hey what's going on
welcome to the Doug show my name is Doug
Pennington in this episode I interviewed
Mackenzie fly she is a digital nomad and
world traveler and she happens to be my
VA as well so we we met through YouTube
and initially she helped me a lot with
just YouTube stuff thumbnails
descriptions and all the admin all the
details of YouTube but as we started
working together more and more she
started helping me with whatever I
needed help with like affiliate sites a
niche site project my podcast and so on
if this happens to be the first episode
of the Doug show that you're listening
to that's awesome thanks for checking it
out I encourage you to check out some of
the other digital Nomad interviews in
this series so there's like three or
four others at least and depending on
when you're listening to this there may
be several more so definitely check out
some of the other interviews that I've
done recently with digital nomads before
I send it to the interview I'm going to
tell you two things number one if you're
interested in learning about my process
for creating an affiliate site which
potentially can allow you to be a
digital Nomad and travel or at least
make a little money on the side you
should go to niche site project comm
click the green button enter your name
and email address and then I'll send you
an email with a link to all sorts of
goodies so I freely give out all the
templates that I use and that sort of
thing I'll put a link in the show notes
just in case you're driving or something
check out the show notes whenever you
get a chance and the second thing is
actually it's a little bit longer so
I'll just I'll put a pin in it and we'll
talk about it after the interview but my
wife and I are selling our town home by
owner and we kind of went back and forth
on whether to use a realtor or not and
maybe giving it a shot so I'm going to
talk about that a little bit after the
interview so if you ever thought about
you know trying to sell your place on
your own I'll tell you where we are
right now and the emotional
rollercoaster that we're going
so here's the interview and be sure to
check out McKenzie on YouTube and
Instagram I will put links in the show
notes give her a shout let her know you
that you heard about her from the duck
show hey what's up Doug Pennington here
from niche site project I'm with my
friend McKenzie how are you today I'm
doing great I'm enjoying the good
weather I could see the mountains it's
clear skies it's not snowing today no
it's pretty nice how is it where you're
at it's good it's cold but yes no snow
today which was nice so and actually
this is a good segue so where you at
right now so I'm in Berlin Germany right
now
you know Germany in the winter months is
very cold especially in Berlin it's very
far north so even if it's not snowing
you know
temperatures are probably about just
above freezing most most during the day
and this is again a good segue so you're
obviously not German you don't have a
German accent you're a digital nomad
this is part of the digital nomad
location-independent series and most
people that are watching right now
probably don't know who you are so
McKenzie can you give us a little intro
why are you in Berlin and how'd you get
there all that stuff yeah of course
so I'm also another youtuber I make
videos about being a digital Nomad
travel and also some like inspirational
content as well so basically how I got
um being like living in the u.s. the
living here in Germany now I was working
a typical nine-to-five job and I just
kind of got fed up with it so I was like
alright well I'm just gonna quit my job
and move to Hawaii so that's kind of
what I did and then I quit with no job
or anything I just decided to just go
take a leap and I had some savings saved
up so that was kind of like my buffer
but quit my job moved to Hawaii and then
went back home for a little bit and then
that's when I kind of found my teaching
so I teach English online and I do other
things as well so then went from home
which is Colorado and then came here to
Europe and I spent just the last month
and a half
traveling around and then came to Berlin
and just decided to kind of settle here
for a little bit so that's my that's my
story
Wow so and it's it's always a little
shocking when you know you don't have a
job in place you didn't really have a
plan so like I guess how do you deal
with that mentally that cuz that sort of
freaks me out
you know I don't have kids personally I
know a lot of people do you don't have
kids right no okay
so it may be easier for people without
kids to do that but even still I'm like
you didn't have a job you moved you had
a little savings like so tell me like
mentally what was that like yeah it was
really scary I remember telling myself
this is a really stupid idea like I just
I told myself that all the time like
McKenzie you're being so stupid right
now you were being so irresponsible but
I think I just always knew in the back
of my head that it was gonna work out
like I feel like I just kind of trusted
that I was gonna find the things that I
needed to to find in order to support
this lifestyle than I wanted and I was
willing to like work towards that so you
know I kind of put the word out there
that I wanted to find something remote
and then I ended up you know making
friends with people here on YouTube and
that's how I got into like teaching and
stuff so I think I just always knew in
the back of my brain that I was gonna
work out even if maybe you know the
front part of my brain was like this is
so irresponsible like you shouldn't be
doing this right now yeah so and tell me
more about the the teaching gig what's
it like how many hours do you have to
put in and I guess for people that may
be interested in that like line of work
or at least to pick up some freelance
hours what can they expect yeah so
basically so I made friends with
somebody on YouTube who was also an
English teacher online so I work for
this company it's called 5:1 talk and
they teach kids in China so I get to
teach kids who are like as young as 3
and then also adults as well but the
great thing about it is it's so flexible
so I can either work 30 hours a month or
I can work like a hundred hours a month
or you know even more than that like
it's it's all completely flexible and
whatever I want my schedule to be and
yeah and it's really fun
it's a teach little kids that's like
really fun and then also too you know
it's basically how much money you make
is how much work you want to put in so
if I'm if I'm late it really lazy a
month I I don't have to work that much
but if I really want to make a lot of
money and I'm like struggling then I can
teach as much as I possibly can and
actually make like not bad money so I
really like that about that as well you
know it just it just really depends how
much work you want to put in what like
experience level would a person need to
have to just start it so I know for this
company you need a bachelor's degree and
they also are looking for native
speakers as well or if you have if you
go got your a bachelor's degree from
like an English University but I think
they're really looking for native
speakers just because as a native
speaker it's very easy for us to just
teach English because we've been
learning English you know since we were
kids and stuff and so for me it's very
it's not very hard for me to to just
teach English so and then also accent to
in slang and things like that I think
that it sounds weird to say but like the
Chinese market like they really love to
have like native speakers teach their
kids so got it very cool and it's pretty
neat because a lot of my audience
they're into like the digital marketing
and niche websites and there's a lot of
like work you have to do before you can
get paid write it you could you could
work for four or six months before you
really see much money but what a service
type you know teaching industry it's
like it's a service right you do the
work you get paid right away so that is
a probably a really nice way to bridge
the gap to you know get into yeah
absolutely I think it's definitely a
means to an end at this point like I
definitely don't want to teach forever
and I think I do want to segue more into
the digital marketing stuff because that
was my background originally I was
working for a tourism company and you
know doing digital marketing for them
for a couple of years so just teaching
right now is just something that is like
my main income while I start building up
that base but once that base is there I
think I'm definitely not gonna teach
anymore it's it's a great segue you know
and I've been doing it for I think
almost six months now so maybe like five
months so and then you know this is when
I'm finally starting to see maybe more
of that client base building up so yeah
it's just a means to an end
quaint cool so you mentioned a couple
times that you met with youtubers who
hooked you up with different ideas and
you made some good friends like how long
have you been on YouTube tell me about
that journey yeah so I've been on
YouTube for about two years now which
sounds really crazy but yeah so I at the
first probably year I didn't feel like I
wasn't very committed to it I think it
was until about the last year I really
started committing a lot more time and a
lot more energy towards it and that's
when I really started to see kind of the
growth it's still growing right now but
I think once I like me made that mindset
switch to be like you know what like
maybe YouTube can actually be something
that brings a lot of opportunities for
me that's when I started to put more
energy into it and then it's funny once
I did that's when things started to kind
of take off as far as like finding these
other things as well so making friends
and building up those other sources of
income so that's really really cool
about YouTube there's so many
opportunities there even if it's not
just for like tons of subscribers just
meeting people and collaborating with
them is a great resource in itself so
right do you have any tips for people
like networking on YouTube or anything
like that yeah so I think the number one
thing that I would say is I think
there's like this saying that's like be
a fan to get fans so what I like to do
is if there's somebody that I really
feel like I would connect with very well
I would just watch their videos all the
time commenting not being like
stalkerish but just be leaving them a
nice guy leaving them a nice comment
being like I love your content you know
I love this and this about it and that's
how I've made a lot of my friends that
way just being really supportive and
very nice and never like trying to
promote myself because I feel like at
this point like YouTube is great but I'm
not just about that like I want to build
this community so yeah just like being
supportive of other people like you if
you have you lift each other up and I
think that's the most the best way to
become successful at something so look
at other people so very cool and I think
it's funny you mentioned the the
stalkerish thing like don't be stuck
there so just a tip for everyone don't
be stalkerish and basically like
anything you do but it's super easy you
know I'm a fan
of youtubers or podcasters and you spend
so much time watching their content you
really personally like you feel like you
know them but of course they have no
idea who you are so your tread lightly
as you like making friends with people
right yeah yeah well well okay yeah for
sure I mean I think there's like
definitely a large gap between like the
stalkers and like people who are just
like cool and they just like one of your
friends oh yeah I think just like being
like genuinely nice and like you know I
love when people are very active on my
channel and I love watching like other
people that I would love to like be
friends with and being active on their
channels and I really think that's like
the secret formula so just don't like
send I'm not sure if I'm like allowed to
say this but don't send like personal
Facebook messages like a ton of them
saying like how much like you like one
of marry me or something like that
that's a little bit too much but other
than that you're fine yeah the Facebook
message is it's just a bit much so yeah
all the social media stuff is a lot
shifting gears a little bit so you
mentioned that you you've traveled a
decent number of places I know that
because we've had a couple of
conversations already but actually will
do a quick call back here we tried to
record this like a couple times last
week and we had major tech issues today
it seems to be working okay but that's
the reason why I know that you have
traveled in a lot of places a huge
amount of time can you tell me the
places that you went to and when did you
start again so for this trip I started
in July so that's when I went to Hawaii
I was in Hawaii for two months and I did
go to the Big Island while I was there
but I was mainly on Oahu and I was in a
boulder colorado or Longmont Colorado
that's where my family lives and then I
originally when I came to Europe I was
in Sicily so I did like a whole road
trip around the island of Sicily and
then I went up to Rome and visited some
of my you tuber friends and it was there
for about 10 days and then I went up to
Munich to visit another youtuber friend
and I was there for about a week and
then yeah I'm hearing I've been in
Berlin for two weeks now
a little bit over two weeks so I'm kind
of settled now I think there
so much just traveling before so now it
feels nice to just you know get a lot of
work done and kind of be in one place so
right yeah and a few of the other
interviews that I've done it by the way
I could just throw in and say you
visited Zoey in Rome right yeah yeah I
did yeah so I've known Zoey for a quite
quite a while so you know she was gonna
be there and I was gonna be in Italy so
it just kind of made sense so ya know
that was that was really really nice to
be able to spend some time with her in
her favorite country so it opened uh so
the reason why I mentioned that is I
know Zoey also she was on the channel I
interviewed her so I'll put a link below
so people can get to it and I guess the
other thing to point out is so you're
sort of settled right now you were
moving around a lot which sounds super
fun but also stressful when you're
trying to work so how do you deal with I
guess traveling so much and then knowing
that you do have to put in some hours to
you know pay the bills and afford to
travel as well yeah so I think with
teaching it's a lot more stressful
because I need to have a really quiet
environment I need to have really good
Wi-Fi and I can't have any like
interruptions so cuz it's really
unprofessional when I'm teaching and my
Wi-Fi is really bad and it keeps
dropping the my classroom so it's a
little bit more difficult because I mean
like especially in Italy the Wi-Fi was
not that great it was just kind of a
struggle to always be looking for that
and being like in the right spot and
always having to figure that out but I
think it's just like making it a
priority so I would just have to kind of
understand that I needed to make some
sacrifices if I wanted to work and
that's kind of how yeah I've kind of had
to deal with it but then you know having
like clients and stuff is really nice
because then I can just go to a coffee
shop and kind of still be out and be in
the city and stuff but I can still get a
few hours and and you know do stuff
after that so yeah that's kind of always
you know you always have to make it a
priority even if you're traveling you
can't always go out every day like you
want to but it's it's a sacrifice worth
doing for sure intersecting so in you
know on the idea of the digital nomad
aspect versus location-independent
this is a question that I've been asking
so there's some distinction and I guess
do you draw a distinction between a
digital nomad and someone who has a
location-independent job and if so like
you know what are your thoughts about it
yeah I think there definitely is a
distinction I think location
independence when I think of location
independence I don't think necessarily
like traveling all the time maybe you
know you you do have like your
nine-to-five job and you're like living
in a different city that's kind of what
I think of that and then digital nomad
is like traveling it's like you know
backpacking with your laptop and you're
going from place to place and there
there are just like a little bit of
different lifestyles but I think there's
still really nice especially if you can
find like a city that maybe isn't in
your home country but you can still work
and live there that's also really nice
or if you want to travel and be out of
your backpack and just bring your laptop
with you and you know trying to work in
co-working spaces that's also really
nice too so it just kind of you know
depends on your the lifestyle that you
want to live I guess right and I guess I
mean you're almost doing like a blend
where you did a bunch of travel and then
like you got to settle down and like
yeah yeah a minute yeah for sure well I
think for me I I started to notice like
my back started hurting for my backpack
and I was getting like kind of
frustrated with like not having good
Wi-Fi and stuff and then also like not
making as many like friends as maybe I
wanted to so that's kind of why I
decided here in Berlin because Berlin is
such a cool City because there's so many
co-working spaces and entrepreneurs and
digital nomads and stuff and then also
Wi-Fi is excellent here they have coffee
shops and yeah I've met tons of digital
nomads here location independent people
so it's nice to be in a city like that
and just kind of relax and let my my
back heel for my backpack so when you
like rewind like six months ago when you
were just about to you know move out to
Hawaii who are you looking up to was
anyone an inspiration specifically where
you thought hey I wanna like walk in
their footsteps or anything like that
I think definitely my friend Zoe was a
big inspiration for me she was one to
really push me when I was really unhappy
in my job to kind of take the leap and
just be like you know it's just it's
gonna work out for you like no worries
so
definitely for her you know she's she's
been such an inspiration for me for
everything but yeah I mean I was
watching other youtubers like my another
friend that I have Marie her name is um
dreamin autumn on YouTube she's the one
that told me about teaching English she
was also a huge inspiration for me as
well and then also just like kind of
just knowing that that was the path that
I was going to eventually take as well
so yeah so like what was your degree in
I studied international relations okay
so like you got your degree and you're
like hey like I'm not sure what I want
to do and you ended up in like a digital
marketing type position yeah so I ended
up travelling after University so I did
like a six-month backpacking trip I went
to like China and India and then I came
here to Germany actually and that's why
I wanted to move to Germany eventually
because I loved it so much and after
that I really I just kind of knew like I
met a lot of freelancers and people that
were doing digital marketing and I also
had like a little travel blog so I knew
like I wanted to maybe segue into
YouTube videos and stuff like that and
then that's kind of when I was like okay
I need to start making steps to get
involved in this digital marketing area
and then I think also having like that
work experience like even though the
desk like wasn't fun I think it was
really nice working for like a company
or an association to kind of give me
that foundation of experience and then I
think that was when I felt comfortable
to be like okay I know I do have skills
that I can potentially market to get
clients before so so you've been
youtubing for a couple years you said
you haven't taken it seriously until
more recently can you tell me you sort
of like your channels growth and like I
guess when you hit something where you
know hey this is a great topic I'm going
to do more of it I'm interested in the
audience likes it I think digital no
madness right now is a huge trending
topic you know you're doing like an
interview series with it so it's a it's
a huge topic right now and I think once
I started to segue into that and be like
hey like especially when I was in Hawaii
like I started making videos of me being
in Hawaii and vlogs and stuff and then
showing like okay like I'm living in
Hawaii because I'm like an English
teacher and I work online and stuff and
then those started to really kind of
take off that was when I really kind of
saw saw the growth that was
and I think even right now especially me
coming to Europe and like meeting with
all of my youtuber friends that I most
of them I hadn't met in person before
that also really helps with growth
collaborating with them and stuff like
that and so it's just kind of been a
pill from here you know just a huge
spike so it's it's been really awesome
actually like I feel like gonna like a
different a different level being here
thank you well you've been growing a lot
as well
yeah well like you said it's just like
it's a lot of work to make the videos
and you know come up with ideas and then
well one thing that I've noticed and I'm
curious to get your take on it is people
want to hear about a topic and I feel
like maybe I've said everything about
that given topic whatever it may be
however there's still a lot more to be
said even if I'm just repeating myself
in a lot of ways just taking a different
perspective on it so it's not that I'm
bored of the topic it's just I thought
we already talked about that but do you
see do you see a similar thing on your
channel topics in style oh yeah
definitely I mean I think everybody kind
of takes something different from it and
so maybe that's why it like the
different perspectives kind of works
because maybe people resonate with one
perspective more than the other but yeah
sometimes like with teaching like
sometimes it's just like oh my gosh like
so many like questions and so many
different things like but I thought I
said that already but people still don't
understand like how it works so it's
it's just it's it's something that you
know I mean it can always providing a
fresh content and even if you know
you've already kind of repeated yourself
you just to be clear I'm sure you'll
agree with me again here but we love
answering the questions and doing the
videos yes of course
yes and then the other part that is you
know it's it's obvious once I step back
it's like any given video could be the
first time someone sees any of your
content and even if you have a hundred
and fifty three hundred and fifty other
videos they may have not seen any of
them and it'll be great if they go
through the archive but like any given
video could be the starting point so
yeah absolutely yeah no that's that's a
great point yeah you're
absolutely right and yeah you never know
you never know who it'll who will see it
and who maybe it'll change their life as
well so I like to think about it like
that is - so how do you come up with
like video ideas and your just your
process do you outline it do you just
talk just straight to the camera and
don't worry about it like just tell me
about the process so I mean I go through
my day and I kind of I like carry like a
notebook with me so like I have like my
notebook here that I'll write down ideas
I was doing it like on my computer on my
phone but I've I've lost sometimes my
ideas heard from technology so I like to
just write them down and yeah just
whenever I think of something like oh
you know I wonder how this works or how
or maybe oh how what is my process and
that's oh it'd be great to make a video
on that I'll just kind of think about it
like that and then yeah usually I'll
write out like a small outline just my
talking points but then other than that
no I just completely wing it yeah I
don't usually do it much research or
anything like that but how about you do
you do a lot of research or do you just
kind of talk so it's a blend right so
some of them like if it's just like on
screen type tutorials then I can I'll
still outline it just to make sure I
don't waste time trying to find stuff it
makes editing easier later and then
there are some videos some of my my best
videos I've scripted it out I actually
have like a teleprompter and I have like
they let's say it's an app on my iPad
which is not next to me I was about to
hold it up but it has like the glass set
up and it looks awesome it cleans up my
delivery and and for my course that I
have it's all done with the teleprompter
everything's super intentional with the
course for YouTube it's a little more
natural if people watching my videos you
realize it's a freaking mess sometimes
and you know there's a lot of poor
editing in there it's gotten better over
time but yeah a lot of times like these
days I'll have like a loose outline and
I'll just write like on a legal pad or
whatever and just have like a little
outline to get from and just make sure
I'm not going on too big of a tangent
yeah definitely yeah the outline really
helps with the editing because sometimes
I if I don't have much of an outline
then I'm just rambling on and on and
then when I go back to edit I'm saying
like and um and all these other things
way too much because I'm just trying to
sort through my thoughts but having like
an outline in front of you really really
helps with the anything it cuts down on
so much time so you do your own editing
then yeah yeah I do my own editing I
just use yeah I just use iMovie it's
free and really simple I like simple
when it's really complicated sometimes
it takes a long time to learn and I've
been using iMovie for a couple years so
I earn I know it pretty well so it's
just faster yeah I'm definitely a fan of
like just keeping things simple and I
used iMovie for a while until I I moved
over to do some of the ScreenFlow type
stuff and I use an app called ScreenFlow
I mean it's fine again once you get over
the learning curve then it can do what
we need to do most likely so yeah sure
sure I've been like looking into doing
or using premier because I love like
Adobe products but I think I'm still a
little bit scared of it is like kind of
a bigger step I guess in the editing
process I'd skip it I like if I wish you
get a gig where you're doing video
editing but I've used I think it was
like premier what is the typesetting app
that they have it's like what publishers
use right super powerful yeah almost
well for me it was like almost
impossible to use like I couldn't like
change the line spacing or the fine it
was a it was a total mess cuz I don't
know how to use it so I hire someone to
just like like format a book for me so
it was really tough because I don't use
Adobe stuff so I would say unless you
have to just so I'm still digging out on
the YouTube stuff just because I'm
interested in it what kind of camera do
you use
what's your gear look like just curious
about all that stuff yeah so I'm right
now I don't have it around me I erase I
would show it so I just have a Canon 70d
and I just use the stock lens to be
honest and then I also have like an
external mic it's just a road
actually I have it it just looks like
this so it's super great quality sound
and it's pretty easy to travel with I
mean it is like a little bit big and
then yeah I just have like a small
camera bag and some extra batteries and
and then I do travel with a tripod but
it can condense pretty small I just got
it like on Amazon I convinced is pretty
small so I can like my uh my back pretty
easily
gotcha cool and I it's funny I looked at
the 70d and decided to get a t7 I but
you've been doing this longer so you
probably got the 70d a little while back
right yeah yeah so I I got it yeah
probably like almost three two and a
half three years ago so I've had it for
a while yeah so it lasts pretty long I
mean it's been all over the world with
me so and it still hasn't been derp and
so that's awesome yeah it's super
heavy-duty definitely like a pro pro
version I know it's a little it's a
little heavy right totally
yeah well I'm definitely looking into
getting like a canon g7x for sure just
because of blogging with it I'm doing
more vlogging stuff now and I just it's
really heavy to carry around with me and
I also sometimes I feel like it makes me
kind of like a target I mean in Germany
it's okay but like when I was traveling
around like India and stuff I think I
really felt like a target when I would
bring it out so just having like a
smaller camera with me to just kind of
duck in my purse
I think would be smarter for me to blog
with gotcha let's shift gears a little
bit and talk about traveling were you
traveling alone in India yeah I was
traveling alone in India so that was a
really big concern of mine and I also I
got something stolen when I was in India
as well so I think I became extra
careful after that happens I tried to
dot like bring too much attention to
myself so sure do you have any tips for
like single females traveling to India
or maybe you know another similar place
where you would you would stand out as a
you know a Caucasian woman yeah
definitely I mean I think the number one
tip is just to respect the culture so
like in India it's very conservative so
you have to make sure that you dress
appropriately and that you act
appropriately like if you're traveling
with say a boyfriend make sure that
you're not doing too much PDA
make sure you know you're not wearing
like short shorts or anything that shows
like really legs that much cuz I don't
know in India it like it's it's okay to
like wear like a sari and show your
belly but as far as like like legs go
it's not necessarily deemed like modest
so yeah just respecting the culture
wherever you're at and kind of the
different ways that they they live their
life I think is a really really big one
and also just being aware like awareness
is such a huge thing with traveling so
just make sure like if somebody is like
standing really close to you like make
sure okay like this person is here and I
need to like watch my bag we need to
make sure you know I'm like ready to
like leave in case like something
happens
so I think just always being on guard
and aware probably the the number one
thing but honestly like I feel like
females it can travel anywhere it's just
it's just having that level of awareness
for sure cool yeah good advice I had a
friend of mine went to India and she
actually didn't have a great experience
I don't think she got sick right she
ended up getting sick and had some issue
like some health issues there which was
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