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  • - You wanna travel the world and get paid?

  • (audience gasps)

  • You're living in a fantasy, buddy.

  • Yeah, no they're not.

  • It's actually more accessible today

  • than it's ever been.

  • Yeah, maybe if you're like me

  • and have your dad's hedge fund money.

  • Actually, no.

  • You really don't need that much money saved up.

  • Anyone can do it but you will need to work very hard.

  • You gotta be willing to sell your soul

  • to the highest bidder.

  • My name is Christian.

  • If you don't already know who I am,

  • I've been making travel videos for a few years now

  • and one of the incredible things about it

  • is that it allows me to be anywhere in the world

  • and to call it my job.

  • Yes, I get to call

  • traveling, meeting new people, and making great money

  • my job.

  • It's definitely a incredible situation

  • I never really saw myself falling into,

  • especially going back four years ago

  • where the story started

  • as a broke backpacker with just a GoPro.

  • I always saw travel and work

  • as two very polar opposite things.

  • You're either making money at work

  • or you're traveling and losing money.

  • But the incredible thing about this career

  • is that it takes that equation

  • and it completely disregards it.

  • By traveling, I make money,

  • and therefore, this travel lifestyle

  • becomes sustainable and profitable.

  • Today, I'll be sharing with you

  • 10 things that will allow you to make money

  • as a travel influencer.

  • Whether you wanna do photography, videography.

  • I'll be sharing my own personal anecdotes,

  • experience, as well as sharing some stories

  • from friends who have also been able to call this their job.

  • Point number one and listen up closely because

  • this one is very important.

  • You can do it.

  • Anyone can be here siting in this chair right now,

  • calling themselves an Instagrammer,

  • a YouTuber, whatever it is that floats your boat,

  • that could be your career.

  • I want you to put yourself in my shoes,

  • where I was four years ago.

  • I had nothing more than a backpack on my back.

  • I had about $3,000 in my bank account,

  • I had a GoPro Hero4 Silver,

  • I had never in my life been to film school,

  • I had never in my life learned about YouTube,

  • never been taught that you could actually

  • make a penny on Instagram,

  • and I really didn't know what I was doing.

  • But, one thing I did discover on that trip

  • was that I loved to travel

  • and I loved to make videos.

  • Hello.

  • And welcome to my channel.

  • That is how my journey started.

  • Very humble beginnings,

  • no real direction, no real skill,

  • but what I did have, what I made up for

  • on every other front was a burning passion

  • for what I wanted to do.

  • I was ready to hustle until I was able

  • to make it happen

  • and that's exactly what I did.

  • Today, I now have over 10 revenue streams

  • that allow me to get paid even when I'm on the road.

  • This path was not given to me

  • and it was not given to anybody else

  • you follow and admire on social media.

  • This is a business for those who hustle,

  • those who work late into the night,

  • early into the mornings,

  • those who don't give up when they don't get paid,

  • those who don't quit when they don't get views.

  • This is for those who are ready to grind and hustle.

  • If you think that's you, then keep watching.

  • And if you don't think it's you,

  • please keep watching.

  • I really can't afford my retention rate to drop.

  • Now, let's get into point number two

  • and that is going to be the importance

  • of keeping your costs low.

  • Let's get ready to hustle and ball out on a budget.

  • As I mentioned before,

  • when I started my travels, I really didn't have

  • that much money saved up.

  • And every single day I was on the road,

  • I was basically eating into my savings.

  • I knew that if I was gonna make YouTube videos

  • and Instagram photos,

  • I was gonna need as much time as I could

  • to create good content.

  • So how could I stretch that limited money?

  • One of the main ways to do that

  • is to reduce your costs.

  • Reduce the overhead

  • of hotels, of food, of activities.

  • How do you do that?

  • When I first started,

  • one of the best ways I was able to keep my costs low

  • was door knocking.

  • I was going hostel to hostel to hostel,

  • sometimes 10 hostels in a row would flat out say,

  • "No, we're not willing to give you a free bed,"

  • but the 11th one would eventually say yes

  • and that would be the place where I would stay

  • for two to three nights.

  • Right there, I took care of one of my biggest expenses

  • as a nomad,

  • which is my accommodation.

  • If I knew I was gonna go to an island

  • I wanted to do an island tour

  • or I needed the ferry,

  • well then I would try to contact different companies

  • that would allow me to feature their service

  • in exchange for a free ticket.

  • Again, I was able to keep creating my content

  • while keeping my costs as low as possible

  • for every single video, for every single Instagram photo,

  • and that is how you need to keep yourself afloat

  • during the early stages.

  • You're gonna have to make sacrifices,

  • you're gonna have to say no to getting drinks with dinner,

  • eat street food, knock on hostel doors,

  • keep costs as low as possible.

  • I wanna share with you an account

  • who you should definitely go check out after this.

  • His name is Chris Lau.

  • I consider him my first ever Patreon success story.

  • Patreon is where I have my behind the scenes community

  • where there's filmmakers, there's travel influencers

  • who are trying to make this their living.

  • And it's where I share all my information.

  • I highly recommend you check it out after this.

  • Christ took all the information he learned

  • through my Patreon, as well as his background in sales

  • and he basically

  • has become

  • a free accommodation monster.

  • Everywhere he goes,

  • he's been able to leverage his 10,000 followers.

  • Now at like 22,000 followers on Instagram

  • to get himself free stuff all over the world.

  • From five start hotels to free meals,

  • he's been able to even treat me to a couple free meals

  • because he contacted those companies in advance.

  • Chris embodies hustling to keep costs low

  • and I have so much respect to him.

  • The next point is

  • diversify your income sources.

  • So, as I mentioned at the beginning of this video,

  • I now have like over 10 income sources

  • that allow me to make a great living.

  • Maybe I didn't get as many views on YouTube that month,

  • or maybe I didn't have as many visits to my Shopify store.

  • It tends to even out because there's 10 of them

  • and so I'm not heavily relying on any of them.

  • It gives you a lot more financial security.

  • I'm gonna talk about what my revenue sources are

  • as well as some other revenue sources

  • that my friends are using.

  • I'm not gonna give them to you in the particular order

  • of importance, but let's start off with the first one

  • and that's right now the ad revenue that's being earned

  • by this video and basically every other monetized video

  • on my channel.

  • Right now, I've been averaging two point five

  • to three million views every single month

  • and that actually adds up into a pretty nice paycheck

  • every month.

  • Now another income source is my products that I sell

  • through my Shopify store.

  • I have a Philippines travel guide,

  • Thailand travel guide, Peru travel guide,

  • I have a guide on how I edit my travel videos

  • so if you're curious about any of those, again,

  • they're linked down below.

  • This is how I make my living.

  • Those four products, once they were made,

  • they become passive income.

  • So every single time I make a sale,

  • there's no real cost because e-products

  • don't have inventory.

  • You basically just have a protected asset

  • that you send off to somebody

  • when they bought the rights to it.

  • It's a fantastic way to make a living,

  • especially for those of you

  • that do develop your own communities

  • and have people that trust your authority

  • on a certain subject.

  • Another income source that's really not that relevant

  • to me these days is my merchandise.

  • I'm not selling that many t-shirts,

  • in fact, I never even push it in my videos.

  • For me, it's not the biggest but for some YouTubers,

  • it can actually be their primary income source.

  • Another one is my affiliate linking.

  • So basically, if you go to the bottom of

  • every YouTube video,

  • you'll find out exactly where I get my YouTube music.

  • Anytime somebody signs up for Epidemic Sounds,

  • then I actually get a small little bonus

  • from that signup.

  • For me, it's one of my favorite income sources

  • because I'm basically getting paid to promote the service

  • I love and use every single day.

  • If you're looking for YouTube music,

  • you don't want copyright claims,

  • you want your videos monetized, then check it out.

  • Another one that I've started using recently

  • is StoryBlocks and it's where I'm able

  • to get stock footage from drone footage, et cetera.

  • Anything that I need to fill in the gaps in my video

  • and I also have an affiliate signup through them.

  • Another one is Patreon and again,

  • my Patreon is my behind the scenes community

  • to all the business side, the travel side,

  • it's where I share in-depth information.

  • And one of my biggest advices to anyone

  • who's considering using Patreon as a means to make

  • a paycheck,

  • never treat it as a charity case.

  • Do not ask people to donate

  • just because they already get

  • your content for free on YouTube.

  • That's not a very compelling reason

  • and you might get backlash.

  • I know that from experience.

  • What I recommend is always coming up

  • with a value proposition.

  • What is somebody gonna get out of joining Patreon?

  • Why should somebody

  • pay that two dollars a month

  • to be part of that behind the scenes community?

  • You need to make sure there is a value that they receive

  • and if there is, then it can be a very great business model.

  • And for my friends at Sailing La Vegabonde,

  • that's actually one of the primary ways

  • they monetize their channel.

  • Another income source that I really don't do

  • that often is consulting.

  • One of the things I like to do the least

  • is trading one of my hours for money

  • because it's not scalable.

  • I like things that can be scaled.

  • For example, if I create a e-product,

  • once that time has been paid up,

  • I can sell that to infinite amount of people.

  • As many people as there are on this planet.

  • But if every person in the world wanted one hour

  • of my consulting, well,

  • I mean, I'd be pretty rich but,

  • I would be physically limited

  • to the amount of time in a day,

  • the amount of time I can give.

  • But nonetheless, I like to take on a couple consulting gigs

  • every now and then.

  • Now, sponsored brand work.

  • One of the income sources that started off

  • a little bit better this year

  • and towards late year actually got pretty slow

  • was my sponsored work.

  • I wasn't getting as many opportunities.

  • I'm not exactly sure what the reason is.

  • But nonetheless, the incredible thing is,

  • I had been able to build a business

  • that relies on itself.

  • Through the sales of guides, through the ad revenue,

  • and through my other revenue means,

  • I basically am not in a position

  • where I have to compromise my brand

  • just to accept any brand deal that comes in.

  • It's the reason so many of the brand deals

  • that have contacted me have been rejected.

  • I'd rather choose the ones that are the right fit

  • and I highly recommend if you're in the position to do so,

  • you should always practice protecting your brand

  • before making a quick buck.

  • The next one is licensing and really,

  • it's not been the biggest part of my income source

  • by any means, but I do license out

  • some of my footage and

  • I actually have a friend that

  • this is one of his main ways of making money.

  • It's just passive money because once he sent off

  • all the footage he already filmed

  • as a videographer, as a YouTuber,

  • he was able to make a lot of money with that.

  • And it is something I wanna explore a little more,

  • considering I'm already shooting a ton.

  • I wanna talk a little bit about other revenue sources

  • I've seen from other people and one of them

  • is actually being a tour guide.

  • Now, you need to be careful because

  • once you start doing physical services

  • in a country that you're not resident of,

  • visas become an issue.

  • So I'm not about to name locations,

  • I'm not about to name names,

  • I'm not gonna get into any real details on this.

  • But I will say that some people

  • who know certain areas have become tour guides

  • in these areas

  • and shown people around

  • and get paid really well to do it.

  • Another big source of income for most of my friends

  • is actually making videos for other people.

  • So, making videos to promote their products,

  • making their content for their Instagram feed.

  • Now taking that a step further,

  • I actually have my friends Cam and Kelsey,

  • the Wanderful Lyfe

  • and they actually manage a couple of companies'

  • social media feeds.

  • So not only do they send them the content,

  • but they're actually the ones who are actively posting it

  • on their account and that gets them a nice weekly

  • or monthly paycheck

  • that allows them to be nomadic,

  • work from anywhere in the world.

  • I have some friends that do photography gigs.

  • Whether it's struggling to shoot some models

  • or if it's going down and shooting a wedding.

  • These can actually make some decent paychecks

  • but they're not that consistent, typically,

  • unless you've done a really good job

  • keeping your business regular.

  • The good thing about them, though,

  • is in the one or two days that you work,

  • you can make a few hundred dollars

  • and even a few thousand dollars in few days

  • if you're marketing and branding is good.

  • Some of my friends have started doing workshops

  • and it's something that I'm actually thinking about doing

  • here in Bali maybe in May.

  • If you would ever consider coming to

  • a Lost LeBlanc workshop,

  • comment down below.

  • I'd love to hear your thoughts if it's something

  • you would like to do.

  • Now those are just a few of the revenue sources

  • that friends and myself are using.

  • Now to close off this point,

  • I wanna also say that what may work for me or a friend

  • might not work for you.

  • What I highly recommend, though

  • is you look at what you enjoy doing

  • and even examining some of the skills that you already have.

  • If you're a surfer, then maybe you can teach lessons.

  • If you're a singer, maybe you could do lessons online,

  • maybe you could develop a singing course.

  • Get creative and look closely at the things

  • that people look up to you for.

  • What skills can you offer?

  • Maybe that last line hit you a little hard

  • because you're feeling like

  • I really don't have any skills I can offer.

  • And that's gonna lead us to point number five,

  • which is developing a monetizable skill.

  • One of the best sources for free education

  • is right here on YouTube.

  • You can learn how to become a graphic designer,

  • you could learn what SEO is, how to run Facebook ads.

  • These are all skills that people are paying

  • lots of money for

  • if you're good at what you're doing.

  • Now, what are the skills I have learned?

  • I've actually become an expert

  • at videography, at editing, at photography.

  • I've become a marketing wizard.

  • I now understand how to market a video,

  • I understand how to use all the social media platforms.

  • I wasn't actively trying to learn every single one

  • of these skills,

  • but they were some skills that I naturally picked up

  • just by doing what I love.

  • Which is making videos and photos for you guys.

  • If you've toyed around with the idea

  • of going out there and trying to make money

  • as a travel influencer or as a travel filmmaker,

  • I just wanna say right now

  • that this isn't as risky as you're making it out to be.

  • You may think to yourself that

  • what if I don't grow that following?

  • What if nobody watches my videos?

  • Well as long as you're hustling,

  • you're working hard for a year,

  • for two years, for three years,

  • then I can assure you,

  • you're gonna learn more in that span of time

  • than you would've learned at a university.

  • You might not realize this,

  • but you're actually actively learning

  • real world skills that companies are paying big money for.

  • Even if after a year or two years

  • you realize that the social media thing is not for you,

  • you're still leaving ahead of where you were before.

  • You've learned new skills that will make you

  • marketable to employers and,

  • if you're like myself,

  • it'll make you capable of becoming a freelancer

  • basically anywhere in the world.

  • Learn new skills, become an expert in them,

  • and there's no possible way

  • that you can fail in this position.

  • You will only be ahead of where you started.

  • The next point is to choose

  • your social media platforms wisely.

  • Now, the reason I say that is because

  • in today's landscape, we have so many to choose from.

  • Luckily, some of them are slowly being eliminated.

  • Goodbye, Snapchat, I don't need your distractions,

  • but that still leaves me with three really big ones

  • that I am trying to balance.

  • That is Facebook, Instagram, YouTube.

  • And I constantly deal with the battle of

  • would I be better off if I cut off two of them

  • and just focused on one?

  • I kind of did an experiment this year

  • and it's working.

  • To decide my priority platforms,

  • I asked myself these questions.

  • Which platforms did I most enjoy?

  • Which platforms did I have the most authority on?

  • And which platform best allows me

  • to monetize my lifestyle?

  • Now, for me, the answer was pretty obvious

  • that it wasn't gonna be Facebook.

  • It maybe accounted for five percent of my annual income

  • and so recently, it hasn't been getting much love.

  • I basically just post the occasional post there

  • but until I expand my team,

  • I need to focus on what really matters.

  • Next up, I looked at Instagram.

  • And Instagram is something that

  • I've always really loved doing.

  • I love editing photos.

  • For me, that doesn't feel like work.

  • It feels like a hobby.

  • But I did find that Instagram is a place where

  • it's hardest for me to find authority.

  • It's hardest to be different from everybody else.

  • It doesn't give you a ton of space to do that.

  • With photos and Instagram Stories being limited

  • to 15 seconds

  • and Instagram audiences generally having a much more limited

  • attention span.

  • Trust me, they're like goldfish compared to YouTube.

  • I found that it was not really my platform.

  • And even though it accounted for maybe 30%

  • of my annual income through branded work,

  • I decided to

  • put a little bit less emphasis on it.

  • I went from posting every day

  • to every second day to now posting

  • every three or four days.

  • And with that being said,

  • I have doubled down on YouTube.

  • It is the place I love to post.

  • It's the place where I have a real community

  • where I can talk to you, I can get to know people,

  • I feel like I give value and it returns itself

  • so many ways.

  • Of course, one of them is definitely the financial way

  • but another is just like meeting people on the street

  • and them being like,

  • "Christian, I just came from the Philippines,

  • "I used your itinerary,

  • "it was the best trip of my life."

  • Or,

  • "Hey, Christian, I just got that new camera

  • "you recommended.

  • "I'm loving it."

  • It's those moments right there

  • that are just as rewarding as the fact

  • that it's able to put a roof over my head.

  • So YouTube is the place I have doubled down on.

  • I wanna emphasize again

  • what's right for me might not be right for you

  • but you need to ask yourself these questions because

  • you only have 24 hours in a day

  • and if you try to do everything,

  • you might not do as well as you had

  • if you'd just focus on one or two of them.

  • And on to the next one.

  • Choose a niche and build a brand.

  • When you think of Lost LeBlanc, well what do you think of?

  • You probably think of blue ass water,

  • you probably think of high quality information

  • and visual storytelling,

  • you probably think of chiseled features

  • and dad jokes...

  • (cymbal crash sound effect)

  • And of course, the occasional cringy moment.

  • It's what makes this channel different

  • than everybody else's channel.

  • Let's face it,

  • I'm not the only travel channel on YouTube,

  • but I came to be one of the biggest and fastest growing

  • by finding ways to differentiate myself

  • from everybody else.

  • One of the best ways I've been able to do that

  • is laser focusing on a subject I loved

  • which is Southeast Asia.

  • Focusing on the places that make me really happy,

  • which are Thailand, Bali,

  • Philippines, and just going into those places,

  • giving people high quality information

  • in ways that they had never seen before.

  • You need to ask yourself this question.

  • Am I an entertainer?

  • Am I somebody that is maybe a bit more serious

  • but focuses really well

  • on the details and the information?

  • Are you somebody that enjoys

  • taking a time lapse and flying a drone around

  • or would you rather just do talking head videos?

  • For this to be sustainable,

  • you have to make the channel based around

  • who you are as a person.

  • It's gonna be challenging if it's not something

  • that you feel compelled to do.

  • You need to ask yourself

  • what kind of channel can I make?

  • And what kind of channel should I make?

  • These are all the pieces that will make your channel

  • what it is.

  • It's the thing that makes it different

  • from every other channel.

  • I wanna warn you about one of the things

  • that most new content creators fall into

  • and that is following the cookie cutter format

  • for videos, for photos.

  • From shooting the same photos to filming the exact same

  • meaningless vlog content,

  • I highly recommend you don't fall into the trap

  • that so many people do.

  • I understand that when you're a beginner,

  • you need to learn what your channel is

  • and it won't make sense to your right away.

  • But from the very beginning, I challenge you

  • to find those ways to make yourself different.

  • Focus on your personal strengths

  • and really hone in on them.

  • Some of my most successful YouTube videos

  • are the ones where I was trying to push the envelope

  • and try new things.

  • When I traveled to the Philippines,

  • it hadn't really been previously documented on YouTube.

  • So I started giving people travel information.

  • Those videos really took off

  • and the world rewarded me for it.

  • Early on in YouTube, not many people were making

  • travel guides, let alone backing them up

  • with beautiful footage to show what the places look like.

  • It's the reason that some of these videos

  • got millions of view

  • and on Facebook, even tens of millions of views

  • because people had never seen it presented

  • in such a enjoyable way.

  • Give people a reason to say,

  • "Wow, I have never seen it done like this

  • "or I've never seen this subject covered.

  • "I need to subscribe because there's no where else

  • "I can get this content."

  • You need to become irreplaceable

  • and not just another one of the sheep.

  • Don't be a sheeple

  • pers--

  • a sheep person.

  • A sheep people.

  • Don't be a sheeple.

  • Another extension of that,

  • don't use cheesy travel quotes in your Instagram bio.

  • I'm looking at you,

  • "Not all those who wander are lost."

  • I'm looking at you.

  • On to the next,

  • your content needs to be good.

  • Not that good, but it does need to be good.

  • Now that may sound very obvious, but

  • I wanna really explain what that means.

  • You know, I've always said

  • the story comes first.

  • It comes before your camera,

  • it comes before the transitions and the editing

  • that you use, but

  • even though story's important,

  • you need to make it a digestible,

  • a palpable video that somebody can enjoyably watch.

  • If they're watching it on the big screen, on their iPhone,

  • are they able to enjoy it

  • or is it just this rocky rollercoaster of a video

  • that looks like you shot it

  • inside of a crashing airplane?

  • I used to have videos like that

  • and people used to comment all the time

  • how they literally had to leave my channel

  • because my videos were so shaky.

  • So how do you avoid that?

  • Two things.

  • Maybe a lotta things.

  • But you need to invest in the right equipment.

  • Certain cameras are naturally just better tools

  • for what you need to do.

  • Now I'm not gonna tell you what that tool should be

  • but it took me a long time to figure out

  • the right setup, and it's still not the perfect setup.

  • But it does allow me to get high quality content

  • and people really appreciate it.

  • I really don't wanna discourage anyone from shooting

  • with the phone in their pocket right now

  • because that can be the best starting point.

  • But just be asking yourself these questions.

  • How can I make my videos better?

  • One other part to that is gonna be your editing.

  • Get started now with your limited editing abilities

  • and build up into being a high quality video editor.

  • Through practice and repetition,

  • your videos will go from looking like this...

  • (club music)

  • We made it to Taipei.

  • To something just like this.

  • (upbeat music)

  • It's possible for anyone because I did it too.

  • One of the most important parts of all of this

  • is to build a community.

  • And one thing I wanna emphasize more than anything else

  • is that each and every single person

  • that comments, that likes,

  • that comes across your channel matters.

  • Your channel, this channel is absolutely nothing

  • without the people that get behind it.

  • You are reliant on these people who come in

  • and watch your videos,

  • the people that follow you on Instagram.

  • Without them, your channel, your business

  • is nothing.

  • Myself, I have been very fortunate.

  • I've been able to grow community on multiple platforms.

  • I've had so many incredible people

  • pour in their support

  • and with that, comes a lot of messages.

  • One of the biggest guilts I wear

  • is when I look at a message and I'm like,

  • "If I respond to that message, and the next message,

  • "and the next message, and all of the messages

  • "from the other thousand people that have messaged me

  • "this week, I won't be able to do

  • "what I'm doing in the first place."

  • And so, yes, you have to prioritize your time,

  • but I think that it is incredibly important,

  • especially in your early stages and in the late stages

  • to make sure there's always that active communication

  • going on with your community.

  • Make sure you're giving back to the people

  • that give you so much.

  • Make sure that you're commenting when you can.

  • Make sure that if people are telling you,

  • "Look, we don't like the direction your channel's headed,"

  • that you're actually listening to them.

  • You can't always listen to everyone,

  • but at least know what your core audience

  • is trying to tell you.

  • Because at the end of the day,

  • again, you're nothing without them.

  • If you have a thousand followers and you lose a follower,

  • it's like okay, that kinda sucks.

  • If you have a million followers and you lose one,

  • well what does it really matter?

  • They're just another drip in the pond.

  • I have met big content creators

  • and that mindset is starting to bite them in the butt.

  • Every single person that pours in matters.

  • And I also wanna talk about the mid-size to small

  • content creators

  • 'cause all the time, I meet people who are like,

  • "Oh, I only have 20,000 Instagram followers,"

  • or,

  • "Oh, I only have 2,000 YouTube subscribers,"

  • I want to tell you this right now

  • because it's one of the most important things

  • you'll ever hear about your channel.

  • It is less important how big your audience it is,

  • it is more important how engaged

  • and connected you are with these people.

  • It's something that becomes challenging to do

  • as your channel gets larger

  • is to have that intimate connection.

  • But there are people who have a thousand follower audiences

  • that are making full-time income

  • that are able to enrich a thousand people's lives

  • because they have such a close connection with them.

  • So never underestimate the size of your audience

  • or anybody else's.

  • I actually had this one email come in

  • from another guy one day.

  • I think he had 5,000 subscribers on YouTube.

  • But he was telling me that he was basically making

  • 100k or more off of that 5,000 followers.

  • He was showing me just how powerful it is

  • if you have a strong audience.

  • It's the idea that it's better to have

  • a thousand screaming fans than it is

  • to have a million subscribers that don't even remember

  • who you are or why they subscribe.

  • So, really focus on building that early audience,

  • that community, make sure you give them a brand identity

  • they can latch onto and want to support,

  • and don't forget that behind every single view,

  • every single like is a real person

  • that has actually made a sacrifice

  • of their own personal time to give you that support.

  • The same logic applies just as much to me.

  • To any of you who are still listening to me babble on,

  • I wanted to say thank you so much for being here.

  • Every single one of you.

  • You are the reason my channel has become

  • what it is today

  • and I attribute all my success to you.

  • Thank you so much.

  • Ba ba ba ba ba

  • Become an expert on a subject.

  • If you wanna be successful on social media

  • if you wanna make a living out of this,

  • you're going to need to find a subject

  • that you can find authority over.

  • My expertise is travel, but in particular,

  • it's Southeast Asia.

  • Almost anyone who comes to Southeast Asia

  • who's an English speaker has seen at least

  • one or two of my videos,

  • whether they recognize me or not.

  • Why is that?

  • Well it's because I know the trending locations,

  • I know the overrated destinations,

  • I know the best places to go for families and their kids.

  • I know the best places to travel for people

  • who are looking for incredible nightlife and solo travel.

  • I give people tons of information

  • and I give it to them in a presentation that they enjoy.

  • That is something that has taken me years to craft

  • but I've gotten to a place where I am an authority

  • over a certain subject.

  • It's this very same authority that has allowed me to

  • monetize through selling travel guides,

  • that has enable me to have so many other opportunities

  • opened up to me.

  • In addition to that, over the years,

  • I've become an expert in videography and photography.

  • I've basically become a one man production house

  • that teaches people how I do it.

  • I became a self-proclaimed expert by basically

  • just going out there and doing.

  • Learning from YouTube, using cameras every single day

  • and using lots of them, shooting them in all conditions,

  • making everything from vlogs to documentaries,

  • I have a wide array of experience in all of this

  • and it's what gives me again,

  • the credibility to be able to share with other people

  • and monetize this information.

  • If you're a vegan, if you're a weightlifter,

  • if you're a Canadian, if you're a free diver,

  • these are all unique things about you

  • that people wanna learn more about.

  • And if you can convey the information,

  • if you can share that lifestyle or something about it

  • that people wanna watch, you become an authority.

  • So naturally, it's best to find the things

  • you're already doing but some of these expertises

  • will come with time

  • as you invest yourself more and more in that subject.

  • That is what happened with me in Southeast Asia

  • and videography, photography.

  • My 10th and final tip

  • for anyone that wants to make a living

  • as a travel videographer, photographer, influencer,

  • whatever you wanna label it,

  • is to be flexible.

  • Now what does that mean?

  • Well, flexibility is really just the willingness

  • to go with the flow.

  • Being able to adapt,

  • being willing to accept the uncomfortable.

  • Maybe you're used to comfortable North America

  • but now you're going to be staying in hostels

  • for the next 30 days.

  • Maybe you're used to having your mom cook you breakfast

  • but now you're eating street food 10 meals in a row

  • just to keep costs low.

  • That is flexibility.

  • Maybe you wanted to make all your money

  • doing photography gigs,

  • but you haven't had one in a month

  • and somebody just offered you the job

  • of babysitting their child.

  • Be flexible, be willing to take on these little

  • odd jobs here and there,

  • and be willing to do anything and everything it takes

  • to get your business to where you want it to be

  • so that one day you don't have to do those things anymore.

  • Flexibility is like, one of then number one things

  • to making this work in a career field that is so uncertain

  • and unpaid.

  • For those of you that just show up,

  • buy the one-way ticket, go with the flow,

  • you will find ways to make it work

  • and a lot of the times, it won't be in the way you planned.

  • A lot of the time, the plan gets thrown out the door

  • and new brighter, more exciting opportunities arise.

  • But one thing is for sure,

  • it's gonna take sacrifice, it's gonna take

  • a lotta hard work, and most of all,

  • you just gotta commit.

  • If this is the thing you wanna do,

  • it's the day today to make it happen.

  • I hope you enjoyed this video.

  • A bit about how I make my money,

  • how I call this my career,

  • and how you can one day call it your career.

  • You could be the next one sitting in this chair.

  • Probably not this actual chair but like,

  • a chair, sharing your information with so many people.

  • And I really take this seriously because

  • this information is what made my life better.

  • I went from being at a job where I was miserable,

  • a lifestyle that I hated,

  • and I now am in a place where I love every single day,

  • even when it means being on that laptop over there

  • for 12 hours because the edit wasn't finished.

  • It is the thing that makes me happy.

  • I just hope for anyone that wants something similar,

  • they make it happen.

  • If you wanna learn about anything I talked about

  • from e-products, to Patreon,

  • it's all gonna be linked down below.

  • And you guys already know,

  • new videos every single Saturday.

  • Smash that subscribe button,

  • smash the bell button,

  • hit the thumbs up thing

  • and let's get lost again

  • in the next one.

- You wanna travel the world and get paid?

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