Latest / Babes, how did you get here / From UK to Phuket Janelle Brown on Soft Life, Digital Nomad Dreams & Living Beyond the Algorithm

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From UK to Phuket Janelle Brown on Soft Life, Digital Nomad Dreams & Living Beyond the Algorithm · Babes, how did you get here

• 0:00
  I think they're escaping the rat race, they're escaping the norm, they're escaping what society wants you to do or what you should do.
• 0:08
  And I think they are moving towards freedom. So I do think that it just combined a little bit of both.
• 0:14
  I believe also that people are seeing people online. And as much as we say, you know, this could be problems that you're facing in this country.
• 0:23
  What have you been able to just have these amazing experiences?
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  People didn't realize the generations and especially women, I think that was not an option.
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  Janelle Brown left the UK for a two week vacation to Thailand arriving on Christmas Day.
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  But that was seven months ago and somehow she's still here living in Puket.
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  She's a digital nomad, content creator and coach who says that she always knew that she'd be living this fabulous life on her own terms.
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  However, she loves to use her platform to talk about the truth behind living across the world away from family, friends and the life that you want new.
• 0:59
  Today, we're going to be talking about her soft life strategy business and what it truly takes to build a life beyond the algorithm.
• 1:07
  Janelle, before we spill the tea babes, I have to ask, how did you get here?
• 1:12
  How did I get to Puket?
• 1:14
  Yes, with Emirates.
• 1:17
  I love me some Emirates babes.
• 1:20
  Yeah, 100%.
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  I actually came in 2023 the first time and I don't know what brought me here.
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  I just had my intuition told me to book a flight.
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  Okay, so I booked a one way flight and that was the start of this journey.
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  So that was 2023.
• 1:36
  Yes.
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  And you were here for a whole long then?
• 1:38
  I was here for three months.
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  And then you went?
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  And then I went back home.
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  Okay.
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  And the whole time that I was at home, I wanted to be back in Thailand.
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  Really?
• 1:47
  Yeah.
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  And that was your first trip ever?
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  Yes.
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  You first arrived in Puket.
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  What was it that gave you the vibe that I could live here?
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  I am not too sure because I can't explain the feeling.
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  And I think that for a lot of people, you just go somewhere and you're like, this is it.
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  That's what I think happens.
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  And that's what happened for me.
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  Okay, babes.
• 2:10
  Real talk, tantrums do not look fun.
• 2:12
  But what if I told you that they don't have to take over your house?
• 2:16
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• 2:23
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• 2:27
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• 2:31
  How to keep your cool when they lose theirs and how to raise emotionally intelligent children without losing yourself in the process.
• 2:39
  Because CEOs don't react babes, they respond and you can do the same.
• 2:43
  So if you're ready to bring more calm connection and confidence to your home, click the link and check out managed tantrums like a CEO.
• 2:51
  Another part of it is the Thai people.
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  They are the most welcoming, friendly, nicest people.
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  They've got such a sense of community and they're just willing to help.
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  And I think when you're surrounded by people like that, it just makes you want to stay in the place.
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  So you're fast forward and you're coming here for just for Christmas holiday.
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  Yes.
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  And then why are you still here babes?
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  So I think, so I landed on Christmas Day.
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  I do have some family that live in Peket as well.
• 3:22
  Oh, you do.
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  I do have a cousin that lives here.
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  But I see him just as much as I would if I was in England.
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  You know what it's like?
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  We live down the road, but I only see him once or twice a month.
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  So I landed on Christmas Day.
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  I have a family members here.
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  And I just came out of freezing cold England.
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  I was ill.
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  You know, I got here and I was like, yeah, I'm not going back.
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  I'm not going back.
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  Five days later, I found an apartment and then literally about two weeks after that I moved in.
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  Really?
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  So what were you leaving behind in the UK?
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  So I just got out of a relationship.
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  Which is the reason why I came back in 2023.
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  And then we were together for two years and we broke up in November.
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  So I think that another reason for me to stay was because I kind of didn't have any ties.
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  Sure.
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  I'd literally given up my house.
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  Yeah, there was nothing really.
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  I've got, I mean, family, friends and my dog is what I'm leaving behind.
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  But in a sense of business and stuff, you know, that comes wherever I am.
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  So do you think that that breakup was the catalyst for you to be like,
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  let me just change up the scenery?
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  And then, I've been in a relationship and I've never felt this way.
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  I've been in a relationship.
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  I've been in a relationship because the whole time that was in that relationship I really wanted to move back to Thailand.
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  But because his business and the things that were happening had to remain in the UK.
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  And, you know, that was a decision that was made at that point.
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  So when that relationship broke down, it was like, okay, I'm free.
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  You know, it's time to start a new life.
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  What do I want to do?
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  Where do I want to go?
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  And I think that sense of freedom was just like, okay, stay here and start to build something.
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  find somewhere to live. My immediate thing is like, my girl, are you not like needing to
• 5:02
  put more time and thought into this decision or is this just like your vibe, you're quite
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  impressive?
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  This is my personality. If I say I'm going to do something, I just do it.
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  And yeah, I was just like, what's the worst that can happen? And I think this is like
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  the advice that I always give to people when they're thinking about moving abroad or starting
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  a business or just, what's the worst that can happen? If anything just happened, you
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  can go back. Right. Your country's still going to be there. Your friends and family
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  are still going to be there. But yeah, I think a lot of the time, you just have to make
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  a decision and go with it. You can always change your mind, but success of speed. So just
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  make a decision and go with it. And business wise, because you speak a lot about your online
• 5:45
  business, how long did you have this before you were in Thailand?
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  I've actually been doing marketing. So my business is that I do social media marketing
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  for businesses.
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  I've actually been doing that since 2019. Okay. So I quit my job in 2019 again, a risk
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  taking decision. And I moved to Ibiza. So I quit my job, had no backup plan. Just quit
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  moved to Ibiza. And that's when that marketing side started. Okay. So it's actually been
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  a long time. It's not, I didn't just, you know, start this business six weeks later
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  move. I did have, you know, quite a solid foundation.
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  Sure. When you moved to Ibiza, you had plans to set up this business or that was just another
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  holiday that turned into an extended. Well, actually, I do have my family were living in
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  Ibiza. So I actually went out there just to give it a go and see what happened. That
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  actually didn't work out. Okay. Why? Because I was 23, living in Ibiza, trying to build
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  a business and the party and took over. I was like, who was a business when there's
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  a beach club? So that didn't work out. Okay. And that was my first stint of being a digital
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  nightmare. Okay.
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  I actually came back from Ibiza with zero money and zero clients, but memories, but memories.
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  And also, you know, took the risk. It didn't work out, just as some risk don't, you know,
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  sometimes you do things and it works out great. Sometimes you do things. It doesn't.
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  But do you think that because you had already had that experience, it made your tie experience
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  a lot better and more successful? Definitely. I think that because I'd had that experience
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  and I realized actually my focus wasn't in the right place. I had no discipline. I
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  wasn't really concentrating. So now coming over to Thailand was a completely different
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  experience. I was like, okay, I need to work first work then play. Sure. For a lot of
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  people who are considering moving abroad, not necessarily to Thailand, but anywhere money
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  and finances, probably like top of the list, right? And I think the fact that you have
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  been able to build a business is really incredible because it gives people the inspiration
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  that actually it can be done. Did you have any experience in social media marketing?
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  You said you left your nine to five. I don't know. Was there a connection between your
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  job and your business? So the reason I got into marketing is because I lied on my CV.
• 8:02
  Okay. We love a little judge, babe. Yeah. Not condoning like him, but at the same time,
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  sometimes you just got to get where you need to be. So I was actually at university.
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  I was studying events management and I was in my final year and I found a job on indeed
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  that looked amazing, but I didn't have any marketing experience. But you know, at the
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  time, I think I was 20, I was on social media. I kind of knew a little bit about it. So
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  I lied on my CV and said that I did like a sting with, I think it was like a friend's
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  business or something. Sure. And then I went to work with that company. They gave me
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  full training as part of as part of the package. And so then I did learn a little bit from
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  there, but social media marketing is something that you can just pick up there. All of these
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  online businesses that you see people doing, you can teach yourself if you want to. There's
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  a lot of information out there. Do you think that it's becoming oversaturated? So I think
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  there's a lot of people in the online world. And yes, there's a lot of people that do social
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  media for businesses, but there are billions of businesses out there. So there's definitely
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  less social media managers than what there are businesses. So as much as it is oversaturated,
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  I think if you position yourself well, if you are the best at what you do, then you don't
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  need to think about anybody else because you know, you're putting that effort in to get in the
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  clients. And are most of your clients still UK based? No, actually. I have a couple of UK,
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  I have some that are in America. Yeah, they're all over the world. Okay. And how do you continue
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  to make sure that you're getting clients irrespective of where you actually live? So I use online
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  platforms to get clients. But this is the part of being self employed and running these online
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  businesses that people don't see, which is you have to get clients every day. You can't take,
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  oh, I've got a client now I can take a month off now. Sure. Because what if that client decides
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  not to work with you anymore? Sure. So it is a constant thing of every single day looking out for
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  new clients. And still be hungry. Yes. Oh, yeah, you have to be. You have to be. I think maybe when
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  you get to a certain point, then I don't know, though, because then you then you want more.
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  You can ease off your ease off the gas a little bit, but you can't because once you hit this
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  income, you then want to hit the next one. Sure. Do you think that the time you started this
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  online business was the vision always to be able to live wherever you wanted?
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  I think yes, but also I don't really look at the super long-term vision. I look at what do I
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  need right now. So the first initial part was that I don't want to be in this job and I need to
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  make somebody doing something else. So essentially, it was just get me out of this position to the next.
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  Sure. And I do believe like when I think about business, yes, I do have a bigger vision for my
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  life, but in regards to businesses, I'm just hitting this milestone, then the next one, then the
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  next one. You come to Thailand, you get your lease, and you're like, right, how long does it take to
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  go from that honeymoon vacation period to this is actually no real living? I don't know whether I'm
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  still in reality. Really? Yeah. I just think that I always say Thailand's not a real place. Like I
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  say this to my friends, my friends have now visited and they're like, this is not a real place
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  because it just still feels like a holiday. Okay. You know, it doesn't, I think that when you're not
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  working, you're not having the routine of like a nine to five, I can choose whatever I want to do.
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  I don't think it seems like how I would if I would be living in England. Okay. You know,
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  but the reality sets in, I think when you are missing your friends and family and when things
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  go wrong, and then you're like, I'm on the other side of the world. I'm not just down the road.
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  Sure. Has anything gone wrong yet? Yes. Really? Can you tell me what's been going on, babes?
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  I mean, okay, two sides, right, business and personal. So I had a car crash on Thursday.
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  Literally. Thursday just gone. Thursday just gone. Okay. Nobody was injured. Okay.
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  You know, we were fine, but in that moment, the whole front of the car came off and I was just like,
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  oh, my God. And of course, like, it's a big shock. Sure. And I just had a breakdown at the
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  side of the road and I was like, oh, my God. And in that moment, you just want your friends,
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  sure. When you're family, you want your people, you know, and obviously I rang my mom and
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  it was great to have her on the other side of the phone. But the reality is that you've got a deal
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  with this by yourself. And I think business-wise, yeah, I just, I literally last month lost one of
• 12:46
  my biggest clients. Oh, no. Just because this is what happens, you know, people sign in a contract
• 12:50
  with you, but when that contract's up for review, they have, if they want to. Yeah. And it's not about
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  the work being bad. It's just because their finances have changed or they sometimes want a cheaper
• 13:00
  service, which they've now found. Right. So yeah, when things like that happen, you're like, oh,
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  God. What do I do? Driving. I'm like, every time I come here and I always say, I learn how to drive
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  in Jamaica. And I believe that learning to drive in Jamaica prepares you for the world, right?
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  If you know, you know, however, even on this side of the world, I think it's part language barrier.
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  I wouldn't want to have a car accident and not be able to speak with all Google translate.
• 13:27
  Yes. And also the more pets and like the bikes, they just take over the road. So I'm like, it's cool.
• 13:33
  Grab can take my local money. And it means that it's just one less thing for me to think about.
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  So when I saw that you were driving, I was just like, what?
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  Maybe I've been dramatic, but I was super impressed.
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  Well, we drive on the same side of the road. Right. I think, Glenn. So I think that's one thing.
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  Right. I don't know. Did you make it? Yeah, we do. All right. Yeah. So I think that makes it a
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  little bit easier. People coming from Europe, I think you find it a little, a little bit harder.
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  I do think you need to have your wits about you a little bit more. But I've over
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  than that. I've been absolutely fine. Really? Yeah. It's been absolutely fine before that I was
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  driving a bike as well. Really? Yeah. Yeah. Which you just have to learn to drive.
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  Were you wearing a helmet? Of course. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Of course.
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  But for me, a big part of like freedom is just being able to get up and go where I need to go.
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  And I love grab and I love like being, you know, being able to just go places for cheap. But
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  at the same time, I love a car journey. Yeah. You know? No, I do, I love driving.
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  So I completely get like, you can have a bad day. But put me behind a steering wheel,
• 14:37
  turn the music up. And I'm like, cool. Life's not that bad anymore. Exactly. Exactly. And also,
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  in terms of living, I do think that when you drive somewhere, it does start to cross over from
• 14:48
  tourist experience to lived experience. So I completely get it. I just don't know if I'm brave enough.
• 14:53
  Yeah. And I think that something can always happen, right? So for me, I've got friends here that
• 14:59
  don't drive at all. They're never going to drive. And they're like, you're crazy. And I'm like,
• 15:03
  the thing is, could I have a car crash in England? Of course, I could. I know I've had a car crash
• 15:06
  in England. Sure. You know, so these things can happen anywhere in the world. The difference is
• 15:10
  that obviously the experience and the fact that you in a different country, there's language barriers,
• 15:14
  there's a lot going on. You know, it's very overstimulating. But aside from that part, you know,
• 15:18
  these things can happen regardless. So true. Do you think that there's anything about
• 15:23
  living in Puket that surprised you? I know you'd visit a few times. You have some family here.
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  But just in terms of your own experience, did you ever have moments of like, I didn't expect that?
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  I think living in Thailand in general or in Puket, the amount of animals that I just everywhere,
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  like there was a monkey on the side of a car the other day. There's just, yeah, there's just
• 15:44
  animals everywhere. It's just crazy. And I think the amount of like wild dogs and, yeah, just
• 15:50
  walking down the road is in an elephant. It's casual. And I was saying to my friends that
• 15:57
  we take, we just look at an elephant walking down the road and we're just like, yeah,
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  cool, we're in Puket. But do we actually process it like to be, do we process like, this is not
• 16:05
  normal for our brains to see and just take them in it like there is an elephant there.
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  So yeah, there's things like that that just take you off God sometimes. You can just be like,
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  I think it's to have this conversation. And sometimes when you've been here for like as long
• 16:21
  as I have, you are just like, cool, I'm in Thailand or you don't really think that you're in Thailand.
• 16:27
  But then there's these little parts throughout your day or throughout your week, like, yeah,
• 16:30
  I'm really in Thailand. So true. And the animal thing really resonates. I had a friend of mine that
• 16:35
  came to visit me in Jamaica. And I'm from Kingston, right? Capital city. And she says to me,
• 16:40
  and she's from New York. She's like, April, there's a lot of goats in the road. And I kid you not.
• 16:45
  I was at this point like 22. I had never noticed the goats. It was only when she said it again
• 16:50
  because she's coming from an outsider's perspective. I said, you're so right. And she goes,
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  and they really know how to cross the road. Like they wait for the cars. And I know it's silly,
• 16:58
  but I was like, why are there so many goats? But I had never seen them. So the whole elephant,
• 17:03
  monkey thing really resonates because it's sometimes it's for someone else to point it out to you.
• 17:08
  And you're like, they have literally been here the entire time. Yeah. But living in Puket,
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  why did you choose Puket? Was it really just family connections or had you been to other parts
• 17:19
  of Thailand? No. The first time that I came to Thailand, I flew straight into Puket. I never
• 17:24
  looked at, so I'm a type B traveler, okay? Which doesn't that? So there's type B and type A people,
• 17:31
  type A people are highly organised. Yeah. Very, you know, they know what they're doing. They've
• 17:36
  got an itinerary. That's me. Yeah. Whatever you are, I'm the opposite of that. I did no research.
• 17:42
  Sure. I did a little bit around the laws, but I didn't do any research. And I never do any
• 17:46
  research when I go to countries. And maybe that is a fault. But at the same time, I just like to have
• 17:50
  the experience, right? But I just I didn't go to Bangkok, which usually people are flying to Bangkok.
• 17:56
  I do not know why. I just decided to come straight to Puket. And I didn't even tell my cousin that I
• 18:02
  was coming here. I didn't tell anybody, actually. Yeah. I didn't tell anybody. I didn't tell friends
• 18:05
  and intel family until like two weeks before. And I was like, just to let you know, I'm going
• 18:09
  because I think sometimes people's opinions can put you off going somewhere or, you know, if you
• 18:15
  know in your mind that this is where I need to be, for some reason, it's calling me. So that's
• 18:20
  what I did. There was no, oh, I want to be here for this reason. Sure. Yeah. So. And you've since
• 18:26
  visited Bangkok, right? Yes. Could you live there? No. No. What is it about Bangkok that that you
• 18:33
  couldn't live there? For me, I think that I'm from a city, only small city. I'm from Nottingham,
• 18:41
  but I don't want a city life. Okay. You know, I do love a city like I could be in like New
• 18:45
  York, for example. Okay. But I can't explain why. And for me, it's just feelings. It's just like,
• 18:51
  how do I feel when I'm in this place? Sure. And yeah, my decisions, my feelings make a lot of my
• 18:57
  decisions for me as you can tell. I don't feel like being here, but I feel like being there. Sure.
• 19:03
  But also, I think that maybe I didn't go to the right part. Okay. So I have people say to me like,
• 19:09
  oh, how can you live in Peket? But they went to Patong and they didn't have a great experience.
• 19:13
  Okay. So I think maybe I could go back to Bangkok and maybe go to a different area. Okay.
• 19:17
  And have a different experience. And so maybe you just landed in the right area for your spirit.
• 19:20
  Yes. Tell me about Patong. I don't know anything about Patong. Patong is like the main area in
• 19:25
  Peket. Okay. It's very touristy, loads of bars. It's got like the walking street. Okay.
• 19:31
  You know, so if you're here to have a party, which I didn't realise, I call Peket the Ibiza of Thailand.
• 19:38
  But I didn't realise the first time that I came to Peket that it is like quite a big party
• 19:42
  island. I always thought Thailand is like really spiritual and like yoga and chill. And then when I
• 19:47
  got here, I was like, this is Ibiza. Why is everyone party like what's going on?
• 19:52
  Any day of the week you can go and have a party. So Patong is a very tourist area. So I think if
• 19:56
  you land there, depending on what your vibe is, you'll love or you'll hate Peket. Okay.
• 20:00
  So. And how has your lifestyle changed? You've spoken a bit about how there's a very like yoga
• 20:05
  spiritual clean eating. Is that the vibe here? I think your experience of Thailand in general
• 20:12
  depends on you and what you want to get out of it. Two people can come here and have totally
• 20:17
  different experiences of course. For me, lifestyle is slow. Okay. So it's very slow. I have slow
• 20:25
  mornings. It doesn't feel like there's a rush. Okay. Which is completely different to England.
• 20:31
  When I'm in England, I'm here there everywhere. I'm doing lots of different things. Sure.
• 20:35
  And I spend a lot more time by myself. And I think that the lifestyle, which is probably what
• 20:44
  people see on the internet, which is what they want, is that you can choose something new to do
• 20:49
  every single day if you wanted to. Okay. You can never get bored here. Right. And when you say
• 20:53
  slow mornings, it sounds very poetic. Yeah. What does that mean for you? Slow mornings means I
• 20:59
  do not have an alarm. Oh, amazing. Yeah, I don't have an alarm at all. I did use to have an alarm.
• 21:03
  And I used to be the girl who gets up at 6 a.m. goes to the gym. And now I'm just like, who said
• 21:08
  that? I need to do that. You know, I'm not listening to these girls get up at 5 a.m. and all of this
• 21:13
  thing. I'm just like, I'm just doing what I want to do. So I don't have an alarm. I go to the gym
• 21:18
  or I do yoga. I come back. I have breakfast. And I just, when I mean slow, I mean like, I remember
• 21:24
  working in my job and like waking up at 7 a.m. And then I'm like, rushing around trying to get
• 21:28
  dressed and I'm commuting to work. And then I get to work on my days like, you know, and now I'm just
• 21:32
  like, I just do what I feel like doing in the mornings. So slow mornings for me are really important.
• 21:36
  I love the morning. Love having like a very nice breakfast and just like, just being able to
• 21:41
  not rush around. Sure. And you spoke a little bit about spending more time alone. How is it
• 21:46
  to finding friends, finding your tribe in a foreign country? It is quite difficult. I'll be honest,
• 21:53
  places like Thailand and like Bali, because they all mean a lot tourist areas. People are always
• 22:00
  passing by. Yeah. So you could meet people. I have met some incredible people, but they're
• 22:05
  only have two weeks. And I'm like, oh, it's so sad that I've met you in your going. Sure.
• 22:11
  And I think also that sometimes you come together with people because, well, I live in
• 22:16
  Puket and you live in Puket. So let's be friends. Yes. But for me, if you weren't in Puket, babe,
• 22:20
  I would not be your friend. Right. Right. But for me, I also can't do it because I'm like, I'd rather
• 22:26
  just be on my own than like, you know, forcing a connection with somebody. However, I had somebody
• 22:33
  on Instagram. I've met a lot of people through TikTok and Instagram. Okay. And I met somebody on
• 22:37
  Instagram who then had like a studio opening and then I met other people. So for me, it's just
• 22:44
  like putting yourself in positions where you can meet people, you know, are there meetups,
• 22:47
  there's Facebook groups, but building genuine connections is a lot harder. And then in terms of
• 22:55
  the connections that you would have had, like your friendships that you would have had in the UK,
• 22:59
  have they all survived the trip? Have you learned anything about these, these relationships?
• 23:04
  Because I know for me, I've always felt that out of my, and I don't have many friends,
• 23:07
  I don't like people. That's not good. There's like a few people. But I think that I'm often
• 23:13
  always the one moving. Yes. And so it's been a learning experience to see how we navigate that.
• 23:20
  Like, I'm really good at keeping in touch with people, but I don't always want to be the one that
• 23:23
  has to call you know. And so I just wondered if you've had any experiences that have kind of changed
• 23:29
  even relationships that you thought were solid that maybe just are being tested.
• 23:34
  I would say that my friendships are really solid. And there was solid before I came here.
• 23:40
  These are the same friends that I had when I was here in 2023. Okay. So for me, my, my,
• 23:45
  say my five friends there, you know, I'm in a group chat with some of them. And the rest of them
• 23:50
  would do speak on a daily basis. There are some friends that were a little bit surprised in it,
• 23:54
  but they want, they wasn't my closest friends. But you know, they've not reached, I've not reached out
• 23:58
  to them. They've not reached out to me. Sure. But it's not in, you know, kind of like bad blood.
• 24:03
  It's just that, well, maybe our friendship was because I was in England and because we maybe
• 24:09
  went to the similar places. And now that we're not going to those places, we just don't have the
• 24:12
  connection. But I think it's really important to try and have that solid friendship circle.
• 24:19
  When you're on the other side of the world, you still want to main that familiarity. Yeah.
• 24:25
  And I have strong connections. I speak to my mom every day. I speak to my grandmother every day.
• 24:29
  So I do make sure that I put an effort into speak to friends and family. And I think that that's
• 24:35
  what's really important is that if you are on the other side of the world and you're on your own,
• 24:39
  and then you're also not connected with friends and family, you are really going to feel it.
• 24:42
  isolated. Yeah. I guess that leads quite nicely into people do have an idea, I think,
• 24:50
  from seeing online, seeing images and videos about what life is like abroad. And I guess
• 24:57
  isolation, especially in business, right? Because it's another thing to move abroad and like go
• 25:01
  into a corporate environment where you're then having colleagues. They don't need to be a best day,
• 25:05
  but it's still human interaction. And you're doing a lot of work by yourself by growing your
• 25:09
  business. How do you manage those not-so-joyous moments? I'll be totally honest. Okay. So I was
• 25:18
  having one of those moments yesterday. Also, yesterday was a day where I was like, this is a lot.
• 25:23
  It's a lot of pressure. No one's coming to help me. You know, this, and I think that when you have
• 25:28
  that realization that nobody's going to save you, if you want this life, it is on you and the
• 25:35
  pressures on. You know, nobody's going to get up and do the work for you. And I didn't use to
• 25:41
  allow myself to feel like that because I'm like, no, back to it, get going. And now I think the
• 25:47
  past six months, especially like the time that I've been here, I've really just allowed myself to,
• 25:52
  it's cool to feel like that. You know, it's fine to sometimes like have low mood and feel a little
• 25:57
  bit sad. But then today I get up, I do my hair, I do my makeup and I'm back to it because you can't
• 26:03
  wallow in self-pity because that does not pay you. Unfortunately not. So I think that just on
• 26:09
  yourself and know that not every day is going to be this Instagram highlight. Some days are like,
• 26:14
  actually, you might just have a little cry or you might just be a little bit sad. Sure.
• 26:18
  But it's also like knowing that you can have those moments, but keeping it a moment. Sure.
• 26:23
  I can't drag that out for a week. Yeah. Like that's, of course, there's something that's
• 26:27
  really good yesterday. Um, I think it was probably just the car crash. Yeah. Losing a club. You
• 26:33
  know, it's been, you know, sometimes life just comes at you. Yeah. One thing after another. Yeah.
• 26:38
  And I was just like, I am exhausted. Yeah. And this is a lot. But pressure bills diamonds and that
• 26:45
  you just have to be like, okay, this may have been like, there's a lot going on, but also gratitude.
• 26:53
  Okay. Cool. That's going on. But I live in a country that's always 32 degrees. I've got the sea.
• 26:58
  I've got the sun, you know, and I'm building something amazing. So then you just have to like come
• 27:02
  back to yourself. But these are the things that you don't see on Instagram. You don't see.
• 27:07
  It's not a part of the highlight reel. And a lot of people don't like speaking about it. But that's
• 27:11
  why it's really important for me now to start sharing this message and give people the realities.
• 27:15
  Because imagine you're seeing these highlight reels of these people in Thailand and Bali.
• 27:19
  And then you come here and then you experience one of those moments and you're like, well,
• 27:23
  it must just be me. Yes. Yeah. Is there anything else that has like in the journey, right? We're
• 27:29
  still relatively early on in the journey. Six, seven months is in that long. Yeah. But is there
• 27:33
  anything else that you think people need to know about the challenges of moving abroad? Not
• 27:37
  necessarily specific to Thailand, but in terms of your own personal journey. I think that you have to
• 27:43
  be really on this self-development journey. Okay. I think it's really important to have a really
• 27:49
  strong and resilient mindset. If you are somebody, oh, and also you have to be somebody that is okay
• 27:55
  with not having any stability. Right. No stability. There isn't any. The most stability you're
• 28:00
  probably going to get is that if you is your house, if you're living in one place. Sure. But if you
• 28:07
  are building on like business, that's not stable. Yeah. You could like earn, you could earn
• 28:12
  thousands one month and the next month you could earn half of that. Sure. So there is no stability.
• 28:17
  So you have to be mentally prepared for that. So I would say before even like moving abroad,
• 28:22
  start your self-development journey. Okay. Start your mindset work. Yeah. Really start to understand
• 28:27
  who you are and also understand like what your strengths and weaknesses really get into that,
• 28:34
  really get to know yourself. So that when you are away and things feel heavy and there's a lot
• 28:39
  going on that you can just go back in yourself and just be like, okay, cool, you can self-suive,
• 28:44
  you can regulate your nervous system. But also maybe there's things that you need to outsource.
• 28:47
  Maybe there's things that you that you want greater that you can get somebody else to do.
• 28:51
  Yeah. And really did you know yourself before you came or have you been really having this
• 28:56
  realization since you've got here? I think a bit of both. So I've been, I'm somebody that's
• 29:05
  big in self-development, reading all of these books, you know. So I do think I did, but I don't
• 29:10
  think you ever truly know yourself. I think you're always growing, you're always changing and evolving.
• 29:16
  So you will discover yourself. And I think like people go away to like find themselves,
• 29:22
  but you're not finding yourself, you're creating yourself. So because every single day you learn
• 29:28
  something new about yourself and every week your face with something that will then make you
• 29:34
  question yourself and who you really are. How are you different having lives in Thailand so far?
• 29:40
  I think I'm way more resilient than what I thought I was. And I think that I think that what it's
• 29:57
  taught me, especially let's just say the past month, is that it's okay to show up as who I am.
• 30:02
  Okay. I think that there's a lot of people on the internet talking about authenticity.
• 30:09
  And I can't just show up authentically. Just show up as you are, however that is.
• 30:14
  And the right people will come to you. And the more that you're comfortable with being yourself,
• 30:21
  the easier that life will be for you. Because a lot of the time when, especially if you're going
• 30:25
  into content creation world, right? Sure. You feel like you might, you might record a video then
• 30:30
  you're like, oh my god, no, I could never post that. Because maybe it's not as aesthetic as you
• 30:34
  want it to be. Or maybe you're speaking in a way that you think, oh my god, what will people
• 30:38
  think? The more you just learn to be comfortable with being yourself and show up, however you want,
• 30:44
  I think the easier it gets. You just turned 30. Make me feel old, baby.
• 30:52
  But for women, especially, right? We always hear about these milestones, we hear about ages,
• 30:57
  we hear about things that we're supposed to be doing should have done all of the things.
• 31:01
  I think probably it's fair to say that we hear these things more so than men. And I get it from
• 31:05
  a biological perspective, but I just wondered what does being 30 mean for you? Being 30 means that I am
• 31:15
  now laying, no, not laying. I would say really building now. I think my 20s were discovering and
• 31:23
  figuring out what I wanted to do. I spent a lot of time. Yeah, I've done lots of different things.
• 31:29
  I had 15 jobs before 2019. Literally or figuratively? No, 15. I counted. I had 15 jobs.
• 31:35
  Oh, tell me a few. I've done everything. I've been a waitress. I've worked. I've taught in schools
• 31:42
  as a TA. I've been an events manager. I've been within marketing. I actually did door to door
• 31:48
  sales for two days. I've done lots of things. Cool. A lot of bar work. Yeah, I've been a PA. Honestly,
• 31:57
  I've done everything possible. But my 20s was the time that allowed myself to really discover what
• 32:02
  I wanted to do. Aside from all of this, I'm also a DJ. Okay. Yeah, very creative person. But also
• 32:09
  my 20s, I was lost. I was like, well, what is it that I really want to do? And then when I figured
• 32:12
  it out, that actually it's lots of things that I want to do. I think now turning 30 means
• 32:17
  being able to build. Now I know where I want to be. Now I know what I want to do. 30 means
• 32:24
  building. And I also think that there is pressure on society for women to, well, are you going to
• 32:31
  find a husband? Are you going to get, you know, are you going to have children and all of these things?
• 32:36
  And yes, I would love all of those things. But actually, I think that being 30 at the minute is
• 32:43
  making good decisions. Yeah. Do you think that having given yourself the freedom to do all of these
• 32:50
  different jobs in your 20s? And you say that you kind of know what you want to know. But it still
• 32:55
  feels like there's a few things that you want to do. Do you think that having too many passions?
• 33:01
  Because it's something that I struggle with, right? Like everybody's like, even social media,
• 33:04
  when they're like niche don't, I'm like, oh no, but I don't want to talk about that today. I want to
• 33:09
  like talk about this today. Do you think that in your life having to have too many things that
• 33:15
  could perhaps not distract you, but pull you in different directions? Has that been challenging?
• 33:20
  Yes, definitely. And I have always felt, I used to always be called jack of all trades.
• 33:26
  Okay. And that used to really offend me. And I used to get quite upset by it because I'm like,
• 33:30
  well, the next line is master of none. Right. Yeah. And it's like, and sometimes it feels like,
• 33:36
  yes, I'm doing all of these things, but am I doing all of them well? I like, would it be better for
• 33:40
  me to just be amazing at this thing? And that's what people tell you. But then no, because if I didn't
• 33:45
  do all of these things, I wouldn't be here now. Imagine if I had a state as a waitress,
• 33:50
  because that's what society says. Or maybe I didn't quit my corporate job that paid me a lot of
• 33:56
  money when I was 23, because society says, be really good at this. I would not be here now.
• 34:01
  Nation down. Okay. If you are somebody that enjoys doing one thing, great. I'm actually not built
• 34:08
  that way. There's something called human design. And it kind of tells you like, I'm kind of like
• 34:13
  about yourself. If you're into all of like astrology and that kind of stuff, it's really good
• 34:17
  to look into. My instead of manifesting generator. And it literally says, you were somebody that in
• 34:22
  this life, you were meant to do lots of different things. And I was like, yes, because now I can.
• 34:28
  And who says that you have to be a master of everything? Am I a master at marketing? No. Do I
• 34:33
  make money from it? Yes. You know, am I a millionaire? No. But can I teach other people how to do
• 34:41
  the things that I do? Yes. And I think there's definitely a fine line because if you are doing
• 34:48
  everything, how do you concentrate? Sure. But I think that I have kind of blended them seamlessly
• 34:55
  together. So I think, you know, if I was a doctor and a DJ, it's two completely different things.
• 35:00
  But if I'm a content creator and a DJ and I also have a marketing business and I coach,
• 35:06
  they all kind of come within the same thing. Sure. Because they all fall within
• 35:11
  creative and marketing covers everything. So do you think that it's harder to make money in
• 35:16
  Thailand as an expert? Yes. As far as I'm aware, there are not many jobs for foreigners.
• 35:26
  You could be a teacher. I think you can work in real estate. One thing I love about Thailand is
• 35:30
  they reserve their jobs for their people. Okay. So that's what I love about it, right? Because if you
• 35:34
  want to open a shop here, you better have people working. Okay. So if you want to move to Thailand
• 35:39
  in particular, and I think Bali, you need an online business, which means that you only have
• 35:45
  that source of income in England. I can make money from DJing. I can make money from consulting.
• 35:51
  I can make money from lots of different things. But here, the only thing I can make money from
• 35:56
  is online. That's really interesting. I think that's not really spoken about that much in the sense
• 36:02
  that in your home country, you can have multiple hustles, you can switch, you can pick
• 36:06
  choose refuse. And then when you choose to live this life abroad, your wings are clipped in
• 36:11
  something. Yes. Yeah. Okay. And then people that live here, a lot of people talk about visa runs.
• 36:18
  Yes. What is a visa run? So a visa run is currently when you come to Thailand, you get 60 days,
• 36:26
  this I'm talking from an English past tense, right? I don't know for other countries. You get
• 36:30
  60 days, and then you can extend by a further 30 days. So in total, you get 90 days in the country.
• 36:36
  Now, if you do not have a visa to live and work here, then what a lot of people do is they leave
• 36:43
  the country and then they come back. And then they get the 90 days again. Okay. But they all
• 36:47
  climb on that. Oh, really? Yeah. There's been people that have been refused at the border,
• 36:51
  because they're looking for your passport. And they want to Thailand. Thailand. Thailand.
• 36:54
  Malaysia, two days back to Thailand. Oh, no. Yeah. And is it hard to get to get an online business
• 37:01
  visa? I don't know what the name is. So it's a DTV in Thailand. And it is a five year visa. Okay.
• 37:08
  You can live and work in Thailand for five years. You allows me over 180 days and then you have to leave
• 37:13
  and then go back. It's not hard to obtain, but you do have to have a particular set amount in
• 37:19
  your bank account. Sure. And I think that is the only visa that you can use to work. Okay.
• 37:26
  So I would recommend the DTV visa to everybody. Sure. You can do border runs, but imagine if they
• 37:32
  don't let you back in the country and you've got your house, your apartments full of your stuff,
• 37:36
  and they're like, no, sorry. My heart couldn't handle it. It couldn't. So when you think of Thailand,
• 37:42
  no, do you think of it as the place that you will reside for the next five years? I don't know.
• 37:47
  Okay. I don't know. I love Thailand. I do see it as like a base. I mean, I literally don't live in
• 37:53
  England. I don't have a house in England. So I live here. But will it be somewhere that I live
• 37:59
  for the next five years? I'm not sure. And I think I've got a lot of backlash online when I post
• 38:03
  videos saying, well, be here for two years and then see how it is. I don't know where I want to be
• 38:09
  in two years. Like, why are you bothered first of all? That's another thing that I'd love to talk
• 38:13
  about, by the way, which is being online and like, what that takes. But I really don't know,
• 38:19
  for the moment, yes, but my life changes constantly. I didn't know in December that I'd be living in
• 38:25
  Thailand. Sure. You know, so I think who knows what would happen by this December? Are there
• 38:29
  particular considerations or is it literally wait till the universe speaks to me? Wait till the
• 38:34
  universe speaks to me, you know, at the moment, I'm a single woman living a solo life. If I were
• 38:39
  to meet somebody or, you know, circumstances change, then I think that's a part of also,
• 38:46
  you know, having an online business and being a traveler is just be open to the changes.
• 38:53
  Don't kind of say, okay, well, I'm going to be in Thailand for a year because you never know
• 38:56
  what's going to happen. And then if something just happened and then you've got to change,
• 38:59
  if you're not open minded, it's going to be really hard to adapt to change. How is dating?
• 39:04
  I'm not dating. Oh, good. No, I'm not dating. I don't use dating apps. I've never used dating apps.
• 39:14
  It's just not for me. Personally, and my friends that have had terrible experiences,
• 39:19
  it's not advertised towards me. There are people that you meet here that you may seem interested in,
• 39:27
  but I know like from my friends' experiences, they have met people who are then leaving in two
• 39:31
  weeks and had like a great holiday romance, but then it doesn't work. And then there are people
• 39:36
  that live here who you think, well, you live here, like we should date, but then it's not the right
• 39:40
  person. So, dating is definitely harder. It's harder than the New London? Yeah, yeah. I would say it's
• 39:46
  harder than England because people are constantly moving. And another part is you don't know people.
• 39:52
  People can come here and make a whole persona. And that's scary. So like in England, I'll be honest
• 39:58
  with you, I always like to meet people in person to kind of see who they are, but also you can do
• 40:03
  like a bit of background research and like get to know them. I'm very, very, I'm not a free data
• 40:10
  in a sense of like I like to know you. I'd love to like meet your family and your friends and like,
• 40:15
  are you okay? Mentally? So yeah, dating is a little bit scary for me because I'm just like I don't
• 40:21
  know who you are. And in a different country, people can make up who they are. Which is a little bit
• 40:26
  deep. And it's probably not the answer that people was like, oh yeah, it's great to date out here.
• 40:30
  I don't think it is. Speaking of people being able to create their own identity on here, not
• 40:36
  necessarily in a cynical way. But do you think that being away from your comfort zone does give you
• 40:41
  the freedom to kind of manifest your new self in a way that you wouldn't be able to with even
• 40:48
  when you said you came here, you didn't tell people, right? Because you didn't want them to plant
• 40:51
  those seeds. But I wonder if I'm a like bigger scale, not because you're trying to like catfish
• 40:56
  someone. Yeah. But you get to create whoever you want to be in a foreign country. Yes. And I love
• 41:03
  that. You do. Okay. I love the fact that you are literally in a different world. You get on that
• 41:07
  plane, you go from one world to another. And in this world, you can be whoever you want to be. I mean,
• 41:11
  in that world, you can also be whoever you want to be. I do a lot of work around identity. And
• 41:16
  it's something that I'm really big on at the moment. I'm really just, you can be whoever you want
• 41:20
  to be, right? But I literally have completely changed who I am since being here. I wasn't a
• 41:26
  content creator before I came here. I got this content creation in January. Okay. I was always,
• 41:31
  you know, behind the scenes for all the businesses. I made a few videos on TikTok, nothing, you
• 41:36
  know, thing important. But I've changed my identity because now I'm a content creator. Okay.
• 41:40
  Now I work with brands. Now I do, you know, now I've got a Martin agency and now I'm a coach. I
• 41:45
  wasn't a coach for I came here either. So I think that you really can create it. But I think what
• 41:50
  it does is it allows you to create who you want to be because you don't have people telling you
• 41:55
  who you are. So in England, I'm very much known as a DJ, you know, what you know, that's the DJ.
• 42:00
  And I came here and I don't even tell people that I'm a DJ anymore because it is a part of me,
• 42:05
  but that's not what's leading the way over this side of the world. Right. So you get to choose
• 42:10
  what part you're presenting. Yes. And then that's led you in these different spaces. That's really
• 42:14
  interesting. Why did you start your content creation just in January? I didn't. It was accidental
• 42:20
  to be honest with you. I made a video saying I made a video that said, I came to Thailand for a
• 42:26
  free week holiday. Now I live here and that video blew up. Okay. And then I made another one and
• 42:30
  that video blew up. And then I think it was like the sun and the daily mail did like a piece about
• 42:35
  it. And then I realized, well, actually, people are interested and I just kept making videos.
• 42:41
  I grew my following quite quickly on TikTok to be fair. I think I grew it's like 10k.
• 42:47
  But again, talking about identity, I then became known as like the girl who moved to Thailand.
• 42:52
  Right. So then now I've changed my content again. Because I'm not a talker.
• 42:57
  And I want to now just kind of be, this is just me, whatever I show on that day. Like you said
• 43:05
  earlier, I want to talk about this today. Sure. I want to talk about this. So maybe I go to a
• 43:08
  salon in Thailand and I film that. And maybe the next day I talk about my business and the next day
• 43:12
  I talk about something else. But yeah, being able to kind of create who you are in a different
• 43:22
  country is one of the best things about moving away. You spoke a little bit earlier to touch on
• 43:29
  life online. Yeah. And what does that mean? That experience? How has that been for you? Because
• 43:34
  it's still relatively new. And I think different platforms have different energies. I don't know if
• 43:39
  you feel the same way. But I'd love to hear about because everybody has this idea of influencer
• 43:44
  or content creator, even digital nomad. I think they have quite sometimes negative connotations.
• 43:50
  Someone said to me about being an influencer. Excuse me. And I was like, who's an influencer?
• 43:54
  Right. Like I'm not an influencer, babe. I don't know. I have a business. Yeah. No, no, no.
• 44:01
  I work really hard. And it's so funny because I resisted social media for such a long time.
• 44:08
  And I will be completely honest. I owe everybody an apology who their life is influencing because
• 44:13
  I just didn't think it was legitimate. I didn't appreciate how much work went into it. I was just
• 44:18
  super negative in my mind. So caveat that I had really this idea that I would never ever play that
• 44:26
  game. And so I'm interested to hear from you how that experience has been online for you.
• 44:32
  It has been wild. It has been wild. And the same I influencers and content creators are amazing.
• 44:41
  And yes, you might see an influencer thing. Oh, well, I work in a school and I work or I'm a
• 44:46
  nurse and I work really hard. And this person is just getting thousands of pounds. But actually
• 44:51
  it's really hard. And maybe not physically, maybe it's not physically demanding the mental pressure.
• 44:56
  I'm not an influencer. And I also don't like the term influencer. The reason for that is because
• 45:01
  I'm not here to influence you. I'm just here to show up online because I enjoy it. And I do
• 45:05
  enjoy creating content. The part that I don't enjoy is the comments. Why is wrong with everybody?
• 45:14
  Guys, please. And it's always like middle-aged man. And I genuinely don't have a lot of hate
• 45:23
  from women. Okay. A lot of the hate. And this is all. Maybe they're just all on me, babes.
• 45:27
  No, the women are okay. You've got the women. Okay, cool. I get the middle-aged man who hates me
• 45:33
  for just existing. And I think that is the hardest part. Mentally, you will get comments. So
• 45:39
  when I first started, it was great. You know, everyone was like, oh, go girl, like this is amazing.
• 45:45
  And then I made a video saying, I think I made a video saying like, I'd rather live in a one-bedroom
• 45:52
  apartment in Thailand than what I would live in in, you know, three-bedroom house that I've just
• 45:55
  moved out of England because this is my experience. The hate on that video was unreal. And I'm like,
• 46:00
  I don't understand what I've said. But people will pick you apart. I've had people call me fat.
• 46:05
  I've had people tell me that I need to lose weight. I've had people literally send death threats.
• 46:11
  I better not do anything. And I'm not very controversial online. You know, if I've got an opinion,
• 46:15
  I would say it, but I'm not, you know, an account that bashes anybody or and I'm not a celebrity
• 46:20
  or anything like that. So when you have people really being negative, it's like, it just
• 46:27
  gets you. And as much as you want to be resilient, as much as you're like, oh, you know, people say,
• 46:32
  oh, don't worry about what they say. I made a video. This was probably the worst thing. I had
• 46:36
  to take it down. I made a video. Yeah, I had to take it down because every time I was going on my
• 46:41
  phone, there was pure hate. What was the video? So I made a video saying that I basically made a video.
• 46:47
  Now I did it with a hook, right? So that a hook is the start of a video to get people to listen to
• 46:51
  it. So sometimes a lot of people say things at the beginning of the video, just for attention,
• 46:55
  to gain people in. It's a marketing strategy. So I said, I'm in China and there's no Chinese food,
• 47:00
  right? But what I meant to say was the Chinese food that I experienced in England is not the same
• 47:05
  food that was in China. Now the amount of comments were like, how did you not research? How do you not
• 47:11
  know this? You're stupid. And I'm like, well, how do you know? How do you know that information?
• 47:15
  Oh, well, I watched it on a program. Well, I did not watch that program. So, okay. So it got to
• 47:20
  500,000 views within a couple of hours. And then it was nearly a meal. And honestly,
• 47:26
  that my friends were like, this is amazing. It's not all, not all views are good views,
• 47:32
  not all videos are great. It's not all viral videos are good because actually it wasn't bringing
• 47:36
  anything in for me financially. It wasn't bringing anything into my business. What it was doing
• 47:40
  is just giving me anxiety every time I looked at my phone. What were people so obsessed about?
• 47:45
  The fact that they felt like I was being out. So I was racist. I was prejudiced. I was a micro,
• 47:53
  I had microaggressions towards Chinese people. I'm stupid. I don't do a research. I'm
• 47:59
  another English idiot abroad. Honestly, just everything. Just everything that you could think of.
• 48:03
  And he's not even that the comments were that bad, but it was the volume of it. Okay, just kept coming.
• 48:07
  Yeah. And I was just like, I just had to delete it. And then even after that video,
• 48:11
  they would comment on all the videos that I had nothing to do with it. Like I literally made
• 48:15
  a video about like a day in the life. And they were like, so are you still, what did it say?
• 48:20
  So you still haven't learned what Chinese food is yet? I'm like, go away. Yeah. But that is
• 48:26
  the downside. And I haven't. We said it didn't help financially. You never made any money off
• 48:30
  for the million? I would know because I deleted the video. If I'd have kept it, I probably would have
• 48:35
  made quite a bit of it. I would have been thinking about that money, babes. I'd be like,
• 48:38
  getting angry. Yeah. Pay me. Right. And I think that from an outsider's perspective,
• 48:43
  I had to talk my friends the same thing. But you know when you're going on your phone,
• 48:47
  I'm just going on TikTok to watch TikTok. And I'm just getting constant. And I was like,
• 48:53
  replying to some people. And then I made a follow up video. And I was like, listen,
• 48:56
  the point I was trying to make was that Turkish food in England is the same as Turkish food abroad,
• 49:01
  right? Same as like when you go to different places. That was a point that I was trying to make.
• 49:05
  That even got hate. And I was like, okay. And then I thought, is this adding to my brand or
• 49:09
  taking away from it? And I thought, actually, you know, yes, I could make maybe 500 pounds from
• 49:13
  the video. But is it going to take away my credibility? Is it going to take away? And also
• 49:18
  mentally, what is it doing for me? And I think there are a lot of people. I mean, you hear about
• 49:22
  like celebrities and stuff. So I think one thing to consider is like, if you are going to become
• 49:26
  a content creator, just know that that will go. You could just be making videos of baking. And
• 49:32
  they will come for you. I don't know why. It's so true. And it's funny because when you said
• 49:36
  about knowing yourself before you travel, I always say to people, know yourself before you turn
• 49:41
  up online, like 100%. People are often giving tips about how to grow and, you know, what you should
• 49:47
  do hooks, all the strategic things. But I don't think people talk enough about what you need to do
• 49:53
  before you get online just in terms of your mental state. People forever comment and they're like,
• 49:57
  oh, April, you're always so nice to people in the comments, even when they're telling you that
• 50:00
  they're going to call like child services on you. And the reason why I'm so not first of all,
• 50:06
  let's be clear. Online April and real life April. Not the same thing. Thank you for addressing that.
• 50:13
  Social media is not a real place. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. So I am happy to declare that if you ever
• 50:20
  step to me with the same energy online in person, a different April will turn off. Yes. Right.
• 50:24
  But going back to knowing yourself, when people tell me things, I don't feed my kids any refined
• 50:29
  sugar, ultra processed food, they don't have screen time. These are the things that make people
• 50:33
  really upset. Not giving children cake from a UK perspective is abuse. Right. I didn't know this.
• 50:40
  I've not learned. Okay. And so people would say, these are things. And I think from my perspective,
• 50:45
  first of all, it's so extreme what they're saying that I genuinely find it funny. I can't genuinely
• 50:49
  find it funny. But there's another part of I know the things that I'm vulnerable about, right? Like,
• 50:55
  I know the things that I have my insecurities around. And luckily, motherhood and my kids is just
• 51:01
  not one of them, right? And so my point is is that maybe we should choose like the things that we
• 51:07
  want to talk about and like make the focus of our content based also on the reality of how we're
• 51:12
  feeling. If you said to me, oh, you know, this is a bit big. I might be like, yeah, because I have
• 51:16
  thoughts about a rhinoplasty, right? But you can tell me anything about my kids. And quite frankly,
• 51:20
  I see them every day. And I'm the best mother ever because this is how they're turning on. You know,
• 51:24
  so it's kind of like picking and choosing what you're going to show. But I will definitely say the
• 51:29
  like keyboard warrior syndrome is a real, real thing. And it's like, there, it takes no
• 51:36
  prisoners. You could be 16 and showing a prom dress. And I see people going mental at a 16-year
• 51:43
  old. And I do think, you know, there are so many pros and cons to social media. We wouldn't be here
• 51:49
  in this space if it wasn't for that. But yeah, you have to be strong in the same way that before
• 51:55
  you move country, you have to like be able to do the work. And I think a lot of times people don't
• 52:00
  talk enough about doing the work, even just from like a trauma perspective. And it's something that
• 52:07
  I've thought about, especially with my children, because obviously you're thinking how you're going
• 52:10
  to prepare them and you therefore have to become the best version of yourself before you kind of
• 52:14
  pass that on. But I wonder if do you think that most people are moving now? Because it seems like
• 52:19
  lots of people are moving. Are they moving to escape? Or are they moving to seek freedom? Because
• 52:23
  they're two very different things, right? You're either running away from something or you're running
• 52:28
  towards something. I think there is, I think actually a little bit of both. Okay. Dependent who you
• 52:37
  are. So I think a little bit of both. I think a lot of people are escaping the UK because we're running
• 52:44
  away from the daily, I mean, you've lived in the UK. It's very negative energy there, right? It's
• 52:51
  very negative space. And I don't mean personally. I mean, I have a great experience in England,
• 52:56
  you know, but I just mean like there isn't the support and there isn't that sense of community.
• 53:02
  And I think some people are very isolated, even in England. So as much as, you know, coming up
• 53:07
  rod and being isolated, actually, you're quite isolated at home. Sure. I think they're escaping the
• 53:12
  rat race, they're escaping the norm, they're escaping what society wants you to do or what you should
• 53:18
  do. And I think they are moving towards freedom. Right. So I do think that it just combine a little
• 53:23
  bit of both. I believe also that people are seeing people online. And as much as we say, you know,
• 53:31
  this is going to be problems that you're going to face in this country, what being able to just have
• 53:34
  these amazing experiences, people didn't realise for generations and especially women, I think
• 53:42
  that was not an option. That was not an option for my grandmother. And I think this is something
• 53:46
  that we really need to speak about. That was not an option. The option was get married, have children,
• 53:52
  settle down by a house. That's it. That's your life. So I think now like I was seeing other women
• 53:59
  like living amazing lives. And I was like, I want that for myself. Sure. So I do think people are
• 54:04
  moving a lot more towards freedom. And I think people are like, I don't want this life. But I think
• 54:11
  now with social media people are showing you how to make it a reality when before it was a dream.
• 54:17
  It's like, oh, I would love to go and move to a different country. But that's not possible for me,
• 54:21
  because I'm just Sally from down the road and I'm a teacher and this is my life. And also the same
• 54:28
  with you right. So people are seeing, I'll actually, okay, I do have children, but now I can travel
• 54:33
  with them. Yeah. Which is, so people are seeing all of these opportunities and realising that they
• 54:38
  see normal people like myself and you that are doing the things that they thought were a dream
• 54:45
  and were only made for certain type of person. So I think when you're seeing people that look
• 54:49
  like you from the same background as you, same life experiences, it's possible. And now I can
• 54:54
  actually do it. What do you think are some of the misconceptions about being here in Thailand?
• 55:02
  I don't think Puket is that cheap. I was about to say. Yeah. I don't. Yeah. Even compared to like
• 55:07
  other parts of Thailand. Yeah. I'm like, Puket. I mean, there's certain things that are cheap,
• 55:12
  like this morning, I ordered eggs because I forgot that I didn't have any more eggs. I'm
• 55:15
  my girls eat eggs every morning. And it was like, I think three pound for like 24 eggs. Okay,
• 55:20
  that was cheap, right? And the fact that it came to my house. Great. But then like, I went to
• 55:24
  dinner and with my kids and it's not cheap compared to like other parts Bangkok, which I expected
• 55:30
  to be more expensive because I'm thinking city life. I actually think I find deals clothing,
• 55:36
  not cheap in Puket. Yes. Right? Like those is really pretty dress. I'm still figuring out
• 55:40
  do I go back for it? But it was like farty porn. I'm like, the material wasn't even farty
• 55:44
  porn material. Yes. And then I go to Bangkok and I get a dress similar for like 11.
• 55:49
  A hundred percent. Yeah. Puket is not that cheap. Puket is not that cheap. And tight, what's
• 55:54
  happening as well is, of course, everybody's moving over here. So the same thing that happens
• 55:59
  gentrification, right? So everything's going up now. And that is another part where people are
• 56:03
  like, oh, you know, you're ruining Thailand. Baves, we can say the same thing about Londoners
• 56:07
  moving to Nottingham. You guys are ruining Nottingham because the prices are going up. You know,
• 56:10
  we could always say that. Yeah. I think Puket is not as cheap. And I think Thailand in general,
• 56:15
  it is cheap compared to the UK. Sure. But don't, I mean, if you want to live like a backpacker
• 56:21
  and you want to just eat Thai food every single day, great. That's fine. You can live on a budget.
• 56:27
  But if you want to have a nice, a particular lifestyle, okay? Because everybody has a different
• 56:32
  type of lifestyle. I don't always like to eat Thai food. I like to go to fancy restaurants,
• 56:38
  and I like to go to beach clubs and stuff like that, which means that my living expenses are way
• 56:41
  more than other people. And I also think a misconception would be, oh, that it's easy. You know,
• 56:52
  it's easy to live here. It's not. It's actually harder than what it is to live in the UK. Do you
• 56:57
  think so? Yeah. In what ways? Not in financially, but in ways that like, there's a language barrier.
• 57:03
  I'm going to speak Thai. You're going to come across problems all the time, which I am learning.
• 57:07
  But it's, you know, it's not the easiest language to learn. And you can have a few phrases.
• 57:11
  Thai people are amazing. They will, they will like help you to understand. Like even if there's
• 57:15
  a language barrier, you've got Google Translate. But it's like what happens if you're in,
• 57:22
  you're not in Puket and you're like, oh, you're somewhere where you've got no signal and you've
• 57:26
  got no Google Translate. You know, those are the things that make it a little bit harder than
• 57:30
  living in England. Yeah. I mean, when I think of like Puket, it does come across as very touristy.
• 57:39
  A lot of people say that it's like not an authentic experience of Thailand. Would you agree with them?
• 57:44
  Yeah, I don't think I've had an authentic Thailand experience. It's been there. I'm going to
• 57:48
  be honest. I haven't been to Chiang Mai. Right. I haven't been to the rural areas. So I don't
• 57:53
  think I've actually experienced Thailand. Another thing as well, which is I live in an area called
• 57:59
  Katu. Okay. So there are, like, there's definitely, when I go, like, for like walks and stuff,
• 58:04
  you get to see like real Thailand, if that makes it a real Thai people living in their houses.
• 58:09
  And what's funny is that I make some videos and someone's like, oh, that looks disgusting
• 58:14
  where you are. And I was like, okay, so you just want to see the beach clubs and you want to see
• 58:19
  the beaches, but this is Thailand babes. There's no pavement, okay? Like and and and there was a video
• 58:28
  that was somebody went to Bali and was like, oh, it's not how it was meant to be. You are going
• 58:32
  into a country, which is quite underdeveloped. Yes, they might have these amazing things that you see
• 58:36
  in the cafes and the gyms and the cute beaches, but you are in, they call it a third world
• 58:42
  country. This is not a third world country, England is, okay? But it is still very underdeveloped
• 58:47
  and it's very authentic Thai. Like, yes, you see these beautiful villas, but if you would have
• 58:52
  like an authentic Thai experience, it would look very different to what you see online. It's funny
• 58:56
  because I only started really exploring this part of the world this year. I'd been to Vietnam
• 59:01
  before many, many years ago, but again, it was just on a holiday, right? Not spending this much time.
• 59:05
  And I hear stories from people who have been venturing out to Southeast Asia long before us,
• 59:11
  and I do feel like we're getting a different experience and not the best version. It feels,
• 59:18
  it does feel like Westerners have come and perhaps exploit is too harsh or maybe not,
• 59:25
  and it feels like that has really changed the local culture, not necessarily in terms of the people,
• 59:30
  but in terms of the experience that we're having is clearly curated now for this expectation of
• 59:35
  tourists. And I just wondered, do you think, because even again, being a digital nomad can come
• 59:41
  like negative connotations that it's like modern colonization because you're taking from a place?
• 59:47
  I just wondered, would you agree with those sentiments or do you think that ultimately,
• 59:51
  like you have said, we're in a world where people are moving all the time. So you can pick and choose,
• 59:57
  you know, who's going to be on the end of that argument? I think it depends who you are as a digital
• 1:00:02
  nomad. I have seen, or let's just talk about people going on holiday, you know, who you are as a
• 1:00:07
  person, if you come here and you're disrespectful, and you're only from Western places, and you are,
• 1:00:14
  you know, I seen somebody the other day actually like being really rude to Thai people. Now,
• 1:00:19
  if you're going to be that person, don't come here, don't do it, you know, stay in your country.
• 1:00:23
  But for me, as an example, I create content and a lot of the content that I am creating,
• 1:00:29
  sometimes it's paid and sometimes it's not, sometimes it's just a collab. But I do that because
• 1:00:34
  if I have a really great experience, I want to show people, but also it helps the small Thai
• 1:00:39
  businesses. So when I eat across the road at my local place, if I live in an apartment block where
• 1:00:45
  it's basically 90% expats, there's a small like shack across the road, gorgeous food. And another
• 1:00:51
  thing is like, that's not, that's not aesthetic for Instagram, right? Like if people come and
• 1:00:56
  they're like, you eat from there, I'm like, yeah, I don't get food poisoning, I'm cool. But I
• 1:01:01
  thought about it the other day and I thought I understand the perspective of what people are saying,
• 1:01:04
  but without that apartment block, would they be making as much money as they do? You know, and I created
• 1:01:10
  a video of me getting a facial and she message me, she was like, I have lots of foreign people and
• 1:01:16
  I have 20 bookings. That was the most booking she's ever had. So I think usual platform wisely,
• 1:01:22
  use the fact that you are a Westerner wisely and contribute in a positive way. Don't just come
• 1:01:27
  and take away. I think that there definitely is, you know, the prices are rising. How does that
• 1:01:32
  affect Thai people? I do often think about it. Is there personally anything that I can do about that?
• 1:01:38
  No, the only thing that I can do is give back where I can tip well. You know, just,
• 1:01:43
  and another part is like, if you are eating cheap food, tip, like why would you not tip the drivers?
• 1:01:50
  Sometimes I just see the cleaning lady that's in the building and I just give her a tip because
• 1:01:53
  why not? I think come over here with your Western money and use it in a great way.
• 1:02:00
  I think gentrification is such a complex issue for all the reasons you said, right? Like I think
• 1:02:05
  about myself, I opened my first restaurant in Brixton and again, anyone who knows Brixton knows
• 1:02:10
  that it's gone through a lot of changes, even more so post-COVID, but that's a whole other topic.
• 1:02:14
  And I think a lot of people talk about gentrification in a really negative sense.
• 1:02:18
  But ultimately as a business person, my restaurant wouldn't have been able to be in Brixton,
• 1:02:22
  had it not have been gentrified to some extent. And I think just because I'm Black,
• 1:02:26
  I got away with it, right? Like the fact that I wasn't from the UK didn't bother anyone because
• 1:02:31
  it was just most of the businesses owned in Brixton became white owned and you're a Black person,
• 1:02:36
  so it's okay for you to be here. And I find that really interesting about who we think is
• 1:02:40
  allowed to claim space based off of race versus nationality. But I think you make a really good point
• 1:02:49
  about respect. It does seem like there is a particular type of traveller, not necessarily someone
• 1:02:54
  who's living here, but a particular type of person who comes to Thailand with almost entitlement.
• 1:03:01
  And not this idea that they should respect the land first. And then I saw someone complaining
• 1:03:07
  about people speaking Thai and not English. And I was just like, boss man, like boss man,
• 1:03:14
  how many languages do you speak? Right. You know? And even when you have someone criticise the
• 1:03:19
  accent that someone's speaking, I'm like, are you mental? It's very, the world we're living in
• 1:03:24
  is very bizarre. Yeah, English people in particular, who we go, I'm saying we,
• 1:03:31
  because I'm from England, this is not me, it's not my experience. But they'll go to Spain,
• 1:03:35
  or go to Thailand and complain that people don't speak English. But you should speak English.
• 1:03:39
  And I even had this conversation with someone earlier this year. And they were like,
• 1:03:44
  so rude. Just some guys, I was at a restaurant that were having a conversation, maybe in May
• 1:03:48
  I had to interrupt, because I was like, don't come to my home and talk about my people because
• 1:03:53
  now I'm Thai. And they were like, oh, I just couldn't understand. He was an idiot. And I was like,
• 1:04:00
  sir, excuse me, who's an idiot? I was like, you have come to Thailand and you don't speak any
• 1:04:05
  English. So rather than you learn in time, respecting people, because you're the same person that says,
• 1:04:09
  don't come to England and you can't speak English, you know? So I think there is a real big thing
• 1:04:15
  about at least learn the basic phrases. And if you can't do everything, you can't make them
• 1:04:21
  understand you. I mean, people do this thing. They'll go how much, and the person don't,
• 1:04:27
  how much. I'm like, that does increasing your volume does not improve the chances of comprehension.
• 1:04:35
  Like, it's really annoying. That has to be like, like, if there's a tourism guide, like,
• 1:04:39
  there has to be the first part of it, because I don't think it's just Thailand. I think that happens
• 1:04:43
  everywhere. And I do think that there are people that give it a bad reputation. Like, on people
• 1:04:49
  are lying to say, and that paket is now Benadorm. I've not been to Benadorm. Benadorm is a part of
• 1:04:55
  Spain that is basically English. Everybody who's there is English. There's a lot of English food,
• 1:05:00
  a lot of English people and they're saying, oh, it's now Benadorm. I don't get that, but
• 1:05:03
  no, it's not. It's definitely not. I think they're just going to the extreme of saying, like,
• 1:05:07
  people are coming here and ruining it with tourism. And, you know, it wasn't like this years ago.
• 1:05:12
  And yes, unfortunately, Thailand is becoming very popular online, which means certain people are
• 1:05:17
  going to come here. And you can't control what people do. All you can do is when you go to these
• 1:05:23
  different countries, you give these people a great experience. So they think, oh, English people
• 1:05:29
  are really nice. You know, I get told that all the time, oh, English people, you're lovely,
• 1:05:32
  nothing. I'm going to give you my experience. So, do you think that there is anything that you
• 1:05:39
  would want someone to know that we haven't necessarily touched on if they are considering, not
• 1:05:43
  necessarily moving here, but anywhere in the world? Yes, I would say, don't start a
• 1:05:53
  business and then move very quickly. Okay. You know, have a long-term plan. I understand and
• 1:06:00
  you can do it. You can create this online business and move free ones later and wing it. I did
• 1:06:05
  that the first time and I've done it many times. If you are a risk taker and you're very positive
• 1:06:10
  and just think, everything's going to work out in my favour. Great. But if not, build yourself a
• 1:06:15
  solid foundation, have your solid clients have a set income, do a little bit of research. Oh,
• 1:06:22
  the most important thing, most important thing, do not move to a country you've never been to before.
• 1:06:28
  You know, I think people are like, oh, I'm just going to move to Vietnam. And they're like,
• 1:06:33
  have you been to Vietnam? No. I'm like, okay. But you know, don't, like for me, I was never
• 1:06:39
  moving to picket in 2023. I came here. I just booked a one-way ticket. I wasn't moving here.
• 1:06:44
  But because I had a great experience and I loved it, then I came back, but I think
• 1:06:49
  moving to a country that you've never been to before is a big thing because there's going to be
• 1:06:53
  bits about that country that you're not going to like and then it might make you them want to go
• 1:06:57
  home. So I would say go and experience it for a couple of months first and then you can make
• 1:07:01
  the decision. Is there something about being a tourist here versus living here that really strikes
• 1:07:07
  you as very different? Or was your experience in 2023 a complete reflection of how you live now?
• 1:07:14
  Yeah, it was the reason that I moved here now. So being a tourist and living here for me,
• 1:07:19
  is the, I mean, the only difference is that you're going to incur problems like sure.
• 1:07:23
  Well, no, you could have had a car crash as a tourist. I just thought about, I'm like, you could
• 1:07:25
  have a car crash as a tourist. I think it's the same situation. Yeah, I think the only
• 1:07:29
  difference is that a tourist, you know, you're going home, whereas being here, you don't know what's
• 1:07:33
  going to happen. What are you going to leave? Yeah. If your life was a postcard, describe the picture to
• 1:07:37
  me. Oh, there's definitely a beach. It's definitely a beach and it's sunset. It's sunset and
• 1:07:50
  there's a beach and then there's a woman sat on the sand looking out towards the sea. That's
• 1:07:55
  what I want to say. Thank you very much. Thank you.