How to make a travel blog? How to host a travel TV show?

From waiting tables to living in a basement apartment, three travel hosts tell CNBC how they got where they are.

Here are their stories.

Work: Emmy Award-winning TV host of Samantha Brown’s Places to Love
Started in: Comedy

“I went to Syracuse University for musical theater because I really wanted to go to New York City and be a thespian. I wanted to do Shakespeare and be on Broadway.

That didn’t work out. I waited tables for a good eight years. But I loved improv and was part of an improv comedy troupe. So I kept auditioning for jobs.

A writer referred me to a production company that was … looking for a host. But my audition for it had to be totally improved. That’s how I got the job.

When you’re a travel host, there’s no script. However, it’s still up to you to set the scene, figure out the trajectory of a story and how to end it. Also in Improve, the golden rule is to never say no, it’s always yes – to keep things going.

After waiting tables in New York City for eight years, you start to get really humble, [but] Those were the tools I had that landed me a job that I never in my wildest dreams thought I’d ever have.”

Job: Creator of Strictly Dumpling and other YouTube channels (total: about 8 million subscribers)
Started in: Wedding Accounting & Videography

“I moved to the US from China when I was 8 years old. My parents started working in restaurants and eventually started their own very Americanized Chinese restaurant. So I grew up on a steady diet of chicken and general crab. Tso.

There wasn’t much diversity where I’m from, but it helped that my parents brought me back to China when I was 13. Most people are grounded and sent to their room as punishment – I was sent to China for two years. At the time I was like: Wow, it’s so amazing – the people, the history – I want to know more.

After college, I went to New York and worked on Wall Street for a year. Then I became a wedding videographer because I wanted to be flexible. I was living in a small basement apartment in Brooklyn with no air conditioning, making about $400 – in a good week.

But this was the first time I was eating something that wasn’t Red Lobster and Olive Garden. I got a taste of the different ethnic foods in Chinatown and started to discover a lot of my heritage that I never saw as important before.

I started recording food videos on YouTube as a food diary for myself. I remember having a conversation with a friend that the content of food will never amount to anything. There was nobody on the internet doing it. I had about 10 subscribers. Somehow it grew to this, which was never expected.

I never had a lot of money growing up – or for most of my adulthood. So I was always looking for things that were cheap but also really filling and delicious. And this is almost what I do now around the world”.

Job: TV host of “Family Travel with Colleen Kelly”
Started in: Sales

“I tried out for the broadcasting school at the University of Texas. The school gave you a chance to get into the program. I had never sat at an anchor desk with a camera pointed at me. I failed miserably.

A few years later, I graduated and got my first job in sales, eventually moving to Chicago and working in the pharmaceutical industry. The money was amazing, and I had a company car. But I wasn’t living my dream and it started to really bother me.

In my early 30s, I got married and eventually quit my job to become a stay-at-home mom. One day, when my two young daughters were in school, I went to our town’s cable TV station and asked if, in exchange for teaching me how to edit, I could host the local entertainment show for our village – something like ” Access Hollywood “for our city of 50 thousand inhabitants.

Because they had no other offers, they said yes. I acted confident, but I was as green as they come. every time I did an interview and read the voice, but I gained experience and knowledge.

I confided in another mom that my dream was to host a national travel show, and surprisingly, she agreed to produce it with me. We wrote a script, found a local cameraman for a few dollars and made a pilot.

I got meetings with two big companies – both said no. I was told by a network that women don’t watch travel shows, so the concept of family travel didn’t appeal to them. I then sent thousands of emails to TV stations. Nothing worked. Finally, my mother suggested I call the local PBS station. I googled the head of programming, called him (no email) and got an appointment.

After more meetings, we learned that PBS was selecting two shows to go national, and “Family Travel with Colleen Kelly” was one of them.

We left for a year, producing 13 episodes that first season. Now, the show is more than 10 years old. And, the best part is, I can bring my family with me.

It’s been a long and arduous journey, but I hope this story inspires others to believe in themselves, ignore the naysayers and never give up on their dreams.”

Editor’s note: These interviews have been edited for length and clarity.