Beyond the 9-5: How I Traded Social Media Skills for “Deep Lore” Experiences
After graduating college, most people deal with the same impending doom. It is the pressure to go straight into a corporate 9-5, work until you get married, and well… you know the rest. But what if that is just not the path you want? It certainly was not what I had envisioned for my future.
I have always wanted to live a life worth talking about. I want to be the one telling unbelievable stories to my kids one day. I love travel, and I am always looking for ways to grab the attention of a room. A few years ago I discovered Worldpackers and it changed everything. It was not just about traveling for free. It was about realizing that I could use my eye for aesthetics and my background in modeling to help businesses grow while living the life I actually wanted. My best friend wanted to do the same thing and having a person to share these experiences with made it 10X better.
Costa Rica: From “Just a Bartender” to Brand Booster
One of my favorite lore chapters was volunteering in Costa Rica. This was my first volunteer experience and my first time going to Central America all in one! When I arrived, my job description was simple: bartender by the pool. The instructions were basically just to DJ the music and serve beers.
The Problem: I noticed pretty quickly that while the vibes were great, the bar was quiet. They were not reaching the people who were actually staying there, and their social presence was non-existent. People would swim but seldom order anything or even come up to look at the options.
The Strategy: I realized that Social Media Management is not just about posting. It is about energy and community. I started treating the pool area like a set. I did have 5 hours to sit there, which left me plenty of time for planning.
- I began curating the music specifically to fit whoever was at the pool at that moment. When I first started I only played music I enjoyed (which is 21 Savage, Kodak Black, and Key Glock). You can imagine how that didn’t fit everyone’s vibe by the pool.
- I used my modeling background to capture high-quality b-roll of the drinks and the atmosphere. I made sure things actually looked curated rather than just taking a random snap. Along with these came reorganizing the drinks to look more aesthetic and rewriting the drinks board to catch more attention.
- I acted as the hype woman by getting the word out and engaging with guests in person to drive them to our digital space. Anytime I was out, I made sure to promote the area and tell people to come by and grab a drink.
The Routine: Multitasking at the Beach
The biggest thing I learned is that I thrive on multitasking. In my old life, serving in Charleston, SC, if I had a 3 PM shift, I would spend the whole morning in bed “conserving energy.” It felt like a chore. I was constantly exhausted.
Volunteering felt different. Because my rent and my lifestyle depended on my performance, I actually had more energy. I would be hiking waterfalls or hitting the beach all morning, then show up at 3 PM ready to kill it. It taught me the discipline of the Digital Nomad life. You can have total control over your day and still perform better than you ever did in a 9-5. That may be the biggest lesson I learned and took with me from this first experience.
The Results: More Than Just a Free Stay
The return of investment of these trips is something you cannot get in a classroom. I have been a bartender in Costa Rica, taken care of horses on a finca in Guatemala, and worked at a puppy rescue in Portugal. All positions that I didn’t make money from but have given me life lessons I couldn’t even imagine before.
I made so many new friends, turned up my Spanish, and learned more in these few years than I did in 20 years of school in the US. These experiences gave me deep lore and stories that are uniquely mine. When you travel you meet so many open and likeminded people that It makes everything you knew before look so small.
So how can you do it?
If you are looking to escape the corporate loop and see the world, Worldpackers is the way to do it. You can use my code TEAGAN to get started on your own volunteer journey. This isn’t sponsored at all, but it is an app that truly changed the trajectory of my life.
If you are a travel brand or a yacht owner looking for someone to bring this same energy to your social media, let’s talk. I can help with capturing the vibe, creating the content, and actually growing your community.