Congratulations on your baby girl, Misha – she’s gorgeous! We’d love to know whether you’ve found it as challenging as we have, being both an entrepreneur and a new father. How did you manage to “crush it” as well as cope with the demands of a newborn/young baby?

Thanks so much, it’s been an incredible experience! It’s not easy to find the right balance and I’m willing to admit that I haven’t been perfect. With the book, Vaynermedia starting up, Cork’d relaunching, Cinderella Wine and Gourmet Library all happening over the past 6 months or so I’ve been running around a bit more than I should so I’m trying to get better with that…

It’s about balancing contradictions, something that I’m very comfortable with. On one hand your instinct as an entrepreneur is to work your face off, on the other hand your instinct as a parent is to spend every second with your family. It’s not easy but I think as long as you remember what’s really important in life it works out in the end.

According to the three rules you mention in your book “Crush It!“, “love your family” is number 1. Sometimes the practical implementation of taking care of your family seems to differ between male & female entrepreneurs. What does taking care of your family mean to you?

I mean, there’s an instinct there that you want the people you love to be able to live comfortably and have nice things, right? I didn’t get to really know my father until I started working at the store when I was 14 because he was working so ridiculously hard to make sure that his kids would have a better life.

I don’t have to make the same sacrifices my dad did though, in a large part because of the groundwork he laid for me. So for me, part of it is working hard to provide for my family, but a bigger part is making sure that I’m there for them.

One of the things we’ve found the most challenging as entrepreneurial parents is fitting in work around our baby girl’s schedule – this has often meant working until 3am just to get everything done. What advice can you give when you’re faced with the real time-crunch challenges of being a parent but still want to crush it?

We all have to be realistic about our responsibilities and remember that family comes number one. If you cut out all the video game playing and Lost watching and you’re still struggling to find enough time for your family then you need to start sacrificing some of the hours you were putting in to “crushing it”.

In a perfect world there would be enough time to go 2000% with everything, but as long as you’re cutting out the things that you’re not passionate about that take up your time, you’re on the right path.

In “Crush It“ you provide some very clear & useful steps for leveraging the social web to create your own success. For anyone who has not read it yet, what advice would you give to a complete newbie & non-techy? Where should they start?

My advice would be that platforms like Twitter and Facebook don’t change basic rules of marketing and business. They actually allow you to concentrate more on the basics and become like the baker and butcher of the 1950s.

I would get an account with Twitter and Facebook as well as checking to see if there are any forums or communities that are based on the niche that your business lives in. Once you’re there, listen for a while and then start joining the conversation. And by that I mean talk, don’t sell.

The biggest mistake people make is to start selling from the minute they launch an account, and that will always cause people to tune out. If you engage and converse and answer questions, you’ll be learning what your target customers want and you’ll be in a position to over-deliver. Once you understand how to over-deliver and consistently provide a great experience for your customers, you’ll be able to build the word-of-mouth marketing which is the true power of these new tools.

As a new parent, is there anything you’ll do differently when it comes to running your business & living your life?

I’ll definitely have to adjust how I work and live and I’m already starting to work on that. I’m still going to hustle because that’s in my DNA, it’s just who I am, but I’m accustomed to hectic days at a frantic pace, and I need more structure to make sure I’m doing everything I want to do. That will mean blocking out certain nights to always be home, scheduling calls for specific portions of the week, and saying “no” a bit more often than I am used to. But I’ll make it work.

On a personal note, any exciting travel plans for your family & new baby girl? When you do travel, do you continue to work?

Traveling is actually one of the times I get the most work done. I don’t want to think about how behind I would be in emails if it weren’t for cross country flights. Lizzie and I do have a special trip planned this year, but we’re keeping it private.

Editor’s Note: Thanks so much to Gary for taking the time out of his busy schedule to answer our questions. I received a review copy of Gary’s book Crush It! - it’s an easy read with some extremely valuable tips on leveraging social media and branding yourself. Highly recommended! None of the links in this post are affiliate links, they take you straight to the website for Gary’s book.

As we always preface at the beginning of our interviews, one of the things we hope to convey with this site is the fact that there is no single *best* way to be location independent parents, travel the world nor educate your child.

We all choose to do different things, based upon what works for each of us. So with that in mind, we have interviewed a wide range of location independent parents (of all types – nomadic or not) to demonstrate this!

We also have found it useful to be able to point to others living this lifestyle, when faced with questions and challenges from friends and family – so with this series, we’re hoping to give you plenty of social proof for this very purpose!

In this interview, we feature Suzanne James who is an SEO expert and a published author. She runs InspiredAuthor and an internet marketing company…

What type of location independent parent are you? (nomadic, entrepreneurial & nomadic, stay-at-home entrepreneur). Can you give us a brief overview of what you do & how this enables you to be location independent?

Entrepreneurial. I am project manager for two marketing companies, one web design firm, and my own internet marketing company. I work 100% from the internet in an office with four computers. I can work anywhere with access to the internet.

If you travel, please give us an overview of the benefits you feel that being location independent brings to you & your family?

I do not travel extensively, but I am mobile. My office and computer system are set up so that clients never know I am ‘out of the office’ – no matter how far I travel. I am able to stay home with my children, work hours that suit my family, and take care of the children when they are ill.

If you don’t travel, what advantages does being location independent bring to you and your family?

I found many advantages to being a partial ‘stay at home’ mom. The benefits are evident in my children’s socialization, education, and self esteem. I am able to let my children learn at their pace, review until they master a skill, and let them go on tangents. They can explore different subjects and new topics when they are experiencing their peak interest.

What about schooling? How do you do it on the road or overseas?

Homeschooling is a challenge at any time. The number one concern is whether your children are fully prepared. I found that I leaned more to literary studies and natural science over math and chemistry. The resources are not always available when you travel. It is easy to take a child to a museum in a local city – when everything is in English. When the local resources are in a second language there is a barrier that can be difficult to overcome. The ‘ideal’ that it is good to teach a child two languages is not realistic. My children learned best in one language.

How do you cope with working from home and having the kids around you?

There must be boundaries. Everyone home schools differently. I know many parents who teach in the morning and have their children help around the house in the afternoon. When I worked, my children were in school. Sports events were included when possible. I found it much easier to manage the children at home, while working, when they had two social activities. My daughter did best when she was in a social club. My son did best when taking lessons. Each child needs to be allowed to make their own choice.

What fears did you have about becoming location independent that turned out to be unfounded?

I was afraid that my children would fall behind. My son wanted to try out ‘real’ school. At 9 years old I enrolled him in the board of education’s ‘online school.’ I gave him the freedom to be ‘self taught’ and he passed Grade 9 geography with an 85%.

I found that my son was far less secure and self confident, and had fewer friends, after one year of high school. This was a direct contradiction to the argument that homeschooled children have social problems.

I fell into the trap of believing that I shouldn’t let my children watch children’s shows on television, have unstructured playtime. After about two years I relaxed. There was no intellectual difference, or performance levels, whether my children watched age appropriate television (violent cartoons were always off the list), whether they ‘hung out with friends’, or whether I confined them to a nurturing and intellectual environment.

I kept my children off the internet. They were in their teens before I allowed them on Facebook. My fears were unfounded. They socialized with other home-schooled children, made friends in foreign countries, and learned that homeschooling is not ‘alone’ or ‘unusual’. This was a lesson they would have benefited from in their early years. My son would go online with the daughter of a diplomat for 30 minutes before school every day. They talked about feeling lonely, their progress, and soon realized that they had more opportunities than other children. It was a positive experience.

Any that materialised? And if so, how did you overcome these challenges?

The biggest hindrance was other adults. Children take their opinions to heart. My son entered high school because he believed that ‘You cannot learn above grade 8 at home.’ I am sure the person was well meaning, but my son took their words to heart. When my son was eight years old he spent the summer ‘helping’ a local scientist take water samples and learning biology. He learned more that summer than in four years of high school science.

My biggest challenge was allowing my children to explore their individuality. It took a long time to reward behaviours that I did not personally value. I had to learn how to reward music and art with the same enthusiasm as I rewarded a science experiment, or reading classic literature.

Your top 3 tips for parents or soon-to-be parents wanting to be location independent?

1. Allow your children to be individuals. Do not limit your praise to behaviours that you value.
2. Do not be afraid to let your children pick their own friends.
3. Do not stick to one set of books, one course, or one system. Use a variety of tools.