Nora Dunn: The Professional Hobo

I am excited to interview Nora Dunn. In 2006, Nora sold her financial planning practice in Toronto, Canada, and all her belongings to head for the adventure of a lifetime. She hit the road in early 2007, and over the next 12 years, traveled slowly through over 60 countries and five continents. Through these travel experiences, she learned that full-time travel doesn’t have to cost as much as we would suspect. Nora volunteered in trade for free accommodation – and stayed in some pretty damn nice places.  In fact, through these adventures, she coined the term financially sustainable travel. It’s not about budget travel, nor is it about being environmentally sustainable. It’s about making money successfully, spending money smartly, and managing it wisely – all in the arena of lifestyle travel. These three pillars form the foundation of this website. She is the original travel blogger before the industry was even formed. She has appeared in every magazine and website that is out there.

Nora, I love your blog as I love traveling, so tell me a little about you?

Thanks, Jerry! I love traveling too; so much so, in fact, that I decided to make it a lifestyle. In 2006, I sold everything I owned (including a busy financial planning practice) to embrace a life-long dream of “cracking the code” of various countries and cultures around the world; something I realized wasn’t possible with limited-duration vacations. I hit the road in early 2007 and traveled full-time for 12 years. I now have a home base in Toronto Canada, and I continue to travel for about half of each year.

How did the idea of Professional Hobo come about? What is it all about? What is unique about it? Who is your audience and why should we read it?

When I first started traveling full-time, I didn’t yet have a career as a digital content publisher (ie: travel writer, blogger, vlogger, and online jack of many trades). My initial adventures included taking the train across Canada and then spending a few months with some extended family in Edmonton. While there, I attended some local Rotary meetings (I’m a long-standing Rotarian and love attending Rotary meetings while I travel to meet locals I’d otherwise never meet, and Rotary became quite instrumental in future years when I was affected by some natural disasters….long story). But having sold everything and quit my career, I didn’t know how to answer the inevitable question of “what do you do?”. As a way of making fun of my proverbial homelessness and wanting to add a professional edge to it, I said: “I’m a Professional Hobo”. It stuck!

While blogging wasn’t an official industry at the time (blogs were still considered online journals), I had a blog for personal reasons, and thus named it The Professional Hobo. As the years progressed and my website developed, the name The Professional Hobo became more and more apt for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is that the overarching theme of the site is How to Travel Full-Time in a Financially Sustainable Way  – ie: how to be a professional homeless person!

My audience includes people who are interested in long-term or full-time travel and want to know the logistics of how to do it (from packing your bags to arranging your finances and more), as well as armchair adventurers who enjoy my (at times brutally) honest accounts of life on the road and cultural explorations.

Everyone I know is becoming a travel blogger. You have been doing this for more than a decade. Is it really a glam job or a lot of work?

My initial instinct, when asked this question, is to rail on about how travel blogging isn’t anywhere near as glamorous as it may seem. But let’s get it right – it allows me to travel the world full-time, and I sometimes get some amazing travel experiences for free in exchange for writing about them.

That said, in my experience, the biggest misconception about travel blogging is that it’s easy. Instant fame. Full-time vacation. SO wrong!

I regularly get emails from people who plan to take big trips and want to start a travel blog so they can get sponsorships and travel for free. In many cases, these people are emailing me as little as a few weeks in advance of their departure. I find it insulting that people think it’s that easy because it debases all the hard work – the years of blood, sweat, and tears – that I’ve poured into my online business.

Travel blogging is not easy. It takes months (if not years) of full-time hours with little to no pay to set up a website, optimize it, develop content, publish it, market it, etc, etc, etc. I’m considered a “pioneer” in the travel blog industry because there was no such industry when I started blogging. Today, a new travel blog is born every 38 seconds, so the competition is fierce. If you think the world is going to flock to your website and travel providers are going to give you stuff for free simply because you have a little online real estate, think again. Blogging is a bonafide business, requiring a diverse set of skills, an equal balance of passion and business sense, and a ton of work.

I was made all the more aware of how difficult working online, in general, can be when a friend decided to start an online business…..and failed miserably. The “X-factor” that not everybody considers when getting into a digital nomad lifestyle is that it requires a heroic dose of self-discipline. Not everybody has what it takes to sit down in front of a computer and work without a clock to punch, much less with some delightful new destination on the front doorstep waiting to be discovered.

This brings me to the last misconception about travel blogging and lifestyle travel as a digital nomad; it’s not a vacation. I work full-time, regardless of my location. Thus, if I spend two weeks at a destination, I’m going to see a whole lot less than somebody who is there on vacation for the same two weeks, touring around daily. This is one (of many) reasons why slow travel is the way to go when considering travel as a full-time lifestyle; the pace is completely different.

I have been dying to ask you this but does it get lonely on the road. You also talk about finding love on the road…walk me through that experience?

I’ve had a pretty kaleidoscopic collection of travel experiences in terms of the company I’ve kept. I traveled with long and short-term romantic partners, friends, tv crews, and a whole lotta time solo too.

While it’s natural to be concerned about loneliness on the road, it’s really not an issue. I mean, it depends on your travel style and also your personality, but on the whole, I’ve found that it’s actually easier to meet people on the road as a solo traveler than as part of a couple.

As for love on the road, well, I’ll let you read all about my romantic experiences here.

Honestly, can one make a living being a full-time travel blogger? What are the challenges? I Like that you are transparent by posting your annual income.

The short answer is yes, you can make a living as a full-time travel blogger. The reality is that not everybody has (or rather, understands) what it takes. While technically anybody can do it (if they’re willing to learn and practice the skills required), not everybody is suited for it. I’d make a really bad car mechanic, even if I went to school for it; my brain just doesn’t work in mechanical and special ways that are required for the job. The same goes for blogging; aside from the fundamental requirement of being a half-decent writer, you also need marketing, SEO, publishing, and other skill sets. It’s just not everybody’s forte.

Challenges to travel blogging as a career include the requirement for self-motivation, managing work-life balance (consistently my biggest struggle), adapting to a volatile and ever-changing industry, and dealing with a huge amount of competition. Many of these are the same challenges that any entrepreneur would face.

I publish my annual income and expense reports because when I started tracking my expenses I surprised even myself at how inexpensive full-time travel can be. I wanted to show the world that it can actually cost less to travel full-time than to live in one place! And then I wanted to show the world with my income reports that it’s possible to earn enough money online to support the lifestyle. I coined the term “financially sustainable travel” not as a synonym to “budget travel”, but rather as an open-ended equation that requires earning money successfully, spending it wisely, and balancing these two aspects so you can travel as long as you wish.

I have some colleagues who earn seven figures a year; their full-time travel lifestyle will look very different from other colleagues who are earning in the low five-figure range. Regardless of income and expenses, if you are spending within your means, you’re traveling in a financially sustainable way. It’s all about choice. I talk about that a lot more in this article.

Name me some safe countries for women traveling alone? Also, give my female audience some advice on things to do and not to do?

This is a really subjective question. I’m relatively brave in terms of traveling alone as a woman, and yet, there are places I’d be nervous to visit alone. For example, I’m not big on going to countries where women’s rights are virtually non-existent (which includes, to my own surprise, Morocco). And yet, I have plenty of female friends who have gone there solo and loved it.

I’m also not a big fan of going solo to places where I’m an overtly visible minority. And yet, I visited places like India and Sri Lanka, lived in the Caribbean for two years, and lived in Peru for two years; in all those places (and many more) I stood out like a sore thumb.

So, rather than name specifically safe countries or unsafe countries for solo female travel, I’d rather suggest that women go where they’re comfortable going. As you garner travel experience, you’ll likely get braver and braver about where you’re willing to go. If you really want to visit a destination but are worried about doing it alone, then book yourself on a tour. You’ll get a whole set of experiences you wouldn’t likely have the chance to have if you were on your own, and it’s easy and enjoyable to be with a group.

We have a lot in common but you also were in the financial services industry. I am sure that has helped you with budgeting and staying within your income.

Absolutely; my inner financial planner is always there, balancing the books. But there are lots of tools available to help people who aren’t as financially literate as I am. It takes work, and a willingness to evaluate your circumstances and make changes as necessary. Not everybody is willing to critically evaluate their financial situation and make decisions accordingly. I’ve known more than one travel companion who simply ran out of money on the road because they weren’t willing to make the spending sacrifices required for their situation.

It probably also helps that I’m a minimalist and frugal, possibly to a fault. It’s a throwback to my “starving artist” days when I was a professional actor/singer/dancer. Knowing how to get by on very little money is a skill that serves me well. Though it frustrates some people around me when I deliberate ad nauseam before making large purchases, even when I can afford it. Old habits die hard!

You are in every newspaper and channel. What are some plans and goals for 2020?

That’s a great question. I have a few exciting things in store for 2020, including expanding my speaking opportunities; I’m regularly asked to speak at travel and financial conferences, and I’m developing content for broader audiences as well. I also have designs on writing a book (or three), and I’m always ready for another tv producer to invite me to host a show (I’ve filmed a few tv shows in my years on the road, and in a former life I used to work in the tv industry as a producer and host).

There are other possibilities on my radar, but I’ll keep them to myself until they develop further.

If I had a choice, I would send you to Mars on the mission. Name me something you want to take with you and why?

Gosh. I’m often asked what items I insist on traveling with, but that assumes I’m still on planet Earth! (My zero-waste kit is an example of something that I always have whenever I leave the house). But Mars is another matter. I dunno. Any answer I can think of sounds boring. Like, it’s a long trip. I’ll want a notebook so I can record my experiences, and some books loaded onto my Kindle for the long journey. See? Boring. Perhaps this is the dark side of my being so utterly practical. Haha!