I LOST a Brand Deal this month!!!

Hi, it’s Aakanksha 👋

OKAY so May was a WHOLE different vibe.

I spent most of the month in Sulzberg, Germany 🌲 Julian’s parents live here and when I say tiny I mean 2,500 people, no train station, not even a grocery store 😭 But what it DOES have? A house literally surrounded by thousands of trees in the Black Forest. As I’m typing this I can see trees, blue sky, birds, butterflies, spring flowers blooming everywhere. OMG it’s SURREAL 🌸

If April was chaos, May was SETTLED but HECTIC 😅 Settled because I finally stayed in one place. Hectic because Peru is next month (a WHOLE month there 👀) and Creator Takeoff Academy Batch 3 launches in August. Every weekday was head-down work, every weekend was hiking in the Black Forest or cycling through the Vosges in France.

(P.S. CTA Batch 3 waitlist is open here if you’ve been thinking about it 👀)

Here’s my May, unpacked 👇🏽

🎥 WHAT I WATCHED

The Art of Sara + a rewatch of The White Tiger 👀

The Art of Sara is a Korean thriller about a con artist with twist after twist. A little unrealistic, very Bollywood-y (but honestly…when is a Korean show NOT 😂) but it kept me HOOKED. Solid 7.5/10.

But The White Tiger is the one I NEED you to watch. I rewatched it this month and I cannot recommend it enough 😭 Every Indian needs to see this. It opens your eyes, makes you more empathetic, BOILS your blood, and makes you want to change something. Make it your weekend watch. That is your homework from me 😌

🎧 WHAT I LISTENED TO

The Diary of a CEO by Steven Bartlett 🎧

I’m trying to do more audiobooks this year so I can listen while walking instead of scrolling 😅 I’ll be honest, I haven’t been great at finishing it because whenever I get free time I end up scrolling anyway. Working on that.

BUT what I love is how SIMPLY it’s written. That’s Steven’s whole philosophy: the simpler you can make something, the better it is. Big business and life ideas in a language that’s so easy to absorb. Already creating real mindset shifts for me 🧠 If you don’t know who Steven Bartlett is, Google him right now!

📚 WHAT I READ

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke 📚

FINISHED THIS IN TWO DAYS 😭

It’s about a tradwife influencer who wakes up in 1855 and has to ACTUALLY live the life she’s been performing online. No running water, no electricity, no way out. Super funny, super dark, and SO interesting as a reflection on content creation culture. It made me very happy to be a travel creator and not a tradwife influencer 😅 Highly recommend if you want a fast read that actually makes you think!

🧠 SOMETHING I LEARNED THIS MONTH

When you treat everything as urgent, your body lives in a constant state of frenzy. And that’s genuinely the worst state to make good decisions in.

I had a one-on-one with one of my CTA students this month. She came to me overwhelmed and anxious, feeling like she was FAILING because she was trying to create content AND reach out to brands AND pitch hotels all at once, and none of it was working. And honestly? It hit me. She was doing the exact thing I do sometimes.

Here’s what shifted for me: if your priority is “post 10 pieces of content this month” then THAT is what you focus on. You don’t touch the next thing until that’s done. But when you treat everything as urgent, nothing actually gets done well and you spend the whole month in survival mode.

Every week now I open my calendar and ask: what will ACTUALLY move the needle? What can I deprioritize? It sounds simple but it changes EVERYTHING 😅

So tell me, what’s the one thing you’ve been treating as urgent that probably isn’t? 👀

🌅 SUNRISES + 🌧️ STORMS

Okay something NEW this roundup 👀

I’ve been thinking about how Instagram only ever shows the highlight reel. I don’t want to do that here. So from now on I’m renaming the WINS section to Sunrises + Storms because life is BOTH 😌

A weekend in the Vosges with Julian’s family 🌲

We hiked in these forests in France and I have NEVER seen anything like it. Neon green, completely magical (Julian said it looked like a scene from The Hobbit, and I’ve never watched it so I’ll take his word for it 😅). We saw a stunning lake, ate good food, and just spent wholesome time with family. LOVED it.

Finally building the Tokyo guide 🗼

Julian and I FINALLY finished it and I am OBSESSED 🥹 We poured so much love into this and everyone we’ve shared it with has found it genuinely useful. Such a dream to work on something with your partner. If you’ve got a Tokyo trip coming up, grab it with 20% off using code JA20 here

WE FOUND AN APARTMENT IN BANGKOK 🥹

BIG life update: I’m going to be based in Bangkok for the next half of the year! Julian and I spent COUNTLESS hours on this hunt because we went the broker route instead of Airbnb. Painfully hard but we FINALLY found the one. Close to a huge park, a great gym, ticks every box 🙌🏽 If you’re in Bangkok, HIT REPLY! I want to do a co-working session 👀

SO inconsistent with working out 😬

I’ve gained some weight this month and I can see it. I fell sick from the weather change in Germany, there’s no gym in this tiny town, and my routine fell apart. But I have big goals (10K by end of July and a Hyrox after that) so I NEED to get back on it 🎽🏽

Overcommitting to back-to-back travel ✈️

Peru, then Canada, then New York. My logic was “I’m already in that part of the world, might as well.” But I didn’t schedule ANY proper downtime and now I’m anxious about fitting real work in between all the moving. Lesson learned 😅

Missed Tokyo Drift + a brand deal got postponed 😅

I couldn’t go to a cool event in Tokyo because I’d already committed to Germany. Sometimes that’s the life of a travel creator. You always have to choose, and it’s hard. AND because of PM Modi’s appeal urging Indians to pause foreign travel, a big brand deal got postponed this month. A real hit to revenue. Frustrating, but these things happen 😌

✨ ONE COOL THING I DID THIS WEEK

Already said a lot about this above but here’s a picture so you can SEE how magical the Vosges in France actually are. If you’re ever in this part of the world, please go. PLEASE 🌲

Unpacking Your Question 💌

Priya this made me SO happy to read 🥹 honestly the best thing to hear.

And YES…more guides are coming 👀 We’re not rushing them though. The Tokyo guide took a month of actually LIVING there to build and the next one will be the same. Properly done or not at all 😌

If you haven’t grabbed it yet…One Stop Tokyo Guide is 20% off right now exclusively for my NEWSLETTER Fam 👀

Tell me what was your highlight of May? 🌅

Hit reply. I read every single one 👇🏽

That’s May, wrapped 🧡

See you next Wednesday with something new to unpack 👋🏽

Lots of love & sunshine,

Aakanksha

P.S. Bangkok friends, I mean it. Reply if you’re around. July onwards I’d love to meet some of you in person 👀