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Journalism of Courage
Be true to your passion, says Aakanksha Monga, a 23-year-old travel influencer who quit her job at a multinational to take up travelling and turn it into a means of livelihood.
Monga quit her job at LinkedIn in May last year and hasn’t looked back since. In a tweet, she mentioned that she promised to give herself one year to focus on her passion and travel the world full time. When she left, she said she felt burnt out and had 2,50,000 followers on Instagram. And now, a year later, she has grown her Instagram community to more than 6,33,000, travelled across 12 countries, posted more than 300 videos and worked with many brands.
In a chat with The Indian Express, she shared more about her passion and what motivated her to become a full-time travel content creator.
She said that she had worked at LinkedIn as an associate creator manager and her role involved growing the creator community on LinkedIn. She worked there for only seven months but felt it was amazing. But a travel bug hit her and she decided to quit and follow her passion.
For someone who has travelled extensively, she said her favourite country to travel is still India. “I have visited quite a few countries but the one I always love the most is India because of how diverse it is. Northeast and Ladakh are my favourite places to travel. Other than that, I loved Indonesia because of how diverse its landscapes are,” she said.
Sharing about her background, she said her father is in the Army and so they were constantly on the move when she was growing up. “I have changed around 10 schools, and 35-40 houses. So, travelling comes naturally to me. In fact, I feel weird if I am in one place for too long,” she said.
When asked if she feels she would feel a burnout from travelling after a few years, she said she thinks it won’t happen ever. “There are so many cultures and so much to learn, so many people to meet and food to eat. So, I will always be travelling. Maybe right now, if I visit 7-8 countries in a year, as I grow older, I may visit 1-2 countries a year but stay there longer.”
Sharing a piece of advice for people who want to become travel influencers, she said, “Be true to your passion. Choose the kind of travelling you like and speak about it. Try to give value to people. There are people who create content based on trends and to chase more followers and likes. Those will come naturally. Content creation is very interrelated to your own personality and love for whatever you are talking about. If you are not too passionate about the content then it would never work.”
She also advised people to travel alongside their jobs initially. “Initially, I travelled to many places alongside my job as a hobby. After I had a certain amount of money coming in, it was only then that I left my job. In terms of earning money, it is a niche as you have to spend to create content. However, there are many avenues of earning from travelling like brand sponsorships, affiliate marketing or launching your own products. But it all comes once you have built a community,” she said.
