We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nikki + Jon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nikki + Jon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

This is such a big question. Overall, yes, we love being able to shoot content while traveling to beautiful places! And as someone who had a “typical 9-5 job” before this, I am able to see all the benefits and drawbacks with choosing to share our lives publicly as content creators.

Since making the switch to starting my own business, I can say there is a huge sense of responsibility but overwhelming joy when it succeeds. The first time I got paid for a brand collaboration I seriously jumped for joy! I realized that I could get paid to be creative which was wild to me. I decided to really dive into this. To invest in education about SEO, photography, videography and more.

Making money for yourself because of your own skills, rather than for someone else who doesn’t value you, is the best feeling.

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

We’re Nikki + Jon (@travelnurseswife) and we first began traveling in 2020 when Jon decided to become a Travel Nurse – hence the username haha. With this new lifestyle, we live in a new place about every 3 months as we travel the United States. From seeing so many different states and cultures, our passion quickly became showing off the places and events that make each place unique.

Since 2020, we have visited over 13 states in the USA, 6 countries and explored countless cities, restaurants, unique places to stay and more. And we love sharing all of it with our community!

We started our Instagram page in December of 2020 to show our family and friends what we were up to but it started growing into much more. Soon, we had a few thousand followers who wanted to learn more about our lifestyle and travels. So we kept sharing. And sharing. And sharing.

As we grew we began investing in our photography and videography skills, and we branched out to blogging, YouTube, and more! It’s surreal that we now get to shoot for places to stay and different brands with our accounts and unique, authentic style.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

The main thing we hear from non-creatives when we explain what we do is that they had no idea much work goes into it. It is not just snapping a quick photo or video and posting it. It’s…

• Constantly learning the new updates and features of every channel
• Working to improve all skills in your creative industry (photos, videos, voice, style, and more)
• Analyzing data across channels for all posts
• Realizing that what performed well last week no longer works
• Engaging for hours each day on social media
• Spending hours writing blog posts
• SEO
• Keyword research
• Speaking with hundreds of brands who want you to constantly work for free
• So much more

Just like every other job needs to change and stay up to date with the times, this one is no different! It requires lots of data analysis and a willingness to be innovative.

I think when people hear “content creator” or “influencer” they get a bad taste in their mouth. Maybe they think it’s somebody obsesses with themselves and who has to share every aspect of their life to others. However, influencers spend all of their time trying to figure out how to provide as much value as possible to their audience!! In reality, it’s all about YOU. Whether that’s travel guides, outfit inspo, homeschooling, we’re all out here trying to use our own experiences to teach, humor or inspire others.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to unlearn was the common business (and maybe life) expression, “That’s how we’ve always done things.”

For the companies I worked for before becoming a creator, it was commonplace for my boss to shoot down a new idea simply because it wasn’t what they’ve been doing. I was also told by one owner of a company that, “change moves at a snail’s pace in business.” So I took that to heart. I thought if I wanted to do something new, it would either happen very slowly over time after lots and lots of thorough planning or it wouldn’t happen at all.

Wrong.

In the social media industry – or the digital industry in general – things are changing every week. If you aren’t willing to adapt, you won’t make it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://travelnurseswife.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/travelnurseswife/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/travelnurseswife
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@travelnurseswife