Green Global Travel was one of the first travel blogs I stumbled across when I was researching for our long term travels. It’s one of the few I still read every day, two years later. I spoke to Bret, co-founder, about turning his dream of running the most successful Eco Tourism E-magazine into a reality.
You are ‘Living the Dream’ and running your own very successful ecotourism online magazine, Green Global Travel. Can you tell us a little bit about why you started GGT?
We started it for a couple of reasons. First, Mary had been laid off in early 2010 and I was getting frustrated with my freelance career, so we wanted to create something that would give us more control over our lives and our financial destiny. Secondly, I was getting great writing assignments, but not getting to write about the things I was most passionate about– ecotourism, conservation, the way adventure changes us and makes us stronger and more fearless. So we wanted a venture that would allow us to pursue our passions and hopefully get paid for it. Lastly, we saw a gaping hole in the travel blogosphere, where only one or two sites were covering ecotourism at all. I’d originally envisioned GGT as a print magazine or a book. But once we saw that nobody was doing a blog like this, we knew that we HAD to do it.
Was it easy to go from ‘the Dream’ to actually making it happen?
I honestly wouldn’t say we’re “Living the Dream” yet, but we are pursuing our dreams on a daily basis. With all due respect to people who use “Living the Dream” as a hook, I believe selling the idea of travel blogging as a fantasy life is not necessarily truthful. I’ve never worked harder than I have since we launched GGT. Every travel blogger we know who’s making a solid living is working 12-14 hour days, struggling to find ways to generate revenue without selling their souls, and battling burnout on a regular basis.
The reality is that building a long-term successful travel blog takes a lot of time, energy, patience, relentless persistence and determination. I know that’s probably not as sexy as “Living the Dream,” but the reality is that taking that approach has led to some incredible adventures for us over the past 2 years. As with any other business venture, realizing “the Dream” takes years of extremely hard work.
Did you face challenges along the way? What kept you going when things got tough?
We continue to face challenges every single day. We have jobs, a mortgage, car payments, my daughter (with us 50% of the time), a dog, and a whole life outside of the blogosphere. Balancing all those things with travel and managing a popular website is always difficult. What keeps us going? The love and support we get from our friends, family, and followers. The respect GGT gets within the industry. The ability to travel to incredible places like the Peruvian Amazon, Galapagos Islands, Chilean Patagonia, Antarctica and Tahiti, and to see/do things we NEVER could’ve experienced otherwise. And, occasionally, just taking a day off, heading out on our boat on a local lake, and putting the blog world aside for a little while. It’s good to remind yourself that life is not JUST about where you’re going next, but about enjoying where you’re at.
Where does ‘the dream’ take you next? What are your future plans for GGT?
Right now we’re focusing on new ways of generating revenue while expanding our brand. We’re going to be offering a broad range of services soon, from custom Travel Planning and 1-on-1 Blogger Mentorship to Content Generation and Social Media Marketing for DMOs/tourism boards. We’ve got our new company, EcoAdventure Media, for which we hand-selected an amazing team of experienced travel media professionals to promote eco-conscious brands on a mass scale, while also engaging and inspiring consumers to travel more responsibly and sustainably. And we’re about to launch a new website, Green Travel Reviews, which will review hotels, restaurants, tours and products designed to appeal to our audience. Hopefully these ventures will help expand our network and influence in the years to come, and provide bigger and better travel opportunities.
What is your advice to someone who has a Dream but are scared to follow it through?
It’s a bit of a cliche, but it’s better to swing for the fences and strike out than to never pick up a bat. If you don’t jump into the game of life with both feet, how can you ever hope to “win”? One of the lessons I’ve tried to teach my daughter over the years is that EVERYBODY is afraid of something, but it’s how you deal with that fear that matters. Do you let it cower you, or do you face that fear head on? Fear is a predator, and you have to be willing to confront it, to conquer it so that it doesn’t control you. Once you learn to address your fears directly, you become unstoppable. Life’s curveballs can knock you down, but you develop the confidence to get back up and brush yourself off, over and over and over again. To me, “The Dream” is really about never giving up on what you want from life, no matter how many obstacles may rise up in your path. It’s not easy, but it is endlessly rewarding.
Veteran journalist Bret Love and photographer/videographer Mary Gabbett launched Green Global Travel in 2010, dedicating their lives to covering the world’s most important ecotourism destinations and issues. In addition to inspiring readers to travel and live more sustainably, the couple also freelances for more than 20 major publications around the world. You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.
Living the Dream the Eco Way is a post from: Suitcase Stories
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