Let’s politely skip past birth and childhood (that’s for the memoir), and fast forward to the fateful moment in Oslo in 2010 when I started the website, www.travelingmitch.com. At the time, it was nothing more than a glorified travel journal - a place that I could send anyone who was wondering just what I was doing studying abroad at the University of Oslo and exploring the continent.

When I moved to South Korea with Bri (my then girlfriend and now wife) in 2011, I simply continued writing, and the site continued growing. I teamed up with the Korean government and became a “World Korea Blogger,” and my work ended up earning me a Certificate of Appointment from the Korean Minister of Culture. Bri started to help out with the blog at this stage, too, and has continued to ever since.

In 2014, after completing both an Honours English Literature degree and my Bachelor of Education, Bri and I moved to Istanbul, Turkey - you know, the usual path. We taught at an international school there and, not shockingly, we both continued to travel and write.

We spent three wonderful years in Istanbul, and when we moved back to Toronto in 2017, I decided that it was time to see if I couldn’t do all this full-time. Of course, at that time, I had no idea what “all this” would entail, and that’s a good thing because there was a lot of painstaking work and learning to be done.

Shortly after touching back down in Toronto, I Cofounded the Toronto Bloggers Collective, which is now the preeminent hub for bloggers and content creators in the city. In short, we work together as a community to enable to our members to make their passion their profession.

As I continued my foray into freelance writing, I began to realize that there were a lot of stories that weren’t getting told. That’s when it became clear that it would be awfully valuable to run a niche Ontario travel website, and I cofounded Ultimate Ontario in short order.

I also, at the same time, began to get into the idea of podcasting. I was a part of two podcasts for several years. In 2018, I Cofounded the podcast Rick Steves Over Brunch, where myself and a cohost reviewed episodes of the classic travel television show, Rick Steves’ Europe. In 2020, I also Cofounded, I’m Anxious About, which was a humorous podcast where my cohost and I talked about one thing “we’re anxious about” in each episode. It grew immensely in popularity, and its aim was to destigmatize anxiety at large. Both podcasts were excellent experiences to be a part of, but after each came to a natural close, I focused more on my blogging pursuits.

In 2020, I also cofounded This Week in Blogging. We’re a free, weekly newsletter which shares blogging news from the previous week, actionable advice and tips to improve your content creation, expert opinions, and giveaways galore.

So, that’s me in a nutshell. I’m proud of what I’ve created so far, and excited for what I’ll create in the future.