Welcome to my writing portfolio and speaking credits; a selection of projects and publications and associations I’ve worked with over the years.
When I started traveling full-time in 2006, travel blogging/vlogging/digital content creation wasn’t “a thing”. Terms like digital nomad and location independent had yet to be coined.
So, when Travel Blogging became a bonafide industry, they called me a “pioneer”. I think it was more a matter of being in the right place at the right time, but who am I to say. (Lord knows, I don’t consider myself a trend-setter.)
What I can say, is that long before this website became a business, I was a freelance writer; a pioneer in my own mind, making money with little more than a laptop and an internet connection while I hacked into local cultures and lived local lifestyles in various far-flung destinations around the world.
Today, I write about travel, personal finance, and lifestyle design. If you are interested in commissioning me for an article, series, or book, please contact me.
I also produce and host Travel Smart, In Style; a YouTube series full of travel tips and tricks learned in the last few decades of being a career traveler. Check out my channel, and please subscribe here.
Curious about the full-time travel lifestyle? Sign up for my FREE email course to find out how to do it yourself!
How to Travel Full-Time in a Financially Sustainable Way
Selected Speaking Credits
I am an in-demand speaker. Travel and digital nomad lifestyle workshops include topics such as:
- Top Financial Hacks for Digital Nomad Superstars
- But What About…??? Life Hacks to Travel Long-Term and Work Remotely
- Remote Work Hacks to Travel Long-Term While Working Remotely (If you DARE!)
- Smart Travel: Tips to Keep Yourself, Your Stuff, and Your Identity Safe While Traveling
- Travel Hacking and Traveling in Style with Points
- Digital Nomad Lifestyle Survival Tips
I regularly speak to travel industry and content creator conferences. Topics have included:
- Remote Work Hacks for Content Creators
- How to 10x Your Content Creation Business With Diversification
- How to Develop a Lucrative Freelance Writing Career and Simultaneously Put Your Blog on the Map
- How to Get Media Exposure and Come Off as the Pro That You Are
Keynotes are customized to the audience, and include:
- Things Nobody Will Tell You About 17 Years of Being a Nomad
- Real Life Lessons Learned from Being a Shaman’s Apprentice
- How I Saved $100,000 in a Decade of Travel – and How You Can Too Without Quitting Your Job
…and others in development.
Some feedback I got from a recent keynote:
I wanted to tell you i found your talk easily one of the best ones I’ve attended. Not only because of the useful content but also because of the very natural and captivating way of storytelling. I had to work that day but closed my computer because it just got me.
Speaking Credits Include:
- 2024: Cross Border Coworking Conference, Bosnia & Herzegovina
- 2024: Bansko Nomad Fest, Bulgaria
- 2024: The Travel Summit, Toronto Canada
- 2023: Safety Wing (online)
- 2023: Camp Indie, Kent CT
- 2023: CEX (Creator Economy Expo), Cleveland OH
- 2023: Women’s Travel Fest, New York City NY
- 2022: Bansko Nomad Fest, Bulgaria
- 2022: NEST, Montenegro
- 2022: CEX (Creator Economy Expo), Arizona USA
- 2022: TBEX (Travel Bloggers Exchange), Washington State, USA
- 2022: Women’s Travel Fest, Portland USA
- 2021: Digital Nomad Week (online)
- 2021: FemPeak (online)
- 2021: Camp Indie, by Location Indie (watch the presentation here!)
- 2021: Work Travel Summit (online)
- 2021: Frequent Traveler University (online)
- 2021: Journeywoman (online)
- 2021: Travel Blogger Collective (online)
- 2020: TMAC (Travel Media Association of Canada)
- 2019: WITS (Women in Travel Summit), Riga Latvia
- 2019: TBEX (Travel Blog Exchange), Montana USA
- 2019: Travel Massive, Toronto Canada (multiple workshops)
- 2019: Rotary Club of Toronto East, Toronto Canada
- 2019: Rotary Club of East York, Toronto Canada
- 2017: PATA (Pacific Asia Travel Association), Macau China
- 2009: Rotary Club of Alexandra, Melbourne Australia
Selected Writing Credits
Below is a selection of venues where my work can be seen, along with some specific links for your perusing pleasure.
Current Books
How to Get Free Accommodation Around the World covers five modalities of short, medium, and long-term free accommodation: Volunteering, Couch Surfing, House-Sitting, Home Exchanges, and even Living on Boats.
3rd Edition, released 2020, updated in 2023
Click here for more information and to purchase a copy.
Tales of Trains: Where the Journey is the Destination is a 180-page narrative about some of the world’s most epic long-distance train rides, including the Indian Pacific and The Ghan in Australia, The Trans-Siberian from Moscow to Beijing, the world’s fastest train, and a whole host of much (much) slower trains as well. It covers over 42,000 kilometres of train travel through 11 countries, in 44 days. Click here for an excerpt.
10,001 Ways to Live Large on a Small Budget
Contributing author. Released May 2009, Skyhorse Publishing. For more information, click here.
NerdWallet
I was a personal finance expert and content writer for NerdWallet.ca, and I was also their spokesperson to the media.
Here is a full collection of articles I’ve written for them, including:
TFSA Contribution Limit and Withdrawal Rules for 2022
Should you Stash Cash in an RRSP or TFSA?
What is Open Banking?
How Does “Buy Now, Pay Later” Work in Canada?
What is a Condo Mortgage?
Lonely Planet
If you don’t know who Lonely Planet is, you may well have been living under a rock for the last few decades. Their modest start as travel guidebooks has morphed into their leading position in the travel industry.
GO Banking Rates
GOBankingRates is a personal finance resource (reaching 1 billion readers) designed to make learning about money, budgeting, and managing your finances more fun and less intimidating. As part of the prestigious Smart Money Squad, I kicked out useful monthly content along the themes of my expertise.
5 Couchsurfing Lessons I Learned From the Worst Houseguest EVER
How Compound Interest Set Me Free
How I Spent $173 For an Entire Year of Accommodation
My 2 Cheap Travel Secrets That Nobody Talks About
Here is a video they produced about my life and lifestyle:
Budget Travel
Sister company to Lonely Planet, BudgetTravel.com is a multi-platform travel media brand that inspires and empowers consumers to see more for less. The site receives 300k+ unique users from the U.S. per month, and Budget Travel has an active engaged social audience of over 4 million.
The “Professional Hobo’s” 8 Unconventional Money-Saving Tips
Transitions Abroad
The original travel magazine, all about working, living, and studying abroad. Transitions Abroad has over 7 million visits per year.
What you Need to Know Before Going on an Expedition Cruise
The Motivation for Long-Term Travel
Protecting Your Laptop Computer and Sensitive Information Abroad
For a full list of articles published on Transitions Abroad click here.
Wise Bread
One of the first and still most popular personal finance and frugal living websites. I was one of their initial columnists and senior writers for over seven years, and I continue to write occasional articles for them to this day.
Here is a small selection of articles:
Make Flying Easy: The Ultimate Carry-On Packing List
Feeling Stuck? 100 Ways to Change Your Life
How to Get Through the Airport Faster
Creditwalk (“Dear Nora” columnist)
Creditwalk.ca is Canada’s resource for information on credit cards. I was their “Dear Nora” columnist for over five years, answering reader questions about travel, finance, and of course, credit cards. A selection of articles:
Best Canadian Credit Cards: Travel Hacker Guide
How to be a Responsible Traveller – 5 Unexpected Pitfalls
What to Do When Your Passport is Lost or Stolen Abroad
Managing Canadian Legalities While Travelling Long-Term
How do I Get Into Teaching English Abroad?
How to Get a Job (or a Free Ride) Living and Working on Boats
For a full list of articles I wrote for Credit Walk, click here.
Ingle International
Ingle International provides travel insurance options (as an agent and broker) to Canadians travelling abroad, snowbirds, people visiting Canada, and international students in Canada. (I used them to get my expat insurance policy)! I wrote a monthly column for them.
MyCareOne
Care One Debt Relief Services helps people get out of debt with debt consolidation and debt counseling. I was a columnist on the topic of travel and life balance for their popular blog A Straight Talk On Debt. Here is a small selection of articles I wrote for them:
Fly for Free: 13 Frequent Flyer Mile Strategies
Vacationing Without Traveling: Taking an Effective “Staycation”
Ways to Make Money by Recycling
Flight Network
FlightNetwork.com has millions of visitors each month, with tens of thousands of subscribers. Monthly columnist for two years. A selection of articles:
The Only 2 Pairs of Shoes You Need For Travel
7 Ingredients for Perfect Travel Clothing: A Woman’s Cookbook
7 Tips, Tricks, and Tools for Smarter Packing
Fresh Juice
Fresh Juice (now merged with Canadian Living) was a Canadian print magazine (circulation 425,000) with a focus on “Healthy Made Delicious”; working with the pillars Eat Well, Be Well, and Live Well. It is put together by TC Media, the brains behind ELLE Canada, Canadian Living, Style at Home, and more. (Inaugural issue of Fresh Juice: April 2012)
Would You be Able to Ditch the Desk Early? (April/May 2012 issue)
14 Hidden Costs of Vacations (online)
A Debt in the Family (online)
Managing Your Finances as a Couple (June/July 2012 issue)
Your Kids and Money (August/September 2012 issue)
Travel + Escape
Here are a few posts as part of a large campaign with Travel+Escape, Scotiabank, and Amex.
Fly Away This Winter! Creative Ways to Save Money on Airfare
How to Escape Winter Without Spending a Fortune
GEICO Now Magazine
GEICO Now is distributed to GEICO insurance customers. I wrote a cover story about Extreme Savers for the Spring/Summer 2012 edition.
Vagabondish
Popular webzine about long term travel and backpacking; one of the first, and still one of the best.
Voluntourism: Is it Hip or Hype?
11 Bizarre Hotels That Will Knock Your Socks Off
For a full list of articles on Vagabondish, click here.
Toronto Star
One of Canada’s National Newspapers; my contribution was a special article about being in the middle of the Australian bush fire crisis.
Trip Central
Tripcentral.ca is a prominent resource for Canadians to book travel. Their blog is filled with both resource-based as well as narrative articles.
Travel Firsts: My First Time Feeling Lonely on the Road
How to Get Free Upgrades While Traveling
Travel Underwriters
Travel Underwriters is one of the top travel insurance providers in Canada, and has been around since 1964. Their blog helps Canadians travel confidently by sharing tips about travel insurance, safety, and health.
What NOT to Do When Making an Insurance Claim
In a Developing Country? Private Hospital, Please!
I Will Teach You To Be Rich
Travel Full-Time for Less Than $14,000 Per Year
This guest post drew over 100,000 readers in the first 72 hours alone. It remains a highly-regarded, enormous resource for full-time budget travel.
(Note: A few years later in 2012, I produced a similar, more condensed article for Wise Bread with more resources and updated figures here):
How to Travel Full-Time for $17,000 a Year (or Less!)
Compathos
Compathos is a multi-media foundation committed to providing inspiration and resources for those interested in travel and doing good in the world. The site has since been discontinued, but included articles on how to travel in a meaningful way as well as volunteer organization profiles.
Amex Open Forum
Geared towards small business owners, this blog features articles from an array of well-known experts across the web. Monthly columnist for two years.
ASU Travel Guide
As the premier resource for airline employees since 1968, this magazine offers discounts to employees, peppered with travel stories. Mine is one of them – about our fundraising adventures in Thailand.
Also Seen On…
Here is a mini-documentary produced about my life and lifestyle by travel colleagues and friends Danielle and Mat of the (ridiculously) popular YouTube channel Exploring Alternatives:
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