I am a true believer that to succeed, you can’t do it on your own. A big part of my success so far has been to NOT be a blogger hermit and actually chatting, learning and creating genuine relationships.
What I learned really quickly was that on my own, I could self-teach myself things I wanted to learn but it was a slow rigorous process. A lot of time is spent researching and finding small nuggets of information to help you figure things out. It’s a grind though.
As someone always looking for better and smarter ways of doing things, I soon realized that to rough it out on my own wasn’t always the best way to go about things. There are so many people out there that have gone on the same journey as you and at some point have asked the same questions that you’re asking or have gone through the same hurdles as you. Rather than spin your wheels, why not tap into the wealth of knowledge that’s around you.
As an example, for the life of me couldn’t figure out how some people were doing incredibly well with Twitter followers. I was puzzled for a long time and failed at a bunch of different things that I had tried. I finally sucked it up and asked a social media guru friend about what the heck people were doing. That’s when I found out about the tool Tweepi and immediately after that things started turning around for me.
The lesson? Check your ego out the door and don’t be a loner. There are way more successful and knowledgable bloggers out there. Surround yourself and you’ll learn way more and way faster than on your own.
Things you can try today to get started
Leverage the power of community
I highly encourage you to literally “get out of the house”. You’d be surprised to find that there’s a vibrant community of travel bloggers right near you. You just have to go and find it. Meetup.com is a great place to start or look up Travel Massive. Travel conferences are also another great way to do this like TBEX or WTM.
Personally, Travel Massive has created so many direct and indirect opportunities. It started off as a little snow flake of an idea which was to “get off my ass and meet people”, turned into a harmless snowball where I was able to connect with tons of local travel bloggers and realized I wasn’t alone and as its tumbled further, it’s grown into a little avalanche of opportunities that have sprouted from being introduced to PR, being invited to travel events that only those “in the know” get to go to and being recognized as an up and coming blogger.
It has also allowed me to become friends with so many fellow local bloggers that I’ve been able to build my own “circle of trust” so to speak. These are those friends that I know I can count on to ask anything that might be on my mind or if I need help with something like tweeting out a sponsored post. Having your own personal mastermind group is such a powerful thing. Everyone has an expertise in something you don’t have. Tap that!
Equally as powerful has been the online community. I wrote about the power of Facebook Groups earlier so make sure you check out but in essence, just like there is a lot of meeting of the minds physically in your local city, the same is happening virtually. Find a few groups to focus on, get involved, help others and get help in return. There are a ton of smart bloggers around the world that can help with anything imaginable.
All you have to do is ask
If you don’t ask, you will not receive. It’s really as simple as that. In life, rarely will someone come up to you to ask what you need help with. That’s why, I’ve always had the mentality of not being afraid asking for help.
There’s no such thing as a dumb question
Mimic success
One way I’ve continued to motivate myself is just to see what all the other successful bloggers are doing. Even if they’re not part of your circle of “smarter people”, looking up to those bloggers that are crushing it is another way of surrounding yourself with talent.
There’s a reason why these other bloggers are doing so well. Go out and find out what they’re doing differently than you. There’s so much you can learn by doing a little recon and deciphering the strategies they’ve employed whether it be on their blog itself or on social media.
Don’t be afraid to look outside either. A lot of what I learned in blogging wasn’t just from travel bloggers but from others like Lindsay of Pinch of Yum or Pat Flynn of Smart Passive Income.
Learn from the best and mimic it. There’s nothing wrong with that. You’ll be 10x better for it too.
The Smart Blogger Challenge
Here is a list of 3 things that you can do today that I dare you to complete within the next week.
- Reach out to a travel blogger via e-mail and ask to either offer to meet up for coffee or do a Skype call.
- Which successful travel blogger do you look up to? Go through their blog and social media accounts and analyze to see what they’re doing well. Do the same thing on your blog. (i.e. The Planet D is so good at ensuring each tweet has a photo attached to it. Do the same!)
- Join a travel blogger Facebook group. What are you struggling with or need help with? Just post on the group and ask!
1 on 1 mentoring
For a limited time, I’m offering for a limited time, 30 minute 1 on 1 mentoring sessions for anyone looking to tap into a travel blogging expert.
