We recently connected with Kristin Wilson and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kristin, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

If you would have told me five years ago that I would be an author, podcaster, videographer, and DJ, I wouldn’t have believed you. Throughout my childhood, I thought I wasn’t creative and couldn’t be an artist because drawing, painting, and playing piano didn’t come naturally to me. For more than two decades, I focused instead on sports and academics, and discounted the arts as a career path.

But, throughout that time, I didn’t feel fulfilled. I felt that something was missing. I had a lot of creative ideas but didn’t know how to act on them. So, I started with the inner work of tuning into my intuition, writing down my dreams, and increasing my self-confidence to begin taking steps to achieve them.

A book that helped me greatly is called The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron. I heard about it from a friend in 2017 and started reading it in 2018. From that time on, I began walking the path of being an artist by starting to learn my craft. When it came to videography, I bought a camera, started a YouTube channel, and enrolled in a travel filmmaking course. With podcasting, I bought a microphone and started interviewing people I knew. To learn how to write, I started blogging for free on Medium and read books on writing, such as On Writing Well, by William Zinsser. To learn how to DJ, I began with a class in Amsterdam through Airbnb Experiences. Then, I dabbled in online courses on Udemy and other platforms. Finally, I took in person classes in Miami through Garnish Miami and Shyft Studios with Differ and Tony Guerra.

After years of practice, with 497 videos and 223 podcast episode published and having played 50+ DJ gigs, I can say I’m on the path of learning my crafts. Learning your craft takes a lifetime of practice. There is no end to the journey.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I lived a pretty normal, middle-class life in the towns of Vero Beach and St. Augustine, Florida, with my parents and three siblings. In 2000, I went to college at UCF in Orlando, but had trouble choosing a major. After earning a scholarship to study abroad in Costa Rica, I changed my major to International Business and did another semester abroad on the Gold Coast of Australia. Through these experiences of living abroad, I knew I wanted to keep traveling and experiencing life in other cultures.

After college and a one-year MBA program, I returned to Costa Rica to work for a friend’s real estate office in the tiny beach town of Nosara. While working in real estate in Costa Rica and Nicaragua for 8 years, I noticed that many of my clients wanted help with other aspects of living abroad, such as how to move their things, open a bank account, furnish their houses, buy cars, and enroll their children in school. So, in 2011, I began offering international relocation services through my company, Orbis Relocation (www.orbisrelocation.com).

After nearly 10 years of helping people move around the world to 40 countries, the pandemic hit, and I shifted my focus to sharing information about travel, living abroad, and the digital nomad lifestyle through YouTube. As my channel grew, so did the number of opportunities coming my way.

Today, I have 185,000 subscribers on YouTube, nearly half a million podcast downloads in 189 countries, and wrote the book, Digital Nomads For Dummmies. I continue to help people plan their moves overseas and in 2023 I became the Go Overseas Mentor at International Living. Through this role, I help even more people with the logistics of moving to a foreign country while continuing to provide free info on my YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/travelingwithkristin) and my podcast (www.badassdigitalnomads.com).

I am most proud of being to help people live a lifestyle of freedom and location independence – wherever they feel at home in the world.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

There is a lack of artistic and creative support in the public education system. The government should embed more classes about creativity and the arts from a young age and these classes should have equal weighting with math, science, and English classes. There should also be more scholarships and funding available for people who want to pursue a creative path and there should be public places people can go to work, such as subsidized or free studios, galleries, and co-working spaces. We need art to be part of the societal conversation. Too often, the collective mindset assumes that art is something for kids to do, something reserved for society’s elite, or something to be done as a hobby rather than a career. This assumption is limited and misguided, but it will take time to change.

It’s also important for creatives to believe in their ability to make a living from their art. The “starving artist” stereotype is outdated. There are limitless ways to earn an income from artistic and creative work online, whether you offer services in a freelancing marketplace, earn through social media, or monetize yourself with a personal brand. You can also create a website and storefront with Shopify and sell your art directly.

As a creative, get creative when it comes to thriving in the current economy. Shift your thinking from scarcity to abundance and know that there’s enough room for everyone to succeed.

How did you build your audience on social media?

Like everyone, I started with zero followers and subscribers on social media. For those who are just starting out, I advise to get clear on why you want to publish content on social media. Ask yourself questions. Which platform do you enjoy the most and where would you like to establish a prescence? Why is it important for you to share content online? What topics do you want to talk about? What problems will you help people solve? What are you hoping to accomplish by building an audience? What types of people do you want to reach? The more specifically you can answer these questions, the better foundation you can build for your brand. Your content will evolve over time, but being clear on your purpose and target audience will help you stay motivated and consistent when things feel hard or you aren’t seeing progress as quickly as you would like.

When you feel stuck, seek answers. Take courses about how to grow on whatever platform you are using. Dig into your analytics to understand what content is helping to grow your audience and why. Engage with people in the comments and send them direct messages if you can reach them. Or, start growing an email list so you can get in touch with them directly.

The more you communicate with your audience and the better you know them, the more apt you are to create content that resonates with them and ultimately helps you grow faster.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.travelingwithkristin.com/contact
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelingwithkristin
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalnomadsuccess/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/travelingwithkristin
• Other: Podcast: https://badassdigitalnomads.com/

Image Credits
Traveling with Kristin