Oneika Raymond (00:00):

One of the coolest things about my journey as a creator is that I’m constantly learning what it means to be a media professional because a lot of people will dismiss being an influencer as, oh, you just post online. There’s so much more. The business of social media, the business of content creation, the business of being a multimedia personality, a lot of people don’t think about that. I was like, you know what? I’m kind of making money from this. And honestly, Ross, I just never looked back.

Ross Borden (00:29):

This is creator, the podcast for 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, welcome back to creator of the podcast. Today we have very special guest, Onika Raymond. She is an Emmy award-winning presenter, TV host, social media creator, podcaster. You kind of do it all. Welcome, Monika. Thanks for coming on the show.

Oneika Raymond (01:05):

Thank you so much for having me.

Ross Borden (01:07):

So where are you calling in from today?

Oneika Raymond (01:09):

So I’m calling in from Miami, Florida, perhaps not that interesting, but I actually just got back from a five and a half month round the world trip. I was traveling with my husband and my five-year-old daughter, and we went to 24 countries. So now we’re back home in Miami and just trying to kind of restart normal life.

Ross Borden (01:31):

Incredible. So we got to hear about that. So you’re based in Miami, but you’ve been traveling with your family for five and a half months. Tell us where you went and some of the stuff you guys did.

Oneika Raymond (01:41):

So we did a complete round the world trip. Our first destination was Dubai and the UAE and our last destination was Tahiti and goodness, it was such an incredible trip. We went to Saudi Arabia. We went to Namibia. We actually spent two and a half months traveling through Africa. Gosh, we spent a month in Thailand, we went to Laos. We went to a number of different places in the South Pacific, including Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and Samoa and Fiji.

Ross Borden (02:13):

Oh my

Oneika Raymond (02:13):

God, incredible. It was a really, really incredible trip with so many different chapters, to be honest with you. I look back and I’m like, gosh, we went and saw Victoria Falls and we did a safari in Kenya and we did all these incredible things and it almost doesn’t even seem like the same trip because so much time elapsed in between everything and we saw so many different things and we explored so many different regions.

Ross Borden (02:38):

So that sounds like a dream trip. How did that happen? How did you afford it? Was this a project? Were you working or did you guys like We’re taking five and a half months off and then we’re going to do the round the world

Oneika Raymond (02:51):

Tour. So yeah, the reason I started my travel blog, the reason we’re talking today, the reason why people know my name and stop me in the street is I had this love of travel and I started documenting this love of travel online. So this trip that we did was very much kind of like, you know what? Let’s just throw caution to the wind. Let’s get back to the roots of travel. I didn’t take any campaigns, I didn’t do any work, no commissions, no comps, no paid gigs, paying for the travel, my husband, my daughter and I, we just left. We took my daughter out of school, we took her out of daycare. It was kind of like her last hurrah before going to real school. Where

Ross Borden (03:34):

How old is she?

Oneika Raymond (03:36):

She’s five. So she’s almost five and a half.

Ross Borden (03:38):

Oh yeah, amazing age to travel.

Oneika Raymond (03:40):

Exactly. And so getting into, she’s moving into that lane where she’s not going to be able to travel more than X amount of days of the school year. And so we’re like, yeah, let’s just do it. My husband is a stay-at-home father. Obviously I can work remotely and a lot of the leisure travel, I do a lot of the travel that I don’t do for work. I’m always documenting. So I figure at some point I’ll be able to use some of this content and spin it into or user it for a paid campaign or in a paid capacity. But we just thought, you know what? Let’s do it. And luckily we’re in a financial position to be able to do it. We have tons of credit card points and frequent flyer miles that we were able to cobble together in order to make the trip more affordable.

(04:28):

And having traveled to so many countries around the world, I’ve also lived in seven countries around the world. I know how to travel affordably and efficiently. And so we spent more time in destinations that are more affordable. We spent less time in destinations that are deemed more expensive, and we actually skipped certain destinations altogether because we were like, eh, that’s too expensive. We don’t want to pay $200 a person for an entry visa and then pay $300 a night for a hotel or pay X amount for an experience. So it was definitely a lot of planning on our part and just being smart about the way we did things.

Ross Borden (05:10):

That’s amazing. So I have to ask a couple things. One, what were a couple of the favorite stops along the way for this particular trip? I mean, that was quite a diverse range of places that you guys went. Definitely,

Oneika Raymond (05:22):

Definitely.

Ross Borden (05:23):

Anything that’s like stands out among the five and a half month trip.

Oneika Raymond (05:28):

Absolutely. I had been to Zanzibar previously in Tanzania, and I went back for a second time on this trip. Absolutely loved it. We went to Alula in Saudi Arabia, absolutely loved it. The landscape. So incredible. Yeah.

Ross Borden (05:46):

What did you think of Aula and what do you think of Saudi in general? I feel like it’s a big place where people have preconceived notions and maybe misconceptions about the place. I’ve been to Saudi twice and it is definitely defeated a lot of my own misconceptions,

Oneika Raymond (06:02):

100%.

Ross Borden (06:03):

What did you think, especially traveling as a woman in Saudi?

Oneika Raymond (06:06):

It’s so funny. I could have been anywhere in the Middle East. In some ways it was an easier destination to travel to than other places in the Middle East, like Egypt. I’ve been to Egypt. Once. I find Egypt, and this is kind of corroborated by other people I’ve talked to, it’s a difficult place to travel. It’s a difficult place to travel, particularly as a single female solo traveler. I think it’s just a difficult place to travel because there are a lot of political and social and cultural things happening there whereby as a tourist that is very apparently a tourist, it makes navigating the country really difficult. Saudi Arabia, I went to Jedda Riyadh, and I mean there were certain areas of it. I was like, is this Houston? Is this Texas? When we went to Aula, I was like, is this Utah? They have a rainbow arch.

(07:07):

And again, it just reminded me of how we can have these preconceived notions of a place that are outdated, that we carry forward with us. It’s like baggage. It’s this travel baggage where you have these assumptions based on outdated or outright erroneous claims. And the current reality doesn’t reflect that at all. I went and I saw women driving, the women driving us everywhere and people smiling and very jovial, and there were women without their hair covered. There were women who were not wearing an Avaya. There were women who had to different degrees, their skin showing it was not an issue. So I thought, okay, well I wish people had this impression of Saudi. And now that it’s more opened up to tourists, I think the country will have the opportunity to show more people what it’s about and that it’s an evolving destination.

Ross Borden (08:05):

Awesome. Well, let’s talk about your career as a creator. And now we call all this stuff creator, but you’re, as I said in the beginning, a really successful podcaster. And we’re going to talk about that in a minute. I love the Marriott podcast, and then a presenter, your talent and a host above and beyond what you do on social. But you started a really long time ago, I think almost exactly when we started Matador, which I can tell you was a long time ago. And then you went full-time in what, 2016 as a creator. Can you talk about

Oneika Raymond (08:39):

2016? Exactly.

Ross Borden (08:40):

So if we fast forward through the very early days of being a creator, was there a moment when you were like, I’ve got this, I’m going to do this full time, this is going to be my career. And then you had the confidence to jump, or what was that like? And then tell us about what’s happened since then.

Oneika Raymond (08:57):

Yeah, I mean 100% for me, it’s always the power of the pivot. And between 20 15, 20 16, I had a decision to make. I was working in education. I had a career of 10 years working as a classroom teacher and a junior administrator in international schools. I had had this passion for writing about travel, and at that point my blog had been established. I had been writing for blogs, I had been writing for different publications. I think if you search on Matador, you might even find one or two of my articles that were syndicated on Matador. And social media was kind of becoming a thing, right? Instagram was becoming a thing. Facebook video was becoming a thing. And so in my last year of teaching, I was living in Hong Kong in 2015. I was getting a lot of commissions. I was writing for Conde Nas Traveler, and they were just reaching out to me out of the blue being like, okay, we enjoy your perspective.

(09:55):

We enjoy your writing right for us. And so when it came time to move to New York City, I was like, you know what? I’m kind of making money from this. This is a great side hustle. Let me go all in, but I’m only going to get myself a year because I’m a pragmatic person. And honestly, Ross, I just never looked back within six months of going full time, I had a television station in Canada, which is where I’m originally from. Reach out to me and say, we love some of the videos that you’ve posted on YouTube. We love your social media content. We would love for you to be our resident travel expert, our resident on air travel expert on this national TV show in Canada, very similar to the Today Show. And so I just went all in and again, around the same time, within six months, travel Channel got in contact with me and they said, we love what you’re doing. We are starting up these new digital series. We would love you to be the host of them. So I posted two digital series for them over 50 videos, and I just kind of took off running. I kind of became this on-air personality, which was something that I was always very interested in. And I guess social media personality as well, social media influencer.

Ross Borden (11:09):

So you’re like, alright, I’m going to give myself a year to go all in. But then once you started putting every minute of your working life into it, you were like, oh, this is like a cakewalk. I definitely got this. That’s awesome. Absolutely. In your career as a creator, what have been the most lucrative in terms of earning what have been the most lucrative pieces? Because you have quite a bit, right? You’re a presenter, a host for linear TV shows on something like traditional, like the Travel Channel. You’ve done brand deals, I’m sure we’ve done some brand deals with you in the past. You were hosting the Marriott podcast. I’m probably missing a couple revenue streams. Definitely. What has been sort of the most lucrative for you in your career as a creator?

Oneika Raymond (11:58):

So funnily enough, I mean probably the same old song, most social media, short form creators, we’ll say brand deals, brand partnerships is a significant part of my income. But I think the critical unlock here is having multi-year partnerships, having relationships that endure as opposed to just kind of the one-off partnership. So I have been really lucky to work with a number of large brands for years. My Marriott partnership, I started working with them, gosh, in the summer of 2016, and now it’s 2025. So I’ve had a relationship with Marriott over nine years now. And it’s been one of those things that’s really grown from maybe a social post here and there to actually hosting this full-fledged travel show because about the Journey, which is what started as a podcast, is a multi-camera travel show that’s won a number of awards at this point.

Ross Borden (13:04):

I was going to say that I was checking out the podcast and I was like, this is a full travel show documentary style, and I was getting some fomo. I was like, I wish our podcasts were all shot on location. I watched the Mexico City one, and you’re chatting with a bunch of different amazing people, chefs, journalists, and you’re going, you want, you’re in restaurants. And I think it’s cool because for those people who are not watching, you can still hear the sounds, right? It’s like really good sound recording

Oneika Raymond (13:39):

And

Ross Borden (13:39):

Sound editing, but it’s like, like this is more than a podcast. This is a full

Oneika Raymond (13:44):

Travel show. It’s a full-fledged travel show. And it’s funny because when I was asked to be part of the project, I said, I need to come on as producer. If I’m going to be a part of this, I need to have a say. I need to come on as producer. And so what’s been incredible is that over the years, I’ve really had the opportunity to shape the show into something that I really enjoy and something that I know that other people will want to watch. And we’ve been able to tweak it, the look, the feel, the guests, the focus of the conversations, and it’s just made for really immersive, gorgeous storytelling and programming. And so this last season, it was the fourth season where we shot on location, four different episodes we shot in Mexico City, we shot in Maui, Hawaii, we shot in New Orleans, and we also shot in Sedona, Arizona.

Ross Borden (14:38):

And I love that you were like, I’ll do it, but I want to be the producer too. Oh yeah. So what kind of things did you make as a requirement when you became the producer? And did they pay you more for production role as well as being the host?

Oneika Raymond (14:53):

Yeah, 100%. So I think one of the coolest things about my journey as a creator is that I’m constantly learning. I’m constantly learning what it means to be a media professional, because a lot of people will dismiss being an influencer as, oh, you just post online. There’s so much more. The business of social media, the business of content creation, the business of being a multimedia personality. A lot of people don’t think about that. And so as a producer, it was just really important that if I’m going to be the name in the face of this thing, I need to have some sort of control. I need to be able to select or give my input on where we’re going, what we’re talking about, who we’re interviewing. Some of the shots, I’m kind of like, okay, I want, this is my vision and some of the locations, and I’ve been really even the

Ross Borden (15:46):

Location. Did you get to choose where you guys were going to record?

Oneika Raymond (15:50):

Yeah. So it’s super funny because the most decorated episode of the season, which is New Orleans, that was my branch out. That was like, this season we have to go to new. That was the destination that I selected because I knew that was going to be the best episode of the season knew. And so we were able to kind of shapeshift and have these conversations that were very specific to the message that I wanted to convey. And so the producers on the project, I mean, they were amazing in terms of the talent that they were able to find or the guests that they were able to find, and just so supportive. And I think we all knew when we shot that episode and when it was cut, we’re like, whoa, this is very, very special.

Ross Borden (16:43):

I haven’t seen that one yet. I got to go watch the

Oneika Raymond (16:46):

New Orleans episode. That’s my absolute favorite of anything I’ve ever done with Marriott. It is the best one.

Ross Borden (16:54):

So is there season five, are you guys shooting that now? Or what’s the future of the whole project

Oneika Raymond (17:00):

That remains to be seen? I mean, the nature of the biz, as you know in media, especially editorial media, is that you just never know. And so again, if I had to give a tip to an aspiring creator, it’s never put your eggs in one basket, because from season to season, they’re different budgets. People believe people who are on the project leave get laid off all of these different things. So as of right now, I don’t know what the future of the podcast is. I don’t know if we will shoot another season. I certainly hope so. But yeah, I’m kind of setting my sights on other projects and I’m super excited to see what else comes down the pipeline and what else I can be a part of.

Ross Borden (17:50):

Yep, absolutely. And what else is coming? Anything you can share with us about projects you’re excited about or working on for the rest of this year or 2026?

Oneika Raymond (17:59):

Well, I do, I have a couple of on air things that are going to be filmed, so I’m looking really forward to that. And just kind of working again with different brand partners. I’ve been really blessed to have, along with Marriott, I’ve been really blessed to have a longstanding relationship with Expedia as an ambassador and a spokesperson. So I hope to continue doing more work with them. I’m still doing work with them. I’ve been working with them now for five years or so in many

Ross Borden (18:32):

Different, so let’s double click on that. These ambassadorships, these long, I totally agree with you and with the brands that we work on, we’re always trying to push them towards long-term multi post, not a flash in the pan partnership with this influencer and then that creator. So I think it’s good advice for both sides of the table, both the brands and the creators. But as a creator, how have you done that? Did those all start with a single post or a single whatever, a single partnership, and then you’re like, Hey, we should think about something more long-term and more ongoing than it sort of evolved, or how did you negotiate that?

Oneika Raymond (19:08):

Yeah, no, they sure did. I mean, again, I’m not somebody who pitches. I mean, in the very beginning I pitched, so call it twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, but very soon after that I stopped pitching. So I’m very blessed to say that 99.9% of what I’m doing is inbound at this point.

Ross Borden (19:32):

Wow. I think that’s rare. That’s definitely bragging notes there. That’s cool.

Oneika Raymond (19:36):

I don’t know. I mean, in previous years I did have management, so I had management and sometimes they would go and pitch me out and they would be a successful partnership on the back of them doing some kind of outbound pitching. But now I’m just solo. I don’t have a manager, I don’t have management. I’m not with an agency anymore, and I’m kind of lazy. So I kind of let my work speak for itself. And I think, again, if I had to give advice, I think it’s really important to be good at what you do, but also be strategic in the sort of, so first of all, be really easy to work with. Nobody wants to work with

Ross Borden (20:23):

Right high maintenance people who are not open to collaborating,

Oneika Raymond (20:28):

Especially when you’re doing on air stuff, there’s so many people involved. And so if you’re in the field and you’re a jerk, I mean, I was on the Go RVing thing with Matador and there was this amazing crew, and something that I always think about is the people that you meet on the way up are the same people you’re going to meet on the way down. So I always endeavor to be nice with everybody. I mean, it’s just my nature, but it’s really important to me to maintain good relationships because again, there’s so much movement in the industry. Somebody that you may have worked with at this particular brand on this particular project, they may move somewhere else. I had a gig last year. I was asked Toce an event at the US Open with Emirates, as it were. And it’s funny, obviously we do all the paperwork and I go to the event to mc and all this, and then a lady approaches me and she’s like, Hey, Juan, how are you, la la la la?

(21:27):

I’m looking at her and she looks familiar. She says her name. I’m like, remind me of your last name again. You haven’t been on any of the emails. And she told me, and she’s like, you may not remember, but probably a good seven years ago, I was working with another ad agency and we invited you to an event in New York City. We weren’t working together in a paid capacity. I was an invite. And she said, you sat down at the table and we loved talking to you. We loved having you. We thought She’s so great. And so when this opportunity came up, she’s like, I follow you online. She said, when this opportunity came up, she said, I recommended you specifically, she put your name forward

Ross Borden (22:07):

Specifically.

Oneika Raymond (22:08):

She put my name forward specifically. I thought that is the, I guess, power of relationship building and just being a nice person. Totally. I can’t stress that enough because I’ve also worked with a number of different agencies, whether it’s like Edelman or Ketchu, and these are agencies that are representing brands, and they’ve hired me for multiple projects across multiple brands across multiple years because I worked with them on say this, it was like a Lay’s potato chip campaign, and then they were also handling the account for Advil. And so you can really, again, parlay your influence and your content creation into additional opportunities just by doing a good job and maintaining really good relationships.

Ross Borden (23:02):

Totally. It’s a great point, because anyone new that they bring in, it’s a risk, right? They’re like, oh, this person seems great online, but they could be an absolute nightmare or whatever. And so if you’ve proved yourself to be awesome to work with, they’re like, no risk here.

Oneika Raymond (23:18):

This

Ross Borden (23:18):

Creator’s great. And we know that already. So

Oneika Raymond (23:21):

Definitely

Ross Borden (23:22):

That is really good advice. And then one thing I always ask everyone on the show, and you being, I think you’re at 120 countries or something crazy like that. So this will be a difficult question,

Oneika Raymond (23:32):

135 after this trip,

Ross Borden (23:34):

After this trip, 1 35. So you’ve been to most of the world, which is pretty crazy. So I ask everyone who comes on the show, if your passport only worked in three countries and you had to live, travel and exist in only three countries for the rest of your life, what would those three countries be?

Oneika Raymond (23:53):

Ooh, live, travel, and exist. This is a boring answer, but the US for sure, and this is said as a Canadian girl who grew up an hour from the border and we’re like, oh my God, America. I just think the US is very big. There are so many different regions, and we’re talking about the us, not just the continental us. The US territories. You can really get

Ross Borden (24:22):

Around. Yeah, absolutely. That

Oneika Raymond (24:23):

Works. And so the us and then it’s so hard, I would’ve to say France. I lived in France for two years, two and a half years, and I love it. I love the south of France, and I love the accessibility. And again, it’s a very regional place. There’s so many different regions, and they’re all very different from one another. Ooh. And then the third

Ross Borden (24:50):

Third’s a tough one, US France, and we need one

Oneika Raymond (24:55):

More. Oh gosh, that’s actually really hard. Maybe Thailand. I love Thailand. I’ve been to Thailand so many

Ross Borden (25:03):

Times. Yeah, same here. This last, you went to Thailand on this last trip, right?

Oneika Raymond (25:08):

I did. I spent a month in Thailand. I spent about a week a week in Bangkok and about three weeks in Poquette. And it’s great. Thailand is always the vibe. I love the people. I love the culture, I love the food. There’s just always something going on. I think I’m very much somebody. I love cities and bright lights and neon and Thailand. It was so funny because my husband would go to bed with my daughter. They would be in bed by call at nine 30, and that’s when mama got to live. So I would go out and I would be out in those streets in ette until 1:00 AM I would go get a foot massage, and then I would walk around and go get some food. I would go pick up some fruit from the fruit stand because the fruit stand is open basically until 2:00 AM or something. Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. And there are all these people partying in the streets, like tons of tourists. And I just love the people watching aspect of it all. So I’m somebody who, if there’s stuff going on outside, generally I’m not really somebody who goes out or goes out clubbing or whatever, but I do love people watching and I love walking. And so I love the opportunity to go out at night in these very vibrant streets and just kind of people watch. So yeah.

Ross Borden (26:22):

And you guys made it just under the closing door of the white Lotus surge.

Oneika Raymond (26:27):

Yeah,

Ross Borden (26:28):

Which is, I think it’s going to be super, super huge for their tourism industry. Have you been watching White Lotus?

Oneika Raymond (26:34):

I haven’t, but it’s really funny because two years ago I spent a month in Thailand again. Again, Thailand is a happy place for me. So I’ve actually spent a significant of time in Thailand. So in addition to this month that I just spent in January two years ago, I also spent a month in, and that’s where they shot White Mode is, which is hilarious because the resort is where they were filming is not too far from where our villa was. And so yeah, that was actually really funny that I’ve been right there.

Ross Borden (27:09):

Cool. Well, I am really excited that you came on the show. I’m super excited to keep watching all the episodes of the Marriott podcast slash travel documentary. If folks are not already following you, Onika, where can they find you?

Oneika Raymond (27:26):

Yes. Oh my God, thank you so much for having me. And you can definitely find me on the socials. You can find me at Onika Raymond. That’s my first and last name on basically every social platform. And yeah, I love social media. I post a lot, so see you there. Hopefully

Ross Borden (27:46):

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.