A Travel Path Podcast by Tyler Hespeler

November 27, 2023 2. Smilkos Lens - Quitting Their Job to Travel Full Time as Influencers

www.atravelpath.com

Ryan and Katie's Social and Website:

https://www.instagram.com/smilkos_lens/

https://smilkoslens.com/

Ryan and Katy Smilko share how they made their travel dreams come true after many, many years of trials and tribulations. Their itch for traveling together began after their wedding in Maui and they soon discovered the online content creation world and were all in.

🐾They share their insight on how they are able to travel in their van with their dog and have some advice for people who are planning any pet airline travel.

💸💣TONS of money-saving, value bombs on how they use credit cards, websites, and applications to save money both driving and flying, and how it can allow you to travel “without paying hardly anything out of pocket.”

🛜They discuss the different devices they have used over the years, so they have internet access, both in the US and internationally.

🔨🚙They share their story on how it took them 13 MONTHS to build out their van, followed shortly after by transmission and engine problems that wiped out their savings.

🧳They share their insight on how they both shared a belief growing up that you needed to be wealthy and rich to travel. Over the years they have come to the realization that by being smart with their spendings and taking advantage of airline and credit card points, anybody can do it.

Resources:

Music:

Music from #Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/abbynoise/rocky-mountains

https://smilkoslens.com/booking-travel-with-points/

https://smilkoslens.com/credit-cards/

https://smilkoslens.com/activities-in-redwood-national-park/

https://smilkoslens.com/redwood-national-and-state-park/ Internet:

https://soliswifi.co/

https://www.starlink.com/

Epic California Map & Guide:

https://www.rexby.com/Smilkos_Lens/unitedstates

Within the above map/guide, there is an itinerary for Redwood National Park. If it’s easier to link to that directly, you can use:

https://www.rexby.com/Smilkos_Lens/i/B4saWK_JTcanSHqGSwxV2Q Other services/links

Travel Hacks:

https://www.going.com/

https://www.google.com/travel/flights

https://www.travelzoo.com/

Transcript:

Ryan and Katie thank you guys for coming on the show I'm looking forward to this conversation so we know you guys you're on Instagram you've been to 49 and a half states which I have to get to at some point over 40 national parks you've lived in your van you've explored all around California so why don't you start by sharing a little bit more about yourselves and then letting us know what your travel lifestyle looks like oh man um the short I guess version of it is uh we met in 2015 we got married in 2016 and we ultimately began our travels in 2017 at that point we both had full-time jobs we were doing sort of the typical you use your PTO time off from work to go you know take a vacation somewhere um we would do that a few times a year over time we basically just realized that travel was sort of our passion it was what we wanted to do more of and we didn't want to wait to travel and to experience all the places that we wanted to see and so it grab gradually built up and snowballed over time um but It ultimately led to us today where we're now living in a van fulltime we've as you've mentioned we've been to pretty much every state around the US tons of national parks our dog Jor uh has been with us on all of these van lifee Adventures so he's been to the lower 48 states and yeah we're basically just out there trying to see it all so 49 and a half States let's talk about that I have been to 50 states all 50 Katie's only been to 49 we typically only track places and things that we've done as a couple and so if either one of us have gone somewhere in a past life we don't count it as far as like our our own travel track we're kind of the same way yeah but I was like we're so close to 50 and the fact that I've been there I'm like nah I'm just gonna put 49 and a half I can't believe how many people read it and are like what is this mean hey it it raises questions got us talking about it yeah that's smart so what's the what's the last state uh Alaska Alaska Alaska for work yeah I've been there for work but we have not gone to any of the national parks it sounds like you guys have been obviously I think you said 2016 so you're you know many years in the works here um in terms of your travel lifestyle are you currently working full-time part-time what does that look like we are working full-time as content creators on the road um our own business smos lens and we are the smokos um so that explains our handle a little bit hopefully we both had full-time corporate jobs I worked at a bank for 18 years and Ryan worked at a company for 12 years I think before we quit so it was a really big jump to uh start our own business but yeah now we're working full-time on building our own business on the road when you first discovered your content creation I said around 2018 was that through Instagram or what platform was that it was it was Instagram there was a big influencer do you travel I think is what his account name was and his his Jack Morris he was sort of the pioneer of influencing that kind of made us aware of the fact that you could travel and earn money doing it through influencing and brand deals and all that stuff yeah I very very much remember him showing me a photo he's like he got $5,000 for this photo I was like I could do that so the time frame I know you kind of touched on this from the day you decided you actually wanted to travel um until the day you actually started in that around that 2016 time frame how long did that take once we got married in 2016 and realized that we wanted to travel it became our priority any time off that we had any savings that we had it went towards travel it was it was our goal it was our priority and we didn't really wait for it it was like that thing that lives in your brain and you're like you know I want I want to travel fulltime like I want to go to these places and get an apartment for a month and then go to the next place and go to the next place 2020 the pandemic hit we were working from home and we basically realized we didn't want to go back to the corporate office life I think everybody kind of went through those you know reassessments and evaluations we really thrived being this close all the time but it really came to the Forefront of our minds that we really want to make travel full-time feasible for us we wanted to have the dog with us and so then became how do we figure this out and I'd say that was mid 2020 in September of 2020 we bought our van it was a very very quick turnaround from having this realization of we want to travel fulltime we want to have the dog with us we're not sure how to do that she found van life on Pinterest it became this big eye opening thing to we're now shopping online for a van and we buy a van unseen we had to fly across the country to get it unbuilt it was just an empty cargo van and we spent the next 13 months building it it wasn't until December of 2021 one that we officially moved into the van and hit the road Vans were going for like double what they would normally cost and like materials were like if you wanted like a van fridge or like a van toilet like there was a weight list take it that's why it took 13 months to to get the whole thing done we could have an entire other podcast episode just on our van build we only had weekends to build it was definitely like a very very very long process yeah but we had my dad my dad's a carpenter so he had all the tools and he helped us took a really a long time even having like a professional on hand so those people that do it like they're like I have no experience that I'm using a power saw I'm like when we bought the van I was like three months tops my dad's built 200 houses this is g to be so easy so I guess that really getting the van done was probably one of your biggest challenges you had to overcome before you could actually start your real travel and your next Journey right I think there was different challenges when we were trying to travel internationally money was kind of probably the biggest like how do you overcome your spending and saving and how do you afford travel like you know as a whole any capacity I think that's that was definitely one of our biggest challenges and hurdles and I think it's it's something it's a roadblock that tends to keep a lot of people from traveling to places it's just that that fear of oh it's going to be too expensive or I don't have the money or you know whatever and plus every time you try and budget something it always ends up going over budget whether it's your monthly grocery fuel costs I know when we budgeted our trip it was almost like double what we expected to have to pay that brings up a good point so I know in terms of like your biggest struggle your biggest challenge to get on the road mine is actually building the van so the financials right you want to save up enough money so you can give yourself that safety net whether it was like a passive income Source I know you picked up the social media in making money you know as an influencer I would imagine going from your current jobs to just getting on Instagram so you're not going to probably start making nearly as much money as you were making previously so was there a um like a side hust you guys were doing any way you were making other income to save up for the trip or was it just kind of through social media that took off it was definitely not the ladder we're still waiting for that right there with you I would say like to anyone who's looking to travel whether it's like one trip or going full-time it never ever feels like there's a right time like it always feels like you could work two more weeks and save like for one more paycheck and like have like a better hotel or you know more savings and we had saved up what we thought was enough to live one year on the road and the three days after I quit my job our transmission blew and it cost half of what we had saved oh no and then like six months later our engine blew and cost the other half of what we had Sav go and that was a van you just completely renovated right yeah so there was no trading it in or like over I would say which is why I don't recommend doing what we do uh which is counting on our business to take off in the future and just sort of uh living off of savings and or debt until we get it really going we definitely get jobs working with tourism boards and like as content creators um but we're not getting $5,000 for per post if anyone's wondering if we not even close if that happened uh we would definitely tell you guys how we did it but that's that's not that's not the case in our van yeah the the plan and the goal was we've got this sort of savings that we set aside we budgeted thinking theoretically this money could sustain us for an entire year on the road that gives us a year to try and ramp up our business and hopefully get it to a point where we we don't have to use up that entire savings and maybe halfway through we're now earning enough money to to cover our expenses and whatnot but uh that obviously did not pan out and come to fruition social media is like it's such a tough algorithm like like we're kind of the same page our first year we got like a whopping $30 off of Instagram it was like right in December like end of the year but it's one of those things congratulations thank you it's something yeah it's something um paid for you know half a tank of fuel not in California I can that no back in California has been like oh my God I almost missed Texas yeah it's like a sickening feeling when you pull in and you're like I know I have to at least get some right like I need enough to get where I'm going yeah so saying on the topic of money and finance have there been any travel hack money-saving tips that you've discovered along the way that could help future Travelers definitely yeah and this is this goes way before our van life adventures um but I would say a credit card bonuses uh incentives for you know signing up for a credit card and you know you spend a certain amount within a certain amount of time and then you get you know 60,000 miles or 880,000 points or whatever those deals can be hugely beneficial when it comes to travel because those points can literally cover the cost of multiple roundtrip flights or multiple hotel stays or both and so in many ways those can help really offset any kind of outof pocket costs you might need for a vacation or trip or any kind of travel that you're doing and then the other one that I would say is um things like uh Google flights um or there's a service called going which used to be called Scots cheap flights um it's basically an email subscription service that emails you deals and mistake airfares so if an airline accidentally puts a decimal point in the wrong place they'll send youil and be like this roundtrip flight to Italy from Atlanta is only $175 right now it's a mistake airfare better jump on it fast it's only going to be there for an hour or two but um those sorts of things and if you have flexibility in the timing in which you want to travel they can really make it so that travel is not only super affordable but in many ways you can do it without paying hardly anything out of pocket awesome those are great two things I have not heard of and I'll put a link in the description for those um websites down below um in terms of credit cards do you have any recommendations that you guys use there's uh Chase has a platform called um Ultimate Rewards and the thing that's so great about Chase is that when you're spending you know using your credit card for your purchases or any kind of spending that you're doing you acrew Chase Ultimate Rewards points now what's amazing about it is that chase has this huge list of Partners Hotel Brands Airlines Etc where you can transfer your chase points at a one: one ratio to those Partners so for example if you build up 20,000 points with Chase you can transfer those points to Southwest and Southwest it'll be 20,000 points or 20,000 miles on Southwest whereas many other credit card companies whether it's Capital One or American Express when you transfer your points to a partner there's some kind of conversion rate like a currency exchange where you're usually losing value by transferring those points over um making it not worthwhile in many cases to do it um whereas Chase it's because it's one to one it makes it super super like valuable and they've got Partners like hayatt and Marriott uh Southwest Airlines United Airlines a bunch of different International Airlines and so no matter what kind of traveling you're trying to do there's there's Partners there that they've got that you can transfer your points over to and really makes um you know your your flights or your stays uh much more affordable in terms of I know you guys work from the road so you do need internet I take it um how are you getting internet Wi-Fi cell service all that good stuff so I think our Situation's probably pretty unique and specific to those who are doing kind of van life for RV life um we use um spacex's uh starlink for our internet so it's basically a a little portable satellite that we can throw up on top of the van when whenever we're parked which is what we're doing right now we're in a CVS parking lot we've got our satellite up on top of the van and it uses uh the SpaceX um satellite service that being said when we were doing international travels and before we were in the van um we were using like a little portable hotspot device and the one that we were using was called soless s o l i s uh it's this little orange Puck looking thing um but it basically gives you internet service in like like 150 different countries all over the world and they have U month-to-month um options that you can select from so it's not like you're signing up or database yeah or database so it's not like a you know you're signing into a one-year contract or two-year contract or anything you can literally pay as you go and do month to Monon based on your own needs it worked better out of the country than in yeah no kidding oh good to know I think because it uses like cell towers for some reason here it was just like just use your cell phone but like the whole country it was crazy is that one of the reasons why you gave that one up for the starlink because the service in the country okay that was part of it the the other thing that I would say is those like mobile hot spot devices are are great if you're needing them for like just basic you know web browsing or email or a FaceTime call or something like that um but the content for creation and uploading downloading photo editing for the business side of things need needing to be able to upload tons of content it just couldn't handle the amount of data that we were trying to put through it is it true you can't have be like near trees or any um big upu if you're using the starlink yes definitely hence the CVS parking lot right now right yes exactly we got our starlink earlier this year we were in Utah and we've used it all over the country yeah we've had really good luck we've heard other people not have as good luck I've heard mixed things too yeah and there's I guess two different models of that right there's two you can either put it on top of the roof or one you can plant into the ground and then one of them's like less per month startup cost the one in the ground I think is for houses or it's a permanent there's aent RV one the one in the ground is the one that we have which is it basically has like a new every day Ryan take over that's funny basically has like a 50 foot cable um and so you can literally just place it anywhere you want um based on you know visibility and and obstructions there is one that you can permanently mount the roof of your RV or camper um that one is more expensive and the downfall with that one is that because it's permanently a fixed like this you don't really have the flexibility of being able to position it in different locations or places based on visibility and trees and such so you would basically have to have your van parked exactly where you've got visibility to the sky whereas the one that we've got you can you know Park in the shade and then walk you know 10 feet out the shade and yeah I feel like I would like that better I mean it's obviously a little bit more of a hassle because you have to get out and walk around but you're right I mean it gives you a little more versatility you can put it and point it in whatever Direction yeah really but it would have been nice to have service when we drive that's a good point oh true that is that's a big one too yeah we were like if we get this one we'll get more done when we're stopped and we'll try not to work when we drive and then we're driving and we're like I can't even open the Internet it's like yeah y been there before and I have heard good things about that when people are driving with it it tends to stay the service tends to be pretty good from what I've heard so I think I've talked to anyone that's had it so I would be very interested to hear if they like it okay we touched on it a little bit earlier but you do have a dog what are your tips and tricks for traveling with a dog um any learning curves I know we had mentioned we had a really hard time getting our dog to like the car yeah Junior hated the van when we bought it like we could couldn't it was like getting a cat in a bath literally we could not get him into the door if we even so much as walked towards the van he would plant his arms like a cat on a b and be like nope I'm not going anywhere near that thing and he's 70 pounds so moving him was difficult he warmed up to it yeah I think that if someone is doing any kind of travel with their animal I would say put them in the car or van when it's not on for a bit and like sort of just stationary almost just like hang out with them in the vehicle I wish we had done that um we put him in when it was empty and loud and every noise scared him and then he never he never want it in again it's that first impression that kills him yeah so I think that would be like our number one thing if you're traveling with pet um but we've had friends that flown with pets and they're always pooping their things so just FYI now what would you say to somebody who kind of argues that they can't live on the road and live you know a travel lifestyle because they have a dog oh my gosh um wrong yeah I mean we we traveled internationally like we we were really lucky when we we had a ton of family and then the family moved away and we were now we can't travel because our pet sitters are gone and so we used Rover um we hired we hired pet sitters um to stay in our apartment because Junior doesn't always love other dogs so he um yeah we paid pet sitters and so that was our way around that and then in the van I know people worry about like heat cold like they can't leave them in the van at all um and there's so many resources out now on like there's pet monitors there's temperature monitors like there are so many dog friendly places now too like we went to a restaurant the other night that had a Dog menu and he got his own dinner and it's like you wouldn't find that if you weren't traveling so yeah I think there's there's two very different scenarios there one you know if you're if it's someone who's doing flight travel with their dog like that's a very different situation but I think at the root of both of them it really just boils down to doing research and trying to find how dog friendly is the place that you want to go to whether it's the activities know if it's hikes or if it's going to the beach or is it you know parks that you're going to like how dog friendly are there and then accommodations are the accommodations pet friendly are there bees associated with having pets and if so how expensive are are they so it's really just a lot of like planning and research to go into figuring those things out beforehand so that when you get there you're not blindsided by something you know whether it be oh your dog is over our weight limit we can't let you stay here like you don't want to run into that type of situation yeah very cool it's all about planning one last question before you kind of start wrapping this thing up and it's not necessarily the best destination or the most popular place you've been to and I feel like I'll get two different answers from you guys here but what is the most memorable experience you've had while traveling I think that inside or outside of the band either or man I think the best experiences that we have are like the people that we've met through traveling and like continue to get to see through travel um one of our favorite memories ever is we met a couple on Instagram and we became friends like we started we did a giveaway together so like we had a couple FaceTime calls and somehow this led to us going to Iceland together and meeting them for the first time in Iceland Iceland wow wow and so it's like we get off the plane and meet each other for the first time and then that night we shared a room and had bunk beds and like Road tripped the country together and we're Inseparable for 12 days and it's like you can't get an experience like that without traveling like it's just so unique to meet people who you feel that way about and you can spend that amount of time with and have so much in common without even meeting in person and so I think that'll always be one of like our one one of our top memories from travel I think the other one that I would say is whether it was international travel or it's Dom IC travel road tripping is easily our favorite and like most memorable travel experiences and it's largely because you know if you fly into a city and then you never leave that City and then you fly back home you've only seen like this ity little little bit of whatever that destination is whereas when you're road tripping you get to see so much of everything and you get the divers of the rural areas and the Suburban areas and the metropolitan areas and like the different Landscapes and the different cultures and the different people and the different food there's just there's so much more that you get to see in experience that you wouldn't otherwise get to see if you were just flying in and flying out mhm so true so it's the it's the journey right there you said it that's awesome guys um if you were listening to this podcast when you were first starting out um is there a question that I didn't ask today that you wish I would have and how would you answer that what do we wish we knew before we started traveling so the the question being what do we wish we knew before we got into travel So my answer to the question what do I wish I knew before was that you didn't have to be rich to travel and he mentioned that I hadn't traveled much before we met and um I when I found out that I could travel um when I was a kid the only time I got to go anywhere was when family members sponsored I call it sponsored trips um so like Grandma and Grandpa would pay but we'd visit family or like an aunt and uncle would take me somewhere so that my cousin had a friend I grew up in a really affluent area so I just thought rich people traveled and people without money didn't and there was no in between like it was just I'm just going to stay in my town forever and I'm okay with that and then I meet him and he's like I want to go everywhere and I'm like good luck okay whatever and he really showed me like through all like the travel hacking and points and you know saving and making it what you want to do it's very very much more attainable than I ever thought I had no idea like at all so it was very eye openening for me from the start so I wish you knew you didn't have to be rich to travel that's a good one earlier in my life I always had the travel bug I always knew I wanted to travel but there was always this kind of stigma that and it's very similar to yours but it was the places I want to go to are not affordable to me they're too expensive so maybe one day I'll get there and maybe it's 20 years from now maybe it's 40 years from now I don't know fast forward today it's so eye openening to me especially international travel like if you have any kind of aspirations to get outside of your country whatever your country is flight travel can be so incredibly affordable being a typical teenager early 20s adult you know I'm spending money on video game systems and clothing and whatever you know I'm just money is just going wherever I want it to go had I known back then that $500 could take me to any place around the world round trip and instead of spending $500 on a PlayStation or an Xbox I could then go fly somewhere on the opposite side of the world I think that would have really opened my eyes much much earlier on and I think my savings account would probably either be it would be empty but You' have gone places I'd be Fuller in experiences and memories that's for sure well guys thank you so much for sharing your story it's very inspirational um you know having you two people you had your dream of traveling and you know you made it happen over the course of whether it's 5 8 10 years wherever that number is I know it's kind of a gray area there um I think I think your tips on you know the travel um flying the credit card tips definitely some very helpful information I think a lot of viewers are going to find that informative and valuable so thanks for sharing that and uh where else can our audience find more about you guys Instagram would probably be the best place to check us out our handle is smilo lens so it's smilkos_lens and then our website is smilkoslens.com awesome all right thank you guys again yeah thanks for having us it's great talking to you guys

*All content from atravelpath.com, including but not limited to The Travel Path Podcast and social media platforms, is designed to share general information. We are not experts and the information is not designed to serve as legal, financial, or tax advice. Always do your own research and due diligence before making a decision.

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