Travel TV Presenter and Journalist Alex Outhwaite

Hi, I'm Alex and I'm a travel TV presenter and journalist. I present a number of travel shows, although I have done a few food shows as well. So I am freelance, of course, but I work for a number of different clients, including Amazon, Sky, Travel XP, Discovery Plus as well as doing quite a lot of live events as well. I also work for a number of tourist boards, creating destination videos. So quite a lot of different strings to my bow, as my mom would say,

What's your favourite thing about being self-employed?

It's the flexibility, it has to be. That might seem like quite an obvious answer, but I like being my own boss and having the flexibility to choose projects that I'm passionate about, which I might not be able to do if I was working for someone else full time.

If you could go back and give yourself one piece of advice, at the time you went self employed, what would it be?

Possibly to not compare myself to other people. I think it's quite easy to do these comparisons with other people in the field and view people as competitors, and I don't think that's a very good idea. So, yeah, don't compare yourself to others. 

What do you find the most challenging about being self-employed?

I think I used to worry a little bit about the kind of ups and downs with finances, and took me a bit of time to get used to knowing that, you know, another job would come along. But of course, when you first become self employed, there is that little bit of fear, I suppose, that will I get the work in if you don't have this monthly paycheck.

Do you have a favourite travel destination out of the 90 countries you have visited?

Every country has something that I love, but Colombia, I really like. It's really varied as a destination, like the beautiful cities and then the national parks. And I like India a lot as well. I work quite a lot in India.

What was it that made you want to forge a career as a self-employed TV presenter?

I don't think it was a conscious decision where I just woke up one day I thought, I'd like to be a TV presenter. I did quite a lot of presenting while I was at university as kind of part time job, but that was mainly corporate videos and things like that. And I actually presented my first show which was a food show, and it was very much in at the deep end. I applied for a job that I saw posted online, and it was one of those ones where you think you're never going to get that. And then I got a call a couple of days later, and I thought it almost seemed too good to be true. And I just absolutely loved the experience. The show did quite well, which was very lucky, and it's kind of gone from there, really. And now I wouldn't stop it for anything, so I feel very fortunate, actually.

The channel I initially started working for was a travel channel, but it just so happened that the first show that I did was a food based one, so they started asking me to do some travel shows as well. And then I started creating content for my social media platforms to kind of complement the TV shows.

How have you grown your social media following?

I don't think it is necessarily just about numbers, and I think if I'm giving advice to other people building their platforms, I think it's just as long as you've got a USP, and you're kind of being authentic and genuine, I don't think it matters if you've got huge numbers or small numbers. The growth of my channels has been quite slow and steady and it wasn't an overnight thing. I've always got to, even now, experiment with different types of content, because it's always changing. What works on Instagram one week won't work the next week. But I think I've done a lot better when I've just been more genuine to myself and haven't tried to copy trends and things like that.

Are there any specific bits of advice that you would give to anyone who is trying to grow their network in a similar way?

I go to a lot of live events and networking events to meet people, which has helped, just chatting to other people about about different ideas. Because, you know, as a freelancer, occasionally it can feel like you're on on your own. And I think going to these events and getting tips from other people really has helped with what works and what doesn't work and bit of trial and error. 

What advice would you give to people in terms of wanting to be sustainable in their travels and seeing different places?

I appreciate I've got the luxury of time sometimes, so it's all very well me saying I'll do slow travel. But I know everyone doesn't have the time. But I just think, don't rush through your travels. You know, don't try and fit too much in. Don't be flying between destinations if you can try and go over land, train or bus. You actually meet some great people doing that. And you know, not that many people would meet someone on a plane, but I've met amazing people traveling by train and by local bus. 

I think try and support local business owners as well, that's really important. I tend not to go with the big chains of hostels and hotels or restaurants. I want to shop locally and go to local markets and make sure that any money that I'm spending stays in the community, rather than going to a corporation overseas and things. I think it's also important to make sure you're not just visiting destinations that are trendy, because places can get, you know, over the struggle with over tourism. Destinations like Santorini and places like that are really struggling now with too many people visiting. So I think just, yeah, be flexible about where you're visiting, and don't just follow the trends.

Out of all the places you've travelled to and all the people you've met, has anyone had a particular impact on you?

I don't think there's one particular. I mean, my parents, of course, actually, because they were the ones that got me into travel in the first place. I'm constantly inspired by people. I mean, I know that might sound cheesy, but honestly, I am. I mean, small business owners and people that have grown businesses from nothing, constantly inspire me when I'm traveling, very much so. 

Closer to home, lots of brilliant freelancers that I've met that are just constantly pushing on to the next thing and coming up with amazing ideas and working on them are very inspiring to me.

Where did the passion for travel and culture start?

So my parents, before my sister and I were born, they did lots of really adventurous travels. They both had motorbikes, and they were kind of all over the world on the bikes. And then when my sister and I were born, then we did a lot of European travel, kind of France and Spain, and we'd spend weeks camping in France and things. And, yeah, I think I just got it from them, really, and they're really encouraging with the travels.

What would you say are some of the biggest challenges of being self-employed?

Well, it's always a learning curve. I think there's always new things to learn. I guess, kind of overcoming imposter syndrome is maybe one of them. It's difficult to gage success, I think, but maybe for a lot of people, but especially, I think if you're freelance, it's hard to know whether you've done things well or not. You don't really have people to bounce off necessarily and I think I probably find it easy to see if my friends have done well, but maybe don't find it very easy to see if I have so
I think that's a bit of a bit of a challenge.

Finding what to focus on as well. I've got a lot of ideas, a lot of projects that I want to work on, and sometimes it's a case of choosing what to prioritise, I suppose, and that's a little bit of a challenge. Sometimes a good challenge because it's nice to have the different ideas. But occasionally I'd like someone to come and say, right, do this. That's what you need to focus on.

What learnings or advice would you give someone wanting to forge a similar career in the same space?

You definitely need to be a self starter. I think unless you're a son or daughter of someone famous, then you're not necessarily going to have someone just knocking at the door saying, 'Oh, we've got a TV show for you'. You know, it's a it's a long road, really. So try and work on some of your own projects, if possible, as well. 

People have asked me before about filming for themselves, and I do say you don't even necessarily have to have a proper camera or expensive microphone and things, you know, some videos you can try on your phone if you're trying to put together a show reel. If you're good at what you do, you could film it on a phone. You know, they're good enough nowadays, and start closer to home as well. If you're wanting to work in the travel side, you don't necessarily have to be going off to Barbados. You can film a vlog around London or whatever city you're in. I think also network, you know, I've had to make a conscious effort and decision to start going to more events and meeting new people and and being inspired by them as well.

When pitching ideas, how do you go about finding the right person?

It really has been a bit of a learning curve. I'm very keen on putting together my own ideas and sending them out to people. And initially, when I started doing this, it was just, well, who do I send it to? Because you can't just send it to [email protected] you know, nobody's going to be picking up that email. So going to a lot of events to start with has helped me meet the right people. I do quite a lot of group things online. There's a company called Screen skills, and it's an online community for people working in the television industry. And they hold a lot of zoom seminars where people can share ideas and share what they're looking for. There's a lot of events like Sheffield documentary Festival, where they do, I suppose, speed networking, so you can go in with a with a pitch deck and and things like that. 

I've also kind of found that everyone is in the same boat. I mean, I've spoken to people who I think are way ahead of me in my career, and they're still finding their feet as well, which did make me feel a bit better, because you can sometimes feel like it's only you that's struggling to find these contacts, even LinkedIn, to be honest, has actually been really helpful. I think I used to overlook it a lot, and think, oh, it's not for me. It maybe felt too corporate, but actually it's been really helpful. And just sometimes, even just sending people a message on Instagram to say, I've got this idea, what's the best email to reach you on? And people are generally quite open to ideas really.

Where can we expect to see you over the next 6 to 12 months, those of us who follow you closely?

I've just got a show that's come out on Amazon actually, I did a new episode of The Wanderer, which was filmed in Turkey, and we had a very lovely premiere down by Tower Bridge, which was very nice. So that's on Amazon Prime video now, so you can watch that. And I'm working on a documentary of my own, actually, as well. But I'm pitching that to a few different places so watch this space.