Ralph: Having a mindset for photography is very different than videography. I’m a bit envious of people that don’t have an interest in travel, believe it or not. 

Spencer: You could go on another trip while that editor is working on my previous video. So in a way, you can kind of pump out more content. 

Ralph: People living vicariously through me. I take that as a big responsibility. 

Spencer: Hello and welcome back to another episode of Creators Uncut. As you see, new background, different look. It’s a brand new year, 2026. Super excited to get the year going. And today we’ve got a great guest to start out the year. His name is Ralph Velasco. Ralph, thanks for being on the show. 

Ralph: My pleasure. Thanks for having me. 

Spencer: Yeah. So your channel is called the Continental Drifter, right? That’s right. Awesome. So even though it’s a new year, we’re going to keep some of the questions still the same. And one of my favorite questions is how people got started on YouTube. So Ralph, how did you get into your YouTube channel? And also tell us a little bit about your YouTube channel, kind of the videos you do. 

Ralph: So I’ve been a travel photographer and international tour organizer for about 17 years now. And I’m just sort of on the back end of my career. I say I’m pre-tiring. So instead of doing 10 or 12 trips a year, I’ll be doing two or three trips with clients and things like that. Although I’m still organizing trips for other people to go travel on their own. But I started my channel about five years ago, six years ago. And the reason I started it was I actually had an idea for a travel show, a TV show, and COVID hit. 

Yeah. So it had a lot of things lined up. We had gone to Spain, filmed the Cizzorail, Tizorail, even filmed the first episode. And then we all know it happened in the early 2020 COVID hit. And that was the end of pretty much travel for about two years. So I ended up, I did end up traveling during COVID for about five or six months, those first two years. Spent two months in Turkey. And I pretty much started the channel there. If you notice my introduction video, I believe is filmed in Turkey. 

Yeah. So really excited about it. So what I decided to do is instead of, because we kind of got blocked with doing the TV show, I said, well, I might as well start trying to build a following on YouTube and get some practice in front of the camera and all that good stuff. And I was going to this amazing place where there was going to be a lot of content for my travel channel. So it kind of morphed into that. 

Spencer: That’s awesome. I’m curious, was it like, you mentioned you traveled a little bit during COVID. Was it really difficult because of all the COVID stuff going on? 

Ralph: Yeah. Yeah. I didn’t travel just a little. I was on the road about five or six months each, those first 2020, 2021. But yeah, I’m location independent. I don’t have a home. So I kind of live on the road anyway. But I do have family in the Chicago area when I’m in town. 

I’ll stay with family. But during that time, I really didn’t have anywhere to go. And I was dating a girl in the Republic of Georgia. And that fall of 2020, the only place that would have her and me, because she was coming from Georgia, I’m coming from the US, was Turkey. And so we ended up going to Turkey. We were going to spend three weeks. We ended up spending two months. 

Spencer: Yeah. No. I was just curious about traveling during COVID. I remember when COVID hit, I’m located in Utah and I didn’t travel much, but we did, me and my wife now, we were just friends at the time, but we went to Vegas. 

We drove down to Vegas and the strip was completely empty. It was weird, but kind of nice honestly, because there wasn’t a lot of people there. So was there a lot of people when you went to Turkey? 

Ralph: Yeah, fair amount. They were getting into lockdown and wearing masks and things like that. My girlfriend and I were walking up in the hills by ourselves on just an abandoned road, and some police came by and told us to put our masks on. Yeah, it was crazy. 

But this is the early on, like October, November of 2020. But yeah, it was pretty special. I also went to Nicaragua, Colombia. So I did travel quite a bit during COVID. It was somewhat of a pain. As you know, we had the inoculations and you had to have the card. 

It was a lot about just proving stuff and flying airplanes was uncomfortable because of the masks and the social distancing and stuff. But we made it work and there was a little bit of extra paperwork, but it was, the alternative was to not leave the house. So I was fine with it. Yeah. 

Spencer: So it sounds like you’ve been all over. Is there a favorite place you’ve been or a favorite video that you’ve made of somewhere you’ve traveled? 

Ralph: Yeah, I’ve actually been to all seven continents as of 2024. I got down to Antarctica. That’s one of my favorites. Yeah, that’s really, really something down there. And we actually fly back and forth. So we fly from Punta Arenas, Chile to Antarctica and back. That avoids two, two and a half days of the notoriously rough Drake passage sailing that, which can have 50 to 100 foot waves. So that was really the only way I was going to go down there. 

And I’m a sailor, so I’m pretty used to being on open water, but I didn’t have any interest in doing that for two and a half days. Makes sense. Yeah. And so I also went with the same company to Patagonia this past fall. That was really something. So Southern Chile and Argentina, where Patagonia is, did a cruise down the western coast of South America and Chile. 

Absolutely fabulous. Some of my other favorite places are the Republic of Georgia, beautiful, very inexpensive, a lot of great food. And Spain is an old stalwart of mine. It was first place I went to, kind of on my own in high school when I studied with my high school in Spain for summer. 

Oh, that’s awesome. Yeah, kind of without the parents and everything at 15 years old. It was pretty wild. But I come from my heritage is Spanish. And so very interesting to me. And I just love the culture of food, everything. 

I call Spain the other Italy, because everyone knows Italy that gets all the press. They love it. We see all the movies and everything. But I think Spain is just as beautiful and food and varied and culture, history, etc. That said, I’m now saying that Portugal is the other Spain. 

That’s funny. Yeah, they are all, they are somewhat similar. I mean, but yeah, varied enough with the culture and language and things like that. But I just love the Mediterranean is one of my favorite parts of the world. 

Spencer: Yeah, yeah, that’s awesome. So did you make videos for all of those places? 

Ralph: I think so. I’ve been to quite a, you know, I was making videos before I started the channel, of course, you know, we’re all doing videos and photos, but not really with the intention of making YouTube videos out of them, you know, initially, but trying to capture the things I was doing, the experiences I was having, the foods I was eating and sharing those with my followers. 

And that’s always fun. So I’m always kind of thinking because I was a travel photographer before, if you’re at all into photography, you probably know that having a mindset for photography is very different than videography. photography. 

Spencer: Yes, definitely. 

Ralph: I always found it very difficult to do both. So I’m going to take some pictures now and I’m going to switch over to video. And I knew that if I started my channel, I was going to want to make it easy on myself because I’m on the road for two or three months at a time by myself, got to be responsible for all my gear. I needed to make it as simple, lightweight, carefree as possible. So I got a gimbal. 

Yeah, I got a DJI, the Osmo gimbal, used my iPhone, little small tripod, and I’m good to go. I wasn’t going to buy another camera and all the sound gear and the lights and reflectors. So I just wasn’t going to do it. And I knew that if I went at it with that mindset, I was never going to actually get the channel going. 

Spencer: Yeah, it’s always better to at least get something out than to like worry about all the things super nice and extra equipment. 

Ralph: So I say it doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be out there. Right. 

Spencer: Just has to be complete. Yeah, definitely. Out of all of your videos, do you have a pretty good community that kind of watches and I guess lives vicariously through you? 

Ralph: Yeah, I hear that word a lot vicariously. Yeah, a lot of people are, you know, as fortunate as I am to be able to travel. Some people don’t have an interest in travel and they just want to do the art chair stuff and that’s fine. I get it. Sometimes I kind of, I’m a bit envious of people that don’t have an interest in travel, believe it or not. 

Oh, really? Well, because, you know, they’re satisfied with where they are. And with me, I’ve always been, you know, what’s the next place, the next place, the next place. So you’re never quite satisfied. However, as I get older, maybe we’ll talk about my mindful and intentional travel or series of books, but those are meant to slow you down and to take more in to be here now. 

Spencer: Yeah, that’s a good mindset to have. Last year, we actually had a guy on the podcast and he talked about living in the present and he called it the, like, what did he call it? I think he called it living in the now, the nowist mindset or whatever. But yeah, it’s a good way to think, especially if you travel like you. So what was the name of the book again that you said? 

Ralph: Yeah, so it’s called the mindful and intentional traveler series of books. I’ve got one that’s a series. One is called 60 affirmations for travel. One is a travel activity book. 

That’s a gratitude’s edition. So it’s got crossword puzzles and word searches, mazes, quotes and things like that. So they’re kind of, it’s kind of a activity book. And then my most recent is called bucket lists for travel places to go before your knees give out. 

That’s a good title. And that was a book that I came up with because I hadn’t seen anything like it out there. I’d always wanted to find a book that I could actually tick the items off my checklist. So I came up with 80 different checklists, countries, continents, cities, states, natural parks, et cetera, but also rivers, oceans, mountains, hikes, drives, things like that. 

Also gastronomic experiences, foods, restaurants, bars. But I hear that people living vicariously through me because of my trip. So I take that as a big responsibility. And I love, like most people, I love to share the places I’ve been and introduce my following to the people that I’ve met and interesting things that I’ve done. 

Spencer: Yeah, that’s awesome. Definitely to those listening and checking out this episode, make sure to check out those books. They sound awesome. So I’m curious from your community that kind of watches your content. Have you ever received a comment that was either the most shocking or most memorable to you? 

Ralph: Yeah, I’ve got one right off the top of my head. One of my clients, I used to do Cuba a lot. That was my most popular program that I did. Of course, we always went down license, fully licensed and everything. But that, so I had one client that I always asked for testimonials after my trips, of course, I had one client that said, this was a trip of a lifetime. 

I would travel to the ends of the earth to photograph with Ralph. So that was pretty, yeah. And I get quite a few people, I try to get video testimonials as well in the destination while we’re there. And I get people tell me, Ralph, this is the best trip I’ve ever taken in my life. And I’ve traveled all over the world. 

I’ve got nothing but five star reviews on all my trips. So I like to think I’ve done something right. Yeah. Oh, and I just love going to these places and sharing it with people sharing. 

Like I said, the things I’ve done, things I’ve seen, people I’ve met. And maybe it’ll encourage them to go there on their own or come with me on a trip. But I like to also help these places to sort of market themselves a little bit too. Get people interested and go into these places, help the economy and the local people. 

Spencer: Yeah, YouTube is a great way. Like I know a lot of people go to YouTube to check out the place that they’re thinking about going. And so people will probably come across your videos and like it’s helped them make that decision to go to that destination. So that’s awesome. 

Ralph: I get people asking questions, you know, where can I find that tour operator, that food tour or something? Yeah. So I always answer all the comments. 

Spencer: Yeah. All right, Ralph. Well, I’ve got one more question for you to kind of wrap up this episode. You know, last year we did a lot of advice and I think there was a lot of great advice. This year we still want to do some advice, but tone it back just a little bit. 

But this is this is our advice question that we’re going to ask a lot of our guests. Since you’ve been doing YouTube, do you feel like there’s a mistake that you’ve made that you’ve learned from that maybe our viewers and listeners could benefit from? 

Ralph: I think I learned a lot of things, of course. I have always been someone that tried to do everything myself, whether it’s trying to save some money or I always like to learn. I want to learn skills first and then if I hire someone to do them, I can speak the language and, you know, not get bamboozled maybe or just speak more intelligently about it. But like editing and things like that. 

So I fairly early on hired an editor and a channel manager to do the behind the scenes stuff because I also knew that I was going to not be real interested in editing and all that stuff because when I’m traveling, I’m lucky if I get the video let alone one after a long day and I got to edit all night. But it does cost money, of course. You know, when you hire people to do these things, you have to pay for it. 

So it got a little bit pricey. Although another tip is to use Upwork or Fiverr to find people to do editing, to do thumbnails. Although now, boy, you know, with AI and everything, you can do a lot of this stuff yourself or even get it to a point where, you know, maybe it’ll take a paid person less time and money to finish it off. So I would say if you have the resources, don’t be afraid to spend the money to hire other people to help you if it’s going to get the content out there. Otherwise, you know, I found myself procrastinating, hitting walls and, you know, and the videos weren’t getting out there. So I’m finally like, okay, well, pay for this if I want to, you know, actually get this channel up and running. 

Spencer: Yeah, definitely. I think that is perfect advice. I’m a little biased because I’m a video editor. But the great thing about having someone to help you, especially for someone like you who’s traveling, like you could be traveling and shooting a video and send that to like a video editor, for example. 

And then you could go on another trip while that editor is working on that previous video. So in a way, you can kind of pump out more content. And it also does help you at least put out the content. So I completely agree. 

Like if you have the resources, you should definitely reach out to people to help you. Ralph, thanks for being on the show. You know, this year we’re trying to aim for slightly shorter episodes, but we still want to get that good content in. 

But I think this was a great episode. So thanks for being on the show. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. Yeah. So if people are interested in getting in contact with you, what’s the best way to do that? 

Ralph: Sure. So everything’s at the hub of my website, continentaldrifter.co. All my books are there, my YouTube videos, links to all my services that I provide. Like I said, I’m leading less trips, but I am still organizing trips for people that want to go to the places that I’ve been that would like to go by themselves with a spouse or friends or family, small organization. I can help people put those trips together on their dates when they want to go. So continentaldrifter.co for just about everything. 

Spencer: Awesome. So make sure to check that out. And thanks for our listeners and watchers checking out this episode. Make sure to subscribe for more content like this for real conversations with YouTubers. And we’ll see you in the next one.