Whatās up everyone, I hope youāre all good on this beautiful Sunday!
Iām Mike, I currently run my own marketing and advertising agency based worldwide. Iām from the UK, but live in Cambodia with my business partner. We have full time staff across the world and try to really make a difference when it comes to working conditions when western countries hire talent from outside of their country, especially staff from SE Asia. Weāve all heard the ājust hire someone cheap from Asia its easyā.
Weāre changing that at the moment by providing tens of thousands of dollars worth of training to our employees which span across Cambodia, Thailand, Philippines, South Africa, USA and me⦠the UK
The next step will be to build academies in these countries and make sure communities with less support are given a chance to learn up to date, high quality education and tools.
The business is at a point where Iām able to step back a bit and everything doesnāt fall apart. Problem is, I canāt not be doing something, I have been diagnosed adult ADHD (onset ADHD or something like that). But I think Iāve had this my entire life, however, I used to have to be busy playing computer games or getting drunk, or trying to become an ultra marathon runner (yeah a weird mix as I did actually run an ultra marathon, get drunk and became a semi pro player on Halo 5).
Anyway, since I can remember Iāve loved two things: computers & tech and network security (hacking). BUT when I realized I hated my job over 6 years ago, I realized it was really easy to make money online by carrying out services for people online. This evolved into a multi 7 figure business and self voted top 5% of digital ADVERTISERS. Iām 34, the world is rapidly changing and I have a gut feeling marketing services is going to slowly crash and burn due to AI, Iām even breaking down jobs within the industry and showing people how they can do it themselves with practically no skills and do a job that would take a day, in 15 minutes.
Incomes following my two original passions but now with age, confidence, experience, money and as always determined (I donāt like to lose against myself) - (vs anyone else itās fine). So Iām brushing up on my Python skills and will be taking the AI and Machine Learning career path PLUS learning and getting a load of certs in networking, cyber security (I only have 2 CompTIA+ certs listed so far).
GOAL: No real goal, except Iāll have a beautiful backup if I do decide to switch career OR I have thought of creating a cyber security agency, specializing in working with AI Companies - essentially a future proof business.
I love communities and networks and they greatly impacted my career in business and marketing so copy and paste into a different industry, and itās got a high % of working. Anyone in SE Asia, would love to meet up so I can annoy you with loads of questions (joking I can help you with anything business related). Which brings me onto my last point, Iāve looked at thousands of CVs and hired around 100 people throughout my entire career so if youād like any help with anything around thatm let me know, Iām always up for helping out, I even block a cluster in my diary for it!
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-coombe/