Are we TOO OLD to YouTube? | Making the Most of our Retirement Life

welcome to Talon Estonia we recently got a comment on our channel that we get often it's usually a nice question and it comes in various forms but it goes something like this why at age 60 don't you just travel and not worry about filming and editing and writing wouldn't you have a better trip if you just traveled there is a big magical answer for this and today we're going to talk about why we started a YouTube channel and website and why it is so important to us we're John and Beth and we are the retirement Travelers if you're just finding us we are a senior travel couple who are actively traveling the world full-time now besides this YouTube channel we have a website that we hope to build into a great travel site just full of travel guides we hope you'll subscribe to this Channel and also go to our website and sign up for our newsletter and by the way we're also on Instagram and Facebook like we said before we oftentimes get asked why we YouTube and blog well not long ago go we read a book big magic creative living beyond fear by Elizabeth Gilbert you remember her she wrote Eat Pray Love the book that inspired many to set out on a life of full-time travel in big magic she wrote look a little further back in your family's history look at your grandparents odds are pretty good that they were makers no not yet keep looking back then go back further still look at your great grandparents look at your ancestors look at the ones who were immigrants or slaves or soldiers our Farmers our Sailors or the original people who watch the ships arrive with the strangers on board go back far enough and you will find people who were not consumers people who were not sitting around passively waiting for stuff to happen to them you will find people who spent their lives making things the emphasis is on making things that passage resonated with us and summed up perfectly the kind of life we want to live and create now after retiring from a corporate job I had spent my life making aluminum and Bev had been a stay-at-home mom to our five kids we yearn to start not only a new chapter but an entirely new story a story filled with creativity gratitude and wonder now World Travel was just a ticket and figuring out how to take our knowledge of the subject and turn it into something helpful was very appealing to us throughout our lives travel had always been something we wanted to do as children our parents filled our lives with Books of Wonder and the idea of seeing it all was set very early in our childhood we raised our family with the idea that there is a big world out there if you would have told us five years ago where we would be now currently traveling through the Baltic countries no doubt we would have laughed in disbelief us just two ordinary Americans all our kids grown married employed and starting families of their own honestly that would have been the time to r-e-l-a-x that we were captivated by the idea of living a bigger life and rejected the traditional narrative around retirement instead we invited big magic and Elizabeth Gilbert's challenge to transform our lives and become the makers of things making something from our own creativity intrigued us we sold our home and gave away what we owned we threw out the old book and before long a new story started writing itself when the pandemic arrived we pivoted from our initial plan of international travel and spent the first year and a half living out of an Airstream trailer exploring all the national parks in the lower 48. now that Airstream travel trailer saw over 40 thousand miles miles but what we saw was wondrous you know mountains capped with snow deserts as alive as any rain forest caves stretching deep into the Earth seashores with sunrises and sunsets to rival any postcard and lush green forest that reminded us life always Springs Anew and all of that was in our own backyard it was during our continental U.S travel that we settled on our plan to not only see but to make in we dove into the world of YouTube blogging and vlogging at the time that was a new one for us wasn't it we had no idea what we didn't know and what we didn't know blows our minds today it is complicated overwhelming and very frustrating at times the following questions soon dominated our daily conversations should we make a website what video editing software do we need and here's our favorite what exactly is the YouTube algorithm still has that one we still do not know what that one is so and another question is how do we manage all the data that we're creating and how do we put together the million puzzle pieces to make something that inspires and teaches others yeah after many headaches a few door slams and just enough aha moments to keep us going we got into a rhythm and figured out a few things making travel content is never something we thought we would be doing in retirement but deciding to make was the Catalyst that set us on this great journey in late 2021 we arrived in Panama to begin our years-long adventures abroad while creating the retirement Travelers company behind the scenes it still seems a little crazy to us that we've traveled to six continents and 80 countries over the past few years you know we know we have limited time to see the world and before our bodies betray us and give out we wanted to hold firm that it's a venture worth pursuing with every passing day we're reminded that our time is ticking and that we do have an expiration date until then every day is an adventure which is truly an understatement had we chosen to travel and not make anything you know take a 20-year vacation we believe our lives would feel frivolous today our minds are full of ideas and the more ideas we have the more they grow retirement shouldn't be a time of settling down and becoming stagnant in your thoughts and dreams there are countless examples of people who started later in life we believed we had within us the ability to create a goal and see it through while I had given up my career early on to raise kids we believed we were not too old to have a new goal and have it go at something completely different in retirement we had come across the C.S Lewis quote you are never too old to set a new goal or to dream a new dream now besides Elizabeth Gilbert's big magic we took this particular quote to heart you know it wasn't too late for us to live life differently it wasn't too late for us to mix it up and it certainly wasn't too late for me to step aside and let Bev have a go at creative expression I had a very good career and she has been my rock always in the background telling me that I could do it that I could think creatively and problem solve issues at work so this time it was my turn to be supportive well I had always had the creative bug and I wanted to give blogging a try John studied engineering and his willingness to work hard was a good combination for us I had studied design in art school and I had the ability to see things from the emotional side he can understand analytics and how to help those two things come together in the end he's blossomed into the creative Mastermind and I've become more analytical so we wrote a new chapter in this book of ours daily we Face many aspects of content creation website optimization you know understanding technological terms that seem like they arrive from a different planet and a multitude of other equally overwhelming challenges you know learning this process has been very hard you know but we're starting to get the hang of it you know we are a team and sometimes we exit the stadium with our arms up in the air and sometimes with our chins on our chest but we learn and move on to the next game you might be wondering how we're doing with the monetization because after all we'd love to make enough money to help pay for our travels well if you went back from the very beginning and counted from there we probably made between two and four cents an hour and and that's kind of on the hot side but the dream is there that one day it might pay off but we are making progress and while we're looking ahead to that elusive 100 000 subscriber level and we know only one percent of YouTube channels ever reach that and for those of you that have given us the vote of confidence by subscribing you have no idea how much that means to us so thank you very much sometimes people ask us if they should start a YouTube channel and our initial Primal instinct is to scream no don't do We Believe believed that everyone's creative Journey should be their own Elizabeth taught us that great artists or musicians our creatives in any Arena must create to know if they can create so it's not for us to say how you should live your creative life but do go and read Elizabeth's book big magic if you need or want a pep talk on how to become a maker of your own things you can purchase this on our website in our travel store as we reflect on the reality we are creators and makers our deepest hope is that our YouTube channel will inspire people to take the leap and travel even if only for a short trip it is so rewarding to hear that we already have you know readers followers and subscribers often tell us our journey has convinced them to take a trip to plan differently in retirement or think of their stuff in a different light it is those remarks and comments that make the digital Creator learning curve a a distant memory creative living beyond fear is easier said than done traveling abroad requires gumption and determination but the rewards are many you don't have to be a great artist or a great writer to make an impact on the world because ordinary people can make extraordinary lives just by their willingness to experience and learn something new and different of course what we've decided to make might not be a Priceless painting or even a best-selling novel but if our travel writing or video Vlog helps someone perhaps you realize their dream of seeing the world of living abroad or just getting out of their comfort zone bubble then what a magical bonus you know the best part about making something is watching how your creation can change the lives of others and to that we say onward so to answer the original question why do we have a YouTube channel and all the rest because perhaps being the makers of things is the journey we were meant to take World Travel is just the canvas this book of ours will have a final chapter but only when the world has finished teaching us her lessons whatever they may be be sure to hit subscribe and follow along on our retirement Journey around the world

Channel: Retirement Travelers

Views: 19,075

Keywords: retirement, retirement goals, creativity, vlogging, Age 60, big magic, what to do in retirement, senior living, retirement travelers, retirement travel, why start a youtube channel, creative living, age 60 things to do, what to do in retirement years, change your life, living beyond fear, youtube channel, how we youtube, World travel, retirement planning, retire, big magic by elizabeth gilbert, how to start a youtube channel 2023, retire early, early retirement, baby boomers

Id: Pq899Rg3CqY

Length: 11min 56sec (716 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 23 2023