Author, Trainer, Speaker, Marketing Strategist, Paid Search Virtuoso, Training & Course Creation Specialist, Learning Management System Expert
Hey there. Glad you stopped by. I wear a lot of hats, so let me get you to the stuff you might be looking for…
I’m the author of Vagabond Empires: How to Start, Grow, and Run Your Location Independent Business and Travel the World (… Or Not.)
I teach freelance business skills and write a lot about digital nomads and how to escape the cubicle life over at Vagabond Empires.
I help authors, coaches, and entrepreneurs build online courses and marketing strategies at Athenia Creative.
I lead a virtual team of course creators at Athenia Training where we build enterprise-level corporate training solutions and learning management systems.
Marketing Agencies hire me as a seamless part of their team and I run strategy and paid search campaigns, mostly for luxury brands and travel companies, building funnels and integrating CRMs.
Startups can hire me as a fractional CMO through Angel.co – I’m open to all offers (including equity-only), and women-led projects are most interesting to me at the moment.
If you care about personal stuff: I’m a digital nomad splitting time between California, Texas, and the United Kingdom. I live on WhatsApp, Zoom, Slack and Skype. I laugh at time zones. I can be ethically bribed with coffee. I keep a go-bag packed for last minute trips and it’s a thing of wonder. My Spotify playlist is amazing. I’ve spoken all over the globe and on cruise ships and written a couple of books, so people seem to think I know some things. If you’ve got an interesting project, grab some time on my calendar. The first 30 minutes are free.
Freelancer. Digital Nomad. Independent.
Wanderer. Vagabond.
All variations of the same thing. Freedom.
The freedom to live and work wherever you want to. The freedom to design a career and life without the tether of a traditional office setting. The freedom to reject sitting in a cubicle until you die… probably of boredom. The freedom to embrace the global economy and to find customers that you want to do business with.
Building a Vagabond Empire doesn’t mean you’re sitting on a beach in Bali writing blog posts (But let’s face it, that sounds pretty good, right?) It also doesn’t mean you’re a starving artist, sacrificing stuff for experiences. In this book, you’ll see that you can be a hyper-successful freelancer making six figures (or more!) while you travel. Or, you might not want to travel at all, preferring to simply have the income a thriving business brings. You can still be a non-traveling vagabond building an empire. It’s your choice.
Vagabond Empire Builders Live Life on Their Own Terms
You can travel with your kids’ sports or dance teams. You can bake cupcakes for the fundraiser and make that doctors’ appointment. You can be fully present.
This book is meant for people that are dead broke, tired, burning the candle at both ends and don’t have a clue how to start, or what to change. It’s a roadmap showing you clearly what others have done that worked.
It’s designed as a step-by-step guide to building a location independent business in the best way possible – by bootstrapping it. It serves as a trusted reference you can read again and again as you need it. It’s your personal roadmap and guide before and after you launch.
And It doesn’t end with this book. The companion website is your expanded resource connecting you with your tribe – as well as gigs and tools you can use at any stage of your journey.
Speaking & Training
I started my career as a travel consultant and became the youngest Certified Travel Counselor in the history of the Travel Institute. I quickly moved from travel planning to the technology and training side of the industry. I launched my own consultancy in 1999 building websites and teaching people how to market, sell, and close leads from their website. Once social media launched, I broke it down for my clients and became a sought-after speaker and trainer, traveling the globe to share my knowledge. My training motto is, “If you don’t know it, it’s because I haven’t explained it well enough.”
If you’re looking for a humorous, irreverent and engaging speaker, you’ve found her. I break down the geek-speak and help my audience understand complex issues. More importantly, I make sure they have the necessary resources to be successful.
I’ve spoken to groups of up to 1500 and can adapt my subjects to your audience. My favorite topics are centered around WordPress, Facebook Ads, Digital Marketing Basics, Building a Small Business Plan, How to Grow Your Freelance Business, and How to Build a Sales Funnel that Actually Sells. I have a portfolio of pre-developed talks, but can customize for your event.
My Personal Tech Stack
- Web: WordPress. Joomla, Drupal, HTML, CSS
- WordPress Builders: Divi, Elementor, Gutenberg
- E-Commerce: WooCommerce, Volusion, Shopify
- LMS: Cornerstone, LearnDash, Moodle, Litmos, Blackboard, Teachable, Coursera, NetDimensions
- Course Creators: Articulate, Storyline, RISE, Adobe Captivate, Camtasia, Adobe Audience
- CRM: Salesforce, Hubspot, Cloze, Batchbook, Zoho, SugarCRM, Infusionsoft, Highrise, Sharpspring, Oracle
- Project Management: Trello, Basecamp, Airtable, Smartsheet, JIRA, MS Project, Podio, Asana
- Server: Linux/Apache/MySQL/PHP (LAMP)
- PPC: Facebook Business Manager, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Bing
- Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics
- Funnels: ClickFunnels, Leadpages, Hubspot, Infusionsoft
- Email Automation: Mailchimp , Convertkit, Drip, Constant Contact, Responsys, Eloqua
- Social Automation: Hootsuite, Buffer, Sprout
- One Ring to Rule Them All: Zapier
Chelle Honiker is the founder of Athenia Creative and Athenia Training – Brilliant Course Creation and E-Learning for Companies, Creators, Authors, and Entrepreneurs
She teaches freelancers how to run their business at Vagabond Empires
LISTEN TO MY PODCAST: