The Matt Chambers Show
Welcome to The Matt Chambers Show, where we explore the world of traveling, living and doing business internationally. Hosted by Matt Chambers, this podcast connects people, places, and ideas, offering inspiring stories and practical insights to help you design a life beyond borders. Whether you're seeking adventure, remote work tips, retirement ideas, or entrepreneurial guidance, each episode brings you closer to turning your global dreams into reality.
The Matt Chambers Show
Immersive Travels and Creative Pursuits
What if you could navigate the intricate tapestry of Latin American culture and business with ease? Join me, Matt Chambers, as I recount my thrilling adventures through South America, including a spontaneous jaunt to the revitalized city of Medellin. Together with my guest Bee Davis, we unravel the joys and challenges of immersing ourselves in diverse cultures, from savoring exotic cuisines to understanding the ever-shifting political landscapes of Ecuador, Venezuela, and Colombia. This episode is a passport to wanderlust, offering tales of spontaneous travel and invaluable insights into the region's dynamic opportunities.
Alongside the seasoned globetrotter Aisha Makara, who boasts visits to over 60 countries, listeners are treated to vivid narratives of cultural peculiarities and culinary discoveries. Whether it's the unexpected delight of horse meat in Mongolia or the irony of U.S. food regulations, our discussions are as flavorful as the dishes we explore. My longing to experience the vibrant streets and mouthwatering tacos of Mexico City underscores a universal truth: food and culture are intricately linked, and understanding one enriches our appreciation of the other.
Embarking on creative ventures such as blogging and podcasting while journeying through life’s myriad paths can be daunting. In this episode, I share my personal experiences of overcoming envy and embracing authenticity in creative pursuits. From navigating the stereotypes that American tourists often face abroad to the importance of cultural immersion, we discuss how patience and understanding can transform a hurried trip into a meaningful encounter. Subscribe to our channels, connect with fellow listeners, and join us on a quest for genuine travel experiences that transcend the ordinary.
Hello and welcome to Matt Chambers Connects, a podcast hosted by Matt Chambers. This is the podcast that transcends boundaries, empowers cross-cultural connections and fosters a more connected world. I'm your host, matt Chambers, and I invite you to join us on this quest to expand our understanding and build bridges between my two favorite places on the planet Latin America and the United States. I've been traveling, living and doing business in Latin America for nearly two decades, so how's?
Speaker 2:everything going on your end Is business good. Yeah, it's actually picking up pretty good. Things are getting a little crazy. Hopefully I can keep up with all of it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know I saw you're offering quite a lot of cool services. Thank you, yeah, I was looking into that and you seem to really make it quite easy for people that want to travel, so you know one of the things. I looked into some of your travel experiences and it actually seems like we cross over on quite a few of them. I've been to a lot of the places that you work in and I don't know if you looked into what I've done at all, but I've been traveling mainly South.
Speaker 1:America for about the last 18 years on and off.
Speaker 2:I love it For business for fun, you know across the board. But yeah, South America is high on my list. I think my goal is to hit all of the Caribbean and then if I could try to venture down into some of the countries in South America. My dad is from Ecuador so I have a little bit of a cling to that, so hopefully I can make it there one day.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Ecuador used to be one of the best places to travel in terms of safety, but all that changed over the last couple of years. I don't know if you've seen the craziness going on there.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I've been kind of paying attention to it, so hopefully things will start to clear up and it'll get better down there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean South America as a whole. You know, just historically I've read quite a lot of books about South America over the years and done again 18 years of traveling in and out of here. And it's just cyclical right. Decide they want to be better for about 10 or 15 years and then some psycho gets in there and changes all the rules and then it just goes back to the toilet again and then comes back, and so you know, I've had to do Quite a bit of balancing around myself. I lived in Venezuela for a while.
Speaker 1:Had to leave there Because of all the stuff happening with Chavez and then go to Colombia, which was really safe for years, and then they pretty much Screwed that up over the last couple of years. So it's just like you're going to travel South America. You have to be ready to kind of bounce around and be ready for some stuff you've never seen before.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly, and I don't know if I'm quite there yet, you know you got to kind of build your travel experience.
Speaker 1:So where has most of your travel been? Know how to build your travel experience, so where has most of your travel been?
Speaker 2:I mean, I saw some of the stuff on the on the website, but I'd love to get into that and talk about some of your favorite places so, of course, I've been to spot everywhere in florida, um, and then, uh, I've hit a lot of the caribbean countries that I well not a lot. I've hit a handful of caribbean countries, and then, uh, we've also ventured over to french polynesia too, too. So we hung out at Maria and Tahiti for a little bit. Those are both amazing islands.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I heard Tahiti is pretty sweet, but isn't it like 10 grand just to get over there or something?
Speaker 2:If you work the points out right, it's not too bad. I've actually this is probably my favorite points redemption. I got my husband and I over there from St Louis probably my my favorite points redemption. I got my husband and I over there from st louis. We flew into lax and then over for 157 dollars, um, using using points, um so, and that was round trip back and forth, so it was. It took me about a year and a half or so to save up those points for for that trip specifically, but we were able to make it over there because of that. Otherwise we wouldn't have been able to do it because the flights usually are about two minutes just to get over there.
Speaker 1:I would think most Americans plan out at least a year, year and a half anyway, for a trip that big right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, usually, unless you're crazy like me and you're just kind of spur of the moment willy-nilly in it. I was planning the actual saving up part of it, but then I didn't actually plan the trip at all. So when I got there I was like man, I don't even know what we're gonna do here.
Speaker 1:So it was a lot of fun though you know, I'm like you, I just randomly pop up and go places. In fact, I'm just arriving from Miami. I um yeah.
Speaker 1:I mean, I'm from Miami, not from Miami. I'm from Atlanta, but Miami, um, is where I'm from Miami, not from Miami. I'm from Atlanta, but Miami is where I'm a resident now and I spend a lot of my time. And I got kind of tired of that just yesterday and I called up my buddy and I'm like I'm coming to Medellin tomorrow. So it's not actually Medellin you fly into Medellin but where I stays about 35, 40 minutes outside the city in a little like small town.
Speaker 2:Oh, it sounds amazing.
Speaker 1:I decided that about five or six o'clock yesterday evening was on a day before yesterday evening, was on a flight by noon the next day and got here last night about 1.30 in the morning.
Speaker 2:That's awesome. Yep, that's a lot of how I'd like to be. So now that my kids are finally you know old enough to where they're living on their own and doing their own thing, I can. I can actually start to do that kind of thing, because it's a little bit more difficult when they're little. You can't really just drop things and and head out, but now I can.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, I assume this travel that we're talking about is what inspired the creation of your business and your your model right Life, love and travel.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, actually my son actually was kind of the inspiration for that. He was wanting to brag on some of the trips that I had been on, so he could share my pictures with his friends. So he was like, hey, mom, why don't you start a Facebook page? And I did, and it just kind of took off from there. Facebook page and I did and it just kind of took off from there. So, yeah, it's kind of blossomed into this this big thing, behemoth.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it's um. And now your services. You're helping people plan their trips. You're kind of sort of a travel agent in a different way. Now, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, um, so it it wasn't supposed to go that way, it was more um, affiliations and thing. And then I had quite a few people come out of the woodworks good friends of mine, that were like, hey, can you help me? You know, I need to go here or I've got this wedding and I don't know what to do, and blah, blah, blah. I've never gone out of the country. So I kind of started to help them out and I'm like, okay, this is actually kind of fun. And we went in towards the off the beaten path road so we did a lot of you know hidden gems. I was able to kind of connect with some locals that were there in the towns that they were visiting and we were able to kind of pre arrange, you know private tours and that sort of thing. And and then it just kind of took off.
Speaker 2:I had one of my friends was having a birthday, so I had a cake delivered to her hotel room before she even got there and she came in she had like this, decorations and all this stuff. So she was like, oh my gosh, this should be, this is a service you could do. And you know I was. I basically held their hand the entire trip. You know, I'd wake up in the morning, be like, hey, this is what you guys have going on today, don't forget to be here at this time. Blah, blah, blah. And she was like you know, I've never had somebody who was so on it. And so then I was like, ok, well, maybe I can offer this to people. You know, maybe people do this and it's kind of taken off. And now I've got lots of trips on the books and it's a lot of fun. I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and what are all those? If you don't mind just kind of going through an itemized list of the things you guys offer.
Speaker 2:I think people would like to hear that. Well, I'm basically a concierge, so to speak, so I'm basically tailoring all of my trips to what you would want. So if somebody comes to me and they say, hey, I want a beach trip, but I also want to do some volunteering, or I want to do a beach trip and focus just on spas you know that sort of thing I kind of get into that nitty gritty with everybody and then from there I will create a custom trip for you and I could be as involved or as uninvolved as you'd like. So some people like to have their hand held, some people are like, you know, just their arrangements made and then leave me the hell alone, type thing, you know. So it just kind of depends. So I'm I'm, I'm flexible with that and I'm willing to help out.
Speaker 2:I've had one of my friends actually called me and she was like man, I just I really don't know what to do. I need to eat something and I just don't even know. There's so many choices and blah, blah, blah, blah, and I was like hold on, let me see what I can figure out. So I did some Googling, you know, I did all that, that research, so she was real quick to make her decision and she was like, oh, so glad you made that decision.
Speaker 2:I was laying on the beach, I didn't have to think about it, it was already taken care of for me, made a reservation, she showed up, had her dinner, went back to her hotel and everything was pretty smooth. So she, she started telling me she's like, you know, this is a really great. I've never had an agent who was actually willing to do that kind of stuff for me. A lot of times they'll, you know, make the trips. If something goes wrong I could call them, but they don't really hold my hand or make those decisions that I'd like made for me. So I kind of have taken that on, so like a virtual assistant, so to speak, but travel, yeah as well.
Speaker 1:So no, but that's valuable because, again, I've done about I don't know 30 countries. I guess something around there, a little bit less or plus or minus. A lot of South America and I can't tell you how many people that I meet along the way. Who you know, Americans or foreigners that just travel to a place and they live there for one, two, three years.
Speaker 1:One, two, three years and just have no idea of. You could mention 15 really great restaurants and I'm like, oh, where's that? They just know nothing about the place that they're in. So there's a demand for that, especially for someone who's just coming for a week or two vacation to know all the really good hotspots from a local's point of view. Because I mean, in all the places that I've lived, I lived in venezuela for a short stint and then colombia for several years, and then you know brazil for a couple years, on and off, and every place that you live in it really takes a couple years of living there at least a year right of living there as a local to find all these little nooks and crannies that really are the best places. So to have someone at your side who can just kind of lead you in the right direction, yeah it's a lot of fun too.
Speaker 2:so that's kind of why I started my podcast beachside banter with b um. It. It's mostly me sitting down with locals of towns, beach towns they don't necessarily have to be beach towns, mostly beach towns and I'm just asking them those dumb American questions that we're not thinking to ask before we go on vacation. You know, can I wear camo to your country? Can I? You know how to? I mean, that's such a simple rule, but a lot of people don't know that you can't wear a camo to Jamaica. You'll get in trouble if you, if you have a camo backpack, you know is that right?
Speaker 2:Just yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 1:Is that because of the gangs, or what?
Speaker 2:It's. It's simply their military. So they want to make sure that military are representative in the camo and if you are trying to mock that are not very like, they just don't tolerate it. So yeah, you'll. You'll get stopped in the airport If you have like any kind of camo shirt on camo pants, something like that. They'll. They'll ask you to change before they let you into the country.
Speaker 2:So, that's, yeah, just one little thing you know. So I like to sit down and I like to ask those questions, because there's a lot of things people don't know. Hey, where can I go on a Friday night to get the best tacos? You know stuff like that. Or what's your national dish? A lot of people won't even pay attention to what their food is and what kind of food they're expecting to eat. They'll just be like, oh, they'll have American food there, I'll be good. So a lot of times people need to you know, know that ahead of time and they just don't do that. So that's kind of where I come in. I'm able to help them out, make those decisions for them, and then I'm also kind of diving deep into with locals as well. So I'm trying to use my network so that they have somebody, a point of contact there in the country that they're at as well. I feel like that's usually pretty helpful.
Speaker 1:I would think your podcast is probably going to help you significantly with that, because if you can get locals in each of these areas on your show to talk about what are the really cool local hot spots, then you just make a list from what they tell you boom yeah, yeah, that's kind of what I've been doing so far.
Speaker 1:It's been a lot of fun yeah, yeah, no, it sounds like, and I also saw on there on your list that you had aisha makara on yes, um, well, I thought she was a ball of energy to bring to my show. I had her on maybe two weeks ago. I mean, I think we did the interview about a month ago, month and a half ago, but we released it two weeks ago or this past week. One of the two Wow, she has some stories. You know, 60 plus countries grew up an orphan.
Speaker 1:I mean what a great, great person to have on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we had a really great conversation. We talked a lot about Mongolia. I found out that they like to eat a lot of horse meat. That was a little bit of a weird conversation I wasn't really ready for, but I get it. I mean, if it's prevalent there, that's what you're going to eat, so I have no judgments whatsoever for it. But yes, it was a really great conversation. I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, we, we discussed that same thing as well and ironically, I had eaten horse meat in Germany, in Munich, germany, horse, horse hot dog and some other kind of you know what. I definitely don't remember walking away saying I didn't like it.
Speaker 1:I remember eating a horse hot dog with mustard and some other kind of something they put on there. I was not complaining. You know it's hard for an American because I think, like the USDA and our government puts a lot of rules on food that probably shouldn't be there, it's really weird, because they contradict themselves in the US because we have all these crazy rules, like speaking of myself, but, as an example, you can't eat horse meat, but we can have 750 ingredients that we can't pronounce in Kellogg's cereal.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:Or in Froot Loops. No other countries will allow it, but the US will allow it. It's just really weird how I feel like our country contradicts themselves with food. We'd probably be exponentially better off eating horse meat than we would. All these, you know again all these things on the back of the cereal box that we shouldn't be eating.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and then you know you grab a bag of potato chips and you're like I don't understand why. Why am I so unhealthy?
Speaker 1:well, you know I always say, like my diet is about 90, really, really good. But then I have this vice. I have like a coke zero problem. I have to have like one every day or every other day, and then some.
Speaker 2:If there's chips I'm gonna eat them yeah, no, I'm the same way. Uh, my my is tacos, so anytime you throw a taco in front of me, I definitely have to try it.
Speaker 1:Have you been to. Mexico city.
Speaker 2:No, I have not yet. I haven't been to. Mexico. Yet I don't even know why, cause it seems like it would be so like perfect, cause you know tacos and all that stuff, but I just haven't made it there yet. Hopefully one day I'm going to, I'm going to recommend.
Speaker 1:I know you like the beaches and for your business. The beaches in Mexico are absolutely awesome, so you don't want to skip those for business purposes. But going to Mexico without going to Mexico City is a colossal mistake, because Mexico City is incredible.
Speaker 2:Gotcha.
Speaker 1:Especially for culture and stuff. I bet Tons of culture, tons of museums. I feel like you can live there for 20 years, never eat all the good, there's just incredible Mexican food in general in every corner.
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah, the architecture, the museums. It's really really good and I found that if you find a restaurant that doesn't have a sign or a name posted out front, it's probably the best restaurant that doesn't have a title, like a sign or like a name posted up front, it's the probably the best restaurant that you'll ever eat. You're saying that in general.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it just anywhere I go, I feel like, especially like I went to Belize and we we popped into a couple of places that we didn't even know for sure were restaurants, and the places that we sat down we're just like, oh my God, God, this is the best food I've ever had. So, yeah, I tend to go by that rule. If I don't have a sign or I don't know who they are, they're probably pretty good food.
Speaker 1:For sure, and you definitely want to get with the locals in the town and ask them where to eat, right? Absolutely Going back to your point earlier. You know I've traveled, done a lot of travel trips with buddies in the US and they always want to stay at like the Marriott. I went to Buenos Aires, argentina, with a buddy who's an awesome guy, a really good friend of mine. But I had done significantly more South America travel than him at the time and he wanted to go to South America. He was like it's Argentina.
Speaker 2:I was like all right, let's go to Buenos.
Speaker 1:Aires. It's an awesome city, um. So he says, hey, I have a bunch of points on my american express. We can stay at the marriott for free. I'm like, okay, that's cool, like I don't care if you're gonna pay for it and you know, the marriott's cool and even if I have to pay for it, the marriott's cool. Um, but it would be cooler to get an airbnb right At the end of the day and, like, live with the locals. However, if it's free, I'm in. Let's do the Marriott Right.
Speaker 2:Well, we didn't only stay at the Marriott.
Speaker 1:But I found out later that he wanted to do it because he also wanted to eat every meal at the Marriott, because he was scared to eat in the streets.
Speaker 1:And I'm like oh my God, like Buenos Aires, argentina has some of the best food I've ever been. I'm not recommending that a bunch of people like fly down there because the people in that city are kind of rude. It's not by any means it's not my favorite city in Latin America. In fact, it's probably my least favorite city in Latin America in terms of just a lot of people tell you the opposite on that. A lot of people really like it. I just found the people to be very, very rude there and they are not that way in any other place I've been in Latin America.
Speaker 1:However, the food and architecture are spectacular yeah. But yeah, I went down there with him for 10 days and we ate at the Marriott like two meals a day. I'm like I can't. Why am I here? I'm not going to eat the food and hang out and get to know these people. I don't see any point in coming here. Except for Florida, we could have hung out in Buckhead, atlanta, where we live Right.
Speaker 2:That's exactly how I feel we have a rule that you cannot eat in any place that you can get at home, so chain restaurants are completely off. There's no way none of those are happening and yeah. So we just try to make sure that we pick something that is just totally unique. And then it's fun too, because I feel like I could actually make like an entire meal out of my favorite places and like. So, like you know, I went to the Cayman Islands and I had the absolute best lobster I've ever had in my life and like I paid 300 bucks for it, didn't you?
Speaker 2:absolute best lobster I've ever had in my life and like I paid 300 bucks for it, Didn't you? Uh, it's a little pricey, I won't lie, it was a birthday gift, so it was kind of okay. Um, and then I had, um, this amazing spicy tuna and Aruba and I'm like man, if I could just pick up little pieces key lime pie the best key lime in Florida so I definitely would love to tap out on.
Speaker 1:So I'd like build this huge meal based on, like, little things from each place. Yeah well, you know, I think, someone like you that travels and is, uh, apparently a foodie. I think you could create a hell of a cookbook from just things you've learned throughout yeah, that's a fun idea.
Speaker 2:I'll have to explore that. That's basically all we're doing now. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:I found the Cayman Islands to be pretty awesome. I've been there several times scuba diving, but that's another one. It's like man, you get up and go get some eggs and sausage 65 bucks. It was insane, the money that we spent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it is a little pricey there, um, but it's. It's definitely like the food is amazing, um, and the vibe is really nice, but I feel like it's more of a luxe island in general. So, for sure, um, you know, you kind of have to have that, you know luxury taste or whatever. We took our kids there for the first time and it was a little boring for them. There's not really a ton of kid activities.
Speaker 1:It's more, you know, adult luxury Island where you hang out, spend a lot of money shop kind of thing, and then you come back and tell all your you go there to go, to go back, and tell all your neighbors how much money you spent. It's one of those Right.
Speaker 2:Well, my husband, he was like, can we just like open up a bank account here, just so that we could say we have an offshore account in the Caymans? I'm like, oh my gosh, you're so funny.
Speaker 1:My buddy and I. For a few years we went down there scuba diving. We used to go every year for about 10 or 12 years and three of those years were in the Caymans and it's incredible. It's incredible First class, everything food everything experience, incredible, it's incredible. First class, everything, food, everything experience everything's first class.
Speaker 2:So yeah, I'd like to get back down there.
Speaker 1:In fact we did that stingray. I think we did like a stingray.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Petting thing or something that's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:People love that. Yeah, they also have a turtle sanctuary there as well. My kids were able to swim at the turtles. That was like the only thing that they were excited about.
Speaker 1:So let me ask you if someone reaches out to you and they're looking to put together a trip, what's your advice on trying to kind of drill down into what it is that they truly want and helping them create, you know, a destination and a and a trip that they actually would, would enjoy?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I know it's kind of hard. I do have a little quiz on my website that kind of will throw you around a couple of different places. That kind of helps you narrow down a few and then, beyond that, like well, just let's have a conversation. You know, I've I've got tons of knowledge when it comes to, like the Caribbean and that sort of thing Mostly islands. If you're looking for any sort of a beach vacation, definitely let's chat.
Speaker 2:I can kind of direct you to what you're looking for, based on what vibe you're asking for and that sort of thing. I feel like that's the best way to really match somebody is just to kind of have that conversation. I always send over a questionnaire as well. So if somebody wants to go through and they fill out that questionnaire there's questions that kind of help me pick and decipher what kind of a person they are, what kind of things they'll enjoy and that sort of thing. So then that, yeah, we'll send over a sample itinerary and then we kind of go from there and really dive deep into it and figure out what exactly you want and how much you want to spend and all of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cool. That sounds awesome. And are you sending anyone to South America at all, or is it mostly just beach towns in the Caribbean?
Speaker 2:Honestly, the most popular right now is Costa Rica. It seems to be like the most, most most requested. Beyond that, belize is really picking up a lot too. I feel like a lot of people are really starting to go down there. I don't really have a lot of people who are asking for South America. I did have somebody who was reaching out about Columbia so we're definitely going to kind of walk that path and see where that goes, but for the most part it's mostly islands, beaches, beaches, that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Columbia's become a huge destination over the last five, six years, especially for digital nomads.
Speaker 2:It's much more than just digital nomads.
Speaker 1:by the way, I actually moved out of Medellin because I lived there way before this big, huge influx of Fort Bros and all those guys that really, I think screwed up. Medellin so bad? You have no idea. We could have an entire podcast just talking about Fort Bros and a couple of other things, just totally screwed up the city of Medellin. So I ended up just moving out of there because of you know the things that started happening there.
Speaker 1:But now you know, when I come to Medellin now fly into Medellin I'm about 30, 40 minutes outside the city, a little small town I found me a little like getaway, where you know most people, most of the travelers that go to Medellin, are going to stay right in the city where they can speak some English and get around. So I try to find the places where they aren't going to come because they can't speak Spanish.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:And hide out in those little towns. It's kind of my MO. So that's what I did. I don't come to Medellin much now. Maybe once a year come visit friends for a couple of weeks and then jet off.
Speaker 2:But yeah.
Speaker 1:Colombia is a big deal and then you know you're going to get a lot of people going to Buenos Aires and then Peru, Peru, and Buenos.
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Speaker 2:They're both high on my list too. Peru seems absolutely amazing. It's definitely. Hopefully I can make it there one day.
Speaker 1:It's incredible and you're also going to find a lot of things for your cookbook. In Peru, it wins like number one cuisine almost every single year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have a friend who did a missionary work down in Peru and he came back and was like, trying to represent the taco or whatever, he made taco, like some sort of taco. It wasn't even a taco thing, I don't even know what it was, but it was just amazing flatbread pizza thing, I don't even know. And I was just like, oh my gosh, that's the whole reason I want to go to Peru now so I can make that figure it out, cause it was very good.
Speaker 1:Well, every meal that you have there, you're going to be like and it looks so basic, like what was some some of it? Some of it will look so basic and you're like, wow, how'd they just do that Right? That's awesome.
Speaker 2:I had some cool stuff there.
Speaker 1:There's a lot of exotic like alpaca. By the way, going back to your horse meat from earlier, they eat a lot of alpaca steaks down there. A lot of koi. Do you know about koi?
Speaker 2:They eat guinea pig. No, yep, yep. I've heard that in Ecuador it's like their main dish right Is guinea pig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and surprisingly it's not bad. It's weird to think about it.
Speaker 2:It's very weird. I had a pet guinea pig, so it makes it kind of hard for me, but that's honestly. One of the reasons why I haven't made it to Ecuador yet is because I've heard that they're carrying them around on sticks and stuff. They're like I don't know if I can see that right now. Well, I don't know if I can see that right now.
Speaker 1:Well, I didn't see that. In Peru we did a five day four or four day, five night. I think it's five days, four nights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, four nights, five day hike through the Salcante Trail in Machu Picchu, and one of those days we camped out inside of the rainforest and for dinner the guys were like, hey, you guys want to get koi for dinner? Sure, which is guinea pig, like sure. And so a couple of us went with the guide in this van, trekking through the Amazon jungle to get through this koi and we go to this guy's house that had this basically a little shack. I mean it was like a I don't know like you'd see like a mobile home or something in the US. But he says, yeah, yeah, come on in, no problem, you walk through his front door, out the back door and the backyard was just fenced in and there was nothing but koi, like guinea pigs, running around and he was like which one do you want?
Speaker 1:right, which ones do you want? You got to pick your own guinea pigs and okay they all look the same. So you're kind of like I don't really care, but I guess I'll take that one that's unlucky guy here. So so then, they take them live and they put them in these burlap sacks, like you feed your corn sack and take it back, and they disappear with this huge bag of live guinea pigs and all of a sudden, two hours later, it's on your plate you have no idea how it got from A to B, but I don't want to know.
Speaker 1:You don't want to know, right? No?
Speaker 2:I'm better off not knowing.
Speaker 1:So I want to switch gears for just a second and circle back a bit on your podcast. How do you manage to keep all your podcast content fresh and exciting? I'm kind of struggling with that right now.
Speaker 2:Well, we found each other on Podm match, so I use that most often. I feel like that's been like my greatest tool. But a lot of people I have found just by connecting with them through LinkedIn. You know, I a lot of tour people reach out to me and say hey, I know that you're planning trips, can we talk? Blah, blah, blah, and I'm like hey, you know what, you'd be great for my show, you should come, we'll have this conversation, that sort of thing. So, um, I try to keep it. I don't know, it's really hard to keep things new, but I'm just doing it for the fun of it, for the most part you know.
Speaker 2:So if if I don't get a single listener for any episodes, that's fine, because I had fun I had. I learned a lot from that conversation and that's usually what I'm trying to strive for most it's just learning, so that way I can keep on top of things and, you know, offer these tours and that sort of thing to my audience and as well as people who want me to plan their trips for them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm actually going to start guesting at some point early next year. I mean I would start now. I'm just not going to open myself up on any of those sites because it's right now I'm not quite organized it's a whole other side yeah, it's a whole other side. So I'm going to start doing that as well, kind of I'm going to put think that more seriously, I guess early next year.
Speaker 1:But yeah, I mean, pod match has been great for me, but you know, the majority, like the first 15 people I got, uh, 15, 20 people were all friends. For the most part it's people that I knew. Yeah, um, but the learning behind this, you're right. I mean learning is just it's a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:It really is some of some of my people I've actually read their books.
Speaker 1:Like I'll have like a month or month and a half before they can interview and they'll send me their book and I read it what I learned from these people is pretty, pretty, pretty incredible.
Speaker 2:How are you doing your marketing? Are you just?
Speaker 1:kind of putting it out there and letting the algorithms do what they do.
Speaker 2:Well. So I did kind of. I went back to school and I did get my bachelor's degree for digital marketing, so I do have some knowledge when it comes to that sort of thing. So I don't do any kind of paid ads or anything like that. It's mostly SEO on the back end of the website and just really trying to pop out as much content as I can on all the socials.
Speaker 2:So that seems to be working the best for me, but a lot of it is the algorithms. I call them the alligators. They sometimes you throw your stuff out there and they just eat them up and they don't actually show them to anybody. So, um, it's just a lot of, you know, throwing stuff at the dartboard and seeing what sticks yeah, I'm.
Speaker 1:Next year I'm going to make more of a push on the marketing um website and things like that that I haven't built yet. I've just been putting out clips and things like that onto the social media site. So I'm hoping that next year I have some pretty good plans in place to help that go. And actually one of the things I wanted to do while I'm traveling is a food blog. Yes, obviously people love food right.
Speaker 2:And so I think that, in addition to my podcast.
Speaker 1:right, that should draw, drive more people to the show. So yeah.
Speaker 2:So when I first started out it was like I said, just a quick little social media account. It wasn't supposed to be anything, um. And then my son was like, hey, you know, you wrote some things. I threw stuff stuffed out in like journals and stuff over the years and he was like, why don't you throw those out as blogs? And I did, and that's kind of what has been really driving everybody to me now is you know those search results and you know type in life, love and travel like pops right up. So, funny note though I don't really I haven't told a single. Like none of my personal people know that I'm actually running this podcast.
Speaker 2:So everybody who has found me, has all been outside of my, my own network and it wasn't anything. Yeah, I just, you know there's a lot of haters out there, so I didn't really want to go that route. I figured I would try to do it as as naturally and organically as possible, and that's kind of where I'm at right now. So a lot of my good friends so quote unquote don't even know that I'm doing this.
Speaker 1:So the um. The interesting thing I've found is you're right, there are a lot of haters out there and I had three or four real close friends real close friends about a month or month and a half ago, kind of all at the same time texting me your podcast is really good, and I think I've had a lot of people that aren't in my network that have said, hey, keep going with this podcast, it's really good stuff. And so when they sent it my friends sent it. I was like you know.
Speaker 2:I think it is good right now.
Speaker 1:It's new, we're in our fourth or fifth month right now. I think right now what we've done has been really good and it's going to continue to get better. But I think their messages came from a different spot. Their messages came from a little like poking a little bit, a little bit of a little bit of envy, and you can feel it, and so I think sometimes yeah, you're better off, I didn't tell anyone. I was doing it until I started putting out TikToks, and then they found you right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they found me and this guy that I I know we were in another business together in the furniture business back in the day and this guy just he was just really an envious. There was like this group of really jealous guys that they almost brought the entire company we were working for to its knees.
Speaker 2:I mean, they were that it didn't have anything to do with me.
Speaker 1:It was just, they were that, you know, just toxic people and um, but they were powerful enough in the company, within the company, that they they almost brought it to its knees. And so when one guy sent me a message about the podcast, I know exactly where he found out about my podcast too, because I see who you know, you see on tiktok, who's looking at your clips right yeah and there's one guy who was one of the toxic guys had seen my clip and he so the other third party guy told me some weird place that he found my podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm like I know it's a lie. He found out from this other dude.
Speaker 2:You were peeping on me, man, it's okay.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean these guys like they don't have anything to do and they think on one track, and so then when you start doing something that's creative or different, I think it makes people nervous. Who the hell does she think she is?
Speaker 2:Right. Yeah, that's exactly the pushback and honestly, I was more afraid that I would get negative feedback from people who were close to me than I was about strangers. For whatever reason, it seems easier to put myself out in front of my, in front of perfect strangers, than it is in front of my friends and family and it's.
Speaker 2:you know, they can be negative, but I feel like sometimes they're they're overly negative and I can't let those thoughts get into my head because if they do, then I'll never be successful. So this way I don't have to worry about it. If they find me, they find me. Otherwise, hey, I'm just going to enjoy it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and like a lot of people in your close network, they don't. The only thing that a lot of people understand is getting up in the morning, going to a job, work and getting money going home eating dinner but that's it.
Speaker 2:They don't think outside the box.
Speaker 1:So they wonder why you did Right Right, and I've had that same problem with close family members. I've had to kind of push away and really close. Your friends are the worst.
Speaker 2:You find out that your friends are all your friends. Yes, exactly yeah. People will show their true colors when, when they see you being more successful than them.
Speaker 1:So we're just not even more successful, but just doing something that's outside of the norm that's who?
Speaker 2:yeah, exactly, yeah I get me down to a nine to five. I just can't do it. It's not in me, it's miserable right and I don't even care if someone.
Speaker 1:if someone goes to work at nine and gets off at five, and when they get to 80, they have more money than me, I don't care. Yeah, that's, if someone goes to work at nine and gets off at five, and when they get to 80, they have more money than me, I don't care.
Speaker 2:That's the way I look at it. I don't even know if I'm going to make it to 80. So why am I saving for that? I don't even want to.
Speaker 1:You know, I don't even care. I think I want to do that and you know if, if they have one hundred million dollars and I've been to 180 countries and have 180 really cool stories, I win in my mind.
Speaker 2:I agree 100%. Yeah, no, money doesn't mean as much to me as those memories that I get to take and, no matter what, nobody can take those from me. That's right.
Speaker 1:And the freedom right, living a life with complete freedom. I think it's a big deal. Let me ask you do you think we missed anything on the show, that on this interview that you would like to get out there?
Speaker 2:Anything important that you'd like people to hear. No, actually, I think you nailed everything. We talked about all the little crevices and inside of life, love and travel. So, yeah, I think we're good.
Speaker 1:How do people reach out to you if they're interested in your services?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my website is probably the easiest way to get ahold of me. You can just Google life, love and travel. I should be the first one that pops up. Beyond that, you can definitely find me on YouTube at the podcast Beachside Banter Beachside Banter with Bea. I don't even know why I can't talk right now.
Speaker 1:Beachside. Banter with Bea, I'll help you out.
Speaker 2:I can't say my own thing. My words are just getting jumbled. Facebook, I'm on Instagram Threads, Twitter, you name it, or X, now I guess Anywhere you can find me anywhere.
Speaker 1:I really wish he wouldn't have changed the name of.
Speaker 2:Twitter. It's still going to be Twitter to me, no matter what I know. I mean I love Elon.
Speaker 1:Musk. I'm a massive fan of that guy. I love him Like every man in the world wants to be that guy and we can't be. He's like a once in a generation guy. Why the hell he changed from Twitter to X? It's the only thing that that guy's done in his entire career that I feel I have the right to question.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I agree. I do know that he's trying to do like X-mail and that sort of thing. So I don't know if the X was supposed to like mimic the G from Google maybe. I don't know. That's what I'm giving him, I just don't like it.
Speaker 1:Look, I hope he hears this, because I love the guy, I love you, I hate next.
Speaker 2:I'm not a fan of it either. I'll be honest with you, no matter what it'll always be Twitter. I'm always going to call him tweeting. I know I know Well, hey, thank you.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on. I think it was incredible and hopefully we can connect down the road and if you get to a point where you want to, you know, have someone on your show about talk about South America. I could possibly be your guy.
Speaker 2:I was already thinking it definitely, and I will definitely need to pick your brain too, because it sounds like you've been to some really cool locations that I'd like to know about too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think with the South America travel for me. I think you could probably do multiple shows if you really wanted to travel for me. I think you could probably do multiple shows if you really wanted to.
Speaker 2:It's going to be hard for you to tie all of that into one show because I've done the majority of South America and that's awesome.
Speaker 1:Most of the time when I go, I'm staying long term, like in Brazil. Went there for the first time for a week. I stayed eight months, you know. The second time I went back for another six months and I just keep's awesome. So you get to know all kinds of little nooks and crannies that you're not going to get out of a week vacation, right, peru's another one. I mean some of those experiences in Peru, I mean you could talk all day just about the places to eat in Peru, right, you could have an hour-long podcast just on.
Speaker 1:Where can?
Speaker 2:I eat in.
Speaker 1:Peru.
Speaker 2:Have you been to Chile yet?
Speaker 1:I haven't done Chile and I'll be fair, I really don't want to.
Speaker 2:Okay, that's fair.
Speaker 1:I know that sounds. Look if someone calls. If someone called me up tomorrow and said, matt, I have you a free flight to Chile, we're going to go down there and you're going to have a hotel and a flight and all that paid for.
Speaker 2:I'm going to go. I'll be on the plane, well yeah, but for whatever.
Speaker 1:for whatever reason, and there's no reason, there's no negative or I don't have anything negative at all about Peru or about Chile, it's just not one of those places that I've ever been.
Speaker 2:Like you know, I really want to go there. Yeah, I think it'd be really neat, though, cause it's a bunch of different. I mean, you go from super hot to super cold. As someone from Missouri, I totally get that. We have the absolute worst weather ever. It's totally bipolar.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it sounds like science issues for me. So I don't know. I mean I'm sure I'll get there one day. I mean South America. You know, I've spent 18 years of my life living, traveling, doing business here. There will be a day where I just end up in Chile for some reason. But I don't think it's going to be because I sit around and plan it out.
Speaker 2:Got it. That makes sense.
Speaker 1:It's just you know. I'm sure you have those places where you're like okay, everyone likes it, but I just don't want, I just don't care, right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I'll. I'll be honest with you. Mexico I think that's why I haven't made it there yet is because that's kind of on my list. I think it's just because everybody's been there. And you know, I just I'm looking for more of like the places where people haven't been that I could talk about, type thing.
Speaker 1:Well, I think you're right about Mexico. Every everyone under the sun. When an American says I'm really going to go on a vacation, it's Mexico. They feel like they've really done something going to Cancun and staying in a resort. You fly into Cancun to do those resorts. I hate making fun of how people travel, because that can be a gateway.
Speaker 2:I always say no matter what it was for me, Absolutely.
Speaker 1:Any travel trip you take could be a gateway to who knows what, to what you and I do now, um, but when people go to cancun, like 13 times, you know they all of a sudden they're going to cancun like every year. We love cancun, it's awesome down there, you know, um, and I'm like it's not really traveling like when you really talk to true travel guys. You, you fly Delta, first class maybe, or whatever coach class, even into the Cancun airport. You walk out, go through immigration, some dude's holding a sign going, hey, we're over here, right, and then you follow him out and you hop in the limo or his really nice air conditioned van. He drives you to the resort and you never leave the resort. For the entire week you didn't even see Cancun, nope.
Speaker 2:You just saw the resort yeah.
Speaker 1:It's not a vacation, no. So but going back to what you said about not wanting to go to a place where a lot of people go, there are a lot of places in Mexico, like if you went to Mexico City, you're going to have very, very few friends in your friendship circle that can say they've been to Mexico city.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I bet, and I've heard of like some really cool like beach towns towards the South of Mexico, um, that a lot of people are talking about. Well, not a lot of people, but some people who are more into like the, the cultural immersion, that type of thing they've. They've talked about it and I'm like, okay, maybe I could go there, because nobody's really been there and that sort of thing.
Speaker 2:But yeah, I just I really enjoy. I mean, don't get me wrong, I've, I've been all inclusive. You know, my very first trip out of the country was Punta Cana, all inclusive. We did exactly what you said. We got to the resort, we hung out there, we ate at the resort the entire time. I think we did a one excursion on a party boat or something like that, and that was basically the end of it.
Speaker 2:But to me, I felt like I was missing a lot. I felt like there was, you know, I wasn't really exploring, I wasn't really eating the food, I wasn't doing any of that stuff. So when we took our next trip over to Jamaica, we did another all inclusive. I was like, hey, we're not eating the food here every single day, we're going to go out, we're going to venture out. And then it slowly developed into okay, well, now I want to stay in Airbnb.
Speaker 2:I don't really want to hit a hotel. I will if I have points for it, but I prefer to stay in, you know, someplace that's like in the middle of a neighborhood, or just try to immerse myself absolutely as much as possible. And that, I feel like, is when I know for sure that you know I feel more fulfilled when I leave. I also try to like do a little bit of volunteer work while I'm there as well. You know I'll try to do like four hours or so where I walk dogs or, you know, clean out cages or something like that, just while I'm there. So I feel like I'm also trying to give back and bridge the gap between the Americans and the people like the locals, and they don't really really like we don't normally respect them and we don't normally have that because we don't do the research and that sort of thing. So I'm trying to try to bring that to everybody so that they start to travel more with a purpose and a meaning and that sort of thing.
Speaker 1:so yeah, yeah, um, I can't tell you how many Americans in fact, are you still there? Did we cut out? Yeah, no, you're good, okay, there, did we cut out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, you're good.
Speaker 1:Okay, cool, I thought we cut out for a second. I meet a lot of Americans. In fact, I was just in Brazil for six months and I was in Rio. I've been there long enough. Once you stay in the same neighborhood for enough time in a foreign country, people start to recognize you. You're the only white American dude that keeps showing up every day and orders the same thing, and you're trying your best to learn the language and then, all of a sudden, they see you progressing through the language.
Speaker 1:You went from not even being able to order a coffee to now I can have a conversation. So now they start respecting you as a different type of person. You're not just a regular tourist, right, and you know, and Rio de Janeiro is a huge tourist city, but if you get off the beaten path and stay for a while, they'll start accepting you as more of a local, and that's kind of what had started happening to me. That's where I learned that it was just recently that it hit me.
Speaker 1:But I was in a place that I've been to many times. I went to use the restroom. I had to walk behind the counter where everyone paid and to come back out and there's this American guy. That's like she doesn't speak English. I don't know what she's trying to tell me. All she was trying to tell him was that she didn't have change for the bill. Could he pay with a card or could he get change and come back? That's all she was trying to say. And he's like in her face like I have cash. Why don't you take cash? What are you talking about?
Speaker 1:And he's flipping out, she doesn't speak English and like, because I walked out of the bathroom, I was like, sir, is there any way I can help you? Because I do speak some Portuguese and I understand Portuguese, you know really, really well, Almost 100% by this time.
Speaker 1:It wasn't that way in the beginning but now I understand it really well and I can communicate. But this guy didn't communicate in any. He had no Portuguese and she had no English. So I, kind of just to be nice, became the mediator, and also I didn't want my country to look like a bunch of assholes, if I could.
Speaker 2:That's it Right. If I could fix it right.
Speaker 1:And so this guy was being a complete ass, completely, and I was like, sir, can I help you? And he's like, sorry, sorry about using that word. I hope I didn't offend you with what I was saying. You're good. Anyway, yeah, so this guy's like dude she doesn't speak any English and I'm like, bro, you're in Brazil, but they don't have to speak English here. They speak Portuguese here. And he said well, I need somebody to speak English.
Speaker 2:I'm like you're going to have to fly back, bro Right get out of here. You're in the wrong place.
Speaker 1:You're either going to have to speak to me and tell me what your problem is, because I speak English, or you're going to have to fly back. You have two options, and so I helped this guy out. But the point is I meet those people all the time and you know, it's just. It's embarrassing when people like you and I try to go to a place and represent our country in a good way and then you see a bunch of assholes like this. You start to understand why the rest of the world thinks we're assholes.
Speaker 2:It's, it becomes very blatant right, one hundred percent, yes. So that's why I'm hoping that you know people will hear the podcast. They'll start to kind of, you know, maybe we can make that a movement. Let's make like cultural immersion of movement where we actually like get people on board when they they start to dig into these countries and learn about them and what they need to learn before they actually just hop on a plane and head over there. Because it really does. It makes it makes all of us look bad. They all hate us. They go out of their way to help us. They hate us and I just I. I personally it drives me crazy because there's no reason for any of that. Like, part of the travel and part of the trip is learning what they're trying to tell you and what they're trying to say to you and having patience. You're supposed to be flexible on a vacation. You cannot go on a vacation and be impatient. I'm sorry, it'll never work out for you.
Speaker 1:Well, I think one of the things, one of the many things that creates that impatience is number one. We come from a culture where everything's very fast right there's, and I'm not trying to change that, I think, like American culture, has it figured out when it comes to many, many things.
Speaker 1:But when, when you're used to that and you're working 53, 54 weeks per year at that speed and then all of a sudden, all you have seven days to pick up and go to Brazil, which is nine hours in flight time away, you're flying for 18 hours of your seven days. So one day is just a little bit more than one day by the time you get to the airport and all that.
Speaker 1:One and one and a half days is just traveling and you only have five and a half days to enjoy that. The first couple of days you spend exhausted because you're you just flew nine hours, right. And so you're trying to get 75 tourist spots in in five days, right. You're trying to go to every tourist spot in the whole city because you're scared to death. You're never going to be able to come back to this place.
Speaker 2:That is true, yes, so you maintain this like?
Speaker 1:speed that you would you know, New York city speed and Brazil, where they don't even know what that is. They just chill yeah. So it's just, I don't know. It just doesn't. It's hard to get someone that only has seven days vacation into that mindset.
Speaker 2:I mean, I get it, but you're still being, you know, giving us a bad name and all that stuff. So that's all.
Speaker 1:Well, I think I think we are, you know, to your point of trying to create a movement.
Speaker 2:I think you and I are probably doing that without knowing that we're doing it, I hope so I think that just if yeah, if this type of content can get out there, um, but just if yeah, if this type of content can get out there.
Speaker 1:I think there's a lot here to learn from people or for people and yeah, hopefully those are value adds that we're bringing to the world without knowing it.
Speaker 2:Fingers crossed for sure, awesome.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of Matt Chambers Connects. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes where we'll dive deeper into these two fascinating worlds. If you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe to our YouTube channel, matt Chambers Connects. You can also find us on Spotify, apple Podcasts, youtube Music and many other major podcast platforms, so you don't miss a show. Also, please join us on our social media channels so you can connect with other listeners and ask your most pressing questions and also tell us what types of guests you'd like to see on the show. Thanks again and I'll see you next time. Thank you.