Adventure Travel with Becki Rupp - Trailblazer Wellness

Guest Bio

Becki Rupp is a certified Personal Trainer and Adventure Travel Coach, and the founder of Trailblazer Wellness. Through her coaching, Becki helps travelers build the strength, stamina, and confidence they need to take on meaningful adventures without feeling overwhelmed by the physical or mental preparation. Her work is especially valuable for people preparing for big hikes, cycling trips, Camino-style journeys, Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, and other active travel experiences that stretch the edge of their comfort zone.

Becki brings together personal training, coaching, and her own extensive adventure travel background. She has summited Kilimanjaro, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, completed the Portuguese Camino from Porto to Santiago, and taken on numerous multi-day hiking and cycling trips around the world. Over the past several years, she has supported more than 100 clients preparing for adventures in 27 countries, helping them move from uncertainty to readiness so they can enjoy the journey before the journey — and the trip itself.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Becki Rupp, founder of Trailblazer Wellness, about helping travelers prepare for the adventures they have dreamed about for years. Becki explains how adventure travel coaching goes beyond simply handing someone a workout plan. For many travelers, especially those joining group trips or taking on a physically demanding itinerary, the real work involves building confidence, managing fears, staying accountable, and learning how to enjoy the experience rather than worry about holding others back.

Becki shares how her own path combined a lifelong curiosity about the world, a love of movement, and years of experience in fitness, coaching, and communications. From childhood memories of watching her grandparents’ travel slideshows to eventually hiking iconic routes like Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail, and the Camino, Becki’s story reveals how travel, preparation, and personal growth can become deeply connected.

Jason and Becki also explore the emotional side of adventure travel: why people worry about being last in the group, how partners and friends may not always know how to support a big travel dream, and why having someone in your corner can make the difference between merely completing a trip and truly experiencing it. Becki’s approach helps travelers prepare their bodies while also reconnecting with the deeper reason they said yes to the adventure in the first place.

Big World Made Small guest features are invitation-only and selected based on story, experience, and fit with the show. Some guests support the show through paid production features, cross-promotion, referrals, or other partnerships. This helps keep the show free of third-party ads and interruptions while keeping the focus on real, story-driven conversations.

Learn more about the Big World Made Small Podcast and join our private community to get episode updates, special access to our guests, and exclusive adventure travel offers on our website.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 1:05

Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the Adventure Traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back today, but I'm also very excited to have our guest today. We've got Becky Rupp. Becky is a personal trainer and adventure travel coach, and she has Trailblazer Wellness. Becky, welcome to the show. So happy to have you here.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

Thanks, Jason. I'm so excited to be here.

SPEAKER_00 1:27

It's going to be a lot of Yeah, it's going to be so much fun. We spoke a few weeks ago, and I was just, yep, absolutely. We need to come back. Um, there's some things you're doing that I don't know very much about. And honestly, if I don't know much about it, probably some of our guests don't as well. So we're gonna dig into that and then we're really gonna go deep and dig into your you know, childhood traumas, uh, all those things that caught that caused you to end up doing this type of work, which I've I've noticed most of our guests have some something that happened in their childhood that impacted them. But we won't go that deep. Becky, before we get into your story, how you got from where you were to where you are now, let's um let's tell, you know, let's just share with our listeners what is Trailblazer Wellness and mixed in. I think we'll just start with that. And then we're gonna talk about adventure travel coaching as well, because that's a little different, but we'll mix that in. So go ahead.

SPEAKER_03 2:15

Yeah, Trailblazer Wellness is a company I started um seven years ago, which is so hard to believe to support travelers who want to take big adventures, but they aren't really sure how to get ready for them to do their training, to prepare physically and mentally for this dream trip that they've like wanted to do for a really long time, and um is just, you know, a bit of a stretch or just something that is out just on the edge of their or outside of their comfort zone. And I brought together my personal training experience, my adventure travel experience, and my coaching background to support people in achieving those things.

SPEAKER_00 2:59

Very cool. It sounds like you've practiced that a little bit. That's very, very concise. I'm sure you have. And I think the first question that maybe comes to someone's mind might even have came to my mind, is it always a physical endeavor? Because the way you described almost made it sound like that person that wants to go to Ever Space Camp or climb Kilimanjaro or do something very physically demanding. But I recognize there's more than just physical hurdles to overcome when you're thinking about going to a new place. Sure. Can you help me understand that a little bit?

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Yeah, I mean, adventure is such a you know, like wide open term, right? And it's what you define it. And so that could be physical, it could be you know mental. Again, just stepping outside of your comfort zone zone doesn't necessarily mean like climbing a big mountain or doing a big track. Um, it could be just visiting a new place, a different continent. Um, going to a place where you don't know the language. Though most of my clients do fall in more of the like physical adventure kind of thing. I mean, I'm up for all of it. So if if you're just, you know, feeling like, hey, I could use some help with getting prepared for, you know, your dream trip of hanging out in cafes in Spain, sure, let's talk.

SPEAKER_00 4:17

It's and I get that because, you know, as the name of this podcast or, you know, the adventure travel podcast, I learned very quickly that there's a lot of different definitions to adventure. Um, and it sounds like you kind of maybe define it the same way too. It's kind of like those things that push you outside your comfort zone and open you up to new experiences, whether those are physical, like, you know, jumping out of things or climbing things or whatever, or just like you said, you know, just going to a new place and experience a new culture, maybe that that language barrier thing that that comes up, you know, quite often. Do you I also have the story in my head that most of your clients are single travelers? And honestly, the idea rolling around in my head is that most of your clients are probably single female travelers. Is that am I way off base or am I pretty close?

SPEAKER_03 5:10

No, that's that's pretty absolutely uh the majority, vast majority of my clients are they're they may be doing their adventure. They come to me as a solo individual. I have had some couples, which has been really interesting and fun as well. But most of them are, you know, maybe married but they're or have a partner, but they're going on this trip on their own. Or a lot of them are actually going with a small group with a travel, like a tour operator. Cool. They may be going on their own or with a friend or with a um, yeah, someone that they know. But I work with people one-on-one primarily. So from that perspective, solo. Some of them are doing solo trips to a particular destination, but uh again, a lot of them are going with uh an organized tour operator or an organized trip of some sort. Though again, they they may be going just on their own as well. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:09

I've worked with enough groups, uh mixed men, women, just a variety of different types of people. And I recognize, and I think probably a lot of our listeners do, is even if you're going with a group, there's sometimes when you're going with a group, it's all it's even more stressful. I I think. I don't know. I'm curious to hear your thoughts. But somebody that maybe maybe you're going with a group trekking in northern Italy or something, and or walking the El Camino or something. What are the things that you see come up? Like, why would someone hire you when they're going with a group?

SPEAKER_03 6:40

Lots of reasons. Probably the number one thing I hear is I don't want to hold up the group. I knew you were gonna say that. How did I know that? Yeah. I mean, it's it's kind of becomes funny to me. It's like everybody's worried about that.

SPEAKER_00 6:53

Everybody.

SPEAKER_03 6:55

And you know, like 90% of the people are worried about that. And so not everybody can be the last one, right? They're worried about being the last one, holding up the group, you know. But I think that's, you know, just again, that's maybe like an innate fear for people and wanting to be part of the community, wanting to be capable, wanting to be able to really enjoy themselves. So, you know, really that's what I try to refocus the attention on is like, yeah, I know you're worried about being last. Like everybody's worried about being last. Let's focus on your other goals in terms of your level of enjoyment, your ability to be present, your ability to enjoy the nature around you, to enjoy the culture, to, you know, enjoy the interaction that you're having with the other travelers in your group and not have all of the focus be on I just don't want to be last and hold up the groups. You know, I But yes, that is a lot of the reason. No, and and some people also just recognize they um that they may or may not. I I mean I've worked with people of all fitness levels, I would say. Like literally like coming off the couch for various reasons too, people who who are very active and and very fit and things like that. Uh, but some people really want the accountability, they really want uh support in something in planning for something that they don't have the expertise in, they want to tap into that expertise and and set themselves up for success.

SPEAKER_00 8:28

I kind of jokingly we talked about childhood traumas. And then when I heard when this little bit of conversation we just had just now, it's like, yeah, it's that, you know, you're in gym class and they're picking sides. They're picking sides. Who wants to be the last one picked because they, you know, right?

SPEAKER_03 8:46

I was one of those kids. I was one of those kids. I was not like super athlete, you know? Yeah, I can't. I was among the last to be picked. And maybe this is a result of that trauma. I don't know. So there, I'm not last.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

We got to the trauma really quick, didn't we? Well, I I get it. It's yeah, it's uh like, you know, you don't want to be the one, like you said, the one in the group holding everybody has to get picked, and I don't want to be the last one to get picked. So you can say, Don't worry, the group's not gonna leave you. That doesn't matter. That's not that doesn't really help alleviate anything, does it? Because the gym teacher's gonna say the same thing. Don't worry, everybody's gonna get picked. Okay, well, yeah, I don't feel any better about that. I'm also curious because I can imagine a scenario where people think they're coming to you because they need to get in shape physically for a trip. And I guess I guess what I'm curious about. Like, I just imagine, hey, I need to get in shape for this trip. And then two or three calls in, you guys are talking about childhood drama, or you're talking about um just releasing fears and anxieties and and preparing yourself to, like you said, be present, enjoy it, connect with other people. And it by the end of the of the coaching program, they're kind of like spend a lot more time and energy discussing those things as opposed to, you know, did they go to the gym like they said they were going to? I I'm guessing, right?

SPEAKER_03 10:06

Yeah, absolutely. And that's why that is one of the reasons that I have the coaching certification, the coaching aspect of this, which I love just as much as the physical, you know, personal, any personal trainer, chat GPT, whatever can give you a training plan, right? Yeah, right. Right, right. That's that's you know, there's there's absolutely some thought and magic to it, but it's the coaching piece of it is what really amplifies the experience to address, like he said, like things you may not have even realized were rolling around inside your head. And like as the trick gets closer and things and sometimes I'll be honest, things go wrong during training. You twist an ankle, you get COVID, you fall down and hit your head. I mean, not to be like a doom, like you're doomed, but these things happen. And or just you get really sick, whatever, like things, or a member of your family gets sick, or something comes up where things are not going as expected. And that is sometimes where it like switches from just like, oh, am I checking the boxes on the training plan to holy crap, like what are we gonna do? How am I gonna manage this? Am I gonna still be able to go? I mean, I literally just had a client come back from the Inca Trail who, you know, really inflamed her Achilles, you know, about seven or eight weeks out from the trip. And it was a long recovery. And, you know, three, four weeks before the trip, she's like, all right, is, you know, let's talk about the go-no-go decision. And this is someone who was, again, like really fit, experienced, and didn't necessarily anticipate that she would have a, you know, like a medical thing go on, but it yeah, just ended up being a little more, you know, had this twist that we worked through together and ultimately she went and everything was great. But yeah, it things come up along the way. And so that can take him to different directions sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 12:02

And I also I've been around some of the coaching world and kind of familiar with things like saying, like, you know, the thing is not the thing. So maybe, you know, an example is the the client that's worried about being the last one on the track, or you know, the one that's walking the slowest. But then as you dig a little deeper, maybe there's something else that is even bigger concern. But it's easy to it's it's a little easier to focus on. Well, honestly, it might be easier to easier to focus on my perceived physical limitations as opposed to my ability to make friends or my fear of maybe just actually leaving the country. So maybe your friend talked you into going on this direct thing, and and you tell yourself, well, I'm worried I'll be the last one on the hike or whatever, but maybe you've never been on an airplane, maybe you've never been outside the country, maybe you're afraid that your friend is gonna connect better with the rest of the group than you do. Does I suspect some of that stuff comes up sometimes, right?

SPEAKER_03 13:06

For sure. I mean, for actually for a lot of people, it is their first group trip, and that has its own dynamics, which you you've kind of alluded to. And you know, it can be tricky, right? To to navigate that and to know what to expect and know how you're gonna react. And like you said, how am I gonna connect with people? Am I just gonna be like sitting by myself at dinner? Or, you know, which you you're not because it's it's a group trip, but people don't know what those dynamics are often before they go. And even people who have been on other group trips, maybe they've done trips that are more culturally based or whatever. And this is again maybe a more advanced or just challenging thing. And so yeah, we we we get into I'm here for all of it. I, you know, if you want to just, you know, talk about what you're what you've done this week in terms of your training plan and that sort of thing, that's fine. If you want to dig deep and and go into like all those underlying things, absolutely I'm I'm here for it.

SPEAKER_00 14:09

Yeah, it's very cool. Um, yeah, because I imagine some of your your clients maybe haven't even been with a group of women in 15, 20 years because they're coming out of a marriage and they don't have any friends. And and that could be, I think that could be very intimidating, you know. So yeah, I could see coaching sessions going into conversations around that and almost don't have anything to do with the trip, but obviously are important to make that to make that happen. You mentioned couples. You mentioned, you know, there's there's couples out there that maybe come to you. What is that does that typically look like one person's really excited and gung-ho and the other one's not so much? So the um the one that's excited says, Well, okay, what do you need to make this happen? And she says, Well, I need some support. Or or the other way around. It could absolutely be the other way around. Um, I'm just what is what does it usually look like when a couple comes to?

SPEAKER_03 14:59

Yeah, I've I've just had a few. So usually it's like both people recognize that they really need some support with getting ready and they're in it together. So they're they're really there to mutually support each other, and it's not necessarily one dragging another one to it. Okay. Fortunately.

SPEAKER_00 15:18

Well, so the reason I asked that. Why do you ask that? Yeah, why do I ask that? Well, you know, when I was I was running a travel business for a fairly large company, we had a bunch of retail employees and different types of people around the world. And they and this guy came up to me and he said, Geez, Jason, you know, I love to travel. I want to get my wife to go with me, but she doesn't, you know, she's nervous about everything. And we should set up trips for people that are afraid to travel. Which uh I don't know if that's a good business model, but I could see the desire on his from his perspective, like I really want to go. And she, you know, she thinks Europe is dangerous, so she's not, you know, she doesn't want to go anywhere.

SPEAKER_03 15:59

Interesting.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah, and I was thinking about it.

SPEAKER_03 16:02

I actually did on the opposite, Jason. It's interesting. Probably I well, like the role reversal. So when I started the business or when I was conceptualizing the business, I was kinda I I almost hate to admit this sometimes because it's not very progressive, I guess. That I thought that a portion of my clients could be women who were going with their husbands and they were wanting to make sure that they could keep up. What I found is actually kind of the opposite, not really the opposite per se, but I work with so many women whose husbands are not interested in traveling. I bet yeah, it's so interesting to me. Like their or their spouses, whatever I I work with a lot of women who have, you know, female spouses as well. But um it's it's often the the women who or women who are traveling either with a group of women or with a n or on their own whose partner is staying at home and they want the extra support because they just don't really necessarily have somebody in their life who can relate and who can their spouse can be very or partner can be very supportive, but they may not be know, you know, how to get ready for a big hike, a big multi-day hike. They may not just have any desire. They might have health issues that are that's keeping them from doing the things with their partner. So it was kind of a surprise to me that I, you know, I do have a few that are like, my husband is just, you know, gonna race up the mountain and I want to make sure that I'm feeling good. That is a small minority of my clients.

SPEAKER_00 17:42

It makes sense that you would you would attract those folks, I say women, whatever, or just people that really want to travel, but their partner doesn't. Or other other people in their world just don't get it. Because honestly, even if it was just a it would just, I'm excited about my trip. And every time I mention it to him or her, they're just like, Oh yeah, yeah, I'm sure you'll have fun. There's like no enthusiasm.

SPEAKER_03 18:05

There's no like or there might be a ton of enthusiasm, but that like they just don't know what to do to support them, even yeah, you know, because there's that's just not their jam.

SPEAKER_00 18:17

Which is well, yeah, because I could imagine a scenario where someone would say, Oh, I'm really excited about my trip, but I'm worried about the language barrier or whatever. Or I'm worried about keeping up with the rest of the group. And your partner may be trying to be supportive and may just say, ah, don't worry about it.

SPEAKER_02 18:33

Or they might be fine. Yeah, you'll be fine.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

Or they might say, Well, if you don't want to go, you don't have to go. Okay, that's helpful.

SPEAKER_03 18:41

Or, you know, uh, you know, some people are problem solvers who, you know, especially some men that I know. Okay, well, all you have to do is blah, blah, blah. All you have to do is do this, all you have to do is do that.

SPEAKER_00 18:55

So wouldn't it be so nice to have someone to talk to that was supportive in a like in a a really supportive way? Is it like a coach?

SPEAKER_03 19:03

That gets excited with that. That's what I hear a lot. It's like you've done these things, you've hiked the Incontrol to you know, to Machu Picchu, you've climbed Kilmanjaro, you've done the Camino, you know, you've done these hikes in Europe, you've you've done things in South America, whatever. I I do hear that a lot from people is just, you know, you can relate and having someone in your corner who can relate and who I try not to offer a lot of advice necessarily, but I but I will if if pressed. Um you know, and I have I have certainly not done everything, far from it. Sometimes people ask me, Do you go on your trips on client trips with them? And I'm like, I haven't seen cloning work yet. So no. We'll often have, you know, obviously multiple clients in different parts of the world at the same time.

SPEAKER_00 19:54

Yep.

SPEAKER_03 19:55

But um, I I have had some experiences that I have gone on with clients. But but yeah, but I have done similar kinds of things to most of what my clients are doing. So that can be useful in the context of the conversations.

SPEAKER_00 20:11

Absolutely. And a bit, I guess, from from my perspective is there's a lot of value in a coach, and I'd like to, I mean, I think we're kind of touching on that, but also like I you you tell me your perspective, or you can tell just tell me I'm crazy, but for a while I was thinking that you know the value in the coach was just helping you get really clear on what it is you want to do, but also why. Like what's the big why behind it?

SPEAKER_02 20:39

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:39

And and maybe some visualizations, some stuff, you know, because you're not going to the gym to get in better shape, you're going to the gym because you want to enjoy the experience. And why do you want to enjoy the experience? Because you want to connect with other people that maybe have some interests or whatever. So it's like, why are you doing it? Not just what do you need to do, but why are you doing it? And then figure out, you know, what's getting in the way, what are the stories in your head or whatever. And then and then just the accountability part of it. Yeah. It's just like, okay. So when they show up and say, Well, I've been eating mac and cheese and haven't been to the gym all week, you know, you can have that conversation. Okay, well, what was behind that? You know, and then you might find out, well, I've been eating mac and cheese and didn't go to the gym because I'm worried about my safety and wherever we're going hiking. You know, it has nothing to do with you know, all these these things, these things that that come up. What's your typical program look like? Or is there a typical program? I'm sure it's customized, but do you typically meet with people once a week or something like that for a certain period of time? Or is it more what does that look like?

SPEAKER_03 21:44

Yeah. So just to like kind of circle back on what you were saying about the the why and the vision, that is something that I absolutely we dig into. We talked a little bit about it on a consultation call. I do a free 30-minute consultation call with people to just, you know, see if it's a fit, to, you know, find out a little bit more about what they're planning to do. Again, like what's their vision? What are their, what are they concerned about, that sort of thing. But then in the kickoff call, in our first call, our session, it's mostly video. Some occasionally I do like calls, but but actually it's video. We definitely talk about your vision for the trip and why it's important to you and why, like, why now? That can be very grounding, like you said, for when things maybe go a little off the rails or when you're struggling with motivation. I was just having a conversation with one of my clients earlier this week about, you know, staying on track and motivation. And one of the things like we talked about was maybe putting, you know, a picture of Mont Blanc as a screensaver, you know, to help her remember to get up at lunch and go do her workout, break away from her desk. Because I work with people who are busy executives, who are nurses, who doctors, you know, people who all walks of life, right? Retirees, definitely, but people. Who are full on in career mode? I'm a corporate refugee. You know, I quit the corporate world to start this business. So I get the 50-hour weeks, the oh my gosh, now I have to travel next week for business. I get it. I get all that, I get it. So having that vision, having your why, and also knowing your strengths and digging into your strengths and other successes in your life, that's like the coachy part and drawing on that to support how do you get back on track or how do you break away from your desk? How do you fit in? Um, how do you prioritize this training in your life with your kids and your spouse and your job and your this and your that? You know, because most people don't come to me like twiddling their thumbs, right? They're like, oh, I don't, I'm not sure what to do. So I, you know, some again, some people do have the luxury of time, but a lot of people don't. Even people, you know, who are retired, they have volunteer responsibilities or responsibilities or whatever. We're busy, right? We're busy people. And so having that why, that vision, that grounding can help with, you know, the prioritization or the negotiation with yourself and maybe with others around, okay, this is this is really what I need to do to set myself up so that I can enjoy this trip that I've invested in. You know, it's investing in yourself. I call it the I I call it the journey before the journey. The pre-trip journey is all about what do you do beforehand so that so that you can really make the most of what you're doing.

SPEAKER_00 24:37

Right. And I imagine, I mean I don't understand it, but I've been around long enough to under to see that there are some people that actually do just like to get up and go to the gym or go for runs.

SPEAKER_03 24:48

I do. I'm one of those people. Yes, I know.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

It's somebody that's you know, but somebody that wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro isn't necessarily the same person that likes to wake up and go to the gym. No, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 25:03

There are a lot of people who climb Kilimanjaro, as I'm sure you know. And yeah, no, not all of them are like runners or people who want to get up in the morning and go, you know, whatever.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

Yeah, so for the rest of us that don't wake up motivated to go to the gym, that's why you're talking about like a screensaver of Mont Blanc or something, or that that really clear vision. You know, I remember doing some work with some folks in the past where it's like, okay, we're gonna imagine, you know, if we figure out that just being at the top is the thing, if that's what your thing is, it's like, okay, how are you gonna feel it, taste it, smell it, hear it, and yeah, implement all those sensations so that you can feel it in your body, so that you know, so it helps you believe that it's real because the brain doesn't know the difference between reality and what it feels, and you know, and so create that feeling. And then when you're waking up thinking, should I go to the gym? You gotta take that moment and think about how it was, you know, I don't know, drinking coffee on the top of a kilomet jar, whatever. But anyway, any anyway, so it's very, very cool. Let's uh I want to figure out because you kind of mentioned a couple things, your corporate escapee or whatever word you use. Yeah, rep refugee. So let's go back and figure out how the heck you got into this. Cause I think I think there's a few steps along the way. And let's go let's try and get to the first step because I really I think the stuff we're exposed to in childhood tends to always kind of come through somehow. So I guess I'm just gonna ask you, how far back do we need to go to get a feel for what was what's going on?

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah, let's let's go in the way back machine.

SPEAKER_00 26:34

You're a coach, you've done this before, you've done these exercises. This should be easy for you.

SPEAKER_03 26:41

Like, I'm also not a psychotherapist. I that's very clear in my contract.

SPEAKER_00 26:46

That's uh I'm happy you mentioned that because yeah, because I I make that joke, but it's not so much about that, but sometimes it's helpful to like, you know, how do you feel now? And when's the for when's the first time you remember feeling that way? It's not psychotherapy, but it's just creating connections. You mentioned, you know, like when have you had successes in the past? Exactly. And how do you yeah, like, hey, you can do this type of thing. So what's what's your first memory?

SPEAKER_03 27:10

No, I do. I that's that's yeah, that's definitely part of the process, is is understanding what people's successes have been in life and how that relates to what they're about to do. But yeah, in terms of me, how did I get here?

SPEAKER_00 27:24

I I know like, oh man, Jason, this sounded like such a good idea, but no, no, how did you get here? Yeah, okay.

SPEAKER_03 27:30

Yeah. So yeah, actually, let's yeah, let's go back to childhood. And I share this story uh on my website and stuff too. My grandparents were world travelers, and I have vivid memories of sitting in their basement watching slideshows. Yes, slideshows of their tourists.

SPEAKER_00 27:48

Wait, you you might need to you might uh explain that to a the slideshow a little younger.

SPEAKER_03 27:55

Is that like Instagram? Yeah, my yeah, right. My my grandfather was uh, you know, really loved photography and took some amazing pictures. And I actually recently we're kind of going through some things in my family right now, and we came across a folder that had a list of my grandparents' trips from 1977 through 2000. And I what I remembered for their trips was definitely Mexico. They went to Mexico a lot in the late 70s, early 80s, that they went to Vietnam, that they went to China, that they went to South America. I actually have a picture my uh grandfather took of Machu Picchu here in my office. So I knew that, but this list was like you know, oh, and I that one of their last trips was 1999, I think was to Uzbekistan.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

Oh wow, that's out. Yeah, that's a lot off the beat.

SPEAKER_03 28:45

80-year-olds going to Uzbekistan in the 1990s. So they were pretty adventurous, but they had gone to Nepal, which I didn't I had forgotten or didn't realize. They had been to South America multiple times. Yeah, just like it was insane. Uh, I was like, well, no wonder I have the travel bug, right?

SPEAKER_00 29:03

That explains a lot, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

Yeah, and they just you know, they lived very modestly. In fact, my uncle still lives in their old house. So when I go to visit, I I like literally go to my grandparents' house. Yeah and it is a thousand square feet, maybe. And the basement seems so much smaller than it did when I was watching the slideshow, right? And um, they just you would never guess. Like if you just drove down the street and looked at their house and looked at their cars, you would never guess they were world travelers. So I it just made open it up and made it all very accessible to me.

SPEAKER_00 29:38

So it sounds like you have vivid memories of sitting in the basement watching slideshows. Some people would think, oh, this is really cool spending time with grandma and grandpa watching slideshows. Other people, probably that are not listening to this podcast, would hear that and think, oh, that reminds me, my grandparents used to go on and on and on about their trip to Yellowstone or their whatever they did. Do you remember at the time, were you as enthusiastic, or are you looking back at it now kind of through the lens of somebody that's traveled a lot? And uh, do you remember how you felt at the time?

SPEAKER_03 30:11

I think I must have been excited. I mean, I must have been interested and curious because yeah, it was just amazing to me. Like all these different cultures and people that didn't look like us, and mountains and oceans, and just yeah, just amazing things. And I was like, Yeah, I want to go see all that stuff.

SPEAKER_00 30:33

I love it. Were these your mom's parents or your dad's?

SPEAKER_03 30:36

My dad's parents, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:38

Your dad's parents. So now tell me a little bit about your dad. Did that rub off on him? Was he enthusi I mean, you guys weren't traveling when you were young, it doesn't sound like but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:46

I mean we didn't we were we didn't have any we didn't have any money, to be honest. So, you know, we didn't I didn't travel internationally. I didn't, you know, cross the ocean uh until I was in after college when my sister did study abroad, my younger sister did study abroad. So my first trip overseas, other, you know, outside of the country besides Canada and Mexico was when I was like 22.

SPEAKER_02 31:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 31:15

So I didn't grow up traveling outside like very exotically, I guess. I had these experiences with my, you know, through my grandparents of hearing them talk about it, seeing the things that they brought back and the pictures they took. But yeah, I didn't start my own international travel career or overseas travel career until, you know, into my twenties. And then even then, I just, you know, I felt there were people who, you know, and I knew people who, you know, after college, is like, hey, I'm just gonna go back back across Europe. I was way too financially conservative for that. I was like, nope, I gotta stay here and get a job and pay off my student loan. And then I'll go and do all the big things. I always knew I was gonna do them. It was always part of the plan, but I was like, nope, I gotta feel secure. I need to, you know, get get my ducks in a row before I before I undertake that.

SPEAKER_00 32:05

Sounds like a reasonable way to do it. There's there's a few different schools of thought. I'm not sure it's schools of thought.

SPEAKER_03 32:11

There's schools of thought. And there are definitely, yeah, different approaches. And you know, am I incredibly envious of the people who did that right out of school? Yeah, I was.

SPEAKER_00 32:20

Well, some of them just could do that. Some of it's they weren't intentionally being careless. They had a backup plan, they had other people in their lives that made sure they were financially secure. I do want to ask you this before we move too far forward, though, is if I do the math in my head and try and make a few assumptions here, it sounds like your grandparents didn't start traveling until your father was an adult on his own doing his thing.

SPEAKER_03 32:46

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. For sure. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 32:48

So he didn't benefit from traveling with them at all. He just moved out and they went and started traveling.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

Yeah, they had four kids and they were all grown and on their own before they started traveling.

SPEAKER_00 33:01

So they took the same approach that you did earlier, right? So I guess maybe that was maybe that was an influence as well.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

Like, you know, I saw again, I saw them travel into their east, like very, you know, roll it fairly easily. And that was obviously way before, you know, the internet and so many international flights. They figured it out.

SPEAKER_00 33:20

So I guess I was like, okay, that's what I'm gonna do when I when I did have you had conversations with your dad or your or mom about like how they felt about like how did your dad feel about his parents, retired parents traveling around the world? Did he think that was cool and different? Do you do you or do you have any idea how he felt about it?

SPEAKER_03 33:41

Yeah, I think he he thought it was cool. He and my grandfather, his dad, took a couple of trips together. They went to Israel together. Cool. And they went to Greece together, I think it was. And so yeah, they had some travel experiences together. My sister and my nieces to South Africa. They did not travel as extensively as my grandparents did. They're a little bit more homebodies, but they try they traveled, you know, they were they're totally on board with it, and they're very supportive of of me doing all this. Absolutely. Nothing that they they've never tried to stop me or said they were worried or, you know, anything like that. They've always fully supported this and said, yeah, go go see the world and enjoy. And yeah, very supportive.

SPEAKER_00 34:25

It sounds like your grandparents, just through their influence in the slideshows and stuff like that, kind of opened you up to it. Was there a point in your do you remember a specific point in your life where you're like, I'm gonna work in the travel business at some point? Do you remember that?

SPEAKER_03 34:39

Well, and I was um I was a journalism major.

SPEAKER_00 34:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 34:43

I I was a writer as a as a kid and uh decided to be a journalism major. And at one point I thought, I'll do international reporting. You know, that sounded great. I'll travel, get paid to travel, and and be this international reporter. That didn't really work out for a number of reasons, but yeah, tell us more. Tell us more. Like, yeah, like again, I was too I decided for one thing that after my internship with doing like real news reporting, that that was not my jam. It was too negative. I I didn't I didn't like all the negativity. So I was like, I won't be a reporter, so what am I gonna do? So I actually moved to DC after college, and um, so I was in kind of an international scene, but um I ended up doing um communications and marketing and things like that with my with my degree. You know, again, always maintained interest in various cultures and countries, went to several events at embassies in DC, which were a lot of fun, so got some exposure that way. Uh but yeah, the the the international travel reporter thing didn't really pan out for me.

SPEAKER_00 35:57

You know what? I get that though when you when you mention that, because I can imagine it seems very glamorous, sexy, whatever word you want to use. But then when you think about, well, what do I see about international news on the television?

unknown 36:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:11

It's like not gonna go to war-tier countries. That was not me.

SPEAKER_00 36:15

You know, you don't see a lot of in the mainstream media, you don't see a lot of reporting on cool places to go and visit and and cool, you know, cultural communities and all that stuff that you imagine.

SPEAKER_03 36:28

We do not because then it was a you know, there were there were obviously some magazines, you know, Cody Nass, Traveler existed, you know, when I graduated from college and um some other things.

SPEAKER_00 36:40

But it's there's a lot of journalism majors fighting for those jobs.

SPEAKER_03 36:44

Well, exactly. Exactly. I just yeah, I just wasn't up for that kind of rat race. And I also had this dual interest in in fitness and sport. You know, I was always interested in sports as a kid as well. And so I kind of like started to go down that path a little bit with my um with my degree. I worked at a sports um related magazine for a local sports-related magazine in DC area for a bit. Uh, did some freelance writing for some sports-related publications. So they were yeah, so there were kind of those two things going on. And so, yeah, and then magically over the next 30 years, then I brought them together. The fitness and health and and stuff I I put together with the travel.

SPEAKER_00 37:29

It's very cool. So you went to Washington, DC for a specific job. You already had the job lined up, or was there something?

SPEAKER_03 37:36

No, I just moved there.

SPEAKER_00 37:37

Why did you choose you choose Washington, D.C.? Well, if you're willing to share it.

SPEAKER_03 37:42

Yeah, yeah. No, it was, you know, it's just it's a city of a lot of opportunity. And I was also a poly sci like concentration under my journalism degree. My sister was there, one of my sisters was there going to American University. I had a friend who was moving there to actually go to George Washington for grad school. I was like, well, why not? I I wanted to get out of Chicago because I went to Northwestern. So I was like, I don't know, I don't want to spend another winter in the Midwest. That's for sure. And DC seemed like it could be relatively warm and nice and exciting. And it was, it was all of those things. And it was it was fascinating. It was a great year, a great place to live. I believe every at least every American should live in DC for one year. It's just an education in and of itself. You just learn so much, so much about the world.

SPEAKER_00 38:30

But I know you live in Colorado now, but where did you grow up around Chicago or in the Midwest? It sounds like where did you actually grow up?

SPEAKER_03 38:36

Yeah, Michigan.

SPEAKER_00 38:37

Michigan. Michigan. Okay. Yeah. So um Yeah. Do you I guess I'm sure when you went to Washington, you mentioned you kind of a lot of international exposure to different people from different places. Did you have that in Michigan growing up? Do you remember in high school? Like did you guys have exchange students? Do you remember uh No, not oh really?

SPEAKER_03 38:57

Not really. No.

SPEAKER_00 39:00

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 39:00

I grew up in a I don't know, you know, I grew up in Michigan in the eighties in in a semi-industrial area and it was very blue-collar.

SPEAKER_00 39:10

So then my question makes sense. Do you remember the first person you met from another country that that inspired you or had any influence on your decisions?

SPEAKER_03 39:19

Really? I I think in college was when I was first really exposed to Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 39:26

Oh, journalism. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 39:28

From all over the world. I mean, the the school I went to, you know, Northwestern has a big international draw.

SPEAKER_02 39:34

Yeah, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_03 39:35

It's a smaller school, so smaller than the big state university. So it had the opportunity to mix and mingle, I think, a little bit more. You were less likely to just kind of fall into your pod and not be exposed. But I yeah, I got to meet people from yeah, from all over the world at Northwestern, and no one really stands out specifically offhand, but just more the experience of the broadening of the aperture of possibility. And you know, college also was a place where people went on study abroad. Unfortunately, the journalism program at that time, because of our requirements, I was not able to do study abroad. I really wanted to. Yeah, I bet. But my sister did, yeah, my younger sister did. And uh friends, you know, I had a lot of friends who did it. And now, you know, I have two nieces who both did study abroad, and it's just such an amazing experience. So I guess I decided to make my own little study abroad later in life.

SPEAKER_00 40:36

That's well, if based on what you told me, you said you were 22 when you the first time you left the country, other than or North America?

SPEAKER_03 40:43

Yeah, yeah. First time I left for North America.

SPEAKER_00 40:46

Okay, so and that would have been, I'm guessing, somewhere around the time you finished school and moved to Washington. So was it before you went to Washington or were uh where did I want to learn more about that trip. Okay, so tell us about that trip.

SPEAKER_03 41:00

Yeah, I went to England. My sister was uh studying abroad there, so I went over to visit with her and spend time with her. Uh so that was in the early 90s. And yeah, got my passport, got on the plane. Now I had flown by myself as young as 10. So I, you know, certainly I was not afraid of flying. I wasn't uh I wasn't worried about traveling by myself. Like I didn't have any of those fears. Um yeah, it was it was awesome. We I landed in London and met up with her. She was her program was outside of the city. I learned some very important things like Leeds Castle is not in Leeds. I assumed that Leeds Castle must be in Leeds, right?

SPEAKER_00 41:48

Yeah, I would that seem reasonable.

SPEAKER_03 41:50

Seems reasonable, but not so much. You know, just learned about navigating. Well, I was uh living in DC, so and and in Chicago I'd already used public transportation, so that was no idea either. But you know, I was just fascinated by the age of everything, you know, finding my grandmother's great-grandmother's church and you know, this little hamlet outside of London. We did some family history things, and you know, I have ancestors from from England and Scotland and Ireland, imagine that with the red hair. So we, you know, we did some exploring. My sister and I did some exploring with that, and just it just was mind-blowing to see all these things that were built far before anything I'd ever encountered in the US. Yeah. Yeah. It was it was cool.

SPEAKER_00 42:37

It's interesting as I think back from some previous conversations I've had here on the show. London seems like a I wouldn't say, I don't know if I'd say a common theme, but it yeah, it's a common theme. It's surprising how many people that have ended up in tourism tell me about their kind of their first overseas experience in London.

SPEAKER_02 42:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:54

Some of it involves a lot of drinking and partying. Because I don't know, I've never spent any time in London, but it's I've noticed that is part of the trend. I'm not gonna ask you about that. Don't worry.

SPEAKER_03 43:03

You might have gone to a few pubs, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 43:05

But it just uh, yeah, I feel like, geez, I missed the London stage of my life. I don't know what I was thinking, but okay, very cool. And you were there, you said a few weeks, a couple weeks, something like that?

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Like 10 days. I think that's as much time as I could get off of work. You know, it was the oldest.

SPEAKER_00 43:20

Now you had your passport and you had a stamp in your passport. So that can kind of open up, open up things. Yeah, ready to go. All right. So uh where did where did where do we go from here in this conversation? You went to London, that was your first trip off you know, out of North America. Um, you're still working, you said you were working PR marketing type of stuff or communications, I think you said. Was that international type stuff? I can imagine that scenario in Washington. Or what kind of work are you doing? Tell us.

SPEAKER_03 43:47

I worked with associations, trade associations, nonprofits working in that field. So actually, that does tie into my I can't tie that into my current experience and my current like how I approached my business because I did work for this organization. My first job was with an organization called the American Society of Association Executives. So there's an association for everything.

SPEAKER_00 44:10

It sounds like an association for associations.

SPEAKER_03 44:14

Yeah, pretty much. So I was exposed to the world of you know, trade associations, professional associations, organizations where you bring together people who have common interests, right? Whether it's business or personal or whatever. And I, you know, was like, wow, there really is an association for everything. So when I started my business, when I decided I was gonna put together this travel thing and adventure travel, I thought, well, there must be an association for adventure travel, right? And sure enough, there is. There is. So I joined it.

SPEAKER_00 44:48

And it was there may be a few that call themselves that. So I don't want to make any assumptions. Which one are we talking about?

SPEAKER_03 44:54

Adventure travel trade association.

SPEAKER_00 44:56

I was ninety-nine percent sure that's the one you were gonna mention.

SPEAKER_03 44:59

I just didn't want to know.

SPEAKER_00 45:01

Yeah, okay, cool.

SPEAKER_03 45:03

Yeah, so I was like Okay. And I also had a had over the years gone into business to business marketing. And so I thought to myself, well, where is my target audience going to be? So if my target audience is adventure, well, people who want to do adventure travel, aspiring adventurers, well, where are they gonna hang out? Where are they gonna go? Well, they're gonna go to companies that take them on adventure trips. And where do the where does the where do the people who do these adventure trips hang out? Well, they hang out at ATTA. And so I joined and started networking. And my plan was and and is and still works that I get referrals from adventure travel companies. Now that makes sense. But I thought that's gonna give me the mass as opposed to just hoping that Google finds me, which people do find me through Google and AI and and things now. But back in the day, it was a little less, you know, I didn't, I I needed to get my foot in the door. And understand the industry because I was not in the industry. I I worked before I quit my job, I was working for a health insurance company. So I was new industry, new role, new, you know, everything was brand new. I started from ground zero.

SPEAKER_00 46:24

Like it was how so because I want to get smooth. That doesn't have to be smoothly. We can take the the scenic route. But from Washington from Washington working for the Association of Associations, or that's what I heard.

SPEAKER_03 46:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:37

To do to, I'm working at a health insurance company and there must be an association for it in Colorado. Uh yeah. So we took, so let's not miss anything big here.

SPEAKER_03 46:47

Yeah. So I I met my husband doing wilderness search and rescue in DC area. So I had discovered the mountains and that I love to hike and ride my bike and and do all those things after I moved to Washington. And there are lovely mountains outside of Washington, or outside of Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland, you know, the Blue Ridge, all that, Shenandoah. And I just fell in love with all that. So when I was not doing my day job, I wanted to be outside and doing all that stuff. And I decided to join a wilderness search and rescue group in the area, go find lost people. And my husband joined at the same time. And so we met doing that. Then he got transferred for work out to Colorado. We were both really done with DC. DC's great for a few years.

SPEAKER_00 47:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 47:36

And then if you're not a hardcore political junkie, it gets really old.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

Well, and if you like, I mean, I I heard you say there's mountains around Washington, DC.

SPEAKER_03 47:44

Yeah, there's that ton of great recreation, outdoor recreation. Colorado.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

But Colorado's still a little different.

SPEAKER_03 47:50

Yeah, definitely different. So we he got transferred for work. I followed along and we made our home here in Colorado in 2000. And we've been here ever since. And then, yeah, I just kind of my career track trajectory took me to the health insurance space because I wanted to do something related to health and wellness. Okay. I had gotten my person, I got my personal training certification because I wanted to help people actually get healthier. I really wanted people to help people, you know, find the way to make exercise work in their life. I could see and feel from my own experience how how much of a difference it could make in my life and my confidence and my enjoyment and all the things. So, but I was working this big corporate job and I didn't really have time to do personal training clients because you can't just like say, I got called off to do a photo, you know, video shoot in Tucson and I gotta go tomorrow and fly down there. Sorry, we're not gonna be able to have your session this week.

SPEAKER_02 48:49

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 48:50

I eventually got to the point where the golden handcuffs were, you know, just a little too tight, and I was able to to leave that and and go to the personal training and coaching.

SPEAKER_00 49:01

So that's kind of a did the did the coaching come into play before you started thinking about adventure travel?

SPEAKER_03 49:12

Yeah. So I was doing the yeah, I had the personal training. I decided to add the coaching because I was like, yeah, you know, you can give someone a plan. Like I said earlier, you can give someone a plan, but the coaching is really about how do you get people to actually make changes and do things differently in their life and sustain and you know, it's the whole teach people how to fish, not, you know, not just give them fish. And so yeah, I got the the coaching certification. I worked with a career coach to figure out what do I want to do with all this. And then she's like, Well, you could, you know, you could train people to hike. And I'm like, Yeah, I don't know. That seems kind of goofy. But the more I thought about it, the more it became kind of intriguing. And so I'm not necessarily teaching people how to hike, but I'm teaching people how to or helping people with progressing their hiking or their biking or whatever so that they can do the things they want to do. I had a client, a coaching client who was retiring, and she that this really actually like crystallized it for me. She's like, well, when I retire, I really want to go do these volunteer experiences down in Guatemala and over in the Philippines and this sort of thing. I want to travel and do these volunteer experiences, but I'm afraid I'm not, you know, it's gonna be pretty taxing, and I want to get to the point where I feel comfortable doing that. And I was like, huh, well, maybe that's really light bulb. And then I thought back to our experience. My husband and I had hiked uh the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu years before, but I was like, yeah, people were really struggling. It didn't have to be that way. You know, you didn't you don't have to struggle. I mean, it's hard, don't get me wrong. It could, you know, it's definitely a hard trip. You know, if you if you prepare, and my experience had been with doing half marathons and triathlons and other things, like if you prepare, then you you are likely to be able to do it. I mean, there can be extenuating circumstances, obviously. But for a lot of these things, they're eminently doable with with a property. So that's how I was born.

SPEAKER_00 51:05

I appreciate the the path you just described makes perfect sense. And you know, I see more and more of kind of the outdoor coaching, um, some travel coaching stuff. Was that on your radar? Did you find that very quick? Like, did you think you were like the first one? Were you the first one? I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 51:25

Well, I made it up for myself. I did do market research because I was in marketing. And after I kind of conceptualized it, I did go and say, Is anybody else doing this? And I found a few people. Yes, there was somebody else who was doing a pretty similar thing to me that I was doing and had started like six or seven years before I had, but I didn't find that person until after I had already like put it all together. So I wasn't copying him.

SPEAKER_00 51:51

No, I wasn't, I was not suggesting you copied anybody.

SPEAKER_03 51:55

But you know, there are like more and more of these kinds of things nowadays. I feel like in the last kind of post-COVID almost, or maybe I just discovered it. I discovered this world of niche coaching as I was doing, you know, figuring out my own business and building my own business. I've I found more and more of these people. But it is still pretty unusual. It is a it is definitely an unusual niche. Most of the people that I talk to say, oh, I've never heard of such a thing.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

So well, that I that's that's interesting because that was going to be kind of my follow-up question. Was sometimes when you're the only one, like I'm just giving example. Let's just say you're the only one and nobody has a like it doesn't, there's no awareness of it as even a product or service. And sometimes you're like, some people might think, oh, well, being the only one means you have captured the market. Yeah, but being the only one is kind of sucks because right. So you need some other people out there to get the word out, so and then you just have to be the best one.

SPEAKER_03 52:57

Or, you know, it's different coaches and different different things for different people.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 53:03

You know, most many of the the people that I've seen in this space, there are a number of males, okay, some different th than that, and or younger. There are some females who are much younger. I'm in my mid-50s and my clients tend to be most 45 up to 70s. And sometimes they're surprised when they find out how old I am. But but I can relate to that that swath of people who are later in their careers or retired, and and I have more experience in that realm than perhaps some of the others who are doing this kind of coaching.

SPEAKER_00 53:43

Yeah, and I I wouldn't want to say anything that would knock anybody that's doing anything, but yeah, just that maturity, that you know, the the be the ability to relate. And I don't I'm gonna ask you this because I haven't really had an opportunity to ask anybody with personal training experience uh this question, but there's gotta be a lot of different reasons people di choose different trainers or coaches. But I suspect that intimidation or is a big one, especially maybe for women. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

It can be. I mean, and it's again, like I'm very relatable. I'm not a super athlete. Sometimes I'm like, oh, but I'm not as much of an athlete as XYZ person. But that could be, like you said, intimidating. But I have I do have experience, relevant experience. And I think I'm pretty approachable. Like again, I was not I think so.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

I would agree.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

I'm pretty I'm I'm certainly the person who likes to run and go work out, and I'm you know, pretty active. So from that perspective, I might be more active. I am more active than some of my clients, though not all of them. Like I said, like there are definitely people who are as active, if not more active than I am, that I work with. Uh so but I'm in the realm. Like I'm kind of in that ballpark, if you will. That's true.

SPEAKER_00 55:00

Well, you definitely don't uh come across as the gym rat. I don't know, and I don't know if that I don't know what that word means. So please anybody that doesn't like me saying that. Muscle head or whatever, you know. The the what's there's one of the gyms that no uh whatever the no something zone, no uh you're just nice, you're friendly, right? You're outgoing, you you you don't come across as as intimidating. A couple other things that came up as you were saying that was I mean, okay, so you've maybe you've got clients that are muscle heads. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 55:29

No, not generally muscle heads, but definitely people who are like very accomplished athletes.

SPEAKER_00 55:34

Yeah, yeah. But the thing about it is like, well, I don't know if Tiger Woods is a good example, but I'm gonna use it. Maybe it's not okay. Maybe he's out of the popularity right now. But Tiger Woods as a coach, you know?

SPEAKER_03 55:47

That'd be intimidating.

SPEAKER_00 55:48

All the big basketball players have coaches, they're better athletes than their coaches are, I guarantee it. Right. And I'm not sure making any indications about that.

SPEAKER_03 55:56

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 55:59

Or there's a lot of CEOs of billion-dollar corporations out there that have business coaches.

unknown 56:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 56:05

I'm sure those business coaches are making pretty good money as well, but probably not as much as the CEO, right?

SPEAKER_02 56:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

So there's there's a lot of value in that. And I remember a coach I was working with about coaching other people. He was like, hey, if you're on chapter two, you can help someone that's on chapter one, right?

SPEAKER_03 56:22

That's very common in the in the coaching industry. They're like, you just have to be two steps ahead of the person. So yeah, from that perspective, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 56:31

But also, but also just that just understanding how to help people get clear on their visions and figure out what's getting in the way. I mean, uh, I used to joke, I'm not gonna run a marathon. I was in the army. At one point in my life, I was in pretty good shape and I'm still in decent shape. But but I felt like I could, you know, with some coaching or a good coach, not me, but a good coach that has never ran a minor ran a marathon, could probably still be a fairly effective coach, maybe not the best, but could still like you know, have those calls. Okay, what did you commit to last week? What did you actually do? What got in the way, and what are you gonna do next week? You know, that type of thing. But uh but you add a lot more than just coaching. This is you're you know, I I know you titled Adventure Travel Coach, but obviously you add the just the actual experience of traveling, and there's so much more to it than than that.

SPEAKER_01 57:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

Very, very cool. Okay, so you got to ATTA. You were I think that was brilliant. Do you know how I started this podcast? I went to ATTA.

SPEAKER_03 57:30

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 57:31

And I went on their website and I started going down through the list of people that I knew would be interesting because I had been, you know, I had been to an ATTA summit in Africa many years ago. And I was like, when I thought, who do I want to have conversations with? It's the same thing. It's like people that are doing this stuff, where do those people hang out? You know, so here's a plug for ATTA.

SPEAKER_01 57:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 57:51

And yeah, I just I went there and did the same thing, and it sounds brilliant. As I'm thinking, depending on somebody to sit down and have the awareness that they need a you know, a travel coach and type that into Google when most people don't have a clue what travel coach is.

SPEAKER_03 58:09

Don't even know it exists. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

But here's the thing here's the thing. You go to a trekking company and say, Hey, this is what I do. Can you think of anybody that might want that? They're gonna be like, oh my gosh, that would be great. Because we've had a lot of clients or potential clients that said, I would love to go on your trip, but I need help. And what what do you say to somebody like that? You say, Well, you could go join a gym, you could, you know, let us know when you feel like you're ready and call back and we'll set you up on a trip. It makes perfect sense that they would say, Or, hey, we know somebody.

SPEAKER_03 58:42

Or I won't necessarily say worse, but they they go on a trip unprepared and then they have a terrible time. And the group maybe has not such a great time because there's someone who really is like just not ready. And then the company has a problem too.

SPEAKER_00 59:01

Yeah, reviews.

SPEAKER_03 59:03

You know, you don't want, yeah, exactly. You don't want unhappy customers. So, you know, my value proposition is I know here I am in marketing speak is it's a win-win-win. Everybody wins. Like if someone comes and works with me, they're gonna have a better time, the group is gonna have a better time, the guide's gonna have a better time because it's gonna be easier. Better reviews, better reviews, referral. Everybody wins. It's a no-win propos, it's a no-lose proposition. Nobody loses.

SPEAKER_00 59:32

I this is a great conversation because so many of our listeners are tour operators, and maybe they've already connected with you, or they maybe they're way ahead of me. This is when I was more active as a tour operator. Honestly, I'd never heard of it. Like, you know, that was 20 years ago. But I'm imagining now. Yeah, I mean, I work with some clients that are tour operators doing their marketing stuff. Sometimes I help put together trip planners. I'm like, what a great thing. You got a section in there. Hey, you know, before your trip, you might want to consider at least having a conversation with somebody like Becky. Absolutely you know, to you know, to just have a conversation with her about any concerns you might have. And uh it's just part of the process. That's brilliant. That's exactly what you're doing, isn't it?

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

That's exactly how it works is with it with the the folks that I'm uh you know actively partner with, they put my information on their website, in their materials, you know, that you know, 90 day out email, right? You've probably worked on a few of those.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:29

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:31

And by the way, it's three months out. If you haven't already started your your training for Kilimanjaro, yeah, now's a good time to think about it. Actually, for Killy, it might be a little late to think about it if you haven't really started. Um, but certainly at three months, like that's a kind of a wake-up call. And uh, oh yeah, this is coming up. I booked it, you know, six, nine months a year ago. And all of a sudden you're like, oh, yeah, it looks like that you've never had that experience before, Jason.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:59

It just you can see the look on my face. It's like, oh yeah, I was yeah, I was involved in a in a program where you set these kind of big goals and you had like four months to do it. And yeah, I remember reaching out to a coach about two weeks before. Hey, I still have 20 pounds to lose in the next two weeks. Can you help me?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:21

Yeah, 20 pounds. Good luck.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:22

No, no, no, I did it, but it was really, really, really miserable and probably not the safest way.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:28

Probably not the healthiest thing. Yeah, but so that's how it works with the tour operators is yeah, they they send people my way and you know, then I I pick up the ball and take it from there. If someone wants to work with me, great. And if they just want to talk and they just want some advice, that's fine too. I just love to do this stuff. I love to help people. If you do wanna, if they do want to work with me, you know, I have several levels of packages and I customize things based on how much support people want. And, you know, my goal is really to make it easy for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

I'm afraid to ask you this, but what's the most frustrating part of your job? We can edit this out later if you're like, Jason, this was going so well. And then I started talking about people that don't listen to my coaching or whatever. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:09

I love it. No, seriously, it's hard for me to think of what's the most frustrating. I think the most frustrating is actually honestly, is not having more clients. Like I just it has taken a lot of time, like you said, to to make people the to build the awareness. And I feel like you know, I'm biased, but again, I feel like it's a no-brainer. But sometimes it's like pulling teeth to get people to understand, you know, that this really is just like something easy that you can offer or getting enough, getting people to to really get it. So that's the most frustrating thing is that people will just be like, oh, that sounds great. That sounds really cool. I'm like, okay, so why do I not have a million clients? I've not thought I would want a million clients, but but that is like it's interesting because it is such an unusual thing that it's it's just taken a lot of time and effort to to build that awareness.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:07

Where's the I don't know, I'm not sure how to ask this, but where's the the point? Not where it breaks down, because obviously, you know, it's working. You'd like to help more people get that. But where does it break down? Because I'm imagining you approach the tour operator, and the tour operator's like, great, this is awesome.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:23

You know, they are busy people. You know, there's a lot of moving parts. Tour operators have a ton going on. I completely appreciate that they have so many things that they're trying to manage. And the feedback I've gotten from some.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:36

But what you do helps them, right? So help me understand what you're saying.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:44

Yeah. Some some tour operators are just like, you know what? It's it's it's just one more thing that I have to Yeah, and it's just one more thing I have to manage or think about or handle when you know what I really need is for my, you know, travel insurance vendor to be on deck. And I really, really need to have, you know, there's just the list is long.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:09

So your struggle is figuring out how to make it eas easier for them to incorporate it, but at the same time coaching them.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:18

What's getting in the way? Well, it I again, I get it. And and some people are like, you know what? All our people are great. All our people come on trips, they're they're good to go. We don't have any problems with that. Whether that is a thing where they think there's no problem, and maybe there is, or maybe there's not. Maybe they do really get all their clients are really qualified.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:39

Here's the thing. Okay, and maybe they're just happy only working with people that are ready to go.

unknown 1:04:45

Yeah, that's fine.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:46

It's pretty, it's pretty easy to I I'm just thinking out loud here. If I could be like, no, all of our clients made it to the top of Kilimanjaro last year, we don't have a problem. Okay, but what about the 10% of clients that didn't book because you weren't able to give them the confidence that we can help you make this work? It's just uh black or white. Like, if we think you can do it, we'll tell you you can do it and we'll book you. And if you come with to us with any doubt at all, we say, you know what, maybe this isn't right for you. We can't help you. Yeah. Well, it might be fine, but they might also subconsciously be doing that. That's where I'm going with it. Yeah, it's you know, when the person has these concerns and says, Can you connect me with somebody that can help me get ready? Can you, is there somebody on your team that I can talk to once a week as I'm getting ready? And they're like, Yeah, I'm sorry, we just we really don't know anybody. That would be the opportunity to get more clients and work with somebody like you to help them get prepared. So now that instead of having 100 clients that meet at the top of Colombandaro, maybe they've got 120. And you know what? Those 20 that worked with somebody like you that had all those doubts and concerns going in, and the company referred them to you. Those 20 people are gonna be the ones that write the best reviews. I guarantee it. Right? Yeah, yeah. I'm preaching to the choir, aren't I?

SPEAKER_01 1:06:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:09

You've thought this out. Let's do this. Yeah, you should do that. That's a good idea, Becky. You should do that. Anyway, I just I think it's fascinating. I'm just I'm just interested in it. So thanks for indulging with me. Um all right, very cool. We've we've discussed a bunch of things. Did we miss any big gaps in in how you got there or maybe starting the business that you want to touch on? Or basically, what I'm trying to ask you is Becky, what did I forget to ask you? What do you wish I would have asked you so we don't miss out any on anything before we wrap up?

SPEAKER_03 1:06:39

Well, I'll go back to I kind of redirected you earlier when you said, How do you how do you work with clients? Like what what's the process? I'm easily distract distracted. So maybe let's circle back on that because people might be wondering, you know, this has been a super fun conversation, but people might be still wondering, like, well, how does this actually work?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:59

Thank you. Thank you. Hey, you should you should start a podcast. You're good at this. Thank you.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:05

How does it work?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:05

How does it work?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:06

How does it work? Yeah. So I imagine, you know, consultation call and people come to me. So I develop a customized training plan for them. And then we have coaching sessions based on basically how much support that they want or need. Usually at least three sessions. So I have a kickoff session with them and then two other sessions between the time we start and the time of their trip. But it could be as often as weekly. I do have some clients who want to do like weekly 30-minute sessions. These are often the people who want more accountability, who just, you know, want that extra support. Some people are every other week for an hour or every three weeks for an hour. I really customize it based again what people want. And during those sessions, so I developed the plan. It's always changeable. We can always modify it based on life, right? You know, again, back to the, you know, you've twisted your ankle, you have an Achilles flare-up, you, you know, have kids are sick, you're sick, whenever parents are sick, life happens. We can recalibrate it whenever you need. And then the coaching sessions are to work through things like challenges you're running into, celebrating, but also celebrating wins, celebrating those victories, digging into, yeah, any like things that are coming up, like my gosh, I just, you know, I'm not really sure I can do this. You know, overcoming fears, things like that. And gear consultation, which has been, which is always fun. Uh, but I, you know, I surprised at the number of people who were like, Will you just go through? Like, can we just like go through my bed full of stuff and we can look at everything and you can tell me what to take with me and what not to take with me? Or, you know, or like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:53

Everything, every outdoor piece of equipment they have ever accumulated on the other.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:57

Well, they usually windowed it down. Like, do I take this jacket or this jacket, or you know, but or just, you know, I I need what brand of trekking poles do you like? You know, you should things like that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:08

Man, if I'm a tour operator and you come to me and say, Not, you know, I want to work with your clients that need support, and that includes the checklist part. Here's because that's where you save the tour operator time is you say, look, anybody that you know books me, does coaching with me, I will handle all those check those uh packing list questions. And then they're like, ooh, maybe this is a good idea, maybe she's gonna save us some time. I don't know, it's just a thought that popped into it.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:33

I'll refer them back to their tour operator for some things, but I'm sure. I'm sure I don't want to take the liability on that one.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:40

Well, yeah, because we don't want them showing up with the wrong thing and then well, Becky told me.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:44

Yeah. Becky told me I didn't need hiking boots. Yeah, right. No, the bottom line is like that the the coaching time is their time. Whatever's on your mind, like what's keeping you up at night, what's you know, what's coming up in your everyday life that's that's challenging, what benchmarks do you want to set? How do you want to measure your progress? How do you want to build your confidence? It's a lot about building confidence in your ability to do this. So a lot of the coaching is just yeah, kind of around all those things, especially the stuff you talked about, we talked about in the beginning. What's your vision? What do you what do you want to get out of this? And how do we how do you bring that to fruition?

unknown 1:10:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:25

For some reason, as I as I listen to you discuss this, I'm I'm thinking, like, actually just had this conversation with someone recently about how I've heard the body doesn't really know the difference between anxious, like or nervous or excited? So I guess the question I want to ask you is like, do you feel like most of the women or or men or just clients, just people, do you think they start out mostly scared or excited, or do they are they able to put their finger on it? What what comes across when they have that first call with you? Is it, oh, I booked this trip and now I'm scared? Or I booked this trip yesterday, I'm so excited to start planning. What is it? What does it usually sound like?

SPEAKER_03 1:11:05

Excited. Yeah. But with a I mean, uh, one of my consultation call questions is always like, what are you most concerned about? Because if you're not concerned, you wouldn't be talking to me, right?

SPEAKER_02 1:11:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:18

So, you know, people have concerns, but they're mostly excited. I would say, you know, 70, 80% excited and and wanting to do like do the things that are necessary so that they can realize that dream. And there's a, you know, depending on the person, 10, 20, 30, 40% of it that is holy crap, what did I decide for?

SPEAKER_00 1:11:42

I just put down my deposit, it's non-refundable. And yeah, I I I told my sister and she told me I was crazy, and oh my gosh, now I'm scared because I don't wanna I don't wanna tell her she was right, so I gotta make this work type of thing, I can imagine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:57

Or there's like, yeah, people are like, I told all my friends I was doing this, so now I really gotta do it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:03

Which actually is like a probably a coaching technique sometimes. I don't know what your your approach is, but it's like, yeah, you know, the more it's that accountability. Now you've got your whole family holding you accountable, but that also can create some scaredness and some problems if something happens, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:18

Well, and that's what I talk to people about too, and that's part of some of the coaching too, is like, okay, so what if you don't make it to the top of Kilimanjaro? Because there are a lot of reasons you might not.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:28

Weather, illness, you know, there's a lot of things just out there.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:32

People fall down going up the stairs. There's reasons that you might not make it to the second story of your house. So yeah, and you're talking about Kilimanjaro, you know, something might happen. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:12:41

Yeah. So it's it's it's all it's super fun, though. I really love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:46

It's do you have the opportunity I'm sure you get feedback and I'm sure you connect, but I I I just want to ask directly like is there like a after action review, like when they get home? Do you have another call with them?

SPEAKER_03 1:12:59

We have a debrief. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:01

Yeah. Yeah, that's cool.

SPEAKER_03 1:13:02

Yeah. We do a debrief call. I mean, if people want it, I mean, most people do. I would say probably 80, 90% of my clients, we have a debrief. And, you know, I ask them what what they are glad they did, what they wish they, you know, what advice do they have for me of things that I could have done better that they they wish they would have done more of or known? Yeah, we definitely have a debrief, and that's really valuable for all of us.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:29

I'm curious, have you had the situation where you've you've had a um uh what do you call it, your first call? Is it a discovery call type of thing? What do you what yeah, consultation. Consultation. Have you have you had situations where you do the consultation and then they either disappear or just flat out say, nah, I don't think so. And then this is a two-part question. One is, and then they call you back a week before the trip. Or two, or two, okay, good. Or two, do they come back like do they hey I'm doing Kilimanjaro? I'm thinking about this. Oh, okay, no, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna hire you. They go do Kilomanjaro, and then a year later they say, Okay, now I'm doing Ever Space Camp and I should have booked you. I I learned my lesson, I should have booked you the first time. I'm just curious if that happens. No, okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:20

I've had people say that they realized from a previous trip that they really would benefit from this kind of service. But nobody who had been in touch with me before and decided not to has come back.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:32

I just wanted to ask you like, I told you so.

SPEAKER_03 1:14:35

No, no, no. Of course I would never say that.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:37

You would do that. You're you're you're too nice for that. But all right, this is uh very cool. So we got we got through the process that you reminded me that we definitely wanted to get through. What else? Is there anything else that you want to leave with our listeners before we go?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:49

I just you know like to encourage people to go ahead and pursue what they want to do. And you know, some people I think say, Oh, now I'm too old, or you know, I'm too this or I'm too that. But just just let's let's give it a try. Let's see how see what we can do because it's not gonna get any easier. Nobody's getting any younger. Nobody's getting any younger. So I have with people again with people in their 70s. And it's it's really inspiring to me. It's really inspiring to me to work with my clients and who go do all this stuff when they're I like I still got, you know, I still got 20 years. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 1:15:31

Yeah. Not cool. And I can going back to the, you know, maybe they've got a partner that's just not enthusiastic, has no desire to go do these things. They don't have friends or family that are gonna talk them up. So if you're surrounded by that, it's easy to just yeah, I guess I'm too, I'm too old. My my partner's telling me, what are you crazy? You're too old. You, you know, you wake up in the morning complaining about how your legs hurt and now you want to go climb Kilimanjaro or whatever. So they're not getting a lot of positive reinforcement and support. Yeah. And so for somebody that's living, you know, with you know, their loved ones around them are kind of like that, it's easy for us to say, well, just go do it. But nobody else in their life is telling them to just go do it. Right. So I love that you're able to do a tour operator might on a sales call. So yeah, you should just go do it.

SPEAKER_03 1:16:19

Absolutely. But to have somebody that could be clear, I'm not saying that anybody and everybody should necessarily do it. Let's just have a conversation, you know.

SPEAKER_00 1:16:28

Yeah, well, yeah, yeah, exactly. That's the point is, you know, if you've got something in your head that's like, I really would like to do this, but no, but everybody around me thinks, you know, I'm crazy for whatever reason, and maybe it's because their partner didn't want you spending the money. Maybe it has nothing to do with, you know, whatever it is. So at least have a conversation with somebody that that is, you know, that can tap into that part of your brain or your heart that's saying, I want to go do it before you make any decisions, right? So yeah, that's very cool. I'm really happy we had this conversation. I knew it was gonna be fascinating. Honestly, it it was I don't want to say it was a lot better than I thought because that makes it sound like I didn't think it would be a great conversation. But I'm just really, really happy we we did it. And uh thank you so much for sharing your your insights, experiences, and uh just your energy. It's great. Thank you so much, Becky.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:15

Thanks, Jason. Yeah, thank you too.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:19

Yep, we'll do it again soon. We've still have more stuff to talk about, I'm sure. So all right, thanks, Becky. All right, bye.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:25

Take care, bye bye.