Happy Thursday everyone! Today, I am taking you on a behind the scenes look at @globelletravels, an inspiring community for female travelers and adventurers.
I am so excited to chat with them about how they got started, their mission, and about the strategies that they offer. So let’s dive in!
Hey GlobelleTravels, thank you so much for joining LifeOfChristy here on a BTS interview…
Tell us a little bit about yourself, a behind the scenes look at Globelle Travels (i.e. who are you, what inspired your to create Globelle Travels in the first place, when did you create it?)
Hi there, thanks for having me! My name is Deb, and I’m the founder of Globelle Travels. Normally, you’ll find me based in London Town, but I’m currently writing this to you in Azúra, Spain, where I’m undertaking the final stretch of the Camino de Santiago (the 118km from Sarria – Santiago de Compostela).
(@debdebdebdeb, Location: South Downs Way, England, UK)
https://www.instagram.com/p/BhtCD5YHMTT/
Needless to say, I have a deep passion for travel. I created Globelle Travels four years ago (crikey! It’s gone fast) while a solo female traveller in their early twenties, exploring Australia after having graduated from University the year previously.
As well as being a result of my passion for travel, creating Globelle was also a reaction to a few experiences I had at that time, these being (in order of occurrence):
- Finding myself responding to numerous messages I’d received from female friends, friends of friends & acquaintances asking for advice. The tone of the messages were similar: these were woman considering setting out to travel (mainly solo) and they wanted to know how to do it.
It struck me that despite the wealth of knowledge out there, there was no one clear resource that provided the answers to their queries and more information for female travel. The inspiration for Globelle was born.
The name Globelle was chosen as our mission has always been to remain as accessible as possible to a global community of female travellers. One of the core ways we believe we can do this is by inspiring and informing others through celebrating the achievements of the female travellers out there.
As women, we’re so often encouraged by society to pit ourselves against each other – we aim to create a movement that can recognize the brilliance of other women while recognizing that doing so doesn’t diminish anyone else’s brilliance in the process.
- As well as informing and inspiring female travellers, we wanted to create a community that could provide support to it’s members. This is actually on the basis of my experience when trying to secure farmwork in Australia. I received many unsavory messages in response to a post on gumtree that specifically detailed I was looking for farmwork which would include a large nannying component.
I’m very lucky to have always been supported by a wide circle of family and friends so I could easily ignore them. But it made me think there might be those not in that position, or without the knowledge to ignore these messages. People who we could help.
- Finally, it was as an acknowledgement of all the wonderful travellers out there, female, some solo, doing incredible things, pursing paths that even while I was at University and considered myself pretty open minded, could never have imagined.
The possibility of creating connections between these travelers and connecting people in general is something I believe to be very beautiful & special, as sappy as that may sound.
What is the mission behind Globelle Travels and what message do you hope to get across to your community?
I think I’ve touched upon our mission above – inspiring, informing & connecting female travellers. A big component of how we set out to do this is by celebrating all the brilliant achievements of women you can already find on the road.
The message I hope to get across to the community is travel, in whatever form, is always a good idea. There is a way it can accommodate everyone, and offers an opportunity to give and take which in my mind is unmatched anywhere else.
Which I think at this point leads nicely to your next question…
Being a feature account, how do you decide which accounts/ pictures you want to feature? (i.e. composition, angle, full body, nature, landscape, hashtag etc…)
In the spirit of keeping things accessible and staying true to our inclusion values, none of the above are actually criteria (although we do all browse all, and I really mean all, photos with the #globelletravels. If you’ve taken the time to share it, we want to see it!)
We try to ensure that every post we share has a message for our community that aligns with the beliefs & values we want to promote – be that joy, sustainability, adventure or an example of where a female traveller has put in the extra effort on her journey, and gone the extra mile – behavior we admire at HQ.
We believe in the power of a moment captured, and if your capture is able to tell us what made that moment matter, or what you’re particularly grateful for when it comes to that image – that’s of massive interest to us.
Account size doesn’t matter (we’re not too excited by those interested in self-promotion or on the hunt to become Instafamous). A genuine love or passion from your shot about any travel related topic does.
There are so many feature accounts out there now, what makes your account different than others?
I find this choice of question really interesting. As we said, we’ve been going for nearly 4 years now (and we’d be loathe to describe ourselves purely as a ‘feature account’ – we are a female travel community first and foremost).
It’s been great to be here to witness the rise over these years of more female travel focused profiles on Instagram, and we hope more women feel confident to share their stories and set out to connect others.
We believe here at Globelle that our perspective, beliefs & values are worth shouting about and are at the heart of all the content we set out to endorse and share.
We focus on doing what we do well, even if that means that by sharing the content we choose to we do not encourage monumental account growth as seen by other accounts.
Whether that makes us different or not would be for others to say!
How much time have you put into creating the brand Globelle Travels?
Again, a very tough question to answer. Globelle has been an integral part of my life and I wouldn’t change it for the world. I always want to give more to it, as there is so much more that I’d love the community to offer beyond what is publicly visible & available currently.
I think the most useful thing I could say here is that for anyone out there with a passion, idea, project, brand that they want to follow, pursue or build… Keep going.
Don’t stop. Each step, however small, will bring you closer to what you set out to make, and what you achieve along the way will bring you a thousand more happinesses (definitely a word) than if you’d left the idea alone – and if the imposter syndrome hits – remember, only you can tell it to bore off. And I believe you can.
So I love your blog and how you feature different women writing articles on it. How does one go about being featured on your blog page? What type of content are you looking for?
Well step one would be – reach out! We don’t bite here at HQ – and can be reached on globelletravels@gmail.com – whatever your idea for a content piece, we’d be happy to talk through it. Saying that, if you look at our ‘Why I Travel’ section – we’re always after new submissions there! Send them over.
So many people are curious about how to grow an organic Instagram account, how did you go about growing your community? What are 3 tips you would share to others out there trying to grow an Instagram?
The 3 tips that I could offer, which have worked for us are:
- Remember it should be about more than ‘the perfect gram’. It should be about the emotions you wish to invoke to the person viewing your content, and the message you hope they’ll takeaway.
- Create something of value for your audience. Consider: what from your perspective could shed new light for others? Do you want to specialize in one area and do it well?
- Treat it as the fun, social platform it should be, which at the best of times, can create meaningful connections between real people and at the worst of times cause and deepen anxiety for many. Be an inspiring, but considerate poster – if you find yourself in a great situation, acknowledge it for being so.
Thanks for having me! Safe travels + GT love! x
Additional resources: Deb’s (woman who runs @globelletravels) instagram click here
Hope you enjoyed the interview!
Xx,
CLB
