There are several social media topics that get everyone buzzing, choosing sides and even canceling friends over their trash takes: splitting the bill at dinner, food choices and travel preferences.
Yes, we’ve seen full on virtual brawls go down whenever these polarizing topics hit the timeline. And we wont lie, we love a good online tussle; we just can’t figure out if the dinner or travel topic gets people more riled up.
But whether it’s an online throw down or a sweet story of how someone got flewed out by bae, if it involves travel; Dom and Lori are tuned in!
The solo travellers recently teamed up and launched their Out of Office: A Travel Podcast where they chat it up about all things…you guessed it, travel! Since being locked in this panaroma (pandemic) for over two years, we could all turn up in a new city, in a different timezone; or read stories of those who are.
We caught up with the duo to learn more about their podcast and life as a solo traveller.
LitFluential (LF): Tell us about your podcast and the inspiration behind it.
Out of Office (OOO): Our podcast is called Out of Office a Travel: A Travel podcast. We focus strictly on travel, the inspiration behind travelling and the how to’s of travelling. We also try to encompass being black, solo female travellers. Our inspiration came from our love for travelling and inspiring others, especially Bahamians to start travelling.
LF: Who is your ideal listener and who are you trying to reach?
OOO: Our ideal listener is someone who is interested in travelling more and can use helpful travelling tips. Also persons who have never travelled and want to know the basics of how to travel. We have no set demographic, our main demographic is travellers and those who want to step out of the box and travel.
LF: Talk to us about your partnership and what made you two want to do this together.
Dom: Loreal and I are both very passionate about travelling and have been longtime friends. I randomly reached out one day and asked her if she was interested in starting a podcast with me. She immediately said yes and the rest is history. We both recognised that need for more helpful tips on travel from our Twitter audience alone.
LF: So, a podcast all about travel; we’re all ears! How have listeners responded so far?
OOO: We’ve had very positive feedback so far, especially from our Twitter audience. We’ve had people tell us that the podcasts has helped them a lot, along with persons asking us for travel related advice more often now. They’ve also randomly given us topics they want us to discuss on future podcasts.
LF: We know it’s a travel podcast, but travel has so many aspects! What are some of the topics you’ve covered so far and what other topics/ social and cultural conversations can we expect in the future?
OOO: We’ve discussed travelling during a pandemic, Air Bnbs versus hotels, (in March we also did a) two-part series focused on trip planning 101. Some topics we plan to cover include the different countries we’ve both travelled to and want to travel to, travelling with partners, contingency plans while travelling in a pandemic, travelling while Black, travelling as a woman, episodes on family island travel to name a few. We definitely plan to bring on guests and have started to think of a few who we’d like to partner with.
LF: With the panorama (pandemic) still lingering how will you educate, inform and excite your listeners about travel?
OOO: By experience mostly. With our upcoming trips this month, we plan to provide real life feedback and details of our experiences. We’re trying to excite and inspire essentially by just doing it and having other people see it can be done. Our first episode focused fully on travelling during the pandemic so that was our first start.
LF: What avenues or platforms are you using to push your podcast for maximum engagement?
OOO: We push mostly on Twitter and we push independently on Instagram and Facebook. Via our Twitter, we host discussions and polls, however, we were initially focused on the content and plan to do a lot more surrounding engagement in the future.
LF: The timeline stays popping with a new debate or new thing to talk about; how will #BahamianTwitter influence or encourage your topics?
OOO: Perhaps 30 per cent of the topics on Twitter will influence us, and 70 per cent will be from our real life experiences etc. We’re always looking for new content however we want to be the ones to stir up discussions surrounding topics we chose on the podcasts.
LF: What advice would you give to another creative who is afraid to join the creative world by starting a podcast or blog or even a YouTube channel?
OOO: JUST DO IT! Whats the worst that can happen? You never know who amongst you is asking questions that you have the answers to or needs content that you’re well versed in.
LF: Where can listeners find Out of Office: A Travel Podcast?
OOO: We can be found on Youtube: Out of Office: A travel Podcast and on Soundcloud: Out of Office: A Podcast
Click here to subscribe the Out of Office YouTube channel and travel with Dom and Lori! Join their Twitter discussions here!