When you take the reins of your life and decide how you want to live it, the satisfaction you get is enormous from being consistent with what you are doing.
And I think that’s the best thing that can happen to you, being good with yourself, because it’s the only person you’re going to have to live with your whole life.
— Carlos Navarro
Carlos Navarro He is a boy from Catalonia who, at only 18 years old, decided that he did not want to be a slave to the system or have to work for anyone.
Carles is a photographer, entrepreneur and the creator of the blogs FotoDinero and Vive Distinto, and is a person who throughout his life has not only launched several successful businesses, but has also had incredible adventures in both Spain and Nicaragua, a country where he came as a volunteer and where he has spent many years.
As Carles has done and so many things have happened to him, there was a lot to talk about and our conversation ended up taking longer than necessary, so to make it more digestible I decided to divide it into two parts.
In the first part of the conversation (episode #26), Carles and I talked about his first jobs, his arrival in Nicaragua, his adventures in that country and his first businesses, and we touched on such interesting points as…
- Why Carles left the institute two months before graduating
- How Carles’ sense of responsibility has led him to put his life in danger on several occasions
- What was Carles’ experience as a street food vendor?
- What strategy did Carles follow to turn a tourist information website about Nicaragua into a profitable business?
- Or what was the promise Carles made to himself on his 32nd birthday?
In the second part (episode #27), Carles and I talked about a wide variety of topics, such as stock photography, financial freedom, the horror of living in a country at war or writing as a process of self-knowledge and reflection, and We cover topics as interesting as…
- What was the strategy that Carles followed to earn a passive salary every month with his photographs
- How Carles managed to cross a country at war to catch a flight that would bring him back to Spain
- What did Carles do to give his dog Ute the best summer of his life?
- What was the exercise that Carles used to design his current life?
- Or why after 5 years focused on achieving financial freedom, Carles no longer pursues that goal
Of all the guests I’ve interviewed so far, Carles is by far the one with the most spectacular stories, some of them straight out of a movie, so I think you’ll love this interview.
But hey, I prefer not to anticipate anything and let you discover it yourself, so without further ado, I’ll leave you with the great Carles Navarro.
listen in itunes | iVoox | Spotify
listen in itunes | iVoox | Spotify
Episode #26 Links
Where to find Carlos:
Mentioned in the episode:
Quick index of episode #26
0:37– Presentation of the guest
2:21 – Start of the interview
2:25 – How I met Carlos
03:50 – Experience you had living in a haunted house
2:05 p.m. – Why did you start working at the age of 14?
19:24 – What did your parents think of you working so young?
20:28 – How he combined studies and work
21:52 – Why did you decide to leave the institute two months before finishing it?
22:41 – How he set up an internet café at the age of 15
26:25 – Why he left his job as a computer technician in Barcelona
32:14 – Why have you never been worried about not having studies?
33:18 – What made you want to go to Bolivia to collaborate in an NGO project?
36:15 – Why he finally ended up going to Nicaragua and how he found that project
40:31 – What were the conditions of that project?
41:33 – What first impressions did you have of Palacagüina?
46:12 – What was it like working there in relation to Spain?
52:47 – How do you describe your overall experience in Palacagüina and with the NGO?
57:55 – How your Ute dog appears in your life
1:01:16 – How it came about managing a coffee farm in San Isidro de Matagalpa
1:04:59 – Give what you ordered there if you had no previous experience with coffee
1:16:07 – What was it like living in Nicaragua with your partner?
1:18:37 – The incident that made him leave the coffee farm
1:27:52 – How his sense of responsibility made him put his life in danger
1:35:39 – Where does this strong sense of responsibility come from?
1:38:38 – How he ended up setting up a martial arts gym in a haunted house in Palacagüina
1:42:40 – Why did you decide to return to Catalonia again?
1:47:58 – What happened to him on a flight between Miami and Madrid
2:00:40 – How you came up with the idea of starting a food truck business
2:10:15 – Why did you decide to live half the year in Spain and the other half in Nicaragua?
2:15:32 – How was the experience of building your own house in Nicaragua
2:20:54 – How the idea for the Nicaragua travel guide business came about
2:28:30 – How Travel Guide Nicaragua worked
2:31:49 – What strategy did you follow to get advertisers for the guide?
2:35:30 – Why the day he turned 32 he set out to achieve financial freedom in 5 years
2:41:23 – Why did you decide to sell Travel Guide Nicaragua despite how well it worked?
2:45:23 – What did you do to find a buyer for the guide?
2:47:01 – What were the conditions of the sale?
2:49:04 – How the postcard business came about
2:50:50 – Why finally only half of Travel Guide Nicaragua sold
Episode #27 Links
Where to find Carlos:
Mentioned in the episode:
Mentioned people:
Mentioned books:
Quick index of episode #27
0:50 – Presentation of the guest
2:27 – Start of the interview
2:27 – What is stock photography and how did Carles become interested in it?
7:05 – What was the initial strategy you followed with stock photos?
10:20 – What strategy do you recommend to start selling photos online?
12:19 p.m. – What is the best way to describe images to make them easier to find in a search
15:43 – How he improved his photographic technique thanks to stock photos
21:34 – What are the different photo licenses and their selling price
12:29 p.m. – How stable it is to be in the stock photography business
26:49 – What is FotoDinero and why did you create this project?
29:26 – What topics does your course on stock photography cover?
33:11 – Special discount for listeners of Una vida a tu medida for Carles’ stock photography course
34:00 – What is your Vive Distinto project and why did you launch it?
39:47 – How he managed to manage his blogs and businesses at the same time
44:58 – How he experienced the beginning of the civil war in Nicaragua
56:08 – How the war affected your businesses and projects
57:21 – What decision did you make to help your Travel Guide Nicaragua advertisers?
57:43 – What finally happened with the sale of Travel Guide Nicaragua
1:04:55 – How he managed to leave the country in the middle of the war
1:17:00 – The terrible news he receives as soon as he arrives in Spain
1:18:59 – What did you do for your Ute dog to have the best summer of his life?
1:27:24 – How did you deal with all the misfortunes that happened to you at that time?
1:30:52 – What is your book “The life I want” about?
1:34:26 What did you learn from writing the book?
1:39:54 – Why do you recommend writing as a process of reflection?
1:43:21 – How Carles does this process of reflection
1:46:42 – Where to find the book “The life I want”
1:47:06 – What is the FotoDinero Premium Stock Academy and how is it different from your stock photo course?
1:52:23 – Where to sign up for the FotoDinero Premium Stock Academy
1:53:24 – How are the FotoDinero and Vive Distinto podcasts working for you?
1:57:08 – What is the Tío Antonio social center with which Carles has collaborated for years?
2:14:41 – How do you feel now after the events you experienced in the last year?
2:18:00 – What is the difference between the Carles of now and the one of a few years ago
2:20:47 – How has your philosophy of helping people changed?
2:27:03 – What are your plans for the future?
2:29:41 – What is your course on How to make an online guide and your mentoring service?
2:33:20 – The 3 books that you think everyone should read
2:37:42 – A piece of advice for when life hits you hard
2:40:43 – Where to find Carlos
(2 ratings, mean: 4.5)
Leave a Reply