Finding Beauty Between The Lines

Life has a funny way of showing you unexpected twists and turns. One minute you can feel on top of the world, the next minute can feel like your world is crashing down around you. When we "live in the moment" constantly, it can seem like the hard moments will never end. YET, when we take our life as a culmination of events, keeping in mind that these small moments of triumph or pain are temporary and all of it - in the end is beautiful. 

I try to approach not just my travels in this way, but also my personal life. Isn't it true that when things go completely awry when traveling that you have better stories to tell when you get home for years and years? Now not ALL terrible travel experiences are great story tellers - like my friend who pooped his pants at the Vatican because he thought it was a fart, when in fact it was a shart (poop fart). 

If you look at a painting, it is full of darker shades, lighter shades, bright whites, and cave like blacks. The colors dance two and fro, and each color makes the viewer feel a different mood. Some the vibrant yellows, oranges and reds that fill us full of life, love and passion. Then the cool, moody darker tones that feel calming, subdued and at times dark. The thing is, that is what life is like - when we are looking at the painting like a microscope - it often feels overwhelming and like you are going no where. YET when you take a few steps back, even a few feet back, you see what a wonderful and wondrous masterpiece the universe is helping you create of your life. 

I wanted to write this article as an ongoing record of the ups and downs of creating your own business and destination production company. I'm not a 'big blogger' at this point, but in all honesty I don't need to be. Take life just as it is, right now in this moment. So save this post in your browser and check back on my entries about life from time to time, it will allow you to see the journey with me and step back to see the masterful painting that I am creating by following my heart and manifesting my dreams. 

Taking It All In 2021 - Quarter 1 Complete

It is just beginning, but I am already so full of hope, love and light for the future. I'm still very much respecting the lessons learned in 2020, and the virus that killed so many. For those who may have lost loved ones to COVID, my heart goes out to you. I thought my life would end when I lost my Grandma, but I want you to know what the pain does become more blunted over time - and they would want you to be happy. 

I am now fully vaccinated, and yet still feel scared when I get a cold - is this trauma from the past year or just more awareness? Regardless, I'm so relieved, so grateful for modern science, so incredibly relieved for my friends, for my business and for so many other reasons. 

I feel like I have senioritis now, we are on the final stretch of this virus and everyone (well most everyone) is getting vaccinated (as of March 2021). Then we just got word last week that those who are fully vaccinated can travel domestically without COVID tests or restrictions! Let us all jump for JOY!

February of 2021 was FINALLY monetized on YOUTUBE! YEEEEEEESSSSSS!!! After all the hard work and relentless editing, learning, hiking, camping, late nights, tears, fights with friends and people doubting that a now 37 year old fat female could get there - I did it. NEVER let ANYONE doubt your greatness, just give them the middle finger when they say you can't, and then say 'WATCH ME' and just GO for it! 

It wasn't just that news, but my travel schedule filled up so fast now I'm trying to juggle all the opportunities with the limited PTO I have from work. Things keep shifting, I am keeping my heart open and hoping for the best. 

My next goal is to reach 10,000 views on my website, post here more regularly and continue with a video on Youtube every other week until I get to where I want to be. Time seemed like it stretched on FOREVER last year. 

Mr Finnagan and Zoey are finally starting to get along. Finn still has to learn not to jump on people and punch them the crotch with his excitement, but we will get there, lol. 

This year already seems like it is blooming and blossoming with possibilities of joy and successful ventures. We will see what this year brings - I just know it is full of endless possibilities!

Til my next entry - xoxo - Janiel

2020, the Soul Crusher Turned Triumphant Warrior Unicorn

COVID, a relentless beast that crushed the souls of destinations and every travel based entrepreneur on the planet. The fear of the unknown, and the sudden call from my work for volunteers to work in makeshift tents screening for a disease we barely knew anything about. 

I was single, I had my dog Zoey, I had Asthma and several other Co-morbid conditions that put me at risk for developing the severe form of the disease. I was journaling how many deaths there were in Italy. All potential travel and collaborations with destinations were put on pause. I was crushed as many of my friends were, but also incredibly grateful I still had a great career that provided a stable income. 

I decided that I would volunteer as a provider for the COVID tents. It was so scary. I was only 36 years old, I had no children (well besides my fur baby Zoey), yet I knew I would never forgive myself if I didn't offer to help. I had always wanted to be a medical volunteer, a doctors without borders because I know I have the courage of a warrior unicorn (as I like to call myself). 

I knew that if I got COVID and died, it would be less of an impact because I didn't have a family to take care of. NO I wasn't suicidal, but I would rather put myself at risk than a colleague who had five kids and an at risk husband. I mean, spinsters like me have to be good for something right? LOL!!! It's a joke.....well kinda....lol. Anyway, I enjoyed making friends in the tents. If you have ever worked in the medical feild, our breed has a special sick and warped sense of humor. It was fun, and scary, and we got through it with laughter, tenacity, and quick thinking. 

They even gave all the first volunteers to the tents a challenge coin :) If you don't know what a challenge coin is, in the military it is a big deal. It basically means that if you go up to a bar, you all pull out your coins, and then whoever has the higher coin value wins and the other person has the buy the drinks. Hilarious, but it is these little cultural idiosyncrasies that help people get by in stressful situations. So for those reading this, the next drink is on you ;)

Needless to say 2020 in the USA kinda sucked, but it also helped us learn a lot about ourselves. We had a lot of tragic events, but it led to the Black Lives Matter movement FINALLY being understood and heard. It led to a new President that will hopefully care more about our environment and contributing in a positive way to the global warming issues. It led to a cutting edge, lightning fast vaccine being manufactured and begun to be distributed. It also led to the USA realizing that democracy is fragile, and we need to respect not just our freedom, but each other and stop with the ultra polarizing beliefs. We already had one Civil War, we didn't need another one. 

My personal life suffered greatly, there was some family drama happening that deeply affected my views of people I idolized since childhood. To protect their privacy I won't get into it, but needless to say it was troubling, heartbreaking and extremely confusing for me. 

After going to Alabama to visit some supportive friends (who are like family to me), I came home and my roommate of four years told me she was moving out to be a traveling nurse. Four days after she told me she was moving out I had to say goodbye to a relationship with a man I really cared about. We dated for a year, and it ultimately boiled down to him not being ready for something serious again. I was crushed. I still miss the way we laughed together, the magic of our time adventuring together, the way he would brush the hair back from my forehead.

Yet if I know one thing about life, is that you cannot rush the most important decisions of your life - and choosing a life partner is one of the most serious decisions you will make. Looking back, I realize now, there were just a few puzzle pieces that would have always been missing - so I'm grateful for the time we had together. I learned a lot about myself, and he provided a kind, caring place for me to open up my heart (truly open it) after so much pain from my trauma. 

Naturally I did what anyone does when stuck in a pandemic, being overworked at the hospital, and feeling like having a life crisis. I adopted by Boxer puppy, Mr Finnigan. 

2019 The Wheel Of Fortune

I had attended TravelCon in 2017 (the first one) as one of my first travel conferences, and I met with the destination Visit Mesa. I didn't really know much about Mesa to be honest, I had a lot of my friends who had moved down there but really had never been on my bucketlist of places to go. It wasn't until 2 years later that they reached out to me and asked if I would like to come down in 2019 for a press trip! 

It was November and I was completely and utterly STOKED because I would be going on this trip ONE week before my birthday! Let me tell you the trip was incredible and I was on a complete HIGH from this one. The CVB folks were so incredibly lovely to me, so kind, and every single person I met on that trip will forever live in my heart. (I mean, they say you always remember your first right? LOL)

Lest I digress, I felt like I was on a roll! I went into IMM (my third conference). I was told my some close blogger friends that this was the MOST fruitful of the travel conferences that smaller bloggers could attend. 

I felt like I had an edge, even if my numbers weren't as big as other bloggers, I knew how to edit video and had been told by a former film producer that I was a "Masterful storyteller". I asked to meet with multiple destinations, but I was able to completely fill my appointment card. Some destinations I feel like I really really resonated with and the ideals of my company (yes, Culture Trekking is a full fledged LLC). Other brands, I just straight out told them, "hey look, this isn't really my cup of tea - but I appreciate you meeting with me" - or I took a hard look at what I could ACTUALLY provide and who my audience was and sometimes had to tell them, "Ya know what, this would be a dream vacation for me, I hate to say this, but my audience can't afford $15,000 for one two-week trip". 

When you know yourself, what you stand for, who your 'ideal audience' is - you are not only able to serve your company brand better, but you will also serve your clients better (clients being brands/destinations).  

2016-2018 The Start Up

I started my website.....at first I treated each article/post as a Facebook entry, and then after a few courses realized how messed up my website would be and how spammy it would look. SOOOO if at first you don't succeed, lol, I tried again. I had no idea what I was doing in 2016 and that was the bottom line. 

Then it was 2017 and 2018 that I spent all my paid time off of work at travel conferences throughout the USA. I met people who made this their profession, I even met some YouTubers Kara and Nate who now (as of 2021 have over 2 million subscribers). 

I was told over and over and over again how video would be taking over the travel sphere, so I started gobbling up every Youtube tutorial I could. I watched Matti Happoja and Peter Mckinnon when they were less than 10,000 subscribers, and now are wildly successful. 

I didn't want to put out a video without it being perfect, but the fact is, NO ONE is perfect when they first start out. So take the risk, KNOW that you are going to look stupid, but hey - even those old family videos of vacations are pretty hilarious now, lol. Hell even the movies from 10 years ago seem trivial and silly now. So just take the video! Learn one thing new each week and implement it in your next video. 

By 2017 I got my first discount at a hotel in Switzerland! Then got another sponsored stay at ClinkNoord in the Netherlands! I thought I had MADE IT at that point, lol - little did I know I still had a looooooong way to go. That is the thing about Youtube and running a website, you work 50-60 hour weeks if you do it full time and the work is NEVER done. If you aren't writing posts, editing posts, leveraging your SEO, editing video, scripting video, or updating thumbnails and titles then you are marketing and planning and reviewing contracts with brands/destinations. 

My next conference was at TBEX in Montana, where I met with some local destinations here in the Western USA. I thought for SURE they would want to work with me.....yet I never got a call. See I later learned that it isn't always about the numbers, it is about your content, what target audience, region, state, city and country they are trying to promote to that year. Sometimes it is just about who has the cheapest flights, or who the CVB finds travels to their destination the most. 

COVID and Community 2020-2024

We all know what happened in 2020 with COVID, it was tough, I didn't really go anywhere (other than to visit some friends). I volunteered to work in the COVID tents when it first emerged, figured if it was better if I died rather than a woman/man who had 5 kids at home (it was more of a service to them than a wish for death). 

As we emerged from the pandemic, I got my first campaign in Estonia - which quickly became one of my top places to visit. Make sure to go check those videos out and I'm sure you will agree it is a MUST. 

As time went on, I felt the effects of what happened in 2020 really start to settle in, they call it delayed stress response. A lot of health care workers experience this, because in the heat of the moment when someone is dying in front of you, or there is a crisis, you don't have the luxury of responding in the moment or someone dies. 

I realized I was spending a lot of time behind the computer - there is a difference between healing and healthy and just isolating so you don't have to face the things that scare you. SO I really started to lean into making a 'in real life' community - going to the gym a lot, signed up for Ju Jitsuu in 2024, and making a point to spend time and have more phone calls, Marco Polos, Snapchats with friends. It really has done wonders for me. 

Then I had a vision of crossing the finish line from an Olympic Triathlon and that was it - I signed up that day. I always told my therapist that completing a Triathlon would be the 'ultimate' recovery. I don't know if anyone will come, but it isn't for them, it is for me and finally feel my mind is ready to face the inevitable demons I know will come on that final leg of the race. 

No Matter What The Journey Is

No matter what your Journey is, where you start, or where you end up as long as you follow your heart and take it ALL in - you will succeed. I am a HUGE believer in the power of manifestation, the goal that you repeat over and over and over to yourself, the perfect life that you want imagined in your mind over and over --- if you put in the work, and have a positive attitude, it will come to you! 

There are doors that will open for you in your career and in your life, if you have the courage to walk through that threshold despite the fear you may have, destiny will unfold itself to you in beautiful ways. So for all of you that are reading this, I want you to know I believe in you, even if you can't believe in yourself - I do. 

I hate cliche sayings, but this one is true, life is what YOU make of it. Be ok with the sacrifice until you reach your ultimate dream. It may take weeks, months, or even decades, but if it is what you TRULY want then just take one step at a time until you get there. 

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