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

Kimberli, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I learned how to be a blogger and YouTuber through a lot of trial and error and risk taking. I am continuing to learn new skills, utilize existing ones, and grow but I started not knowing a single thing about it and just learned as I was going. Knowing what I know now, I would have not been so hard on myself in the beginning. I also would have reached out and asked for more help and advice from the beginning instead of thinking I could figure out everything on my own. As surprising as this sounds, I think the skill of self-awareness has been one of the most essential skills. Knowing who I am, what I want, and how I communicate continues to keep me in my lane and focus on what I’m doing rather than comparing myself to others. It’s not easy and I am not perfect, but this does help me. Comparing myself to others or having unrealistic timelines have been (and sometimes continue to be) obstacles that have stood in my way of learning more and growing more as a creative. Doing creative work is, more often than not, a marathon not a sprint. Our work is public and at the praise or scrutiny of the public so we have to learn to take the criticism, roll with the punches, and continue to create and trust ourselves.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I’m Kimberli! I’m a travel blogger and YouTuber. I’ve been a solo traveler for over 10 years. I encourage women to see the world and share my favorite travel tips. My mission is to see women gain confidence to travel often and well. Whether that’s preparing for your first solo trip or learning about the best tools to streamline your travels. I’m most proud of the online travel community I’ve built. I talk to women from all around the world. I’ve witnessed them go from being stuck and confused, longing to see the world to stepping out for their first solo trip and visiting multiple countries on one year. What sets me apart is that I’m just like anyone else. I don’t come from riches and I wasn’t born with a first-class ticket in my hand. But I do have a passion for travel and seeing women live their best lives. We have one life to live and want to see women live that life to the very fullest.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is connecting with people. I get so many emails and DMs from people hungry to travel and see the world. I’ve been on calls with people, helping them plan their dream trip and watching them execute it. We all live full lives from working to socializing to parenting, whatever it may be and sometimes all we need is a hand to hold or a person to bounce ideas off of. When it comes to travel, I am more than happy to be that person for my subscribers and readers. Nothing fills me with more joy and than seeing people take risks and step out into the world on a new travel journey.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I built my audience on YouTube by doing a TON of research and doing it scared. I am not prefect and there are still so many people I have yet to reach and putting yourself out there can be scary. You tend to overthink everything and often worry about the opinion of others. ‘What if I look stupid?’ ‘What if I say something incorrect?’ We all worry about that but if you do it scared and put one foot in front of the other, you are making more progress than the day before. It’s also important to do adequate research. Think about your mission and put together a strategy.

Contact Info:

• Website: krodcollective.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krodcollective/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/krodcollective
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/krodcollective
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@krodcollective