A platform for travelers to share their unique travel experiences through sincere and diverse storytelling.
"Quality over quantity!"
Today Jonathan Otero, Saskia Hatvany, and Maximille Gonzales the creators of Globetrotters Podcast shares their story of places & travel podcast.
► Tell us about you and your podcast
Jonathan is a travel enthusiast of Nicaraguan descent. Originally from Los Angeles, California. In his youth, he seldom traveled. It wasn’t until he joined a mariachi band at the age of 9 that he got a few opportunities to travel locally – mainly the Southwest United States. He credits his 7 year musical experience as the genesis for his desire to travel internationally. He now works as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for an event management company headquartered in San Francisco, California that allows him to travel all over the world and meet brilliant people from different cultural backgrounds and socioeconomic status.
Saskia took her first airplane before she could talk. Born in Oakland, California, to multinational parents, she grew up traveling frequently. At six years old, her parents decided to spontaneously move to a village in rural France, where she would spend the majority of her childhood. After high school, one gap year quickly turned into two years — and then three. At 27 years old, she has visited over 30 countries and has worked and lived abroad. Currently, she works as a freelance journalist, photographer, and writer.
Max is a freelance photographer, travel addict, adventure enthusiast, wildlife and nature advocate, hidden gem seeker and doggo dad from Richmond, California. Early on, Max decided to ditch the 9-5 mindset and since then, has backpacked to 30 countries and counting. He ignited his hustle in the tourism industry and in fact, he loved leading tours so much that Max and a few of his friends created an adventure tourism company based in Colombia. Currently, Max is knee deep in his photography business and sharing stories of exploration with Globetrotters.
► Why & how did you start this podcast?
Jon first approached Saskia and Max (two experienced travelers and freelance photographers) during COVID about working on a project to not only share the travel experiences of diverse voices, but to draw on our experiences and knowledge to help other aspiring travelers from different socioeconomic backgrounds. We believe travel is an invaluable window for individual growth and cultural education and would love to use our platform as an educational tool for everyone. And frankly, we grew up quite differently which helps us connect with a diverse audience.
► How'd you find the time and funding to do this podcast?
Currently, we release an episode every two weeks (Wednesday, 8am CST) but are hoping to move into a weekly release towards the end of the year. With 3 co-hosts, we have to be flexible in our day to day lives with work, relationships, personal projects, and of course travel. It has made it quite difficult at times, but rewarding in ways we could never have imagined. Jon is the primary fund source for the podcast, but we are open to collaboration and advertisements from companies or organizations that share our values and ideals.
► What do you gain from podcasting?
We just reached our 10,000th download in roughly a year and a half of producing episodes. The growth we are currently experiencing with our audience has been nothing short of spectacular and exciting. We are now averaging 1,000+ downloads per month and are continuously seeing steady growth. In our wildest dreams, we could not have imagined this was possible so soon. I'm sure there are others who have reached these milestones faster, but we don't care. Each podcasting venture is different and we are enjoying the ride.
► How does your podcasting process look like?
At the start of the podcast, we reached out to friends and acquaintances we had met over the last 10 years of our travel adventures. Sometimes you meet someone at a pit stop, hostel, bus, or restaurant and a 30 minute conversation can leave an impression. As the show has grown we have started doing a bit more research and outreach. We pre-interview each guest to make sure there is a sense of compatibility and comfort with each other, and also to make sure the guest is a compelling story teller. If there is one thing we've learned, people who have gone on amazing trips or have compelling stories aren't always the best storytellers. We started off using Zencastr and moved on to SteamYard as we enjoy the interphase a bit more.
► How do you market your show?
Up until now, we have solely relied on social media to get the word out of our podcast. But, we've learned that having moderate size social media followings doesn't correlate with listeners and vice versa. We've been blown away to discover that podcasts with small social media followings can have a massive audience. It just goes to show you shouldn't judge a book by its cover.
Currently, this is one area we are looking to expand to reach a bigger audience. Hence, this written interview.
► What advice would you share with aspiring (new) podcasters?
Quality over quantity! Work on the editing and audio mixing to ensure you have a smooth and clean sound. No one wants to listen to terrible audio quality.
► Where can we learn more about you & your podcasts?
You can find more info about us on www.gtspodcast.com
- Instagram: @Globetrotters Podcast
- Facebook: @Globetrotters Podcast
- Twitter: @Globetrotpod
- Email: hello@gtspodcast.com
Thank you.