Joyanne Howell (00:00)
Hello and welcome. Thank you for tuning into the Level Up Creators podcast. I'm Joanne Howell and I'll be your host today. We help digital creators build thriving, sustainable businesses they love. And we are so happy you're here.
This season of the podcast, we're focusing on sharing the stories of creators and entrepreneurs who have taken the leap and navigated the world of online business creation.
Today, my awesome guest is Karen Delgado. Karen is a luxury travel creator and marketing consultant for the travel hospitality and creator industries. She started her career journey in 2014, launching Little Black Shell, a successful fashion blog that she later transformed into a travel blog and rebranded as Lifestyle Traveler.
She spent five years traveling around the world as a full-time travel creator before selling Lifestyle Traveler in January, 2021.
Since then, she's been consulting for both Fortune 500 companies and startups, leveraging her expertise to help brands create impactful marketing strategies. She now lives in Madrid and continues her adventures as a frequent traveler, sharing her worldly experiences through her online home, Aesthetics Traveler. Welcome, Karen.
Karen (01:15)
Thanks for having me, Joy.
Joyanne Howell (01:17)
It's such a pleasure to have you today. So Karen, we have had a little bit of a chance to chat and I'm so excited to share your story with our audience today. Yeah, let's dive right in. I would love for you to tell us a little bit about what was happening for you before you decided to become a creator. Just give us the backstory of where you were at and what was happening in your life before you kind of decided, yeah, I think I wanna move into this creator thing.
Karen (01:47)
Yeah, super happy to be here and thanks for having me. So when I actually started my creator journey, it was back in 2014, like you said in the intro. Obviously it was a very different time. The creator industry was this baby form. I was just getting started. And I was actually a student at the time. I was in college. I had no idea about blogs or influencers, nothing.
Joyanne Howell (01:57)
Yes.
Karen (02:14)
But I actually went to a fashion class that was the major that I was studying at the moment. And a professor introduced me to blogging. So she mentioned how blogging was, you know, the latest thing in fashion, and that it was great for us to have a blog as a resume builder, that it was going to help us in our career and just kind of like launch it, even when we didn't have experience, right? It would serve as like another internship.
And for one of the assignments in this class, she had us write some blog posts. So that was the intro to blogging and the creator industry for me. And since that class, it just stuck with me. I was like, wow, you know, if I can accelerate my career by launching this travel for this fashion blog. And I had tried writing some blog posts and I enjoyed it.
It also incorporated marketing, which I was interested in, photography, fashion, all the things. So I went ahead and launched Little Black Shell, and that's just kind of how I got started.
Joyanne Howell (03:10)
Yes. Wow.
Wow, that's fascinating. Amazing. So was the technical aspect of getting started challenging for you? I know you mentioned you liked the writing piece. How about the tech part of things?
Karen (03:21)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I like the writing piece, but honestly, I was awful. Like I still have a screenshot of my first blog post and I think any creator will tell you this, right? Like their first piece of content is just when you look back on it, it's just not up to par. And but the technical part, I would consider myself very tech savvy. My dad is in tech, you know, he gave me a computer, I think, when I was like five years old. And I was very much exposed to that. Some of the
Joyanne Howell (03:55)
Wow.
Karen (04:00)
like the ways that I would get an allowance was by editing a family photo on Photoshop and things like this. So I had a little bit of that foundation, but still, like I had never built a website, you know, I had never done it for a business. So it was a lot of learning, just Googling stuff and figuring it out. I mean, there wasn't as much to look at either, you know, it was still early on, there were not as many creators. So.
Joyanne Howell (04:11)
Yes.
sure.
This is it.
Yes. Correct.
Karen (04:29)
Yeah, it was just trial and error. So that was a big challenge, I guess.
Joyanne Howell (04:32)
Wow, absolutely. Yeah, I can imagine being self-taught, especially at that time. I mean, YouTube was coming into being, but there weren't as many courses and how to do everything as they are now. So I'm sure that was a big learning curve for you.
Karen (04:46)
Definitely. I wish we would have had the support that they're there is available now.
Joyanne Howell (04:52)
Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness. Amazing. So tell us about, you know, the process of building, you finally got your blog together, you started writing, started creating content. You know, what, what were some of the challenges in your process of learning, being self taught, figuring everything out as you go? What talk to us a little bit about what some of the other challenges that you might have experienced work.
Karen (05:21)
Yeah, so honestly for me, the biggest challenge was not so much the blogging side, the growing of following. I think that all had a learning curve, but it was more mental health. So when I started this, I didn't know what boundaries were at all. You know, I had no clue that I needed to set boundaries for my content. I was just thinking more like a business of what is the best growth strategy, trying different things, seeing what had more engagement.
Joyanne Howell (05:38)
Wow.
Karen (05:51)
But kind of like what we were touching based on right before the podcast and I was sharing with you, it started having a negative effect on my mental health and quite quickly. So I think it's something important for creators and brands or anyone that has, you know, is a personal brand and is talking to the public basically to keep in mind is that while...
certain marketing strategies might give you really good results. It's important to keep in mind that you are a human being. So you still have emotions, you still go through things, right? If someone says something to you, even if it's a positive, right, they're just having an opinion on your life, it can still have a negative effect on your mental health, because we're letting too many people in. So I would say that was my biggest challenge. And it was actually one of the main factors of why I sold my blog.
in 2021 and I moved away from the creator space for a while. So yeah, that was a big learning lesson.
Joyanne Howell (06:56)
Sure, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that insight. And that's definitely a really important thing for creators to think about. You know, it's fascinating and exciting when you're getting started to think about building a big audience and having a huge following. But there are definitely some challenges to, like you said, letting so many people in. And it's important, I think, to prioritize your mental health and your wellness. So I really appreciate that you made that decision.
thing to walk away from, you know, what you've been building there.
Karen (07:30)
Yeah, that was definitely one of the hardest decisions of my life, I would say. That blog was my baby and it created, you know, the new me. So making that decision was definitely challenging, but it was the right one. I don't regret it.
Joyanne Howell (07:34)
Wow.
Right.
Wow, awesome. That's great to hear. Are you able to share a little bit about what that actual process was like of selling the blog? How did you come to find a buyer and land on the right steps to take to actually get that done?
Karen (08:05)
Sure. That's I think the number one question I get asked when I say that I sold my blog. I don't think many people do that, right? You just kind of stop. But I actually came across a TikTok. So this was around pandemic time. We were all on TikTok, right? Doing little dances and kind of getting all your learnings from there. And randomly one day, this TikTok shows up.
Joyanne Howell (08:13)
Correct. Yes.
Yes.
Karen (08:30)
about a website called blogs for sale. And this was around the time when I was, you know, trying to figure out if I wanted to continue with this once tribal resumed, or if I wanted to sell it because of all these issues that I was telling you about. And then this came about and I kind of saw it as a sign. I inquired, you know, send the message to
Joyanne Howell (08:47)
correct.
Karen (08:55)
to the founder, like the person that had this website to understand how it works. And they're basically a blog brokerage. So you list your blog with them and then they find you a buyer and they handle all the legal stuff. So it was very easy. It was just listing it. And I think it took like two or three months before I sold it. Yeah.
Joyanne Howell (09:12)
Mm.
Right.
Oh, wow. Okay. That's interesting. Really interesting. Wow.
Karen (09:25)
Pretty simple.
Joyanne Howell (09:27)
Amazing. Karen, one of the things I wanted to ask you about is you're a travel creator, and typically we think about people with big followings, especially in the travel space, beautiful pictures from all over the world on your travel journeys and so on. Instagram seems to be probably a, you know...
no-brainer platform that you'd be on. And you actually have the bulk of your social presence on LinkedIn and Pinterest in addition to your
Karen (09:54)
Right.
Joyanne Howell (10:06)
I was curious if you'd share a little bit with us about how you decided to focus on LinkedIn and Pinterest over Instagram.
Karen (10:19)
Yeah, of course. So my decision to focus on other platforms and not on Instagram this time around was because for my first blog, I focused pretty much primarily on Instagram. And like I mentioned about the mental health, it started having a negative effect on my mental health, right? Unfortunately, it's there's a lot of studies around it. And a lot of people that can relate to this that social media just negatively impacts your mental health if you don't have boundaries in place.
So for me, when I launched my fashion blog and then I later changed it to a travel blog, I focused on my website, right? The physical business, that's kind of like your home and what you own. And then my social media platform of choice was Instagram because that's just kind of where you did things at the time. It was the main one. You just posted pictures. There wasn't even videos yet, no stories. It was just photos.
Joyanne Howell (11:12)
Yes.
Right, right.
Karen (11:21)
So I focused there. But then as more features started coming about and the algorithm started getting more moody, that's I think also when the mental health challenges started because it was more posting. How can I say it? It was less about posting content that I genuinely enjoyed and for inspiration and more about, you know.
making peace with the algorithm. It was kind of like being in a toxic relationship and you just had to be stepping on eggshells and trying to appease your partner, which is Instagram. So with that, since that was one of the big drivers for me to sell my blog originally, the first one, Lifestyle Traveler, this time around, now that I launched Aesthetics Traveler, I didn't want to just copy paste what I did before.
Joyanne Howell (11:58)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Karen (12:17)
I wanted to do things differently. I knew that boundaries needed to be in place. I knew what hadn't worked for me before. Even if it worked for me on the business side, it wasn't sustainable for me in the long run, right? If you are your business, you have to find things that are sustainable for you and your life and then make your business work around it. So I decided to prioritize more evergreen channels this time around. When I had my original blog, I also used Pinterest as a main traffic driver.
and I loved it, that was really good and no negative side effects. So this time around, I also decided to use Pinterest. I have decided to focus more on YouTube, for example, instead of Instagram, because it's more evergreen. So evergreen just means that it's something that grows over time rather than you having to create constant content to stay relevant. So if I post a YouTube video.
Today, in two years, I can still be getting views and can actually grow, you know, randomly versus an Instagram post that'll probably die in 48 hours. And that was, I would say those are the main reasons, just my positive but then negative experience on Instagram before and just now wanting to do things a little bit more sustainably for myself, for my business, being less in a rat race and more in...
Joyanne Howell (13:29)
Yeah.
Karen (13:43)
you know, having things work for me, more passive.
Joyanne Howell (13:47)
Yes.
Love that. Wow. Thank you so much. That's super, super insightful. I really appreciate your, you know, sharing about, you know, needing to set boundaries. And I'm curious if you can share like, what does that look like now, having gone through that experience on Instagram and having learned those lessons, you know, probably, unfortunately, the hard way, but what does it for you? And I'd love for us to get into a little bit about your content creation process for what you do make now,
like how you choose to set boundaries and what that looks like in your experience.
Karen (14:23)
Sure, so something that I learned was to share from scars and not wounds. So yeah, something I was doing before on my Instagram, especially when stories came about, is that I was just sharing live, right? And that meant I was posting my morning coffee and my walks with my dog and my travels, you know, to Greece. And I was also posting about my struggles, but live.
So it wasn't something that I was giving myself time to process on my own and to form an opinion about on my own. I was instead just opening up to my audience and then letting a lot of voices into my DMs to have opinions on my life over something that was affecting my life and not really their lives. So something to keep in mind is that, while I loved my followers and I really appreciated them,
Joyanne Howell (15:03)
Yeah.
Karen (15:19)
having an audience is a little bit of a one way relationship. You may know your audience as a general, you know, market and maybe engage with a few people, but it's still, they're going to know you more than you know them. And this gives people a sense of, even if it's well, it's well-intentioned, right? It gives other people.
the sense that they have some sort of entitlement over your life and maybe can have opinions on it and your decision making. And while it might not be something that they're trying to do to harm you, it can still have that negative effect. So share from scars, not wounds.
Joyanne Howell (16:08)
That is a really, really great tip. Thank you for offering that. That's very, very powerful. I think that's something that most people can benefit from thinking through. I love that. That's a great strategy for setting boundaries. Appreciate you sharing that.
So now lots of lessons learned. You're obviously having grown a successful business. When you do create content now, what is, you know, do you have any fun rituals you engage in? Are there any interesting things you do to sort of psych yourself up? I appreciate you're not gonna be.
Karen (16:29)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
Joyanne Howell (16:47)
sharing raw, live, exactly what's happening in the moment now. You're going to probably be applying some of those lessons and being a bit more thoughtful. But what does your current content creation process look like? Walk us through that a little bit, if you can.
Karen (16:51)
Hehehe
Sure. So I would say that I don't have any particular habit or ritual or anything like that I do for content creation, but I do tend to create content more in bursts. And this is something I think I learned partially through my cousin, his name is Piero Delgado and we've partnered a lot for content creation. He's edited some of my YouTube videos. He's actually a featured guest on my...
Joyanne Howell (17:14)
Oh.
Karen (17:31)
online course on Travel Creator Blueprint. And one of his methodologies for content creation is having more of a mind map. And then from that mind map, you can segment content ideas for different platforms. So this is a concept that I've also used, just not as detailed as he puts it in the course. But I've used it for my in-house.
Joyanne Howell (17:34)
Yes.
Karen (17:58)
experience. So I've also led social media and influencer marketing in house and at agencies. And that's something that now I apply to my own content creation for my own business that maybe I didn't do before, right? It was more intuitive and more sporadic the first time around. Now it's a bit more structured in that sense. So that's, that would be what I do. I just kind of do it in this mind map way and then in bursts.
So I choose a day and I create content, or maybe it's a week, and then maybe I don't create content for a while longer. It's what works for me.
Joyanne Howell (18:26)
Right.
Right.
Right. Yeah, yeah, interesting. That's really great. I know there's so many different ways to do it. And there's lots of different methods proposed online, different strategies. And I do think what you're sharing it ultimately is that you need to find a system that works for you, really something that feels resonant for your schedule and your interest and your energy levels and what you're excited about in the moment. So thank you for sharing. That's very interesting, that mindmapping process, applying that to content creation.
Karen (19:00)
Yeah, it definitely helps. It's more structured.
Joyanne Howell (19:04)
Mm-hmm. Okay, amazing. So in the content creation journey that you've had so far, what would you, can you highlight for us a little bit about what might have been a viral moment, like something that was sort of increased your following or your audience or brought more attention in some way. What do you have like a specific moment that you can point to?
Karen (19:32)
Yeah, so being a travel blogger, the moment was actually a destination. So it wasn't like a particular, you know, like a specific piece of content, like maybe other creators have that just resonated. Obviously, I had content that performed better than others and, and things like that. But for me, it was a particular place. And this place was Greece. So in 2016, yeah, when I had just started.
Joyanne Howell (19:38)
Bye.
Karen (20:01)
travel blogging for real. So I actually sold all of my things in California, which is where I was living at the time, bought a one way ticket to London. And I just decided, you know, I'm gonna do this thing. I'm gonna do it for real. I'm gonna leave everything behind. And I'm just gonna travel around the world and be a travel blogger. Like if I want to do it, I just have to do it. So I did that after London went to Berlin, and then I went to Greece.
Joyanne Howell (20:16)
Yeah.
Karen (20:27)
And in Greece is where I had this aha moment of, wow, I can actually do this. I can actually be, you know, a travel creator full time and live from this and enjoy it. And Greece, obviously, I love London and, you know, Berlin and all of that. But Greece was exactly me.
Like it was exactly my aesthetic. It was exactly my vision board of what I had pinned on Pinterest for Little Black Shell. And when I landed there, it was like all the stars aligned, right? The islands were welcoming me and knowing that this is what I had been wanting. Because every hotel that I reached out to there just said yes. And it was amazing. I remember going to Mykonos and
Joyanne Howell (20:52)
Yes.
Wow.
Karen (21:14)
I just landed at this gorgeous hotel, like Rocabella Mykonos, and they just gave me this stunning room, and I was so happy. But then the next place that I went to, they just gave me an even better room. It's like they were competing with each other. They gave me like the best suite with the private pool and the view of, you know. And then the next hotel, it was like even better. So...
Joyanne Howell (21:38)
Yeah.
Wow.
Karen (21:44)
I was just, it was, I was having the most mind blowing moments in, in Greece. Like how, who am I? Right? Like imposter syndrome, like who even am I? Why am I in this suite? And like, my content is not good enough for this. Like, but I created the best content of my life in Greece and I actually saw a huge, you know,
Joyanne Howell (21:54)
Right?
I'm going to go to bed.
Karen (22:11)
new following that came from it on Instagram. That really set the foundation for just my travel blogging career moving forward. After getting those amazing collaborations with those hotels, pretty much it was so much easier to just get yeses for any partnership that I wanted moving forward, any other destination. And my audience was also more engaged. Like everyone noticed that I was just on it there. So.
Joyanne Howell (22:37)
Right. Yes, yes. Wow.
Karen (22:40)
That was definitely my viral destination.
Joyanne Howell (22:43)
That is so fascinating. I really appreciate that story. What I'm hearing really is the idea of you just deciding to go for it. Just buying that one-way ticket is really what started it all. And it's like following that spark that started a chain of amazing circumstances and coincidences that led to you being right where it seems like the perfect place for you.
Karen (23:12)
Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, it sounds cheesy, but you really are the only one that can give yourself your dream life, right? Like you can't just wait for the stars to align and everything to be perfect. And you have to have no money worries, no fears, no nothing to go for it. You just have to go for it. So and you'll be rewarded for it.
Joyanne Howell (23:28)
Right, right.
100% agree with that. That's fantastic. Wow. So exciting. Okay. So I'm really interested. I'm excited to talk more about the course that you've created to help other creators learn how to be travel creators as well. Before we dive into that though, you know, I'd love for you to share with me a little bit about, you know, you talked about the beginning...
to begin to open up to lots of partnership experience, partnership, let me take that again. Okay, so you talked about the partnerships that became possible after you started, you know, after your journey in Greece and you're sharing more content there.
Tell us a little bit more about what brand partnerships look like for you, how they work for you, and what's the secret sauce to making brand partnerships work in your experience.
Karen (24:33)
Yeah, of course. Brand partnerships, I mean, they're what made my career, right? Like that's how I was able to travel around the world, how I was able to sustain myself. And what gave me all of these amazing memories and amazing experiences and what made travel vlogging worthwhile. Like if I hadn't had those brand partnerships, then it wouldn't have been worth it for me. Like that was part of the fun traveling and going to these amazing hotels and
you know, living that my best life while having this business that allowed me to do that. And for me travel, like the partnerships were all about relationship building. So one of my best partners while I was traveling full time was IHG. So Internet Intercontinental Hotel Group, just as an example, I had an original partnership with them, I think it was an app and so funny enough, Greece.
Joyanne Howell (25:10)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Yes.
Hmm. Yeah.
Karen (25:29)
And then from there, I just stayed in contact, you know, like really created a relationship with the person that at the time was handling PR and influencers. And I just kept her updated on all of my travels. So whenever I went to a destination that had an IHV hotel, I would reach out to her and be and just tell her like, hey, I'm going to be here, you know, I'd love to try out this hotel. Like I have a whole pitch that I go over in the Travel Creator Blueprint.
Joyanne Howell (25:56)
Okay. Oh, it's good.
Karen (25:58)
But basically, I didn't have to introduce myself to her anymore, obviously. But I would just tell her a little bit about where I was going, what dates I would be there in and what my proposal was for partnership with her. It was usually blog posts and then some Instagram posts at the time. And with this, you know, brand, they were always trying to work with me because
Joyanne Howell (26:02)
Yes.
Karen (26:23)
we had built that relationship. So she knew I would deliver on what I was saying. She knew that it was having good results. And it was interesting for her to, to continue building a relationship with me because I was also traveling full time, right? And they do a lot of destinations where they had hotels. So I would say it's all about relationship building and also under promising over delivering and just being very professional. Yeah.
Joyanne Howell (26:28)
Yes.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Karen (26:53)
Definitely very professional. Definitely, you know, if you're gonna promise something and you don't know if we're gonna give results, then it's better not to do that. It's better to under promise. And then surprise and delight.
Joyanne Howell (27:07)
Wow, interesting. That's a really great philosophy. Very cool. So I'm sure those kinds of tips and insights are part of the travel, the course that you've created. I'd love to learn more about that. Can you share a little bit more about the course that you developed? You've had so much experience and done it, been there and done it, you know, in the trenches. So I think, you know, you're, you're well poised to be able to share how to with others. So tell us a little bit more about the course that you've built.
Karen (27:36)
Of course. So travel creator Blueprint, I think came from a need for myself, right? Young Karen would have loved to have this. And also just as a way of giving back to my community, like even though, you know, I moved away from Instagram, I sold my original blog, I still feel very much indebted to my original followers and to people just in the industry. I've seen the creator industry
Joyanne Howell (27:44)
Right.
Karen (28:07)
it doesn't feel so out of reach for people to be full-time travel creators anymore. For me, when I started, I mean, it felt like a big reach, but now there's so much support. The industry is growing. I think it's like 3. something billion. I don't remember the number of the industry, but I know when I started, it was so hard to get paid partnerships. So I think it's a combination of that, my own pain points from when I got started.
Joyanne Howell (28:24)
Right.
Karen (28:35)
And the knowledge, obviously, that I acquired from having done it, right? I grew this travel blog, traveled around the world, had very successful partnerships. And I've also since then led social media and influencer marketing in-house for major startups in the US and Europe, and then also for companies like Verizon. And it's just this combination of knowledge that I feel like I can't keep to myself.
And also last year, before a trip to Spain and Italy, it just kind of clicked for me. Like I missed this. I missed the travel blogging. I missed travel, you know, being a creator. Like it wasn't the same just going on a trip and not sharing it, not creating content around it. Like I was still doing it. I was still writing blog posts on my notes on my phone, but just not posting them anywhere. So I felt like such a waste.
Joyanne Howell (29:17)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ah, ha ha.
Karen (29:32)
And so yeah, it's, it's something I genuinely enjoy doing, but I want to do something bigger that is bigger than myself now, right? So I can still share content on my travel blog on aesthetics traveler. But now that I have this knowledge and this confidence, and I know it can have an impact on other people that, you know, maybe we're like me of seven years ago that we're just wanting to get started or, you know, had this fear of
of going for it and I can have an impact and just share all of my knowledge that, I don't know, that fills me up inside.
Joyanne Howell (30:09)
Yeah, oh, that's beautiful. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. That's amazing. I'm curious for you, what has been, I mean, it sounds like creating the content for the course is, seems like an easy thing for where you're at. What has been the process for you putting the actual course together? Like, has it taken you months and months, or has it been quick? You know, what platforms have you used if you're interested, if you're willing to share with us? Give us some insight on that.
Karen (30:37)
Yeah, sure. Yeah, so this idea of for a course, I think I've had it since like 2018, I actually created. And to put it into perspective, I started traveling in 2016. So it was very much close to my beginning journey. I actually started had launched a different course before that was more around
Joyanne Howell (30:46)
Okay.
Right. Okay.
Karen (31:05)
just having a remote business in general, like more geared towards digital nomads. That was what I would say was the foundation for this course now in terms of creation, right? So having created that original digital nomad business course in 2018, gave me that experience to just create another one a lot quicker. But it did take me, you know, up until...
Joyanne Howell (31:22)
Yes.
Karen (31:31)
last year, so 2023, to actually create this other course. So I think one, yeah, definitely, I think it's more a mindset thing, you know, it's more of like, it was in my head for so long, but I didn't know if I wanted to do that, because you know, I was selling my blog, and then what is this other thing that I'm launching if I'm selling this blog, and like, it was just a...
Joyanne Howell (31:37)
Yeah. Yes, yes, it takes time.
Mmm.
Karen (31:59)
just my mind was just it was not aligning. So when I had things click in my head that I wanted to get back into travel creator, you know, like being a travel creator, that's when you know, the decision to create the course came about super quickly. And it only took me I think, like, maybe like, two weeks or a month to write it all out. And then another month to film it. Then I launched it.
Joyanne Howell (32:03)
Right.
Right, right. Wow.
Karen (32:30)
to a friends and family sale and recently I opened it up on my website for the public. So once I took the decision, it was fairly quick. It just took a while to get there. Yeah, yeah and for platforms and when I'm hosting it, I'm using Thinkific. They're really great. Thinkific to host my course.
Joyanne Howell (32:37)
Amazing.
Right, yeah. All part of the process, I'm sure.
Okay.
Karen (32:58)
And I also use CumberKit more for like email, you know, like to do follow-ups for just promotion of the course. And then I host my website on Showit, which is amazing because it's a it's like a visual website builder. So it makes it very, very easy and easy to make it aesthetic too, which is a big thing.
Joyanne Howell (33:08)
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
Yes,
Okay. Well, thank you for sharing about the chorus and getting it built and getting it up and running and launched. I'm curious for you, now that you have that and you've followed that spark as well and brought that idea that you've had on your mind since 2018 actually to life and out in the world now. Tell me about, for you...
what scale means, like how do you see the course fitting into your growth, your business growth and what sort of, how do you define what scaling your business up means?
Karen (33:58)
Yeah, of course. So that's something I've thought about a lot. Like I said, I didn't want to build my business exactly the way that I did before, only the things that I liked. But for me, skill is more about having time freedom and also making it as passive as possible. So while I think for a creator business, it's important for you to learn about the foundations of having a creator business, right, like the social media strategies and content creation and
Joyanne Howell (34:06)
Amen.
share.
Karen (34:26)
blogging SEO, you know, brand partnerships, how to have that effectively. I think the next step after that is to create products that you can do more passively. Also having a team that can help you out so you're not doing everything yourself. And if you are doing brand partnerships, or if you are doing, you know, consulting, which is also something I did on the side, having it be very aligned. So whatever time I am selling,
Joyanne Howell (34:32)
Yes.
Yeah.
Karen (34:56)
It's something I genuinely enjoy and feel like it's a complete fit for my brand and for myself.
Joyanne Howell (35:03)
Mm-hmm. Amazing. Okay. Thank you. I think that makes a lot of sense to make sure that there's that synergy and that you're in alignment with the people you're working with and the things that you're working towards.
I'm curious from your perspective, you've been at this for a long time, you probably qualify as an OG creator actually, been doing it since 2014. So what is one of the trends in the creator space right now that you would love to see come to an end?
Karen (35:35)
Oh, yeah. I would say the transactional creator brand partnership. So I think the, like the more, like the common practice still nowadays for brands and influencers to partner is on one of campaigns. And like I previously said, like the things that have the most return on investment and actually
benefit both sides of the coin, right? The brand and the creator is relationship building. So I would love for just like one off transactional partnerships to end and for brands, both brands and creators to focus more on relationship building. So on having those long-term partnerships, so being more selective with each other, but working together longer term, I think that has way more benefits for everyone, including your audience.
Joyanne Howell (36:20)
Yeah. Wow.
Yeah, yeah, makes sense. Wow, that's really fascinating. Thank you for sharing that view. What would you say is something that you're most looking forward to in the creator space? So something that you're seeing emerge or hoping will start to take shape in the creator economy right now?
Karen (36:54)
Well, I think it aligns with the business that I'm building. I love the creator educator space that is surgeon recently and again, that's the direction that I'm taking aesthetics traveler to and I think the The creator space like it's important Like I said to learn the foundations of being a creator But ultimately if you do want to have skill in your business, there's only so many brand partnerships you can sell, right?
Joyanne Howell (37:04)
Right.
Yeah.
Karen (37:22)
and you're kind of stuck with the algorithm and whether it's going to reward you with engagement or with an audience. But if you have more of knowledge to sell and knowledge to help your audience, that can really help you scale. So that's something I'm looking forward to, just more of this industry, this side of the creator industry growing.
Joyanne Howell (37:23)
Yes.
Right.
Sure, sure, fascinating, thank you. I'm curious, talking about trends and things emerging in the space, just interested in your perspective on AI usage. So do you use AI at all for content creation? Are you open to that and interested in using it for content or other aspects of building your business? What are your thoughts on that?
Karen (38:07)
Yeah, I think AI is great if you use it kind of as an assistant and maybe like an extra mind, like an extension of your mind to help you ideate. At least that's how I've used it. So currently I've used it to help me, you know, come up with ideas for blog posts, or maybe I have this small concept in my head, but I don't really know how to expand on it. So I'll prompt, you know,
Joyanne Howell (38:18)
Right. Okay.
Mmm.
Right.
Karen (38:38)
the brand partnerships with influencers, like best, I'm losing my words, best practices, like just something random. So I can help it kind of be my partner in thinking. I think like being an entrepreneur and being in this creator business can be a little bit lonely and it's nice to just have someone to help you bounce ideas and AI can really help with that.
Joyanne Howell (38:45)
That's okay. Right. Mmm.
Sure, sure.
Right.
Karen (39:06)
Yeah, and also it can help you repurpose content. So kind of along with the mind map thing that I was talking about of like having one idea and then just having that idea feed into different platforms and different pieces of content. AI can help you with that, right? Like you can write a blog post and then have it repurpose it for email or for a social media post or on the flip side, maybe you start with a small post for social media and then it can expand on it. So
Joyanne Howell (39:13)
Mmm.
Right.
Karen (39:35)
It's a great tool for that.
Joyanne Howell (39:38)
Okay, Karen, you have done so much in the travel creator space and your course is out now and available. Tell us about why your mission matters to you, why you really care about sharing and helping others learn to become travel creators.
Karen (39:56)
So my, yeah, so my mission is to help aspiring creators launch their travel blog and just travel around the world. But I feel like it goes beyond that. So it's not just about having a business, but it's about world travel and just being open to the world and having this opportunity to just expand your mindset. And just, I just feel like traveling is something that has given so much to me and the world would.
literally be a better place if more people traveled. Not for the aesthetics, you know, not for all of that, like that is a big plus, but it really does make you more compassionate as a person, like you get to understand different cultures and different people better, so you have more empathy and it also helps you see how small you are in the world, so it kind of brings down your entitlement a little bit, which I know we all have in one way or another.
Joyanne Howell (40:45)
Ha ha
Karen (40:47)
Um, it also helps you personally to get rid of fears. Um, at least for me, traveling solo especially helped me grow so much as a person. Now I'm not afraid to, you know, move halfway across the world for an opportunity or just go to, you know, Thailand on my own because I don't know, I want some pad thai or go to Paris for a good croissant and just talk French.
Joyanne Howell (41:10)
Yeah.
Karen (41:16)
bad French with someone, right? And I don't know, I think in general, if more people had the opportunity to make their dreams come true, as cheesy as that sounds, it would be a better place. So if I can contribute to that, and even a small way through this course by helping people that already have that desire of world travel and being an entrepreneur, then I'm going to give it my all, I'm going to do it. That's my contribution to this world right now.
Joyanne Howell (41:44)
Wow. Thank you, Karen. That is so fascinating, really inspiring to hear you, you know, what your mission means to you and why you want to do that. And I fully agree. I think travelling is something that opens up so much in your personal life and really can contribute to making you a better, more compassionate and empathetic person. So I love that that's part of why you're doing what you do.
I really hope the course continues to grow and go well and more people get to learn about how to do it and that it's actually possible. So thank you for putting that out in the world.
Karen (42:20)
Sure, of course. I'm happy to be putting that out and I don't know, it's kind of like a two-way helping thing, right? It's like you help me, I help you. I think that's better. That's the better way of the world working through collaboration.
Joyanne Howell (42:30)
Yes.
Yeah, wow, fantastic, I totally agree. All right, well, we are almost at time, but I would love for you to share with us before we go, an interesting fact, a fun fact or a shocking fact that we may not know about you yet that you'd love to clue us in on.
Karen (42:57)
Sure, so going on the theme of travel and kind of just global citizen. I was originally born in Lima, Peru, then grew up in the States. And now I'm living in Spain. So I actually got triple citizenship. Today I officially got my Spanish passport, like literally two hours before this recording. So I'm super excited. Yeah, I finally consider myself an official.
Joyanne Howell (43:03)
Yeah.
Oh
Woo! Pah-pah! Ha ha ha!
Wow. Oh.
Karen (43:27)
global citizen. So super happy out of that.
Joyanne Howell (43:29)
Oh my goodness, that is so exciting. Congratulations! That's very, very cool. Amazing. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, absolutely. That's a beautiful treasure to be able to have and take with you. And I'm sure you're going to continue to stamp that passport and continue to travel and share your journeys with us and educate people as you do that. That's wonderful.
Karen (43:35)
Thank you. It took a lot of work. But we're here.
Definitely. More experience is more knowledge.
Joyanne Howell (43:58)
Yes, yes, yes. Well, Karen, it's been such a pleasure having you on today, learning about your journey and your story. If people want to connect with you and learn more about Aesthetics Traveler and also the travel course that you've created, where can they find you?
Karen (44:13)
So you can go to the website, aest You will probably not find me on Instagram at the moment, but you can go to YouTube. And my YouTube channel is just Karen Alexandra. So if you do youtube.com slash C slash Karen Alexandra, you'll see that channel. And that's where I'm posting more about just my journey in general. So anything from travel blogs to, you know, creator tips to my new life in Spain, that's where you'll find me.
Joyanne Howell (44:20)
Yeah.
Okay, fantastic. We'll make sure that we link up all of those details in the show notes.
Thank you for joining us on the podcast today. The team at Level Up Creators is here to support you with building and optimizing a profitable business that will transform your life for good. Subscribe to the show and head over to wele to sign up for our newsletter, where we share actionable business tips for creators just like you. We'll see you next time.
Hello and welcome. Thank you for tuning into the Level Up Creators podcast. I'm Joanne Howell and I'll be your host today. We help digital creators build thriving, sustainable businesses they love. And we are so happy you're here.
This season of the podcast, we're focusing on sharing the stories of creators and entrepreneurs who have taken the leap and navigated the world of online business creation.
Today, my awesome guest is Karen Delgado. Karen is a luxury travel creator and marketing consultant for the travel hospitality and creator industries. She started her career journey in 2014, launching Little Black Shell, a successful fashion blog that she later transformed into a travel blog and rebranded as Lifestyle Traveler.
She spent five years traveling around the world as a full-time travel creator before selling Lifestyle Traveler in January, 2021.
Since then, she's been consulting for both Fortune 500 companies and startups, leveraging her expertise to help brands create impactful marketing strategies. She now lives in Madrid and continues her adventures as a frequent traveler, sharing her worldly experiences through her online home, Aesthetics Traveler. Welcome, Karen.
Karen (01:15)
Thanks for having me, Joy.
Joyanne Howell (01:17)
It's such a pleasure to have you today. So Karen, we have had a little bit of a chance to chat and I'm so excited to share your story with our audience today. Yeah, let's dive right in. I would love for you to tell us a little bit about what was happening for you before you decided to become a creator. Just give us the backstory of where you were at and what was happening in your life before you kind of decided, yeah, I think I wanna move into this creator thing.
Karen (01:47)
Yeah, super happy to be here and thanks for having me. So when I actually started my creator journey, it was back in 2014, like you said in the intro. Obviously it was a very different time. The creator industry was this baby form. I was just getting started. And I was actually a student at the time. I was in college. I had no idea about blogs or influencers, nothing.
Joyanne Howell (01:57)
Yes.
Karen (02:14)
But I actually went to a fashion class that was the major that I was studying at the moment. And a professor introduced me to blogging. So she mentioned how blogging was, you know, the latest thing in fashion, and that it was great for us to have a blog as a resume builder, that it was going to help us in our career and just kind of like launch it, even when we didn't have experience, right? It would serve as like another internship.
And for one of the assignments in this class, she had us write some blog posts. So that was the intro to blogging and the creator industry for me. And since that class, it just stuck with me. I was like, wow, you know, if I can accelerate my career by launching this travel for this fashion blog. And I had tried writing some blog posts and I enjoyed it.
It also incorporated marketing, which I was interested in, photography, fashion, all the things. So I went ahead and launched Little Black Shell, and that's just kind of how I got started.
Joyanne Howell (03:10)
Yes. Wow.
Wow, that's fascinating. Amazing. So was the technical aspect of getting started challenging for you? I know you mentioned you liked the writing piece. How about the tech part of things?
Karen (03:21)
Yeah.
Yeah, I mean, I like the writing piece, but honestly, I was awful. Like I still have a screenshot of my first blog post and I think any creator will tell you this, right? Like their first piece of content is just when you look back on it, it's just not up to par. And but the technical part, I would consider myself very tech savvy. My dad is in tech, you know, he gave me a computer, I think, when I was like five years old. And I was very much exposed to that. Some of the
Joyanne Howell (03:55)
Wow.
Karen (04:00)
like the ways that I would get an allowance was by editing a family photo on Photoshop and things like this. So I had a little bit of that foundation, but still, like I had never built a website, you know, I had never done it for a business. So it was a lot of learning, just Googling stuff and figuring it out. I mean, there wasn't as much to look at either, you know, it was still early on, there were not as many creators. So.
Joyanne Howell (04:11)
Yes.
sure.
This is it.
Yes. Correct.
Karen (04:29)
Yeah, it was just trial and error. So that was a big challenge, I guess.
Joyanne Howell (04:32)
Wow, absolutely. Yeah, I can imagine being self-taught, especially at that time. I mean, YouTube was coming into being, but there weren't as many courses and how to do everything as they are now. So I'm sure that was a big learning curve for you.
Karen (04:46)
Definitely. I wish we would have had the support that they're there is available now.
Joyanne Howell (04:52)
Yeah, yeah. Oh my goodness. Amazing. So tell us about, you know, the process of building, you finally got your blog together, you started writing, started creating content. You know, what, what were some of the challenges in your process of learning, being self taught, figuring everything out as you go? What talk to us a little bit about what some of the other challenges that you might have experienced work.
Karen (05:21)
Yeah, so honestly for me, the biggest challenge was not so much the blogging side, the growing of following. I think that all had a learning curve, but it was more mental health. So when I started this, I didn't know what boundaries were at all. You know, I had no clue that I needed to set boundaries for my content. I was just thinking more like a business of what is the best growth strategy, trying different things, seeing what had more engagement.
Joyanne Howell (05:38)
Wow.
Karen (05:51)
But kind of like what we were touching based on right before the podcast and I was sharing with you, it started having a negative effect on my mental health and quite quickly. So I think it's something important for creators and brands or anyone that has, you know, is a personal brand and is talking to the public basically to keep in mind is that while...
certain marketing strategies might give you really good results. It's important to keep in mind that you are a human being. So you still have emotions, you still go through things, right? If someone says something to you, even if it's a positive, right, they're just having an opinion on your life, it can still have a negative effect on your mental health, because we're letting too many people in. So I would say that was my biggest challenge. And it was actually one of the main factors of why I sold my blog.
in 2021 and I moved away from the creator space for a while. So yeah, that was a big learning lesson.
Joyanne Howell (06:56)
Sure, absolutely. Thank you for sharing that. I appreciate that insight. And that's definitely a really important thing for creators to think about. You know, it's fascinating and exciting when you're getting started to think about building a big audience and having a huge following. But there are definitely some challenges to, like you said, letting so many people in. And it's important, I think, to prioritize your mental health and your wellness. So I really appreciate that you made that decision.
thing to walk away from, you know, what you've been building there.
Karen (07:30)
Yeah, that was definitely one of the hardest decisions of my life, I would say. That blog was my baby and it created, you know, the new me. So making that decision was definitely challenging, but it was the right one. I don't regret it.
Joyanne Howell (07:34)
Wow.
Right.
Wow, awesome. That's great to hear. Are you able to share a little bit about what that actual process was like of selling the blog? How did you come to find a buyer and land on the right steps to take to actually get that done?
Karen (08:05)
Sure. That's I think the number one question I get asked when I say that I sold my blog. I don't think many people do that, right? You just kind of stop. But I actually came across a TikTok. So this was around pandemic time. We were all on TikTok, right? Doing little dances and kind of getting all your learnings from there. And randomly one day, this TikTok shows up.
Joyanne Howell (08:13)
Correct. Yes.
Yes.
Karen (08:30)
about a website called blogs for sale. And this was around the time when I was, you know, trying to figure out if I wanted to continue with this once tribal resumed, or if I wanted to sell it because of all these issues that I was telling you about. And then this came about and I kind of saw it as a sign. I inquired, you know, send the message to
Joyanne Howell (08:47)
correct.
Karen (08:55)
to the founder, like the person that had this website to understand how it works. And they're basically a blog brokerage. So you list your blog with them and then they find you a buyer and they handle all the legal stuff. So it was very easy. It was just listing it. And I think it took like two or three months before I sold it. Yeah.
Joyanne Howell (09:12)
Mm.
Right.
Oh, wow. Okay. That's interesting. Really interesting. Wow.
Karen (09:25)
Pretty simple.
Joyanne Howell (09:27)
Amazing. Karen, one of the things I wanted to ask you about is you're a travel creator, and typically we think about people with big followings, especially in the travel space, beautiful pictures from all over the world on your travel journeys and so on. Instagram seems to be probably a, you know...
no-brainer platform that you'd be on. And you actually have the bulk of your social presence on LinkedIn and Pinterest in addition to your
Karen (09:54)
Right.
Joyanne Howell (10:06)
I was curious if you'd share a little bit with us about how you decided to focus on LinkedIn and Pinterest over Instagram.
Karen (10:19)
Yeah, of course. So my decision to focus on other platforms and not on Instagram this time around was because for my first blog, I focused pretty much primarily on Instagram. And like I mentioned about the mental health, it started having a negative effect on my mental health, right? Unfortunately, it's there's a lot of studies around it. And a lot of people that can relate to this that social media just negatively impacts your mental health if you don't have boundaries in place.
So for me, when I launched my fashion blog and then I later changed it to a travel blog, I focused on my website, right? The physical business, that's kind of like your home and what you own. And then my social media platform of choice was Instagram because that's just kind of where you did things at the time. It was the main one. You just posted pictures. There wasn't even videos yet, no stories. It was just photos.
Joyanne Howell (11:12)
Yes.
Right, right.
Karen (11:21)
So I focused there. But then as more features started coming about and the algorithm started getting more moody, that's I think also when the mental health challenges started because it was more posting. How can I say it? It was less about posting content that I genuinely enjoyed and for inspiration and more about, you know.
making peace with the algorithm. It was kind of like being in a toxic relationship and you just had to be stepping on eggshells and trying to appease your partner, which is Instagram. So with that, since that was one of the big drivers for me to sell my blog originally, the first one, Lifestyle Traveler, this time around, now that I launched Aesthetics Traveler, I didn't want to just copy paste what I did before.
Joyanne Howell (11:58)
Yeah, yeah.
Mm-hmm. Yes.
Karen (12:17)
I wanted to do things differently. I knew that boundaries needed to be in place. I knew what hadn't worked for me before. Even if it worked for me on the business side, it wasn't sustainable for me in the long run, right? If you are your business, you have to find things that are sustainable for you and your life and then make your business work around it. So I decided to prioritize more evergreen channels this time around. When I had my original blog, I also used Pinterest as a main traffic driver.
and I loved it, that was really good and no negative side effects. So this time around, I also decided to use Pinterest. I have decided to focus more on YouTube, for example, instead of Instagram, because it's more evergreen. So evergreen just means that it's something that grows over time rather than you having to create constant content to stay relevant. So if I post a YouTube video.
Today, in two years, I can still be getting views and can actually grow, you know, randomly versus an Instagram post that'll probably die in 48 hours. And that was, I would say those are the main reasons, just my positive but then negative experience on Instagram before and just now wanting to do things a little bit more sustainably for myself, for my business, being less in a rat race and more in...
Joyanne Howell (13:29)
Yeah.
Karen (13:43)
you know, having things work for me, more passive.
Joyanne Howell (13:47)
Yes.
Love that. Wow. Thank you so much. That's super, super insightful. I really appreciate your, you know, sharing about, you know, needing to set boundaries. And I'm curious if you can share like, what does that look like now, having gone through that experience on Instagram and having learned those lessons, you know, probably, unfortunately, the hard way, but what does it for you? And I'd love for us to get into a little bit about your content creation process for what you do make now,
like how you choose to set boundaries and what that looks like in your experience.
Karen (14:23)
Sure, so something that I learned was to share from scars and not wounds. So yeah, something I was doing before on my Instagram, especially when stories came about, is that I was just sharing live, right? And that meant I was posting my morning coffee and my walks with my dog and my travels, you know, to Greece. And I was also posting about my struggles, but live.
So it wasn't something that I was giving myself time to process on my own and to form an opinion about on my own. I was instead just opening up to my audience and then letting a lot of voices into my DMs to have opinions on my life over something that was affecting my life and not really their lives. So something to keep in mind is that, while I loved my followers and I really appreciated them,
Joyanne Howell (15:03)
Yeah.
Karen (15:19)
having an audience is a little bit of a one way relationship. You may know your audience as a general, you know, market and maybe engage with a few people, but it's still, they're going to know you more than you know them. And this gives people a sense of, even if it's well, it's well-intentioned, right? It gives other people.
the sense that they have some sort of entitlement over your life and maybe can have opinions on it and your decision making. And while it might not be something that they're trying to do to harm you, it can still have that negative effect. So share from scars, not wounds.
Joyanne Howell (16:08)
That is a really, really great tip. Thank you for offering that. That's very, very powerful. I think that's something that most people can benefit from thinking through. I love that. That's a great strategy for setting boundaries. Appreciate you sharing that.
So now lots of lessons learned. You're obviously having grown a successful business. When you do create content now, what is, you know, do you have any fun rituals you engage in? Are there any interesting things you do to sort of psych yourself up? I appreciate you're not gonna be.
Karen (16:29)
I'm going to go ahead and close the video.
Joyanne Howell (16:47)
sharing raw, live, exactly what's happening in the moment now. You're going to probably be applying some of those lessons and being a bit more thoughtful. But what does your current content creation process look like? Walk us through that a little bit, if you can.
Karen (16:51)
Hehehe
Sure. So I would say that I don't have any particular habit or ritual or anything like that I do for content creation, but I do tend to create content more in bursts. And this is something I think I learned partially through my cousin, his name is Piero Delgado and we've partnered a lot for content creation. He's edited some of my YouTube videos. He's actually a featured guest on my...
Joyanne Howell (17:14)
Oh.
Karen (17:31)
online course on Travel Creator Blueprint. And one of his methodologies for content creation is having more of a mind map. And then from that mind map, you can segment content ideas for different platforms. So this is a concept that I've also used, just not as detailed as he puts it in the course. But I've used it for my in-house.
Joyanne Howell (17:34)
Yes.
Karen (17:58)
experience. So I've also led social media and influencer marketing in house and at agencies. And that's something that now I apply to my own content creation for my own business that maybe I didn't do before, right? It was more intuitive and more sporadic the first time around. Now it's a bit more structured in that sense. So that's, that would be what I do. I just kind of do it in this mind map way and then in bursts.
So I choose a day and I create content, or maybe it's a week, and then maybe I don't create content for a while longer. It's what works for me.
Joyanne Howell (18:26)
Right.
Right.
Right. Yeah, yeah, interesting. That's really great. I know there's so many different ways to do it. And there's lots of different methods proposed online, different strategies. And I do think what you're sharing it ultimately is that you need to find a system that works for you, really something that feels resonant for your schedule and your interest and your energy levels and what you're excited about in the moment. So thank you for sharing. That's very interesting, that mindmapping process, applying that to content creation.
Karen (19:00)
Yeah, it definitely helps. It's more structured.
Joyanne Howell (19:04)
Mm-hmm. Okay, amazing. So in the content creation journey that you've had so far, what would you, can you highlight for us a little bit about what might have been a viral moment, like something that was sort of increased your following or your audience or brought more attention in some way. What do you have like a specific moment that you can point to?
Karen (19:32)
Yeah, so being a travel blogger, the moment was actually a destination. So it wasn't like a particular, you know, like a specific piece of content, like maybe other creators have that just resonated. Obviously, I had content that performed better than others and, and things like that. But for me, it was a particular place. And this place was Greece. So in 2016, yeah, when I had just started.
Joyanne Howell (19:38)
Bye.
Karen (20:01)
travel blogging for real. So I actually sold all of my things in California, which is where I was living at the time, bought a one way ticket to London. And I just decided, you know, I'm gonna do this thing. I'm gonna do it for real. I'm gonna leave everything behind. And I'm just gonna travel around the world and be a travel blogger. Like if I want to do it, I just have to do it. So I did that after London went to Berlin, and then I went to Greece.
Joyanne Howell (20:16)
Yeah.
Karen (20:27)
And in Greece is where I had this aha moment of, wow, I can actually do this. I can actually be, you know, a travel creator full time and live from this and enjoy it. And Greece, obviously, I love London and, you know, Berlin and all of that. But Greece was exactly me.
Like it was exactly my aesthetic. It was exactly my vision board of what I had pinned on Pinterest for Little Black Shell. And when I landed there, it was like all the stars aligned, right? The islands were welcoming me and knowing that this is what I had been wanting. Because every hotel that I reached out to there just said yes. And it was amazing. I remember going to Mykonos and
Joyanne Howell (20:52)
Yes.
Wow.
Karen (21:14)
I just landed at this gorgeous hotel, like Rocabella Mykonos, and they just gave me this stunning room, and I was so happy. But then the next place that I went to, they just gave me an even better room. It's like they were competing with each other. They gave me like the best suite with the private pool and the view of, you know. And then the next hotel, it was like even better. So...
Joyanne Howell (21:38)
Yeah.
Wow.
Karen (21:44)
I was just, it was, I was having the most mind blowing moments in, in Greece. Like how, who am I? Right? Like imposter syndrome, like who even am I? Why am I in this suite? And like, my content is not good enough for this. Like, but I created the best content of my life in Greece and I actually saw a huge, you know,
Joyanne Howell (21:54)
Right?
I'm going to go to bed.
Karen (22:11)
new following that came from it on Instagram. That really set the foundation for just my travel blogging career moving forward. After getting those amazing collaborations with those hotels, pretty much it was so much easier to just get yeses for any partnership that I wanted moving forward, any other destination. And my audience was also more engaged. Like everyone noticed that I was just on it there. So.
Joyanne Howell (22:37)
Right. Yes, yes. Wow.
Karen (22:40)
That was definitely my viral destination.
Joyanne Howell (22:43)
That is so fascinating. I really appreciate that story. What I'm hearing really is the idea of you just deciding to go for it. Just buying that one-way ticket is really what started it all. And it's like following that spark that started a chain of amazing circumstances and coincidences that led to you being right where it seems like the perfect place for you.
Karen (23:12)
Yeah, I definitely think so. I mean, it sounds cheesy, but you really are the only one that can give yourself your dream life, right? Like you can't just wait for the stars to align and everything to be perfect. And you have to have no money worries, no fears, no nothing to go for it. You just have to go for it. So and you'll be rewarded for it.
Joyanne Howell (23:28)
Right, right.
100% agree with that. That's fantastic. Wow. So exciting. Okay. So I'm really interested. I'm excited to talk more about the course that you've created to help other creators learn how to be travel creators as well. Before we dive into that though, you know, I'd love for you to share with me a little bit about, you know, you talked about the beginning...
to begin to open up to lots of partnership experience, partnership, let me take that again. Okay, so you talked about the partnerships that became possible after you started, you know, after your journey in Greece and you're sharing more content there.
Tell us a little bit more about what brand partnerships look like for you, how they work for you, and what's the secret sauce to making brand partnerships work in your experience.
Karen (24:33)
Yeah, of course. Brand partnerships, I mean, they're what made my career, right? Like that's how I was able to travel around the world, how I was able to sustain myself. And what gave me all of these amazing memories and amazing experiences and what made travel vlogging worthwhile. Like if I hadn't had those brand partnerships, then it wouldn't have been worth it for me. Like that was part of the fun traveling and going to these amazing hotels and
you know, living that my best life while having this business that allowed me to do that. And for me travel, like the partnerships were all about relationship building. So one of my best partners while I was traveling full time was IHG. So Internet Intercontinental Hotel Group, just as an example, I had an original partnership with them, I think it was an app and so funny enough, Greece.
Joyanne Howell (25:10)
Mm-hmm. Okay.
Yes.
Hmm. Yeah.
Karen (25:29)
And then from there, I just stayed in contact, you know, like really created a relationship with the person that at the time was handling PR and influencers. And I just kept her updated on all of my travels. So whenever I went to a destination that had an IHV hotel, I would reach out to her and be and just tell her like, hey, I'm going to be here, you know, I'd love to try out this hotel. Like I have a whole pitch that I go over in the Travel Creator Blueprint.
Joyanne Howell (25:56)
Okay. Oh, it's good.
Karen (25:58)
But basically, I didn't have to introduce myself to her anymore, obviously. But I would just tell her a little bit about where I was going, what dates I would be there in and what my proposal was for partnership with her. It was usually blog posts and then some Instagram posts at the time. And with this, you know, brand, they were always trying to work with me because
Joyanne Howell (26:02)
Yes.
Karen (26:23)
we had built that relationship. So she knew I would deliver on what I was saying. She knew that it was having good results. And it was interesting for her to, to continue building a relationship with me because I was also traveling full time, right? And they do a lot of destinations where they had hotels. So I would say it's all about relationship building and also under promising over delivering and just being very professional. Yeah.
Joyanne Howell (26:28)
Yes.
Right.
Mm-hmm.
Karen (26:53)
Definitely very professional. Definitely, you know, if you're gonna promise something and you don't know if we're gonna give results, then it's better not to do that. It's better to under promise. And then surprise and delight.
Joyanne Howell (27:07)
Wow, interesting. That's a really great philosophy. Very cool. So I'm sure those kinds of tips and insights are part of the travel, the course that you've created. I'd love to learn more about that. Can you share a little bit more about the course that you developed? You've had so much experience and done it, been there and done it, you know, in the trenches. So I think, you know, you're, you're well poised to be able to share how to with others. So tell us a little bit more about the course that you've built.
Karen (27:36)
Of course. So travel creator Blueprint, I think came from a need for myself, right? Young Karen would have loved to have this. And also just as a way of giving back to my community, like even though, you know, I moved away from Instagram, I sold my original blog, I still feel very much indebted to my original followers and to people just in the industry. I've seen the creator industry
Joyanne Howell (27:44)
Right.
Karen (28:07)
it doesn't feel so out of reach for people to be full-time travel creators anymore. For me, when I started, I mean, it felt like a big reach, but now there's so much support. The industry is growing. I think it's like 3. something billion. I don't remember the number of the industry, but I know when I started, it was so hard to get paid partnerships. So I think it's a combination of that, my own pain points from when I got started.
Joyanne Howell (28:24)
Right.
Karen (28:35)
And the knowledge, obviously, that I acquired from having done it, right? I grew this travel blog, traveled around the world, had very successful partnerships. And I've also since then led social media and influencer marketing in-house for major startups in the US and Europe, and then also for companies like Verizon. And it's just this combination of knowledge that I feel like I can't keep to myself.
And also last year, before a trip to Spain and Italy, it just kind of clicked for me. Like I missed this. I missed the travel blogging. I missed travel, you know, being a creator. Like it wasn't the same just going on a trip and not sharing it, not creating content around it. Like I was still doing it. I was still writing blog posts on my notes on my phone, but just not posting them anywhere. So I felt like such a waste.
Joyanne Howell (29:17)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Ah, ha ha.
Karen (29:32)
And so yeah, it's, it's something I genuinely enjoy doing, but I want to do something bigger that is bigger than myself now, right? So I can still share content on my travel blog on aesthetics traveler. But now that I have this knowledge and this confidence, and I know it can have an impact on other people that, you know, maybe we're like me of seven years ago that we're just wanting to get started or, you know, had this fear of
of going for it and I can have an impact and just share all of my knowledge that, I don't know, that fills me up inside.
Joyanne Howell (30:09)
Yeah, oh, that's beautiful. Wow. Thank you for sharing that. That's amazing. I'm curious for you, what has been, I mean, it sounds like creating the content for the course is, seems like an easy thing for where you're at. What has been the process for you putting the actual course together? Like, has it taken you months and months, or has it been quick? You know, what platforms have you used if you're interested, if you're willing to share with us? Give us some insight on that.
Karen (30:37)
Yeah, sure. Yeah, so this idea of for a course, I think I've had it since like 2018, I actually created. And to put it into perspective, I started traveling in 2016. So it was very much close to my beginning journey. I actually started had launched a different course before that was more around
Joyanne Howell (30:46)
Okay.
Right. Okay.
Karen (31:05)
just having a remote business in general, like more geared towards digital nomads. That was what I would say was the foundation for this course now in terms of creation, right? So having created that original digital nomad business course in 2018, gave me that experience to just create another one a lot quicker. But it did take me, you know, up until...
Joyanne Howell (31:22)
Yes.
Karen (31:31)
last year, so 2023, to actually create this other course. So I think one, yeah, definitely, I think it's more a mindset thing, you know, it's more of like, it was in my head for so long, but I didn't know if I wanted to do that, because you know, I was selling my blog, and then what is this other thing that I'm launching if I'm selling this blog, and like, it was just a...
Joyanne Howell (31:37)
Yeah. Yes, yes, it takes time.
Mmm.
Karen (31:59)
just my mind was just it was not aligning. So when I had things click in my head that I wanted to get back into travel creator, you know, like being a travel creator, that's when you know, the decision to create the course came about super quickly. And it only took me I think, like, maybe like, two weeks or a month to write it all out. And then another month to film it. Then I launched it.
Joyanne Howell (32:03)
Right.
Right, right. Wow.
Karen (32:30)
to a friends and family sale and recently I opened it up on my website for the public. So once I took the decision, it was fairly quick. It just took a while to get there. Yeah, yeah and for platforms and when I'm hosting it, I'm using Thinkific. They're really great. Thinkific to host my course.
Joyanne Howell (32:37)
Amazing.
Right, yeah. All part of the process, I'm sure.
Okay.
Karen (32:58)
And I also use CumberKit more for like email, you know, like to do follow-ups for just promotion of the course. And then I host my website on Showit, which is amazing because it's a it's like a visual website builder. So it makes it very, very easy and easy to make it aesthetic too, which is a big thing.
Joyanne Howell (33:08)
Yes.
Okay.
Yes.
Yes,
Okay. Well, thank you for sharing about the chorus and getting it built and getting it up and running and launched. I'm curious for you, now that you have that and you've followed that spark as well and brought that idea that you've had on your mind since 2018 actually to life and out in the world now. Tell me about, for you...
what scale means, like how do you see the course fitting into your growth, your business growth and what sort of, how do you define what scaling your business up means?
Karen (33:58)
Yeah, of course. So that's something I've thought about a lot. Like I said, I didn't want to build my business exactly the way that I did before, only the things that I liked. But for me, skill is more about having time freedom and also making it as passive as possible. So while I think for a creator business, it's important for you to learn about the foundations of having a creator business, right, like the social media strategies and content creation and
Joyanne Howell (34:06)
Amen.
share.
Karen (34:26)
blogging SEO, you know, brand partnerships, how to have that effectively. I think the next step after that is to create products that you can do more passively. Also having a team that can help you out so you're not doing everything yourself. And if you are doing brand partnerships, or if you are doing, you know, consulting, which is also something I did on the side, having it be very aligned. So whatever time I am selling,
Joyanne Howell (34:32)
Yes.
Yeah.
Karen (34:56)
It's something I genuinely enjoy and feel like it's a complete fit for my brand and for myself.
Joyanne Howell (35:03)
Mm-hmm. Amazing. Okay. Thank you. I think that makes a lot of sense to make sure that there's that synergy and that you're in alignment with the people you're working with and the things that you're working towards.
I'm curious from your perspective, you've been at this for a long time, you probably qualify as an OG creator actually, been doing it since 2014. So what is one of the trends in the creator space right now that you would love to see come to an end?
Karen (35:35)
Oh, yeah. I would say the transactional creator brand partnership. So I think the, like the more, like the common practice still nowadays for brands and influencers to partner is on one of campaigns. And like I previously said, like the things that have the most return on investment and actually
benefit both sides of the coin, right? The brand and the creator is relationship building. So I would love for just like one off transactional partnerships to end and for brands, both brands and creators to focus more on relationship building. So on having those long-term partnerships, so being more selective with each other, but working together longer term, I think that has way more benefits for everyone, including your audience.
Joyanne Howell (36:20)
Yeah. Wow.
Yeah, yeah, makes sense. Wow, that's really fascinating. Thank you for sharing that view. What would you say is something that you're most looking forward to in the creator space? So something that you're seeing emerge or hoping will start to take shape in the creator economy right now?
Karen (36:54)
Well, I think it aligns with the business that I'm building. I love the creator educator space that is surgeon recently and again, that's the direction that I'm taking aesthetics traveler to and I think the The creator space like it's important Like I said to learn the foundations of being a creator But ultimately if you do want to have skill in your business, there's only so many brand partnerships you can sell, right?
Joyanne Howell (37:04)
Right.
Yeah.
Karen (37:22)
and you're kind of stuck with the algorithm and whether it's going to reward you with engagement or with an audience. But if you have more of knowledge to sell and knowledge to help your audience, that can really help you scale. So that's something I'm looking forward to, just more of this industry, this side of the creator industry growing.
Joyanne Howell (37:23)
Yes.
Right.
Sure, sure, fascinating, thank you. I'm curious, talking about trends and things emerging in the space, just interested in your perspective on AI usage. So do you use AI at all for content creation? Are you open to that and interested in using it for content or other aspects of building your business? What are your thoughts on that?
Karen (38:07)
Yeah, I think AI is great if you use it kind of as an assistant and maybe like an extra mind, like an extension of your mind to help you ideate. At least that's how I've used it. So currently I've used it to help me, you know, come up with ideas for blog posts, or maybe I have this small concept in my head, but I don't really know how to expand on it. So I'll prompt, you know,
Joyanne Howell (38:18)
Right. Okay.
Mmm.
Right.
Karen (38:38)
the brand partnerships with influencers, like best, I'm losing my words, best practices, like just something random. So I can help it kind of be my partner in thinking. I think like being an entrepreneur and being in this creator business can be a little bit lonely and it's nice to just have someone to help you bounce ideas and AI can really help with that.
Joyanne Howell (38:45)
That's okay. Right. Mmm.
Sure, sure.
Right.
Karen (39:06)
Yeah, and also it can help you repurpose content. So kind of along with the mind map thing that I was talking about of like having one idea and then just having that idea feed into different platforms and different pieces of content. AI can help you with that, right? Like you can write a blog post and then have it repurpose it for email or for a social media post or on the flip side, maybe you start with a small post for social media and then it can expand on it. So
Joyanne Howell (39:13)
Mmm.
Right.
Karen (39:35)
It's a great tool for that.
Joyanne Howell (39:38)
Okay, Karen, you have done so much in the travel creator space and your course is out now and available. Tell us about why your mission matters to you, why you really care about sharing and helping others learn to become travel creators.
Karen (39:56)
So my, yeah, so my mission is to help aspiring creators launch their travel blog and just travel around the world. But I feel like it goes beyond that. So it's not just about having a business, but it's about world travel and just being open to the world and having this opportunity to just expand your mindset. And just, I just feel like traveling is something that has given so much to me and the world would.
literally be a better place if more people traveled. Not for the aesthetics, you know, not for all of that, like that is a big plus, but it really does make you more compassionate as a person, like you get to understand different cultures and different people better, so you have more empathy and it also helps you see how small you are in the world, so it kind of brings down your entitlement a little bit, which I know we all have in one way or another.
Joyanne Howell (40:45)
Ha ha
Karen (40:47)
Um, it also helps you personally to get rid of fears. Um, at least for me, traveling solo especially helped me grow so much as a person. Now I'm not afraid to, you know, move halfway across the world for an opportunity or just go to, you know, Thailand on my own because I don't know, I want some pad thai or go to Paris for a good croissant and just talk French.
Joyanne Howell (41:10)
Yeah.
Karen (41:16)
bad French with someone, right? And I don't know, I think in general, if more people had the opportunity to make their dreams come true, as cheesy as that sounds, it would be a better place. So if I can contribute to that, and even a small way through this course by helping people that already have that desire of world travel and being an entrepreneur, then I'm going to give it my all, I'm going to do it. That's my contribution to this world right now.
Joyanne Howell (41:44)
Wow. Thank you, Karen. That is so fascinating, really inspiring to hear you, you know, what your mission means to you and why you want to do that. And I fully agree. I think travelling is something that opens up so much in your personal life and really can contribute to making you a better, more compassionate and empathetic person. So I love that that's part of why you're doing what you do.
I really hope the course continues to grow and go well and more people get to learn about how to do it and that it's actually possible. So thank you for putting that out in the world.
Karen (42:20)
Sure, of course. I'm happy to be putting that out and I don't know, it's kind of like a two-way helping thing, right? It's like you help me, I help you. I think that's better. That's the better way of the world working through collaboration.
Joyanne Howell (42:30)
Yes.
Yeah, wow, fantastic, I totally agree. All right, well, we are almost at time, but I would love for you to share with us before we go, an interesting fact, a fun fact or a shocking fact that we may not know about you yet that you'd love to clue us in on.
Karen (42:57)
Sure, so going on the theme of travel and kind of just global citizen. I was originally born in Lima, Peru, then grew up in the States. And now I'm living in Spain. So I actually got triple citizenship. Today I officially got my Spanish passport, like literally two hours before this recording. So I'm super excited. Yeah, I finally consider myself an official.
Joyanne Howell (43:03)
Yeah.
Oh
Woo! Pah-pah! Ha ha ha!
Wow. Oh.
Karen (43:27)
global citizen. So super happy out of that.
Joyanne Howell (43:29)
Oh my goodness, that is so exciting. Congratulations! That's very, very cool. Amazing. Yeah, I can imagine. Yeah, absolutely. That's a beautiful treasure to be able to have and take with you. And I'm sure you're going to continue to stamp that passport and continue to travel and share your journeys with us and educate people as you do that. That's wonderful.
Karen (43:35)
Thank you. It took a lot of work. But we're here.
Definitely. More experience is more knowledge.
Joyanne Howell (43:58)
Yes, yes, yes. Well, Karen, it's been such a pleasure having you on today, learning about your journey and your story. If people want to connect with you and learn more about Aesthetics Traveler and also the travel course that you've created, where can they find you?
Karen (44:13)
So you can go to the website, aest You will probably not find me on Instagram at the moment, but you can go to YouTube. And my YouTube channel is just Karen Alexandra. So if you do youtube.com slash C slash Karen Alexandra, you'll see that channel. And that's where I'm posting more about just my journey in general. So anything from travel blogs to, you know, creator tips to my new life in Spain, that's where you'll find me.
Joyanne Howell (44:20)
Yeah.
Okay, fantastic. We'll make sure that we link up all of those details in the show notes.
Thank you for joining us on the podcast today. The team at Level Up Creators is here to support you with building and optimizing a profitable business that will transform your life for good. Subscribe to the show and head over to wele to sign up for our newsletter, where we share actionable business tips for creators just like you. We'll see you next time.
