Why I'm Going All In on Travel & Adventure Brands
In July I decided to niche down further into travel and adventure lifestyle brands, and it's given me the work-life balance I've been after all along. Here's a look at where Goodera started, where I'm going, and why.
Why I Started Goodera In The First Place
I rage-started Goodera in 2020, right after my cushy six-figure job put me on a Trump reelection campaign (you can read all about that here). In that moment, my reason for starting Goodera was simple: I wanted to work with people and brands who were doing something good in the world, not actively trying to destroy it.
That's where the name "Goodera" comes from. I envisioned a new era where good, purpose-driven brands and people supported one another, and cash flowed between us instead of corrupt, money-hungry people and corporations (for what it's worth, that vision has not changed).
The work and impact has been great—I won $10k for my idea and resilience, built an annual giveback fund for creatives at the local community college, sent over $16k to nonprofits, and have partnered with a lot of great artists, clothing brands, financial advisors, travel companies, and more.
When talking to prospects, I kept having to define what "purpose-driven" meant, because as it turns out, everybody identifies with having a purpose in their business—even if it's to make a ton of money selling single-use plastics. And the ones that were aligned in values often had more ambition than budget.
Meanwhile, one thing stayed steady and kept pulling me in: travel.
My Background in Travel
The travel industry is one I've been immersed in for decades, both as a traveler, and as a freelance writer and photographer. My travel style has run the gamut from budget backpacker to experiencing the most luxurious places on earth (hello, Bougie Dirtbag). Every time I took a break from the ad world, I dipped my toe back into travel writing and would see almost immediate success and validation.
2010: My First Travel Blog Went Viral in Less Than A Month
The day my first freelance agency contract ended, I bought a JetBlue All You Can Jet pass on a whim and spent 40 days bouncing around the U.S. and Caribbean while documenting it on my first travel blog, Just Visiting.
Within weeks, The New York Times picked it up and suddenly I had hundreds of visitors to my site, and no idea what to do with them. I didn't know how to monetize it, and no financial runway to figure it out. My friends were building blogging businesses based on top-ten lists, but I always knew I wanted to create something with more depth. I just didn't know how to go deep, especially on such short trips. So I went back to what I knew (advertising) and took a job that relocated me to London for a few months. I kept building Just Visiting on the side, traveling around Europe on the weekends and writing articles like “Iceland Smells Like Farts."
Clearly a step towards the type of deep storytelling I wanted to create.
2015: My First Extended Trip Landed Me in People Magazine
After that same job that sent me to London laid me off, I took my severance, sold all of my belongings from my Upper East Side NYC apartment, and bought a one-way ticket to South America to give travel writing a proper go. Within weeks I was following reporters around Colombia and being paid to party at Carnival in Rio de Janeiro. This trip led me to sell my first well-paid piece that I was actually somewhat proud of: Seven Things I Learned While Living Out of a Backpack. It was still kind of a listicle (the pubs want what they want) but definitely had more of the depth I was after—reflective, relatable, and human.
Then I watched the publication change the title into rage bait to A/B test for clicks. And unfortunately, it worked: I Left My Perfect Life to Travel—And You Can Too went viral on Twitter, and got picked up by publications like New York Magazine, arguably for all the wrong reasons. I got the ick, and I felt like if this is what it took to succeed in travel writing, I wasn’t interested. Once again I went back to advertising.
2024 - 2026 I Started Niching Down
I worked in advertising until 2024, when I finally went all in on myself.
While I figured out how to translate my agency experience to directly supporting brands on my own, there was a lot of trial and error. But my ongoing partnership with WHOA travel was always a consistent "yes, more of this please" humming in the background. They're women-led, collaborative, sustainability-focused, and they quietly and consistently give back and improve communities through their work. Plus, they gave me space to explore more of my photography and videography skills by creating content for them in Mongolia, on Kilimanjaro, and while hiking The Lost Coast.
After working with WHOA to send out weekly email newsletters for over a year, I asked if they had any data around what kind of an impact it had. She told me they were looking at their first nearly fully-booked year, and it was only Q1. To me, this was all the proof I needed to know that experience-based brands do in fact need what I offer.
A few months later, when it came time to reevaluate my business and all of the spaces I was stretching myself thin by saying yes to everything, travel was the one thread that ran through all of my favorite projects, and aligned perfectly with the life I was living and building.
So, What Is Goodera Now?
Goodera is my one-woman creative shop where I create story-driven content for travel and adventure lifestyle brands. But just like back in the 2010s when it didn't quite feel right to churn out listicles, I haven't been able to call myself a "content creator."
The work I do runs deeper than that.
Goodera is where I combine my campaign-level advertising thinking, editorial writing, photography, and experience in travel, the outdoors, and adventure.
Everything starts with the strategy. What are your brand's goals, mission, vision, and how do we communicate those creatively, in ways that actually drive results? How do we immerse people in your world, and get them to connect with the experience vs just showing them pretty pictures? Whether I'm writing newsletters and blog posts to improve SEO or AEO, or creating scroll-stopping social content, I always start with the why, map it to the larger brand story, then bring it to life through execution.
That approach comes from my 15 years in advertising, where I created global ad campaigns and managed social media for brands like QuickBooks, Amazon, Netflix, BMW, and dozens, if not hundreds more. I've been in charge of pitching and selling the "big idea," and have been responsible for bringing it to life across every touchpoint down to banner ads. I've learned execution from being on set with full production crews, directing talent like Rashida Jones (Ann Perkins!), and building shot lists for TV commercials and social campaigns. Now I'm doing all of that, just on a smaller scale, directly with travel and adventure clients.
I've also found it so much more authentic and fulfilling to connect with audiences when you are the target audience. As someone who's deeply immersed in the world of adventure and travel, this is my life. I visit these places, take on these hikes, and use this gear.
The world of travel has been pulling me in for nearly two decades, I'm just so glad I finally figured out what to do with it.
What's Changing, What Isn't
The values behind Goodera are deeply personal to me, and therefore still the same.
The travel and adventure brands I work with now may not explicitly identify as "purpose-driven," but ironically, most are. They're sustainable eco-resorts. They're travel curators committed to keeping tourism dollars local. They give back to charities. They speak up for underprivileged or marginalized communities. They are active members of larger committees who are advocating for change.
That doesn't mean I won't still work with clients outside of the travel industry, or the deeply passionate solopreneur who's struggling to find her voice and stand out. That's the beauty of running your own business—you can say yes, or no, to whatever you want. If it's a good fit and I can genuinely help, I'm in!
If you're a travel or adventure lifestyle brand, I'd love to connect for a quick intro and see what you're up to. And if you already know you're in need of more consistent newsletters, blog posts, or social posts, let's talk!
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