About

The Past, Present, and Future of This Space

If you’ve landed on branded expedition before, this space probably looks significantly different. There’s a major reason for that. I lost it all. Every post. Every single one of them. My favorite ones about Dubai, Japan, Egypt, London. All of my content was gone. I didn’t see the signs (literally, I just didn’t check on this site for months and months) and didn’t see the warning emails that this was coming. I lost my why and I lost my blog.

As someone who was proud of what she built, I have always included a line item on my resume for branded expedition. It has always been an interesting topic of conversation in interviews, especially in my career as a marketing and communications manager in the transportation industry. So here’s what happened: I was updating my resume for a job interview and realized I haven’t been on my blog in a seriously long time. So I went to check it out and the whole site was down and gone. I couldn’t believe it; I assumed I had my blog in a place of autoupdates, autopay, and self-sufficiency. So, I put it on the back burner.

Recognizing What I Lost

Countless emails and IT support with WordPress, Jetpack, and Bluehost got me nowhere. I missed a payment to keep my site active. There were also about 20 emails I missed on this, too. I received so emails reiterating that if this wasn’t resolved, my site would have been removed in a certain amount of time. These emails were sent to an account that I wasn’t checking either. Catching on?

They say you don’t realize what you had until it’s gone. That was sort of true for me. I felt a lot of hurt that day, but I realized I did it to myself. I lost my blog because I lost my why. Consider the “why” as in “why are you blogging?” or “why do you have this blog?”. The answers to those questions in all of 2022 and Q1 of ’23 was that I don’t/didn’t know.

I will never lose my passion for travel, but I lost interest in writing about solo travel because I wasn’t doing it anymore. I felt as though I had nothing to share with readers or other solo travelers. You could say my career was heading in a new direction, my goals for life were shifting, or my time to blog was absolutely nil. In reality, the why should I write this or that on this platform was gone.

The Old Why for branded expedition

I originally started branded expedition as a solo female travel blog and I really had such a fun time, at first. I truly loved sharing my travels, experiences in solo travel, hardships of doing things myself, and all in between. It was the perfect outlet for a tough time in life. I used branded expedition to write about weekend getaways, day trips, things to do about town and self care. All things that I needed and was doing at the time. But, branded expedition became a crutch, at times.

I was using it to fill a void of loneliness and sadness in my life. I thought that if I did an activity every weekend, I would be distracted from how sad I was with my life at the time. Writing and blogging were no longer fun for me. I was writing about self care and the travels that I was taking, yes, but it became a burden; I felt like if I didn’t have something planned or up next to do, I was falling behind in a space I didn’t even have real estate in. I also found it hard to write about self care because that was something I really was not practicing at the time. How can I share tips and experiences on solo travel and self care when I lost interest and wasn’t doing it anymore?

Travel Blogging When Its Not Your Full-Time Career is Beyond Hard

Travel blogging, I felt, was always a challenging space to play in. I couldn’t keep up with the pretty instagram photos, the sponsored (free) trips bloggers were taking, and writing posts every day. It is so, so hard coming up with content on travel when its not your full time job! Maybe it wasn’t all about the free or the photos, but I felt to keep up, that’s what you needed.

It was also a really big financial burden. I got to do a lot of cool things, very few were sponsored, so I was spending my own money trying to create an experience on a weekend to write about. Again, filling a void. I will always hold close the experiences I had and the people I met along the way, but branded expedition is ready for a change (or comeback tour), and so am I.

The Future and Promise of branded expedition

Here’s the skinny: I am a marketing and communications career woman, there is no doubt about that. I am in my thirties and absolutely love to travel, also facts. I genuinely love writing, being a sort-of creator and sharing stories to help or inspire others. This space should be about things that I know and have an interest in so it can be meaningful; so I can share, story-tell, and maybe to hopefully inspire & support other women. As I take on this expedition into an old familiar, I promise to share the good, bad, and ugly of it all in hopes to help you do the same. If you’re not here looking for support or inspiration, stay for the laughs and the stories, those are real, too.

About branded expedition

branded expedition is a blog on lifestyle, career, and travel for the thirty-something woman. I hope to share tips, stories, and thoughts on how the thirty-something woman can create the lifestyle she wants, navigate her career, and to travel the world on her terms.