Camille Demyttenaere and Jean Hocke are the Inspirational travel couple behind the very popular Backpackdiariez Instagram account which has amassed over 350,000 followers as of September 2020. To complement their Instagram account they have an incredibly informative and engaging blog: backpackdiariez.com where they also offer photo presets and a variety of online courses.

In this interview, we discuss their transitions from having full-time corporate jobs in London to becoming successful travel bloggers. We also discuss topics such as making money online, low-cost traveling, their 2018 TEDx Talk, and their clothing brand Atypique.

Camille and Jean, first of all, thank you for taking the time out of your day to do this interview with us! Could you please share with us a few things about yourselves, how you met, and what got you started on Instagram and blogging?

We are Camille and Jean, a couple of Belgian content creators with a huge passion for travel and photography. We travel the world and share our passion through our Instagram account @backpackdiariez and our blog www.backpackdiariez.com.

We met in high school (which feels like so long ago!) and before our travel blogging era we were working normal jobs, and just like most people, we loved to travel. We were both strategy consultants in London - a much more serious job, and a world of difference to what we are doing today.  We were working long hours and not seeing much of each other. We took every opportunity that we could to hit the road and go explore the world together.

The Backpackdiariez story started almost 3 years ago when got married and decided to go on an extended honeymoon to Asia. We created a joint Instagram account @backpackdiariez to keep our family and friends updated of our travels. A couple of months into our honeymoon we realised our Instagram was starting to grow which pushed us to get better at taking photos and post more consistently.

We started posting about some extreme places we were going to - like camping in the middle of nowhere in Bhutan or surviving a couple of days on a deserted island in the Philippines and soon realised people were interested in what we were doing and where we were going. By the end of our honeymoon, we hit the 10k follower mark and started to get requests for collaborations. This is when we realised we could turn our passion into a full-time business.

You both had full-time jobs before you made the huge decision to quit and try and make a living doing what you both love – traveling. Could you think back to that period in your lives and share your thought process with us? What were some of the pros and cons that you had to consider before you made this life-altering decision?

We both had built up a nice career in Consulting. This job was something that we knew we would not do forever however, as it takes a huge toll on your private life. Saying that - it was still an amazing learning experience for both of us. At this stage of our lives, it felt like a good time to take a step back and rethink what we actually wanted to do with our lives. We were still young and didn’t have any commitments like a mortgage or kids so we thought why not give the whole blogging journey a try.

Of course, we had to give up a lot of things such as the security of a job, a fixed salary every month, benefits, and medical insurance… But the idea of working for ourselves, not having to report to a boss every day or having to go to an office, and being able to travel wherever and whenever we wanted was so alluring that we decided to just go for it!

What were some of the biggest challenges that you both faced in the beginning? What was your main focus/goal at the time?

The biggest challenge, in the beginning, was probably that we had to figure out everything ourselves. We didn’t have a background in ‘blogging’ and didn’t know much about photography or how to grow and make money on Instagram. So we had to start from the beginning, which wasn’t easy at first. When we first started we were also not making enough money to live on, so we were living off of our savings and had to change our lifestyle to make things work (coming from two well-paid jobs in London this was quite an adjustment!)

But our focus has always been to grow our page and keep working hard to create good content, which enabled us to grow our page to over 350,000 followers today.

In a TEDx Talk that you both did in 2018, you talked about different things that related to your lifestyle, such as traveling as cheaply as possible and watching free YouTube tutorials on how to use editing software. What are some of the things that you did to make sure that you could travel cheaply yet comfortably and gain experience and Instagram followers as quickly as possible?

The amount of knowledge that you can find online nowadays is mind-blowing. We did not know much about photography or editing images and videos. We actually learned everything through a combination of researching online and by trying things out and experimenting ourselves. We always pushed ourselves to improve and to create better content.

Slowly our content started getting featured more and more by other pages and in the media which accelerated our growth even more. We were starting to get better deals with hotels and brands reaching out to us asking for collaborations, which is when we realised that our hard work was starting to pay off.

A huge reason why so many people love to travel is the experiences you obtain and the memories you make along the way. What better way is there to travel than with someone you love and share all these memories and experiences with!? In your case, what are some of the best things that have come out of this journey that you have both been on as a couple?

The most amazing thing for us is probably that this entire journey has reinforced and deepened our bonds as a couple. We are together 24/7, we learned to work together, we are doing what we love and living the life we always dreamed of living. We saw some places that we never imagined we could such as some of the world’s most remote places and even discovered foreign cultures we never even knew existed. It’s opened up an entirely new world for us and changed our perspectives dramatically. Another important part of all of this for us is that we are free to do what we want when we want.

Everyone with a smartphone has the ability to take, edit and share photos and capture these and many other special experiences. We've talked about watching free tutorials on YouTube to learn about editing: can you talk about which software/apps you use predominately and which camera/phone you started using to capture your travels together and what you are using now?

We edit all of our images with Adobe Lightroom which really is the best programme out there to edit pictures. We have developed our own photo filters that we apply over our pictures to make the colours pop, which we also sell on our website.

We’re currently using a Canon 5D mark iv camera which we love as it works very well in any light condition and the quality of the images is simply amazing. However, when we started off we had a small pocket-sized camera, the Canon GX7 which you can buy for 500 EUR. This camera got us a very long way. We actually used this camera for at least a year before switching to the more expensive 5D Canon model.

When you are just getting started there’s no need to spend thousands of euros on a professional camera. It’s much better to start with a smaller cheaper one which is usually still great quality, and very good to learn all the basics on. Only when you want to move to more advanced photography such as shooting in very low light conditions, for example, we recommend upgrading to a more professional camera set-up.

Camille, what would you say are Jean's most endearing attributes? Do you handle different aspects of your social media presence and income sources separately, or do you work on everything together complimenting each other’s strengths and weaknesses?

Jean is the artist behind Backpackdiariez. He is the one who handles the camera and the settings, and who edits all of our images and he’s very good at it. On the other hand, I take care of all the operational stuff that goes on behind the scenes such as replying to emails and messages, setting up collaborations, planning trips and arranging hotel deals, managing the website etc. So the work is evenly split between the two of us.

Jean, what are some of Camille's most endearing attributes? In what way do you think that you both complement each other the most, and what do you believe are some of the main reasons why you have both found a high level of success so far working and traveling together?

She has a very get-things-done attitude. The reason why our page has been so successful I think is because we complement each other very well and we both do what we’re good at. The fact that we do what we love also plays a huge role in our success as you will always be better-off doing something that you like.

The more one travels, the more likely one is to come across unforeseeable situations, setbacks and challenges. Especially when you combine business and travel! A clear example of this is the current COVID-19 pandemic, which has crippled the entire world’s travel industry and, in countless ways, has affected the lives of all of us in one way or another. How are you both coping with this? How has it affected you both socially and financially? What do you try and concentrate on to get through trying times like these?

The lockdown and the current pandemic have been a huge setback for us. 2020 started as an amazing year for us but in a period of just a few weeks all of our travel plans got cancelled, collaborations halted and we were stuck at home not being able to create content. So we focused on releasing an Instagram Masterclass on photography, and editing courses to share the knowledge we built up in the past few years.

Also, something else happened in those months at home: we’ve been wanting to have kids for a while and during the lockdown, it just became a reality. We’re expecting a little one to join us in our adventures in January which will definitely turn our lives upside down. It couldn’t have happened at a better time for us. The travel industry is very slow and unpredictable at the moment so there’s it’s the perfect time to take it a bit easier and prepare for this new chapter that awaits us.

That is so exciting, congratulations to you both! Along with inspiring so many, you both come across as positive and genuine people. You've even recently started a new Instagram page @backpackdiariez.tips which seems to be centred around giving free advice, tips and other educational content. It complements your main Instagram page and your already extremely inspirational and educational blog perfectly! What influences you both to want to help, inspire and give back to the community that has undoubtedly played such a vital part of your success?

Thank you! The idea behind @backpackdiariez.tips is that we learned so much over the past few years and just want to share our knowledge with others who want to do a similar thing to us. It’s such an amazing job, and it’s not something that you can learn in school. There are so many tips and tricks out there that will make all the difference for people.

A common theme for successful bloggers, influencers and other creatives that we have noticed is diversity in income sources. This seems to be something that you have actively focused on as well as part of your business as you partner with brands, sell presets, workshops, have a clothing line, etc.  If you don't mind, could you share a few thoughts on diversifying your income sources and providing different products, both digital and personal?

The income we receive from collaborations with brands is almost never ongoing - but instead something that we have to renegotiate every month. Therefore, we realised that having our own products gives us much more stability, certainty and something we can fall back on if suddenly collaborations cease to come in or stop.

Our clothing line Atypique the Label is something that we always wanted to do and want to keep on doing on the side. It’s a very fun business to be in but it’s a lot of work as we have to do everything ourselves (logistics, customer management, marketing, etc). That’s why we only open the shop a few days a month and work with a limited stock so that we can still have time to travel and work on Backpackdiariez which remains our main focus.

Our courses and photo filters (presets) are our other two main products where we want to help other aspiring bloggers to do what we do. We enjoyed creating our own courses a lot, and it’s something we really like doing. We are looking to launch new courses soon!

Once again, if you don't mind discussing, Is there any income sources that you have tried but wouldn't recommend? And for those starting out, what are one or two income sources that you would recommend persuing as a good starting point?

When you’re just getting started, the easiest one-off source of income is collaborations with brands. It’s easy and fast, it won’t give you a steady monthly income but it’s a great way to get started. Afterwards, we would definitely recommend thinking of launching your own products. This is much more work of course - but it will give a steady income over time. And there are so many products that bloggers can sell: think of travel guides, tailored trips, clothes, jewellery, workshops, courses, templates, photo filters, Instagram stickers, coaching sessions, etc.

I previously mentioned your clothing line, Atypique the Label. Could you share some backstory behind its conception and the process to get it through to the launch stage? What exciting plans do you have moving forward to take this amazing store to even greater heights in the future?

Atypique the Label is our little side project in which we have put a lot of love. We wanted to create high quality comfortable and sustainable clothes that inspire people to do what they want to do and get out of their comfort zone. We chose for a T-shirt and sweater line, where every piece has a special inspiring touch: a short power sentence in the neckline that makes your T-shirt unique. And every piece is made from 100% sustainably sourced organic cotton so we give something back to the environment too.

Launching a clothing line is not an easy straightforward thing especially when doing everything on your own. It took over a year to launch the first collection and finding the right supplier was probably the hardest part. We wanted to make sure that our products were of high quality and sustainable and ended up choosing a small family run manufacturing centre in the North of Portugal. Then we had to design the product, create samples, choose fabrics, etc. so it was a long time-consuming process but the launch made it all worth it.

We’re planning to add more products to the line soon - so stay tuned!

For someone just starting out, or a young couple hoping to emulate your success, what encouragement and advice could you give them? And how can people use their time wisely during this pandemic to plan for their future and give themselves the best chance of making it as a creative?

In order to be successful in anything, we think the key is as always to work hard. The key to our success was that we were constantly striving to do better: take better pictures, be more creative, learning to edit better on a daily basis. And when you work hard eventually, it will always pay off.

This pandemic has been detrimental for everyone in so many ways, but it has also given us, and so many others, a great opportunity (we think) to take a step back and take the time to think about what you really want. It’s a good opportunity to use this time to prepare and equip yourself as best you can to achieve whatever it is that you do really want. If it’s becoming a blogger for example, then use this time to learn as much as you can about all the aspects of this job and how you can become the very best at doing it.

Thank you both so very much for letting us interview you! Where can people follow you on your socials and check out your blog and clothing range, presets, workshops, etc?

Thank you! It was a pleasure to participate. You can follow our adventures on:

Instagram: www.instagram.com/backpackdiariez

Tiktok: www.tiktok.com/@backpackdiariez

Our Webshop: www.backpackdiariez.shop

Our travel blog: www.backpackdiariez.com

STAY CREATIVE!