Eli Snyder (00:00):

I was in Afghanistan for 10 days, had an amazing experience. That was a huge benchmark trip for me. I felt like there’s different levels in the world of travel, and I feel like once you unlock Afghanistan, you feel like you’ve unlocked the whole world. So that was an epic trip.

Ross Borden (00:15):

I saw some West Africa madness. You guys were on that. The OR train. Tell us about that.

Eli Snyder (00:21):

That was honestly the most grueling trip of my life.

Ross Borden (00:25):

This is creator, the podcast from Matador Network. I’m your host, Ross Borden, and I believe creators are the future of all global advertising. So join me as I sit down with top creators to hear about how they got started, the challenges they’ve overcome, and the tips you need to become a full-time creator. Alright, we’re back with another episode of Creator the podcast. Today we have Eli Snyder with us, someone that I have been following on TikTok and his reels as he travels all over the world to very interesting countries that most people don’t go to. So Eli, welcome.

Eli Snyder (01:04):

Thank you so much, Ross. It’s good to be here. My name’s Eli Snyder. As Ross said, my handle is SNY explorers, so SNYD Explorers. I’m on TikTok, Instagram, YouTube. Yeah, I’m a full-time traveler.

Ross Borden (01:17):

And where are you right now, Eli?

Eli Snyder (01:19):

I’m currently in New York City, so I’m sitting in my girlfriend’s apartment about to hit the road again for a long three to four month stint, but I’ve been in the US for a month now, which has been good.

Ross Borden (01:31):

Okay, cool. And so I guess, how did you get started? Were you traveling before you were creator or you started traveling? You’re like, I’m living some crazy fucking adventures and now I want to start making content. How did this all happen?

Eli Snyder (01:44):

Oh no, I’ve been traveling, well before I started making content, which was in March, 2023. That’s when I left my corporate job. I had all my savings and I hit the road with the goal of making a full-time income from making travel content. But yeah, I’ve been traveling long before that, always spending any money I had on trips and probably three years, maybe 2020 is when I started doing solo travel because most of the destinations I found myself interested in that I wanted to go to. I couldn’t find any friends who wanted to go with me, so started going alone.

Ross Borden (02:20):

So what was that like Pakistan, places like that, give people who don’t follow you, a little taste of the last couple, what years of adventures or months

Eli Snyder (02:30):

Adventures? Yeah, so looking back on this past year, I started in South Asia, central Asia. I flew from Kansas City, my hometown to Pakistan, traveled all throughout Pakistan, hitchhiking, couch surfing, had a really good experience there. And then I crossed the land border, the torque on border into Afghanistan. I was in Afghanistan for 10 days, had an amazing experience. That was a huge benchmark trip for me. I felt like there’s different levels in the world of travel, and I feel like once you unlock Afghanistan, you feel like you’ve unlocked the whole world. So that was an epic trip. Travel

Ross Borden (03:07):

Throughout. Why was it such an epic trip? Tell us, dive a little deeper on Afghanistan.

Eli Snyder (03:11):

Oh, it was just such a mission. There’s not many tourists who are going there, but the tourists who do go there have a guide. 99% of people have a guide. If you’re

(03:20):

Maybe crazy enough to go to Afghanistan, you go with a guide. But just in general, a rule of thumb, when you see people go to these crazy places, you think, oh, maybe they’re ill prepared or they have a death wish or something like that. Rest assured the amount of research and preparation that goes into a trip. This is, it’s almost like you’ve already been to the country beforehand, but there’s a Facebook group. I’m not going to out it out of respect for the admins, but there’s a Facebook group that’s pretty tight knit of serial travelers. We go to these countries and there’s a wealth of information in there down to GPS coordinates and everything, and there’s tons of information on Afghanistan. So that’s where I got most of that information. But before the trip, you had the map of Afghanistan and my Google Maps is just a sea of pins of places I knew I could sleep of tea houses of Taliban houses, restaurants, healthcare clinics, stuff like that. So the preparation

Ross Borden (04:14):

Was just, did you decide not to do it with a guide because you’re like, I don’t hire guides or it was to save money or why did you decide no guide?

Eli Snyder (04:24):

Yeah, I just wanted the thrill of just piecing it all together myself. That’s one thing. And the second thing is the guides for Afghanistan was super expensive because there’s a bit of a monopoly. And also people, you can’t really put a price on safety so people will really pay anything. So I knew I wanted to do it alone.

Ross Borden (04:44):

Did you feel safe? Did it feel safe when you were there?

Eli Snyder (04:50):

So honestly, no. I’m kind of like a cautious person, even though it doesn’t seem like it and not having someone to translate for me and only being able to translate for myself. I mean, the cell towers there are inoperable. The service sucks. So Persian is the best thing you can download on Google Translate, but it’s different from Dari, the Afghan dialect. So I couldn’t really communicate that well. A lot of Taliban are kind of assholes. Younger ones are more chill because they’re just in it, because it’s one of the only ways that they can put food on the table. It’s an incredibly poor country, but the elder Taliban are really quite rude and stern, and especially when you present a US passport. So yeah, it was sketchy. When I say I went with a 22-year-old German who was traveling from Germany to Australia without taking a plane, so he had to go to Afghanistan.

Ross Borden (05:51):

Wow.

Eli Snyder (05:52):

Yeah. So I met him in

Ross Borden (05:53):

How did you link up with him On the Facebook group?

Eli Snyder (05:56):

No, I met him in Pakistan. There’s actually only one hostel in Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. It’s not a host, it’s just someone who pays rent in a apartment unit and rents it out, has some bunk beds in there. But I was craving social connection because the one thing about going to these countries is the social isolation isn’t immense. I mean, you talk to no one who knows anything about your worldview for a while. So of course I booked a hostel. Everyone in there was Afghan refugees and Pakistanis, except for one guy. He actually looks Afghan. He’s my good friend now, Valentine, we’re going to Syria here in a few weeks. But I walked in the door and he looked at me and he was like, ah, you’re a westerner. I was like, yeah, I am. You’re a Westerner too. And he was like, yeah, I am. I was like, where are you from? He goes, oh, I’m from Gemini. I was like, I’m from the us. He’s like, what are you doing traveling Pakistan? Same with him. And he’s like, where are you going next? And I kind of reluctantly was like, I’m going to Afghanistan. Because everyone that I had spoken to before this in Pakistan was like, don’t go there. Do not go there. Why are you going to Afghanistan? And so I had learned to

Ross Borden (07:01):

Be like Pakistanis were saying that or other

Eli Snyder (07:03):

International travel Pakistanis were saying that, yeah, Pakistanis were saying that they also don’t really like Afghans. So I had gotten to the point where I was a little bit reserved with sharing that information, but he lit up and he was like, I’m going to Afghanistan. And I was like, yes, we go together.

(07:20):

Initially we were just going to cross together and he was going to go on his way through Tajikistan because he had to kind of keep moving. But once we got in, we didn’t really feel safe to separate, and we just stayed together the next day and then the next day and kept doing that until we eventually parted ways. So

Ross Borden (07:37):

When you say the Taliban are mostly assholes, I believe it, but they’re basically running, are they doing checking your passport, doing customs security? They’re everything, right? They are the government.

Eli Snyder (07:54):

They’re the government,

Ross Borden (07:55):

Yeah. So you are forced to interact. You’re talking to Taliban all the time. Oh

Eli Snyder (07:59):

Yeah. Six to 10 times a day. You’re not going to avoid the Taliban, especially Afghan. Afghanistan’s a very diverse country ethnically. There’s redheads who look like they’re from Ireland and they’re Afghan, and there’s people who look like they could be from Beijing and they’re Afghan. But the one thing they don’t have is people who look like me, like blonde haired.

Ross Borden (08:17):

So you stick out

Eli Snyder (08:18):

No facial hair. Oh, they’d see me from a football field away and just start walking towards me and be like, permit passport. So you have to have permits when you’re in Afghanistan that you get in Kabul, the capitol, but they’re just, yeah, they want to put their hands on you and they want to look through your phone. And they’re incredibly uneducated too. There were several times when they would hold my passport upside down. One time, I’ll never forget, I crossed into Afghanistan and one of my first interactions with the Taliban is it’s this guy who’s wearing, I’ll never forget, he was wearing a Navy Adidas track suit. And he just has this huge AK strapped to his chest, and he takes my passport and he’s holding my Vietnam visa in my passport, and it’s upside down. And he’s just looking at it like this. I’m like, oh God, this is who my life is in the hands of. So that really, that experience really put it into perspective. But yeah.

Ross Borden (09:15):

So when you say that you didn’t feel safe there, was it mainly because you’re like, any of these guys could go on a power trip and throw me in jail or kidnap me was it’s what? It’s it really the Taliban who are the most menacing in that whole country? Or do you feel unsafe for other reasons?

Eli Snyder (09:34):

Not other reasons. Any sort of insecurity would be chalked up to, it would be like a misinterpretation of me breaking the law. There’s so many laws, there’s so many rules. So I felt like I was walking on eggshells and I could see how I could do something that they would interpret as me violating a rule. And then I didn’t know what the consequence would be. So that’s how I felt unsafe. But I didn’t feel unsafe in terms of, I mean, you would never be mugged in Afghanistan. There’s no more war, so you’re not going to get shot in crossfire or something. It would just be some misinterpretation of some stupid law they have.

Ross Borden (10:12):

And can you travel freely or are there places that you can go and places that you can’t go? Once you’re there and you’re in, obviously you said you’re getting hassled and stopped and people are checking your permit and your passport a couple times a day. But are you free to roam about the country wherever you want?

Eli Snyder (10:29):

A hundred percent. You need to get permits for every province you will enter. And you can do that all at once in Kabul. And once you have your permits, and of course you have your visa, you needed the visa to enter the country. Once you have those two things, you can go anywhere in Afghanistan. Only though the W walk-on corridor, which is in the, if you look at Afghanistan, there’s a tail in the northeast, that corridor, there’s special restrictions surrounding visiting there, but the rest of the country, you’re totally fine to visit.

Ross Borden (10:59):

And then I saw your food video, I think you counting down to your favorite food. And number one was Pakistan. So that was the Afghanistan experience. What was Pakistan like and

Eli Snyder (11:12):

How Pakistan’s just chill, proper chill. I’ve never been to India, but I feel like it prepared me for India. Except when Pakistanis look at you and they think all foreigner, they’re like, I want to give them the best experience possible. So the kindest people I’ve ever met in my life, sincerely, the most hospitable people ever. If you went to Pakistan and you had the mission of not paying for anything, I mean you could survive for months and months and months. They offer their homes food help. They offer to drive you three hours just because they want to help you. I mean, they’re the kindest people ever. So no stress in Pakistan whatsoever.

Ross Borden (11:50):

Interesting. That’s great to hear.

Eli Snyder (11:52):

Really chill laid back place.

Ross Borden (11:55):

Yeah. So those were some pretty adventurous destinations. What about, I saw some West Africa madness. You guys were on that, the or train. Tell us about

Eli Snyder (12:05):

That. Yeah, the iron or train, that was honestly the most grueling trip of my life. West Africa is the rawest of the raw. I mean, from a continent perspective, Africa would be considered the hardest to travel. But West Africa is on a whole different level. There is zero foreigners and tourists. The only foreigners and tourists are Peace Corps people and diplomats. So that was intense. And honestly, the most intense country we went to was our first country, which was Mauritania. That’s where we took that train easily. My least favorite country. That place is really, really raw. And another thing where you can sort of pay a guide to help you do the train, but we wanted to jerry rig it ourselves. So we found all the coordinates from friends and eventually successfully caught the train. It took like 27 hours for us to catch it.

Ross Borden (12:58):

So this is when you’re riding on iron ore, I guess through the desert for days or how long, where do you get on the train and how do you get off and do they even know you’re on the train? Are you freeloading on the ride just sitting? They

Eli Snyder (13:13):

Know. It’s weird going there. It takes 18 hours to get to this town by car, and there’s military checkpoints, and so they stop the car, they shine the flashlight in the car, they see foreigners. They’re like, you guys come here. And then they’re like, where are you going? And you say, Zu, which is where you board the train. And they’re like, what are you doing in Zu because it’s illegal to ride this train. And you’re like, oh, for tourism. And they’re like, there’s nothing to do in Zuo. It’s a mining town. It’s really a really, really shitty town. So they know and

Ross Borden (13:46):

They know what you’re doing there. So they’re

Eli Snyder (13:48):

Just asking loaded questions. Yeah, you just be like, oh, we’re just going s go to sea at, yeah. So that’s how

Ross Borden (13:55):

It works. And then it stops there. You basically jump in when it stopped. And then how long are you on the train once it starts moving?

Eli Snyder (14:03):

Yeah, the train goes from Zuo to the Atlantic coast, which is the second biggest city in Maia. The train takes about 24 to 30 hours to get from Zuro to Tibu. You don’t know how long it’s going to take. And usually, so there’s been one pickup point in Zuro where it’s been known, if you want to take the train, this is where you go. Well, we went there one day, we waited maybe like five hours, and then someone comes and they say, Hey, the train’s not coming today. So it’s like, okay, we have to go back to town, find some shitty hotel, sleep there, and then come try again. And then the next day we go, we get in the carts, there’s maybe 20 carts filled to the brim with iron ore. I mean, it’s finer than sand. And we’re confident that this is going to be our chariot that’s going to lead us the way.

(14:55):

And there’s no control car. There’s no car in the front, but we just assume that the control car that we can see that’s maybe like 10 football fields back is going to come up and then reverse into us, connect to us, and then take us off. Well, after waiting in this iron ore, we’re just completely covered, hiding from the workers like this under the rim. The control car takes off and just keeps going and leaves us in the dust. So at this point I’m like, fuck it. We’re not going to successfully take this train. I’m over this. I’m already having a really bad time. This is the worst country ever. But there was a nice local who saw us and said, I know you want to take the train. I know where you can take the train. It’s 30 minutes away and if you leave now and you’ll make it. So he called

Ross Borden (15:46):

French. This is a morian dude who just spoke English and was

Eli Snyder (15:50):

Like, yeah, no, he spoke French. I speak French. So that helps a lot in West

Ross Borden (15:55):

Africa, helpful West Africa,

Eli Snyder (15:58):

I can’t imagine doing it. Cannot imagine doing West Africa without French. So he tells me that his friend comes in, his taxi picks us up, we speed down the highway 30 minutes, and then right as we get there, we see the train, the longest train in the world coming, and then it just kind of slows down. I don’t know if it ever really stops at this pickup point, but through all our bags in and then hopped in there, we were only in there for seven hours. There’s a town where you can get off, and we had to go to Senegal the next day. So we were in a bit of a time crutch. We weren’t anticipating spending 27 hours just trying to catch the train. So

Ross Borden (16:39):

Wow, that’s insane. So amazing story, but maybe would not recommend, would not do it again?

Eli Snyder (16:46):

No, dude, actually it honestly, I would do it again. It is something about, it’s so magical. It’s just like any other amazing journey, the hero’s journey. It’s like you work so hard for something and then once you’re actually on that train and it’s just you there, the Saharan landscapes and all you can see is nothingness. And yeah, it was such a magical experience. It hurt. It made me extremely sick. But yeah.

Ross Borden (17:16):

What? Breathing the iron ore dust.

Eli Snyder (17:18):

Yeah, breathing. Yeah. I mean, you’re going to have iron ore in your eye sockets and your ears and your nostrils and your teeth for weeks, and it hurt. It’s very fine. And it feels like a metal. If you grate your teeth when it’s in your mouth, you hear it and you feel it. So that’s sort of the price you have to pay to ride this train.

Ross Borden (17:40):

That sounds pretty hardcore. It was, but I love it. I’ve always wondered. I’ve never talked to anyone who’s done that. And I’ve always seen those photos and videos of people riding that train. I’m like, this looks like a full on adventure.

Eli Snyder (17:52):

It was amazing. It was so amazing.

Ross Borden (17:55):

What about your favorites from West Africa? Any highlights that you’ve really loved? From West Africa or Africa in general? I don’t know if you’ve been to the

Eli Snyder (18:03):

Restaurant. Yeah, I haven’t traveled much in Africa. I mean, my favorite African countries, Algeria. I’d say that that’s my probably third favorite country in the world. I love Algeria. I spent three weeks there, hitchhiked all over Algeria. Absolutely

Ross Borden (18:17):

Special place. Why was it so great? Very special place?

Eli Snyder (18:19):

Oh, it’s just like that sort of Middle Eastern and Islamic hospitality kindness that I’m so obsessed with. It’s also just such a hidden gem. Algeria used to have the nickname of being the North Korea of Africa, Africa’s biggest country. It’s the 10th biggest country in the world, and there is no tourism and they have no interest in tourism. It’s 12, 12 times the size of Morocco. And for every one tourist, Algeria gets, Morocco gets 36 tourists. So it’s just raw, but it works well. It’s almost like it’s like a communist country, but it’s not. I mean, they have a national airline and it’s subsidized, and the flight prices are super cheap. The food is really cheap. People are happy. People are proud to be Algerian. Not like a lot of homelessness. Everyone kind has their basic needs. Bread is subsidized. Bread’s really cheap. People who live in Algeria love Algeria, just kind of like a happy,

Ross Borden (19:15):

It does sound like a communist country.

Eli Snyder (19:17):

Yeah. And there it’s not even that. There’s, I guess you would say tariffs on imports and exports, but they really don’t have western goods. There’s a Coke knockoff and there’s an Oreo knockoff and a Snickers knockoff, which I thought was pretty interesting, but loved my time there. And then in West Africa, Senegal was the best for food. Co Divo had the best infrastructure. I was surfing in co divo surfing in Ghana. That was amazing as well. And Guinea was the most corrupt. Guinea was the most corruption I’ve ever dealt with in my life. And I would recommend someone visit Afghanistan who’s an office traveler before they go to Guinea. That place is really intense, but yeah.

Ross Borden (20:03):

Wow. All right. No, avoid Guinea at all costs.

Eli Snyder (20:06):

Yeah.

Ross Borden (20:06):

What was the best surf break that you surfed in West Africa?

Eli Snyder (20:09):

Any standouts? Yeah, there’s a small community called D Drew. It’s D-R-E-W-I-N. You can look it up. You’re not going to see any roads on Google Maps that lead to it, but you can get there by Modo and just some shacks, and I dunno how these surfboards made it to this community, but some little i Ian kids who are really young and absolutely rip the break there is so consistent. The seabed is soft. It’s a great place to learn how to surf, and these kids shred and it’s

Ross Borden (20:44):

Cool. I saw a guy ripping a young kid ripping on a piece of plywood in West Africa that was just like, he had a piece of plywood and he’s like, this’ll work. And he just went out and now he knows how to surf it, not even on a surfboard. Unbelievable.

Eli Snyder (20:59):

That’s quite common. I mean, they work with what they have, so yeah.

Ross Borden (21:03):

Yeah,

Eli Snyder (21:03):

That was pretty cool.

Ross Borden (21:05):

So what’s the response been? I mean, you’ve grown some big accounts. I think you have about 200,000 on TikTok and about half that on Instagram. How have you grown your following? What’s been in your experience as a creator, not just a traveler?

Eli Snyder (21:22):

Yeah, I’m still trying to find my voice. I don’t want to be too heavy, but most of my content’s pretty informative or educational or it’s me with a voiceover. But I feel like I have a really loyal following. I’m so grateful for the people who followed my adventures, and I feel like they appreciate the way that I storytell. Of course, there’s lots of negativity and criticism, but most of that came from my Afghanistan content, which was the most catalytic. That’s the series that really pushed me over to have a huge following. So yeah.

Ross Borden (22:02):

Why do you think that was? Just because rare that people don’t see Afghanistan content.

Eli Snyder (22:08):

People think going to Afghanistan is

Ross Borden (22:13):

Supporting the Taliban,

Eli Snyder (22:14):

Supporting the Taliban, yeah, supporting the Taliban,

(22:17):

Which for me, I’m like, I don’t have to support a government to visit the country. If I reserved my travels to countries with perfectly harmless and ethical governments, I probably wouldn’t travel at all. So if you just do that, then that’s not really going to happen. Also, what people who say those things don’t realize is just how much it means to the Afghan people to have someone come and visit their country and appreciate their country. So those human connections just mean the world to me and meant a lot to those people. And it is the reason I’m going back. I love Afghan people, so yeah.

Ross Borden (22:59):

Why solo? Why are you so obsessed with solo travel

Eli Snyder (23:05):

Now? It’s actually not as much solo. I like a small group, but no, I think everyone needs a solo travel. I mean, that’s how you learn about yourself. I can’t imagine going through life all the way up to adulthood and just never spending a significant amount of time alone with yourself. I mean, how else can you have time to pause and reflect and get to know who you really are for that purpose, for the formative purpose, but also I just, it’s such a high for me to be in a place when I don’t speak the language. No one looks like me, and there’s no one who is western or has even a remotely similar background to me within a hundred miles. That feeling, when I have that feeling and I look around and I realize that, that I’m living in that moment, it’s just such a good feeling, just being way out there.

Ross Borden (23:57):

Yeah, good for you. I had similar experiences, early twenties, hitchhiking around Africa by myself, and it is a very, very unique vibe. And yeah, I think solar travel is definitely something that everyone should experience and even better if it’s in a place like Africa.

Eli Snyder (24:17):

I

Ross Borden (24:17):

Was in Where Africa have you been? I was in East Africa. I’m obsessed with Africa, so I’ve traveled quite extensively, but not West Africa. That’s why I’m so curious asking you about West Africa. I’ve never been, but yeah, I hitchhiked all over East Africa, solo and Madagascar. I did a bunch of

Eli Snyder (24:35):

Madagascar.

Ross Borden (24:37):

Yeah.

Eli Snyder (24:37):

Wow. That’s

Ross Borden (24:37):

Way out. Three weeks camped with these Zo Sea gypsies off sort of in the Mozambique channel between the western side of Madagascar and Mozambique. It’s a bunch of islands there. Really deep water. Yeah, I mean, I didn’t know what to expect, but they’re basically like sandbars.

Eli Snyder (24:59):

Okay.

Ross Borden (24:59):

And these guys are essentially natives, but they’re commercial fishermen. They trade everything, trade fish for everything, fresh water, all their other food, their rice, cigarettes, everything that they want. They basically trade fresh fish for, but it’s about 17 kilometers off the coast of Madagascar. And we rolled up and they welcomed me and it was just like an unbelievable experience. Really beautiful life. These people lead, but yeah, right up your alley. I

Eli Snyder (25:32):

Would love to do that. You really have to be so flexible for these kind of things to work out.

Ross Borden (25:37):

Yeah, well that’s why you got to do it when you’re young. I have two kids now. Ain’t no three weeks solo travel happening anytime soon. So what else are you really excited about for this next leg? I wanted to ask about Iran. I mean, Iran, another deeply misunderstood place where the people in the government are completely different. We actually shot a little documentary about Iran. It’s the documentary, it’s actually a series of films called Is It Really That bad? And it actually follows someone like yourself, like two places like Iraq, Iran, Syria, and asking that question, is it really dangerous? Is it really bad? Are the people really anti-Western? That was obviously before, this was the first time, that was the first episode of that series that we shot. So that was probably six or seven years ago now. So a lot has changed in Iran. What is it like? Did you have to get a crazy visa

Eli Snyder (26:43):

Visit there? Oh, it’s insane, dude. I’ve never been asked so many questions for a visa as I have for this Iranian visa. Well, so to visit Iran, you can do whatever you want. You can backpack, you can piece together your own trip, book your own hotels, x, Y, Z with any passport except for three US passport, UK passport, and Canadian passport, those three nationalities, you have to be accompanied by God at all times in Iran, which is unfortunate because Iran is such a safe place and very cheap and great for travel. But yeah, I’m going with a few other content creators. We’ve put together a trip. We’re really excited about it, but there’s a visa form and it’s pretty intense, all the things that they want to know. For example, a while ago I posted a video in Algeria of me saying, and this was stupid of me, but I said, I was making comment about how, I said how Algeria has all their own state products, like knockoff Oreos and stuff. And I said, it’s almost as if you’re in a communist country like Iran. I initially thought Iran’s communist, I’ve since learned it’s not communist country, but that was a while ago, maybe like 40 videos ago. And my

Ross Borden (27:55):

Contacts, they picked up on it, they knew

Eli Snyder (27:57):

About it. My contact said, Hey, just so you know, when I submit this application, you’re going to need to archive that video, and the video has over a million views. And I was like, holy shit. Crazy. Father, birthplace, occupation, everyone, my immediate family, all that information for me, every country I’ve ever been to with border entry and exit date. So that took me a very, very, very long time to piece together educational background, entire employment history back to middle school. I mean, they know everything about me, but it’s worth it because if you’ve asked me three years ago, and even if you asked me today, what’s my number one dream country? It’s always been Iran. So that’s the one I’m the most excited about.

Ross Borden (28:42):

Well, both from this doc that we shot and just personal friends of mine who’ve been there, everyone’s like, the people are among the coolest in the whole world and obsessed with Americans and one of to bring you home and cook you dinner and meet their whole family. And it seems like it’s going to be an incredible trip from that angle.

Eli Snyder (29:01):

I know. I’m just hoping I can get away from my guide a little bit. But yeah, it’s going to be amazing. Super misunderstood place.

Ross Borden (29:08):

Cool. So how are you sustaining all of this? I mean, I guess if you’re going to Hawaii and Veil, and it’s probably easier as a travel creator to pick up brand partnerships than Pakistan and Afghanistan and Iran.

Eli Snyder (29:26):

Yeah, a hundred

Ross Borden (29:27):

Percent. How are you monetizing your following or are you not in just creating content for now? What’s your plan in terms of sustaining this new life?

Eli Snyder (29:36):

Yeah, it is looking like it’s going to be a really good year for me this year. So the bulk of my income will be my group trip business. I have a travel agency. I’ll run six expeditions this year, but I’m the sole proprietor. I’m the only employee. And so I want the value add of my agency, my trips to be that I take you to places that maybe a logistically you wouldn’t be able to figure out how to travel solo. So an example for that, it’s Norway. I have two trips in Norway this summer, or B, you wouldn’t have the confidence to go to by yourself. An example of that is Afghanistan. So I’m taking a group of eight people to Afghanistan in April. So group trips, that’s the biggest share of my income this year. Brand partnerships for sure. Some affiliate income. I have some retainers for UGC, so like creating content for other companies to post on their channels. And then there’s always expense reduction, so getting free nights and exchange for some stuff that’s called a gifted collaboration. But yes, a little but surely I’m navigating this world. And at first the whole thing was so overwhelming, and even now I feel like I’ve been doing this for so long, but I’ve only been making short form videos for maybe 17 or 18 months. That’s really not that long in the grand scheme of things. So

(30:55):

That gives me a lot of encouragement.

Ross Borden (30:56):

Alright, after a slight change of scenery for Eli, we’re back with some better audio. We’re back. Where can people find your trip lineup? Is that on a website or on your

Eli Snyder (31:08):

Socials? Yeah, it’s on my website, which is eli schneider.com. Also, all my socials, snide explorers, you’ll see it. And there’s also an account for my business, it’s called Snide Expeditions, so SNYD Expeditions. You’ll find all the information on the Norway trips and Namibia and Guatemala.

Ross Borden (31:26):

I have one more thing I wanted ask you about. So we did a mini dock at Matador for, I think it’s pronounced Fang Odd, the tattoo artist in the Philippines. And you saw her and got a tattoo.

Eli Snyder (31:40):

Yeah, these two right here. Apple Wong Odd is her name. She was 107 when I got it done. That was in February or no March, but she’s still kicking it. Yeah, she’s a legend’s legend. Another thing is she’s a legend. You can buy a tour and have it all arranged or you can have a real adventure by piecing it together yourself. And that’s what I did. But that was the single best experience I had. All 20, 24. I highly recommend, especially go sooner rather than later if you can. I think it’s the best thing you can do in the Philippines.

Ross Borden (32:15):

I do have one more question, especially since you’re someone as well traveled as yourself. If your passport, I asked this question to every person who comes on the pod. So if your passport only worked in three countries in the whole world and you could go nowhere else, live nowhere else other than those three countries, where would the three countries

Eli Snyder (32:36):

Be? I get the US, right? The us. I still have

Ross Borden (32:39):

Access. That’s one of the three. You can have it if it’s one of the three.

Eli Snyder (32:43):

Damn dude. Ah, okay. Well then I’m going Argentina, New Zealand,

Ross Borden (32:50):

Argentina, US New Zealand,

Eli Snyder (32:51):

Yeah, yeah, Argentina, US New Zealand, US obviously for family. And I like New York City, Argentina, I love Buenos Aires and the nature, and that’s my favorite country on earth. And then New Zealand for nature and skydiving. So yeah, that kind of checks

Ross Borden (33:06):

All boxes. Are you a big skydiver?

Eli Snyder (33:07):

Yeah. Yeah, I’m a big skydiver. I’ve been skydiving all month in January down in Austin, so got like 140 jumps. I bring my rig most places, so yeah.

Ross Borden (33:16):

Cool.

Eli Snyder (33:17):

Yeah.

Ross Borden (33:18):

Yeah. I also, I agree with you on Argentina. Amazing country. I lived in San Elmo in Buenos Aires,

Eli Snyder (33:24):

Six months. Damn, dude. Dude, you’re really well traveled. I wish we could, I could have just interviewed you the whole time.

Ross Borden (33:29):

No, no. I think you’ve been to more interesting places. I’m now

Eli Snyder (33:32):

Much sure about that.

Ross Borden (33:33):

I’m changing diapers, homebody running, and company I that’s, I’m not traveling as much anymore, but Awesome, man. Well, good luck on all the future travels. We will make sure everyone has a link to the trips. I think that’s amazing. Congrats on that business.

Eli Snyder (33:48):

Thank you so

Ross Borden (33:48):

Much. And yeah, you got to come back on the podcast when you get back from this round. And tell us about,

Eli Snyder (33:54):

I would love to

Ross Borden (33:54):

All the new adventures in the Middle East. A

Eli Snyder (33:56):

Hundred percent. Thanks so much, Ross. It’s been a pleasure.

Ross Borden (33:59):

Thanks Eila. Creator, the podcast is produced by Matador Network. We are a leading global travel publisher focused on travel and adventure. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please subscribe. Every week I interview a new top creator. New episodes are released every Tuesday on YouTube, apple Podcasts, Spotify, and everywhere podcasts are found. Thanks for listening.