It’s time to set the record straight, and then send that record out to everyone I know so they understand a bit more about what we do here at Vagabond3 and how we can help you. We’re travel bloggers, which apparently can mean just about anything including nothing at all. So, to be more specific:
We travel : we leave our home and go somewhere else (sometimes down the street sometimes to another time zone) and find stuff that we like.
And
We’re bloggers : while we are doing stuff we like, we take pictures, videos, and notes, which we then share.
Then the really cool stuff happens
We talk about it : We share all the stuff we’ve found out with people we like and who like us so they can do fun stuff too.
That’s what we do. It’s simple. It makes no sense to most people. But, it’s about to make perfect sense to you.
See, we started doing this just for fun, because we love it. It’s a lot of work to just want to do, but so are school and internships. After doing it for a couple years for fun, we got good enough that people wanted to pay us. Why would someone pay us? People pay us because enough people listen to what we have to say and/or because the pictures, videos, and notes we create are something they would like to use for their own company. In that aspect we are like journalists, and in fact sometimes we are journalists.
Here’s the thing, what I just told you is the truth. Maybe it doesn’t make sense to you, maybe you think you could do better, but, the thing is, none of that matters because what I just explained is the physics of the situation and like gravity that definition operates the same if you believe in it or not.
It’s a really fun job, but it is still a job. When we travel, we are usually trying to please several PR people or owners, while making their vision line up with ours. We are up early every day and work way past sunset, and constantly moving with about twenty pounds of gear. Basically, take your job, strap it to your back, and do it on a mountain at 10:30pm – you’d still be able to do it, in fact it might be pretty great for a lot of reasons, but you are still having to get the work done, all of it has to be completely done. This is because once you leave the mountain we have to be able to explain everything we did or didn’t do while there, especially if the client suddenly wants new stuff.
Yes it can seem glamorous and exotic, but really just about any job has it’s perks (my friend Justin worked at Best Buy and got a killer discount…which was glamorous and exotic). Being in travel though, one of the best perks is being able to help people plan their own trips better. We go though a lot so we can find the best ways to help others.
Here’s the best part, we like all of you, in fact we love many of you, and, because of that, we are incredibly eager to help you. We can tell you the cool stuff that we have found, point out sites that a lot of people miss, let you in on the upcoming events we are emailed about on a nearly hourly basis. If we have ever had a conversation, why would you not want to at least spend five seconds and ask us if we have any ideas? Please, if you are going somewhere and want to make the most of your trip or have a question about a destination, let us help you – it’s what we do. It makes us super happy to help and, to be completely honest, when I’m not asked, I feel like all this work I’ve done doesn’t mean anything to the people I care about – if you want to talk about feeling useless, that’s the definition. We will help you have a better time. I mean, it’s your vacation, don’t you want to have the best time possible?
