The Wanderlover Story: From 9-5 to Full-Time World Traveling Entrepreneur

Hello, all you beautiful souls! Today, I’m sharing my journey the past few years going from a Corporate 9-5 to becoming a Forbes featured world traveling entrepreneur.

Tune in or scroll down to read the blog version!

My main goal with this episode is to inspire you, and get to a point where if you want to make a change in your life, you feel empowered to do so. Right. Now. 

And that if you want to travel the world and work for yourself, to realize, “If she can do it, I can do it too.”

So I’m going to break down The Wanderlover story: from 9-5 to world traveling entrepreneur, very transparently into four chapters of my professional career.

After each chapter, I’ll share my main takeaways.

Introduction

The first chapter is straight out of college: I accepted my full-time offer from my summer internship at a large bank in New York City.

The second chapter, I call it my “take action and make mistakes” phase. While I was at the bank, I started dropshipping. I started importing products to sell on Amazon FBA. This was also when I was starting to build The Wanderlover.

The third chapter is when I officially quit my corporate job and became a full-time entrepreneur and travel influencer and started living around the world.

The final chapter where The Wanderlover is today is content creation and business mentorship, with the mission to enable travel and freedom through entrepreneurship.

What I find so valuable going through all these chapters is I’ve learned so much about myself, about online business, about my passions, and this is what I’m going to stress over and over going forward: 

You will need to take different actions in order to get different results.

Thanks again for being here and let’s get started!

Chapter 1: My Corporate America Experience

I studied Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University.

I was a teacher’s assistant for Entrepreneurship Speaker Series, and I remember there would just be so many successful entrepreneurs coming in and talking about their businesses.

But back then, I specifically remember thinking entrepreneurship wasn’t for me. I didn’t have the resources, the connections, or the money to pursue that route and that it was super risky. 

I really wanted to find a stable corporate job. So when I graduated, I accepted my full time offer from my previous summer internship at Bank of America in New York City.

I was making $75,000 a year straight out of college, with a $5,000 sign on bonus. This was very comfortable for me. I was happy at first.

I was 21 in New York City. I was so excited to start this chapter and I thought I had made it. I was able to rent an apartment in the center of Manhattan and life was pretty good.

I’m super grateful for that experience.

But after I started working, I knew in the back of my head, I didn’t want to be in Finance forever.

It was stable, but over time I started to realize just how repetitive and how insignificant I was and felt at a giant corporation. I was a cog in the wheel. 

Full disclaimer: these are my feelings and my experiences. I know some people who thrive in this corporate environment and I admire that.

But for me at the time, I would wake up before the sun rose and I left work after the sun set.

My first year at the bank, I was actually at a desk that wasn’t lit by sunlight because all the rooms and windows on the outside edges of the floor were for executives. So I was a starting analyst and was in the middle of a floor with no windows.

I love sunlight, I love the outdoors. It was just so draining for me to the point where I’ll look back think of the office as a very dark and dismal place.

One day I was looking around, looking at my executives and all the people around me, and it just kind of clicked in my head that if I were to stay on this path in five years, or in 10 years time, I would end up in their position.

I asked myself, “Do I want to be in that position in five or 10 years time? Do I want to be doing the same tasks working for the same company, but just at a different desk with more work and a little more pay?”

One thing I’m really grateful for is I met one of my best friends working at the bank, and she sent me a video about these two girls from America who quit their corporate jobs to move to Bali.

Finding My Role Models

I remember seeing this video of these girls talking about remote working, working from their laptops, working for themselves, working from coworking spaces in Bali, and it just looked so magical.

I just knew deep down, that’s exactly what I wanted.

If I stayed in the corporate path, I would never get where I wanted to go. Because my executives, my VPs were on this current path in New York City.

It was really having those people who I looked up to, who were maybe a few steps or many steps ahead of me to show me what was possible with my life.

Having those people to look up to really made me realize that that was the direction I wanted to go. That was the path I wanted to be on. That’s where I wanted to end up.

Look at their finances, look at their ability to travel, look at whether or not they have a family, like take all those things into consideration and think, do you want to be the people on your current path or are there other paths that you could possibly look into?

You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.

Also, I feel like when you’re working in corporate, there are so many limiting beliefs and you really have to challenge them.

If all those people are in finance or consulting, they’re not going to necessarily support you.

People are going to tell you that you don’t have the experience, and it’s really up to you to decide whether or not you think you are capable of doing it.

If they had the same mindset as you, they probably wouldn’t be in that position!

It’s not that they have ill intentions or don’t want you to succeed, it’s just so outside what they know and what they’ve studied and what they’ve worked all their lives.

I’m here to tell you that you are so capable, so don’t listen to anyone trying to crush your dreams.

I guarantee you, your community of soul-aligned people is out there.

During this time, one of my friends gave me a Passion Planner, which really helped me map out what I wanted to achieve in life.

What it does is it breaks out everything you want to accomplish in your life into daily tasks that move the needle forward.

This was life-changing because that was when I sat down and wrote down the exact date that I wanted to quit my job.

Which brings me to the next chapter: take action and make mistakes.

Key Takeaways

1. Find people who are 1 step ahead of you or 5 steps ahead of you. Figure out which path you want to be on.
2. Trust the process.
3. It’s okay to start over. It’s never too late to switch and start working towards a life you love.

Chapter 2: Take Action & Make Mistakes

I’m going to start by reiterating, you have to take action to figure out what works for you and what doesn’t. 

You can journal. You can read, you can listen to podcasts all the time, but it’s not going to work for you if you don’t take action.

This is when I started dropshipping, when I started Amazon FBA, when I started The Wanderlover Instagram where I just reposted other people’s photos.

I was still working in finance, I hadn’t quit my job yet, but I was completely checked out.

On my Passion Planner, I set a date when I was going to quit (July 11, 2017), so it was getting so real.

In my head, I was like, I need to figure out what I’m going to do and how I’m going to make this work if I want to quit.

I had no idea how, but I knew I was going to, and this made me so determined and so focused on learning about different industries.

I bought courses, I bought books, I watched so many YouTube videos, and I was just trying everything I could during my lunch breaks and after work to build an online business.

I knew I had wanted to move online and I was open, I was so open to all opportunities. 

When you speak your desires out loud to the Universe, you start noticing things in your day to day that you wouldn’t have noticed before.

This was when I read the 4 Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss and it completely opened my eyes to what is possible when you pursue entrepreneurship and full-time travel.

I contacted suppliers in China. I went on Alibaba and AliExpress, imported, and designed my own products. My first business venture outside was setting up a Shopify dropshipping store.

And this was all happening during my lunch breaks, after work, on weekends, and it was so exciting because I was so passionate about this.

It didn’t even feel like work.

I was building and I was creating and I loved every minute of it.

Of course, there were difficulties and limiting beliefs creeping up.

I would sometimes be like, I have no idea what I’m doing. Who am I to start my own store?

I was only 21 years old, but honestly I just loved the process so much that I just kept moving forward.

The major, major, major turning point was when I got my first sale. 

It was this guy in Germany who saw my Google ad and he bought one of my products and I was ECSTATIC.

Until you land your first client or customer, you’re still dependent on a corporate salary.

But this customer was someone who had bought something that I designed, and it was in no way related to any other business other than my own. It was so enlightening and I was so happy.

Around the same time, I was working on my Instagram repost page and growing my following and really curating my Instagram feed.

I started applying to all these influencer networks where they actually send you collaborations to your email every day.

I applied for so many collaborations, and finally landed an Instagram collaboration with Seamless.

It was not within my niche at all, but I was just open to all the opportunities.

They asked what price I charged and I said $60, not knowing any better. I should have charged more.

But I was just learning and starting out and I was so happy because I had 2 streams of income. And the feeling of making money that’s your own, that came from creating something out of nothing, is so thrilling and addictive.

I was completely checked out at work; I was doing my job, but had zero interest in it.

But I’d be so excited to go home to post more on Instagram, to make more sales and learn more about Facebook and Google ads and this whole rabbit hole that I had no idea even existed.

This was when I learned the importance of Marketing. If you have the most amazing product or service but no one sees it, you won’t make any sales.

Over time, you also learn where your bottlenecks are, and run into your first challenges.

For me, I came across so many shipping delays, so many headaches with logistics. I also had to hold so much inventory that was taking up room in my apartment.

And this was also when I realized that even though my business made sales online, I still had to physically be in New York for a certain degree.

Key Takeaways

1. Done is better than perfect.
2. Constantly be learning new things and immersing yourself in new experiences that light you up.
3. Silence the inner mean girl and limiting beliefs that creep up when you are trying something for the first time.
4. Not all online businesses are created equal.

Chapter 3: Full-Time Travel Influencer

I submitted my two weeks notice on June 27, 2017. July 11, 2017 was my last day in Corporate America.

When I left the office that day, I broke down crying because I was happy and confused and a little scared and overwhelmed with emotion.

And that’s when it set in like, this is real. And I HAD to make it work.

This is when I started hustling like I’ve never hustled before. I sent out so many emails, I invested in more photography gear, I made sure I knew everything there was to know about Lightroom and photo editing and making sure my feed was the best that it could be presented so that I would land more collaborations.

I networked so hard, I even met up with the founders of Influencer Marketing platforms.

I collaborated with a lot of amazing content creators. I promoted my page every single day.

I would wake up, spend hours on Instagram, telling other people that posted to use my hashtag #thewanderlover. I would go to so many influencer events in New York City.

I still had my dropshipping and Amazon FBA companies in the background.

In October of that year, my ex boyfriend and I took a trip to Italy. And that was when I landed my first collaboration with a hotel.

It was so special because when I was working in corporate, I would be looking at all of these influencer photos and think, I wish I could work with hotels.

And just like a few years later, I had landed my first collaboration with a 5 star hotel in Rome. I was ecstatic. 

When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Paulo Coelho, the alchemist

You don’t need to know how you’re going to get there. You just need to know exactly where you want to go.

The next chapter starts when my ex-boyfriend and I broke up. We were living together, and it was a major turning point because I didn’t have any reason to stay in New York City anymore.

I wanted to get away, and it was finally time for me to take the leap. To do what I had set out to do when I started on this online entrepreneurship journey, which is to become a full time digital nomad and work from anywhere there is an internet connection.

So in February of 2018, I left New York and I went to Australia, Bali, Morocco, Spain, the Caribbean. It was so freeing.

I was still sending so many emails, creating content for brands, emailing so many hotels everywhere that I had traveled to, and building my portfolio.

Because I had experience with dropshipping and selling online products, I knew how to use Facebook Ads and Google Ads. I decided I was going to create a digital product for The Wanderlover.

And so in 2018, I launched the first edition of The Travel Influencer Handbook because that is literally all that I knew, and I put it in a digital book and I started selling it.

All of a sudden, I didn’t only have content creation services to offer anymore, I was building assets.

After months of country hopping, I decided I wanted to settle down somewhere.

I saw the most digital nomads in Bali working online and it really just felt like my community of people.

So I made the decision that I was going to move to Bali.

It was so exciting because in just a few years time, I went from working in the corporate space wishing I could travel full-time and work from Bali, and now it was becoming my reality.

Key Takeaways

1. Be super specific with your goals. If you want to do something, say what you want to do when you want to do it by. Be incredibly specific.
2. Digital products and services give you freedom. If you have a physical product, you have to deal with shipping, inventory, and overhead. Create digital ones instead.
3. When you want something, all the Universe conspires in helping you to achieve it.

Chapter 4: Online Business Mentor

When COVID hit, the entire travel content creation side of The Wanderlover was obsolete. This was when we expanded to online business coaching.

I had already started doing some online consultations for Instagram and social media growth, but there was a huge demand for online business mentorship when the world shut down and people lost their jobs.

I had a Business Degree from an Ivy League University, and had built a successful business that allows me to travel full-time.

And so if anyone wanted to make money online, I was able to help.

This was when the Start Your Business Intensive was born.

I don’t know where The Wanderlover is going to be in a few years, but my mission right now is to help as many people build successful online businesses.

I relaunched The Travel Influencer Handbook every year since. It really adapted with the times, like, as I progressed my business progressed. As I learned more things, I just put everything I knew into this Handbook.

Key Takeaways

1. Learn from people who are already where you want to be. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel!
2. Be resilient and be open to new chapters of your life unfolding.
3. The best is yet to come.

Thank you for reading and DM me on Instagram if you ever have any questions. I believe in you!

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