Hey friends! I’ve spent the month of October living in Bali while running a content creator villa, Bunny Villa, along with Justin!

You can still see the world while working on your personal goals.

It’s been one of my dreams to become a digital nomad around the world, working remotely on my own projects and having time and location freedom. It seemed like just a dream until something happened at work. I started working harder in Design Buddies to allow myself to live life anywhere and grow the design community anywhere I do.  

After I left my corporate job this April, I spent most of 2024 traveling, spending just a few days in each location. Bali has been the longest I’ve lived outside of San Jose and San Francisco. I enjoy slower traveling—being able to live life in another country instead of trying to rush to meet everyone and see everything. 

Bali has a vibrant digital nomad community, especially in Canggu and Ubud. On Nomeo, you can find 20+ events every day. Everyone here is building such different businesses. I grew up in the B2B SaaS AI bubble in San Francisco. 

Bali is beautiful. There’s so much wonderful nature, culture, community, events, and things to do here! Some highlight communities for me have been UX Bali (they host UX educational events in Bali).

Some of my favorite places in Bali have been Nusa Penida Island, wandering around rice fields in Ubud, climbing Mount Batur volcano and then swimming in the hot springs after, Nuanu city, Tanah Lot temple, and hanging out at the many beach clubs with my buddies (Luna beach club was my favorite. Potato head is also lovely. Also Finns and Atlas)

A typical working day in Bali!

7 a.m.: Wake up and go to the Wrong gym. Maybe go for a run or take a workout class. Talk to some strangers, make some friends.

9 am: Cowork from a new cafe, take some meetings

12 pm: Go to a digital nomad lunch event

2 pm: Find another cafe to cowork at with new friends or head back to Bunny Villa to film some videos

4 pm: Get a massage or facial maybe

5 pm: Go exploring, checking out some beach clubs, restaurants, etc with our Bunny Villa buddies!

9 pm: Jamming on content together at Bunny Villa~ then post on socials for our American timezone buddies

11:30 pm: Do my new skincare routine and go to sleep 🫡

We also hosted a wonderful Halloween party with Edward and UX Bali at Bunny Villa! It was a wonderful group of locals and digital nomads. 

Now we are in Bangkok for the whole month of November! In late November, we are making a short trip to explore Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, and hosting a Design Buddies event. Stay tuned!

How Design Buddies has been vibing along

It’s been seven months since I quit my UX design job at Electronic Arts. Since then, I’ve been able to take Design Buddies to the next level. Working in tech is great. You can make a lot of money if you negotiate well. 

I made a few business decisions that increased our revenue, such as launching bigger events like conferences and our 10-week design project cohort with UXGO + our merger. 

I’ve always wondered how to continue building the best design community. I want to increase quality while making it free or low-cost for anyone interested in design to learn. 

I’ve been thinking about how we may want to reach a new audience. Our branding is cute, kawaii, and bunnies, which attracts people like me. I think that’s a good thing! But I think we have more potential. 

I’ve hired a video editor to create reel templates so I can learn from them. I have been trying out different types of educational content, from long-form guide posts to reels, carousels, LinkedIn lives, and more. I often feel like I’ve been throwing spaghetti at the wall and seeing what sticks. 

Sometimes, I also feel a bit of imposter syndrome. I’m not working in corporate as a UX designer anymore, but I’m still working hard to host events, learn about other cultures as I travel the world, build our brand and content, build our team, and more. Sometimes I feel out of touch about being a UX designer and not as relatable to Design Buddies members as much. 

I’ve been involving our community to showcase their expertise instead! I'm also trying to take on more design and branding projects to stay sharp. After I quit my job, I focused heavily on marketing and Design Buddies' growth and missed doing design. I have a business to run and a living I need to make for myself. 

I’m also building a design agency with Design Buddies. I want to help designers get paid for their work and take on some design projects to develop my skills. 

Anyway, this was a bit of a ramble. I've been navigating the more unstructured life as a founder and wanted to share with you all how it’s been going and what I’ve been thinking about. Every time I encounter a problem, I want to fix it ASAP. Thank you all for being part of the journey! There is much more to come 🫡

Events!

We’re hosting a big design holiday party in Bangkok on Wed Nov 20, 18:00!

RSVP (free): https://lu.ma/bangkok-party 

We actually sold out 2 weeks before but are holding a few spots you. Do email me if you’d like to get off the waitlist [email protected] 

I’m also hosting Casey on a LinkedIn Live on how you can slay your LinkedIn game! Join us tomorrow (asia time friendly, evening in the Americas) Wed Nov 13, 11 am GMT+8

RSVP (free): https://lu.ma/linkedin-creator 

I also recently hosted a workshop about content creation for entrepreneurs with Wander Women Hub, a wonderful community I met in Bali! Here’s the recording! You can watch on LinkedIn or YouTube~

I’m Grace Ling, and I do many random things. I founded Design Buddies (150,000+ members, 2 million+ on socials). I draw, travel the world, host events, run, and more. I’ve been to almost 40 countries. I travel around the world to speak at conferences and throw parties. I create content to document it all.

I hope you slay your day! Let’s stay in touch: LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Twitter.