HAPPY NEW YEAR! What an exciting, adventurous and spontaneous year 2017 has been — without question, the best year of my life! In this video, I share my top 10 highlights of the year after visiting 43 countries, 79 cities, 6 continents and making hundreds of new friends and thousands of lifelong memories.
365 days ago, on January 1, 2017, Deanna randomly surprised me with a Canon EOSM3, and it inspired me to start making videos. At first, my growth was slow and frustrating — as I only posted about 2 videos on FB per month… But I stuck with it, keep grinding and learning, and 143 videos later, I am humbled to say more than 54 million people have watched my videos.
It’s crazy to look back over the years and see how I’ve transitioned every year to something else. In 2013, I graduated college from UW-Madison. In 2014, I was making a full-time income from teaching English in South Korea. In 2015, I was living off travel blogging (affiliate marketing, advertising & sponsors). In 2016, I was collaborating with huge brands on Snapchat, and monetizing that platform was enough to earn income while traveling for free. And in 2017, I’ve found my niche with short travel videos (which I honestly enjoy the most!) and I’ve been able to attract even bigger sponsors. I also just upgraded cameras to a Panasonic Lumix GH5!
Whatever you do in life, you have to keep making the necessary pivots to keep climbing up the ladder. I am so excited to see what’s in store for 2018!
THANK YOU TO ALL MY FAMILY, FRIENDS AND NEW FACES I MET IN 2017 WHO MADE THIS YEAR SO SPECIAL FOR ME. If one thing’s for sure, this ride is going to continue moving forward.
