By
Viewed
90,035

Please choose the correct answer for each question below:

Questions: 0/576

Correct: 0

Translate:
Hello, this is Taylor. So, this month I
have some insane travel, like insanely
cool travel, but I'll be gone for almost
a month. I'm starting here in New
York, then LA, then to
Korea, then Vietnam, then Taiwan, then
back to LA, then Houston before I end up
back in New York. However, do my revenue
streams stop for that month? Do we put
getting that bread on hold? No. But how?
How am I able to travel for a month and
still maintain a welloiled machine?
Because these days, I am a lot better
about making sure that my business,
which entails filming, script writing,
video editing, daily correspondence with
brands that I'm working with, still runs
while I'm gone. And I like to think that
I do it in a way where I still feel like
I'm getting a proper vacation at the
same time. So, I thought I would tell
you guys today some of the techniques
that I employ in order to achieve this
without burning out and also exactly how
much revenue I was able to secure while
I was gone. And these tips, as always, I
try to make them applicable to a wide
audience. So, this is not just for
remote workers. This will apply to a lot
of different jobs. So, we'll start with
my foundational principles. Then, we'll
move on to my execution tactics and then
my scaling strategy. I still use a lot
of buzzwords even though I'm no longer
in consulting. So, the heart of the
foundation, plan ahead and ruthlessly
prioritize. Wow, Taylor, plan ahead and
prioritize. How groundbreaking. No, no,
no. Listen, I'm talking plan ahead on
steroids. In my case for this video,
scripting my ideas ahead of time means
that it's no problem to switch between
New York or Houston or Taiwan. It's not
rocket science. It's just preparation.
So, here's what I used to do. I would
get to a travel spot and then feel like
I have to film everything to make a
video, but then I would give up halfway
through because I just wanted to live
out that experience in real time and
didn't really plan ahead at all. Or I
would feel like I should sit down at a
cafe for 2 hours while on vacation so I
don't fall super far behind. But my
tasks at hand were kind of unclear, so I
would end up not doing anything or
spinning my wheels and spending more
time at that cafe and eating into my
vacation. Chaos. Now I try to lay out
before my trip or during the trip during
the in between times like on flights
exactly what has to be done each day so
that way my business can still run while
leaving myself plenty of leftover time
to enjoy my vacation. And having this
extremely dialed might sound very type A
and like it leaves no room for
flexibility, but I genuinely believe it
is the opposite. Somewhat
counterintuitively, in my opinion,
structure is what sets you free. No
matter what your job is, prepping the
to-dos ahead of time and sticking to
them removes the guesswork. So today,
for example, because I wrote the script
to this video ahead of time, I knew
exactly what few minutes of footage I
had to get today while here in Taiwan.
And then I'm free to be a tourist and do
whatever else I want with my time
without stressing that I have more
things on my plate. And this is so much
better for my workflow than to
haphazardly film everything and then
feel like I have to put together the
story and the video editing later on.
but then don't have enough footage. No
more of that. It is such a stressful
process. Okay, but it's not just
planning ahead. It's being extremely
strict with myself about priorities,
especially before I leave on my travels.
This is something I have got leaps and
bounds better at, although there's still
plenty of room for improvement. I lay
out my list of tasks that I have to do
before I leave. Some examples for me in
this case were first, while I was in LA
before going to Asia, getting footage at
Arowan for my business case video. and
arrowans are only in LA. So, you know,
responding to three different brands
with ideas and video concepts for
upcoming brand deals, sending all my tax
documents to my CPA, mailing something
to the Department of State, and buying a
travel size facial cleanser because I
only have fulls size ones. Now, my
instinct would be to do the fun one
first to go shopping for some
skinincare. But I could do that one
anywhere. Heck, I might as well wait
until I'm in Korea to do that one
because Korean skincare is goated. No, I
prioritized things that had to get done
before getting on my flights. So, that
started with my LLC admin stuff, which I
had to do before leaving New York. Then
getting all my tax documents to my CPA
because tax day is April 15th. I'm
traveling until April 1st and I don't
want to say that until the last minute.
Then filming all the local LA business
stuff because obviously that had to be
done in LA. I think you're getting it. I
don't need to tell you how to prioritize
a task list, but I can speak for myself.
I used to be really bad at this where I
would do the fun, easy, lowhanging fruit
tasks first and then not be strict with
myself about what actually had to get
done and in what order and then I would
just be stressing about the undone tasks
while on my trip. Now I try to put out
all the little fires in order of
importance first so I can clear up some
mind space. And believe me, it has made
a world of difference. So to make this
very actionable, the exact way that I do
this and stay on top of everything is
through a very simple notion page. No,
this is not a transition to a sponsor
where I make these little check boxes.
Maybe a title like need to do before
leaving New York and then need to do
before leaving LA to Asia, then need to
do while in Asia. Then I file away the
to-dos in this order and then rank them
in order of priority. It's really as
simple as any task list, but this helps
a lot for me and I do not let myself
skip around anymore to the best of my
ability. These same exact principles
applied while I was in consulting as
well. By the way, again, this isn't just
for remote work. The world of difference
it would make to take 10 minutes at the
end of my Fridays to look back at the
week and kind of plan my priorities for
the week ahead or just taking 5 minutes
on a Sunday evening to look at what I
was going to have to do that week.
Granted, I probably couldn't fly to Asia
for 4 weeks at that time without taking
actual paid time off, but you know,
broad strokes. So that is my main
foundation, planning ahead and
prioritizing in a lot of detail, more
detail than I normally would while just
working in New York with business as
usual. Okay, moving to execution
tactics. The next thing that I do to
maintain my revenue while traveling is
to really take advantage of the in
between times. The first in between
time, probably my favorite one, flights.
Oh my gosh, you're a captive audience.
There's no Wi-Fi or no fast Wi-Fi at
least. basically have coffee on tap. Say
less. It's the perfect environment. I am
writing the script to this exact video,
the one that you're watching right now,
on my flight from LA to Seoul. It's a
12-hour flight, and of course, I snacked
a bit. I even watched a movie. A real
pain if you're curious, and I really,
really liked it. It was very charming.
Anyway, would recommend. But honestly,
for about 7 and 1/2, 8 hours, I pretty
much worked. I should note that I do
take time here and there where I
completely unplug. Okay, I'm not a
complete hardo, but in this case, being
gone for so long, I kind of wanted to
work out a way where I could figure out
a hybrid model that actually worked for
me, and we'll talk more at the end about
why I actually generally prefer this
approach. Okay, another in between time
that I really took advantage of on this
trip, those early morning hours when
you're super super jet-logged, but it's
too early and nothing's open yet. Here I
am in the Airbnb, our first morning in
Soul. Here I am, early morning in Hanoi,
Vietnam. My first night there, I passed
out at like 8:45 p.m. Slept like 9
hours. My mom was still asleep and I saw
the coffee shops weren't open yet, so I
just knocked out like an hour and a half
of work right here on this couch. Next
in between time, boom, at the airport
waiting to board. The perfect boring
downtime that I could be using to knock
out a little bit of a script or film a
part of this video. Granted, with super
early flights like this one, I'm not
always especially keen on taking
advantage of this particular in between
time, but sometimes I am, sometimes I'm
not. This morning happens to be one
where I'm actually somehow a little bit
energized even though I didn't sleep
very much. So, all of this planning and
maximizing the in between moments isn't
just about staying busy. It directly
impacts my bottom line. So, let me break
down exactly how these strategies keep
revenue flowing at a relatively normal
pace while I'm traveling and exactly how
much revenue I was still able to capture
while I was gone. Starting with brand
deals, which makes up the most
significant portion of my income. The
priority tasks that I mentioned earlier,
a lot of those were finalizing brand
partnerships that I'll film in the
coming weeks after I get back from my
travels. But because they require time
and attention in the month or two
leading up to execution, I still have to
tend to them. So, by front-loading this
work, finding reasonable ways that I can
still address these things while
traveling, and being clear with the
brand partners about my travel schedule
as needed, I was still able to secure
$56,000 in brand partnerships while I
was gone. Next, YouTube ad revenue,
which is my second largest income
stream. While I'm filming this video in
Taiwan, videos that I posted weeks,
months, years ago are still generating
YouTube ad revenue. This passive income
stream continues whether I'm in New York
or Hanoi or Taiwan, but only as long as
I've properly planned my content
calendar ahead of time to maintain
fairly consistent uploads. So, while
traveling, my channel still generated
about $3,000 oops, sorry, $3,000 in ad
revenue. But I should note that that is
still a slowdown for my channel. I
didn't post new videos while I was here.
I just filmed a bunch of them and worked
with my video editors to make progress
on existing pre-f filmed footage. More
on that later. But this $3,000 is just
pure passive income from old videos. And
speaking of passive income, if you guys
have been around for a while watching my
videos, you know that I am passionate
about making money in fun, creative
ways. Yeah, you are. Yep. And a method
that I've mentioned to you guys before
that you can totally do while traveling
is print ondemand. What's that? So,
print on demand is a way to create
custom products that you can sell on
various marketplaces without having to
hold inventory because the item is only
created after someone places an order.
It's kind of like drop shipping for
custom merch. Oh, and why do you like it
compared to traditional merch
fulfillment? Good question. It's because
after you create the products and list
them for sale, it runs completely in the
background. So, I can make sales on
designs that I created weeks ago while,
I don't know, eating street food in
Vietnam. Wait, so cool. Can you show me?
For sure. Come look. So, I'll show you
how to use it using Gelato. who I'm
lucky to be partnering with on today's
video. They are the world's largest
print on demand network with over 140
providers across 32 countries. Yay.
Okay, show me. Okay, so if we browse
through their product catalog, I've
really been loving wall art options
because profit margins are higher.
They're highquality customized statement
pieces that you can hang on your walls.
And as with all these other categories,
there's zero inventory to manage. So,
I'm going to upload my own photos that I
took. Nothing like hanging your own
photos, am I right? So, I'm going to do
one of some beautiful town houses that I
took in Brooklyn last spring and then
another one of me in Utah because I
really love the composition of this
photo. Just doing some sizing. This is
really just a drag and drop. It is
extremely user friendly. Then I just hit
order because I'm ordering it for
myself. But if I was selling it, Gelato
makes it really, really easy because
they integrate with so many different
marketplaces. So, I could post this wall
art for sale on my say Etsy account
directly from Gelato. And then once the
order comes in on Etsy, Gelato
automatically fulfills that order for
you. Right. Yeah, exactly. It finds the
nearest print provider, ships it
directly to the buyer, and my hands are
tied behind my back, and then fast
forward. Wow, magic. That was fast. I
get to unbox the art and hang it on my
walls, and it's awesome. Admittedly, it
doesn't usually take 30 seconds like it
just did. But 90% of gelato orders are
produced locally wherever the customers
are, which is also why 90% of gelato
orders arrive within 5 days of ordering,
even though they're made on demand. So,
30 seconds, 5 days or less, kind of the
same. So, if you want to try Gelato for
yourself, you can get 50% off of your
first order if placed within 48 hours of
signing up using the link in my
description. And the 50% off is great
for like a test sample order to check
quality and all that good stuff. So
thanks to Gelato for partnering with me
on this. We absolutely love a location
independent revenue stream. Okay, so the
foundation was planning ahead and
prioritizing on steroids. Execution
mainly comes down to taking advantage of
those in between times while traveling.
And now let's move to my scaling
strategy. So something I have done and I
still have a long way to go, but it's
get more comfortable with trading money
for time. So, if you've seen some of my
more recent videos, you might know that
I've been going through the process of
hiring a video editor to help me buy
back my time to work on other videos in
the meantime. And even though I will
still do a large portion of the editing
myself because I want to, having someone
else help me do half of it or even more,
whatever it comes out to, allows me to
parallel process and get started on the
script or the filming for the next
video. Okay, this might sound childish,
but it actually is the perfect analogy.
And it's not just for YouTubers, I
promise. So, imagining you're cooking a
Thanksgiving dinner. You have your
turkey, mashed potatoes, cranberry
sauce. What else? I don't know. My My
family does southern green beans with
it. Think of all the work that goes into
the turkey. Brining it, adding the
spices, putting it in the oven where it
has to stay for what, like 4 hours? I
don't know. My mom does it, but it seems
like a long time. Imagine waiting for
that turkey to fully finish before
moving on to the mashed potatoes, and
then waiting for the mashed potatoes to
be totally done before moving on to the
cranberry sauce. Insanity. Dinner would
never happen in time. That is basically
how I ran my business for almost 5
years. But what if you parallel process?
Boil the potatoes while the turkey
cooks. Open the can of cranberry sauce
while the potatoes are boiling. Let's be
real. We're all eating out of the can,
right? You see where I'm going? But now,
let's kick it up a notch. Imagine you
have a sue chef. While the turkey comes
out of the oven and you start slicing
it, you have a whole another person to
start mashing the potatoes. Magic. Sure,
it'll take some time to get aligned with
your sue chef on exactly how you like
your potatoes to be done, but once
you're on the same page, that work
should really pay off in the long run.
And now you can produce three separate
Thanksgiving dinners in the same amount
of time that you used to be able to make
just one by yourself. The analogy
obviously is that while my video editor
is helping take a first pass at that
other footage, I can be working on the
script to the next one or in Taiwan
filming another one. So, I'm trading
money for more of my time back with the
hopes to scale and increase my output.
Now, because I am very particular with
my work, I personally think it's pretty
important to become an expert at every
step of the Thanksgiving dinner process
yourself first before hiring a sue chef.
I do understand the argument for hiring
even sooner, but if I didn't go through
those years of troubleshooting and going
through that trial and error to craft a
really specific style and taste of my
own, I wouldn't know how to articulate
to someone else exactly what I want.
Sure, you could hire sooner and then
grow together, and that's not
necessarily a bad thing, but I don't
know. I'm glad that I held off for a
long time. So, that's a very specific
example on how YouTubers could save
time. But for others, maybe it's hiring
a virtual assistant who could help you
sift through emails so you could put
more of your time towards more value
additive tasks or hiring a trip planner
because maybe you hate scouring the
internet for recommendations and would
rather save your time to get ahead on
something different. I read a whole book
about this in fact and it goes into a
lot more detail than I am right now,
like how to place specific tasks into
quadrants where the x-axis is how much
you enjoy the task and the y-axis is how
value additive that task is to your
company. And Dan Martell says that you
should outsource anything in that lower
left quadrant ASAP. There are exceptions
because I kind of did the opposite. The
first task that I hired for was the one
that I might enjoy the most and one that
is arguably the most value additive to
my business, but it is the most time
consuming by far. So there's that
element too. So rather than trading your
time and energy, which is a very finite
resource, but instead trading money at
some rate that makes sense for you is
what will enable you to have some work
going on in the background while you're
traveling. Of course, this also applies
when you're not traveling. But I found
this parallel processing especially
helpful while I was gone. So why even do
this in between hybrid working method?
Why not just put work on pause, actually
unplug and take your vacation so you
really feel like you're getting a mental
recharge and then come back to it
afterwards? I kind of asked myself the
same question while writing the script.
And I realized that the main reason for
me, aside from it directly affecting my
bottom line, which we already discussed,
is that I want to if you're also lucky
enough to really enjoy your work, you
know that feeling of it energizing you
and giving you some purpose and
fulfillment. So, even though traveling
and seeing the world is one of my
all-time favorite things to do, of
course, I have found that doing a bit of
work here and there while I'm traveling,
actually keeps me feeling a bit more
energized and also keeps me from that
kind of uncomfy emotion of feeling like
I'm super far behind. Perfect example,
my mom and I had a 4:00 a.m. wake up
time to catch our flight from Hanoi to
Taipei, and I was stressed and angry
about not having enough plans figured
out for us for when we landed in Taipei,
like not booking a place to stay. And
then I brought myself to work a little
bit on the plane and I started to get
excited about some new video ideas. And
then I got a little energized and it
just put me in a better mood for
everything else and actually switched my
mindset from being stressed to we'll
figure it out. It's all good. It's going
to be okay.
You can't stop me. Don't even try. I can
push you down the elevator escalator.
I will say this was so not the case when
I was in consulting. I very happily
unplugged completely when I took my
vacations. And I do think that's a bit
easier to do when you're a salaried
employee and you have a bit less
crossover between your work and life.
Beep beep beep. Reality check. Final
section. Important. I feel kind of like
a fraud making this video because pretty
much every single day that I was
traveling, I for sure thought to myself,
gez, I feel really far behind. Or, ugh,
I haven't responded to that brand yet,
but now it's 4:00 a.m. their local time,
but I'm exhausted from the day. Or, man,
I still haven't reviewed that video
draft. I really need to set aside some
time for that. Like, I do not have this
completely dialed yet. But, I have
become noticeably a lot better at this.
And when I thought about why, these are
the things that I came up with in this
video. And so I thought it would be
helpful to at least a few of you for me
to share these things. Another reality
check. This obviously is not passive
work that I'm doing and I don't want to
imply that I'm still actively working.
You know, responding to emails once or
twice a day by no means fully
unplugging. I still filmed this video
while I was traveling. But do I still
think that there are times and places to
fully unplug even if you do love your
work? Yes. You think I'm going to be on
my I don't know honeymoon and working?
Maybe a little. I just usually prefer
taking my fully unplugged time more
sporadically. So, one day here, one
weekend there, rather than four full
weeks straight. So, in summary, plan
ahead and prioritize in a very detailed
fashion. Take advantage of those
extended in between times like on
flights or in the early mornings with
jet lag. And if you're in the position
to do so, consider trading more of your
money for your time back in order to
scale this process. This approach is not
about never taking breaks. It's about
finding a sustainable balance that
allows you to enjoy extended travel time
while still maintaining momentum in your
business, and it is my favorite way to
do it. So, I hope this video was helpful
to you in some way. Thumbs up and
subscribe if it was. Cheers from Taiwan.
Turtle
out. I'm sweaty. It's hot. It is that
season where I'm sweating in this chair
cuz I can't run the AC at the same time
cuz it's too loud. So, my upper lip
always gets wet. I always get this one
mixed up. Not trading time for money.
The other way around. It's just dewy,
guys. Not
sweat. New York soundtrack.

Related Songs