Episode 21
Cruise Convos | Ilana, Life Well Cruised
Tune in this week as Claudine speaks with Ilana from Life Well Cruised - a full time cruise blogger!
Claudine and Ilana talk all things cruise content creation, and the impact of creating authentic content to connect cruise lines with cruise guests of all ages & interests!
Ilana talks some of her favourite memories of cruising with her family and offers Claudine some tips for her upcoming trips!
Plus, as always Ilana looks back, to offer her younger self some advice - tune in to find out what she says!
Transcript
What is currently happening in our cruise industry today? Join me for Cruise Convos as we discover and learn from cruise industry leaders across the globe all within 28 minutes! Cruise community this is Claudine with Lemoneight and we are part of Cruise Convos. Today, I have a very special guest I have Ilana with us today from a Life Well Cruise. Content creators plays such a
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Thank you so much for having me, Claudine. It's a thrill to be here.
Claudine Pohl:I'm so honored to have you here. And we met at Seatrade Cruise Global this past year. And it was because we had a panel session about social media. And we had Caitlyn, Angeloff from Holland America. Caitlyn Angeloff.. And she mentioned you on the panel and gave you a shout out because of all the work you've been doing with them. And then I saw you connected with you and I said, I
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So my website lifewellcruised.com and through my youtube channel also Life Well Cruised, what I do is I really share information entries, tips for new cruisers, and also for avid cruisers just to really continue their enthusiasm and get excited about their cruises. So I really provide a sense of community for people who do really love cruising, and as well, for people
Claudine Pohl:I love it. I was checking out. You're on Facebook, you're on Instagram, you're on YouTube, you're everywhere. And you have a lot a lot of followers. And I love that you use the word community. Because from looking at your posts, you do have a community, you have a following of people who love watching and following what you do. And you know what I love as well. I've noticed your
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Yeah, I like it to be fun because I think cruising is fun. And planning vacations is fun. And I think people really do get excited when they have their cruise coming up. And they're planning. So yeah, I definitely like to make things fun. I don't like to take myself too seriously. And so I think that that is a part of what I try to do, especially maybe on Facebook a
Claudine Pohl:Yes, yes. I love it. And I can see when you do things like that you get the engagement. You get everybody talking on those. All those things. I'm just like, wow, she's got so many people like it's amazing. What is your following tell us? What is them Number.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So on YouTube now we have about 175,000 subscribers, which I mean, I'm thrilled about it's amazing on Facebook, just under 50,000, Instagram about 25,000, Pinterest some other things. So that's kind of our following. And then on the website, we have about 500,000 readers a month. Definitely probably about 750,000, I guess all together.
Claudine Pohl:Oh, just you guessed right, like, around 750. That is a huge number. Congratulations.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Thank you. Well, I love the fact that, like you said that people are so engaged and there is a community and it's not just a community with me, it's with other people. I mean, people that are cruising and people help each other cruisers are really nice people.
Claudine Pohl:Yes, they are. Let's talk about cruising. How many cruises Have you been on?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So we've been on a little bit more than 30 I should really count a little better, but I think it might be 32 or 33 now.
Claudine Pohl:That's amazing. Now, I don't have all those cruises. Tell me a story. What's your best memorable experience cruising?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So we've had a lot of really good cruises. It's hard to choose just one. But I will talk about my most recent one. Because we did do a cruise to Alaska, it was with Holland America. And it was it was truly magical. Maybe part of it is because I am Canadian. And Alaska was never really a no, it's a bucket list trip for a lot of people. But it really wasn't for years a
Claudine Pohl:That's amazing. How long was that trip?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':The cruise itself was seven days. But we did decide to go into Vancouver a couple of days before I always recommend people go into a port city at least one day before to get acclimated and of course not to miss the cruise. You never know, especially with flights these days you want to get in in advance. But uh, you think if you get in two days in advance, then you can
Claudine Pohl:10 days. That's awesome. Yes. Fabulous. I have to tell you, I love your website, your website! Yes. It's like a beautiful, how do I describe it to beautiful dessert? I love dessert. Okay. And I was looking like, I was like, How do I describe this website? It's a beautiful dessert. Because you have so much content on there. That is not just content. You're teaching things. You're
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Oh, thank you. So my concept really was Life Well Cruised, the idea of living a life well lived a life well traveled, but doing it through cruising, because I do really think that for many people, cruising provides a great way of traveling. So whether you're a family and you're cruising with your kids, and you're able to have a family vacation that everybody enjoys,
Claudine Pohl:That's awesome. Listen, I'm gonna I'm going on Windstar from Haifa, in Israel to the Greek islands coming up shortly. Give me a tip, what's your best tip? What's my packing tip, I'm a little bit like holdon, this is a luxury ship!
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':I have not been on Windstar. That might be a bucket list trip for me. But that sounds fabulous. I would think that one of the things to do is to bring clothing that is pretty easy to pack. So like, for instance, like dresses that are flowy and light, especially, you're going to be in Israel. So it's going to be hot most of the time. So things like that, that you're
Claudine Pohl:No, I like it. It's true. I think the more we travel, the more we realize I don't need as much as I wanted to bring I guess right!
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':I over pack, and I'm unapologetic about it. I figure if that is my worst vice. I pack a little bit too much. It's not too bad.
Claudine Pohl:Listen, I saw on I think it was Facebook, I think how many suitcases did you have for your trip to Alaska?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Okay, so we were three people, we were my husband, my son, who by the way is 22 and may like clothes more than I do. So we each had like a regular sized suitcase, I guess 24-26 inches, and then made a couple of carry on bags as well. So I don't think we did too bad. But I do the sweaters though. And like sweatshirts, the fleece, they take up a lot more room than some
Claudine Pohl:Now, I'm sure you receive a lot of messages from people. All right. Yeah. Like can you share with me a message that you received from someone that read? Are you connected with that you help though, that really impacted you?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Yeah, actually, like I do receive a lot of messages and emails and stuff where people will say that my blog or the YouTube videos really helped them to feel prepared, help them to feel at ease. So that I really appreciate but actually on my most recent cruise, I met somebody they did message me ahead of time that they were going to be on the cruise they said do you mind
Claudine Pohl:Wow, wow. I always say this. You never know the impact that you can have on someone and I wanted to have you on because what you do is so important for the cruise industry. It impacts the cruise lines and impacts you know, the travelers. It impacts everybody. Right. So on behalf of the cruise industry and from on behalf of everybody, thank you for what you do.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Honestly, it's such a joy I can't think of anything they'd rather be doing it's a great job.
Claudine Pohl:Yeah, and rewarding as well. You know, I can just imagine like, it really hits home when you hear those words. You know that man, it helped them watching your videos really helped them get through his treatments and and get excited about his upcoming trip. Wow. impactful. What do you love the most about what you do and sharing about your upcoming trips or when you're on the trips.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Well, part of it is that I love traveling, and I love cruising. So I definitely get a lot of joy, just to be able to experience that. But also to be able to share it with people. You know, whether it's on Instagram or on YouTube videos, I really do enjoy that. I really love the community. I love to be able to answer back some of the comments on YouTube, I try to take
Claudine Pohl:Wow. How many people do have involved in your business? And what kind of other services do you offer?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So my husband is, is the editor for all of the videos. So he does filming on the cruises. And I always think of myself as like the more of the creative person. So I'll think about what we need or what the concept is for my videos and the content. But he definitely executes on all of that. So that's super important that couldn't do it without him. And then my son Ethan
Claudine Pohl:So now wow, I did not know that. But I think he was with you at Seatrade. Right?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Yeah. Yeah.
Claudine Pohl:You know, you're hitting home there because you you start you're starting to see younger and younger people wanting to cruise. So what is his page? I'm gonna go check it out. Let's let's have the listeners go check it out. So what's his website?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Thank you. So he has a website called whattowearmen.com.
Claudine Pohl:Okay, so whattowearmen.com.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':And that website is focused on fashion advice for men. A lot of college advice as well. From a young man's perspective.
Claudine Pohl:That's amazing. Congrats to him. Give him a shout out. What is the same?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':He's his name is Ethan.
Claudine Pohl:Oh, Ethan, congrats. I'm proud of you. That's awesome. Good for him. And he's learning from you. That's just beautiful, right. And I love the concept that you said that he is writing on your website. You know, if you have someone close, the words are still close to what you're saying. You know what I mean? Like, I love that, because it's not like having hiring someone who doesn't
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Yes, absolutely. And I wanted it to be authentic, you know, I can have somebody you know, generic write articles. But that's not my what my website is about. So yeah, and then, you know, in his case, obviously, his author name is there so people can see when he's writing an article, they know that it is from him. It's it, you know, it's, it's not for me...
Claudine Pohl:Yeah I know, amazing, amazing. And kudos to your husband as well, with all that editing. I saw some of the videos and I was like, who does that? That's really good work.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Well, we try. We're trying to, you know, like everybody trying to improve all of the time.
Claudine Pohl:Yeah, definitely. Great. Great. Now give us give our audience top three tips. If they're going on a cruise, what would you share with them?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':So I think the first thing is I think sometimes it's overlooked, especially by first time cruisers, and especially now that so many people are sometimes they're shopping online and there's nothing wrong with that. But sometimes people are shopping based on price and of course, cost can absolutely be a factor. You know, planning something that's within your budget, I
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':with your travel agent or on the cruise line website. Most of the time, the cruise lines will honor the lower price if it does come down in price from the time that they booked their cruise up until final payment. So that's a good way to save some money, you know, before the cruise, obviously to still check that everything is still the same. But you still get the same amount of onboard credits or
Claudine Pohl:Wow, you just gave us three big tips. So the first one was to book early flight?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Early, yeah, always find your date early.
Claudine Pohl:Okay, fly in early! Choose the right cruise line and cruise ship for you. And the third one was to...
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':do a little price check to keep an eye on the pricing up until final payment in particular. Because oftentimes the cruise lines will honor the lower pricing. And of course, you know, having a travel agent that can help you with all of this is actually a really good thing.
Claudine Pohl:Definitely, definitely. But amazing. Thank you so much for those great tips. And I'm gonna ask you the final question. But before we do, is there anything else we should know our listeners should know about your site, or anything like that?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Well that people can find me at lifewellcruise.com they can find a lot of cruise packing lists there. And of course that they can, they can find me at lifewellcruise on YouTube, I do put out three videos a week, and I would love to connect with people over there.
Claudine Pohl:Amazing. I love it. So let's go follow our friend lifewellcruised.com or lifewellcruised on YouTube. Also on Instagram, also on Facebook, Pinterest, where else LinkedIn, you're everywhere. I love it.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Oh, LinkedIn, I should update my profile. I'll be honest on that. I need some social media help on on LinkedIn. But otherwise, I'm there.
Claudine Pohl:I love it. I love it. I'm gonna ask your last question, my friend. If you look back now, at your life, what piece of advice would you give your younger self, if you could give yourself any advice?
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':To lean in to your strengths? I think that a lot of times, maybe especially when we're young, like you know, in our teens and early 20s. And you know, maybe we're studying or we're going to our first job, and there's a mold of what people, you know, think that you should be or that people in that field should be. And sometimes we you know, like, we hide a little bit of
Claudine Pohl:I love that, thank you.
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':And then as well that life isn't like a play. Well, I should actually explain it a little bit better. I think that life is not a one act play. So I think whatever you do when you're younger, there are other experiences that are going to come later. And there are different parts to your life. And there's never a point in time that you can reinvent yourself or do
Claudine Pohl:Those are deep Ilana, you hit home. I love it. I love asking this question because everybody has a different answer. I love your answer. You know, you're spot on the we, we need to focus on our strengths and what what are we good at? And sometimes we try to do so many different things. And I think for me personally, that hits home, because we're presented with so many
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Yeah, but I think you're right even about travel like for you. My goodness. You know the idea you're so good at what you do. And I'm sure it's because you're passionate about it.
Claudine Pohl:100% bought on my friend. I love what I do, and I know you love what you do as well because it shines through in everything. Wow. Well, this has been an epic, a very good conversation. I feel like I know you more and I love that you're from Canada. I did not know this till today. Wow. Another Canadian What an honor. On an honor. Well, thank you for being part of Cruise Convos today,
Ilana 'Life Well Cruised':Thank you so much for having me. It was so much fun.
