hey what's up Huntington here from niche
site project in this video I talked to
rob Atkinson who's a location
independent niche site entrepreneur and
we go deep into some topics around the
challenges of being a location
independent being a digital entrepreneur
a digital nomad in some cases so if this
is the first time on the channel I talk
about Amazon affiliate niche sites
internet marketing project management
productivity so if you're interested in
those topics have a look around I
encourage you to subscribe to the
channel
Rob lets us know what a typical work
week was like when he was living in
Shanghai which he did for pushing a year
so he was in Chiangmai for a while Rob
you have for getting work done in sort
of his favorite he talks about the two
co-working spaces in Chiang Mai that he
checked out and the pros and cons of
them as well in sidebar personally I was
a little surprised about how expensive
it was to rent a co-working space in
Chiang Mai versus where I live in
Bozeman Montana there wasn't as big of a
price differential as I expected for
Chiang Mai Rob lets us know about his
number one travel tool that he needs to
bring with him to work I wasn't familiar
with it but I have a similar tool and it
really helps for ergonomics especially
when you're working on a laptop for the
second half or at least part of the
interview Rob asked me some questions so
I've done some sort of digital Nomad
location-independent traveling my wife
and I for a while we actually traveled
within the US so we could bring our dog
with us and we drove everywhere and then
we stayed in the US so we went to towns
like Denver we went to Austin we spent
some time in Fort Wayne Indiana to visit
family in a few other places as well we
like the slow travel and just we would
actually just rent a house and sort of
live like locals for about a month or so
sometimes longer eventually we actually
visited this Montana area and whitefish
at Bozeman and then we
you never left so we haven't been
traveling as much recently but I talk
about my experiences and sort of hi how
I approached location-independent travel
so let's go ahead and get to the
interview hey what's up Huntington here
from digisight project and I'm with my
good buddy Rob here how you doing today
good glad to be here
awesome now this is part of the series
about location independent you know
entrepreneurs digital nomads if you like
that term and for some people this may
be the first time they have heard of you
Rob so can you just give like a quick
intro about what you do what you're into
and how you ended up there yeah so kind
of started like most people graduated
from college got you know a pretty
standard corporate job was kind of going
in the accounting direction and then
sort of around 2013 kind of asked myself
you know what else is out there
learned about this thing called
affiliate marketing search engine
optimization kind of tinkered around
with some sites finally had a site
making a few thousand dollars per month
thought okay let me just quit my day job
I hate it my wife and I moved to chiang
mai thailand you kind of doubled down on
the affiliate SEO stuff just growing the
business fast-forward three years later
i've been doing that every day for the
last three years and business has been
growing and things are great so that's
why it's on here very cool very cool in
when you I guess like I said this is
about the challenges of you know working
as a location independent entrepreneur
digital nomad so we're kind of like
narrowing in on to be honest the part
that nobody talks about right so we
often see like the Instagram feed with
people and beaches trying to work with
your laptop which doesn't work well by
the way no you try that I don't know you
don't want to get your laptop near sand
at all yeah it's like a it's a great
idea
but yeah you don't want to try that it's
just not it's just not gonna work but
the point is there's a lot of challenges
in doing it I mean just working for
yourself is a pretty hard thing to do so
I guess can you tell me let's sort of
like fast-forward after you like
musician to chiang mai and you were sort
of comfortable i know there's always
some churn when you get to a new place
but once things stabilized what was your
sort of like work week like how did how
did you structure that so just to
clarify stabilized in the sense you know
we've got an apartment locked up we
figured out how to get internet and we
know all those basic newcomer things yep
cool so for me working i've tried
everything
so the first thing you know to keep cost
low at the time would be to just work
from the apartment Wi-Fi is great out
there so that's pretty easy to do you
just open up your laptop you work from
home for me that doesn't usually I don't
do well with that just because I get
kind of too comfortable at home you know
the couch is right there other things so
it's just it's not good for me so then
there's coffee shops and depending on
where you go travel I mean there's
coffee shops everywhere Chiang Mai is
loaded with them so as long as you find
one now here's some other challenges you
got to make sure that you know it's got
good seats you can feel comfortable
about staying there for a few hours
depending on how many drinks you need to
buy stuff like that if you're trying to
be productive you need a week where you
kind of test out the coffee shop scene
pick the ones you like and go to those
ones but even that you know maybe the
seats are taken so there's always an
inherent risk to that and if you go to a
new coffee shop and you're really trying
to get something done you've never been
there and you you can't get on the Wi-Fi
or something stupid happens they can
really like kind of transform your day
to you basically get nothing done spiral
out of control yeah I've done that I've
had many many many of those days but the
benefits of being in the coffee shop at
least for me being around people working
you can get on really intense bursts and
get some work done so I do like that if
you have the budget it's a little bit
more expensive but co-working spaces are
a great way to is it use the third
option I would say for being location
independent cool it's like for the
co-working space that you are at can you
tell me how much it cost and
sort of like some of the details you
have a private office was it like just
the big open tables or how was it set up
so I've done I've done both in Chiangmai
so there's this main place called pun
space and there's one kind of near that
the area where all the digital nomads or
a lot of them are living but the problem
with this place is really small so if
you're an early riser it's great you can
get your own seat I tried an office
there once it was the seat was weird and
just didn't I never got comfortable
there and I only did it for a month and
just didn't like it now they have
another one in a different part of town
it's about a 10 or 15 minute bike ride
away but that one's huge and awesome so
if they could just move that one to the
other part of town I would go there
every time but it's just this open space
you just you go in and you get your pass
and you sit down now for pricing it's
it's about a hundred US dollars a month
okay interesting and so there's a place
I'm in Bozeman Montana and there's a
co-working space that opened up recently
like right on the the main area downtown
and it I think it's like either 200 or
250 dollars a month for probably roughly
the same which I'm like yeah I think a
hundred bucks a month I thought it was
gonna be a lot cheaper but I mean it's a
good value but I thought those mile
intensive like I thought it's gonna be
the bigger discrepancy the interesting
thing about Thailand and their prices is
that you know for food and service type
things it's really low but anytime it's
like something sort of specialty that
maybe the Western world does better like
gyms or co-working spaces you don't see
how much of a savings interesting so how
much is a gym like for a month oh man we
went to like maybe the second or third
best one in town not even the best one
and it was like 30 or 40 US dollars a
month I paid five bucks yeah see like in
the u.s. you can get it cheaper for way
better gym so I think the demand the
Thai people aren't really like Fitness
is just becoming a thing right so
interesting well and I was gonna say
like one of the reasons
at the gym that I'm at which I mean it's
a cheaper like anytime type fitness so
you can go in yep like 24 hours a day
but the Wi-Fi is like fantastic so
technically I could like bring my
laptops in the little sort of lounge
area and work there and it's a pretty
fast connection you know like it works
fine so yeah our place closed at 10:00
p.m. yeah so interesting very
interesting okay so to sort of recap you
were like you know you could work from
home in your apartment you get a little
distracted personally some people do
better with that I was used to working
my corporate gig at home in my home
office or whatever and I so I sort of
like develop the skills out of necessity
so I'm actually okay I'm obviously my
guest bedroom here like this I'm home
today what do you say I'm home today
yeah today and so coffee shops those are
and I occasionally maybe like once every
week or two I'll go work in the morning
at the coffee shop just to get out of
the house once close enough to walk to
so I'll go over there very similar and
then it sounds like the majority of the
good work that you got done was probably
at the co-working space right for sure I
mean all of them if I could just I got a
three hour chunk and no distractions
that's all I need and well to that point
like is that the main thing like if as
long as you could limit your
distractions and work on the task at
hand is that like sort of your secret to
productivity secret yeah I mean yeah I
mean I can't have if I really want to
get work done I can't have Skype or
slack open my cell phone's got to be
away from me my wife has to be away from
me like I just have to go in this world
where like nothing else exists and
probably play some brain music or
whatever and just yeah just try to like
really intense stints where when I get
out of that I'm like whoa it got so much
done and probably right it's in a
shorter period of time than you thought
you needed yeah yeah very interesting
for
interesting okay so let's let's turn the
table so I've done a little travel
although not internationally when I'm
working but yeah you you can go ahead
and start asking me stuff about my
troubles yeah so you from what I know
you've done you kind of had a corporate
job that allowed you to travel and one
of the main places you were at was
Austin right yep that's right so my wife
and I were lucky enough to have like
essentially remote positions it was very
rare when we had to be in the office so
we realized that we could do sort of
slow travel and go to a city and see it
so you know just to rewind a little bit
I had a corporate job doing project
management for a software company and I
was also doing I was learning about
affiliate marketing and for a couple
years I was doing you know both at the
same time and sort of learning my skills
and in a lot of ways sort of combining
the project management ideas with the
affiliate marketing so sort of like we
alluded to in some other videos Rob like
to put processes around stuff where
there's no processes it's pretty
powerful right I'm not a greatest
project manager but like no one's doing
project management for affiliate sites
really exactly so with with Austin how
long were you guys there and did you did
you feel like you could get like a home
base and how did that affect your work
routine right so we were very lucky we
sort of did the opposite of what you're
talking about so we had two good jobs
and I had a side hustle thing that I was
doing we just spent money right so we
rented it it was like if you're familiar
with Austin they're sort of like
Congress Street it's like one of the
main strips and we were a couple blocks
away so we rented a small house at the
time we had a dog who's passed away
Brody but we like drove out from Atlanta
to Austin and hung out in this house
that allowed you know us to bring our
dog in there so that was cool and as far
as like you know we had a good I mean it
was like a two-bedroom
one bath so there was like plenty of
room so I would set up my office much
like it is here so I had a space to work
I rarely worked at a coffee shop just
because like I said I was used to
working from home anyway so I would
often wake up like very early this is a
period where I was waking up at like
4:00 a.m. to get sort of my best hours
before I went to my day job so yeah I
could at least work on my own stuff
during my best hours so I'd wake up
early pound a bunch of coffee a lot of
corporates work that I was doing was a
lot of it was I didn't have to be
creative it was a lot of loot actually I
think at the time I had 15 people on my
team I would have one-on-one meetings
with each person every week you know as
a good manager I would have meetings
with my management and I would have a
few presentations to handle each week so
it was kind of like a pretty regular
routine that was you know just as easy
for me to do in Austin is anywhere else
the cool thing that we did I sort of
hoarded my vacation days so I took every
single Friday off over there so I work
in four day weeks and we would you know
eat a lot of brisket and you know
sausage from all the barbecue joints and
Austin which was it was amazing man
it was very quick we still want to like
that's still on our list to go try out
and Austin that is yeah we might we
might be there sometime this year just
to kind of feel it out see what it's
like you never know maybe lived there
but one thing you mentioned that kind of
resonates with me has to do with your
waking up and using your best hours
completely agree so like I have that was
that two or three hour window I try to
do if it's the first thing I do in the
morning that's like the ultimate
productivity day it is I've been testing
this out I'm not I'm not - it is great
at it as I should but to just like turn
my phone off like completely in the
evening like say when I go to bed let's
say it like 9:00 o'clock right turn it
off and yeah if I don't turn it back on
until
after I finished like the thing that I'm
supposed to be working on like that's a
whole set of distractions like no
notifications couldn't go off and you
have to be disciplined on your on your
email and stuff there's a lot of
distractions coming it patch it that way
too
yeah yeah I mean it's really a huge
difference if you could get that block
like your best time so you're in the
morning to or I'm super sporadic but
when I can get pumped up and get up in
the morning it works out really well I
also like all day every day my I never
have my phone on it's always on silent
Oh interesting the only time the only
time is when I know my wife and I are
gonna be separated and go different ways
I will then turn it on she's like the
only person that can really call me and
it even sometimes backfires because I'll
just have it off and she'll need to call
me that's like one side yeah yeah that
is tough I need to probably do a little
bit more of that funny thing my wife and
I I think on our phone plan we have like
three gigs of data right but I was
traveling back in Georgia and Atlanta I
was looking up a lot of directions and I
was just like using my phone I'm on LTE
using up data and funny thing is like we
all know like we're at 90% of like the
usage right so we don't want to go over
and pay the $15 right we're frugal
people so we're like oh we don't want to
go over so we've turned off data so
we're only using Wi-Fi and it's kind of
nice because when you're out like
walking or whatever like nobody nobody
can bother you it's like only phone
calls it's like just the phone then I
love it my friends hate it I don't I
they text me and I don't get back
through for like six hours yeah yeah but
I mean that's the cost of productivity
it's like it's usually pretty simple
it's just like do it do the work yeah
yeah so cool and I'm trying to think if
there's any other sort of like you know
from my perspective working like I said
you know for me I develop those skills
so it really wasn't too bad to like be
somewhere else and just like work a lot
I think really the hardest part was
balancing like the side hustle with like
the full-time job because you know I had
I was like
in a management area so I couldn't just
like phone it there was things that I
actually had to do and it was sort of in
a time where I was like working and
getting promoted and actually if I look
I'm trying to remember when I got
promoted I don't remember but you know I
actually was working like on my side
business like really hard and working on
getting promoted and like everything
sort of worked out at the same time
which is crazy was probably one of the
most productive periods I had in that in
that period early is professionally with
the corporate position so nice sounds
like you went kind of all in there for a
while
yeah it was kind of crazy I mean I can't
do the 4:00 a.m. thing anymore I really
I mean I did it when I had to but like
getting the rest super important you
know if I can get a little extra sleep
go to bed earlier that sort of thing
really makes a big difference so awesome
so any other I guess ideas that you have
about like the challenges or things that
people don't talk about when you're
working as allocated location
independent entrepreneur or anything
like that yeah I think a lot of people
at least coming from the corporate side
of things are comfortable kind of
working with a you know computer that's
like raised above like not a laptop I
mean most people now kind of go to cafes
and bring their laptop but there one
thing that's not talked about is if you
work on a laptop you're going to get
neck pain so I'm not affiliated with
this company at all but the roost stand
for your laptop is like literally
something I cannot travel without I use
it every day when I go to cafes I use it
and it's hard to explain but it's
basically just like this thing that
holds your laptop up you need a wireless
keyboard or connected keyboard a mouse
and you're just looking at eye level and
neck pain gone gotcha so 100% agree in
my consulting job so right out of school
I did management consulting and worked
for Accenture so we were like traveling
and I was working it on a laptop like
that and I thought
I mean I had pain often and I thought I
slept on it wrong you know that's just
what people say like I think I slept on
it wrong but it was like being hunched
over on a laptop for hours like often in
a like in a warehouse not a proper
office at all so terrible
ergonomics but I don't use a ruse to
have a different setup but literally
that's what you describe like the camera
the screen is like right in front of me
and my neck is great I don't have neck
pain anymore and it used to be yeah
terrible terrible yeah you can do this
set up depending on if your remote or
like depends how remote you are if
you're staying in the u.s. it's pretty
easy to go to a convenience or some
store and get a nice set up but when
you're traveling around Southeast Asia
you need your little small roost yeah
yeah I'll look it up I'll put a link in
this video so very good tip and yeah
thanks Rob really appreciate it and I
encourage people to check out some of
the other videos in the series Rob and I
have done a ton of videos together over
time he's featured on the niche site
project blog as well I'll put a couple
links below so thanks Rob really
appreciate it thanks for having me Doug
okay I want to thank Rob for joining us
in the interview today super interesting
and there's a lot of you know sort of
aspects that a lot of people don't
really think about you know before I
started any sort of location-independent
work it's a very romantic idea I mean we
actually see sort of like Instagram
photos out there we read like the 4-hour
workweek or people's blogs and very
beautiful pictures is painted but the
reality is you do have to get work done
and it can be challenging sometimes so
links below for checking out Rob's
travel blog that he has with his wife
and again if you are new to the channel
check out some of the other videos if
you like what you see please do
subscribe thanks
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