"From Classroom to YouTube Gold: Mark Wolters on Travel and Teaching"
Isaac: [00:00:00] Hello everyone, and welcome to. Full, full time to travel time Today we have an awesome guest on our show, which we're really excited about. He was actually one of the featured speakers at Travel Con, so we just got to meet him fairly recently.
He is one of the OGs of travel vlogging, so, uh, yeah. So let me tell you all
Kim: the amazing things about Mr. Mark Wolters. Wow. Wow, wow. I feel like I needed that.
Mark: Today's
Kim: guest is someone you've probably watched while planning your next big adventure. Mark Wolters is a creator of the hugely popular YouTube channel, Wolters World.
His last name, not Walter. Wolter Wolter where he shares honest, no fluff travel advice with over a million subscribers. He's actually known for his signature dos and don'ts videos, and he really helps travelers just navigate the world with more confidence, right to the point from cultural tips to what to avoid any con each country.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. I'm getting excited. That's why I stumble. [00:01:00] Because he is actually an award-winning business professor at the University of Illinois as well. He brings an extra layer of insight to the way he explores destinations and connects with communities around the globe. So whether it's packing smart or making the most of your time abroad, or just navigating international travel with kids, which is a whole nother world, Isaac and I are unaware of, right?
Mark's been there and he's here to share his honest and authentic wisdom for, , with us, for us to all of us. So thank you, mark, for being here today.
Mark: Thank you. That is like the nicest intro I've ever had in my entire life. I'm like blushing.
Kim: Well deserved, man. Thank you. Absolutely. I mean, you've done a lot in your life and we hope to pull out a lot of, a lot of extra golden nuggets from you today.
And honestly, it's a, it's fun to like interview someone like you as well because I know we will learn a lot from you and with you and our listeners are gonna have an awesome time hearing about your life too. Well, that's how Fingers
Mark: crossed. Fingers
Isaac: crossed. Yeah. We could tell. I told Kim when we were driving here today, I was like, you know, we've been watching his videos and obviously we got to meet him [00:02:00] in person.
He just seems like a really fun dude.
Kim: I know. Well I told him even when we were at Travel Con, like you were talking to Matt and Nat, I think at like the top of a staircase somewhere and I was like, oh, this guy seems cool. Let me talk to him because I've never watched Walter's World previous to Travel Con is how I found out about who you are.
I like never use YouTube. Like she really doesn't use YouTube at all. Disclosure.
Mark: It's okay.
Kim: I was just talking to you and I was like, man, this guy's super cool. I like him. And then the next day it's like featured speaker and I was like, oh that's cool. Like ex extra bonus on top. Nice. Oh, I'm
Mark: glad. I'm glad it all worked out.
Kim: Yeah, let's absolutely.
Mark: I remember what was there because I was having a conversation and I was like, I have to go to the bathroom. I have to go to the bathroom. I remember So you just kept talking? Is that what you mean? I was like, I'm like hey. So I'm glad it was still nice. That's fine.
Kim: Cool. So question number one while we warm each other up.
Um, how has running this YouTube channel, Walter's world provided the extra income and motivation to be able to travel to the extent you have? [00:03:00] You've traveled a lot.
Mark: So what's been cool about like, I have a day job, like that's one thing I think a lot of people don't understand is like social media. The money and social media, like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have the money, the creators, they're not all making money.
I mean like, but at least it makes enough to cover the stuff. So like what? It was for many years, which like basically we were breaking even. It's like, hey, like we can go on trips, we can go on trip then and start getting bed. Then we go on more trips. So it's kinda like that. And now it's really made it so it's uh, you know, like I have a nicer house because I have this, but also I have a day job.
And so it's a nice like, supplement to things. And so I'm not, like, that's been a very nice thing in terms of financial side of it. Um, that's how I was going there. Like, and, and then like how it's changed, like how I travel. Like I've always, I always loved traveling even when I was a kid. Well, when I was a kid, kid, uh, our vacations were from Illinois to Toledo, Ohio to see grandpa.
Yes. Yeah. Like, yeah, we never. It was funny. My dad worked in Mexico and Korea. My mom traveled all the time for work, but like we never went anywhere. [00:04:00] And so, uh, so it was funny 'cause like my parents never went to Europe and then I did my master's there and they started traveling to visit me and then they started traveling all the time.
So I was like, oh, your parents travel all the time? Like, yeah, but they never did when we were kids. And so, yeah, because
Kim: of me also Indiana, like, so our travels was from. The northern part of Indiana to the southern part, Lafayette. So we'd see family, like, exactly to your
Mark: point, like sometimes you got to go to Santa Claus, Indiana and go to holiday world.
It was fancy. Or we went to the caves in southern Indiana, you know? Yeah, yeah. No, like we, we didn't even do fun stuff like that. Like we like family trip. We had, we had, we had our weekly, our pants dropped us off at grandma's house. Yeah, sorry. Every summer, that one week there. But, uh, it's just been, it's been a really nice thing because when I first started this, I never thought it would make, like, I didn't even know you could make money, you know?
So, I mean, I did it. We did it. I started this in 2009. I think we got monetized in 2012. Mm-hmm. So I was doing stuff for three years and they like, I'm like, you can monetize this. That's cool. You know? And so, and [00:05:00] it was funny 'cause I remember like the first, the first checks were like $50 a month. And I'm like, we can, we can go, because we had nothing.
We had no, like, I, I was a PhD student. Like we had a kid. Like I, we had no money, like we had nothing. And we came, we moved back to the US and I'm like 50 times. We, we could go on a date, like we could go out to dinner. Like it was like this huge thing. And then after all it was like $150 a month. Like, oh my gosh.
That, that we, that's another trip to the grocery store, you know? And yeah, of course now that's like coming multiple days later. Yeah. No, now it's, but it was like, but it was like, little by little it went from like, you know, little things like, oh, that now it's our mortgage, now it's our car payment and mortgage.
Now it's the kids going to school. So that's been a really nice thing, like, like the financial side of things. That's, that's been helpful, but it's not, um, it's not the money thing because like mm-hmm. That's one thing I do like, is I can do what I wanna do. So like, I'll go places. Like we were in Panama and I know Video and Panama are never gonna get, like, they're never getting millions of views.
They're not gonna make any money for us, which is fine. 'cause I'm like, this way, I, I have a day [00:06:00] job that pays, you know, relatively well, you know, I'm not like a bajillion or anything, but I, you know, we're not starving, you know, but it's like. I can now focus on going to a place where I think people need to know more about.
So I do tons of videos in Latin America and mm-hmm. Central and South America. I love, I used to live in Brazil and Argentina and like, it gave me the opportunity to go where I want to go, to show place places that I think other people would like to go or should go. But people don't think about going 'cause they just think, oh, south America dangerous.
I'm not gonna go. Yeah. Right. Holy Europe. You know? And so you're actually
Kim: driven by providing people with actually valuable content. It's not money driven, which is definitely Exactly, definitely valuable. And there, there, there
Mark: are and there are some, and I can't, I mean, and the thing is, I can't fault those people because that's how they make their living.
Like I, I have a job and then I make the money on YouTube and so, but I don't have to. And so therefore I can make videos that only get a few thousand views. 'cause Oh, well I'm like, I know there's gonna be some people that are gonna go to, you know, Panama City or there's gonna be people that are gonna go to, you know, Savannah, Georgia, like smaller places.
I'm like. Yeah, I can go there, make those videos and, and do that. I can go like, I always love gonna [00:07:00] Brazil, even though not a lot of tourists go there. But I'm like, but the ones that do go there, they need this. Yeah. Mm-hmm. You know, and so it's like I feel I can help out. And so it gives me that kind of opportunity to, to pick random destinations.
Like we're gonna go to the, the Balkans this summer for like five weeks. And I know my videos on North Macedonia probably aren't gonna be getting, I don't know about this. You know what I mean? So it's, so it's like, but I know that that's where people need information for, and Uhhuh the people from there have asked me to come like, like, Hey, we'd love for you.
Like, not like the tourism maybe, but like actual people from there. We'd love what you come do. One of your videos about Serbia, did you want do about Bulgaria? I'm like, sure. Yeah. And so it's nice 'cause I can give that back and I do the same research, even if it's a place I know won't do many views. I'm gonna do the same research if I'm gonna do like a Paris video, which would do very, very well.
Right? Yeah. And so it's like, hey, I wanna give everybody that same opportunity. 'cause I know for some people maybe they only do one trip ever. To like Europe, right? Yeah. And if they're gonna see their family in the Balkans and they don't know what to see or do, I can help them out and yeah, maybe it's only a thousand people, not, not a [00:08:00] million going to Paris, but you know what?
Mm-hmm. Those thousands, it made a difference for them and for me, that's all that matters. And so that's what kind of drives me doing that and that honesty and helping people stuff, you know, it's helped us grow in a way that's different because like I, I talked at Travel Con, I'm a, I'm a travel educator.
Yeah. I'm not a travel influencer. I'm not a travel inspirer. I'm like, oh, you know where you wanna go? Well, let's get you ready to go. So you get the best out of it. So, yeah. I don't know
Kim: if I agree with that one. You inspire quite a bit too. It's like, oh, now I know what, 'cause you don't just teach what to do, you also teach what not to do.
So Isaac, I think this leads into the next question, just brilliantly. You wanna hit it?
Isaac: Okay. Um, yeah. So. You know, your do's and don't series and especially like what not to do or what don't, don't do, uh, has, you know, really become a staple, uh, of kind of your series and your recordings and really travelers seeking on honest advice.
And can you share like what is the story behind how this, uh, series got started and how did you find that this was like content that people really wanted to see?
Mark: So I have to go back far [00:09:00] before the Dons videos 'cause what I started with, and this is the one where I really realized that no one wanted a top 10 list and no one wanted to learn language videos I made of five things you love and hate about Portugal and the five things you love and hate about going to Germany and those.
Like we're talking like multiple, like they're not, like today people go viral, like millions of views. Like back then going viral was getting like tens of thousands of views versus a thousand views you had. And I'm like, whoa, this one really hit. And I like looked at it, read the comments, and I'm like, wait.
It's the honest input. Like people don't just wanna know the good stuff, they wanna know the bad stuff. So they're prepared for it. And so I started with these five 11 hates and then that was kind of like our, our big thing for a while. And then I was in China and I was like, yo, China's not that culture shocks.
It gets people like, oh, I'll do a culture shock and then ah, 10 things they'll shock you go to. And that was like the next one. Mm-hmm. And then I was kind of going through and I'm like, I need to have more of a serious tone because the five 11 hates limits just by the number of five and five. Right. So the, you're limited there and then the shocks are more fun culture things.
But I'm like, no, I gotta put something [00:10:00] together that's really. Like, Hey, don't do this, do this. Like, but in the honest way. And so it's more of a do's and don'ts. But they're always titled Don't sub because no one likes positivity. Like the negative click paper. I'm like, what?
Kim: Hate that. Yeah. But it's always
Mark: don'ts.
But some of these don't forget. And so I started making these Don's videos and then they just went even more. And I'm like, okay. And what was nice is the don'ts video. Now when I go anywhere, I'm always making sure I'm making a don't video because that's, I feel that's the most important one. So it's like, if you ever wanna watch any of my videos, you're gonna a destination.
And like, I only have time to watch one video. I make it. You watch that don'ts that I have of that one, you've got every, the most important stuff out there. Yeah. And so now I've kind like prioritize like the don'ts are like, this is the serious stuff. But like fun, but also serious things. You wanna like, you know what, you don't wanna miss the main sites, you know, the, the safety things.
The culture stuff so you don't get in trouble kind of stuff. That's, that's the don'ts that underneath that, oh, we have fun with the culture shocks. That's more of a jokey one. Then there's the Five Lemon Hates, which is more of like, me talk and other fellow travels. Like, let's be honest, like there are things we love and hate about that.
[00:11:00] And then we have a, the, a relatively newer series, like mistakes. And the mistakes are like the little, like little differences out there that you don't know. So maybe you don't need it as much like your first trip, but you're like, oh, I wish I would've known more like the Don's then mistakes. Mm-hmm.
That's gonna cover you. The big stuff and the little stuff. 'cause I put it all in one video. It'd be like an hour long, you know? And so like, people don't like that. So it's like to break it down. Yeah, because, because I, I started notice like our don'ts videos were getting like 20, 25 minutes long and I'm like.
Even though people will watch it, it's like I know that it's like, look, I gotta get it down to like the 12 to 15 minute view. Yeah. Like, dang, there's that there. So, and attention it was kind of have gotten, gotten
Kim: smaller and smaller.
Isaac: Yeah. Well, and, and I think a lot of times, like the don'ts are relatable for people who've traveled and like I was watching one, um, you were, it was about London, but you had talked about like, you know, where do you stand on the escalator?
I ran into this problem in Australia when I lived there for a year where I didn't really have a problem driving, but for, for some reason I would always still walk on the right side and then I would walk up the right side of [00:12:00] stairwells. Oh no. And I'd cause. Big traffic jams because everyone else was doing the opposite.
They like, whatcha doing right. So the driving wasn't hard, but the walking was hard and especially stairwells and then like I'd cause everyone, people wouldn't be like move to the other side, they would do it themselves. So I'm trying to like get to the other side to stop the traffic jam, but I can't 'cause the flows going so you messed
Kim: everything.
So it
Isaac: just made me kind of Chuck you were everything Isaac. Oh my goodness. Yeah. So don't walk up the right side of the stairs in Australia. Don't.
Kim: But yeah, so like I know in regards to social media and YouTube, you know the hook is really important. And you talked about that even at Travel Con too. So can you talk to us and our listeners, like how do you do the research and kind of break down and identify what is a great hook or can be for any video that you create.
And better yet, how do you attest to find out which hook is working the best? I.
Mark: So the hook thing is very important. However, I've kind of sabotaged myself a bit with the hooks because everyone expects every video to start with, [00:13:00] Hey, there're fellow travelers. Mark, you're with Wolters World. They'll never, never hears Mark.
They just hear Wolters world uhhuh. But it's always, Hey there fellow travelers. And so like a travel account, I did that. I'm like, I, I made my whole speech for travel account and I'm like, oh my God, I don't have it. Starting with, hey, their fellow travelers. I'm like, I'm like, what the hell am I doing? I have to say that first, like, that's required to say that.
And so and so, like, I make sure I said that first. And so like right now, like I'm working with my editors for a new season of stuff. So I've got all these videos that are already in the can, ready to come out, but I have new things and what I'm doing now is I'm gonna be taking like one of the like funnier don'ts or one of the more shocking, don't whatever, like, uh, one that gets a will hook people in so I can cut that little bit out.
It's like, Hey, don't do this when you're here because boom. And then go. Hey there, fellow travelers, mark you with Wellers World. And the thing is, you have, there have something to get people to stay. 'cause before people like you have your normal subscribers that watch your videos, they'll, they'll watch.
But like people that are just passing through, how do we hook them in? Right? And so you gotta have something that's gonna get them interested. And one thing I always tell [00:14:00] people is, what value are you bringing? You are like, I bring like. My value I bring in the videos is like, Hey, I'm gonna educate you so you don't get in trouble.
I'm gonna educate you to get the best time possible. You know? And so therefore I make sure that I'm giving them that value in the beginning. Like, Hey, here's what you need to know. Here's these. So, so I always make sure the first few don'ts are like really important ones. Mm-hmm. But it can't be too general.
Like, you can't be like, oh don't you know, don't forget to watch out for Pickpockets and Paris. People know that you gotta talk about it eventually, but you gotta give 'em some general, then give 'em some like very specific like, oh this, this person did do some more research than other people did. And so I like to put a mix of those in there.
And I always have some don'ts that are specifically for the locals that are there. Mm-hmm. And it's funny 'cause then the tour, like tour's, like, I dunno what he is talking about. I've been to Paris three times, I've never had dealt with this. I'm like, yeah, but the, the local's like, oh my God, you're so right.
They're like, you know, the like the little fist bump, like that's the best. I'll go to some places to like whale. I was back in Wales, like to be like your video, nice fist bump walks on by. I'm like, thanks man. [00:15:00] Appreciate that. Oh, that's
Isaac: awesome. I was watching the, uh, the your, your don'ts in America or your like mistakes you make and uh, you know, the thing that got commented on the most, which made me chuckle was our greetings.
And it's like, how are
Kim: you Isaac?
Isaac: Yeah. So you had said like, you know, don't think if they're saying How are you, that's a question, it's just a statement. There was so many comments about that. And like that was the most commented thing. That was actually quite later on in the video as well. So I just thought that was interesting.
That's what people grabbed onto because it was like so shocking for a lot of cultures that we don't just say hi, we say, how are you? Yeah, yeah. Well
Mark: it's like, it's like Kim was saying, like, I'm like, you do that in other language too, like in France. Is it going? It go, it's going like you do the same thing.
There's no bush al we're just
Kim: saying it. Say it like it's just part of the culture
Mark: to the bank. Everything good, everything good, right. There's no quite, it's just statement. Move on. Right. But it's so funny how many people get like really upset with it. Like, why do they keep asking me? I'm like, they're not asking you.
It's just a statement.
Isaac: Yeah. [00:16:00] Right. To just saying hi. Say hi. Don't respond too much. That
Kim: much. Yeah. But yeah, I do wanna talk about like you, you're double life that you live too because you are, you know, both a traveler. And professor, I am full-time, two travel time, which is good. Yeah, there you go. Ah, full-time.
Two travel time. Yeah. Isaac. And
Isaac: you know, so you, you kind of actually made me kind of re-look at my life a bit. 'cause one of my, uh, most important professors I ever had, uh, ran a successful business and then also taught at the university. And so, you know, for me, he actually taught real life success, uh, real, like based on his knowledge, where a lot of the other professors I had kind of taught like.
Best case scenario, situations that weren't real. Yeah. Um, and so because I was getting on, uh, this call with you, I actually emailed him today and just, uh, thanked him for, uh, everything that he had done to teach and support me and gave him some updates on, uh,
Kim: and his secretary was very excited.
Isaac: Yeah.
Kim: I,
Isaac: I can only find a secretary's email, so I haven't heard back from him yet, but she said she was gonna pass on the [00:17:00] email.
Um, oh, that's cool. So, um, but yeah, so I wanted to ask like, how does it really help you with being a professor that you actually have this real life marketing success on YouTube, you know, being, you know, quite successful in that and in traveling. Does that really help you bring in real lessons and like, actually, you know, so like how does that affect your teaching and how do your students gain from that?
Mark: I teach different marketing courses. So I teach marketing in general. Yeah. So, but I'll, I'll do like an introduction to marketing course, which like all business students have to take and you know, this is one of those, like, you sit in a lecture hall with like 500 people kind of classes. Mm-hmm. You know, so for them, like for them, I don't actually bring it up very much in that class until like, we might get to like the social media stuff when we teach that, then I might bring it up.
But now, especially now, a lot of those students during COVID, their like geography teacher in eighth grade was showing my videos to them. So I'll get a lot of people, like, I'll get students every time I walk on the quad, like I go through the university, like I'll get some of those, Hey, we this world. And it's always, I used to watch your videos when I'm a kid.
I'm like, [00:18:00] I wish you still watch my video. But they, they bring it up. No, but like for me, 'cause I do a lot of stuff with like incoming students and we'll do Zoom, we'll do zoom calls and stuff like, hey, or like, you know. Google, whatever, like, just pick your platform. And I usually sit here and this is my home office and I've got my, you know, I got teaching award, teaching award.
Then I'm then that they always see the gold play button and like, I'll be doing my talk. And then the little comment section, did you see the gold play button? Is that a gold play button? Dude's got a gold play button. They're like, yeah, that's snap. And they're like, oh my God. And so it gives like having that instant credibility, like students will talk smack and like, I got that.
What, what do you want? What do you want? Shoulder up? You know, like I don't have, like, I don't have to say anything. Yeah. Which is helpful. Um, but also, like, I've always made it a point, like I have a, I have a teaching philosophy. I've actually, so one of the teaching ward over there and the teaching ward over there, you can't say there's two more awards that I got them specifically because of this philosophy.
It's like, you gotta be crazy to be a good professor. [00:19:00] Yeah. It's the crazy
Isaac: philosophy for you. Yeah. So it's like, well then we'll go
Mark: into it. So it's like you gotta care about the students. You gotta care about their success and about them. 'cause you don't care about them. It's like your clients, you don't care about.
Your clients not gonna, like, I care about the people that travel for me. Like I help travel. 'cause I'm like, I'm a little part of the vacation. Like I feel really good about that. So I care about them and their success. Then you gotta have realistic ex like realistic examples. Students will not get widgets.
That's, that's where I think some professors that don't have real world experience, they go from the case study academic world and they don't have like, it's like telling someone else's story. It never works you to tell your own story. Mm-hmm. And so I can talk about that. So there, then it's like actual experience.
And I always say it's like either you have the actual experience, you bring it in the classroom, or you find people, 'cause a lot of universities will have development office and there's always alumni that wanna come talk, bring them in. Like I have students, I have a student of mine who works at LinkedIn and I have him come into class, but hey, would you like to come in and talk?
Nice. I social media course. 'cause I can talk about LinkedIn, but yeah, I'm just a professor. I've got you with real experience [00:20:00] there. They're, oh, Annie was a student there. So that gives him extra credibility. And then it's, uh, zeal, have a zeal for teaching. Like have the energy because we all hated those boring professors.
Oh, and then I always say you. You can make all the differences as a professor, but realize you are not the only thing there is. Meaning you can really make a big impact on a student's life. You don't even realize it. But also realize some of those students, they got so many other things going on in their life that you shouldn't think you're a God and you're, you're everything.
So be understanding to them. So yeah, that's kind of like my overall thing. Yeah. And I bring that in. It's crazy. And I bring that into my classroom as well. And I think that helps because I also worked as a marketing consultant. I do like marketing consulting, like for pro bono work for nonprofits on the side, you know, so I can have that to bring that in.
So it's, it makes it much more like, yeah, I did these things. Yeah. And I teach, I teach my classes much more in a, you're going to work and here's what you need to know when you go to work. Like I did a course on influencer marketing last week and I'm like. Hey, if you've got a blog, here's what you need to do.
Here's where like, it's like if you wanna be an influencer, here's this. And [00:21:00] then for the half you don't wanna be influencers, we've got to work with them. Here's what you need to know. And so it's very much from that perspective and that's really made it a lot easier to teach stuff. 'cause students are like, ah, yes, you, you've lived it.
You know it. Yeah. So that makes it a lot easier to talk.
Kim: What I'm hearing is teach. If you are about to go to college, go to University of Illinois and look up Mark Wolters. There you go. If you want s of Marketing Battle at three 20
Mark: at the Gates College of Business.
Isaac: And we've actually, um, 'cause we won an award for our marketing company from my university, university at Buffalo last year.
And so we've been actually being asked to speak at a, a lot of different like, student classes. And we just did a couple last month and it was
Kim: like a tech entrepreneurship class. There was a digital marketing class like,
Isaac: uh, both, both of them went well, but one went so well. She immediately reached out and was like, can I book you for my next year's class?
She's like, I
Kim: know this is far in advance travel all the time, but like,
Isaac: we don't know where we'll be, but we probably can make it. That's
Kim: awesome though. She said, oh yeah, that's awesome that students were like, this is hugely helpful. 'cause you know, students are quiet sometimes too, and I was like, yeah, and they've got, they've got a
Mark: lot quieter.
Kim: Yeah, [00:22:00] and they don't ask questions, but I knew what they would do on that Zoom call. I was like, if you found any value in this call, you hit that reaction button with a thumbs up and a hundred percent of all students on that call all gave us a thumbs up. Like, great. Good.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. Your
Kim: research really dives into like cross-cultural marketing and and entrepreneurship too.
Since we're talking about it, have you noticed any like travel destinations where the unwritten rules or social etiquette were just completely surprising, and how do you think other travelers can learn from like those kinds of cultural contrasts?
Mark: So I, I think we then, the cultural contrast is basically how much of a culture shock you have when you go there.
And I, I think that's when you, like, I think for Amer in general, American tourists, when they go to Asia, they probably have the biggest, the biggest culture shock in terms of like density. Like, you don't understand, like you, I was in New York, I know what, who has a lot of people like, no, you don't understand.
You go to Beijing, you'll understand what it's like to have a [00:23:00] lot of people everywhere. You know, or like the, the personal space bubble is, does not exist. You know, like, that's one of those things. And I think for some people when they go it, it, it can be a little overwhelming, you know? 'cause some people aren't used to that.
So like, you come from a place, like, I remember my mom, she came to visit me. I lived in Lisbon. I had my PhD there, and she came to visit me and I was staying at a Highrise, you know, and I'm staying a buddy of mine's like renting. My buddy was working in like Dubai or something. So I was renting her place and my mom came to stay with me.
She's like, oh, I'm like, can't sleep, mom. She's like, I couldn't sleep at all. I'm like, what? What's wrong? I was better. Then it's like, no, it's so noisy. I'm like. We're like on the 19th floor. Like what? It's because there was a, there's a highway that's like three miles away and there the cars going by and she, she's lived on like, you know, like a golf course or like a farm field her whole life.
Oh yeah. So she's like, like that was like a thing and I'm like, too much. That's why I was, that's, that's why I like to do my videos. So people, those things that some people say would surprise them and like upset them, if you know about it [00:24:00] beforehand, it's not a surprise. It's like a, a pleasant surprise.
Like, ah, yeah, I knew that was gonna happen. And so that can help. Yeah.
Isaac: Yeah, I remember walking into the Forbidden Gardens in China and it wasn't me walking. We were like part of a throng and you just had to move, go
Mark: with the flow, like with
Isaac: the th thong, you're like,
Mark: like if I jumped, I would just hover.
Isaac: Yeah, yeah. Pretty much like you barely were taking steps. You were just kind of shuffling, walk out with the entire group. Like I've never been in a situation in my life like that. I
Kim: felt that New York City, like I came from the Midwest originally, where I make eye contact with everyone. I smile, they smile back.
So like going to somewhere so foreign as New York City was like so hard. I looked over extroverted in Midwestern. I looked
Isaac: over at Kim and she's like staring people down trying to make eye contact. They
Kim: wouldn't look
Isaac: at me. I was like, Kim, if people tried to make eye contact with everyone in New York City, you'd go crazy.
Like, so you just don't make eye contact with people like, but she's like, I tried staring them down, trying to make eye contact.
Kim: Really tried hard. I'd get under them like it didn't work. [00:25:00] It didn't work. That was funny. It was funny. But speaking, I love things. You ready for game time? Sure, let's do it. We're playing the most unexpected game.
Thank you. So essentially, we're gonna ask you a question, a multitude of questions, okay? And we all have to give our answer on what is that most unexpected thing. So the first one, you know, start thinking, put your thinking cap on, number one.
Mark: And remember folks, they do not tell us the questions beforehand.
Isaac: Nope. No. They don't even tell
Kim: themselves.
Isaac: This is off the cuff. I'm not actually sure of all these questions either. I make this stuff up
Kim: as we go, man. But what's the most unexpected place that you loved? Way more than you thought you would, and now you would absolutely recommend it to everyone. We
Mark: Rwanda.
Rwanda. Like, you don't have to finish a sentence. It's Rwanda like. I when we went. So we went in 2019 and we're, we're gonna go back like we went, like, there was nothing out there. Like, like my usual research of reading, like, because I, oh, you asked me about research earlier. Like I'll read about a hundred blogs, watch [00:26:00] 20 to 30 YouTube videos, and then I'll reach out to our fans from that area and then I'll look up more stuff and then like, I mean, I, everything I could get and then I go to the destination and when I'm there, I'll do more research when I'm there.
Talk to the locals, then make the video at like, the end of the trip, you know, for some of the, you know, like those, and with Rwanda, like looking for stuff in Rwanda, there was nothing. Everything was genocide. I had a, like I had, you know, a, a East Africa book from Lonely Planet that had some stuff in there and it wasn't, I mean, it was sort of helpful for some things.
I'm like, yo, this is, this is gonna be like, this is like back in the day. It's like when I used to go, yeah, backpack in South America back in the nineties, it was like. All right, man. This is like, figure it out. I'm, I'm, uh, the bus dropped me off. Let's figure it out. And we went. And the p like, I remember we got, we landed like one in the morning and we get in the taxi and we're heading to our hotel, and I'm like looking at the highway.
I'm like, dude, this highway is incredibly clean. I'm like, you could eat. [00:27:00] Off of the highway. We had been to, uh, Japan, the, the previous like, like November. And I'm like, this is like Japan level cleanliness. Wow. I'm like, what is going on? And I'm like, this is cool. And then the people are so friendly, so friendly.
And then the food that's like lots of vegetarian stuff there. Not because of like religious kind of stuff, but it's really, 'cause like, look, I'm not gonna kill the cow because a cow gives me dung that I can burn for fuel. It gives me, you know, fertilizer, it gives me milk, it gives me blood, you know, like that I can do stuff with, you know, so I'm not gonna kill it for the meat.
I'm gonna use it for all that stuff as long as I can. So there's always incredible like, uh, vegetarian dishes there. There's one I can, I can't remember the name of it. It's like, it's Banana and Peanut, which. That is my chance. When you see, if you saw it, you saw, you'd think it was like, if you go to Indian restaurant, they give you like the, like the tica ba kind of stuff, like curry.
Oh, yeah, yeah. Like a curry. It looks like a curry. It's not, but it looks like that. But it's peanut butter and banana and Oh my God, it was so good. Like we've been trying to find a recipe like, [00:28:00] uh, a water recipe book. It's like impossible to find. But we were there, like this place was awesome. Like my wife, we watched a travel scope by Joseph Rendo and he had a, he went to Rwanda and I was like, that looks really cool.
And we're like, and Martha said, we, we need to go. And we've always gone places like where pe places like people are like, no, you can't go there. We're like, what? Why not? Yeah. And so everyone was like, you can't go through the genocide. And at that time I was like, Uhhuh, the genocide is 25 years ago. We still get people, oh, you can't go the genocide.
Like that was 30 years ago. Like, they've come so far. They do not hide. They don't hide it. They don't brush it under the, they don't mm-hmm. Make it go away. Like you go to the, the genocide memorials, like they. Tell you how people died. You're like, oh my god. You know? And they're like, you have to be like 13 to go and stuff. But they're like, yeah, we bring, like when the kids get a certain days, we bring everyone here so they understand so it doesn't happen again.
Mm-hmm. And like we were there and I was like, oh my God. And then we were there. Most people just know about the gorillas in the mist. You know, like you go see the gorillas and they're like, yeah. People come and they, they take the, he, they fly to Kigali helicopter [00:29:00] out here, whatever, and they're, they go see the gorillas and they go back and they never see anything in Rwanda.
Yeah. And you could do the big five, you can see the big five, the safari stuff when you Rwanda, you can see the gorillas. You can go out and see the stuff. The people. And the people were so wonderful and we were going all out throughout the country. Like I said, my kids were playing soccer with the. You know the local kids and things.
Yeah. And everyone was so friendly. People were going crazy 'cause we're going around the country and they're like tourists. And they weren't like, give us money. They're like, oh my God. Say they were just saying hi. Yeah. You know? And everyone thanks for coming to our country. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then well then they would see our kids.
'cause our kids were younger at the time. Yeah. And they're like children too. They're, 'cause no one ever brought there. 'cause like they, the, the, the history of genocide. Right. And like, I mean, it was like, that's really valuable. It was such incredible experience. Like fell in love with it, fell in love with it, go back and like, like that.
All right. No doubt.
Kim: I like that. What's yours, Isaac? What's your most unexpected?
Isaac: Yeah, I would have to say London. Um, you know, after, after I graduated college, I took a month to traveling Europe and um, I honestly was only flying through London. I, for some [00:30:00] reason I had this like connotation or like, I thought they would be stuck up or something.
I don't know why I thought these things, but, um, there actually was an airline, uh, strike while I was in London and so I couldn't fly out. So I was trapped there for a week. Ended up falling in love with the city. I just thought, you know, the people there were great, the free museums. I'd never been to such high end like amazing free museums in my life.
I mean, these are like world class museums and they're free. The tube is probably one of the most, like, it's one of the easiest to navigate, you know, subway systems I've ever been on. And it's just hilarious when they say, please mind the gap. You know? Um, you know, you still
Mark: say that
Isaac: the markets there. I mean, I went to this one market that had like.
Food from a hundred different countries and then like all surrounding, it was like local artists. Uh, you know, it's just like, I just thought it was, I ended up really, really enjoying my time in London. So yeah, that was mine. 'cause I just, for some reason going into it, I just had this idea that like, it wasn't gonna be a very cool place and ended up being like a very cool place.
Kim: Yeah. And also extra cool for you, right? [00:31:00] Because you got trapped in London, so you would stay there longer than you expected anyways.
Isaac: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I'm pretty good at making friends, so I was staying in a hostel every day. I had somebody to go out and do something with, you know? And, uh, this was pre
Kim: Kim, like before I was involved.
Yeah. So I haven't made it to London. I was even remember that. Like, I haven't, I know Jo, I didn't exist. This guy's memory is, I didn't
Mark: even exist. I got married and then my life started. Yeah, right. I gotta write
Kim: things down in a book mark. That's how I remember things. But for me, um, my most unexpected place was actually Toula in France.
Oh yeah. Isaac. I think you, Isaac decided like, we are gonna go to Ula, right? Or did somebody recommend it first?
Isaac: No, it was just, um,
Kim: we were,
Isaac: I found an Airbnb that was like really reasonably priced and I'd spent a little bit more on a, a different Airbnb. So I was like, well, let's go to this other place.
It's still on the French Riviera. I don't really know anything about it. But yeah, so
Kim: we were going to tu let's go check it out. And the locals are like, why are you going to too long? You're crazy. They're like, they're like, Americans
Isaac: don't go to Lan. Like, no, it's just like a
Kim: military naval something or other.
Like, don't go there. And we're like, [00:32:00] great, we will go there more now because you said that that means it's gonna be awesome. And it ended up being absolutely amazing. Amazing. Like Lan had, I mean, we were, well we had one of my worst BM experiences, but it transported us to a great Airbnb with like all glass windows overlooking the ocean.
We got to see like the cruise ship come in and it was such a safe area. Like, yeah, guys were walking around with guns, like it is a naval area, but like. They walked like a school of fish. They were just like doing their thing. They never smiled, but I felt very well protected, you know? Yeah. They'd walk around, but it was that kind of community and walking in France where like Isaac was like, sure, go walk to the hypermarket and hang out.
Like, I feel fine with you walking alone. Yeah. 'cause
Isaac: there was a huge walking section in Ula, which is amazing. Yeah. We just happened to be there during Jazz fest, of course. So like, we could literally walk out of our place, walk to one of the many squares and just go see a jazz festival. Seven. That's awesome.
I don't know. I, and before we got there, we were in [00:33:00] Marsai and we were taking a Sunset cruise and we told the captain we were going to Tulon and he got really excited. He just whipped out this huge map. He just
Kim: pulled it out over like, it was massive. I haven't even seen a map like that. Right.
Isaac: This is like a legit, and he's like legit naval map that he pulls out, you've gotta
Kim: go to this island.
And it's like, Île de Porquerolles. And I was like, what, what's, what's there? And he's like, you just have to go. And we're like, okay.
Isaac: So I found a, I found a ticket to get to the island. And, uh, we got, we ended up going there and this turns out this island is a national park. We didn't even realize it until we got there.
And, uh, they only allow 5,000 people a day onto the island. And then like you can rent a bike and bike to one of hundreds of beaches on the island, or, it was incredible. Sa incredible, you know,
Kim: like speaking French on that one. Yeah, that was a great experience. I know we only made it through one most unexpected.
So next, most unexpected. What's the most unexpected animal you've ever encountered while staying at like a lodge or an Airbnb or hotel [00:34:00] hostel, camping, et cetera.
Mark: So there's, there's the swarm of mosquitoes. When I was staying in the tonal in Southwest Brazil, where literally I could watch my, like mosquito bands start working less and less.
Oh. Because once the like sun went down, they came out and I had the light. It's like in the movies show when you're like, oh, the light's getting less and less. Oh no. Like an Harry Potter kind of stuff. Oh no. And I could see like the wristband working less and less. 'cause like the, it was like, oh, I like a 10 foot radius.
Then an hour later, it was like nine, then eight, and I was going to bed and it's like six. I'm like, oh man, I don't have another, I'm like, oh, oh my gosh. So like that, that was kind of funny. But then there's some one unexpected. Yeah. But that was like, I knew there was gonna be a lot of mosquitoes. That was what?
But I think there's one, uh, was it cookie bar? You know, like the, they like Big hu. They looked like a wombat, but they're like a big rodent in South America. And I remember I was in the old Bornes Air Zoo. [00:35:00] I was studying abroad there, and I'm like walking around and all of a sudden this thing like is like, that was like a little kid was like, like nudging me, like on my leg.
And I'm like, I'm like, oh yeah, because before I was in college, like I didn't, that's not a child. Yeah. I was like, oh my God. It was like, I'm like, this looks like something like, like I'm a horrible artist, but if I tried to draw, I don't know, an animal with four legs, this is what it would look like. Like general animal with four legs like a dog.
But it's this huge headed thing and I'm like, oh my God, what is this? Like what? I'm like, how are they out? They're just like wandering around the zoo, like, oh yeah. 'cause they're totally chill. They don't bother anybody. So chill. The most chillest of any
Kim: animal.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. So I was like, oh. But I still remember seeing, I was like, I was like, what the, what the hell?
And all of a sudden there's like four of them that are like sitting behind me. I'm like, okay. It was a little surprise there. That's so funny. Was the, uh, I haven't had any like, uh. Too many [00:36:00] snake things or anything like that. I do remember we were in Costa Rica on a tour and the guy stops, he goes, turn around.
Well, then the lady's like, well, tour kids. Goes like, turn around, go that way. Now, slowly, God. And I knew like, wait, if the guy's like turn around, go that way. You go, what was it? And this lady's had that whole Karen moment and, and then he is like, let's go. And he is like, oh yeah, that was blah, blah, blah. I don't remember what it was.
He's like, that was, there was a snake there that will kill you like instantly or something. I was, God, I, it was that bad. But he was like, he's like, we need to not be there. Yeah.
Kim: Yeah. That's somewhat expected on one of those kind of experiences though. You don't know what you're gonna get into in there.
Thank, I know, um, for me, we were staying in an Airbnb one time and we already knew that she had a pet, but it was a potbelly pig and her name was Scarlet and she lived at the Airbnb and. We were like this. She, she walks around, like she just hangs out and so we're inside. Yeah. And she, they decided to put her outside.
She's an indoor outdoor piggy and so she was outside. That's what the pig is.
Mark: Yeah. Yeah. She's
Kim: outside the sliding [00:37:00] glass door and we're in the kitchen. We are eating, I'm pretty sure Isaac. Yeah. This pig walks up to the sliding glass door, smushes her piggy nose against the door and opens the sliding glass door, opens
Isaac: the door if we couldn't believe it, and then was like,
Kim: you feed me.
And they told us like we could feed her an apple. I gave her apple. She ate the whole apple hole, like this genius little pig again. Like I just, you don't know what you're gonna expect when you stay places. Something I did not expect
Isaac: that the pig to come up and like very strategically open the, the door.
Kim: Oh, so crazy. She knew, she knew what she was doing. She, she did. Yeah. And she got her reward.
Mark: Yeah. What's yours, Isaac?
Kim: How do I get two apples from these guys? Yeah, she already had one five minutes ago from someone else, I'm sure. Yeah.
Isaac: So, yeah, yours actually came to mind. Um, one is, this is actually while we're out driving between two different places, but we were in Tasmania, Australia and we watched a wallaby from, he was like on a bank, [00:38:00] he hopped once and hit the road and then hopped one more time and then landed on the, the bank on the other side.
And I just, I just was in dumbfounded shock to watch a wallaby. 'cause they're not that tall.
Mark: No, they're small. Right. Being
Isaac: clear a road with banks in essentially two jumps. I was just like. What just happened. I just remember it just being like dumbfounded that, that it could jump that distance, that fast, you know, while we were driving.
So
Kim: they've learned how to not get hit by cars? Is that what you're saying?
Isaac: I never saw any, well, they still get hit by cars. Yeah. So I didn't see any, but uh,
Kim: I know, I hear that kangaroos are like the deer of Australia. They even look like I live Australia
Mark: and I remember my, uh, one day I opened up my window and there's like a deer outside the thing.
I'm like, oh my gosh, there's a kangaroo outside the, a kangaroo outside the window confus. My host's like, I'm like, wait, why? Is like, no, they're pests, man. Like, we don't like them. I'm like, oh. And then that was like the same time I, the first time I saw Qua Bear in like real [00:39:00] life and it was like, I'm like.
Smells like whiskey. They smell like little drunkards.
Isaac: Yeah, they are a little drunkard. Well, they're just getting super high. 'cause we, we drove the Great Ocean Road and a tour guide pulled us over and was like, all right, there's probably a koala here because they only eat like three different types of eucalyptus tree and this one gets them super high.
So they're usually chilling at these trees and so we got to go see a couple of moving in slow motion. Their eyes are so squinty
Kim: all the time, like, so it makes so much sense. Alright, we are gonna change gears and hit back on the question game. But you know, you kind of mentioned it earlier, mark, but a lot of people, not a lot of people, there's some content creators that, where it's all like beaches and cocktails and luxury and what actually happens behind the scenes.
You know, what's something that you can talk about that's hard or surprising about creating a sustainable travel lifestyle that people often don't see the behind the scenes of?
Mark: Like for me, I've created, like I, I've set mine up that it's about [00:40:00] honesty. So I'm not doing super. I mean, I literally have my tripod and my camera, and I talk to my camera, and then I do B-roll with my phone.
So I've cut out a lot of costs right there. So I have a lot of fancy stuff, right. But I'll see people that will literally say like 30 or 40 like shots or 30, 40 cut takes, and I'm like, dude, it's, we're not, like I say, we're not Disney, we're not Warner Brothers. We don't have to be perfect. It's YouTube. And they're like, no, it has to be perfect.
I'm like, it's not gonna make a difference. Like in this space, it doesn't make as much of a difference. It's like you are not like, you don't have to do it all those times. So I've seen people like literally have to get the exact thing and then you'll see, like you ever see there's a meme. Of this guy and he is like doing like a food thing.
Like, oh, this is the greatest burger, LA la. And then it's like someone's taking a picture of while he's filming. Then when he is not filming, he looks like this totally depressed human. Like, life sucks. I can't believe I'm doing this for like a free burger. You know? And like people do that. Like, if people don't understand, it's like, ugh.
I, I mean we were in travel kind. I was talking to some people that were on some of the like [00:41:00] tours they went on and there's like people like, they're like, who pays? Like, they're like, they're literally just following the m and ms to the next job and follow the next m and m. So it's never really their business, they're just trying to go places that's gonna pay for them to go travel.
So they just use a way to travel. That's not a way you can like sustain your lifestyle. Yeah. You know? And so if you wanna be sustain your lifestyle, you have to think about your own brand, your own business, and think more long term. And a lot of people don't realize that. They think, oh, they think it's Insta-Famous, it's Instagram and I'm Insta-famous.
You could have a video that gets 2 million, 3 million views. It's only gonna make you like $10,000 if it's horizontal. If that,
Kim: yeah. And it's, if it,
Mark: and it is vertical, it'll make you a few hundred dollars. It's not gonna do anything. Wow. Or less like, you know, it's like these things and if you can't repeat it, it's worthless.
It's a one, it's like a birthday gift. Ooh, I got a birthday gift. Least should have a birthday coming next year. You might get money from grandma again, but you're not. No. You know, and so, mm-hmm. That's where I think I tell, it's like, you gotta be, you think about what you can really do long term. You know?
'cause most content creators, not just in travel at any, they usually make it two or three years. They, they're [00:42:00] peak and they're done. Mm-hmm. And that's where you see people come and they'll go, and I've seen this over the years. I've seen people come and go and come and go and the other opportunities, or it does, they can't sustain a lifestyle or life changes.
Like, it's easy to be a content creator on your own. 'cause you only here worry about feeding yourself, but then when you're married or you got kids, you know, things change. That's why you see a lot of content creators with their kids when they're little. I'll tell you, once your kid gets to junior high, they, they wanna be on the soccer team.
You know, I was like, I wanna show them world. Like I've shown my kid the world, but they also have to be on the soccer team. Yeah. And that's one of those things, it's like, do you let the social media stuff control you or do you control your social media and people that have all their eggs in one basket?
It's like, I gotta get these brand deals. It's the only way I'm paying my bills. Yeah. You're not really controlling anything, you're just looking for the next brand deal. They're not, they're, and the brand deals aren't what they used to be. Yeah. They don't care about you just we heard. Yeah. Because they're like, yeah.
'cause the brand's like, we can find some micro influencers or we can find somebody else that'll just do it for free. 'cause I've had stuff where we've negotiate co like, these are companies I [00:43:00] like, I've used and we're talking about doing things together and then all of a sudden now we have a new management team.
Uh, they're no longer gonna pay for this. So, you know, you can come on the cruise, we'll give you the cruise. I'm like, I I don't need a cruise. Like, I don't, I'm not a cruise person. I was doing this to make the content that we agreed on. Yeah. And they're like, well we're not doing that anymore.
'cause Yeah, they're freak. You can get. Get all these other people do it and not pay. I'm like, or you could get someone that's gonna do a good job. Yeah. So it's, it's, it's, it's interesting and that's where you have some, I think when you reach out to brands to work with, because I recommend reaching out to the brands directly.
- You know, 'cause sometimes there's, there's companies that will help you find them. But if there's brands you really believe in, like, you know, there's stuff I, I'm like, I love and I'm like, look, I would love to work with you here. And, but come with ideas for them. Don't be like, I wanna work with you. Okay.
What's your idea? It's kinda like when people don't wanna do collab CoLab. It's like, I always ask, let's do CoLab. What should we do? Like, I don't know, I'm like, well let's think of some stuff like, let's brainstorm, let's have ideas to work together. 'cause we can say, let's do [00:44:00] something, but unless we have something we're gonna do.
You know, it's like, it is kinda like when you're a little kid and you make that first phone call, you're like, can I talk to Kelly? And Kelly answers the phone. She's like, what's up, mark? Well, I don't know what to say, you know? You're like, I, you gotta have a plan
Kim: step. Have do that. Do you like dinosaurs? I thought of that too.
Mitchell's versus machines. We can't get enough of that movie. Do you like
Isaac: dinosaurs? You
Kim: and your kids have not seen that together. We've seen it. We have the dvd. Yeah. Yeah. That's how long we've had it. We have the DVD Never gets old, mark.
Isaac: Um, so I think one of the things like I really saw from going to Travel Con is Kim and I, I, I really think made such a good choice in not trying to create a travel lifestyle around being a.
Content creator. What we did is we created a business first. Like this had nothing to do with travel creation, content creation, anything like that. We built a marketing agency, we're able to systemize it, staff it, and then that allowed us to travel full time. And what we saw Travel Con is we make more money and had more travel freedom than almost every content creator there, including most of the very large [00:45:00] travel
Kim: carriers.
That was mind blowing, and which we didn't
Isaac: quite. Expect honestly. And we earned a
Kim: high five for Mark Wolters himself. Yeah.
Isaac: So now we can create content up and again, we're not like, we don't have to chase the deals or whatnot. Like we don't people, the first thing people ask, oh, how are you monetizing it?
I'm not monetizing it now, but we are making a lot
Kim: of money, right? Well,
Isaac: we have our other business and we get to meet awesome, really cool people through the podcast. And that's really what we're doing this for. And to share our knowledge. 'cause we've been able, just like you, we've been able to help quite a lot of people just through advice.
And then they come back and say, oh, the thing you told us was the best thing we did on that whole trip. And so like that's really what it's about. And I think, you know, we can just have a lot more fun with it because when reliant on it, you know, to make a living. And I,
Mark: and I think you can see that especially like Instagram because it's funny, 'cause like Instagram, TikTok, you can fake it 'cause it's so short.
Whenever they do like lives and things, you can kind of see it more and those kind of things when they move into long form, you kind of see like, and you can see the strength that in like I wouldn't like, I mean we were talking to this one, I travel [00:46:00] girl this one and she's like. It's like a like, oh, you just a post every day.
And like two or three of 'em every week are sponsored posts. You know? I'm like, so are you really even making content? Are you just making ads? Yeah. You know, and it's like, and then you kind of think about it. It's like, how's that gonna work long term? Like, would it be better if you only had like one a week and then you made content?
People came back to it that it was more natural. 'cause what I, what I've seen is like if you get ones that do a really good, natural way of integrating it, that's a really good way to do the sponsored stuff. Mm-hmm. But then some of them like mm-hmm. How do I integrate Omaha steaks into a travel thing? You know, like sometimes not possible.
Find
Isaac: a way. Yeah. Anything with food, Kim will find a way. Yeah.
Kim: Well, and also our motto is like, Isaac is always like, all right, we're about to get on the podcast. Embrace your weird, like, like you said, be your authentic self. Yeah. Like, if we didn't have that one, it would be way less fun. And two, I feel like we'd have a completely different listeners.
Like, you guys like my weird Right. Comment little. Well, and that's, you have to have something's.
Mark: That's [00:47:00] the thing. Like, because I like talking to you guys when travel. I'm like, these two are cool. I like these two. Like, you are fun to talk to. And, and sometimes when you see is some creators, like when you meet them in person, they, they have no personality.
They like, but they're, they're more introverts. Mm-hmm. And they'll want, they can be extroverts when they film their stuff, which is great. Yeah. That gives 'em opportunity. But you know, if you wanna like get your own personality out there, that's what people want. 'cause they won't know you.
Kim: Yeah.
Mark: Friends with you like, do I sign up with you guys?
Like Yeah, let's do it. Because I like talking to you. I know,
Kim: I know. 'cause I can feel all that positive energy. Like I was just like this is my guy. Who is this guy? Like I love that. That's awesome. But I did wanna mention, um, I know we are almost at a full hour already, but we're gonna keep on going. You mentioned family and that's obviously an aspect I want to talk about 'cause Isaac and I do have this thing called like freedom of not having kids or pets.
So I can imagine that makes it a wild bit easier for most people to travel. But family is really important to you. I definitely get that from your videos and the way you highlight them and everything and it's awesome that you actually get to travel with them and [00:48:00] you don't just leave them in the dust.
That's real nice. Yeah. But how do you balance like family time with travel and being a professor? Like what's a few tips that you would recommend to someone to just help make sure like the whole family has a good time while they're traveling?
Mark: One, take the family. Like I know a lot of people that travel.
Almost as much as we do. And they literally never take their kids. I'm like, how are you parenting them? I'm like, maybe not as much as I do, but like, I'm like, yeah, like I see all these pictures. I'll post all this stuff. I'm like, where are the kids? Where are the kids? I'm like, yeah, like bringing your kids with you, even when they're little is a fantastic experience.
People like, oh, it's a waste of money, really? Is it? I I, I got to see my 13, or he'll be 14 this weekend when he was learning to walk. I saw him take his first steps on his own in a Paris hotel room and at the Eiffel Tower. Like, yeah, he doesn't remember that, but I remember it. Like, I have those memories, you know, and that's where I get upset when people are like, go, they don't remember.
There's no point. Kids don't appreciative, like, you know what? Adults [00:49:00] don't appreciate it either. You know? So like, that's true. Don't, like, that's why people like, they, they kind of make an excuse. They're like, oh, kids don't travel. No kids travel. Fine. It's parents that have the harder time, right? 'cause when kids are having a rough, like melting down on the plane, which happens, but last time I checked there's a lot of people that melt down on the planes too and get arrested.
Just saying. Yeah. But like, I'm always, I'm just like, Hey, if the parents at least trying, um, I have no problem. But the parents, it is the parents that don't do anything. They're like, they think the flight attendant should be babysitters kind of stuff. That's where there's issues. Um, but like we go and like, we always have, like, the kids always have their own little, like, backpack with their stuff so they can have their game or their toy or whatever.
They can do that. And so they gotta be good travelers doing that and taking it with me. I mean, when I go travel myself, I mean, my kids are 18 and four or 13 now, you know, so like people see them, they've seen them since they were babies to now, and I'm like, yeah. So when I go on a, like, I always do a couple like, solo trips every year where I just go and film and, you know, I'll go see friends, whatever.
But I'm like still, like, I'll still like, [00:50:00] I'll get to the airport. I'll call Jocelyn, and she's like, I miss you too. Why are you calling? I'm like, no, I just miss you guys. Like, mark, you literally just left the house. I was like, yeah. I always had like, kind of like those, I miss you guys because I'm so used to traveling with them.
It becomes one of those things that makes it more enjoyable. That's part of our family. Yeah, and that's why it's like, I, I, I, you know, travel is important to me, and that's where we put the money on and that's, we put our stuff on it. Yeah. We, we've never had cable, well, no, the apartment we rented in Portugal had cable, so that's before the 13-year-old was born.
We haven't had it since. Like, it's like, no. Like they, all of a sudden there, there's, there's two plane tickets to Europe every year. Like, and so it's always like, I wanna go and I wanna take 'em. And what's been cool is we've also done what we call multi-generational travel. Like my parents will go with us.
Mm-hmm. He's taken my mother-in-law to Italy and it was like, now they have stories. It's not just, I mean, don't around like, my kids still would make cookies with my mom, you know, like they have those stories. Yeah. But it's like you now have experience like, oh hey Caleb, remember when you were trying to take a poop behind a tree and then the monkeys all jumped outta the tree and chased you off?
Like you had great stories [00:51:00] like that with the grandparents and we all laughed and laughed and laughed and he was like, oh my God. We're like, well
Kim: cherish that memory forever. I know. That's
Mark: one of those times I'm like, uh, I guess it was like be in the moment, but I was laughing so hard I couldn't even get a camera out or anything, so I was like, it was just like with his, that's
Isaac: so funny.
Mark: And so, no. I mean, that's why, and I, and I understand people like it is, it is more expensive to take travel with their kids. So I know they can't go all the time for some people, but I would say like, don't leave 'em behind. Don't think they're gonna bring, like, bring it down. Because what I, we like Instagram and greater kids, like we have our kids choose destinations we travel to every year.
Mm. You know, like I'll, I, Caleb is fantastic for finding, like, I'm like, Hey, find us a restaurant that like, find us a fun, re a fun restaurant, find a good restaurant, like, and he'll look online. He'll use social media to find stuff like, Hey, I found these ones nearby. Let's try this one. 'cause I knew this guy and he had good reviews and they'll look it up and go there and, and like they become part of it.
Like, they're [00:52:00] like, that's cool. Liam like, Hey, we was in Panama. It's just li and I. You know? And, and I'm like, Hey, okay, so here are the three tours. We have an offer. We can take a category out to the boats or out to the islands. We can go, we can go through the jungle to the islands on the other side where they have no electricity.
Or we can do a go on the Panama Canal and go like to Monkey Island and see the sauce and stuff. And he is like. Monkey island with the sloths. Alright. So like, then he was all about it 'cause he chose it, you know? Yeah. So it was his thing. And so that's one of those things you bring him as a part of it.
And I just feel it brings your family close together if you have more experiences. And it's tough to get experience with kids. 'cause you know, like they all have their, you know, phones and stuff, but, so you know what, some of the adults Yeah. You know, and that's one thing. It's like, well at least we do things.
It gets a chance for 'em to put the phone down and we do some things together.
Kim: Yeah. That's big. That's huge. Yeah. I mean a lot of that and getting more really experiences think they're expensive. I know, but it's memories.
Isaac: And I love your idea of involving them, like
Kim: priceless.
Isaac: And involving them in like the [00:53:00] decision making process.
I think that's a phenomenal idea that gets them engaged in the travel. And you know, honestly, I don't think Kim and I would necessarily be together if her grandparents didn't take her traveling as a kid.
Kim: We road trip to so many national parks together, like, and we've been on road trips twice now where, you know, I'd be alone with them, not my own parents, like one time with my sister.
And that, I mean, wow. Like of course I remember I was seven years old the first time. You know, I don't remember a ton, but what I do remember was having the time of my life, like, and a, a couple core moments where I'm like, Ooh hoo. You know, like something's happened. Well
Isaac: be, and because she was exposed to that at a young age when she met me and I'm like setting up a life where I can travel full-time, she was like much more open to it than most other people I've come across because she had those experiences and like had such great memories around them.
Kim: So. Right. I had a full-time job in the veterinary field. It wasn't like. I didn't know anything about entrepreneurship or traveling. Like we would go to, to your point, like I told Kat fan too, the host of Travel Con, [00:54:00] like she said, most people just have trips, vacations, where you're actually just going and visiting family.
Like that's what it is. So we would go to Arizona every year and I was like, yeah, I'm so excited to go on vacation. But it was really just seeing my grandparents and family, you know? Yep. Yeah, it was different. Ohio.
Mark: Here we went from Illinois to Ohio. That was, I know, that's a
Kim: big trip. New York and New
Isaac: Jersey for us.
Kim: Yeah. So, um, as we wrap up, Isaac, why don't you ask a couple more questions and then we'll, we'll play the wrap up game.
Mark: Yeah. Isaac, make yourself useful, pal. You can't do all the work.
Isaac: So what, uh, what is one travel, travel myth that you love to bust? Like something that a lot of people just like think about traveling and you're like, Hey, that's not actually true.
Mark: It's too dangerous to go there. Mm. Oh my God. Every, I mean. Every dump video I make, someone's like, don't go there. It's not safe. I'm like, I could put like unicorn land with fluffy pillow land, like, [00:55:00] too dangerous. You'll poke your eye out and you'll choke on the pillows, you know, like all the time. And I'm like, look, pe, like, they're so different.
They're not gonna be, they're gonna be mean to you. I'm like, no, if you're a good tourist, you're a good traveler. People be nice to you like that. People get really scared, like, are people gonna be mean to American style when you go abroad? Like, dude, if you're not a jerk, they're gonna be nice to you anywhere you go.
You know? Yeah. And that's one of those things, and I like busting that myth. 'cause a lot of people don't go 'cause they're, they're scared because they don't know. 'cause they watch the news or they watch somebody comments on something like, has that person been there? Like, that's my one. It's like, have you been been there?
I know. Mm-hmm. Well, no, I would never go there like, well you haven't been there so you can't really say what it's like. How do you Yeah. You know it. Exactly. Or it's like, I was there in 1967. I'm like.
Kim: Right.
Isaac: That's a big ones. I think that's a good one. And like, you know, before we went to France, we had several people like, stop us and be like, oh, they're so rude in France. It's like, well, not if, not if you greet them [00:56:00] with a Bonjour and like, oh, and you're, you know, like basic things. And uh, we
Kim: even taught our friends like how to speak basic French when they were living with us in the French Riviera.
And when I tell people, even now, like, we had a great experience. Everyone was so loving and caring and sweet and heartful. They are kiss my, the friends are awesome, even wanted to drive us to the, the whatever train station. Like everyone was so out of their way kind and honestly, like, yeah, I speak French, that helps.
But it does help besides the point, you know, just come at any person with kindness and like, the worst that could happen is they're like. And then just don't, I mean, be nice anyways. Like that's something, be nice anyways and then just don't choose to make that a friend, that's all. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Well said.
Well said.
Mark: Yeah.
Kim: Thank you. Thank you. But yeah, so you know, mark, like your stories, you're teaching your authenticity, which we love so much. And I know your own followers really, um, love, like you've inspired so many people and us getting to watch your videos, meeting you in person was incredible, [00:57:00] you know.
So for anyone listening right now who wants to learn more from you or follow your journey, or even bring you in to speak or collaborate with Mr. Speaker at Travel Con, what's the best way for them to connect with you?
Mark: So, um, you probably find us the most at, uh, on YouTube at Wolters World, W-O-L-T-E-R-S world, uh, or just put it like Don't of Germany, or don't of France, don't of the US you'll see my, you'll see a, a, a chunky guy with a ponytail that's bald, that's living in denial.
Uh, uh, on the thumbnail there, uh, you can find me there, or you go to our website, Wolters world.com or you can find us really on any social media x Twitter, um, Facebook, Instagram, uh, LinkedIn at Wolters World, and you'll find us, and you can always reach out that way. Uh, but the best way is you'd wanna watch the video is just search any destination you wanna travel to.
Put Wolters World with it and the YouTube search button, you'll probably see a video to help you out. Wow.
Kim: Nice.
Isaac: So cool.
Kim: Thank you, mark. Isaac, would you like to end today's episode with a don't game?
Isaac: Yeah. So we're gonna try a new game. We're [00:58:00] not sure how it's gonna go.
Kim: It's the musical don'ts.
Isaac: So, um,
Kim: you have a timer?
Isaac: Yeah. So we're gonna put a timer and we're gonna like 90 seconds say a category, and then we're gonna go around in a circle and, and say a don't of that place. And then whoever, like the time it goes off on loses, I guess. Are you
Kim: playing like the Mexican hat dance song? Like, I
Isaac: mean I probably don't have that that set up.
So do you have, do you have
Kim: the, uh, copyright
Mark: protection to
Isaac: plant?
Kim: Yeah, we don't. Just my mouth tool. So I'll play with my mouth.
Isaac: All right. So we'll put, I'm gonna
Kim: fail at this one. Do, can we pass or no?
Isaac: No, that's the whole purpose of this, so. All right.
Kim: Good luck. You just make it up, but make it up with confidence.
Isaac: Yeah, you'll be, so the first, that's right, the first category we'll go is just Europe. We'll go General Europe, the don'ts of Europe and uh. I'll start the timer. Mm-hmm. And, uh, who do you want to go first?
Kim: I mean, I'll go first 'cause I have one.
Isaac: She has one, so she wants to get it out of the way.
Kim: All right, go ahead.
Isaac: Okay. And go.
Kim: Don't not have money if you're in Italy and you have to go pee. [00:59:00]
Mark: Yes. Yes. And don't forget you need that everywhere you go in Europe. 'cause there's gonna be some places I'm gonna charge you, but my don't will be, don't think all of Europe is the same because everywhere you go culture's gonna be different.
Lamb's gonna be different, food's gonna be different, but you have a great time no matter where you go.
Isaac: Absolutely. Mm-hmm. Mine is, don't expect to have a menu in France because they cook things so fresh that the ingredients in the menu changes every day. So they're just write down on a chalkboard a lot of the time.
Kim: Mm-hmm. Uh, mine is don't expect to have like. One core cuisine of Switzerland because it's dependent on the different areas you're in Switzerland, ano Italian, Geneva, French influence, like that kind of thing.
Mark: Uh, my doubt would be don't jump in the middle of the bed in a European hotel because many times it's two beds pushed together.
Mm-hmm. And you might fall in the crack.
Kim: This sounds like tested and approved.
Mark: Yes. I understand why there's not a [01:00:00] lot of children in Europe anymore. 'cause those beds are dangerous.
Kim: Isaac.
Isaac: Um, don't skip on using the train system. It's phenomenal. And don't forget about you can use Uber to get the, uh, electric scooters.
Kim: Oh, nice. Don't expect a top sheet in France because they don't know what that is.
Mark: Amen to that. Um, don't think that staying at your Airbnb is not making an impact on the local housing market. Sorry, kind of down in there deep. I
Kim: know like we end it with you going real deep on us
Isaac: and, and we did we'll too.
Kim: We'll, we'll, we'll finish for the happy one. Okay. Yeah. Keep going.
Isaac: We'll, we'll go another round. But um, yeah, we did, when we were in one area, there was like, graffiti being like, stop the Airbnbs. Yeah. And that kind of stuff. So yeah, I do love Airbnb when we travel, but there is definitely having some real significant issues with the, just the oversaturation of 'em and.[01:01:00]
Yeah,
Mark: I'll have a, I'll look good. We have a, uh, last, don't Airbnb for you, but we'll do something like, don't think the Airbnb hosts know anything about the city you are staying in because so many of 'em are owned by people that don't live in the city anymore or are not from there. It's a corporate kind of thing.
So they literally know nothing. I can't tell you the percentage of actual help I get from an Airbnb host is negligible in terms of restaurants, in terms of sites, in terms of local tips, yeah, culture things because a lot of them don't live there. So do be aware of that.
Kim: I'll back that up since we're on the Airbnb like pathway category, don't expect.
That your host knows what language you're speaking in. One crazy thing we learned is that Airbnb auto translates. So when we show up and they've been speaking English to us all along and then we turn out and it's like, whoa, we can't speak each other's languages. Twist it auto
Isaac: translated so well that I had no clue.
They weren't speaking to me in English until we got there. Yeah. And I was like, and they don't, I don't think they realized I was [01:02:00] speaking in English. No. Sometimes the host
Kim: doesn't know either. Yeah. So good to know that Airbnb auto translates lookout.
Mark: That is a good one.
Kim: Yeah. Cool. These are some good Go.
We actually did better than I thought. I thought I would struggle to say Don's, but it's actually kind of easy because we're awesome. We're awesome. Right. Confidence. Full
Mark: time to travel time. Mm-hmm.
Isaac: Boo. Yeah. Uh, now Mark, have you traveled, uh, the National Parks here in America? A bit.
Mark: I've done some of 'em.
Yeah.
Isaac: Because we were gonna do a don't about the national parks. Oh.
Mark: Is that where we're going? I'll start. Don't take your drone. Can't do drones in the national parks. Yeah. Mm-hmm. I'm gonna start with that. So I'm gonna, I'm wanna sneak in and make sure I got that one.
Isaac: Um, don't think that all the national parks are gonna be the same because every single one is significantly different than every other park.
Kim: Uh, don't think that park rangers can't pull you over just like cops do.
Isaac: We got both
Kim: over. Real experience. Did not get a ticket.
Mark: Yeah. Don't, don't mess with those rangers. They are next level, man. Like, like I think, I think if the [01:03:00] sheriff's patrol's scared of the park Rangers 'cause they're like, they care.
That's
Kim: because they're so passionate.
Mark: Yeah,
Kim: that's great. Um,
Mark: my doubt would be, I had one I just forgot. Dang it don't, oh, don't forget to get the America the beautiful pass. Mm-hmm. It's like 80 bucks and you can go to all of 'em. You can take a carload of people everywhere you go. Yeah. You pay once, it's good for a whole year and you can go and then you can just drive other ones you wanna see.
So that would be, don't ever a pass that, that's a great, that's a great thing that we do for tourists.
Kim: Huge. That's the most important. Don't.
Isaac: And don't forget that if you're over 65, it's $80 once for the rest of your life. And if you're in fourth grade, you get a free park pass for the year. So take up on that.
That's right. Check it out. Just, we got Williams,
Mark: we got, Liam was during COVID, and so we got into like, um, we got into, uh, grand Tetons and like, they're like, oh, what grade's he in? We're like fourth. He's like. Perfect. There you go. Little guy. That's amazing.
Isaac: And don't forget that this National Park Pass doesn't just get any of the national parks.
It gets you [01:04:00] into every national monument, including stuff like the Statue of Liberty. It gets you into every recreational area, like national recreational area, national
Kim: Seashores, national, like everything that has, it's like 450
Isaac: plus sites that we've
Kim: been to. National Fish hatcheries, we've been to anything.
This Park Pass can get us. We're all about it. Oh no, it, it is
Isaac: great. Like those are great.
Kim: Amazing.
Isaac: Finish, finish up our camera. Hey, come on.
Kim: You're up. You just, no, no. He gave two. I'm good. I'm good.
Mark: Okay. I would say also, don't go off the path. So many people think that, oh, I I'll be fine. No, no. You're not saying it's a natural park, national park, like it's nature.
The wolves will eat you. The bike or the buffalo. They're not your friends. They are not for snapshots and selfies, I always love, 'cause there's always, you know, you get in July you get the like. Flying tourist pictures. You're like, yeah, you get dumped. Dumb. Yeah. Yeah.
Kim: All right. I'll add the last one. Don't forget to just pack snacks in general.
You guys, like, you show up to a national park, you're like, oh, we can [01:05:00] hit the restaurant. Did you get a reservation for this one restaurant in the middle of nowhere? No, you did not. Now you don't get to eat like, mm-hmm. Just make sure you have food on hand, whether you're traveling by plane, by car, it doesn't matter.
Have. Trail mix have something. Especially if you can get something with like fiber or protein in it. Not just a bag of chocolate m and msm. Like I see many kids and parents eat, which like, like, but I think that's how they sell
Mark: at the little gift shops. I mean that's why
Kim: Yeah, I know, I know. I know
Isaac: though a lot of, a lot of the gift shops now in the national parks will sell things that are actually grown in the national parks.
So we got wine and uh, Shenandoah mm-hmm. That is actually going grown at Orchard there.
Kim: And you'll get local honey and, and
Isaac: Capital Reef. They have the best pies in America, uh, because they actually have historical orchards that they've kept from the homesteaders and they still like use those fruits to create their pies right there on site.
And so we think they're the best pies in America right there in Capital Reef. That's cool. And they're
Kim: tiny, so you don't have to feel bad if you eat the whole one by yourself.
Isaac: I don't feel bad. One. [01:06:00] No. True. I have no
Kim: guilt when it comes to food.
Isaac: Yeah. Um, so yeah. That's awesome. And, and we do have a Buffalo story.
So, 'cause you were mentioning the Buffalo, we, uh, we have a couple, but we were, um, driving actually through State Custer Park, which, uh, is one of the best state parks in, in America. And, uh, we were trying to find the Buffalo Herdz and Kim's like, where do I go? I was like, all right, let's take a left on this dirt road and let's just drive over here and see.
So we're driving along and then boom, we're like all of a sudden the middle of a buffalo herd.
Kim: Hundreds, hundreds, maybe a thousand, no, like hundreds. Hundreds then crazy.
Isaac: But like, so like, we're slowly driving through and, and it's not an issue hundred. This big guy steps out in the middle of the road and he.
Stops and he starts moving his his leg at us, like it's gonna charge. I'm a
Kim: fiesta at this point in time, so the buffalo is bigger than my fricking car. I probably
Isaac: weighs more than the car we're sitting in. He
Kim: could just lean on my car and flip over it. Oh, I did put you in it. It's
Isaac: right. And Kim's like, what do we do?
And I was like, back up really slowly. [01:07:00] And so like, we just backed up really slowly and this buffalo stood there staring at us for probably five minutes. I
Kim: mean, he was with his family. Yeah, he was. He was just, and we
Isaac: couldn't really like turn around, we didn't have enough room. 'cause the buffaloes are surrounding us to try and pull like a three point turn.
And so eventually he was like, all right, these guys are cool. We'll let 'em pass. Oh, I love it. Anytime.
Kim: Like somebody is like, you wanna go through a traffic jam or a wildlife jam? Always choose wildlife jam. Yeah. Yeah.
Isaac: We've been in a few. That's fun.
Kim: Cool.
Isaac: Awesome. Awesome. Well thanks so much. Any questions you have for us before we hop off?
Kim: That's good.
Mark: No, I just wish you all have a fantastic time. Make sure you, yeah. Hey, if you're listening, make sure you, uh, like, and subscribe to the, you know, full-time to travel time, YouTube channel, and all the other places you get your favorite podcast. Follow them also on all social media, like Facebook, Instagram, all those things.
'cause Kim and Isaac are awesome and they are fun people in real life too, not just on the podcast.
Isaac: We really appreciate that. It was really amazing meeting you at Travel Con, you know, getting to see, you know, your talk. I mean, you were one of the three headline [01:08:00] speakers at Travel Con and so pretty cool.
Like, again, we didn't know that, and then we met you and then the next day we're watching you at like the main stage. You know, it was like, oh wow, this is so cool.
Kim: You are so not
Isaac: boring. And I loved how you, like you, you opened up kind of, you showed the backend, you showed your financials, which we thought was really cool, um, and everything.
And uh, yeah, you know, really just again, inspired us to start putting our content on YouTube. We literally would not be putting our content on YouTube right now if it wasn't for you. So, yeah. Mark,
Mark: seriously. Well, I'm glad that now when that first check's coming in, that first dinner is on me
Isaac: edit, sort of, Hey, we'll, we'll invite you out and get, get you, get you a dinner, maybe bring you one of the best pies in America.
Kim: There you go. What a dinner. We sure about it. That's how we do.
Isaac: Yeah, that's how we will. Yeah.
Kim: All right, so you have to do the signature sign off with us, mark. So when you hear the cue. You have to say full time to travel time. Can you handle it full time
Mark: to tra Do I have to like, is it like full time? Yeah.
Kim: Get your, get your like copy elevator voice. It's like full time travel time.
Isaac: Let, let's go. Let's, let's get the sexy voice on.
Kim: Oh yeah. [01:09:00] He, he chooses sexy voice. Yeah. All do it. Yeah. All right. Thanks everybody for joining us on full time, full time travel time. Awesome. Great work. Great work. Alright. Thanks guys.
Thank you so much, mark.
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