As a mindful psychotherapist, Lena Franklin has a unique vision and mission. By teaching the art of mindfulness and meditation, Lena integrates the most beautiful and inspiring travel destinations into her work to help others heal and experience a destination in a completely unique way.

She has developed an internationally recognized mindfulness-based business where she sees individual clients, guides mindfulness retreats, teaches yoga and meditation trainings and provides personal growth workshops.

She's the head of mindfulness for Welzen App and serves as an international spiritual teacher and leader on retreats for Pravassa.

She's passionate about the power of travel to enable our own healing and to help bring a deeper peace to us. In this episode, we walk through her personal and professional story to integrate East and West for her own healing -- plus how we can all integrate more mindful practices while traveling to get a deeper experience with a destination.  

 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• What is mindfulness healing
• The transformative power of presence & how travel consistently allows us to feel that
• What we stand to gain from the disruption of routine when we travel
• The scientific reasons why travel helps change and heal us
• How we can incorporate presence into our travel to experience any trip or destination at a deeper level
• How to make your travel more intentional (and enjoyable!)
• Wellness travel with Lena: what a Pravassa trip with Lena looks like
• Why is this trend of wellness travel & mindful travel growing?
• BONUS: Lena walks us through a quick guided meditation session (finish the episode... so worth it!) 

 

Darrah Brustein designed her life for more travel. She built the location-independent, time-independent lifestyle we all want. She's a serial entrepreneur and lifestyle design expert. She spends half the year traveling, all while running several successful businesses. Darrah has valuable insight for anyone looking to live a more intentional and value-filled life.

After burnout and layoffs, she started to created little experiments to validate a little inkling that she could create the life and lifestyle she truly wanted--without sacrificing her values. By setting up a residual income stream, she can travel half the year, write for Forbes, or grow whichever business she'd like.

I wanted to get her on the show because in this set up, she gets to choose how and where she spends her time. We all believe that lifestyle design is the ultimate definition of success. There's a ton of actionable tips we can immediately take from the episode and conversation. We talk through her series of tests and how she set herself up for her ideal lifestyle---and how you can too!

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Darrah's story of experimentation to design her best life

- The importance of identifying your top values

- How to let our top values drive our decisions to shape our life

- Making travel an important part of our lives instead of something that gets the “scraps of our time”

- A fact she tested: You can indeed take time off without your career collapsing

- Actionable steps for developing and creating a network of valuable relationships (comes in handy when traveling!)

- How all of us truly want deep connection with others, and some good questions to ask first

Lindsey Epperly Sulek is taking on the luxury travel market as the founder & CEO of Epperly Travel, a boutique travel consultancy with experts curating 4 and 5 star vacation experiences for clients year-round.

She shares the daily life of a consultant (and balancing the CEO & Founder role), the perks, and the target characteristics of an advisor. We're all asking if we have what it takes to live that travel-filled life!

We chatted live all about the travel consultancy world --and how it's changed since the "old travel agency days." She grew up in the industry, quickly learning as a one-woman show, and expanded to a team now with 13+ independent contractors. 

She's been in the travel consultancy space for over eight years, with three of them as the owner of her own firm Epperly Travel. She's listed as the Caribbean expert on the renowned Wendy Perrin WOW List. She's part of Travel Agent Magazine's Top 30 Under 30 and locally in Atlanta one of Jezebel Magazine's Trailblazing 10. So impressive!

HIGHLIGHTS:

• Where Lindsey learned about the love of travel (she's a cruise kid!)
• Getting the entreprenuership bug early and earning a “dinner table MBA”
• Entering into (and loving) the travel industry at 19
• Having the vision of running her own business from a young age
• The perks and not-so-perks of owning her own travel consultancy
• Key characteristics of an ideal Travel Consultant (are you a fit?)
•  They partner often with Travel Beyond Safari Specialists who was featured in Episode 6* #SmallWorld
• Lindsey's background and transitioning into the luxury side of travel
• The new fear: Not FOMO, but "fear of mismanaging your time & misspending your money"
• A big trend she's seeing across the travel space around honeymoons
• Her personal mission: to pave a way for others interested in travel industry through education and mentorship
• What she's building now: a training program for anyone interested in the industry

In this episode, my parents share all about living the expat lifestyle and raising a family overseas while moving around--a lot! Let's count... I moved 8 times by the time she was in the 6th grade, often moving every 2 years (or less). 

I wanted to grab a bit of the perspective from each of my parents, who sat down separately to chat one on one with me, about how they felt living that expat life, what they worried about (or not) in raising kids overseas, and share a few of the amazing stories that came from the experience. 

If you've ever wondered about the expat lifestyle and the positive impacts of moving and living overseas, this is a good episode to take a listen to. And if you've lived the expat life, you'll definitely relate to this one! 

 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• My parent's brief backgrounds and beginnings -- and how it impacted their perceptions of travel and adventure
• The serendipitous (and scandalous?) context behind them meeting and starting to date in Argentina 
• Marrying & knowing that my dad's work would take him (and family) around the world
• The path of countries and places we all lived 
• Expat living: what was covered, how it was a good economic option, and the ultimate gratitude for the lifestyle  
• Unique stories of eating scorpions and rattlesnakes in China, outfitting Iran's Shah with electricity to host a desert party, and more. 
• Selecting a variety of schools for us to attend, including convents and 'American Schools.
• Their wishes for their daughters in living overseas and living the expat experience

Callee Ackland grew up on the west coast in Salem, Oregon, where she learned the importance of sustainability.  After serving in the Navy, Callee chose van life as a sustainable travel option and started calling herself 'A Hippie in a Van.' Since then, Callee has seen most of the United States, and plans to continue her travels in her 2014 Ram Promaster campervan. 

She's now also an eco-entrepreneur + zero waste activist. She's the owner of a Zero Waste Store Bestowed Essentials, a line of sustainable home goods with an online shop + a retail storefront in Rapid City, South Dakota.

We talked all about having more travel in life through sustainable lifestyle choices with a smaller carbon footprint and how to implement eco-friendly practices. If you want to make better and smarter choices, this is a fantastic conversation with Callee!

Dan Taylor has focused on finding flexible employment and gotten lucky with travel as a result. He became an entrepreneur after consulting and traveling the globe with Deloitte. He's often worked without a home office and traveled for 6 months out of the year for over eight years before establishing Prague as his base.

Now as CEO and Founder of AppsEvents & EventsFrame, he has teams on almost every continent, so he has great insights on managing remote teams. Since his business has allowed him to travel for 12+ years, we talked about transitions and maintaining balance as an entrepreneur with an exciting new chapter of travel with his wife and 9 month old child. 

 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Seeing the world as a SAP consultant 
• Transitioning from consultant to entrepreneur
• Finding a need & serving it (not knowing where it might lead)
• Supporting schools, and himself, through Google Education seminars & certifications 
• How to start building a remote team
• What’s most important to succeed in managing remote teams (from someone who has teams on every continent) 
• The #1 benefit of a podcast for your business
• Managing traveling as a single person versus now with a baby
• Digital detoxing: How to maintain balance while constantly on the road as an entrepreneur
• Various ways that entrepreneurs structure their days for productivity and balance

Bahrain, Tonga, Azerbaijan, Armenia. Just some of the places that Jake Schumacher has visited during his year of solo travel. 

He sold most of his belongings last year to travel full time. With a one way ticket out of Atlanta, he headed to Sydney, Australia without a plan for more than a couple days--and has mostly gone without much of one during most of his travels. He believes there's magic in that approach. He's been on the road for a year now, acquiring numerous tales that restore our faith in humanity — His journey has been one of “smiles, humanity, and just meeting good people.”

 

Jake reflects on his journey, sharing the value of going with the flow, trusting locals, and finding locales on the road less traveled to truly find the beauty in this world. It's an uplifting story and Jake is quite the storyteller. Two specific ones — one of his oh shit moments that made my jaw drop and one that just warmed my soul about a special host named Zaki.

Some highlights & insights: 

• How having no plan can be a very good plan to gain some amazing stories 
• If you make clear what you want, the universe has a funny way of fulfilling those dreams
• Why he chooses somewhat obscure locations to visit, and the beauty & hospitality he's found in those spots
• On fear of the unknown: It's unavoidable but “Sometimes, you just have to jump in the fire.”
• 3 Things to Always learn in a new language: hello, thank you, cheers
• His #1 tip if you don't have plans or connections at a destination (hint: where to stay) 
• His best tips on how to talk to locals (with the goal to have them provide their best tips about their city)
• Jake’s biggest “Oh Shit” moment while in Malaysia (what a story!!) 
• His serendipitous moments throughout his travels and how things tend to work out for good
• Time in Bahrain and the wonderful hospitality of Zaki, pictured above

  

Tina and Chris adopted two boys 4 years ago Elijah and Rylee. They're on a journey as a new family to grow and challenge themselves by traveling around the US -- and road schooling full-time on a renovated school bus. They love to say "We Live on a Bus.”    If you have kids and you’ve dreamed of doing a sabbatical or a year long trip with your kids while they’re a certain age, but schooling always stops that dream in your tracks — this is the episode for you. In this episode, mom Tina shares her approaches for road schooling, on-the-road education, and using travel to create the best version of learning tailored for each child. 

• Selling everything to travel full-time (with their house under contract in 8 hrs) 
• Adapting their school routines into "road schooling" (and the distinction with home schooling or a popular trend called UNschooling) 
• Common fears and questions they get asked about road schooling
• Learning your state's home schooling requirements 
• Ways to stay compliant with state education rules 
• Field trip learning & "hours in the field" 
• Creating an Explorer's Workbook to help log all their field trip learnings 
• Currently Airbnb hopping and "practicing bus life" (like, not using the dishwasher)
• What's next for them & when they start road schooling full time in the skoolie (or school bus home, for the rest of us)

 

What approach and websites do you use to curate your itineraries for your travels?

I definitely have some go-to sites and go to them, sometimes in a specific order. In today's mini solo episode, I share my philosophy, my approach, and my questions for you when travel planning. I share my best online resources for you too. 

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EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Keep in mind your own philosophy about travel planning & what type of traveler you are
• Focus on the WHY - the importance of the intention around your specific trip 
• 5 main types of travel trips (Can you think to add any more types below in comments?)
• Key categories to build your itinerary:
•       Hotel / Lodging
•       Food / Restaurants 
•       Experiences / Tours
•       Spots for Photography & Visual Memories
•       Places of Interest (History, Architecture, etc)
• Websites and tools to help you in the travel planning process for each and specific to types of trips

I'm in the midst of planning for a small trip to Copenhagen so get ready for a great case study! >> Let me know in the comments where you're headed next and where you're planning for. I'd love to hear about it!  

What do we often NOT talk about with full-time travel? Transitioning from full-time travel back to 'normal' life. Priorities shift. 

Chelsea, Matt, and Kai learned many lessons from two years on the road, many about themselves... and that priorities change. Deciding to return to a home base after full-time family travel, they had to redefine what life would look like for their family. 

They still refuse to settle. Now back in the US after transitioning from full-time travel, hear how they've woven their travel lessons into every aspect of their lives -- and how they're sharing their passion and support for any lifestyle that doesn't settle. 

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:

• Don’t share the plan until the plan is well in motion
• Focusing on why - the importance of keeping goals top of mind when traveling
• Slow travel is a must when working remotely
• Long term travel is a marathon - not a sprint
• Listening to the whispers & intuition
• Knowing when to transition 
• Preparing mentally for the end of full-time travel
• Working the plan (always)
• How to intentionally design your life and create the mindset for change
• Sustaining the freedom learned from travel to maintain your life priorities 
• What's possible for the growing remote work trend