Before Sharing Your Travel Tales, Consider These Thoughts
Moving along on this series about getting into travel blogging I have some sharing to do today. These are elements of the experience that stand out to me as being unique if not surprising. Some of these include topics and situations one needs to live through to appreciate. You will over time. Here I have some shortcuts; common takeaways, conclusions and perspectives; figured out over time.
You’re An Expert To Someone- Travel is a rather universal language, regardless of the tongue in which it is spoken. Go to a theme park, have a good time, get back and tell your friends who have never been there. Your familiar voice will deliver information and advice of expert status to the traveler who has never done that before.
About 20 years ago I fell in love with cruises. There was no looking back until recently. Taking a pause to consider past efforts, the consistent part is credibility in every way, shape, form, thought, action and intent. No one has all the answers. You have more answers than someone who has not experienced the thing you love and you are writing about. Your excitement level on that chosen topic is/should be addictive. That gets you noticed. Your credible content fuels the future.
Not-so-obvious: the thing you love should have clearly defined direction and goals of its own. Not a good investment of your time: becoming an expert on a brand where there is great disparity between what they promise and what they deliver. Quality endures. Everything else either fades away or comes to an unanticipated yet predictably abrupt end.
“Travel isn’t always pretty. It isn’t always comfortable. Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. But that’s okay. The journey changes you; it should change you. It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. Hopefully, you leave something good behind.”
Anthony Bourdain
Have A Clearly & Vaguely Defined Mission– Huh? How can a mission be clear and vague? When it is a mission of lifetime-length.
Clear: your basic values, often assumed to be set in stone.
Strategically ambiguous: details of how those values will present themselves throughout your life.
As a little boy, at the corner drug store with my mother, I took a piece of candy from the my-level located display. When we got home and I perused the tiny treasure, my mother asked me where it came from. Her tone signaled she already knew, had tried the case and come to a verdict. Decades before video cameras, it was as though she was there.
“If you’re going to lie, make it a big one that’s worth it because you’re not good at it and you will get caught every time”she said. I never forgot that. That stuck. The circumstances upon which that conviction would be tested evolved as did the world. So too has the mission evolved, as easily as we should pass through the seasons of life. It is unbelievably easy to live an entire life without a plan. Your writing efforts can help document today and plan for tomorrow.
Put In Your Time- There is a lot to be said about experience, actual work that is whatever you have decided to do. But let’s not get too ahead of ourselves here. Other than a viral* fluke we hear about from time to time, successful communicators have a deep background in related activities.
Experts with little foundation in their topic are simply actors. I have seen a number of Oscar-winning performances by self-proclaimed experts along the way. They all work from the same playbook. Frankly, I gain more about any brand with focused eye contact than any question I ever thought of or heard someone else ask.
The most impressively focused travel industry leaders I have ever had the pleasure of connecting with? It’s a tie between Viking Chairman Torstein Hagen and Windstar President John Delaney.
The eyes often present more information than the mouth. You have to look for it though. My father might have said “Look ’em in the eye.” Not making eye contact was rude. Like not listening.
Gathering information to write about for your travel blog, look to a variety of trusted sources with a consistent message. Vain people are a good starting place. They are always easy to find and always have something to say.
Don’t Be Afraid. If fear of failure is keeping you from your blogging goal, don’t change the goal, change your tolerance for fear. Fear is not the issue it’s what we do with it in this arena that counts.
When I was 12, my brother the entertainer was in the broadway musical HAIR. In the afternoon before opening night of the show our hometown of Kansas City, I asked him “Aren’t you scared?” and will never forget his reply “Scared?” (as though he had never heard the word before) “To death..but life is not a dress rehearsal Chris. This is it.” You need a story like that tucked away somewhere. Many of them would be better. Access when needed.
A favorite quote I have found to be true: “Everything you ever wanted is on the other side of fear”. Get over fear or do something else with your time.
Don’t Be A Schmuck- That’s a nice way to say don’t be a jerk in Yiddish which would actually be Shmok as memory serves.
Whatever the delivery method of your product, avoid anything even close to petty, irrelevant, inappropriate or beyond documentation. Your thoughts are one thing, your judgemental spin for the sake of clicks quite another. Get one of these instead and focus on content. Getting the facts right is all that really matters.
Pick Your Fights Well- Choose topics you are interested in and look for information about them. When we get past the facts we enter the realm of blogging in its most basic form; someone’s opinion on some topic, trend, thought or news story.
If we are talking about a topic that reasonable people will surely take a side on, be sure you want to get into that ring at all. If you do, be prepared for and react promptly to criticism, discussion and questions. On a rare day, maybe praise and thanks. The topic of “Politics” is a great example of stirring a nest that might require way more time than you want to give it.
If you pick a side, throw your hat in the ring, you’re right there with others who want to yell about something. Is that what you want?
“A ship in a harbor is safe, but it not what ships are built for.”
John A. Shedd
Keep It Real- Every bit of the above comes from a real life situation unfolding right now as our daughter Sydney continues to lead her fearless life. Perhaps with a bit more purpose after putting in a lot of time in a number of diverse situations, under a variety of challenging circumstances. Some were a good fit, others not. This is the kind of person who is, by nature, at their best in forward motion. They don’t let grass grow under their feet and find joy in reinventing themselves throughout life. I suspect that the natural seasons we all go through as we age will be rather boring for her.
Interestingly, her sister was born complete. Whitney’s good choices are all her, both professionally and personally. I’d love to think we had something to do with that but it would be a stretch. She’s always known what she wanted and gone about making that happen in a very palatable and appropriate way. Well, except for deciding she was not going to attend gym class one year. I’m still not sure how she got away with that but it was a personal choice for personal reasons which we respected.
The point of detailing those two stories here: One is a voluminous writer, the other not interested in writing at all. Both really could. So can you.
Prioritize Your Time- If writing is something you want to do, make time to do it. Schedule that if necessary but plan on writing every day. Writing, not publishing. In the early days of blogging, publishing every day was nearly required for any chance of being relevant on any topic. Now, not so much.
Have a talk with whoever you live with if writing is happening at home. Being able to concentrate on the task at hand is rather critical. Those closest to us, the people we live with, are occasionally unable to read our minds. I have often wished I had a flashing red light swirling around on top of my head. Some signal that brilliant writing was taking place.
On the up side, two sets of eyes reading anything you write before publishing is a good rule. I do that for dozens of writers I have come to know over the years. Some every single word they write, others when they are not sure. It’s ok to not be sure.
Don’t Get Too Excited- speaks to embracing the value of a brand beyond a reasonable amount of effort for your return on the topic, regardless of whatever currency you value.
You’re happy to just be traveling?
Great, if that’s the plan. This can be a way to do that. A lot like “Join the Army, See The World” in more ways than you might imagine. Both can cause death, for example.
Want to make a mark on the world?
You’ll need access to a version of travel that supports your long term goals. A system you can work with. Pick a popular one. I’ve spent a lifetime working within whatever system was in place at the time. Some have been honorable, others not so much.
You can’t change the system if you’re not in it Henry.
– Jane Alexander to Robert Redford in Brubaker, 1980
*the short list of words I hate: viral and influencer.
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