The Week Of The Motorbike, Gym Progress, and Sauna Conversations

This Week:

• Reaching an inflection point with my business.
• The new strong drive I’ve felt this week.
• The socializing and networking I’ve been up to.

May 2025

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27	28	29	30	5/1	2	3
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18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30	31

Where In The World Was I?

• 🇮🇩 Bali, Indonesia

Metrics From The Week

Business

I’m at a bit of an inflection point with the business.

I went to this networking chat this week that was actually pretty helpful. I got an opportunity to share where I’m at and my specific challenge and got some good feedback from the others.

What I took away was that:

1. I’ve got enough social proof to actually close someone, I just need to put an offer in front of people
2. I’ve got a strong and unique positioning that I can leverage. It’s just now coming down to: am I pitching to people and how many people am I pitching to

So this week I traded more free deep dive report outreach for:

1. Collecting all the social proof and results I’ve gotten so far, adding to my content, and updating my landing page
2. Crafting a grand slam/irresistible offer for some of the people I’ve worked with

So screw the free work, let’s make some money 🙂

And speaking of…

I met two people in-person this week and talked about YouTube with them for an hour each!

One was from the networking group that I’m in. He’s got a skool community and looking to use YouTube to attract customers to his community.

And the other is a life coach who was at the networking chat and she said she’s been looking to get back into YouTube as a lead-gen source for her coaching.

Both were fantastic chats! I wasn’t exactly sure what to say, offer, or what my CTA should’ve been at the end, so I just basically told them I’ve been doing these deep dive reports and offered to do one for them, to which they both agreed.

And I also got a new inbound report request (maybe from YouTube? haven’t asked yet).

Sooooo about that “screw the free work” thing 😅

But in other news, one of the creators I gave a free report to, her video absolutely smashed it this week (5x her average) and it’s still climbing in views.

Haven’t gotten the backend stats yet, but she offered to do a testimonial for me which is massive.

The Mental Game

Much of this has been a game of mental and limiting beliefs, particularly around the confidence behind selling someone.

But these kinds of results are what I’ve been so desperately looking to collect and stand on.

As someone who has NOT come from a sales and marketing background, I need (or at least want) evidence to stand on.

Someone else with a sales background will do a better job selling to someone emotionally, or inflating the value to close a deal, but for me, numbers are numbers.

5x is 5x, doesn’t matter what story you craft.

And that’s what I want to stand on.

The challenge has just been getting to that point and being able to repeat it.

Snaps From The Week

The Motorbike

Finally rented a motorbike/scooter (for a month)! I WhatsApp’d a couple places and found one that includes insurance AND delivers right to your doorstep (from like 30 minutes away).

It’s a 2022 Yamaha NMAX, 155cc. A bit fancier and bigger than the one I rented in Da Nang, but it’s pretty much the most popular model that people rent. It’s definitely not the biggest scooter though.

Driving is a lot of chaos but I’m getting used to it haha.

The biggest thing was remembering that they drive on the left side of the road here (Vietnam is on the right).

And yes it’d be cheaper monetarily to just take Grab motorbike taxis everywhere, but even though I mostly trust the Grab drivers, sometimes they’ll do an overtake that I wouldn’t exactly choose to do myself, so I’ll pay the extra for the control and freedom.

Nirvana Life

One of the main reasons I got the motorbike was because I decided to do a 4-week pass to Nirvana Life (they call it a “social club” or “wellness club”) and it’s about 12-15 min drive away. But, they’ve got a gym, outdoor gym, fitness classes, sauna, ice bath, hot tub, pool, restaurant, co-working space, massages, and a nutrition center. It’s kinda wild.

I’ve heard from people (and experienced) that it’s one of the best places to socialize. The gym is just okay, but especially for the early part of settling in, I figured I should prioritize social > gym for now, build up connections, then I could go to a more gym-focused place later if I wanted.

So I’ve been absolutely crushing Nirvana every day this week. If I don’t work out I’ll just go for the sauna and ice bath to recover but also see if I can meet any new people. It feels like it’s worth the 12-15 min drive and traffic craziness for now.

The New Drive

Speaking of Nirvana, I’ve also noticed a very interesting new feeling.

I don’t know if there’s any way I can explain this without sounding incredibly self-centered and narcissistic, but I mean you are reading the blog posts that I’m writing for my future self SO HERE WE GO 😂😂😂

See, you can workout shirtless at Nirvana (not every gym allows that).

And something I’ve been meaning to capture on my posts here is that I’ve finally started to see some quite meaningful progress and results from working out. The last time I documented my gym/body progress here was last February (The Week I Stopped Ideating And Started Coding, February 11th, 2024).

But in the past month or two, I’ve been very pleased with the progress I’ve made and what I’m seeing in the mirror.

I’m starting to go “… goddamn” 😂

And this comes with the added context that I have STRUGGLED to gain weight/muscle over the last 5 years (maybe 2-3 years intentionally).

I’m still:

• Intermittent fasting (eating 12pm-8pm, fasting the rest)
• Eating clean and healthy
• Was previously eating mostly vegetarian but I’m back to everything

Mental focus has still been a priority over bulking.

Definitely still looking to fill out, but feeling very grateful for the progress that I’ve made.

• Left: November 13th, 2022 – 172.4 lbs
• Middle-left: April 21st, 2023 – 188.2 lbs
• Middle-right: May 21st, 2025 – 191.6 lbs
• Right: May 23rd, 2025 – 191.1 lbs (+10x lighting)

And the recent body fat analysis machine things that I’ve done have pretty consistently said I have ~10% body fat and like zero visceral fat.

Anyways, I bring all this up because working out at Nirvana shirtless is an absolute CHEAT CODE. It’s so fun.

On the top floor of the gym they have these natural light skylights and the lighting is absolutely RIDICULOUS. If you’re following my Instagram stories I’ve posted a couple videos there.

I’ve felt a LOT more confident, especially considering the “Emergency Journaling Session” I had when I got to Tribal the first day back in 2023 (The Life Of A Digital Nomad In Bali, November 5th, 2023).

I’m definitely not the biggest guy in there, by a long shot, but honestly I might be amongst the most lean in there. I’ve gotten quite a lot of looks from people (both guys and the girls in there).

And I’ve started specifically getting compliments from other guys on my physique, something my brain has to recalibrate to. Someone complimented my progress and said “it also shows as a reflection of your mind/mindset.”

I’ll be pacing back and forth on a rest between sets, look over at the wall mirror, and walk under a light or skylight and go “jesus christ man 😂”

I’ve also been going with the backwards hat lately. I feel like I’m entering my “bad boy” era 😂

And then you layer on the fact that both Bali and Nirvana specifically have maybe the most and most attractive women I’ve ever seen, both working out but also lounging at the pool in swimsuits.

DOPAMINE YESSSSSSSIR

So let’s just say there’s been quite a lot of motivation to go to the gym lately 😂😂😂😂

Padel With The Boys

My first games here (since the two times I played in Kuala Lumpur in March 2025). It was a ton of fun.

The Second? Cold Approach

The Coffee Date

Thoughts From This Week

Dopamine, Focus, and Routine

My dopamine levels and routine have been absolutely shot lately, but I’m starting to slowly recover.

I’ll talk about the dopamine in a second, but I’m still trying to get my sleep routine back under me. Starting to get there.

I’m still going to a coffee shop first thing and still checking messages, but I feel like I’ve been able to focus better in the mornings lately.

Afternoons? Not as much still.

For example yesterday I spent the whole afternoon at Nirvana working out, sauna-ing, and chilling by the pool.

But at the same time, I had a nice/quick conversation with a guy I met 2 weeks ago about business and another guy who’s doing something similar to me but for short form content.

So I’m like I guess, what is work? Is work “sitting behind my laptop” or is work “doing the highest ROI activity?”

I’ve been getting a lot out of socializing and networking lately.

The Validation Trap

On the back of the “The New Drive” section above, I’ve lost control of my dopamine and desire for validation lately, specifically in the context of Instagram 😂

I dunno previously I was like eh I’m not gonna post shirtless pics on my Instagram, I want to keep a “professional” image and branding.

But I think the 1MI event 2 weeks ago changed this, along with the content and videos I got of working out, and the new pride I’ve found in the progress I’ve made. Similarly to what I wrote above, some of the pics/videos I’ve got I’m like “godDAMN”

So I’ve slowly started posting more and more shirtless and working out pics/videos to my stories and have been absolutely being lashed around by the downward cycle this has produced 😂

Shirtless pic -> more people like it and view it -> checking Instagram more and looking at notifications, views, who liked it, who viewed it -> laughing or smiling at people who liked/viewed it -> wanting to post another one. Like goddamn it’s got me absolutely hooked and I’ve got NO control over it right now 😂

I now understand why girls post bikini pictures 😂

So inevitably, the next workout or shirtless picture you see on my Instagram stories, just know that I sat there for 15 minutes questioning if I should actually post it, absolutely thirst-trapping all the girls following me, knowing that for the next 24 hours my mind is going to be controlled by my Instagram notifications, seeing who likes or replies and seeing how many people view it.

… until I can figure out how to control this 😂😂😂

The Perfectionism?

I didn’t post another YouTube video this week. After a lot of back and forth and the fact that I again waited until Wednesday to decide, I chose my own mental health over trying to force it.

I feel like I’m at a bit of a pickle though because I decided to double down on YouTube strategy content, but I feel this desire to produce at least half-decent videos.

The phone booth I recorded in last video felt way too bland, and I can’t exactly record on the beach or something because I think I need my laptop for screen sharing.

So I’ve added quite a bit of friction to recording videos that I haven’t yet figured out how to overcome.

At the same time, content still isn’t exactly the highest priority right now, but my channel “slipping” for too long will start to hurt me soon I think.

This is kind of exactly what I worried about when I was deciding which direction to take my channel 😬

But gah, it’s so weird that we’ll give advice that we don’t take ourselves. The coach I was talking to this week, she was looking to get back into YouTube and feared the tech side of things. I told her that I wasn’t sharing all of the strategies because for her the most important thing will be just starting again and not worrying about making a perfect video with all the different high-converting strategies.

Then I look at my own situation again and go 🤦‍♂️

I unfortunately don’t have a good positive ending to this section, like a “and this is what I’m doing about this.”

You’re getting the brain dump before I’ve had a chance to figure out what to do about it.

Let’s uh, just see what happens I guess 😂 I’ll see you next week 😂

Food From The Week

What’s Next?

Morning coffee, work, lunch, work, Nirvana, sauna, eat, sleep. Rinse and repeat.