If you’ve ever wondered whether it’s actually possible to make money doing something you love, this conversation will really open your eyes. In this episode of The Traveling Therapist Podcast, I sit down with Isabel Leong to talk about how a deep love for travel slowly turned into a full-time career.
Isabel shares the real behind-the-scenes of building her blog over more than a decade, what it took to turn it into a sustainable travel blog business, and why SEO has been the long-game strategy that allowed her to travel full-time for years. We also dive into slow travel, digital nomad life, and the personal growth that comes from exploring the world solo.
In This Episode, We Explore…
Connect with Isabel:
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Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group: www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Signup to learn more about life as a Traveling Therapist: https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course: www.kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Kym: Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Traveling Therapist podcast. We have a super interesting guest today. Isabelle Leon is here joining us from Singapore, which I think is so cool. It's 7:00 PM for me and 8:00 AM for her. We had to like really coordinate this to make this this time zone thing work, but
[00:00:18] Isabel, I'm so excited to have you here. Everybody that's listening, she's not a therapist, but she's has a really cool travel story and a travel business, and I think it's gonna be super inspirational day today to learn about her and how she created all this, and then what she's doing now. So, Isabel, thank you for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time to meet with us and talk about you. Yeah.
[00:00:40] Isabel: I'm excited to be here.
[00:00:41] Kym: Can we just jump in and start with your travel blog and how that came about? Because I, part of your bio that I was reading about was like, you just love to travel. So part of what you were trying to do is figure out how can I, like, have a job that ties into travel so I could do more travel, is sort of the gist that I got from reading your bio.
[00:01:01] So I'd love to just talk about like. When did you realize I need to figure out a way to be able to travel and monetize it or, or that sort of thing? And can you just walk us through that whole journey for you and we could just chitchat about it?
[00:01:12] Isabel: Yeah, sure. I would say my love for travel bot for the travel bot, it started when I went on this student exchange and I went to, I bought this one way ticket to the furthest. A very continent from where I am for the first time at the age of 21. So I flew to France on a one week ticket
[00:01:31] Kym: Wow.
[00:01:33] Isabel: yeah, and um, because it was a semester school exchange, so I had pretty much six months and I thought that there was gonna be the end of such a long period of freedom for me.
[00:01:44] So I went all in on traveling. I went to like 16 countries, 55 55. Cities and did as much I wanted to get out there as much as I could. So whatever I took, I went couch surfing. I made new friends and traveled solo, whatever it took for me to see as much as the world that I can. So that was when I picked up the travel block and I created this travel block to document pretty much my journey along all these different countries.
[00:02:18] And when I came back I just felt like I wanted to do more of it. Like every time I did short trips, I would, I feel like I would always tear up whenever it's the last day just because I wanted to live that reality more than the real reality that I was living. So, yeah, I, I really, really wanted to make travel more possible in my life and I thought that wasn't very possible.
[00:02:42] 'cause like you're still in your university, you don't have a, with an undergraduate degree and zero work experience, you are probably gonna struggle with finding a job anywhere. So I did. Worked for a year after graduation in a social media agency, and they hired me possibly because I already had my socials going on.
[00:03:04] But on the side I was always very excited, passionate about learning how to grow my traffic, how to work with tourism boards so that I could travel for free and travel more and basically have any, find any excuse to be able to travel. So that's how I eventually grew my travel blog and got up there, did the pr, and well, fast forward to today.
[00:03:29] I have been traveling full-time for the last seven years until, until this year.
[00:03:33] Kym: Wow. And are you grounded now? Like are you in one place for a while right now or still?
[00:03:38] Isabel: Yeah, so I think we go through different phases as well. Like I was traveling so much, enjoying so much, and then slowly transitioned to, oh, I actually prefer slow traveling. So during the pandemic, so from 2020 to 2021. I, I mean, slow travel was the only way to go because otherwise you would have to do your swap test every time you wanna fly.
[00:04:00] So I would maximize the time, the Visa allowance. So for instance, Mexico allows tourists to stay for six months. Like Japan allows tourists to stay for 90 days. So each place that I went, I would try and mix out the total amount of. Days that a tourist visa allows. And then I realized I really, really enjoyed it because I enjoyed being in the rhythm of things.
[00:04:26] Having the routine to like go to the gym, go to the supermarket to go shopping, go do whatever extracurricular, like surfing or meeting up with friends. And that kind of lifestyle I think is what I resonated more nowadays.
[00:04:43] Kym: Yeah. Yep. I totally get that. I find that for myself too. Over time, it's like I, I feel myself slowing more and more and more and just taking my time with this stuff. Yep. love that. So can we talk about your blog? Like, 'cause I, I travel, right? I'm the traveling therapist or whatever, and I always like, I've always got in my mind like, I should be do, why am I not doing like a travel blog or something like that?
[00:05:07] But every time I look at like a site like yours for example, it's like, this looks like so much work. To me 'cause it's so beautiful and like, it just looks like you've been curating this thing for, for a very long time. I don't know how long this blog has been around, but it is gorgeous. And her website for everybody, it's bell around the world.com.
[00:05:26] It's a gorgeous site. So,
[00:05:29] Isabel: you.
[00:05:30] Kym: so what about somebody like me or another traveling therapist that's like, wow, I wonder if I could like figure out how to blog more about my adventures and maybe even monetize it eventually. Do you have like tips and strategies around how somebody could do that? Because I think anybody listening would be like, wouldn't that be so cool to have a monetized travel blog?
[00:05:49] You know.
[00:05:50] Isabel: well, yeah, it's been a work in progress for the past 10 years and a lot of it is, I think as with every other platform out there, they're always gonna be competitors. So it's really finding your like little corner in the internet and I think you've done it really well. Like I don't see any other traveling therapist, so it's a very unique brand and honestly an idea that.
[00:06:15] I don't think would be that possible because all the therapists that I know in Singapore are there. They all have private practices in Singapore, like it's in a physical location. So already that's a unique like selling point and just being able to create content one out of the heart, but also two, doing the keyword research, doing the SEO optimization.
[00:06:40] I think if you marry both of those ideals together. It would really create something beautiful.
[00:06:47] Kym: Yeah, definitely. Yes. So anybody listening, find your little niche, your little corner of the world related to travel or anything like that to, to help start building something like this up and, and then getting the SEO down, which you actually do specialize in helping people with SEO for their websites and their businesses.
[00:07:05] Right. That's part of what you do. I guess you've become an expert with that. Really?
[00:07:10] Isabel: Yeah, I mean like. In the past, like the past 10 years, I've dabbled in everything from the blog. That's where I started because I was always very camera shy, like being in front of the camera, just. Yeah, I can't function and like the social media, the YouTube, and then now with TikTok and podcasting, I mean, I've not done podcasting, but it sounds like a lot of work.
[00:07:33] But yeah, and I found, I found that just with the least effort to get the most results, I found SEO to be the way to go because you don't have to be constantly posting as long as you post strategic content and you post content. That is what the audience are looking for, your readers are looking for.
[00:07:53] And with your content ranking up at the top of Google, you can always get that traffic, that passive traffic. And if you're promoting something or you're selling something, then yeah, that's basically passive income coming in.
[00:08:09] Kym: Yeah, absolutely. So like, could you walk us through like your, like a day in the life of somebody that's blogging about a location? I mean, does it start like pre, do you like pre-plan before you even get to the place, or are you setting up like. Like a gorgeous place to stay or making sure you're hitting like really pretty places to be able to take pictures and all of that.
[00:08:30] Like what, what is the strategy around that? I'm just curious for people listening that might wanna get into that type of blogging, what, do you have? Tips, tricks, or like a, like a, like a walkthrough? What that might look like for you? Hmm.
[00:08:42] Isabel: Yeah, well, well, okay, so I think different. Travel bloggers approach travel differently. For me, I travel based on the countries that I'm interested in. Not so much like I travel because this is what SEO wants, or this is what my tra my readers want. So like, let's say I just came back from Saudi Arabia and Bahrain because those were the two countries I haven't been before, and it really intrigued me.
[00:09:08] So really I went in from a. Curious travelers lens. And from there I would take lots of content. I usually pick out places to go and things to experience based on my personal interest because I guess that's what I built my brain after. So then from there it's, yeah, so it's coming back and then organizing the content and then doing my keyword research to see, what are the keyword terms in Saudi Arabia that travelers who are going to Saudi Arabia might be looking for and then creating content from there. But I mean, you can also do it the other way around, but you do your research beforehand. But I've been more of a spontaneous traveler disease. So I mean, if you're a planner, yeah, you're a planner, you can do the keyword research and let's say like if you focus on Instagrammable photo spots, then.
[00:10:03] You would do your research beforehand and when you are on the ground in the country, you would then check off all these places. But I find that a bit stressful because I would be like clamoring around to check off all these locations and it kind of takes away the joy of traveling and discovering a little bit.
[00:10:20] So I prefer the, the original idea.
[00:10:23] Kym: Yeah, I like that too. Just kind of going where you wanna go and then make content around it. It probably seems more authentic, I would think, to your blog readers too, if, if it's really from your perspective and something you were just kind of drawn to go do and, and then tell a story about. Yeah.
[00:10:38] Isabel: Yeah.
[00:10:40] Kym: That's amazing.
[00:10:41] So do you you're in these places, do you, have you learned how to become like a great photographer of, of yourself or do you, do you hire somebody to help take like beautiful location specific pictures or how does that work? I've always wondered that for people.
[00:10:57] Isabel: I, well, I feel like I pick up the skills as they come in demand. So back when Instagram just started, it was all about beautiful pictures, how, how well edited everything is. So I really took up. I would say from like learning from people and taking up lessons and just improving my craft as I go along, I, I don't feel like I still take beautiful pictures and edit them beautifully, but it's always a work in progress.
[00:11:25] And then along the way, videos came along. So it was, yeah, again, like learning the craft from modeling what other people, what well performing videos are doing, and then slowly refining things to make it. My own way, my own like unique way, my personal branding way and then going along, yeah, taking it on my own.
[00:11:46] I don't have a photo. I mean, I, I would love, love to have a traveling photo, personal assistant traveling photographer slash videographer, but sometimes even when I'm traveling with my parents, I would just ask my, I'll give my directions and I'll tell my dad, this is, just hold it this way. Don't move, don't move.
[00:12:05] And then I'll try and work with what I have.
[00:12:08] Kym: I love that. Yeah. So how often do you think you post a new lake location or a new blog post, or, or do you have recommendations for that for people that might be trying to get into this? Is there, like, is there like a magic number of consistency or is it more just about the good SEO and continuing to work on the SEO for the, the quality content that you have?
[00:12:28] Isabel: Yeah, I would say if you are just starting out at least post maybe one blog post a a week. And yeah, it has to be well researched, well written, keyword optimized if you wanna get the most out of it. But as you go along, if you have a system in place, and if you have, if you're able to get some help, I have a writer now, so we post like two times a week, two to three times a week.
[00:12:54] And this is all while I am helping, juggling with other client work as well. So I feel pretty hands off with the writing and the publishing now. It's sometimes more of an oversight type of role.
[00:13:08] Kym: That's really cool. That's cool. You get to do all the fun traveling and then just give the notes, I guess, and have, have somebody write it up for you. That's, that's like the dream, right? That's amazing. So cool. Yeah. So, how would somebody monetize a blog? Like are there like different strategies for monetizing like a travel blog or any kind of blog?
[00:13:31] If you're like putting, you know, a lot of effort into creating it and like you have with yours, are there ways to monetize it or strategies that you've figured out along the way or.
[00:13:42] Isabel: Yeah. So I think in the beginning I feel like content creation is a lot trying and trying and testing different content that works, different format that works for you and your audience. So in the beginning it might be trying different types of content based on what types of, of, based on what types of content you.
[00:14:01] Can produce. Like if you enjoy reviewing products, that might be the way to go. If you enjoy reviewing experiences, if you enjoy talking about your personal learnings, that might be the way to go too. And then seeing. What, based on the analytics, based on the data that reflects off of all these all these content that you put out, look at what is working, and then I would say replicate more of that.
[00:14:26] So as a travel blogger, maybe I could be talking about best hotels, best tour experiences, and then promoting these tools. This products with the affiliate links, which you can then get a commission out of when somebody books through your links and you can even, yeah, like review travel luggages. You can review, like, what I found that has worked really well for me in the past year was reviewing eims.
[00:14:56] They're very tiny in value, but Yeah. But in in the, if you are able to do that at scale, then it brings in quite good amounts too.
[00:15:05] Kym: it does. Oh, so how does that work? You do a review and, and the company is like an affiliate link kind of thing.
[00:15:11] Isabel: So there are, I would say two ways, three ways to go about earning, earning some income from, say, reviewing a product. One is you write a review of the product and when they book a link, when they book the, when they buy that product through your link, you get a little commission. Maybe it's 10% or 20% of.
[00:15:34] The profit that they earn out of it. The other way is you place display advertising, kind of like Google Ads end, but some bloggers we use Mediavine, others use Ad Thrive. So with display advertising you get paid per thousand impressions, and so that's a hundred percent passive. As long as you're bringing in traffic, you'll always get this little income rolling in.
[00:16:00] And the third way is if you're able to. Show results. If you're able to do a product review and you're able to show the conversion rate, then more of these brands will wanna work with you, and they would wanna be at the top of whatever you're comparing, for example. So then you're able to negotiate more of a direct sponsorship fee with them, where you would promise them like, okay, this is the first position that I'll put you in.
[00:16:28] And so for this, it's a fixed fee.
[00:16:32] Kym: Nice. Yeah. That's so smart. Very cool. I always wonder, I mean, I see on people's blogs like the, the displays and stuff, but I always do wonder about that, like, how do people make money doing this? Really? That's really cool. Yeah. And then I guess as you're. Social media gets bigger. Brands are probably more attracted to you and that sort of thing, and wanna work with you and
[00:16:53] Isabel: Yeah, like if you have a brand and you are on different platforms, then you can replicate the same thing to across different brands. You can say, Hey, I've got 10,000 newsletter subscribers. Do you wanna advertise on my newsletter? And then you can also say the same for the different social platforms that you have.
[00:17:11] Kym: Nice. Yeah. That's so smart. So when you work with companies, 'cause I know you definitely work with in Singapore, you have a psychology practice that you work with. Right. Do you, do you sort of specialize in like that healthcare or is that like the one that you work with that's sort of in the realm of therapists and that sort of thing?
[00:17:29] Isabel: Yeah, that, that one fell onto my lab coat just by chance. I mean, I've got an interest in psychology. I studied psychology for my undergraduate degree, but I've never really thought about wanting to be a a, a CL clinical psychologist or anything like that. It was more for my personal interest. And so there's opportunity came in for about a year ago now and I thought, yeah, why not help?
[00:17:55] An industry that I'm passionate about with the skillset I've acquired from traveling. So it was a nice combination and it's a bit different because this is more localized. And so all of the strategies are targeted towards how do we bring in more local audience, and I think that. The whole, the whole sales lifecycle of a client wanting to book in to see a therapist is a bit longer because this is about trust, right?
[00:18:23] It's a lot of trust involved. And knowing the therapist, because I'm gonna open my heart to you. So that's where the challenge is, is still like, how do you capture the lead in the beginning and how do you nurture them so they feel confident and safe enough to want to book a session with you.
[00:18:41] Kym: Mm-hmm. I love that. Do you have any strategies, tips, tricks you could share? I mean, I, most of my audience is like an American audience, but I'd just be curious. You know it, I mean, it sounds like it's a similar everywhere, you know. Do you have tips or strategies.
[00:18:56] Isabel: for sure what you're doing is. Definitely on the right track. You putting yourself out there, sharing about what you do, sharing about your own personal life, providing value to that invisible audience that you know might be listening to you, but you don't know that they're lurking out there.
[00:19:12] So whether it's on the podcast or whether you are sending out email newsletters, or whether you are writing a block writing blog posts to share your information, it's all about building your credibility and your reputation as. A therapist that specializes in something or whatever your expertise in is in as long as you are sharing that you are quietly building and nurturing your audience who are remotely curious about you, but are not sure they wanna commit with you yet.
[00:19:45] So yeah, it's this little. Putting value out consistently, and then maybe having a funnel where you're able to capture these leads in the beginning so they're not just jumping in and then jumping out. You know, if you have an email newsletter, then you're able to offer them a freebie and you're able to capture the email addresses and just slowly also nurturing them by sending regular email updates.
[00:20:10] Sending updates about your latest podcast. I think these, all these will help.
[00:20:15] Kym: Yeah. That's great. That's great advice. Anybody listening 'cause a lot of therapists really do struggle with that. You know, how can I get myself out there and get seen? And I know, I mean, it's more acceptable now, like on social media, but it used to be so taboo, even for a therapist to. Be on social media, you know, back maybe 10, 15 years ago.
[00:20:34] So it is, it is changing. I like that though. So, and then coming up with a good lead magnet, something to attract them to get them on the email list and all that stuff.
[00:20:44] Isabel: Yeah, and you can do that on whatever platform you feel comfortable on. I see a lot of, a lot of therapists going viral on YouTube, but then there's also like that whole new group on Instagram. So each to each its own.
[00:20:58] Kym: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. I always talk to the the traveling therapist about, you know, finding your niche and then trying to figure out where your. People live? Are they on Instagram already? Are they on YouTube? You know, LinkedIn? Where? Where are they? And then you can attract them by kind of being on that social space too, and putting just helpful content out.
[00:21:18] Do you believe in that? That like helpful content helps nurture and get them attracted to you and that kind of thing?
[00:21:26] Isabel: Yeah, a hundred percent. So like when I was doing one of the presentations that I was doing, I did some research and I found that. When compared to some, okay, so there are two groups of people. One that just puts out free content and helpful content, valuable content, and maybe one group that doesn't.
[00:21:44] What they found is that the consumers were willing to pay a higher price for those who have put out free content just because of that feeling of gratitude from learning so much from their free content than someone who didn't. So.
[00:21:59] Kym: Oh, I
[00:22:00] Isabel: hundred percent. Do what you con, continue doing what you're doing.
[00:22:04] Kym: I love that. So do you think do you think just SEO good SEO and good content is enough, or do you think like therapists or anybody needs to look at like paid ads and that sort of thing? Do you recommend that stuff or have an opinion about it? Some people, you know, I don't know. I just wonder.
[00:22:22] Isabel: Yeah, so it's kind of like doing a marathon versus doing a sprint. If you won the results long. I mean, with SEO, you might not see results until a longer term, but then the results that come in, they would be consistent. Say if you are ranking number 10 at first, and then slowly, slowly you rise up the ranks and now you're ranking number one, and you probably can stay that way for a longer time without putting more effort.
[00:22:49] Whereas with paid ads, you will see their results instantly. But the moment you stop paying for ads, then that's when you disappear. So it's kind of like a hack. If you don't have the patience and the perseverance with SEO, you can hack it by pumping in money and artificially, well, it's not artificial, but paying for money and then ranking at the top.
[00:23:10] But the moment you stop pumping in money, then you lose your visibility. So it could go hand in hand depending on how much of a time crunch you are with needing to reach that, that core group of audience.
[00:23:24] Kym: Oh, that's great advice. Yeah. You guys listening? I hear that all the time. Should we do, should we do ads or should we just try to really focus on the SEO? It sounds like focus on the SEO with the long game and occasionally do like a little injection of some ads here and there to see if you can get some leads in.
[00:23:39] Yeah.
[00:23:40] Isabel: yeah. I mean, the ads could also compliment the SEO where you are now bringing in the traffic and then that traffic. Because they know about you, they might continue staying on, and that would in turn fill the SEO component as well.
[00:23:56] Kym: Yeah. Yeah. Oh my goodness.
[00:23:58] Isabel: Mm-hmm.
[00:23:58] Kym: I love that. So, you know, maybe we could shift gears just a little bit. 'cause you also are just like this, you know, amazing traveler, right? You've been to so many countries, what, I think you said, 60 countries altogether. You've had personal development lessons from traveling all these places.
[00:24:13] Maybe we could shift a little bit and talk about some of that, maybe a story or two about how your travels have kind of shaped you, if that
[00:24:21] Isabel: Hmm.
[00:24:22] Kym: okay to talk about a little bit.
[00:24:23] Isabel: Yeah, of course. I think growing up in the city. Especially in Singapore, we're quite sheltered. Everything is safe, everything works, everything's efficient. And growing up people would tell you like, oh, don't go to the us. They're dangerous. They carry guns, don't go to Cambodia. They're developing, you know, people are greedy.
[00:24:43] Then you realize, you know, when you put yourself out there and you really immerse yourself in the local life there, that. Everything is not as bad as it seems, and not everyone is out there to get you. And there are true kindness in the world. Like I've had one too many instances where I've gotten myself in trouble and I might be traveling solo and.
[00:25:05] Really, the people you can count on are strangers, people you've barely known for a hot second. And that's when I found that, yeah, that there are kindness that exist everywhere. People are actually more alike than we think they are. They're not, and yeah, it's all these heartwarming lessons that, you know, let me to believe in the goodness of the world and to realize that you should, you should just get out there because there's so much of the world that's unknown that will come as a surprise to you.
[00:25:35] Kym: I love that so much. Yeah. So you travel a alone a lot or a solo travel? Or is it mainly with other people? Because I, I always admire, I say that on this podcast all the time. I always admire the solo traveling woman that just gets out there and does it. So I just like to always touch on that a little bit.
[00:25:54] Yeah.
[00:25:55] Isabel: Yeah. A mix of both. These days, if it's a shorter trip, I am really lazy to plan, so I, I would, I would need that motivation to. To plan a trip when? When I'm going on a shorter trip, but when it's a longer trip and I can buy a one-way ticket, then I enjoy going there by myself because that's like the best way to get yourself out there and be uncomfortable and force yourself to make friends.
[00:26:19] And then you'll surprised, you'll be surprised that all these friends that you make that are more alike than you think. So yeah, these days it's a mix of both.
[00:26:31] Kym: Nice. Yeah. 'cause I think you said in your sort of intro package or whatever that you like traveling, like that helped you become more extroverted. Like you were super introverted before, I guess, and this has helped you become a different person. It seems like being able to do all these experiences and, and travel the world like this.
[00:26:49] Isabel: Yeah, I used to be like a, like a well extreme planner. Like I remember still having like a day by day itinerary, hour by hour itinerary when I first started. And yeah, I mean, along the way, 10 years later I felt that, you know, spontaneous travel sometimes bring the best travel stories. And I always say that, yeah, I may travel alone, but I'm never alone because you end up meeting like-minded people, especially the digital nomad community.
[00:27:19] Everyone has a, there is a certain similarity between us, amongst us that you kind of instantly born. It's like when I would go to SKO, Bulgaria, and it's pretty much a digital nomad haven in the summer because of the nomad facet happens then, and I think. We are because we are all set out to be there on our own.
[00:27:43] So then we kind of form into a family unit, like taking care of each other, looking out for each other. Whenever you're missing company, you know, someone's always happy to step up and you know, you end up having dinner company, you never have to dine alone sort of thing. So it's very heartwarming.
[00:28:01] Kym: That is, that really is. And you know, I've had, I've had quite a few guests on here that do these, like, you know, you put in your bio, like the, the banks, banks Go Nomad Fest, the Women in Travel Summit. The Singapore summit, the nomad network at all. Lo location, India and all that stuff. I, it's funny, like I meet these people on here that all do these like nomad conference like circuits, you know?
[00:28:25] And it seems like I, I, when I start talking to people sometimes I'm like, I figured out that they know somebody else that was on the podcast. And like you're saying like it is kind of like this nomadic family out there, especially for people that go to these. No bad summits and things. I just think it's so interesting.
[00:28:43] Yeah.
[00:28:44] Isabel: It gets, the world gets really small because there are only certain nomen HubSpots in the world, you know? So when you go to Bali, you end up always meeting someone you knew before in, say, Benko.
[00:28:56] Kym: Oh wow.
[00:28:57] Isabel: Yeah, so that's why it's like you're never really alone. As long as you put yourself out there and be be open and willing to meet new people, then I think at some point you will always bump into someone familiar and that someone familiar will introduce you to someone like-minded, and then it just becomes the whole family.
[00:29:17] Kym: That's so cool. I I just love that so much. So would you mostly meet people at these like summits and things you go to or are they like. Places and all the, the cities that everybody kinda goes to meet each other. Like is there like a, like a secret way that people, nomads meet up with each other? Is there like a Facebook group or something?
[00:29:35] I don't know. Is
[00:29:36] Isabel: Yeah. Yeah. I think there are this, people like to do different things. Sometimes they find nomad. Fast and no matter some, it's too overwhelming because it's just an influx of like two, 300 people suddenly social 24 7. So yes, that's one way to go meet friends and they're always. Get togethers, there are always events being organized that will help you break the ice much easier.
[00:30:03] But then you could always go more smaller scale by going to nomad hubs like sko, like Bali maybe Chang Mai, maybe Mexico like play or Carmen or something. And you then joined the local groups out there and yeah, you, you expand your network from there.
[00:30:24] Kym: Yeah. That's really cool. I think it's so neat. I'm older, you know, and I have a boyfriend and you know, I just never really got into that scene or anything, but it's just so interesting to me. I bet it's a lot of fun. Really.
[00:30:35] Isabel: Yeah, I mean, there are also moments that are traveling with their families, traveling with their partners. So yeah, you can meet every kind of no out there.
[00:30:45] Kym: That's really awesome. I love that. So one thing you touched on earlier that I just wanna come back to, 'cause I just think it's so interesting. You said you, you wrote about eims lately. You've been really been getting into eims. Could you tell the listeners a little bit more about eims because they may not know about that.
[00:31:01] And I think that's a good, it's like good information for people and since you've been writing about it, maybe you could fill 'em
[00:31:07] Isabel: Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. So when you travel, you need internet data. And the traditional way to go about it is to go to a telco, a telephone a telco provider, a local telco provider to then get an EIM and choose your. Package price, like whether you want 10 gigabytes, 50 gigabytes. And then they would give you an eim and then you swap out your original eim and make sure you don't lose your original eim 'cause that's your phone number.
[00:31:37] And then, yeah, when you insert this new eim, that's when you're instantly connected to internet in the local country. So with eims, you no longer have to do any of that. It's basically just going to the EIM website and choosing your package and. Once you've paid for that package, you get an instant email confirmation with a QR code.
[00:32:02] With phones these days, you can install an EIM with any ESM company. So you scan the QR code, you activate the eim like a digital sim, and just on the phone itself, you can basically be connected when you land in that country and yeah, be instantly connected to the internet. And so for me, what I've done, well, what has done well is me comparing a bunch of different EIM providers for different countries.
[00:32:32] So yeah, my posts on like Best E and Vietnam, best EIM in the us, they're ranking at the top and they're also being cited by ai. So if, you know, with such intent these days going to ai and they would go in and search, Hey, tell me the best e to use for my trip to. The US and then blah, blah, blah, blah. And sometimes one of the sources is to my blog.
[00:32:57] And so sometimes people can also go to my blog post through through AI searches and yeah.
[00:33:04] Kym: I love that. That's very cool. Yeah, I have another podcast that's about ai, so I'm obsessed with ai, so it's, it's neat to hear that, that you're ranking over there too. 'Cause. We don't, we can't. I mean we can get into it if you want to, but like SEO versus like a EO, like ask engine optimization, how to optimize blogs and stuff for AI to find it versus like Google and that sort of thing.
[00:33:25] Really interesting. Yeah.
[00:33:27] Isabel: it's all the reach now.
[00:33:28] Kym: be the future. Yeah, it's
[00:33:30] Isabel: Even in the SEO space, we're all talking about how do we optimize to get our content ranking on AI being cited by ai.
[00:33:37] Kym: I love that. Any tips?
[00:33:40] Isabel: Yeah. Lot of what AI sites is also based off of traditional SEO, meaning if you are already ranking well, they're more likely to pick up from those top ranking pieces. But also it's about, brand reputation. So they are more likely to cite a branded, an authoritative brand who, who is an expert in that space than someone else.
[00:34:07] So it's important to build the PR and the branding up, whether it's being cited in reputable sources like the new sites or education sites, things like that.
[00:34:20] Kym: Yeah. Yeah, there's like a whole strategy behind that. That's really cool to hear. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for taking the time with the, with the eims. Would you say, do you have like a top company you recommend or is it really de dependent on the country and what you're trying to do?
[00:34:36] Isabel: Oh, I've worked with so many. I feel like, yeah, I can't, I can't really pinpoint a single. A brand of eims. Some of the eims, they have fixed packages. Some of the eims have regional packages, meaning maybe I wanna travel North America. So Canada, the us, Mexico, these, these are, these places are covered in one eims, so that's handy.
[00:34:58] And then there are some eims that are just like top up as you go. So you just use whatever you want. And then if it's not enough, you just go into the app and top up. And then there are also unlimited eims, which allow you basically unlimited browsing and streaming and hotspotting even. So they're each pros and cons.
[00:35:19] Kym: Very cool. Yeah, it's so interesting. We're gonna have to go to your site and read about all the eims For sure. Thank you. Well, thank you so much for taking the time today. Super interesting. I love learning about you and everything that you've got going on, and I definitely wanna spend some time on your blog 'cause it's just really pretty and there's a lot of good stuff on there.
[00:35:38] A lot of good information for travelers. So thanks for taking the time today to come
[00:35:43] Isabel: Yeah. Thank you so much for having me on your podcast as well. I've enjoyed sharing.
[00:35:47] Kym: Yes. And where do people find you? I know I said your website in the beginning, but so where all can we go if we wanna find you and learn more about you?
[00:35:55] Isabel: Yeah, whichever platform you're comfortable on, my handle is spelled around the world. You can find me on Instagram, YouTube, and the blog. Feel free to reach out anytime. Chat about digital nomad live
[00:36:07] Kym: Yeah. Love it.
[00:36:09] Isabel: Yeah.
[00:36:10] Kym: All that good stuff. Yeah. Well, thank you so much. It's really been a pleasure talking to you.
[00:36:15] Isabel: Likewise. Thank you for having me.
[00:36:17] Kym: Thank you. You're welcome.