How to Earn & live a Life on the Road. An Interview with @locationlost

If you're a travel-lover like us (dur - who isn't), then there's a high chance you are already following Brodie from @locationlost over on instagram where she shares her life on the road, living out of her **super stylin** van with her partner Nick & cute pooch Quinn. Based in Western Australia, Brodie & Nick share their incredible adventures, drool-worthy landscapes they get to experience in Aus and share honest conversations about a life lived on the road. It's not all cute shots (and cute outfits)!

We love Brodie's style and her approach to living life in the moment. We are stoked to see her often wearing head to toe Luna & Rose too! So grab a cuppa, take 10 and learn more about how, why, and what lead them to living out of a van.

Thanks for chatting Brodie! Let’s get to know you in 12 quick fire questions:

Sunset or sunrise?  Sunset 

Sweet or Savoury? Sweet 

Overalls or Matching Shirt/Shorts? Matching Shirt/Shorts 

One piece of jewellery for life. Necklace or Earrings? Necklace 

Breakfast or Dinner? Breakfast 

Summer or Winter? Summer 

Theme Park or Festival? Festival 

The last meal you ate? Mushroom Gnocchi 

The last gift you gave someone? Homemade dinner for a friend 

Favourite 90’s Jam?The whole era is my Jam so this is tough…Hypnotize - The Notorious B.I.G 

5 Words to describe your style:Bohemian, cool, relaxed, playful, fun 

Love it Brodie, Now into the nitty Gritty!

Brodie you currently live in a van (A very cute one by the way)… constantly on the move. So what does your 9-5  Monday-Friday look like?

Every day on the road looks a little different for us, the best part about living this van lifestyle is the freedom we have to choose what our days will look like. Mornings will usually start slow for us with some good coffee (we love having our morning brew on our van rooftop overlooking the ocean). If we have a shoot planned for a client we’ll tend to get up before the sun and work during that sunrise golden hour. If  we’re moving onto another destination we will try and get our driving done nice and early before it gets too hot. There’s always time made for emails and any content creation we have on our schedules. If we’re lucky Nick will get a surf in and it’s really important to me to move my body in some way each day and make time for an ocean frolick for Quinn our little pup, she’s turned into such a beach babe on this trip.. Afternoons will usually be exploring, sight seeing or figuring out where we will park up for the night. We tend to rise and sleep with the sun so a sunset dinner and some card or board games before bed is our ideal end to the day. 

Do you work while on the road and if so, what does that look like?

For the first 9 months of van life we had saved enough money to take a break from work and just enjoy the ride. Since deciding to continue this journey we’ve been lucky enough to create work for ourselves along the way. We mainly do photography for brands to use on their socials/websites and also do sponsored posts on our instagram for our favorite brands. Nick is an Electrician and I’m a Yoga Teacher so we’ve both used our skill sets along the way to top up our funds too. 

How did you come to start sharing your Style Travel adventures online through your instagram account @locationlost ? 

Honestly it happened really organically for us. Our instagram started as a way to keep in touch with family/friends and let them know where we were. We started getting approached by brands asking us if we would work with them and our following and collaboration opportunities grew from there. It’s been a really fun way to earn income on the road and we’re forever grateful to be able to turn our passion and hobby into ‘work’. 

Was it planned to set out and share your life on the road through online community? & Who thought of the idea? 

We started our instagram account just as we set off on our adventures as a way to share our journey with our friends and family but also as a photo album for ourselves to look back on the memories we were going to create. Our account has been public from day one in the hope that  we could  inspire others to hit the road, choose a different way of life and travel our backyard…in our wildest dreams we couldn't have imagined  the epic community that would get behind us and the opportunities we’ve had through this platform. 

I would love to hear more on how it all came together, did you just set up an IG account and start sharing photos? So many questions :) 

The short answer is YES. Nick has a passion for photography and I have a background in Marketing/Advertising so there was a skill set there collaboratively that has definitely helped with our success on the platform. I think the biggest key to growth on any social platform is adding value to people's lives and for us that’s sharing our bucket list places, hidden gems we stumble across and opening peoples minds to a different way of living life that's outside of societal norms. 

Do you & your partner have a plan for your van life? A set time frame around when you might stop somewhere (And possibly where that place might be?!)

We’ve recently stopped for a few months actually in the Margaret River Region of WA. We never thought we would intentionally stick around for a winter BUT we fell in love with the region and there is just so much natural beauty here that we haven't wanted to move on just yet. We’re nearly through winter now so when summer hits (in our opinion) this is the best place in Australia to be. Travel is a joint value of ours so we’ll always be traveling in some way shape or form I’d say whether it's in the van or more overseas trips as our options for that travel opens up again. 

What an awesome way to live simply & in connection with the Earth. Do you have a daily routine or is everyday different?

Every day on the road is different but some non negotiables for us are a slow morning coffee, moving our bodies in some way, big walks or beach runs for Quinn, grounding ourselves in nature, getting into a body of water (if it's not too cold) and ending the day with an epic sunset and healthy dinner. 

What are the biggest challenges of living a life on the Road?

It’s not always ocean views from the van and epic adventures. There are definitely ups and downs on the road like any lifestyle. Challenges are a part of life, they are what make us grateful for the good times but I’d say the biggest challenges are not having a solid routine and also finding alone time when you live with your husband and pup in a very tiny home on wheels (we’re lucky we all still love each other a lot). 

And what are the biggest highlights? (I can imagine there are a lot!)

Before we set off on our journey we asked ourselves the question, what makes us happy? For us it is traveling together, experiencing new places and feeling free to create our own schedule each day. The big bucket list places are always going to be highlights for us, but it’s the smaller moments on this journey and being able to spend quality time together as a family that ultimately bring us the most joy. 

Do you have any travel hacks on how to minimise waste on the road?

We try to minimise our footprint as much as we can, but of course no one's perfect. Here’s a few things we try and do religiously to help the planet: 

Ditch the plastic shopping bags, use reusable ones

Bring our own produce bags to the supermarket 

Invest in really good quality reusable water bottles 

Use bees wrap to keep food fresh 

No straws

Use eco friendly detergents, soaps, shampoos 

 

 

You have visited some incredible places (Always inspired by your beautiful photos!)… What has been the most amazing place you have visited to date & why?

It’s hard to choose one, I think we would both have to agree that it’s an equal tie between where we are right now Dunsborough/Yallingup/Margaret River Region and Esperance in WA. There’s just so much natural beauty in both of these areas, from epic beaches, ancient forests to stunning hikes, this coastline has blown us away. 

I can imagine comfort & practicality becomes essential. Do you have any go-to outfits that you live in on the road?

Outfits that I reach for on the road are generally light weight, earthy colors and easy to wear. My sage plant dyed linen set from Luna & Rose honestly is on the highest rotation in my wardrobe right now. Super comfy, can throw over a bikini for the beach or pop on some boots for a hike, the sage colour is so forgiving on those outdoor adventures. 

(Wild question but how do you guys do your washing!?)

At the moment we’re parked up on a property where we have access to a laundry. But when we’re on the move we will hunt down laundromats in our area and do our washing there. In summer it’s a lot easier because we’re in swimmers most of the time. 

Have absolutely loved seeing you wear our Linen pieces on your adventures, do you have a favourite style from Luna & Rose so far?

YES, like I said my matching sage set is on high rotation. But I also love the versatility of my sage overalls, they’re a piece that I’ve been wearing in winter with a knit but I know they’re going to be perfect with swimmers underneath when it heats up here. 

Did you save up a lot of money before you took off or are you working while on the road to pay for gas (and noodles!)?

We saved up about 40k before we left and estimated that would last us about a year.

What has been your biggest learning since living on the road? 

SLOW DOWN - we’ve learning the true meaning of wealth during our time on the road…which is TIME! Time to spend on our passions, our relationship, to enjoy a slow morning coffee, time to decompress and flow where life takes us. We know this season of our lives in one we’ll look back on in hindsight with so much gratitude so we try to remind ourselves everyday to feel that gratitude right now in every moment 

Speaking of travel, My partner & I are planning a 3-6 month trip around a section of Australia next year with our 1 year old. Any advice on where we should start / focus? I know Aus is incredibly large (and diverse) it’s hard to know where & what to start with!

It is a huge country and there certainly is so much ground to cover. My recommendation would depend on what months you were planning on traveling but for us if we could recommend a coastline to see it would be Western Australia. You could easily spend 6 months just traveling North to South along the coast  (Or Vice Versa) 

What is your go-to artists or playlist to listen to on the Road? (Feel free to share spotify links!)  

Oh my we have such a random selection of go-to playlists between us because our taste in music is so vastly different. We could be listening to anything from Dr Dre to Ben Harper at any one point in time so the playlist is ever changing.

 

Weird question, but we love food (eating it as well as talking about it)…..What’s your favourite snack, the one that breaks your heart when you find out its not in stock?

It’s not so much a snack but when we are in more regional areas and I can’t get my hands on Bonsoy it’s a sad day for me. It’s the best non dairy alternative  for frothing milk for my morning coffee, it’s all about the froth. 

Yum I want in! Which brings me to ask, what kind of meals do you cook while travelling around?

We have say 6-10 recipes that are our go to we rotate on the road a lot. I’m a vegetarian so most of our meals are vego. Mostly we’ll stick to curries and salads for dinners and smoothie bowls or wraps for lunches. 

Last but not least, Do you have any advice for people hoping to head off and live in a van for months on end? (I’m all ears here!)

Enjoy the ride and keep a loose grip on your plans! Some of the hidden gems we’ve stumbled across have been found when things didn’t go to plan, or when we went down a random dirt road that led to an epic experience.  A really practical piece of advice I would give too is download the WikiCamps app which shows you free camps, caravan parks, showers, where you can top up water etc. Be kind to people too, and be open to having conversations with people from different walks of life. Some of our best moments on the road have been with friends we met along the way, people we wouldn't have met otherwise, and we will treasure those friendships and moments forever. 

Thanks so much Brodie, as always, we love seeing you in Luna & Rose living your dream x