E63: Exploring the World & Growing Your Business with Mariya Pallais

Jim: Remote Start Nation, as you know, I traveled the country for two years in an RV with my family prior to relocating to Salt Lake City last year. This episode's guest and I share an absolute love of travel and exploring as she's been on adventure, traveling the world, running a business, and living the lifestyle mini dream of. Today we are going to be talking with a very exciting and adventurous Mariya Pallais, founder and CEO of Mariya Pallais’ PR on her adventure, running a business from remote destinations, as well as diving into public relations and what us as business owners should be doing to grow our reach. Mariya, welcome to the Remote Start Nation, I'm honored to have you.

Mariya: Hey, how's it going?

Jim: It's going fantastic. Although, you know, I'm a little jealous cause, I wanna start off by asking where are you right now?

Mariya: Okay, so I'm in Rotan, which is a little island off of Honduras, and it's incredible. It's so, so nice. We just got here a couple days ago.

Jim: That's so cool. Yeah, it's, 40 degrees where I'm at right now, so that sounds incredible.

Mariya: Yeah, I can't do cold. I was back in San Diego last week and even 60, I was like, nope.

Jim: Wow, even 60. I would, I'd be so excited about 60 right now.

Mariya: Yeah, nope.

Jim: So, why aren't you making us even more jealous for those that are gonna be watching this on YouTube? Why aren't you making us more jealous and actually showing us the background of the ocean?

Mariya: Okay, so I'm actually at a co-working space that does ha like I can go out onto the balcony and the beach is right there, but I was on a Zoom meeting the other day and my computer overheated and just like clicked off a meeting. So I think that I'm like, I'm in like a little pod now and I think it's safe. The internet's really good. It's temperature controlled. So I think would be a better idea.

Jim: And I later in the episode, I definitely want to hit on like, ‘cause I know for me finding good internet and a a good place to work when I was on the road was so hard. It was like one of the most, you know, difficult things about the travel or the stress I'd say of just like making sure you're set up for your meetings and all of that. So I want to get into that more, down the in, later in the episode. But, you know, first I'd like to know, like, tell us something about you that we wouldn't know if we had just met.

Mariya: Okay, yeah. so my whole thing, I started scuba diving like last July and now that's just, it is who I am now. I'm, that's my whole being now So I just travel the world. I choose where I'm going based on where the scuba diving's really good and I can, I just conduct business from there.

Jim: That is so awesome.

Mariya: Yeah, and so, we'll, we'll do this for a while and then I wanna retire to a goat alpaca farm somewhere in like Peru or something.

Jim: What, I mean, that is really cool. And yeah, we wouldn't know that about you if we just met you. Tell me more on that.

Mariya: Okay, so, I mean, so I grew up with horses and all of that good stuff and you know, like horses are great. I think I ended up like hurting my back pretty bad and it just wasn't in the cards for me anymore. But like, I still had my goats, I had a goat named Cecil and he was incredible. And I haven't stopped thinking about him ever. So I think that that will, you know, my whole journey has been finding peace of mind and I don't think there's a better way than just raising goat and retirement.

Jim: That is so cool. Well, I look forward to following your journey and, and one, one of these days, you know, when everything switches from scuba diving, to the farm and goats.

Mariya: Farming, yeah.

Jim: I'll Remember this

Mariya: Incredible.

Jim: So tell us a little bit about your entrepreneurial journey. What's your story? Where'd you start?

Mariya: Yeah, okay. So it's been, it's been a while. So I guess in 2018 I started a marketing company, we started as accelerate marketing. I started it with an ex-partner, which I would never recommend anyone doing, it's not fun when you split up. So, we rebranded into Mariya Pallais’ Marketing, I guess maybe that was in 2020, right in like the peak of Covid that was a wild time. I had start so well to back up a bit, I had started in the marketing and marketing communications department of Airbnb, okay. and I was, I was working that and I loved it, but the, it just a series of circumstances, the project that I was working on was coming to a close. They wanted me to move up north and I just didn't really wanna do that ‘cause I was in Southern California, and so I, decided to move on and I was working at a publishing company and I was commuting into LA from Long Beach, it was a nightmare. I would, I think that's where I vowed that I would never work in an office again. Cause I was spending three and a half hours commuting every day. I would just, I would put on like Bob's burgers on my phone, like in front of my dashboard and just sit and watch cartoons on my, so miserable. So then I, and like a lot of my planning for this marketing company came from just sitting on bumper to bumper traffic on the 405. And so I just kind of decided to take the leap and do it. hopefully my parents aren't watching because I just straight up delivered weed for, to fund this company, it's a le it's legal in California. I just wanna preface that. It's like when, when East when Ease first started, they had like these great, like when any good like, you know, Postmates or start, they pay you really well and they give you perks, and so I was doing that, and that's basically how we got funding for this marketing company. and then, you know, so we had the turnover and the, the part, the partners, it became just my company and we were focused pretty heavily just on food, so we've got hit pretty hard during covid, like restaurants and such. So I was helping various shops and we went into Patisserie for whatever reason, but, a lot of shops turned to e-commerce, and be able to sell things online because it was, it was hard for all of us, but especially for them, and we did that for a while. I would say Covid wasn't even the hardest part for us as a company, it was probably like a year after Covid when, you know, funding was no longer available, like PPPs ran out, all of that good stuff. And so that was actually harder ‘cause a company, I mean we didn't, we didn't utilize all of the different loans, but I think a lot of our clients were, and so then they were running out of money and it was like this new wild economy where no one really knew how to navigate it at all. And so it was kind of, it dropped and so we had to, that was like, I think we're at pivot number two now, right? So need to pivot again, and I got introduced to this company, a lot of my friends are in EO and I got introduced to this company who is games like video games, they take video games, turn them into board games, stuff like that. And so we kind of pivoted and we started working along more along the game side of things, which kind of opened doors in technology, and that was great, we work a lot on referrals, we do prospecting on LinkedIn and stuff like that, but, we've been a lot of just referrals. And that went well for a couple years, and then I just, I hit a wall with marketing and my entrepreneurial jour journey really just in general. I was just so unhappy ‘cause I mean I've been, number one mistake that I made, which was like totally avoidable ‘cause everyone told me this in advance, was that I needed to be making a lot of money to be happy, and so I based my whole like, everything around that. And so money came, money went, it came again and it was, you know, and so I was just miserable when things wouldn't go right. And then I was just like very like, and then you just can't, you can't play that yo-yo game, right. You have to be like this. And so I had built this, like all of my mindset was built around making a lot of money and I hit a wall, like, I was like, I don't want to do this anymore. I don't want, I knew I didn't wanna go back to working for anyone else, but I also knew that I could, this was not sustainable.

Jim: So, how many years ago did you hit that wall?

Mariya: About a year and almost a year and a half ago. So we pivoted again, kind of, we just started doing like personal brands on LinkedIn, we called it LinkedIn PR because you know, we were, we were working on people's personal brands. but we were also booking them opportunity through LinkedIn. and we kind of shut down the other part of the marketing. I was like, let's just be really good at one thing. And I think that will make things less complicated for me.

Jim: Do you feel, I wanna stop you there really quick, do you feel like focusing on just, a larger broad range of marketing instead of honing in on just that, do you feel like that was kind of leading to some of that, you know, unhappiness that you were talking about?

Mariya: I think so, it was just too much. And you know, we were working with a very young, young team as well and, I think just like collectively it was just too much, right? Like trying to, trying to train people who had noticed this was just like, we had a lot of right out of college people working for us and we were trying to keep them motivated and I was trying to, you know, keep the prices at a, something affordable, but it was not profitable, keeping 'em not low, but people also didn't have money and it was just like a lot of things all at once. So I think, and then partially just too much having too many people working on too. So then when we narrowed it down, I think it helped a bit and we've actually kind of become, been able to offer more services, now because we've just outsourced it, to people that we're really confident in, we've been working with now for a couple years. We, they're very reliable, it was just finding the right people and that's key. so key it's so key, and I just, you know, my whole thing was like, I want to provide opportunities for people, especially young people because as a young person, I wanted this life, right? So I was just like, well, let's recruit them. And then, so that's, that's good and bad, right? I think that we just weren't at the capacity to take that kind of program on. And I think that that's great for people who are well equipped to, you know, transform young people and, but it was just, it was, and I'm not saying that that was the only thing, ‘cause it certainly wasn't. It was just a lot of different things, right. And so, I think I had gone home, me and my partner had gone home for Christmas and she was just like, let's move to Thailand, and we were like a little bit tipsy, like, I think she saw how miserable I was just, you know, it was noticeable at that point and I was kind, I thought about it and I was like, are you serious though? And then I was like, let's just talk about it. We'll talk about it tomorrow. And we wake up and she said, the offer's still on the table, and I was like, okay, well I guess we'll take this buzz conversation and yeah, let's do it. So her apartment lease wasn't up until April of last year. So we waited, we waited a bit and ‘cause I had been traveling before that too, I think October, 2020 I set out, with my friend, and we were just hopping around the US kind of like band life, but we were staying in Airbnb's, and we were a foreign, not a van, and so, I didn't, I didn't have a lease or anything that was like, that was the best thing I ever did was put at this, at the turn of Covid, I put everything into storage and just started traveling, and so then I didn't have, cause I was, my apartment was really expensive and things weren't getting like any better at that time, I was living in, near Newport Beach in California, and so you can imagine how expensive that was. Oh yeah. And so putting my stuff, just putting my stuff away was perfect. So we waited, and then April of last year is when we started traveling and I just, I had a mindset change when we got to Thailand, and it wasn't any one thing that really, it was just, I knew, I was certain that success wasn't contingent on a lot of money, and as soon as I grasped that, because I was, I was hanging, you know, in Thailand it's the opposite schedule. So I would hang out at the beach all day, it was lovely, I'd go explore and then by the time I'd have to hop on these meetings or prospecting calls or current client meetings or something, I just had the best day of my life, and so it made it a little bit better. And so, and I wasn't making a ton of money then, but I was really happy, and I think it just finally clicked. I was, I was just, oh, that, well, duh, like, everyone's been telling me this for years and but I'm pretty hardheaded. So I finally just got it, and then since then, and I hadn't even started scuba diving then it wasn't until we went to Indonesia, we learned there and then that just because, you know, if you scuba dive, you go down and you're happy for like two days after the dive and you're, and you're happy leading up to the dive too, cause you're like, I get to dive, and then that was so awesome, I saw all the things, and so, it just shifted, and so how we conduct business shifted and then who we were working with shifted and it just, it kind of all fell into place.

Jim: Did it, let me stop you there for a second. So when it shifted, you said, you know, your happiness shifted your, who you focused on and your business, the people that you worked with shifted. Do you feel like the people that you started to work with shifted? Because they started to see, were you posting all of this on social media and promoting it, your new lifestyle and people started to follow that and really follow along and wanna be included?

Mariya: Yeah, and partially that, and I also think it was just, I was in a mindset to make a better decision of who we wanted to work with too.

Jim: Awesome.

Mariya: I think partially that I've had since I've kind of shifted our content, because I also like, I don't know if you know this, and I don't mean to dis anyone, but like people on LinkedIn being negative is not a content strategy, like, it's kind of funny like every once in a while, but the people are just like, you do this wrong and you do that wrong, and like, I kind of fell into this because I was just like, no, I don't want the service, and I started building my content kind of got like really negative, and then when I post anything positive, it was just so like you could see through that, right. And so yeah, like if you have any takeaways, like being negative is not a content strategy. And I say it so often and I think people I think it's being funny or playful, but I'm like that, I mean, this does not make me run, and I think probably people have about me at one point. but yeah, I think I was just in, I was clear to see things as they were and I no longer needed to, no longer needed to work with people that I didn't need to work with, right.

Jim: So when you, what did you have to do? ‘Cause I know for me hitting the road and my business partner's still in Michigan and you know, was running the company while I was on the road along with me, and, but we had to do some big changes in our team and our structure before I hit the road, and, you know, part of it was Covid, you know, helped to make some of those, those changes for us. But did you have to make any big changes in your business model and, you know, even with your employees or anything else that, you know, before you went and hit the road remote?

Mariya: Yeah. So during Covid we had, or I guess it wasn't during Covid, it was that year after Covid, we had to lay a lot of people off because we just weren't making what we were making anymore, and that was, I think that aided that broke my heart. So that, I think that aided to me getting so like, hostile towards, you know, business I guess because I didn't wanna do that. so we changed it and we restructured it to where two people could handle it. And we went from a team of eight or nine to two. So that was a huge thing. and then, before I went on the road, it was, we had restructured surge a little bit. I think we were back up to four, maybe four or five, and so we constant, we were constantly trying to restructure things to find that fine line of providing a really good service, versus how many hours are spent because we were fo at that point we were focusing on LinkedIn and I'm sure, you know, LinkedIn has cracked down on like what you can do. Like really if you're using automation and LinkedIn now, like good luck, so my LinkedIn profile was, restricted for four months because they, I had to like fight to, and the funny thing is it wasn't for automation. They thought that cause all of our employees signed in on the same server, so we all had that same IP address ‘cause we're all like, we log into the same and so they thought we were like crossing over and pretending to be each other, and so once we got that cleared up, it was that. But so many people are getting big people that have large followings are being taken off of LinkedIn right now and you'll just see them disappear, and so if you're using automation now, but there's like, you know, if you're not using automation anymore, how is like a human gonna keep up with what automation is doing and still be profitable? So we had like, made that turn and we had restructured our program, not really our people. and then again, maybe six months ago we took the marketing agency out of it and we just went strictly PR. because we just.

Jim: What I was gonna ask you that. So you were all inclusive marketing and then you know what marketing to change.

Mariya: Marketing and PR.

Jim: Okay. And then do you just enjoy the PR aspect? Like what was it about PR that you said, this is what I want to hone in on?

Mariya: So I also hit along with marketing, it's just, it's so saturated, that I found it to, I just, that wasn't even the part of thing, like running paid ads and advertising and stuff like that wasn't what made me happy, what was making me happy was all of the things in PR. So I was just like, we need to, I wanna transition into that, if we get any requests for, marketing, we have partners that we can, you know, be like, Hey, but we know these really cool people. So we've just kind of structured it like that now, but PR was a way to get people really good results, help allow them to tell their story, and highlight their business without just all the backlash of marketing, I guess, I felt like Iand I truly feel like pr good PR if you're doing PR, right? ‘Cause PR isn't just getting a feature in Forbes, it's so much more than that, good PR is good marketing is a marketing strategy, and getting eyes on your business in that way is just as efficient and it's, it honestly is more profitable for us too, because it doesn't take, we're set up for it, and so it just, it wasn't taking as much time. So that's where we transitioned again, and so now we're just Mariya P, we left the marketing company website up, we have great partners, I just don't do that anymore.

Jim: That's awesome. I love how, you know, I talk about this a lot, like, you have to go back to your why, you have to go back to your, like, what makes you happy, and I want to dig more into your travels and what you've learned and all of that, but, you know, focusing on one thing in a PR and what makes you happy, I feel like it also like that allows you to really communicate that with your audience too and have so much more passion about helping who you're helping because you are happier yourself, right?

Mariya: Yeah, yeah, exactly. I just, I think that I can get people better results and write their narrative down while if I'm in a good headspace, you're gonna get a great campaign, right? And I don't think that any of any of my people suffered because I wasn't in a good headspace. Honestly, we have a whole, like, we have a content writer and who manages content writers. And so I wasn't doing much of that, but I think that just the shift in our work culture, when I became more present in the company again and now I do, I love to work. So, I love getting out there, I love getting people placed in Forbes, although that is not all of it, you know, I love, I love going out there and seeing emergency, we work a lot with emerging tech right now, and so building that social proof for them is exciting because they have these, there's so much technology out there. So we're cutting through that. And, you know, it's exciting when someone wants to cover cover that or we can get them a byline article and make them look like an authority and, you know, it comes full circle and it's, as you know, being in the field, it's content, content, content.

Jim: No, that's so cool. Yeah, let's talk about PR, I like I said I wanna go back to lifestyle more, we'll do that here shortly. But we started to talk about pr so let's really dig into it for those listening that don't really know what PR is, let us, give us your definition. What is PR and why do we need to be really focused on it as a business?

Mariya: Okay, so PR is public relations, I think the best way to describe it is it is the way you tell your story and position it, in front of your ideal target audience, right? So I think I've said it a bunch, but I think the misconception is that PR is just getting media placements, which is part of it. It's great because right, you're in tech, you get featured in Tech Crunch, that audience is gonna, you know, now see that feature that it's gonna come around, it's gonna put eyes on it, that's great, but it doesn't stop there, I think that writing, helping emerging companies tell their story in a way, cause what, what am I trying to say? Helping them get a clear picture of who they are as a company and then putting that in front of their ideal target is, is pr. And then how you do that is media placements, byline articles, you know, we can help with crisis management because that does happen more often than, you know, you say something wrong that you didn't mean, and then cancel culture jumps in and you know, and then, you know, keynote speaking podcasts, getting the right eyes and ears on your brand, and you, we'd like to focus a lot on the personal brand too, because I think that if people can connect with you as the CEO or as the high up in the company, and kind of know you before they decide to work with you is really key. and so I think that that's the importance of it. I think that a lot of people mis think that they just want leads or they just want like sales and this, and I think setting a really solid foundation and then keeping up that foundation is what PR does. And then what marketing, and then you go and then you also need marketing, but you can, I think people kind of mix match what each one is.

Jim: So would you say first to like, before you dig into the marketer, getting your name out there, you mentioned foundation, is it first really just understanding your voice, understanding who you are, understanding you know who your customer is.

Mariya: Yeah, exactly. And especially, you know, putting all all of that down on paper is like the first thing, right? And we do, we help people with pitch decks, we help people write, different, you know, presentations, stuff like that, and then we also will help them get in front of investors if they're in seed round or something like that where they're trying to fundraise, and then we will also, you know, once the funding happens, we'll announce the funding and then, you know, just go from there, and then building out, building out the business journey, building out like where the CEO is because keynote is great, I don't, we're huge Sam of booking keynote opportunities for people because I think once people speaking or speaking, it's a really good way to get to know that person and people to connect on a more genuine level than just reading it in print or on a digital platform, and so, right. Some people don't wanna do that some people, so then we're like podcasts, some podcasts you don't have to be seen. So, but really just hitting, hitting all of those key areas and I think people think that they have to be established to do PR, well, no, I think that you need to start, start now and then establish yourself and then we can explore different areas.

Jim: And does it change at all from say, someone that's just starting a business and utilizing PR to like a medium size company that you talked to for, to utilize PR or is it a lot of the same?

Mariya: It is different of how we, and so a smaller company would not need nearly as much. they typical, well, it would look, it would look, it would be the same tactics, but it would look different for each company, okay, some smaller companies, you know, we wouldn't approach certain investors and we would be building out their social proof differently because we would be presenting them to probably a different category of people, if that makes sense.

Jim: Yeah, for sure.

Mariya: Yeah, so like a large enterprise company's PR is gonna be a lot more robust. We focus on small and medium size, but mainly small businesses, 11 to 50 is kind of our sweet spot, and that's gonna look like a completely different campaign than something enterprise, ‘cause enterprise is just, they're gonna have a lot more announcements, they're gonna have a lot more, eyes on them initially, and so just managing that reputation is gonna be a much more robust than a smaller business. But it's the same, you know, core concepts.

Jim: So someone like, let's just say like myself, I've got a podcast, the owner of an agency, you know, do a lot of outreach on LinkedIn, but I don't post a lot, you know, I don't post a ton on my other social channels personally. What would be one thing you'd recommend and say, Jim, you need to start doing today to really start to bring your brand to the next level?

Mariya: I would suggest LinkedIn, as a small business, I post a couple times a day, that's kind of a lot, but you can do just posting daily. I get asked on podcasts through my LinkedIn, I've been covered in the media on my LinkedIn people reaching out about what I'm doing, I think that's, when we had the LinkedIn PR program, although it just wasn't, didn't end up being, it was a really good program because it was like, it was like PR light, right? Dipping your toes into the water of PR. And we did it all through LinkedIn and that's why we had that program. So I would say start on LinkedIn, I would start, I would build yourself a press page, and that's one way that we're able to really help, the SEO side of things, we're not SEO, we don't do backend SEO, but we keyword optimize people's articles and press releases, we put it on their website. So that's another way that we're driving traffic, LinkedIn drives traffic and then I would, you know, it's always, it's always nice to be published, but with your podcast, I'm sure that you're, you're hitting a lot of more traffic through that, but yeah, I think that I would start with LinkedIn bill just so, the press page. yeah,

Jim: That's awesome, that's great advice. What about, like, I've been featured on, you know, and Remote Start Nation for those of you in the same boat. And that's why I'm asking this, like, you know, I've been published in certain articles and write-ups, newsletters, I've been on other people's podcasts, but I don't have it anywhere on for myself, you know, from a PR standpoint or even like a personal branding standpoint, should I have a landing page on my website that even on my Webber movement agency side, or should I put up my own website that just has, you know, jimdoyon.com or whatever it is that has all of this information.

Mariya: Of what you've been featured in?

Jim: Yeah, yeah. Like even like, you know, hosting, like maybe the links on there or what, what would you recommend?

Mariya: Yeah, that's what we do for all of our clients is we either make a press landing page or we add a press tab to their existing website. I don't know, I don't think I've seen your website, but I would imagine you could just add a press page, and yeah, you just consolidate all of that. We just got, the new website, so we're working on putting all of what we've been doing and up to, I've been a couple podcasts that I've guilty, I haven't updated it, but yeah, just have it there for everyone to see. And it will help drive views, because it, you know, when they put, when they put it on their website, or people are going to your website, it's just, it's all working towards your brand's favor.

Jim: Awesome, that's great advice, I appreciate that. So I does, I know one of the things that PR does is it, it helps to really create a stronger brand reputation. What are some of the ways that you would, would recommend, like, you know, with your brand that you do, you know, on regular to really help with that brand reputation?

Mariya: With my brand?

Jim: Yeah. Or even like for Remote Start Nation who has a brand out there and they're trying to build it, they've got, we've already talked about, you know, making sure the, you've got your fundamentals, you've got, you know, your guidelines all laid out, you know what your brand is. We talked about, you know, posting on, on LinkedIn, you know, what are we doing to create that, that brand reputation to make it stronger.

Mariya: To make it stronger, I don’t know that I understand the question. I'm sorry. So you put everything in place, right? And you're just looking to go out there and grab more opportunity and continue, I mean, I guess my number one thing is continue to tell the same story. Don't veer off and just keep telling this positive story of your brand and be, keep it consistent. Like you don't want to be jumbled, in different, so like you're on a podcast here and you say something here and then you go onto a keynote here and you say something conflicting. It's keep that positive narrative and be consistent through whatever media or channel that you're speaking on or you're on video or whatever, just keep it, keep it consistent, and make sure that you're keeping up with it, right? Just make sure that it's in front of the right people, that's, I need to, I need to be better about that ‘cause I've gotten so like into making sure my clients do it. You know, you know what's funny? Like, I've been preaching, content content for five, six years now and I just started a blog like two months ago, like, yeah. So I mean I always had my LinkedIn, my LinkedIn posts and stuff, but I was just like, I've been like shaming people, I didn't shame anyone but I've been telling these people like how important it's to get their newsletters out and their blogs and just have a bunch of content, have a press landing page and just all of this. And I was just like, okay. And then you go to my website and I don't have it, like, come on Maria. So that's, we're working on getting all of that stuff together now, but yeah.

Jim: It's Like the landscaper that has, you know, is super busy and everybody's lawns look great, but his but their own, right, like they.

Mariya: Exactly.

Jim: That's horrible.

Mariya: That's exactly what's happening. And so, but you know, it's cool because we got, we have about 2000 subscribers, the new, our LinkedIn newsletter that we just launched and it's just been telling like the story of, you know, traveling and being a publicist and all of that, and you know, it's great 'cause it, I think that's the newest feature on LinkedIn right now.

Jim: It's really, they're check that out.

Mariya: They're they're promoting it. And like we're getting like great eyes on it and so, you know, and so in pr one takeaway you start pr stay consistent throughout all of it, ‘cause as soon as you lose consistency, it kind of all just crumbles.

Jim: That's great advice.

Mariya: And that's something that I've struggled with a lot is consistency.

Jim: So yeah, me too. I'm, that's a huge struggle. Me, and let me ask you like, bringing that back to, you know, living on the road and constantly traveling. I know for me, the two years I was on the road, that was my biggest hurdle was being consistent and it was like I get in the swing of things and I'm doing good and then we go to the next place and you wanna go out at night, you wanna, you know, you wanna explore the city, you wanna spend time with your family and at the same time you're trying to work, it was very, very difficult for me. Do you feel like that might be something in your life too, of being on the road? Like I guess we could talk all the perks and all the positive about, you know, being that living that nomad lifestyle. I mean to me it was the greatest experience of my life so far. But other than my children being born, but on the flip side, I feel like that lack of consistency hurt, in a lot of ways.

Mariya: Yeah, yeah. So I definitely, I actually wrote a blog about that where I was, I had just landed in Thailand and I was like, I love it here, and then it would become night and I needed to work and I was like, oh, I don't wanna work right now, this is so great. Yeah, let's stay up, and like, finding a balance has been a journey in itself, right? I think it's never been, I've always made sure prioritized my clients and made sure that they, like I don't ever shuffle around meetings or, I make sure their stuff get done, but when it came to my stuff and my own marketing, my own pr stuff like that, it was, I kind of let it fall to the wayside for a while, and yeah, and then it's been, it's been a journey, ‘cause I have that feeling like last night we went, no, what was it? Last night we went for a dive at three 30 and then we had to come back and work after that because we split it out so we could go and dive, and then I was just like, oh, but I wanna go to happy hour. And I was like, no, you need to go back and finish your work. And then I saw this morning that I had like two like potential client meetings and I was like, okay, good job going back to work but yeah, it is, I get that on a core level.

Jim: What are some of the biggest challenges that you've faced? Because you've been on the road now for just over a year, right?

Mariya: Yeah, just actually like four days ago it was a year ‘cause I got an alert on Facebook that I was on Singapore Airlines to Thailand.

Jim: Awesome. So what would you say have been some of the biggest challenges of being on the road?

Mariya: So yeah, consistency is one of them, I would say internet, just keeping on top of that, yeah, I found this like lovely co-working space here. So I'm gonna definitely take my Zoom meetings here no matter what, you know, I typically will have Airbnb hosts send me speed tests and, but then sometimes, you know, it's just like we get here and they're like, oh well they've been working on expanding the internet, so sometimes it just will randomly drop while you're on the meeting but, just making sure that I am prepared with internet, is, you know, vital to what I do. I also have a backup, I got like a local sim here that has unlimited data just in case I have to do it on my phone, and making sure that, you know, it's not too hot and my phone, my Zoom meeting doesn't click off or one lady said my service was so bad that it was making her feel sick and dizzy, I was like, oh wow, I'm so sorry about that, I didn't know that bad connection could do that, but okay, and then, I guess just, you know, not getting too caught up in, especially on opposite schedules, right? Right now I am Mountain Standard time essentially, so I am with, I'm with the US right now. Especially when I'm not, I just, you know, okay, don't get lost too lost in this moment, you're not gonna have this life if you don't work.

Jim: So that's a good reminder to keep telling yourself what are some of the, I know remote life for me opened up some opportunities and you know, I'd like to know some of the opportunities you've seen that being on the road has opened up for you and your business.

Mariya: So I think that even if you don't want to travel, it opens up a lot more flexibility for people. I think it opens up mental wellbeing too, ‘cause I know that when I was commuting all those hours, I mean maybe this is just more for people who live in California, but when I was commuting all those hours, like, you know, I felt I got home and I felt like I was just brain dead from just sitting in tra bumper to bumper traffic, and then for the ones that do wanna travel, I mean it's been, it changes your life in a positive way, it's one of, I think it's probably single-handedly the best thing I've done so far in my life and probably will continue to be that way. and as long as you are organized, stay consistent, you can live this, this awesome life with remote work not to just, and like I'd have to remind myself like I'm not dissing anyone who does not work remote ‘cause I know that it does not work for everyone, and arguably the first couple of months it didn't work for me. but now that I've gotten into the groove of it and kind of figured out why, you know, I think that it's the best thing in the world.

Jim: Yeah, I agree with you so much, and you know, to hit on your point about California and coming home and being brain dead and you know, I can tell you, being in Michigan, which is where we were before we hit the road, like, you know, it was, it was go, go go with with work and then driving the kids from one activity to the next and then it's like rinse and repeat, do the same thing the next day. And being on the road like helped us as a family to reset and take a step back. And for me personally, it was such an incredible way. And to your point, like I found myself, I found me for me where you found scuba diving for me it was mountain biking and Oh, nice, it was my, it was my escape. It was where we started to travel and it was, you know, something I did fun with my kids and like, it was such a good way to relieve stress and I didn't have that when we were living the sticks and bricks lifestyle, like we didn't, we did not, I didn't have that escape, and so I think there's so much good that comes out of traveling and I always tell people like, if you're thinking about it, make it happen, like there's nothing like, you know, like if it. There's always stuff that comes up, there's always reasons why you shouldn't do it, right. Like a ton of them. But it's so renewable.

Mariya: And it doesn't have to be permanent either, like if you're afraid because you're like, oh, what if I don't like it, well then go home, right, you know? So, and I went to like one, I don't know if you did this, but I just packed up everything and put it in storage, did you guys, did you guys we do the same or...

Jim: We knew we were gonna leave, we knew we were gonna move to Salt Lake from Michigan. That was like our ultimate plan from the start, and what happened was we were gonna just do like a three month trip and then Covid happened, we decided to go for a year, nine months came around, we were like, this is the best experience we've ever had. This is so incredible. But we feel like we haven't even scratched the surface, let's keep going for another year. And so what we did, like before we even left is we sold a bunch of stuff, sold our house and the things that we thought we'd want to keep, we sent out to storage. Now doing it all over again, I think we would've just sold everything and got rid of everything. But one thing I want to hit on, and I wanted to ask your opinion on this, you said, you know, just do it, you could always come back. I know for us, like we hit a point a couple months in where we were like, did we make the right choice, should we go back home? Because all of a sudden you start to see all the things that could go wrong, going wrong, and it's like, oh. So I do think it's important to set yourself like, hey, I'm going to try this for X amount of time and, you know, sticking with it until that. So then it's like no matter what happens, you're gonna get over it, but I think in the moment people forget that they can overcome it.

Mariya: Yeah. So with us, I got lucky ‘cause we got this killer villa with like a pool and like, just a bunch of space, the internet was great in Thailand. We, that's where we landed and we stayed in Thailand for 90 days, so it was like really laid back. So then we were just like, oh, we could do this forever, 'cause I'm traveling with my partner and she was a principal there, for four years. And then we met when she had come back, but, so she knew everything about Thailand, like where to eat, where like, all of this. So I got kind of like spoiled and like, oh, this digital nomad is great. So then fast forward we get to Indonesia and no, like, I feel really, really bad saying this and I encourage everyone to go to Indonesia, it's beautiful. But they were just opening up after Covid, it was very clear that the government had not supported people there. and so it was just completely chaotic and like stores weren't stopped, and you could tell that just like people ran outta money and it, it was hectic. And I didn't know even how to react really. So, and I felt so bad, and so then we had, we had gotten a digital mom nomad visa for there for six months and I was just like, oh, I don’t know, we'd stayed in Nu Sudu, which is typically like a very like nice, nice place in Bali, and, I was like, okay, let's like rethink this. I don't think I can do this for much longer, and then we had gone up to, Ubud and the traffic there was insane, and I was like, okay, I don't know that I wanna post up here either. So then that's when we ended up finding the tiniest island off of the island of Lomba, I kid you not, they don't have motorized vehicles there. They pick you up in a horse and carriage. And yes, and it was, it was crazy, you know, it was nuts, you could walk around the whole island in like 45 minutes, but they had the best wifi in Indonesia, which was, you know, interesting. We, yeah, as long as we didn't let our sim cards run out which I did a couple of times, so there's another challenge, but, so, we ended up just going there and that's where we learned to dive, and we dove three times a day, probably for three weeks, and, so, and then so that panic of like, oh my gosh, we made the wrong decision because that panic was there when we got to the first couple places in Indonesia, kind of dissipated, I was still like, Hey, maybe I don't wanna be here forever, like the, the six months, I think we left after a couple, and then we hit, we hit Europe where, we hopped around a lot and that came with its own set of problems, and that was really stressful, I think we did like all of Italy, we went from like, we got into Rome and then we went down to a Malti and then up to Venice all in one week.

Jim: And, yeah, as you're trying to also run your business.

Mariya: Yeah, I lost my mind. and so then, so then we were like, okay, we need to stay at least two weeks and then now my role is a month. It's non-negotiable, and then we get places like Rotan that we just fall in love with and we just extended another month. So we'll be here two months and then I think we could be here till July, maybe, we're gonna go watch the Manta Ray migration in the Maldives. It's on a shoulder season. So, if it's not high season, the Maldives is not expensive, it's crazy. I had no idea, we signed an Airbnb for a month for $1,600 in the Maldives. But it's kinda, so what brings the mantas in is like the monsoon, the monsoon. So it's gonna be like very rainy, but I was just like, okay, but you get to swim with 300 manta rays. I think that that's pretty cool, it's, yeah. So, yeah, after in the, so after Europe, I was also questioning whether we made the right decision. I had gotten really good at just, you know, getting my laptop out on trains and, you know, making sure, I think I had ha I had kind of the flow down before we went there, and then I kind of just applied it, but I was like, this is hectic. So it, it's been a journey and there's been times where I was like, wow, we, what are we doing? now it's just all like smiles and giggles though, we've got it down.

Jim: That's awesome, and I love you said something and I want to kind of bring it back to, you know what helped me to stay more consistent and get my life, you know, get it in line is I finally hit that stage where I was like, we can't, we have to stay at least two weeks somewhere, you said it was non-negotiable, you made a decision one month, and I feel like for those of you Remote Start Nation that are thinking about doing, what I did and what Mariya's doing, give yourself time because you are gonna want to explore, you're gonna want to submerse yourself in the culture, you're gonna want to do some cool stuff while you're there, and if you're rushing, rushing, rushing, you're gonna miss out somewhere. So it's either your business or your work life balance, you're, you know, really trying to live your lifestyle at the place you're at. Like, it's not gonna happen. So it's a definitely a commonality I saw with both of us that we hit that where it's like, all right, we know, we know how long we need to stay somewhere to make this work.

Mariya: Yeah, and I think certain personalities like ours, that's just always gonna be the struggle, right? I think that there are personalities that are like perfectly cut out for this because, you know, getting the work done has is just, you know, their first nature, the first thing they're gonna think about, and I think I'm not that person, so I train myself. But I think probably more people exist on that other side of things that would really thrive. From the gut though I think.

Jim: I'm with you there, it doesn't, it's not conducive to my mindset, that's for sure.

Mariya: And I'm so ADHD, and like, and with that comes some compulsive things. So I've really like had to be like, okay, like, no, no, you need to sit down and do this. But it's actually made me a stronger person, I think that not only because, you know, you can get happier and feel like, and just be completely all over the place. So I think that I not only got happy, but I got into habits that are healthy, like, you know, then because one extreme is scuba diving the whole time and not, and not getting the work done is all equally unhealthy is working too much. So, you know, finding that balance has been great.

Jim: Well, I'm glad you found it and I'm, I'm so excited you got to share your journey with us, and, you know, before, before I let you go here, let people know, number one, where can they follow you on your journey?

Mariya: Yeah, so I, you can just go ahead and follow me on LinkedIn, I think that's, I have the most like, about this journey specifically on there, just Mariya Pallais. And then I have some, I have an Instagram and stuff that I post on every once in a while, and then I have the wander days, Instagram that is just travel, but if you wanna see the travels so you can go there.

Jim: Awesome. And then as far as if someone wants to connect with you on your services, where can they find you there? Should same thing, go to your LinkedIn and go from there?

Mariya: Yeah, either LinkedIn or Mariya@ mariyapallaisPR.com, that's my email.

Jim: Awesome, yeah, very cool. One last question before I let you go, if there's one thing you wanna make sure that entrepreneurs out there leave with today and can either put in their business right away or just something you wanted to think about, what would it be?

Mariya: I think that this is more probably for entrepreneurs that are just getting started as success is relative and you can create your own success and that what makes you feel successful. And it's not like what is working or what is making one person feel, something is not necessarily gonna be fulfilling to you. So just stay true to that and find what works for you and what makes you feel successful.

Jim: I love it. Thank you so much. Well, I appreciate your time, I know you could be on the beach right now or working, but you got to hang out with us, so I appreciate it and it was great meeting you.

Mariya: It was great meeting you too.

Jim: Well, Remote Start Nation, I hope you learned as much as I did today and can put some of what Maria shared with us to work for you from the bottom of my heart. Thank you for joining us on this journey as we help you to start a business, grow your brand, and live your desired lifestyle. Remember to leave a comment, subscribe, and most importantly, share this episode with your community who you think could learn from what you heard today. Until next time, go start something, start it today and go build a lifestyle you desire by taking action.