hey what's up Huntington here from niche
site project in this interview I talked
to Ty East who is a digital Nomad
location independent entrepreneur and it
turns out she knows a person who's been
on this channel a few times
Rob Atkinson so we'll talk about that ty
East is very interesting because she
quit her corporate job of sended like
like 10 plus years moved to Chiangmai
and sort of figure things out along the
way
so in this interview we go pretty deep
on the the details of moving abroad the
details of like working in Chiangmai
some of the tips that you may need if
you're thinking of doing a similar thing
and you know packing up your stuff
moving and you know having the deal with
visas some of the logistics out there
and yeah ty u s-- is super interesting
so let's get to the interview right now
hey what's up Doug Huntington here from
this site project and I'm sitting with
my new friend ty East how are you today
hey how's it going 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 and 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 it 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
sort of bring it sort of like full
circle a lot of people do know
Rob Atkinson good friend of mine we've
been 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 you moved about three years ago
to Tywin 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 on on 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
everybody 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 talk 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 my mind that we were gonna start
this new life and it was gonna take some
financial background and all that to
take it 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
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 realising 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't 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 could
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 previous 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 the kind of a side thing from
his job he was also reading a lot of
blogs about people that had moved there
a
trying to inspire me because I was a
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 out 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 and
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
awhile 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
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 the
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
last in 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 weekend
different events so yeah there's 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 something 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 myself for
side up cool cool 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
we didn't have like v's 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 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 start
seeing a few pennies here in there 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 been to the Philippines but I
haven't been to Southeast Asia and also
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 right 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 two
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
and but we weren't even sure what was
gonna happen with us so we didn't want
to go through all that and 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 we can 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 do you have to do
no 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 I know it wasn't cool 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
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 I'm just I just remembered we
actually 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 try 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 come
where do you want to sit you 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
because it doesn't work the same ways
like in the u.s. where they're working
for a tip so that kind of incentive
isn't there that was kind of a culture
shock
then while they do speak pretty good
English especially in like kind of the
touristy area that we lived in 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 wait do you 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 I they're like huh see 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's 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
Ross brother was getting married so we
decided to stay in 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 lie
style 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 so 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
and money you know out so we were you
know getting out there socializing more
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 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 we branded
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 mom
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 so 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 going to 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 Chiang Mai 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 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 going to eat an
internet and with Southeast Asia
especially Thailand and you can find
internet like elite at every CAF way for
a price of some coffee 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 and cellphones where they
sell cellphones 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 80 to 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 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 are
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 and 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 self cellphone 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 this
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 going to be able to take you
to an address yeah how did you deal with
that so like if you had to get to your
apart
or whatever you just had to tell them
like go to this big landmark and then
actions from there like if there was a
big shopping center or a big cafe or a
big store or something like that is
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
online earning,make money online, earn money online, online earning, online earning sites,
make money online free, online money income, earn money online free, money online, best way to earn money online, online income site, money earning websites, best online earning sites, easiest way to earn money online, earn money payment bkash, online money income site
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment