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Luke Korns

Luke Korns is a popular travel YouTuber.

He has more than two million subscribers on his YouTube channel by the name Luke Korns.

Introduction-

Luke Korns was born on 26 September 1996.

He grew up in rural Wausau, Wisconsin, United States.

His father, Joel Korns and his mother, Joann Korns run the Life Center (Life Language Center) in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

Luke has a couple of brothers and sisters.

His sister, Amanda Korns (Mandy) and brother, Bryan Korns appeared in a few of his YouTube videos.

In 2004, Luke along with Mandy travelled to Guatemala for a mission trip.

He moved to Los Angeles straight out of high school and then moved to Peru and hasn’t been to college.

YouTube & YouNow-

Luke started his YouTube channel by the name UncleKornicob (later renamed to Luke Korns) on 25 July 2010.

Initially, he had no serious plans for his YouTube channel and was producing fun videos with his childhood friends.

Luke filmed his first YouTube video in his bedroom in Wausau, Wisconsin.

Thanks to him consistently publishing videos, he developed a fan base.

At 14, Luke started regularly live streaming and broadcasting on YouNow.

Struggles & successes-

After working on his YouTube channel for a couple of years, Luke used to get 2000-3000 views on his videos and used to earn a paltry $2-3 per week through AdSense.

At 16, he started seriously working on his YouTube channel.

During that time, Luke started creating content aimed at teenage girls and thanks to this, his YouTube channel took off and he started earning well.

At 17, he got his first brand offer, for the Shape Up game and was offered $1000.

At 19, Luke moved to Los Angeles, California.

He started doing meet-and-greets, walking red carpets and he also did a 12-city bus tour across the United States.

At that time, Luke was earning six figures a year thanks to the brand deals, AdSense and live appearance fees and started living a lavish lifestyle.

Dissatisfaction & going broke-

Even though his videos were performing well, and he was earning well through his videos, he wasn’t satisfied with the content of his videos.

During that time, Luke badly wanted to travel the world and connect with people and publish impactful documentaries onto his YouTube channel.

So, he decided to travel the world and produce travel videos but unfortunately, the COVID-19 stuck.

As Luke believed that publishing travel videos during the worldwide pandemic doesn’t fit well, he decided to wait out the COVID-19.

The COVID-19 took a long time to subside, during which he couldn’t travel and produce travel videos and as a result, he didn’t publish even a single video on his channel for over a year and a half.

This long hiatus proved deadly for his YouTube career as the views on his previous videos started dropping followed by his earnings.

So, Luke ended his expensive apartment lease in Los Angeles, sold his Jeep and stored all his belongings in storage.

As he didn’t have savings, he went broke.

Setting out for the world travel-

With only a few thousand dollars left to his name, he decided to travel the world and produce travel videos.

So, in August 2021, Luke left Los Angeles and started travelling.

Even though he resumed publishing videos onto his YouTube channel, they couldn’t get decent views, thanks to his year and a half hiatus.

Which meant that he continued being broke and his paltry earnings from his YouTube channel was just enough for him to frugally maintain his nomadic lifestyle with daily budgeting.

Luke travels by cheap flights and stays in the cheapest hostels and does couch-surfing.

Eventually, his videos started becoming viral.

Luke earns from advertisements on his YouTube videos, receiving sponsorships and affiliate marketing.

As of February 2023, he has 2.33M subscribers on his YouTube channel, 1 million followers on his Facebook page, 573K followers on Instagram and 625.1K followers on Twitter.

On 13 August 2019, Luke started his Spanish YouTube channel by the name Lucas Maiz and as of February 2023, he has 220K subscribers on it.

Personal life-

Luke was in a relationship with Margarita.

He is 5’11” tall and his favourite colour is blue.

Once while travelling, Luke got mugged at gunpoint by a gang in Colombia.

He is a social butterfly and his dream is to visit every country in the world.

Why did his parents move to Iraq?

In 2016, Luke’s parents learnt about the requirement of new administrators at the Life Language Center, an NGO in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq.

So, they sold their house in Wausau, Wisconsin and in 2017, they moved to Iraq.

Luke’s parents are the administrators and teachers at the school and they live in the school itself.

Some interesting facts about Luke Korns-

  • Japan, Peru, Pakistan and Lebanon are his favourite countries.
  • Initially, Luke was allergic to cats. But a stray cat approached him in Peru and sat in his lap and thanks to this, he became an ailurophile. He adopted this cat and brought her to the United States.

So, how are you inspired by the success story of Luke Korns?

Share with me in the comment section below.

Looking for inspiration to start your travel?
To Shake the Sleeping Self’ is the best book for travel inspiration.

About Author

Hello folks, I'm Naveen Reddy.
I love writing the inspiring success stories of people so as to inspire you.
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