Our guest this week is new to eCommerce and just made his first sale. Stephen Yeh is originally from Foster City, California and was living in China when he read 12 Weeks in Thailand: The Good Life on the Cheap and decided to start his own eCommerce store.
In this episode we talk about the cost of living in Chiang Mai Thailand, Thai food, setting up an eCommerce store and making your first sale.
Listen for free on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-like-a-boss-podcast/id727446851?mt=2
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In this episode we talk about the cost of living in Chiang Mai Thailand, Thai food, setting up an eCommerce store and making your first sale.
Listen for free on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/travel-like-a-boss-podcast/id727446851?mt=2
Have an iPhone? Download the free Podcast app and search for "Travel Like a Boss Podcast"
Download and listen for free on iTunes
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Episode 02 Show Notes
Shopify Free Trial -
Anton's Dropshipping eCommerce Course
Johnny's Muay Thai Blog - www.MyFightCamp.com
12 Weeks in Thailand Guide Book - www.12weeksinThailand.com
Anton's Dropshipping eCommerce Course
Johnny's Muay Thai Blog - www.MyFightCamp.com
12 Weeks in Thailand Guide Book - www.12weeksinThailand.com
Transcript of Episode 02 with Stephen Yeh
Welcome to the travel like a boss podcast the radio show all about traveling like a boss by being your own boss. Stay tuned for weekly interviews featuring guests that have built their own online businesses. If you would like to have access to our entire back catalog visit travellikeabosspodcast.com for instance access and here is your host Johnny FD.
Johnny: What’s up guys my name is Johnny and welcome to the travel like a boss podcast in today’s episode, episode two we have Stephen Yeh from San Francisco and we are going to talk about ecommerce, niche selection, the hardships of learning, making your first sale and life in Chiang Mai Thailand. Hey what’s up Steve, how are you doing today?
Stephen Yeh: I am doing wonderful how are you?
Johnny: Really, really good. So we are in Chiang Mai Thailand and we met here at Pun space the co-working office. Actually how did you find this office space?
Stephen Yeh: Well first it goes back a couple months and I was actually in China at the time. I was living there for about six months or so just pretty much learning something I was passionate about. I’ve grown up liking martial arts and I wanted to really learn just the soft martial arts, so I went there mainly to learn Tai Chi and eventually like you know China the visa situation is kind of a hassle so every three months I had to leave.
Johnny: ok
Stephen Yeh: and so I went on Google I typed in some places that I wanted to go to, to check out and I decided to see how much it was to live in Chiang Mai and that’s when I ran into Johnny’s blog.
Johnny: yah that’s cool. I think a lot of people found my blog just through that and it is really cheap to live out here.
Stephen Yeh: it is amazingly cheap I mean I am getting massages every week, twice a week. I have a nice remodeled place. I have a beautiful area to get my work done at Pun Space and all this; I mean total I am probably spending around six hundred dollars.
Johnny: and what would you have spent back in San Francisco for that?
Stephen Yeh: I mean just a crazy amount of money. I mean just the apartment alone or just the room that you rent alone in San Francisco will be more than six hundred dollars.
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: it is not including food, not including anytime that you go out any of your hobbies or things like that.
Johnny: How was it living in China was that cheap or was that expensive?
Stephen Yeh: China it depends on where you go. The area was in; I was pretty much up in the mountains and so cost of living there was incredibly cheap also but I had to do my due diligence in order to find to find a spot that I liked and a space that I found was reasonable in price.
Johnny: ok cool. So you were in China you Googled cost of living in Thailand you found my blog and what next?
Stephen Yeh: You had a book on there about Thailand, so I decided to pick it up because I felt like just paying this low amount of money what saved me a lot of money when I actually go to Thailand which it has. So picked it, up read through it and so I decided to implement some of those ideas and it also lead me to read your blog some more I found out that you were working on Anton’s program which is basically just an ecommerce kind of business and during that time I was living on savings for quite some time so I decided that I wanted to make some income again and that’s when I decided when I go to Chiang Mai I’ll start this business.
Johnny: that’s cool and I think when you originally found it I was kind of actually just getting started with it I don’t remember what month it was exactly but I mean it is pretty recent. These last few months I have really been making money from that site, ecommerce.
Stephen Yeh: yah actually I believe the first post that I saw you talking about you getting started just beginning getting your website up and things like that and then maybe like a month or two later I saw that you were starting to make sales, further more after that I see that you were doing incredibly well. So from then I just decided that yah this is a business model that I want to check out and pursue.
Johnny: alright cool. So signed up for Anton’s course what next, you had to pick a niche?
Stephen Yeh: yah pretty much signed up for Anton’s course. What I really like about Anton’s course is that it breaks in down very simply and he actually wakes you through step by step of how to get it started and for niche selection basically in the module itself it will show which niche would be good for this business model and I mean it took me like a day or two to just brainstorm and really find what kind of products I do want to sell.
Johnny: so you actually mention earlier during lunch that the first niche you choose you ended up; did your abandon it or was it still; did you completely get rid of it or is it just on the back burner?
Stephen Yeh: For the first niche that I did I felt that it was too broad it was kind of; the niche was already too saturated and in that case I did abandon it I just decided it just wasn’t worth my time but at the same time because I did go through the process of creating that business I was able to replicate it into my current business really quickly.
Johnny: ok cool so apart from buying a domain name for whatever it was ten bucks you are probably still on the free trial and everything right?
Stephen Yeh: yah I mean shopify on the website they say it gives you two weeks but shopify customer service is awesome you can actually extend it for another two weeks .
Johnny: yah cool yah I always recommend to people on my blog to take advantage of the free trials I honestly don’t think that if you are going to sign up for something it’s not going to make you money just cancel it but give it a month use that 30 day free trial and if you can get your money back from it awesome cause from that point on every sale that you make all the money you make is going to be pure profit
Stephen Yeh: exactly I mean even when I made that first business that I eventually dropped I didn’t really pay much all I paid was one dollar to get the domain name
Johnny:
Stephen Yeh: and pretty much I didn’t pay anything because that was on a trial and when I decided to drop it, the total cost what ; one dollar I lost but I gained a lot of wisdom, I gained a lot of experience which helped me in the current business that I am in.
Johnny: So how long did it take you to setup that first store?
Stephen Yeh: first store it took me about two to three weeks just because the learning curve was a little high at first. Actually it is very simple once you understand it, once you start to play with it. My second niche I started the website took me like two to three hours to get it set up.
Johnny: yah and it is crazy but it is totally replicable and that’s why Anton talks about starting, getting one up and running getting everything automated and just having it set and have money coming in while you are free to start a second, third, fourth, fifth maybe even tenth niche. I have actually done something different, I’ve actually decided just to stay with my main niche and really focus on building value in it and becoming a brand authority and building a moat around it mainly because Anton’s program now that it is getting really popular I think a lot of people are going to start selling online because it works and honestly I am actually afraid that as time passes people are going to enter every niche so I am glad that I am doing this now because two to three years from now there is going to be a lot more people not only buying online but starting online stores and I want to be first in I want to have the time to build my brand which is why I am not starting ten different stores. What are your thoughts on that?
Stephen Yeh: yah, I feel pretty much the same way, like I said what I love about this it take an initial time to get it started to get it setup and everything and then eventually you won’t have to spend that much time on it but you do have to commit some time just to keep relevant to make sure that you stay in that niche and people will kind of associate you with that keyword with that niche.
Johnny: yah cool. Do you have any advice for people about how to choose a niche?
Stephen Yeh: for me personally I just look back on basically the topics that I like; what I bought in the past. Went online checked out some forms to see what other people where buying and basically I just choose one that kind of fits of what would be a niche that worked in this business model.
Johnny: yah I remember when I first got started I had a really hard time thinking about a niche, but now that I have actually I have been through the process been making sales, almost every day I see something oh yah that would sell online or I’ll think back, I will buy something online and go I could make a better store selling this than Amazon could. The example for that is when I bought shoes a few weeks ago I bought them on zappos even though it was a little bit cheaper on amazon there search function was really bad for me to search by both my specific size that I wanted which is a ten and a half double wide because I have very wide cave man feet but also to make sure it was in stock and Amazon it was a bit clunky because they have all these different options where amazon would do either or it would find the size but it won’t, but these would be out of stock or it would find basically the opposite so zappos basically did that. What they did is they created all custom videos for every one of their products re-wrote all the description, really emphasize customer service and made it really easy to buy the exact shoes you want so I recommend to everyone when you guys are choosing your niche to think back and just like what Stephen said think back on things that you have bought in the past that you have some experience with that way you can really put your own twist on it and really work on making it as easy as possible as enjoyable as possible for customers to buy from your site and that way they won’t go to amazon or overstock.
Stephen Yeh: yah I totally agree with that I took a look at other websites that were selling the similar and I did notice that they did make the interface kind of hard for their customers to actually find what they would be looking for. They made their description very clunky and hard to read and so what I decided to do was really just to break it down make it simple. Make it so that it is nice on the eyes so that they can just scroll through without struggling to read every single word that’s just scrambled all over the website.
Johnny: yah definitely and that was actually very similar to when I started looking at sights I looked at the completion and asked myself can I provide a better customer experience. Can I make a better looking website than my competitors? I mean basically you start searching around and all the sites are these old yahoo stores that look like they haven’t been up dated in ten years or it makes it difficult for a customers to order yah why wouldn’t they shop from you so that’s a great point. Alright so today is a very exciting day for you isn’t it?
Stephen Yeh: It’s an amazing day
Johnny: great so I remember actually just; so was it yesterday or the day before you had me take a look at your site.
Stephen Yeh: it was the day before I believe
Johnny: and what have your written on Facebook that day?
Stephen Yeh: on Facebook the day that I talked to you?
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: basically it wasn’t Facebook it was within a forum I was writing that I was a bit frustrated because I did make a goal that I was going to make my first sale about two weeks ago and throughout that whole time I wasn’t able to make any sales I wasn’t sure what was going on things like that but what I did say was that through this frustration I am not going to quit but it actually going to push me a even further because I do know that this works and I just got to keep pushing through and eventually I will get my first sale.
Johnny: did it make it easier being surrounded by other people that are making money online?
Stephen Yeh: yah of course I mean the forum is very supportive I was able to see other people and their success seeing their struggles seeing their; just to see that whole process because once you understand the guidelines and the procedure of how to get this started you understand what everyone is going through and through that it helps to push you further.
Johnny: I don’t know if you read my progress there on Anton’s private forum but it was basically entitled step by step my progress so far and I started writing that when I first started my online store which was I believe it was May and so just about five months ago. I basically wrote down everything I did, every single day for the past couple weeks and then I would update it less often maybe once a week or so just kind of progress and looking back on it I realize how much I was struggling as well to keep motivated before that first sale because it took me about two months to make my first. How long did it take you to make your first sale?
Stephen Yeh: with the current niche that I am it took me one month to get that sale.
Johnny: ok so you actually cut it in half my time which is pretty good not including the first week you spend on the first niche,
Stephen Yeh: then again you started pretty early I have gotten a lot more support that you so I think that as a big factor
Johnny: you mean support from me or in general?
Stephen Yeh: from you, support from Anton and the people on the forums
Johnny: yah I think I was because I definitely wasn’t a pioneer cause that forum was around that product was around quite a bit before I even discovered it but I think what happens is it is a lot easier when you are at a place like a co-working office space that is surrounded and even though people around you might not necessarily be doing ecommerce, they are making money online and you can see that they are living a good live and they have _____ income so you know it’s possible verses if you are sitting all alone at home it is very, very frustrating to try and have this dream when you can’t even see it I front of your eyes.
Stephen Yeh: yah I totally agree with that. Actually I did just make my first sale, not one actually I made two sales last night and it was a wonderful feeling.
Johnny: how did you feel about that you said you couldn’t sleep?
Stephen Yeh: yah I mean like I said two days, three days previous to this I was saying how frustrated I am and how it is just going to push me further and it was just amazing that just this commitment and just working these past couple of days and I was able to generate two sales equally to more than seventeen hundred dollars.
Johnny: yah that’s awesome dude I mean especially if you are just starting out cause what is going to happen you are going to have not that it is up and running, you are going to have more sales I mean it could be every day. I mean what I try to shoot for in most niches is the short term goal like you might I want five sales a week and that will be your first goal and then your next goal can be on average one sale per day or thirty sales per month and by making two sales already last night. I mean what is stopping you from making two more sales today and two more sales tomorrow.
Stephen Yeh: exactly I mean I pretty much got started with this niche about a month ago so there is still a lot of strategies and things that I can implement which would generate more traffic to my site which equals more sales.
Johnny: So as far at the work you have to do after you get a sale like what is the actually process?
Stephen Yeh: the work I have to do after a sale I mean it is quiet easy I mean I got the sale in shopify and basically I just sent the order to my supplier and I gave him my credit card information and that’s pretty much it. Now all I have to do is keep in contact with my customers to make sure that everything is good and make sure that they are happy just because I do want them to review my products in the future and I mean that is pretty much it.
Johnny: Yah I definitely agree on the good customer service and getting the reviews. I also have a review app on my store and now that I have been making a lot of sales I am getting new reviews every day and luckily all my reviews have been five starts and even the one where the lady didn’t actually like the product itself and ended up basically by another product. She gave me five starts, but it the review it said I didn’t like this product, it was a lower end product so she was like you get what you pay for, however John was really, really helpful and the store itself was great so at the end of the day that stuff really helps,
Stephen Yeh: yah definitely I mean just having those reviews builds confidence in people buying your products and just seeing other people like for example if they read that post they two feel trust that they will be taken care if they buy new products on your website.
Johnny: Yah exactly and hopefully from that they also see it like you know what even those this product is cheaper maybe I should buy the better one and I am going to buy it from these guys because they have good customer service, so tell me a little bit more about shopify back-end process because I am sure a lot of people who have never done any e-commerce before aren’t really aware of it. Actually do you any experience with ecommerce or even really making online business before this?
Stephen Yeh: I mean just talking about shopify itself it is stupid easy, I mean they have dumb it out to where pretty much anyone can do it and in the past I did have an eBay business and that was actually a lot more difficult than what shopify has done and another thing is shopify has amazing customer service. When I just got started I gave them a phone call or two every single day and pretty much yah I definitely used that to my benefit and I mean they have twenty four hour customer service and they are just willing to help you in whatever you need.
Johnny: yah that’s really cool I emailed them a bunch of times actually I don’t know why I didn’t call them, they have really good phone support and to me it is super easy. I mean I have made a lot of blogs and other random website like that but I never, ever had any experience with ecommerce I have never really sold. I guess I have sold a couple of things on eBay but I never really had a business selling online so that’s really cool so as far as the actual process goes a customer buys a product on your website. They put in their credit card information shopify because it is link to your back account, shopify just deposit that money into your account and it takes how many days it is five or seven days.
Stephen Yeh: yah pretty much something like that I mean what’s good about it. it’s automated so it doesn’t take too much manual work on your part and that’s pretty much what I am looking for because I don’t want to spent time on things that I don’t need to spend time on.
Johnny: yah that definitely makes sense and so what’s really cool the products those products you are not really paying for those out of pocket at all you are not buying any inventory you are not warehousing anything you are basically; shopify they will collect let’s say a thousand dollars from customers and products and then you’ll send your order to a manufacturer. They will do packaging or whatever they are going to do they send it out to the customer on your behalf and they charge your credit card. I mean you have basically you get the money in seven days and then you are charged thirty days later.
Stephen Yeh: yah it is a wonderful, wonderful business model and I mean that’s why I got in it, all I really need is my computer and I do plan on going back to China in a couple months to keep going with the Tai chi and during that time, I don’t want to spend that much time on the internet just a few minutes just checking things here and there but after I get this business up and running getting some automated systems going I don’t have to spend that much time on it and I still will be generating income.
Johnny: Yah that’s actually really cool. You don’t know but I actually got back to Chiang Mai from the US just a few days ago, actually a week ago, a week and a few days and I was back home for a few months and I was working on the site and before that I was building it up as well and when I came back I actually decided hey let me just let it sit I was trying to fix all these things about getting a higher end call center I was trying to figure out ways to implement things better and while now that I am back in Thailand and then I realized that why I am trying to fix what is not broken. Let me just let it sit do nothing and see if sales still come in and it did which is fantastic I mean just last night while I was sleeping I got a sale and the reason for that is because the middle of the night for me when I am sleeping is the middle of the day in the US so people where buying stuff. So I mean how great is that, you go to bed and wake up with more money in your account.
Stephen Yeh: It is a wonderful feeling I mean just last night I was having dinner awesome food and then I just head home open my computer and I see my first sale.
Johnny: yah nice. Actually what you should do you should download the notification app cause it is awesome to be out and get a live notification saying that you just made a sale.
Stephen Yeh: yah it sounds good I am going to do that after this podcast.
Johnny: then you will come up with a list of random places you have made a sale at I am ____ mine I could do a whole podcast on that alone I mean now that you are travelling and the hours are all random I mean you will get some sales doing some crazy stuff.
Stephen Yeh: yah that would actually be really interesting I think I think I will check that out and do it myself.
Johnny: yah and the other cool thing is when you want to spend time optimizing your store or even starting another store you can but what’s really good is when you don ‘t feel like working you can just let it run and when you get a sale you just forward the email I mean that is how I have it setup I mean I basically just forward the email to my suppliers and say hey send this out. So realistically I can work twenty minutes a day a couple days a week I mean just like every other day I can do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, twenty minutes and I will make a consistent amount of sales. The reason why I enjoy working my stores is I want to grow the sales and really optimize it is for one hundred percent of people that are trying to buy this kind of product to come buy it from me I know that realistically that real ecommerce conversion rate are much lower they are a few percent but in my mind I am like well if somebody wants to buy X.,Y,Z why wouldn’t they buy from me? I want to offer them the best service the best price free shipping and the reason I can offer that is because my overhead is so low compare to a normal big company that has a host of employees they have a warehouse they have all these expenses they can’t afford to give you free shipping. What is your overhead cost living out here?
Stephen Yeh: the actual overhead cost of running this business I mean it is pretty much once you are a shopify trail is over you just pay the monthly fee and beside that, it just seems like that’s it; you don’t buy the products physically and then ship it out yourself all you are doing is really just waiting for the orders to come in once the order comes in you just pay your supplier how much that it cost you and basically yah they ship it out for you.
Johnny: yah it’s pretty cool. So before we move on to the next topic for those of you who are interested in what the heck we are talking about. What shopify is, what Anton’s course is, if you go to my blog it is johnnyfd.com there is a link on the right hand that says start here and that has all the information on there but I really wanted to ask you Stephen about the lifestyle here in Thailand. Is this your first time here?
Stephen Yeh: Thailand itself I did come here for a few days about three months ago on my other China visa run but it is just amazing out here I mean what I love about it, it is a mixture of locals a mixture of expat’s and a mixture of tourist coming around and it is just amazing vibe because everyone is very chill everyone is very relaxed and what’s great about the area is everything is within five to ten minutes. You want to get some amazing food just drive down just a little bit. You want to get internet access there is plenty around and even if you want to go to a bar and have a drink or anything it is all within range.
Johnny: let’s start with the food, cause everyone likes talking about food. What are something that you ate the last few days?
Stephen Yeh: well we just had some amazing what was that like barbeque chicken crispy chicken,
Johnny: yah it’s crispy skinned chicken it was really good
Stephen Yeh: and they had this amazing sauce with it
Johnny: I don’t even know what it is, it is some type of like Tai___ sausage. It was like little tangy wasn’t too spicy like had a little kind of a kick it is something I have never had anywhere else in the world
Stephen Yeh: same
Johnny: and the chicken it was roasted. Its skin was so crispy and it was so juicy and it was just incredible and it had this Tai salad with it, we had pap paw salad and we had cucumber salad and oh thank you lunch by the way appreciate it
Stephen Yeh: not a problem
Johnny: that’s a bit of celebration for you making your first sale
Stephen Yeh: hey yah
Johnny: what did that cost us? How many courses did we have? We had a soup; we had two salads and two ___ dishes. What was the total?
Stephen Yeh: I think it came out to like two hundred and fifty baht let’s break that down and in U.S that would be like eight dollars
Johnny: yah and that is a really good lunch as well, you were saying that you had a good dinner last night when you made your first sale. What were you having?
Stephen Yeh: looking back I don’t remember anymore, there is a lot of restaurants here that make good food and even living in the Bay area where it is known for just a culture of all different kinds of good food you can find some good restaurants out here.
Johnny: yah and as much as I love Tai food and I have Tai food once or twice a day and I am not going to get sick of it. I still like to change it up so last night me and two friends we went to two amazing dinner buffet and I think I had some prime rib, lamb and I had some roast pork and it was probably very equivalent to eating at, at least the Hilton or the Saint Regis. It was literally a four star hotel amazing western food and for the same price as it would have cost me to go to Denny’s.
Stephen Yeh: that’s just incredible I mean I have been there myself but I am definitely going to check that place out I mean buffet of just all different kinds of meat I mean. What do they offer in there?
Johnny: bake salmon and pesto, they had roast chicken they had roast pork , they had a carvery station. It is better than ninety percent of the Vegas Buffet I’ve ever had it is probably on par with the one at Wynn, Paris or more expensive ones but those buffet for fifty bucks and this was seventeen out the door.
Stephen Yeh: I mean that is considered really expensive in Thailand seventeen dollars
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: but back home it is like just a normal meal
Johnny: yah I don’t think I’ve ever had dinner in America for less than twenty bucks out the door.
Stephen Yeh: I mean you can even find delicious dishes for like a dollar two dollars out here
Johnny: yah both my lunch I mean most of the time during lunch I spend a couple bucks that’s it and the food is fresh you know so many good flavor’s in it and it is fast and it is easy the night market food is even better.
Stephen Yeh: yah it probably cost more just to make food myself back home.
Johnny: I haven’t cooked since I’ve been back and I don’t think I plan to this trip and I think the only reason why I used to cook as you read in my book is I was broke, when it comes down to it I was trying to live as cheaply as possible which at the time it made sense for me because I had saved up some money back home, I had worked these random jobs. I worked as a scuba diver instructor for a while I would go home for the summer and save us money. I wanted to live as cheaply as possible. So that book you read twelve weeks in Thailand that was me with no other options not realizing that you can make money online.
Stephen Yeh: that is actually very funny one of the reasons why I picked up the book because through your experience through your struggles you were really able to find the best deals, the best value in Thailand.
Johnny: yah and it was fun I was surprised by some of that as well actually Stephen mentioned that the reason why he trusted me I like he is this guy is Asian so he is probably really good at finding deals and at the time; I am glad I went through that because it was a good experience you know it is fun living as cheaply as possible living like a local, having an apartment for a hundred and fifty dollars a month which is absolutely possible here. I mean you have met people who that three thousand in Baht apartments right?
Stephen Yeh: I mean mine itself I got an incredible deal I got a corner room where in the morning time the sun just comes up shines through my window and wakes me up. Newly remodeled when I first got in there plastic was on all the furniture the bed and stuff and all this is thirty eight hundred baht which comes out to which comes out to about hundred and twenty dollars.
Johnny: that’s even less than what I had budget for in the book and you know it is a clean place it is a good location and you have privacy. You have your own bathroom you have your own room. What else do you need?
Stephen Yeh: exactly
Johnny: so I definitely recommend peopling that if you are wanting to start your own online business. If you hate your job if you want to travel this is a very cheap place to bootstrap your business.
Stephen Yeh: Come out to Thailand
Johnny: I mean it has been less than two months for you right, when you first started the business til now.
Stephen Yeh: yah I started, I remember writing in the forum August 30th so it has been about a month and a half.
Johnny: That’s cool and what’s really cool is I don’t know why it happens this way but when I made my first sale I made two my first day as well. So hopefully that is going to happen to you as well because it is just a start to it. I think for me looking back I made two sales and then for a couple of days didn’t make any and then made one sale a couple of days didn’t make any and then all of a sudden I just consistently started getting one a day and so I am assuming that you have a similar pattern where you start making on average let’s say twenty five sales a month. Could you live off of that out here?
Stephen Yeh: oh most definitely I mean twenty five sales a month I would actually be able to save a lot of money. Let’s see twenty five sales I would be able to invest a lot of money if I wanted to or just live like a king out in Thailand.
Johnny: yah start baller statusing but actually this week I’ve have a bunch of people we’ve met which is every cool because they are all different kinds of entrepreneurs out here. Who did we go to rock quarry with
Stephen Yeh: we went to the Rock Quarry with Mike and Zack and they actually run a company where they help people edit their video especially for online bloggers and people like that.
Johnny: They made some awesome vides of us cliff jumping into this crystal clear red mud quarry and so keep an eye out on my blog for that it is going to be epic.
Stephen Yeh: yah I can’t wait until they put out the video that should be amazing.
Johnny: yah and his girlfriend is out there as well. So all three of them they have a service based business where they help people edit videos and also Marion was out there. She is a professional voice over actress she was actually the one on out intro so every week when you listen to the new episodes of the podcast that’s her and these are people that all met while travelling out in Thailand and that day was spectacular and if you look at some of the photos I put one of the photos on the blogs here on the site travellikeabosspodcast.com under this episode you will see how beautiful this place is and how did we spend that day.
Stephen Yeh: I mean just to go on that adventure we spent nothing but then we went to this amazing it was like natural rainfall there was like a little lake on the side and we just ate there and that was a good end to the; we didn’t even end there. What did we do after that?
Johnny: So we had out little scooters and we rode out to the rock quarry it is about an half an hour from town beautiful scenic place, no one anywhere and we stop at a restaurant that has built a lake and a water fall built into the restaurant not only do they have that have robots that bring you the food
Stephen Yeh: yah that was pretty cool to see
Johnny: where else would you see that and I mean granted that was pretty expensive for Thai food but it still ended up being six bucks per person and nobody is complaining
Stephen Yeh: after that we went to Mike’s apartment where he has rooftop pool on top of his building which was just amazing to kind of just hang out and soak in the sun and just to relax.
Johnny: yah that was incredible just laying out there chilling out it was a long day. We got some Burmese food after that which is the
Stephen Yeh: so good, so good
Johnny: and that was so cheap that was three bucks a person I believe or actually it was less than three bucks and we ordered a lot of food and then we played board games so that was I mean that’s a typical day in the life of being out here and not to mention that on Tuesday we went to see was it a jam session a live band.
Stephen Yeh: yah they were playing live Jazz band and they were actually rocking out, they were kicking ass.
Johnny: yah they were some of the best I have actually seen anywhere in the world with I think there were three guys on a saxophone, there was a girl I don’t know if she was ____ she might have been American that had an amazing voice and I mean you go there to the bar to hang out drinks are cheap. I mean there is literally everything here.
Stephen Yeh: yah you want entertainment they have got it here, you want to get your business done they have got it here, you want to just relax they have definitely got it here.
Johnny: Yah and that’s why being out here is both a great life style and it is great for business I mean we didn’t even talk about fitness wise I mean were did we both go yesterday.
Stephen Yeh: we went to do some Maui Thai. What’s that place called again?
Johnny: it was called Team quest Thailand
Stephen Yeh: Team quest Thailand, I mean they have that, they have some good yoga around here, they have cross fit, they ‘ve got gyms if you like go into there, rock climbing area. So it is a good area to get your fitness on
Johnny: yah definitely, alright let’s wrap this up but congratulations again on making your first two sales.
Stephen Yeh: thank you very much
Johnny: and you know what keep in touch and hopefully there will be many, many more of that coming. Actually before I let you go what are three tips that you can give every one listening let’s say they are listening at home, they haven’t started their business yet what are three things actionable things that they can do with their life right now.
Stephen Yeh: Actionable things number one, let’s see. Get really clear on what you want in your life. Stop living life just reactively and just going through just living life where; let’s see live life on your own terms basically is what I am saying. Tip number two get healthy. Once your body is nice fit, it dramatically changes your mood it changes the way that you look out in the world just your mindset and your psychology will all shift and the third one is just enjoy life man life is amazing.
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Johnny: What’s up guys my name is Johnny and welcome to the travel like a boss podcast in today’s episode, episode two we have Stephen Yeh from San Francisco and we are going to talk about ecommerce, niche selection, the hardships of learning, making your first sale and life in Chiang Mai Thailand. Hey what’s up Steve, how are you doing today?
Stephen Yeh: I am doing wonderful how are you?
Johnny: Really, really good. So we are in Chiang Mai Thailand and we met here at Pun space the co-working office. Actually how did you find this office space?
Stephen Yeh: Well first it goes back a couple months and I was actually in China at the time. I was living there for about six months or so just pretty much learning something I was passionate about. I’ve grown up liking martial arts and I wanted to really learn just the soft martial arts, so I went there mainly to learn Tai Chi and eventually like you know China the visa situation is kind of a hassle so every three months I had to leave.
Johnny: ok
Stephen Yeh: and so I went on Google I typed in some places that I wanted to go to, to check out and I decided to see how much it was to live in Chiang Mai and that’s when I ran into Johnny’s blog.
Johnny: yah that’s cool. I think a lot of people found my blog just through that and it is really cheap to live out here.
Stephen Yeh: it is amazingly cheap I mean I am getting massages every week, twice a week. I have a nice remodeled place. I have a beautiful area to get my work done at Pun Space and all this; I mean total I am probably spending around six hundred dollars.
Johnny: and what would you have spent back in San Francisco for that?
Stephen Yeh: I mean just a crazy amount of money. I mean just the apartment alone or just the room that you rent alone in San Francisco will be more than six hundred dollars.
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: it is not including food, not including anytime that you go out any of your hobbies or things like that.
Johnny: How was it living in China was that cheap or was that expensive?
Stephen Yeh: China it depends on where you go. The area was in; I was pretty much up in the mountains and so cost of living there was incredibly cheap also but I had to do my due diligence in order to find to find a spot that I liked and a space that I found was reasonable in price.
Johnny: ok cool. So you were in China you Googled cost of living in Thailand you found my blog and what next?
Stephen Yeh: You had a book on there about Thailand, so I decided to pick it up because I felt like just paying this low amount of money what saved me a lot of money when I actually go to Thailand which it has. So picked it, up read through it and so I decided to implement some of those ideas and it also lead me to read your blog some more I found out that you were working on Anton’s program which is basically just an ecommerce kind of business and during that time I was living on savings for quite some time so I decided that I wanted to make some income again and that’s when I decided when I go to Chiang Mai I’ll start this business.
Johnny: that’s cool and I think when you originally found it I was kind of actually just getting started with it I don’t remember what month it was exactly but I mean it is pretty recent. These last few months I have really been making money from that site, ecommerce.
Stephen Yeh: yah actually I believe the first post that I saw you talking about you getting started just beginning getting your website up and things like that and then maybe like a month or two later I saw that you were starting to make sales, further more after that I see that you were doing incredibly well. So from then I just decided that yah this is a business model that I want to check out and pursue.
Johnny: alright cool. So signed up for Anton’s course what next, you had to pick a niche?
Stephen Yeh: yah pretty much signed up for Anton’s course. What I really like about Anton’s course is that it breaks in down very simply and he actually wakes you through step by step of how to get it started and for niche selection basically in the module itself it will show which niche would be good for this business model and I mean it took me like a day or two to just brainstorm and really find what kind of products I do want to sell.
Johnny: so you actually mention earlier during lunch that the first niche you choose you ended up; did your abandon it or was it still; did you completely get rid of it or is it just on the back burner?
Stephen Yeh: For the first niche that I did I felt that it was too broad it was kind of; the niche was already too saturated and in that case I did abandon it I just decided it just wasn’t worth my time but at the same time because I did go through the process of creating that business I was able to replicate it into my current business really quickly.
Johnny: ok cool so apart from buying a domain name for whatever it was ten bucks you are probably still on the free trial and everything right?
Stephen Yeh: yah I mean shopify on the website they say it gives you two weeks but shopify customer service is awesome you can actually extend it for another two weeks .
Johnny: yah cool yah I always recommend to people on my blog to take advantage of the free trials I honestly don’t think that if you are going to sign up for something it’s not going to make you money just cancel it but give it a month use that 30 day free trial and if you can get your money back from it awesome cause from that point on every sale that you make all the money you make is going to be pure profit
Stephen Yeh: exactly I mean even when I made that first business that I eventually dropped I didn’t really pay much all I paid was one dollar to get the domain name
Johnny:
Stephen Yeh: and pretty much I didn’t pay anything because that was on a trial and when I decided to drop it, the total cost what ; one dollar I lost but I gained a lot of wisdom, I gained a lot of experience which helped me in the current business that I am in.
Johnny: So how long did it take you to setup that first store?
Stephen Yeh: first store it took me about two to three weeks just because the learning curve was a little high at first. Actually it is very simple once you understand it, once you start to play with it. My second niche I started the website took me like two to three hours to get it set up.
Johnny: yah and it is crazy but it is totally replicable and that’s why Anton talks about starting, getting one up and running getting everything automated and just having it set and have money coming in while you are free to start a second, third, fourth, fifth maybe even tenth niche. I have actually done something different, I’ve actually decided just to stay with my main niche and really focus on building value in it and becoming a brand authority and building a moat around it mainly because Anton’s program now that it is getting really popular I think a lot of people are going to start selling online because it works and honestly I am actually afraid that as time passes people are going to enter every niche so I am glad that I am doing this now because two to three years from now there is going to be a lot more people not only buying online but starting online stores and I want to be first in I want to have the time to build my brand which is why I am not starting ten different stores. What are your thoughts on that?
Stephen Yeh: yah, I feel pretty much the same way, like I said what I love about this it take an initial time to get it started to get it setup and everything and then eventually you won’t have to spend that much time on it but you do have to commit some time just to keep relevant to make sure that you stay in that niche and people will kind of associate you with that keyword with that niche.
Johnny: yah cool. Do you have any advice for people about how to choose a niche?
Stephen Yeh: for me personally I just look back on basically the topics that I like; what I bought in the past. Went online checked out some forms to see what other people where buying and basically I just choose one that kind of fits of what would be a niche that worked in this business model.
Johnny: yah I remember when I first got started I had a really hard time thinking about a niche, but now that I have actually I have been through the process been making sales, almost every day I see something oh yah that would sell online or I’ll think back, I will buy something online and go I could make a better store selling this than Amazon could. The example for that is when I bought shoes a few weeks ago I bought them on zappos even though it was a little bit cheaper on amazon there search function was really bad for me to search by both my specific size that I wanted which is a ten and a half double wide because I have very wide cave man feet but also to make sure it was in stock and Amazon it was a bit clunky because they have all these different options where amazon would do either or it would find the size but it won’t, but these would be out of stock or it would find basically the opposite so zappos basically did that. What they did is they created all custom videos for every one of their products re-wrote all the description, really emphasize customer service and made it really easy to buy the exact shoes you want so I recommend to everyone when you guys are choosing your niche to think back and just like what Stephen said think back on things that you have bought in the past that you have some experience with that way you can really put your own twist on it and really work on making it as easy as possible as enjoyable as possible for customers to buy from your site and that way they won’t go to amazon or overstock.
Stephen Yeh: yah I totally agree with that I took a look at other websites that were selling the similar and I did notice that they did make the interface kind of hard for their customers to actually find what they would be looking for. They made their description very clunky and hard to read and so what I decided to do was really just to break it down make it simple. Make it so that it is nice on the eyes so that they can just scroll through without struggling to read every single word that’s just scrambled all over the website.
Johnny: yah definitely and that was actually very similar to when I started looking at sights I looked at the completion and asked myself can I provide a better customer experience. Can I make a better looking website than my competitors? I mean basically you start searching around and all the sites are these old yahoo stores that look like they haven’t been up dated in ten years or it makes it difficult for a customers to order yah why wouldn’t they shop from you so that’s a great point. Alright so today is a very exciting day for you isn’t it?
Stephen Yeh: It’s an amazing day
Johnny: great so I remember actually just; so was it yesterday or the day before you had me take a look at your site.
Stephen Yeh: it was the day before I believe
Johnny: and what have your written on Facebook that day?
Stephen Yeh: on Facebook the day that I talked to you?
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: basically it wasn’t Facebook it was within a forum I was writing that I was a bit frustrated because I did make a goal that I was going to make my first sale about two weeks ago and throughout that whole time I wasn’t able to make any sales I wasn’t sure what was going on things like that but what I did say was that through this frustration I am not going to quit but it actually going to push me a even further because I do know that this works and I just got to keep pushing through and eventually I will get my first sale.
Johnny: did it make it easier being surrounded by other people that are making money online?
Stephen Yeh: yah of course I mean the forum is very supportive I was able to see other people and their success seeing their struggles seeing their; just to see that whole process because once you understand the guidelines and the procedure of how to get this started you understand what everyone is going through and through that it helps to push you further.
Johnny: I don’t know if you read my progress there on Anton’s private forum but it was basically entitled step by step my progress so far and I started writing that when I first started my online store which was I believe it was May and so just about five months ago. I basically wrote down everything I did, every single day for the past couple weeks and then I would update it less often maybe once a week or so just kind of progress and looking back on it I realize how much I was struggling as well to keep motivated before that first sale because it took me about two months to make my first. How long did it take you to make your first sale?
Stephen Yeh: with the current niche that I am it took me one month to get that sale.
Johnny: ok so you actually cut it in half my time which is pretty good not including the first week you spend on the first niche,
Stephen Yeh: then again you started pretty early I have gotten a lot more support that you so I think that as a big factor
Johnny: you mean support from me or in general?
Stephen Yeh: from you, support from Anton and the people on the forums
Johnny: yah I think I was because I definitely wasn’t a pioneer cause that forum was around that product was around quite a bit before I even discovered it but I think what happens is it is a lot easier when you are at a place like a co-working office space that is surrounded and even though people around you might not necessarily be doing ecommerce, they are making money online and you can see that they are living a good live and they have _____ income so you know it’s possible verses if you are sitting all alone at home it is very, very frustrating to try and have this dream when you can’t even see it I front of your eyes.
Stephen Yeh: yah I totally agree with that. Actually I did just make my first sale, not one actually I made two sales last night and it was a wonderful feeling.
Johnny: how did you feel about that you said you couldn’t sleep?
Stephen Yeh: yah I mean like I said two days, three days previous to this I was saying how frustrated I am and how it is just going to push me further and it was just amazing that just this commitment and just working these past couple of days and I was able to generate two sales equally to more than seventeen hundred dollars.
Johnny: yah that’s awesome dude I mean especially if you are just starting out cause what is going to happen you are going to have not that it is up and running, you are going to have more sales I mean it could be every day. I mean what I try to shoot for in most niches is the short term goal like you might I want five sales a week and that will be your first goal and then your next goal can be on average one sale per day or thirty sales per month and by making two sales already last night. I mean what is stopping you from making two more sales today and two more sales tomorrow.
Stephen Yeh: exactly I mean I pretty much got started with this niche about a month ago so there is still a lot of strategies and things that I can implement which would generate more traffic to my site which equals more sales.
Johnny: So as far at the work you have to do after you get a sale like what is the actually process?
Stephen Yeh: the work I have to do after a sale I mean it is quiet easy I mean I got the sale in shopify and basically I just sent the order to my supplier and I gave him my credit card information and that’s pretty much it. Now all I have to do is keep in contact with my customers to make sure that everything is good and make sure that they are happy just because I do want them to review my products in the future and I mean that is pretty much it.
Johnny: Yah I definitely agree on the good customer service and getting the reviews. I also have a review app on my store and now that I have been making a lot of sales I am getting new reviews every day and luckily all my reviews have been five starts and even the one where the lady didn’t actually like the product itself and ended up basically by another product. She gave me five starts, but it the review it said I didn’t like this product, it was a lower end product so she was like you get what you pay for, however John was really, really helpful and the store itself was great so at the end of the day that stuff really helps,
Stephen Yeh: yah definitely I mean just having those reviews builds confidence in people buying your products and just seeing other people like for example if they read that post they two feel trust that they will be taken care if they buy new products on your website.
Johnny: Yah exactly and hopefully from that they also see it like you know what even those this product is cheaper maybe I should buy the better one and I am going to buy it from these guys because they have good customer service, so tell me a little bit more about shopify back-end process because I am sure a lot of people who have never done any e-commerce before aren’t really aware of it. Actually do you any experience with ecommerce or even really making online business before this?
Stephen Yeh: I mean just talking about shopify itself it is stupid easy, I mean they have dumb it out to where pretty much anyone can do it and in the past I did have an eBay business and that was actually a lot more difficult than what shopify has done and another thing is shopify has amazing customer service. When I just got started I gave them a phone call or two every single day and pretty much yah I definitely used that to my benefit and I mean they have twenty four hour customer service and they are just willing to help you in whatever you need.
Johnny: yah that’s really cool I emailed them a bunch of times actually I don’t know why I didn’t call them, they have really good phone support and to me it is super easy. I mean I have made a lot of blogs and other random website like that but I never, ever had any experience with ecommerce I have never really sold. I guess I have sold a couple of things on eBay but I never really had a business selling online so that’s really cool so as far as the actual process goes a customer buys a product on your website. They put in their credit card information shopify because it is link to your back account, shopify just deposit that money into your account and it takes how many days it is five or seven days.
Stephen Yeh: yah pretty much something like that I mean what’s good about it. it’s automated so it doesn’t take too much manual work on your part and that’s pretty much what I am looking for because I don’t want to spent time on things that I don’t need to spend time on.
Johnny: yah that definitely makes sense and so what’s really cool the products those products you are not really paying for those out of pocket at all you are not buying any inventory you are not warehousing anything you are basically; shopify they will collect let’s say a thousand dollars from customers and products and then you’ll send your order to a manufacturer. They will do packaging or whatever they are going to do they send it out to the customer on your behalf and they charge your credit card. I mean you have basically you get the money in seven days and then you are charged thirty days later.
Stephen Yeh: yah it is a wonderful, wonderful business model and I mean that’s why I got in it, all I really need is my computer and I do plan on going back to China in a couple months to keep going with the Tai chi and during that time, I don’t want to spend that much time on the internet just a few minutes just checking things here and there but after I get this business up and running getting some automated systems going I don’t have to spend that much time on it and I still will be generating income.
Johnny: Yah that’s actually really cool. You don’t know but I actually got back to Chiang Mai from the US just a few days ago, actually a week ago, a week and a few days and I was back home for a few months and I was working on the site and before that I was building it up as well and when I came back I actually decided hey let me just let it sit I was trying to fix all these things about getting a higher end call center I was trying to figure out ways to implement things better and while now that I am back in Thailand and then I realized that why I am trying to fix what is not broken. Let me just let it sit do nothing and see if sales still come in and it did which is fantastic I mean just last night while I was sleeping I got a sale and the reason for that is because the middle of the night for me when I am sleeping is the middle of the day in the US so people where buying stuff. So I mean how great is that, you go to bed and wake up with more money in your account.
Stephen Yeh: It is a wonderful feeling I mean just last night I was having dinner awesome food and then I just head home open my computer and I see my first sale.
Johnny: yah nice. Actually what you should do you should download the notification app cause it is awesome to be out and get a live notification saying that you just made a sale.
Stephen Yeh: yah it sounds good I am going to do that after this podcast.
Johnny: then you will come up with a list of random places you have made a sale at I am ____ mine I could do a whole podcast on that alone I mean now that you are travelling and the hours are all random I mean you will get some sales doing some crazy stuff.
Stephen Yeh: yah that would actually be really interesting I think I think I will check that out and do it myself.
Johnny: yah and the other cool thing is when you want to spend time optimizing your store or even starting another store you can but what’s really good is when you don ‘t feel like working you can just let it run and when you get a sale you just forward the email I mean that is how I have it setup I mean I basically just forward the email to my suppliers and say hey send this out. So realistically I can work twenty minutes a day a couple days a week I mean just like every other day I can do Monday, Wednesday, Friday, twenty minutes and I will make a consistent amount of sales. The reason why I enjoy working my stores is I want to grow the sales and really optimize it is for one hundred percent of people that are trying to buy this kind of product to come buy it from me I know that realistically that real ecommerce conversion rate are much lower they are a few percent but in my mind I am like well if somebody wants to buy X.,Y,Z why wouldn’t they buy from me? I want to offer them the best service the best price free shipping and the reason I can offer that is because my overhead is so low compare to a normal big company that has a host of employees they have a warehouse they have all these expenses they can’t afford to give you free shipping. What is your overhead cost living out here?
Stephen Yeh: the actual overhead cost of running this business I mean it is pretty much once you are a shopify trail is over you just pay the monthly fee and beside that, it just seems like that’s it; you don’t buy the products physically and then ship it out yourself all you are doing is really just waiting for the orders to come in once the order comes in you just pay your supplier how much that it cost you and basically yah they ship it out for you.
Johnny: yah it’s pretty cool. So before we move on to the next topic for those of you who are interested in what the heck we are talking about. What shopify is, what Anton’s course is, if you go to my blog it is johnnyfd.com there is a link on the right hand that says start here and that has all the information on there but I really wanted to ask you Stephen about the lifestyle here in Thailand. Is this your first time here?
Stephen Yeh: Thailand itself I did come here for a few days about three months ago on my other China visa run but it is just amazing out here I mean what I love about it, it is a mixture of locals a mixture of expat’s and a mixture of tourist coming around and it is just amazing vibe because everyone is very chill everyone is very relaxed and what’s great about the area is everything is within five to ten minutes. You want to get some amazing food just drive down just a little bit. You want to get internet access there is plenty around and even if you want to go to a bar and have a drink or anything it is all within range.
Johnny: let’s start with the food, cause everyone likes talking about food. What are something that you ate the last few days?
Stephen Yeh: well we just had some amazing what was that like barbeque chicken crispy chicken,
Johnny: yah it’s crispy skinned chicken it was really good
Stephen Yeh: and they had this amazing sauce with it
Johnny: I don’t even know what it is, it is some type of like Tai___ sausage. It was like little tangy wasn’t too spicy like had a little kind of a kick it is something I have never had anywhere else in the world
Stephen Yeh: same
Johnny: and the chicken it was roasted. Its skin was so crispy and it was so juicy and it was just incredible and it had this Tai salad with it, we had pap paw salad and we had cucumber salad and oh thank you lunch by the way appreciate it
Stephen Yeh: not a problem
Johnny: that’s a bit of celebration for you making your first sale
Stephen Yeh: hey yah
Johnny: what did that cost us? How many courses did we have? We had a soup; we had two salads and two ___ dishes. What was the total?
Stephen Yeh: I think it came out to like two hundred and fifty baht let’s break that down and in U.S that would be like eight dollars
Johnny: yah and that is a really good lunch as well, you were saying that you had a good dinner last night when you made your first sale. What were you having?
Stephen Yeh: looking back I don’t remember anymore, there is a lot of restaurants here that make good food and even living in the Bay area where it is known for just a culture of all different kinds of good food you can find some good restaurants out here.
Johnny: yah and as much as I love Tai food and I have Tai food once or twice a day and I am not going to get sick of it. I still like to change it up so last night me and two friends we went to two amazing dinner buffet and I think I had some prime rib, lamb and I had some roast pork and it was probably very equivalent to eating at, at least the Hilton or the Saint Regis. It was literally a four star hotel amazing western food and for the same price as it would have cost me to go to Denny’s.
Stephen Yeh: that’s just incredible I mean I have been there myself but I am definitely going to check that place out I mean buffet of just all different kinds of meat I mean. What do they offer in there?
Johnny: bake salmon and pesto, they had roast chicken they had roast pork , they had a carvery station. It is better than ninety percent of the Vegas Buffet I’ve ever had it is probably on par with the one at Wynn, Paris or more expensive ones but those buffet for fifty bucks and this was seventeen out the door.
Stephen Yeh: I mean that is considered really expensive in Thailand seventeen dollars
Johnny: yah
Stephen Yeh: but back home it is like just a normal meal
Johnny: yah I don’t think I’ve ever had dinner in America for less than twenty bucks out the door.
Stephen Yeh: I mean you can even find delicious dishes for like a dollar two dollars out here
Johnny: yah both my lunch I mean most of the time during lunch I spend a couple bucks that’s it and the food is fresh you know so many good flavor’s in it and it is fast and it is easy the night market food is even better.
Stephen Yeh: yah it probably cost more just to make food myself back home.
Johnny: I haven’t cooked since I’ve been back and I don’t think I plan to this trip and I think the only reason why I used to cook as you read in my book is I was broke, when it comes down to it I was trying to live as cheaply as possible which at the time it made sense for me because I had saved up some money back home, I had worked these random jobs. I worked as a scuba diver instructor for a while I would go home for the summer and save us money. I wanted to live as cheaply as possible. So that book you read twelve weeks in Thailand that was me with no other options not realizing that you can make money online.
Stephen Yeh: that is actually very funny one of the reasons why I picked up the book because through your experience through your struggles you were really able to find the best deals, the best value in Thailand.
Johnny: yah and it was fun I was surprised by some of that as well actually Stephen mentioned that the reason why he trusted me I like he is this guy is Asian so he is probably really good at finding deals and at the time; I am glad I went through that because it was a good experience you know it is fun living as cheaply as possible living like a local, having an apartment for a hundred and fifty dollars a month which is absolutely possible here. I mean you have met people who that three thousand in Baht apartments right?
Stephen Yeh: I mean mine itself I got an incredible deal I got a corner room where in the morning time the sun just comes up shines through my window and wakes me up. Newly remodeled when I first got in there plastic was on all the furniture the bed and stuff and all this is thirty eight hundred baht which comes out to which comes out to about hundred and twenty dollars.
Johnny: that’s even less than what I had budget for in the book and you know it is a clean place it is a good location and you have privacy. You have your own bathroom you have your own room. What else do you need?
Stephen Yeh: exactly
Johnny: so I definitely recommend peopling that if you are wanting to start your own online business. If you hate your job if you want to travel this is a very cheap place to bootstrap your business.
Stephen Yeh: Come out to Thailand
Johnny: I mean it has been less than two months for you right, when you first started the business til now.
Stephen Yeh: yah I started, I remember writing in the forum August 30th so it has been about a month and a half.
Johnny: That’s cool and what’s really cool is I don’t know why it happens this way but when I made my first sale I made two my first day as well. So hopefully that is going to happen to you as well because it is just a start to it. I think for me looking back I made two sales and then for a couple of days didn’t make any and then made one sale a couple of days didn’t make any and then all of a sudden I just consistently started getting one a day and so I am assuming that you have a similar pattern where you start making on average let’s say twenty five sales a month. Could you live off of that out here?
Stephen Yeh: oh most definitely I mean twenty five sales a month I would actually be able to save a lot of money. Let’s see twenty five sales I would be able to invest a lot of money if I wanted to or just live like a king out in Thailand.
Johnny: yah start baller statusing but actually this week I’ve have a bunch of people we’ve met which is every cool because they are all different kinds of entrepreneurs out here. Who did we go to rock quarry with
Stephen Yeh: we went to the Rock Quarry with Mike and Zack and they actually run a company where they help people edit their video especially for online bloggers and people like that.
Johnny: They made some awesome vides of us cliff jumping into this crystal clear red mud quarry and so keep an eye out on my blog for that it is going to be epic.
Stephen Yeh: yah I can’t wait until they put out the video that should be amazing.
Johnny: yah and his girlfriend is out there as well. So all three of them they have a service based business where they help people edit videos and also Marion was out there. She is a professional voice over actress she was actually the one on out intro so every week when you listen to the new episodes of the podcast that’s her and these are people that all met while travelling out in Thailand and that day was spectacular and if you look at some of the photos I put one of the photos on the blogs here on the site travellikeabosspodcast.com under this episode you will see how beautiful this place is and how did we spend that day.
Stephen Yeh: I mean just to go on that adventure we spent nothing but then we went to this amazing it was like natural rainfall there was like a little lake on the side and we just ate there and that was a good end to the; we didn’t even end there. What did we do after that?
Johnny: So we had out little scooters and we rode out to the rock quarry it is about an half an hour from town beautiful scenic place, no one anywhere and we stop at a restaurant that has built a lake and a water fall built into the restaurant not only do they have that have robots that bring you the food
Stephen Yeh: yah that was pretty cool to see
Johnny: where else would you see that and I mean granted that was pretty expensive for Thai food but it still ended up being six bucks per person and nobody is complaining
Stephen Yeh: after that we went to Mike’s apartment where he has rooftop pool on top of his building which was just amazing to kind of just hang out and soak in the sun and just to relax.
Johnny: yah that was incredible just laying out there chilling out it was a long day. We got some Burmese food after that which is the
Stephen Yeh: so good, so good
Johnny: and that was so cheap that was three bucks a person I believe or actually it was less than three bucks and we ordered a lot of food and then we played board games so that was I mean that’s a typical day in the life of being out here and not to mention that on Tuesday we went to see was it a jam session a live band.
Stephen Yeh: yah they were playing live Jazz band and they were actually rocking out, they were kicking ass.
Johnny: yah they were some of the best I have actually seen anywhere in the world with I think there were three guys on a saxophone, there was a girl I don’t know if she was ____ she might have been American that had an amazing voice and I mean you go there to the bar to hang out drinks are cheap. I mean there is literally everything here.
Stephen Yeh: yah you want entertainment they have got it here, you want to get your business done they have got it here, you want to just relax they have definitely got it here.
Johnny: Yah and that’s why being out here is both a great life style and it is great for business I mean we didn’t even talk about fitness wise I mean were did we both go yesterday.
Stephen Yeh: we went to do some Maui Thai. What’s that place called again?
Johnny: it was called Team quest Thailand
Stephen Yeh: Team quest Thailand, I mean they have that, they have some good yoga around here, they have cross fit, they ‘ve got gyms if you like go into there, rock climbing area. So it is a good area to get your fitness on
Johnny: yah definitely, alright let’s wrap this up but congratulations again on making your first two sales.
Stephen Yeh: thank you very much
Johnny: and you know what keep in touch and hopefully there will be many, many more of that coming. Actually before I let you go what are three tips that you can give every one listening let’s say they are listening at home, they haven’t started their business yet what are three things actionable things that they can do with their life right now.
Stephen Yeh: Actionable things number one, let’s see. Get really clear on what you want in your life. Stop living life just reactively and just going through just living life where; let’s see live life on your own terms basically is what I am saying. Tip number two get healthy. Once your body is nice fit, it dramatically changes your mood it changes the way that you look out in the world just your mindset and your psychology will all shift and the third one is just enjoy life man life is amazing.
Announcer: Thank you for listening to the travel like a boss podcast if you want to hear more including the bonus how to choose the perfect niche episode join our mailing list at travellikeabosspocast.com. See you next week and remember if you want to travel like a boss you need to be your own boss. So start your online business today and start living the lifestyle you have always dreamed of.
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