Hi, my travel peeps and welcome back to another episode of Her Express Diaries with our special guest Sophie Williams. I can’t wait to dive into this interview where we discuss how Sophie fell in love with travelling, how buying 35 going out tops is not the recipe for saving for a trip and how important it is to be authentic when creating content.
So who is the “real” Sophie Williams?
- Born and raised in Dartmouth Nova Scotia (lived in the same house her whole life…WHAT!)
- Grew up on a surf board, even if it was used as a paddle board to begin
- Went to University at St. FX where she started saving for her first backpacking trip TWO years before her flight
- Lover of all things outdoors, nature, and content creation
How did Sophie find her love for travelling?
This may have been an obsession that began in university. Sophie explained she was researching places to go non-stop and decided to book a backpacking trip to Europe with her friend Josie in December 2021 for travel plans in June 2023 (talk about planning in advance). Once she stepped foot in Europe she knew she was in trouble, “Little did I know the trip would make me hyper-fixate on travel for the rest of my life.”
How did you manage to save for your long-term backpacking trip?
Travelling after University can be an amazing option before jumping into the workforce, and to help with those post-grad blues. Sophie said she was fortunate to be able to come out of school without student debt, allowing all her part-time job savings to go towards her trip. She also promises you do not need 35 going out tops - aka a new one for every weekend. I know it can be tempting, but these are some wise words, ladies and gentlemen.
Finding your way to travel
“It’s very brave to quit everything and go work at a hostel, I look up to people who just book the trip and go.” Not everyone travels the same, we have luxury, backpacking, camping, hiking and all work for different people. Sophie mentioned that you can also get creative with travelling if you don’t have a lot of money saved up. Companies like World Backpackers have many opportunities that allow you to travel, create content and save on room and board. So this is your sign to not be discouraged if you have had time to save up, you can still travel and see the world in many different ways.
How do you SURVIVE when you don’t have a trip planned?
The hardest thing for world travellers is waiting for your next trip, but Sophie had many amazing tips to handle the travel bug.
- Make itineraries and do research on places you want to go, that way you always have a bank of trips to use as inspiration
- TikTok is a go-to for all things travel inspiration and information, use this app when you’re starting to think about your travel plans
- Explore your own backyard, Sophie spends every moment possible outside whether that’s surfing, exploring Nova Scotia’s wonders and heading to camp or to the cottage, take advantage of what’s near you!
How to become the best content creator you can be
We started from the beginning, Sophie’s first viral videos on her trip to Greece. Without any intention of being more active on TikTok, she had some videos she wanted to share with her friends and family that followed her on the app. Much to her surprise her videos did extremely well making her wonder if she should spend more time creating content. Sophie candidly mentioned all the ups and downs of her content creation journey, including some cringey vlogging in Mexico that made her wonder if she was right for this line of work. Sophie’s main message to everyone on their journey is, don’t give up and don’t be afraid to start. Although she looks back on her content at the very beginning and wonders what she was doing, that’s what she had to do to get where she is today, a successful, wonderful and authentic creator. Sophie recently hit 10k followers on TikTok and only a couple weeks later another 1,000 people joined her community. Loving what she does, not giving up and showing up as her full self continues to allow her to shine in the world of content creation.
P.S. If you’re just starting, this was my favourite piece of advice Sophie gave to catch that “perfect” shot, “sometimes the best content is slow, try to have everyone watching experience the moment the way you did.”
Finding what brings you back to “the moment”
We chatted a lot about what it is like to live in the moment as a content creator. I am sure everyone can relate, especially when you’re travelling and all you can see are phones in the air at popular tourist stops. Sophie mentions it is important to have something that grounds you and can bring you back to the moment. For Sophie, that is surfing, when she is in the water she’s not worrying about the next video or getting content herself, she’s fully immersed in the moment and escapes into the water.
SPPPEEDDROOUNND: Let’s get to know more about Sophie
Where is your favourite place in the world you have surfed?
At a small surf camp just outside of Santander on the Northern Coast of Spain
If someone is booking their first trip, where should they go?
Portugal, they have cheap food, cheap wine (better than Barefoot), beautiful beaches and cliffs, and usually the cheapest flights for Canadians (in Europe)!
One thing you would never travel without?
Portable charger (her life would end without it), eye masks and ear plugs (we can’t get into why on this blog but I think you can assume what some late nights in dorm rooms can include).
How do you record all your memories of your travels?
Sophie records everything in her travel journals (I promise I didn’t make her say this), “When I’m sad or missing it I go back and read it and remember the small details because you’re going to forget them. Especially on long-term trips, everything starts to combine. If I can give one piece of advice, write down what happened, the good, the bad, the ugly and all the stories in between” As you can imagine, this quote was music to my ears.
Any last piece of advice for our female community?
Whether you’re travelling the world or creating content, “You need to be passionate about what you’re doing. You need to enjoy it, people will know when you’re enjoying it.” Sophie leads by example because if you have stumbled across her socials you know you are getting an authentic and loveable human who knows what her community wants.
My ask for you all? Give Sophie some love and let’s support another amazing female traveller in her future endeavours. You can find her TikTok and Instagram here.