S6 E71: Season Finale: What If You Fly?

Get the show’s transcript

[INTRODUCTION]

[00:00:00] YD: Welcome to the Travel Media Lab Podcast. I’m your host, Yulia Denisyuk, an award-winning travel photographer and writer, entrepreneur, community builder and a firm believer that every one of us can go after the stories we’ve always wanted to tell with the right support, encouragement and structure. I’m on a mission to help women storytellers everywhere break into and thrive in the travel media space.

If you’re ready to ditch your fears to the side, grow your knowledge and confidence, and publish your travel stories, you’re in the right place. Let’s go!

[EPISODE]

[00:00:39] YD: Welcome back to the podcast, dear listeners. Today, we're closing the sixth season of our podcast. As I was thinking about what I like to say in the last episode of the season, the message that I wanted to leave you with became almost immediately clear to me. I recently announced that I'm going to run an individual mentorship this fall for people who would like to learn from me one-on-one in the next three months. Lots of wonderful people applied to work with me in this capacity and I just wrapped up the process of going through and reading everyone's applications. If you're listening today and if you were one of the people who applied, thank you very much.

As I was doing that, one theme kept coming back again, and again and again as I was reading all the applications. In the application, I asked a question, what are your goals when it comes to your travel photography and writing? When it comes to this mentorship, what are your goals? So many people wrote that they'd like to get more structure, more focus and consistency with their pitching. They'd like to learn how to pitch publications. They'd like to revive their childhood dream of becoming a travel writer or travel photographer. They'd like to see their stories in travel magazines and many other answers that were really along those same lines. 

The other question I asked was, what are the obstacles that prevent you from reaching that goal? So take a guess right now about what was the most common answer to that second question. The answer was fear and lack of confidence. Again, and again, as I was going through applications from some pretty talented photographers, and some pretty skillful, well-traveled, passionate storytellers, this was the answer they gave. Lack of confidence, my doubts, fear of failure, not knowing where to start, not having the courage to put myself out there, feeling like an impostor. What if I fail? So I thought, we should close this sixth season of our podcast today with a very important message. That message is that, you can be afraid, and you can still act. In fact, it's critical that you do. You know, having these fears is a very absolutely normal part of being human. Many of us have been raised in environments where we were not made to believe that we are amazing. We were not made to believe that anything we touch will be successful, that we can try our hand at anything we want, that we can be anyone we want to be in this world. Of course, these beliefs, they may sit in us very deeply. In fact, I've only met a few people in my entire life who were incredibly confident about their skills and abilities. Think about that. How many people do you know that are like that? I bet not that many. 

These fears that many of us are feeling, they're normal. They're absolutely normal and there is no need to be feeling any kind of shame or reticence that we have these fears. But then the question is, what do we do about that, especially if we have some of those goals and aspirations that I mentioned earlier? That's when it becomes critical to think about, "Well, what are we going to do about it?" Of course, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you already know the answer, because I talk about it nearly every episode. These are the ideas that I developed over the years of carving my own path in the travel media space, but also from listening to a lot of other podcasts and a lot of other people who have been able to bring that vision that they had for themselves forward successfully into their lives. 

The first step that we have to begin with is awareness. We need to first get some clarity on what it is that we actually want, what is our dream, what is our vision, what are we trying to accomplish. We also need to recognize that we have these fears that may prevent us from getting to what we want. But also, we must recognize that these fears are not us. Right? They might have prevented us from acting in the past, but they don't have to keep their power over us. In fact, they lose their power over us when we go through these steps. So awareness of all these dynamics and of all these mechanisms is really, really important step.

The second step is getting help. That can take many forms, whether it's listening to a podcast like this one, or reading books, or articles, or even looking at TikTok because I know that's one huge source of content these days, or surrounding yourself with people who have similar goals and aspirations, or enlisting the help of someone you respect and trust. The key here is that we can go much farther together than we can go alone. Finally, my favorite step is to act. We have to act. There is no way around it. If we don't do anything, nothing happens. We cannot expect to be discovered. We cannot expect somebody magically to show up at our door one day, knock on the door and say, "Hey, Yulia. Come work with us. Hey, Yulia. We want to send you an assignment. Hey, Yulia. Why don't you do this work?" We have to build the path toward more people showing up at our doorstep. We have to build that path towards people getting to know us and getting to know our work so that finally we can get to what we want to accomplish in life. 

Pretty straightforward, right? Awareness of what you want, and the fears that hold you back, getting help and taking action. It's straightforward, but it's not easy. That is why so many people are not reaching the vision that they have for what their life could be. That, ultimately, is the goal of this podcast. It's to help you along this process from awareness, to getting help, to taking action. Wherever you are on this path, it is truly my hope that our various interviews and solo episodes I'm sharing with you are bringing you a little bit closer to that vision you have for yourself.

How did we do this in this summer of 2022 season six, if you haven't yet, now might be a really good moment to look back at some of our best episodes from the season in which I spoke to some of the amazing women working in travel today. In Episode 64, travel writer, Jessica Poitevien shared great advice on getting started.

[00:07:39] JP: If they're afraid to get started, I would say kind of like I mentioned before, that the fear of suffering is greater than the suffering itself. And that editors are people. And even if you get a rejection, that doesn't mean that you're always going to be rejected. All it takes is one story to kind of open the door, open the floodgates, hopefully, of working with these publications that might be your dream publication.

[00:08:16] YD: In Episode 67, travel editor, Lauren Keith told us that she always tries to give new writers a chance. This was amazing for me to hear. And hopefully for you too. You don't have to have a big portfolio or a lot of experience to get started, because there are people like Lauren out there who are more than willing to give you a chance. By the way, this was the most popular episode of the season. So if you haven't already, definitely go check it out.

[00:08:45] LK: As an editor, I try to give everyone a chance. If someone doesn't have big name publications behind them, that is absolutely fine. I know what it was like to start with nothing, to just be writing on a blog, or for friends, or, "Oh, I have clips from my high school, or college newspaper about something that's completely irrelevant to what I'm writing about now." That's okay. I think it's just your style, and your personality and attitude actually play a really big part in it. If a writer is difficult to work with, but they're an excellent writer, I don't care. I don't want to work with them. It's much easier to work with someone who maybe isn't as strong of a writer, but who is willing to learn, and willing to take edits, and feedback and go through that process.

[00:09:35] YD: In Episode 70 that just came out last week, we talked with photographer, Pam Voth about the courage that is needed to go against the grain and pursue that dream that you have.

[00:09:48] PV: Specifically, I would just say, try to make connections with people who are doing something similar to what you're trying to do, or what you think you want to do. The biggest piece of advice I've ever given myself that I go by is that I always give myself permission to change my mind, because I've done a couple of jobs where I'm like, "I want to be doing this." Then I'll get into it, I'm like, "Whoa! I didn’t know that part was part of it." So I'm like, "All right, change directions." So yeah, try to surround yourself with people who are doing something at least aligned, or similar and then just make connections. I think connections are the number one thing to do. Yeah, be ready. Always keep practicing your art, your craft of photography as well, so that you're ready to show up and be ready when the opportunity shows up.

[00:10:37] YD: Which brings me back to the applications for the individual mentorship that I mentioned at the beginning of this episode. I want to commend every single person who has recognized that they have these fears and filled out their applications, anyway. I'm so, so excited to see what you will do next as you go through the steps of having awareness, getting help and taking action. Today, as I'm wrapping up this episode, and this season of our podcast, I'm going to be packing my bags to go on an amazing trip in the next eight weeks where I'll be on assignment in Germany and Austria, speaking at a conference in Poland, shooting a new project in Jordan and more. You know, six years ago, I was a nobody, absolutely nobody in the travel media industry. I knew no one, and no one knew me and no one knew my work. I had fears too, but I acted anyway. The point is that you can act too.

I want to leave you today with this poem that many of you will recognize. This poem is by Erin Hanson, an Australian poet who was just 18 years old when she wrote these now famous lines that changed the trajectory of her career. You can find this poem in her poetry book, The Poetic Underground #2: Voyage. "There is freedom waiting for you on the breezes of the sky. And you ask, what if I fall? Oh, but my darling. What if you fly?"

[END OF EPISODE]

[00:12:17] YD: Thank you so much for listening to our show today, and I hope you have a wonderful start of the fall season. We're going to be taking a little break for the month of September, but that doesn't mean we're going silent. I will be sharing bonus episodes with you all throughout September from inside our membership, The Circle. So stay tuned for that. We start next week. These bonus episodes are based on the discussions and the work we do in The Circle, our membership for creators in travel media who wants to get published. Here's why you might want to look at The Circle more closely. This October, we're going to be running a series of workshops inside The Circle on improving your travel writing skills. On the podcast, and in our platform, we talk a lot about pitchers and the mechanics of breaking into the travel media industry. And now, we're also bringing you content that's going to help you become a better writer. 

We have an amazing travel writer come and do a series of workshops for us this October, and they're going to be free for our Circle members. I will be announcing more soon. But if becoming a more skilled travel writer is one of your goals, definitely look into becoming our circle member this fall because this workshop is going to be amazing. The great thing is that you can join us at three different levels starting at just $27 a month. So you can pay $27 a month and get access to this brilliant content that one of the most successful travel writers in the industry is going to come and teach us. That's a great deal, so we'll be talking more about it soon, but I wanted to mention it to you now. Get more information at travelmedialab.com/circle.

Thank you again for listening to our show today and during the season. I hope that you had just as much fun as I did revisiting some of our favorite episodes from season six. If you enjoy listening to the season of the Travel Media Lab podcast, please consider taking just one minute to leave us a review on Apple podcast. It means the world to me and it helps us get discovered by more people who might find our podcasts helpful. Thank you so much and stay tuned for our bonus episodes coming out all throughout this September from inside our Circle membership.

[END]