From Travel Influencer to Business Coach

Welcome to episode 100! This week I share how I re-aligned my business to match my values AND bring me more business success (4:34), how I actually implemented this in my business (9:30) and what this changed in my business suite (18:10).

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100 Episodes + Giveaway!

Dani:

Hi guys! Welcome back to the Wanderlover podcast. This is our 100th episode. Woo! I always tell my clients to celebrate all the wins big and small because all the little wins add up to the huge milestones. And wow, thank you guys for being on this journey with me. Some of you since episode one, and there’s just been so much time spent together, so much information,

Dani:

life lessons learned, milestones wins, different ways of thinking, lives transformed. And it’s just such a humbling experience to be able to continue sharing this journey with you. We will be celebrating of course, and to celebrate the hundredth episode, I will be hosting a GIVEAWAY. So I’m going to be giving away a one Hour Power Session with me around a topic of your choice. So you can come to this power session and you can tell me about all of your ideas, all of your problems, all of your goals. And we will create a custom roadmap for you to get you where you want to be.

Dani:

A power session with me is usually 997 US dollars, but you can enter for your chance to win. All you have to do is leave a review on apple podcasts, and please be sure to include your Instagram handle. Even if you’ve left one before I will include you in the GIVEAWAY. If you don’t have an iPhone, feel free to leave a review on any other platform that you choose. Just make sure to send me a screenshot and DM me. So leave a review include any way this podcast has changed your life. If it has impacted you in a positive way, be sure to include that and include your Instagram handle.

Dani:

So I can reach out to you. I will be picking a Winner on August 31st. So this episode is going live on August 15th and you will have two weeks to enter before I pick a Winner. Good luck. And I can’t wait to support one of you one on one. So in this episode, I really want to rewind, take it back a hundred episodes and reflect on how far I’ve come, how the Wanderlover has changed since the recording of our first episode. And I chose to name this From Travel Influencer to Business Coach, because I really want to dive into the pivot that I’ve experienced in the past year and a half.

Finding alignment in brand and business

Dani:

When I first started the Wanderlover Podcast in October of 2020 (click here to listen to the detailed Wanderlover Story and first episode!), I was still very much one foot in the travel Influencer door and one foot out. I was kind of dipping my toes into the business coaching world and a lot was happening internally, a lot, going on with mindset shifts and imposter syndrome. And just so many things when you are starting a new chapter, right? And I want to be open about how far I’ve come about what I was experiencing back then and where I am now. So going into this episode, I also want to preface, like when I first started the Wanderlover podcast, I had already been an entrepreneur for a few years.

Dani:

I had tens of thousands of followers on Instagram. I had collaborations. I had work with brands and hotels and I was traveling full time and life seemed really good on the outside. But 2020 as you guys all know was also when lockdown was in full effect. So we were essentially stuck in Brazil for what ended up being almost 10 months and countries closed borders, tourism boards completely cut their budgets. There was no work with travel with different marketing agencies. And it really made me reflect on the nature of my business, the structure and model of my business and where I wanted to take it in the future.

Dani:

And just as a recap, for those of you new to this show in 2017, I quit my corporate job and had multiple business ventures. By 2019, I was travel blogging and creating content for hotels, for tourism boards and traveling full time. And I had established myself as an Influencer going into 2019. That is when I met Ragz, my boyfriend, I was already feeling a little tension with this lifestyle and the nature of content creation. When I went to go visit him in rural England, I had very few jobs. I essentially needed to continue traveling and being in exotic locations in order to sustain my income.

Dani:

So it was really hard for me to kind of work from anywhere. What did prove to be profitable and sustainable. Even when I wasn’t traveling though, was the Travel Influencer Handbook. And this is my digital guide for other creators who want to make a living as a travel Influencer. So I was already experiencing that some services and products were more scalable than others, and then COVID hit and my whole life, as I had known it, going to hotels, taking pictures outside, posting on social media, it all came to a standstill. In retrospect, it was kind of a blessing in disguise, but in the moment I was paralyzed, I did not know how to move forward.

Dani:

I did not know what to do with my brand and everything that I had experienced the year before, when I was in rural England, it was just amplified 110%. It made it super clear that my business model was not sustainable. And what else I had experienced was this kind of guilt for only sharing about my life when I was traveling. That was the other thing, like you take travel out of the equation and I almost lost my sense of self. My sense of the Wanderlover like my name was the Wanderlover and I wasn’t wandering. I feel like a lot of travel content creators experienced this feeling.

Dani:

And a lot of them, a lot of them, you know, stuck with travel. They were just waiting for it to come back. But because I had already had my hesitations around the whole business model and the fact that I had less and less respect for creators whose whole brand was centered around them and not so much helping others, I had to completely reevaluate my position in the online market. I had to look at my business, what was working, what wasn’t working, what I wanted from it. And then I hired a business coach to help me with my pivot. So I had made multiple five figures in passive sales from the handbook.

Dani:

I had consulting clients who I was able to still work with through the pandemic for social media. And I think that is really when it clicked, when I realized you don’t have to be in the travel niche in the travel industry in order to travel full time. 

Pivoting The Wanderlover + Creating the Podcast

Dani:

And that was a direction I took the Wanderlover and that was where I was at episode one of the Wanderlover podcast, which launched in October of 2020, the first episode was in Brazil. And I wanted it to be a space where I could have conversations with all of you inspiring a location, independent lifestyle outside of Instagram, right before I really had no other means to communicate all of my thoughts and experiences and knowledge.

Dani:

But with the launch of the, The Wanderlover Podcast, I was so much more than just a travel Influencer. It was the first step into the online business coaching world. And to be honest, it was scary. It was like a scary and confusing time in my life. I think a few weeks after we went from Brazil to Puerto Escondido in Mexico. And I, I I’ve recently told Ragz about this moment. I specifically remember this one day in Puerto Escondido. It was month after the launch of the first episode. I was so confused about who I was about this new direction I was heading in. I didn’t know if the pivot was a right idea.

Dani:

Maybe I should have just stuck with being a travel Influencer. You know, maybe I should have just continued doing what I knew there was this one specific day. I was in the water on a longboard at La Punta and I just crying. I was in tears and I was just so lost and confused. I wanted to become a better long boarder, but I was having such a hard time cross stepping everyone around me just seemed to be surfing so well. I was confused in my business. I had a business coach, but like the internet in Puerto was so bad. And I couldn’t even like have calls with her.

Dani:

I missed so many of my live trainings because the internet wouldn’t work and it just felt like my business was everywhere. I was so frustrated. I felt like a failure in what I was doing and nothing was going right. So pulling back the curtains on reality, when you are experiencing a new chapter, it is not easy. But what got me through that period was coming back to my why, why did I pivot? Why did I ultimately want to focus my, my business around my clients and who I could help rather than just about me? I just knew I was capable of so much more.

Dani:

I knew that I had so many more people to reach and so many more people that I could help. I did not want to be confined to only taking pretty photos in pretty locations with pretty poses. I knew I was an intellectual. I had a lot of opinions and these new ventures, it was scary. It was scary to be showing this other side of me. It was scary to be, you know, taking photo shoots with my laptop. It was scary to be taking photos, looking at the camera and smiling to it instead of just, you know, twirling with a pretty dress or like hands up in the air with my hair flowing. It was so new to me. And I had no idea if it would work or not, but that why, that why helped me through it, that why of knowing that the Wanderlover was capable of.

Dani:

So, so much more. So months and months go by, I am sharing my new knowledge about business, about social media on the Wanderlover podcast. And as you guys know in entrepreneurship, it can get lonely, especially because we went from Mexico to New York and then beginning of 2021, we went to Hawaii. Every time we go to a new location, we make new friends and sometimes the friends you make don’t get what you do and what type of life you live. Sometimes when you’re traveling to, you know, vacation destinations, everyone’s on vacation, right? Everyone tries to kind of distract you from what you’re trying to build.

Dani:

And it’s really hard to find and align community immediately. So I decided to take matters into my own hands. And that is when I started momentum mastermind, bringing together international, creative, ambitious travel, loving entrepreneurs, all dedicated to focusing on working and growing and building their businesses as they are embarking or living a digital nomadic lifestyle. How amazing is that everyone comes into this community saying the same thing. Like no one around me gets what I’m doing every time. I’m so excited about something.

Dani:

People seem to be excited, but they kind of don’t get it. But every single person in momentum mastermind gets it and we support you and we help you think even bigger. I also remember Hawaii being somewhat of a confusing time because my content was still half Influencer and half business coach. I didn’t know really how to show up because the two were so different from each other. And what I learned was, you know, business coaches are super structured, super strategic. It reminded me of my masculine corporate days of having systems and structure and sales and numbers and data and analytics versus the more feminine, creative flowy side of being an Influencer.

Dani:

I also worked with some amazing brands while I was in Hawaii, that I’m so grateful for one of them being passion planner (Use code DANIELLEH868 at checkout for 10% off). So in hindsight, even my collaborations were getting more and more aligned with business coaching, right? So after a few months, it was slowly, slowly becoming more clear my new brand direction in this market. I brought you guys along with me, we went to Costa Rica and we went back to Hawaii. 

Finding financial abundance & location independence

Dani: 

This was also the period of time in my online business, where I rewrote my story about money. I wanted financial abundance. I wanted to be able to travel and live wherever in the world I wanted to, I didn’t wanna have to worry about expenses.

Dani:

I wanted to stay in luxury hotels and luxury accommodations. And I didn’t want to, you know, be on a budget ever. I didn’t want to feel like I couldn’t afford things. I couldn’t live or travel to the most expensive places. Right? And some people they might say, you know, living in Hawaii is expensive, but I truly believe in online business gives you the financial freedom for you to make any kind of lifestyle. If you desire possible in your life, If you want it, you can have it. So after the first half of the year in America, we had to leave because rags visa was up. And then we went to Rote. 

Dani:

This was a magical experience. Remote island life was a complete contrast to Waikiki, where when we had left, it was so, so packed because domestic tourism and domestic flights just had opened. And so Hawaii was like the most exotic destination that Americans could travel to. So Waikiki and Oahu were packed. We went from that to a country where there was still no international tourism and Rote was quite empty. It was so freeing and relieving though, because I remember when we had landed, I was no longer tied to collaborations or location, dependent products and services.

Dani:

They were not tied to my income. My income was completely either passive or location independent. And so I was able to be on this island and continue growing my monthly sales, my monthly revenue. It was the first time when I felt like I didn’t have to be in a travel heavy or like a tourism heavy location. And I still had this beautiful portfolio where I could offer my services, but my life didn’t depend on them. And this was what I had been working towards. It felt so much longer to achieve than, you know, it, it was a year, but I’m a bit impatient.

Dani:

And it felt like it took a long time for me to get here. 

Creating a new business suite to align with my life

Dani:

Last year in Rote was also when I relaunched the Wanderlover Business Academy. This is my eight week self-study course, teaching new and inspiring coaches and creatives to turn their passions into profit online. Every single step that I took in order to create this passive online business with multiple income streams that I can take with me wherever in the world. And I remember when the first member signed up, I felt like a piece of me was just complete. My mission had gone from, you know, just highlighting the pretty places I’ve been to helping people one on one to then helping a small group of other creatives and entrepreneurs.

Dani:

But with an online course, I felt like I had unlocked another level where I could reach even more people because it was not tied to my time when the first member signed up. I was ecstatic. I was so excited. I offered them so many, you know, free calls because I was like, I just want to hand hold you through this. And it was just so, so incredibly fulfilling, like this sense of fulfillment. I honestly don’t think I ever experienced when I was a travel Influencer. And I think this just confirms that I have outgrown that chapter of my life and my business and the new direction was the most aligned move that I could make.

Dani:

All I had to do was trust in myself. I think in the beginning, it’s hard to do that when you’re unsure, but it was proving clear and clearer day by day that this is the path that I had always been meant to be on, which brings us to this year in 2022, how has the business developed? So I started differentiating my private coaching programs because I noticed that there were some academy students who really preferred a private one on one coaching kind of format, but they were starting from scratch. And with my high level private coaching, we help you get to five figures. So when you’re starting from zero, it’s different than when you already are an intermediate entrepreneur and you have a tested business with clients and income coming in, right?

Dani:

So I created the Start Your Business Intensive. This is my six week program designed to handhold you through the offer, creation, the branding, getting your offer, launched, priced out into the world and signing your first clients, understanding the money flow. And then, you know, you can sign up for private coaching after, but I made that distinction. I offered this intensive, where we hustle hustle hustle for six weeks straight, we create all of the assets and we start making money. I was able to work on this work with all of my clients in New York, in Miami. I was able to work on it through Europe.

Dani:

We went on a road trip at the beginning of the year. And what’s amazing is now that I consider myself a business mentor, I still get invited on press trips. I still get invited on collaborations. And my biggest fear of, you know, having to decide between one or the other. I don’t think it truly has ever gone away. But what I have learned through this whole experience is you do not have to choose. Like, I call myself a business mentor now, but I still have travel Influencer aspects to my business. And that’s what makes the Wanderlover special. That’s what makes my brand unique.

Dani:

There is no one way to do life, to do business. There is only one you, and you need to highlight, showcase, be authentic and bring whoever you are, whatever your personality is, bring all of that online. And the most aligned opportunities are going to come to you. That is how it works. I was so worried in the beginning, like how do I become a business coach? How do I, you know, completely shift from one to the other? And I think I’ve done it successfully. Like I’ve checked off everything I wanted to accomplish with this pivot. And it’s happened. And it’s happened in a way, even better than I could have imagined in the beginning.

Dani:

Like I get to travel, I get to get paid to travel and I get to work with clients and help hundreds and hundreds of people around the world, like pinch me. This is a dream. And Of course I cannot forget to mention that I get to surf throughout at all with my boyfriend. Yeah. So life has been pretty amazing today. I had gotten out of the surf and successfully reached the nose of my board. I had my five toes over the nose, like curled up over the nose. It wasn’t a centimeter away from the nose. It was on the nose. I had been trying to do that for months and months and months compared to that first experience when I launched the first episode in Mexico.

Dani:

And I cried because I thought my business and my surf that my life were just so unaligned. I can confidently say after a hundred episodes, everything has changed. If you are feeling stuck, If you need a permission, slip to pivot, or If you just want to talk it out with someone who has gone through it, who can, can hand hold you through to your next level, please DM me. Please let me help you. You are capable of so much more and you don’t have to be in this position. I promise you If you want a way out, you will find it.

Dani:

I hope this episode was helpful. Do not forget to enter our hundredth episode GIVEAWAY. Thank you all so much. I am honored to be a part of your business journey. I can’t wait to record even more episodes for you guys. And yeah, I will speak to you all soon. Have an amazing week sending so much love to you all.

~~~

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