THE STORY OF HOW ALLE ABROAD CAME TO BE + 10 OF MY BEST CAREER TIPS

SO HERE’S THE DEAL…

I’ve never been one for following a traditional path. And thank goodness for that because I don’t think I’d be where I am today without marching to the beat of my own drum.

Maybe it’s an only child thing or maybe it’s the Aries in me, or maybe it’s the fact that I had a very strong mother figure (hiiiii Linda) constantly drilling into me that I needed to be independent & never conform to what society expected of me. Or maybe it’s a little bit of all the above.

Either way, that march to the beat of my own drum mentality has afforded me a life beyond my wildest dreams & the reason I’m sharing that is to say if I can have that, so can you.

My goal at the end of the day is to have the freedom to live my wildly unconventional life out loud, on my own terms, and in color so that it inspires you to do the same - whatever that looks like for you.

But to really get an idea of how I got here, I thought I’d share a little bit about how Alle Abroad came to be & end with my top 10 career tips that might be helpful to anyone on their own entrepreneurial journey.

THE (KINDA) CLIFF NOTES VERSION OF MY EARLY CAREER JOURNEY:

I have always loved to perform (I was a very serious competitive dancer my whole life & was even on my college dance team). But growing up I never wanted to become a professional dancer or actor, I instead thought I wanted to be a fashion or interior designer (I would have been terrible at both).

So when it came time to figure out where I wanted to go to college, my mom took me to this career coach (who honestly was the first person aside from my mom who I felt REALLY saw me for who I was as a goofy fashion-loving 16-year-old lol). She asked me these REALLY random & interesting questions like ‘What’s under your bed?’, ‘Do you like to make lists?’, ‘Why did you choose to wear the earrings you did?’ and somehow came to the conclusion that I should be a Broadcast Journalist.

BOOM just like that.

And what’s really funny or honestly terrifying is that from that point forward, I was going to be a broadcast journalist. We never questioned this perfect stranger’s prophecy, not once. (turns out she was right but damn what a leap of faith).

From there we did the classic college tours, scouting schools that had incredible journalism programs and of course, landed on Mizzou (I’m really pretty proud to say I went to one of the number 1 journalism schools in the country). But here’s the rub…I thought being a journalist meant getting your makeup and hair done, reading a teleprompter, and calling it a day (CLUELESS I know…). Thank goodness for my mentor Stacey & Mizzou for clearing up that confusion REAL QUICK.

Over the next four years, I would report & anchor the news at a real-life NBC affiliate TV station (yeah Mizzou takes real-world experience VERY seriously). I was waking up at 2:30 a.m. once a week to anchor the morning news at 4:30 a.m. as a college student lol. After 4 years of hustling with a side of sorority life, I graduated with this - MY VERY FIRST NEWS ANCHOR REEL - I am soooooo glad I have this because it makes me giggle every time I watch it. At the time I thought this was the SH*T, now looking back at this I wonder how I landed a job at any TV station haha.

Nevertheless, it’s such an important time capsule of where I started & now how far I’ve come.

THE SHIFT

I always thought I had my full TV career figured out. I would start in a local California TV News Station close enough to LA where I could eventually work my way up to be the next Giuliana Rancic on E! News - that was the DREAM. Until it wasn’t.

I won’t delve too far into the woes of working in local TV news but let me tell you - there is NOTHING glamorous about it (even if it looks that way). I knew pretty early on that after my 3 year contract was over, I was OUTTA there.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am eternally grateful for all of the lessons and opportunities that came from that job - boy were there a lot of those. And honestly, I feel confident in saying that I wouldn’t be the person I am today or have the opportunities that I do now if it wasn’t for that job.

But as my contract was nearing the two-year mark I started to figure out my next steps. After spending nearly a year searching for an agent in LA to help represent me on my way to one day working in LA, I realized that NONE of the top agencies I was speaking with were actually listening to me when I told them I did not want to go the traditional route of bouncing from one local news station to another to get to where I wanted to be. I felt frustrated that no one was hearing me when I said I wanted something different than the norm.

At that moment, I was forced to really think about what I wanted next, and I realized one very important thing. I didn’t actually care about talking about celebrities…like at all…And if you want to work for E! News and be the next Giuliana Rancic, you kinda need to live and breathe for the drama of the Real Housewives franchise and have actually watched the Bachelor…

No hate no shade, but in that moment, I realized I couldn’t care less…But there was one thing I could live and breathe & talk about for HOURS on end - my passion for travel.

DING DING DING - we found ourselves at a pivot point

THE IDEA FOR ALLE ABROAD IS BORN

Travel has always been a part of my DNA, literally. My mom, Linda (everyone loves Linda) has been a luxury travel advisor for the last 15+ years and has always been my travel partner in crime.

I inherited her adventurous soul, curious mind & passion for diving deep into new cultures. In college, I had the privilege to study abroad in London and after bouncing from one country to the next during my six months in Europe, I never quite shook the urge to explore.

I remember sitting at the anchor desk in Palm Springs at 6 a.m. for my show every Saturday & Sunday morning (after having my alarm go off at 3:30 a.m. to start the morning) thinking “What the hell am I doing?”. All the while Linda was traveling to places like India, Uganda & Bhutan and I was stuck reporting on the latest mass shooting…this was not at all what I imagined for my life (and don’t even get me started on how much I was making, your jaw would hit the floor and not in a good way).

I had this epiphany in 2017 when the travel blogger/influencer/creator economy was BOOMING. I remember thinking wait…I have this unique perspective on the travel industry, my mom travels for a living, I have a background in journalism & I LOVE capturing videos and photos of my travels… what if I merged my background in journalism with my passion for travel and started telling travel stories?

I’ll be honest. At this point, I didn’t have a clue what I was doing or how I would make money. But at the time that didn’t matter. All I cared about was doing something fresh & new where I called the shots.

While I didn’t know much about the career I was leaping into, I knew one thing for sure, I couldn’t stay in a job that was crushing my soul any longer & I wanted a new challenge: entrepreneurship.

SO WHAT HAPPENED NEXT?!

A lot.

One of my BIGGEST breaks in my new career happened immediately, which looking back, is one of the biggest gifts I could have ever been given.

I was hired as a freelancer to produce a series of Instagram stories for Visit Greater Palm Springs's “Summer Chill” Campaign. Essentially, I was hired to create videos to help their partners promote deals they have running during the summer which is a slower season in Palm Springs.

I truly couldn’t believe my lucky stars that I was being PAID (INCREDIBLY well I might add) to do something I LOVED to do and was already doing for free.

What I would soon come to learn was that Visit Greater Palm Springs would become one of my best and longest-standing clients.

From that moment on things really started to fall into place, slowly but surely. Let me be clear this is my messy middle era.

I moved home to Chicago in an effort to invest all my time & money into my new business & my future travels. It was at this point in time that I quickly realized that making a living as a freelancer is a whole new ball game.

But that said, I was BEYOND thrilled to have the opportunity to try new things and the freedom to finally be the one deciding the direction of my career.

WITH NOTHING BUT TIME ON MY HANDS, I PUT IN THE WORK

I was in my grind and growth era from mid 2018 - to the beginning of 2020. This looked like traveling as far and as wide as possible with Linda, experiencing different countries, learning the ins and outs of the travel industry & sharing it all on social media.

We traveled to India, Dubai, Argentina, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Belize, Romania, The Czech Republic, London, the list goes on and on.

This period of time was when I grew my community, grew my skills, put in countless hours learning the ins and outs of blogging, social media, email marketing, content creation, freelancing, the list goes on.

I was relentless, I was consistent but to be completely honest, my growth financially and professionally was slow. But knowing what I know now, that was crucially important for me to really understand the industry & build this incredible, authentic community. I look at those first two years of my business as building the foundation that would ultimately lead me to where I am now.

AND THEN THE PANINI HAPPENED

I remember starting 2020 feeling like that was finally going to be my moment to shine & breakthrough…welp we all know what happened next.

In a matter of months, I watched all my exciting upcoming projects, travel plans & work disappear. Turns out that working in the travel & on-camera hosting world are not great industries to be in during a global pandemic…

But in some weird way…if it hadn’t been for the pandemic I might never have had the time to slow down, reflect and eventually Gals Abroad Getaways [if you want to learn more about how that business came to be, click here].

LET’S WRAP THIS UP

In the five years since I left local TV news, my life has unfolded in the most unexpectedly beautiful way. I launched Alle Abroad in 2018 and Gals Abroad Getaways in 2022. I’ve had the privilege of working with brands like HBO, AT&T, Dunkin and Microsoft. I’ve been an on-camera host at massive live sporting events in front of crowds of thousands of people like the US Open and the World Games. I’ve hosted & produced countless video series for Visit Greater Palm Springs. I’ve been a keynote speaker, emceed award shows and even been the face of a TV network that appears in 90 airports across North America.

But ultimately what I’m most proud of is this community of like-minded, travel-loving humans that I’ve been able to bring together & now travel the world with. And I truly cannot wait to see what’s in store for the next 10 years of this business.

MY 10 BIGGEST CAREER LESSONS

ONE - The ones who succeed are the ones who stick it out

Do not chase virality or overnight fame. That is the quickest way to 15 seconds of fame & then crickets…It’s certainly not an easy lesson to learn while you’re in the middle of it (which I certainly still am) but the thing you should be after is slow, consistent growth. This will earn you LOYAL clients, community and customers who know, like and trust you & will be ready to buy from you when you are ready to sell to them.

TWO - Not everyone knows your journey

I can’t tell you how many people did not (and still don’t) understand my career path and what I’m trying to do. But if YOUR vision is clear and you see the end goal, that’s all that matters. Sure it’s important to get insight from people in your circle that you trust, but don’t give up the second some stranger says your idea is dumb or they don’t get it. Who the hell are they?!

THREE - In the beginning say yes, and figure it out later

This is honestly the motto for my career. I cannot tell you how many AMAZING opportunities have come my way that I felt truly underqualified for or absolutely terrified to say yes to (I have a HUGE announcement I can’t wait to share that might be the biggest job I’ve ever landed and I feel TOTALLY underqualified if I’m honest). But do you think that stopped me from saying yes? Absolutely not. Because I know deep in the core of my very being that I am someone who will always figure it out. I’ll find a way to do my very best & I would be a damn fool if I let this opportunity pass me by.

FOUR - The decisions you make now, will pave the way for your future success

It’s kind of crazy when I look back on how a job I took in 2018 (one that I also felt totally un-prepared for but wound up flourishing in) has now 6 years later led to one of the biggest opportunities in my career thus far (I know it’s annoying to be cryptic but I will share as soon as the contract is signed). All that being said, you NEVER know what some seemingly small opportunity might lead to down the road. This perfectly leads me to my next point.

FIVE - Never do a half-a$$ed job

Always give 110% percent. No matter if you don’t love what you’re doing or you don’t see what’s in it for you, do the best you can anyway. Most people do the bare minimum. Which is fantastic because when you do the MOST you stand out from the crowd. Underpromise and over-deliver - that’s my motto!

SIX - Always offer to be of service before you ask for anything

This might be my best tip. When you think about it, what is more likely to get a response:

“Hi, I want this job and I think I would be a great candidate for it because x,y & z”

“Hi, I noticed that you’re looking for help in ______ area of your _______. I know that I could help you with x,y & z because of my background in _________. Please let me know if there are other ways I could be helpful to you.

See the difference?! You are 99.9% more likely to find a more positive reaction when you come from a place of service.

SEVEN - Relationships are your strongest form of currency

I can’t emphasize this enough. Make strong relationships in your industry and work hard to maintain them. You would not believe how many INCREDIBLE jobs which honestly account for nearly 50% of my income have come from the relationships I’ve built with 3 people (you know who you are!). I am FOREVER grateful for their trust and friendship.

EIGHT - Be a sponge

You don’t know it all. Even if you think you do. ALWAYS make time to learn. And even if you think you know how to do something, be open to exploring different ways to do that thing - who knows you may find a way to do what you’re already doing better!

NINE - Be open to evolving

This has been huge for me over the past several years. I always had this one title in my head that I thought I’d carry around for the rest of my life. And now, I’m wondering if I even want to walk down that road. As we evolve in our lives, our careers evolve too. Maybe something you did 10 years ago doesn’t fit with who you are now, be open and okay with changing as you move into different seasons of your life.

TEN - Just because your path looks different than others doesn’t make it any less important

I’ll leave you with the most important tip of all. You are the creator of your journey. Which means you get to write and re-write it as many times as you like. As such, if your story doesn’t look the same as those around you, that doesn’t make it any less important or valid.

I am someone who has NEVER wanted a traditional life. Instead, I wanted a life filled with LOTS of new adventures, big plans, GRAND goals, and the freedom to do as I please. I do not want to ask permission for what I want most. I feel very secure in knowing that fact.

But I also understand that not everyone is at a similar point and it can be incredibly scary and uncomfortable to admit you want something different.

That is why I have become so vocal about my unconventional life. So if you too want to live a life that looks different than what society expects of you or a life that’s different than your friends and family, you have community here. This is a space where you don’t have to feel bad for chasing your wild and crazy dreams. We’re here to cheer you on as you chase them.

No matter what path you’re on, know that you get to decide whether you go right or left, up or down. And just know that there are going to be so many twists and turns along the way but that’s what makes this exciting.

If you’ve made it all the way down here - BRAVO YOU LOL! I hope that by sharing this story it gave you a little insight into how I got to where I am now. I have SO much more to accomplish but for now, I’m just grateful to be where I am.

If any of this resonates with you or if you’d like to share some of your crazy big & maybe even unconventional dreams with me will you send me an email (hello@alleabroad.com) or a DM on Instagram? I’d LOVE to connect & learn more about your big dreams.

xx Alle

I’ll end with one of my favorite quotes that I remind myself of often: