"Set up a business in something you’re deeply passionate about" with Raymond Cua
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Raymond Cua is a full-time blogger, content creator, and founder of Travelling Foodie with experience travelling in over 25+ countries and more than half of the United States and Canadian provinces. With over 60K+ social media followers, Raymond and his works have appeared in Travel + Leisure, BBC Travel, Global News, CTV News, and Philippine Daily Inquirer, as well as other online and print outlets.
Can you tell our readers about your background?
My journey as a travelling foodie and a blogger goes all the way back to my childhood. I was born and raised in the Philippines where every summer, we would always travel for vacation. With an Asian culture revolving around food and parents who run a fast food business, my upbringing revolved around food, even in travels. I learned at a young age how culinary is an integral part of travel, and you can learn so much about a destination’s culture and history just based on food, the universal language.
When we travelled, I've always loved taking photos and videos of our travels and food as a remembrance. It was a way to remember or take a snapshot of where I was, what I did and ate, and my thought of things at that time - sort of like a visual diary.
I moved to Canada for university in 2006, which gave me more opportunities to travel and see the world. I studied Computer Science and was in a software development role when I started Travelling Foodie in 2014. This was all just a passion project to document the places I've visited and things I've eaten since I had no background in social media, journalism, and marketing.
I left my corporate job in February 2017 to run Travelling Foodie as a full-time business and haven't looked back since.
What inspired you to start your business?
Even before I started the blog, I was travelling at least three times a year for vacation, and I typically eat out multiple times a week. I was already taking photos and videos even before I thought of running a blog, and was privately sharing them on Facebook since 2007.
In 2014, I was on a 2-week road trip with my siblings across the United States. We started from Las Vegas then did a loop touring Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, Utah then back to Nevada. The main purpose of the road trip was to visit the National Parks in those states, but also enjoy local cuisine along the way.
That’s when I decided to start posting on Instagram @travellinfoodie. I realized that I was seeing all these beautiful things and thought, instead of just documenting them for myself, why not share them with people who might find them useful as well.
Where is your business based?
My business is based in Toronto, Canada where I currently reside, but it also gets me travelling a lot of the time too.
How did you start your business? What were the first steps you took?
I guess the business technically started when I decided to post on Instagram back in 2014. It’s very interesting because Instagram was so different back then. The influencer marketing industry wasn’t a thing like it is today. When I started Instagram, I had no idea this can ever be my full-time business one day.
I was just posting for fun, sharing my normal food and travel content on Instagram that was already normal for me to do because I was already sharing them on Facebook and Yelp. A year later, that’s when local restaurants started inviting me to try their place. Similarly, that’s also when I got really lucky and my photos were featured by a lot of big global media outlets on Instagram like Travel + Leisure, BBC Travel, and Huffington Post. It started progressing from there.
Since then, Travelling Foodie is on all major platforms: a website, two Instagram accounts (1 for food and 1 for travel), YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Linked In, and TikTok.
What has been the most effective way of raising awareness for your business?
The most effective marketing strategy to grow Travelling Foodie is by diversifying my marketing platforms. Being in all major platforms means my combined potential audience grows since I am now leveraging the user base of each platform. This means more potential to reach and opportunities. It also leads to higher brand recognition. People who see your business on all platforms will remember and recognize your brand more compared to a brand that they only see on one platform.
What have been your biggest challenges and how did you overcome them?
The biggest challenge I faced was this COVID pandemic. My business took a huge hit due to COVID since travel is restricted and most businesses are closed. All my planned trips and campaigns got cancelled. My blog and YouTube, where I earned ad revenue, lost 90% in traffic. Worst of all, nobody knew when things would go back to normal.
What I ended up doing was pivot my content to more recipes and some home & kitchen content. These kinds of content were in demand during the pandemic since most people had to stay home during the lockdown, which opens the doors for a new set of potential clients: home, kitchen, and cooking brands.
How do you stay focused?
I am inherently focused and driven with this business because it’s doing things that I love and am passionate about.
But in general, I find task management is very important to keep myself focused. I try to list all the tasks I want or have to do for the business, even ones for the future. Then I break everything down into atomic tasks. These are self-contained tasks that cannot be broken down even further. As an example, creating a blog post can be broken down into atomic tasks like keyword research, uploading the images for the post, creating the pinnable images, and more.
By defining everything in atomic tasks, I feel less overwhelmed because each task becomes manageable and easier to do. And then each day, I have a goal to finish a set number of atomic tasks. As I get used to doing them, I increase this number. I make this into a game by thinking of the number of tasks as points. The more tasks I finish, the higher the score. And when I achieve a high score, I reward myself.
How do you differentiate your business from the competition?
My range of food is very wide from junk food and cheap eats to Michelin-starred restaurants and World's 50 Best restaurants. Back in 2008 when I was a 2nd-year university student and before Travelling Foodie, I went to Chicago to dine at Alinea which was No. 17 in the World's 50 Best Restaurants at that time and is a 3 Michelin-star restaurant. Imagine a student going all the way to Chicago for a USD150++ meal at that time. Not a lot of people can say that. I've eaten in Michelin Star and World's Best Restaurants at an age that most people weren't aware of these restaurants nor would they care to try.
I'm not just a #ForTheGram foodie. I would try any cuisine and any dish. I’m pretty adventurous when it comes to eating as I want to try things I’ve never tried. Some of the most exotic ones I’ve had are: bear heart, tamilok (woodworm), balut (duck embryo), haggis, lamb brain, grasshoppers, agave worms. This makes my content unique too. I may not get the same amount of likes as a #ForTheGram foodie, but it's different and interesting, and you might learn something.
On the non-culinary aspect, aside from the touristy things, I'm usually down to try anything that's unique and fun, even the crazier ones like skydiving and paragliding.
What has been your most effective marketing strategy to grow your business?
Aside from diversifying platforms, SEO has been most effective to grow the business as well. The increased visitors brought by SEO bring increased ad revenue so it’s a double win!
What's your best piece of advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs?
My advice for aspiring and new entrepreneurs is to set up a business in something you’re deeply passionate about. The initial start of the business is the toughest when you aren’t making money or you’re not getting clients. During that time, the only thing that will keep you going is your passion and love for what you do. Otherwise, without this drive and passion, it is easy to just give up and quit.
What's your favorite app, blog, and book? Why?
My favourite app is biased towards Instagram because that’s where it all started for me. Both the books Happier (by Tal Ben-Shahar) and Rich Dad Poor Dad (by Robert Kiyosaki) were so helpful to me in framing my mindset for making personal and business decisions.
What's your favorite business tool or resource? Why?
My favourite business tool is Google. Searching in Google is typically the first thing I do if I have questions or problems.
Who is your business role model? Why?
Anthony Bourdain. He was truly the ultimate travelling foodie, and I look up to him as guidance as I navigate through my journey. I would be blessed to even have a sliver of his knowledge and expertise in food and travel.
How do you balance work and life?
I don’t necessarily force a balance, but just do the best as things come along. If I have plans with family or friends, I just focus those days with them. If there are not many personal plans, then I can focus on work. It just balances itself out and my business flexible in that way.
What’s your favorite way to decompress?
Aside from eating, I love hiking or taking nature walks as a way to decompress because nature provides a different escape that being at home or in the city can’t. At home, I would decompress by watching a movie or a TV show, usually a comedy. A good massage doesn’t hurt as well.
What do you have planned for the next six months?
I finally launched the official Travelling Foodie Store back in November and look forward to working on creating content for it and promoting it more. As things start to re-open since the COVID lockdown, I also have some food campaigns lined up and I’m hoping travel campaigns will pick up soon as well.
How can our readers connect with you?
Connect with me on all these platforms:
Website: https://travellingfoodie.net
YouTube: https://youtube.com/travellingfoodie
Food Instagram: https://instagram.com/travellinfoodie
Travel Instagram: https://instagram.com/journeytraveler
Twitter: https://twitter.com/travellinfoodie
Facebook: https://facebook.com/thetravellinfoodie
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/travellingfoodie/
Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/travellingfoodie