How to Travel Like a Rock Star

For two years, former Procter & Gamble Innovation Leader Dustin Garis lived the dream, traveling around the world from 2002-2004. The trip brought him to 33 countries on five continents – and, amazingly, he did it virtually for free. Here’s how.

Garis dreamed of connecting with people around the world and understanding their lives, and spent part of his time on the road “shadowing” people who invited him into their homes for days or weeks on end. “People actually invited me and hosted me and really let me live their life,” he says. “I did their chores, ate with them, picked up their kids with them, and went to work with them.” At first he found the people he was shadowing through friends’ connections, but it quickly took on a viral life of its own. “When I first got to China, I didn’t know anyone,” he recalls. “But I knew someone I met in Japan who knew someone in Beijing, and that person reached out to her network for me.” Indeed, it was easier than expected to make connections because, says Garis, “people became competitive…and advocated for me to visit their country/city next.”

What began as an impulse to learn about the world also became a fantastic budget travel strategy. “You eliminate the cost of housing, food, and transportation by connecting directly to individuals.” (If you’re sleeping on someone’s couch or in their guestroom, plus sharing meals and local transportation with them, you can save a lot of money.)

In addition to his time “shadowing,” Garis also developed innovative strategies to travel the world inexpensively yet “live like a billionaire.” He had started an online travel magazine (later sold) that, at its peak, drew 100,000 readers per month. He would approach hotels, restaurants, or tourism bureaus and offer to write reviews on his blog (or for their own outlets), and had a great deal of success. But that wasn’t his only technique. Here are some of the other strategies he used to fuel his – often luxurious – round-the-world adventure.

Embrace a ‘zero dollar mentality.’ It’s easy to drop wads of cash when you’re traveling. But Garis took what he calls a “zero dollar mentality.” He notes, “If I let the size of my bank account dictate how far I could go, I wouldn’t have made it out of the U.S. Instead, I decided to bypass money as an excuse.” His mission at all times? “To find a clever approach and provide enough value to get around money altogether.” When he was presented with a large carved wooden mask in South Africa, it would have cost a fortune to ship it home. As an alternative, Garis organized a competition between three different shipping companies to see which one could deliver a package the fastest from Africa to the U.S. without any breakage. The cargo? His stuff, including the souvenir mask.

Ask for everything. Most people are afraid to ask for things. Garis learned you have to try. When he needed a new laptop for his travels, he devised a plan: he’d get a sponsor to give him a computer as part of a “torture test for travelers.” It worked. “There was a nice woman [he made contact with at IBM], and it was a very easy process, actually. She liked the idea and she sent me a computer…You just need one person.”

Get someone else’s help. You can’t always access what you want directly. That’s when an intermediary can be extremely helpful. “I almost thought of it like a game of chess,” says Garis, “and how to think a few steps ahead.” While staying in St. Petersburg, there was a major cultural event going on with a high ticket price. Recalls Garis, “I thought, ‘Can I get someone else to ask them who has more sway than I do?’” Sure enough, the general manager of the hotel where he was staying could connect him with the tourist bureau, who could connect him with the event coordinator, because it’s “to the benefit of that person, who wants to get in with the tourist bureau…You create this map of relationships and degrees of leverage.”

Go to the top. Too many people think small, says Garis. “For some reason, [they] just feel like there’s a certain sphere of what’s reasonable in life and business and sales, and it’s usually completely false…What helped me was that I was na?ve, a young kid with a warped view of what’s reasonable.” That emboldened him to think beyond the budget hotels he could have normally afforded. “I’d usually go to the top,” he recalls. “I wouldn’t go to a Holiday Inn, I’d go to the Ritz Carlton [and ask for a free stay]. No one else goes to the Ritz Carlton, so it was an empty playing space.”

Show your value. Not everyone will immediately understand your value proposition – especially if they don’t speak English. So Garis learned you have to show it to them. When he was in Greece and wanted the complimentary use of a rental car, “I quickly on my laptop mocked up an advertisement of what it would look like after I was done driving his car. I put up photos, images of his logo, and showed how, by my documenting that experience, I can now be the collateral to help beat [his competition].” The case became clear: the car could sit there, unused, or become a powerful promotional tool. The proprietor said yes.

Based on his experiences on the road – including an encounter with a Russian scientist who counseled him that “Life is not the number of days you live, it’s the number of days you remember” – Garis is launching a social venture LifeProfit, centered on helping others create a memorable life, which he describes in a recent TEDx talk. “People aspire to live a memorable life,” says Garis, “and there’s this tragic reality that most of us don’t.” The answer – through thinking big, travel, or small daily acts – is to open up to experience and embrace your sense of adventure.

This post originally appeared on Forbes.com.

Dorie Clark is a marketing strategist who teaches at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She is the author of Reinventing You and Stand Out, and you can receive her free Stand Out Self-Assessment Workbook.