I recently returned from Reno Tahoe's Creator Camp. It was a fantastic weekend filled with adventurous activities across 5 different tracks led by 8 top creators in the travel space. It was a blast, no doubt, but I wasn't there just to have fun. I also wanted to figure some things out for myself. Here's what I learned.

Capture, create and explore at an epic, all-inclusive summer camp for grown-ups.

This is no ordinary summer camp. This all-inclusive vacation is an immersive adventure across the greatest urban and outdoor landscapes in the Sierra Nevada hosted by some of the world’s top travel pros.

Want this life

The main thing I wanted to figure out is whether or not creating adventure travel content is something I want to go all-in on. It's been a theme in my life ever since I lived on a sailboat as a kid - from the shows I watch to how I live my life. I wanted to work through some fears and ask some questions.

I've tried to make my dreams work a few times in the past. Specifically back in 2011 when I took a year off to create travel edits on YouTube and even as early as 2006-ish when talking with uni buddies about creating a travel show (side note: I still want to execute on that concept).

It was great to hang out with people who have stuck with their travel content creation for the long term and get their perspectives on life.

Learning: yep, I sure do want this life.

Regular people

It was cool to meet creators who are at the top of their game and see that they are regular people. They have worked hard, earned it, and deserve what they have achieved but there isn't anything particularly extraordinary about them. And I don't mean that in any kind of negative way. They are awesome people.

It was great to hear them talk about their fears, growth, and journey. They persevered and made it happen. Thing is, it's no different than excelling at your craft be it engineering or skiing. Those that are dedicated, want to improve, put the time and effort in to do so, and stick with it for the long term (with maybe a little luck and timing tossed in) reach the top.

Learning: if they can do it, so can I.

Work in pairs

I noticed that the majority of the creators were working in pairs, whether that person was in front of the camera or entirely behind the scenes. I also found it noteworthy that the one creator that seemed to be solo, mentioned how the journey had been lonely at times. Just as with so many other things in life, I think it's important to have a teammate.

Learning: find a teammate.

Demographic follows content

The content I put out there will attract a specific demographic. On the surface, this seems super obvious. What was really interesting, however, was to see it in real time in one room. Each camp track was led by different creators and each track clearly had a different demographic of attendees.

This stood out to me because, if I want to build a specific community of like-minded, social, inclusive, fun, adventurous people, both men and women, that are the types of peeps I want to hang out with, my content needs to reflect that. I have more of this planned but, at the moment, my content is mainly "single male doing hard endurance challenges."

Learning: be more intentional about the content I put out.

More views ≠ more followers

Having a lot of people watch one of my Reels doesn't mean that a lot of people are going to follow my account. This relates to the above.

The Bucket List Family shared a Reel I created and that led to it being viewed over 54,000 times. Only 14 new people followed my account because of that Reel though. My first thought is that there is not enough overlap between the Bucket List Family's demographic and my own. In fact, it's still so early for me, that I don't even have a defined demographic yet. I'm still at the friends and family stage.

Learning: building an engaged community is going to be a heck of a lot of work.

Long journey

It's going to take a lot longer to reach my goals than I want / think. This messaging was pretty consistent from all of the creators.

These days we live in a fast paced world and expect most things to happen near instantly. That's not the case when you are building something meaningful, such as an engaged community of awesome people. See above. It's a lot of work, and that work takes time.

The creators that were leading the tracks at this camp have been doing their thing for 10+ years.

Learning: it's going to take time.

Employment is important

Don't quit my job... yet. Since it's going to take longer than I want to get to where I want to be, it's important to be able to support myself throughout the journey, for all sorts of reasons.

One reason in particular that was brought up is so that I'm not desperate when negotiating with brands and taking low ball terms or compromising on my values. Having a stable financial base gives me more leverage and enables me to say no more often, especially when things don't feel right.

For now, I need to treat this as a side / passion project and one of two things will happen. Either I will have a heck of a good time doing more of the things I love or I will have a heck of a good time doing more of the things I love and people will want to pay me to do so. Win win.

The time to quit is when there are clear signs that I'm on to something - when there are so many opportunities that my day job is simply getting in the way too much.

Learning: my current engineering gig is pretty ideal for the time being.

Keep going

This learning sums it all up. If this is the life I want, that is achievable by regular people, that put in the work over a long period of time, because it takes time to build a meaningful, engaged community of awesome people, then there really is no other outcome than to just keep going.

Besides, I want to get better at creating content (and grow in life in general). This weekend I was feeling some social anxiety. I've always found larger groups tough; my sweet spot is groups of 3-4 people. On top of that I get self-conscious when I'm filming, whether I'm in front of or behind the camera. Needless to say, I got a bit into my head and pulled out of the moment at times.

I want to get to a point where hanging with bigger groups and filming becomes second nature. Where I can really be present in the moment and part of the action, rather than in my head. I want to move through life with more lightness and playfulness. It's going to take practice and repetition.

Learning: keep going; I've got this! 👊🏻