar student.

I graduated from one of the nation’s best high schools, received Honor Society recognition every year, and scored over 1400 on the SAT, helping me earn a scholarship to a top-ranked university.

But even after snagging all those snazzy academic credentials, accolades, and accomplishments throughout my youth, it didn’t make a difference to my mental health.

Inside I was suffering from a nagging case of Imposter Syndrome and a condition called learned helplessness, which left me drowning in self-doubt and prone to self-sabotage by the time I finished college, preventing me from pursuing purposeful work or putting myself out there in a meaningful way.

If my life was a movie back then, it would have been a low-budget dark comedy called Stuck AF.

To show you how I got into such a sad state with my self-worth and sense of direction in the sewer, let’s take a trip together in my wondrous word time machine and make a quick pitstop to visit my lost former self in…

Dun-du-nun-UN:

2005: The year I graduated college…and didn’t internalize that I graduated from college.

Remember that $35,000+ student loan debt I told you about earlier?

That hefty balance stemmed from my first foray into “higher education,” a four-year stint at Tulane University and its prestigious A.B Freeman School of Business, an institution I’m proud to say I graduated from with a hard-earned bachelor’s degree after double-majoring in marketing and finance.

Despite having been on scholarship and financial aid, it was only a partial scholarship, and by 2010, I still owed a shit-ton for a pricey piece of paper that I wasn’t even using five years after obtaining it.

Sure, my post-college situation was in part because I’d been too busy getting drunk/stoned and playing poker every day to even apply for any entry-level jobs during my senior year.

But c’mon, I was in my early twenties living it up in The Big Easy, feeling liberated from an overbearing family for the first time — and after all, that’s why they call it higher education, amirite? 🙃

There I am in my final year of college, partying it up with a sideways hat on my domepiece and Solo cup in hand.

In June of ‘05, I drove in my crappy, handed-down ‘94 Corolla from New Orleans to South Florida to temporarily move in with my mom, who had only moved to Fort Lauderdale the year before, rather impulsively, from Queens.

Never in a million years had I wanted to or expected to move back in with my mom after graduation – in Florida, of all places – but since I had no job lined up or any semblance of a plan, that felt like my only option.

And my harsh reality was that I was not ready for much of anything at all.

June of ‘05: My stalled-out SoFlo shitshow starts

Living with my mom after graduation was only supposed to last until I got my life together (read: not that long), but, long story short, I wound up living in her house for roughly the next seven years.

It’s alright; you have permission to cringe.

For years 1 and 2, I floundered around in low-paying office jobs feeling aimless, disappointed, and stuck.

The details would only bore and make you cringe so much more.

Years later I discovered that I was afflicted by a condition I mentioned earlier that’s known in psychology circles as learned helplessness, which is:

“A state that occurs after a person has experienced a stressful situation repeatedly, where they come to believe that they are unable to control or change the situation, so they do not try — even when opportunities for change become available.”

Maybe it stemmed from constant exposure to my parents’ traumatic relationship and their subsequent divorce when I was 10.

Maybe it had to do with leaving NYC to start my freshman year in New Orleans in late August 2001, and then, less than three weeks later, watching in helpless horror from my twenty-inch dorm room TV as my hometown’s iconic Twin Towers toppled, leveling the lives of people close to me in the process.

More likely, it was from all of the above mixed with many more suppressed memories, thoughts, and emotions, cemented by the proverbial straw that broke my psyche in August of ‘05.

That’s when, in the aftermath of a bad breakup, I witnessed the wrath of Hurricane Katrina as it shellacked my new adopted home in FL before watching from afar as it flooded my beloved former home, destroying countless friends’ lives and crushing my tenuous plot to return to NOLA after a short SoFlo recharge at casa de mama.

Who the hell knows.

What I do know is this:

On an emotional level, Katrina felt like 9/11 all over again.

I had just left a place that I loved and had set roots, and yet again, for the second time in four years, something unimaginably tragic went down shortly after my departure, ultimately shifting the paradigm in both cities for years to follow.

In both instances, I had to deal with the aftermath from a distance while my friends who were unlucky to be there suffered through it far worse, which made me feel an irrational but extreme sense of guilt and shame.

It was heavy shit.

Seeing news clips of FEMA rescue workers kayaking down my old block shook my system, making it impossible to focus on finding a decent job.

For the next two-plus years, I went through life in a hazy, dissociated state, figuratively dipping my shiny degree in dogshit fondue by not applying it (or myself) to landing a “real” lucrative corporate job — and routinely getting roasted by my family and friends.

I felt like I was headed toward a dark place.

And I wasn’t wrong.

Just imagine:

At one point a couple years after graduating with a finance and marketing degree from Tulane, “the Harvard of the South” as my parents liked to call it, all my college friends were working “legit” salaried office jobs while I was baking pies (and sneaking slices of pepperoni into my piehole) at freaking Pizza Fusion making 8 bucks an hour.

But hey, you already know my feelings about working in an office, so I didn’t care.

And the weirdest thing was that I actually liked working with food and with my hands.

Finally, in the fall of 2007, my youthful angst compelled me to do the unthinkable, and I made a profoundly idiotic decision (at least according to those who thought they knew me):

I decided to “pursue my passion,” sign my life away to even more student loans, and enroll in Le Cordon Bleu to become a classically trained chef.

Let’s just say that nobody saw that coming.

Sooo, yeah: Culinary school was quite the experience.

In retrospect, I probably shoulda just used the ol’ YouTube. Oh, well. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

As part of the program, I completed an externship at a fine-dining Asian Fusion restaurant in Fort Lauderdale, where I was officially hired once I finished school as 2008 came to a close.

The restaurant was set on the picturesque Intracoastal waterway where eight-figure yachts would park, and it had an over-the-top, gazillion-dollar makeover for its grand opening, including a wide open kitchen with all the bells and whistles, where we could see VIPs seated across the way.

The culinary workspace had the glitz, glamor and ginormous budget of an Iron Chef kitchen.

And I was wide-eyed, stoked, and ready to learn everything I possibly could.

Look at me, covered in mysterious apron stains with my old executive sous chef, Freddie, and ready to rock, way back when I felt fuerte and #restaurantlife still had luster. For the record, Freddie was an absolute beast who could do the work of five line cooks.

For a while, it was exciting to cook gorgeously presented (and painfully priced) plates of gourmet food with expensive, exotic ingredients for celebrities, famous athletes, and the like, especially since we could actually see them raving about our cuisine from the restaurant’s show kitchen.

But as time passed, my loserly life stayed the same:

By spring of 2010, I was still working at the same station in the kitchen…

Still making piss-poor pay…

Still living with my mom…

Still riddled with debt…

And still feeling like a complete and total trainwreck.

I had nothing to show for myself other than a shitload more student loan debt — and levels of self-loathing hitherto unknown.

My passion for cooking had been beat down and mutated into an oppressive obligation.

But I had no drive to change my situation.

My headspace was a mess and my vision for the future was murky and bleak.

My work life, mental balance, and personal finances were in an unhealthy state of affairs.

T’was uber uncool.

And something desperately needed to change.

So, WTF happened next?!

In May of 2010, I finally decided enough was enough.

After more than two years of making the same seven salads and overpriced appetizers every shift with little to show for it, other than pent up frustration, clogged up pores, and “fine-dining experience” that felt fraudulent, like I was working at a glorified P.F. Chang’s (sorry, P.F.), I had reached my tipping point.

So instead of staying stuck, I took some initiative and said see ya to my measly hourly wage, making a conscious choice to quit the restaurant world forever.

Learned helplessness, consider yourself un-learned, beotch.

This is us in May 2010 decompressing right after I quit working at the restaurant (we were such freaking babies, yo! Also, note the wallet chain..). We may have been smiling, but inside, we were both nervous because neither of us knew WTF we were in store for.

From there, I combined my culinary + business know-how and started a private chef company called Kitchen Coach with my artful lady’s help, to hopefully make up for the minuscule income I’d be missing out on, and we began devising a plan to promote me as a local culinary expert.

Still, I had no clients or income when I launched, and at that point, my family was pretty much over with supporting my lofty pursuits.

They just couldn’t wrap their heads around what I was doing and didn’t hesitate to tell me.

Thankfully, I had another support network in my better half, and we found ways to support, inspire, and motivate each other’s creative aspirations and help one another grow our careers when our families did the opposite.

But way back in 2010, even with the momentum from having quit my demoralizing job, no one could have convinced us that within a few years, we’d be getting paid to fly to dream destinations, eat magnificent meals, and write about and photograph everything along the way.

At that point, I was feeling like I was a failed college graduate AND a failure in the restaurant world, and that nothing I could do professionally would ever be enough.

My limiting beliefs were intense, overwhelming, and completely counterproductive.

And my attitude was unsustainable if I ever truly wanted to taste success.

Fortunately, with some forward-thinking strategy, a plump ol’ pile of patience and persistence, and a little bitta luck, I was able to eventually turn my life around – and then some.

So:

How the hell did I break out of my stanky work funk and get started on becoming someone who could legitimately call themselves a writer who’s earned six-figures after struggling in shitty job situations for so many years?

First, I strategically placed my Kitchen Coach business cards all over Fort Lauderdale, from lobbies to restaurants to inside any small business that would let me.

My partner made this lovely logo by hand on a Wacom graphics pad and helped me find these fab fonts for my private chef branding. Gotta love the green on green on green..💚

Soon enough, I got a call from a young guy saying he found my card in a record store and that he needed a personal chef to cook healthy meals for him — three times a week.

Holy shit, I thought: a recurring client!

The best part was that he was an actual baller: a pro athlete living in a penthouse on Fort Lauderdale beach.

Cooking for him helped me get my chef biz some off the ground, and my get-outta-mom’s-house fund some much-needed nourishment.

Soon, I started making a bit of a name for myself in the area and started catering parties, doing in-home cooking lessons, and helping people stock and organize their kitchens.

That’s me in a former life, fresh-faced and dapper in my custom Kitchen Coach chef coat.

I even taught a salt-free cooking class to seniors for Broward Meals on Wheels and consulted on catering for a major Junior Achievement of South Florida event.

With a little initiative, I was able to make some traction as a chef and local “food guy.”

And then, there was an unexpected twist.

My monumental master plan succeeded in a super surprising way.

Around the time I launched Kitchen Coach, I also started a food blog on Tumblr called Rantings of a Chef.

On it, I pumped out post after post on topics like guacamole, my love for mayo, and devising bizarre-but-delicious dipping sauces, and I created a limited series called The Meatball Monologues about all the varieties of your favorite meaty morsels.

While I knew nada about SEO or content marketing at this point, food blogging gave me confidence in my writing, along with a novel idea:

What if I wrote similar articles for local print publications to grow my reputation as a culinary expert while driving traffic to my chef biz?

I could be a “Food-for-Thought Leader.”

To put my plan into action, I researched local publications and identified ones that didn’t have a dedicated food writer, then I cold-pitched them a proposal explaining that I was a chef and a writer looking to contribute articles in exchange for ad placements.

You’d be surprised how easy it is to get people to give you an emphatic Yes! when you explicitly ask people not to pay you in cash.

Before long, I cobbled together a collection of food writing gigs and a portfolio with dozens of bylined articles that were seemingly helping me promote my chef business.

Then I started doing restaurant reviews and getting free feasts so I could taste every spot’s signature dishes to accurately describe them and my partner could take photos.

That’s the face of a dude on his first-ever restaurant review, at a place in Oakland Park, FL, called Catfish Dewey’s for The Happy Herald newspaper, and my compensation for the write-up was this elaborate seafood feast and a small Kitchen Coach ad placement. 100% worth it.

Obviously, with getting “paid” in prawns, I wasn’t making much money in this endeavor. Yet.

But…

Writing about food was giving me life again – and then I got “lucky”

My cooking blog, Rantings of a Chef, was somehow found by foodies who worked at Martha Stewart Radio, and they connected to see if they could interview me on their Sirius XM station and feature a couple of my original dipping sauce recipes on their site.

Holy crap.

I couldn’t believe it; my mind was melting.

Within just a few months of ditchin’ the kitchen, I was able to get my writing into a variety of publications and get mostly positive editorial feedback, and now I was being hit up by people from an internationally known company about my blog.

My media outreach was working.

This shit was starting to get real.

And I was finally starting to see how to regain control of my power, agency, and destiny.

(Not to be dramatic…)

I even got the lead story on Martha’s website.

Still, during the Martha Stewart Radio interview, I was in my own head, my voice was shaky, and I was nervous AF, but I pushed through it and hoped that it would help bring Kitchen Coach some new leads.

But then, something strange happened:

My strategy of writing to get more cooking clients wasn’t generating nearly as many new leads (or revenue) as I’d hoped…

…but it was helping me build a food writing portfolio of published, bylined articles fast, which was leading to even more interesting writing opportunities — ones that actually paid.

Then, in August 2011, serious serendipity struck:

A fellow chef who knew that I was into writing hit me up about a freelance copywriting job opening he had seen.

The gig was for LivingSocial, Groupon’s biggest competitor at a time when the world was in the midst of peak Daily Deal Hysteria.

When I saw it was a work-from-home job, I eagerly applied, and two weeks later an editor replied asking me to take a writing test.

Ohmygod. This could be it.

Here was my first real chance to earn a paycheck while working from home, without having to go and bust my ass in a restaurant or in someone else’s smelly kitchen.

Like a lunatic, I meticulously edited the writing test about a dozen times before finally submitting it.

And then I waited for a reply.

And I waited.

And I kept on waiting for a response of any sort.

Days turned to weeks, and my initial confidence soon shifted into my natural tendency of second-guessing and self-doubt.

“It’s fine. I’m not even a real writer anyway” is what my shadow self kept saying. “I guess I’ll just stick with the cooking.”

Even if they’d just written to tell me that I didn’t get the gig, I’d have been fine with gaining clarity on the situation.

Then, nearly a month later, I finally heard something…

And it was awesome news:

LivingSocial wanted to hire me, I said fuck yes, and for the first time in my life, I could officially call myself a copywriter.

Had I any prior copywriting experience at the time?

Not so much.

But that didn’t matter one bit.

Imposter Syndrome be damned:

I overcame my insecurity and convinced my anxious self that I could learn on the job, study history’s best copywriters, and fake it ‘til I made it.

Because sometimes it just makes more sense to go into a situation you don’t truly feel ready for so that you can test your mettle and see what the hell you’re made of.

And so it went.

By early 2012, I went from writing roughly a handful of copywriting assignments for LivingSocial each week to doing more than 200 a month.

While I was still years away from attaining the elusive six-figure writer status, this dedication to devouring as much remote work as possible allowed me to earn my first paychecks that could afford to cover my own place and start paying off my debt.

And goddamn, did it feel great.

After having spent about five years sweating it out playing #cheflyfe in sweltering kitchens with sharp knives, slippery surfaces, and skin-searing fryer oil splattering everything in sight – while barely scraping by – working from the air-conditioned confines of my bedroom (okay: bed) while earning sufficiently more money in the process was, dare I say, a MF dream job.

I also learned an incredibly valuable lesson while waiting to hear back about the writing test, which is this:

Chillax, yo.

Fear and imposter syndrome will never truly go away —

You simply have to discover innovative ways to dance with them so that they don’t MMA your malleable mind into a victim state of submission.

On top of gaining that priceless perspective, I soon scored even more freelance writing gigs, got into a groove with copywriting, and learned how lucrative it can be to work remotely as a wordsmith.

That made my next career move simple:

I decided that cooking would always be a passion, but my career was not meant for a kitchen…

So I sunsetted the fairy tale of being a professional chef and rewrote my success story into that of a full-time freelance writer.

And that’s when shit really started getting wild.

Toward the end of 2012, my partner and I still had no idea where we would land, and while things were improving in some areas, we still didn’t quite have our lives together.

And that’s when luck came a-knockin’ again.

She had been working as a freelance restaurant and real estate photographer for Eater and Curbed while getting her start with wedding photography when out of nowhere she received a phone call from a random number that she almost didn’t pick up.

On the other end was from a magazine editor who had seen her work in Eater asking if she’d be interested in taking photos for the next print issue of…wait for it… freaking Bon Appetit (!!!).

I wish I could bottle the feeling that came over us when it hit us what a huge opportunity had just landed.

It was completely nuts.

We were jumping up and down like we’d won the lottery, and I’m pretty certain that a celebratory blunt was put in play.

This sweet burst of luck was the universal sign we needed that things were on the up and up and that we needed to get the F outta FL – fast.

The day after Christmas, we peaced out of Florida for bigger and better opportunities back where I grew up in NYC.

But no sooner than we arrived, LivingSocial announced they were going in-house and finished working with freelance copywriters, killing off my biggest source of income in a flash, and in our most desperate time.

So much for that quick up and up.

To make up for that lost income, I resorted to supplementing my meager leftover freelance writing income by giving out gourmet granola and fancy cheese samples at Whole Foods Markets in Manhattan for a culinary product demo company, while my partner photographed multiple weddings a weekend for a pittance as an agency photographer…

…all while we were temporarily living at a very generous friend’s house in Chelsea and sleeping on her futon while we saved up enough for a rent deposit.

At that humbling moment when I was depending on an old friend for a place to sleep for both myself and my partner, luck once again found its way into my path:

While walking back to our interim residence from her office, we decided to take an unusual route.

Crossing 7th Avenue at W 43rd, I spotted an ad on an old payphone for a food-centric website I’d never heard of and snapped a photo so I’d remember to check it out.

That night, after doing some research, I sent a cold email to the site’s contact email, which eventually turned into a freelance writing gig for what I soon discovered was the world’s sixth-largest food website by traffic at the time.

In the initial back-and-forth with the managing editor, I mentioned that I’d be interested in contributing articles to the Travel section and sharing my chef knowledge in the Recipes section, and the next thing I knew, he was introducing me to the Travel Editor on an email thread.

Within days, I had my first assignment:

Attending a restaurant opening in NYC’s East Village and writing an article about it, and my partner could take photos and get image credit.

Before long, we covered a few more restaurants, the NYC Wine & Food Festival, and some local events, when about six weeks in, my editor emailed me asking me something so unexpected that I had to read it over three times before I could confirm the words said what they said.

She asked if I’d be interested in going to Virginia for a weekend to sample and learn about the state’s oyster varieties and wine regions.

Everything would be comped, from flights and hotels to meals, guides, and transportation, and I would be able to get at least one article out of the trip.

I sensed that I was on the cusp of something life-changing, so after getting my bearings, I wrote back and accepted, unknowingly unleashing a flurry of unbelievable experiences to follow over the next year.

We were still living with my friend when I began venturing off on luxury press trips on behalf of the food website’s editors (who were stuck behind their desks working underpaid nine-to-fives), exploring the world like never before.

Soon, I was able to get my partner on trips to be the photographer, and together we covered an international cooking competition in Istanbul, a festival in Montreal, and the scene in Cartagena, where we nearly getting arrested with an LA magazine publisher due to a case in mistaken identity.

Those international epicurean adventures were some of the best experiences I’ve ever had, and they opened up doors I never thought possible.

Soon, I snagged another freelance food writing gig with the now-defunct Blackboard Eats as a restaurant reviewer, where I’d get feasts with my partner (who would photograph it all for the website/email blasts) at awesome spots around Manhattan and Brooklyn.

I had become a legit freelance food writer who was now getting paid to travel, and while I never got to fly first-class, it was in fairly high style — a wild, monumental leap that I did not foresee when we fled Florida.

Looking back, I probably could have kept at it a little longer, but we eventually moved to our own place across the Hudson in NJ, and I needed to stop getting paid in the form of “free” food and trips and start making serious money.

So in 2015, while freelancing for High Times as Smoky McBlunts, I made the most impactful career move yet by immersing myself in SEO and content marketing strategy.

While immersing myself in SEO, I put my new knowledge into action by writing blog posts for my partner’s wedding photography site and getting them to rank in Google’s #1 organic position for coveted industry keywords, and it started bringing in more leads than ever.

Then, in early 2016, I got a message on LinkedIn about a Content & SEO leadership position at the B2B SaaS startup I mentioned earlier, and the offer was a godfather – I couldn’t refuse.

I rationalized taking an office job, something I actively avoided forever, as “pushing myself out of my comfort zone,” and in retrospect, it was worth it.

A month after starting, I got the biggest freelancing break of my life:

An award-winning content marketing agency connected to have me write articles for Vitamix’s blog about food and restaurants, a gig that would add a sweet side hustle to a salary that was already more money than I’d ever made in my life.

This opportunity would help me land more remote and work-from-home jobs in content creation, copywriting, and consulting work with even bigger companies (and paydays), all while I simultaneously held down my full-time job as Content Marketing & SEO Director at the B2B SaaS until I was laid off in 2018.

Thankfully, the freelance work I started while working full-time had grown to be more than enough to sustain myself without the full-time income while I built up my SEO content marketing consulting company and helped my partner grow her destination wedding photography business (and fuel our mutual love for travel) by taking up photography and learning how to capture beautiful weddings with her as her second shooter.

Since the layoff, I’ve not once considered going back to the 9-to-5 grind.

In part, it’s because I’m making about as much money now, on my own time and terms, while getting to do things for work that are waaaaayyy more fun and interesting.

Things like reviewing meditation cushions, vetting non-stick pans, trialing cold brew coffee makers, and testing umbrellas in the pouring rain for BuzzFeed, ghostwriting for CEOs in top publications, and sharing my knowledge about SEO and content marketing as a consultant.

Not to mention doing all the stuff that most people would typically only get to do while using up their precious vacation days, like exploring Hawaii, Italy, and the Irish countryside after photographing destination weddings there.

The theme that I embraced during my transformation from a disgruntled line cook making less than a living wage to a financially secure and independent freelancer, consultant, and entrepreneur was adding new skills to my repertoire through self-teaching and betting on myself.

And that’s exactly why learning the right skills to grow your career fast and easily is a pillar of Erik’s Guide.

So, now that you’re all caught up, I got one more thing to share before you bounce…

Here’s the most important thing to know about my massive work/life transformation:

Before I was eventually able to create a snowball effect that led to bigger and better opportunities by actively networking and teaching myself profitable new skills like SEO, copywriting, and content marketing…

…I had to overcome heavy and irrational feelings of unworthiness, unlearn the self-limiting beliefs that were keeping me frozen, and reprogram the counterproductive behaviors that were holding me back.

And none of that shit was easy.

Getting out of the rat race and financially settled took me years — and I’m still very early on in my path to completing my career goals.

I forged an indirect path to a secure remote work lifestyle alone because no one in my world knew WTF I was trying to do and there were no guides that existed yet on the topic.

With Erik’s Guide, my hope is that you can duplicate my best outcomes without taking all the unnecessary missteps I encountered along my journey.

Because potential-pulverizing pitfalls and motivation-murdering money sinks are lurking out there, and boy do they suuuck.

By sharing valuable resources, product demos, reviews, and recommendations of everything that has helped me and the people I respect, along with an array of inspirational ideas for how to work from anywhere, manage your time and thrive, I know you’ll be able to achieve your own style of success and create abundance in your life.

It is my greatest hope to inspire, motivate, and guide you to embark on a remote dream career by:

• Eliminating your need to do hours of tedious and frustrating product discovery research,
• Saving you from wasting weeks of your life testing and tinkering with tons of tools, software, and services,
• Helping you avoid accidentally throwing away thousands of dollars on making the wrong purchasing decisions, and…
• Igniting you to take positive action and reframe your mindset for the ideal remote work lifestyle.

I want to help you get where you want to be faster and with fewer obstacles than I faced when figuring out how to navigate the emerging world of remote work — so that you can be your own boss, live your ideal life, and achieve extraordinary goals while leaving a lasting legacy for the people you love.

So, take a moment right now and congratulate yourself:

The fact that you’re here right now means that you’re already in the best place to begin crafting your coveted dream career.

And the fact that you made it this far to the end of my story speaks volumes about how committed you are to initiating positive change in your life.

That takes guts.

Thankfully for you, with the right state of mind, skill set, tools, and tactical approach, landing life-changing work-from-anywhere jobs is easier than ever before.

Because the truth is, “luck” is simply a product of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right mindset.

You’re ready to do unbelievable things that you never thought possible.

Now, it’s my mission to help you get there.

Thank you so much for spending some time at Erik’s Guide and reading my story, and I’m absolutely thrilled to be part of your journey, from figuring out your purpose to finding a life-changing remote dream job!

See you on the other side.

~Erik