Meet The Pocket Compass

Today we’d like to introduce you to The Pocket Compass. Them and their team share their story with us below:

We (Yogesh and Shilpa) got married in India and planned our honeymoon in Thailand completely by our own research. No tour guides. No references. This was our first trip ever together and that too an international one. Therefore, we were skeptical about going to a new country without any prior travel experience but that trip turned out perfect and we found our passion – TRAVEL. After this trip, a few other international trips followed – Singapore, Malaysia, UAE, and Indonesia. Our friends & family started asking us questions as how did we plan our trip. What was the expense? Was it safe? Can you share the itinerary? etc. So, our itinerary emails kept floating around and that inspired us to start our blog – ThePocketCompass.com. However, with our 9-5 jobs we found it difficult to be consistent on that and then came a big pause. Year 2020 was a rough year for many and it was the case for us too. We lost a loved one and the grieving period was long and depressing. In order to get over it and move on, we started creating vlogs (Videos) related to our travels, lifestyle, etc. There was a learning curve with respect to shooting videos, capturing moments, storyline and even editing, learning software, and managing it with the day-to-day work life. Initially, it was hard and it still is but it motivated us, inspired us, and moreover helped us cope with the loss as our focus had shifted. Creating videos was always on our mind but we never were able to take that initiative. This event was a trigger to it and that gave birth to our YouTube channel – The Pocket Compass. After creating around 50 videos, we have started enjoying the whole process and have become fond of our own videos..haha. Creating videos has given us a great way to capture our memories and preserve them forever in a format that is not just random videos but has the whole story of how our trip went or what we did. I know it sounds funny & silly, but we ourselves play our video on a dull tiring day and it totally brings the smile back and we walk down memory lane. 

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
No, there was a steep learning curve :). Because creating the website and hosting was new to us, so we had to learn the process by referring to online resources. In addition, creating a YouTube channel and videos to post was something that we had never done before. We did not have any prior knowledge, experience, or no one to guide us. We spent our days reading online articles, watching YouTube learning videos, and teaching ourselves – How to create a YouTube channel? What gear to buy for shooting videos? How to edit videos? How to post them? And so many other things. There were many sacrifices too. Because we had our 9-5 jobs and then we had to spend hours on shooting/editing videos. In total, we were working for around 15-16 hours a day. Therefore, we had to cancel plans with our friends or give up on spending time with family, work on weekends, etc. 

The learning process is still going on and we feel that it is never-ending. There is so much more for us to learn about capturing and creating great videos and we are on it. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Our passion is to travel to new places, learn about the culture, try different cuisines, go on adventures and explore. We have started a YouTube channel – The Pocket Compass and there we share our travel and lifestyle videos in order to inspire many like us to explore even when they have 9-5 jobs. We feel the proudest when our subscribers tell us that the places that we showed in our videos are so beautiful and they are planning a trip to it after watching our videos. Some of them are moving to the U.S and our lifestyle videos have helped them get an idea of what to pack when traveling to the USA or what could be their expenses. Feedback like this has been wonderful and has kept us motivated to share more experiences and create more content. We look forward to inspiring more people and telling them that if we can then you can too. 

Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
We started posting travel videos on our YouTube channel a year ago but not many might know that we have been traveling for around 10 years now (Our first international trip was 10 years ago 🙂 ). 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thepocketcompass.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thepocketcompass/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ThePocketCompass