I mean it might sound kind of cliche but
you gotta have patience I mean this is
not gonna happen overnight at all and
there's a lot of people who are like oh
you know can I just do it on the side
you know while I'm at work you know with
two kids and it's like no you need to
focus and you need to put everything you
have you just heard my friend ty he's
talking about making the leap from being
a corporate employee to a location
independent digital this is the first in
a series of digital Nomad interviews
what's going on this is Doug Huntington
this is the Doug show and I want to
think ty use a lot for joining me in
this episode we originally recorded this
for a YouTube interview so if you hear
any sort of references to this video or
anything like that that is the reason
why I encourage you to check out ty
ESA's blog over at together to wherever
dot-com I'll put a link in the show
notes and also put a link to her
Instagram which is fantastic I follow I
follow her there and there's always cool
stuff there's a lot of food on her
Instagram which I enjoy and a lot of
travel photos it
Tyus and i cover a lot of ground in this
interview and one of the things that she
talks about is moving to chiang mai
thailand which i've never been but I
hear it's pretty warm which makes me
smile right now because in Bozeman
Montana right now it's like negative 13
or something like that it's a little bit
of a cold snap I mean it gets cold here
sometimes but I'm looking out the window
at the snow that I shoveled over the
last couple days and I mean there's a
pile in my front yard that like goes up
to my bellybutton or maybe a little
higher could go up to my nipples I'm not
sure it's a very high in certain areas
and it's just cold I mean I have to put
boots on my dog and Georgie the border
collie she doesn't really like to wear
the boots in fact it's pretty hilarious
you put one boot on ER there's like
multiple straps I don't know how
comfortable they are you know dogs
usually don't wear shoes so I'm not sure
like the shape if it's like proper if
the toe box fits her toes
Perley or whatever but if you put like
the the leg up and then she acts like
she can't move and of course as soon as
I put all the boots on and we go outside
she's having a blast you know running
around playing everything's fine but
that first boot while were inside she's
just she is not into it so anyway
without further ado I'm gonna send it
over to the interview and thanks again
to tyese for joining me be sure to check
out her Instagram and her blog hey
what's up Doug Huntington here from this
site project and I'm sitting with my new
friend tyese how are you today I'm good
doing really well and this is part of
the digital Nomad location-independent
series and a lot of people have no clue
who you are ty you so can you give me a
little bit of an introduction of you
know what you're doing now what you used
to do and you know how how you're a
digital nomad slash location-independent
person
sure so going back about three years ago
almost exactly I was in the hotel
industry my degree is actually in
marketing but somehow I ended up just
working at hotels working my way up to
management and did that for about 12 to
15 years ish and then we decided to move
to Thailand and start our digital and
I'm a lifestyle first I didn't know
where that would take me but fast
forward to today I run a blog called
together in Thailand together to
wherever used to be called together in
Thailand changed it work on that and
other little tidbits of stuff here and
there online very cool very cool and to
sort of bring it sort of like full
circle a lot of people do know Rob
Atkinson a good friend of mine we've
been a business partners and various
things so you know Rob a little bit
right how do you know Rob I know Rob
he's my husband
how long three years now three cool so
if I remember the timeline right so
youmu
moved about three years ago to Thailand
you got married about three years ago so
tell me about like the conversations
like in your life with your family other
people where you were telling them hey
we're getting married and also we're
moving across the country and it sounds
like you quit your job so what was going
online a personal level there yeah it
was just kind of like doing it slowly
was the key you know I don't want to
drop everything on has to be at the same
time it's also a lot for yourself to
kind of process too so it was a lot of
just me and Rob talking it over talking
through everything that could you know
possibly go wrong or come up or whatever
things like that and of course our
parents were the first ones you know we
talked to and get advice from and
probably the first conversation was
getting married that was all exciting
and we wanted to have a small wedding
because we knew in the back of our minds
that we were gonna start this new life
and it was gonna take some financial
background and all that to take to get
it going so that was the first step once
everything as far as that was planned
out then came moving to Thailand and
discussing that with our parents and the
rest of our family and then working out
a plan to talk to our bosses and
basically give our notices for our job
so sure a lot of people like really hate
their jobs not everyone but a lot of
people really hate their job so were you
in a position where you really hated it
or you just needed a change or how did
you view your job actually no I I
enjoyed my job there was definitely as
with every job a lot of stresses and
being a hotel manager basically I dealt
with customer service and dealing with
people and that side of it was the fun
part but it was also the very very
stressful part no I really enjoyed and I
had plans to grow in my career and
become like regional manager and do
other sides of the hotel industry so it
was not bad at all it was just talking
through with Rob and realizing the
potential that this life could could
give us it was definitely worth
taking the risk and I think in the back
of my mind I always knew having had the
experience of moving to different cities
and stuff like that and being able to
find a job in the hotel industry I knew
that that industry was always looking
for people and that with my experience I
could always go back if it came to that
so gotcha and that I think I've talked
to a few people in this similar position
and it's very scary before you leave but
you can almost always go back to where
you were I mean it depends on the
industry of course but you could almost
always go back to where you were and at
the very least you have like rich life
experience where you tried something was
uncomfortable you probably met some cool
people so yeah I think if people can
take that away that's that's pretty good
now I'd like to add that I did have like
a really good relationship with my boss
I was able to talk to her openly it was
a little bit still nerve-wracking going
up to her and I remember the shock like
what what do you mean because when I
told her okay I'm gonna put in my notice
but I gave plenty of time and she
thought I think in the back of her mind
that I was going to another job another
hotel and when I said I'm moving to
Thailand it was just kind of like wait
what oh yeah we talked about it a little
bit and she was very excited for me very
interesting now how did you pick
Thailand we had gone to Thailand just on
a two-week vacation preview the previous
year yes and we really enjoyed it we la
loved the cost-effectiveness and
throughout this whole time that Rob was
actually starting to do what he was
doing as kind of a side thing from his
job he was also reading a lot of blogs
about people that had moved there of
course trying to inspire me because I
was the hesitant when it at first you
know and he was like look look at this
couple you know this is their blog this
is what they're doing this is what
they're saying and I would read and
watched a lot of YouTube videos
I'm visual I need to know what what I'm
getting into so that kind of helped ease
into it a little bit before we went
gotcha
I know rob was working on affiliate
marketing and by the way there's a whole
other interview with Rob and actually
several other videos that I have with
Rob so if you are interested in that
portion of it viewers you can watch
those I'll link to them below but when
you moved Rob was ramping stuff up and
you were unsure of what you were gonna
do right or or were you sure what you
were gonna do no not at all I just
figured okay I'm gonna support you in
this do whatever you need me to I'll
help you out because I know that you
know it's a lot of stuff that you have
to do initially so whatever the grunt
work is I'm willing to help you out in
that but I had no idea for myself what I
was going to do gotcha so from that
perspective like how hard was it to
shift from you know a corporate job in
hospitality where it's often quite busy
I mean I haven't worked in hospitality
in a while but there's a lot of churn
with employees oftentimes you have to
fill in shifts I'm sure especially as a
manager you have to fill in for your
whole team so going from like very
structured very busy to you can do
whatever you want you were kind of on
vacation you know permanent vacation so
what was that like
walk me through like what was going
through your head and there was that
initial excitement right when you get
there and setting up and you know this
whole new life and new place and
discovering things but to be honest I
think after the second week it just hit
me because I wasn't used to that long of
a time without having to get a phone
call you know can you come in or this
person didn't show up or this customer
is angry about this so it kind of gave
me a little bit of anxiety like am I
missing out on the world am I missing
out on what's happening in this I'm just
in this bubble and I don't know what's
going on what should I be doing
something so yeah it was kind of anxiety
and a little bit of depression because
it's like you're so removed from
everything that you know and everyone
that you know and
excitement from the beginning of
settling in and being in this new
environment kind of starts kind of
easing down so it was it was kind of
hard at first I bet in do you don't like
sort of rewinding like do you have a big
family like a family locally where you
like spend a lot of time with them
before you laughed and stuff
well I have my parents and my siblings
brother and sister here some uncles and
whatnot and we do tend to get together a
lot like we can different events so yeah
there was always something going on with
either family or friends so not being a
part of that it was in a weird as well
yeah that's tough especially you know
moving to a new city just in general is
you know you have to have a whole other
set of friends to try and like develop
relationships with and I imagine yeah I
can see how it's super exciting and then
you're like oh where's everyone that I
normally hang out with and then the the
time zone difference is probably a
little difficult to actually like you
can't call them in the middle of the
days what's the time zone difference
like 12 hours sometimes yeah yeah so
just about as tough as you can get there
I guess how did you cope with that like
early depression after a few weeks I
think just starting to learn stuff you
know okay fine we're not on vacation and
we've settled in now what are you doing
Rob you know show me the stuff it's like
just taking an interest in that reading
every blog post and watching every
YouTube about different affiliate types
of marketing that you do online and
learning it and once I started picking
it up I said okay well why don't I make
a site for myself and it was just kind
of a fun let me keep myself busy stop
thinking about you know being away from
friends and family kind of thing but I
actually got really interested in it and
followed through with it and I put my
foot first site up cool cool yeah I mean
I remember putting up my first site like
setting everything up big learning curve
everything's exciting so how did it go
for you and the first little stretch
there it was cool it was really cool to
see it just
be there I have something on the
internet I never had that before
then came like you know writing all the
content and of course you know the
budget is tight so it didn't have like
VA ease and people like outsourcing and
things like that so I was doing a lot of
the research became very knowledgeable
and in the niche that I had kind of
money yeah and I I'm a creative person
so I thrive on something like that
creating something that I could say look
I made this and being able to see it now
at first of course we all know it takes
some time for those keywords and for
Google and everything to kind of get
going so it's like okay let me just keep
working on it and see what happens and
it was after yeah a few months that like
started seeing some visitors starting a
few pennies here in their from Amazon
sales so it was exciting very cool very
cool now I want to shift gears a little
bit to I guess more of the logistics of
moving the logistics of even like doing
like that sort of travel so I haven't
done any of that I haven't been to
Southeast Asia and actually not at all
I've been to the Philippines but I
haven't been to Southeast Asia at all so
can you tell me about like any things
you have to deal with like I wonder
about visas and like how long you could
stay because you were moving for a
pretty long time so I don't even know
what to do yeah so of course you know
just the fact you you don't realize how
much stuff you have here and what you're
gonna do with all of it and you know
getting rid of it and downsizing and
figuring out where to store things
working all out all those logistics you
you have to start like at least six
months in advance
because it takes a long time but for us
it was like okay we don't know let's try
this for three months
we knew we could go on a tourist visa
and extend it and stay three months
actually what we ended up doing was
sending it to six months by leaving
coming back and coming in as tourists
again into Thailand on a tourist visa
that first time and then we have a cat
too
so it was like okay what do we do is our
cat and we knew that we could bring him
but we weren't even sure what was gonna
happen with us so we didn't want to go
through all that
have to move him back after a month or
something like that so fortunately our
my parents took care of him while we
were gone and yeah we just went in as
tourists initially cool and four to go
in on a tourist visa is it just like a
simple application that you have to fill
out or is there any sort of like long
period in which like you have to plan
ahead I guess we did have to plan ahead
but it's not a very long process
fortunately the embassy is in LA and
we're in Northern California so that was
a quick little trip weekend trip for us
to go to get that visa and it was just
easy easy application I think after a
couple of days we were able to go pick
it up and that was that okay cool
and then you said you would stay for
like 90 days and then you would need to
leave so when you left like do you have
to go back to the US or what what do you
have to do we actually used that that
time that opportunity to go visit
Cambodia and Vietnam so we did I think
it was total of three weeks we went to
different parts in Vietnam and Siem Reap
in Cambodia cool so you can just use it
as like a vacation within like a
vacation even though you I know it
wasn't yeah Asia it's very cheap to fly
around anyway so that was good was
within our budget
cool so and can you like do that
indefinitely just stay for 90 days
travel outside the country and come back
a lot of people do but I think you know
once the immigration officers start
seeing this pattern they could
potentially like you know catch on to
what you're doing and stop that you
don't really want to be is it gotcha
so how many times did you guys do that
then just curious just the one time just
you yeah gotcha
interesting interesting yeah and like I
said I just haven't done any I mean I
was asking the most basic questions so
you you just fill out an application you
can go over there for a little while so
that's cool and just I just remembered
we
we made a funny rookie mistake we didn't
realize the expiration on the visa and
our passport meant we had to like go out
of the country and come back within that
time yeah we did a border run to allow
thinking we can come back and stay
another three months or two months 60
days I think it was and when we tried to
come back through the border the
immigration officer said no this visa is
expired but fortunately we were still
able to get in on a 30-day regular
tourist visa but that kind of got us to
you know have to shift our schedule a
little bit because we only had 30 days
now and we had to get out interesting I
kind of when that happened actually I
remember Rob telling me about that
so were there any like cultural
surprises after you moved there no you
visited Chiang Mai for a few weeks the
previous year but like actually living
there what was it like we had only been
we've been to Thailand for a couple of
weeks but Chiang Mai was like three days
so it still felt like a place we hadn't
really been we had just done I think
elephants or whatever visit in Southeast
Asia just generally like service is the
biggest thing that I can think of being
different as far as coming from the
service industry you know working you
know it's all I'm having to answer to
people quickly and get things to them
and whatnot and then you know you go to
a restaurant in Thailand you're just
looking around nobody's greeting you
nobody's saying hey how many people
comes where do you want to sit you're
just kind of do your own thing then
eventually you figure out okay this is
just the style of how they do things
here and when you're ready to order you
call them to order and things aren't as
like let's go let's go you know what can
I do for you cuz it doesn't work the
same ways like in the US where they're
working for a tip so that kind of
incentive isn't there that was kind of a
culture shock and then while they do
speak pretty good English especially in
like kind of the touristy area that we
lived in and there's there's a lot of
foreigners and expats that lived there
some things were just like so difficult
I remember Rob wanted to order soda
water
and you know he's like soda water and it
was just not calculating like what you
do want water or do you want soda and he
was like soda water it took us like the
longest time to realize that they refer
to it as soda but then when you say soda
you have to say it with the Thai accent
so if you just say soda they're like huh
they say soda okay thing like that
sometimes could be kind of a struggle
yeah okay
now after some time you started your
travel blog right so can you tell me
tell me about that a little bit that was
actually just a fun way to tell our
family and friends were up to initially
because I've never done anything like
that and just started it and the writing
was terrible I mean I look at some of
the stuff and I was like what am I doing
here is more like a journal entry or
whatever yeah and but it was kind of
cool to look back at it and it was
called together in Thailand because it
was just what we were doing at the time
then we ended up moving to after we
realized we had to leave Thailand we
decided hey why not go spend a couple of
months in Bali and at that point I was
also helping Rob with his his sites but
I kind of started getting more serious
about my blog then we moved back to the
US and of course you know went to work
part time we were here we ended up
staying longer because Rob's brother was
getting married so we decided staying
and do that before we went back and kind
of let go of the whole blog thing and
kind of ease back into living back in
the US and that whole lifestyle again
and it wasn't until we moved back to
Thailand that I said okay now I really
need to take this seriously and get it
going and worked a lot on pumping out
the content changes the brand to be a
little bit more global and a little bit
more about just the lifestyle and living
as expats in different countries and
comparing them rather than travel and
adventure and things like that gotcha
gotcha so
the how long were you back in the US for
that stretch it was nine months nine
months okay and then you went back out
you went back to Thailand yeah okay and
then and that at that point that's where
you're like okay I'm gonna treat it more
seriously and take it from there so what
stuff I guess did you learn about
developing together to wherever right
it's that okay what did you learn
working on niche sites and affiliate
marketing stuff that you brought over to
you know a more brandable like travel
lifestyle type blog one of the biggest
things was realizing the the power of
links and so at that point we were being
a lot more social than when we had
initially moved to Thailand because our
budget was tight and we didn't want to
have friends and be committed to
spending a lot of time money you know
out so we were you know getting out
there socializing where I met a lot of
bloggers big bloggers that I had been
following travel blogs and got a lot of
connections through them being able to
write guest posts for them was a big
thing getting into Facebook groups also
getting suggestions I started to take a
course as well travel blog success and
getting a lot of information from there
so that was all happening at the same
time yeah gotcha
and then I guess where do you see the
blog going like what's sort of your goal
for because I don't I have an internet
marketing blog so I sell products and
stuff so what is your sort of vision
like where do you want that brand to go
sure like I said my once I rebrand it
sit together to wherever I really just
wanted to at one point be like for
digital nomads like us to be able to go
and see what it's like to live somewhere
for you know a month three months six
months two years whatever it is and if
they lived somewhere else being able to
compare it so for instance currently
we've lived in Bali in Thailand
I made a comparison vlog about those two
places so people could get information
through my site potentially on where
they want to go how they can set up what
it's gonna be like food-wise internet
wise and all that important stuff
interesting well actually that's a great
topic can you share maybe some tips on
like setting up like your first few
weeks on the ground and let's say you
know Chiangmai like how would you
approach it at home before you leave and
then as you get there if you could just
walk us through like high level you know
yeah sure one thing to note with
Thailand it's like not much you can do
to prepare ahead of time you just kind
of it's a lot easier once you're there
you can start emailing if you see
properties online apartments and whatnot
you can email property managers and
maybe make some appointments if you
wanted to that what we had done the
first time we went there but basically
you know thank goodness that places are
cheap to stay so you can just initially
just stay at a little hotel or even a
hostel or whatnot depending on your
style and just go explore sometimes you
can see signs and especially the expat
areas for apartment rentals and things
like that
of course the first thing is where am I
going to live what am I gonna eat an
internet and with Southeast Asia
especially Thailand you can find
internet like elite at every CAF way for
a price of some coffee you can sit there
and look online and start chatting with
you know whoever you need to set up
appointments and things like that
and for phones it's actually really easy
you just go into the malls and they have
little stalls of cell phones where they
sell cell phones and and SIM cards and
getting all that set up is super easy
and quick cool in like just as a
benchmark you said it's pretty cheap to
just stay at a hotel so let's say like
an average ish like Holiday Inn style
hotel where it's like you know not a
hostel a little bit better but not super
premium like what would that cost you a
night $20 $25 okay super reasonable like
around here that's probably you know
between 1882 like 120 bucks depending on
like what you're dealing with if you're
in a bigger city in the u.s. is probably
200 bucks a night and funny thing like
we initially like we had phones that
were a contract and whatnot so my
recommendation would be to have an
unlocked phone when you go because that
way you can throw in any SIM no worries
on that so we ended up buying these
cheap old Nokia phones just cuz we
wanted something to you know have to
talk to each other in case we got lost
somewhere but you know it was hard
getting around not having data to be
able to use Google Maps and thank you
yeah no kidding it's funny I was just
tell us a quick story about myself I was
camping with some friends and we were we
were completely off the grid we were
kind of like in a valley so no one got
cell phone service so we took hours to
like find each other because like we
gave directions to these people who were
driving in and then of course they got
lost a little bit and they couldn't get
in touch with us so we had to drive up
to where we got a signal which was a few
miles away and then call them and tell
them where we were at which of course
they couldn't find it again they like
drove past our campsite again speeding
you know speeding down the hill and they
couldn't see us
so anyway it's much different it's like
the Dark Ages if you don't have a cell
cell phone yeah totally and you know
right now they have their own version of
uber which is grabbed there which is
super easy because obviously you don't
have to actually talk to anybody but
back then in our time we had to try to
get the communicate to the tic-tac
driver where we want it to go and didn't
realize that they generally just know
like landmarks you know temples and
things like that they're not gonna be
able to take you to an address yeah how
did you deal with that so like if you
had to get to your apartment or whatever
you just had to tell them like go to
this big landmark and then impactions
from here like if there was a big
shopping center or a big cafe or a big
store or something
especially if you knew the temple so we
had you know paper masks we tried to
show them on the map but they were like
great most of the time with reading maps
so it was just kind of like trial and
Arun's I'm walking you been you know
sure sure
interesting so any any other tips for
like people like on the ground anything
else in Chiangmai specifically like
after they get there you know you just
got to be flexible and go with the flow
that's my biggest tip if you if you're
rigid or and have expectations you're
gonna have a hard time so just be ready
for some setbacks and being able to like
shift your mind a little bit when you
need to cool makes sense now contrasting
with with Bali I know there are sort of
location-independent people and in both
places like did you sort of connect
personally to one over the other or
anything like that I I mean not not like
as far as not working with other people
because again like we weren't really
doing a lot of socializing and things
like that but are you asking like about
how the lifestyle was in each country
compared to each other yeah or whatever
like if you liked one over the other for
any reason I mean I love the beaches
that was the nice part like Bali for
sure cuz Ben Chiang Mai you're up in the
mountains and you know people think
Thailand Oh always these white sand
beaches and blue waters but that's not
the case when you're up in the north so
being in Bali it gave us that life and
it was nice every day after we worked we
would go out and do a run on the beach
thought that was nice but the internet
not so good much better in Chiang Mai
interesting so was it like just slower
or just like not reliable slower yeah
interesting yeah I mean I'm in Bozeman
Montana and the Internet's fine here
right it's in the US like there's a
university here there's an Internet
backbone here but it it's it was only
this year that I was able to get fibre
to the house uploading YouTube videos
that's a lot of bandwidth like it was a
major issue up until a few months ago
because I
top-load HD would take like days but now
I could upload like a modern you know
person so that would be very tough in
Bali I guess like is there any option to
get fast internet it's just very
expensive or not available it's it just
wasn't really available especially in
the locations now I've heard that like
parts like Kangoo you're able to get
better workspaces as well that was
another thing like co-working space we
had to drive like 20 25 minutes on
motorbike to get to the one that we
could find there at the time and even
there the internet wasn't that great
interesting interesting
okay well shifting gears a bit from I
guess like the lifestyle portion I know
you also have like a pretty like hefty
Instagram following and I'm really bad
at social I actively say I don't like
Facebook and other stuff instagrams a
little better just because I haven't
been is inundated and distracted there's
a lot of puppies on there and stuff so I
watch a lot of puppy videos Instagram
but what tips actually can you just tell
me about like your Instagram following
and sort of like how you started that
out yeah it was like I didn't even
really I wasn't on Instagram before the
blog or anything like that but I figured
okay everybody who has a blog has an
Instagram so I should have one but it
turns out like now it all makes sense to
me because initially when I were I would
go on vacations I would come back print
tons of photos make photo albums
scrapbooks and things like that so of
course it's like that's my thing
how did I not know that and then I
started like obviously reading a lot of
about how to grow it and what to do and
it's it comes down to a lot of your time
and effort and interacting with people
that's the biggest thing of course you
want to have great contents but whenever
people comment you want to comment back
you want to be very personal on there I
mean people write things to me and I go
into great detail sometimes if they have
a question on what they should do and I
say okay let me know if you have any
other questions to follow up so you got
to get very personal that's that's huge
and then
I eventually got a better camera so I
was able to really you know showcase and
work on my photography and I had never
taken any photography class or anything
like that but on Instagram you do see
that things do have to be kind of
perfect you know that's the media that
it that it's it is what it is sure
so which is fine being creative person
that's the kind of stuff I like and I
always look and people will think like
Oh does that take away from your
experience out of place when you're
traveling to take you know videos and
photos and to me that's part of the part
of the experience for me that's actually
what enhances it because I feel like I'm
more present and paying attention more
because I'm looking for details and
things like that that I want to show and
convey to my Instagram followers great
so interesting that that makes sense
especially with the personal interaction
like you know you're dealing with
individuals who are looking on their
phones so it makes total sense to
interact personally with them when you
this is a dumb technical question so you
got a new camera so you you shoot the
you know the videos or the the photos
and then do you have can you upload like
on the Instagram website to your channel
or do you have to like put it on your
phone and then upload it from there
Instagram is is an app that works on
your phone you can see pictures on the
desktop and whatnot but you do have to
have photos and videos on your phone to
be able to upload them to your channel
yeah got it so you would have to take a
picture on your camera and then transfer
it to your phone and then upload it from
there yeah and nowadays like cameras you
know phones and whatnot they all have
Bluetooth connection it's easy to grab
the pictures you know cuddle around with
you know discs and things like that
got it yeah I actually I haven't done
that but I guess yeah my phone and
camera actually can talk to each other
but I just never tried it interesting
yeah this is good good tip like I said
dumb question I obviously don't do that
cool and as a reference point how many
Instagram followers you have at this
point I think I'm at thirty thousand
five hundred almost awesome that yeah
that sounds like a lot
I'm so good work yeah yeah very
impressive I have I mean I'm not trying
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