Summary: Honestly, we had other plans for this week’s show, but we got a bit sidetracked. Here’s how: We finally got around to doing our “About Us” video for the website! When we first started the show 6 months ago, we put in a placeholder that said something like “we’ll be doing a About Us video soon.” Well,“soon” apparently is relative!<br> <br> If you can’t see this video in your RSS reader or email, then click here.<br> <br> We had a “found” day this week as we were supposed to close on selling our land but the closing date fell through...now we’re scheduled for tomorrow. So, we figured, let’s do our About Us video! And as we worked through what we wanted to talk about, the whole back story of how we got to this point came flowing out.<br> <br> <br> <br> <br> Our Combined Topic: Beginning Our Simple Journey<br> Now, we’ve talked about some of this in some of the really early episodes of the show, but we thought it was time to cover the whole back story. We thought maybe some of you would find it interesting to know how we got here and maybe some of you would see your story as a lot like ours, in some ways.<br> Besides, as much fun as we have with the show, we want it to be more than just “The Tech Guy and Organizer Show.” That stuff is great and has its place, but there’s more to living a simple life in the modern world than that. And there’s more to us, too. So we figured, let’s tell our story.<br> The “Lead Up”<br> So, this is how it goes:<br> <br> <br> <br> We’re a retired military family<br> <br> <br> That included lots of moving, our schedules dictated to us by the mission, etc<br> <br> <br> That said, we wouldn't change our lives in the military for anything!<br> <br> <br> We both have experience in the corporate world<br> <br> <br> We were living the typical American consumer-driven lifestyle. You know....that typical “deferred retirement” lifestyle where you work until you’re 65+ then hopefully are still healthy enough to enjoy retirement. You work 5 days or more straight to pay for your 2 days off...dreading Mondays so much you get the Sundays night blues. Note: Learn more about "deferred retirement" and planning your lifestyle from Tim Ferris's fantastic book The 4 Hour Work Week<br> <br> <br> Started our lifestyle businesses: Vanessa is a Professional Organizer, Dan does business development for select clients. Still, we were on that deferred retirement track. But in the meantime, we subconsciously had been downsizing and simplifying our lives based on life events...like getting married...having another child....going to a single income household by choice so I could stay home with the baby...moving twice...etc.<br> <br> <br> Beginnings of Change:<br> But even though we were making some positive changes...<br> <br> <br> <br> We were still following the deferred retirement rules.<br> <br> <br> We had dreams for our big Dream Home<br> <br> <br> We even bought the perfect lot to build it on overlooking a state natural area! It was going to be big and beautiful!<br> <br> <br> And it was going to have all the latest stuff...we were going to do our part to help boost the down economy!<br> <br> <br> But in the backs of our minds the wheels were already turning.<br> <br> <br> It’s Out There!<br> And it all changed one day on a trip to Portland last year for a conference.<br> <br> <br> <br> As we were on final approach into PDX flying right over the river by the airport, I leaned over to Vanessa and said...."I'm not sure what we'll take back from the conference this year, but I know this... I really, really want to simplify our lives."<br> <br> <br> And there it was....verbalized...out in the open....and we were both on board!<br> <br> <br> From that point on we really started to question and evaluate our life to...
