The Willing Road Monthly Round-Up | July 2018

Being a finalist in a Tullamore DEW competition— In order to fund my travels, I bartend and serve. Well because of this, I entered a contest just for bartenders to enter and was a finalist in San Diego. There were 7 of us and we had to present ourselves to the judges, tell a few jokes, and drink Tullamore Dew. The final prize was a trip to Ireland to tour the Tullamore DEW factory. I didn’t win, but the experience was fun and rewarding. I was nervous, but I took it as another challenge to do something I’ve never done before and say yes to opportunities whenever I can.

Meeting up with friends in London— London was just a stopover before heading to the Czech Republic. I only had a few days to see as much of London as possible, but I also got to meet up with friends old and new. Josh, who I met in Japan when I lived there from 2015-16, showed me around a bit and we caught up, laughing at our old jokes and making new ones. It was great to see an old face again that was there at the beginning of my travels.

After I met up with Josh, I met up with Fernando, a fellow member of a creative group I’m a part of called Black With No Cream. The group encourages each other to keep creating content, helps with tips, and constructive criticism, but the main reason I’m a part of it is due to its value on creating and working hard no matter what. I had never met Fernando before, but when he found out I was in London we made plans to meet up. He showed me around the Shoreditch area, we talked about creating and he gave advice. It’s always great to meet with someone with just as much drive if not more than you because it motivates you and makes you want to work harder. I left London feeling inspired. 

Proud member of the BWNC group

Attending the Colours of Ostrava Music Festival— For being an attendee of the TBEX conference I was given the opportunity to apply as press for the Colours of Ostrava Music Festival, so I did. I was approved which meant I had to arrive to the Czech Republic one week before the actual conference in order to attend this festival. The music was amazing, the people I surrounded myself were fun and full of life. It only boosted my confidence even more for the conference to come. There will be a post coming soon. 

At the top of Bolt Tower, getting a view of the venue

Attending a Branding Workshop— Before the conference started there were several workshops to choose from in order to help you with your blog and your business such as learn how to SEO, improve your writing, improve your video content, and building your brand. I chose to build my brand because it was the one thing that I felt the most lost in, and seemed like a good place to start. Best. Decision. Ever. I not only left the workshop feeling more confident but also eager to get to work on my brand, my website, and everything that goes along with it.

Attending TBEX— Travel Bloggers Exchange is a conference for travel bloggers and companies to get together to learn from each other, network, and talk everything travel. Seriously, guys, the blogging world can be a lonely one since it’s just you and your computer and when you are at a loss for advice, all you have is Google (the real MVP). Attending TBEX made me feel like I wasn’t alone in this confusing world of blogging and that there were other like-minded people out there. It was so rewarding that I signed up for the next one in New York. 😀

Learning Czech— Czech is hard, ya’ll. Sometimes there’s a “Z” next to an “R” and a “V” next to an “N” and the “L” seems like it’s silent… For example, this is a word: nejcharakterističtější. Which means “the most characteristic”. Once you figure out how to pronounce the letters, it gets a little easier, but it’s definitely a difficult language to grasp in 3 weeks. I’ll stick to the normal “good morning”, “good evening” and “good-bye” for now (“dobré ráno” “dobrý večer” and “na shledanou”), but I did enjoy the challenge of it.