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Life Hacker Guy Founder, Adam, on living in Malaysia, working from home, and starting a supplement business overseas
Episode 1627th May 2022 • EXPAT CONSULTING PODCAST • Jalila Clarke
00:00:00 00:36:45

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In this week’s episode, Life Hacker Guy Founder Adam is living in Malaysia, loving it, and discusses starting a supplement business. If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re interested in starting a business. And why not? Entrepreneurship is the key to independence and success. But what if you want to start a business overseas? Is it even possible?

When Adam came to Malaysia and he started his own business there, and got into the health supplement industry, learning how to produce supplements. Many years ago Adam suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome, he did too much exercise which affected his immune system, so he was sick quite often. Adam looked at green products but wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the supplements available.

So he decided to contact manufacturers in the US and see if it was possible to make his own and partnered with a manufacturer in the US to produce the products. This allowed him to get exactly the quality and results I was looking for. He also decided to produce it in the US because of the availability of third-party analysis and the large customer market there. It’s been challenging to set up a business based in the US while living in Malaysia, but he has made it work well.

His Supergreen Tonik supplement has been featured in Yahoo! News, Morningstar, Washington City Paper, and StreetInsider. Today, Adam’s company provides high-quality supplements to customers all over the world. Adam takes the product and so he has invested interest in making it the best product that is commercially viable. He reads the reviews and sees that it’s a product that many people receive benefit from and that brings him joy.

He decided to produce it in the US because of the availability of third-party analysis and the large customer market there. It’s been challenging to set up a business based in the US while living in Malaysia, but he has made it work well. His Supergreen Tonik supplement has been featured in Yahoo! News, Morningstar, Washington City Paper, and StreetInsider. 

Learn more about Supergreen Tonik here: https://supergreentonik.com/

Read more about Adam and his entrepreneurial journey here: https://lifehackerguy.com

If you want to know more insider knowledge on living abroad like a local, tune in to episode 16 of the Are We Home Yet Podcast and hear more from Life Hacker Guy Founder, Adam!

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Transcripts

Jalila Clarke:

So up next is Adam.

Jalila Clarke:

Adam is the founder of the life hacker guy.

Jalila Clarke:

So he's an entrepreneur who moved from the UK to Malaysia,

Jalila Clarke:

with his wife and two sons.

Jalila Clarke:

They're enjoying the weather, the water and extended time with his wife's family.

Jalila Clarke:

So tune in, don't miss this interview.

Jalila Clarke:

All right.

Jalila Clarke:

Welcome back to the, are we home yet podcast today I have the pleasure

Jalila Clarke:

of interviewing Adam, how are

Adam:

you?

Adam:

How are you?

Jalila Clarke:

I'm great.

Jalila Clarke:

I'm great.

Jalila Clarke:

Um, so how's it going there?

Jalila Clarke:

You're in Malaysia, how is it there?

Adam:

Oh, it's a it's gray.

Adam:

It's actually nighttime here, but it's still really, really hot.

Adam:

And, uh, that's one of the main reasons we moved.

Adam:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

And so how long have you lived there and like, you know, what,

Jalila Clarke:

what prompted you to move there?

Adam:

Let's, uh, it's been about five and a half years so far.

Adam:

Uh, my, my wife's actually from Malaysia.

Adam:

So this was the reason we chose Malaysia in the first instance, but it was

Adam:

actually me that wanted to move here and not my wife, my wife was quite happy

Adam:

living in the UK and I just thought it was a good experience to move here.

Adam:

We've got two young kids, they can be near the, uh, their in-laws

Adam:

and we, we can enjoy everything that Malaysia has to work.

Adam:

Okay.

Adam:

And

Jalila Clarke:

so, like, I haven't had the fortune of visiting yet, but

Jalila Clarke:

you know what, like, tell us about like the food, the people, the,

Jalila Clarke:

the, the environment, the culture.

Jalila Clarke:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

Tell us all

Adam:

about it.

Adam:

Oh, I mean, it's, it's great.

Adam:

Especially as a, as an ex-pat, because you can.

Adam:

Experienced the benefits of the sort of east meat versus the west.

Adam:

So where we live, we live in Penang.

Adam:

So there's sort of a thriving ex-pat community.

Adam:

Plus you've got seen at the influence of the Chinese Malaysian, the

Adam:

Indian Malaysians and the malaise.

Adam:

So you have sort of three, uh, three, uh, races that you can naturally.

Adam:

Um, you know, integrate and actually enjoy all the benefits from the

Adam:

food, from the different cultures.

Adam:

There are a ton of holidays here because of the three different, uh, cultures.

Adam:

Um, so actually, uh, that's actually pretty good if you're employed here,

Adam:

but, um, yeah, I mean, the food's great.

Adam:

The weather is amazing.

Adam:

I.

Adam:

I really like living in a hot climate, um, living in the UK, you

Adam:

see a lot of gray sky, but here, you know, every day it's sunny.

Adam:

And actually if it rains, it's actually quite, quite nice to see the rain.

Adam:

So it's, uh, yeah, it's great.

Adam:

And you, you have, um, a nice outdoor lifestyle.

Adam:

Should we have a swimming pool and you can go to the beach

Adam:

and you can eat 24 hours a day.

Adam:

Not so good for your stomach, but, okay.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

, you've moved there and you've been there for a few years now and lived

Jalila Clarke:

in the UK, like, is this the first country you lived, you know, abroad.

Jalila Clarke:

So like the first country, like besides the UK or, or like,

Jalila Clarke:

have you lived in other places?

Adam:

Yeah, it's actually, the first time I left UK was backpacking

Adam:

back in 1998 and I actually just fell in love with Asia then.

Adam:

And I traveled all around for about a year, sort of two years on and off.

Adam:

Um, but I was, I was.

Adam:

From that point, I actually was keen to, to actually live in Asia, but the

Adam:

challenge was actually having a job where I could work online or I could move to a

Adam:

country and set myself up and know that for any reason, if it didn't work out,

Adam:

I could move back to the UK and I would still carry on doing what I was doing.

Adam:

So.

Adam:

Uh, you know, after the experience backpack and I'll be back to the

Adam:

UK and then learn how to do so like T work and do sort of programming.

Adam:

And then I continued traveling and I lived in Munich in Germany for about a year.

Adam:

Um, my ex-girlfriend was there, so I sort of moved from London to live

Adam:

with, live with her for a year then.

Adam:

Um, unfortunately didn't work out.

Adam:

So then after that I moved back because I lived in.

Adam:

Chiang Mai in Thailand for about 10 months.

Adam:

So, um, and the only reason I moved back from there to the UK was because

Adam:

I'd met my now wife in the UK.

Adam:

So, so it was quite funny that I moved to Thailand to move back.

Adam:

Cause, uh, my girlfriend.

Adam:

Malaysian living in London.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Quite quite funny.

Adam:

But, um, yeah, I mean, for about twenty-five years, I've been trying

Adam:

to leave the UK and start to in Asia and there's always been either

Adam:

work I've w I felt I've needed to.

Adam:

So retrain and be able to work independently online or it's because

Adam:

of circumstances where I'm five moved back for work or a partner.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, you know, you've looked in quite a few places, so, so, you

Jalila Clarke:

know, tell us like what have been like the struggles and joys of being an expert.

Adam:

Yeah, the, um, I mean, the biggest thing is, is, um, obviously

Adam:

once you've sorted out visa, I mean, that, that can be challenging.

Adam:

I mean, back in the day, obviously I in Thailand visa was, was trickier.

Adam:

Now it's, it's easier to get sort of a longer term visa and in Asia in general,

Adam:

um, especially with the growth of sort of digital nomads and entrepreneurs

Adam:

who can pretty much work from anywhere.

Adam:

Um, the challenges of getting set up and obviously making contacts with, with, uh,

Adam:

you know, people live there, other ex-pats and actually even like locals really.

Adam:

Um, what I found really, really useful is, uh, co-working places.

Adam:

So.

Adam:

When I, uh, I mean back when I lived in Chiang Mai coworking,

Adam:

wasn't really a thing.

Adam:

And even digital nomads, wasn't really a thing back in 2004, but, but now

Adam:

pretty much any city you go to in Asia, you can find coworking spaces still.

Adam:

You can go and pay for a week or even a day or a month and work there

Adam:

and meet sort of local entrepreneur.

Adam:

Um, and that's really, really a great thing to do because you can

Adam:

network with them who then obviously tell you about other, other people

Adam:

working there and also help with obviously moving commendation and yeah.

Adam:

Everything, medical bills, everything.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, you know, so, so when, when you decided that you were going to move

Jalila Clarke:

to Malaysia from the UK, you know, you mentioned like your wife wasn't really

Jalila Clarke:

keen on it, but then I wonder, like, I mean, did you have family and friends

Jalila Clarke:

saying, Hey, why are you doing this?

Jalila Clarke:

Like, did you have like any negative feedback?

Adam:

I, I, a lot of my friends and family knew that I wanted to live in Asia.

Adam:

So it was just, uh, obviously you can imagine my, my F my parents,

Adam:

well, my sister were disappointed because we just had our second

Adam:

child and I actually, my, my son was just four months old when we moved.

Adam:

So it was, it was, um, yeah, a little daunting getting, sort of moving across

Adam:

with this such a young, young kid, but, um, But because we were, it really

Adam:

helped with, we traveled, obviously my wife's from Malaysia, so this really,

Adam:

really helped anyway, but we traveled here every year to see the family

Adam:

for sort of 2, 3, 4 weeks every year.

Adam:

So we, we sort of knew.

Adam:

We knew a little bit about where we're moving, so that really helped.

Adam:

But, um, I mean, I've tried to push the, to the friends and family with, they've

Adam:

got an excellent location for holiday now, obviously when, uh, things settle down

Adam:

on that, then more people come and visit.

Jalila Clarke:

How have you like reconciled, like, you know, being, not

Jalila Clarke:

being able to really travel with ease, like we all used to, you know, before

Jalila Clarke:

COVID and you know, how, how do you go about keeping in touch with them?

Jalila Clarke:

Making sure those connections stay strong.

Adam:

Yeah, I'm, I'm using, um, um, FaceTime every other day.

Adam:

I'm on FaceTime with friends and family, to be honest.

Adam:

Um, yeah, it's, it's been interesting that, uh, with, with family, it's fine.

Adam:

It, what I do notice though, is obviously the time difference can be challenging

Adam:

and, and this is really challenge actually with, with work as well, because.

Adam:

Most of my calls are to the us.

Adam:

And by the time difference can be anything from 12 to 16 hours here.

Adam:

So it's sort of early morning, late nights or calls.

Adam:

So that's challenging, but in the UK, the time difference, seven to eight hours.

Adam:

So it's fine, but I speak to my.

Adam:

My parents.

Adam:

So every, every two, three days.

Adam:

So, so we keep in good contact there, but it is challenging.

Adam:

Uh, my parents used to come every year to visit.

Adam:

In fact, my dad used to stay with us for three months every year.

Adam:

So.

Adam:

That's uh, yeah, we're really keen to get them over, so

Adam:

hopefully, hopefully this year.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

So then I'm speaking to you because you know, you, you have this business, but the

Jalila Clarke:

business you had mentioned to me before we started, um, really is based in America.

Jalila Clarke:

So, you know, before we even get into all of that, um, like what did

Jalila Clarke:

you used to do before in the UK?

Jalila Clarke:

Is this the same thing that you, you were able to like carry over to Malaysia?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

In the, in the UK.

Adam:

So for 20 years I was, um, trying to work for myself.

Adam:

So I actually learned how to do programming and develop websites.

Adam:

And when I was in the UK, I could develop a sort of a base of

Adam:

clients that I used to do work for.

Adam:

So that's been useful.

Adam:

From there.

Adam:

We did, you know, I set up a business with a friend of mine in the UK.

Adam:

We did sort of digital marketing sort of services.

Adam:

And we worked with, um, a few supplement companies.

Adam:

So that, that really gave me a good foundation in understanding how to

Adam:

produce supplements, health supplements.

Adam:

So that's when I, uh, when I came over to Malaysia, I was still involved

Adam:

in the UK business, but it became clear that that was quite tricky.

Adam:

I mean, we had staff in the UK and I was living here, so it ended up, we, uh,

Adam:

my business partner and I, we sort of had a commercial divorce if you like.

Adam:

And, um, he, so he bought me out the business.

Adam:

So that left me sort of, sort of free to.

Adam:

Do I wanted here and at the time I didn't know what I wanted to do, but it was only

Adam:

when I, I was sort of looking for a health product myself because many years ago, I,

Adam:

I suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome.

Adam:

So basically I, I did too much exercise and that affected my immune system.

Adam:

So I was sick quite often.

Adam:

And so I was looking for different products.

Adam:

So I, I looked at these greens products that you can see.

Adam:

And it was so expensive to send them here.

Adam:

And also, yeah, the products I looked at, I wasn't really too impressed with

Adam:

those or was something that was missing.

Adam:

So I thought, well, I know how to make, I know at wine, I

Adam:

know how to make a supplement.

Adam:

You know, I can contact manufacturers in the us and I can look at whether

Adam:

it's possible to make my own.

Adam:

And that's, that's what I did in the end.

Adam:

So I use my sort of.

Adam:

My development and programming skills to do the website, the e-commerce side.

Adam:

And then we used, you know, I was speaking to a manufacturer in the U S

Adam:

to make the supplement and that's sort of how it sort of started, but it.

Adam:

It was more to see right.

Adam:

With this work really.

Adam:

I mean, this is a product I want to take.

Adam:

Is it actually going to be a sort of a commercial, uh, uh, is it

Adam:

viable, you know, commercially, so yeah, I'm in, within about a year.

Adam:

We, we saw that.

Adam:

Yeah, there's definitely, um, well, there's definitely a market for it.

Adam:

And then actually, Uh, people, uh, in the U S that were buying my products.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

So we've gone from strength to strength.

Adam:

So that's what I do full time actually in Malaysia.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, you know, you set up the business in America, like, you

Jalila Clarke:

know, like what, what prompted that decision because you weren't there.

Jalila Clarke:

So, you know, like what made you say, like, this will be actually the.

Jalila Clarke:

You know, the best place for us to go ahead and do that at the moment.

Jalila Clarke:

And, you know, were you ever worried about like the business, you know,

Jalila Clarke:

like any business, like the business not doing well because a you're not

Jalila Clarke:

there and you know, like be, you know, th this is something that really,

Jalila Clarke:

this is like a new endeavor for you.

Adam:

Yeah, it's, it's, it's really challenging.

Adam:

And, and it's, uh, it's amazing, uh, that now nowadays you can

Adam:

actually do all of this remotely.

Adam:

I mean, it is challenging.

Adam:

There are things that it would be much easier if I was there on the ground.

Adam:

Um, and, and there would be other things.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Things I would do slightly differently.

Adam:

The, the reason I set up in the U S is because.

Adam:

I want it to produce the supplement in the U S because I knew I would have

Adam:

confidence that the product is actually what it says it is, and I can do all the

Adam:

third-party testing and everything there.

Adam:

Whereas if I had it produced.

Adam:

Say in Asia, which, uh, it probably could be cheaper to manufacture here,

Adam:

but then yeah, there's the issue of, uh, the safety and whether or not,

Adam:

you know, it's, it's going to be fine.

Adam:

And I, I wanted that sort of peace of mind.

Adam:

Plus the end of the day, the market size in the U S is, is huge in

Adam:

comparison to say Malaysia or Singapore.

Adam:

So it made sense really to set up there.

Adam:

Now, originally I didn't set up the company that.

Adam:

I actually had a Hong Kong company, but it soon became very clear that

Adam:

actually, if I wanted to grow the business, I had to have a us company.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Just for simple things like, you know, um, uh, actually payment processing

Adam:

payment processing, um, having a merchant account in one country selling

Adam:

to selling to another is challenging and, and us banks would often.

Adam:

Wonder what this transaction from, uh, Hong Kong is about, you know, so

Adam:

in the end, yeah, it just made sense.

Adam:

It was challenging to set up.

Adam:

Uh, but we, we sort of got there and so we all sat up there

Adam:

and, um, nuts that makes sense.

Adam:

Going forward to grow the business

Jalila Clarke:

and so, you know, like what have been the struggles and joys of being

Jalila Clarke:

a business owner of this current business?

Adam:

It's it's really satisfying actually, when, uh, we get the

Adam:

testimonials through it's yeah, it's really humbling because like I

Adam:

say, I developed supplement for me.

Adam:

And I really was just saying, well, what would I like to see in a supplement?

Adam:

And then being able to self sell it and actually have

Adam:

customers come back and go, yeah.

Adam:

You know what?

Adam:

I like the taste.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I can feel the benefits.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Um, when are you going to do X, Y, and Z?

Adam:

So, so that's the great thing.

Adam:

I mean, I, I'm also enjoying the, um, it's without sounding cliche that

Adam:

the product is not just about profit.

Adam:

Obviously I want to make a profit and I need to make a profit, but actually.

Adam:

Taking the view because I actually want, I take the product and also my,

Adam:

my parents actually do so I've got an invested interest in making it the best

Adam:

product that is commercially viable.

Adam:

Um, and that's, that's what I've done.

Adam:

So it's great to know that now that we're going to, we're going to release more

Adam:

products this year and actually now.

Adam:

I know what I want to take and because of feedback from customers, I know what

Adam:

other customers want to take as well.

Adam:

So it's great.

Adam:

Not every day is a sunny day, even in Malaysia.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

There are challenges, you know, but, uh, you know, uh, with the recent one

Adam:

the last few years, there's been some.

Adam:

Minor logistics issues.

Adam:

Um, certainly with, uh, you know, uh, courier companies and selling actually

Adam:

from the us to Australia and to you, the UK has been challenging just in

Adam:

the length of shipping times and, uh, and supply chain where with some

Adam:

ingredients, uh, is, has been tricky, but.

Adam:

But thankfully actually, um, we've had, we've had our best year, last

Adam:

year in despite these, these issues.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, how did you come about like, what was going to be

Jalila Clarke:

like, you know, the best ingredients to, to like make the best mix or not

Jalila Clarke:

best ingredients, but like the best like mix of items for your supplement.

Jalila Clarke:

Like,

Jalila Clarke:

Because you weren't in America.

Jalila Clarke:

So where did you find the resources that you would need to, you know, like

Jalila Clarke:

all the things you need to successfully start a business, you know, like,

Jalila Clarke:

you know, accounting and legal and, you know, like all the logistics

Jalila Clarke:

of the manufacturing, like how, how did you, how'd you find all that?

Jalila Clarke:

Yes.

Jalila Clarke:

Online, but like how, how did you really find all that.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I mean, I had, um, I I've got a few friends that actually

Adam:

are in the supplement business.

Adam:

They're in the UK.

Adam:

So I did ask around and in the end it was a case of, um, yeah, just, just contacting

Adam:

and actually speaking on the phone to sort of three or four manufacturing.

Adam:

Um, I have changed.

Adam:

I mean, we've used two manufacturers and we've used three, three PL

Adam:

companies, you know, this is third party logistics companies.

Adam:

So we've had to sort of change a few times to get it right.

Adam:

Uh, and so I met, you know, we made mistakes on, on the way and, and, you

Adam:

know, we've looked to rectify that as we go, but I mean, in terms of ingredients,

Adam:

Well, what I did is I, I, after I tried, I tried a number of products actually,

Adam:

and I looked at what was in that.

Adam:

And then I thought, well, Let's really deep dive into pretty much the whole

Adam:

of the greens sort of superfoods space.

Adam:

And I looked at Bart 60 or 70 products.

Adam:

I mean, so many, so many products and yen, and I looked to the ingredients,

Adam:

you know, how much they were selling for, you know, the guarantees and

Adam:

everything about the product, not only the ingredients, but about the part of the

Adam:

sales process that they, they, they use.

Adam:

And we're the ingredient it's not, I just basically went through,

Adam:

I had a massive Excel sheet that went through all the ingredients.

Adam:

I looked at the amounts I looked at, then the amounts you needed for the

Adam:

ingredients, because, um, A big misnomer with, with supplements in January, as

Adam:

the uni, you can have an ingredient and it obviously works wonders for you,

Adam:

but you actually need a certain amount.

Adam:

And then it can example to spirit, even as a fantastic ingredient, but

Adam:

you need like one to three grams a day for it to have any really meaningful.

Adam:

So, so if you see a supplement as sort of three, 400 milligrams, and now it's not

Adam:

really going to do the job, it's better than nothing, but it's not going to do

Adam:

maybe exactly what the manufacturer says.

Adam:

So I went through the big list, got this big sort of, I put on a white coat

Adam:

and I looked through all the things that I would like to have in a product.

Adam:

So then that's when I.

Adam:

I had the relationship with the manufacturer in the U S then we

Adam:

went through each ingredient.

Adam:

You know what I wanted to see as a minimum amount, they would, you know,

Adam:

they would say whether that's viable, whether the ingredients would actually

Adam:

mix well, would they actually taste well?

Adam:

So that process was quite a backwards and forwards about about eight or nine months,

Adam:

just sort of getting that process done.

Adam:

And then they, then they started producing samples for

Adam:

me and we went through a whole.

Adam:

Batch of tasks, uh, for the taste.

Adam:

Um, and that was really interesting.

Adam:

We, we had chocolate, orange soda, men berries, uh, lemon.

Adam:

So it, I, in the end it went for the mint flavor, but we've also

Adam:

got a bury coming out this month.

Adam:

So, yeah, that was challenging as well.

Adam:

And living in Malaysia because the samples were being sent from the U S to Malaysia.

Adam:

And so that, that took some time.

Adam:

And then by the time you've sort of done this process, you know, each

Adam:

time you're testing, it takes like a month or two backwards and forwards.

Adam:

So if we were based in the U S that that process would be a lot easier.

Adam:

So.

Adam:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

So then like, w you know, do you see your business expanding

Jalila Clarke:

into maybe like Europe and Australia?

Jalila Clarke:

Um, cause it's not in Malaysia, so, you know, do you see it expanding into other

Jalila Clarke:

places and, and are people in Malaysia able to actually get your product?

Adam:

Yeah, we, we have, um, we have customers in Malaysia that are

Adam:

buying and actually there's a couple of guys that are selling it on the

Adam:

local, a shop here and the design.

Adam:

I'm not sure if.

Adam:

Familiar with those, but they, they are like local plate marketplaces

Adam:

where people can sell products.

Adam:

So we know there's a few guys that are buying our product from the U S

Adam:

and they're selling on these local marketplaces and they they've reordered

Adam:

a number of times that they're obviously selling, which is interesting.

Adam:

Um, I, we have customers in the UK and Australia, so I would

Adam:

really, really like to set up that.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

One thing I'm really aware of at the moment is, is trying to sell

Adam:

in the market places too quickly.

Adam:

Um, we're, we're still.

Adam:

W where we're doing well, but we, I would prefer that we had more of a

Adam:

foothold in the U S before we sort of started certainly selling in

Adam:

Australia because it's so far away.

Adam:

But in the UK, we will be looking at fulfillment options

Adam:

in the next one to two months.

Adam:

And we'll see how well that goes.

Adam:

We actually went into Amazon in the us about eight, eight months ago.

Adam:

Um, that's very, very challenging.

Adam:

It's incredibly competitive.

Adam:

And I mean, if we've just turned the corner literally this month and where

Adam:

we're starting to see traction now, but it's been a tough eight months on Amazon

Adam:

to sort of get so visibility on there and to get, you know, uh, enough of a, uh,

Adam:

sales volume to actually be worthwhile.

Adam:

Yeah, the plan.

Adam:

We will, we will certainly go into the UK in the next one to two months, Australia.

Adam:

Um, we're not sure we have customers there and it's frustrating cause I really

Adam:

want to offer, you know, a really better fulfillment service, but it's yeah,

Adam:

we need to make sure what we do now is done, you know, as best as we best

Adam:

we can before we sort of expand quick.

Adam:

So,

Jalila Clarke:

so then like, what's, what's your day to day, like, you know,

Jalila Clarke:

working and then, you know, when you're away from work, the downtime, you know,

Jalila Clarke:

you mentioned the benefits of living in Malaysia, so then like w w you

Jalila Clarke:

know, so what, what's your day to day when, when you're not working as well?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I, I recently got a, sort of a home office.

Adam:

I used to have a coworking office, so I would sort of drop the kids off to

Adam:

school, or my wife would, and I would.

Adam:

Jump in, jump in the car with her and then, then go to my co-working space.

Adam:

But because of the last few years we've had the coworking

Adam:

space open shop, open shop.

Adam:

I decided to, yeah, just to move, move the office back to

Adam:

home and actually where we live.

Adam:

There's a African amazing swimming pool.

Adam:

And there's a promenade with a nice, or there's a range of coffee shops

Adam:

and restaurants, 10, 15 minutes away.

Adam:

So I like to, you know, once the kids, uh, uh, are out and at school,

Adam:

I like to just check email, just some work for a few hours at home.

Adam:

I might, I might go downstairs and, uh, the joke is I say, I'm going

Adam:

swimming, but in reality, I'm going to the jacuzzi pool and, uh, I'm

Adam:

there for an hour or two reading and they come back and do some more work.

Adam:

And sometimes, well, actually often I go to the coffee shop, um,

Adam:

15 minute, 20 minute walk away.

Adam:

So at least I, I like to get out, even though the office at home, I like to get

Adam:

out every day for at least an hour or two.

Adam:

Otherwise, you sort of get a bit stir, stir crazy, but, uh, yeah, I mean, when

Adam:

the kids come back, um, yeah, sometimes we get a swimming pool or we take them

Adam:

to the, to the playground or, yeah, maybe it's just staying at home relaxing.

Adam:

So yeah.

Adam:

I tend to work Monday to Friday.

Adam:

I would say it's almost full time.

Adam:

It probably is full-time hours, but, but sometimes it doesn't

Adam:

actually feel like I'm working.

Adam:

So it's, uh, which is good.

Adam:

And the weekend, I very rarely work.

Adam:

I I'll check.

Adam:

I'll check the everything's running.

Adam:

Okay.

Adam:

But in general, I don't sit down to do any, really any work

Adam:

other than just checking a few.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, you know, like going back to like your business being

Jalila Clarke:

in America, how were the clients able to find you like your business in America?

Jalila Clarke:

Like how, how did they find this supplement?

Jalila Clarke:

Because, you know, I'm sure there's many, many supplements.

Jalila Clarke:

So how, how were they able to parse through all the others to, to find your.

Adam:

Yeah, I have a, um, some contacts in terms of affiliates

Adam:

that actually promoted previous, um, products that I was aware of.

Adam:

So I did reach out to them.

Adam:

And also I did blog about my journey about creating my own supplement,

Adam:

so that actually got some traffic.

Adam:

And even now I get traffic from the blog that people read about this and.

Adam:

And so, yeah, that's how it started.

Adam:

I mean, most of it was sort of organic reach.

Adam:

So I would, I would get people from Google, you know, organically searching

Adam:

for products or for greens, they would either reach my site directly or.

Adam:

They would end up on stay an affiliate site, that's reviewed it or someone,

Adam:

you know, uh, we, we tried influences it didn't really work too well for us.

Adam:

Um, but yeah, it was mostly organic sort of search traffic, uh, reaching us.

Adam:

Um, we are doing a little bit.

Adam:

Appetize paid advertising, but it's really competitive and it's super expensive.

Adam:

Uh, yeah, I mean, I think on Amazon we're paying so $20 a click at one point.

Adam:

It was crazy.

Adam:

So yeah, it's it's, I mean, I am familiar with it sort of SEO sort of search

Adam:

engine optimization, so that's helped.

Adam:

I've got a number of friends who work in that industry.

Adam:

So I've sort of leveraged their expertise as well.

Adam:

So, yeah, but, um, yeah, we.

Adam:

We've got a tough job because the other, other competitors in our

Adam:

space have a very deep pockets.

Adam:

So in fact, one of our biggest competitors doing sort of television

Adam:

adverts in the U S at the moment, so.

Adam:

You know, for us that that's not going to happen.

Adam:

You know, we, we don't have the budget for that.

Adam:

So it's a little bit of guerrilla marketing and sort of the SEO and

Adam:

affiliate sort of option at the moment.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

I wonder, like, you know, since you've lived in various places, like.

Jalila Clarke:

You know, what, what has the visa process like been in each of those places?

Jalila Clarke:

I'm assuming it was much smoother in Malaysia because

Jalila Clarke:

you're married to a Malaysian.

Jalila Clarke:

Um, but, but then like in so many other places, like, w what was that like?

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

In, uh, in, when I was in Germany, that was fine.

Adam:

I mean, a UK was part of a Europe and so it was really easy.

Adam:

It's literally jumping on a plane and, and then moving there and, um, and that's, at

Adam:

that time, my, my girlfriend was German.

Adam:

So that made life a lot easier.

Adam:

Apart from the language, I don't speak German.

Adam:

So that was really tough at times, but yeah, the entire land, it was trickier.

Adam:

Um, I did have a, I did apply for a multi entry visa and at the time, and

Adam:

we're talking nearly 20 years ago now.

Adam:

So it was easier for that type of visa then.

Adam:

I mean, you could stay for six months, nine months, and then you, you could.

Adam:

Go go traveling for a few weeks or a month and then go back and renew again.

Adam:

Um, the visa situation, Tyler has changed massively since then.

Adam:

They, they offer like an elite visa now.

Adam:

So you just pay for that visa and you can stay for five or 10 years.

Adam:

I believe.

Adam:

So these, these visas are not so.

Adam:

Yeah, they're not permanent residency.

Adam:

They're like a social visit sort of visa.

Adam:

And actually that's, that's what I have in, in Malaysia.

Adam:

I mean, my, obviously I can apply for a spouse social visa, but we, we

Adam:

got the Malaysia as a second home.

Adam:

Visa.

Adam:

So you have to, you have to reach a certain criteria of, you know, you had

Adam:

to put some deposit, some money into a Malaysian bank that you had to keep there.

Adam:

I'd be you add interest on it.

Adam:

And then you, you have to demonstrate you're earning a

Adam:

certain amount of money each month.

Adam:

And that was effectively and make sure you didn't have any

Adam:

criminal record and it's X or this.

Adam:

So, so yeah, my, my kids and I were under that visa, but

Adam:

if, for any reason that visa.

Adam:

It is not sustainable.

Adam:

We can transition to a marriage spousal visa.

Adam:

I mean, we can do that from there.

Jalila Clarke:

Okay.

Jalila Clarke:

And so, you know, I guess I leave off with really like, just one more question.

Jalila Clarke:

So, you know, you guys have been there for awhile.

Jalila Clarke:

Um, you're, you're running your business from home.

Jalila Clarke:

You know, your kids are, are enjoying the life there.

Jalila Clarke:

Um, so I guess I wonder, like, you know, what's your definition of home.

Jalila Clarke:

And, you know, do you see this location as being your forever home?

Adam:

Yeah, that's, that's it.

Adam:

That's a great question.

Adam:

I see it as home actually.

Adam:

It's although my parents here that they wouldn't be too pleased.

Adam:

Um, yeah, I, I see it as home and I can see us living here.

Adam:

For a long time.

Adam:

And we, we, we actually, when we moved here, we said it was going to be one to

Adam:

two years, but within six months we'd already decided actually we're selling

Adam:

everything in the UK and we're staying.

Adam:

Uh, so it, it had a really strong appeal from there, from day one.

Adam:

I, I'm not sure I could ever say no forever because it depends on our kids.

Adam:

Our kids are only five and nine, so they young, we, we certainly see ourselves for

Adam:

another 10 years, you know, whilst they're at primary and secondary school age.

Adam:

We will, we would see ourselves living here till then.

Adam:

And, and actually, I, I love Asia that much.

Adam:

I can't imagine not living in Asia.

Adam:

Uh, it's likely Malaysia.

Adam:

Um, but you know, um, 10 years ago I had no idea I'd be living here.

Jalila Clarke:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

Me either.

Jalila Clarke:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

I don't think 10 years ago.

Jalila Clarke:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

I would've thought I would've been living in China for as long as I have been.

Jalila Clarke:

Yeah.

Adam:

the biggest thing for me and it's actually been the case ever

Adam:

since I came back from like six months of backpacking in Asia, the thing

Adam:

that I had in my mind is that I want the, the ability to up and live in.

Adam:

Well, I'm pretty much any country I would like to live in.

Adam:

Uh, that works for us as a family.

Adam:

I want that flexibility.

Adam:

And that's why I've I had to be an entrepreneur or actually work and my own

Adam:

business, because otherwise it is tricky.

Adam:

I mean, you can do it with some skilled professions, but then you're relying

Adam:

on obviously finding those jobs that are in the countries you want to live.

Adam:

Whereas for me, the biggest motivation, uh, for working on my own is because I

Adam:

want to be able to live in another country and experience living there for a while.

Adam:

Uh, with the lifestyle that we want, we want for us in the past.

Adam:

And we have it.

Adam:

Thankfully, we have that at the moment.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

Yeah.

Adam:

I love it.

Adam:

I mean, you know, uh, I, I actually, well, when the kids were younger,

Adam:

I used to joke saying that my best day of the week was Monday because

Adam:

Monday to me I'll be starting work.

Adam:

And that was easier than looking after young children.

Adam:

So like everyone would with jokes saying, oh, they look forward to the weekend.

Adam:

I say, yeah, I like the weekend, but Monday is my best day.

Adam:

And, and that, yeah, like, that's great, you know, like to wake up

Adam:

every day and just think, yeah, I like working on the business.

Adam:

I like living where we live, so definitely encourage everyone to try.

Adam:

Yeah.

Jalila Clarke:

All right.

Jalila Clarke:

So we're going to leave it there for today.

Jalila Clarke:

And, uh, thank you so much, Adam, for taking the time to be

Jalila Clarke:

interviewed by me on this podcast.

Jalila Clarke:

Are we home yet?

Jalila Clarke:

A podcast where ex-pats talk about what it's like living abroad.

Jalila Clarke:

And hopefully inspire future ex-pats to, to take that journey into

Jalila Clarke:

also, you know, living abroad and, and experiencing something they

Jalila Clarke:

never thought they would before.

Jalila Clarke:

So with that, I'm going to say goodbye to all of our listeners and Adam,

Jalila Clarke:

and I hope everyone has a great day.