I remember during my high school, when I learned about making money online, I always like idea of the “Internet Marketing Lifestyle”. Where you can work 2-3 hours a day while you are operating the whole online business from anywhere you are. The classic photo is a person with a laptop on the beach. Something almost like this, a photo I have while taking a “vacation” in Fiji.
@ Shangri-La’s Fiji Resort, Yanuca Island, Fiji Islands
My career history pretty much revolved around Entrepreneurship. I am a risk taker (sometimes careless), I want to pursue my dreams and goals because I love time freedom more than anything else. I always want to do things where I won’t be limited.
When I was starting out, I work from home after school making money online through Affiliate Marketing and Blogging. It went well. But I am still not living the dream because of course, I’m still young, I can’t travel by myself to the beach and work.
High school, college, and a short stint in corporate world, I did a lot of working from home. In those years, I’ve been thinking and trying to figure out how I can live the life I want to live. When I was younger, our family traveled a lot. So when I saw the Internet lifestyle of other successful Entrepreneurs, I feel like traveling while working! The few months in corpo world made me think hard how I can travel while working. Should I find a job that will require me to travel around? I thought of it, but can you really enjoy travel if it’s all work? Even some Travel Bloggers confess they can’t enjoy some of the sceneries because they need to take photos and videos.
I thought about travel blogging but I was too young to travel alone and if I bring my sister along, my parents will definitely not like it. Besides, travel blogging doesn’t look sustainable and I was afraid to lose all the money I have made because at that time, travel blogging is not yet a career. How can I get blog sponsors and advertisers? I felt like if I go travel blog, I have no idea how to monetize it. We can do Affiliate Marketing for travel but it will require me to spend so much money building the brand and it will take a while.
I was a very shy type person. Being a super introvert me, I got scared of traveling alone. So after my boring but sometimes fun corpo job, I ventured to a digital agency, and that is one of my best business decisions in life.
I sold almost all my affiliate sites and invested in stocks, insurance, time deposits, real estate. Then I focused all my attention to learning more about Digital Marketing for brands and companies so I took courses and training for it.
As I started acquiring skills for my digital agency where I started to apply all my learnings, I learned about selling, negotiations, presentations, creating proposals, and do Digital executions. I’ve met a lot of C-level executives, senior managers, and business owners. Sometimes, they cannot believe they are dealing with a 21 year old.
In my first year, I actually made over a seven figures in revenue and my cost is pretty low because it’s mostly consultancy and some work that can be automated. Not bad for a first year in the business, they said.
After 2 years, I finally traveled using my own money. I remember my first international trip with friends. My mom was so mad and worried. I was 23 years old back then. It was a week-long travel and I didn’t even worry too much about work (neither taking a vacation leave) because I can bring my work. That trip made me figure out what I really wanted to do in life, travel for business and leisure. I even closed a new project while I was away!
I used to just work from home but as I get more exposed to the a real world business lifestyle, I started working at cafes, hotels, restaurants, and sometimes while stuck in traffic, while boating and island hopping, while vacationing. Of course in moderation when Im traveling with family and friends. But sometimes, I travel to work – just a change of environment. There was a time I booked for an overnight staycation just because I was making a proposal and will present to a large corporation.
Now 2017, I have done business travels to some countries and took a lot of vacations in the past 5 years. Overnight business trips to Cebu, Iloilo and Hong Kong, 1 week travels to HK, Singapore, and Dubai, and recently a 1 month long vacation in Australia alongside local travels. Now planning for more month-long (up to 2-3 months) vacations for business and leisure travels. But I need to plan out my travels well because I am scaling the Agency with Business Partners, I have other priorities. Yes, I do have Business Partners. No longer a one woman team. And I’m excited about it. There are still so many things to learn. We’ll get there.
From working at home to anywhere in the world – my dream job! Will share all my business travels here as I plan to blog more often.
