February 2013
I am 25 years old I am studying ali ex and
as part of my master’s degree in relations
public I find myself in Paris in
a ac a in an agency of
digital communication
so to situate yourself a little bit
I find myself in a small open space
no bigger than this scene here in
does the open 13 is more or less a
third of the space of this scene and
I arrive as you can see at
the picture behind me people are one
on the other
the right person in front of me and my
direct chef and it did not take a
week before I realize that
people in this open space
communicate with each other by courier
instant instant messenger just
imagine and so in the morning I get to
my office i’m going to
my occupations behind my computer
cushy and there I see his computer a
little skype notification icon in
top of my screen that happens is actually
it’s my boss right in front of me who
ask me to go get a coffee
I hallucinate the guy is right in front of
me and rather than taking the floor
he writes me by skype and so I’m going
in Paris
the dreams full head I tell myself but
Paris is where the pros of the
communication are I wanted to see them at
artwork
I really had dreams
professionals but not actually I
completely annoys anyone who
proposed there in this agency the
base it was really all that I
hated then at 25 years old I have dreams
professionals obviously but I have
also dreams of travel I still had
never left europe and I spend everything
my free time to read testimonials
stories from travelers who traveled to
around the world have toured the
hitchhiking world for three years five years
even 10 years and so that’s all
give ideas
they inspire me a lot and that
mixed up in frustration that this is
that they did not follow this internship and its
four months cloistered in a small
agency in Paris make me take the
decision that at the end of my internship when
I have my diploma in my pocket I will leave
I too go around the world hitchhiking
starting with a year in australia and
so four months later I arrive
I arrive with my graduation we
is in the month of June and so via the
moment to announce to my parents that ben
I will not go to work I will not go
to follow the window av it is to dream that you
have for me I go to 1 in Australia
at least with one way I know
not at all when I come back the idea
it’s going to go around the world
in 3 years 5 years 10 years I had no
idea and therefore not necessarily my parents
were not very hot the problem
is that my going to australia was
was in September and not in June and
so I end up with three months
three months of summer to spend with my
parents at home and they will do everything
so in three months to make me
change your mind and so every night
during those three summer months and
my mother came to my room the little
tear to the eye
try to make me change my mind about
play a little on the emotion itself and
finally find a real job find you
a girlfriend buys a house buys a
car but no kind will not it
I absolutely had to go
traveling craving for curiosity was really
too intense and so we come to an end
September it’s time to leave in
Australia
my journey my departure is from
Paris and my parents in their big
mounted decides to accompany me up
guillemins station
we arrive at the guillemins and there it is a
pretty intense moment that’s who’s got
past I see for the first time from
my life my father crying in front of me what
that I later learned is that at
that moment he thought she did not
would never see again so to count
to contextualize a little bit my father is going
from a family of Greek immigrants he arrived
in Belgium at the age of 4 and in his
family pattern when you leave your country
of origin for another country
it’s often to never again
come back and settle in this country
so he was convinced that I was going
australia i was going to find a woman there
down a job and create my little family and
then basta what good they were wrong I
came back as you can see
but so that’s been pretty intense
it was very very very moving
see beating here to support for me
also but I kept fishing my envy
to discover the world was bigger
that everything is so I arrive at melbourne
melbourne who she
paradise I had dreams full of head
40 degrees of girls in bikini
hot sands but i’m coming to melbourne
and what happens is the
Belgian national drache waiting for me
round and early October and actually what
I did not know is that melbourne is
a very European city from a point of
weather view and so the spring to be
started so it was very windy it
there was endless rain
but again I keep my fishing
I say to myself but it’s not serious
a new adventure begins and so
I am with my big backpack of 80
liters on the back a smaller bag to
back in front just as heavy and since the
downtown melbourne i start to
go to my first host carole
surfing it was the only project that
I had arriving in Australia this
theme and first three nights in kite
surfing and so I walk in the rain
the most Australian with my two bags
back and there when I remember this
moment it’s really the most
intense of my life still today
because that’s where I took
aware that I was reliving something
my new life was starting at that moment
there I could become surfers
professionals I could have become
Farmers breeders camels in
Australian bush or photographers all
were opening up to me I had no more
limit and it’s really this feeling of
our limits that invaded me and this moment
there and that made me superfreak and five
years later it’s still the moment I
believe the most intense of my life and so
i am in melbourne
the weeks go by I find myself a
small roommate and very quickly I get
realize that in fact life in
Australia is very very expensive and it’s
certainly not the few 7000 euros
that I had saved during my studies
that they were going to allow me to travel
for years around the world
it was just impossible and so I
started looking for a little job at
find to find a way to earn
money
So I applied pizzaïolo dance
I applied as a waitress
restaurant but no one wanted to
me and so I had to find a
alternative
and that this alternative was
isolate myself for several weeks at
me in my roommate in melbourne and during
several weeks I tried to develop
plans to find a strategy that
would allow me to travel longer
cheaper and perhaps even
free and so it’s December
we meet again in December 2013 and I
am with my roommate in melbourne and the
I send an email I send an email to a
person who is a director of a
Facebook page
this facebook page is a page
facebook called was everything
just like the season is so
this person certainly at the beginning
of facebook in 2007 or 2010 created the
facebook page was saying that
himself she was they wanted
definitely share his love for
it was that others were going
certainly I am and so over the
years he serves everything with 2 million
of subscribers on his page was and I
contact this person and at the time of
contact this person I send a
mail and I tell my roommate of the time
martin listen I really think that the
mail that I sent now risk
to change my life and so mingle
said this was hello sir I
my name is windows i am travelers i
studied public relations and I
specializes in networks
social it goes several weeks and months
that I observe a little your page I see
that commitment is no longer as
blatant than before and there are some
editorial line problems I think
that I could bring you some
tips to help you find the
lan trains of yesteryear and against all
waiting this person answers me
and she answers me listen thank you for your
email I receive like yours
every day by the tens but I do not
do not know why thiam spoke more
that since the others ok let’s launch
do something together
we’ll see what you can
propose and so overnight I
find me at the head of a page
facebook of two million subscribers
something that is huge from a point of view
marketing in 2013 but that was enough for me
no I wanted I wanted to come with a
project a little more concrete than
just a simple facebook page and so
I had the idea to create a webzine a
website dedicated to travel on which I
post travel stories but
also on which other travelers
post and share the story of
trip and so I contacted some
bloggers professional bloggers
or amateur bloggers who had
everyone their blog on their side and I tell them
have proposed to join this collective which
would be called going in summer as the name
webzine to join the page
facebook and write for this webzine
so and in exchange for their articles
would see their articles shared on the
Facebook page to 2 million subscribers this
that potentially generate traffic
on their personal blogs and so everything
the world was happy I managed to
to generate a collective of 30 bloggers
who wrote for the webzine the webzine
start everything everything is perfect life
is beautiful and two days later two
days only after launching this
webzine i’m contacted by alex alex
who is the founder of the biggest
French-speaking travel site
is called traveling far and alex tell me
that it’s been several weeks since he
followed the evolution since more or less
that I have collaborated with the guy from
the page was and so he offers me everything
simply to join his team and
come work with him and he turns out
that in parallel with his relationship
personal with the administrator the
page is and east in tumble this
sir was not very professional
he had he had very little ambition and
he did not really want to listen but
so advise that match is not everything
simply
and so I took my team of 30
bloggers and all together we’ve been
join alex and his site travel far
and so overnight like I
find me with this little map of
visit
yoann to bloggers photographers and and
would need editor to travel far on
a site so 2 million forgiveness of
2 million hits a month and he
had five hundred thousand subscribers on
facebook is here so we end up in
January January 2014
i finally want to leave melbourne from
from seeing the country and I was
always in my idea a few laps
of the world in hitchhiking
so I wanted to go to what is
at 4000 km from melbourne so always
in this trip in hitchhiking I tell myself
I try it and stop why not so
I inquire I see that the the way
would take more or less a week that
understand a desert crossing
understand a lot of things so we can
in son model I still warn my
mother who is still in belgium on thursday
listen tomorrow I’m leaving for post
and I would have for a week in the
desert be fun soon
and here is obviously mother mom
hen tells me it’s out of the question that
you do that I saw that there is a train
who goes from melbourne apple it’s a train
three days three nights I pay you the
train ticket but is out of
question that you make a crossing of the
desert hitchhike at least you’ll be healthy and
except and me world for sight was
no question of my mother
intervene financially in this
project it ‘s not it’s not
the ideology of travel but an idea has
sprouted I’m saying it’s true that
this little train trip it looks
interesting
why not that made me think a little
at the transsiberian which is a trip that
I always wanted to do
three days three nights in a tram
why not except that I did not have the
ways to pay me this train ticket and
so I contacted the train company and
I offered them a deal that was ben
this is my name and I am loss
editors and photographers for the most
big French travel site is this
that you are interested in collaborating with you
offer me the train ticket and
exchange I wrote an article about you
on my site and that would make you
visibility and free advertising
and there against all odds they me
answer they tell me but of course
you are welcome
we will welcome you in first class
we will put you a cabin
just for you and we offer you
access to the gourmet restaurant
package at $ 7000 Thursday but huawei so
hallucinating
good i’m going in the train experience
fabulous I’m coming to puff
and there is a second activity that
I really want to do is go
observe the great white sharks in
their natural environment
so we’re in a cage it costs enough
it was 500 Australian dollars and
I did not have the means yet to
pay no more so the same I send a
similar mail the same deal is there too
Of course you are welcome we are
take charge of these as long as you
write an article about traveling far
and so there I really become aware
the power of traveling far and
social networks in general has come so
but is it just enough to send
mails to really receive all
for free is it also
simple as that and so I spent the
rest of my stay in australia in
making 10 year deal so I
waquet game going about my business
I had free activities or
any cheap case with rebates
really enjoying life and in
parallel of all that it allowed me to
create unique content is enough
amazing for my instagram account
staff on which I had hardly a
hundred subscribers when I’m when
I arrived in Australia and so I
post pictures every day without
really no prospect for the future
then one day I woke up m and I
wake up with 5000 subscribers on my
account
what happened I discover
that the national geographic ar post is
one of my photos
a pack of my pictures from australia and
there it was immediate so I spend 200
subscribers to 5000 subscribers in one night and to
from there everything is linked
interview requests in every way
sites all over the world who want
use
picture of instagram account that continues to
post my photos the official account of
australia complaint media tale
like buzzfeed mashable daily mail
alas from that moment it was
really crescendo and I see my
instagram skyrocketed and that subscribers
never stopped again so I
continued my trip to australia
so doing deals through
travel far and post pictures
on my account instagram is so at the
end of my year in australia we are in
September 2014
I leave the country with 25 thousand subscribers
and Thursday keeping game now I’m going
go and sell everything that happens in
new zealand and so I come in
this wonderful country country and I’m doing a
big trip 2 3 – with a friend they have
crossed the whole country the two islands
for three months it’s fabulous and we
arrives in a small village lost in
the mountains next door in sublime lake
wanaka and there it is love at first sight
immediately I say to myself but I want to live there
it looks too good it’s really there
that I want to finally ask my
suitcases takes time to blow
take the time to do that too and
to focus a little on my career
from photographer who started a little to
take off and so the same I contact
the wanaka tourism office but for
the first time in my life I
contact on my own behalf and more
everything as a photographer or
editors to travel far
and so I offer them a deal that
this is my name is windows
I am a photographer
I have fifty thousand subscribers on
instagram I would love to live here
could you take in
charge my hosting for three
months and in exchange I get
digital ambassador for your region and
I post content on instagram and I
promote your region that is still
not very famous and the same they accept
they tell me but yes of course we’re going
to offer you we offer you accommodation
and so he will make me a little studio very
small but all that everything
I needed
so the three months become seven months
and finally I spend seven months at
wanaka in the most beautiful place of
new zealand one of the most beautiful
places in the world according to me and all that
allowed me not only to discover
a new passion that love them
big spaces the mountains the
hiking but also to refine my style
photos to create a real identity
compared to your photos I was doing
a new year and that I was not doing in
australia but also to spend a lot
of time with other photographers or
hikers and nature lovers
like me and so that allowed me to create
a lot of contacts to have a style
much more refined without instagram and
my name was associated with
more and more with this style of pictures from
wide open spaces and landscapes and so
once I was in wanaka and that
I passed the bar of one hundred thousand
subscribers on instagram I saw
also my first customers arrive
and I had requests for contracts
paid who was coming in and more or less
in March 2015 I made the decision to
spend full time as a
photographer and try my luck in
saying but here we go to see what
may happen that it will not work
but at least here I have enough contracts
that allow me to live only
of that and so I finish but my year in
new zealand it’s september
2015 it’s been two years since I left
belgium he is I say to myself maintaining he
maybe it’s time for me now
to return to belgium to review the country
I miss my family
let’s see what happens there maybe
that it’s going to be a failure may be that
everything will be packed or on the contrary that it
will continue at best and so I get in
in belgium in october 2015
and there is really big surprise
continue to string together offices
tourism all over the world continue to me
contact and jordan
canada norway and all offers me
to come to their country to do the
promoting their region on instagram
so is not only they invite me
for free but on top of that it’s me
pays for creating content and
for advertising that I could
bring on social networks is
so today I have become
professional photographer not only
I collaborate with white water
tourism or dice to actors of the
travel world but I also collaborate
with brands I am especially
ambassador for a car brand
for two years now
we went for a big tour of europe
last year through to so through
europe him for five months alas here
i just returned from norway
exactly where I gave a photo workshop
for another week a group of
eight people who wanted to discover
norway the lofoten islands which according to
me is this is my favorite region in
world but not only see them but
also learn the basics of photography and
how to really shoot on the spot and
so that’s been two and a half years
i do that i can live from my
passion my two passions that are at
know the trip and the photo is then
what I really wanted to share with
you today is finally when
I’m looking at this five-year course
have just happened
there is really one thing I think that in
spring is when I surrender I am
remember what happened in Australia
and
I approached this director of the
facebook page I think the key word
it’s daring and it’s really
feeling that I want to share
with you it’s trying you have you
have absolutely nothing to lose I had
maybe one in ten chance that this
nobody answers me for a chance on a hundred
I did not know what was going
to come I had no perspective
in the future it’s just let me throw a
mail in the ocean without really knowing
what would happen in return and this
nobody answered me i call this my
chance on 10 or on shoes 100 but
was coming
the same when I contacted the company
train or the tourist office moana
that he knows I had absolutely nothing to
to lose
I just had a dream that it ends
and so I tried my luck and I think
that’s the most important thing
today is that if you have any
dreams
if you have projects that you think
impractical or very difficult to
reach but try your luck there
just maybe just send an email
maybe to meet the good
nobody and these people are going to maybe
help you succeed in short thanks
a lot
[Applause]
keith huff
”
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