Life and Work with Maddie Nunley

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maddie Nunley.

Thanks for sharing your story with us Maddie. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
My boyfriend and I had been living in the US our whole lives. For me, I was born and raised in Phoenix. With that said, neither of us got the chance to travel much outside of the country. It wasn’t until 2016 that we traveled to a SteemFest conference in Amsterdam that we realized how little we really knew about the world. From then on, we started making serious decisions about what we could do to change that.

After many long, serious conversations we made the decision to sell all our things and travel through Mexico with our Siberian Husky, Laska. The reason we call ourselves Tangerine Travels is because we’re driving our tangerine-colored Prius C throughout the country. Although Phoenix is still our base, we are making it our mission to showcase other countries — specifically Mexico right now — through daily travel videos on YouTube and blog posts on Steemit.

Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
In the most literal sense of the phrase, it hasn’t been a smooth road, driving through Mexico. 🙂 Jordan likes to say that the hardest part happened before leaving. The process of selling everything we owned and getting things in order was a much bigger task than either of us could have imagined. Since leaving the US, the biggest struggles surround language and culture. Despite doing daily Spanish lessons for 1.5 years leading up to Tangerine Travels, we still have difficulties learning the language and communicating with locals each day. Getting accustomed to the culture is a bit more fun (most of the time). And regarding Tangerine Travels as a whole, the biggest hurdle is staying on top of it each day… whatever “it” may be that day (i.e. picking a video topic, responding to an endless stream of social media comments, managing our finances, seeking new income sources, etc.)

If there’s any advice I could give other women who are just starting out it would be to not let fear stop you from living your best possible life. Jordan and I both had our doubts and fears about traveling to Mexico and starting Tangerine Travels. We had to leave our careers, friends, families, the comfortable culture we were used to, almost all our belongings, and SO much more to make this happen. Ultimately, we now look back and wish we’d done it sooner. If we had let fear rule our lives, we wouldn’t be on this amazing adventure now. And sure, this might have crashed and burned, but you never know until you try. Life is always going to be scary, so you have to try and push past it.

Please tell us about Tangerine Travels.
Tangerine Travels is probably best known for our strangely addictive daily travel videos about Mexico on YouTube. People commonly watch a few of our videos and come back a few days later saying they were compelled to binge-watch everything (currently 140).

Each day we create videos about our life in Mexico, the places we travel, local businesses/restaurants, what it’s like learning Spanish, and everything else in between. We strive to destroy preconceived notions and stereotypes people might have about Mexico, especially due to all the negativity that’s in the media. We’re proud to be traveling through and showcasing Mexico, a country with an ill-deserved reputation.

I am in charge of editing all the videos together and generally being the written “voice” of the brand. Before starting Tangerine Travels, I was a Content Strategist in Phoenix because communication is one of my biggest strengths.

We believe one thing that sets us apart from other travel vloggers is that we create higher quality videos in the realm of daily vlogs. Most content creators that are putting out a new video each day have to focus on volume over quality, which means some days a video might be “good enough.” We would sooner scrap an entire day’s footage than put out a wishy-washy video that -might- be entertaining/valuable for our viewers.

There’s a wealth of academic research that suggests that lack of mentors and networking opportunities for women has materially affected the number of women in leadership roles. Smart organizations and industry leaders are working to change this, but in the meantime, do you have any advice for finding a mentor and building a network?
This one is for all the other introverts out there. Networking is perhaps one of the most personally draining, but necessary, activities in the business world. If you don’t get out there and make friends, you’re going to end up living on a metaphorical island. I find it’s best to seek out smaller events where it’s less intimidating to start conversations and meet people. Another helpful thing is to go places with a friend. It helps if they’re the extroverted type who gets energized by having conversations.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.youtube.com/c/tangerinetravels
• Email: ourtangerinetravels@gmail.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tangerinetravels/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tangerinetravels
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/tangerinetravls
• Other: https://steemit.com/@tangerinetravels

Image Credit:
Tangerine Travels

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.