Rising Stars: Meet Camilo Velasquez

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Camilo Velasquez.

Hi Camilo, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It all started with my first trip to Europe; after having my first solo trip for almost two months, I discovered that I was excited to explore new places and be surprised by things I had never seen before.

I am Colombian. Since 2021, I have lived in Nashville. When I arrived in this city, everything seemed surreal to me. It was a developing city surrounded by country music and huge farms and ranches; it was incredible.

Since 2020, I have started creating content, giving travel tips, and showing interesting places, and I haven’t stopped since. When I moved to Nashville, I couldn’t find that many interesting things to do, so I decided to do some research and discovered that most activities were (and still are) advertised only in English.

I decided then to start documenting, recording, and sharing, in Spanish, the experiences of the different places I visited and the adventures I had. I have visited restaurants, national parks, small towns, and big cities, and I share everything with the same authenticity and in the most genuine and honest way possible.

Little by little people have been following me and recognizing me for the work I do, they visit the places I recommend and share it too. My wife is my travel partner; we always travel together, and we know people love what we do because they recognize us on the street. We have a funny story: the first time a video went viral, everyone on our job told us, “Hey, I saw you guys on Instagram/TikTok.” It was funny but good because we knew we were doing a good job.

The exposure we have had helped entrepreneurs, mostly Hispanics, have a greater reach in their businesses, and their sales have grown considerably, which creates a positive impact on the Hispanic community in the US.

Although I do not currently make a living from creating content, I still have my full-time job, and I hope one day to dedicate myself 100% to this and continue to positively impact the lives of many more people and businesses around Nashville and the United States.

Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
No, it´s never been easy when we talk about creating meaningful, full social media content. It took me almost three years to land my first brand deal. Behind a 40-60-second video, there’s a lot of work, research, constant learning, money invested in equipment, and so on.

There were a couple of brands that wanted to take advantage of me and never pay me back, so that taught me about contracts and many things that I didn’t know I had to know. But overall, creating content in Spanish and showing the Hispanic community that there are so many things to do in Nashville has been an amazing and rewarding experience.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I`m able to create content and create brand awareness and exposure for entrepreneurs in Nashville. I also document my travels and adventures around the US. I´m known for being the guy who shares and recommends places to visit and things to do to the growing Hispanic community in Tennessee but also in the US.

Some people contacted me to say thanks because they have discovered places through my page that did not know they existed and had a great time with their families. The main difference between me and other creators is the way I create my videos, the storytelling I use behind them, and, of course, my content is in Spanish.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share?
I started my page during the pandemic when no one was able to travel. I gained some knowledge about social media and how it works, but most importantly, I felt for the first time I needed to go out there and explore again.

During 2020 – 2021, I took one of my biggest decisions… Move my entire life to a different country. I went through certain situations in those years in Colombia where I had to leave the country, and that’s how I ended up in Nashville, applying everything I learned in that crisis era and adding value to the community.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/crespotraveler/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/crespotraveler/
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@crespotraveler