I got laid off.

Sharon Tseung 0:02
This is the digital nomad quest podcast with Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design their best lives. Hey guys, is Sharon from digital nomad quest and today we’re gonna go over how I got laid off what my thoughts are around it and what is next for me. Now for me to go over all of this, I kind of need to rewind and talk about my complete journey all the way back in 2016, up to today to kind of go over my thoughts. So back in 2016, I actually quit my job and travel the world for two years while building passive income. I remember back in the day, I had done a month long solo Europe trip and it just opened my eyes to all the life I was missing out on. And I started dreading commuting to the office, being there for eight to nine hours a day, looking at the four walls of an office when I had been living in the Bay Area for most of my life, I wanted to see what else was out there. So I started obsessively studying books and blogs, a bunch of information on how to create these passive income streams. So I got into Etsy, blogging, Amazon FBA merch by Amazon, a lot of these different methods to make passive income online. A big reason why I had left my job was that I want to fear to actually motivate me. So I’d read this book called The Power of Broke by Daymond, John, and it was all about entrepreneurs doing creative things to get out of a rut and be able to become successful with their businesses, because they didn’t have money in order to build their business. But they managed to figure it out and build their business to what it is today, he was just basically emphasizing that fear can be an extremely good motivator, when you have no options, you got to figure it out, you got to be creative, you got to work extremely hard. So I was like, I want that for myself. And it actually worked, I ended up building multiple passive income streams, and that cash flow covered my expenses, and then some, so I was able to continuously grow my net worth while traveling, I really thought I had made it but in 2018, actually decided to come back to a job come back to the Bay Area. And the reason was that I didn’t feel fulfilled just chasing an income number I was wanting to build more I wanted to learn I wanted to create and I just didn’t feel like I was doing that I was testing these multiple income streams and not really building something that was helping people. And then I looked around me I was in Chiang Mai, Thailand at the time, I’d been there for about three or four months or so. And I just saw people kind of chillin, making enough to cover their minimal expenses. And I just felt like I was too young for this, I needed to do more with my life. So I came back to position because I lacked purpose. And I wanted to grow and learn. And also the paycheck was nice, of course. And I knew that if I didn’t like the job, I could just leave it. And that was really the beauty of passive income. The Job did help, for example, in real estate, where I was able to get conventional loans a lot easier because I had a W two. So that allowed me to move even further with my real estate portfolio. And obviously, having passive income plus my day job meant a lot of income that could keep putting back into my investments and into my businesses. And on top of that I

was learning on my job. Obviously anything I learned with marketing, I can kind of see how I can apply it to my personal brand and things like that. I don’t want to get too deep into that. But overall, it was just a good learning experience. I probably learned the most honestly through the stuff I built by myself. But working at this company definitely opened my eyes, I learned and I had a good time as well. So you know, if I didn’t have a good time, like I said I could have left. I also had it in my mind that this was gonna be my last job. I just didn’t know when I would leave it whether it be from a layoff or if I personally decided to leave, but I just knew you know what, this probably going to be my last thing I already found the thing that gave me purpose. So again, the purpose was in 2019 actually started posting on YouTube about personal finance side hustles investing and it was really there that I found fulfillment because I could help people get unstuck and financially free and that was the problem I faced. I found that thing that helped others allowed me to create let me make a living out of it. And also let me get better at business, real estate and marketing. So everything really started coming together and I’ve accomplished so much more than I thought I would it’s been a wild ride. I never thought that my personal brand could grow like this, you know with YouTube, Tik Tok Instagram and now Twitter I’ve been testing out Twitter, I’ve been able to grow my community a lot further than I thought I would have been able to get featured on publications. I’ve also been challenging myself to speak I spoke at a panel at fin con I’m going to be speaking at a conference I think next month and these things are really scary for me but the more I challenged myself the more I grow like even with this YouTube channel is a huge challenge for me. I used to hate hearing my talking voice I never really like recorded it but I find that actually people connect well with me on video so I’m actually glad I ended up choosing video as my avenue for creating content. Another thing is I also would be scared of taking interviews so I would actually say no, I’m not gonna get interviewed scared And now I’ve been doing it a lot more and more all these different experiences have made me grow as a person. And I think learning is another thing that keeps me excited and happy to learning and creating are really important for me. So fast forward today, as of this recording, I was laid off maybe a few days ago from a small tech startup that was actually running out of runway. So to be honest, I wasn’t that surprised. They didn’t tell me really unexpectedly. So that was a shocking part. So I kind of knew that it was running out of runway, and there needed to be massive developments in the product for us to really get traction. So it wasn’t unexpected in those senses. But it wasn’t expected news for me when they just told me straight up that they’re laying off multiple people from the company to increase their runway, essentially, I’m really appreciative of the position though, because, you know, like I mentioned, it helped me in multiple ways. And I’m grateful for the team and everything like that. So we ended on good terms when the news was delivered, I feel like Usually people are worried financially. But because I’ve built up passive income streams and had grown my net worth, I wasn’t that worried. I knew that actually, my side hustles were doing better than my full time job, which is pretty crazy. I never thought it would be like this. And I hope I can continue that and grow it to bigger levels. But it’s been a crazy ride. Instead of those financial worries, I was actually worried about how I would spend my time. So I honestly feel like I was using the job as a crutch where I needed to let go and see where life would take me.

So you know, as everything was growing, I was still working a job. And a lot of people didn’t know that I was working a job. So they were shocked. And I told them that I was laid off. They’re like, Oh, you’re still working a nine to five. And it’s because you know, I’m working on this personal brand. I’m investing in real estate, they probably think oh, she’s full time in that. But in reality, I’ve been balancing all these different things. And I think to myself, I’d be like, you know, I don’t need to work that hard. I have a job on me, like, just work on my goals, but do it on my own pace. And I’m doing more than a lot of people already I have a full time job. And I’m working on this, I should be proud of myself. So I shouldn’t beat myself up about how I spend my time, things like that. So I play a lot of video games, I watch a lot of TV. Whereas honestly, I think a lot of content creators work extremely hard work on a bunch of different businesses. I know a ton of content creators are killing it. And not only are they killing it, they’re making a huge impact, which I want to do more of myself now that this job is gone. There’s this feeling that there’s no excuse not to do big things. And that is a scary feeling. On the other hand, I feel like I don’t have that fear that motivated me like it did in the past my financial situation in 2022 is really different from what it was in 2016. So as you can see, I was like grinding it out. I was scared I had my back against the wall, I was working extremely hard working too late hours in the night trying to figure out ways that I could spend more time on these things. And I hung out less with people. And I was just like working so hard on this one thing. Because of that my whole financial situation has changed a lot where I don’t need to really worry as much knock on wood, right? You never know what’s gonna happen. But I really tried to diversify my portfolio with real estate stocks, crypto, my passive income businesses to really feel like I’m safe. I try not to over leverage. And I have an emergency fund things like that, right. But you never know. But as of this moment, things aren’t that scary. I’m very grateful. I know, I’m privileged. But also I do know that I’ve worked really hard to get to this point. So I’m proud of myself for that as well. So part of me just wants to enjoy the simple pleasures of life. And I just want to live a simple life with freedom and time. So I have like these conflicting feelings, right? Like I’ve worked as hard, I should reap the benefits. I ultimately think it’s a balance of you know, working hard and also playing hard, which honestly, I’ve been good about doing for a while. Now, while I was building these passive income streams, I was enjoying my life abroad, I travelled for two years, I travel a lot to this day, like I value experiences. So I have fun a lot. We go out on dates all the time. So I think I’m pretty good about balancing. But one thing I think is hard when you’re an entrepreneur is that you don’t turn off your brain enough. So I have constant things that I’m always thinking about that actually impacts my sleep. Sometimes I get insomnia sometimes. So it’s not the best. But anyway, my point is I need a balance, like doing big things and living a simple life. Because ultimately, none of this matters. If you’re not like having fun with it. And you’re not spending time with your loved ones. You’re not working on things that actually make you happy. I’m lucky about that. I think I’m working on stuff that makes me happy. It’s all because I spent many years building this out and kind of digging deep into what I actually truly want. But when I looked at my bucket list and like my life goals, it’s not that crazy. I would say that I’ve met a lot of people who have crazy dreams like becoming a billionaire or owning whole buildings in New York City owning sports teams, and I’m like, I’ve never had these types of dreams. I’ve never had big net worth go I’ve always just wanted like enough cash flow for me to be able to live a life financially free and do stuff like fishing or gardening or working on music. And I also want to build a home like these are some of the things I always talk about. Another thing is though, I do want to own properties all around the world, so I can Airbnb them out and visit them when I want to. That’s another thing that is kind of a bigger dream, I guess, but never to the extent of like, oh, I need to hit this net worth, and I need a billion dollar business or whatever. That’s never been my goal. So the third thing that really comes to mind is like what do I truly want, you know, whether that’s building businesses, building homes, creating music, like I used to be a singer, songwriter, and producer, musician, I guess I was really into music back then. And traveling, right? These are all things that I’m interested in, I just have to make sure that I think about what I truly want versus what looks cool to other people. Because when I’m going to all these conferences, for example, and people have these crazy dreams, it’s really easy to get that shiny object feeling like oh, that sounds really good. I should try that. That sounds awesome. Maybe I want to do that. And then I tap into like, do I really want that? Or is that just my ego talking? Like, it’ll just inflate my ego.

So these are questions I think are important to think about. Because the more you chase, the more you feel like it’s not enough. So you have to be satisfied with what you have. Right? So now that I’m laid off, basically, these are the three things that come to mind. And I’m really going to be working on balance and asking these questions like how do I use my free time? What do I truly want? Am I taking care of myself? Like these are very important questions, I want to make sure that I’m prioritizing the things that matter most to me. So I’m going to keep redefining my goals. And I’m planning to finish up this list of 101 goals. I heard at a conference the other day that I should write that many goals, I think is more like a bucket list versus goals. So I’m going to try to really hone into what I actually want. When I was writing these goals down. I knew that there’s a lot I want to do with my content with my business with real estate and everything like that. I know that I want to dabble into short term rentals. I want to learn how to build a home. So I actually do want to get into the physical labor of it all. I think a lot of people don’t like that aspect. But it seems very interesting to me and I want that knowledge we’ll see if I like it or not. But that’s another goal. Do you want to dabble into like apartment complexes, boring businesses, that’s something I’ve always been interested in, like laundromats ATM machines, vending machines, even like car washes, or people make passive income through turbo as well. And I think there’s just a lot of ideas I haven’t attempted. I think it’s always fun to experiment with different business ideas. That’s just me the other things are that I want to possibly create more products really help people step by step because right now I have the out of state real estate investing course the SC one and the blogging one but I want to do a money one because I think a lot of people have questions to me around like what I should do my personal finances, what should I do with my money? So I think I should do more informational content around that. There’s just a lot that I can be doing to help benefit the community because I get so many questions that it’s exciting for me to create valuable content for you guys. I hope that I can post more here too. So I’m planning to do maybe two videos a week, I do feel like I am freed up more like my job was chill, but I feel like it also takes up mental space in your head. And now that that’s gone, I have more space for my own stuff. So I really hope that I use this time wisely. I think there is that fear that you know, I don’t use it wisely. And I don’t grow as much as I had hoped or whatever. But at the same time, it’s not like my goals are insane. I just want a simple life, right? I don’t want anything crazy. So should be okay, we’ll see what happens. I hope everything goes well. You never know. And it’s crazy. Like right now I know people are getting laid off and things like that I feel for you guys. That’s why I really hope that you guys learn from my content and actually take action on different side hustles ways you can make more money because it can dramatically change your life and make you feel a lot more free. If I didn’t have my side hustles or passive income or real estate I wouldn’t be freaking out if I lost my job. But right now I’m like, You know what, I’m officially retired from the nine to five. That was an announcement I made on Instagram that I just got laid off. So now I’m officially retired from the nine to five that was my energy out to the world that you know what this is going to be a positive experience. I’m gonna follow my heart and do more things that I want to do, and hopefully help you guys in the process. So it’s time to see where my life takes me. Thank you guys so much for your support. If you guys are worried about me, please I mean best wishes, but I think everything’s gonna be okay. And I hope to create more valuable content for you guys. If you guys have any tips for me, it’s gonna be an interesting ride being officially retired and kind of being in the same place. I was in 2018 when I was in Chiang Mai, but not really it’s a little bit different now because I feel like I’ve found fulfillment and purpose. So it’s exciting right now and I’m really excited for what’s to come. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Please make sure to rate View and subscribe it really helps our podcast grow and thanks again I’ll see you guys in the next one

Transcribed by https://otter.ai