Glo Atanmo= Travel blogger + digital storyteller + online educator

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(based on her interview on Everything is Teachable)

Glo is a sassy, one-of-a-kind hybrid professional who loosely falls into the category of “travel blogger.” Growing up, blogging was her thing, and she started blogging when she was in middle school. She was a pre-med major at first, but after graduating college, she went to Europe with only $500 in her name. Glo ended up traveling across the world, visiting over 70 countries…and she’s still not finished.

Glo wasn’t afraid to fail forward and fail often. She calls it “error and trial” and was always resourceful. In fact, anytime she found her bank account running super low, she would invent a job for herself. This included things like going to a hostel and asking if she could stay there for a week in exchange for running their social media and instagram account for them, or even joining a semi-professional basketball league since she had been a college athlete. She didn’t act desperate, instead, her mindset was “how can I make this work?” Her goal at that point was to build a travel blog called “The Blog Abroad,” so she knew she needed to do everything in her power to stay on the road and not return home.

She knew this was a temporary chapter in her life, and she had numerous adventures and tried tons of things that weren’t related to each other. Her hybrid professional identity was already in the making. Important context, Glo bootstrapped her journey and tells people how often she struggled and was flat out broke along her travels.

A pivotal moment was when she had a Huffpost article come out, and this launched her visibility. She started pitching her best blog posts and story ideas (another one of her professional identities), and persisted until she got a yes. In her article, she flipped the script and talked about how people afford the things they prioritized, and she prioritized travel instead of concerts and shopping. This article got picked up by a number of outlets and was reprinted in other languages. It got her known.

At this point, Glo’s hybridity started to find its flow. She was getting paid to travel, write, and tell stories as interconnected elements. Her work identities and life passions were uniquely fitting together. She had designed a hybrid occupation that reflected her true self. Eventually, she added one more ingredient into her hybrid mix, which was being an online course creator and offering premium retreats and courses where she could teach what she does for a living.

Dr. Sarabeth Berk Bickertonblacklivesmatter