Full-time food and travel vlogger hopes others can learn from her journey

[News Bot]

In the few years since TJ Lee left everything behind to travel the world – and share her adventures with an ever-growing number of online fans – with only a carry-on suitcase and a backpack, she’s learned a lot. The first year she worked entirely remotely and took on all sorts of freelance gigs to make money: social media management, photo headshots and building websites. But she spent days working on videos – only to be disappointed in the number of views they got. She’d get free products and experiences in exchange for making videos about them – but they’d end up taking much more time than the value of the things she got. Then, by more trial and error, she realized she could do a better job of getting paid to pursue her passions of traveling and food vlogging. Four years later, she’s built a following of almost half a million on various platforms – including YouTube and TikTok – generating a consistent array of videos and brand-sponsored social media posts. Among the many companies she works with is Razer, which recently provided her with a new Windows 11 laptop as one of its brand ambassadors.

On her site, she created a “vlogger academy” to help others with lessons she learned as a full-time influencer (though for now, she’s taking a break from coaching). “When I became an actual content creator, it was a totally different world,” says Lee, who grew up in southern California, graduated from University of California, Davis and worked 15-hour days for a time doing community management for a San Francisco-based tech company. But she wanted to work remotely, see more of the world and more of her family in Taiwan. She knew it wasn’t going to be easy. “Being a freelancer, you have to run your own schedule, you have to do everything and you don't have health insurance.” Her academy included: a three-month set of custom courses that has personalized YouTube strategies, one on one coaching, accountability sessions, pitch scripts for paid collaborations and a community of like-minded entrepreneurs. She knows it’s a tempting but tough road for most people and there are plenty of hurdles. [caption id=attachment_176627" align="aligncenter" width="1024]https://blogs.windows.com/wp-content/uploads/prod/sites/2/2021/11/Photo-1-2-1024x573.jpg TJ Lee working on her Razer Book Quartz. (Photo by Lucas Huang)[/caption] “It's so portable and it's so beautiful, probably the prettiest laptop I've ever had,” she says. “The keyboard lights up. The battery never seems to die.” And she’s not just using it for work – she loves the quality of the screen so much she watches all her shows on the laptop. For her, having a touchscreen is something new, and something she’s using a lot with Windows 11, particularly with one of its new features: widgets. “I can see my calendar for the week and my to-do’s all right there. So that's been a really cool feature to have and I can just swipe it with my fingers,” says Lee, who’s also been using snap layouts to organize her tabs and OneDrive to upload all her photos, which also pops up immediately on her phone – something that happens quickly. That pace is nothing new for Lee. “Every single day is like the wild wild west. I don't know what's going to happen today or tomorrow. You are working for yourself and for your dreams and there's nothing more empowering,” she says. “I will say this, though: it's harder and more exhausting than any job I've ever had before, but also more fulfilling to be able to do what you love and share it with the world.” Lead photo by Daniel Nguyen.

 

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