Written in 2022
My dream to live across the globe and become a nomad started brewing when I was just a little girl, but to spare you a terribly long read, I’m going to skip ahead to 2020, when it all really started to kick off :)
Moving to Hawaii
Before I met my husband, in 2020, I lost my job as a restaurant manager. I was broke and going through some… let’s just say, not so fun life circumstances :)
With little money and no definite plan, it was probably just about the worst time to make a big move….. but I was so sick and tired of waiting for “the perfect moment” and for things to “finally fall into place” for me to finally start chasing my dreams. So, I decided to book a one way ticket to one of the most expensive places you can live 😂….. Hawaii. I didn’t know a single soul there, had no job lined up, and had never even stepped foot on the islands, but what I did have was mindset. I believed in myself and my dream to move there, more than I believed the self doubt or negativity from others. I was going to fulfill one of my childhood dreams and move to Hawaii where I would not only survive, but thrive.
In one single hour, with lots of courage and excitement, I had made the decision to sell almost everything I had, booked a one way ticket from San Diego to Honolulu leaving in just 7 short days ($99), and secured two months of rent at a surfing yurt community on the North Shore of Oahu ($2000.) I sold as much stuff as I could in that one week, but most of it was just donated to the local shelters. After all the expenses, I ended up with about $2500 left to my name.
7 days later and a whole entire apartment lighter, I set off for Hawaii. As the plane hovered over Oahu, starting its descent, I unashamedly blasted the Lilo and Stitch theme song on my headphones, and gazed in awe at the beautiful island below me. This was it! I was here! A place I had dreamed of my whole life…. unexplored territory and a fresh start. My heart was fluttering with every foot closer we came towards earth…. Finally, we landed. I stepped out into the tropical heat, breathed in the clean Hawaiian air, and made my way to the Uber lineup. The hour long ride up to the North Shore started off incredible. I was greeted with a big beautiful rainbow and lots of feelings of euphoria and excitement. I was so proud of myself for taking this journey. The further we got away from the airport and up the North Shore, the more beautiful it got. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I couldn’t believe I was here….. But also, the further we got away, the more anxious I got…. It really started to hit me how I was in Hawaii, with only two months of rent covered, just $2500 to my name, no fallback plan, or financial support from anyone, and everything I owned was on my back. HOLY CRAP. Then I became a step beyond anxious, I was terrified and my mind was flooded with self doubt.
“Did I make the wrong decision?!?! I did… Oh my gosh I can’t do this.”
“I am going to fail. I am not good enough, talented, smart, or courageous enough….. Everyone is probably right and I should just play it safe…..GO BACK!”
45 minutes into the drive and suddenly I tasted a salty tear that had snuck its way down my cheek. I was officially softly crying in the backseat of an Uber. 15 minutes later I arrived at the yurt camp, it was dark and I swiftly made way to my tent, unzipped it, threw my bag on the ground, laid on my bed, and had a bit of a panic attack.
I’m sure some of you are thinking “WELL DUH! How irresponsible! Moving to a place with no secure job or connections is so stupid!” But let me tell you, this was the most responsible thing I could have done. For once, I finally started to believe in myself and take the necessary steps to have control over my own life. I stopped letting fear dictate my decisions and I practiced more independence and self responsibility than I ever have before.
Over the next few weeks I was able to reflect deeply on my life and many moments that had led me to being in Hawaii alone, with nothing but a backpack, and living in a yurt under a mango tree. I was graced with peaceful moments and clarity, but also moments of fear and self doubt. It was uncomfortable, but that’s how I knew I was growing and truly starting to transform my life into something that was authentic and meaningful to me.
Quickly I began to make friends with people at the yurt camp and especially became great friends with a girl named Makenna (love you!) During my time in Hawaii, she had a huge impact on my personal growth and healing. She too had gone through some similar adversities in life and had just moved to Hawaii on a limb (she arrived the day before me!) Our paths crossing was undoubtedly divine intervention. Together we discussed life and its greatest mysteries, learned new perspectives from each other, and encouraged one another to pursue our dreams. She got a job offer to be a private vegan chef for a family on Maui. She took it and would leave shortly after. But right before she left, we hitchhiked to Sharks Cove to go diving with this guy… This guy's name was Samuel Prows :)
Meeting My Husband
At that time, I wasn’t interested one bit in a relationship, hence why we were all hanging out in a group. I just wanted a solid team of adventure buddies who also loved to dive, skate, and travel. But I was caught completely off guard and little did I know, I had just met my husband who I would spend everyday forward with. (I’m not kidding you, we haven’t spent one day apart since meeting that first evening at sharks cove 😅) Makenna left for Maui, meanwhile, Sam and I’s relationship took off flying. And I mean FLYING.
Sam was a zip line tour guide on the North Shore, making a low income and on the side he was pursuing his dream of becoming a full time professional photographer, making zero income…..😂 Neither of us had a lot of money, but we now had each other, and that was a game changer.
-A very brief backstory about Samuel: He grew up in a very adventurous and courageous family. His parents were not rich either, but they chased their dreams and raised him and his 6 siblings on a sailboat in the Caribbean and Florida. His mom also worked part time as a baggage lady and airplane cleaner for Delta, which gave them free flights. They utilized that and got to travel all around the world while growing up. Sam and his parents' outlook on life is so beautiful and inspiring. They are brave, talented, and best of all, love people.-
We stayed on Oahu for a bit, roller skating, diving, kiteboarding, surfing, and adventuring around in our car. We started doing some photography together, taking photos of each other and practicing different editing styles, but at the time we still planned on working some 9-5 jobs (zipline tour guide and nanny) until we got a better 9-5… maybe hired remotely with a company for graphic design or something? We weren’t sure, but we knew we wanted remote work so that way we could spend our time together and travel wherever we wanted. Shortly after, Sam wanted me to meet his parents, who were in Florida living on the sailboat he grew up on. That was a big step, because although Sam had invited friends on the boat to hang in groups, he had never once brought a girlfriend to meet his parents… I definitely felt very special (and his parents were very excited <3)
Unexpected Adventures
Since flying to and from Hawaii is expensive, we decided that it would be a good opportunity to check out another location. So we made a stop in the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. After Mexico, we planned on visiting his parents for a month on the boat in Florida and then returning to Hawaii. Once again, life took another wild turn and we didn’t return to Hawaii until a year later (when we got married.)
While in Mexico we were still pretty broke. We had no remote work or passive income, just a little bit of savings. To compensate for that, we stayed in hostels and Airbnb’s and ate food that was very cheap. Overall, we didn't have to spend a lot of money, but we started going past our budget and wanted to stay longer. We had the idea to utilize our photos that we took in Hawaii and reach out to hotels asking for free stay in exchange for some content they could use on their social media and websites. To our surprise, it worked! We ended up getting three free stays and staying in Mexico for a whole month! That was when it hit us, what if we could get PAID to stay in these hotels? What if we could get paid to support our favorite brands? What if THIS is how we utilize our photography and modeling skills?! And so…. The dream was born and our nomadic lifestyle on the road began :)
Building Our Portfolio
Over the past two and half years, Samuel and I have worked hard, side by side, building our professional photography and videography portfolio and brand. During that time we traveled to different countries on strict budgets, sleeping in hostels, cars, floors, and cheap airbnb’s to gather up as much content as possible. We worked for months repainting and remodeling his family boat and took a 4 month sailing trip with his parents to the Bahamas (best trip of my life.) He proposed in Costa Rica and we traveled throughout the USA on cheap spirit flights. A year later after falling deeper in love and building a full blown portfolio on a very limited budget, we returned to Hawaii to get married. After getting married, we booked a one way ticket to Europe and decided that it was time to make a full time living off of our brand and hotel work. We spent the next 4 months on a very long honeymoon and ended up visiting Morocco, Spain, Portugal, France, and the Maldives.
Skip to another year later and here we are, (2022) with a refined portfolio from around the globe and have now become full time content creators, doing everything that we love, together. We no longer reach out to brands, they reach out to us and we are very selective on who we promote and partner with.
So there you have it, a very very brief version on how we have lived nomadically for the past two and a half years and became as successful photographer and model.
If you want to live a nomadic lifestyle and sustain yourself full time while on the road, there are many different career paths you can take, not just photography. I know people who travel full time while doing sales, tech, or even medicine! But, that’s a whole different blog… :)
Biggest Piece of Advice Mindset.
It always comes back to mindset. Sam and I were once just two broke dreamers with a cheap camera and a backpack. If we hadn’t been so open minded and flexible, we would have never been able to build our portfolio and get to where we are now. We envisioned the life we wanted and knew success wasn’t just going to come overnight. We were okay working cheap gigs for a year and just barley scraping by. We were happy to sleep 3 nights on a cold concrete floor in a foreign airport so we could get the cheapest flights possible. We were happy to share a twin size hostel bed for a month in order to pay $10 a night for accommodations. We were happy living off of mainly cheese quesadillas, peanut butter sandwiches, and vegetable soups for months in order to stay on the road longer. We were okay with booking a one way ticket everywhere we went and letting the prices of tickets dictate our next destinations. In short, we were happy to just go with the flow, living minimalistic, and following any and every photography/videography opportunity offered to us in order to build our portfolio and experience.
It wasn't until this year that we started making a comfortable income that we can now sit back and be really happy with. It took sacrifice and courage in order to achieve what we have built now, but I am so thankful for every second of it. Those nights on the floor and lack of food diversity all side by side with my best friend, in the middle of who knows where, will always be some of my favorite memories :)
To whoever is reading this, I don’t know what your dream is. Maybe it’s to travel more often or maybe you're still getting up the courage to just leave your hometown for the first time. Maybe you want to be a chef, an artist, a teacher, a mailman etc… Whatever it is that fuels your passion and gives you life, you have the ability to make it happen. Do not let your mind trick you otherwise. For too many years I spoke negatively and convinced myself that I was in no place to chase my dreams. I made every excuse in the book saying that I “didn’t have enough money saved” “was too busy” or “wasn’t good enough.” My insecurities and fears ruled my life and dictated my decisions. I constantly was trying to please everyone around me and cared too much about the judgment of others. I stayed cozy working at the same restaurant for 4 years, not because that was my passion and what I was called to do, but because I didn’t believe I would ever be enough to fulfill my dream. For too long, I sat there insecure instead of confident. Don’t be like me. Don’t sit and watch other people live your dream. Don’t let your circumstances define you, define your circumstances. Take action. Find something that brings you life, master it, monetize it, teach it, share it, and live it. Set goals, BIG scary goals. Wait no… terrifying goals! I don’t know what your exact path will look like, because we all have unique stories and abilities, but I do know that the path is easier in community and surrounded with people who support and love you. I hope I can create a community here where you feel at least a little sliver of that. We are all human, on this life journey together, just trying to make the most out of our time. If you have any specific questions, please drop them in the comments. I would love to offer any insights that I can :)
Much love,
-M
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