Money, money, money, money, money.
Hey, everyone?
My name is Christine Sarah.
And if you are new to this channel welcome to the tribe.
This is Hopscotch the Globe.
And right now we are celebrating airstream-a-thon.
Through the last 4 weeks my husband and I, Siya, we have been dishing out air stream
content for you guys based on the questions that you have asked us.
And if you haven't subscribed to this channel please do so.
And hit that notification bell so that you do get notified when we put up a new video.
Now, let's get into talking about how we make money on the road.
This question has been asked to Siya and I so many times.
And while we've both kind of touched on the subject in various videos, we haven't compiled
it all into one video.
But that's what we're doing or what I am doing today.
Siya is not here right now because he is in South Africa, in Zimbabwe, on an assignment
with Lonely Planet & G Adventures.
So, I am going to be here talking to you about how we make money online.
And how we have been making money online for the last nine years.
And in another video I did recently, if you haven't checked it out I highly suggest it.
If you are looking for ways to travel longer, I suggest 20 different ways you can travel
longer.
Different jobs.
Different opportunities that you can take on.
In this video I am going to be talking about specifically, how we've made money over the
years because a lot of you have wanted to know our story.
And how we've built our brand Hopscotch the Globe.
This video is meant to inspire you, motivate you, get your butt into gear to make this
dream of yours of living life on the road or living life on your own terms being your
own boss, creating your own schedule.
Basically you are working online and working for yourself which is freedom at its finest.
It is 100%possible.
I know that it might seem far-fetched.
There's a lot of people doing it now.
There's a lot of people doing this specifically blogging, YouTube, creating their own brand
based on their own talents and their own personality.
But there is always room for more.
You can do this.
I am going to give this video a little bit of direction so you know what we're going
to be talking about.
I am gonna first share what Siya and I do.
What Hopscotch the Globe is.
And then I am going to share a story from start to finish and give you resources that
we've used that have worked and haven't worked for us along the way.
I am going to be feeding you some inspiration, some motivation.
I am going to be sharing with you the magic formula except it's not very magic.
It is a formula yes.
This is what has worked for us.
But if you think that I am just going to give you a link to something or a resource that
you can click on and tomorrow you'll be working full time online think again because that
is not going to happen.
I am going to do a little reality check here because I am not going to sugarcoat anything.
Being able to work online, to do this job specifically, to be an influencer, creator,
blogger, YouTuber, it does not happen overnight.
It takes time.
And some people okay, yes, some people it does happen overnight.
It's extremely rare.
If you think that is going to happen, please get that out of your mind.
Because I will even tell you, if we were to go back and I had the choice of gradual success
versus overnight success, I would choose gradual success.
Which is the success that I've had over a course of nine, almost - yeah nine years.
The reason for it is because I appreciate the journey and all the opportunities that
have come up and the lessons that I've learned that I can now share with you.
If you are new to this channel or you are not really sure what Siya and I do, what Hopscotch
the Globe is, I am just going to quickly tell you.
Hopscotch the Globe has become a worldwide brand.
A worldwide name in the travel industry.
It is hosted, it is created by myself and my husband Siya, and our family.
Atlas is part of it.
He's passed out behind there.
It's been a hard day at work.
Our soon to be baby.
It is a brand.
It is a community.
It is us creating content whether it's video, written, photos, you know all the social media
platforms.
A way to connect with you guys and share our traveling experiences to inspire you, to motivate
you, to teach you how to make travel more attainable.
To make you know and understand how you can travel no matter your lifestyle or your budget.
That is our goal.
It's also our goal to show that you can live life on your own terms, down your own path.
To live an alternative lifestyle.
The lifestyle that you want.
The dreams and the goals that you want to achieve, you can make happen.
That's what we hope to inspire you with through this channel and through all the content we
create.
We are personalities, we are experts within the travel industry and that is basically
what our whole brand is about.
And that is what our whole company is about.
Now, let's talk about the formula.
It's not a secret formula.
It is a formula you've most likely heard of it before.
I'm just going to tell you again because this is what has worked for us and what has worked
for our friends who are successful with their online businesses.
It takes a good idea, it takes talent, it takes skill, it takes dedication, it takes
perseverance and it takes passion to succeed at building an online brand.
Our journey started like this.
Back in 2007 actually, Siya and I, we've been together for 14 years, we were in college
and decided we wanted to go away in the summer, our first trip together, to Peru to film a
documentary.
This was our first video that - essentially videos, documentary that we made together.
And it was our first trip together.
We came up with Hopscotch the Globe Productions at that time.
Fast-forward to three years later when I was about to leave for a 10-month trip around
the world.
I had saved up, I had graduated college.
I had worked in my field for like a year and a half and I started a blog.
And I called it Hopscotch the Globe.
And the reason why I started it was because I wanted a place to be able to be creative
and share with my friends and family what I would be doing during my travel.
Share photos, share written pieces and a little bit of video.
Whatever I wanted.
Whenever I wanted.
I went away.
I traveled for 10 months.
Siya joined me for six of those months.
And along the way, I would update hopscotchtheglobe.com which took me a month and a half to two months
to create.
I taught myself HTML, googled things, drew my own logo, scanned it and painted it and
fixed it up in paint.
I started this blog and I would update it when I wanted to.
And what was meant for my family and friends and ended up to be so much more.
But at the time, this was back in 2010, people weren't making money off of blogs.
And if they were, like it was kind of unheard of.
I was involved in the travel community because I had worked for a travel company and I became
part of a thing called Travel Massive.
Which I will be talking about as well later on in this video.
And I had met Nomadic Matt who has the number one travel blog out there.
And has for years.
I met him before I left for this trip.
And he was the only one that was making a little bit of money.
No one else was.
And the idea of making money, making this as a - turning this into a job was like, I
didn't think about it.
No one was really thinking about it.
But when I was traveling and sharing my story I had people that I didn't know from all around
the world tell me or email me and tell me that they were inspired and asking me questions.
And telling me that they wanted to leave their job and travel the world like I was doing.
And I was like, this is so cool.
I am connecting with people from all around the world.
I had no intention of doing so.
And I am inspiring people.
I am inspiring people to also get out there and travel.
And this is so cool.
So, when I came back, I continued to update the blog whenever I was inspired to.
I kept getting emails from people and I just went with it.
At the time Siya had his other company that he actually sold last year.
He was doing that.
He would help me whenever I needed to.
But I was running hopscotch on my own and it was just like a hobby.
And working on other jobs; serving, acting.
Those were like basically my main jobs so that I had the freedom to go and travel when
I wanted to.
So I would serve and I would have acting jobs.
And then I would come home and I would work on the blog whenever I felt inspired to.
And then I started to get more involved with the travel community.
So now let's bring in Travel Massive again because they played - this event that happens
monthly in the city, in Toronto, and now it's happening in cities all around the world,
played a huge role in getting us online jobs
as well as connections that eventually has grown hopscotch to what it is today.
Travel Massive is a get-together that happens every month in Toronto.
And again, I think it's like 90 plus cities now around the world which is amazing.
And it brings together people who have a passion for travel.
So it could just be people who just love to travel;
Content creators, bloggers, Youtubers as well as industry people who work for like tour
companies or peer companies etcetera, brings them all together.
It's a place to network.
It's a place to share who you are, what you do.
It's a place to connect with other travelers to talk about your past travels, your future
travels.
It's an awesome community.
And I would highly suggest looking into your own city to see if there are any.
This was the get together where I met someone from Flight Center and someone from Travel
and Escape who I eventually worked for.
This was the place that I met different representatives of destinations that I eventually connected
with and they would offer me trips and work in different countries.
Or I would go and go on a trip and cover them and then I would get paid for it.
And the great thing about this industry, it is small and everyone knows everyone and everyone
talks.
So if you're not doing a good job, you get blacklisted and no one wants to work with
you.
But on the other hand, if you do a great job, you're good person, people will talk about
you and they will share your name.
And eventually you'll get on all these lists and get invited to other events.
Other destination events.
Just tourism events in general.
So that is a huge, huge, huge thing.
I you want to do this, whether it's in the travel industry, fashion industry, whatever, go and
find events communities in your community that you can get involved with to network
and meet other people that are doing what you want to do.
Because it will allow you to build connections, to get opportunities, and just feel like you
are part of that community that you want to be part of.
Okay.
So, I started writing for Flight Center.
I was doing social media for Travel and Escape which is a TV network.
I was making maybe like at that point doing those two jobs together back in like 2012-13
making about like $1500 a month.
So I was still serving as well because Toronto is expensive.
And so I wanted to save for travel as well.
It's back when I was doing social media for Travel and Escape, writing for Flight Center
and serving and doing acting gigs, I decided that I wanted to create YouTube videos.
At the time, I was just writing more for the blog.
But video is where my true passion lies so I decided that I was going to do weekly video
content on YouTube.
So, I started doing my travel tips.
I also went on some press trips to places like Hawaii.
And I also went on my own trips.
I invested my own money into my own travels, equipment and I went and I made my own videos
of my travels, my travel guides, which I shared with you guys who have been following me for
that long.
Now, let's rewind to five years ago when I was still working at a restaurant and I got
my first paid campaign to travel to Jasper Alberta.
The Tourism Board had invited me and they were going to pay me to make a video of my
experience there.
And at the time it wasn't much but it seems like a lot then.
And I got really excited.
I couldn't believe someone was going to pay me to travel and make a video like something
that I was doing for years because I loved it and didn't think it would become anything
more than that.
Just a hobby.
But someone was now paying me.
And it wasn't much guys.
It was like $500 dollars to produce a video.
Which took a lot of time.
But I came back after five days and I went into work.
And my boss pulled me aside and said, "I see that you switched the shift.
Are you going to be doing that more."
Um, like, "Are you going keep doing that?"
Like, "We can't have you doing that."
Like, um, "You know what?
I quit."
I just made the decision then and there to quit because I wanted to pursue Hopscotch
the Global full-time only after making $500 dollars but it felt like the right thing to
do.
And I knew that I would probably go into debt, which I did.
I went into debt for like a year, a year and a half.
Siya had another job so he was able to - we were able to still pay our, like our bills
and stuff.
But I used my money that I had saved to put my time into Hopscotch the Globe and really
go full force.
And I am so glad I took that chance because a year and a half later the money started
to come in.
The opportunity started to come in.
I was creating all this content and not making any money, but then it turned into more opportunities
and money.
So I spent a year and a half of not making money, going into debt but investing in myself, knowing
that I had to give this a chance to see if it went anywhere.
And it did.
A year and a half of creating content, more videos, going on press trips, going on my
own trips and sharing my knowledge of what I have learned over 14 plus years of my travels,
I was able to eventually start getting my name out there more and more and more to the
point where I was getting all these opportunities coming to me.
Where at the beginning I was reaching out to brands and destinations, telling them who
I was and seeing if there was any opportunities for us to work together.
I all of a sudden had them coming to me and I no longer had to go to them.
It just, kind of just has blown up since then.
And it took a lot of dedication, a lot of passion, a lot of time.
But it took that moment of, 'I made $500 on one gig', thinking you know what?
This is something I want to pursue.
And I know I might not make money at first.
And I know it might be really hard financially.
I am going put all myself into it though and I am going to do this.
I am going to do this.
It's going to happen.
It's going to work out and it did because I made it happen.
I made it happen with that formula that I mentioned at the beginning of the video.
Three years ago Siya came on pretty much full-time.
He still had his other business until about a year ago.
We were able to make full time income for both of us at that point.
And now Hopscotch the Globe is a six-figure business.
It has grown to be something so incredible.
Started off as a hobby.
Started off as something that was just passion.
It was just something I love to do.
There was no idea of making this into a business.
And it has grown into that.
It's grown into a career for the two of us and for our family.
It's been the most incredible journey to be on.
I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.
It's given us the freedom to travel.
The freedom to live on the road.
To live in an Airstream.
And make our own schedule.
And make up our own rules and be our own bosses.
And it's the best feeling in the world.
Took nine years guys.
Not saying it's going to take you nine years because I started a time when no one was making
money.
Now there's so many opportunities.
But it will take time and it will take that formula that I told you again;
Passion, dedication, good idea, patience, talent, it's going to take all those things.
And time.
And investment.
And it doesn't happen overnight but if you want this to happen it will happen.
Now that was our journey and I'm going to sum up how we make money now today with Hopscotch
the Globe.
We do it through affiliate marketing, which we've kind of only touched the surface on,
but it's something that we definitely want to become more experts in.
How we make most of our money is through brand partnerships and destination partnerships.
So we partner with destinations which we travel to and we explore different areas in the world
and we document our journey and then we share it with you guys to give you tips and inspiration.
So when you're planning your trip to those destinations you have an idea of what you
want to see and what you want to do.
Working with brands that we believe in that we love that we want to share.
So it could be like a travel bag company.
It can be some sort of like travel tool.
It could be a travel tour company.
As long as it makes sense for us and it's something that we feel passionate and confident
to share with you guys, then we will partner with those brands.
Selling our own products.
I have a video course that teaches people how to do what we're doing.
I created it with Nadine from Hey Nadine and Matt Kepnes from Nomadic Matt.
And we sell that course and YouTube ad revenue which isn't a lot guys but it's still money
that comes in every month.
I am going to wrap this up by sharing with you again, the resources that helped us get
to where we are today.
Networking.
Networking is number one.
Find events and communities within your area that you can be involved with in the industry
that you're interested in.
Another one is Facebook groups.
Get involved in Facebook groups within your industry.
So for travel for example, there is the Travel Video Group, there's also Travel Blog Success
which you have to pay to become part of.
But it's been super, super, super handy and resourceful for us to meet other people within
the industry and also get opportunities.
There's also like Canadian travel bloggers or just travel bloggers in general.
These are all Facebook groups I'll link below that you can become part of and learn about
different opportunities that are coming up and people are sharing with each other.
Reach out to other creators who are doing what you want to do in the field that you
want to get involved with.
And you can meet them at networking events or you can reach out to them through email,
through YouTube.
Just reach out and introduce yourself and become known.
Get yourself out there and maybe an opportunity will come up and they'll share it with you
or vice versa.
You can collaborate with them.
Just get involved.
Alright guys, if you have not subscribed to this channel yet, be sure to do so so you
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Click that bell so you get notified.
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And I'll see you guys later.
Bye.
Here we go.
Okay.
Mmh, money, money, money, money, money.