Where we've been (and why we vanished)

And we're back! I think. Yay! It's been six months since we posted a video, Amelia. I can't believe it's been that long. It feels like it's been a blink of an eye and also like it's been six years. Yeah, like a lifetime. Yes. So do you think we should explain why we've been gone perhaps and maybe what we've been doing since since then? I think that's a good idea. I know because a lot has happened in that amount of time. When we went to the Lake District for a couple of days while we were in Manchester as kind of a getaway, I thought we were going to film a video and Amelia had different plans. I thought we were just going to go and enjoy it and apparently we did a really bad job communicating that to each other. I know. So I was filming everything and then she, we kind of got in an argument about it. She's like, I don't want to film everything and and I thought why? It just really took a step back and said, what are we doing? Why are we in this beautiful part of the world? One of the most beautiful places in the world and I'm working and like, how do I get this shot and walk this way? And Amelia's like, I've had enough. Stop. Well because we only had a limited amount of time. We were only there for like two days, right? Yeah. Yeah. So I guess that's the, I guess that was kind of like our awakening moment. Yes. Where we really took a step back and said, what are we doing? Why did we start our YouTube channel in the first place? We started it to help people and I felt like it somehow morphed into chasing the algorithm and trying to get more views. It definitely did. And I guess the thing a lot of people don't understand is as your channel grows, so does your workload. Like the amount of messages we get daily, how much time it takes to edit the videos, trying to come up with new content all the time. And I think we just kind of got into that YouTube grind and we kind of lost sight of the real reason we started it and the joy that we used to have for doing this. Well, and with our travel schedule, it's really made things more challenging. So we were felt like we were always under the gun because we did some fast travel and well, we just didn't give ourselves enough time. Yeah. We also, we have our travel club, which we've talked about in some of our other videos that we posted and that took a lot of our time. It did. I mean, it was a lot of time to plan, organize and host the trips that we were organizing for our travel club. And I think we were a little overambitious. You think? We were way too ambitious. So we were basically doing like two weeks on a trip and then two weeks off. So basically we were traveling every two to three weeks from one destination to another. And it kind of took away the whole point of our, we want to slow travel, not fast travel. Yes. Which is funny, I think, because when we first started this, we thought two weeks was slow travel and it was for us because we weren't traveling at all. But now that we've actually been slow traveling for over two and a half years, the month stay is the sweet spot. So it did feel a lot more like fast travel. That's because we were getting early. We were going early to our leaf destination and we stayed a few extra days. So it made things really choppy. Yeah, it did. And then we also would increase our cost a lot. It did. That was a shock. Fast travel is a lot more expensive than slow travel. I know we still get comments from people saying that slow travel is just too expensive. Slow travel is really not. We were spending a little bit more than we were spending in Ecuador. But fast travel almost doubled that because we no longer, we were making decisions based on cost of airfare and lodging. So when we chose our next spot, we would just see like where can we get to from here that's a direct flight that's cheap and has affordable lodging. And that saved us a lot of money. It did. And it also let us be really spontaneous, which I like. I always say we left room for serendipity. But with the LEAP schedule, we didn't have any of that anymore. So we had to go from one spot to the next without it. We couldn't make that decision because we had to be in the next place for the LEAP. So it kind of really blew our budget. Yeah. We weren't quite prepared for all of that. Yeah. And it just, it was exhausting. It was exhausting. I mean, the LEAPs are fantastic and we're having a great time. But we just, like you said, we were just overzealous. Yeah. So it felt weird, I think, the first time when we weren't filming everything in Bali, right? Because in Bali, we really didn't film much. In fact, we were there for a month, I think. Then it was like the last day. And Amelia said, you realize we haven't filmed anything? We took a lot of pictures. We did. We filmed some of the turtles that we call them, our turtle travel club members. We filmed some of the activities that we did together, but we didn't really go out and film Bali like YouTubers do. No, we did not do that. It's like a... I know. I can't believe I was... Oops, I just hit my microphone. Sorry, guys. I can't believe I was the one who was like, hey, wait a minute, we need to film. I know. So we went out on the last day and like shot some... got some shots just to have in case we decided we wanted them for a future video. But it did feel very strange not to be filming. It did. It did. But at the same time, it didn't kickstart us to start up again. Well, that's because we were going to our next destination. Yeah. Because from Bali, we went to Bangkok for a week. We did. It was on our way to our next Angkor Wat and we met up with a couple of our turtle travel club members, Liz and Erica. Hi, guys. Hi, guys. And we just hung out like with friends and played in Bangkok for a week. No, that was fun. It was so much fun. We had already filmed Bangkok before and it really hadn't changed much. So, again, we just took a few pictures, but we didn't film it. And it was so relaxing just to hang out with friends and feel like normal people. Yeah. Didn't it? It did. It was nice. It was like a little mini vacation for us. It was. And it seemed like we were there for weeks and we were only there for one week on our transit from Bali. Because we were there in Bali for four weeks because they only have the 30-day visa. Right. So we left after 28 days. Exactly. Yeah. And then we wanted to kill some time before we went to Angkor Wat and see them leave. Well, don't they only have a 30-day? Yeah, they have 30 as well. I know you can extend it, but we don't like to mess around with that. We don't want to take any chances when we do have a schedule. Yeah. So everything was really like up, really for like the past four or five years, I think. When we first started, it really wasn't, it didn't feel like this. But for the past four or five years, like everything is content driven. It was all based on, okay, where can we go? How can we film it? What should we say? We do the research and film. You know, it's a lot of work to like research and then create our outline and practice and film, edit, publish, promote. It's just, it's a full-time job. Most people don't realize that. Well, and we also tried some different styles and you know, anytime we try something different, there's a definitely a learning curve. Yeah. Like our Paris video. It took us 80 hours to create that Paris video. And with all of the planning and the filming and the editing, it was 80 hours. Yeah. That was a bit too much. Yeah. Just a bit. Can't really put out a video every week if it takes 80 hours to create one. Yeah. That was a exhausting. I think we've, didn't we just talk about this? Didn't we talk, walk like 12 or 13 miles that day? Yeah. I think we walked 13 miles filming that video. Anyway, we dikers. We walked across Paris and then ended up climbing the Arc de Triomphe. It was still an awesome day. Yeah. So I guess that we, we didn't really fall out of love with like YouTuber. I actually would say helping people is what we started this for and why we really want to get back to. So I think our format is going to change a bit. It's going to make, be more about like, how can we help people and less about how can we get more views? So we may not be getting as many views, but if we enjoy it more, I don't really care. I agree. So when we also, I'll just go back to editing. Cause that was another thing. It's an expense is that we're creating these longer videos and going after more views and stuff. So we needed more editing, which I didn't have time to do with all the other stuff. So we have, we hired an editor, which is expensive, which means we need more views. Everything's a circle. It's a vicious circle with YouTube. It's like, the more you grow, the more it costs and the more you need to grow to pay for the cost, which costs more. And it's constant, like chasing this thing. Yeah. And it's, it is, but like you said, you know, we've talked about it and again, I can't believe it's been six months that we haven't posted and we're both really ready to get back to it. I mean, it's part of our, we like it. We like YouTube. We like connecting with you guys. And you know, one of the reasons we started this JP was to bust the myth of that Ecuador is a crappy place to live. Yeah. We used to say, we show you what it's really like to live in Ecuador. That was like our slogan for the longest time, because we felt like it was kind of misrepresented. Yes. We feel like that about a lot of places like Albania, where we are right now is I feel like really misrepresented. We still get comments. Like it's like the mafia is there and it's dangerous and it's just not. And yeah, come here. And the cab driver, like on our way from the airport said, you know, it's totally safe here. Like a single woman can walk home at 2 AM. Just be careful on the bus. Cause you can get pickpocketed. Yeah. Which could happen. That happens everywhere. Exactly. Even in places you wouldn't expect that. But that's my, but again, that was one of our driving forces behind creating the YouTube channel in the first place. So it'd be nice to be able to get back to that kind of stuff as well. It would be. Yeah. And I think another reason why we've kind of like reconnected is through our travel club. We've met so many people who have watched us for, for years and they've told us how much we've impacted their lives and made them look at the world differently and start slow traveling or move abroad. And we get stopped on the street all the time still. And people, that's the first thing they say is like, we're, we're doing this because of you. Like you inspired us to slow travel or to move here. I know. And it's really rewarding. It is really rewarding when we hear that. I think we just kind of forgot about that. Yeah. We're so busy doing, sometimes you need to take a step back to really focus and just breathe. But I think taking that step back really did help us. Like where they say you can't see the forest for the trees. Exactly. And I think we were so deep in the forest that we really couldn't see anything. And I think stopping for a while and taking a break really kind of helped us reset and get a broader, a better picture. Cause several people ask, you know, like, why did you quit? And like, well, for one thing, we didn't have enough time with the club, but now that that's underway, it's taking less time and we're also doing fewer leaps now. So we're not going to do them every two weeks. No. We have learned so much in the last six months. We really have. And when we look back at this time in the future, you know, six months, it seems like a long time, but in the whole big scheme of things, it's really not that much time at all. And I think the second thing though, is that we just kind of lost the joy for it. I know some people ask that and I say, we're just, we're just not enjoying it anymore. Like we used to. And I think that happens to a lot. I actually did some research on this and found out that this is a common thing for YouTubers who like passed the a hundred thousand subscriber mark and really in that 200 to 500,000 range, a lot of YouTubers just burn out and stop. And we've seen actually several channels that we used to watch in the very beginning for inspiration and they're just not, they're not posting anymore. It happens. Definitely people change. Like you said, they get burnt out or they just decide they want to do something different. Yeah. It's understandable. Yeah. So we're going to focus on the joy that we used to have. We're going to focus more on like how to help people, whether we think it's going to get a bunch of views or not. We'll post, you know, videos about topics that you guys really care about, not necessarily that the algorithm cares about. So, and then we're just going to try to make fewer edits, videos that are easier to edit. So I'm not spending 10, 20 hours or more editing so that we can put out more videos that way that are more like raw and real. JP is a bit of a perfectionist. So sometimes he would spend a lot of time on just finding that perfect clip. Yeah. And I know it's going to be hard for you. Well, and also I've, I've reworked our library. We have four terabytes of video and that doesn't count the narration. I delete all of the narration after we're done with them, you know, after a few months, because we don't use those anymore. Right. But I keep all of the B-roll that I've filmed over the years and it's up to four terabytes. And so I'm going to, I'm going through that slowly and organizing it into a library that I can use and make it easier to edit and find the clips instead of going, it just took too long before. Yep. It did. It took way too long. Yeah. So that's, I guess that's the next chapter is going to, we'll probably look a little bit different. Hopefully you guys like it. It might be more podcast style. A lot of people call our channel a podcast anyway, like it's a YouTube channel. It's not a podcast, but I guess so many people just listen now rather than watch that maybe it is treated more like a podcast. Well, we'll just continue to evolve and see how things go. I'm looking forward to it. Yep. So we're back and we're excited to be, we missed you guys. We did. We did. That was the one thing is that we missed just the whole interaction and having people come up and talk to us and talking to our turtles really helped reinforce the importance of all of this. Yeah, it did. So we will try not to disappear for another six months. No, we're not going to do that. So if you guys are still here and you haven't unsubscribed, like a lot of people did that, we really appreciate it. We appreciate you and we're happy to be back and hopefully you'll enjoy our new direction. All right. I think, I think that's all we have. Yep. All right guys, we'll see you all in our next video. Ciao.