Women Need to Travel: "Why I went from a doctor to a travel consultant"

This week, Rita is joined by Dr. Ola Abbas. 

Ola, a former doctor turned travel business coach, shares her unconventional journey from Iraq to the UK and how her love for travel transformed her career. She discusses overcoming fear, the impact of cultural expectations, and how women can embrace diverse travel experiences. Ola offers valuable tips for budget-friendly travel and emphasizes the importance of breaking free from routine to truly explore the world.

Rita is a health and fitness coach who specialises in helping women over 40 to be healthy and wealthy, through weight loss and/or business coaching. Find out more here 👉 https://thehealthandfitnesscoach.com

New episodes of The Healthy and Wealthy podcast are released every Tuesday 🧡

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Transcript

Okay. So welcome, everyone to today's episode of the health collective podcast. And like I already said in the intro, we have Ola with us now, Ola, I would love you to give us a little bit of a background of what brought you to the place that you're in today. What brought you to the role, the career and the choices. If you could just give us a little bit of a personal history. What sort of made you who you are today.
Yeah, absolutely. Thank you very much for having me today on the show, Rita. So I feel like I have a little bit of an unconventional story because I get asked that question of what brought me to where I am today, but I just like 15 years ago If you had asked me, I wouldn't have known that I would end up where I am. today. I was born, raised grown up, it grew up sorry, in Iraq, I qualified there got my medical degree. And I always thought that that would be my life. You know, I live the conventional, getting married, have kids have a clinic down the road from my house, and that would be my life, as I would have imagined it. But the warm may things take a bit of a twist and a turn. And I find myself having to leave my country. Nothing in hand at all, just like a bag on my back. And I had to reinvent myself in a new country, spent a few years in the Middle East, but then I had to pick up and leave and then come to the UK to carry on with my medical career. Did about 10 years of that it's been about almost 1011 years, I've been in the UK, and I've finished my medical qualifications became a consultant. But I just felt found myself having this calling to do more and to give more. And long story short, I ended up having established a travel franchise that is active now in three different countries. And I helped medics intensify their wealth and well being through travel. So that's a very nutshell of my journey of where I've been and how I came to to be where I am,
as you said, an unconventional story. And we love unconventional stories here. Before we sort of talk about some of the travel and the business aspects. From my standpoint, as someone in the UK, I viewed the Iraq War from essentially what the media portrayed, I remember going on a march through London with millions people, I remember a lot of turmoil in this country in terms of political views, it was a very divisive time. Could you give us a little bit of an insight into your own view of how it affected you and your family? But equally, there's probably a lot of people that resent the UK, or the UK politicians who were involved in creating that war, but you chose to then end up here. So how did it affect you? And what led you to settling in England as your eventual base?
Yeah, absolutely. And there's, there's always that divide that we have to remember between politics and people because they're not necessarily representative of each other. And while politics have decided to launch a war for whatever reasons that they had justified or not justified, the people would be different, and they have a different sentiment towards it. We've I've always been, I always had felt a close relationship to England to the UK. When when I was much younger, I think I must have been about like three or four. My dad did his PhD in England. So we came over to Bradford, we lived here for a few years. Then we went back home and again from from years and years. And again, it goes back probably to their What 1920s where Iraq was occupied by by the United Kingdom as other countries were. So we kind of like have this strong, this long standing strong history, our educational systems are following, so to speak, that the UK tradition. So when I graduated from my medical school, it was it was established by the British university of Baghdad. So it's kind of like if there isn't that history is always in the backdrop. And having lived here as a child as well, that kind of like influenced things. And then when I came to the point of deciding like, right, okay, where do I want my medical career and how I'm going to, like, have the next 510 years of my life kind of shape up, I needed to make a decision about it. And from the options that I had, at that time, I didn't want to go too far away to Canada and America, I didn't want to learn a new language like Germany, France and others, my family still lived in Dubai. So coming back to the UK just seemed like the most likely option for me to take and that's kind of like how I ended up through that route. I didn't really think about like war, politics, history, all of that kind of like, you know, so to speak, the negative charge. I just kind of like had an open mind and being open and receptive of what possibilities and opportunities are out there.
Amazing. I love being open to all sorts of opportunities, regardless of maybe the external factors that are going on. And do you feel that those geographical transitions that you had sort of growing up through adulthood and you know, it sounds like with family and Dubai, you've got quite a lot of a geographical area sort of disparate array of people in various different continents? Do you feel that that had any impact on your choice to go into a travel sort of industry or a travel business at this stage?
Yeah, I believe there's strong relations correlations, so to speak. So my family now, I do have still have family members back in Iraq. I have some family in Turkey, who had left and went to Turkey, I have some, my parents and brothers are living in Dubai. I'm in the UK, my husband, which we recently got married, he's in Holland. So we are quite well spread Oh, and also have family in America now. So I've always been travelling. And travelling has always kind of like been an integral part of my life. Since I had left my country since I've left Iraq back in 2007. There's always been travelling, moving going to another country, whether that is for a short term or a long term. And travel has kind of like opened up my eyes to so much more possibilities opened up my mindset, learning from other people and seeing other people's challenges, kind of like when you come back home, it makes you think about what you're going through in a different way.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. I feel like there's a whole nother story in the whole your husband in Holland that if you can make that work, then off to you, for the long distance relationship. So with travel, I hear a lot of women especially sort of they hit 4045 kids who are either grown up fully or they're in that sort of teenage stage where they can appreciate travel in a different way. Are you a lot of women saying that travel is a top value in their life. I just in the same way that they tell me that health is a top value in their life. However, at the same time, they sit on the sofa, eating chips, or dipping bread in anything rather than bread. And you know, saying, well, health is a top value. And a lot of women, although they want to travel and feel that it should be about you if there's aren't actually taking the action towards it. They're not taking holidays and not going past the usual. Sort of, to eat hotels in Spain, that seems to be as far as we all get from the UK. So what do you feel is the the key reasons that maybe holds people back from travelling and exploring different cultures more regularly? Yeah,
absolutely. And it's a great question. I remember when it was about four years ago, now, just before the pandemic 2019, I came up to a kind of like a natural break in my career when I finished training, and I was about to take a consultant. Great job. And in that time, I decided to go travelling, I was like, I've got this time, I've got some savings, all of that kind of thing. And I had this calling for travel. And I went away solo travelling for five months, and I went to so many different countries and continents. And I still remember very vividly one of my female colleagues that when I told her I was going to go travelling, she was like, Oh, my God, you must be so brave. And I was like, Okay, well, then I just thought it to my head. Like if I was a man, would you have made that remark? You know, and I think a lot of us as women, we get put down by societal expectations, number one, by the nature of our roles, that we are the caregivers, we look after the family, we have to be there as the anchor, and we often neglect to look after ourselves, and what is our values and what we want to achieve and what's meaningful in our lives. So I think that's one of the things that hold women back. And it's it's that societal and cultural, so to speak expectation and that what we put on ourselves as a responsibility. But also I find it there's that this fear of the unknown, like a lot of women ask me and they go like, Oh, is it safe to go to like, I don't know, Japan? Or is it safe to go to like, somewhere in Europe, wherever it might be? And I'm like, yeah, there are people living in that country, you know, like it is safe. Obviously, you do the obvious, avoid dark alleys, don't go out late at night, don't you know there is those common things that you'd need to avoid, but again, I find fear is one of the things that hold women back. And there are a lot of things that you can do to overcome that, that fear so to speak. I find for example, networking being part of travel communities going on group trips, it can break bring you out of that, that that zone of yours. So those are the things that I mainly find cultural expectations and fear that that hold women back and possibly also not knowing what to do with their time. Not a lot of us are accustomed on being like you You travel on your own, or if you go and travel with the group, not a lot of us are accustomed with doing that. And then it's like, ooh, if I'm on my own, I'm going to be lonely. Or if I'm with a group, or this is going to be awkward, that's, that's potentially another thing.
One of the biggest fears that I see in a lot of women, and maybe you experience the same is a fear of wasting time, a fear of dropping the ball, you know, feeling now that we have so many different roles and arenas that our energy is pulled towards, there's this, this sort of conscious belief system that says, you must just keep going, doo doo, doo, doo doo, there's no such thing as being anymore. And I think holidays are that idea of just being. And sometimes, and I've seen it in myself in the past, as well, I've gone on holiday and said, I can't wait to relax, and then I've done everything in my power to fill my time. I'm just doing doing doing and then I get home and think I need a holiday to recover from that. So do you feel that women or just as a culture, we've lost the ability to just explore and be in the moment? Do you feel that that is an art form that's actually starting to disappear?
Because we've lived for so long, with this hustle grind culture of like, every waking hour must be a productive hour, but our definition of productive gets skewed so much overtime, and we forget that rest is productive in itself, that disconnecting is productive in itself. And I think this impacts women far more than it does for men, because this culture of corporate I think it's born out of corporate life of like, you know, climbing up the corporate ladder, this competition, this achievement, being celebrated. I think this all comes from a man energy and women walked into the walk workplace, not knowing what this equality is going to be like. And as a woman, our physiology and energy is completely different to work on that cycle of, of energy and what their physiology is like. And so we're finding ourselves in this cycle of hustle and grind that could goes completely against what our natural cycle is. And then we just kind of like hit that stress and that burnout, and that, that that depletion, but also we have that extreme guilt and feeling ashamed that we're not doing. You know, we know we're not we're not creating and we're not being and that also kind of like factors in as like, when you take a holiday, you can't actually be taking the holiday, because you've still got like a to do list to go through. Yeah,
yeah, absolutely. In terms of travel, then what do you see as an I'm sure, you could go on for hours with this question, but try and keep it to sort of a couple of minutes. What do you see as the benefits? So if we actually look at the physical and the emotional self, rather than, you know, we could probably go into business benefits, networking and all sorts but from an a physical and emotional, well being sense. What do you see are the benefits of travels specifically for women? Yeah, absolutely.
So is there there's that physical getting moving, moving your body as opposed to just sit in every evening on the sofa and watching TV or whatever it might be. So that that is that that physical activity and especially if you incorporate experiences within your travel, because like you said, there is that holiday type of travel where you go for an all inclusive, and you don't like adventure outside of the hotel, but then there's also that kind of travel where you're, you're going out and you're experiencing and you're going, adventure, etcetera, kind of like activities doing it. So that's that, that that physical element is there. But also, in terms of changing the weather, changing your atmosphere, having that reset as well, with your with the type of food that you're eating, exposure to sun, especially with the ones that are less fortunate, like us living in the UK, go and get my sunshine that's got a huge like health benefit from a psychological perspective and also from a physical perspective, like, you know, with your vitamin D and, and all of that and your bone health and also decision making, being more independent, being able to kind of like have that logistic, you working your brain, your thought, your your thinking, your decision making capacity. And that also helps with brain as a muscle at the end of the day. And if you don't use it, you lose it. And having that feeling of independence and that you can look after yourself rather than having to depend on someone else that has again, lots of psychological emotional benefits.
So with all of those benefits, and as you said that There's a lot of fear around travel as well, that's maybe preventing people from reaping the rewards that you've just beautifully articulated for us. Do you feel and, you know, this is something that especially in the UK, we're seeing become more and more prevalent, but probably across the globe and certain Western societies, especially the states as well. This idea of them and us. And, you know, we can be honest on shows like this and say that the UK is becoming I would say, more divided in the sense of, you know, keep people out look after us. And this is always what happens when survival mechanism kicks in, because everyone's struggling, you know, whether it's with finances or time or job. And a lot of these places that you described, some of my favourite travel experiences have been across Asia or across the Caribbean, you know, two places where I was very much as a sort of white western woman, and minority, and I love that. But there's also this kind of, they don't look like us, therefore, that scares me. And I'm seeing from just conversations that I overhear this kind of divide in the UK now actually infiltrating people's opinions of where to go travel. So it's right, well, let's stay in Europe, because everyone looks like us. So I trust them more. Have you seen any of the sad divisions that are happening in this country have an impact on people's choices as to where they then go and travel?
And that's kind of like getting into the behavioural science of people's choices and things like that? Because it's like, influenced by media influenced by politics, and then your definitions of what is safe, what is good, what is bad, get get influenced? Remarkable in a very remarkable way. So I'm very different people on the podcast won't be able to see me. So I'm ethnic. I'm Arab. I'm from the Middle East. I'm like, you know, I'd like to say I'm Oliver sunkissed. It's kind of like skin. Absolutely. So for me, it's been kind of like a different experience is that like, when I go go away, and travelling, I'm looked as like that. I'm, although I've been lived in the UK for like, 10 years. And like going to Europe, for me is like an extension, so to speak of the UK, although now it's Brexit. But I get looked at as like, I'm different. And I'm someone who's come from another side of the world. And then when I start speaking English, they go like, oh, oh, you speak English? Very well. I'm like, Yeah, you know, I live in the UK, you know, kind of like, and this has been my life for a little over a decade. So there is that I kind of like, catch on to that. And, for some reason, if I actually travelled to areas where I blend in, from a looks perspective, people kind of like, feel that I'm more native and kind of like, relate to me more when and then when I start talking, oh, like you're English. And then it's just like this whole thing of like, well, I'm originally Arab, but I've lived in England, and this, this kind of thing. This is where I'm at. And so yeah, I have noticed this over time of like, where people are feeling like, you look like this. So you belong to this. And then this is what I would expect. And I very much against it, because like I said, people and politicians are different. But then again, people are different to what that country might be. It's not just a one size fits all. It's not because you look a certain way, then you have certain beliefs and certain practices and certain thoughts. And then it means that I can't connect with you. When I think it's, the more you use, the less you travel, the less you would be able to connect with people who look different to you. And the more you shrink into that kind of like so to speak cocoon. And the more you get isolated and the more kind of then the consequent the negative consequences of that on your own health and well being.
Absolutely.
No, no, sorry. No.
No, it does. And you mentioned the B word Brexit. Have you seen in your industry, a change in travel habits since both the coincidence of Brexit and COVID and the pandemic? Have you seen people's travel behaviours and patterns change over the last few years?
Hmm. So after COVID We have noticed a big surge of people wanting to travel more abroad, actually and having bigger budgets, the budgets for their their travel. A lot of it comes from the sense of like COVID has happened you know, this is a massive wake up call. It's a little bit of that whole YOLO attitude, you know, and so, we've been seeing a lot in travel with regards to travelling to kind of like destination, a bit more exotic, a bit more bucket list kind of travel, however, it is more on the side of the all inclusive, on the side of like, all packaged all kind of like in, like the really well known places that for example, the British people would be comfortable because they know that brand name, you know, I mean, rather than the type of travel where it is like, I'm just going to go and explore and I'm going to go to the like, where the locals like to see and like to go and eat and, you know, have that experience of that, that that country. So yeah, that's that's something that I've definitely noticed more, some of it is disguised under the Oh, I just want to kind of like kick back and relax. But I feel there is more to it. And especially if kind of like you know, when it's, it's a bit it feels like it's a bit disguised under that whole like I want to kick back and relax. So I'm going to this comfort zone or this cocoon within this exotic place
this sort of using that as a mask to actually hide some fears or insecurities or just a desire to not want to actually experience the truth of the the other country I want to basically have sunshine and I want to feel like I'm having a holiday but I don't want to experience the culture as it is. Okay, so in terms of your your business, could you give us a little bit of an idea of what you do in the travel sector how you actually help people experience that that travel life?
Yeah, absolutely. So my main focus in the business is to help medics set up and scale an online travel business so that then they can go on and sell travel, whether that is packages or individual experiences etc What might wherever it might be in terms of travel products, or they might be able to coach and mentor someone else or just set up and start a business. So I think of myself more of or I define myself more as a travel business coach rather than a Travel Advisor or consultant although that is still something within my capacity. So the focus of like the travel the I would niche into the I do actually specialise in booking is focused more on like experiential travel. Well being travelled things along the lines of people might recognise them, like in terms of retreats, or experiential travel like you know, cooking language, holidays, these kinds of things where you actually go and connect with a local host and be able to experience that culture.
Fabulous that kind of, you know, travel holidays, I absolutely love we run out retreat every year, next year, we're going to Bali. I know I can't, I mean, I must say some of it was from a selfish perspective. I just said Well, I've always wanted to go to Bali so but absolutely those sort of going to Brazil, I remember doing a salsa holiday because I love salsa dancing to Brazil, and just experiencing the sort of the local, raw, authentic culture that they had rather than the sort of the brand name hotels. So for yourself, if I were to say, you know, what does travel mean to you? What is some of your favourite places to visit? How do you like to experience on a personal level travel? What would be your own personal views? For me,
it might sound like a bit of an extreme to others, but for me to travel is to live. I can't I can't be without it. Now I've gotten into a habit of travelling every four to six weeks. Like he's, I mean, like I do have an international family. So that gives me a good excuse. But also I'm very mindful of like not falling in that habit of just going to visit them. I need to go out and see new places. For me travel is all about getting to know the culture going into like the towns walking around rather than just being chauffeured in a taxi. It's about eating that then you get a lot of people's culture from sharing a dish with them. Trying to learn as much as possible of like, what are the costumes? What are the habits? That to me is the most important things about travelling so what really makes me feel alive. Yeah,
amazing. Travel is living. To be honest, I pretty much agree with you. I travelled to probably six seven different countries a year. It would be more if I didn't have three very small children but suddenly, holidays when you have five of you become highly expensive. And that's probably where my last question would be is that for some people travel has become restrictive. And we've seen it in this country that there is becoming more of a divide between those that can and those that can't. And I'm a big believer that you do make your life you know, if you are unhappy with a situation, whether it's your body, your health, your relationship, your finances, you can change it. But equally, I say that from a very privileged position, I am able to, and sometimes, you know, we can forget what it's like to you know, I remember living in London, the first time I ever moved there and having to choose between buying bread or buying a tube ticket. That was the financial situation I found myself in. And for people like that, listening to us talking that, you know, this is beyond their wildest dreams going to Skegness is their idea of a paradise holiday. So, what are some tips or ideas or guidance that you could give people who maybe are on a bit of a tighter budget, but still want to explore and experience and understand the world and the culture and grow as individuals? How would you advise them to maybe look at their travel ideas?
Absolutely, yeah. I mean, there's a lot of experiences that are on there, you know, on the doorstep, you don't have to travel to wide and far exotic places, if you can't, from a budget perspective, you can save on that flight, for example, and choose to drive to maybe a local area. I mean, like the UK itself is a hub of tourism that a lot of people from abroad come to to be able to see whether it's the nature outdoors, whether even it's the cities themselves, there's like a lot of kind of like experience pockets that people can explore very much locally, within the UK. The other tips that I would say is plan ahead of time, flights get released like 11 months before the travel date. So that gives you a big gap of time to be able to kind of like plan. So if you're if you want to go away, if Christmas is your only time off, you know, don't start looking at flights a month or two before you need to be looking way ahead of time. In order to sort that there's kind of like lots of tips and tricks around how to you can look up literally on the internet tips and tricks on how to kind of like bad yourselves, like the best flights, but always speak to a Travel Advisor because they know the industry from the inside, and they can advise you on that. But also thinking about countries where the pound can stretch a bit more. So you know, instead of going to countries where the pound would be like the same buying power, so to speak in a lot of European countries, maybe or America, start thinking about other countries that are a little bit further afield, Southeast Asia, for example, or even North Africa, where your pound has more buying power. And that way, you can start to enjoy more on what would be a smaller budget or a longer holiday and what would be like to be a small budget. So these are just kind of like some tips and ideas of how you can do that. Another very tip as a bit of a shameless plug of me is to be in travel, have your own travel business, and then you can earn from what you do. So I we love a good plug
on this show.
Yeah, but I mean, like there, there are these kind of like tips. And it's like when people think of travel again, and I think that's a bit of a maybe a media or what's advertised heavily is that they think of like a holiday is that like, you know, the expensive flight, the five star budget, the whole kind of like package thing. And it doesn't need to be like that you can have the can make a slight compromise, for example, on your hotel booking to be able to have more experiences. Or maybe you choose the flight times that are slightly maybe fly out a bit early, fly out a bit late, don't fly out on weekends, Tuesday and Wednesday tend to be the best flying days. Which week, Tuesdays and Wednesdays always tend to be the best flying prices. When you search for flights. If you're not restricted by your dates, then again, have a look at the whole month instead of looking at a certain date. And most of the search engines will allow you to do that. And it will show you this, like how much would it be if you go out on this day versus this day versus this day versus this day, you know, so there is kind of like some ways that you can do is just kind of like step back and think about it differently on how you're looking for your holiday.
Amazing. I love that I love a good travel tip. I always think that you can't go amiss, and no, there's some really really useful stuff there that we can take way. And also, it's just been really fascinating talking to you about your own experiences of travel and what travel really means to you. Because I think especially in the UK, you know, those listening in America and Canada who have much larger plots of land, over here, we have boxes, most most people spend their life in a box, they then get in a box on wheels to drive to another box, they then stare at a box all single, every single day, they then come home and to relax, they sit on the couch and stare at a box. And actually travel is about getting out of the box about breaking free about experiencing what the unknown, unparalleled beauties of the world have to offer. And I think if you can, you know, save a bit on your Netflix subscription and travel somewhere that was that's always what I would say
100% 100%. So many people pay for so many things that actually is not contributing to what they, what they want, what their goals are. And I think going back and if travel is a value of someone who's listening to us, and travel is a value that you hold highly or is a desire and a dream that you want to achieve, then go back into what you are already doing, what you're spending money time and energy on, and see how you can redirect it away from the things that are not serving you into the sort of thing that serves your values.
Amazing. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. And if anyone wants more information about travel about travel business about countries or they just want to have a chat, because we always like a bit of a coffee and a chat. How is the best way for people to get in contact with you?
Yeah, absolutely. So the best way to is done through my website elevate with Ola. And through that you can ping me an email on info at Elevate with ola.com.
Fabulous. Well thank you so much for joining us today and thank you to everybody for listening to today's episode, and I look forward to seeing you all on the next one. In the meantime, have a fabulous day.