A few years ago, I featured Damon Dominique and Jo Franco, friends from university who had won 440,000 subscribers on their YouTube journey channel called “Shut Up and Go.” They grew because they offered a unique concept: To no longer painting journey existence, but to live tour by crossing borders and mastering languages.
They had been encouraging the kids of the arena to move around and meet. And as active as they have been, leisure appeared secondary to the mission of teaching a way to fulfill millennial wanderlust. I these days stuck up with Jo Franco via e-mail because the undertaking has hit a few predominant milestones.
Their YouTube channel surpassed the 1 million subscriber mark, and, perhaps greater importantly, closing month, they officially released a digital publication, additionally referred to as Shut Up and Go. The mission is the same, too: “We inspire people to live the lives they’ve usually desired because ultimately, the most effective man or woman protecting you again is yourself.” There’s a strolling count on the website that partially marks its growth.
But also makes the point that those who need to see the world do. So a long way, the numbers are brilliant: 10 contributors have published 475 articles from more than 25 destinations. In this email interview, Franco discusses how the internet site has become a reality, how existence is special now that people solve them, and why YouTube works as a platform to teach. Damon and I began the YouTube channel again in 2013 when we were the most effective human beings in our college pal institution willing to Shut Up and Go. We did not care; we had been broke and in college.
For instance, while we found out we could not have the funds for going to a horny seashore in Mexico, we determined to go to the inexpensive but frigid tundra of Montreal for Spring Break. We’d like hard it because we knew we’d advantage inside the testimonies and relationships we made along with the manner. It’s almost been ten years, but that experience sparked the Shut Up and Go motto.
We began displaying our adventures on YouTube first to pitch it as a TV display. When traditional TV professionals advised us that the young journey would not sell, we began dedicating our time to the channel. We saw stored us influenced: we were not the handiest ones who wanted more out of life than the traditional, university, 9-five, married, retirement, then maybe tour put up-retirement lifestyle.
After years of always uploading at the channel (with all of our journeys completely self-funded to crappy peculiar jobs on the pinnacle of paying crappy and overpriced NYC rent), we had created a network of people who related to each other due to our videos. By 2015, we started receiving great emails about humans having found the loves in their lives or great buddies in the comments of our videos and Instagram account.
We decided we needed to make a larger brand that encompasses all testimonies of humans dwelling international lifestyles. Shut Up and Go became born, and the vacation spot has become shutupandgo.Travel. We formally released the platform a month ago after working with a web design agency to create the glossy platform we’d’ve loved to have determined while we have been getting started in our travels.
To populate the website with the most on-brand articles, we reached out to our target market, asking members to submit their memories. We now work carefully with our content manager for the platform, 10 worldwide writers, and four network moderators who work daily on engaging the Shut Up and Go network. It’s become a large operation because we’re growing a place that is by no means existed earlier than a platform for folks that see travel as a lifestyle, not a luxury.
We’re no longer your trendy employer even though, very fittingly, we’re a lifestyle business. We permit our personnel to work wherever they sense most inspired. In this method, we’re a hundred% far off; however,, the furthest factor from removed. Weekly calls, Google medical doctors, heaps of messages, emails, and some work journeys of 12 months keep us engaged with the team no matter time quarter variations. We work out global co-running areas to provide our target audience with daily entertaining articles, social media content, and resources like discounts, events, and products to assist them along the way.
