Media in Minutes

Chasing Adventure: Travel Journalist Lisa Niver's Global Odyssey

• Angela Tuell • Season 5 • Episode 8

Share episode

Send us a text

Award-winning travel journalist Lisa Niver takes us behind the scenes of her remarkable career spanning all seven continents and more than 100 countries. With warmth and candor, she reveals how a former teacher and medical school student transformed personal hardship into a life of extraordinary adventure.

Lisa's journey resembles a game of "Shoots and Ladders" – unpredictable, challenging and ultimately rewarding. She shares how working at Club Med and on cruise ships opened doors to global exploration when she couldn't afford exotic trips on a teacher's salary. These experiences laid the foundation for her website We Said Go Travel, which she launched in 2010 while traveling through Asia with her then-husband.

The conversation takes an emotional turn as Lisa discusses her memoir "Brave-ish: One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After 50." Written partly in her therapist's office, this award-winning book chronicles how travel became her path to healing and reinvention following divorce. Her vulnerability in sharing both triumphant adventures and painful struggles resonates deeply with readers seeking their own fresh start.

Among Lisa's most thrilling experiences? Hula-hooping at the southernmost post office in Antarctica, completing a polar plunge in both polar regions within six months, mountain biking despite childhood trauma and paddleboarding in Antarctic waters. These adventures aren't just personal victories – they're content for her prolific output across National Geographic, Reader's Digest, television segments, podcasts and social media channels with over two million YouTube views.

For media professionals, Lisa offers invaluable insights on building genuine relationships with PR teams based on mutual support rather than transactions. Her approach to content creation is equally refreshing: start small, stay consistent and remember that even the most daunting goals can be achieved "one bite at a time." Lisa's journey proves it's never too late to reinvent yourself through courage, persistence and a passport.

Angela Tuell:

Welcome to Media in Minutes. This is your host, Angela Tuell. This podcast features in-depth interviews with those who report on the world around us. They share everything from their favorite stories to what happened behind the lens and give us a glimpse into their world From our studio here at Communications Redefined. This is Media in Minutes. On today's episode, we are talking with award-winning travel journalist, tv host and author, lisa Niver. Lisa is an adventurer who has explored all seven continents and over 100 countries. She is also the award-winning author of Bravish One Breakup Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After 50. With a passion for pushing boundaries, she has journeyed through the desert in Mongolia, scuba dived with bull sharks in Mexico, snorkeled with whale sharks in the Philippines and swam with the humpback whales in Tonga. Her adventures include polar bear walking safaris in Canada, twice taking a polar plunge in Antarctica and experiencing thrilling safari encounters with Africa's Big Five. Lisa is also a sought-after international speaker and the host of the podcast Make your Own Map Hi, Lisa.

Lisa Niver:

Hi Angela, I'm so excited to be here with you.

Angela Tuell:

Me too, I am very much looking forward to talking with you today. In researching for this episode, I determined I must start with your fairly recent book and memoir Brave-ish, which I love. One Breakup, six Continents and Feeling Fear, fearless after 50. Please tell us more about your story and how you became a travel journalist.

Lisa Niver:

Well, thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here with you and, yes, I have a memoir and Bravish. It's kind of funny about that book is a lot about my travel journalist journey. But I got started. It's so funny it's like hard to know where to go back to. But I honestly, I was teaching and I left on an adventure and my students were really sad that I was leaving and I promised to send back a newsletter and while I was traveling for a year, mostly in Asia, it was really the beginning of the blog revolution and so when I came back from that trip, I started. We Said Go Travel, which is my travel site. I started that in 2010. And building that site was the beginning of becoming an actual, real travel journalist.

Angela Tuell:

So you were a teacher. Was that your first career?

Lisa Niver:

No, I tell people my career is like remember the game shoots and ladders. Yes, yes, that's my career. So I went. I grew up in California, I went to Penn, I went to med school in California. I wasn't that happy. I took a year out. I tried to think about what made me happy and I ended up starting to teach and while I was in my sort of gap year after college you know now it's much more popular to take a gap year at the time I had studied an Israel semester abroad and anyway, I guess we can call it my gap year I learned to scuba dive and I fell in love with scuba diving and I was teaching. I also worked for a little while at Planned Parenthood because I was like, am I going back into medicine? Am I doing education? You know, where am I in science? Right? So when I was teaching, I really couldn't afford these exotic, amazing scuba trips that everyone else was going on, so I ended up.

Lisa Niver:

a friend of my sister's had worked for Club Med and, through a series of crazy events, which is all in my book, I ended up working for Club Med skiing.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Lisa Niver:

Which is confusing, because I told you I wanted to go scuba diving, but that's how it got started.

Angela Tuell:

Right, there's quite a difference between cold weather sports and warm weather sports, although it doesn't have to be warm to scuba dive, right, if you have the right gear. No, it doesn't.

Lisa Niver:

When I was at one point after Club Med. I worked for seven years on cruise ships and at one point my dive buddy and I from the Caribbean we actually went scuba diving in Juneau in Alaska in dry suits.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, okay. So yes, that is a thing.

Lisa Niver:

Dry suits. Cold is a thing, but it's been sort of a. You know, when you look when I was working on the memoir and going back and forth through my whole career, you can see that there were a lot of through lines. But it's hard when you're in your 20s or trying to figure out. You know, like during COVID or after 9-11, which were all things that shifted my career again you don't have a lot of perspective. Sometimes, when you're in the middle of the storm, I'm like am I making good choices? Should I keep going? Do I start over? Like a lot of times I went back and taught. I'm like I'll just go teach again and figure out what am I going to do next?

Angela Tuell:

Yes, so how did you make it your career then? The travel writing? At what point did that happen and how'd you do it?

Lisa Niver:

I was teaching and traveling, and teaching and traveling. I had started the website and I went on another long trip. So one of the things that helped make it my career was having very low expenses and traveling in Asia on low expenses. I could run the website and hone my craft. I did not go to journalism school but I started going to different workshops and there's so many conferences. I have a whole playlist on my YouTube channel. That's just all the different conference videos going to travel classics, tbex, imm. I don't think there's a conference I've heard of that. I haven't been to, although I am going to a new conference in April. I'm going for the first time to C-Trade, which is the cruise line industry, so I'll be there. I'm going to be in Miami for C-Trade and then I'm going on the brand new MSC ship. I'd say that what made my career happen is really a lot of networking and persistence.

Angela Tuell:

Yeah, you have to be very self-motivated in that type of career.

Lisa Niver:

Yeah, people ask me that, like how do you get so many videos done, or how do you get so many articles, and I tell them it's because I used to be a teacher and I basically just give myself homework.

Angela Tuell:

And deadlines right.

Lisa Niver:

And deadlines. Yes, ma'am.

Angela Tuell:

So you mentioned spending three years traveling across Asia. What was the most surprising thing? You learned. That's a good question.

Lisa Niver:

The most surprising thing I learned is that you really don't need a lot of stuff, need a lot of stuff, and that slowing down can make travel so much better. I noticed a lot of people, like you know, sometimes people be on a short trip and they'll ask me you know, I want to go to these four countries in Europe on my seven day trip. I'm like, well, you can, but you're going to come home so tired and you'll definitely get a flavor, I think on a cruise, you know, going to a country every day is different because you only unpack once. I don't really like the unpacking or war, you know, wondering like, well, will we get in in time? Was the which room key is it? Do we have the right address? So, um, I like to slow down a little bit. And one trip I went on in Mongolia. We went on this 11 day van trip to the Gobi Desert and they told me that we were going to the vast expanse of nothingness and I said, how will I know when I get there? And they're like Lisa, you'll know and you knew, and you knew.

Lisa Niver:

Yeah, I think being in Asia felt just so miraculously different. I speak decent Spanish and I could be mostly understood in French and Italian being in Asia. I told someone, or I told Frey Chan Hao I was in China. I said Frey Chan Hao, frey Chan Hao. And the man looked at my traveling companion and said I don't speak English. And he looked at her and said she's not speaking English. So you know, sometimes it's very hard to be understood Like you're like okay, we're in a really different place. Also, when I was traveling in China, we literally walked up to the bus station, kind of in the middle of nowhere. The Lonely Planet had all of the information in the local dialect characters and I held open the book and some random person looked at the book and I pointed, and they pointed and I put money in my hand and they took money and they put me on the bus.

Angela Tuell:

And you were hoping you were on the right bus right. Not only was were hoping you were on the right bus right.

Lisa Niver:

Not only was I hoping I was on the right bus, I was hoping someone would throw me off the bus at the right stop, Right and you know, and they could have just taken all my money and not put me on the bus. But I felt like we really trusted in the town. And we went to this little town and the man was making noodles by hand and I took a video of him making the noodles and you can imagine my surprise when he took a video of me eating the noodles.

Lisa Niver:

And then he showed me a photo of essentially the last Western tourist who'd come into his store and eat. It was a teeny little town, it was a thousand years old. It was amazing. It was in the Lonely Planet. We felt like we were on the backpacker trail sort of. But it's very different and you just have to really trust that y'all are going to get to the next place literally.

Angela Tuell:

Right, you have so many incredible travels and you've been to over 100 countries. Are there any that you would say top the others? I won't ask for a very favorite or anything, but ones that really stick out Actually right now.

Lisa Niver:

you could ask me that because I just went in January to Antarctica, just went in January to Antarctica and so that was my final continent and the subtitle of my book says six continents. So I was really hoping during my book tour that I'd get to my final continent, because it felt like such a part of the whole book process you know, writing the book and thinking about the book and then being like what are what? You know, what's your goal after the book. And Antarctica to me was such a honestly a blessing of just believing that you could make something happen, like to be invited to go there and write stories. And I went with Quark Expeditions and it was literally every night. It's an expedition ship, so a lot of the things they're not sure, like this is our plan but we'll see how it goes. So every night they have recap and briefing and they talk about the day and they said you know, we always hope when we're here in this part of Antarctica that we're going to see all three species of penguins that you might see here. And you know, today we saw the third one, the Adelie penguin. You can only see them in Antarctica. Sometimes people come here and because of the weather or because of the ice, or because of X number of reasons, we don't see them. And basically every night was like that. They're like well, we really hope we might be able to go through the Le Maire channel, but we have to wait till we see it with our own eyes and look at the ice and see how the flow is.

Lisa Niver:

And one morning we were generally up, you know, seven, seven, 30. And there's so much to do with a Zodiac cruise cruising and the landing, and my ship had two helicopters, which was amazing. So one morning the the speaker goes off, it was 620. I'm like good morning, good morning, get out of your beds, we can see orcas. Oh, wow, and just it felt very to me, you know, magical.

Lisa Niver:

Like you know, some people want all their lives to take their kids to Disneyland. I want all my life to go see the ice in Antarctica and I got to do funny things. So I travel with a hula hoop and so I asked for permission and I hula hooped on the bridge of the ship and then I got permission. I hula hooped at the southernmost post office in the world, at Des Moines Point, and the woman at the post office told me it was the weirdest question anyone had ever asked her if someone could hula hoop at the post and I have pictures of me. I have the next videos that I'm going to put up. They're not quite up yet, but it is of me. I have a bunch of hula hooping up like hula hooping in front of the helicopter, but I saw that one.

Lisa Niver:

I hula hooped on the fast ice south of the Antarctic Circle. The trip I went on. So they claim about 800,000 people in human history have been to Antarctica Wow. And they believe just under 100,000 have been south of the Antarctic Circle Wow. And so when we were south of the Antarctic Circle, we were able to come alongside the fast ice and they took out their drills and were checking like, was it safe? And so I took the hula hoop with me and I was able. I couldn't take off my jacket or my life jacket because of the conditions, but I was able to hoop on my arm and so I applied. I'll have to keep you posted, but I applied for Guinness Book World Record.

Angela Tuell:

Oh nice, yes, Do keep us posted, and we will make sure to link to these videos in our show notes too, for anyone listening. I do have to ask, and this might go along with that. We'll see. But what has been the scariest brave thing you've done?

Lisa Niver:

Oh, that's such a good question, so it's funny. I normally talk about the scariest one from the 50 that are in the book. I had a lot of eye issues growing up. We believed that I was clumsy and not athletic. It turns out there was something wrong with my eyes. So I had a lot of childhood accidents, and part of this book was, you know, reclaiming myself. I did these 50 things after my divorce to reinvent myself, and so one of the worst accidents I had was biking, and so the scariest thing I did was I went mountain biking in Lake Tahoe on North Star.

Angela Tuell:

Okay.

Lisa Niver:

That was super scary and I really was channeling how brave I was when I was on the ship in Antarctica, because I agreed to go stand up paddle boarding in Antarctica. Wow, and the whole time I was so nervous I was going to fall in, yeah, and once I did fall in, of course I had on a dry suit, but once I did fall in, of course I had on a dry suit. But once I did fall in I had a much better time because I wasn't so worried.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, I could see that Definitely you mentioned divorce. Was that before you started, before you went fully into travel writing? Or was that in the midst of it all?

Lisa Niver:

It was in the midst of it all because when I took the year in Asia, I was traveling with the man who I got engaged to the end of that first year and then we went, we got married and then when I was traveling again in Asia, that was with him and we had started the website together. I say we started together. He came up with the name and I did everything else.

Angela Tuell:

I don't really think that counts as an even partnership no, no, not at all.

Lisa Niver:

So I had built a lot of the website and starting to work as a journalist, kind of on and off while I was traveling, and married and then when I came home from Thailand by myself and got divorced, that was when I really went all in like networking with all the PR teams and you know, going more conferences and taking it more as an actual job.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, okay, makes sense. I'm sure we can read much more about it in the book as well. How often do you travel? Now I travel every month. Okay.

Lisa Niver:

And sometimes twice a month, it depends what's going on. The Antarctica trip with the, being in Argentina before and after, I was gone almost three weeks. So that was one trip. And recently I was in Washington DC filming with the Jet Set TV. I do segments with them you and I have talked about. I did the Ireland TV special that was on the jet set.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, that's great. We'll link to that also. Is there anywhere that you haven't been? That's on your list.

Lisa Niver:

You know it's funny, people are surprised that there's still so many things on my list. Okay, I would like to go to both Bhutan and Tibet. In Asia, I have not been to those. That's top of my list. And although I've been almost everywhere in South America, I haven't been to Brazil, which is the biggest country, right. So Brazil. When I was working at sea, the ship companies I worked with didn't go there yet. And in Africa, I've been on safari and actually hula hooped with the Maasai warriors, but there's 53 nations in Africa and I've been to four, so there's a lot of Africa.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes, a lot there. Well, we'll keep watching and see some of those adventures, right? I hope so.

Lisa Niver:

I think there's so much. I just love to learn about different people and see how they live, and I really want to go see the silverback gorillas.

Angela Tuell:

That would be amazing. What are you most proud of professionally so far in your career?

Lisa Niver:

One of the things I'm the most proud of is my book because, in fairness, it was so hard for me to write, to be so honest about how terrible the situation was in my marriage and the abuse and feeling like a failure and starting over and feeling alone and feeling alone and, yeah, that was, it was awful to live through, and then writing it a lot of times felt like reliving it in a terrible way. I did write the first part, the first chapter, in my therapist's office.

Angela Tuell:

Wow.

Lisa Niver:

Yeah, we were. We kept talking about it and she's like you know, do you think it would help you if you just we did some here and I was like, how would we do that? And so we kind of we did a few different versions, tried to figure it out. So I had a lot of support and if I actually was at a book event last night and the woman asked me about my book when we went to dinner and I said, you know, if I had just written the book and never published it, it still was worth it and so cathartic. But it has. You know, the book came out September 2023 and I'm still doing events almost every month for the book. People keep inviting me, which is so I feel very grateful, and the book just won its 10th award.

Angela Tuell:

Wow, congratulations, that is fantastic, thank you. I know that you also have published it hasn't just been the book more than 2000 articles in more than three dozen magazines and journals, including I'll just name a few National Geographic, wired, teen Vogue, HuffPost, popsugar, arp, hemispheres Today. I could keep going.

Lisa Niver:

Yes.

Angela Tuell:

What is your current focus when it comes to articles?

Lisa Niver:

So lately I've been writing a lot for both Readers Digest and Bookingcom Okay, and one of the oh. And also I have a story, a March story in print in Pasadena Magazine about Ireland, and then in May for Pasadena Magazine I have a story about Antarctica and also I did a walking safari with the polar bears. What it was amazing. Wow, that's actually that's my second Guinness book attempt. Is that I'm going? My attempt is that I did a polar plunge in the Arctic and the Antarctic within six months. I did both. Wow, yeah, it's been an exciting, crazy, busy time.

Lisa Niver:

Yes, yes, I have written for a lot of different places and one of my focuses is, you know, to be able to share the destinations that I'm invited to as widely as possible, so putting them on the Jet Set TV or like Antarctica. I also got to go here in LA on Spectrum News1 and talk about that, so trying to get broadcast and print. And then, like you said, I have my site. We Say Go Travel. I also write for MSN. My articles go to Google News, so there's a lot of syndication.

Angela Tuell:

So a lot of our audience are PR professionals, publicists, some other journalists. Do you have any stories about working with PR professionals that are most memorable, either in a positive or negative way?

Lisa Niver:

that could help us learn, I think the relationships I've built with PR teams that have been the best have been the ones where it's not just transactional about you know, can you do something with this press release or last minute? So I have a few people that I've worked with literally since 2014 when I came back from Asia, when I first was getting divorced. At the time I was writing a lot for USA Today in the 10 best section and I met a few people in real life. I think that makes a difference to know the people, especially if they're local, and we used to get together and go out for a meal and just talk.

Lisa Niver:

And over the years, with this one particular person, I remember once he called me and at the time he was working with Doubletree and they had this cookbook because they have the cookies and they made this cookbook because they have the cookies and they made this cookbook and every country or every hotel put like a different version of recipe. And he called me. He's like no one will write about this. I said that's because it's not a story. Is there anything you could do to help me? And at the time I had, I wrote, for she Knows it was a different. You know they've all gone through different.

Lisa Niver:

I wrote for Thrive. I wrote for Thrive, I wrote for she Knows. I wrote for Huffington Post, like they've all evolved all their community situations and open platforms and you know pitching and whatever. But anyway, at the time I had she Knows and I was like, listen, I have an idea, I can do it for you for she Knows, but here's what I want. He's like I will do anything for you. So we've had that over the years where I did you know he could lean on me and I could figure something out for him and vice versa. So you know, I, when he did a global fam for not just Doubletree but for Hilton, I went. You know we did two continents and three cities and it was a crazy trip but it was so fun and he was like you're the top of my list because you help me.

Lisa Niver:

And I think that's what people sometimes forget is we're all here together trying to be kind and nice and answer emails and not just be snappy. Yes, and it really is all about relationships. Like you said, that word is is in public relations, but that is really what helps us all do our job best. There's so much. You know, my book came out and a couple of weeks later. The massacre happened October 7th in Israel and it's been a very hard time to be a Jewish journalist and I so appreciate when people say you know like, how are you doing Like? Or you know everyone has a lot of opinions about the United States politics right now, and with good reason, and so you know there's people are impacted by that, or you know knowing if someone's situation with their home life.

Angela Tuell:

I think that's important to treat people like actual people Absolutely. And you know, when we look at sometimes a travel journalist or talking with you, you know it seems like, oh, you've got this dream life, but we know it's so much work as well. Do you do all of your own filming? I mean, obviously, writing, and you know that sort of thing but do you do everything yourself? And what are the kind of the give and take that you give up for having such a you know, quote unquote dream life?

Lisa Niver:

So I basically as many ways as you could imagine that it would work is how I do it. Like, for example, in Antarctica I filmed almost everything myself, except when I needed help and I could manage it. Like someone else filmed me hula hooping on the ice or hula hooping across the circle on deck. But I've been doing all the editing for that For the Ireland TV segment. That was a full show that we filmed in Ireland. So I had a crew with me. I had three people with me, camera, sound and I was all the logistics, but that was a team and then a separate person did all the edits. So that was a big team for relative to being by myself.

Lisa Niver:

But yeah, it's a lot to manage all the emails and the edits and the schedule and you know running, like when does stuff go on the podcast and and, as you know, keeping up with pitching, like following up with the editor for the what feels like the 6,000th time, like okay, remember, you said you liked my idea, but in a kind of nice way. And as far as the give and take, you know it can be hard to be away and miss things and trying to figure out can you make it to that event for your friend, or do you have to say no to the trip, or it's a. It's definitely some juggling, but everyone that works has to juggle. How many days can they be off? You not necessarily get to every bat mitzvah or every family holiday because traveling has gotten very expensive. Flights have gone up, a lot, hotels have gone up. It's it's um, I think a lot of people struggle with that and I'm you know from both sides for PR and the journalist side to send people. It's very expensive.

Angela Tuell:

It is. It's very hard and I know I've talked about this with others is we completely understand and know that freelance journalists cannot guarantee coverage. There's another side to it with the clients that are like but we're investing so much money and you know how do we invest this and then not sure if we get. But you know it's our job obviously to choose the journalists who will, you know, who write often and we know will do their best pitching stories. But it's definitely a balance there.

Lisa Niver:

I think that is one of the hardest. Hardest things is that, messiness? And so for myself, I am very cautious about what I agree to take, because I don't want to be in the position where I can't deliver, and so one of the things that I have because I built, we said, go travel and it syndicates. I also write for the Jewish Journal as my 14th year.

Lisa Niver:

So, I can confirm coverage for you know my site, msn, the Jewish Journal, I've for Antarctica. I have four episodes that I that I recorded in Antarctica they'll be on my podcast, and in Ireland we recorded two episodes that are already live on my podcast. So I have you know, with the TV segments, if I'm doing, if I can confirm that, plus the podcast, plus the writing, and then, like for Antarctica, I have a bunch of pitches out. I already confirmed the story for print for Pasadena Magazine, but I have a few other pitches out. So you're right, I think that you have to have it's like a full court press of like so many things. And so for myself, I know you mentioned the videos, so I posted my 51st video, my 51st reel for Antarctica. That's a lot of coverage and they are my best performing videos ever. They're doing great on TikTok. They're amazing. Amazing interaction on Facebook and really good on YouTube. My YouTube's over two and a quarter million views now. So there's a lot happening.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes, it's like how do you keep track of it all? We also met. You mentioned the podcast that we have to talk about before we go. Make your Own Map is a little over two years old. Right, and tell us more.

Lisa Niver:

Yes. So I started Make your Own Map when I turned in my book. I turned in my book in December and I started Make your Own Map and I just wanted to be able to try something different. And Spotify was one of the first, I believe, with a focus on video podcasting. Okay, and so I wrote to a couple of my friends in the media side and I was like I don't really understand what is this video podcast? How is it different from a movie? It seems like a movie and I'm good at that. I know how to make a video. And my one friend was like I don't see any difference. I'm like so I could just put up the video, I could interview someone on zoom and do the video, and that's a podcast now. And she said I think so.

Lisa Niver:

That's basically how it got started, cause I figured, well, if it's not right, I'll have to pivot. But I've started cause Spotify bought the one that it was I can't remember the exact name, but I worked through a different company that was specific with Spotify for video. Now it's called Spotify for podcasting or something like that. And then YouTube made its own special thing about YouTube for podcasting and because I'd been on YouTube already so long I was automatically had the access for the YouTube podcast because a few people messaged me like, oh, I want to have my podcast on YouTube, and I was like you just click on it and like no, no, I cannot click on it. I was like I'm sorry, I've had YouTube a really long time and I have a lot of everything on YouTube. I have subscribers, I have views, so I there was a thing where you had to have like you'd earn in.

Lisa Niver:

You had to have like a certain amount of minutes to be able at the time. It may be very different now, but, um, you know, I just always I'm willing to try almost anything. Someone was asking me last night when we were out to dinner after the book event about Tik TOK like you're on Tik TOK, I'm like I had to. My agent had this workshop about social media and this they gave a challenge to to get on Tik TOK and and every author had an excuse I'm too old, I'm too ugly, I don't sound good. Anyway, the challenge was to make five TikTok reels a day for 30 days. Everybody refused to do it A lot, oh my God, it's huge. So I agreed to do one day. I said I'll do one day. That's how I do everything Small steps. I'll do one day, I'll make five.

Lisa Niver:

I was in Vegas for a scuba convention. I was like I'll do one day and I met a couple people during the day that were good at TikTok and they gave me tips after I'd done the workshop. And that night at dinner one of the ladies knew stuff about Instagram bonuses. Everybody helped me and then I had like a thousand views the first day. So I was like, okay, I'll do the second day. Anyway, never gave up. I just kept doing it. Only one day, only one more video. At the end of 30 days I agreed to do another 30 days and at the end of 90 days, that was when I signed the contract with my publisher.

Lisa Niver:

Wow, yes, it's very hard to keep going sometimes, but I always recommend people start very small If you can start for free. People always ask me you know, should I pay for a logo for my website? Should I, you know, buy hosting for my podcast? Should I hire someone? I'm like you can, if you have money to burn, you do whatever you want. But I always recommend you know well, just try it. Maybe maybe it's not for you, maybe you don't want to post every week, maybe you only want to post once a month, maybe you're not a podcaster, you're a TikToker. Cause over the years, right I, the website started in 2010. It's been a long journey for me Over the years. I mean, I remember when was no Twitter? And then, all of a sudden, people were like, oh, you have to join this thing. It's called Twitter. I'm like what is that? So over the years, I've added each thing. But you know, there's one of those cartoons you sometimes see and it says how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.

Angela Tuell:

Yes, yes, oh, that's such great advice. So what is the best way for our listeners to connect with you online? I know there are so many ways.

Lisa Niver:

We'll include all of those links. I know I think we just overwhelmed everyone, but you can find me on pretty much any social media platform with my name, lisa Niver, and I have a website that's lisanivercom. I have wesaidgotravelcom, and both of those websites have access to my book, my podcast, oh yeah, and I have a class.

Angela Tuell:

Oh, okay, we will link to that also.

Lisa Niver:

Yeah, actually, I'll give you a code and people can have a free, complimentary access. It's Travel Writer 101. It's on a platform called Udemy and people always ask me how could they get started as a travel writer? And so many people ask me. I was like you know what? I'm just going to make this class Love it and I call it. It's like an appetizer. It's just a little taster of the different areas you have to do if you want to be a travel writer, and I link in my course to people that have longer courses about specific things, like the Nina from travel and leisure has an amazing class, but I don't necessarily know if you've never written for anywhere that you want a huge class like my class is just a taster that's great.

Angela Tuell:

Thank you so much, lisa. I really appreciate your time. Thank you, angela. This has been so much fun. That's all for this episode of Media in Minutes, a podcast by Communications Redefined. Take a moment to rate, review and subscribe to our show. We'd love to hear what you think you can find more at communicationsredefinedcom slash podcast. I'm your host, Angela Tuell. Talk to you next time.