hey what's up cuttings in here from
niche site project in this video I
talked to rob at consume and how he went
from a corporate job to being location
independent and it's sort of a dramatic
scary story
he literally quit his job had very
little savings had a small backup plan
which was work on niche site and I think
if you know Rob at all you know that it
actually worked out really well for him
but we go deep in this conversation we
talked about why Rob and his wife chose
Chiangmai on September 18 2014 Rob had a
little mishap and his revenue from his
niche site went from approximately 2500
that he was expecting to zero so he
moved to Chiangmai after he quit his job
with no income his plan changed quickly
after that penalty I actually got mixed
up in in it a little bit too and we
talked about that in the interview and
the reality is Rob was really close to
failing we actually talked about that a
little bit but he pulled off an amazing
feat of you know starting a new site and
you know making it work so he didn't
have to get a job
additionally we talked about you know
the value of networking and you know
being in Chiangmai so let's get over to
the interview now hey what's up Doug
Pennington here from niche site project
and I'm with my friend Rob here and
welcome hey Dad glad to be here so Rob's
been on my channel a niche site project
and has been covered on the blog a few
times however I know some people may be
meeting Rob for the first time so Rob
can you just give like a quick intro
about a minute or so just who are you
and what do you do sure
so prior to 2014 I was you know I
graduated school I've been out in the
workforce for about five years had a
pretty standard corporate career path
and started playing around with
affiliate SEO building websites trying
to make them make money on the side kind
of got decent at it quit my job decided
to take
my wife and I abroad to Chiang Mai
Thailand keep the cost down as we just
kind of started to ramp up this business
and fast forward three years or so and
it's my full-time gig and yeah that's my
story cool and just as a reference point
for people you know who haven't seen any
of your other videos you're not just
doing is your full-time job it is far
surpassed anything you probably could
have made in your corporate job right I
mean you're doing well right yeah way
way way better than earnings wives when
I was making and we can kind of maybe
touch on it but not only the sites what
they can make monthly but we've worked
on a project together you can sell these
sites for pretty big payout so there's
that as well yeah cool yeah
just as a reference point and I
sometimes do a bad job mentioning this
so like it takes a little while to learn
the ropes and stuff but with these
Amazon affiliate sites are our primary
focus generally and you can make you
know five ten fifteen thousand dollars
per month right it's not easy but it's
possible and then you know a couple
years in with good focus and like very
you know distinct goals you can reach
you know very high levels of income far
surpassing anything that like you and I
could have done in our corporate careers
just in general I mean it would be like
20 years ahead but like the people that
were directors in my sort of area like I
make more than them now so it's kind of
strange very weird so these are these
are good sites and I just want to I want
to give people a reference point so okay
let's rewind to about 2014 and you had
your corporate job and did you get laid
off like how did you end up doing
affiliate marketing right so it was just
sort of in kind of the accounting
finance area and my path was very kind
of structured and I knew I don't know if
you're familiar but like a controller in
a company I was kind of going that
direction and alright it pays okay but
it's boring as like it's the same
frickin work
all the time and like I think I knew
early on as a kid or a teenager and
early adult that I just can't do that
even though I somehow decided to go long
enough in that path so I started
building sites and around the summer of
2014 I had a site making about $3,000 a
month maybe 2500 and I was like you know
what it's not enough to live in America
especially being married but let's move
out to Chiangmai so gave my notice and
then by November of 2014 we were
actually in Thailand starting our new
journey
crazy crazy we sort of connected in that
transition period before you left and I
kind of remember I'm thinking that's
crazy like he's actually doing it like I
think honestly in that point in time in
2014 I had still not read the 4-hour
workweek but I knew I mean it's very
4-hour workweek like moved to Chiang Mai
you got there art geo arbitrage of you
know the dollar blah blah blah so you
actually did it now that's crazy
why Chang money well I think I first
like back to like the the 2014 decision
at the time if I think about what I was
thinking the amount of money we had like
the situation like that was really crazy
like it really really felt crazy I felt
like a stupid idiot okay but if I look
at it now it was like the best you know
it was like it feels like a no-brainer
now but anyways
okay why Chiangmai sure yeah we had
traveled there about a year prior on
vacation purely vacation we didn't even
know people lived there we kind of
enjoyed the Thai way of life the relaxed
way of life and then when we found out
that this was like a hotspot for people
starting out on their journey to build
online businesses to be location
independent with the cost as low as they
were it just it just seemed like a
no-brainer to kind of put yourself
around people doing what you want to do
and where did you move from by the way
so we were in the San Francisco Bay Area
not actually in San Francisco but about
45 minutes east of the city
ok cool what turns out by the way
Dublin California okay okay okay I'm
vaguely familiar on that link from beer
so I kind of there's so much a word yeah
yeah I know I yeah I know like a lot of
the breweries in that area so yeah
interesting okay so it made a lot of
sense you like you like Chiang Mai in
general and it just made sense to get
out there now when you moved you alluded
to like it being crazy so can you I mean
you don't have to give specific numbers
but like did you have a lot of savings
like did you have a lot of revenue
coming in like were you did you feel
like hey I'm gonna crush this so at
first when I quit in September of 2014
so the day I quit
I had a site projecting to make twenty
five hundred three thousand dollars a
month right on September 18 2014 that
site got tangled up in a mess and
basically my income went to zero okay so
we got married three days later and zero
zero income so when we arrived in
Thailand we had zero income so savings
wise I mean we basically we had a little
bit of comfort level in Chiang Mai but
it wasn't like we could just stay there
for years I think we basically had it
we're six to 12 months and if we weren't
having like income coming in or any
progress we would have to come back and
go get jobs nothing more motivating than
that huh you remember the early days we
were in a mastermind yeah I was gonna
say I got tangled up in the same stuff
but I didn't have as much skin in the
game and you know I was like this is
terrible which is why I'm a big white
hat outreach advocate at this point
because we have plenty of time there was
no need to get into a rush but we
thought the mentors the people we looked
up to or basically doing all these like
very risky like SEO out like it was just
bad SEO but nobody knew it at the time
and then the bottom dropped down and we
all kind of got tangled up in it yep
so Wow and you know that makes me think
of a friend of mine Zoey
Arielle on YouTube and she's in she's
actually sort of in the minimalism and
like travel like vlog area but she moved
to Rome from Toronto and basically had
like just enough to get going and it's
like you could figure some stuff out if
you have like high motivation and that's
all you're working on so if we I do
remember that day specifically and yeah
within if I recall you were able to like
start basically from scratch and within
I want to say like four months you had
surpassed that like 2500 mark that you
thought you had like projected before
the sort of SEO penalty right yeah I
think if I remember I think February of
2015 was when the site earned about the
same amount as before it got hit so
launched it in November December January
yeah the site was like four months old
so cool very very interesting okay now
getting out of the weeds of SEO and
affiliate sites let's talk about like
working as a location independent
entrepreneur so was there anything that
like really surprised you about being
location independent yeah I mean at the
beginning like obviously just working on
your own schedule having quit your job
is kind of different so I guess it's
depending on your personality for me at
the time like having to make ends meet
I was super motivated but I can also see
how it could go the other way you the
amount of freedom you have over there is
just beyond words because for most
people I bet you you live somewhat close
to your parents or family like a lot of
people do right right so they're gone
you don't have to ever really see them
other than maybe a Skype call here and
there you know so you have the ability
you if you wanted to you know you could
go out and drink and party with friends
if you wanted to so I guess just the
overwhelming amount of freedom of choice
is pretty that was the one thing that
stuck out to me it stood out to me sorry
gotcha interesting yeah I could see that
being a little bit of an issue
especially in my head and you correct me
if I'm wrong in my head it's sort of
like a twenties early thirties crowd in
Chiangmai but like is that uh just can
you confirm or deny that yeah that's
right I would say yeah
20s for sure definitely a lot of 30s and
you even have like you know older older
people for sure but yeah the core is 20
to 40 okay gotcha and it makes sense I
mean when we think about like you know
you were talking about the professional
track you are on there's like a you know
a personal track where it's like you
date people you get married you have
kids you buy a house like there's that
area so a lot of people I'm a few I'm 38
I'm a few years older than you and
there's a lot of people who like they
have a big house mortgage a few cars
like they can't do this stuff because
they've created you know it may be great
for them but they've created something
with very little flexibility so
interesting okay as you were starting
were there any like specific people
influencers that you were looking up to
and you were like hey I need to go in
that direction like that's sort of what
I'm aiming at yeah so well the people
okay the three biggest people that I
remember helping me along the way you
you and me did some coaching sessions on
basically getting over the hump on
creating systems because at one point I
was pretty decent at creating sites and
I knew how to do everything I just never
understood the idea of creating a system
and having other people do it for you so
that was kind of a mental break through
there one of my first early persons that
I was looking up to was Quentin HAMP and
he was part of our mastermind group
before and at the time I saw kind of his
numbers and he was doing an affiliate
stuff and it was huge motivation for
getting started
and then the other person was Matt
diggety who I believe you had on your
series and just kind of the way he
talked about SEO and his philosophy kind
of resonated with me ended up doing some
coaching with him and yeah so the those
are the three big ones for sure cool and
I think you're a genius right so you you
like got into a mastermind group with
people that you were like looking up to
and sort of like you were like I could
learn something from them and then you
also paid to get high-end coaching from
someone who was like an expert in a
specific area so it's like you you built
I guess like the right network like
where you can work closely with people
and you know have a mutual relationship
of like everybody gets something out of
it of course I mean you paid Matt but
you know yeah that's a good guy so
that's ugly how did I get in your guys's
mastermind group cuz I think that's like
I'm asking this question because for
people who are starting out right they
don't feel like they have much value to
offer and at the time like quinton was
making this and I was just a sliver you
had your name out there in a blog like
me mailed you as a nobody like so how
did I get in that group great I think
that is a very good question I think you
emailed me with like not a big ask it
was a good question and you also let me
know that you were getting things done
on your own I don't want to I mean
honestly I don't want to talk to people
who aren't taking action and getting
results on their own if you get no
results on your own like you got to be
able to figure out that part and you
were making you know several thousand a
month from a site and I was like hey he
knows what he's talking about
Quinton had connected with me just
emailing me or commenting on my blog and
we sort of had a couple calls and had a
nice rapport from my perspective I
thought like I was doing a good job
pulling in smarter people than me
because I had a couple good sites at one
point that they were penalized so at the
time when I formed I mean you
if I'm wrong but like I sort of
organized things I'm a good facilitator
of meetings because that's what I did
for my job so I'm like I could schedule
the meetings and usually take care of
some of the admin stuff and a lot of
people are a little bit they just don't
want to schedule meetings but I'm like
hey I'll schedule meetings so is that
kind of you yeah you're definitely
really good at that and like okay I make
mistakes and stuff but yeah it could
usually schedule meeting and get pretty
close on the time zones so at that point
like I think I knew Quentin was doing
really well and he was far ahead of both
of us I think you were doing while I was
trying to catch up and I was only I only
had like a year in the game at that
point right I was really brand-new but I
just happened to have started a blog and
like somehow got myself out there and
you had a couple years under your belt
at that point so yeah it just happened
to be the right group of people and you
know we chatted a couple times so I
think I knew we can at least have
constructive conversations and all learn
something from each other so yeah I
think it was just like good timing and
like non-aggressive networking so a lot
of people yeah to come in with an ask or
you know people send me emails I read
every single one and if you ask a bad
question right away you basically can't
recover sorry to say that but like if
you ask a question that you couldn't
Google that's bad like don't do that do
you have any tips for people reaching
out just in general we're trying to fake
cuz I'm trying to go back like I feel
like I'm better at it now because I have
sort of the experience so that's my
value add but I think like you said
don't ask stupid questions try to be
creative try to give value first be
creative whatever that is people we all
have different skill sets so like
whatever your job background is your
career background what can you bring to
the table and don't like I've had people
messaged me on Facebook who have seen a
couple of interviews or found my name or
whatever and the first thing I do is
like can you can you check the on page
from my side I'm like really like that's
the first thing you're gonna ask me like
yeah
not cool or you know again just anything
you can google do that
like definitely do that first so okay so
people throughout the term
location-independent
and other people use digital nomads is
there like a distinction in your mind
like how do you describe yourself by the
way okay so I would call myself location
independent the way that we travel we
always like we like the ability to
travel right so that's being location
independent but we like sort of having a
home base so if we are say we have you
get a 12 month lease in Chiangmai
we have a visa that allows us to live
there for 12 months like that's our home
base that's where we get the bulk of our
work done and then from there we're in
Southeast Asia if we want to go to
Vietnam or go to Bali do these trips
that's just extra the way I see digital
nomads and I think it's a really hard
lifestyle to actually follow through on
is where you literally go somewhere for
two weeks you're working in exploring
you go to the next place and you're just
perpetually traveling you don't really
have like a home base really really
difficult to I guess grow and do like
more interesting things you know again
referring back to the interview with
Matt diggity I'll link to it below but
you know you made a really good point in
that when you're traveling like you want
to be present and you know the city the
country that you're traveling to you
don't want to be distracted with
thinking you have to check email so at
best you should be able to like maintain
whatever you're doing if you have good
systems and a good team in place you may
be able to check out for you know decent
periods of time but you're not going to
be able to like grow your business while
you're traveling it's just there's too
many moving parts and if you I think if
you do try and grow your business why
would while you are traveling you'll end
up missing out on the experiences like
in the place you're visiting one more
thing that you're absolutely right one
more thing I would add to that in the
summer of 2015 after we did Chiang Mai
we did 60 day
in Bali right and there was a lot we
wanted to see so our typical work week
would be about four days of just
hardcore working and three days of being
tourists so I think I think if you're
gonna make it like one or two months as
how long you can stay I think you can
kind of bend it to your favor a little
bit but if you're less than a month I
just think like you said it's
maintenance mode right right right
very interesting okay so any sort of
tips for people that have a corporate
job and they want to transition into you
know a location independent position or
maybe even relocate do you have any tips
from your experience and you know you
probably observed a lot of people that
made the transition as well so what can
you offer them to you know make it
easier or better so this is just to
clarify this is a person that has a
corporate job right now and maybe they
want to launch a similar business and go
to Chiang Mai something like that yeah
Chiang Mai or yeah you could make it
specific to Chiang Mai I'm sure okay so
I think there I've kind of read about
this and there's two like kind of
different personalities when we have the
day job right there is someone who have
the day job and they're able to really
focus at night and push ahead and like
launch this real business where it makes
I don't know ten fifteen thousand
dollars a month and then you feel
comfortable enough to quit we've seen it
with other bloggers out there they wait
a long time I had I could never do that
I knew that wasn't right for me so if
this what I'm about to say speaks to you
then it's scary as hell but I think what
you have to do is you have to be serious
in your craft right you have to know
what you're doing and have a vision but
I think you're gonna have to pull the
plug
sooner than you think and that pressure
of quitting is really gonna accelerate
your growth financially and everything
else that's gonna set you up for the
next two or three years so I personally
if you can do it I recommend pulling
that plug and taking the plunge because
you might be hanging on to too many of
your comfort
of your day job that you don't realize
you are it's that's good advice and like
you know on the converse right for
people that you know are super scared
you can you know do this in the evenings
it's gonna take a little bit longer
probably and that's fine if you know
some people are more risk-averse and the
the pressure of that would be like
debilitating so there's definitely like
you said there's two schools of sort of
burly so very interesting and I guess I
loved it like it's I scary as it was
like I always get kind of like jacked up
on kind of deadlines and pressures and
having to perform in that kind of
situation so for me it just it felt it
was a rush but it was scary but it was
fun right and I think I was I was
talking to one of my friends earlier
today Ravi who his interview will be out
by the time this comes out so I'll put a
link below but he worked at Microsoft he
was doing really like really well and
that's an understatement and he quit his
job and you know the thing is one of the
things that allowed him to do it to have
the confidence was like he can go get a
job again like you can try things out
and maybe it's not like a failure but
maybe you do it and you decide hey
actually I kind of like working for the
company I just was in the right position
or something like that so there's
definitely flexibility to try things out
and go back to what you were doing you
know there's no harm in that can I add
one more thing sure so I've seen of this
as a common thing so like if you have a
day job where you're making what you
think is comfortable money whatever that
may be I have noticed a theme where like
these kind of want reproduce they kind
of want to do it on the side but they're
literally so comfortable their job
there's no real pain right they go
Monday through Friday they save money
and all this stuff so it's it's really
hard if you're in that position I don't
I didn't I don't know what that position
felt like I almost I almost believe some
of the most successful people I see kind
of almost hit rock bottom
and that sort of makes them push and do
these crazy these things so make
yourself feel uncomfortable if you if
you can right right very very good
advice so that sort of concludes my
questions is there anything else you
want to add Rob is like parting thoughts
or anything for for anyone interested in
the location independent lifestyle I
think just if you believe in yourself
and kind of what you're doing and you
know you take that leap like you said
the worst the worst thing that's gonna
happen to you is you could go back and
get a job it's if you break it down it's
not the end of the world very good
well thanks Rob I appreciate it and yeah
if people have questions or anything
need advice on their specific situation
leave a comment below I know I'll get to
them and I'll you know if I see
questions that Rob should answer I'll
bug Rob and tell him to answer them as
well but yeah leave your comments below
and by the way I will give a little plug
Rob has several other videos and areas
in which he and I have you know
discussed projects that we've worked on
actually all the coaching sessions that
we did back in 2014 when Rob was moving
from like sort of a a new affiliate site
entrepreneur right growing into like
this sort of affiliate site magnet I
don't know if that's the right it's a
little aggressive but you're doing well
right so like all those coaching calls
are on YouTube so I'll put a link to the
playlist so people can check those out
and see like the progression of like
when we first got started through like
the six or seven coaching calls cool
alright we'll catch you next time thanks
Rob
say doc thanks Rob for joining us today
and looking forward to hearing your
comments below so let us know if you
like these conversations with Rob and I
we could definitely do more of them if
you have any suggestions for topics
definitely put them in the comments
below so you could check out you know
anywhere where we could follow Rob as
well in the
description so I encourage you to check
it out Rob and his wife have a pretty
cool travel blog so have a look there
and we'll see you next time
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