Mac Candee: Interview with a Content Creator

Mac Candee is a talented travel influencer who creates breathtaking content across many social platforms like TikTok with 270K followers! Especially his self-taken videos about the most authentic and adventurous destinations are just amazing. His talent to create videos with great storytelling made him feature in UNILAD as well! Although Mac Candee wasn’t in social media for many years, he is already growing his channels very fastly and targeting to be one of the superstars of travel influencers! Let’s continue with our questions to Mac Candee!

Biography of Mac Candee

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Mac Candee ? (@worldnomac)’in paylaştığı bir gönderi

Where does your inspiration come from about traveling? Was there any special incident or a person to inspire it?

Yes. I would say I wasn’t really into traveling as much when I was growing up. I did some road trips around the United States, but nothing really stuck out. My older brother who’s four years older than me was doing quite a bit of traveling during his college and at the end of his college career between studying abroad and some backpacking trips. I had some sort of inspiration there and he basically told me “You know, you should study abroad”. So I went and studied abroad in Seville, Spain in the fall of 2012 and I had the absolute time of my life. I went to maybe eight different countries, and really experienced the world and I would say, that changed the world for me, that completely reshaped my mindset.

From then on, I knew I wanted to explore a lot more of the world but I was a college kid, I was building up a lot of student debt. At the time, I knew that this was just a short-term thing. So when I got back, I went to only one country, by the time I finished college two years later, which was India. And that one, you know, was an absolute culture shock. So after that point, I had to go into the corporate world and start making some money because I had a bunch of student loans. So, I had the goals in the back of my mind, but it was still far off from, you know, doing the traveling that I’m doing today.

How did you decide to become a full-time traveler? How does it feel to leave other things behind and going into such an adventure?

So I actually know exactly where I was when I fully committed to this. It was in February of 2016. I took some time off work and went did a 10 day trip to Thailand with my brother in Tonsai bay. I knew I was going to love Southeast Asia, there’s just a charm about it – every traveler I know is mesmerized by it. And it just blew my breath away. I was enamored with the beauty all around me, but also struck by just how cheap everything was. I was meeting so many amazing people, and I had never felt as fulfilled as I did right then and there.

By the time, I had just started reading a book by nomadic Matt, who is a very famous travel blogger. He wrote a book on how to travel the world on $50 per day. But there was a big problem in place, I still had $60,000 probably $65,000 in debt at that point, and I was only one year into my corporate career. But that day, I knew that in the future, I would take the plunge and journey around the world. I just didn’t know when or how. It all seemed very distant at that point, but I knew it’s what I wanted to do.

Fast forward over the next couple of years, I put together a very, very rigorous plan, which included everything from paying off my debt, saving money, and getting my life where it needed to be for me to travel the world. I didn’t want to be careless about it, since I had worked so hard to get where I was on the corporate ladder and I still had debt. Being responsible for this decision was a priority, and I’m really thankful that I made it one because all beginnings are difficult. You can check it out for yourself here: https://www.worldnomac.com/full-time-travel-planning

After making my plan, it was just about sticking to it and waiting for the right moment. And I will tell you the last year and a half before I left my corporate job, every morning I would look at my countdown timer until the day that I was able to leave.  It was really starting to take a toll on me because I knew where I was meant to be. I was meant to be out traveling the world and working on my content creation career. And, you know, at that time, I had no idea if I was going to make it, but it’s what I wanted to go after.

How does it feel to leave other things behind going into such an adventure?

Honestly, it is the best way to explain it’s a whirlwind of emotions. There is a massive amount of excitement, nervousness, and a lot of judgment. You can’t help but think, you know, what are all my friends thinking? What do all these very inspirational and influential personalities I’ve worked through in the corporate world, what are they going to think? How is everyone going to judge me? What is my family going to think? There were just all those things running through my head.

But the reality is, whenever you do something that’s not as common, people judge it because they don’t understand it. And you can’t necessarily blame them for it. It’s just that comes with the territory when you’re going into the unknown. It’s important to keep in mind when you’re going after any sort of venture, that there’s going to be a lot of fear, doubt, and uncertainty, especially from the people closest to you. They’re the most influential, and they’re usually going to be the ones that doubt you the most. You can expect to hear all kinds of questions like: Are you sure you want to do this? Why do you want to leave your job – you’re in a really good position, etc., etc.

Even so, I was extremely excited. It was what I had planned for the year. It actually took probably a full month for it to set in that I had left my corporate job, and I’m traveling the world full time. I was euphoric, but on some days I woke up full of doubt. I would ask myself: Oh, my God, what am I doing with my life? Still, every single day, I couldn’t be more excited to wake up and work on the next project travel to the next place, because it’s truly what I love. And I feel like I’m making an impact on others.

You are especially good at video taking and editing! How did you learn all about it? You’re self-learned or took any paid training?

So I need to properly credit myself before I talk about any paid training, I learned a lot. I taught myself a lot. I made a couple of clips when I was a skateboarder when I was like 10, or 11, so even back then I was interested in video making. In 2012 when I studied abroad in Spain, I wanted to remember the experiences, and photos just wouldn’t do it justice. So I took out my camera and made some short films. Very, very simple videos definitely. If you want to see what those early stages look like, go to my YouTube channel and scroll down to the first videos I ever made. You’ll see that we all have to start somewhere.

As the years went by, I got passionate about content creation probably in 2018, about one and a half years before I actually quit my job in August 2019. So I started to create videos once per week, even though I wasn’t always able to keep up with that schedule. Even so, it was giving me the opportunity to learn and get better. From then on, I just continued to practice – because the reality is with anything you do in life, practice makes perfect. I found out soon enough that the number one most important thing is to just keep creating.

A lot of people believe it’s overnight fame when you start with content creation. I see so many people, they try 1, 2, 3, maybe even 10 times, and then they’re just done. They give up because they simply don’t understand that it takes time and you need to build your brand. You’re nobody for a long, long, long, long, long time. And eventually, people start trusting your content, whether it’s because you gave them a good recommendation or because you provided some form of entertainment. After that, you start to get brand recognition. But it takes time. The pyramids were not built overnight. That’s one of my most favorite sayings ever since I got into content creation.

But going back to the question, most of all of my content creation skills was self-learned by observation, as well as trial and error and figuring out what works. I was also always watching big vloggers that have already made their careers so that I can learn from them. Back in March of 2020, I joined the Lost Creator Academy which is by Christian Leblanc, one of the most famous travel vloggers on the planet and I had that extra time because of COVID-19. I’ve always liked Christian Leblanc, I’ve really enjoyed his content, so I decided to join his program to fill in a lot of the gaps on the business side of things. Also, I was hoping it’ll help me be more of an efficient editor. I did that course, and I would say it helped a fair amount – I would highly recommend it to anyone.

But some people that I know that I have joined the Lost Creator Academy and they think if they join it and do all the classes, then magically, they’re going to become very big on social media. The reality is, everyone has their own niche, and you need to work at it to build that brand. Generally, with whatever courses you do, take as much as you can out of them.

But remember that you are the creator, and showing what you’re passionate about alongside the value you can provide the world is really the key.  I have to say that the biggest benefit to The Lost Creator Academy, is that it’s given me a community of creators. I’ve met with people all around the world, which has been a whole new form of bettering my skills. When you spend time with other creators, you’re learning all different types of things, like What’s their style? How are they shooting things? What’s their way of editing? Etc. There are so many different things you advance in just by being out with people.

Personally, learning by experience is my number one favorite way to learn anything in life.

Mac Candee

That was the only paid training I ever did for this type of content creation. I mean, I maybe took a media class one class in college, but I wouldn’t even count that because I forgot what it was about when I was in college.

You’re active on many social media channels, including Instagram, Tik Tok, YouTube, and also on the blogging part of your website. How do you manage to find time to create for all these mediums, meanwhile you are traveling full time? Do you get any professional service? Or is it all done by you?

I learned a lot going into the corporate world, I built my career up there. I would consider that I have 10 years of corporate experience, even though I worked just over four and a half years. That’s because my work week was 80 to 100 hours most of that time. I got double the amount of experience an average person working nine to five gets. With that I was able to build up my career, I learn managerial practices and be in charge of teams operating at that company.

I learned a lot of things that I’m able to use now, like how to manage massive amounts of projects. With that, I look at my YouTube channel, completely like a business. It is my passion, but it is a business and I treat it like one. I’m trying to grow in a saturated market, so I planned to invest money to make money. And that is what I’ve been doing over the last two years, almost two years since I quit my job. To do this, I’ve been bringing on the right people at the right time, so that they can help make some of these things happen.

I’ve tried to take things in different parts because I want things to happen really fast. The pandemic was probably one of the best things that happened for my business. If I’m being honest, it’s probably the only reason why I made it through the hard parts. For a while, I thought I wasn’t going to make it in content creation because I wasn’t being consistent with my traveling schedule. I took a step back and said, alright, what am I doing here?

At first, I was only doing YouTube and Instagram. It was hard to keep up with the videos while I was exploring the world since I was a fast-paced traveler. And when you’re in a new place every few days, you will not be able to get work done. For me, in order to edit a video, I really need to get into a different headspace and think of the story and how I can tell it best. It’s not something I can just pick up for five minutes at it here and then put it down.

That’s when the pandemic started and I suddenly had all this time on my hands. That was March 2020, and that’s when I really thought – What do I want to do with this YouTube channel? What has worked this to this point and what is not? And I started to realize that the main things that have pushed me forward are things like things to do videos. Those are in demand, people really enjoy them and they help people. Not to mention, I get asked all the time “What should I do at x place when I go here?” So it’s nice when I can send them a blog or a YouTube video of mine.

Once I started to figure out exactly what type of business I wanted to run, I started to build out different branches of it. The first thing I was working on a course on how to travel the world and plan your life to travel full time. It isn’t about making money as a content creator, just simply how to go about the transition period. It’s meant for everyone, even if wanted to travel, or become a digital nomad, or work for the same company, but while traveling full time. While I was building this course, I used a Facebook group in order to ask people for feedback on what they thought of the first I think 10 episodes.

Through that, I was introduced to a handful of people who were able to help me. There was one specifically that really put a lot of effort into it, and her name is Detelina. She went above and beyond to a whole another level, brought so much value, gave such good feedback, and offered a completely new perspective that was missing from the content that I was creating, as well as giving me a lot of great new ideas. Very quickly, we started working together on some other projects and I’ve been working with her ever since. It’s been a very positive experience overall.

Now that that course has been done for a while, she’s helped do a lot of content writing. For example, the workflow is that I create 10 things to do a YouTube video. Typically, I cover most of the things that I want to include in the blog post. So she will go ahead and basically transcribe that and use her creative writing skills to turn it more into a blog post. That’s because I look at each one of my types of content as a different audience.

Some people like blogs, some people like YouTube videos, some people like short-form Tik Tok content, not everyone has the same attention span. The more that I can offer, the better! Especially when I’ve already created the content to a certain level. She gets those transcribed, gets them set up for me and I’m able to use all the photos I edit for Instagram as the blog post photos. She also helps me write some of the ebooks. Once again, it’s a similar process – we coordinate on for example – the best road trip or the ultimate road trip in the United States. She transcribes all of that, and then we built it out with a lot more recommendations, information, and graphic design, collectively. Together as a team, we’ve been able to accomplish so much just through a series of setting up processes that worked for both of us.

Later in the year, I brought on a virtual assistant who has helped me plan a lot of the travel. If I’m going to a place, she’ll help do research on what are the best things to do in that destination. We have a shared electronic Notepad, where we have all the recommendations, cheap eats, and everything else. She helped me put together a day-by-day itinerary for logistics reasons, or if it’s going to be fast-paced travel. If I’m moving quickly she helps me put together an itinerary, so that I know the best way to get to and from the airport, and generally things that help make my travel life easier. The collaboration works out really because I can also use a lot of those tips in travel guides as well. It really kills two birds with one stone as they say.

I also have another team member who manages my QuickBooks – or all my expenses and income. On a monthly basis, he puts together a report that’s profit and loss sheets and balance sheets and everything related to the financials of WORLD NOMAC LLC. In this way, I don’t even have to think about my finances when it comes to management or tracking for tax purposes or just knowing where my business stands from a profitability standpoint.

I also have another person who converts my Tik Tok and YouTube videos to Facebook videos. He specifically specializes in that he’s a newer team member. But once again, this is content that’s already been created. I have so much content that I’ve already made, and that’s how you repurpose it for other channels. And as with everything – you have to find the right person to do that.  For him, this is his specialty.  It’s going quite well, it’s only started in the last two weeks.

That’s in general how I do it. It’s an ever-growing process, and it changes. Not every person that I’ve had work with me, is still with me, there are some people that didn’t work out. But the thing is – it’s a business. The thing about bringing people on is you can’t be the best at everything. You have to find people that are experts at various things and have them help you.  I will say that is one of the most powerful things when you want to create a lot of content, but you’re just one person.

So this was quite a long answer but I get this question a lot and I think it is very good to have this one as a very detailed answer because a lot of people just don’t understand how I’m able to create so much content. The key is I have a really, really amazing set of people that are helping me achieve these goals.

So I found that when I travel fast pace, I need to follow it up with like three weeks to a month type of slow-paced travel to get everything done.

Right now I’m doing a two-month break from traveling because I have some commitments going on. This is great because I can actually catch up on all my work. It helps me to plan my business, take a look at what’s working, what’s not, what should I stop doing, what should I continue doing or put more effort into. Having these breaks as a full-time traveler, I would say is really healthy both for me mentally, as well as for my business. It allows me to keep things going and makes sure that I have time to sit down, think and catch up on all the content. It’s not easy. It’s a lot to handle. But it’s worth it to be able to help others and change people’s lives by introducing them to travel destinations that they may not have once been exposed to.

You have been featured on Unilad. Could you tell us about its process, you applied them to be featured or they find you out?

Unilad must have come across my Tik Toks because I get a lot of pretty big influencers – either brands or specific people that want to feature me, especially in 2021. It’s really had a snowball effect. But almost all of the time, it’s through my Tik Toks, because of the Tik Toks I’ve had such a crazy amount of reach. Just in 2021, I want to say I’ve already had like 30 million views. As you can imagine 30 million people, that’s a lot of possibilities for reach travel companies.

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UNILAD Adventure (@uniladadventure)’in paylaştığı bir gönderi

Unilad, for example, they’re an aggregator of the best travel adventures around the world, right. And they’re always on the lookout for trending videos, and I’ve had a lot of trending videos that people have been very interested in. They came across my content in Dubai and they just reached out to me on Instagram to be featured and so I said yes. After they featured me there I let them know that hey, by the way, I am also creating a similar series but on Egypt so check out my Tik Toks. They really liked these videos and they featured me on their Facebook videos. So I am not sure to be honest if you can reach out to them and have them check out your content, but in my process, they found me.

What did traveling teach you? Did it change you as a person?

Yeah, I would say traveling is the strongest form of education that I’ve ever received. It has made me who I am today, changed the stereotypes I had when I was growing up and it’s given me my own perception of the world. It’s provided me with a guide to my life. Honestly, I was quite lost, I didn’t know what I wanted to do or where I wanted to go. I was always so scared that I never was going to find my passion.

And now I could say I’ve never been more fulfilled in my life, I’ve never been happier. Because every day I wake up and I do what I want and I have an impact on others. There’s nothing more important to me than getting messages from people saying, “Wow, if it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t have ever found this place or thanks for being my inspiration to travel the world, like I was never into traveling until I saw your content. “All these things made me who I am today. And I’d say it’s completely changed me.

Next question, do you have any memory or adventure that you don’t forget about? 

I’d say probably my study abroad experience. I think about it quite often, it comes up in conversations all the time because people ask me quite frequently, how’d you get into traveling? Where were the first countries you went to? And I just tell people – if there’s anything you can do in college, study abroad. It’ll give you an experience that is unprecedented, inequivalent to any other type of schooling you can get in my opinion, and you’ll meet some amazing people.

I’d say that’s a memory I constantly think about and I’m very grateful that I had that opportunity. Obviously, it’s not cheap to do that – I took out student loans to do that. At least in the United States, there are ways to do it, if you can afford it. But even though I had to pay it back, it was the best investment I ever made in myself. 

How do you finance your trips? Are you able to make money from your Instagram?

I saved up in the corporate world. I wanted to become a content creator but I didn’t want to become a freelance photographer and videographer. For me, those are two completely separate trades. Now, I do somewhat argue that when I work with brands, that’s technically freelance, but I consider them wanting to work with my brand WORLD NOMAC LLC. I wanted to build a brand that was fully focused on my content. And I say that in a non-self-aggrandizing way, I knew that the more I focused on other people’s work, the less I would focus on mine, and the harder it would be to scale. So I stayed in the corporate world longer and I built this into my plan, to have money to last and invest in my business, and pay for my trips for the first couple of years.

During those couple of years, I would slowly start to turn my expenses into profit. I would turn my videos into monetizable assets. Now I look at the SEO possibilities for my YouTube videos – if they’re going to get traction. Because your videos will usually get traction for about four years until they slow down. And I look at each video as a mini profit machine. How much can this make over the next couple of years?

Say I’ll go to a place like Tulum. I might make four or five videos. And maybe I’ll pay the trip out of my own pocket right now. But let’s say one of my Tulum videos alone is bringing in like $87 per month right now. So per month, every single month that Tulum video is bringing me an $87. And it’s only continuing to grow and grow. And that’s only one of four of the videos. To be in Tulum for one month, cost me less than $2,000.

@worldnomac

How far can $100 last you in Tulum, Mexico #cheaptravel #travelcheap #tulum #tulummexico

♬ Paradise – Ikson

So I do all these trips, and they retroactively start paying for each other. Obviously, I’ve done this for a while now and my previous travels are paying for future trips. I look at this whole thing as a massive investment in my business and my brand – it funds the whole experience. The reality is, though is it takes time. You’ll hear that throughout this whole interview – it takes time and you need to be patient.

From Instagram, I don’t make any money. Instagram, in my opinion, is dying, to a certain extent. If you’re really focused on reels – Instagram might still be alive. And you might still be able to build a following. I know a couple of people who have been very successful with it. But there are so many Instagram influencers, that it’s hard for your page to be found. That’s the harsh reality. I know a lot of new people, they spend all their time posting Instagram photos, and they’re just frustrated because they’re like, I’m posting every day I’m consistent, I’m doing x, y, z, how come I’m not growing?

The reality is that it’s saturated and it’s much harder to grow. That’s why you need to leverage platforms like Tik Tok. My last 1500-2000 followers on Instagram in the last 12 months since I’ve had my Tik Tok account have come from there.  I’ve posted over 450 videos in the last 13 months, and I have 150,000 followers from it – but that’s taken quite a bit of time. Some people they’ll just post one video and it’ll get like 5 million views and all of a sudden have 60,000 followers. So no journey is the same, I’ll tell you that. But persistency is key and chasing the newest platforms will help you achieve your goal.

What’s the hardest part of your job?

I would say it’s changed. In the beginning, it was fear. Fear of judgment, of failing, of not making it, of putting myself out there and looking like an idiot, because I just started and I could barely talk to the camera. It wasn’t natural for me. If you go back and look at my first couple of videos, they’re so cringe-worthy. At that time, those were the hardest things. Now it’s transitioned to balance. Balance right now is by far the hardest thing for me. I’m always asking myself – how do I see the world and still get content put out?

Right now I’m on the other side of the scale. I’m not traveling at all. I’m working 12 hours a day, I’m still doing stuff on the weekends with my friends back in my hometown. But I’m working nonstop to catch up on all there is to do and then when I start traveling again, I’ll be back to imbalance. Because I’ll be traveling nonstop and I’ll feel guilty if I’m not constantly editing content, which I’m not because I don’t want to miss out on the experience.

Finding balance is what it’s evolved into. Now, the whole worry of what others think of me, I don’t care anymore because there are so many people’s lives who I’m helping out through Tik Tok and YouTube that have expressed so much gratitude. People that I used to fear judgment from – they’re just completely irrelevant to me now.

Where do you see yourself for the future? How’s the process of monetizing your job? Any advice for travelers bloggers and content creators?

So that’s another very big question, I would say. I’m looking to build a travel brand. Hopefully, I’m looking to become a top 10 Tik Toker or travel influencer in the world in the next 12 months. I have really high expectations for myself that I am investing my entire life, to visit every country on the planet. I want to make recommendations and change the perception of the world. Because I believe, unfortunately, that media provides an outlook that is specific to your country of origin, or how you were raised. But the reality is, the more that you can go and experience through your own eyes, the more you’re going to understand how the world operates. That has made me who I am today.  This has ignited a burning passion in me to share as much of the world as possible. And that is my life goal now.  

Building my following is my number one goal, yes. But it’s not at all so I can say, hey, look how many followers I have. That’s not why I’m doing this. It’s because I know that my content is very valuable. And I know that the more people that follow me, the more people I can reach. And that’s why it’s my target goal. I am mainly focused on YouTube and Tik Tok. Those are my two most important platforms.

I’ve never made any money from Instagram. For some niches, you don’t need to even have 1000 followers to start making money. But for what I’m doing, you only get free stuff if you want to promote it on Instagram, and I’m not looking to sell watches to my audience. That’s not something that I’m interested in. For me, I see that YouTube has a monetization program where they play advertisements before, during, and after your videos. And I find that to be a very lucrative means of income.

The problem is – it takes a lot of time. As I mentioned earlier in the interview, you don’t build a pyramid overnight. When I first started traveling in the first four months, I only made $300 on YouTube ad revenue. That was after probably already posting like 40 or 50 videos. Now fast forward almost 200 videos on my channel and a lot of videos are getting a great amount of traction. It’s a dependable income stream that comes in and it’s pretty consistent and it keeps going up as I post more videos. So I find it to be a great one.

With Tik Tok, you make money through the creator fund. You can apply to be in it if you have over 10,000 followers, and then you start getting paid per view. Now it’s just a minuscule fraction of what YouTube pays you because once again, companies that want to advertise to people just like commercials, pay YouTube to advertise. Tik Tok is just paying you out of their funds, to get creators to be able to post on the platform and make somewhat of a living from it. So it’s much less money, but it still is an income stream, and some months when I have viral videos that make a pretty decent amount of money.

But what I would say is more powerful with Tik Tok is the brands that find you through there and they want to partner with you. For a lot of people, they don’t really understand how content creators make money. We make money mainly through brand partnerships because there might be a company that fits your niche, say a travel company, and they see you as the perfect fit to represent their brand. By doing that, you can make a very lucrative amount of money off promoting companies, specifically within your niche –they are usually are the best fit for both you and the brand to promote. Obviously, on Tik Tok, I have the most amount of followers by far, so it’s the most lucrative and it’s a platform that’s growing at lightning speed right now.

Currently, my most lucrative stream of income is through brand partnerships. But there’s also a lot of other ways to make money. For example through affiliate links. Amazon affiliates have an amazing program where if you’re into recommending products, say you’re a tech review channel or some sort of channel that provides recommendations on travel products, you can make a good amount of money. I don’t make that much on it because I rarely recommend products. But I do have it as a page on my website for the gear I use, the cameras I use, and the stuff that I pack with it. Some months, it’ll make a little bit of money some months it won’t.

There’s also another company I work with called viator.com. It’s one of the most popular travel aggregators for excursions in the world. And basically, if I do an excursion and they’re on Viator, I might drop that link in my YouTube video or in my blog, and I’ll make a commission every time someone purchases that excursion. So the aggregator Viator makes money, and I make money off promoting that excursion. All in all – a lot of affiliate links. Some people make most of their money off affiliates. For me, I’d say Viator is probably the most lucrative affiliate.

Other than that, I don’t do that many affiliates with just one-off brands. The important thing to remember is that when you advertise to your audience, they can only take so much before you look like a sellout. Some people just are like, yes, I’m getting a free watch, I can’t wait to, you know, promote this. And we all started there. You know, I did that for a snorkel mask-like three years ago. And I gave them like a minute of real estate in my video talking about the snorkel mask, but you realize that the time you’re giving up takes away from your brand. So the more you promote things, the less authenticity you’re going to have.

So keep that in mind, you can only do so much of it. I also only accept brands that are truly aligned with mine, and that I believe in. I don’t see it as just an ad on my channel, I think that is y, I believe in this company, I’m going to share them with the audience. And since I’m sharing with them, obviously, I’m expecting to get paid by this company, for sharing that. And so it’s important for new creators, to know that while it’s a great feeling to be getting something free, it’s mostly not worth it. I can tell you that the free watch doesn’t pay the bills, that free snorkel mask doesn’t pay the bills. The more you accept these offers, the more you’re taken away from your personal brand.

The reality is there is a limitless amount of ways you can make money online. I also self-publish, as I mentioned earlier in this interview, I have some travel guides that I sell in a full-time travel course workbook. E-products are very lucrative to make money if you can sell them. The reason being is because when you’re self-published, it’s all profit that comes in – besides your website hosting fees. It’s only the time you invested to make the e-product and then it’s an evergreen item that lives forever. So every sale that comes in is pure profit in the future for the work you put in at one point.

Those are some income streams that I’ve worked out for myself. I have a few others like stock footage on stock footage websites, I have a special process for that. As for blog writing, I’m still working on building the revenue streams because for it you need a lot of website traffic in order to make proper ad revenue. So I’m looking into other ways to monetizing the blog. Right now it’s just more of a luxury to have the blog for those people that are more interested in it. But I’m hoping in the next few months, it will be more of a lucrative stream on its own.

In general, though, I have all those revenue streams, but the most important thing people need to remember is that didn’t happen overnight. I’ve been a content creator since probably February 2018, and then in August 2019, I quit my job to be full-time into it. In the last 12 to 15 months, I’ve really focused on getting way better. So it’s taken a long time and only in 2021 has it really seemed to become a sustainable career, that’s going to hopefully one day outweigh what my corporate salary was. It’s trending towards that to happen sooner than later.

I think it’s important to know that you don’t join this type of thing just for the money, you join this because you love it, you join this because every day you are so passionate about it, you can’t wait to provide content to help others whether it’s to make them laugh, whether it’s to inform them, whether it’s to show them somewhere in the world, you’re providing some sort of content to people that add value and that you enjoy doing. And, if you do that you’ll never work a day in your life because you’ll love everything you do. Also, you’ll never burn out because you’re enjoying it. And, so you’ll also be patient that some of it take money.

Don’t get me wrong – there are internet sensations that are making millions overnight, but the reality is your average person doesn’t. Most people don’t get there overnight and will stop and fail because they don’t keep going. The key is to be persistent. Keep going after what you want. And you will find that audience you will start those income streams and you will build the business you’ve always dreamed of. I’m still in the process of it but I can tell you the snowball effect is a real thing.

The first city country you visited as a content creator?

This is a hard question because I don’t know at what point I started to consider myself a content creator. I wanted to be one early on and I was, but I guess sometimes in your mind, it makes you think maybe I need a certain following or a certain level to reach before I’m considered a content creator. But if we’re going to say the first one I visited as a content creator, I’m going to put Spain aside because I was just making videos for fun. I went to India and Brazil, and I made a couple of travel videos but once again, that was just because I wanted to capture a couple of memories.

When I actually realized I wanted to be a content creator, was when I did a three-week trip to Hong Kong, Tokyo, and Thailand – for my second time in Thailand, in November 2017. I recorded all those videos because I was thinking that I could use them. And then when it came to February 2018, then I was like, alright, I’m getting into content creation and I’m going to start editing these videos. And I would say that would probably be the like the first ones.

Three countries that surprised you beyond your expectations?

I would say number one would be Colombia. I had heard great things from a lot of my friends, but I was always apprehensive just from things I heard on the media. Everything around me had made me think Colombia was the most dangerous place to go to, which it had been at one point. But it ended up being one of my most favorite experiences. It’s definitely been my favorite country in South America so far. Also, I met so many people out there that were just absolutely amazing, friendly people.

Number two was Mexico. Actually, I first went there in November 2019, when my friend got married. Back then, I didn’t really fall in love with it that much. I had a really nice time at the wedding, but I didn’t enjoy myself the way I do now. In October 2020, I went back and spent a month in Tulum. And I absolutely loved it! It was so much fun learning the language, exploring the city, getting to know the Mexican culture.

And it’s also so close and easy reach to from the United States. I ended up going back and living in Cozumel for a month and I’ve been back in Playa Del Carmen this year. Overall, I’ve spent a lot more time in Mexico than I expected, and I plan to keep coming back in the future. Because when it’s trending, it’s a great place to make content. Even so, that’s not even the first reason why I would go back. Number one is it’s just an amazing culture with nice, friendly people and so much to do. It’s also very inexpensive.

@worldnomac

The water color alone makes it worth a visit #tiktoktravel #travelportugal #traveleurope

♬ Coastline – Hollow Coves

Number three would be Portugal. I’ve been to Portugal a couple of times. When I first started traveling I briefly went to Porto, Lagos, and Lisbon – and I had a really nice time. I enjoyed those cities but Portugal was one of those places I didn’t expect to come back to very quickly. But, as faith would have it, my brother and cousin are living there right now.

So, I ended up spending three weeks with them. We did some road trips around the country, and we went to a place called the Azores islands, which I had never heard of. It’s a set of islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. I thought these were some of the most stunning volcanic islands I had seen. And so, had I not gone back to Portugal, I may not have ever realized these places existed. I was really shocked by my experience and found these spots in Portugal to be quite beautiful.

The camera and video equipment you use?

I will drop a link in here:

https://www.worldnomac.com/travel-vlogging-gear#resources-my-gear

But in general, it’s been a process. I’ve tried Sony, I’ve tried canon, I’ve tried multiple types of GoPros, and I’ve tried multiple drones. But finally, I have a camera bag that I don’t plan on changing much except whenever a new GoPro comes out. So I have the latest Hero 9 GoPro, I have a DJI Mavic 2 Pro drone, I have a Canon EOS R and I have the GoPro 360 as well. I only use it once in a blue moon, but I have it more as a backup camera.

And then honestly, I use my iPhone 12, you’d be shocked to know but almost all of my Tik Toks besides the drone shots are from my phone. So, I can double purpose my Instagram stories, I actually record them in the camera app rather than in Instagram. Afterward, I use them in my Tik Toks. I also just shoot sometimes horizontally with my iPhone to add to my YouTube vlogs. If I don’t have my camera with me, or I’m trying to be a little bit more inconspicuous, then I will use the phone.

What is the most exciting adventurous activity you had on one of your trips? 

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I would say when I was in Egypt, this was probably one of my favorite activities I’ve recently done. We went to a place called Sibel, took a 12-hour overnight bus ride out about 50 miles from the Libyan border in Egypt. But it was worth it because it’s a true Desert Oasis that you’ve always dreamed of. It’s a town of about 30,000 people and there was so much to do – from ripping through the Sahara desert in four-by-four cars to swimming in salt lakes that are saltier than the Dead Sea. It’s just an overall amazing experience that I really enjoyed. The people there were some of the most welcoming and inviting people that I have ever met. All around – the experience was one for the books.

Have you ever injured?

Knock on wood, I’ve never been seriously injured while traveling, and I hope to never be. I’ve gotten sick, definitely. In Thailand, I ate at a German restaurant and I got a dish called Käse Spätzle at a well-known restaurant in Ko Phi Phi, Thailand, and I got sick as a dog. As you can imagine, for the next couple of days, my experience in Thailand was not very enjoyable, let’s put it that way. Another time in India, I accidentally drank the water there and got very, very sick on my 21st birthday. It took me a couple of days to recover from that. So that was what I would consider being injured. And, to be honest, this happens when you’re traveling. But Geez, I don’t wish it upon anyone because you just do not feel good at all.

So, top three countries with nature? 

First off, not in any specific order – New Zealand is just absolutely stunning. Beautiful, amazing landscapes. Iceland is just out of this world, these volcanic views are truly something else. For number three, I’m going to say French Polynesian islands, because the water just looks like pool water, it’s incredibly stunning. 

Three favorite countries to create content?

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Not in any specific order, I would say I loved creating content in Dubai, Egypt, and Mexico. I think it’s not necessarily because they’re the best for creating content. I would just say that this year, I’ve really brought my content creation to the next level. So I felt the most confident in those places that I’ve ever felt.

Your favorite three countries with its cuisine?

Oh, that is a good question! I would say, once again, not in any specific order. I loved Japanese food, it was delicious. Every meal I had in Tokyo was absolutely phenomenal.

Mexico, I would also put on the list because I just love their food. Quesadillas, tacos – I live for that stuff. That one is an absolute must – getting those authentic tacos. When I go to Mexico, I literally eat that for every single meal. That’s why I have to hit the gym a lot.

And I’m going to add number three on here. Even though I haven’t been here, I’m so obsessed with Italian food. I know that Italy is going to be my number one favorite country for cuisine. So I’m going to put it on there even though I’ve never had it. But I will be going hopefully this year. 

A country that you wish to stay in more?

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I would say Egypt, I had such an awesome experience there. And each city is so different from the other. The stereotypes people have of Egypt being a crazy place aren’t true. No doubt there’s a lot going on in Cairo. I was lucky enough to have an Egyptian show me around. But I’m adding this part in because Egypt was so unique. Every single place I went to had such a different atmosphere than the last, and I just found it to be such an interesting country to explore. Because the level of experiences and the things you could do were so different from one place to another.

Top three beach destinations? 

Oof, that is a great one! I would say once again, not in any specific order – French Polynesia is just the most beautiful place in the world for stunning beaches. I would say also Australia, the beaches are just incredible. Australia was just mind-blowing because you can go to places there with some of the most beautiful beaches and there won’t be any people for miles and miles I’ll fly my drone down the beach and there won’t be a single person there. With Australia being the same size as the continental United States, but with a much smaller population – it’s just mind-blowing how many beaches they have that are just unknown or untouched. I really loved that for a beach destination to hang out.

Also, I would say in general the Caribbean, but if we want to get more specific – I thought Turks and Caicos had really nice beaches. I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s like one of my favorite places in general. Super cool and it was fun to go with a girlfriend, but not a place that blew me away with its culture. It’s more of just a high-end island in the Caribbean with beautiful white-sand beaches.

City or nature?             

I prefer nature. I like to go and explore places. My favorite places actually to go to are usually low-key beach towns. I love the slower-paced lifestyle, beautiful views right on the water. It’s just always such a nice time. And I’ve noticed no matter where I am in the world, whether it’s Goa, India, or San Andres, Colombia, all these places, have a charm to them and they have the lifestyle that I enjoy the most.

Every day you go to the beach, you enjoy what nature has to offer. I like that type of lifestyle. I really like going and exploring super cool places as I mentioned in the other questions – like New Zealand, Azores islands, the volcanic islands, and Iceland. Nature is just such a mind-blowing factor to the whole experience. But don’t get me wrong. I loved my time in Dubai. Cities are still a good time. But if I had to choose – you got it.

Alright and last question: Where is next?

Well, that’s a hard question, obviously, with a pandemic going on. There are a lot of places I have in mind but it really depends on what’s open. But I will either be going to Europe for a couple of months to go to all the countries that I haven’t been to for a few months.

Or, I might be heading over to the Philippines if they’re opened up. I also might head back out to the Middle East. So I guess to answer this question, I don’t really know. But honestly, it’s what I love the most about traveling – a lot of things are unpredictable. So we shall see. Follow my Instagram and you will find out sooner than later.