It’s about just around half a month away til the first week of July. I’ll get to return to Portland, OR once again.

But this time, its to attend the 2013 World Domination Summit (WDS)!

For those who don’t know what WDS is, it’s basically a huge gathering of thousands of eclectic entrepreneurs, freelancers, visionaries, and mavericks that all come together, to inspire and bounce off ideas on how to live and breath creative & successful life doing unconventional work/life. Check out the video to get a glimpse of it:

Chris Guillebeau recently posted  the full schedule of World Domination Summit events.

Below is what I’m planning on attending (some events are none-WDS sponsored or non-related to WDS):

July 2nd – 3rd

- Get settled into Portland. Maybe do a little exploration.

- Meet with old & new friends. Maybe Location Rebel meet-up.

- Basically chill.

July 4th

- Waterfront to view Fireworks

July 5th

- Oregon Zoo – Opening Ceremony

July 6th

- Morning Talks (8AM – 12PM)

- Travel Hacking Academy by Gary Leff (2PM – 3:30PM)

- Afternoon Talks (4:30PM – 6PM)

- River Cruise – Portland Spirit – (6:30PM – 9:30PM)

- Night Out with WDS folks?

July 7th

- Morning Talks (8AM – 12PM)

- ProBlogger Academy by Darren Rowse & Chris Garrett (2PM – 3:30PM)

- Afternoon Talks (4:30PM – 6PM)

- Night Out with WDS folks at Pioneer Square (Closing Party) (7PM – ?)

July 8th

- Puttytribe Lunch Meet-Up

So the above is just a lightly, general overview. Obviously, planning doesn’t always happen the way I first imagined … so I’m going to leave room for some spontaneous fun-ness to happen.

If you are attending WDS, and/or will be in the Portland, OR area between July 2nd to the July 9th … say hi to me!

Your Turn:

- If you’re attending WDS, what are you most excited for?

- What else should I do while in Portland, OR?

The post Why I’m Stoked for 2013 World Domination Summit in Portland, OR appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

Australia … ah the Land Down Under.

Ever since I was a little kid, I remember reading about the Outback, kangaroos, and the Great Barrier Reef.

But growing up in the East Coast, Australia might as well be on another planet.

It simply is so far away!

So what exactly would I do in 5 days in Queensland?

1. Surfing

That is a no-brainer for me. I’m pretty much a surf junkie myself … having traveled to many locations in Hawaii, Central America, Caribbean, and US to surf waves.

But the experience of surfing along the coastline of Queensland would be an experience of its own. The Gold Coast is known for its world-class surf.

I’d definitely plan on hitting up at least one or two of the beach breaks along the Gold Coast and short or longboard my way around the waves.

2. Great Barrier Reef

There’s nothing better than actually swimming with the fish around beautiful coral reefs.

The Great Barrier Reef is home to one of the largest reefs, so I’d totally be up to snorkel or dive and view the colorful corals illuminated by the sunlight. Maybe I’ll even find Nemo?

3. Daintree Rainforests

- From the reefs to the land, a hike or day excursion across the Daintree Rainforest would be great chance to view the local plant and animal life to that area.

Quite possibly come across and encounter a crocodile? Oh yea …

4. Koalas & Kangaroos

By no means do I want to stereotype Australia as simply having koalas & kangaroos, but of course I’d love to come across one or both of them!

Whether that’d be on my random road travels, or at some national park reserve in the Outback Queensland, … it’d be a “moment” to see them in real life.

And yes … I’ve been told to try out crocodile and kangaroo meat. Got to be first time for everything?

5. Fraser Island

Known for its clear blue waters at Lake McKenzie, and all its bird species, maybe I’ll also finally come across a wild dingo.

Would be stoked to see whales, dolphins, and sharks that call it home as well!

6. Road-Trip, Sail, or most likely … FLY the coastline

Queensland is pretty big. From Cairns down to Brisbane is over 1,000 miles of coastline.  Probably just get a quick glimpse of the entire areas from the air since I’d only have 5 days to see everything

7. Noosa National Park

I guess I can’t get enough of the outdoors.

I would plan on starting from the beach, snorkeling or swimming the local reefs and then hike up the walking trails to the highest point at Noosa Hills.

8. Wineries & Breweries

Whichever country I travel to, I always have to try the local wines & beers from that area.

Queensland has got its own share of wineries & breweries to indulge in.

From Burleight Brewing Company to XXXX Brewery to Mount Tamborine Winery … I’m sure I’ll finally get to taste the Australian wines that I got to sip in while taking the wine course at my alma mater, Cornell.

9. Kuranda

Why not see the rainforests by train or skyrail? Kuranda is a small village just to the northwest of Cairns. The town is known for its beautiful wildlife, as well as the indigenous people that have called it their home.

10. Brisbane

There’s a bridge called Story Bridge, where you can climb up the bridge to get awesome views of the Brisbane city proper. It’s one of only 3 bridges allowed for public climbing!

Besides that, would do another day tour of the city by river, possibly kayaking or stand-up paddle down the Brisbane River.

With such a wide expanse amount of area from the Outbacks to the reefs, it’s no surprise to me that my itinerary above primarily consists of the outdoors & nature adventures that Queensland offers!

With so many things to do … so little time … I’ll just have to make sure that I make the most of every minute I’m in Queensland!

Your Turn:

- If you’ve already been to Queensland, what would you recommend I add to my bucket list?

- Also check out the Queensland Contest and win a chance for yourself to get to Queensland as well!

The post Australia Adventure: What I Would Do in Five Days in Queensland? appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

This past week, I decided to leave the internship I had been working with since December. I realized that I simply DO NOT like to work at a physical office space at some set scheduled time.

Seems like a recurring thing as I had also previously left a much bigger, corporate job in Minnesota about two years ago.

Not a surprise to me:

I value my freedom.

The ability to pick & choose which projects to work on, and with whom I work on them with.

More importantly, being able to work on them on my own set scheduled time, albeit within reasonable time for the client as well.

But what’s important here, is that I was able to identify and pinpoint exactly what I want.

And then the next step is to ask why?

I realized that driving around one hour each way, and sitting in office space for 4 hours totaled to around 6 hours lost to working for someone else. 6 hours may not sound a lot … but it’s definitely a big chunk of time taken away from being able to do other things.

The Surf

I wanted more time to be able to surf waves around Maui.

Usually, swells come in just when I need to work. There are people out there who are able to manage work and surf … but I solely want the flexibility to get out on the waves when they happened. This plays into reminding yourself of what is most important to your life. And being adamant to making it as a FIRST priority!

My Online Entrepreneur Business

Secondly, my independent web and graphic design business was and is growing rapidly. I’ve been picking up clients left & right. And many of them, have been very open-minded to taking risks on their business, and allowing me to have much creative freedom in building up their web & graphic design projects.

And that’s when I realized … I simply enjoyed developing people’s vision. I was even given the name, Dream-Maker, by one client in Maui. She told me that I was good at getting executing and designing online projects that people in general, would only think and dream about.

Transforming Your Life

It wasn’t easy for me to get to where I’m at, … living the entrepreneur lifestyle and surfing the ocean pretty much daily.

Shaping & crafting your ideal lifestyle takes lots of trial-and-error.

But it’s all in taking action. Identifying what it is you love, and then asking yourself … why?

Way too many people get stuck in the rut, staying in jobs over the fear of losing an income source, or fear of losing purpose in oneself.

Just keep on transforming.

Pretty much, keep on learning new things, throw yourself beyond comfort zone, but most importantly, stay TRUE to yourself … your gut doesn’t lie.

Your Turn:

- What have you been afraid of taking action on?

- How have you gotten closer to reaching your own ideal lifestyle?

The post How Transformation Can “Up” Your Life appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

It really feels great to be settled, no joke.

After much uncertainty between mid-October through December of last year, I’ve gotten into a normal routine.

I’ve finally found a place where I can call home instead of having to temporarily move from couch to couch at friends or random people’s homes (if I count correctly, it might have been with up to 8 different people in those months).

So why is it important to find your “good” spot?

1. Helps Keep Your Focus – As much as uncertainty needs to be embraced to lead you on unexpected paths and life choices, a degree of a set routine helps to keep you grounded.

When I constantly was moving around, I wasn’t sure of where I was going to live next, which in turn, prevented me from being able to reach proper clients on the island for my web & graphic design work. Couple that with having difficulty finding a car within my budget, getting around Maui was just simply tough.

Those two main factors were biggest hurdle in getting myself established and started with my online freelance business.

Make sure to “get grounded” and “keep your focus”!

2. Helps You Use Your Time Wisely – How many can raise their hands and say that you usually procrastinate, especially if you think you have all the time in the world? Usually when you have too much open time, may actually mean you won’t get as much work completed.

It’s a weird paradox, but for some reason, it’s human nature for us to procrastinate and believe that if we have lots of time, that the mindset thinks of this: “Oh, I’ll do it later, I’ve got time”.

When you fill your daily and/or weekly schedule with activities helping you towards your business or personal goals, it fills up your time. In turn, you lose open time, and forces you to really prioritize your time.

For example, my personal goals include: surfing better, learning Hawaiian cultural experiences (hula, canoe paddling, etc.), and snorkeling. Those take up several hours per day. Along with my business goals (freelance web & graphic design and launching a t-shirt apparel line), there isn’t much empty time during the day to work on everything.

So fill your day with activities you like to do, and then you’ll soon see that you get to working on things instead of procrastinating!

3. Helps Organize Your Life – The simply fact is, routine helps keep your life organized. I’m definitely a supporter of spontaneity, however, a balance between the two is definitely necessary.

I suggest writing out a short timeline or list of things that you want to accomplish in the weekly or monthly time-frame. If you are a long-term planner or visionary, you can even list out the goals by the years. Small steps help get you to the long-term end goal so set your routine for your success today!

What’s Coming Up?

I’ve been thinking about the future of Hustle to Paradise, and what I can provide for you in your personal journey towards your “ideal Paradise”.

I’ll be launching an e-book at the end of June, which will have all of my tips & experiences that have lead me to shape my ideal Paradise, and how you can find yours as well. Much inspiration from other location independent and lifestyle designers and will be chock full of inspirational quotes to keep you motivated daily!

Stay tuned for that coming late June 2013

Aloha & Hustle on!

Harrison

The post On Routines & Finding Your “Good” Spot appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

It’s been awhile since I’ve written on this blog. I haven’t gone away or forgotten to update Hustle to Paradise.

So what have I been up to since December of 2012?

Simply – creating and shaping my reality … the work and lifestyle I envision.

At the time when I took the leap to move out to Maui last year, it took several months to get settled down.

Now finally having settled down, I find myself striving to keep working on my location independent projects. These projects include:

1. E-commerce sites: A t-shirt clothing line inspired by the surf culture here in Hawaii. Read up on Dan Andrew’s Tropical MBA site for his tips on e-commerce niche site building.

2. Freelancing: Web & graphic design, with a little bit of SEO & social media marketing here and there. I’d say this category is main focus although moving towards building more & more of my passive income projects.

3. Niche sites: Building up a couple of niche sites. Some great resources for this? Read Pat Flynn’s article and Sean Ogle’s article. Great overview of how to build up niche sites.

4. Internship: Interestingly, I wanted to move away from ever working for someone else, but there was this opportunity I couldn’t pass up on being able to experiment with the small business’s social media marketing. And what better to do that & also get paid (albeit a small amount).

5. E-books: Writing several different e-books for various sites above. One for Hustle to Paradise, another for my freelance business, and couple others for specific niche websites.

With all of the above … no wonder I’ve been kept busy.

How to balance all of these interests?

- One step at a time: I still have difficulty wrapping my mind around this because I always have tendency to want to complete it all at once. But reality is, for the big projects, you need to train your mind to complete baby steps one day at a time.

- Write out brief project/goal timeline: Writing out a plan can help you see what steps you need to take towards the end goal. I’ve written one for my e-commerce clothing project and sticking to it step-by-step.

- Accountability buddies: Join a community that is ambitious or like-minded with getting creative projects up and running. Or have a friend that encourages you to get going with your project. Whomever it maybe, stick with positive, optimistic folks. Negative energy really sucks the life out of you so avoid those people at all costs!

Your Turn:

- What have you been doing to shape the ideal reality?

The post Doing What You Love (And On Shaping Your Reality) appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

What a year once again!

December 2012 marks one year since I first started up Hustle to Paradise back in 2011.

A year ago, I also wrote a self-reflection of 2011 and the write-up for this past 2012 is nothing less than interesting.

The Start of 2012

I had just left my first corporate job in Minnesota, and relocated back to NYC late January.

Feeling nostalgic for the ocean, missing the adventure of vagabond traveling, and craving on wanting to improve on my surf … I went off on a 3 month Central America trip from Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama from late February to early May.

The trip reaffirmed my passion for traveling and wandering around from town to town. I got to learn Spanish on the spot when I had never spoke it before, surfed with wave riding enthusiasts, and partied out with interesting people worldwide.

I’d do it all again in a heartbeat.

That being said, the trip also highlighted a need for working out a sustainable income source so that I could continue to travel for the long-term without always having to go back home to work a job to save up.

In June, I joined up with Location Rebel which gave me the resources, support, and confidence to go out and market myself as a SEO and web/graphic designer. I learned the necessary tools and skills to build up my own business and work when I wanted. I encourage you to check it out for yourself!

I scored my first SEO client while visiting Portland, OR late June, and also was glad to have the opportunity to meet the Location Rebel founder, Sean Ogle and Puttylike founder, Emilie Wapnick, both whom have inspired me to go at it with my entrepreneurial ventures.

July was really a transitional month where I honestly was clueless to where and what exactly I wanted to do. But one day while randomly looking at a Workaway listing, I sent a quick message and within 2 days, booked my one way ticket to Maui.

It was such a quick and impulsive decision, but it was a risk I wanted to take anyways. The worst thing that could have happened was that no-one would pick me up at the airport.

Luckily on that early August day when I arrived on Maui, someone did come get me.

And from that month to now, my time on Maui has seen its ups-and-downs. Check out other posts pertaining to Maui itself and the lessons I’ve learned while staying on the island.

- Overview of Maui Towns & Villages
- Lani Kai Sail Trip
- Road to Hana Tour
- Trip to the Top of Haleakala Crater
- Initial Impressions of Maui 

Looking into 2013

I’m not a fan of resolutions, but I guess there are several things I expect to advance on:

- Buildup stable client base for my consulting business, Harrison Tsai Industries

- Complete an e-book.

- Build-up this site’s mailing list (yes apologies to those who’ve signed up and have gotten nothing!)

- Launch a small apparel line for my other caused-based apparel project, Amped Style.

- Advance my surf techniques, and travel to more surf spots.

Looking at the above list, should be lofty enough goals for 2013.

Your Turn:

- What’s your best memory from 2012?

- What are you looking forward to in 2013?

The post 2012 Reflections and Hustling into 2013 appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

Close to a million people worldwide come to Maui to vacation and travel every year. And thousands of them also at times dream of relocating to the island.

With a population of around 150,000 it’d seem like there wouldn’t be much of a problem moving to Maui?

Maui actually is a difficult island to get your footing.

Unlike neighboring Oahu with larger population close to one million, finding place to rent, a car to drive, and a job can be quite daunting.

Which is why I’d like to share tips on getting yourself established on Maui if you are like me, don’t know anyone on the island beforehand, and only have a small budget to work with.

First things first, Maui is expensive, (not surprisingly) simply because goods need to be imported. While it isn’t cheap, it’s not as expensive as living in NYC or San Francisco.

Where to buy food and gas?

Expect higher costs with groceries and gas.

- For groceries, to save some money, you can use respective grocery store’s rewards cards.

For example, Foodland has a card called Maika’i that can save you 25% off your final total.

Also consider seeing if you qualify for Hawaii EBT card. It’s well accepted on the island as many people are on it. If you are single and no dependents, then you’ll receive around $320 per month.

Shop at local grocery stores. I usually go to Haiku Grocery or Mana Foods in Paia. Those are two local supermarkets quite popular in respective towns, and certain items actually are cheaper than regular supermarket. Otherwise, if I need to get bulk, I go to Costco.

- As for gas, the best place to get it is at Costco. Gas prices there are usually 25 cents cheaper than the rest of the other island gas stations. Consider getting a Costco card.

Where to live?

When I first arrived on island, my accommodation was covered by a work-exchange for room.

- Consider checking out Workaway, AirBNB, or Couchsurfing to see if you can grab a room to at least initially get on island. There are also several hostels on island to stay at including Rainbow Surf Hostel, Banana Bungalow Hostel, and North Shore Hostel.

That being said, the best way to find rent is really to connect with the local people who live in a certain community.

While Craigslist is the way to go in finding places to live, many local listings are not posted on that site. Usually people prefer to refer others they know to a potential opening. Other places to look at are local pin-up boards in select local groceries or event boards.

Small room rents should go anywhere from $400 to 600 with bigger rooms at $600 to 1000 per month. Expect average rents to be around $750 to 850 with or without utilities.

Honestly, I’ve found finding a place to live on Maui to be the hardest!

Be mindful of the landlords you decide to rent with as there are quite a few crazy ones on island. The island is small enough that once you get to know people, you’ll soon know who isn’t great to deal with.

In any case, off-season is best time to look, usually from April to September. High season from November to February, most of good rents have been taken up.

Where to get a job?

For the most part, the industries that exist on Maui fall under tourism, government, and health. If you have skills in those fields, network around or look at Craigslist listings for openings.

Otherwise, I’ve found that many people who live on Maui make up their own jobs.There are lots of small businesses and entrepreneurs making it work.

Check out the following Maui groups for networking and connecting up with other small business owners:

- Maui Business Brainstormers
- Maui Springboard 

Where to buy used surf and other outdoor sports equipment?

While you may be inclined to check out Craigslist for sports gear, there are plenty of local action sports shop that sell used surfboards and other gear.

For surf, used shortboards range from $50 to $150, while used longboards range from $150 to $200.

Your Turn:

- What was your struggles when relocating to Maui?

- What else would you like to know about moving to the island?

The post How to Move and Establish Yourself in Maui on a Budget appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.

For those who’ve been following Hustle to Paradise for a while, I’ve finally have got the bumper stickers!

If you’re a fan of Hustle to Paradise, consider showing your hustle with the latest cool sticker!

They will be sold for $4.00 each.

Dimensions is 3 inches height by 10 inches wide. (sticker is pictured above in the blog post header)

For U.S. Residents, shipping is included. For all addresses outside of the U.S., it’ll just be an additional $0.50

For limited time, I’d like to give away 10  FREE bumper stickers.

The first 10 people to comment below “on what you are hustling towards in 2013″, receive couple FREE bumper stickers!

Much thanks to the people at BuildASign.com for generously making the stickers, check them out for all your printing needs including bumper stickers and canvas prints.

The post Hustle to Paradise Bumper Stickers appeared first on Hustle to Paradise.