The Quirky Traveller Twitter Tale – Zoë Dawes

Twitter has given me the fulfillment of a life-long ambition and the potential to create a totally new way of living and working. And it’s come from the random choice of my name ‘Quirky Traveller.’ The name I wanted (Happy Traveller) was taken so I chose Quirky Traveller, as I’ve been described as quirky and I love travelling – physically, mentally and spiritually.

The name is unusual and creates curiosity. The word ‘QUIRKY’ means different things to different people but it is generally perceived as a friendly, unthreatening word. In my blog http://quirkytraveller.wordpress.com I wrote that to me ‘quirky’ is about:

…being real, about seeing the world from a different angle, about looking at things from all sides, finding the unusual, the interesting, the fascinating. It’s about quality combined with classiness, it’s about being curious about everything and wanting to know more… “

I joined Twitter in February 2009 after a friend had told me about it and an article in The Daily Telegraph. I had no idea what it was, how it worked or what I should do on/with it. I loved the discipline & creativity of having only 140 letters to Tweet with and the fact I could connect with interesting people ALL over the world..

My first tweets were quite personal and had no real focus. Then I realized I could use it find out more about leadership. As a Business Coach I run Chartwell Coaching www.chartwellcoaching.co.uk specializing in Inspirational Leadership for SMEs & entrepreneurs.

Twitter has brought me into contact with fantastic people who know loads about this subject and so I grow my knowledge, increase my network and open up to new ideas and innovation. It has brought me NEW CLIENTS and given me far more exposure than I could have got with a huge PR/marketing strategy.

However, the biggest opportunities are linked to world of TRAVEL. People started to follow me because, from my name, they assumed I was in the travel business. Eventually I was asked to contribute to an American website www.havekidwilltravel.com At school I had wanted to be a journalist and here at last, was an opportunity to write – and about something I really love – travel.

Because of Twitter, I now regularly contribute to a number of travel websites including www.wanderingeducators.com and www.velvetescape.com To improve my skills I attended a travel writing workshop http://www.travelworkshops.co.uk – heard about it on Twitter. As a result I am now working on new book of Quirky Traveller Tales …

Living very close to the most beautiful place on earth – the Lake District, Cumbria, has led to all sorts of ideas for Quirky Traveller Tours. Last week I gave my first QT Tour to a Canadian @solotraveler who heard about it on Twitter and there are loads of ideas in the pipeline for Quirky Breaks for Busy Business People, Quirky Coaching, Quirky Retreats, Quirky Tips for Living…

So thank you Twitter – I couldn’t be doing this without you!

You can follow Zoe at–>> http://twitter.com/quirkytraveller