Ray Blakney on Sword Fighting, Bootstrapping 7-Figure Businesses, and Changing the Game with Podcast Hawk (Ep 148)

Learn how sleeping on a school floor shaped his approach to bootstrapping, remote teams, SEO, and business leadership. ============================ Get the Monday Minute my weekly email with 3 personal recs for travel, culture, and living beyond borders you can read in 60 seconds. ============================ ON THIS EPISODE Ray Blakney takes us on his journey being born in the Philippines, growing up mostly in Turkey, and then moving to the US for the end of high school and college. He reflects on feeling culturally out of place in the U.S., and more at home in other countries. Ray opens up about how he was on the traditional corporate path and abruptly chose to change his life course, join the Peace Corps, sell all his belongings and move to Chiapas, Mexico. He tells the story of how he met his wife in Mexico, got married, and started his first business with her—opening a school together with $2,000 in savings and sleeping on the floor of the school for the first 6 months. Ray then explains how and why he moved the business online and eventually scaled “Live Lingua” to 7-figures. He reflects on the multiple 6 and 7-figures businesses he has bootstrapped, and shares his tips on hiring and managing a fully-distributed team, building company culture in a remote business, executive leadership, and the most effective SEO tactics that are working today. Ray then shares his process for bootstrapping and scaling 6 and 7 figure businesses, how he launched and grew one of the top daily language learning podcasts, and explains his groundbreaking new business, “Podcast Hawk”. Finally, he shares how he optimizes his time and productivity, what his stress management techniques are, what Kendo means to him, and his path to becoming a semi-professional sword fighter. → Full show notes with direct links to everything discussed are available here. ============================ FIND YOUR NEXT EPISODE Explore The Maverick Show Starter Packs — some of my favorite conversations curated by theme so you can easily find the episodes that match your interests. ============================ FREE RESOURCES FOR YOU See my Top 10 Travel Apps See my Top 10 Books that Shaped the Way I Travel See my 7 Keys For Building A Remote Business (Even in a space that’s not traditionally virtual) Watch my Video Training on Stylish Minimalist Packing so you can join #TeamCarryOn See the Travel Gear I Use and Recommend See How I Produce The Maverick Show Podcast (The equipment, services & vendors I use) ============================ ENJOYING THE SHOW? Follow The Maverick Show on Instagram and DM Matt to continue the conversation Please leave a rating and review — it really helps the show and I read each one personally Support the show by buying me a coffee — espressos help me produce significantly better podcast episodes!