Embracing Reinvention: Karla Freeman's Global Journey

Curious about mastering change and embracing new adventures? Listen to Karla Freeman's incredible story as she chats with Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor on The Water Trough about personal growth, divine timing, and more. 🚀✨ #Travel #PersonalGrowth #TheWaterTroughPodcast #FindingYourself

Transcript

Ed Drozda 0:09

Welcome to The Water Trough, where we can't make you drink, but we will make you think. My name is Ed Drozda, The Small Business Doctor, and I'm really excited you chose to join me here as we discuss topics that are important for small business folks just like you. If you're looking for ideas, inspiration, and possibility, you've come to the right place. Join us as we take steps to help you create the healthy business that you've always wanted. Good morning folks, this is Ed Drozda The Small Business Doctor, and I wanna welcome you back to The Water Trough. My guest today is Karla Freeman. Karla lived in Santa Barbara, California for over 25 years working as a trauma therapist. 15 years ago she authored "Creating Magic in Midlife", a roadmap to reinvention. What followed was worldwide distribution. Then she did what she wrote. That is she became a tango dancer in Buenos Aires, then lived in Mexico, Ecuador, and Ireland. After attending the International School of Storytelling in 2020, she became a professional storyteller. She performed her solo show "Crossroads, A Mermaid's Tale" about a mermaid, a seahorse, and a tree, both abroad and in the United States. She holds workshops worldwide on biographical storytelling and healing through storytelling. Currently, she lives in Ecuador where she's learning indigenous ways of living. Her column on Expats Living explores the challenges and opportunities of living in a foreign land. Her novel to Heal a Broken Heart is in pre-publication. Karla, welcome.

Karla Freeman 2:05

Thank you, Ed. My pleasure to be here with you today.

Ed Drozda 2:10

It is my pleasure to have you here today. All the way from Ecuador. So Karla, you've done what you said you're going to do. You've taken off to see the world. What inspired you to go this path and how did you keep going?

Karla Freeman 2:30

Great question. Long time ago, I was living in Canarsie, Brooklyn where no one wanted to live. I read before I went to school and my imagination was a gift because everything I read, I could do that, I could be that. At one point I said there's more to life than Brooklyn. I was lucky enough as a teacher to meet people who were in the vanguard of personal growth, inviting me into these groups where I knew nothing about, how people had these open conversations and people asked each other questions and listen, and it was like a deep dive in terms of I just said yes. I think what keeps me going is that curious spirit and a wild imagination. If they can do it, I can do it. And the encouragement that I got inside the family, but in these worlds that my family really couldn't give me, those worlds of transformation, personal growth. Anything and everything inspired me. My challenge really was to focus, and I'm sure you can relate to that Ed, right? That you can have a hundred ideas an hour, but what does that mean?

Ed Drozda 4:04

Well, some might look at your travels and say that the travels are entrepreneurial, but the nature of traveling like you do still requires focus. You can't just go to some place and be there, right? You have to immerse yourself, I presume.

Karla Freeman 4:18

Right. So where I am today is a retreat center, a resort. There's something about having come to this place for 13 years where one thing leads to another. Just walk out the door and there's people there. So travel yes, but the attraction to learn about other cultures has kept me in this mode. I'm getting an MFA in creative writing, which has led to the project I'm working on, and here he offered me, because I know them and I know the potential of this setting for people, especially in the Western culture, to come to this valley of longevity. It's so current in the last few days. What keeps me inspired is saying yes to connections, but also waiting. I don't know if we could talk a little bit about guidance and how timing works.

Ed Drozda 5:27

I always look for programs to inspire people. Since you're a storyteller you understand the value of telling a story. Your story is inspirational because it's not someone else's story. So please go down that path.

Karla Freeman 5:41

So thanks for the question. It is about how to trust guidance and divine timing, and who you meet, you never know where it might go. So this is a story about me arriving in a village called Vilcabamba, it's known as the Valley of Longevity. I went to this resort called Izhcayluma. I won't spell any of these. But, one of the owners Peter, became my friend. The others were certainly welcoming over the years. This is like 10, 12 years ago I started to visit with them, and ultimately Peter opened up about his vision to do retreats, silent retreats with meditation and yoga, and he wasn't doing it yet, but I held his vision in this conversation as something that he wanted to do. And that was enough for him to know this had energy in it, that he would start. He started doing these retreats and then I came back and I saw he was very happy and he was doing it, and he said, "Do you wanna lead a retreat here?" I said, "Yeah, of course." So we started to network with my connections and his, and it was about something I didn't have in mind, but would like to do. So the divine timing and the collective energy of supporting each other's goals and visions is magical. We never know what will happen next. This time it had to do with his vision and a vision for me. Now when we were talking he told me about this shaman who I had worked with, who also encouraged him. I can briefly say that it's not about drugs for this shaman named Carlitos, who lives in Vilcabamba, who reads energy and tells you things that you wouldn't guess he knew. He told me during that period when I was supporting Peter that my visions were coming true, and it would take a few months. My aura was like a pearl color, in other words I was set for success. So I'd say divine timing and guidance is a sense. For some people it's in their mind, in their heart, for me, it's an energy I feel, like I'm being moved forward towards something. And currently I'm having that same experience, but that'll be a story for another time. We all can have the same experience. I just am practiced at listening to the guidance. I get words and I get feelings, and I dare to follow them.

Ed Drozda 8:57

Thank you for clarifying. I'm hearing you say that part of this trust is actually letting go and accepting what comes. Is that fair?

Karla Freeman 9:07

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So what I let go of is between me and me. After you get older you realize patterns that you grew up with have changed certainly, but always need cultivation, let's say pruning maybe. If you use that analogy, you're growing like a plant and then some bug comes along that's going to eat the flower and you gotta let go, it's just gonna grow. You have to cultivate it.

Ed Drozda 9:36

Before you went to Ecuador, you say you've been there for how long now?

Karla Freeman 9:41

That's complicated answer. Sorry, but I wrote the book on reinventing yourself. This is a process that could inspire your audience. The analogy is some people rip the bandaid off quickly and some rip the bandaid off slowly, and I was that so I had my condo in Santa Barbara. I went 10 days in Buenos Aires, I went back a month and I loved it even more, then I gave myself a sabbatical, seven months, took my dog, and then I went back to deal with a lot of issues around my life. Finally I went back again and that trip I came to Ecuador on a visit. The synchronicity was my friends from Santa Barbara were here for Christmas. It was the Christmas children's parade. All of a sudden I'm like, what is this place? Indigenous people walking in the street. I wasn't ready to rip the bandaid, I needed to sell the condo, and finally I picked Ecuador and I'm due for a 10 year renewal of my identity card. I haven't lived in the US for a long time.

Ed Drozda 10:53

Mm-hmm. So you left behind a position as a trauma therapist, I'd say probably a burdensome and rewarding profession. Burdensome because when you're working with folks in trauma you can't help but take on a lot. On the other hand, when those people are able to see the light at the end of the tunnel it's gotta be uplifting for you. So, when you decided to move on you came to Ecuador and your friends were there?

Karla Freeman 11:19

Visiting their son who was doing a volunteer project here.

Ed Drozda 11:23

So at that point the opportunity emerged to shed the old skin and to explore new things.

Karla Freeman 11:32

When my journey became clear as someone that learned from travel, from seeing myself more like what they might call a world citizen, in other words, Ecuador was one stop for me to learn things I needed to learn. And because I'm a trauma therapist, I think in terms of steady progress rather than leaping into the vision, and I don't know what will unfold. After living here in Ecuador, I was... I'll use a word that may or may not fit, but I was called to go to live in Dublin, and that took a bit of a journey to get to live there, getting a master's in creative writing in Dublin. That led to writing a short story, which then I didn't know what I was gonna do with it. So there's a waiting period when something is gestating. It was a huge accomplishment to write this story, "Restoration", about a conflicted Jewish woman who was a descendant of Holocaust survivor, and this woman represents a lot of people. And then I had in my history as a therapist, not just a trauma therapist, the knowing that there are words that need to be spoken that will break a relationship if they're not spoken. I used to do this as a therapist, say what the person isn't saying, and they would try it on, and it would open up. So when I wrote the short story it was good, but in my words it wanted to be a play, more visual, more powerful, because she meets the other, a descendant of a Nazi. Because I'm a writer, i've been a writer my whole life, when I was working on the novel in Dublin, that was part of our MFA program, it was a long haul 'cause I didn't know how long it would take. That five years taught me I don't wanna write another novel if it's gonna take five years. When I wrote the play, because how many conversations had I listened to over the years, I could write dialogue, and I could write what people needed to say, and it didn't take very long. So that first draft I went, "Oh my God, I don't know if I have anything." But then the theater group here performed it, holding the scripts, and I saw it was the beginning, and now it's a while later, and trusting guidance I'm in a process where I have a worldwide network of people who appreciate my work and me as a person. I hear a name and I go, "Why am I thinking of Joan Halifax, who I worked with when I lived in Ojai?" It turns out that where I worked in Ojai, the Ojai Foundation, is run by someone who would be interested in the play, and they wanna go back to the roots. This place is on the land, and they want to honor the legacy of Joan Halifax. I'll call her today to catch up and see does she wanna be part of the play project? Maybe it'll be bigger than my play. Maybe it'll be renewal for the people that started such an incredible program, and now it's generations later with a new director who I don't know. But my friend, Leon, was called. He's a business manager for them in the past, and this is how it's all coming together with guidance and next right action. They want him to work for them again, which he will do. He leads groups where Palestinians talk to Israelis, the other, and he has a whole system, a circle where people just listen, pass a talking stick, and heartfelt sharing is the goal. And why wouldn't he wanna do it with me? I just have to raise some money to pay for me and him to do this. But I'm not making that a big deal 'cause if this is the engines moving, who am I not to go next step? So really guidance and a practice, because if people are getting lost with my story, it's okay. The only thing that I would say to take away is open your mind and heart to an inkling or a little nudge to call someone or do something, and it doesn't make any sense necessarily, or it's part of a larger vision. You just go, "I don't know why I wanna call Joan Halifax. She's been on my mind for a month now and it wasn't time. Now it's time." I advise with caution in any way for anyone to do anything, because you know yourself better than I know you. And I'm only telling you a story like storytellers do, because you just listen and something different than what I'm saying will occur to you. It has nothing to do with anything I've said. Great. I'm not in your life. Go for it. We didn't talk about who influenced you the most in your life. Can I ask you that question?

Ed Drozda 18:05

Myself?

Karla Freeman 18:06

Yeah.

Ed Drozda 18:07

Gee, it's a question I've never really thought about. I'd say there's a host of folks that have influenced me. At this stage in my life I think they've all kind of melded together. At various steps along the way there were influential people, but now everything is homogenized. So I can't give you a direct answer. You caught me off guard.

Karla Freeman 18:30

In a heartbeat you'll meet someone after this interview or we met each other and it'll influence you. The main thing I'm learning is I can't do this by myself, and I have to keep trusting other people. They say, what about this? And instead of saying well I don't know I just say thank you, and then I'll consider it. I relax instead of going oh now they're telling me what to do. Just relax and go yeah maybe they're right. Who knows?

Ed Drozda 19:03

So you're open to ideas, you're accepting ideas. Perhaps at some point in your life you weren't so open to ideas like that, but now you are?

Karla Freeman 19:12

Yeah if I look back, not a hundred percent, but I was too smart for my own good in a way. I thought I knew things before and that I should know before I learned.

Ed Drozda 19:27

I think as we grow older we all realize that we went through that phase. I think that's standard fare for the human, it's part of our evolution. I think your story is captivating because your going from space to space, taking what many would see as uncomfortable steps. Leaving your home, your country, and these other places, ultimately living in Ecuador for 13 years, those are the kinds of things that most people would recognize as being unsettling. You're framing it as an evolutionary process where you're trying to get out of that comfort zone. Yes?

Karla Freeman 20:09

Right, and then as we get older the need for self-care, some kind of stability, adventure of staying healthy rather than going to a new place and then going, rather than starting again we evolve. Our needs change. We have to take the time, like you're a coach, people in that place where they're wanting direction, but they need to absorb why and where, and who and how. You have a way as a coach to ask questions. To give people that breather, maybe slowly try to see what happens. Everybody's process is totally different. But when you were saying that I was wondering, and it probably is another branch that might not fit for this interview, but there's something of why I traveled so much and it was in my bones to be a traveler. I grew up in a generation where the immigrant ancestors were part of my history. So I'm like an immigrant.

Ed Drozda 21:29

I think we're all descendants of immigrants. The United States is a place where nobody was except for the Native Americans. There's no disputing that. The rest of us arrived through immigration somehow. In this day and age it's been bastardized into a place where it shouldn't be, but that is our origin. Are you looked upon as an immigrant in Ecuador?

Karla Freeman 21:47

In spanish, it's extrañas, like strangers, but we say expat. So I have residence, but I wasn't born in Ecuador.

Ed Drozda 21:58

Yep. Have you found the process of evolving to be well-received? Has it met your expectations?

Karla Freeman 22:06

No, it's more like the adventure is about not being comfortable. I wrote this local online newsletter about being an expat. I said you're not in Kansas anymore. I wrote, where's my Trader Joe's? I have to go for the milk here and then I have to figure out where to buy this. Discomfort is not a word I would use. It's more like walk a block and you'll see something you've never seen before. A curious person, or even if you come from the US and you've hit bottom, you're bored, you have really to make a change and you know it. Never having traveled before, I have a friend like that, she packed two suitcases, she came, she's one of my best friends now. But she arrived with this feeling she needed something new and everything was new. So what? Nobody hit her. Nobody bit her. People are friendly. The tip I'll give for that person considering is travel before you come here. Get on Facebook groups, make friends. And when they get here they'll have coffee with them, and people say welcome. People are very friendly, the expat community as well as the locals. It's easy to make friends here and people say, I have more friends in a month than I had where I was living, where I didn't even know my neighbors.

Ed Drozda 23:38

So settling in was designed to be pushing the envelope for yourself, but the process was comfortable to the extent that it wasn't difficult to do. You were getting what you hoped to get.

Karla Freeman 23:51

Yeah, comfortable enough.

Ed Drozda 23:54

You didn't want it to be easy. If it had been easy, you probably would've gotten bored I surmise.

Karla Freeman 23:58

That's it, it's a balancing thing. You expect to be uncomfortable when you go the mercado and you see fruits you've never seen before. You know?

Ed Drozda 24:12

I think people in business are pretty much in the same boat. When they're starting out, it's all new. They start out with a vision, with a dream, with an idea, and that's it. But ideas, visions, and dreams are not tangible. Not to the extent that you do anything with them, but it inspires you to move forward. What I'm taking away is that it's okay to be afraid, but it's not okay to ignore the desire to go forward.

Karla Freeman 24:45

Right, and when you start moving forward, when there's a match with the friendly universe, things magically can happen. They happen all the time for me. People don't recognize that they met someone and they don't even ask a question to know more about that person. So, how can the match happen if you don't know who you're talking to? It's an interesting thing we're talking about 'cause some of it's cultural conditioning. When you leave it was like a detox. Climbing the ladderism and other things. They fix things here for example rather than buy new, buy new, buy new. After a while it's like I guess I bought it 'cause I thought I needed it and now it's in my closet and I don't use it.

Ed Drozda 25:39

Self-sufficient and sustainability is a big thing.

Karla Freeman 25:42

It is, isn't it? And simplicity.

Ed Drozda 25:45

That's a good one. Self-sufficiency and simplicity, those are things that we should adopt or consider no matter where we are, don't you think?

Karla Freeman 25:53

Right. And when you get out of your comfort zone you can see yourself clearer. When I went on trips I tried once to analyze as I was there. But you live it and then you go home and then you see who you are and what the other culture might open you up to. You live it as someone living, even if it's for a month somewhere else. And then you know more about yourself than if you stay in the old habits all the time.

Ed Drozda 26:25

It also requires patience. Not expecting things to be boom, done in a heartbeat. A major move is gonna require adaptation, evolution, change, so if you are not able to be patient you might miss out on what it has to offer you.

Karla Freeman 26:43

If you don't have patience you'll miss out on what's in front of you.

Ed Drozda 26:50

We can get so enthusiastic we're just like, oh I can't wait for blah, blah, blah. And sometimes that I can't wait for gets in the way and demands us to expect it now. And that's okay. Right?

Karla Freeman 27:05

Right, right. Now that's a very insightful way to put it. How and why we might miss out on what life wants to give us 'cause inspiration and me following the energy and having synchronicities is one thing, but what you're saying is deep. The challenge is to meet in the present moment what's being offered. It could be just the color of leaves. I do art and I'm looking differently at the different greens. Now if that art didn't slow me down, I just say green. All green would be the same.

Ed Drozda 27:49

But there's shades of green.

Karla Freeman 27:51

There's shades of life, yeah.

Ed Drozda 27:54

So Karla, our time has zipped by. Before we part company is there anything you'd like to leave us with?

Karla Freeman 28:02

Support keeps the engine going and being independent doesn't work. Even if it's you don't ask a question or you don't open a new book, even the idea that help is on the way, and just wait and see what life has for you and open your heart, open your mind to that moment. A smile, a new piece of information. Someone you might have judged as, oh I don't like the way they're talking, I'm gonna go somewhere else. Wait. Wait a minute, give 'em a chance to calm down. Maybe your energy's making them speed up. Just ask one question.

Ed Drozda 28:55

That's very insightful, I appreciate that. To your previous point, it's a case of judging the book by the cover. Don't!

Karla Freeman 29:04

Right. Right, exactly. And be surprised. I mean, that's the child in us. We've always had a curious child whether it got snuffed or not, but that's what gives me joy, being curious. I'm not saying I'm happy all the time, I'm just saying as an attitude that I want to embrace, that works. And as a human go too far back in my history and regret this and that, but I know better. At least now I'm aware of that. That doesn't work. That doesn't make me happy. We have choices how we frame things to ourselves. But I enjoyed talking to you Ed, the time did fly by.

Ed Drozda 29:51

It did. I want to thank you very much for being here. I am pleased to have been joined today by Karla Freeman. Karla is a playwright and author, a storyteller, and formerly a trauma therapist, which has certainly informed her current activities, and she is now a resident of Ecuador.

Karla Freeman 30:11

Thank you, Ed.

Ed Drozda 30:13

This is Ed Drozda The Small Business Doctor. Here at The Water Trough I want to wish you a healthy business, and I'd like to also ask you to consider being or remaining curious. Until next time, thanks folks.