Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Zhao.
Jason, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I was born in China and moved to Cayo, Belize in the Caribbeans when I was one year of age. Around the age of five, we moved to Toronto, Canada and that’s the fondest memory I had even though we lived very humbly in an apartment of two rooms with a family of six. We moved back to Belize but this time to Belize City and stayed there until I turned 17 and we got residency to live in the United States of America.
You could say this sparked my interest in travel, but to be honest, I don’t think it did. For most of my childhood, I was indoors and not very athletic. I think my sense of adventure came from watching television series like crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin, and Captain Planet (the animated series) but there’s a long list of shows that piqued my interest in learning about cultures and the world around us.
It wasn’t until 2015, my last year and semester at UNT is where my love for the outdoors fully formed. For that spring break, I didn’t want to go to the normal beach party or South Padre, I wanted something different and quiet. Maybe due to the amount of stress from the project and finals coming that semester. So, I message a friend on facebook (we weren’t close at the time) and asked if he wanted to do a camping trip. He then went on and made it into a group event and we had a great time.
The best part was I got the peace of mind and rest I needed which helped me figure out what needs to be done for the remainder of the semester and after graduation. There are other reasons like giving back to Mother Nature and the mental health aspect is why I started Dayz Travel but I’ll leave that to you to ask the questions.
Has it been a smooth road?
Definitely not! At first, it seems like an easy task where I research, visit and film the area. Soon, I realize researching some of these places is tough because of the many false and misleading sources out there. Don’t get me started on getting to these areas as well… flights, car rentals, gas and then also survival gear. Then, some of these state or national parks have different rules when it comes down to the superintendent running it. So, getting the park rangers and outdoor enthusiasts to be on board with this vision was difficult already.
That’s just the traveling side of things, now when it comes to the website, I have little to no knowledge about coding and I kept changing things to make it work. Some small little changes can take a whole day but looking at my website now, I’m very pleased because I design and built it on my own.
Still working on the online store as well.
I love social media when it comes to sharing adventures & personal events but when it comes to business and trying to strategically use it to promote products, that’s when it gets a bit difficult and I believe that this part will always be an ongoing learning experience.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Dayz Travel story. Tell us more about it.
Dayz Travel at the moment is a YouTube series, podcast and an online website about outdoor travel. In each video, we share what’s amazing about the location but give a lot of helpful insights for other travelers if they ever travel there.
On the website side, there will be an upcoming online store that will have merchandise but also products that will help and give back to Mother Nature.
We also build pages like this for other travelers so they can prep for their adventures and cheaper travels.
https://www.dayztravel.com/gear/
https://www.dayztravel.com/plan-your-trip/
Dayz Travel truly cares about the well being of other outdoor enthusiasts and mother nature.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The vision would be more events like meetups in the outdoors where we use the time and experience to understand ourselves and our surroundings.
Currently working on the online store.
Pricing:
- They can also support the series and giving back by going to https://www.dayztravel.com/contribute/
- $5/mth
- $10/mth
- $20/mth
- $30/mth
Contact Info:
- Website: www.dayztravel.com
- Phone: 9202222153
- Email: jason.zhao@dayztravel.com
- Instagram: @dayztravel
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dayztravel/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Dayztravel88
Image Credit:
Phi Nguyen, Hoai Thu, Jessica Lo, Tina Phan, Dai Nguyen, Caleb Johnson
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