The Globe Wanderer founder Mikhail Tenazas was supposed to be a doctor.
The 36-year old content creator from Cebu, Philippines earned his degree in medicine almost a decade ago in 2012. He went through all the sleepless study nights, the rounds, the exams, but knew something was amiss. Right after graduation, he decided to take his own path and do what he loved the most: Travel. Knowing he needed funds to sustain this new need, he started an online business supplying health and beauty supplements.
At a time where travel and the Internet were not as intertwined as they are now, he was one of the early followers of big travel accounts on social media. He got inspiration from them and realized that he could do the same and make a living out of traveling. Two years after he decided to pave his own path, and started what would be one of the biggest travel accounts online: The Globe Wanderer. Bred out of passion and intuition, it gained close to one million followers in its first year alone.
Hard work, when done right, pays off
Knowing the work that needed to be put in, Mikhail dedicated his time to sustaining his travel brand. He connected with its followers, regularly posting, which helped his travel account to grow fast. Like how he gave the effort in earning his degree in medicine, he took it upon himself to learn photography and editing—two vital skills when you are a content creator. This soon paid off when he started getting offers from tourism boards and hotels to work with them. Getting the groove, he built his other pages: @MGTenazas and The Travel Pro, which are luxury, travel, and adventure sites.
In 2016, he started traveling full-time and worked with several global brands. He also worked on a campaign for Saudi Arabia in 2019 to promote the country when it first opened for tourism. Only after he arrived there did he realize that he was among the biggest influencers and content creators around the world. Soon, he found himself working with Abercrombie and Fitch, the Turkish Tourism Board, and luxury resorts such as Four Seasons and Ritz Carlton.
Was changing his path the right choice?
For him, the choice was more of what he can do best to meet both what makes him happy in a way while also serving others. “You need to be smart when choosing your career path,” says Mikhail. His advice for budding content creators? “You don’t go on these trips thinking it’s going to be purely a holiday. While it is fun and a privilege to call traveling my work, it is also that: you actually need to work. As content creators, we need to think about getting multiple income streams early on. Working with tourism boards or travel brands can be financially rewarding, but you can’t rely solely on this, as the pandemic has shown. You can sell your own products, start a blog, or just get creative and find other ways of getting a passive income.”
Being a physician is a noble profession, especially now that we are still battling the pandemic. While the work is not comparable, there is also good in being a content creator: Inspiring motivation in a world that needs it the most.