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Hey, everybody! I finally started my podcast, and in this first episode, I talk about how to survive in Malaysia as a Canadian with no job.

For those of you who don’t have the technology to listen to the podcast, I’ve included the audio transcript below. Enjoy!

Audio Transcript for How To Survive in Malaysia as a Canadian with no job

Yo. Hann Chong here, and I’m going to talk to you this week about how to survive in Malaysia as a Canadian visitor with no traditional job.

So this is my first official podcast entry here on my blog, ChickenBall.com: Geek Blog of Adulting +3. If you’ve read my previous entries, you’ll know that I’ve been living in Malaysia for the past six weeks. Before we begin, I have to apologize for the rough nature of my voice. My immune system has taken a beating the whole time I’ve been here and I came down with a cold three days ago. With that out of the way, let’s move on. If you recall, I quit my job and sold most of my possessions in order to come to Malaysia. Since I’ve been here, I’ve managed to survive without needing to take on a 9-to-5 job.

As I mentioned before, I quit my job and spent a month selling my belongings and finishing up some contract work before I left. I even submitted my income taxes. I know, I’m super late. But this is a judge-free zone. Yeah.

Before I left, I started to work on copywriting, the thing that would be my bread and butter for income. However, there’s a lot of work required in order to actually get started online, and it’s that hurdle I’ve been slowly working on getting over. In the meantime, I wrote some tech evangelism articles for my local newspaper and did some computer work on the side. If that wasn’t enough, I was also trying to finish post production on the last three episodes of my joint documentary series, Project Thompson. This takes up so much of my time, because video production requires many dedicated hours.

So when I got here, I intended to finish Project Thompson while doing some copywriting course work through the Location Rebel program. But December ended up being the month where I met with extended family, got used to the new relationship with my girlfriend and her daughter, and got sick a few times. However, other interesting things happened. I ended up doing a pro photoshoot for my niece’s birthday party, and I met with my girlfriend’s marketing team to discuss some contract copywriting.

As for the money situation, I got paid by some clients for whom I did previous work, so that sustained me for the month of December.

It’s only been a couple weeks into the New Year, and I’ve already completed most of Project Thompson. Once that obligation is out of the way, which I hope will be next week, I can focus most of my attention on copywriting, but I have been dedicating an hour or two in the evenings plus a few hours on the weekends.

I will say that despite the currency being in my favor as a Canadian, Kuala Lumpur is not cheap. KL is a metropolitan centre similar to Toronto. As the capital city of Malaysia, it’s made up of other cities, and the one I’m staying in right now is called Petaling Jaya. PJ is a big enough city by its own right that I hardly ever leave to go to KLCC. With more restaurants and malls than you can shake a stick at, including recognizable brands like The Gap, McDonald’s, and 7-Eleven, there are so many ways for you to spend your hard-earned savings.

I won’t deny it. I was really worried for the first two weeks this month. Money was bleeding out of my account. I didn’t start any new contracts and Project Thompson was still in progress. But, as I spent time diving into the intricacies of online copywriting, I found some resources that would help accelerate my earnings. One of which was the Location Rebel forums. I had known about it, but it was put aside and forgotten during my stay here in PJ. If you are interested in this forum, you have to join Location Rebel, and I highly recommend it, given that it offers many other topics of location independent work aside from copywriting. Another resource I found quite recently is Freelance To Win, a site about hacking the very art of copywriting to get started and paid fast. However, the principles taught can really apply to anything.

For example, I was having a conversation with my cousin last night about business, and he considered himself green and with limited skills. However, I gave him some advice I learned over the years, and that is to sit down and think about what kind of things you like and what things you do that come second nature to you. Ramit Sethi calls this your X-Men Ability. If you can identify a target audience who needs your particular skill to address a burning problem they would desperately pay money to have solved, then you have the basis for starting a business.

The real secret to living abroad, I’ve found, is the ability to run your own business, whether it be freelancing or a full-blown entrepreneurship. Whatever you want to call it, you are providing value to those who need your skills in exchange for money. In fact, people who appreciate your skill set will gladly pay you money. There are many facets to get to that point, such as learning to sell yourself in a way that is ethical and honest.

I was a freelancer for 27 years doing home computer repair and IT consultation for small businesses. I’ve met clients who both appreciated what I did, and bad customers who tried to lowball me or hustle me into doing more work than I was being paid for. Through those years, I learned a lot about how to run a business and what not to do. The hardest thing, I’ve found, isn’t even getting started. It’s building the routine to keep going even on days that I don’t feel like it. I was even discouraged by friends who said I was working too much and didn’t have a life.

But I’m in Malaysia right now, living the dream, while those same people are still in Thompson doing the same thing. All because I sacrificed some of my free time for a few years. If you’re still chomping at the bit, thinking you’ll never achieve your goals, perhaps it’s time to look at what you’re not doing and just do it.

Well, my time is up. Thanks for listening. I hope you got something out of this podcast entry. If you have any questions or feedback, hit me up with a comment below. Until next time. Byeee.

In my last entry, I explained that I quit my job, I’m going to Malaysia for three months, I have no job there, and that I wasn’t crazy.

It doesn’t mean I’m without a plan.

The beginnings of an idea.

Since my mid-20’s, I’ve always wanted to live anywhere I please, go anywhere I want, and pretty much work from anywhere I want. What I didn’t realize is that this wasn’t some nutty notion I had – other people had the same thoughts as I did. In fact, other people are actually living that dream!

I got a taste of that when I discovered Ramit Sethi and Tim Ferriss, almost by accident. Ramit, and to a lesser degree, Tim, got me to change the way I thought and take action in my life. Thanks to some of the online courses I purchased from Ramit, I learned about the power of hacking your inner psychology and taking action on achieving a New Rich life. I improved many of my soft skills; this was probably the hugest benefit, because I never realized how little I really knew about how to think, communicate, and convey myself.

The two courses, Success Triggers and How To Talk To Anybody, kicked my butt into gear about how to improve and represent the best parts of myself to a ridiculous degree. In fact, this blog is a testament to that, because I used to be very uncomfortable about opening myself up to others and showing my vulnerability, whether online or offline. Going further, Earn1K helped me to earn $1000 a month. I’m currently tackling Zero To Launch (ZTL), and it’s absolutely eye-opening.

But how does that help me now? I’m actually nowhere near finishing it, since ZTL is more of a long-term ideal. I needed a quick solution.

Enter location independence.

After my research on travel hacking, I stumbled across Location 180 (L180). It was refreshing to see somebody living the life I wanted. Traveling anywhere he wanted and earning income abroad, Sean Ogle was kicking ass and taking names, and he has built himself an amazing community through Location Rebel (LR).

I should know, I bought the course.

The job I quit last week was my first professional foray into copywriting. I learned a lot during my 8 months there, and I know more than ever that I want to be a professional writer. Pro writers are always in demand. They are the foundation for nearly any creative idea. They are at the heart of your marketing campaign. Most of all, I’ve been writing since I was a child and have been cultivating different areas of the written word for years.

When LR promised a decent earning through SEO writing with the freedom to work from anywhere I wanted in the world, Sean called it location independence and I nearly bounced in my chair with glee. Picture that for a moment. It’s kinda weird, right? Okay, moving on.

The map that leads to freedom.

Now that my burning desire had a name (and a logical one, at that), I knew I was on the right path.

Sean and his highly successful community of students in the course offered up blueprints and maps of the choices they made to get to where they are now.

I did some quick calculations based on several LR top performers’ results – many of them were able to achieve monetary results in one month, even while working part-time.

Several months ago, I had mentioned to my employers that I was planning to leave in December. The timeline seemed doable.

However, I felt like something else was missing.

Optimize and accelerate.

When I also came across one of Sean’s L180 articles about earning your first dollar online, I noticed the point of selling your stuff. I have tons of things I no longer need with which I could probably make a decent amount of money. Also, living a zen life with few belongings might actually be a good thing.

I’m also working on my final paid film project. When it’s over, I’ll get paid some more funds from my contract.

The LR community and sites like Upwork would provide the remaining income I’d need through SEO and copywriting. Once my stuff is sold and my film project is over, I can tune up the amount of writing work as needed while I shift my part-time efforts to ZTL and other long-term ventures to increase my multiple income streams.

No matter how I proceed, the overall goal is to achieve location independence and say goodbye to the daily grind of employment.

As a result, I fast-tracked my timeline by booking my flights to Malaysia for the end of November and put in my notice in mid-October. Three weeks later, here I am!

Action step.

This is my action step for this week, and I offer it as a challenge to you as well. Generate income using any of the methods I described above. Whether it’s through selling personal stuff, doing work on the side, or a combination of the two. Don’t just study or research how to do it – use that information and get paid by the end of the week.

Don’t have time? Maybe you don’t want it as much as you think. Reevaluate your personal goals and identify why you would want to do this.

I’m open to conversation – leave a comment below!

Survive in Malaysia as a Canadian with no job