Two years ago I traveled to Athens, Greece to attend the international TBEX conference, the annual global educational summit for travel bloggers. At the time, I had yet to develop this blog and website, but my reason for attending this great convocation was to gain valuable information and direction from the experts on how to make my venture excellent.
I participated in a two day travel writing workshop with acclaimed writer David Farley, listened to lectures given by experts from Expedia, Yahoo Travel, took part in breakout sessions on various important blogging trends, learned about the business aspect of being a blogger and, in the evening, socialized with the attendees around majestic Athens, one of the most fascinating places in the world. While I felt a bit overwhelmed, the conference fired me up!
One of the breakout sessions I attended was on the topic of travel podcasts and their growing influence on people who love to travel. Few bloggers participated in this offering which I found a bit odd. I have always wanted to be a trendsetter so anything that was new and cool, I wanted to know more about it.
After listening to the presenters, I knew why the audience was so sparse. Podcasts are not easy to do well, they entail a lot of preparation, you have to work with a skilled producer and you need to be a "natural talker" who has something interesting to talk about. I must confess, I left the session with some knowledge gained but never thought I would be doing a podcast . . .
Well, fate stepped in six months ago when a friend, the dynamic women's leadership development advocate Dima Gwahi, shared she was going to launch a podcast focusing on women and leadership. She encouraged me to talk to Catherine O'Brien, a new resident to our city who was a podcast producer. In Dima's own words she said, “Astrid you should create a podcast. Your topic is great and you are a natural communicator. It will be great."
Because from the beginning she has been one of my mentors, I followed Dima's suggestion, faced the unknown and hooked up with Catherine. For the last six months I have been learning all of the "ins and outs" of podcasting plus taping an episode every ten days. Though this has been a huge learning curve, Catherine and I have been having a blast developing our show, Solo Travel Talk with Astrid.
Which leads me to announce I will be launching the show on January 30th, and it will air every Thursday thereafter! I will be covering all types of topics dealing with solo travel including:
Safety and the solo traveler
Solo Dining Tips
Cultural Do's and Don'ts
Solo Friendly hotels
Unique shopping venues around the world
Popular Solo Destinations
and much more!
Likewise, from time to time I will be bringing travel experts on the show to share some of the latest trends and "things to do" around the world when traveling solo.
So if you are interested in valuable travel tips, interesting stories and experiences dealing with affordable solo travel, follow me now on my new podcast, Solo Travel Talk with Astrid. You are sure to be entertained!
You can tune-in by clicking on the Podcast section, or on Apple Podcasts, SoundCloud, Stitcher, Spotify, YouTube or with your favorite podcast app!
Please subscribe to the podcast and give us a rating on iTunes to help other solo travelers find us, to help us grow and continue to produce new content!
Author: Astrid Clements
Astrid Solo Travel Advisor CEO and founder, Astrid, has spent over 40 years traveling around the world. She is passionate about embracing the world’s diverse cultures and sharing with others the global need and personal benefit of cultural literacy. Her focus is on affordable luxury travel that is both substantive and fun! To read more about her and each one of our Solo Travel Advisors, head over to the About page!
Don’t let unmet expectations or letdowns steal your solo travel joy! I address the mindset and planning you need to employ to have happy expectations on the new episode of my solo travel podcast, Solo Travel Talk. Take a listen!