This week we have flight attendant Sabrina Taylor who became an Accidental Entrepreneur after being laid off for the winter from her 9-5. Sabrina is from Toronto, Canada and is currently living in Chiang Mai, Thailand and working as social media and guest blog writer for a startup.
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Episode 04 Show Notes
Writer for: www.screwtheninetofive.com
Episode 04 Transcript
Welcome to the travel like a boss podcast the radio show all about travelling 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: Hey guys what’s up this is Johnny and welcome to another episode, episode number four and this week we have a special guest who I call the accidental entrepreneur Sabrina Taylor from Toronto Canada
Sabrina: that’s such a good name for me
Johnny: it really is right?
Sabrina: yah I have been wondering what to call myself now I will just call myself the accidental entrepreneur
Johnny: perfect so why don’t you tell all the guests listening a little bit about your story and how you ended up here in Chiang Mai Thailand.
Sabrina: well I came to Chiang Mai to help my friends out with work I have been working with them for just over two years now well one of them for longer than that but about two years and it is kind of an extended stayed work and I’ve been helping them out with their social media that is how it started and it developed into high PR branding and back linking and guest blogging and pretty much anything
Johnny: so you are throwing out a bunch of technical terms right now, did you know all these terms before you got started on this.
Sabrina: Good lord no I have to ask them what to call half of what I do I am just like what let me read that SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)
Johnny: what were you doing for a job before this?
Sabrina: flight attendant which I still currently do because that’s part of being in the lifestyle business thing you can kind of do a little bit of everything that you want to, I am a flight attending Airport life.
Johnny: So is it normal for them to lay off employees during winter?
Sabrina: for my company it is so I am laid off during in the winter which is why I have so much free time to come out to Thailand and work from here which is a perk
Johnny: and so if it wasn’t for coming out here and working in Thailand what would you do in previous years when you are laid off for winter.
Sabrina: it’s a pretty new job it has only been the last couple of years so before that I was in school and after school it as the airport life and this job so just kind of been rolling with the punches
Johnny: So it all kind of pretty much brand new this wasn’t some grand scheme I think most people listening to this read The 4-Hour Workweek before pursuing this lifestyle. Did you decide hey I want to do this life and then do some kind of training course I guess like web developing or programing but you are completely opposite.
Sabrina: like to be perfectly honest this all just fell into my lap very much like my jobs at the airline fell into my lap so did this and I just kind of gone with this and luckily it is something that I enjoy and have been learning I’ve definitely learned more in my couple weeks here in Thailand. So it has been educational.
Johnny: that’s cool I mean for the people that are listening that aren’t that tech savvy doing your job is that something that really anyone that can update their Facebook do or does it require more technical training.
Sabrina: well you don’t need any technical training I mean I learned everything from like on the go like I didn’t definitely didn’t do any training for it. If you can read and write and have a little bit of you know you are good with grammar I think you should be able to do it at least at the very least figure it out.
Johnny: ok very cool so for those who are listening and wondering what these random bird chirps are in the background Sabrina and I are actually sitting outside of Pun space which is out co-working office space where we met and a gecko just walked by
Sabrina: a little baby gecko, it’s adorable I wish you could see it
Johnny: yah and it has been raining a little bit over the last couple of days
Sabrina: a little bit?
Johnny: a lot a bit, but overall what do you think of the weather here compared to Toronto during the winter.
Sabrina: it’s been kicking my butt cause I am so use for fifteen degrees back home right now it is falling so it is a bit chiller back there so the forty degree humidity is making me sweat it is making me lose weight, very good girls
Johnny: It’s got a whole life style. Its great being out here, overall
Sabrina: this is the healthiest I have been in years like I am a clean eater G-free not since ninety three but that’s close enough
Johnny: that’s all right
Sabrina: this is definitely the healthiest because everything you can pretty much pick up fresh from a farmers market, definitely don’t use as much pesticides as North America and everybody is kind of outside being fit.
Johnny: wait is Canada North America?
Sabrina: yes
Johnny: I am kidding
Sabrina: you can see our igloos
Johnny: nice so let’s talk a little bit about the actual lifestyle out here in Chiang Mai. Was this your first trip out to Thailand?
Sabrina: This is my second trip to Thailand but my first to the mountains. My first time was about a year and a half ago I did a little island hopping with my colleagues I guess or whatever, my work partners, So this definitely a different experience being away from the beach and not drinking buckets every night
Johnny: I think for me Chiang Mai is the one place where I feel I have pretty much a normal life
Sabrina: yah like this is the closest there are gyms, yoga, there is the farmers market that you can visit there is the co-working space like everything that I would do if I were back home is what I could do here but it is just like way healthier for some reason
Johnny: and cheaper
Sabrina: yah definitely cheaper
Johnny: let’s talk a little bit about your living expenses and then we are going to talk about other ways people make money while they are out here.
Sabrina: well living expenses are definitely cut in quarters from what it would be like in North America basically I have a studio apartment here and you can get a decent studio apartment in a safe building I pay three hundred dollars a month and I get maid service, wi-fi , a pool, a gym. I mean that’s is not too shabby for three hundred bucks
Johnny: yah and you are a one minute walk away from really, really great, Thai food and every Saturday it is probably my favorite outdoor market, the Saturday market right by your house
Sabrina: oh I went to that this weekend it was just great the night markets.
Johnny: yah amazing food I had some roasted sweet potatoes which were amazing and then I had my one a week sweet potatoes, my only carbs I have and I had these pork skewers which were amazing and a fresh coconut and I could walk around for hours
Sabrina: you love your coconut
Johnny: yah definitely, oh yes speaking of coconuts actually on the motorcycle ride back from lunch
Sabrina: and a giant coconut
Johnny: yah it is my daily routine and it is fifty cents for a fresh coconut they chop it in half for you and what are some of your favorite food since you have been out here.
Sabrina: curry, you can’t beat the curry; spicy
Johnny: and is there curry in Toronto?
Sabrina: is curry in Toronto, where do you think I am from
Johnny: I don’t know
Sabrina: of course there is curry, it’s not the same like everything here is just better and there is bamboo shoots and the spicy peppers and they just make it better.
Johnny: cool ok so the food is great, the weather is great, it is cheap to live here and the other thing a lot of people don’t think about is it is actually pretty easy to make money when you are out here you are not going to make a hundred thousand dollars a year starting out but you can get away with; what do you think the monthly budget is where you can live out here
Sabrina: I think you can definitely live off a thousand dollars out here there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to because you have so many options when it comes to pricing for housing, food, I mean lunch for me today cost just over one Canadian dollar I mean if you eat three meals like that that is four dollars tops a day, that’s peanuts, but the best thing that I have gotten to experience is meeting people because Chiang Mai in particular is such a business oriented area like the co-working space has been a great experience you meet people that are working hard, I have never worked this hard, but I don’t hate it, it is something that I am enjoying because everybody is in that zone and you feel their energy and you just kind of go with it which is why my friends felt so strongly about me coming to check out the place.
Johnny: yes you got real lucky about having friends that happen to; they needed someone to write all of their social media because they knew you for so long you were a perfect fit at the same time I am sure there are a lot of people who would have been too scared to come out. What made you decide hey let me give this a try?
Sabrina: first hand worse it was just a two month vacation some here a lot nicer than Canada so I couldn’t really go wrong but I have the time, a lot of people don’t have the time off to be able to do something like this but if you do it is definitely worthwhile
Johnny: I think that for anyone that doesn’t currently have a career or a job back in North America or back anywhere if they had just a little bit of savings they could come out here build a business or even do what you did is just find another startup who need your services and get a job.
Sabrina: well yah there is definitely people out there who are willing to hire, you can always find somebody online it is a lot of hard work which is what some people do not understand
Johnny: but when you say hard work it is not like when you say hard work it is not like hard like it is back home where you even dread waking up.
Sabrina: the 9:00 to 5:00 office
Johnny: yah
Sabrina: it is not the same
Johnny: I mean here you can kind of work on your own schedule you can come to the can take a break whenever you want there is no real boss beating down your throat even though you are technically working for someone it isn’t; it’s a start up environment.
Sabrina: it is definitely a startup environment you definitively have to have initiative which is something that you don’t need in an office because they are always going to give you task which is part of the reason why I like working for somebody though because they have tasks they give them to me and while I do take initiative for certain things I am always being told and that works and that works.
Johnny: Sometimes I feel I forget that some people just enjoy working and having a set schedule and having a list of things to do. Not everyone wants to go out and try to imagine up their own business all the time.
Sabrina: It can be daunting to start your own business which is why I like being on the other end of it.
Johnny: I think one of the greatest things that people do for learning experience is start out by helping someone else out with their business and thorough do that you learn the skills and you make all the connections where, if you ever wanted to you could branch off and do your own product and do your own online business.
Sabrina: Oh absolutely, like I’ve learn heaps by working with my partners. They’re constantly teaching me new things because they need me to do new tasks that they don’t have time to do, so I am always learning something different and it’s definitely broaden my horizons for that.
Johnny: One think I have noticed is that there is a job board here at pun space at the front desk, where people are trying to hire assistance and other people to just kind of help out with their business. They never get filled, because everyone here has their own business, duh!
Sabrina: I know I kind of like the fluke here, because everyone’s like, do you plan on starting your own I am like no, nah! Sounds like a lot more work than what I am doing now.
Johnny: It’s actually perfect because you get all the skills you know exactly what you are going to do, you get to kind of live this life, enjoy all the benefits of it learn everything with those people without taking any risk of being on your own.
Sabrina: Absolutely, and I mean hey if worst came to worst and they decided to just sent me from their business. At least I would know how to start on my own if I wanted to but they are not going to do that.
Johnny: Yea that’s actually true let’s briefly talk about what actual social media marketing is and some people might ask, well why can’t they just out source this to India or to the Philippines and pay someone else a lot less money. So what exactly do you do; kind of a brief over view of what you do and what are the benefits of them hiring a native English speaker verses out sourcing to India or Philippines?
Sabrina: Well I like to brand myself as quality. You are paying for my quality when hire somebody who’s a native speaker or who isn’t outsourced. You want someone who have invested in what you business is if you are going to hire them basically like it’s part of the team building aspect, which is why; I mean I understand why people get V.A’s, virtual assistants or outsource to foreign country for cheap prices but that cheap price is going to be reflected in you work, from what I can tell.
Johnny: I know at least for now one think that works in Google rankings is having some little articles from high P.R. sites, write an article and have a link back to your site and it doesn’t really matter what the quality of the content is as long as it’s certain amount of words and has the right anchor text and has the right context, but I really think that Google is trying to get rid of that and I believe that they’re going to be successful getting rid of that, you know relatively soon if not within a year are two and they are going to look for real quality content that’s actually written by people who care what they are writing.
Sabrina: Well there is always going to need to be high quality articles that pertain to exactly what you are doing but with a high P.R articles I mean they are so many high ranking websites with the right anchor text and the right back links and that’s what you are building, you are building back links and the material does have to reflect what you are writing on it can’t just be all willy nilly. It does have to link in to a certain extent, but with so many google updates.
They are killing the rain forest with their updates, the panda’s and penguins. I mean it’s always going to be changing but for now it’s something that definitely works for people.
Johnny: I think what will always work no matter what is having good quality content that people actually enjoy reading that people actually enjoy sharing and having it posted on places that are genuine sites that people enjoy going to, that they are not being tricked into going to.
Sabrina: well that’s the heart of quest blogging
Johnny: Yea
Sabrina: Yes, but the good thing about guest blogging is you get to reach out to other people you build network with other bloggers so say you have an online product you want to launch now you have a group of people who like your material, who like you and are willing to help you spread that. So you get a broader reach when you go for that.
Johnny: And I definitely don’t think that you could get that same following if you paid two dollars an article from some guy in the Philippines who didn’t really care what he was writing.
Sabrina: No, You definitely need to have somebody who has invested in what you are writing and it helps if you are actually enjoying what you are writing about. I have done hundreds of guest blogs and you have to infuse personality and good grammar into those sorts of things and you are not going to get that for two dollars.
Johnny: Grammar ain’t nobody have time for that
Sabrina: You better write that off of that or you just pay me to do it for you.
Johnny: I definitely think that; I don’t really know what your official job title is
Sabrina: You just called it accidental entrepreneur
Johnny: but I definitely do think that these type of jobs are going to be fast growing especially in this economy where; I know Toronto is not as bad as the U.S but the US it’s really hard to find jobs nowadays but at the same time, it is just as easy as always to start you own business and part of starting your own business is eventually scaling it where you do need employees
Sabrina: well yah, I actually think the hardest part is to find people who do what I do because anybody can start a business but building a team within that business isn’t always easy and I have seen my partners go through that trying to find people who are invested who are going to give high quality work and that’s tough to find and it would be in any given job but its seems to be harder in Thailand.
Johnny: Especially when you are overseas I mean it’s much easier to work with somebody who is here that you can just kind of tap on the shoulder, you can meet at the office space everyday and be like hey you know, what going on.
Sabrina: Oh hands down, like we worked together in Canada for a year straight off their coach but it was good because you could bounce ideas off each other and we were always around each other and then we’ve had exactly ten months in between before I landed in Chiang Mai and not having thirteen thousand kilometers between us and working, its tuff, it is incredible stuff. So even just being here for the two weeks have been, a mean you can tell how much easier it is.
Johnny: yea definitely, one thing I am in the process doing right now for my own business is for one of my ecommerce stores, I take customer orders on the phone sometimes and right now that I have been traveling the time zones are completely reversed so people are calling me at four in the morning and it is just going straight to voice mail and I know I am losing some sales for that, for now I actually decided, let me just let it go to voice mail while I figure it out but eventually, I do need to hire an assistant. I actually need to hire need to hire someone in the US. to so that they can pick up the calls at the right time but because it is so hard for me to coordinate between the US, if it wasn’t for that specific need there is no way I would want to partner up or hire somebody to help with the business that in a different time zone I rather be able to just see them and have lunch with them and like hey this what we need to do today.
Sabrina: Well it’s definitely easier to be in the same time zone but when you are working with something that in a different country, yea, it’s harder to find those employees too I would imagine.
Johnny: let’s talk a little bit about the random various jobs that people that you have just met have been doing online. How long have you actually been here?
Sabrina: Almost two weeks exactly
Johnny: And you’ve met quite a few people since you have been here. What are some random jobs, that’s usually the first thing you asked each other, right, what do you do?
Sabrina: The most random would be the one I heard today at lunch, selling erectile dysfunction pills. I mean there is a niche for everything here. There are ecommerce which I had to have described to me today again at lunch. So a lot of people in ecommerce a lot of people creating their own online products like study guides for certain subjects or affiliate marketing. What else; a lot of ecommerce I run into.
Johnny: There are a lot of programmers out here
Sabrina: A lot of people writing codes beside me which just look like gibberish on the screen.
Johnny: yea, usually anytime you see a black screen with a green text
Sabrina: There are definitely a lot of people. I met a couple that are developing a body app for your phone so you can chart your body weight.
Johnny: Body tracking
Sabrina: Everything
Johnny: It’s a good app I have that on my phone. We met a guy who makes all the crime city games on the I phone and android. There is a guy that I met who does Panda DMB which is a YouTube channel where he has guess DJ uploads their new DMB mixes unto his site.
Sabrina: Oh, that’s cool
Johnny: so really, I mean there are all these different random jobs that can be done while traveling down here
Sabrina: well yah you could do just about anything and the best is because you are meeting people in different niches you get to bounce ideas off of each other and learn something new and maybe learn about something you never heard of and incorporate that into whatever it is that you are doing and that can make all the difference in your business.
Johnny: And being out here is definitely been the best education that I have ever had for learning these business skills.
Sabrina: Absolutely
Johnny: I mean this is probably better than getting an MBA
Sabrina: oh is it?
Johnny: I really believe so
Sabrina: I wouldn’t want to do a MBA, so I am not going to disagree with you
Johnny: I actually met a business owner recently who had his online business for years and decided to go back and do his MBA thinking it would benefit him and about a month in the class he realized I am being taught by professors who have never successfully built a business.
Sabrina: There you go and I mean you said it earlier today that you know part of having your own business is that you don’t really have an over head when you have an online business, nothing substantial like if you were to open a restaurant somewhere or a store you have major over head that you need to cover and who has that kind of cash these days. So doing it online you basically have the tiniest overhead possible like domain names, and web hosting and what not and then the rest is just gain.
Johnny: Yah and that allows me to do other things like offer, free shipping promotions and offer a lot of value in which other companies wouldn’t be able to do because they have to spend all their money paying for employees, paying for rent, paying for equipment paying for inventory. I mean let’s say you wanted to start a store that sold water bottles in Canada in Toronto. What would some of those upfront costs be?
Sabrina: They would be outrageous, you are looking at marketing, branding, actual cost of material those are things that you don’t have to worry about online.
Johnny: Not to mention renting a store front getting a…
Sabrina: Competition alone
Johnny: twelve month lease on it, we would have to take out a huge business loan and put our credit on the line basically to open a store front and we would then have to employ employees, buy cash register, pay for utilities I mean it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars to get into a business that we don’t even know it‘s going to work.
Sabrina: Yah definitely,
Johnny: versus being out here and starting an online store or an online business, if it doesn’t work I really didn’t lose anything a mean I‘ve started ….
Sabrina: and you got to get experience out of it
Johnny: So let’s talk a little bit about no more jobs back home verses the jobs out here I’m sure there are some pros and cons of it and you are a good person to ask because you went to school got a normal job now that you are pretty new to this. What are some of the pros and cons that you see in both?
Sabrina: well right now with the economic state of North America in particular you know it’s hard to find a job. I have never found a job that was in my field of education, remind you I studied the most outrageous stuff like I have degrees in philosophy, psychology and sociology I don’t know what I was planning on doing passing five years of my life apparently. So it’s hard to find a job so there is a pro to working online that’s something you can take control of. A con I work for an airline I am laid off right now I would say that’s a pretty good con. I have no control over my future there I am at the mercy of them calling me back or not and this is something that so far is a constant.
Johnny: You mentioned something about some of your coworkers and imagine yourself as being fifty and still working the same job you want to elaborate on that a little bit.
Sabrina: Yah, what I was saying is you know I don’t want to be serving others when I am fifty years old not that I am not putting in down; for me it is just not what I was looking for. I want something that I could do on my home if I want to at some point, when you start to have a family being able to manage a business from home makes a big difference.
Johnny: There is a guy named Pat Flynn who wrote a book called Let Go and even though he has a location, independent business he chooses to stay at home because he has a family, his little son, and what he values most is been able to be there and spend time with his son. He works out of his home office, he has a Pod cast as well and he was there to see his son’s first steps which is awesome and so when it comes time if I ever have a family of my own I would love to be able to just be able to work from home whenever I want; and be able to take out two hours out of my day to take my kid to the park.
Sabrina: yah it’s definitely is a perk for that.
Johnny: So whether you want to travel the world or you want to stay and you just want to live one place like we are kind of doing now or if you wanted to stay at home wherever you were born or raise and have free time it all works out. A little bit about what we are doing now is even though we are technically traveling we are all kind of settle down here Chaing Mai. So it kind of like we are living not really as an expat but we are living in Chaing Mai semi-permanently. We are not necessarily back packing around verses what I use to do versus what a lot of people would do is just kind of live on a back pack in the dorms, live here and there for a couple weeks. What are some of the benefits you see of putting down your roots in a like a place like Chaing Mai.
Sabrina: Well you can kind of have the best of both worlds if you want like if you are a nester I’m a nester. I like to build a home around myself you can do that you can have all your regular routines, like I said the farmers market, your gym, or yoga, your work all that is something you can find here it is not necessarily something you’ll find on a smaller island and like if you are back packing you’ll be constantly on the go it is affordable which make it so much easier as well.
Johnny: One thing that I’m doing is I am looking for another apartment, I am staying in an hotel for a month which is awesome just being able to have that flexibility to do so there is no way I’ll be able to afford to pay for month of the Marriott back home but here I’m actually at a real nice hotel and I pay about 400 bucks a month and I was thinking should I upgrade sign a contract for a nice place that’s let say about six hundred bucks a month where I get a one bed room apartment you know and basically live in a suite or should I have the flexibility of staying in a slightly cheaper place that’s still very nice but I wouldn’t mind just leaving it empty for three weeks at a time when I go down to the islands and hang out just to party.
Sabrina: you see, I am a bit of a minimalist so I don’t have a problem, I don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with a bigger place or something, I don’t even have a microwave in my apartment.
Johnny: But you don’t need to, with the amount of food around here I mean. Like literally a block away from the house you have twenty different food places.
Sabrina: Yah so that’s kind of why I don’t feel the need to do something upgraded whereas in Toronto for example I would never live like this.
Johnny: I think also back home most people aren’t excited about the day to day life so they need someone to go back to, to relax and a lot of people on weekends I know at least for me and all my friends we work so hard Monday to Friday at a job that we didn’t necessarily love and our weekends were reserved for going out partying, drinking all night and then just laying around all Saturday and Sunday kind of in a hung over state
Sabrina: yah that sounds like a typical back home activity for sure, it is not like that here
Johnny: but here on weekends we cliff jumping at this beautiful lagoon, there are waterfalls, there is hiking there is….
Sabrina: the quarry, the night markets documentary like outdoors and stuff it is crazy
Johnny: And we are close enough, if we wanted to we could take a short flight somewhere, like I am planning on going to Cambodia for a few weeks. The next time my visa’s up just because I’ve never been there. I figured, they have these ancient temples called Angkor Wat.
Sabrina: I booked a trip there for the end of November
Johnny: really, ok, very cool. There January I am going to go down to the islands of Koh Rong and Shinokville and party
Sabrina: Worth seeing
Johnny: I remember I think it was few years ago, we are hanging out in Thailand; a friend said what are you doing for new years; they have cheap flight to Bali. I am like alright, well let’s go to Bali.
Sabrina: Everything is so close here like the cost for me to fly across the world is what it cost me for round trip to go across Canada. So to me when you get here and realize how cheap everything is it makes traveling so much more attainable
Johnny: Especially if, you travel light so one thing I definitely recommend to people is don’t bring too much crap that you don’t need you could really show up here with a bag pack, your laptop and you are pretty much set.
Sabrina: Pretty much, you are going to end up wearing the exact thing over and over again so why pack all the excess
Johnny: And you find that back home you would have to keep up with the Jones’s I guess. I notice this with girls, tell me if this true or not is if all the girls in the group are wearing flats all the time then you feel comfortable wearing flats , but as soon as one are two of them start wearing heels you feel like you have to wear heels as well.
Sabrina: Well it instantly kicks in like you want to wear heels; I have to say though it’s super nice to just wear sandals all the time.
Johnny: And you look fine in it
Sabrina: And in a dress
Johnny: Yea, and the thing is, I don’t think guys even notice this I mean I really don’t know …..
Sabrina: You did
Johnny: yah
Sabrina: didn’t you?
Johnny: but the thing is I mean, I guess I notice it, out of a comfort thing, but I didn’t notice it as oh wow why she is not wearing heels because here it would just be impractical.
Sabrina: Yes it’s true it’s like even wearing makeup and most of the girls here don’t really wear makeup because it’s too hot and who cares.
Johnny: is it pretty easy to live out here as girl
Sabrina: Yah it’s pretty breezy
Johnny: I know for single guy it’s super easy for me just to pack up move into a place not worry about, safety or anything but from a woman points a view.
Sabrina: well, yah, I guess it’s a bit different traveling as woman. I came here by myself but knowing that people are here but Thailand feels like a relatively safe country, I mean I always watch my as my mother calls it my six o’clock, but you know
Johnny: Are you talking about your butt?
Sabrina: my back end yah but you know besides that I feel comfortable when I walk to night market by myself I don’t feel like I’m going to get robbed. We leave our laptops in cafes, I mean obviously the fear isn’t huge so…
Johnny: I’m actually kind of guilty of that too where back home even in like San Francisco and California where it is relatively safe but there is no way I going to leave my laptop sitting out when I go out, leaving it somewhere, even when I go to the bath room
Sabrina: You can’t even leave your phone in like a Starbucks in Toronto without it disappearing. No, it just wouldn’t do it’s just a very different culture here for that
Johnny: But here I am actually very guilty of just leaving my laptop out, actually everyday for lunch I know it’s a co-working office so you know relatively it’s in a close environment but I have a brand new Macbook Air and I just leave it on the table when I go to for lunch for hour
Sabrina: Oh yeah that’s exactly what we all did today, one day we might kick ourselves in the pants when we show up and it’s not there but hopefully that doesn’t happen cause it just doesn’t seems to be
Johnny: I been doing that for months and I’m just going to keep doing that because it’s absolutely fine, so , I am not saying nothing bad never happens out here because I am sure there is crime
Sabrina: there is always going to be a horror story, right?
Johnny: Yah
Sabrina: It’s just like I said watch your six o’clock and you should be good and remember you know behave accordingly. It’s a different culture so you behave a different way sometimes
Johnny: But it’s definitely not as bad or even close to being as bad as you know the fear that people have who have never travelled. A mean when people hear that you are moving to Thailand, what are some of the misconception that they had?
Sabrina: that its war torn, I’m going to get kidnapped, I don’t know, I am going to get drowned by a tsunami, it’s ridiculous like my dad went on a rampage, looking up stuff that I was going to drink white fluid in a bucket and die, like half helium balloons or whatever it is. There are common misconceptions but I mean would you behave that at home, no, so why would you behave that way here. I think if you just mind your P’s and Q you’ll be fine. There is always going to be misconceptions but…
Johnny: I think a lot of the things that people do is because they 18 they have never traveled before maybe they are from United States where, they weren’t even allowed to drink back home and they are out here drinking unlimited amount of cheap liquor out of a bucket.
Sabrina: The buckets will kill you no matter what age you are, don’t drink the buckets
Johnny: One thing I think is really cool is having this new generation of people in their late twenties and thirties who are starting to travel and doing more of an entrepreneur life style travel verse the young bag packers . Like the first couple years that I traveled I never really met anyone, who really make money online so it was really hard to have motivation for me to run my own business. But now that I have found Chaing Mai found pub space I’ve found people who are successful it is so much easier and you are really lucky, you are really fortunate to have just jumped straight into that.
Sabrina: I definitely did luck out
Johnny: Have you met anyone else let’s say that’s not part of this huge circle like English teachers for examples?
Sabrina: No, I think I have met maybe one English teacher and that it and she is just visiting sort of passing her way through but no, everyone kind of stick to their you are the digital nomads you kind of stick to your own digital nomads, and I think that they stick with them. I also integrated myself; I came to visit my best friends as much as I came to work so I spend most of time with them.
Johnny: One thing I noticed hanging out with some teachers is they live a normal nine to five life and they get paid, I think they get paid around thirty thousand baht a month which is about a thousand U.S dollars a month which is actually more than enough to live but there is something about them I think they realize that thousand dollars a month that they are making they only make while they are actively working but as soon as they aren’t working as the soon as they are sick or they decide for whatever reason, that money doesn’t come in anymore. So they have to really be really frugal with their savings while the I think the biggest deference with kind of the digital nomads; people that have an online business, is they know money comes in no matter what, no matter where they go.
Sabrina: well I think also is that with the digital nomads, your potential is limitless so how hard you want to work will determine how much you make. Which is I know why so many people are location independent. For me I am in this world but I don’t; I mean I pick up extra work if I need it but far the most part I stick with my regular and so I am at a set limit. But I do have the opportunity to get a new client because of my and I air quote this, expertise.
Johnny: That is definitely a skill that you are building and you are building yourself even without you really knowing it. You are building yourself a client base, you are building yourself a brand, you are building yourself something that eventually will be scalable versus if you are working at a normal job it really not scalable unless you decide to open your own airline.
Sabrina: I don’t think I’ll ever have that much money and I would hate to do it, I think I’ll just stick to my partners.
Johnny: So before I let you go what are three tips , doesn’t have to necessarily have to do with business or traveling or entrepreneur but just three things in general that you think that people could really action on starting today, that would help their lives.
Sabrina: well heads up for me three tips would have been helpful, well let see. Ok so on the ball let say number one; tip number one is don’t just see online entrepreneurship as a risk, because as you have seen back home, having that so call nine to five isn’t necessarily secure so what makes online so risky; so open your mind to it. Tip number two, work hard and be good at what you do because nobody wants to spend their money on crap quality and you won’t build yourself a business or brand or a name for yourself that isn’t good if you don’t produce good quality work. And tip number three you got to have fun with it a mean what the worst that’s going to happen.
Johnny: Yah the worst that can happen is you leave the dreaded winter back home, you have a vacation, you meet some cool people, you see some cool experiences and you go back with a new set of skills and a new perspective on life.
Sabrina: You said it
Johnny: very cool so if you guys want to get in touch with Sabrina you can leave a comment on our blogs this is episode four at the travellikeabosspodcast any final words?
Sabrina: I think I said it all
Johnny: alright guys take care and see you next week.
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 travellikeabosspodcast.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 life style you’ll always dream of
Welcome to the travel like a boss podcast the radio show all about travelling 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: Hey guys what’s up this is Johnny and welcome to another episode, episode number four and this week we have a special guest who I call the accidental entrepreneur Sabrina Taylor from Toronto Canada
Sabrina: that’s such a good name for me
Johnny: it really is right?
Sabrina: yah I have been wondering what to call myself now I will just call myself the accidental entrepreneur
Johnny: perfect so why don’t you tell all the guests listening a little bit about your story and how you ended up here in Chiang Mai Thailand.
Sabrina: well I came to Chiang Mai to help my friends out with work I have been working with them for just over two years now well one of them for longer than that but about two years and it is kind of an extended stayed work and I’ve been helping them out with their social media that is how it started and it developed into high PR branding and back linking and guest blogging and pretty much anything
Johnny: so you are throwing out a bunch of technical terms right now, did you know all these terms before you got started on this.
Sabrina: Good lord no I have to ask them what to call half of what I do I am just like what let me read that SOP (Standard Operating Procedures)
Johnny: what were you doing for a job before this?
Sabrina: flight attendant which I still currently do because that’s part of being in the lifestyle business thing you can kind of do a little bit of everything that you want to, I am a flight attending Airport life.
Johnny: So is it normal for them to lay off employees during winter?
Sabrina: for my company it is so I am laid off during in the winter which is why I have so much free time to come out to Thailand and work from here which is a perk
Johnny: and so if it wasn’t for coming out here and working in Thailand what would you do in previous years when you are laid off for winter.
Sabrina: it’s a pretty new job it has only been the last couple of years so before that I was in school and after school it as the airport life and this job so just kind of been rolling with the punches
Johnny: So it all kind of pretty much brand new this wasn’t some grand scheme I think most people listening to this read The 4-Hour Workweek before pursuing this lifestyle. Did you decide hey I want to do this life and then do some kind of training course I guess like web developing or programing but you are completely opposite.
Sabrina: like to be perfectly honest this all just fell into my lap very much like my jobs at the airline fell into my lap so did this and I just kind of gone with this and luckily it is something that I enjoy and have been learning I’ve definitely learned more in my couple weeks here in Thailand. So it has been educational.
Johnny: that’s cool I mean for the people that are listening that aren’t that tech savvy doing your job is that something that really anyone that can update their Facebook do or does it require more technical training.
Sabrina: well you don’t need any technical training I mean I learned everything from like on the go like I didn’t definitely didn’t do any training for it. If you can read and write and have a little bit of you know you are good with grammar I think you should be able to do it at least at the very least figure it out.
Johnny: ok very cool so for those who are listening and wondering what these random bird chirps are in the background Sabrina and I are actually sitting outside of Pun space which is out co-working office space where we met and a gecko just walked by
Sabrina: a little baby gecko, it’s adorable I wish you could see it
Johnny: yah and it has been raining a little bit over the last couple of days
Sabrina: a little bit?
Johnny: a lot a bit, but overall what do you think of the weather here compared to Toronto during the winter.
Sabrina: it’s been kicking my butt cause I am so use for fifteen degrees back home right now it is falling so it is a bit chiller back there so the forty degree humidity is making me sweat it is making me lose weight, very good girls
Johnny: It’s got a whole life style. Its great being out here, overall
Sabrina: this is the healthiest I have been in years like I am a clean eater G-free not since ninety three but that’s close enough
Johnny: that’s all right
Sabrina: this is definitely the healthiest because everything you can pretty much pick up fresh from a farmers market, definitely don’t use as much pesticides as North America and everybody is kind of outside being fit.
Johnny: wait is Canada North America?
Sabrina: yes
Johnny: I am kidding
Sabrina: you can see our igloos
Johnny: nice so let’s talk a little bit about the actual lifestyle out here in Chiang Mai. Was this your first trip out to Thailand?
Sabrina: This is my second trip to Thailand but my first to the mountains. My first time was about a year and a half ago I did a little island hopping with my colleagues I guess or whatever, my work partners, So this definitely a different experience being away from the beach and not drinking buckets every night
Johnny: I think for me Chiang Mai is the one place where I feel I have pretty much a normal life
Sabrina: yah like this is the closest there are gyms, yoga, there is the farmers market that you can visit there is the co-working space like everything that I would do if I were back home is what I could do here but it is just like way healthier for some reason
Johnny: and cheaper
Sabrina: yah definitely cheaper
Johnny: let’s talk a little bit about your living expenses and then we are going to talk about other ways people make money while they are out here.
Sabrina: well living expenses are definitely cut in quarters from what it would be like in North America basically I have a studio apartment here and you can get a decent studio apartment in a safe building I pay three hundred dollars a month and I get maid service, wi-fi , a pool, a gym. I mean that’s is not too shabby for three hundred bucks
Johnny: yah and you are a one minute walk away from really, really great, Thai food and every Saturday it is probably my favorite outdoor market, the Saturday market right by your house
Sabrina: oh I went to that this weekend it was just great the night markets.
Johnny: yah amazing food I had some roasted sweet potatoes which were amazing and then I had my one a week sweet potatoes, my only carbs I have and I had these pork skewers which were amazing and a fresh coconut and I could walk around for hours
Sabrina: you love your coconut
Johnny: yah definitely, oh yes speaking of coconuts actually on the motorcycle ride back from lunch
Sabrina: and a giant coconut
Johnny: yah it is my daily routine and it is fifty cents for a fresh coconut they chop it in half for you and what are some of your favorite food since you have been out here.
Sabrina: curry, you can’t beat the curry; spicy
Johnny: and is there curry in Toronto?
Sabrina: is curry in Toronto, where do you think I am from
Johnny: I don’t know
Sabrina: of course there is curry, it’s not the same like everything here is just better and there is bamboo shoots and the spicy peppers and they just make it better.
Johnny: cool ok so the food is great, the weather is great, it is cheap to live here and the other thing a lot of people don’t think about is it is actually pretty easy to make money when you are out here you are not going to make a hundred thousand dollars a year starting out but you can get away with; what do you think the monthly budget is where you can live out here
Sabrina: I think you can definitely live off a thousand dollars out here there is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to because you have so many options when it comes to pricing for housing, food, I mean lunch for me today cost just over one Canadian dollar I mean if you eat three meals like that that is four dollars tops a day, that’s peanuts, but the best thing that I have gotten to experience is meeting people because Chiang Mai in particular is such a business oriented area like the co-working space has been a great experience you meet people that are working hard, I have never worked this hard, but I don’t hate it, it is something that I am enjoying because everybody is in that zone and you feel their energy and you just kind of go with it which is why my friends felt so strongly about me coming to check out the place.
Johnny: yes you got real lucky about having friends that happen to; they needed someone to write all of their social media because they knew you for so long you were a perfect fit at the same time I am sure there are a lot of people who would have been too scared to come out. What made you decide hey let me give this a try?
Sabrina: first hand worse it was just a two month vacation some here a lot nicer than Canada so I couldn’t really go wrong but I have the time, a lot of people don’t have the time off to be able to do something like this but if you do it is definitely worthwhile
Johnny: I think that for anyone that doesn’t currently have a career or a job back in North America or back anywhere if they had just a little bit of savings they could come out here build a business or even do what you did is just find another startup who need your services and get a job.
Sabrina: well yah there is definitely people out there who are willing to hire, you can always find somebody online it is a lot of hard work which is what some people do not understand
Johnny: but when you say hard work it is not like when you say hard work it is not like hard like it is back home where you even dread waking up.
Sabrina: the 9:00 to 5:00 office
Johnny: yah
Sabrina: it is not the same
Johnny: I mean here you can kind of work on your own schedule you can come to the can take a break whenever you want there is no real boss beating down your throat even though you are technically working for someone it isn’t; it’s a start up environment.
Sabrina: it is definitely a startup environment you definitively have to have initiative which is something that you don’t need in an office because they are always going to give you task which is part of the reason why I like working for somebody though because they have tasks they give them to me and while I do take initiative for certain things I am always being told and that works and that works.
Johnny: Sometimes I feel I forget that some people just enjoy working and having a set schedule and having a list of things to do. Not everyone wants to go out and try to imagine up their own business all the time.
Sabrina: It can be daunting to start your own business which is why I like being on the other end of it.
Johnny: I think one of the greatest things that people do for learning experience is start out by helping someone else out with their business and thorough do that you learn the skills and you make all the connections where, if you ever wanted to you could branch off and do your own product and do your own online business.
Sabrina: Oh absolutely, like I’ve learn heaps by working with my partners. They’re constantly teaching me new things because they need me to do new tasks that they don’t have time to do, so I am always learning something different and it’s definitely broaden my horizons for that.
Johnny: One think I have noticed is that there is a job board here at pun space at the front desk, where people are trying to hire assistance and other people to just kind of help out with their business. They never get filled, because everyone here has their own business, duh!
Sabrina: I know I kind of like the fluke here, because everyone’s like, do you plan on starting your own I am like no, nah! Sounds like a lot more work than what I am doing now.
Johnny: It’s actually perfect because you get all the skills you know exactly what you are going to do, you get to kind of live this life, enjoy all the benefits of it learn everything with those people without taking any risk of being on your own.
Sabrina: Absolutely, and I mean hey if worst came to worst and they decided to just sent me from their business. At least I would know how to start on my own if I wanted to but they are not going to do that.
Johnny: Yea that’s actually true let’s briefly talk about what actual social media marketing is and some people might ask, well why can’t they just out source this to India or to the Philippines and pay someone else a lot less money. So what exactly do you do; kind of a brief over view of what you do and what are the benefits of them hiring a native English speaker verses out sourcing to India or Philippines?
Sabrina: Well I like to brand myself as quality. You are paying for my quality when hire somebody who’s a native speaker or who isn’t outsourced. You want someone who have invested in what you business is if you are going to hire them basically like it’s part of the team building aspect, which is why; I mean I understand why people get V.A’s, virtual assistants or outsource to foreign country for cheap prices but that cheap price is going to be reflected in you work, from what I can tell.
Johnny: I know at least for now one think that works in Google rankings is having some little articles from high P.R. sites, write an article and have a link back to your site and it doesn’t really matter what the quality of the content is as long as it’s certain amount of words and has the right anchor text and has the right context, but I really think that Google is trying to get rid of that and I believe that they’re going to be successful getting rid of that, you know relatively soon if not within a year are two and they are going to look for real quality content that’s actually written by people who care what they are writing.
Sabrina: Well there is always going to need to be high quality articles that pertain to exactly what you are doing but with a high P.R articles I mean they are so many high ranking websites with the right anchor text and the right back links and that’s what you are building, you are building back links and the material does have to reflect what you are writing on it can’t just be all willy nilly. It does have to link in to a certain extent, but with so many google updates.
They are killing the rain forest with their updates, the panda’s and penguins. I mean it’s always going to be changing but for now it’s something that definitely works for people.
Johnny: I think what will always work no matter what is having good quality content that people actually enjoy reading that people actually enjoy sharing and having it posted on places that are genuine sites that people enjoy going to, that they are not being tricked into going to.
Sabrina: well that’s the heart of quest blogging
Johnny: Yea
Sabrina: Yes, but the good thing about guest blogging is you get to reach out to other people you build network with other bloggers so say you have an online product you want to launch now you have a group of people who like your material, who like you and are willing to help you spread that. So you get a broader reach when you go for that.
Johnny: And I definitely don’t think that you could get that same following if you paid two dollars an article from some guy in the Philippines who didn’t really care what he was writing.
Sabrina: No, You definitely need to have somebody who has invested in what you are writing and it helps if you are actually enjoying what you are writing about. I have done hundreds of guest blogs and you have to infuse personality and good grammar into those sorts of things and you are not going to get that for two dollars.
Johnny: Grammar ain’t nobody have time for that
Sabrina: You better write that off of that or you just pay me to do it for you.
Johnny: I definitely think that; I don’t really know what your official job title is
Sabrina: You just called it accidental entrepreneur
Johnny: but I definitely do think that these type of jobs are going to be fast growing especially in this economy where; I know Toronto is not as bad as the U.S but the US it’s really hard to find jobs nowadays but at the same time, it is just as easy as always to start you own business and part of starting your own business is eventually scaling it where you do need employees
Sabrina: well yah, I actually think the hardest part is to find people who do what I do because anybody can start a business but building a team within that business isn’t always easy and I have seen my partners go through that trying to find people who are invested who are going to give high quality work and that’s tough to find and it would be in any given job but its seems to be harder in Thailand.
Johnny: Especially when you are overseas I mean it’s much easier to work with somebody who is here that you can just kind of tap on the shoulder, you can meet at the office space everyday and be like hey you know, what going on.
Sabrina: Oh hands down, like we worked together in Canada for a year straight off their coach but it was good because you could bounce ideas off each other and we were always around each other and then we’ve had exactly ten months in between before I landed in Chiang Mai and not having thirteen thousand kilometers between us and working, its tuff, it is incredible stuff. So even just being here for the two weeks have been, a mean you can tell how much easier it is.
Johnny: yea definitely, one thing I am in the process doing right now for my own business is for one of my ecommerce stores, I take customer orders on the phone sometimes and right now that I have been traveling the time zones are completely reversed so people are calling me at four in the morning and it is just going straight to voice mail and I know I am losing some sales for that, for now I actually decided, let me just let it go to voice mail while I figure it out but eventually, I do need to hire an assistant. I actually need to hire need to hire someone in the US. to so that they can pick up the calls at the right time but because it is so hard for me to coordinate between the US, if it wasn’t for that specific need there is no way I would want to partner up or hire somebody to help with the business that in a different time zone I rather be able to just see them and have lunch with them and like hey this what we need to do today.
Sabrina: Well it’s definitely easier to be in the same time zone but when you are working with something that in a different country, yea, it’s harder to find those employees too I would imagine.
Johnny: let’s talk a little bit about the random various jobs that people that you have just met have been doing online. How long have you actually been here?
Sabrina: Almost two weeks exactly
Johnny: And you’ve met quite a few people since you have been here. What are some random jobs, that’s usually the first thing you asked each other, right, what do you do?
Sabrina: The most random would be the one I heard today at lunch, selling erectile dysfunction pills. I mean there is a niche for everything here. There are ecommerce which I had to have described to me today again at lunch. So a lot of people in ecommerce a lot of people creating their own online products like study guides for certain subjects or affiliate marketing. What else; a lot of ecommerce I run into.
Johnny: There are a lot of programmers out here
Sabrina: A lot of people writing codes beside me which just look like gibberish on the screen.
Johnny: yea, usually anytime you see a black screen with a green text
Sabrina: There are definitely a lot of people. I met a couple that are developing a body app for your phone so you can chart your body weight.
Johnny: Body tracking
Sabrina: Everything
Johnny: It’s a good app I have that on my phone. We met a guy who makes all the crime city games on the I phone and android. There is a guy that I met who does Panda DMB which is a YouTube channel where he has guess DJ uploads their new DMB mixes unto his site.
Sabrina: Oh, that’s cool
Johnny: so really, I mean there are all these different random jobs that can be done while traveling down here
Sabrina: well yah you could do just about anything and the best is because you are meeting people in different niches you get to bounce ideas off of each other and learn something new and maybe learn about something you never heard of and incorporate that into whatever it is that you are doing and that can make all the difference in your business.
Johnny: And being out here is definitely been the best education that I have ever had for learning these business skills.
Sabrina: Absolutely
Johnny: I mean this is probably better than getting an MBA
Sabrina: oh is it?
Johnny: I really believe so
Sabrina: I wouldn’t want to do a MBA, so I am not going to disagree with you
Johnny: I actually met a business owner recently who had his online business for years and decided to go back and do his MBA thinking it would benefit him and about a month in the class he realized I am being taught by professors who have never successfully built a business.
Sabrina: There you go and I mean you said it earlier today that you know part of having your own business is that you don’t really have an over head when you have an online business, nothing substantial like if you were to open a restaurant somewhere or a store you have major over head that you need to cover and who has that kind of cash these days. So doing it online you basically have the tiniest overhead possible like domain names, and web hosting and what not and then the rest is just gain.
Johnny: Yah and that allows me to do other things like offer, free shipping promotions and offer a lot of value in which other companies wouldn’t be able to do because they have to spend all their money paying for employees, paying for rent, paying for equipment paying for inventory. I mean let’s say you wanted to start a store that sold water bottles in Canada in Toronto. What would some of those upfront costs be?
Sabrina: They would be outrageous, you are looking at marketing, branding, actual cost of material those are things that you don’t have to worry about online.
Johnny: Not to mention renting a store front getting a…
Sabrina: Competition alone
Johnny: twelve month lease on it, we would have to take out a huge business loan and put our credit on the line basically to open a store front and we would then have to employ employees, buy cash register, pay for utilities I mean it would be hundreds of thousands of dollars to get into a business that we don’t even know it‘s going to work.
Sabrina: Yah definitely,
Johnny: versus being out here and starting an online store or an online business, if it doesn’t work I really didn’t lose anything a mean I‘ve started ….
Sabrina: and you got to get experience out of it
Johnny: So let’s talk a little bit about no more jobs back home verses the jobs out here I’m sure there are some pros and cons of it and you are a good person to ask because you went to school got a normal job now that you are pretty new to this. What are some of the pros and cons that you see in both?
Sabrina: well right now with the economic state of North America in particular you know it’s hard to find a job. I have never found a job that was in my field of education, remind you I studied the most outrageous stuff like I have degrees in philosophy, psychology and sociology I don’t know what I was planning on doing passing five years of my life apparently. So it’s hard to find a job so there is a pro to working online that’s something you can take control of. A con I work for an airline I am laid off right now I would say that’s a pretty good con. I have no control over my future there I am at the mercy of them calling me back or not and this is something that so far is a constant.
Johnny: You mentioned something about some of your coworkers and imagine yourself as being fifty and still working the same job you want to elaborate on that a little bit.
Sabrina: Yah, what I was saying is you know I don’t want to be serving others when I am fifty years old not that I am not putting in down; for me it is just not what I was looking for. I want something that I could do on my home if I want to at some point, when you start to have a family being able to manage a business from home makes a big difference.
Johnny: There is a guy named Pat Flynn who wrote a book called Let Go and even though he has a location, independent business he chooses to stay at home because he has a family, his little son, and what he values most is been able to be there and spend time with his son. He works out of his home office, he has a Pod cast as well and he was there to see his son’s first steps which is awesome and so when it comes time if I ever have a family of my own I would love to be able to just be able to work from home whenever I want; and be able to take out two hours out of my day to take my kid to the park.
Sabrina: yah it’s definitely is a perk for that.
Johnny: So whether you want to travel the world or you want to stay and you just want to live one place like we are kind of doing now or if you wanted to stay at home wherever you were born or raise and have free time it all works out. A little bit about what we are doing now is even though we are technically traveling we are all kind of settle down here Chaing Mai. So it kind of like we are living not really as an expat but we are living in Chaing Mai semi-permanently. We are not necessarily back packing around verses what I use to do versus what a lot of people would do is just kind of live on a back pack in the dorms, live here and there for a couple weeks. What are some of the benefits you see of putting down your roots in a like a place like Chaing Mai.
Sabrina: Well you can kind of have the best of both worlds if you want like if you are a nester I’m a nester. I like to build a home around myself you can do that you can have all your regular routines, like I said the farmers market, your gym, or yoga, your work all that is something you can find here it is not necessarily something you’ll find on a smaller island and like if you are back packing you’ll be constantly on the go it is affordable which make it so much easier as well.
Johnny: One thing that I’m doing is I am looking for another apartment, I am staying in an hotel for a month which is awesome just being able to have that flexibility to do so there is no way I’ll be able to afford to pay for month of the Marriott back home but here I’m actually at a real nice hotel and I pay about 400 bucks a month and I was thinking should I upgrade sign a contract for a nice place that’s let say about six hundred bucks a month where I get a one bed room apartment you know and basically live in a suite or should I have the flexibility of staying in a slightly cheaper place that’s still very nice but I wouldn’t mind just leaving it empty for three weeks at a time when I go down to the islands and hang out just to party.
Sabrina: you see, I am a bit of a minimalist so I don’t have a problem, I don’t need all the bells and whistles that come with a bigger place or something, I don’t even have a microwave in my apartment.
Johnny: But you don’t need to, with the amount of food around here I mean. Like literally a block away from the house you have twenty different food places.
Sabrina: Yah so that’s kind of why I don’t feel the need to do something upgraded whereas in Toronto for example I would never live like this.
Johnny: I think also back home most people aren’t excited about the day to day life so they need someone to go back to, to relax and a lot of people on weekends I know at least for me and all my friends we work so hard Monday to Friday at a job that we didn’t necessarily love and our weekends were reserved for going out partying, drinking all night and then just laying around all Saturday and Sunday kind of in a hung over state
Sabrina: yah that sounds like a typical back home activity for sure, it is not like that here
Johnny: but here on weekends we cliff jumping at this beautiful lagoon, there are waterfalls, there is hiking there is….
Sabrina: the quarry, the night markets documentary like outdoors and stuff it is crazy
Johnny: And we are close enough, if we wanted to we could take a short flight somewhere, like I am planning on going to Cambodia for a few weeks. The next time my visa’s up just because I’ve never been there. I figured, they have these ancient temples called Angkor Wat.
Sabrina: I booked a trip there for the end of November
Johnny: really, ok, very cool. There January I am going to go down to the islands of Koh Rong and Shinokville and party
Sabrina: Worth seeing
Johnny: I remember I think it was few years ago, we are hanging out in Thailand; a friend said what are you doing for new years; they have cheap flight to Bali. I am like alright, well let’s go to Bali.
Sabrina: Everything is so close here like the cost for me to fly across the world is what it cost me for round trip to go across Canada. So to me when you get here and realize how cheap everything is it makes traveling so much more attainable
Johnny: Especially if, you travel light so one thing I definitely recommend to people is don’t bring too much crap that you don’t need you could really show up here with a bag pack, your laptop and you are pretty much set.
Sabrina: Pretty much, you are going to end up wearing the exact thing over and over again so why pack all the excess
Johnny: And you find that back home you would have to keep up with the Jones’s I guess. I notice this with girls, tell me if this true or not is if all the girls in the group are wearing flats all the time then you feel comfortable wearing flats , but as soon as one are two of them start wearing heels you feel like you have to wear heels as well.
Sabrina: Well it instantly kicks in like you want to wear heels; I have to say though it’s super nice to just wear sandals all the time.
Johnny: And you look fine in it
Sabrina: And in a dress
Johnny: Yea, and the thing is, I don’t think guys even notice this I mean I really don’t know …..
Sabrina: You did
Johnny: yah
Sabrina: didn’t you?
Johnny: but the thing is I mean, I guess I notice it, out of a comfort thing, but I didn’t notice it as oh wow why she is not wearing heels because here it would just be impractical.
Sabrina: Yes it’s true it’s like even wearing makeup and most of the girls here don’t really wear makeup because it’s too hot and who cares.
Johnny: is it pretty easy to live out here as girl
Sabrina: Yah it’s pretty breezy
Johnny: I know for single guy it’s super easy for me just to pack up move into a place not worry about, safety or anything but from a woman points a view.
Sabrina: well, yah, I guess it’s a bit different traveling as woman. I came here by myself but knowing that people are here but Thailand feels like a relatively safe country, I mean I always watch my as my mother calls it my six o’clock, but you know
Johnny: Are you talking about your butt?
Sabrina: my back end yah but you know besides that I feel comfortable when I walk to night market by myself I don’t feel like I’m going to get robbed. We leave our laptops in cafes, I mean obviously the fear isn’t huge so…
Johnny: I’m actually kind of guilty of that too where back home even in like San Francisco and California where it is relatively safe but there is no way I going to leave my laptop sitting out when I go out, leaving it somewhere, even when I go to the bath room
Sabrina: You can’t even leave your phone in like a Starbucks in Toronto without it disappearing. No, it just wouldn’t do it’s just a very different culture here for that
Johnny: But here I am actually very guilty of just leaving my laptop out, actually everyday for lunch I know it’s a co-working office so you know relatively it’s in a close environment but I have a brand new Macbook Air and I just leave it on the table when I go to for lunch for hour
Sabrina: Oh yeah that’s exactly what we all did today, one day we might kick ourselves in the pants when we show up and it’s not there but hopefully that doesn’t happen cause it just doesn’t seems to be
Johnny: I been doing that for months and I’m just going to keep doing that because it’s absolutely fine, so , I am not saying nothing bad never happens out here because I am sure there is crime
Sabrina: there is always going to be a horror story, right?
Johnny: Yah
Sabrina: It’s just like I said watch your six o’clock and you should be good and remember you know behave accordingly. It’s a different culture so you behave a different way sometimes
Johnny: But it’s definitely not as bad or even close to being as bad as you know the fear that people have who have never travelled. A mean when people hear that you are moving to Thailand, what are some of the misconception that they had?
Sabrina: that its war torn, I’m going to get kidnapped, I don’t know, I am going to get drowned by a tsunami, it’s ridiculous like my dad went on a rampage, looking up stuff that I was going to drink white fluid in a bucket and die, like half helium balloons or whatever it is. There are common misconceptions but I mean would you behave that at home, no, so why would you behave that way here. I think if you just mind your P’s and Q you’ll be fine. There is always going to be misconceptions but…
Johnny: I think a lot of the things that people do is because they 18 they have never traveled before maybe they are from United States where, they weren’t even allowed to drink back home and they are out here drinking unlimited amount of cheap liquor out of a bucket.
Sabrina: The buckets will kill you no matter what age you are, don’t drink the buckets
Johnny: One thing I think is really cool is having this new generation of people in their late twenties and thirties who are starting to travel and doing more of an entrepreneur life style travel verse the young bag packers . Like the first couple years that I traveled I never really met anyone, who really make money online so it was really hard to have motivation for me to run my own business. But now that I have found Chaing Mai found pub space I’ve found people who are successful it is so much easier and you are really lucky, you are really fortunate to have just jumped straight into that.
Sabrina: I definitely did luck out
Johnny: Have you met anyone else let’s say that’s not part of this huge circle like English teachers for examples?
Sabrina: No, I think I have met maybe one English teacher and that it and she is just visiting sort of passing her way through but no, everyone kind of stick to their you are the digital nomads you kind of stick to your own digital nomads, and I think that they stick with them. I also integrated myself; I came to visit my best friends as much as I came to work so I spend most of time with them.
Johnny: One thing I noticed hanging out with some teachers is they live a normal nine to five life and they get paid, I think they get paid around thirty thousand baht a month which is about a thousand U.S dollars a month which is actually more than enough to live but there is something about them I think they realize that thousand dollars a month that they are making they only make while they are actively working but as soon as they aren’t working as the soon as they are sick or they decide for whatever reason, that money doesn’t come in anymore. So they have to really be really frugal with their savings while the I think the biggest deference with kind of the digital nomads; people that have an online business, is they know money comes in no matter what, no matter where they go.
Sabrina: well I think also is that with the digital nomads, your potential is limitless so how hard you want to work will determine how much you make. Which is I know why so many people are location independent. For me I am in this world but I don’t; I mean I pick up extra work if I need it but far the most part I stick with my regular and so I am at a set limit. But I do have the opportunity to get a new client because of my and I air quote this, expertise.
Johnny: That is definitely a skill that you are building and you are building yourself even without you really knowing it. You are building yourself a client base, you are building yourself a brand, you are building yourself something that eventually will be scalable versus if you are working at a normal job it really not scalable unless you decide to open your own airline.
Sabrina: I don’t think I’ll ever have that much money and I would hate to do it, I think I’ll just stick to my partners.
Johnny: So before I let you go what are three tips , doesn’t have to necessarily have to do with business or traveling or entrepreneur but just three things in general that you think that people could really action on starting today, that would help their lives.
Sabrina: well heads up for me three tips would have been helpful, well let see. Ok so on the ball let say number one; tip number one is don’t just see online entrepreneurship as a risk, because as you have seen back home, having that so call nine to five isn’t necessarily secure so what makes online so risky; so open your mind to it. Tip number two, work hard and be good at what you do because nobody wants to spend their money on crap quality and you won’t build yourself a business or brand or a name for yourself that isn’t good if you don’t produce good quality work. And tip number three you got to have fun with it a mean what the worst that’s going to happen.
Johnny: Yah the worst that can happen is you leave the dreaded winter back home, you have a vacation, you meet some cool people, you see some cool experiences and you go back with a new set of skills and a new perspective on life.
Sabrina: You said it
Johnny: very cool so if you guys want to get in touch with Sabrina you can leave a comment on our blogs this is episode four at the travellikeabosspodcast any final words?
Sabrina: I think I said it all
Johnny: alright guys take care and see you next week.
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 travellikeabosspodcast.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 life style you’ll always dream of
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