Interview with Nick Jordan from Content Distribution

Hey Nick,

First off thank you for taking the time to get involved in this interview for my readers.

As is so common these days we got messaging on Facebook as we’re members of similar groups and have mutual friends.

I was really interested in a new SaaS offering called ClusterAi that massively reduces the time needed to research your online content strategy.

The work you have done building massive audiences with your clients is outstanding!

You have helped clients grow their search traffic without needing to pull the grey hat SEO’s typically worn by marketers to dominate Google.

I am keen to discover your secret sauce.

So, thanks again Nick for spending time with me today, and let’s jump straight into this with our first question.

It would be great to get some background on where you’re from, your early life, studying.

Honestly, I think people in my line of work (SEO, marketing) usually have a similar story.

I was born in Seattle, never was a great student, dropped out of college even though my parents insisted I stay.

Once I dropped out, I went and lived in Rio de Janeiro. That meant being 3000 miles away from everyone I knew, in a country whose language I didn’t speak, so it was a rough experience. Still, that experience taught me a lot and really prepared me for what I was about to accomplish.

In the last 10-years, you have worked with companies to grow massive audiences online. How did you first get started and what are you working on now?

I made a rookie mistake of founding startups before I had much “employee” experience. Those startups obviously failed, including going through a “co-founder break up” and everything that goes with it.

The next thing you know, I’m at this Hacker Live meetup, and I start talking with a startup founder. I didn’t even know what he was talking about, with all kinds of “enterprise” stuff and technology involved.

He invited me to a job interview, and eventually, I got hired.

Hired for the role I wasn’t ready for in the industry I knew nothing about.

So, I ended up in this company as employee #8.

I was negotiating, closing, and going to market with companies like Rackspace, GoDaddy, Sprint, Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and all of their peers across Canada, EU, and APAC.

Worked with people at the peak of their career, 20 years older than me, and in four years, we grew to 200 employees without raising money.

Then imploded. I burnt out, and I spent 6 months on a beach after resigning.

Sitting on a beach sounds great, but it’s actually pretty boring.

And after a few months of being bored, a good friend asked me to join his SEO agency to help with marketing and sales.

I grew our blog from 0 to 100,000 organics/month in 13 months and continued developing my SEO skill set through smaller, less ambitious internal projects.

For various reasons, after two years it was time for me to leave and do my own thing, so I resigned. Then bought ContentDistribution.com on a credit card and began hustling to pay it off.

In the last 20 or so months, we’ve taken 3 more projects from 0 to 100,000 organics/month in a year or so.

The biggest project, DoNotPay has actually grown from 0 to 350,000 organics/month in 14 months.

Today ContentDistribution.com has 25 full-time team members and we have more demand than capacity.

You have tonnes of information on your site for anyone developing online content strategies. You differ from most online marketers in how you research content strategies to bring in traffic. What are we doing wrong and what should we be going?

In SEO, a lot of people believe that backlinks are the primary ranking signal. My experience indicates that’s not true.

Think about it this way. The most sophisticated data company in the world, Google, needs to increase its ad revenue QoQ. At a minimum, they need to maintain their existing market share.

Google generated over 160 billion dollars in 2019. Just a 1% drop in market share represents over a billion-dollar loss and signals potential further erosion.

The easiest way for Google to maintain its market share is simply to deliver the best search results. And that is Google’s number one goal.

It would be a major oversight if Google, the world’s most sophisticated big data company, the same company that owns Google Analytics (99% market share) and Google Chrome (70% market share) isn’t using that data to determine which page adds more value to the user than another page.

If you think about it, it’s kind of intuitive. User engagement metrics better measure reader value than a fussy metric like backlinks.

This is actually good news for you. Instead of focusing on “200 ranking factors”, you can focus just on one with the highest ROI. I am, of course, talking about quality content.

One of the most important aspects of content gets overlooked way too often. That aspect is content velocity.

The reason why content velocity is so important is because of the two biggest bottlenecks in organic search.

1. How long things sit in your content calendar?
2. Once you publish the page, how long does it take to rank?

You can’t rank for a cluster of keywords until you have a page that’s relevant to that cluster of keywords.

If your opportunity size is hundreds and hundreds of unique pages of content, publishing ten pages a month will take you years to actually be where your audience is searching. The faster you publish, the less time content sits on your content calendar and the sooner it begins ranking.

The fact that Google works this way should actually be really exciting for you because it means organic search is accessible.

You’re not praying to the backlink gods, your outcomes are dictated by your ability to create great value for your reader. And that’s something everyone can do.

You have recently released a tool that not only takes the pain out of keyword analysis for planning your content strategy but use a more data-driven approach. How can ClusterAi help?

Let me give you an example.

Our most successful project so far, DoNotPay, got to 353k monthly organic visits in 14 months.

We’re on page one for 35,165 of those keywords

To get there, we had to publish 1,200 pages. This meant grouping 500,000 keywords. That process would obviously take months even for an SEO expert.

With ClusterAi, we did it in less than 10 hours, over the course of one year.

So, that’s how much time ClusterAi can save you. The other thing where it’s gonna help you is the actual quality of your keyword research.

You can find great keyword research guides out there, from Brian Dean’s Definitive Guide to Ahrefs’ “How to Do Keyword Research for SEO”, but they all have one thing in common.

Keyword research decisions are made based on opinions and gut feelings. This is fine when you have experts like Matt Diggity doing the research for you, but in the long run, you should create a process for doing it internally.

That’s where ClusterAi comes in. Instead of basing your entire SEO strategy on your (even worse, someone else’s) opinion, it allows you to make data-based decisions.

Our keyword grouping tool gets that data straight from Google’s SERP. If you’re trying to rank on Google, might as well get the data from the same place, right?

Finally, this allows you to rank high consistently. We took 4 projects from 0 to +100k in 12 months, using the exact same approach and ClusterAi for keyword research.

You recently gave me a demo of your ClusterAI tool, I can see how this can save weeks of work. Literally, within minutes you can get a content plan for the next 1-2 years. Can give us a brief overview of how easy this is with ClusterAi

Keyword grouping really is easy with ClusterAi. Here’s all you need to do:

1. Do your keyword research in Ahrefs, SEMRush or Google Search Console
2. Export the keyword list
3. Import the keyword list into ClusterAi
4. Start writing

Here’s a more detailed video tutorial:

ClusterAI takes the guesswork out of keyword research and avoids the common mistakes made by beginners and seasoned pros. What are the most common mistakes made?

The most common mistake made is trying to rank for different keywords that can’t rank together on the same page.

Let’s take a look at one popular keyword example, LinkedIn Headline Examples, and LinkedIn Profile Examples.

Your regular content writer will usually think this is basically the same thing and will try to talk about both in a single article. That way you can potentially rank for both of these (high volume) terms.

Although this seems like a great idea, there’s one problem.

Every first-page search result is optimized for one keyword or the other, not both. What that means is there are no pages that rank that is optimized for both.

That’s a very good indicator that if you try to optimize your page for both keywords you wouldn’t rank for either. What you should do instead is create a dedicated page for each keyword.

This is one of the mistakes that ClusterAi prevents by relying on data. It will immediately acknowledge that ranking for both terms with a single page isn’t possible, and will suggest that you need to create separate pages in order to rank for each.

Organic traffic can be overlooked by many eCommerce brands. So, I am keen to get some tips on how you believe I can grow my brand SuperGreen TONIK.

There’s going to be a handful of opportunities at the bottom of the funnel-like buy greens powder but what we’ve seen is that Google doesn’t like to rank thin sites.

The sites that rank the best for the most competitive terms have a lot of supporting content.

What that means is, yes, you want to rank for the bottom of the funnel keywords but you also want to create the content at the top and the middle of the funnel. Those internal links will power up your bottom of the funnel pages and will also bring users that are searching in the top and the middle to the bottom-funnel content.

You can also easily retarget them with Facebook Ads or simply capture their email address with a good lead generation model.

To saturate the entire funnel, you need to create informational content, reviews, comparisons of your product, and your competitors, literally everything your audience searches and needs to know.

One of the biggest problems that great brands have is they’re not being considered when the consumer is making the decision. Being everywhere your target audience is searching enables you to create or capture that awareness so you are considered during future purchasing decisions.

What’s next for your Nick, any big plans for 2021 and beyond?

The first internal project we did was Doggypedia and we took it from 0 to 116k monthly organic visits in 13 months. We sold it for $30,000 since we weren’t ready to monetize it at the time.

In 2021, Content Distribution is going to do more internal projects like that. Now that we took multiple projects from 0 to 100k in less than a year, it’s time we do that for ourselves.

With a keyword grouping tool like ClusterAi and our great team, I'm pretty confident we can achieve anything.

Our goal is to generate 50% of our revenue from internal projects, and ClusterAi is definitely one of the ways to achieve this.

Hey Nate,

First off thank you for taking the time to get involved in this interview for my readers.

We met very briefly in Bangkok during the Affiliate World Asia conference in 2019 although we didn’t get to speak. I later found out you're the host of Ecommerce Exits Podcast. We connected on Facebook recently when I enrolled in your Dream Team Hiring Funnel beta training group.

Your online success is impressive, and I am keen to learn more about how you founded, scaled, and exited several 7-figure businesses.

So, thanks again Nate for spending time with me today, and let’s jump straight into this with our first question.

It would be great to get some background on where you’re from, your early life, studying, and first jobs.

I grew up in Minneapolis, MN. Pretty normal suburban American life. Both of my parents were transplants from the East Coast which I think instilled in me the idea that we can live wherever we want vs staying where we grow up.

I graduated from university in 2010 which was a terrible job market. I didn’t want to get a boring office job and wanted to travel and adventure so I went to teach English in Korea for the year after I graduated.

It was a great experience. Also challenging.

It’s boring teaching the same lesson 15x a week and being the only native English speaker I’d interact with most weekdays can get lonely and isolating. The job did allow me to travel all over Asia for the first time which was great.

After my contract finished in Korea I went on a backpacking trip around SE Asia for a few months on my way back to the USA. It was during this trip that I met my first ‘digital nomad’ that totally opened my eyes to the possibilities of working online and changed the trajectory of my life/career.

When I got back to the USA I got to work on attempting to build my first online business. The original plan didn’t work, but I was able to ‘fail forward’ and pick up some freelance work which gave me enough income to take off and travel again.

So, in the spring of 2013, I left the USA making a few thousand dollars a month which has evolved into my life and career of entrepreneurship.

How did you get into working online? What were your early failures and successes?

I met Andrew in Pai. A small town in northern Thailand. He was the first ‘digital nomad’ that I met and really opened my eyes to what was possible working online. He gave me the idea to build lead gen SEO websites and when I got back to America I got to work attempting to build my first online business.

The only problem was I didn’t have any skills.

But I did know about oDesk (now Upwork) and knew if I could tap into the incredible human resources available I could figure something out.

Fast forward and the Google Panda update pretty much killed my SEO sites, but the skills I learned about internet marketing and hiring allowed me to keep going and pick up some consulting clients as a freelancer.

What was your first major breakthrough working online? Can you tell us about your eCommerce business and if you feel comfortable revealing some numbers?

I was still making just a few thousand dollars a month when I moved to Saigon, Vietnam at the end of 2013. This was a huge inflection point in my life/career when I became engulfed and surrounded by the entrepreneur scene in Vietnam. The crew was amazing. Many of the people I met those days are still my closest friends.

It was then that I learned about eCom and selling on FBA from some of the other guys. My freelancing was going ok but I wanted to build a real business for myself. Something that was scaleable. I tried a bunch of different eCom models, a few dropshipping sites, etc. Until I gave FBA a go at the end of 2014.

FBA started slow for me. My first product selling OK but not taking off.

My second product went live in the spring of 2015 and that was the one that really hit as a winner.

I remember in the summer of 2015 my sales doubled every month.

From 3k to 6k to 15k to 30k to 50k to our first 100k+ month in December.

This was a crazy and exciting time!! Also hectic as it was the first time I had to learn how to build and run a real online business.

Off the back of your success of building and exiting several 7-figure businesses you now actively invest in a number of ventures with your SellerPlex brand. Can you go into how you invest and help businesses?

After selling my FBA business in the spring of 2017 I had a mini existential crisis. Questioning what to do next, what’s important, what I’m good at. All kinds of good stuff ha.

I realized that some of the things I was best at were seeing the big vision and potential, identifying the big dominos to move a business forward, and building teams to turn the biz into a saleable and sellable machine. And that I LOVE helping and supporting other entrepreneurs.

So I thought I could use my knowledge and experience to help other entrepreneurs as an investor.

I started to explore opportunities to invest which led to my first investment/partnership at the end of 2017. Fast forward and it was going well so I found and invested in my next business a year or so later. Then another. Then another.

All the businesses were growing well and I really enjoy my role as investor/advisor. But realized that I didn’t need to be an investor in a business in order to help support them.

This led me to launch my first training program Dream Team Machine that teaches entrepreneurs how to build their business in a way that serves them. So they can unplug from the things they don’t enjoy, get an amazing team to run the business for them, scale, exit, or whatever else they want.

I believe that business is the best vehicle we have to achieve what we want in life. It just needs to be built the right way. So that’s what I’m helping entrepreneurs with now with my training.

Do you invest in other assets? Like cryptocurrency, metals, or real estate?

I got pretty deep into Crypto at the end of 2017/early 2018. After my eCom exit, I dumped a bunch of my cash into crypto that blew up when crypto went crazy. It was a wild time and I made and lost more money than I have any other time in my career.

Thankfully I got out on top (though down a lot from my peak) and learned some invaluable lessons.

The biggest takeaway from that was to focus my investing in areas that I can have an impact on.

Such as other businesses Vs just gambling.

At some point, I’d like to get started investing in real estate. But for now, I’m still focusing on online businesses because that’s where I can have the biggest impact as well as get by far the best returns on my money.

The more I learn about business the more value I can add to other businesses. This means I can have an even more positive impact on my investments leading to greater returns. Plus, I just love business so am happy to be focusing my efforts there.

You are about to release your “Dream Team Machine” course, what made your set about creating this course and revealing your superpower?

Well, I believe that business and entrepreneurship is the best vehicle that we have for both sides of Freedom in our lives. Freedom From and Freedom To. Freedom FROM is moving away from the things we don’t want.

For example, freedom from being a slave to a paycheck, doing things you don’t enjoy, building someone else's dreams, etc While Freedom too is opening up to actualize your true potential. Freedom to do things you enjoy, make an impact in the lives of people that are important to you, fulfillment, etc.

The Dream Team Machine teaches entrepreneurs how to build their business and team so it supports them in achieving both sides of freedom.

This is something I’ve worked hard to realize for myself and want to help others now in achieving the same.

I am very much a “Solo Sam” and have struggled with being a “Team Tommy” as a consequence end up doing everything. Can you talk about how hiring a “dream team” can catapult your business growth?

We all have the things we are best at. And that we enjoy. And by focusing on those things we are able to have the biggest impact. By being able to focus on the highest leverage activities we can create more value in our businesses and therefore receive more value in exchange.

Biz owners become bottlenecks when they try to do everything themselves.

It's a recipe for burnout. And it’s just not scalable.

That's why it's so important to build your business and team around you being able to focus on the ways you can have the biggest impact. Your business should be an amplifier for your strengths. And you need the right team behind you in order to do that.

In your experience what has been the number one stumbling block by “solo sam” entrepreneurs getting to the next level?

Thinking that they can and should do everything themselves. And resisting delegating. Delegating like everything is a skill. Once you break the seal and start you are on a path to success. Unfortunately, so many entrepreneurs just keep holding on and don’t ever delegate which is a recipe for failure and staying stuck.

What’s next for you Nate, any big plans for 2021 and beyond?

I'm focused on creating content, publishing, and the launch of my Dream Team Machine (DTM) program. And I don’t see that changing any time soon. I’m committed to creating and sharing more and engaging with more people that resonate with the ideas I put out.

And then serving and supporting more entrepreneurs through my program. I see DTM as the first step forward on a path I want to walk for my career/life. Sort of the culmination of everything leading up to this point. So excited to get it out there more to support the entrepreneurs that need it.

For anyone interested in more of my content just go and follow me on IG @nateginsburg or Facebook. You can decide for yourself if it resonates with you. It does shoot me a message and says Hi. I’m always excited to connect and support more like-minded people.

Hey Frank Ee,

First off thank you for taking the time to get involved in this interview for my readers.

I have been a big fan of Frank Laurent coffee roasters for some time and often visited your stores especially when you used to be in my co-working space.

We have met a few times but never had time to talk in-depth about your business. So, I thought it would be super interesting to hear your full story in developing your Frank Laurent brand and running a successful coffee roaster in Penang.

So, thanks again Frank Ee for spending time with me today, and let’s jump straight into this with our first question.

It would be great to get some background on where you’re from, your early life, where you studied.

I graduated from a local high school and completed A-Level Studies in Disted College. Join INTI college for American Degree Transfer Program – Major in Business.

At the same time, I worked at Starbucks coffee as a part-time barista.

Not long after, I’ve personally lost interest in my study therefore, I dropped out of Inti College during my degree program.

From an early age were you very entrepreneurial? What got you interested in starting Frank Laurent, was it sensing a business opportunity or a love of coffee?

Yes, I considered myself entrepreneurial. So after I dropped out of college, I decided to give myself a break to think of what I can do. Since young, I have had a great interest in trading and business activities. Therefore, I actively get myself involved in Business Classes.

During college, I took part in a college pop-up event as a barista. I carry out my duties with my personal knowledge and experience as a barista. After I dropped out of college, I decided to pursue what I’m currently good at.

Hence, I decided to take a break from my academic-related survey to learn more about my current interest – coffee. I went to Taiwan’s Coffee Farm for 2 months. I stayed with the local farmers and learned from scratch. Since then, I've been eager to learn more so I have been attending exhibitions and coffee events.

Can you give us a brief outline of your business for anyone who hasn’t heard of Frank Laurent? What makes you stand out from the crowd?

Frank Laurent specializes in coffee roasting, we serve every cup of coffee with guaranteed quality and aroma.

We provide both wholesale and retail services, such as coffee bean supply, coffee equipment, and catering services. Other than coffee beans, we do sell the main course and sweet course to satisfy our customer’s cravings.

Not to mention, my backend job is run by a group of youngsters as they are more driven and creative.

I have heard a few “rebellious” proposals from them which amaze me. They tend to think out of the box and explore lots of possibilities.

I am a big fan of branding, especially the less is more approach. Can you give us a run-down of the process you used to develop the Frank Laurent brand?

Throwback to 3 years’ time, Frank Laurent is still a “new café” to most of the audience.

In order to gain more exposure for Frank Laurent Coffee Roasters, we take part in most of the coffee events and food festivals to learn from others and also experience something new. Besides, Frank Laurent also accepts collaborations, for example, we collaborated with the TLM event company as main participants for Penang Coffee and Dessert Festival 2016.

Nevertheless, we often organize coffee workshops for customers to gain coffee knowledge and latte art skills.

F&B is tough and the coffee business even more so with the competition from the likes of Starbucks to local Kopi businesses. And yet you have positioned well and are clearly serving a market. What was your vision for Frank Laurent?

No doubt that in the F & B industry there will be competitors. In fact, there are more newly open cafés with more and more creative designs in terms of products. Frank Laurent has diversified our product and service.

We target both coffee and non-coffee drinkers with our sub-brand – Morley Cold Pressed Juice. Morley juices come with 4 flavors and each of the flavors have different combinations of fruits with no preservatives or artificial flavors added.

Besides, most of our Frank Laurent outlets provide a chilling ambiance that suits families with children. Therefore, our team invented Frosley Gelato.

It always seems that your staff is friendly and motivated to be working at Frank Laurent. Is this something you look for when hiring or part of the working culture you develop?

Well, actually there are a few criteria that should be fulfilled during an interview before hiring.

These are simply good attitudes, outgoing, and driven.

Personally, I believe that when an individual is possessed with these criteria, they are able to get along with colleagues and hence create a friendly and harmonic working environment. Also, each and every employee is assigned to different types of tasks with adventurous job scope.

We all know that 2020 has been a truly shocking year for our personal and business lives. How did you cope with the experience and what lessons did you learn?

Indeed, 2020 has been a tough year for everyone, the majority are facing an economic crisis due to the pandemic waves. At first, I was panicking about the announcement of MCO earlier in March. There’s a lot going through my head, my team, my business, and myself.

During MCO, most of the physical stores are forced to stop the operation so many have started to adopt ‘click and mortar’ as their new norm. We started our own ‘Frank Delivery’ to better serve our customers during that critical moment.

My team has executed great cooperation whereby we take turns to deliver to customers’ doorsteps. Moreover, we make some price changes for our sub-brand, Frosley Gelato. Our homemade Italian Gelato and Sorbet to cheer our customers.

Has this year changed your game plan going forward? If so, how? What’s in the pipeline for 2021?

Definitely, there are hiccups this year. A few upcoming events that we have prepared are canceled, and there are a few changes in our schedules but we take it as a challenge.

We prioritize customer satisfaction.

In 2021, we are looking forward to increasing productivity and consistency in order to enhance our product’s quality.

Hey Sean,

Thank you for taking the time to get involved with the interview today. As we discussed, I enjoy getting to know more about other people’s entrepreneurial journeys.

To briefly explain that we met at the co-working office in Penang and had chatted a number of times before I even knew what you did. I found out from our mutual friend Dee Dee that you were the owner of one of my favorite restaurants, Sushi Tei.

Penang really is a small world!

We share a common interest too in our love for shopping, much to our wives’ dislike. Although both of us have taken different approaches to reduce this habit (you can read my stopping shopping challenge here).

I was keen to understand more about your business and how you ended up in the F&B business. So, let’s jump into the first question Sean.

Can you give me some background information on where you grew up and early life, education, and first jobs?

I was born and raised in Penang and I am the youngest of 3 boys, there is a big age gap between me and my 2 elder brothers, about 10 years and 13 years respectively.

There is a funny story about why I was born so late, my mother has always wanted to have a girl as her last child so that she can have someone to play with when my brothers leave home to Australia to pursue their studies overseas but unfortunately faith is playing a prank on my mum’s family plan and here I am.

My childhood is similar to many middle-class families in Penang, there is not much to worry about and the atmosphere in the family has always been warm and peaceful.

I always thought that my dad has a weird profession, he was working in a bank one day and the next he is a politician while mum is a full-time homemaker. I was educated until form 5 in a Chinese public school in Penang until 17 and by 18 I was sent to Newcastle, Australia for Year 12 with a hope to get into any University there.

I was a lazy student when I was in Penang because life was too good. I only started really studying when I figured out that my parents have sacrificed their hard-earned savings to get my ass over to Australia. I thought I should at least put in an effort plus at that time, I was probably one of the very few Asians in Newcastle so essentially I didn't have any friends so I started putting my mind on studying.

I got a pretty decent score and was accepted into the University of New South Wales to study accounting major in accounting and finance. I had no idea at that time but business and accounting is always a safe bet for Asian and plus the fact that I am not smart enough to be an engineer or a doctor.

Miraculously I graduated with barely up to par Honors in Accounting and I came back to Malaysia to search for my first job. After a short stint in a public listed company, I started my proper working career as an auditor with KPMG and was there for almost 5 years.

We briefly talked about the transition from employee to entrepreneur. I am interested in finding out what the motivation and trigger for this shift in mindset was?

I think after 5 years in Auditing I started to think about what is next for me in terms of career development, while I do enjoy the work in auditing, the financial reward and career advancement did not appeal to me.

I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do and how I am going to do it but the major motivation of that time was monetary, I just wanted to find a way to make money. I was very fortunate at that time when I was 29, I was young and I don’t have much financial commitment and this has allowed me to make that drastic shift.

I stumbled into the world of advertising through a friend of mine who eventually became my future partner in event management.

While I was learning the ropes in event management, I managed to know a lot of people in the outdoor advertising fraternity and realized at that time, outdoor advertising is in demand, so shortly after 2 years, I started my outdoor agency-Moonlit Outdoor Sdn Bhd and have been doing that until the present day.

What made you decide to go into the F&B industry? In particular, what made you choose Japanese cuisine?

A good friend of mine obtained the franchising rights for Sushi Tei Malaysia and I went to the opening of the first Sushi Tei outlet in Malaysia, I found the food to be of great quality at a good price point.

I casually mentioned to my friend that if he ever wanted to branch out to the Northern region, I would be keen to help him operate Sushi Tei Northern Region.

So fast forward 2 years from that conversation, I received a call from him saying that Sushi Tei is expanding and asking me whether I am still interested.

At that time, I was cash strapped at that time after a failed business venture and I was fortunate to meet by accident my current business partner who agreed to bankroll me to operate Sushi Tei together.

Japanese cuisine is a relatively young cuisine in South East Asia and it's a very well-received cuisine currently among Asian’s palate with its variety and healthier offerings.

As you know, I am a huge fan of Sushi Tei and eat there most weeks. Can you give us an idea of the setup and scale of the business?

Thank you for always supporting us, Adam!

Currently, there are 11 Sushi Tei Outlets in Malaysia with 4 in the Northern Region (3 in Penang and 1 in Perak), 7 in the Central Region (7 in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur), and 1 in Sabah.

We have been running Sushi Tei Northern Region for the past 10 years and Sushi Tei Gurney Plaza is our first Flagship outlet, then Sunway Carnival, Queensbay Mall, and Ipoh Parade to follow. Prior to Covid, we have close to 150 staff in our kitchen, service, and admin combined.

How much did you know about Japanese food before starting Sushi Tei? Do you have much input on the types of dishes on the menu?

This is slightly embarrassing as I don’t take any raw food so sashimi is out for me (WHAT? that's one of the best dishes, Sean!), I don’t have a lot of knowledge on Japanese food before starting Sushi Tei.

However I do know the value of a good brand like Sushi Tei, Sushi Tei was founded in Singapore and has been a successful brand for the past 30 years.

Throughout the years, Sushi Tei has been upholding the brand’s tagline of “a good deal of sushi” and has curated an excellent menu catering to consumers looking for quality food at a great price point.

One of my favorite meals at Sushi Tei, which of course is sashimi 😉 – Adam

2020 has been a challenging year for hospitality, how has it been for you and how have you adapted to the conditions?

2020 has been very challenging for all industries but more so in the retail and hospitality industries, Sushi Tei has not been spared from the COVID 19 pandemic.

In the month of March 2020, in an effort to curb the spread of COVID 19, the Malaysian Government implemented the Movement Control Order to lock down the country and restrict the movement of its people.

The 2 months MCO period is one of the most challenging periods in my entrepreneur life as we have never encountered anything like this before. We are uncertain of the impact of the pandemic and that worry turns into fear as our outlet sales plummeted.

As a business owner, we worry not only about the business continuity of Sushi Tei but we worry for our staff as their livelihood depends on Sushi Tei surviving the crisis.

We quickly regrouped and held an emergency meeting with all of our staff, briefing them on the situation and the cost-cutting measures we were going to implement in an effort to ride out this crisis.

We are very fortunate that we have a great group of people in Sushi Tei helping us throughout this tough period.

What’s in store (literally) going forward for you and Sushi Tei?

As we are right in the middle of a 3rd wave, there is nothing much we can do at the moment as there is so much fear in the general population. We can only hope for a fast recovery with the government imposing lockdown in certain red zone states.

At the moment, we are rolling out mobile ordering in our outlets so that customers can order their dishes with their own mobile device with minimal contact and they don’t have to wait for their orders to be taken.

Hey Dee Dee,

First off thank you for taking the time to get involved in this interview for my readers.

We first met at the co-working office in Penang when you serenaded me most mornings with your heels, as we were the few who worked in the open space.

I found out you worked in real estate alongside Sam who helped our family with all our rental properties in Penang.

I was keen to get the lowdown on being a property agent in Malaysia, as it’s a little different from the experience I've had in the UK. It would be super useful to newcomers to Malaysia too.

So, thanks again Dee Dee, let’s jump straight into this with our first question.

Can you give us a little background information on you and your back story? For example, where you’re from, where you grew up.

I am originally from Segamat, Johore, and have lived in Penang since 2009.

I was studying at Inti International College for B.A. Hons in Marketing under the certificate of the University of Hertfordshire, UK, and Business Studies at Jönköping International Business School, Sweden.

I have started my career in the Real Estate Industry as a property negotiator in 2011 until now.

Currently, I am in the process of pursuing a Real Estate License for my career advancement. (In case you are confused, all the agent/negotiator that are attached under Real Estate Agency without license holder is known as “Real Estate Negotiator” and they are registered under the board.

However, if you obtained the Real Estate License Holder, then you are known as a “Real Estate Agent” and you are able to have an agency on your own or have 30 Real Estate Negotiator registered under your license.)

How did you get into being a realtor? What are the pros and cons of working in the property market?

After working as an Inside Sales Representative in Dell Corporate for almost 2 years, I started to question and decided to work for myself because I feel that if I am having the capability in earning for others, why not I do it for myself instead?!

There are a few pros already working as a real estate agent and among all, the best motivation to keep us moving is the unlimited income potential. You will feel that your destiny is in your own hand.

You are your own boss to decide how much you want to earn, how much effort you want to put in for the result, and also the strategy. Not only that, but time flexibility is also one of the main attractions as a property agent.

You run your own schedule and have more work-life balance. The greatest things are when you help yourself to make your own dreams come true, you are actually also helping others to accomplish their dreams and goals.

Helping them to get their dream home or invest in the right property. In this line, we will have the opportunity to explore and exposure to different kinds of people. It helps to widen our perspective in seeing and doing things differently than others. In other words, it helps us to grow and improve ourselves.

As many pros as I can list down, naturally, there are also two sides of the same coin.

As much as you wish to earn unlimited income, you actually also have no safety net and need saving to cover your personal and professional costs.

Not only that, due to time flexibility, but you will also have no set hours and might end up working more especially during the weekend and holidays.

Your working hour is 24/7.

It is a competitive market and therefore, a lot of hard work is needed for you to be successful. Even though the startup is not easy, however, once your engine is running, the rewards are lucrative.

In my experience of renting properties in Penang, I always found it strange that so many parties are involved. It’s not unusual when viewing properties to have 5-6 people following you around.

Yes, the property business system in Malaysia is totally different than in most western countries.

In Europe, there are only 1 or 2 exclusive lister agents for one property and therefore, the buyer/tenant only needs to direct contact with the exclusive lister.

Normally once the agent is appointed, keys will be given to them for handling the viewing themselves. However, it is a totally different business model in Malaysia as most of the sellers/landlords would find many agents (sometimes all the agents in town) to market their property.

Therefore, most of the time, you will see buyer/tenant will engage their own agent and the seller/landlord will have another agent of their own a.k.a co-broking/co-agency. (Co-broking means different agents in the same company and co-agency means different agents in a different company working together).

Hence, when you are viewings properties in Malaysia, don’t be surprised when you walk into a property with a lot of people surrounded.

You will have the agent from the buyer/tenant side, an agent from the seller/landlord side, the landlord (and sometimes with their family together), and the buyer (which at times also with their family)

There are some naughty tricks that I have come across from less scrupulous agents, without naming any names, what do you have to watch out for?

There are a few platforms that you need to watch out for.

For instance, if you are looking for property for sale/rent via an online platform, most of the time you will see agents posting different prices for the same listing or some listing has already sold/rented,

You can also see properties still posted on the internet at the lower price in order to fish buyer/tenant to contact them directly (see box below) and then they will call the real lister to work together with them.

One of the easiest ways for you to identify this practice is whenever you saw an online listing without the interior photos and without mentioning “deal with direct owner” in the remarks section, chances are the posting is fake!

Another method is when you contact them, they will tell you that the property has already just sold and there is another property that they can introduce at a higher price.

At times they will also agent that seeing you putting up a signboard in a property and the next day, the property will be flooded with others’ agency signboards. This is also one of their method to fish the buyer/tenant to contact them. When you contact them, they will call the direct agent to work together with them.

I was a bit confused with the costs involved when renting properties, in terms of the agent and landlord, etc. It would be good to explain for newcomers to Penang the fees to expect.

The costs that need to be met by the tenant when renting a property are stamping and documentation fees, agency fees, utility payments such as electricity, water, Sewage, and wifi/sewage Bill.

The landlord has to pay for the management fees, fire insurance, quit rent, and assessment.

I know you work mostly with expats moving to Penang. This has been an interesting year with COVID19 and has affected your business. How’s it been on the ground the last 6-months?

In the last 6-months, I have realized that there are many expats who wanted to move to Penang from KL or other cities especially after the MCO as they realized that they want to have a nicer and more serene environment to stay in.

And in Penang, you will get all sorts of different living experiences from having a sea view property, city life, and to the UNESCO Heritage site.

The market is not as bad as predicted, there are people especially from Hong Kong who are still active in purchasing a property in Malaysia.

Some have already viewed since last year and decided to purchase the property during the lockdown or even now when they can’t travel.

How are you adapting to the changing times and what sets you out from the other property agents?

I think it is an opportune time for learning and reflection.

In the past, we have to keep chasing for the sale or servicing clients and do not really have the time to sit down and think about how to improve or what is the next step to go forward and be better.

Driving from one destination to another for property viewings takes a lot of time during the day, it’s easy to lose many hours in transit without thinking about business growth.

For property agents who want to move forward at this time, we have to learn and increase our skills in video shooting, modeling (KOI), and change to another platform in attracting buyers or even keep in touch with your customer in all sorts of methods that we could think of.

I am now continually looking to improve and believe in giving the best services, giving honest advice, and being direct to my customer. And I am lucky enough that most of the time, my customer will refer or even promote me to their acquaintances, friends, and families.

Now most of them are more than a customer to me and we have become friends.

For anyone looking to move to Penang, or anywhere in Malaysia, what are your tips for finding the ideal property? And for finding the best legit agent to work with?

You will never know which property will be ideal for you until you can view the property in person. However, for the first time moving into Penang or Malaysia, I suggest studying the location and accessibility as these are the most important things for you to look into.

Only then can you zoom into the property near the location that you deem fit for your lifestyle.

Some people might be into a convenience lifestyle and some are into resort living or holiday home feeling. Use a professional real estate negotiator to give you advice and a proposal.

The most important is to know what you want and what kind of life you want to get in living here and then talk to your agent and get a proposal from them before flying over to Penang or Malaysia.

Once you get the property, remember to read your lease term before signing it.

You need to find a legitimate agent and ask them for their Agent Tag or name card (with REN/PEA/REA number). Find an agent that is friendly, easy to communicate with, and who will run the extra mile for you!

Hey David,

I was thinking this week that we have known each other for 26 years now since meeting in the first week of University.

We worked together on assignments and after leaving University worked together in the “real world” of working life. In fact, you gave me my first opportunities when contracting to do web development, which I am forever grateful (although sometimes hide it well ;).

You’re a charismatic chap with a fascinating background with an enormous number of stories. From your formative years traveling when growing up, being in the Army, competing for Great Britain in Pentathlon, and your professional life.

So, let’s find out a bit more about you David, and I promise not to use your nickname that I coined at University of Dodgy Dave. Let’s jump straight into this with my first question.

Can you give us a little background information where were you born, and first went to school?

So I was born in Zambia (then Northern Rhodesia) in a town called Kitwe which is in the Copper belt and close to the border with the Congo.

Not many people know about the Copper belt but it’s in the name, there’s lots of copper it should be a rich country but it’s just been exploited in the 1960’s it was American Mining Firms.

We lived in Chingola then Ndola (All in the copper belt) and finally Lusaka where my Father was the headmaster of a School. They were fun times we even had lion cubs as pets for a while.

I can’t remember the name of my 1st school but I do remember the name of my 1st school when we moved back to the UK and that was Friog Junior School in North Wales it was a bit odd it was a Welsh nationalist school and they refused to teach the lessons in English (It was the 1960’s), which for a year meant I learned pretty much nothing.

My parents thought I was just struggling with the Welsh accent for almost a year because when they would ask me what I was learning at school I said they’re talking in another language, parents being parents translated that into it must be the accent.

I’d been at the school about 6 months when my mum was talking to a local and they said “it must be tough on David as I wasn’t a Welsh speaker, finally the penny dropped, I wasn’t as stupid as they were starting to think! At the end of the term, I was packed off to a boarding school.

You joined the Army when you were just 15 years old. Did you always want to go into the Army or was this encouraged by your family?

So technically I enlisted at 15 but I arrived at my training Regiment just after my 16th birthday and for a short time I was the youngest person in the army.

My family didn’t encourage me, far from it, it was the 1970’s and I was joining through the other ranks, my family does have a history of Service, my dad was a Flight Leftenant in the RAF, my uncle was a navigator flying in Lancasters during the war and my Grandfather was Navy during WW1 and was at Jutland.

Anyway, my family certainly didn’t expect me to leave boarding school and join at 16 they were expecting me to go to officer training.

There was a bit of friction about this, but I guess I was as stubborn as my father, and eventually, they gave up, I think my father realized I would simply have failed if I had stayed at school.

The thing to remember is when I joined the Army, the UK was a very different place, we’d had the 3 day week and what you could do with a hyperactive kid who had no interest in academic work and jobs were pretty limited!

For many years we would joke about your many “Berlin Stories”, often remarking they reminded me of episodes from Dad’s Army ;). We would try and limit it to one per night out, so it’s only fair to give you a shoot of telling one of your Berlin Stories here.

I don’t think it’s fair you limit everyone to one, perhaps we can do a sequel later?

You, of course, know about the many little scrapes I got into in Berlin as well as elsewhere, abseiling down the Funkturm (Where Hitler used to give his speeches) with a friend of mine, being chased by the Royal Military Police, being Chased by the American Military Police, come to think of it being chased, but anyway here’s a story I can tell in an open forum!

I caused an international incident.

Tom Hanks did a film a while back called The Bridge of Spies the bridge in question is called Glienicke bruecke, the bridge goes from West Berlin towards Potsdam which is in East Germany & not East Berlin, for a while I used to go over this bridge every day because I was doing some work at the British Military Mission, it really did look a little like the picture but just with East German Guards.

To make a long story short I was an Engineer but I was also a Military Diver more on that later. The place we were doing some work at was very interesting but what I was doing wasn’t, the houses will be worth millions now they bordered on a lake there was a jetty for a boat and the house was huge, but it was very run down, so we were doing repairs, etc.

Here’s a map.

To excuse me and subsequent craziness I was bored as hell, I was much more of a let’s go blow stuff up sort of Engineer than a let’s go fix something type.

Around day 2 or 3 I’m talking to the Sgt Major of the mission about what a beautiful spot it was the lake etc and asking why the motorboat they had was tied up to the bank instead of the jetty.

It turned out they weren’t using the Jetty as they thought the Jetty could be dangerous and they needed to get it looked at. By this they meant they thought the wooden supports were rotting, which got me thinking, I’m a diver I can do that!

I have of course been made aware of the 24/7 365 days a year East German Observation Post across the lake that had several EAST German Border guards with powerful binoculars watching and recording our every move!

I’d forgotten about them again, I was bored.

On getting back to camp that day I tracked down the dive storeman and signed out/borrowed some diving kit. I failed to mention I was taking it to East Germany, an oversight on my part I know.

The next day I load up the kit onto the wagon everyone is looking at me wondering what I’m doing so I just say I might as well check the Jetty while we’re here they think it’s unsafe.

That day I grab a couple of guys say look I’m going to check the jetty now, I’ll be about 20 or 30 minutes.

I’m dressed a bit like the guy on the right.

And I jumped in the lake all the time forgetting about those pesky guards, I’d only been underwater maybe 10 minutes when I notice these stones dropping around me, I ignore them, it’s the guys being idiots, but the stones get bigger and bigger at the point a brick just misses me I thought I’ve had enough, I’m going to tell then to stop screwing around.

Yup, you guessed it when I surfaced I surfaced to see the Sgt Major, several officers, and the Head of the mission all looking at me and pretty much all of them are shouting at me, what the **** are you doing and point across the lake so where I can now see East German Border guards running around. I look back at them I look at the Sgt Major and say well I thought I’d just check the Jetty out for you. I’m thinking I really am in trouble now, & then the Sgt Major started laughing said something along the lines of “Bloody Engineers” “Get changed come to my office and explain yourself!”

I got out of the water turned round and there are still East German guards running around, I get changed and no one wants to speak to me, because they don’t want to be in trouble by association.

So off I go to his office, I close the door and the Sgt Major starts laughing, do you know how much trouble you’ve made? I’ve already worked out it’s quite a bit but he’s still laughing, this is very serious you know we go the message via HQ, who got the message via London and still he’s laughing, he finishes with, I’ve spoken to your Sgt Major and that was it, I left he’s still laughing.

When I got on the truck to go back to camp everyone is asked just how mad the Sgt Major was, there is no way I’m saying he just laughed at me, so I said you guys don’t want to know.

It wasn’t all a bed of roses when I got back to camp, my Sgt Major is waiting for me, it turns out in his words “Your little stunt has just cost you 10-weekend guard duties” yup for 2 & ½ months I was on guard duty every weekend I had to watch everyone go out partying whilst I was in the guardhouse checking ID cards.

It was during your time in the Army that you ended up training for Pentathlon and then onto competing for Great Britain. How did you get into Pentathlon and what are your crowning achievements in the sport?

I was always into sports but when I was a kid I was tiny when I was 15 I was only 5 foot 1 so I was always at a bit of a disadvantage unless I was running, so whilst I loved running I also really loved swimming and many other sports, at the age of 8 I was climbing and canoeing and doing many sports that many people hardly knew about all courtesy of my father who was the warden of an outward bound center!

By the time I joined the army I was 5 foot 8 and starting to fill out, so I did pretty much every sport you can think of, but I still loved running and swimming!

When I was in Berlin one of the officers in my unit was a guy called Mike Montford who made the 1984 LA Olympics and I used to train with him.

I remember asking him about Modern Pentathlon because I was running faster and swimming faster. But, this isn’t a case of someone pointing me in the right direction, quite the opposite he put me off, told me that fencing was really hard and you needed to start young to get good at it!

I believed him so I started cycling Triathlon (this is very early days) had just hit the headlines in 1982, I was still doing other sports, cross country, cross country skiing, etc.

So Fast forward 4 years I’ve been posted back to the UK and I’m in the UK at a cross country race, I was doing pretty well at the time a solid top 10 finisher in the South West, one of the guys I would race against but in another unit was chatting to me after a race and I said sorry I’d love to stay and chat but I’m late for a swim session, to which his ears pricked up he asked my how fast I swam and 2 weeks later I was at the national training center going through my paces with the army team (I hasten to add I wasn’t in the Army team at this point it was a trial selection).

AS it started it turned Mike was telling porkies about Fencing and I was a bit of a natural at it, it always seemed easy to me, in that the point of it is, is to hit the other person before they hit you, boxing without the pain I would describe it as.

About 9 months after getting a Trial I went to my 1st International Competition which was in Munich it was an all-military affair. The event went brilliantly for me (Initially) I came 3rd in the fence (Unheard of in those days) I rode ok, I’d had a decent swim and so I found myself in 3rd place come to the shoot with my best event running to come after.

It’s important to say in the military I was a pretty decent shot, but this was different there were TV cameras that stuck one in my face, it was all very different. In those days shooting was live .22 pistols and turning targets, it all went very badly I missed the target 5 times it went;

• 1st Five – Miss, Miss 10, 10 10
• 2nd Five – Miss, 10, 10, 10 10
• 3rd Five – Miss, 10, 10 , 10 10
• 4th Five – Miss 10,10, 10, 9

As you know there’s a name for this it’s called catastrophe theory where anxiety increases and performance reduces, which doesn’t at all describe what happened very well at all.

I was feeling pretty good just before the shoot, just before the shoot started when I noticed the camera I can only describe it as having the shakes. For the 1st shot of every 5 my hand was shaking, this is not a good thing when you have a pistol and you’re trying to hit a target the size of a saucer at 25m.

My shoot dropped me from 3rd to 36th (Out of 64) and I ran myself back into 12th place with the 2nd fastest run of the day, the only person who ran faster was the world champion 2 years later.

9 months after that I had my 1st full GB International Competition in Lisbon where I came 8th and it went on from there.

You, of course, know how my Career ended as you were there, it was pretty painful some might say that without your suggestion of “let’s go mountain biking around Beachy Head”.

I’d have gone on to do bigger and better things but as it stands my highest international ranking was 23, and in fairness, the accident was a blessing in some ways, as it meant that I put my head down with my course when it’s entirely possible I would have become distracted and wouldn’t have got the most out of my course, after all why go to university and ignore what you have gone there to do?

In the Army you specialized as a diver, we even joked that you were a MUFF Diver (will let you explain this one).

Hahaha Yes, that was a standard chat-up line, although I can’t ever remember it ever working; divers are typically self-proclaimed “MUFF Divers” and MUFF stands for Military Underwater Fighting Force. So when asked what did I do, my answer was I’m a MUFF diver and then I’d wait for the look on someone’s face.

I loved Military Diving the thing to remember is it isn’t Sub Aqua “going down” and looking at fishes to this day doesn’t really appeal to me, but I do love ice diving.

You left the Army after 15 years and then went to University where we met. I still remember the evening we met; we were dressed in schoolgirl uniforms dancing in a nightclub.

Yes, you say that’s when we first met, but it’s not really I remember when you arrived at halls, it was difficult not to notice you, with your hair cut on one side and down to your shoulder on the other. Given I was only just out of the Army it was certainly an unusual look.

My initial thoughts were, yup we’re going to get along, then fast forward to Shimmers quite possibly the worst club north of the south pole, we’re dressed up like St Trinian’s schoolgirls and very drunk, you were quite fetching as I remember and I am sure will never forget me hugging you in all its sweatiness!

We both studied Sports Science but ironically upon leaving University went more into IT as there were more opportunities there. What sort of work roles did you do?

I’ve gone through most of the different roles except development and yes we moved into IT because that’s where the money was.
I started in Training, moved to IT Support Servers Email then got my 1st role as an IT Manager, and then moved onto Longbridge and finally worked for myself and with you.

And pretty much for a decade, we worked together on numerous projects.

And you may ask why many do! ??

So honestly and to complete the “Bromance” that started at University I would call you up and get you a gig because I knew you wouldn’t let me down which as we grow older and wiser we know is one of the essential criteria for working with someone.

I knew that you would do the work, you would do it well do it honestly and importantly I wouldn’t get a call from you saying you hadn’t done what you were supposed to because you were at the pub the night before and couldn’t be bothered!

Working with you was always a pleasure.

In your intro, you mention how we worked together so I really should mention LiquidThinking and how but for a DOT Com crash (And a lack of sales experience on my part) we could have been those Billionaires traveling the world.

LiquidThinking was a brilliant idea by Matt it was light years ahead of the competition but the problem was timing 18 months earlier or even 18 months later, it could really have gone places.

But we were doomed by the disaster not because there wasn’t work out there but because people would call about content management systems that were in the tens or hundreds of thousands, ask for a bespoke system and wonder why they couldn’t have 8 weeks of solid work for £500 crazy, crazy times.

To this day the way it worked the built-in sign-off publishing element worked is still better than WordPress.

Now, I really would like to share a particularly funny episode when we went skiing for one New Year. I am sure you’ll be game for outlining what happened?

Ok so on the record I pooed myself out Skiing, it’s a story of Love, Vengeance, and Betrayal, and a lot of people wondering where that smell came from.

The “sanitized” version of this is we went skiing over New Year and this year there was hardly any snow, I was staying in a nice little B&B around the corner from you, and courtesy of some not very well cooked eggs got a dose of food poisoning.

Which was all fine, but it just meant that I didn’t eat for 2 days (well hardly anything a bit of bread) come the 3rd day though and we’re at the top of the mountain, in the mountain restaurant, I’m starving it’s -15 outside and I make the fateful decision to eat ½ chicken and chips with mayonnaise and then head out down the mountain, all would have gone well if I had just gone straight down, but I turned right and from that moment I was literally “in the shit!”.

When I turned right down a track there was a 2 man lift going back up and about 50 m down the track my tummy rumbled. Now, this wasn’t just any tummy rumble this was a Hollywood someone has just fed someone a pint of laxative, tummy rumbling!

I am skiing with clenched buttocks! I get to the bottom where the Ski Lift is and it looks like the entire mountain is waiting for the same lift. I’m waiting my tummy is still rumbling and I wait some more, I eventually get the lift and ski straight down to the nearest toilets, except my luck is running out I’m taken out by a kid from a ski school, there is no way I can describe the pain or just how much my stomach is churning.

I take my skis off and waddle to the toilets, I’m still holding it together but I have 2 jackets on (It was minus 15 at the top!) but just as I lift my arms up yeah you know, I can’t hold it in, I have in a very real sense I shit myself.

It is at moments like this when you realize just who your friends are. I sent a text to Adam saying “Help I’ve just shit myself” and like a good friend he forwarded my message to everyone in his address book!

Karma does exist though as many thought it was him saying this!

To make this story shorter I’ll miss out on some bits such as despite this is a ski resort with a hotel and where the national team trains the receptionist was adamant there were no showers, so what do you do?

I sent Adam off to buy more trousers and surprise, surprise there was only one pair of ski pants €450 yes €450 the most expensive crap I’ve ever taken.

The story doesn’t stop here though, I’ve just paid €450 euros for some new ski pants, but I’m not leaving my old ones so I wrap them up in several plastic bags and we head home but we have to go via a gondola a very hot sweaty gondola, about 1 minute after the gondola starts moving I can see everyone in the gondola looking around and sniffing, everyone is looking at everyone else, just like the Peter Sellers Sketch in the lift.

This goes to show even in the most stressful of times there’s always something to laugh about!

You moved from employed positions to working for yourself and more recently looking to release your own SaaS product. What’s this all about?

Thanks very much for asking Adam, well as you know I’ve spent most of my IT career working for recruitment companies and recruiters and several years ago I had an idea for an app which I’ve called TalentFinder it’s a recruitment tool for both companies and recruiters.

Firstly it facilitates the job application process for jobs and it increases the number of direct hires to a company and additionally and more importantly for a business it provides a recruiting process/workflow, which many don’t have.

It has a couple of USPs as we know in this day and age it’s all about the USP.

1st it’s incredibly easy to get up and running, you can be up and running in 10 minutes, you just add the script to the page where you want your jobs to be displayed and bob’s your uncle, you’re ready to go and have a job posted in another 5 minutes.

The 2nd USP is that you can track all your jobs from point of origin without using cookies and then track applications and tally this against your adverts.

You work in this industry so you’ll know how hard it is to get accurate stats, cookies, tracking pixels can all be blocked by blockers now, our tracking isn’t affected by any blocker of any sort.

Check out TalentFinder Recruitment ATS

To give you an example you advertise a job on 3 different job boards, Facebook and perhaps you are using google adverts or even banners, we can track each and every advert break down your costs against views application and later suitability per advert and allow you to report, it doesn’t sound a lot, but in recruiting knowing the best place to advertise is a big deal because advertising is so expensive and hit and miss, I’m quite proud of it, it just needs to go live.

Hey Grega,

I have been a fan of your biohacking website Your Inception for some time and regularly read your articles and reviews on nootropics supplements.

With your extensive experience in the supplement field, I was keen to have you look at my super greens powder. I was very happy with your feedback, where you gave us a rating of 4.5 out of 5 and recommend to visitors to your site.

We recently connected online I thought it would be great to get to know you more, how you first got started researching nootropics and a bit behind the scenes of your site.

So, let’s find out a bit more about you Grega, let’s jump straight into this with my first question.

Can you give us a little background information on where were you born, and first went to school, education, and early work career?

Sure thing, Adam. It’s great to finally “meet,” even if it is just a virtual meeting. So yes, I was born and raised in Slovenia, a small central European country, where I finished high school and did a Bachelor’s in Economics.

Then I moved to Switzerland for a while to study Management. From there I went to Sweden to one of the prestigious universities (Lund University), where I finished a Master’s in Entrepreneurship.

I launched my first business there (a Bluetooth tracker for skis), which almost failed, but then the company moved into the e-bike market and it is now growing like crazy. After that, I started researching nootropics, I started learning about optimizing my health and performance, so I came across biohacking…and that’s where it all really began.

You’re known as a Lifehacker & productivity expert, what first triggered your interest in this area?

When I was studying in Sweden and simultaneously launching my first business, I was working about 80-85 hours per week, which was crazy (and stupid).

So I started searching for “natural” ways to boost my productivity and cognition, improve my sleep, etc. That’s how I came across biohacking, lifehacking, nootropics, smart drugs, etc.

You first founded YourInception in 2015, what gave you the idea to set this website up? Can you give us an idea of the team that you have built behind this brand?

Actually, I wanted to use Your Inception as my private blog, where I’d share my crazy biohacking experiments. However, through the years of testing and experimenting with supplements, I got a relatively big following, so I decided to build a recognized and trustworthy brand in this field.

But the idea came from the early beginnings because I can still remember how many sites, forums, and blogs I had to read to found useful (and honest) information about nootropic supplements. Back then, most info out there was fake, scam, or simply paid…well, today is not much better anyway.

Regarding the YI team – we currently have three full-time people working on Your Inception and about 5-7 partners that help us with research, testing, design, website, etc. We build quite a pleasant working environment here.

I really liked the fact that you’re one of the few research and review sites that actually try out the product. You get to see up close the brand and understand it’s potential for biohacking the body. Could you go through your process for reviewing supplements?

That’s true, I never wanted to run a typical “affiliate site” – I always wanted more. So in the past years, we tested way over 100+ nootropic supplements. During those years, we created different evaluation factors that helped us understand the supplements better.

So we were tweaking those factors until we developed a relatively simple, but an effective formula, which makes our evaluation process very objective.

Here you can actually read the whole process here.

Do you regularly use supplements or particular productivity hacks? Over the years what biohacking and productivity information have had the most profound change in your life?

Sure, I take about 4-5 different supplements daily, which helps me stay healthy, productive, and sane. Or so I wish to believe 🙂

When it comes to biohacking and productivity, it’s really hard to point to a few hacks that impact my performance the most. If you really want me to pick a few, it’s probably optimizing my sleep, eating a whole-food plant-based diet, meditating daily, taking nootropic supplements, and taking cold showers.

I believe it’s the basics that usually have the most significant impact – they help you go from a 50% performance to 99,7%. To get from there to 99,9% is an entirely different process then.

There is a lot of misinformation online with supplements and some quite obscure biohacking practices. Are there any productivity hacks that you have tried that have failed and you believe is complete rubbish?

I am sure there are plenty, but it's kind of hard to know which are the ones that are complete rubbish. The problem that if something works for you, it might not work for me, but it doesn't mean it's rubbish – it just doesn't work for me.

For example, there is a thing called The 5 AM Club – a group of entrepreneurs who wake up at 5 AM, do a workout, and finish most of their tasks until lunch. While I like the idea, it simply doesn't work for me – I would actually call it rubbish after learning about the importance of sleep and different “sleep types of people.” But it seems that a minority of people strive for that, so yes, I guess it works for them.

Another one would be a carnivore diet – based on all the science I read about healthy eating, this is probably the stupidest idea I ever heard – especially if you want to live a long and healthy life.

I have a keen interest in supplements too, having produced a greens superfood powder (SuperGreen TONIK). Have you tried many brands and what’s been your experience with super greens?

Sure thing, I tried most of the popular products, including yours. In general, I like the idea, but most products that I tried to have an average taste.

Actually, many are undrinkable.

So they kind of miss the point…why would anyone spend $50-100 per month for greens that taste pretty much the same as those you make in your own blender at home?

But there are a few (including Supergreen Tonik) that honestly taste quite well, and I think they have really great potential. They provide lots of benefits, so I see a huge (and growing) market for them.

I see from your YouTube channel that you’re doing more videos these days. What’s encouraged you to focus on more videos?

There were a few reasons.

Firstly, for whatever reason, people loved my videos, which encouraged me to do more and more videos.

Secondly, trust is higher if people can actually see you trying different supplements.

And thirdly, it’s because of Google unstable rankings…as you know as well 🙂

What’s next for your Grega personally and for your site? How do you see this growing over the next year or so?

To be totally honest with you, I don’t know. At this very moment, we are just doing some strategic planning and some brainstorming to come up with goals for 2021.

I am sure we will continue doing more and more reviews, but let’s see where this leads us. I’m excited, and I think that’s what matters the most anyway. 🙂

Hey Marco,

We recently connected on Facebook during the Movement Control Order (MCO) in Malaysia as I discovered you not only run a Penang based website but have been based here since 2009.

I have enjoyed delving into your Penang blog rediscovering parts of the island that’s been my home since 2016. It’s one of the best resources for first-timers and longer-term residents online.

You regularly write for independent travel guides like the Lonely Planet and the Rough Guides. I remember back in 1998 when I first started backpacking and these were the go-to resources!

I wanted to find out more about your life, how you get into travel writing, and your recent experience during the lockdown.

So, let’s find out a bit more about Marco’s story and let’s jump straight into this with my first question.

Can you give us a little background information on you and your back story? For example, where you’re from, where you grew up.

I'm from Voghera, a small town in Lombardy. To make a long story short (you can read a much longer version here), I lived there until I was 27, playing in two punk bands. The first was Home Alone, a pop-punk teenage band that got me exposed quite early to the Italian underground scene. We released our first 7” ep when I was 14 years old. I then went on to tour Europe and the USA with the Nerds.

For ten years, I dedicated myself to recording albums and tours, until it became clear that I needed a change of environment, some new place where I could put my skills to proper use. In Italy, it was and still is very hard to make a living as a creative, as the category is frowned upon and there are very few jobs available — despite a very high cost of living.

In 2007, I had enough of Italian life and society at large, took a course for teaching English to speakers of other languages, and thought I may be better off teaching Italian and English in China.

I didn't know Asia or China at all, but it seemed like a good opportunity at the time. Thirteen years later, I am married to a Malaysian girl and live in Penang, from where I travel across the Southeast Asian region, India, Pakistan, and the world to find stories to publish and support the lavish lifestyle of the retired punk rock star.

In 2016 I earned a Ph.D. in anthropology at Monash University Malaysia, wrote a few books — the most notorious (and banned) of which is “Nazi Goreng” (2013) — and I've just returned from my first trip to South America.

Since December 2019, I and my wife Kit Yeng have traveled to Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. During that time I, unfortunately, lost my parents to COVID19 in Lombardy in March, and have been locked down in Cabanaconde, Peru, for over a month. At last, I've been just released from mandatory quarantine in Kuala Lumpur after flying home from Brazil. It was a real shit sandwich to swallow, but I'm still alive and well.

I am a huge fan of Penang, what made you decide to make this your base?

I came to Penang for the first time in 2008 on the heels of my one year teaching stint in Qinhuangdao, China. Back then Penang had no street art, no hipster coffee shops, and many fewer tourists. It was a quiet, delightful mix of faiths and people: it reminded me of China but with more tradition, offered amazing Indian and Malay food, and seemed like the right place to be at that time. Even under its current glossy facade, it still feels like the same after a decade.

On that first trip in 2008, I met my wife Kit Yeng on my last night in Penang and that changed everything. I still got to Australia, but I decided that Asia was better for me, and I settled with her in Penang in 2009. I've been here ever since, and I do travel a lot.

After eleven years Penang still feels like home, a sticky tropical egg yolk you can't really swim out of.

You regularly write for popular travel guides like Lonely Planet, Rough Guide, and Fodors Travel Guides. How did you first get into travel writing?

I loved to travel with guidebooks and books, and pretty much it came back. I was writing short stories in Italy when I was very young, but quickly got disillusioned and my passion for music kicked in. Besides doing one and writing for other punk fanzines, I didn't write for the best part of ten years, then, at the beginning of my sojourn in China, I decided that if there was one thing I wanted to do in life, that was writing.

Travel writing seemed to be the solution to have an income and keep perusing my unending passion for discovering life and adventure. In 2008, I made a wish in front of one of the deities at Beijing's Lama Temple, asking to grant me a career as a writer. Then I kept working hard, submitting here and there, revamped a blog, learned a lot in the process, until the stars aligned and at last, I got my foot in the door. But it's still hard, especially being a non-native speaker, to keep writing compelling stories and stay on top of the game.

I travel hard because I want to get to less-discovered places and write about it. And I think that helped to stand out. Most travel writing these days is not like that, I believe. To me, Instagram (I don't have an account) and the whole influencer and digital nomad thing (I don't consider myself as one) have sugar-coated the whole traveling experience, putting comfort in foreign lands to the fore, while the focus should be on testing your limits while trying to hunt down some unknown trails.

I believe that writing about extreme music in Asia, which was my background, helped me move forward in that sense.

By the way, I consider myself a “writer”, meaning that I don't just do travel stories. I wrote fiction and non-fiction books, travel guides, journalistic reportages. I try to infuse them all with music, great lyrics, and rocking song.

Check out Marco's travel books on Amazon.com

With the proliferation of online resources from YouTube channels to independent travel blogs, how have you seen the travel writing industry change in the last few years? Have the days of carrying your Lonely Planet guide gone?

As I mentioned above, to be frank, I don't know if there has been anything new in travel beyond the “influencer” or the “digital nomad” label as of late. Again, I strive to be a writer. I am not on Instagram, despise using social media, and believe that too many image filters almost impeccably distort reality.

The coronavirus pandemic has now put a stop to that, and to travel, in general. Some of the world's biggest brands, like Lonely Planet, have closed offices and slashed personnel. Planes are on the ground and nobody really knows when and how the future of travel will be.

I recently returned to Malaysia from Brazil, and it was one long and crazy ordeal I won't easily forget for the rest of my life. You can read more here.

So yeah: it's hard to say what's going to happen in the next few months. I think that free international travel as we were used to is gone for a while. It looks like, at least in Southeast Asia, that life will be back to semi-normal by the end of the year, but I don't see international borders opening soon. Maybe travel will first continue regionally, with an uptick in local visitors, and travel writers will have to get creative in exploring and presenting their own backyards to their own people.

I won't still create an Instagram account!

In terms of carrying a guide: I still see people lugging bulky Lonely Planet books on coffee tables all over the world. The travel guidebook remains an object of authentication, it makes you look both unprepared and yet determined to explore, and singles you out to other travelers as someone you could approach to start a conversation with.

I do like guides because, unlike the internet, they are always with you and provide hours of useful reading entertainment on long bus rides. But these days I carry PDF versions on my phone or Kindle.

Books are heavy, and I do travel very light.

These days, updating guidebooks is not a very well-paid endeavor, nor a particularly interesting one, either. It's long hours of fact-checking details, noting phone numbers and number of rooms, taking pictures of toilets and bedrooms. But I do it for the love of it, it's an experience and a duty to get the facts right for those other travelers who still love to get their information from a book, and especially, from my research.

You have traveled to many countries, I believe over 60 so far, what have been your favorite places and why?

I don't count the number of countries I have been to, but it should be a bit more than that by now. Sometimes it's not even about countries but regions… countries are too big. We have a soft spot for Pakistan and India, especially the Northeast, and have traveled and worked a lot there, and still hope we'll be able to return soon. Both countries have incredible mountains and nature, welcoming people, and tons of different shades of color that make for great images and stories.

After a decade of trying to get there, I am now a big fan of South America, too. Even if our trip was cut short, we managed to spend four months traveling in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, and Peru. Nature is incredible, especially in Patagonia, in the Altiplano and the Atacama Desert region of Chile, without forgetting el Salar de Uyuni, of course.

Iran is great too, with so much history, natural beauty, and hospitable people. We also loved the Caucasus region, and there's so much to explore in Indonesia… so many places, really, it's hard to pick favorites.

Your recent trip to Peru was cut short due to the global pandemic, which meant you and your wife struggled to return home back in Malaysia.

Yeah, right. The whole ordeal is explained here.

I lost my parents as I was waiting it out in Peru, where I arrived to work for Fodor's on a guidebook update. It was an inexplicable situation to be in, trying to get things moving using a bare-bone mobile hotspot at 3,300 meters of height…

Cabanaconde, the village we stayed in, was actually pretty nice and especially safe from the virus. But cases were raising around Peru, the lockdown was rigid and eternally extended every fortnight, and it really felt like we would have never gotten home if we hadn't taken the last opportunity offered by Lima's Malaysian embassy.

Thanks to 156 amazing people, we raised enough funds to face the high costs of the repatriation procedure, and here we are, medically tested and approved, on parole after 14 days of hotel quarantine.

You recently have experienced I read your heart-gripping story of loss due to the Coronavirus where you sadly lost both parents. I am so sorry for your loss and I can’t fully comprehend how you feel. You have confronted this head-on by publishing some articles on this.

Ok, I actually thank you for asking this question. I would like to take the chance to explain that, if anyone had a problem in me trying to get the story of my parents' death out, thinking I was trying to capitalize on it, well, they can go fuck themselves.

I don't wish anyone to experience what it means to lose people you love when you are stuck on the other side of the world. Plus, I am a very strong-willed person and don't like to sit around. It takes an incredible amount of faith, self-strength, and determination to muster the moment and quell the nirvana of pain you are in and sit down to fucking write about it.

Writing is my skill and as such, being able to do what I think I do best to ease my pain, spitting a big chunk of black soul bile out to the world, was frankly liberating. I also wanted to let as many people as possible know what happened to me, that this virus is not “just the flu”. It kills people. We need to be responsible for that, ourselves, and the others around us.

I also think that my stories have somewhat immortalized them, making people understand how much they were important to me throughout my whole life.

Now, of course, I am back in Malaysia and there still are a lot of things to take care of in Italy, where I'll go as soon as travel bans lift, and I'm allowed. Writing it out has partially healed the wound… but it will be only when I'll enter their empty house again when I will confront the reality in the first-person narrative, not via phone calls, that I fear I'll go through hell again.

In loving memory: Maurizio Ferrarese and Tundra Sartorel

The effects of Covid-19 have and will continue to make a dramatic impact on everybody’s lives. What are your thoughts on the impact on global travel and tourism?

As I mentioned before, I don't think there will be much international travel for the foreseeable future. People are tired of staying at home too, and I think they will start traveling close to their homes as soon as possible. This will be a great time for local tourism, and for lesser-known places that will forcibly get in the spotlight after people will start getting bored of the same old' famous places.

Tourism is also the bread and butter of many economies in developing countries, so I can't see international travel staying shut for more than one year. I guess everyone wants to get back on their feet, but what I hope for, instead, is a reprise that's more sustainable, more balanced.

I don't know about you, but as of late, over-tourism and simplicity of international travel have taken a huge toll on many parts of the world, endangering cultures, creating greed, but also many opportunities. In an intelligent world, what happened during the pandemic — including the beneficial effects that slowing down human economies have given to the planet — should be teaching material for the next generation of business-savvy, experienced, and yet environment-conscious global citizens who want to thrive both economically and naturally.

On the contrary, it seems like what everybody wants to get back to is the same old, with all the issues, the problems, and the mad rush to acquire material wealth.

What are you working on now, any projects on the go or coming up?

To close up the sad circus of sorrow, I am now completing my work on “Fodor's Essential Peru”, which should be published at the beginning of next year, and concentrating on my sites www.penang-insider.com and www.monkeyrockworld.com. The first is a resource to great things to see, eat, and do in Penang, while the second collects guides and itineraries from our latest trips around Asia.

I am trying to get a bunch of new content up as I wait it out, to be ready to have it rank in the future. Basically, trying to spread my eggs in more baskets, as the travel writing industry has taken a huge hit, and most of my regular gigs have dried up, paused, or even closed shop.

I'm also toying with the idea of fixing and restarting a novel, “Apocalypse Lou”, that's been languishing in the back-burner for too many years and am also thoroughly enjoying my time back here in Penang. It's so much freer than what we have experienced in Peru, and we are both very glad to have come back home to this.

If I will have to be forcibly bound to a desk for a while, I will surely be productive, preparing for new local and international travels as soon as the possibility will arise.

Hey Dad,

A bit of a different chat for us today, eh?

Over the last few days, I have been chatting with Dad over Facetime to get this interview written up for today.

I had to explain that I wasn’t writing your obituary. But as this week it’s been my birthday, I thought it would be good to interview you Dad, and see what else I could learn from you.

I am fortunate to share a close relationship with my Dad. Although I don’t remember much from my early childhood, I know that we have spent a lot of time together from backpacking around SE Asia together to spending months at a time since I moved to Malaysia.

So, let’s find out a bit more about my Dad (hopefully not too much), and let’s jump straight into this with my first question.

Can you give us a little background information about where were you born, your first job, etc?

I was born in 1941 in London to a working-class family. My dad worked on the railways and mum was a full-time housewife as was the norm back then.

I hated school and was hardly ever there. When I did go it was to Brockley County Grammar school and as you can imagine being so lazy, I left with no qualifications.

After leaving school my first job was in a Toy and Pram factory and after a few years, I was running my own department.

8-years I was there until I decided to move from London down to Dorset with my best friend and his family. It was a big change for me, moving from the hustle and bustle of London life to the countryside of Dorset.

The life suited me, and I went on long walks and met my wife at British Road Services where I worked in Bournemouth.

Soon after moving down to Bournemouth, you got married life and the birth of two wonderful kids, well one at least (guess which one).

Married life in Bournemouth was good. We managed to buy our first house in Winton, and I got my job in the Post Office, where I stayed for the rest of my working life (30 plus years).

5 years after being married and we had our first child, a fantastic boy called Adam who may recognize on this website.

3 years later and we had our second child, a girl who we called Joanne.

The early years were tight, with just one income and inflation at 25% there wasn’t much left over, but we coped.

How did your country music band get started?

A colleague at work had a son who played different instruments, so we got together and gradually formed a country music band.

We were looking for a name that wasn’t too corny and was we went with Cottonwood, which is a tree that’s associated with country music.

Playing as Cottonwood we built up a good reputation for good music for listening and dancing too.

One of our regular venues was the Pier show bar in Bournemouth where we played for over 5-years on and off.

I managed the bookings for the band, and we ended up playing at country clubs all around the South of England.

Cottonwood played in a band for 15 years as I played rhythm guitar and lead singer. It was a good time, great friends and the additional income all helped.

Now that I am a dad and have two kids, I am intrigued to find out what was I like as a kid and how was for you being a dad?

Ha, well you were both well-behaved kids and we had no problem taking you out.

You were always very involved in your hobbies, which were martial arts, fishing, music, computer programming, magic, and cycling.

I enjoyed getting involved and we had many projects together, even making our own papier-mache game that was like a very complicated 3d version or risk with toy soldiers (you can see this on my about page).

One memory stands out, you were very keen on indoor fireworks and we ended up making some. But you in your wisdom took them to school and then tried to set fire to them. This didn’t end well as you got dragged to the headmaster and subsequently, we were told not to do it again.

There wasn’t a lot I could say to you as I had helped make them!

When you were into magic, we used to do little performances for your sister and to mum (trying to make them disappear).

You were always very keen on your hobbies such that you would make your Christmas wish list in February well in advance, changing often throughout the year.

Your sister, on the other hand, was less worried and a lot more consistent with what she wanted for presents.

In terms of being a Dad, it’s hard to remember as it's been forty years ago. I just remember doing my best in the circumstances, I mean back then it was a different time.

When I left school life changed dramatically for you in more ways than one, what happened?

Well, shortly after you started working your mum and I divorced, and I moved into my own place. It was a tough time of course for everyone but I did my best to make it as easy as possible for you and your sister.

I don’t think personally that I handled the situation too well and I have always felt guilty about this.

[I completely disagree and think you were doing an amazing job considering the situation, I know that I couldn’t have done the same. So, absolutely no reason to be guilty whatsoever – Adam]

I continued working at the Royal Mail post office full time and then eventually went part-time just working 24 hours a week.

With the extra time, I managed to travel with friends to places like Cuba, the Philippines, and the US.

In 1999 I decided to take early retirement as the job wasn’t the same anymore and just had enough. The package was good enough for me to live on until I got my government pension, so it was an easy decision to make.

I was 59 and only had one year until I got my Post Office pension and then at 65 years old would get the government one as well.

I wasn’t going to be rich but well off to travel and to do my own thing without worrying about having to work again.

I remember you being so happy when you finally left the Post Office. You started planning long-trips away, we even took a 3-month trip to Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos.

When I downsized from my flat and moved into a mobile home that freed up a lot of money that I decided to use for traveling 3-4 months a year.

You suggested we go backpacking in South East Asia in November 1999 and we traveled to Malaysia, Thailand, and Laos. My friend Gordon came with us and I really enjoyed my first time in Asia, one of many trips to come.

One of the funniest memories of that trip was on New Year’s Eve in Chiang Mai, Thailand. We were going out to a bar for the evening to celebrate and you were coerced to take part in the fancy dress for the evening.

None of us knew what you were going to be wearing and when I arrived at the bar, I didn’t recognize you at first. Then when I did, I was a bit concerned considering where we were! Gordon even more so.

[I managed to dig up this picture, you can see we were both surprised by my rather fetching outfit – Adam]

The trip was 3-months in total and in 2004 I went out to stay with you in Chiang Mai and we discussed moving there.

After traveling to Thailand a couple of times I convinced you to move thereafter you retired.

Yes, in 2006 I decided to move to Chiang Mai, Thailand, and sold all my belongings, and traveled out there alone to start a new life there.

I had already been to Chiang Mai a few times, so it was familiar and initially moved into the condo that my son used to live in (Viangua Mansion. The family who owned the condo was really helpful and this helped me get settled.

It made more sense to move into my bungalow because the cost was cheaper, and I would have more space. I paid around 6,000 baht per month, which was cheaper although it was a little bit out of town.

After 3 years of living in Chiang Mai, I fancied being near to the sea, maybe it was all my time living in Bournemouth that influenced me. So, I moved to Hua Hin down south around 2 hours from Bangkok.

I had been there a few times and your friend Toby lived there with his wife.

All in all, I had 3 years down in Hua Hin and although I liked it, I was missed by you and your sister. With your sister expecting my first grandchild I decided to move back to the UK.

You eventually moved back to Bournemouth, how come?

After just under 6 years of living in Thailand, I was back in Bournemouth. I soon got back into my usual routine, meeting old friends and visiting you in London every month or so.

I have fond memories of Woolwich Arsenal, coming up to visit you and your wife.

Now that you have moved to Malaysia, it gives me a good excuse to come out to South East Asia again, and although I didn’t make it this year, have been coming out every year since you moved.

After being evicted from you and your sister’s flat (Ha) I moved into a nice one-bedroom flat in Bournemouth only a few minutes away from the beach.

I don’t travel quite as much as I did before but then I am no spring chicken now, time is catching up as I am 79 years old this year. I still have a few more trips to Malaysia in me yet though, so see you soon son.

Hey Johnny,

First off thank you for taking the time to get involved in this interview for my readers.

I should first start by disclosing that we have not yet met but I came across your blog and have really enjoyed the content. Although I have worked online for many years, I still find it inspiring when reading about other people’s journeys.

Yours was particularly interesting though as you really have traveled extensively around the globe visiting every country!

I am keen to find out more about your journey. From humble beginnings as a teach English as a foreign language teacher in SE Asia, travel blogger traveling the world to creating a digital marketing agency, and even your own charity.

So, thanks again Johnny, let’s jump straight into this with our first question.

It would be great to get some background on where you’re from, your early life, studying.

Sure, I was born on a small island off the coast of Ireland called Inis Mor, near Galway. I had a turbulent childhood and ended up fleeing up North with my mum and sister, where we grew up.

I spent the first 10 years or so on welfare, single-mum life. Broke but happy. We couldn’t afford holidays, or anything really, so I knew I wanted to be free to go where I want and not worry about financial restrictions from a young age.

At 18 I went to Uni in England, to Loughborough Uni, and then at 22, the day after my final exam, I flew one way to the USA. I’m 36 now, and I never lived in the UK or Ireland again. My gap year has become a gap decade and a half!

Your blog is 10-years old this year, so a big congratulations on this! What gave you the push to leave Ireland all those years ago and to start travel blogging? At first, was your intention to be a full-time blogger or was this an organic process?

I read a story about Nomadic Matt (great blog, not such a great guy) making $3k a month from this blog. I had been teaching English for $700 a month and figured my life was much more exciting and travel-filled than your average blogger.

So, I wanted to show the world that you don’t need to come from a wealthy family to travel, you can live your dreams even if you’re working class. And it kind of took off from there really.

You’re known for having traveled to every country in the world. All 197 countries. A massive achievement. If you have to pick your favorite destination, which one would it be and why?

Socotra Island, Yemen. Without a doubt.

It was my 2nd last country, and it’s the most beautiful, untouched destination still available on our planet today. It’s still tricky to get too, and not cheap, but it’s worth all the effort.

I just came back from there last week, after taking 32 of my followers on a couple of group trips there, and I’m bringing another group there in January 2021, so if you want to go on a tour to Socotra, let me know and you can join!

Are you still traveling around the globe, or do you split your time between certain countries and cities?

I planned to slow down when I finished every country, but since then (3 years ago today!) I’ve ‘accidentally’ visited 42 countries again, run 6 marathons in 6 days through the Sahara on the Marathon Des Sables, ran a marathon at the north pole, and climbed 4 out of the 7 summits.

I also started a non-profit called Mudita Adventures, where I use adventure travel to fund sustainable projects around the developing world, we’ve donated over $200,000USD in the 4 years of doing that too.

So I haven’t slowed down at all! I’m based in Bangkok, Thailand through where I bought an apartment, and I plan to build a house in Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand in the next year or 2 too.

Could you give us a glimpse of your typical day as a digital nomad? Do you follow any particular routine, any 5 am morning routine or particular blogging schedule that works for you?

Unlike most digital nomads who are more-or-less ex-pats in a particular destination, I spend well over half of my year moving constantly. Whether with my non-profit, or with this new goal of being the first person to visit every country, North and South Pole, and climb the 7 summits.

So, my “regular” day is hard to pin down.

When I'm in Bangkok though, it’s normally an 8 am wake-up, fasted 10km run, work from 11-4 pm or so. Evening workout, then movies/Netflix to wind down.

Blogging?

I’m not religious about it at all. I should focus on it more, to be honest, but I just blog when I feel like it.

You have made a full-time living from blogging and have to date earned in excess of $2 million online. This was triggered by travel blogging and getting the attention of the likes of Forbes. Do you still focus on the affiliate business model?

I never really focussed on affiliates, to be an honest buddy.

Initially, on my ‘every country’ journey, I was publishing a lot of SEO-linked articles. That grew to about $3k/$4k/$5k a month just from onestep4ward. I then bought more blogs, expanded, etc.

My traffic kept increasing through media stories about my journey, so onestep4ward.com then started making money from CPC, affiliate, and SEO content, while my other sites focused on sponsored content.

Those combined made me my $2m.

How has your business adapted to changes in the Google algo? Are you spreading the risk to other online traffic sources?

I don’t focus on that stuff, to be honest mate. I’m not a pro-blogger (not in a way that I’m an expert). I know how to make money from the blog, but I focus on my life first, my travels, my non-profit, my friends, and my family.

My biz comes after all that. And for some reason or other, that’s rewarded me in the business world.

You made a condo purchase in Bangkok some years ago that’s been a shrewd investment as it's since doubled in value. Do you invest in offline assets such as property, stocks, or commodities?

Mostly in properties. I have a few properties in London, my place in Bangkok and now I'm beginning the process of the “dream house” in northern Thailand.

I also invested in Crypto and I have a fund manager for my stock portfolio, although, with the Corona Virus, I have lost tens of thousands in the last week or 2, heart-breaking when I’m saving for my new house!

I don’t live a flash life, no Rolex or sports care, no renting a penthouse in Bangkok.

Lots of youngish guys do that when they make money online, I’ve avoided that, invested, and now if it all ended tomorrow I’d be ok. I’d advise anyone to do the same when your money comes from the net.

You have set up a Charity called Mudita Adventures, which looks to give back to local communities. Could you outline who this project started and how this is going?

I kind of started it by accident to be honest! A buddy of mine, Josh, suggested we do something to give back, so I crowdfunded $5k or so through my blog and offered someone a chance to travel with us in Senegal.

Lots of people wanted to travel with us, so it grew from there. We’ve now done about 20 projects, funding Malaria clinics, dormitories, playgrounds, toilets, primary schools, etc in 10 or more countries.

I’m so grateful for having the opportunity to do that. It’s going well, but it’s tough to grow. The reality is most people don’t give a shit, so it’s hard to make them part of their time and money and ‘give back’ to a region before they travel in it.

Thankfully enough people so far have cared, and it’s allowed us to donate the $200k or so. I want to grow it, but I’m struggling with know-how.

GiveBack GiveAway – Thailand 2017 Video

What’s next for you Johnny, any big plans for 2020 and beyond?

I had planned to climb my 5th of the 7 summits, Denali in Alaska. But I guess that’ll be canceled with the virus. I have an AWESOME trip planned for Pakistani Kashmir with my non-profit (5 spots left if you want to join), and then crossing the highest border in the world, in the Himalayas, through to China so that’s something!

Getting married in November too. Cook Islands, Niue, and I’m going to organize a group trip to the Central African Republic for my Birthday in December too.

Until then I guess I’m stuck in Bangkok so I’ll train like a beast and maybe run a marathon or two, looks like travel is on the back-burner for a couple of months.