0:02

Have you ever wanted to pivot your

0:04

career , make a change , take

0:06

a leap into your true passion

0:08

, maybe go a different direction

0:10

? Well , this episode is for you

0:13

. Welcome to Stories of Change

0:15

and Creativity . I'm your host , Judy

0:17

Oskam . I'm a university professor

0:20

at Texas State University and

0:22

I love interviewing interesting people

0:25

about their creative journey . On

0:27

this episode , I talk with content

0:29

creator and seasoned traveler

0:31

, Kelsey Graves . Kelsey

0:33

is the host of the Trip Tales podcast

0:36

, where she shares real travel

0:38

stories and inspires her

0:40

engaged community of travel

0:43

lovers travel lovers like me

0:45

. Kelsey and her husband have

0:47

a busy life with three kids

0:49

. She spent 12 years turning

0:51

her passion for exploration into

0:54

a thriving career . During

0:56

our conversation , we talk about why

0:58

it's okay to change directions

1:01

. We discuss Kelsey's

1:03

path to podcasting and

1:05

how manifesting her best life

1:07

led her to the Taylor

1:10

Swift concert . Well , I hope you

1:12

enjoy our conversation .

1:14

Well , it's definitely quite a zigzag of a story

1:17

, but I will shorten it too . I

1:20

started in advertising and marketing

1:22

. That was like my first career , real

1:24

job out of college . I was in Chicago

1:27

and I worked for OMD

1:29

, which was a big media buying

1:31

agency , and so I kind of

1:33

learned the digital marketing world there

1:35

. And then I moved into more

1:38

of the digital magazine

1:40

space . So when I started there

1:43

wasn't as much social media happening a

1:45

little bit here and there but there were still

1:48

magazines , but they were turning to online

1:50

. So I was working for Better Homes and Gardens

1:52

online , fitness Magazine

1:54

online and I was selling ad

1:57

space on those websites to

1:59

big companies like General Mills and Kimberly-Clark

2:01

. So I liked all that quite a bit I

2:04

really did . But I've always had this

2:06

content creator side

2:08

in me , even before . When I was a kid

2:11

, I would be constantly videoing things

2:13

or taking pictures of things and

2:15

making them look really pretty , almost editorial

2:17

. So I was always trying to capture stories

2:20

in some way and put

2:22

it out there in a creative way . I just didn't know what

2:24

to do with that and I don't think really colleges

2:26

back then didn't know what to do with that . They're doing a

2:29

much better job now with lots

2:31

of different classes . But back then , you

2:33

know , I just kind of majored

2:36

in marketing and journalism and my classes were

2:38

like , here's how you write a radio spot and

2:40

it's like what am I going to do with that ? I mean maybe I would

2:42

have gotten into radio , but and it's like what am I going to do with that ? I mean

2:44

, maybe I would have gotten into radio , but anyhow , when I had my first child 12 years

2:47

ago , I decided I wanted

2:49

to have some flexibility . I didn't want . I was

2:51

traveling a ton in these online

2:53

sales roles and you know , up at 5 AM

2:56

off to New York city , and that was super

2:58

fun for my twenties , for sure . But

3:00

when I decided to have a kid I was like , okay , I

3:02

want to stay , have the flexibility to

3:04

be home , but still do something

3:07

creative and make some money

3:09

from it honestly . And so

3:11

I started a website called

3:13

we Heart Parties and this was my first

3:16

foray into the

3:18

content creation world . I

3:20

loved parties . I loved super

3:22

themed first birthday parties

3:24

, baby showers , bridal showers , just all that

3:26

creativity that came with parties . This

3:29

was before Pinterest . I

3:31

guess , if I was a little bit smarter , I could have created

3:34

a Pinterest , but I just created a website

3:36

where I was sharing all these party ideas

3:38

. It was kind of like a blog

3:40

style . But what I did is I created

3:42

a component which was really hard

3:44

I had a web developer help me where other

3:47

people could upload their parties too

3:49

, so it wasn't just me trying to create

3:51

this content weekly , other people

3:53

could upload it and then they

3:55

had their own little slideshow of this was

3:57

my son's first birthday party , monster

4:00

jam , whatever and so it

4:02

became a little platform and community of all

4:04

these party people sharing their ideas . That's

4:07

where I launched my Instagram account from

4:09

. If you scroll way back in

4:11

my Instagram account , it's party ideas

4:13

, right , right . So I did that

4:15

for a while , really loved it , kind

4:17

of got my feet wet in how to grow an online

4:19

account , how to take pictures

4:22

and create content , and then I just got

4:24

burnt out from parties . I was working with brands

4:26

. I was doing party scapes

4:28

for Oriental Trading Company or Chinette

4:30

, the disposable plate company

4:32

. So I was doing some sponsored

4:35

stuff and making some money , but that

4:38

was a lot of stuff in my

4:40

house , a lot of just

4:42

junk . At the end of the day , I actually started

4:45

feeling so wasteful because I would get

4:47

all this stuff shipped to me . I would set up

4:49

a whole party and then it's like what are you doing ? I

4:51

still remember that it was a Peppa Pig party

4:53

that pushed me over the edge . I was like no

4:56

more parties and

4:59

my husband also was like this is a lot

5:01

Like we just had boxes and boxes and you

5:03

know , things just run its course . And that's something I

5:05

wanted to talk about today is not

5:07

being afraid to say , okay , I'm

5:10

going to go in a different direction and

5:12

it's okay . And even though I built this audience around

5:15

parties , you know it's okay

5:17

to say I'm done with parties and I'm done with

5:19

this account . So I slowly just kind

5:21

of stopped the party content , kind

5:24

of just kept it up with lifestyle stuff . And

5:27

what I really started to do then was I had a friend

5:29

approach me and say , hey , would you ever do social

5:32

media and all this stuff you're doing for

5:34

a company Like for us ? They

5:36

had a really cool boutique in

5:38

a super adorable town that

5:40

I lived in at the time called Newberry Port , massachusetts

5:42

, up in Boston , and

5:49

so I said , sure , I'll try it . I've never done it for somebody else before , but that worked really well

5:51

and I did that for about five years where I there

5:53

was a point where I was running from six

5:55

to 10 other businesses Instagram

5:58

accounts , facebook accounts , all their content

6:00

. I would go in and do cool videos and make all

6:02

the fun little TikToks and that

6:04

was like the most lucrative time of my career

6:07

, because people need

6:09

that and , as you know , it's

6:11

a full-time job to try

6:13

to keep up with the social media stuff , to try to promote

6:16

your own business . For some people it's really hard

6:18

to talk about their own business and brand

6:20

. For some reason , they don't like to brag on

6:22

themselves . It doesn't feel natural . So for

6:24

someone else to come in and say , tell me about your awesome

6:26

business . I'm going to do this super cool video for you . People

6:28

really like that . So that

6:31

was a great time in my

6:33

career . It just got to

6:37

be a lot . Social media never sleeps

6:39

. People's businesses never sleep . So I'm constantly

6:41

getting texts hey , can you post this

6:43

? Hey , we're going to have a sale tomorrow . Oh , my gosh , it's a snow day . We're

6:45

closed . Can you post this ? And I

6:48

did . But it got to a point again

6:50

where I was just like this is feeling

6:53

like too much . So

6:55

I slowly unwinded that a bit . I still do

6:57

a couple companies here and there seasonally

6:59

for different things , just because I'm

7:02

so ingrained that it's like , okay , it'd be

7:04

easier for me to just do this for you than hire somebody else

7:06

. But

7:08

that is a great way to make money if you're

7:10

good at doing that sort of thing . But

7:12

so , to make a long story long I guess

7:15

, I then finally

7:17

started looking at what was working

7:19

on my social media accounts . What am I passionate

7:21

about ? What do I really want to hone in here on

7:24

and narrow down my niche ? And

7:27

I started looking back at some of the social

7:29

media stuff I'd done , and it was always

7:31

travel . It was always our family

7:34

trips , our travel tips

7:36

, and I wasn't necessarily a travel

7:38

expert or in the travel world at that point . But

7:41

I thought , what if I narrow down

7:43

super narrow , because everything I read and

7:45

heard was like get as narrow as possible

7:47

when you're trying to create some sort of content

7:50

and I just jumped into

7:52

travel full about

7:54

a year ago , maybe two

7:56

years ago on the social media , and in February

7:59

of this year for the podcast , and

8:01

it just kind of happened . Sometimes

8:04

I think things come to us

8:06

more than we chase them and I

8:09

just got this idea . That was like I

8:11

love listening to podcasts about travel . There's

8:14

really none out there for me right now that

8:16

was doing super relatable family

8:18

travel stuff that's like not necessarily here's how to

8:21

fly around the world on points that stuff's awesome too , but just a real story like here's

8:23

where we went , here's how to fly around the world on points that stuff's awesome too

8:25

, but just a real story , like here's

8:27

where we went , here's where we stayed . So I

8:29

just started taking the baby steps and

8:31

learning how to create a podcast which , as

8:33

you know , hundreds of thousands of people

8:35

are doing it . But at the very beginning it's a little like

8:37

how do I actually get this on Apple Podcasts

8:40

? It

8:45

takes a minute to get it all set up . But then I just did it and I launched

8:47

it and it's going well and people are resonating with it and it's called Trip Tales

8:50

, so it's just about people's trips . If you

8:52

want to go to Florida , maybe you'll get an idea

8:54

about a great resort , but it's morphed

8:56

into something else now , too , called

8:59

. We have a Trip Fails series

9:01

, which is super fun because there are people who

9:03

have shared hey , this one trip actually went horribly

9:05

wrong for me and they're really fun

9:07

and funny episodes and it helps

9:09

people not make the same mistakes

9:12

. Exactly , exactly . That's kind of me in a

9:14

nutshell which is a lot of stuff .

9:16

I love that , and I love how you talked about

9:18

transitioning and being open to

9:20

change , because this podcast is about

9:22

change and creativity and you've got both

9:24

right . So I think that's great . But you've

9:26

got three kids . I have

9:28

three kids , yes , and a happy marriage . You say yes

9:31

.

9:31

I love that there's a lot going on at home

9:33

as well , which is fun because I

9:35

can pop off a podcast and go

9:38

to the school lunch if there's an event going

9:40

on and then come back home and dive

9:42

back into my things . So I do have a lot of flexibility

9:45

, which

9:49

I think comes in the creative world , and I do believe I may have some sort of a

9:51

undiagnosed ADD . I think all creatives might that I'm figuring out now

9:53

in my forties , but I do just kind of like bounce

9:56

around , like my brain just kind of bounces around , but it

9:58

works out at the end of the day and I get all my stuff done

10:00

, yeah , and that energy and that

10:02

empowers you to keep going and you

10:04

find another path or you find a new story

10:06

.

10:07

And if you're like me , I mean I found you

10:09

through Buzzsprout . Both of us use that as

10:11

our hosting site and

10:13

there was a exchange

10:15

some ideas . So Wendy

10:18

and I were on your podcast and

10:20

I appreciate that and I love

10:22

how you're open to

10:24

kind of telling all these different

10:26

types of stories .

10:29

Yes , you guys should go listen to her episode

10:31

. Judy's episode on my podcast

10:33

is about her and her best friend's

10:35

mother-daughter trip to Amsterdam

10:38

to see Taylor Swift , which is just such

10:41

a fun episode it's fun . It's fun

10:43

because you learn tips about traveling to Amsterdam , which is

10:45

helpful for a lot of people , but then you also get the Taylor

10:47

Swift component , which is fun as well .

10:48

Yeah Well , speaking of Taylor Swift , so let's

10:50

talk about that a little bit

10:53

. You told us when we did our conversation

10:55

oh , I'd really love to go to the concert . Where

10:58

are you on that ? What have you done ? Have

11:00

you had a chance to see Taylor I ?

11:02

went . I went . It was so

11:04

exciting . So when they were on

11:06

, I mean I'm a huge Swifty . I've loved all

11:09

the albums , I love Taylor Swift . I've

11:11

tried to get tickets when she was in Nashville . It was just

11:13

obviously so expensive and so complicated

11:15

and I was telling them in

11:17

their episode I really want to try to go to this Heiress

11:19

tour , but I don't know if it's going to happen . Don't

11:26

know if it's going to happen . Well , this is kind of a fun story . I do believe a bit in manifestation

11:28

and affirmations and speaking things that you want

11:30

to happen , because words are powerful and

11:32

it can change your brain chemistry

11:34

and it can just move things in different directions . It can . I

11:37

totally agree with you and it keeps you open

11:39

for the world right , yes , and so in

11:41

August 2023 , so

11:44

well over a year ago I wrote

11:46

in my notes app I went

11:48

to the Taylor Swift Eras concert in

11:50

Indianapolis . It was amazing

11:52

. I even snagged a t-shirt . I have a screenshot

11:54

of it . I wrote that down in August 2023

11:57

. Well , you know , fast forward a whole year

11:59

. I still haven't gone to the Eras tour . She's coming to Indianapolis

12:02

. I'm

12:08

from Indianapolis , born and raised . I live in Nashville , so Indianapolis is just a short four to five hour

12:10

drive . My parents are there . They have a house there that I could stay in . I was just like I've

12:13

got to get to this concert . Tickets are $2,000

12:15

to $3,000 . I could not make that

12:17

happen and it was the

12:19

weekend she was coming . It was Thursday or Friday

12:22

of the weekend . She was going to be in Indianapolis and

12:24

I posted on my Instagram last

12:26

call putting this out in the universe If

12:29

anyone even comes across a single ticket

12:31

, I will drive up and go by myself . I

12:33

won't even put on a cute outfit , I will just get to

12:35

the venue . Well , my

12:39

sweet dad who's

12:42

one of the most amazing people on the planet

12:44

and really I think that's where I get

12:46

my creativity and my

12:48

spontaneity and

12:51

my risk-taking from him , because he's

12:53

always been an entrepreneur . He always is

12:55

out to kind of do the fun thing . But

12:57

I wasn't expecting him to buy me Taylor

12:59

Swift tickets by any means . Well

13:01

, he started kind of getting a little bit of this

13:03

FOMO , I think this huge stars . In my

13:05

town I've got a lot of friends

13:07

whose kids are going looking around and he's

13:09

really busy . He runs two companies so he wasn't even it

13:11

wasn't on his radar to look

13:14

for tickets . Well , he is starting

13:16

to text my sister and I . My sister lives in Boise , idaho

13:18

, and he's going hey , I

13:20

think I can get two tickets , allie

13:22

, could you fly in . And then he texts

13:24

back oh my gosh , I lost them . I mean , you tried to get tickets

13:26

, you know .

13:28

That's why we went to Amsterdam .

13:29

Yeah , it was a complicated thing . And

13:31

then he texts us out of the blue

13:33

and says I bought four tickets

13:35

. And I am just like , is this

13:37

real ? Is it all still feels like a dream

13:40

. So I'm like , oh my

13:42

gosh , I've got to find something sparkly and get

13:44

my 12-year-old out of school and we're driving to

13:46

Indianapolis and my sister's like I got to get

13:48

a flight from Boise , idaho , to Indianapolis , but

13:50

we'll fly anywhere for Taylor Swift . And so

13:53

we all get to Indianapolis and

13:55

it's a whirlwind and we change into our sparkles , we

13:57

put glitter on our face and

14:10

we have a bunch . It was the most happy , joyful , lovely experience . The police officers were there on horses

14:13

that had friendship bracelets draped around their necks , gorgeous

14:15

, huge friendship bracelets . The police officers

14:17

were exchanging friendship bracelets with people

14:19

. Everybody was , you

14:21

know , dressed to the nines and whatever they felt

14:23

the most swifty and comfortable in , and

14:27

we had the time of our lives just singing every

14:29

song . And I have all these videos and

14:31

it honestly still feels like a dream , because

14:33

it's such an epic show that

14:35

really feels like once in a lifetime . And the biggest

14:37

joke was my dad saw

14:39

the Beatles for his first concert

14:42

when he was young and he's never

14:44

forgotten that and he's never stopped

14:46

talking about that . So my daughter

14:48

and my sister's daughter first

14:51

concert now was Taylor Swift , which he

14:53

was a part of , and we were like

14:55

that's amazing . You can tell that for the rest

14:57

of your life and this might

14:59

be your first concert , might be your best concert for

15:01

the rest of your life . So the bar was set a little high

15:03

, Sure sure concert

15:05

for the rest of your life .

15:06

So the bar was set a little high . Sure , sure , I love that . That's amazing . Well , and , and you know

15:08

, Kelsey , what does that say about taking the

15:10

chance and just putting , putting the word

15:12

out there and then being ready to just

15:14

pick up and go ?

15:16

Yes , I believe that that is part of

15:18

manifestation , all the

15:20

things I think Oprah once said . You

15:23

know , there's no luck . It's

15:25

where preparation meets opportunity , and

15:27

it's true . Like you know , I was prepared

15:30

, I had a sparkly dress , I was ready to

15:32

drive . I'm not afraid to drop everything and go

15:34

. Honey , husband , you're in charge of these

15:36

two and we're going to go this way for just 24

15:38

hours and

15:40

, yeah , I do think putting stuff out there and just

15:42

being ready for what's next , whether

15:45

that's a career decision or an

15:47

amazing experience , you know , like a concert

15:49

, that's a fun

15:52

way to live .

15:53

Well , and the idea of experiential

15:55

learning and going with

15:58

the experience . You really go

16:00

there for the experience .

16:01

It's more than just listening to

16:03

music right ? Agreed , and I'm big

16:06

with that on my kids , especially with the travel stuff

16:08

. It's like you got listening to music Agreed , and I'm big with that on my kids , especially

16:11

with the travel stuff . It's like you got to go places to see things . You've got to go places

16:13

to see how other people live . It opens parts of your brain that

16:15

you just can't do if you don't

16:17

go and see and experience , which

16:20

is a huge part of why I love to travel

16:22

. Our kids were littler for the longest

16:24

time and we did the typical go down

16:26

to Florida , an easy trip , meet up with the grandparents

16:29

. And now it's like , oh my gosh , they're

16:31

a little older and I'm like , okay , we're doing New York city

16:33

. And then I'm like , what's next ? We're going to go out

16:35

of the country . Like I want them to see the world

16:37

and experience things .

16:39

I love that . Well , and in my program at

16:42

Texas State we started the

16:44

education abroad and the study abroad

16:46

because we think it's so

16:48

valuable to get students into

16:51

another culture , to see and just learn

16:54

. Some of our students had never been on a

16:56

plane before , so my faculty

16:58

would work with them on . What do you do at

17:00

the airport ? You walk through this security

17:02

thing . How do you do that ? But once

17:04

they go , it changes

17:07

their world you know , yes , 100%

17:09

.

17:09

And that's something that I'm doing now with my oldest

17:11

, who's 12 , is , anytime

17:13

we travel now I'll go . Okay , you get us to

17:15

the gate , like I'll go , where do we go now ? And

17:18

I'll let her lead us through security , because

17:20

that's a big part of travel and you know they'll

17:22

know how to travel because we're taking them all

17:24

these places . But it is fun to say why don't you try

17:27

to get us there ? Do we need to take the little plane train ? Do we

17:29

need to ? And let them lead the way , which is really

17:31

fun to see as well .

17:38

I think that's great . And my youngest daughter's 23

17:40

and she just got back from a solo trip to Japan and she found

17:42

a really cheap ticket from LA and so she

17:44

booked everything , did a solo

17:46

trip . She met a friend over there but she

17:48

didn't stay . She stayed solo . I was worried

17:51

the whole time , but you

17:53

know , I mean just to give . She

17:55

had her Apple Maps , which

17:57

sometimes don't work so well in foreign countries

17:59

, so that was another thing . But well

18:02

, look ahead and talk a little

18:04

about the content that you're looking at

18:06

sharing in the future . I

18:09

did hear your trip fails and I think

18:11

that's a great series

18:13

idea to do . What are you looking to do

18:15

and how do you want to connect with your audience ? Moving

18:18

forward .

18:19

So it started as just trip tales

18:21

and we're going to have a guest on and share about

18:23

a trip and people are going to get practical information

18:26

and be able

18:28

to either go on a mini vacation during their

18:30

day hearing about someone else's trip or they're going

18:32

to be able to get practical tips to plan their own trip . And

18:35

it's slowly starting to evolve as the community

18:37

is starting to build and people are starting to listen

18:39

to more episodes where it's becoming almost

18:41

more of like a conversation . And

18:44

so , for an example , one

18:46

of my friends reached out to me , so

18:48

this was after I shared I went on a Disney

18:51

cruise . It didn't go so well . It's a hilarious

18:53

episode , you can listen to it , but we got stuck

18:55

at sea for two extra days because Hurricane Milton

18:57

had hit Florida and closed the

18:59

Orlando port and

19:02

I wasn't so sure about cruising

19:04

. We weren't sure if we were a cruising family and

19:06

basically everything that could have gone wrong went

19:08

wrong . Like you can listen to the episode , but it's motion

19:11

sickness , stomach bugs , getting stuck

19:13

at sea , not really wanting to be on the ship anymore

19:15

and just kind of being tossed and turned in

19:17

the waves . So , anyways , I was sharing

19:19

that story very authentically . I think that's

19:21

where this whole thing

19:23

is working is being very open , not painting

19:26

a sugary picture of our Disney

19:28

cruise and just making a pretty Instagram

19:30

reel about it , but saying this actually didn't work

19:33

so well for us and sharing our real

19:35

story . And a fellow podcaster

19:38

sent me a voice memo and she said

19:40

Kelsey , I was

19:42

hooked . I was on the edge of my seat that entire episode

19:44

. I was like what's going to happen next on this cruise

19:46

? How long are you going to be stuck here ? I loved

19:49

the rawness of it

19:51

so much . She goes . I can't help but

19:53

think you should do trip

19:55

fails , she goes , trip tails , trip fails . It rhymes

19:57

and I was like oh my gosh , you're

19:59

right , that is so fun . So

20:02

, without knowing it , the Disney cruise episode

20:04

was my first trip fail . Anyhow

20:06

, fast forward to , one of my friends reaches out to me and

20:08

she says oh my gosh , I had a trip fail

20:10

. She goes . We went to the super famous

20:13

beaches Turks and Caicos

20:15

and she goes . On

20:17

Instagram everybody's raving about it

20:19

. It's so glowy and shiny and she goes . We

20:21

had a completely opposite experience . There

20:23

was all this rundown stuff . Our room was run down . The service

20:26

was horrible . We didn't like the food . She goes

20:28

. We spent so much money on this trip and

20:30

we were like are we missing something ? So

20:32

she was like can I come on and share about it ? And I was like a

20:34

little like well , here goes my opportunity

20:36

to get a hosted stay at Beaches , Turks and Caicos

20:38

. Then I did an Instagram reel about it , which

20:46

I'd also love to talk a bit about how I kind of

20:48

learned how to get Instagram reels

20:50

and stuff to go viral to promote whatever it

20:52

is you're doing . So I do an Instagram

20:54

reel . It goes viral and people are

20:56

fighting in the comments Not negative

20:59

, but I love Beaches , turks and Caicos . We

21:01

had the same experience . Everything has run down . No

21:03

, no , no , we had the best experience . We had the same experience . Everything

21:05

has run down . No , no , no , we had the best experience . Blah , blah , blah , blah

21:07

, back and forth . So I end up getting two DMs . One is from someone

21:09

I know who said we've been twice , we love

21:11

it and we're booked for a third time . She

21:13

goes I was so disheartened to hear about

21:16

your friend's trip . And then

21:18

a travel agent who has

21:20

quite a big following on Instagram , like a pretty

21:22

renowned travel agent , gets

21:24

all worked up and voice memos me . A 10 minute

21:26

voice memo . Oh man , this was inaccurate

21:28

, this isn't right . Blah , blah , blah and I was like okay

21:31

, I hear both of you . Why don't we do

21:33

another episode ? Let's keep this conversation going . I

21:35

would love to have you two on . I'm not here

21:37

to say no one should go to beaches , turks and Caicos

21:39

. By any means , I've never been there , so we

21:41

have a rebuttal episode coming about . Why Beaches

21:43

, Turks and Caicos is amazing , I love it . Where

21:46

I'm at is just kind of like everybody

21:48

has their own experiences and their own perspectives , and

21:50

people might pick up on a certain person and say

21:52

I think I resonate with that person

21:54

more and I'm gonna trust their opinion . Or

21:57

they might say you know , these people

21:59

are saying look past the parts that are run

22:01

down , there's

22:06

so much beauty in this place . And I resonate with them . So I'm basically

22:08

open to where the community conversation

22:10

is ebbing and flowing . At

22:13

first I thought it was going to be all family travel . Sure

22:15

, but similar to what you said about your daughter , one

22:18

of my best friends just took a solo

22:20

trip to Paris because she wanted to go to

22:22

Paris . It's so hard to coordinate all the

22:24

childcare with the kids and if the husband's going to go and

22:26

all the things . She needed a breath

22:29

and a break . And she went for three

22:31

nights and I was like should

22:33

? I go somewhere alone at this moment

22:35

I know , so I want to have her on to share about why

22:38

she did it . It's a story and it's people's

22:40

experiences and I

22:43

do have episodes booked out . We're doing a

22:45

lot of ski trip , family ski trip stuff

22:48

but really where I want to take it is

22:50

wherever the conversation goes , and

22:52

we can have positives and we can have

22:54

negatives , and it's okay because it's all just

22:56

part of the story I love that .

22:58

That's where it's headed and

23:00

I love that , and I am following you

23:02

on Instagram and that's how I was worried about you guys . Are you going to get off of

23:04

the ship ? That's how I was worried about you guys . Are

23:06

you going to get off of the ship ?

23:08

I was kind of worried about that .

23:09

Talk about your Instagram and how you are using

23:11

that to kind of communicate the message

23:14

.

23:14

Yes . So Instagram has been a huge

23:17

driver for me ever since I did the party ideas

23:19

thing and I've

23:21

built the audience over time . But recently

23:24

, when I really niched down , is when

23:26

it is taking off , and I've heard this over

23:29

and over and over again . There's plenty of people sharing

23:31

everything there is to share on Instagram If

23:33

you really want to , and

23:36

there's no reason to have a ton of followers

23:38

. I think people chase followers

23:40

just because that's what you do , but you'll

23:42

never be satisfied in the amount of followers

23:44

you have . If you're trying to build an account

23:47

, I promise you , I tried to get

23:49

to 1K . I got there . Then I wanted

23:51

10K . I got to 10K , I wanted 20K

23:53

. I'm at 50K now . That would have been blowing

23:56

my mind five years ago and

23:58

now I'm like well , I need to get to 100K . So I

24:00

try to keep that in check and be like it doesn't matter , there's

24:03

people with 25 million , there's people with 1,000

24:06

. That part doesn't matter . It's speaking

24:08

to your community and providing things of value

24:11

to the people that are already there

24:13

. Sometimes I say , if you

24:15

think about all the people who follow you on Instagram

24:17

being in a room , if there were 800

24:20

people or 2,000 people in

24:22

a room being like what did you want to say

24:24

? And you're like , oh hi , that's

24:26

a lot of people that you can talk to . So

24:29

think about those people , don't think about the people

24:31

that you're going to try to get . So

24:34

start there and then know your

24:36

niche , niche down super far and it only

24:38

takes about six posts nine

24:40

really before your Instagram feed looks

24:42

super niched up because all you can see when you go to see

24:45

someone's page is nine little photos

24:47

. So mine is very cohesive

24:49

. It's very travel . I have

24:52

the same little kind

24:54

of text box on the

24:56

front of every post so that it all looks

24:58

the same oh , if I click on this one , I'm going

25:00

to learn about the Bahamas . If I click on this one , I'm going to learn

25:02

about a Disney cruise . But

25:06

the real way right now to kind

25:08

of go viral , I would say , where you can drive

25:10

someone to , you know , for our

25:12

purposes , a podcast episode is

25:14

by . I have this little theory and it's

25:17

working over and over again is you

25:19

got to hook them ? So you have to say something in

25:21

the first two seconds that are going

25:23

to make someone stay and watch , because people are just

25:26

swiping like this so fast . So

25:28

the hook is normally like I can't

25:30

gatekeep this resort or you're

25:32

never going to believe what happened , or a

25:35

big one right now with the trip fails , is unpopular

25:38

opinion . Those

25:41

types of things that say , oh , and you can Google

25:43

.

25:43

Yeah , you can use ChatGPT . ChatGPT

25:45

. Yeah , yeah .

25:46

Yeah , and then you give

25:48

them something valuable quickly . You don't need

25:50

it's not a podcast , it's not 30 minutes you

25:52

give them . You know I'll

25:56

say most people out there love Disney

25:58

cruises , but for us we had a slightly different experience

26:00

. If you've ever wondered if you're a cruising family

26:03

and then you end with a

26:05

call to action , very clear call

26:07

to action because you have to tell people what

26:09

to do . If not , they're swiping . You

26:11

know they're doom scrolling for two hours . You

26:14

say comment below

26:16

or send this to a friend or

26:19

like this post . You literally tell them what you want

26:21

them to do . It sounds kind of silly the first couple

26:23

of times . You do it , but people do it . And

26:25

then my favorite tool right now , the best

26:28

tool that's working for me , is called LinkDM

26:31

. It's LinkDMcom

26:33

and it's this website

26:36

that allows you to . If

26:39

someone comments something on your post

26:41

, you can set up these little triggers where

26:43

it will automatically DM them something . So

26:45

I say I

26:48

share all about this . On episode 32

26:51

of my Trip Tales podcast , comment

26:53

Disney below and I will

26:55

send you the episode . So if someone comments

26:57

Disney , I've set it up

26:59

through this website that you join where

27:02

if someone comments Disney on that post , they

27:04

automatically get sent the link to my

27:06

podcast . You can send any

27:08

link you want . You could do a website link . I

27:11

do the Apple podcast

27:13

link because 90%

27:16

of my listeners are Apple podcast

27:18

and they can click right there and it opens

27:20

in the podcast app . So it's just , I've seen

27:23

a couple of mine go viral a Marco

27:25

Island Florida one and Disney Wish and

27:27

my listens go up super high because people

27:29

are , oh , wish , okay , now

27:31

it's in my phone , it's in my hand , the episode

27:34

, and they can click right over . It's

27:36

not , you know , I'm not like necessarily

27:38

going to gain tons and tons of

27:40

subscribers and that people

27:42

might listen and then never find me again

27:44

this way . But I'm

27:47

sure there's some conversion where 5% are saying

27:49

, oh , I kind of liked that episode , I'll subscribe

27:51

or follow along . So that's kind of my little

27:54

wheel that's working right now . Um

27:56

, you know , podcasting

27:58

is tricky because for me it's

28:00

fun , it's a hobby . There isn't

28:02

a ton of income in it

28:04

right now , which is why I'm still hanging on to some of

28:06

those clients . But I do feel like

28:09

as you get more listens and stuff and as you gain

28:11

more influence , that's where some of those sponsorships

28:13

can come . When they go oh , 2000 people

28:16

listened to her talking about not to go to beaches

28:18

. Maybe we should , you know , invite

28:21

her to this place and get a positive

28:23

review .

28:24

That's right , that's right . Oh

28:26

, those are some great tips . And again , niching

28:28

down is hard . I tend to

28:30

find a story everywhere I go , and that's my

28:32

challenge is oh , there's a

28:35

story here and there . There really is tying

28:37

the common theme is the challenge

28:39

that I always have , but for me it's

28:41

a hobby too . But the more

28:43

I talk to other podcasters

28:45

I'm thinking maybe I should niche into

28:47

only podcasters and

28:49

still do my change and creativity focus

28:52

, because that could be an interesting target

28:55

area .

28:55

Right . And then other podcasters start

28:58

following you and want to hear

29:00

from other podcasters .

29:02

Yeah , that's interesting . Well , and

29:04

if you look at some of your strengths , I

29:06

think and I always ask about

29:08

strengths and you've mentioned you're open

29:11

for creativity and you tend to

29:13

see around the corner and you

29:15

can anticipate trends

29:17

, I'm sure because of your background . What

29:19

are some other strengths that you think really

29:22

kind of paint the picture ? If someone were to say

29:24

, tell me about Kelsey , what would they tell

29:26

me ?

29:27

So I thought about this and I have

29:29

a couple . And then I asked my husband last night and

29:31

it was really funny because he gave me different ones . So I was

29:33

like , oh , that's so interesting , because sometimes

29:36

you don't know how other people see you . But my

29:38

first one is that it's a strength and a

29:40

weakness . But I'm just an eternal optimist

29:42

. I always have been Sorry

29:46

, getting over a little cold here , but if

29:48

any of your listeners are familiar with the Enneagram

29:50

, I'm an Enneagram 7 . So everything is

29:52

just like bright and shiny and sunshine

29:54

and rainbows . Not always I do have my moments , but

29:56

I'm always forward thinking

29:58

and I always believe

30:01

everything's going to work out . So that

30:03

is why I'm not afraid to start a podcast . I

30:05

just kind of go for it . So I do think it's a strength

30:07

, but it can be a weakness , because then I , you

30:10

know , I get my family on a Disney

30:12

cruise that we get stuck on , because I'm just like it's all going to work

30:14

out . We're going during hurricane season , but we're

30:16

not going to be the ones stuck during the hurricane oh guess

30:20

season . But we're not going to be the ones suffering the hurt oh guess what . So it's a strength

30:22

and a weakness , but I'm always just assuming things are going to work out and you know , 80%

30:25

of the time it does . I

30:28

also feel like I just figure

30:30

things out . Like some of this world of content

30:32

creation can be a little tricky and

30:34

complicated and it's

30:36

really annoying sometimes , but sometimes it takes

30:38

a whole day to figure out

30:40

how to get your podcast set up , so

30:44

you just got to sit in that for a minute and figure it

30:46

out and it's annoying . But YouTube is your

30:48

best friend and

30:50

there's someone out there who has created a video on how to do

30:52

just about anything these days , and so

30:54

I think a strength is that I just

30:57

figure it out by myself . Strength

31:02

is that I just figured out by myself . My husband said he thinks my biggest strength in this whole

31:04

world is that I'm very curious and I'm naturally curious , and

31:06

so that lends itself well

31:08

to a podcast , because you'll say , wait , tell me

31:10

more about that . Or like I really

31:12

, really want to know about people's trips because I might

31:14

plan it or I just want to hear and get to know somebody

31:16

. So I think curiosity

31:19

is a big strength

31:21

. And then he

31:23

joked and he said you've always been a talker

31:25

. And I'm like that is true , I'm

31:27

a talker . I created three talking

31:29

talker children , so there's a lot

31:31

of talking in our family , which I love

31:33

, and that is super fun for me to

31:35

be going down this podcast road and

31:38

I get to talk and every time

31:40

I get off one I'm in the best mood because I just

31:42

talk to someone amazing , exactly

31:44

.

31:45

So , yeah , I would say those are some of my strengths

31:47

have you ever thought about getting

31:49

your kids on the podcast and asking them ? From

31:52

a kid perspective , that is a great

31:54

idea .

31:54

I actually haven't yet , but maybe

31:57

over like a break or summer break , that could be

31:59

a fun time . I

32:06

did listen to one episode on another travel podcast where they asked their kids what their

32:08

favorite trip was in the last year and why , and they were also surprised and it

32:10

gave me some insight into oh

32:13

, sometimes we think we've got to plan this big elaborate thing

32:15

, but they really just wanted to fish or

32:17

whatever , and so I think that's

32:19

a great idea and I'm going

32:21

to do that . I think I'm going to make that a goal over summer

32:24

break to do some kid episodes .

32:25

Especially maybe the Taylor

32:28

episode too , because I've thought about just

32:30

getting my two daughters together in

32:32

a room but they're so busy . Yeah , just

32:34

to kind of talk about , let's kind of reflect

32:36

back on that experience , and

32:39

what did you like about going to see the

32:41

concert but also visiting Amsterdam

32:43

again , and so I think that

32:45

could be a fun deal just to

32:47

get them together , because sometimes when you're

32:49

in the room , other things

32:52

come up too . And I think the fact

32:54

that you're modeling some of this communication

32:56

and , I think , this

32:59

experiential learning , I think pointing

33:01

out to the kids why

33:03

do you think we went on that trip or something

33:06

, yeah , and even showing them what

33:08

I do and how you can create

33:10

your own job and look , it's just me and

33:12

my headphones and my mic and my laptop and I've created

33:14

this whole thing .

33:15

They can learn from that and go oh , I

33:18

could create my own job someday if I wanted

33:20

to , exactly Well and someone

33:22

with three kids and you

33:24

kind of created your own

33:27

future .

33:28

And I always want students and

33:30

my own two kids to understand

33:32

that you can do that . And what would you

33:34

say to people out there thinking , oh , I don't want to

33:36

do the nine to five and

33:38

I've got kids . I mean , how do I create

33:40

the life I want ? What would you say to them

33:42

?

33:43

I mean , I think we are lucky to be

33:45

living in a day and age where we actually

33:47

can create our own jobs . I

33:50

think it's called the gig economy is growing

33:53

rapidly , which is people with side gigs

33:55

that are creating income

33:58

for themselves . I

34:00

would say , if you're reliant

34:03

on that nine to five and you do need

34:05

it , to just take baby

34:07

steps when you have the time at night . I

34:09

promise the only way I've gotten

34:12

here is the tiniest baby

34:14

steps . It's not a huge leap

34:17

. You make these tiny goals . I remember when I was

34:19

trying to start the podcast , I didn't even tell that many

34:21

people . My best friend , I like got

34:24

up I called it episode zero because I wanted to just

34:26

see if I could get something out there Like

34:28

it's . It's like will this actually play on

34:30

a podcast app ? And so I just

34:32

did an episode zero and I got it out and I was like , oh

34:34

my gosh , okay , I did this . And then

34:36

I kind of posted about it and my best friend texted

34:38

me and she goes when were you going to tell me you were starting

34:41

a podcast ? And I was like , oh sorry , but

34:43

it was these baby steps where all of a sudden , it was just

34:46

there . And

34:48

sometimes when you take the baby steps

34:50

, they feel small and inconsequential

34:53

. But eventually you'll look back and

34:55

go , oh my gosh , I'm now

34:57

almost 40 episodes in . I

35:01

remember when I thought if I can just get 10 episodes , that will be

35:03

so cool . Now we're at 40 and it's , you know , rocking

35:05

and rolling . So those baby steps really

35:08

matter , even just you

35:10

know , writing down the name of what you

35:12

would do creating that Instagram

35:15

account , saving that

35:17

URL or , you know , learning

35:19

how to get on Squarespace and make a website . Like it's

35:22

baby steps . But before you know it

35:24

you'll look back and you know

35:26

it's risky . But you know we've got one

35:28

life to live and you can always go

35:31

back and apply for another . Nine to five . You know , always

35:33

there's jobs out there that people

35:35

can get . But it is fun

35:37

to kind of have a little bit of control of

35:39

your own world and the

35:42

flexibility . Like I'm leaving Friday

35:44

morning for an entire week to take

35:47

my daughter to a dance competition in Orlando and

35:50

then to meet up with family for Thanksgiving

35:52

and some of my stuff isn't

35:54

done . But I can bring it all with me . I

35:56

can bring my computer , I can edit

35:58

stuff in the hotel room . It's really fun

36:00

to have all the flexibility and go . Oh , I

36:02

can do that anywhere . I can travel and do

36:04

my job .

36:06

And we only live once . We only live

36:08

once , right , so let's do it . I

36:10

love it . You'll see , this is so fun

36:12

. I hope we'll maybe do something

36:14

again together and keep

36:16

moving forward , and I love it , and thank

36:18

you so much for sharing your information

36:21

and your guidance with us .

36:23

Thank you for having me . This has been so fun . It was

36:25

fun for me to actually like wrap my brain

36:27

around what I have done , because sometimes you're like , oh

36:29

my gosh , it's been so zigzaggy , but it

36:31

all had a purpose , you know , to get me here I

36:34

love it . Thank you , Kelsey . Thank you

36:36

for having me . This has been lovely .

36:39

And thank you for joining us on Stories

36:41

of Change and Creativity . If you're

36:43

enjoying the show , please

36:50

subscribe , share and leave a review . It helps me share great interviews like this

36:52

one with others and remember if you've got a story to share or know someone

36:54

who does reach out to me at judyoskam . com