Social Worker Used Travel Hacks To Visit 52 Countries for Free — Then Built a $1.5m Business in 19 Months

Shakeemah Smith, a New Jersey social worker of nearly 15 years, was in Amsterdam celebrating her 30th birthday in 2016 with two close friends when a falling-out left her stranded abroad overnight.

Smith had advised one friend against sending money to an ex-boyfriend. The comment did not go over well. By the next morning, both friends had quietly checked out of the hotel without telling her.

A 10-year friendship ended that morning. Smith called her mother in tears and caught the next flight back to New Jersey. Travel would never be the same again — she had decided to fly solo.

From Paris to a 10-Week Course Born in South Africa

Eight months later, still at her 9-to-5, Smith booked a solo trip to Paris. She was filled with apprehension and dread. Smith carried a yellow five-subject notebook filled with worst-case scenarios and emergency contacts — an ugly notebook, by her own account, but it got her on the plane.

'Fear was my god,' she said. 'But I'm not going to let them take away my joy.'

That first trip turned into 87 countries, 82 of them solo. Women kept reaching out on Instagram asking how she managed it alone. For months, Smith answered every question one-on-one over Zoom. By the time she reached her 34th country, Johannesburg, South Africa, she decided to package her knowledge into a structured 10-week course called 'Travel Like a Bawse,' according to a feature in Travel Noire.

The first sale took three months of daily posting on Instagram and Facebook, and personally texting every contact in her phone.

A Forbes Feature That Blew the Revenue Wide Open

Six months after that first sale, a student named Adrien Jordan called back. Jordan had completed the course and travelled to several countries since — but what Smith did not know was that Jordan was a freelance writer for Forbes.

'She said, "I want to write an article about you. You are changing the way that women travel,"' Smith recalled.

Within the same week, USA Today, Essence, and Business Insider also picked up her story. She signed a non-disclosure agreement for a television programme. Revenue accelerated sharply. Smith has since appeared on CNN, CBS, CNBC, and The Washington Post, according to her Travel Like a Bawse website.

Smith priced the flagship course at $1,000 (£795). 'I want to charge $1,000. What should be in it to make it worth $1,000?' she explained. At that price, 100 customers generate $100,000 (£79,500). She reached buyers by targeting large Facebook groups in her niche and negotiating profit-sharing deals with administrators.

The course teaches women how to travel solo safely, confidently, and affordably. Smith said she travelled to 52 of her 82 solo countries for free using points and travel hacking strategies she now includes in the programme.

Over 12,000 Women Helped and a Move to Antigua

At the time of the podcast recording, Smith said she had helped 11,320 women take their first solo trip. Her website now places that figure above 12,000. She has since visited nearly 100 countries, relocated to Antigua and Barbuda, and launched a second five-week course called 'Monetise Like a Bawse,' teaching women how to build online businesses, according to the Zero to Travel podcast.

Smith holds a Master of Arts in public policy from Montclair State University. Her email list now exceeds 50,000 subscribers and her Instagram following sits above 120,000.

'If someone would have ever told me that one experience would turn into $1.5 million in 19 months, I probably would have laughed and told them that they were lying,' Smith said. 'If I can do this by accident, you can do this on purpose.'