We were lucky to catch up with Alyssa Ramos recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alyssa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. What do you think matters most in terms of achieving success?

To me, as someone who grew up in a low-income, single-mom household, to be successful, you need to have a lot of courage, ambition, and optimism towards achieving your goals.

When I first started my blog ten years ago, everyone doubted me, since back then it was not considered a normal job. But I had one goal and that was to “get paid to travel the world”, and I stopped at nothing to make it happen.

I would spend around 10-12 hours per day writing, editing, and endlessly pitching for collaborations, and then I basically dedicated my life to traveling and creating content in order to grow my brand and business.

It was scary to risk leaving everything behind, and also losing the little money I had to create my dream, but I always kept my courage, ambition, and optimism as high as all of the planes I was flying on!

Alyssa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was one of the very first “travel influencers”, which was a title I was labeled as by default, because I actually started as one of the first travel bloggers, before Instagram was popular (10 years ago).

Back then I was living in Los Angeles, and I learned how to be a journalist through freelance jobs, and eventually I learned how to monetize an audience, so I started a blog of my own.

Then I got exhausted of LA life, and I decided to attempt seeing the world, except no one wanted to go with me, and I was pretty broke, so I ended up going solo and a bit into debt.

But my photos of my solo travels on the newly evolving social media sparked global interest, and soon I was one of the top travel bloggers/influencers in the world, which opened an incredible amount of doors, and led to me traveling to now over 130 countries while making a 6 figure income.

Now, I still offer my collaborative services for hotels, travel companies, products, etc., in the form of social media promotions, and I also plan and host 3-4 group trips per year in extremely adventurous destinations.

Not only was I one of the first people to trailblaze the concept of brand collaborations with bloggers/influencers, but I was also one of the first creators to start offering group trips with their followers; a trend that is now extremely popular.

Additionally, I have written a book and am working on a few more, and I have started investing in foreign real estate.

I am most proud of the amount of people I have encouraged to travel solo, or to visit certain underrated destinations, and especially proud when people told me their life has changed because of my posts.

I’m also personally proud of how strong I have been to endure extreme travel conditions, giving up everything to pursue my dreams, and just not giving up on anything, including love! I recently got engaged in Italy and we now live on a vineyard in the summer!

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My initial goal was to find a way to make money from traveling. It’s the most absurd goal I’m sure anyone has heard of, but I knew it was the only way I would see the world, and my bigger goal was to see and experience as much as possible, before committing my life to another person (AKA a partner and/or baby).

I had the opposite mentality of society, and instead of settling down, planting roots, and working endlessly to eventually retire when I’m old and then travel, I thought it was a better idea to live my life up while I’m young and able to, and find a way to also work while doing it.

My current goal and mission is to achieve $40-50k in passive income by the time I turn 40, so I don’t have to endure so much pressure from the increasingly competitive social media industry, and I can finally enjoy more down time with friends and family, while also traveling more for fun than just for work! (I am currently at $20k passive income through high yield savings/checking accounts, my blog, and my investment property)

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

In 2018, I was in four back to back accidents in four countries; I flipped a rental car in Patagonia, then I had a panic attack while scuba diving in a cenote in Mexico, then I was in a bus roll-accident in Cambodia, followed by an earthquake in Indonesia.

For the first time in my life, I developed severe PTSD anxiety, to the point where I could barely handle being inside of a car, train or plane. This of course almost ruined my career, since I need those things to travel, and I became very frustrated that I couldn’t get rid of it.

But I refused to let the trauma and anxiety stop me. I did everything possible (aside from actually take medications that were prescribed for it), and eventually forced my strong willpower to override the fear of anxiety after a few years..

I am now fully recovered, I have even gone diving in cenotes again, and I feel stronger than ever because I feel I have full control over my mind if I feel anxiety arising.

Contact Info:

• Website: Www..mylifesatravelmovie.com
• Instagram: https://Instagram.com/mylifesatravelmovie.com
• Facebook: https://Facebook.com/mylifesatravelmovie.com
• Youtube: https://YouTube.com/mylifesatravelmovie.com

Image Credits

All photos are taken by me!