The ugly & stressful side of being a Travel vlogger!

Being a travel vlogger or YouTuber is one of the most toughest job to do in this entire universe, I feel. You have be really creative and there is no space or margin for errors as you have to keep on exercising your mind about the creatives and scripts, or things to happen and not every time, everything goes as planned or scheduled. 

Whether you are travelling for business or pleasure, changes in schedule, location, diet and your level of stress can all trigger headaches and each one has their own set of problems. For example, I stay very active, dynamic, cool, young and try not to get stressed or angry, no matter whatever the situation is, but there are a lot of things, which are uninvited and you have to think about it. For me, I would categorize my stress into Social Stress, Official Stress, Family Stress, Technical Stress, Roadtrip Stress, Financial Stress, Airport Stress, Drone Stress and I will list up the questions, which keeps on hitting my mind.

During my travel, I almost donot get time to sleep or rest. Its kind of hectic, fast paced and very perfected, as I cannot imagine having errors or issues in my itinerary or plans. I take time, plan, write, script things and make sure, everything happens exactly how I needed it to happen. And trust me, it costs a bomb to do what I do and how I do.

I wake up, make my own breakfast, get those shots, then get ready pack up, drive, stop million times for photos, videos, aerials, fill fuel, buy drinks and food, reach the destination, charge all the batteries again, look for an indian restaurant for food, start editing the vlog, look for the right music for next day vlog, plan for next day vlog, edit, weave, render, upload and then sleep for just 2 hours 🙁

SOCIAL STRESS

1. Do I have enough footages to weave the vlog ?
2. Did I take an amazing shot for the YouTube video thumbnail ?
3. Did I get enough pictures for instagram posts ?
4. Did I take enough VERTICAL pictures for instagram stories ?
5. Did I take enough high resolution images to put up on stock websites ?
6. Did I take enough shots to put up on stock footages ?
7. Did I make sure, no faces or no famous buildings were showcased or revealed in the footages ?
8. Do I have enough ideas to weave a script for next day vlog ?
9. Did I choose the right music to match the tempo of the vlog ?
10. Did I upload the right pictures to my facebook and twitter ?
11. Did I send the pictures to wife and mom ?
12. Did I upload to 500px and did the right keywording ?
13. Do I have good enough internet speeds in the hotels/motels to upload to YouTube in the night ?

TECHNICAL STRESS

1. Do I have 2 backups of each of the raw picture and footage source ?
2. Did I take the drone footages backup immediately after each flight ?
3. Did I charge all of the cameras, drones, gopros, gimbals batteries over night ?
4. Did I get extra batteries for the mic and recorders ?
5. Did I organize the files in the end of the day ?

ROAD-TRIP STRESS

1. Did I choose the correct route ?
2. Are the road conditions good to go for the day ?
3. Are there any known issues or accidents on the route ?
4. Are there enough public toilets on the route ?
5. Are there enough fuel stations on the route ?
6. Are the car chargers working for the GPS and phones ?
7. Am I going to reach the destination before the sunset ?

DRONE STRESS

1. How am I fucking going to pass in and out of India with my drone ?
2. How am I going to carry so many high wattage drone batteries in my hand luggage ?
3. Is there any drone restrictions & limitations in the area, Im going to fly ?
4. Did I get the right exposed shots ?
5. Did I change the ND filter depending on the lighting conditions ?
6. Did I backup the aerial footages to the wireless drive ?
7. Did I charge all the batteries overnight ?
8. Did I charge the batteries in the car ?
9. Are there any NFZ on my route ?

AIRPORT STRESS

1. Are they going to allow my 2 heavy hand baggages ?
2. Are they going to allow my bag filled with so many Lithium ion batteries ?
3. Are they going to stop my fucking drone ?
4. Are the customs going to stop me taking maggi in my luggage ?
5. Are they going to charge me huge for the extra luggage ?
6. Layover time ?
7. Availability of Indian food in the airport ?

FINANCIAL STRESS

1. Do I have enough cash to get going for the whole trip ?
2. Am I blowing off a lot of money in my travel ?
3. Am I going to make that money up quickly by selling the creative assets and YouTube ?
4. Why am I paying so crazy amount for everything which costs a dime in India for the same ?

OFFICIAL STRESS

1. Are all of the offices going perfectly fine ?
2. Are all the teams working and reporting right ?
3. Are all customers inline and everything is up and running ?

FAMILY STRESS

1. How is wife and kid doing at home ?
2. Why can’t I have them on my trips ?
3. How quickly can I get back to home ?