Lesley's Real Job Is Even Cooler Than Being On 'Bachelor Winter Games'

As made clear during the premiere episode, one of the draws for the U.S. contestants to join The Bachelor Winter Games was getting to meet the international cast. Yet, interacting with people from different nations isn't a very novel experience for Lesley Murphy. Lesley's job when she's not on The Bachelor franchise is a travel journalist. But this international traveler and writer hasn't focused on one of the men from Canada, Australia, or Germany. Instead, Lesley's relationship with Dean Unglert is just getting started. But dating all-American guy Dean may suit Lesley just fine since she has lots of international adventures and interactions through her globe-trotting job.

Before Winter Games, Lesley was on Sean Lowe's season of The Bachelor. While she didn't win, she partially has the reality TV franchise to thank for leading her to her current career. As she explains on her cleverly-titled travel blog, The Road Les Traveled, she majored in broadcast news when she attended the University of Georgia. She struggled to get a career in that field, so she moved to politics. When she appeared on The Bachelor, the Arkansas native had most recently been working as a political consultant in Washington, D.C. She notes that she actually passed on the chance to run a national campaign with her boss to be on the show. After The Bachelor, she made another bold life decision and took a job as a marketing manager for a hospitality company in Argentina.

Her time abroad led her to start her travel blogging career just one year after she landed in Buenos Aires. And she has been traveling and writing ever since. Her location on her social media accounts is "Living out of an overweight suitcase 24/7/365," though it should be noted that she says she's currently living in Los Angeles on her Instagram bio. Wonder if that could have anything to do with her budding romance with Dean, whose own Twitter profile says he's living in LA.

Speaking of social media, her Instagram is an absolute dream since she photographs all of her adventures. Seriously, if you want to find inspiration for your next trip or just want vacation envy, she's absolutely worth following. (You can also check out her Bucket List for fantastic travel ideas.) Beyond jaunts in the U.S. to places like Aspen, Charleston, Laguna Beach, and Miami, she spent 2017 traveling to Aruba, Wales, Canada, the Cayman Islands, Finland, Iceland, India, and Sri Lanka. She did this all in the same year that she underwent a preventive double mastectomy, which she discussed on Winter Games and also to People magazine. She had discovered she carried the BRCA2 gene, which puts people at a higher risk of breast cancer and elected to have the surgery.

Although Lesley might make you want to change your career path and follow in her international footsteps, she does have to work hard to live this nomadic lifestyle. On the FAQ section of her website, she confirms that travel blogging is her full-time job. "Many people don't realize the grueling hours that go into travel blogging between the planning, writing, photography, strategy, social media, collaborations, partnerships, and legal side of things. Oh, and don’t forget about the actual travel part," Lesley writes.

She also explains how she makes money off this line of work and like many Bachelor contestants, sponsored content helps pad her income. "I am fortunate to partner with some amazing brands, and if I don't personally feel connected to one, I turn down the job. I think it's important to be authentic in this line of work, and I love supporting products and companies I enjoy," Lesley writes. For instance, check out her post from when she stayed in a bubble hotel in Iceland that she did in coordination with the credit card company Chase.

She really does seem to be following her passion all over the globe. And it appears that Dean might be happy to go with the flow when it comes to traveling with Lesley since she posted on Feb. 15 that she "jumped out of a plane yesterday and landed on cloud 9." The post was accompanied by a photo of her legs intertwined with a man's legs in bed.

It seems safe to assume that those legs belong to none other than Dean since the pair had been spotted in the same locations all day on Instagram Stories.

In any case, even after Winter Games is over, you'll want to continue to follow Lesley's international pursuits on her Instagram and blog.