Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Candice Waltrip. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Candice, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

My mother is Japanese and my father is American, so I grew up living in two different cultures. I’m an eighties baby and was born on a military base in Fussa, Tokyo. When I was five years old, our family moved from the big city of Tokyo to Omaha, Nebraska where we lived for four years. I was so young that I don’t really remember a whole lot about my time in Nebraska. Just after four years, we moved back to Northern Japan on a military base called Misawa. Up until this point, all my education was in English at DoDDS (Department of Defense Dependents Schools). In eighth grade, my father retired from the military and we moved back to southern Japan. Since I was no longer a dependent of an active service member, I started attending Japanese school. This was a huge change for me since my education was shifting entirely from English to Japanese. I’m not gonna lie but it was definitely a struggle and I didn’t particularly enjoy my middle school years. Although my mother is Japanese, my Japanese was very limited and I only knew conversational vocabulary, so learning social studies or literature in another language was challenging. I eventually graduated from a Japanese High School and although I was only eighteen years old, I decided I wanted to move back to the States and go to college there. This was a huge risk as I was leaving home and with no financial help. My family didn’t have the monetary means to help me, so I saved up about $800, packed two large suitcases, and purchased a flight to Florida. I took this risk because I wanted to explore my options and had the desire to venture outside of Japan.

Candice, 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 kind of fell into the creative world through my work when I was in college. While I was pursuing my degree in International Studies, I landed a full-time job at a local video production company. This was back in the early 2000s, so having access to Adobe products like Photoshop, After Effects, and Illustrator was rare, unlike today where it’s more affordable and not just for business owners. When I got a taste of it, I couldn’t get enough and just kept learning more at work and attended a few Adobe workshops. I initially started working as a receptionist, but I fell in love with the production side so much that I eventually worked my way up to a video editor. There was no YouTube or Adobe Max during those times, so I learned a lot from my amazing co-workers. My sister was one of them and she taught me a ton and to this day, she guides me when it comes to creative work. Fast forward to today, I am no longer in video production; however, everything I learned many years ago is what I apply to my creative work for my travel blog.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

When I approached my sister to start a travel blog together, we had no idea where it would take us. Our initial goal was to just have fun with it. We were both already traveling on a regular basis, so we made it a point to travel together instead of separately. We also both already had a passion for photography and video, so documenting everything for our travel blog came naturally and we both really enjoyed it. Gradually, our passion started turning into passive income so our hobby evolved into a small business for us. I think being genuinely passionate about what we are doing naturally attracts brands who want to work with us.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We hit our first big challenge on our travel blog when the travel industry took a huge hit during the pandemic. We were having one of our best years and had several brand collaborations lined up when we had to put everything on pause. We had no control over the situation and had to pivot our travel plans. In the end, it worked out to be one of the best experiences we had. We are both the type that does extensive research and planning for our travels, but the Pandemic taught us to go with the flow (which was hard at first) and we learned that sometimes just letting go can take you to unexpected places.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thetravelpockets.com/
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/travelpockets
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TRAVELPOCKETS
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/TravelPockets
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/thetravelpockets