Great Escape Radio: Travel Writing | Photography | Publishing | Writing

"I am so excited, our success stories today are so much bigger and better than they've ever been in the past!" - Lori Allen To sign up for Great Escape Publishing’s free eletter, The Right Way to Travel, visit: http://www.greatescapepublishing.com/subscribe/. Great Escape Radio Host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen discuss Lori's latest challenge to herself - calling 100 people. Inspired by Shenee Howard's 100 People Project, Lori has embarked on a challenge to call 100 people. She's reaching out to Great Escape Publishing experts, success stories, beginners, people who've inspired her on Facebook and people she's traveled with. "After hearing Shenee Howard speak at Pioneer Nation, I thought this would be a great project for me," says Lori. "I want to find out what is working for the people I reach out to, what isn't working, what their successes are and what they struggle with." Lori's about halfway through her project and loving it. "It's been a real eye-opening experience for

Great Escape Radio Episode 53: Focus on Skill First “We keep moving forward, opening new doors and doing new things because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney For more information on how you can get started selling your photos, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/photography. Great Escape Radio Host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen introduce us to Sarah Ehlen. “Sarah is the poster child for what happens when you focus on the skill first and learn what to do with it second,” says Lori. Sarah learned photography first as a hobby and now she’s exploring how she can use her photography skills to make an income. She has plenty of options… ***Stock Photography ***Magazines ***Fine Art And, as a former park ranger living near Glacier National Park, Sarah has plenty of amazing places to take photos. A lot of us can relate to Sarah’s story…. ***She knows she doesn’t want a 9 to 5 job ***She knows she doesn’t want to sit in traffic ***She kno

Great Escape Radio Episode #52: Take it from an expert "Look in the mirror… THAT's your competition." – Unknown To learn more about getting started as a travel writer, you can sign up for a special video presentation at: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry, and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, introduce us to Margot Bigg. "One of the things that make our travel writing and photography courses at Great Escape Publishing different is that our programs are written by experts," says Lori. Margot is one of those experts. She was sitting behind an editor's desk when Lori found her and already an expert in the field of travel writing. "The advantage to working with experts is that they are grounded. They can look back at their career and offer the foundation that you can only get when you've come over the hump of fear and self-doubt." Margot has an impressive resume as an editor and writer. She has written for numerous publications around the world an

Great Escape Radio Episode 51: It’s about emotions “One moment the world is as it is. The next, it is something entirely different. Something it has never been before.” – Anne Rice, Pandora If you’d like to get started with travel writing, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen bring Theresa St. John back to the show to talk about the intangibles she experiences in her travel writing career through writing and photography and how they change her perspective. You can listen to our first podcast with her here. Lori re-introduces us to Theresa… “I always say I love our guests, and I do. Theresa is exceptionally kind and caring and I think that helps her be a really good travel writer. People open up to her. It’s easy to talk to Theresa, so it’s not that big of a surprise to me that she gets these really great stories.” Since Theresa was last on the show, she’s been traveling, writing and taking lots of photo

Great Escape Radio Episode #50: One step at a time "A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step." - Lao Tzu If you’d like to get started with travel writing, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen introduce Gwyn Goodrow. “Gwyn is a great example of what can happen when you put one right step in front of the last right step,” says Lori. Gwyn turned a vacation to Northern Alabama into multiple published travel articles… one step at a time. Gwyn talks with Jody about how she got her start. “I’ve always enjoyed traveling and I keep journals of all of my trips.” Those journals have now been transformed into published articles. “I attended the Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop in New Orleans last year. Listening to the experts and those who have been successful at travel writing, I was able to establish a system.” That system has helped Gwyn turn her travel journals into travel articles—and she

Great Escape Radio Episode #49: The 6-Figure Travel Writer "The beauty of being a travel writer is really looking at the world differently and showing other people how to do that." - Gabi Logan For more about how you can get started with travel writing today, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry talks with special guest, Gabi Logan about her success in travel writing. Gabi has been a full-time travel writer for almost 7 years. Before starting her travel-writing career, Gabi was working on a degree in foreign language in Italy where she attended an Italian university. She needed a way to make an income while she was studying, so she began travel writing… sharing stories of places she visited in Italy. Her ultimate plan was to get her PHD and become an Italian professor. "As I started travel writing, I realized that everything I wanted to do as a professor I could do as a travel writer" says Gabi. So she switched her focus to travel writing full-time. G

Great Escape Radio Episode 48 – The Unlikely Travel Writer "I'm always excited by the unlikely, never by ordinary things." - David Hockney To find out more about how you can get started with travel writing visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry, and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, introduce us to travel writer, Kurt Jacobson. "Kurt calls himself the unlikely travel writer," says Lori. "He didn't go to school for writing, wasn't scholarly, and never considered himself to be a good writer." But Kurt's not the only one… in fact, he's like a lot of the Great Escape Publishing members. Lori explains… "There was a time when we sought out travel journalist for travel recommendations, but now we're getting those recommendations from our neighbors, best friends, siblings, kids, and parents. Opinions come from everywhere." We don't need a trained journalist to tell us where to go, so it makes sense that travel writers come from all kinds of unlikely

Great Escape Radio Episode #47 – Quote this “I take rejection as someone blowing a bugle in my ear to wake me up and get going, rather than retreat.” – Sylvester Stallone For more information on the Ultimate Money-Making Photography Workshop, visit: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phw/sd/podcast/ Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry talks with Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen. This episode of Great Escape Radio is different—it’s all about inspiration. While Lori was cleaning up the paperwork in her office she had an idea… “I am always finding little quotes or stories to inspire me. I will put these on a post-it note and keep it on my computer screen or close by for inspiration or just to keep me on track,” Lori explains. When she was cleaning up her office, she found tons of those inspirational post-it notes and in this episode, she shares many of them with us. Here’s just a few… On being yourself - “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken” – Oscar Wilde For the procrastinator - “The secr

Great Escape Radio Episode 46 – Telling Stories Through Photos “Tell me the facts and I’ll learn. Tell me the truth and I’ll believe. But tell me a story and it will live in my heart forever.” – Native American Proverb Subscribing to Great Escape Publishing’s newsletter, The Right Way to Travel, is a great way to get ideas and tips for your photography and travel writing. Sign up for free at: http://www.greatescapepublishing.com/subscribe/?src=podcast. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Mayberry talks with Great Escape Publishing photographer, Bonnie Caton, about telling stories through photos. Stories are one of our most ancient forms of communication and Bonnie shares with us how stories can be told from photos… “Photos can just be pretty: photos of flowers or sunsets. But when you see a photo with a story embedded in it, the photo draws you in. You’re intrigued and try to figure out what is happening in the photo.” Bonnie works with new photographers at Great Escape Publishing all the time and she shares how a

Great Escape Radio Episode 45: Pay it forward “Jed Vaughn is not afraid of sharing his secrets of success and to me, that’s a tell tell sign of a good man!” –Lori Allen To find out more about how you can get started with travel writing visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio Host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, introduce Jed Vaughn. “Jed Vaughn is one of my favorite travel writers,” says Lori. “He is so good at paying it forward—constantly helping others follow in his successful footsteps.” After attending the Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop in San Diego in 2014, Jed set out to become a travel writer with a focus on getting published in print magazines. Today he’s diversified into online as well. Jed talks about writing locally and how you can find great stories right in your own backyard. He also emphasizes the importance of research before traveling to a new destination and why you should try to find unique angles for your stories. “Rese

Great Escape Publishing Radio Episode #44: Share your dreams “Don’t keep secrets or dreams to yourself. Put them out there and share your experiences.” – Jessica Irwin For more information on the next Ultimate Photography Workshop, this April 7-9 in San Diego, CA, go to: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phw/sd/podcast/. Great Escape Publishing Radio host, Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen introduce us to Jessica Irwin, a young woman with a passion. Jessica was mentioned in the last podcast by international humanitarian filmmaker, Joe Sindorf. You can listen to that episode here: http://traffic.libsyn.com/greatescapepublishing/Ep_43_-_Joe_Sindorf.mp3. Jessica introduced herself to Joe at the Great Escape Publishing Ultimate Photography Workshop in Palm Springs, California last year. Joe has since taken her under his wing to coach her toward her dream of being a humanitarian photographer. Jessica has always been a traveler and loved taking photos of the people and places she visi

Great Escape Radio Episode 43: Creating great stories "I don't shoot parties. I create films that move people and compel them to take action for causes that really matter." - Joe Sindorf And if you want to learn more from Joe you can meet him in person at the Ultimate Photography Workshop this April in San Diego. For more information, go to: http://www.thephotographerslife.com/phw/sd/podcast/. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry, and Lori Allen, Director of Great Escape Publishing, introduce us to Joe Sindorf, an international humanitarian filmmaker. "Joe's life is an epic story, yet he's so humble." Joe is an international humanitarian filmmaker who has worked in more than seventy-five countries around the world. He goes into the places where people are suffering: victims of tornados, tsunamis, social injustices and other tragedies. His still photographs have been published in National Geographic Traveler, Outside, American Photo, World and Professional Photographer among others. His video work has won int

Great Escape Radio Episode #42: Starting local “Mom, you love to travel and you’re the queen of questions, I think you should be a travel writer.” For more information on how you can get started with travel writing, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Publishing Radio host, Jody Maberry, talks with travel writer, Connie Pearson on starting local. Travel writing is actually Connie’s fourth career. She was a piano performance major, music teacher, missionary in Ecuador and now, a travel writer. Connie’s son is actually the one who inspired her to get started; he saw an article about travel writing and shared it with her. Being naturally curious, Connie did a little research and discovered Great Escape Publishing. “I signed up for the Ultimate Travel Writer’s Workshop in Denver, Colorado, hopped on a plane and made the leap.” Since attending the workshop, Connie has had 65 published articles in 13 different publications—the sky is the limit and she has all kinds of plans for th

Great Escape Radio – Episode #41: Build something you love “Humans are meant to build things. When we stop building, we lose who we are; we lose our sense of purpose.” – Lori Allen For more information on how you can get started on the road to a new kind of work visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/blog. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry is joined by Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, to talk about work. We often hear people say they don’t want to work anymore. They hate their jobs, they’re done. Often people spend their time counting the days until they no longer have to work. But Lori has the opportunity to spend time with people who are finished with their careers—either through retirement or by making the decision to change direction. She shares her thoughts with us… “I don’t think it’s that people don’t want to work, it’s that the work they are doing makes them feel stuck. They are working to carry out someone else’s dream, finishing someone else’s mission in life. Maybe they are stu

Great Escape Radio: Episode #40: Stand out in 2017 "People will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." -Maya Angelou For more about how you can get started with travel writing today, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/travelwriting. This week on Great Escape Radio, host Jody Maberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, discuss trends for 2017. Lori shares her thoughts on what will help people to stand out in 2017... "I have a hunch that the two things what will make someone standout in 2017 are politeness and respect. I don't think it's going to be quality of work, years of practice, what camera you use, how good of a travel writer you are, or how many places you can afford to visit. People are going to work more with people they respect and who are polite and easy to work with." 2016 was a rough year in many respects with a polarizing election in the USA and a general disregard for the opinions and convictions of others. "With this election that just passed,

Great Escape Radio: Episode #39: The Magic of Travel Photography "Photography encourages you to stop and ask questions and think about things."--Lori Allen For more information on how you can get started selling your travel photos, go to www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/photography. Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, joins host Jody Maberry to talk about travel photography and how it’s more than just a way to document a trip. Lori says, "On the surface photography is an opportunity to document and memorialize experiences but I also think photography is about options…about giving you more choices than you would have without a camera. Anytime you throw a camera around your neck, you have a purpose, you have a different reason to be where you are. I can spend hours looking at just bugs, leaves or light coming through the trees." Cameras give you an excuse to get up every day and REALLY see things. "Take a location like the Eiffel Tower, you can photograph just the tower, or you can stay in one spot

Great Escape Radio: Episode 38: Find something to build “Travel writing and photography help memorialize chunks of your life.” –Lori Allen For more information on how you can get started with travel writing, visit: www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/travelwriting. Great Escape Radio host, Jody Maberry is joined by Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, to talk about life… Is life too short? Or is it something that’s long and requires a long term plan? Sometimes it’s ok to live as if life is short: packing in everything you want to do and say before it’s too late. But we’re living longer and longer, so having a long term plan for your life is a good idea. Lori believes people are meant to build things… “As human beings, we’re meant to build things, to have a purpose in our lives. If we lose sight of the long term plan, we lose sight of the purpose in our lives.” Jody shares the story of a friend who—when her last child left home—stated she felt like she had been fired from her job. It happens to people

Great Escape Radio Episode #37: The triple threat traveler “When your work combines your passions it doesn’t really feel like work.” - Sophie Parmantier If you’re interested in creating and selling simple travel videos, visit www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/video for more details and tips on how to get started. This week host Jody Maberry talks with Sophie Parmantier who has found a way to fund her travels and make money through travel videos. Lori Allen, Director of Great Escape Publishing, introduces us to Sophie… “In acting there’s something called a triple threat: someone who can sing, dance and act. That’s how I feel about Sophie. She started as a travel writer getting paid to visit places around the world and write about them. Then she fell in love with video. Now she is bartering her way around the world with little clips about the hotel where she’s staying, or things she’s visiting along the way.” Sophie shares a few tips for marketing the videos to companies and using the travel videos to complem

Great Escape Radio Episode 36: Drop in Camera Sales= More Photo Sales for You “If you’re with Great Escape Publishing, you have a really easy pathway… since we give you all the steps between learning how to use that camera… to actually selling your photos… with fewer people to worry about, who are trying to be photographers these days.” – Bonnie Caton For more information on how you can get started with photography, go to www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/photography. On this episode, Host Jody Mayberry and Breakfast Stock Club Creator, Bonnie Canon, talk about the drop in camera sales over the last few years and how that can be a great thing for anyone who wants to sell their photos. Bonnie explains that when cameras first started going digital in the late 90s, people jumped at the chance to get one. But in recent years, with the creation of smart phones, a lot of people no longer feel that they need one. It’s easy to take photos on a phone now and share them online with others via social media. And with l

Great Escape Publishing Episode 35 - Camera Buying Tips For more information on the different markets where you can sell your photos and how much you can expect to make, visit www.greatescapepublishing.com/start/photography “There’s a difference between good photographs and saleable photographs. At Great Escape Publishing, we focus on saleable photographs.” – Lori Allen On this episode, host Jody Mayberry and Great Escape Publishing Director, Lori Allen, talk about the best cameras to buy if you want to get started with photography. Lori explains what you need to get started… “At Great Escape Publishing we talk about taking photos that you can sell. We’re not talking about you becoming a full-time photographer where you’ll be watching an amazing landscape for 300 days until you get that one perfect image you’re going to hang on your wall and hopefully win some kind of prize. It’s about selling simple, everyday images: things like travel photos, photos of your home, family photos, headshots, baby pictures, and