We recently had the chance to connect with Courtney Chennault and have shared our conversation below.
Courtney, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: What is a normal day like for you right now?
As a full-time solo traveler and content creator bouncing from country to country, every day is truly different! Today, I woke up at my hostel in Bucharest, Romania after spending all day yesterday exploring Dracula’s castle and the Romanian countryside. As I sit in the hallway drinking tea and editing my next video for YouTube, I overhear conversations between the other guests in French, German, and Spanish.
After working for a few hours, I head out with a friend from the hostel to get some fresh air and pick up some groceries at the local Lidl. Perusing the aisles, I gawk at the difference in food prices compared to back home. A package of smoked salmon for $4.60 and frozen pizzas for just $2.30? Hardly a fraction of what I used to pay in New York!
Back at the hostel, I make a quick dinner and enjoy some downtime in my room, booking a tour of the Parliament building for tomorrow. Soon, the hostel garden is buzzing with energy as locals and guests alike gather for trivia night! I head outside to meet new people and join a team. After the game ends, a group of about 20 of us head to the Old Town to check out some local bars before I plop back into bed after a fulfilling day.
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Courtney, a travel content creator who recently quit my 9-5 at Google to travel the world solo for one year. I share my adventures through my YouTube channel, “Exploring with Courtney,” with the goal of inspiring others to travel the world and equipping them with helpful tips so they can do it with confidence.
I’ve always loved to travel and explore new places, especially solo. For me, solo travel fosters curiosity and outgoingness. It challenges my preconceptions about other people and ways of life. It makes me a more empathetic and relatable person.
On this year-long backpacking adventure, I want to dismantle some common fears I hear from others about solo travel. Hostels aren’t seedy places ridden with bed bugs and theft. Sticking to a tight budget doesn’t mean your trip has to be boring. And, traveling solo shouldn’t make you feel lonely or unsafe.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. What’s a moment that really shaped how you see the world?
Every conversation I have with someone from a country I’ve never been to before is a moment that shapes my worldview. Particularly if that country is one that I know very little about.
On a solo trip to Los Angeles several months ago, I met 2 guys at a bus stop and asked where they were from. As someone who prides herself on being well traveled and knowing at least something about most countries, I was caught off guard when they responded, ‘Azerbaijan.’
Immediately embarrassed, I thought to myself, ‘Is that a country?’ I had no idea where it was located, what language was spoken there, what the dominant religion was… I knew nothing at all.
The conversation was brief, but I learned that one of the guys was in grad school and the other was his friend visiting for Spring Break.
This interaction left me feeling humbled by how big the world is and how much more I have to learn. At the same time, I felt inspired. It seems that the more I travel, the more I discover new places to explore. There are so many countries in the world and thanks to the travel industry, I can visit them and meet people from them more easily than ever before.
For anyone unfamiliar, Azerbaijan is a country in the Middle East. They speak Azerbaijani and the predominant religion is Islam. I look forward to visiting it one day!
What did suffering teach you that success never could?
Growing my YouTube community has not been an easy journey. After starting my channel in 2020, it took me a whopping 3.5 years to earn 1,000 subscribers, a milestone that I watched other creators reach within just a few months of launching their channels.
At the time, this slow growth felt discouraging, but it’s this struggle that taught me the skill of perseverance. For me, perseverance requires gratitude. Even though my channel was growing slowly, I was grateful for the positive comments on my videos telling me how my content was positively impacting my viewers.
Perseverance also requires thinking creatively about a different approach to achieve the goal. I tried many new approaches to structuring my videos to see which types of videos would attract the most viewers. After creating mostly vlog-like videos at the beginning of my channel, I experimented with a more story-centered video that quickly became my most viewed video at that time.
From my experience building “Exploring with Courtney,” I truly believe that with enough perseverance, any goal is achievable. I wouldn’t have this mindset if I had experienced the ‘overnight’ growth that I desired.
So a lot of these questions go deep, but if you are open to it, we’ve got a few more questions that we’d love to get your take on. What’s a belief you used to hold tightly but now think was naive or wrong?
Growing up, I thought that accepting or requesting help from others meant I was inadequate or incapable. In middle school, I remember feeling so dejected after receiving anyone’s help with a school project. I preferred to struggle with an assignment for hours just so I could say that I did it 100% myself.
After experiencing more of life, launching “Exploring with Courtney,” and observing other entrepreneurs build their businesses, my mindset shifted. In my experience, the people who are the most effective in their work (while maintaining their own sanity) are those who lean on their network for support and outsource tasks to others.
Now, when I approach a new task, like creating a video, for example, I think the most about impact. Yes, I could spend 15 hours editing all by myself, or I could hire someone with more skills to do this work for me so I can move on to other tasks.
With this approach, I’ve found that the end product is better and is able to resonate with a larger audience. Working efficiently to have the greatest impact possible is far more effective than doing all the work yourself.
Okay, so before we go, let’s tackle one more area. What will you regret not doing?
Backpacking solo around the world for a whole year in my 20’s has been on my bucket list longer than I can remember. So of course, pursuing this dream felt all the more urgent when I turned 29 last December.
I considered what it would take to actually make this dream a reality: quitting my job, giving up my apartment in Manhattan, and saying ‘see you later’ to my friends and family.
Out of all of these, leaving my job was the most intimidating hurdle. But when my inbox pinged with an email from HR offering severance to anyone who wanted to leave their role, it felt like God’s providence. Of course, it was still a scary decision given that layoffs in the tech industry have been rampant and new roles are in seemingly short supply.
Ultimately the choice came down to a question of what would I regret more: Not pursuing this once-in-a-lifetime adventure or not staying in my role at Google? To me, the choice was clear.
Life is short and unpredictable. One day, you just have to decide it’s time to take the leap and chase your dreams.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.exploringwithcourtney.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exploring_with_courtney/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ExploringwithCourtney
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@exploring_w_courtney
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