Yello Balolia: The Optimist
Guest: Yello Balolia
Publishing Company Director | Co-living Founder
Based: Cornwall, UK
Website: froomies.org
Instagram: @froomiescoliving
Episode Description
Yello Balolia started a publishing company 15 years ago with zero business experience, zero publishing knowledge, and zero qualifications. His strategy? "How hard could it be?" Today, he's published 12-13 books on diabetes and weight loss, lived on a boat for years whilst working remotely, and is opening an 80-acre co-living farm in Cornwall.
In this conversation, Yello shares the power of unrealistic optimism, the dinner party moment that made him realise he sees possibilities where others see hurdles, and why boarding school prepared him for community living. We explore his unconventional journey from London to boat life, his obsession with vibe coding that turned a £799/month app into a £50,000 custom build, and why being unrealistic isn't a flaw—it's an entrepreneurial necessity.
This is a story about giving things a go without regard for complexity, making ideas physical before they're finished, and building a life where obstacles simply don't exist in your imagination.
00:00-00:26 Generic introduction
00:26-01:40 Yello's introduction
01:40-01:43 Are you a nomad?
01:43-02:42 Living on a boat for 3-4 years
02:42-03:19 Escaping UK winters to co-livings
03:19-03:47 Boat journey: London to Oxford
03:47-03:57 Location independent definition
03:57-04:31 How he makes money: publishing company director
04:31-04:57 15 years, 12-13 books, diabetes and weight loss
04:57-05:32 Role: business side, project management, making it happen
05:32-06:43 Zero MBA, business, or publishing qualifications
06:43-07:12 "How hard could it be?" philosophy
07:12-08:13 First edition was awful, six editions later it's great
08:13-09:28 Unrealistic optimism as necessary entrepreneur quality
09:28-09:50 Blessing and curse of being unrealistic
09:50-11:06 Dinner party revelation: seeing opportunities vs. hurdles
11:06-11:42 Eye-opening moment about different thinking styles
11:42-13:15 Making ideas physical: Canva book cover technique
13:15-13:58 What motivated starting the business: love of creativity
13:58-15:07 Passion: making something from nothing
15:07-16:26 COVID: leaving London two days before lockdown
16:26-17:25 Working hard during lockdown: website, YouTube channel
17:25-19:09 Boat life: nothing plumbed in, working hard to survive
19:09-20:37 Slower pace, not conducive to high productivity
20:37-20:50 Missing ease of living in a house after couple years
20:50-21:24 What is Froomies: 80-acre farm in Cornwall
21:24-23:18 Journey to co-living: living it, then wanting to create one
23:18-25:11 How co-living operators define co-living
25:11-26:13 Boarding school ages 10-18: co-living for kids
26:13-27:34 Thriving in boarding school environment
27:34-27:57 Struggle maintaining friendships when living alone
27:57-28:44 Why open Froomies: means, will, drive to add co-living
28:44-30:16 Future plans: flexibility, creative projects, festivals
30:16-30:24 Always having business ideas
30:24-32:09 Vibe coding: building Froomies guidebook app
32:09-33:17 Waking up at 5am excited to vibe code
33:17-34:27 Built £50,000 app with ChatGPT for $20/month
34:27-35:55 Future of vibe coding: profession appears then disappears
35:55-36:09 Closing thoughts
About This Podcast
Real conversations with successful digital nomads who've built sustainable location-independent income. Strategic insights on how they transitioned, what income streams they built, and what they wish they'd known earlier. No travel tips or lifestyle fluff.
Host
Ibi Malik helps ambitious professionals transition to nomadic careers without income sacrifice.
To watch the video follow this link: https://youtu.be/xeT0LDCW2Sc
Follow for weekly episodes featuring professionals who've successfully built nomadic income streams.
Episode length: ~36 minutes
Published: 6th February, 2026
Episode #005
Guest Reflection
Yello and I sat down to talk during his stay at a chateau in Normandy. Over the conversation, he told me about building a publishing company with zero business experience, living on a boat for years whilst working remotely, and why seeing the world without hurdles has been his greatest advantage. This is the story of someone who proved that being unrealistically optimistic isn't a flaw, it's a superpower.
How Hard Could It Be?
Fifteen years ago, Yello started a publishing company. He had no business degree, no MBA, no publishing experience, and absolutely no qualifications in either field.
His business partner, a dietician, came to him with an idea for a book about diabetes and weight loss. Yello thought it was brilliant. So naturally, he decided they should publish it themselves.
"I just thought, how hard could it be? You write a book, you design a book, you get some printed. Is it really that complicated? I just thought, let's have a go."
The first edition of their first book was, in his own words, absolutely awful.
"It was terrible. I didn't know what I was doing. In hindsight, there were loads of things that didn't look great. There were just so many things that were really not great about it. But it was out there and it was helping people. People could see the value in it, even though it looked a bit crappy."
Six editions later, that same book looks completely different. Today, their visual carb and calorie count book is their flagship product. They've published 12 to 13 books over 15 years, all written by Yello and his partner, all selling steadily within the diabetes sector in the UK.
When I asked how his confidence levels evolved over those 15 years, whether they dropped after the initial optimism wore off, his answer surprised me.
"I guess I'm quite unrealistic in quite a lot of ways. And I think that is almost a necessary quality for an entrepreneur to have. Overoptimistic, unrealistic. If people knew how hard it is to do these things, they would never get started if they were really realistic about it."
The Blessing and the Curse
"My confidence levels were maintained all the way through because I am not realistic about how long things take and how much effort it takes and how many decisions need to be made and details go into doing something like this. And even to this day, projects I work on now, I'm still unrealistic about pretty much everything."
When I asked if this was a blessing or a curse, he didn't hesitate.
"It's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing because I will give things a go where other people maybe wouldn't. But it's a curse because things do take a lot longer and I over-commit in my diary and sometimes over-promise a little bit, which is not obviously great to do."
But here's what makes Yello's approach so interesting: he's completely aware of this trait, and he's not trying to fix it.
"Some people would say, you know, I need to curb that. And it's not doing me very much benefits. But I would say no, I think the world needs people who give things a go without regard for the complexities of what is going to unfold."
It's a radical perspective. In a world obsessed with realistic goal-setting, careful planning, and measured expectations, Yello is arguing the opposite: that unrealistic optimism is exactly what allows people to attempt things that actually matter.
The Dinner Party Revelation
Years ago, Yello was at a dinner party having a conversation that would become a pivotal moment in understanding himself.
"I was talking about just the concept of having an idea and then visualising how things go over time. I said, you know, I have an idea and I can see that it leads to this and it leads to that. Wow, yes, I can see the amazing outcomes this can lead to."
But the other people at the table described something completely different.
"One or two of them said their experience is actually quite the opposite. They have an idea and then they see a hurdle and a hurdle and then another hurdle. And one of those hurdles will just be too big for them to comprehend. And they'll be like, no, this idea is never gonna work."
This was revelatory for Yello.
"I just never knew that other people think like that. This was years ago, and that was a real eye-opening moment for me. Like, wow, okay. Having an imagination without the hurdles is such a helpful way to think. And I guess I maybe naturally do that anyway and feel blessed by that idea. And I didn't realise that everyone didn't do that."
When I asked how someone could learn to think this way, to see opportunities instead of obstacles, his advice was surprisingly practical.
Making the Future Physical
"Make something physical that you can show yourself. That is a prompt to think about the endpoint, the successful endpoint."
His example was specific. A friend came to him struggling to write a book. Yello's advice wasn't about writing strategies or productivity systems.
"Go into Canva. Make sure you've got a title for your book, a subtitle for your book, create a cover for the book in Canva. Even if you haven't written it. Doesn't matter. Do the cover and then have it somewhere, preferably print it out and put it, wrap it around a real book."
The point isn't to have a finished cover. The point is to trick your brain into believing the future is real.
"So you've got this kind of mock-up of your real book in front of you. And I think that really helps visualise something further down the road. You can almost feel that like, oh my God, this is my book in my hand, rather than it being this abstract thing way in the future with loads of hurdles in the way."
It's a technique that transforms the distant and difficult into the tangible and achievable. And it's exactly the kind of thinking that's powered Yello's entire approach to building businesses and life.
After 20 years in London, COVID happened. Two days before the first lockdown was announced, Yello sensed something was coming.
"Nobody knew that there was going to be a lockdown, but I could sense something. It just was just extra weird was going to happen. So I said to my partner, let's leave London, let's hire a cottage and get out of here."
They left for Sussex, hired a cottage on a 450-acre farm for what they thought would be two weeks. It turned into four months.
That was the beginning of a different kind of nomadic life. Yello and his partner Zoe bought a boat and spent the next three to four years living on the UK's canals and rivers, from London to Oxford.
"Although we had a floating home, we weren't in the same place month to month a lot of the time. So we had a kind of semi-nomadic lifestyle."
But boat life wasn't the romantic adventure it might sound like.
"Nothing on the boat is plumbed in. So you've got a water tank, you've got diesel tanks, you've got your batteries to charge and you've got your gas canisters. And your toilet's not plumbed in either. So you need to really work hard to just survive."
When I asked about productivity, he was honest: "The pace of life is quite a lot slower. Productivity-wise, I would say it's not conducive to really getting a lot done, specifically the energy and effort it takes to start a new business."
After a few brutal UK winters on the boat, they started escaping to co-livings during the cold months. Which eventually led to a much bigger idea.
From Boarding School to Co-Living
The seed for Yello's current project was planted decades earlier, between the ages of 10 and 18.
"I went to a boarding school in the UK in the north of England. And I think for a big part of my childhood, I was used to this setting. You work with your friends, you eat with your friends, you're sleeping in dorms with your friends. You're socialising with your friends, you're doing sport with your friends. You're with them all of the time. And boarding school is definitely co-living for kids."
Not everyone thrives in that environment. Many find it traumatic. But Yello was one of the lucky ones.
"Some people find boarding school super traumatic and some people really thrive in boarding school. And I'm very fortunate that I was the type of person who thrived. There's something within me that just loves having people around all the time."
There's a practical reason too. Yello admits he's terrible at keeping in touch with people.
"I'm not amazing at replying to people's texts and emails and reaching out to people. So by default, if I'm living on my own or just with my partner, I do struggle with forming and maintaining friendships. But living in a community setting, it suits me well because I don't have to make loads of effort to have social connections because people are just there all the time."
After experiencing co-livings over the past few years, he and Zoe decided to create their own. They sold properties in London and bought an 80-acre farm in Cornwall. Froomies opens on Valentine's Day 2025.
"I think the UK and the whole planet needs more communities and more co-living. So for us, if we have the means to do it and the will and the drive, instead of just joining another one, we thought, let's put another co-living on the map."
Waking Up Excited to Code
There's one more thing that captures Yello's unrealistic optimism perfectly: his recent dive into AI and vibe coding.
A few months ago, he wanted to create a guidebook app for the co-living. He found a platform that would host it for £799 a month. His immediate thought: "I reckon I could build one."
He'd been seeing videos about vibe coding (using AI to generate code) and decided to try it himself. What happened next was pure Yello.
"I was amazed at how quickly and accurately it would just do what I asked it to do. And then I was like, hang on a minute. If it's that easy to create that feature, why don't I just try some other features?"
It spiralled. He spent weeks on the computer, waking up at 5am thinking: "Yes, I get to vibe code today."
By the end, he'd built an app with 20 features and an admin panel with 30 features, all working, all looking professional.
"I just couldn't believe that it was me and ChatGPT on $20 a month with their basic plan, could bosh out something that would definitely have cost over £50,000 a few years ago."
It's the perfect example of someone who doesn't see the hurdles, only the possibilities. Someone who thinks "how hard could it be?" and then just starts building.
The Case for Unrealistic Optimism
Today, Yello continues running his publishing company whilst preparing to launch the co-living in Cornwall. Most people would see a challenging few months ahead: juggling an established business with opening an 80-acre farm as a community space. But Yello doesn't see it that way. Where others see complications, he sees what comes next.
As our conversation wrapped up, I found myself thinking about that dinner party revelation. About the people who see hurdles versus those who see possibilities. About whether you can teach yourself to think differently, or whether it's simply how you're wired.
What's clear is that Yello's unrealistic optimism has worked. Not despite the over-promising, the longer timelines, the lack of planning. But because of them. Because without that optimism, he never would have started a publishing company with zero experience. Never would have lived on a boat for years. Never would have built a £50,000 app for $20 a month.
"The world needs people who give things a go without regard for the complexities of what is going to unfold."
Maybe he's right. Maybe we're all a bit too realistic about what's possible. Maybe the real skill isn't learning to see obstacles more clearly, but learning to ignore them entirely and just start building anyway.
Sometimes the question "how hard could it be?" is exactly the right one to ask.
