Escape Artist Q&A: Matt Stabile of The Expeditioner
Photos by Matt Stabile
This column, Escape Artist, is a series about folks who have escaped. More importantly, this biweekly column is for those thinking about trading in their 9-to-5, leg-shackled-to-the-desk existences to forge their own way. The brave outliers featured in this collection of interviews are the digital nomads, online entrepreneurs and lifestyle trendsetters who decided it was time to say to hell with the humdrum and grab life by the roots.
Travel blogger Matt Stabile runs The Expeditioner, a travel site that focuses on news, commentary and video from six travel writers around the globe. Stabile is the founder and editor-in-chief, who runs the site while also working at a tech startup company.
Paste Travel The “escape the 9-to-5” mentality seems to be popular now. What are your impressions?
Matt Stabile It feels like a day doesn’t go by that I don’t see an article pop up on my Facebook feed about someone who “escaped” a day job and are now earn “x” amount of dollars traveling full-time and working remotely. Although I know quite a few folks who have pulled this off over the years, a majority of them went back to some sort of non-traveling lifestyle after a year or two on the road.
I know many people who have done things with their sites or personal brands that they otherwise would not have done in order to pay the bills, and some full-time travelers’ content has suffered as they’ve been forced to monetize themselves.
Since I started The Expeditioner eight years ago, I’ve been employed full-time, first as an attorney and now at a technical recruiting startup. I’m still able to carve out regular trips around the world and use every vacation day I’m given.
PT What inspired you to start blogging, and how did you first build a following?
MS I started the site during my last year of law school. I was unsure about my decision to be a career lawyer, and I always imagined travel writing as the ideal job. It was also during the second half of the Bush administration and at the tail-end of the Iraq War, and I thought it would be a good time to expose Americans to other cultures and promote the idea that our similarities far outweigh our differences.
When I took my first trip to Argentina and Chile for the site, I knew right away that it was the right decision. I had an incredible trip and loved documenting it, both in print and by video. I knew then there was no going back. I expanded the site to include contributors to create an outlet for other people like myself who weren’t professional writers but still had a story to tell and wanted somewhere to tell it.