S3 E29: Secrets of A Top Travel Journalist

Get the show’s transcript

Yulia: [00:00:00] Welcome to the genius women podcast.  I'm your host, Yulia, Dennis yuck and award winning travel photographer and writer  with work in some incredible publications like  national geographic  farm magazine and more.  And this year  you see my name in places like   Conde Nast traveler.  I'm on a mission to help other women who wants to grow their trouble, storytelling, careers, go after their dreams  while feeling supported, worthy, and bold. If you're ready to ditch your fear and doubts to the side,  step into your brilliance and take action on your dreams. You're in the right place. Let's go.  This week, the table gets turns on me and for once I'm in the guests. I recently had the pleasure of coming on to an amazing new podcast called let's get stabby featuring women in business who are poking hosts in the patriarchy. 

This podcast is created by Lauren Andrews, a fellow female entrepreneur who runs a wonderful community called unicorn exchange.

Unicorn exchange has a place for women and entrepreneurs to normalize female leadership and get more women in the spotlight.  I love the mission of unicorn exchange and I was thrilled when Lauren asked me to come on to her.  On the let's get stabby podcast. Lauren has already interviewed amazing women like Mina black  founder of in the black financial wellness, a company providing financial and business guidance for women working on their angel investing. Alison Grimshaw, an actress, voice over creator and musician and founder of the joyful actor and Kate  a Forbes counsel business coach and founder of six. Figure freelancers.com.  Lauren also interviewed me. And let me just tell you, she's an amazing host. The questions should ask me were some of the most thought-provoking and insightful questions I've been asked in a while, and I absolutely loved our chat.

So I'm thrilled to be able to share it with you today as well.  And while you're listening to this episode this week, I also wanted to share with you that I am currently on assignment  Yes. The week that this podcast comes out, I'm on assignment  in central California coast for national.

Geographic traveler.  This is my first assignment, since everything shut down last year. And there are lots of feelings surrounding this one  stay tuned because we're going to dig into that and dedicate a whole episode to this assignment very soon.  All right, let's get into this conversation I had with Lauren Andrews for her.

Let's get stabby podcast.  

Lauren: [00:02:50] You're listening to let's get stabby. I'm your host Warren Andrews. Join me as we poke holes in the patriarchy by sharing the stories of women founders tune in to hear directly from these uniforms who are using their businesses to make the world a better place.

Hello everyone. I am here with Yulia, Dennis Souk, an award winning travel photographer and writer with work and not geo BBC travel, lonely planet and more Yulia is the most. Amazing human. With the most robust background, she was a us Navy sailor, a corporate brand manager for over a decade at the world's biggest consumer goods company.

And now she is focusing on her latest project as the founder of genius women. What an amazing name and background and story and Julia, I am so excited to dive in with you today. 

Yulia: [00:03:45] Me too. And so Lauren, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure. 

Lauren: [00:03:49] Oh, it's an honor on our end. And so I can't wait to ask you this icebreaker question.

It's tradition that we pull a card from the best self icebreaker deck to get started every episode. And so if you accept my question for you today is have you, what have you learned about life from loss or death? 

Yulia: [00:04:15] Ooh. Wow. That's, that's a big one to start with on a, on a Wednesday morning.

Uh, I bought up loss or death. Um, so loss is something that's inevitable. Um, and I think the sooner we can. Or understand that it's just not possible to hold on to things, to people, to situations, to environments, everything always changes and we always lose something. But what I've learned recently is that, or like what I'm learning, you know, it's a journey is that.

The universe is smart also. And when you lose something, oftentimes it's to make space for something new, because everything is cyclical. Everything is a journey. Everything always changes. So when you lose someone or something, You things and new people always come into your life. And that should give you a little bit of hope that, uh, that's that's, you know, we have lost, but then we also have, um, new gains and new chances and new discoveries in the process.

And that's the way that I would like to now think about it. And it has helped me quite a bit. Oh, so 

Lauren: [00:05:41] true. And with knowing a little bit about your story, you have gone through so many different changes that can be seen as almost losses, right? Like we, whenever we have a big major life adjustment, we, we lose that chapter and go into a next.

And normally I don't like to. Ask, Hey, what's your background because it's not usually relevant to what we're talking about, but I think your story and really your journey of immigrating to the U S and how you quote, made it in this country, realize that's not what you really wanted. And you kind of kept transitioning and figuring out what you actually loved.

I'd actually love for you to share it with our listeners, because I think your story is so important and just so inspirational. 

Yulia: [00:06:31] Yeah, thank you. Um, well what would I, what I joke sometimes is that I've, I've lived through so many different lives, uh, already, and, you know, to my thirties, I agree. Give you this quick little story.

Um, and, and you can cut it out later if it doesn't make sense. Um, I was, I was dating a man once, um, You know, maybe five, six years ago. And I was just telling him about my life and sort of my journey and where I was, and you know, all of this stuff. And he was older than me. Uh, maybe five, six years older than me.

And he said, Yulia, I'm intimidated by you because you've done in your, you know, however many years, by that point you've done. Way more than I've done by this time in my life. And not just in terms of accomplishments, that's not what he was talking about, but he was just saying like different life experiences and just the, you know, the, the breadth, the breadth of those experiences.

I was like, oh, grades, then didn't go anywhere. That, that, that, that relationship didn't go done, John at the word intimidated. Yeah. I don't, I don't want to intimidate anyone. Um, yeah, no. So. Definitely like a lot of changes in my life. And I think that's actually, that's actually something that really helps us on this journey to re realizations, to actualization, to fulfilling our potential, chasing our dreams and really designing our life the way we want.

Because when we are comfortable with change with taking risks with being a little bit bolder, I think that just, you know, it's easier to go on this journey because. You know, I talked to a lot of women, uh, now as part of the genius women platform. And I know that a lot of us have a lot of beautiful dreams about what they would like to do with their lives.

What kind of projects they would like to pursue. You know, and, and not just in the trouble journalism sphere, which is kind of my area of expertise, but in general, as people, right, we all have aspirations. We all have a lot of different things, but like, I don't know, people just, they're afraid to change things sometimes.

And it's so hard to do that when you're already in this routine and this established kind of. Trail that you're walking along in life and, you know, um, it's, it's really hard to get out of that. So, um, but you know, just, just to quickly to, uh, to share some of my story. Yeah. I came to the U S at 16. Um, I, uh, I was an immigrant and at 21 I joined the military, uh, because I always wanted to be in international relations.

So go figure. I felt that that path somehow made sense, which in hindsight it absolutely didn't. But, uh, I may not think though, but actually, yeah, it's, uh, I mean, unless you're like in the top echelons of the moon, then you're talking with different governments and yeah. Then, but not as a sort of entry-level sailor, we scrubbed the floors.

That's what we did. Yeah. Uh, and then after the military, I started actually. To chose a path that was laid out in front of me, which is go back to school, go get a graduate degree. Um, go answer corporate world. Because as an immigrant, there is a big expectation for us to be successful, to justify the fact that we came here to this country.

And, you know, a lot of us are coming from really, um, low socioeconomic places. I, you know, my family was poor and growing. We were struggling. And so, you know, for us, for me, the expectation was always very clear. You have to go to school, you have plenty, hard to work hard and make it. Um, and so I did, yes, I went and I joined the corporate world.

I was making a six figure salary, which was the first ever in my whole family of families of families. Uh, And I was miserable inside so miserable because I didn't like my marketing job. I didn't like I didn't have that stand. The pressure is like, why do we have to work 80 hours a week? Uh, Y I don't have any time to pursue the things that I really passionate about.

Like traveling, like storytelling, like creative projects. And at the end of the day, I felt like, is this really all there is to life? Am I supposed to sit in front of company pewter from, you know, eight to eight every day and nights? Is that what I'm like, is that all? Yeah. So, and I had that knowing feeling almost the whole time I was in corporate, you know, and it was really miserable for me because on the surface I was very successful.

I, you know, I had this great salary, a title. I had an apartment in Manhattan, like the whole, the whole bag. Yeah. But I was really miserable. And so that's when, for me, The impetus was, you know, I need to change something in my life because I, that that's just not working. And, you know, traveling was always part of my life.

I always loved getting to know different cultures and I love photography. I loved writing all of that. And so I just said, you know what, I'm going to do it because if I don't do it now, I'm going to forever be stuck in this lane that I don't want to be stuck in. And I don't want to have regrets when I'm 80 years old.

Um, yeah. So. Okay. So then you 

Lauren: [00:12:19] left, you left and you went traveling for six months with no real goal or anything, but to see the world right. 

Yulia: [00:12:28] Well, actually, I did have a goal. I said, I said, because I'm this achiever person I said, by the end of six months, you're going to figure everything out in national geographic and all that stuff.

And so whenever 

Lauren: [00:12:44] you left, you actually did have the goal of being a, published, a travel photographer and right. I 

Yulia: [00:12:52] did. I did. I said, I'm why to do it. I'm going to try to do it. And yeah. And I gave myself six months, literally. I said by, by the end of the sixth, I mean, I had no idea what I was doing, honestly, because I didn't know the industry I was entering.

I had no connections in that industry. Zero knowledge of how it works, but I said, you know, you have six months, figure it out and guess what did I figure it out by the end of those six years? Of course not, of course not, of course not, but you didn't stop. 

Lauren: [00:13:24] What w 

Yulia: [00:13:24] what came next? I didn't stop. And I, I love that you're pointing it out because that's super important.

So we all have this idealized definition of how long it takes. To become successful. So true. So true. If we 

Lauren: [00:13:43] want to admit or not, we have our own timelines in our head that aren't serving us, honestly. 

Yulia: [00:13:52] Yeah, well, and, and social media, right? Because what we see on social most of the time is the success moments, the moments of peaks, we don't see the valleys.

We only see the peaks for the most part. And so we have this and I had the two, that's why I said to myself, six months and you know, you you'll make it in six months. That's plenty of time. But that the, the reality was that I was burnt out from my corporate job. So. For the most of those six months, I was just like nursing myself back to normal, honestly, and not really doing anything to advance my new career.

Um, but very importantly, what happened next is that I came back stateside six months later. All my friends and all my sort of peers who are still in corporate advancing the ladder, making the moves. And here I was sitting like, oh my God, what did I do? Oh, no. Yeah. That was a really low moment for me because I didn't progress on my goals.

I didn't get published in national geographic. By that time I was just sort of flailing, um, especially being 

Lauren: [00:14:57] such a high achiever. I know I've had moments where I'm just like, oh my God. Oh, no, this is it. It's downhill from here. Right? 

Yulia: [00:15:07] Exactly. It is so not true. Exactly. I think, yeah. The now in hindsight there's so much wisdom and all of that, but yeah, at the time it was like, but a really important thing that I did next was I sat down and I gave myself a vision to execute against and I said, okay, you will.

W who do you want to become by the end of this year? And I literally wrote out 10 things. Yulia will become by the end of this year. And I wrote like, I want to be a contributor to lonely planet. I want to have a photography, uh, tour company. I want to have X, Y, and Z, and literally 10 things that you know, were in my head.

I wrote them down. I really gave myself clarity and focus and vision. And I went for it, like one by one, like, okay, if I want to be here in six months, what do I need to do now? Like, what are the steps for me to get to that point? What are the steps for me to go to that point? Right. And so I started like mapping all of that out.

That was the best thing that I did for myself, because I just directed me so much and, you know, fast forward to today, I am, uh, a quite accomplished travel photographer and writer. I just had, um, uh, uh, a couple of articles published in Conde Nast traveler, which is a huge, you know, huge congrats magazine.

Thank you. Yeah. So, uh, and I, and I, I just love every moment of my day. I love what I'm working on. I love the projects that I have, the genius women projects and like everything that I do, it's just such a night and day from where I was five years ago, where I was like, you know, miserable corporate worker.

And now. I'm definitely living out now. 

Lauren: [00:16:55] You really made 

Yulia: [00:16:56] it. Yes. Yes. And now you're 

Lauren: [00:17:00] working on genius women, which I think is so cool how that came to be because people started coming to you and seeing what you've done and created. And they're like, Hey, how did you get published and not geo, how did you get.

All of his notoriety as a, as a travel journalist. I want that. And you literally started teaching others to do the same. What have you seen is the biggest misconception about being a travel journalist? 

Yulia: [00:17:35] Oh, I love that question. I 

Lauren: [00:17:37] love it. The one like, oh, Nat geo. So glamorous. I mean, is it as glamorous 

Yulia: [00:17:42] as it seems.

Oh my God. I love that question so much. So yes, exactly. Everybody thinks it's such a glamorous job. And of course, when I'm on assignment, you know, in Mongolia or in Rwanda and I'm shooting for this brand, it feels amazing. But what people don't perhaps realize is that how much. Persistence. And how much does dog stubborn perseverance?

It takes to get to this point because I didn't start shooting for national geographic right away. And in fact, The first, my first ever pitch when I approached the publication with an idea was to national geographic. And I never heard from them and never heard from them, you know, but I didn't give up. I kept pitching.

I kept reaching out to them to other magazines. I kept honing my craft. I kept. Really zeroing in on what my niche is, what my voice is, what do I want? Like what stories do I want to tell? And all of that takes time and perseverance. And a lot of science people, they experienced one setback or one failure or one rejection.

And they're like, okay, that's not for me. I'm not good at this, but you didn't even give yourself enough chance. To really get somewhere, you know, and I think that's the biggest. Um, we only see the highs again, you know, we only see this amazing highs of being on assignment of shooting, but we don't realize that what it takes to get there is a lot of perseverance and a lot of hearing nos and going forward anyway and looking for different paths, new paths, different ways to do it, you know, and that's really the reality.

Lauren: [00:19:32] Mm, so inspirational. Um, so whenever you are teaching women how to be travel journalists and how to get published, what does that actually mean? What are you actually teaching them? What are they actually walking away? 

Yulia: [00:19:48] Oh, my God, Lauren, I, you, you're such an amazing interviewer. You're asking all of the just, oh, I just want to know.

I'm just like, wait, what does he mean? These are wonderful questions because, and in fact, I'll tell you, um, the reason why this platform is called genius women is because. When I first started, when I, when I gave my first class on how to become a travel journalist, first of all, only women sign out for some reason.

I, it wasn't just about teaching women, but somehow only women sign up one. Once we went through the class, what I saw is that how many of us really struggle with confidence? Really have so many issues with doubting themselves and not thinking that we're good enough to do this job. And this job is a difficult one in a sense that we really have to believe in ourselves and in our abilities and in.

Then the fact that we have something important to say and contribute to this world, you know? So that's why it's genius women, because I want everybody who comes across with our platform to feel like they're absolutely brilliant genius and they can do whatever it is that they want. And they have something important to share with the world, you know?

Um, so as far as the class itself, we gave you. Very practical steps on, uh, figuring out which publications you want to pitch. What stories do you want to tell? What interests you and all of that good stuff? How do you pitch? But all of that comes in like a later part of the class, because the first part of the class is bringing out a genius in you and bringing out that confidence in you and saying, no, you.

Your voice matters, you know, what, what do you want to achieve? Like put, create that vision. Let's start, let's start working on that vision together. So it's, it's, it's both right. It's it's this, uh, confidence boosting part and then there's this practical part of, okay. Here's how you actually do it. 

Lauren: [00:21:53] Yeah. I feel like the travel industry, especially travel journalism is so niche and competitive and it's such an established.

Corner of media to where it's just like, you have to have some balls to be able to make it through there. And, um, I think it's so interesting that you focus on mindset and really pulling out your unique genius for this, because I think it proves that. No matter what you do, you have to come out at from your perspective and from your angle as a unique individual, because your unique voice is what is going to cut through the noise.

So it's, what's going to actually make a difference. Everyone actually needs yours. Particular voice, right? Because what I can say to a group of 500 people that is going to resonate differently than how you Yulia says it and how you listener. Yes. You says it as well. Um, so I think that's just so cool that even in like such a niche area, that you're still doing that, and you're still extracting that.

Um, I I'm curious how important 

Yulia: [00:23:06] is 

Lauren: [00:23:07] kind of. I'm just thinking like, whenever you're creating a story, like, oh, do I have to pitch something that is, do I have to be a photographer and a writer? Or can I just tap into maybe one of those skillsets and really just pitch that instead, and really pitch something around my own story related to that?

Or how, how does that individualism show up? In your pitches. 

Yulia: [00:23:34] Yeah. That's a really great question. So the individualism comes from believing that we don't have to compete. And that's really something that I try really hard to communicate, because like you said earlier, it's a really competitive industry.

But a lot of it, I think, and we're, we're getting into these very interesting, uh, concepts of patriarchy and you know, why, why there's competition in the first place, because it's a very patriarchical cop capitalistic notion that there is survival of the fittest and only the best get, get to work with national geographic.

Yeah. No, we all have to compete for the same stories and all of that. And I just really, really wants to get away from all of that. And I want to say that no, there is abundance. I don't have to compete with you because who I am. And the unique combination of my experiences, my values, my curiosities, my passions.

It's so unique that there is absolutely no competition between us, because my point is, so you and your point of view are going to be really, really different. And so when it comes to pitching and creating stories, how it shows up is that when I know what it is that I want to work with or what it is that I want to work on, what is my niche?

When it comes to travel journalism, My niche is going to be so different from your niche. So the type of story that you will want to pursue is going to be very different from the type of story I will want to pursue. So we're absolutely not competing. There is space to tell all of those different stories, you know?

And so I just really want people to start going away from that competition mindset because that's scarcity, right? There's like, there's not enough for everyone. And that's true. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Um, and you know, uh, for your other question about, you know, photography versus writing or both, I'd say that most often, I do see that, you know, people pursue either one or the other, and that just comes, that just comes from your natural, um, interests and you know, what drives you?

Do you, do you love both? Do you love both the Salafi and writing? Do you love writing? So the love just photography. I think that comes from that. Like you should follow what speaks to you. It's just that for me specifically, I loved both. And I wanted to develop both. And, um, I do see that if you do have both, it's a bit easier to navigate this industry because then when you're pitching publications, you can say, well, I'm a writer.

Here's my idea. And I also have this visual component to back it up, which of course visual component is really important. Uh, uh, you know, especially now, right. But again, that doesn't mean because actually for the most part, I do see that most people either focus on one or the other, uh, and there's ways to navigate around that because writers often work with photographers, there's photo banks that magazines have access to.

So, you know, if you're a writer and you're not a photographer, don't let that stop you and say, oh, that means I don't, you know, I don't have a child. Yeah, no, that's, that's not the case at all. 

Lauren: [00:26:54] So I'm so curious. Like this is your life. How do you actually make money off of this? So whenever you, do you pitch an idea or do you have to come with a full story or, and then they, you know, once it publishes you get a check or how does that actually work?

Yulia: [00:27:13] Yeah. So, uh, you pitch an idea most of the time, uh, not, not a full blown story, however, It's usually a story that you have already had a chance to experience, meaning that the way it works most of the time is that you go somewhere, you pursue a story that you want to tell, and then you come back, you pitch your publication and you say, Hey, here's, here's the pitch for the story that I have.

And then if they accepted, then you get paid from that publication. And if they, and if they don't accept it, then you pitch it somewhere else until you find a home for that story. Now, when I started most of those trips that I did were trips that I financed myself because I just had no idea again, like how the industry works.

What do you do as I started, um, gaining experience in the industry and understanding how it works. Now, most of my trips are actually, uh, partnerships with tourism boards. So a tourism board sends me to a location that's fully covered. So I don't pay for, for the trip. You know, I gather my materials, I investigate what I need to investigate.

I come back, I pitched that story to a magazine and then the magazine pays me for the work. So, and, and that's, that's a much better arrangement than, you know, because if I have to go myself, I'm spending money than the magazine pays me, but I'm still spending money in that case. The way to, to make it work is when you go on one trip, you figure out a way to get five stories out of it now.

Right? So, so you like you, you spend, I need to go on one trip and you have five ideas or five stories out of it that you can. Pitch the publications and get paid for five stories versus one story. 

Lauren: [00:29:05] Yeah. God, what would you say? The average compensation for someone starting, not yourself? Well, or maybe it's the same, but I would imagine someone just starting it's a lot lower.

Um, well what would you say the average compensation per story accepted it. 

Yulia: [00:29:22] So it varies widely. It really varies very widely. You can do as horrible as $40 per article, which is absolutely horrible. Oh my God. That's still exists. And, and thanks. Thanks. Thanks to all the content mills that have enabled this, because think of the internet, right?

There's so many, there's so many things, right. This man Lauren, we could spend another, like whole discussion about this because we're always, we're sort of shooting ourselves in the foot when we are willing to do free work or very low paying work, because that brings it down for everyone. Right. Now on the flip side, there, there are, there are places that pay a thousand dollars for a story.

$2,000 for a story. Are photos 

Lauren: [00:30:15] more, uh, are they more desirable rather than stories? Would you get 

Yulia: [00:30:20] paid on them? That's not quite how to look at it. Um, so the way you look at it as, as a writer, you are paid per word. Hmm. Okay. Reward and that rate can go anywhere from 10 cents per word to $2 per word. 

Lauren: [00:30:38] Got it.

That makes sense. 

Yulia: [00:30:40] An outlet you work with now on the photo side, it's usually it's not so much per photo. It's usually you get paid per story, and then you negotiate how many photos that story would contain. Um, but some of the stories are quite lucrative too. Huh? But th th see, there's a lot of intricacies, so many 

Lauren: [00:31:02] details.

Yulia: [00:31:03] Yeah. Yeah. Because the thing is that like there's print versus online, you know, online pays cheaper, print pays more, but it's harder to get into print online is more accessible. So, you know, there's all these considerations and by the way, we teach all of that in our class. Yes. 

Lauren: [00:31:19] That's huge. And I think it's so interesting.

One thing that. Didn't occur to me until we were talking. It's just with this influencer culture that we're living in. Um, as an event planner, I get, you know, free hotel stays and, you know, trips kind of like you do with like the travel tourism boards. And, um, I feel like online, you often see like, oh, this influencer trying to stay at this place or whatever, blah, blah, blah.

And, um, I think that's kind of a. Something, a lot of people desires to be able to travel for free and to be able to do that. And I, you know, you and me are both lucky in that we've figured out really amazing ways to do this. And I just, I'm curious how that's going to evolve kind of with this next generation of media, especially because we have these influencers that kind of are seeking to create content, but I don't think.

Out there pitching to magazines. And so I, it, to me, it's just like, well, duh, wait, if you want to do this, this is like, this is how you do it. Go talk to you, Leah, go join genius women. Right? Like if you're wanting to be this influencer that gets paid to like, go visit these luxurious places or really adventurous places, then you need to be a travel journalist.

And I don't know, I just never matched that up in my mind. And I don't think other people 

Yulia: [00:32:49] are too. It's so funny that you bring this up because this is a conversation that I'm sort of having a lot lately because yeah. People, when they think about traveling for free or traveling as your job, they actually think about content creators right away, which is, you know, thanks to Instagram.

Yeah. What, what they think about is, is that however, what I do is very different from that, because. You know, even though let's say I could be called perhaps an influencer in some ways that's not my job. My job is to, so here's a very, very important distinction between what a content creator does and what a travel journal is that a content creator, a travel blogger, let's say.

It's all about them and it's all about their experiences, which, which hotel did I stay? You know, I swam with the dolphins here, or, you know, there's this five course meal and I'm not putting judgment on any of that. I'm just saying that people follow travel bloggers and travel content creators for their personality, for their unique perspective, travel journalists.

When I write a story and this story is never about me. The stories about these artisans in Turkey who are creating this beautiful piece of work. The story is about this woman in Alaska, who is trying to save the whales. And the story is about you understand. So it's not about me. It's, I'm uncovering stories of other people, other cultures around the world.

So that's the big difference. Now, if you want to be. If you want, if your, if your inspiration is to stay in luxury, Hudson house and document your experience, actually, Lauren, that's not, that's not me. That's not, yeah, that's not this. No, but if you want to tell stories about the world, If you want to uncover different stories about other people, then you come to me and you take my class because that's what I do.

So again, it's, it's very, it's, it's interesting because people always think about the travel content creators. And again, it's absolutely valid, you know, I'm not putting judgment on that work. It's just a very different type of work from what I do as a travel journalist. Oh, I 

Lauren: [00:35:05] imagine. And I think, especially for people who are listening to this.

Episode. I think that whenever, right. I think of like the content creators and the travel bloggers, I feel like that's like a very like boxed in kind of realm, like to where that's like, like you mentioned, when people think of like, oh, I can travel for work and I can get paid to travel. They think of that content creator.

And I love that. Hopefully for people that are listening, they're saying, oh, there's another way. Like, I don't have to write about myself. Like it doesn't have to. Cause I think for a lot of people that's. Not comfortable either to share about them. They much rather would be out there sharing these stories like you are in following kind of this, this path that you're blazing for others.

So I really hope, and I really am grateful for that clarification because I think a lot of people that are listening are going to be like, oh, Yeah, well, this is what I like. Yeah. This is what I wanted. Like, I want to write about other things and what's going on in the world and I want to travel and I want to get paid for it.

I don't want to just, you know, post a picture of my ass on the beach and get baby a discount at a hotel or whatever that might look like. I have no 

Yulia: [00:36:16] idea. Well, you know, and, and thanks again, thanks to Instagram, that sort of what we know and, and the profile of travel journey. On, let's say even on Instagram is quite low.

Um, but you know, th the first thing we immediately think of is that, uh, travel bloggers and travel content creators, but yeah, we exist and we're very much, yeah. Yeah. You know, very, very much doing this work and, uh, with efforts like genius women and some other things that I'm involved with at the moment, you know, that's, that's the goal is to raise the profile of that and to share that, you know, there's this other way that's possible as well.

What's 

Lauren: [00:36:56] the future of travel journalism. Do you feel, especially kind of with the thought of like, oh, like travel bloggers and influencers, like, feel like they're kind of taking over. It's very different space, but they're becoming very notable. I feel like, do you feel like travel journalism still has like a strong future?

Or what do you feel like the future holds for? I mean, I hope so. Am I nervous asking this like, oh no. What are you going to say? 

Yulia: [00:37:24] Gosh, well, so I might give you an on traditional answer and I'm also of course, very biased. But I think the, the need for stories and our fascination with stories will never go away.

The media might change. You know, we might be on Instagram. We might be 10 years from now. We might not even communicate through written world word, who knows, you know, maybe we just all communicate via, I don't know, sign language or something, but the need for stories and the need for exploration and learning.

What's out there behind the horizon and how. People do stuff over there. I feel like that is such a universal need of people that, that has, that is not going to change. And so I'm not worried about, will we be relevant 10 years from now? For me, the question is more the medium, because that's absolutely has changed and is changing.

You know, now video is where it's at. Audio is where it's at. Um, you know, uh, and magazines are also always on the forefront of trying to figure out how to stay relevant with their meetings. And all of those conversations are absolutely happening, but I think the need for stories and for exploration, that's not going to go away.

So I'm, I'm hopeful. And the other thing that I, I want to say is that a lot of conversations in the travel journalism space that are giving me hope are also about decolonizing travel journalism, making it more inclusive, making it more diverse, because for the most part, it has always been about the white man.

Yeah. And the white man's perspective on the world and the Western perspective on the world. I mean, let's face it. That's what trouble journalism has been for many years. Yeah. You know, uh, uh, and, and a lot of conversations are happening now to, to change all of that. And that's really gives me a lot of hope and that's, that's really exciting to, to be a part of that now.

Oh my God. 

Lauren: [00:39:27] Yeah. It sounds like there really is just a. Plethora of just kind of what you were saying earlier. Like it's not about abundance or about competition. It's about abundance and that there's room for everyone. Yeah. Every, you change your perspective about bringing your own unique voice. Like I'm like, yeah.

I would love to like, hear a story about someone from the east coming to America and their experience like traveling the states, like yeah. That makes total sense whenever you shift that perspective. And I too, I want to make sure I recognize just how beautiful your take on changes. And I feel like your relationship with change and kind of evolving and what's next is just so admirable and beautiful and really unique.

I am having 

Yulia: [00:40:20] words 

Lauren: [00:40:22] describing what exactly it is, but your energy and how you approach this. Yeah. Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. I love it. And I, I'm curious, my final question is always around in your words, how is genius women and what you're doing? Changing the world? 

Yulia: [00:40:42] Oh, man, I love this conversation really.

I just loved every single one of your questions. Thank you so much that that's that's, that's a treat. That's a gift to me as a interviewee. To receive beautiful questions. So, um, 

well I believe that the more women will step to the forefront over their lives and really lead the lives that they are capable of leading and fulfill their potential and be bold in their aspirations.

The better our world will be because. Women are when the makes the world go round. I truly believe that, you know, and the more we can just really fully own and step into our own brilliant selves and not be afraid and shed all that baggage of expectations of doubts of all that crap that we've been social.

To to deal with the better our world will be because our world deserves brilliant, bold women who are living out their potential and living out their dreams and just being fully themselves. And that's, you know, that just makes me so happy to be able to contribute to that. Oh, that's 

Lauren: [00:42:02] such a beautiful answer 

Yulia: [00:42:04] from such a beautiful soul 

Lauren: [00:42:06] Yulia.

Thank you so much for being here today. And I want to make sure everyone listening here knows they can head over to genius women. That's women with an x.co/travel, and you can actually get your own free guide of learning more about how you can get published in these amazing outlets and media places, and just.

Get started. I know we barely scratched the surface. So I think it's so beautiful that you also created this free guide to everyone listening. Again, it'll be linked out in the show notes as well as Julia's Instagram at genius women with an X where inclusive hair. I love it. Yulia. Thank you so much again for being here today.

I'm so grateful for your 

Yulia: [00:42:51] time. Thank you so much, Lauren. It was my pleasure. Absolute pleasure. 

Lauren: [00:42:56] 

  Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you enjoy this conversation I had with Lauren Andrews for her. Let's get stabby podcast.  If you did make sure to check out more of the episodes that Lauren did. Are there women entrepreneurs,  you can find the link to the podcast in our show notes, and while you're at it, check out Lawrence unicorn exchange community, where you can meet amazing and ambitious women in business through regular events,  virtual coffee chats, masterminds, and more.

 You can get more information about it@unicornexchange.com  and yes, we will share a link to unicorn exchange in our show notes as well.  Thanks again for listening today, and I'll see you next week for a conversation with Keely rose, a UK based travel writer and content producer.