Mary Charleson, Everyday Women, and Pursuing Serendipity

Host: Nicole
Guest: Mary Charleson – Marketing Strategist, Speaker, Travel Writer, and Founder of Five Minute Marketing and Carry On Queen

✨ Episode Summary

In this soulful episode of Hello Moxie, Nicole sits down with the ever-curious and adventurous Mary Charleson. From their first conversation at Mark Schaefer’s Uprising Retreat to deep reflections on curiosity, content creation, motherhood, and multigenerational influence, this episode is an homage to pursuing serendipity and lifelong creativity.

Mary shares how she built two seemingly separate brands—Five Minute Marketing, a consultancy for marketing strategy and speaking, and Carry On Queen, her passion-fueled travel writing platform—and how the pandemic led her to beautifully merge them at the intersection of travel, content, and communication.

Through heartfelt stories about her trailblazing mother, quiet leadership role models, and serendipitous travel moments, Mary invites us to embrace our own “weaving journey” and find the magic in curiosity, sketching, disconnection, and reflection.

💡 In This Episode, You’ll Learn:

• Why Mary still reads the Globe and Mail in print—and what it says about her mindset.
• The origin stories behind Five Minute Marketing and Carry On Queen.
• How COVID helped her unite two passions into one unique professional path.
• What it means to live a multigenerational legacy of strength, courage, and quiet leadership.
• Tips for staying grounded in a hyper-digital world—and how to rediscover presence while traveling.
• How sketching during travel helped Mary connect more deeply with people, places, and stories.
• Why serendipity is one of life’s most powerful teachers.

🧭 Connect with Mary Charleson

📍 Website – Marketing Strategy & Speaking:
Five Minute Marketing
📍 Website – Travel Inspiration & Storytelling:
Carry On Queen

📬 Newsletter Signup:

• Weekly(ish) insights via Five Minute Marketing Newsletter
• Monthly travel writing gems at Carry On Queen Newsletter

🌍 Follow her travel + marketing musings:

• LinkedIn - Mary Charleson
• Instagram – @carryonqueen

🧡 Quotable Moxie Moments

“Being open to serendipity is a huge part of remaining curious.”
 – Mary Charleson“You won’t walk a straight line—and you’re not supposed to. That weaving journey is what makes a rich life.”
 – Mary to her younger self

🎧 Listen + Subscribe

Catch more inspiring conversations on Hello Moxie—where every step into discomfort is proof of your moxie.

Special bonus from Mary:  Mary prepared a special guide to embracing serendipity just for our Moxie Members.  Sign up for our newsletter to get Mary's deep dive: https://hellomoxie.us/member-registration/

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Transcript

Nicole (00:00.903)
Hello and welcome to Hello Moxie. Today I am so delighted to be joined by Mary Charlson. Mary and I met last year, it's been almost a year ago now that we met at Mark Schaeffer's Uprising, which is a marketing retreat that he hosts twice a year in beautiful Knoxville, Tennessee. And we sat together the first night at dinner and I was just so enamored by Mary. I'll never forget.

Mary Charleson (00:12.238)
Crazy. Yeah.

Nicole (00:28.669)
her sharing with me, she's probably not gonna remember this, but one of the things she shared is that she likes to still get the newspaper, and I can't remember which one it is, but she has it delivered, the paper version of the newspaper every Sunday, because she likes to force herself to read things that she wouldn't normally choose for herself or that social media wouldn't feed to her. And I was just like, I just thought that was such a brilliant.

cool thing and says a lot about Mary and who she is. So, but anyway, I digress. I would love to turn it over to Mary and Mary, maybe you can give a little bit of background to our listeners about who you are and you're a very Renaissance woman. So tell our listeners.

Mary Charleson (01:11.064)
Oops, sorry, we're just going to put that into silent mode. Bad timing. All the other prep that we did, I forgot to turn off my ringer. I know, that's honest to God, that sounds almost as old school as my newspaper experience.

Nicole (01:15.418)
That's how it goes.

Nicole (01:22.673)
No worries at all. It's nice to hear that ringer. It's been a while since I've heard a ringer like that, right?

Nicole (01:34.407)
I love a little nostalgia.

Mary Charleson (01:34.498)
Incidentally, it was the Globe and Mail. I am Canadian, Globe and Mail on Saturday, but I actually am a fairly regular reader of the New York Times as well. And so being a good Canadian, I try to spread around BBC, you name it, but yeah. So my background, well, I mean, I've made my living in my life as a marketing strategist and my website, fiveminutemarketing.com.

Nicole (01:49.673)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (02:01.768)
is where I've done marketing consulting, speaking, writing for the last 20, gosh, almost 25 plus years. And we'll get into it later in the conversation, I'm sure. But in around 2018, I launched a second brand, because what do overachievers do? They decide to go for two brands called CarryOnQueen.com. And it was...

Nicole (02:25.437)
I'm right there with you, Mary.

Mary Charleson (02:31.238)
based on the premise that I never checked a bag, never have, never will for travel or for pleasure travel. And so I'd always written kind of for media on the side, travel writing. was kind of my second passion. And so I decided to do a little bit more with that and develop that. And that's sort of where I'm finding opportunity at the cross-section of the two brands, speaking about marketing to the travel industry, but really also

of focusing on developing out the content creation on the travel side and working with DMOs. I'm bridging two brands at this stage. I think that would be fair to say.

Nicole (03:08.585)
I love it, you're forging your own path and doing it your own way and what a beautiful way to like bring those two brands together. That's so exciting, very exciting.

Mary Charleson (03:11.308)
Yes. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (03:20.386)
Well, it is curious in that I didn't honestly like the second brand, sort of kind of, I didn't even put it on my LinkedIn profile initially, because I thought I don't want to confuse people because I was working in marketing and then it's like, well, I'm writing. It's like, my God, what are you doing, Mary? And it was COVID that really brought them together because coming out of the pandemic, the travel industry had been beaten down and I saw opportunity there for helping them with

all sudden they had new audiences that you were speaking to, right? The domestic travel, you had very different products that you were offering. And there was a lot of changes and shifts that were going on. And so I saw opportunity there, was invited to speak down in Las Vegas to the Las Vegas Travel Agents Forum. It's one of the largest kind of conferences for travel agents in the US. And that was kind of the beginning of uniting.

kind of finding opportunity at the intersection of the two brands. And that's something I continue to do. I've been speaking there every year for the last four years. Yeah.

Nicole (04:22.173)
I love.

Nicole (04:27.195)
I that. I was at my daughter's theater showcase in January. She's such a theater buff. And she was in this competition in Atlanta in January. And one of the panelists that we heard speak happened to be, he grew up doing musical theater. He had a beautiful voice, beautiful singing voice. sang for us, but he also was a neuroscientist.

Mary Charleson (04:35.246)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole (04:50.569)
So he, you know, he still did musical theater, but his main passion was, you know, in neuroscience. And he said, we live in multitudes. And I thought that was so beautiful. I think this is like a really, like you're a great example of that. Like sometimes I think, you know, we may feel like we're just, need our identity is around one thing, but I think it's so beautiful to just embrace the multitudes in our life as women and as people. And I think that you've really been able to do that so well with these two brands.

Mary Charleson (05:00.429)
Hmm.

Mary Charleson (05:14.157)
Hmm.

Nicole (05:19.911)
and make it part of like, really just owning those multitudes and making it more of like a holistic broadening, if you will, of who you are.

Mary Charleson (05:27.182)
Yeah, well, it's, it's, I mean, I love building things and, but I, and, it's just, it's just curious to create, you know, that, that the notion of creating something that didn't exist and, know, and being able to then help, you know, help your, the people that, know, target audience, your clients in the case of marketing, case of writing, it's, you know, inspiring.

Nicole (05:31.081)
Hmm.

Mary Charleson (05:55.478)
an audience to visit destinations, but it's also in this, as I said, this weird way, also helping DMOs, right, through content creation in terms of writing, but approaching it from the perspective of like, I get this, I've worked in marketing for last 25 plus years, I understand what you're doing, but I also understand the division of kind of, we used to call it church and state, editorial and sales. They're a whole lot more together these days, but...

Nicole (06:22.781)
They are, aren't they? Yeah.

Mary Charleson (06:24.558)
But I do understand the traditional role of both of those departments and the ethics of how they shouldn't necessarily cross pollinate too much. anyway, so I can bring a whole lot of history to that, to DMOs if I'm working with them. But a lot of the content that I write on the site is for, it's paid editorial. It's not collaboration and placement.

There's a mix.

Nicole (06:55.227)
Yeah. Well, I consider you to be such a like adventurous woman. I mean, it's just so remarkable the way that you choose to live and how you travel. I mean, you will you've you've ice skated on Lake Louise. You've hiked to yeah, you've hiked to much like and when I think of Lake Louise, traditionally, I think of Lake Louise in the summer. So right. So I think you're just you take you have this really cool

Mary Charleson (07:10.638)
You saw my toast. Right. Of course. Right.

Nicole (07:22.863)
non-traditional way of seeing and exploring the world. Like ice skating on Lake Louise, hiking to Machu Picchu, fishing in Belize, learning to surf in the Dominican, like, I just think you're extremely curious and adventurous. And I really admire that about you. And I wonder, like, are you really disciplined about feeding your curiosity? Like, do you have routines or practices to cultivate that? is it just like this organic essence of you that you just spontaneously just...

duo.

Mary Charleson (07:53.88)
Well, you I think we could go kind of down the travel rabbit hole, but I do think that travel causes you to be curious because you're in new locations, you're meeting new people, there's new cultures, you're breaking your usual patterns to new patterns, you're learning to see new viewpoints of people, you're more tolerant, know, all of those things,

you understand differences. All of those things make you naturally curious about people, about life, locations. And it also, in an interesting way, it makes you open to serendipity. And I think that's something that maybe we could use a little bit more in our day-to-day lives, not necessarily needing to be open to serendipity and just travel. But it's those moments where you leave, and not everybody's like this when they travel. A lot of people schedule it regimented and not,

Nicole (08:52.765)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (08:52.948)
I love a good schedule, love a good spreadsheet, but I also love these open, deliberately planning for open time periods where if you happen to meet this person yesterday and they're in the cafe and they're chatting up and they mentioned that there's this farmers market that it's at this local town and yeah, my aunt who does these things is carving or whatever, like there's something there and you go, okay, I think there might be a really interesting story there. But you've left the time to do that.

Nicole (08:55.849)
Hahaha!

Mary Charleson (09:22.798)
I do think that being open to serendipity is a huge part of remaining curious. One interesting thing I've started to do in my travels and that I've used it to complement my blog content is I started sketching. Another, you talk about sort of rediscovering your old passions. Back in my undergrad,

I actually did a minor in fine arts. And so I did a lot of sketching. It's something that I've kind of hung up. I haven't really done a lot since. Part of it is just busy life, career, raising kids. But I started sketching at locations. And what it does is it forces you to look at things in more detail. So I'll give you an example. We just normally snap a photo and

but when you're sketching, you're having to focus in on little details. And so an example that we were, we were in Italy and so it was in Siena and I was sketching around this, this square and I'm like, there's these, I don't know, like, like circle things to like tie ups and then like these little things, almost like big candle holders. I, I focused in on those and I asked, started asking curious questions later about what these things were. And apparently it was for, you know, centuries ago when, you know,

they'd ride in on a horse with a torch. So it was a place to put the torch and it was also a place to hitch the horse. But it was up high because the person was doing it while they were sitting on the horse. That's a detail you would never have zeroed in on if you just snap the photo. Another cool example is when we were in Croatia, I in Hvar, or I guess Hvar is what the locals call it. And I was sketching and there's a couple of

Nicole (10:47.625)
you

Nicole (10:55.323)
Yes.

Mary Charleson (11:09.878)
know, kind of gen zeds. were just kind of, I could see they were, they were mucking around taking some photos, you know, kind of like this, this, whatever. And it's like, my god, they're probably getting the best photos ever. But I'm sketching away. And I just made some offhanded comment to them that looks like you're kind of like doing a little photo shoot for Mamma Mia. And they're like, my god, you noticed, right? And there's this whole thing around Viz and you the islands out there that they filmed some of the old Mamma Mia movie.

Nicole (11:29.363)
You

Mary Charleson (11:37.378)
But then she came over and she was sort looking at what I was doing and the sketching. And there's this whole conversation that started. And I'm convinced that we wouldn't have had this conversation if it hadn't been for sketching. she was asking, so it's just this back and forth. And she was saying, that's so cool. It's like, you're not taking photos. You're looking at things. And so that's where I learned that, they're in their 20s. They just finished university.

They'd met up from people that were from across the Americans, met from different states. They were traveling. Like, I probably knew more than what their mom knew about them at that stage, just by an interaction with them briefly on their travels prompted by sketching. bringing that back to curiosity is doing things sometimes when we're traveling a little bit different that

that take us away from our lives that are so devoted to screens, social media, producing content to share in the moment. And now I'm taking that back and I'm putting it within my blog posts and then I talk about not just there's the visual, but I talk about the experience that happened around the creation of the image, which I don't know. I don't think anybody else is doing that in blog content, honestly. I don't know if there's, it's just, I'm doing it just to see

of it it's very personal. just, I just it's kind of enjoyable but I'm hoping that readers also might find that really interesting. So you'll start to see more of that show up in my my European content which I'm still, I'm still getting, still putting it out there. It takes a while to to get blog posts created especially when you're writing for other media.

Nicole (13:07.721)
Yeah.

Nicole (13:29.853)
I just think that's so lovely what you just shared about kind of like you're using your hands to sketch out and the detail that you see. It's such a sensory, like a full sensory experience to draw that way. Like I don't draw, but I imagine that it would be, know, sometimes I like to paint casually and I still love to write with a pen and paper. Love it. I think there's something about the sensory act.

Mary Charleson (13:50.601)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole (13:56.411)
of using your hands and experiencing the world in that way that we need more of frankly. know, like it's the thing that makes us so human is that we have the ability to see with our eyes and with our fingers and our hands and use all of our senses to experience the world. It's what separates us from AI. And I just think like that's beautiful, a beautiful example for

Mary Charleson (14:03.128)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (14:15.288)
Mm-hmm.

Right, right, right.

Nicole (14:23.589)
us to really like, how can we lean into more of those kinds of experiences going forward? Because it's that that's going to separate us from the bots, you know, like those kind of things.

Mary Charleson (14:30.254)
Well, yeah, and I think being curious, I honestly I think you have to be consciously you have to take yourself out of the feed, out of the algorithm and be curious. I mean, circling back to that your initial introduction to me, it's part of the reason why I enjoy the newspaper experience is that I stumble on to things that I might not have found otherwise. And it keeps me open to new ideas, other people's

Nicole (14:44.233)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (14:58.882)
thoughts, opinions. Same thing with reading, right? Being an active reader, you know, listening to different podcasts, right? mean, you know, on Hello Moxie for starters, right? But it just expands your horizon, exposes you to new things. You know, I think that's all part of being curious as well. My daughter shared with me, it was called The Life Impossible. It's a book by Matt

Nicole (15:10.269)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (15:27.15)
H-A-I-G, Hague, I guess it is. And it's about this woman who, it's an older woman who gets this mysterious letter that she's inherited some property over in Europe. And it's her adventure of going over there and sort of coming at the point when she thought her life was sort of winding down, how it actually kind of starts to really get exciting and adventurous. I'm only just that my daughter was home visiting from university on

in January and she said, haven't you finished it yet? And I said, my God, I'm so sorry, Pat. She said, like, I did it in one sitting, right? And I started to get into it. I get busy, but I just, like, it's, you know, just again, would I have picked it up? I don't know, but my daughter recommended it. you know, and what's really interesting about that, she's like 22, is that she's sort of annotated some things that she thought were really cool within the book. And then for me then to read the book,

Nicole (16:01.257)
you

Mary Charleson (16:25.538)
but then understanding, OK, why did she think this was interesting? There's just some really interesting insights that you get. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So.

Nicole (16:31.497)
Yeah, it's like a point of connection. Yeah, way to connect with her and to see her in a different way. That's really special. that's so cool. I love, I remember I was reading one of your articles and one you shared about when you were hiking through Machu Picchu and it kind of relates to this. You said this beautiful disconnect during our four days trekking was only fully appreciated.

Mary Charleson (16:46.026)
Ha

Nicole (16:58.905)
once we were tossed back into the crowds at Machu Picchu where selfie sticks and the drive to post and share seemed ever present.

Mary Charleson (17:00.366)
Mmm.

Mary Charleson (17:07.553)
my god. Yeah. Yeah.

Nicole (17:13.097)
Yeah, that really resonated with me because I find I get sucked in. I'm a marketer and I know you're a social media marketer and I find myself sucked into, got to create content. I've got to share this. I've got to take the perfect picture. I've got to look beautiful for the picture that I'm going to share on the social media and it's got to be all, and it's exhausting, Mary. And so I read that and it felt, I read that and it just hit me at my core. Like, how do you recommend?

Mary Charleson (17:19.458)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (17:30.158)
Mmm.

Mary Charleson (17:35.835)
It is, yeah.

Nicole (17:42.131)
What do you recommend for us? We're so tied to this digital world, all of us, wherever we are in our lives. How do you recommend that we kind of ground ourselves and find some balance? And I think you've shared a lot about curiosity, which I think is huge. And using our senses and making sure we're taking time to just surprise ourselves and serendipity, I think is huge. But do you have any other advice about how to like, not get so tied to the, what am I gonna share today?

Mary Charleson (17:54.222)
Hmm.

Mary Charleson (18:04.558)
grounding ourselves.

Mary Charleson (18:10.286)
turn this thing off. You know, I mean, as you you read that, I remember that experience, was it was, it's actually one of the biggest growing travel trends right now is this idea of going somewhere where you can completely disconnect. And there's a reason for that, right? Like we're human beings. This is we're the largest social experiment that has that has happened in some time in terms of

Nicole (18:11.593)
That's a great yeah.

Nicole (18:28.583)
Mm, yeah.

Mary Charleson (18:40.108)
what it's doing to our connection or disconnection with others, being so tangled up in our phones. that experience of being unplugged was remarkable because it did a couple of things. forced you, like you're having conversations. You couldn't go on your phone because we had no connection.

there was you had an excuse to not be posting and all of sudden it was was it was okay it was beautiful so i mean how do we create that now you know it's it's easier said than done obviously is you know it you can't just walk away from your phone because that's i mean it's just very highly impractical

but trying to be more disciplined about it for sure. I often find when I, if I post content, mean, like this next series of seven days, I've been posting some things around travel in Canada. And so when you've got things scheduled, you tend to go back in there because as Richard Bliss says on LinkedIn, you got to make sure you comment back. And so if when you're posting things in the morning, right?

Nicole (19:51.795)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (20:04.238)
it's going to litter throughout your day. Yeah. Yeah, because it's that, you're living your in real life moments and then you're living the threads that you've created of conversational threads.

Nicole (20:08.393)
It's going to litter throughout your day.

Mary Charleson (20:24.502)
through your social media feeds, through your WhatsApp chat groups with your, know, and some of that's fun, right? You know, in in the middle of a meeting, it's really great to see a notification from girlfriends who are asking, you know, who's doing the dinner planning for Friday at the, the, know, on our ski holiday. It's like, my God, I have a life, right. I don't know if I really have any sage advice around that other than I have made a conscious choice.

Nicole (20:30.313)
Yeah.

Nicole (20:37.801)
Yeah.

Yes

Absolutely.

Mary Charleson (20:54.03)
on my and it was liberating. was recent travel I was down in Costa Rica for it was kind of part work part pleasure. was speaking at the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers Conference and but I went in a week early and went over and did some surfing over in Tamarindo and did some traveling around there and did that for the week before.

And then it was like my two lives, right? I stayed at a hostel over on the coast surfing. got my, I do have my limits though. stayed in the couple's room by myself, right? It's just like, I'm not doing the top of the bunk anymore. Like I'm done with it. Those days are over. But I had my own room and, but I loved the social interaction in the kitchen facilities. But it was like night and day. I went from there that I went to like, you know, the Mary.

in San Jose for my professional life. where was I going with this? For that whole week, I didn't post. I just deliberately didn't post. And then I did a summary post at the end of each segment. So I did a summary post at the end of kind of the freewheel and Mary driving around Costa Rica, hiking around, you know,

Nicole (21:59.049)
And you decided that before you went. You said, I am not gonna post.

Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (22:13.71)
volcanoes and checking out beaches and surfing. I did that one and then I did, you know, conference. Great to see all my pals back here. San Jose, you know, professional kind of speaker type post. And it was liberating to not feel as though you're compelled to create the content. What I decided, and I don't want to make this all about travel, but what I did decide

Nicole (22:41.533)
Yeah, it's okay. We can make it all about travel. I love travel.

Mary Charleson (22:43.062)
was what I did decide was I can do a much better job and detailed with thoughtful reflection than I can on the fly just for the sake of saying I was here. And to a certain extent also when you do that you're

don't know. You're kind of creating it. look at me. Aren't I special? I'm here. Too bad you're in the snow, right? Like I just, you know, I don't know. There's nothing wrong with that, but at the same time there's just a bit of a subtle undercurrent that goes with it. And I just feel better about I do a summary thing and then when I come back then I can do the content justice. And also by then I've thought, as I said, I've had a time to reflect on

What was meaningful about that experience? What could I share? And then get some more mileage on it, sharing it out on social media with an introduction, you know, a little bit more of a reflection. And here is what you might find meaningful about this piece. Then I've actually taken the images, the video, I've put it into video content that is deserving of your time, as opposed to taking three hours at night to plug all this stuff out when I...

have been in the bar conversing with my colleagues or I could have been downstairs making dinner in the hostel meeting people from all around the world. Those are conscious choices.

Nicole (24:17.415)
So true. I love that you said that you decided that in advance. I think that's really good advice. Because I mean, we're human and we want to and technology we're going to connect. We want to connect with people online. It's part of our lives. There's a part of us that has to embrace and accept that that's just the reality. But like we can set our own boundaries and be intentional about it. And I love what you shared there about reflection and having that time to reflect.

Mary Charleson (24:23.01)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (24:30.478)
Mm.

Mary Charleson (24:38.798)
Yes.

Nicole (24:45.201)
I took my daughter to a Bruno Mars concert in December. She loves Bruno Mars. And we went to this Bruno Mars concert and when we walked into the venue, they put our phones in these little pouches and locked them up.

Mary Charleson (24:49.88)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (24:58.126)
those apparently, I was listening, was it Michael Stelzner? There was some podcast, it wasn't Mark, it might've been Michael Stelzner, might've been, somebody was talking about the cell phone punches, right? Yeah.

Nicole (25:13.337)
Yeah. Yeah. And we were totally surprised. And I was like, oh my gosh, no phones, no pictures. So I was totally like kind of just thrown for a minute. But I'm telling you, that was the best, most beautiful gift because we were able to enjoy the concert and be fully present and engaged with all of our senses. And it was a completely different experience. And there's something about like

Mary Charleson (25:19.02)
Mm.

Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (25:29.773)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (25:35.79)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole (25:38.951)
The memories that you like, the memories I have from that concert, I feel are so much richer because I didn't have my phone in there capturing them. They're like in my brain and in my body, you know? I don't know. It was just such a special experience. And then afterwards we decided to sit down and write what we remembered, what we loved about the concert. And that was such a cool connecting activity for us. Like just, it was me and my sister and my daughter together and we're like, let's just write down. What do we love? What were the highlights?

Mary Charleson (25:44.588)
Mm-hmm. Mmm.

Mary Charleson (25:50.915)
Right.

Mary Charleson (25:57.762)
Mmm. Mmm.

Mary Charleson (26:03.17)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (26:07.502)
Hmm.

Nicole (26:08.935)
And it was such a beautiful, clarifying, connecting thing that we did to have it written down. And we would have never done that if we had brought our phones in there. I would have never thought to do that, you know? And I just thought, like, I just, I was grateful for that experience because it helped remind me of like, how important it is that we really try to like find the time to live in the moment where we can and put our phones away and be intentional about it how that changes.

Mary Charleson (26:14.894)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (26:19.47)
Right, yeah.

Mary Charleson (26:38.072)
Right, need more of that. We need more of that. Yeah.

Nicole (26:38.545)
our relationships and everything. Yeah, very cool. Man, I could talk to you all day, Mary. my gosh. Well, you know, on our show, we talk about like women in history and like, it's all about connecting to the women who've come before us and drawing inspiration and strength from those women and how they've inspired us. So I'd love to learn about who are the women in your life that you've looked up to?

Mary Charleson (26:52.686)
Hmm.

Nicole (27:06.985)
Maybe it's one every all of our guests have it's so it's so cool because nobody has ever shared the same person and I find that so Remarkable and cool and anyway, so who is who is a woman or women who've really inspired you? I'd love for you to share a story about them and your connection to them

Mary Charleson (27:13.037)
Hmm.

Mary Charleson (27:25.102)
Well, you it's interesting how you initially approached me kind of with the idea, would you come on? so I went back and I listened to some of as you said, some of your previous guests and stuff. I thought, you know, there's many women that I could potentially list off in history that are well known by others. But I asked you, would you have room for something that you would consider

sharing around the everyday women in our lives. Perhaps the unsung heroes, the ones that won't necessarily have books written about them or movies made, but who have made amazing impressions. so with that as the frame, if that's okay, that with the framework, and I hinted at this in our email exchange, but I...

Nicole (28:00.349)
Yes.

Nicole (28:11.753)
Yes!

Mary Charleson (28:21.518)
I mentioned that I'd had a rather unconventional upbringing. so that, you know, in my mom's story, and I'll just briefly kind of say this, because it was very unconventional in the 60s and 70s. I know I'm kind of like painting myself into an age category here, but my mom was a working mom. She was a teacher. She was a school principal. My dad was 19 years older. So she was the primary income earner.

Nicole (28:38.859)
Hahaha

Mary Charleson (28:51.284)
in the 60s and 70s. He was the stay at home, retired dad. And I grew up thinking that was normal. And so I witnessed an empowered female who was professional, who had income, who bought sports cars, took ski holidays, purchased them, or at least was the major decision maker for holidays.

She bought property, she flipped property, she had investments. And so I grew up thinking that was normal. And so I would say, well, yeah, but, and again, you kind of say that now and you go, okay, yeah, that's kind of, but no, that was not normal in the sixties and seventies. Like we're back into Leave It to Beaver, Fred Flintstone time category, right? And not to discount the role of my dad. My dad was also a bit of a Renaissance man ahead of his time.

Nicole (29:26.173)
That's a great normal. That's a great.

Mary Charleson (29:47.892)
in taking on that role, know, picking me up for lunch and, you know, and all of that kind of thing and, you know, being the dad that was around. But I think, you know, with what happened with my mom is that she wasn't aware of the power of influence that she had and she impacted

obviously myself, but I've also in sharing, I think you may have even seen it on the social media feed, I was approached by Trans Canada Trail to write an article about how I had bought a meter of trail, I was going say a mile, a meter of trail in BC. She had bought a meter of trail back in Ontario and we sort of talked about how this connected us. was the Trans Canada Trail is a walking trail all across Canada.

Nicole (30:20.841)
Cough cough

Mary Charleson (30:38.158)
So I wrote this story about it and what was interesting for me was the number of people that chimed in and it wasn't just on social media. I got texts, I got phone calls that to, because my mom has now passed since passed away, but the people who reconnected with me to say how much she had influenced their lives and primarily women, but there were a number of guys too, it was like,

female friends, cousins, other women, colleagues that said she was a role model, she was a trailblazer, and she was the adventurous spirit. so I think what that really, and I could say that independence perhaps really sort of helped me forge forward on entrepreneurship, even though she was a teacher, right? She was not an entrepreneur.

But it was that independence to create, to do things on your own, to like, there are no limits. Like, that's what girls do. You can create your own thing. But I think for me, what I really reflect on now, because she passed away in 2017 at the ripe old age of 93. So that was a life, life well lived. What that really impresses on me is we, us, you, Nicole.

Nicole (31:36.691)
Yeah.

Nicole (31:40.979)
Yeah, you can create your own path.

Nicole (31:53.339)
Wow, she had a beautiful life. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (32:04.206)
The role that we play in terms of our everyday lives and the influence that we have on other young women and young girls. They're watching. They're listening. know, and everything that we do. And you may not think of yourself as this charge forth change the world, you know, had a monument built about you later, but you are having a massive impact.

Nicole (32:28.516)
Hahaha

Mary Charleson (32:33.214)
And so that's what I take from what I in reflection, what I learned from her as having that influence on me. then honestly, it's my own personal responsibility then to take that as potentially my role moving forward for my daughter, for my other friends, colleagues, my son too, right? just, but you...

When you see another female do things, all of a sudden it is possible.

Nicole (33:05.011)
So true. We had another guest on the show share, Chris Harrington shared, if you can see it, you can be it. And as you were describing your mom, know, obviously Mary, you know, I don't know you intimately, but what I do know about you as you were describing your mom, I was like, my gosh, that sounds so much like Mary, you know, she's like a trailblazer, you know? But in a beautiful way, like, you know, you're obviously your own woman and you've carved your own unique path as an entrepreneur and you are Mary.

Mary Charleson (33:11.064)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (33:21.87)
Well, yeah, I know. I know a few people say apple tree, right? Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Mary Charleson (33:34.37)
Mm.

Nicole (33:34.739)
but like to see the influence of your mom and who you've become and kind of like shaping you, creating your own unique identity and path is really beautiful. How have you seen your mom's influence impact your daughter and your son?

Mary Charleson (33:49.612)
Well, I was very fortunate in that, I mean, I live in Vancouver, I'm in BC, I grew up in Ontario, so that's back East. She upended her life in her seventies and came to BC, chose to be closer to her grandchildren, closer to me. No, I was an only child. So, I mean, can kind of see where she was coming from. So she did have an opportunity to have a huge impact on their lives.

Nicole (34:06.675)
Well.

Mary Charleson (34:18.414)
Grandma Day, know, and honestly she was helping me when they were young and I was working out of a home, you know, home office before it was cool to have a home office. know, when you, you, when you, your website copy talked about us and we, when it was only you. And you know, when, when you answered the phone call and you ran into the closet and you had to try and keep a toddler from like following you.

Nicole (34:34.281)
Hahaha

Nicole (34:41.545)
Yes, I've been there.

Mary Charleson (34:45.896)
So, and she would have, they'd have grandma days. And so, you know, they had that. And of course, you know, that came full circle in the latter years where, you know, she required, she lived independently on her own, but she certainly required some support. And I was there to help and to help arrange that and to do what I could do as well. you know, yeah, yeah. It's a full circle moment.

Nicole (34:50.185)
Wait.

Nicole (35:06.921)
that's so beautiful that we all just take care of each other at different phases of our lives. That's really beautiful. My grandmother, she also was a working mom actually and it wasn't necessarily by choice. My grandfather was a construction worker and he had an injury on the job and so he broke his back. So she ended up having to go back to work probably, think it must have been 1960. She was a stenographer and she worked full-time for McDonnell Douglas in Long Beach.

Mary Charleson (35:22.83)
Hmm.

Mary Charleson (35:31.362)
Mm-hmm. Wow. Wow.

Nicole (35:37.059)
And she, yeah, she worked all the way until retirement age. you know, she just humbly just, you know, and never talk. It was just, and she'd come home every day and she'd make dinner. She'd do the laundry. She just did it all, you know? Yes. Never complained.

Mary Charleson (35:41.518)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (35:50.381)
Mm-hmm.

Well, that's the superheroes right there that assumed the homemaker role on top of everything. I'm sure their cake fell off occasionally, yeah.

Nicole (36:02.225)
Yeah. Yeah. just think she's and she was such a she was such an unassuming, humble woman who was really breaking barriers in a big way. And I just really and I loved what you shared, Mary, about like the women or, you know, people are your children, other people around you are watching you. I've noticed that, like with my my daughters, I have two daughters and my youngest daughter is so curious about this podcast. She's like, can I come be a guest on the show?

Mary Charleson (36:10.4)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Right.

Mary Charleson (36:22.466)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (36:29.513)
Mm. Mm.

Nicole (36:31.867)
And so I actually interviewed her. She's going to have an episode come out because she was so curious about it. And I was in Florida last week and I was doing a workshop in Florida. Yeah. And she was like, yeah, she was like, mom, I'm going to. She said to me before I went, she's like, mom, why don't you practice your workshop on me? And I was like, OK, let's do this. You can give me. She's like, I'm going to give you some tips. So it's bedtime. And I'm like,

Mary Charleson (36:34.053)
fun. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (36:42.542)
I think I saw that all day. Yes, you had yourself set up. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (36:54.094)
Yeah. OK. Yeah.

Nicole (37:01.235)
practicing for her and she's like, she'd stop me. She's like, okay, mom, well, you're doing really good with your hand gestures, but I think you're saying the word also a little too much so you can work on that. She's nine. It was just like a beautiful moment where she, just, loved it. And then I like, do you want to come help me pick out my outfits? What should I bring? And she was like all excited to do it. And so I've just loved involving.

Mary Charleson (37:03.715)
Right.

Mary Charleson (37:13.912)
How old is she? Okay. Right.

Nicole (37:29.257)
my kids as much as possible because I've always really loved working. I was a stay at home mom for a couple years when my youngest was born and I realized that wasn't for me. I needed something more and I think as women sometimes no matter whether we choose to be home with our kids or not we always feel that guilt a little bit and as I've gotten older I've just realized I just want to

Mary Charleson (37:50.595)
Mm.

Nicole (37:56.839)
Like there's something beautiful and special about the fact that I wanted to create something else, you know, and why not let them see the joy that I find in that so that they can see that whatever lights that up, whatever it is, that it's okay and they should be joyful about it and celebrate it, you know, because every woman's path is so unique and so different and we don't fit in a different thing, but whatever we decide we wanna do, let's celebrate it for the women around us so they can see that, you know.

Mary Charleson (38:25.442)
You know, and it's interesting, you know, I think that you mentioned a couple of the women, know, there's, you know, beyond just my mom, obviously, that's my first and foremost hero, but there's the quiet leaders out there, you know, the not necessarily the ones that you think that sort of broke the glass ceiling that, you know, led, you know, we're leaving like, you know, broke into the guys group or whatever.

Nicole (38:40.337)
Yes, exactly.

Nicole (38:45.711)
and

Mary Charleson (38:51.458)
you know, they're the ones I call them the quiet leaders, you know, kind of they that helped bring out the best in others. An opportunity to, you know, to work with a lady called Tess Teresita Arino Manalo, but affectionately referred to as Tess. And she, you know, I would call her a soft leader, know, high emotional IQ, you know, she didn't play to win in the traditional kind of men's game. But it was that whole

She just, brought it the best in everyone and quietly just asserted just this, I don't know, she created loyalty, like immense loyalty to the point where you wanted to do anything to make her happy because she had helped you so much. And it's this interesting, quiet leadership that it's not boastful. and her success is when you

Nicole (39:43.465)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (39:50.23)
take the experience and fly away. Like that is that kind of leadership. And it's a rare quality. it's, you know, she, I knew Tess through way back when I did my MBA at City University, CityU, and in Vancouver, CityU Seattle, but they were in Vancouver campus. And then I went on to teach there in the marketing program at her.

Nicole (39:58.887)
It is.

Mary Charleson (40:19.926)
urging. changed institutions, went over to Sprotshaugh Degree College, which later became Exenda School of Management. I continued to teach some courses for her at one point. She had me the marketing department head and I said, like, I can only do this part time and then things grew and then I had to kind of give that up. But it was this incredible loyalty. again, I was reminded of that just

recently in November, Exenda celebrated their 20th anniversary. I was asked to MC the event and I was delighted to do that. we had, and again, Tess is another one of those leaders who's since passed along. She died far too young from cancer quite suddenly, we did a kind of a, what do call it? A memorial.

Nicole (41:15.155)
Good tribute.

Mary Charleson (41:15.808)
A tribute. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for a tribute to her at that event. it really kind of struck me that all the people who had attended from the last 20 years, how they she was the thread, you know, she was and we talked about that at in the social before and after how Tess was the thread. And she was the quiet. was just this short little woman, too, right? Like she was the quiet thread.

that that united it all. And it was that fierce loyalty that really became part of the values that held that that that company together and that's that then formed the kind of people that they hired. So her her leadership was far reaching. And again, if you said to her, unfortunately, we can't because she's no longer around. If you said to her, you know, about her leadership style and just she would be the first person to humbly suggest that

I wasn't leading, I was just being tasked. So, you know, I think, and that's a quality you can, it's not just, you in women, you can see that quality in guys as well. I've met male leaders that have that quality. And I have a tremendous amount of respect for leadership that doesn't need to be big and bold and seem like they're leading.

Nicole (42:22.897)
Yeah, absolutely, for sure.

Yeah.

Mary Charleson (42:40.104)
they do it quietly, but they get it out of loyalty, they get it out of respect, and Tess was one of those people. Yeah.

Nicole (42:48.363)
that's a beautiful tribute to her. It reminds me of my grandma who quietly led the way that she did. And it also makes me think about like, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Lily Ledbetter. The Lily Ledbetter Act in the US Lily Ledbetter was basically she was paid a lower salary for decades at a job. And she was she was what's the word I want to say? Someone left a note in her locker.

Mary Charleson (42:54.925)
Mm.

Mary Charleson (42:59.021)
Mm.

Hmm.

Mary Charleson (43:06.498)
Mmm. Mmm.

Mary Charleson (43:16.088)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Nicole (43:16.349)
that basically anonymously told her, you've been underpaid for all these years. And that anonymous person had a huge impact on the future of like equal pay for women. We to this day do not know who that person is. And I think every, like you said that you need all kinds of leadership in the world and it takes collaboration and many people to make change happen.

Mary Charleson (43:21.63)
Mmm. Mmm.

Mary Charleson (43:27.139)
Mmm.

right?

Mary Charleson (43:37.538)
Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (43:45.07)
Mm.

Nicole (43:45.233)
And if that person wouldn't have quietly teed her off, I don't know if that's the word, tipped her off, tipped her off, that's what it is, tipped her off. If that person would have tipped her off, who knows what would have happened, you know? And so sometimes bravery doesn't need to be on a pedestal. It's,

Mary Charleson (43:48.939)
And yeah, tipped her off. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah, right.

Mary Charleson (44:02.154)
No, and that story is that much more magical because it remains anonymous.

Nicole (44:07.003)
Yeah, so true. Very cool. What was your mother's name? Nancy. Wow. What a wonderful tribute to Nancy today. We're so glad that she's here and man, look at the wonderful legacy she's created for you and for your family and all the cool stuff you're doing. It's amazing. man. So I have another question for you and that is

Mary Charleson (44:11.032)
Yeah. Nancy. Nancy. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (44:22.894)
Yeah, well, thank you.

Mary Charleson (44:34.296)
Sure.

Nicole (44:35.781)
this will be our final question is if you were to have a conversation with your older self in her final moments what would she tell you and what would she want you to know?

Mary Charleson (44:48.654)
Well, I hope she'd say you did good. You loved and you were loved. okay, so, but. Yeah, I would hope, right? But if it was her talking to me right now.

Nicole (44:53.289)
I think you're doing great, Mary. I think you're doing great. you loved and you were loved. That's beautiful. Yeah.

Nicole (45:10.589)
Mm-hmm.

Mary Charleson (45:14.03)
You know, I think it would probably be something like, you know, you've always been driven by achievement. You've been you've always been a builder, you know, launching new ideas. You love the chase, right? But it's OK to maybe let up on the chase a little bit, you know, maybe, you know, go for it, go for the ride, enjoy, right? You know what what you've created. And she'd probably say you're on the right track in terms of.

Nicole (45:19.785)
Mm.

Nicole (45:27.82)
yeah.

Mary Charleson (45:42.392)
chasing down the travel journalism, go have fun and go do more of that. You're on the right track. think that's what she'd say. Yeah.

Nicole (45:49.065)
to more of the fun.

I love that, like she would want you to play more. Do you think she would say something different to your younger self?

Mary Charleson (46:00.046)
to my younger self. My 20 year old self?

Nicole (46:02.033)
like your 20 year old self.

Mary Charleson (46:10.23)
I think she'd reassure me that the line between 20 and the age that you are right now will not be a straight line, but it was not meant to be. the things that and people and experiences that you'll have along the way will cause you to do this. And that is what creates a rich life. If we knew what you were

Nicole (46:12.275)
Huh?

Mary Charleson (46:40.546)
going to do and where you're going to be at that point and you just took the straight trip there, would be kind of, you wouldn't be who you are. And so I think, you know, that message to my younger, all younger selves is to understand that that, that weaving journey is what you're meant to experience. You know, I think, you know, for moms, I think that that's

It can be sometimes hard to watch. Certainly it can be hard for kids to experience. There's so much pressure on our kids in their 20s, late teens, early 20s, to pick what they're going to study. mean, for God sakes, they don't know. a lot of that, a lot of their choices are made to make their parents happy and proud. And of course, as a parent, that's what you want to be. But

Nicole (47:12.445)
Hahaha

Nicole (47:23.145)
Yes.

Nicole (47:28.988)
I guess.

Mary Charleson (47:39.272)
the same time your 20s are meant to you know kind of experience lots of different things to maybe stumble and fall and learn from that as opposed to having you know parents swing in and fix it for you. And I mean that's where it comes back to you know this notion of travel too. That's you do a lot of growing up when you travel. You know you have to independently make your decisions you know you you learn how to

be with other people. My mom used to say, if you could travel with somebody, honey, you can live with them, right? And that's pretty good sage advice. Because I've done some traveling with my husband this last year we were away for like a month cycling in Corsica on a U-Track self-guided cycling tour. And the thing is travel causes you to make, like you're confronted with decisions around comfort, where you're gonna stay, around money.

Nicole (48:11.209)
It's true. It's very true.

Mary Charleson (48:32.438)
around your comfort with risk, right? There's decision making, there's conflict resolution. All of that happens in a much shorter period of time in travel than it does in day-to-day life. And so, you you can learn a lot about a person while doing that. So, you know, where am I coming back, circling back on that one with that advice to the younger self is that, you know, just enjoy the weaving journey and...

And before you go live with someone or go get married, go travel with them. Like honestly, like a lot of things, like even just your values, right? Like how do want to spend today? Do you want to be with other people? Do you want to be independent? Do you want to go look at history stuff, right? Or also understanding that, yeah, you're together, but it's okay to spend a day apart. If you have some really

Nicole (49:08.039)
Yes! Such great advice.

Nicole (49:16.573)
Yep. Yep.

Mary Charleson (49:30.094)
niche interests that each of you want to explore, and then come back at the end of it and share it. But again, those are confidence things that come with maturity. That, again, you do that kind of growing up when you are experiencing life, away, taking different jobs. It's okay to learn what you don't want to do because that leads you towards what you do want to do.

Nicole (49:56.392)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (50:00.298)
You know, Sory is the person that goes off to university, studies what their parents told them to do, and gets locked into a career job with a mortgage and family and realizes when they wake up one day it's this isn't really what I want to do and you're kind of stuck. Right? Yeah. It's not that you can't. Not that you can't, but it's a lot more disruptive.

Nicole (50:16.167)
Yeah, it's a lot harder to change at that point for sure. Yeah.

Yeah, beautiful. I love what you shared about the weaving journey and embracing that like literally brought tears to my eyes because I think that's just such wise advice. Like so, so much of the time we put on especially if you are type A perfectionist type of person, high achieving, you it's like you got to have it all figured out and it's all got to be this path. But it is so true that it's the surprises and the detours and the unexpected failures along the way that really shape us.

Mary Charleson (50:29.742)
Mm.

Mary Charleson (50:49.912)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Nicole (50:52.251)
and help us get to the next point. And it just like, when you're traveling, it's the surprises that are the most amazing. Like turning a corner on a street into a beautiful square that you've never seen before for the first time and seeing it, or turning around a corner and coming upon like a beautiful bakery. Like I was in London last summer and I was like, I'm just gonna not schedule my day. I am not gonna.

Mary Charleson (51:00.116)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Mary Charleson (51:19.192)
Mm-hmm.

Nicole (51:20.221)
I'm just gonna go and I'm just gonna walk and I'm gonna see what happens. It was magical. Like I would just end up, because I had nothing planned, I was just like, what's this over here? There's this beautiful bakery with these beautiful treats and I was able to just enjoy it in the moment in a way that I wouldn't if it felt like I being rushed along to try to make it somewhere, you know? I love that, such great advice.

Mary Charleson (51:23.81)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Mary Charleson (51:38.656)
Right. Right. And, you know, it's funny, I I was just in New York for for Travel Writers Conference, IMM, and I flew my daughter out. She's a university student. We jokingly say that she's in her sixth year of a four year degree. Yeah, yeah, no, she's changed her majors twice or three times. She's also experienced COVID during all that. Like, yeah, it's it's it's she is definitely on a weaving journey.

Nicole (51:46.3)
Mmm.

Nicole (51:55.785)
I love that she's a learner.

Uh-huh.

She's on the weaving journey.

Mary Charleson (52:08.3)
But I flew her out to join me for a mom daughter weekend. So I had my conference on the Thursday. So we had a day out, bit on Wednesday. She had the day Thursday on her own and then we had Friday and Saturday with touring and Broadway show. her, you know, we talk about Apple Tree. So she had that Thursday on her own and just, the serendipitous moments. And then coming back and sharing with me what she did.

I remember my advice to her was like, just enjoy New York, but don't fall in love. But she went to the Met. And just listening to her talking about the stuff she saw at the Met and then how it leads back into what she'd learned in courses, anthropology, and just all these things. like, my god, just such rich conversations.

And serendipitous moments, right? Just, you know, she looked up, you know, I'm sure on Instagram or TikTok, know, some, you know, it Leo's Bagels and all these different places that she was going to go see and then the conversation she had, right? She said, I turned my phone off that day so I could talk to people and, you know, I took photos, but I just, anyway, so it's.

How did we get down that hole? We're on the weaving journey. Right, right. Yeah, no, just my God. No, but it is the weaving journey, but these serendipitous moments and being open to unplanned. Right. And yeah, and it is lovely to see then our kids take that attitude towards things and.

Nicole (53:33.811)
HA!

Serendipity! We're just on the weaving journey!

You were sharing about how your daughter, you took her out to New York for the...

Mary Charleson (54:02.382)
and discover their own dreams. There we go. There's the way I brought it back. Right, it's the weave.

Nicole (54:07.109)
You so cool and I love the Met's beautiful. will just always be in love with the Rodin exhibit at the Met. is so well all I mean there's many beautiful exhibits there but the Rodin exhibit in particular is just magical but yeah.

Mary Charleson (54:13.87)
Mm.

Mm.

Mary Charleson (54:22.434)
Right, I've got to get that on my list next year when I go back for, because it's a regular conference I attend. I would love to just go and spend a day there.

Nicole (54:31.633)
I love how we've been talking so much about serendipity. So as we close out our episode, Mary, I'd love to know what are like maybe one or two of the most serendipitous travel experiences that just come to your head right away.

Mary Charleson (54:44.588)
Hmm, serendipitous.

Mary Charleson (54:52.564)
You know what, I'll go back to this past summer in Croatia with my husband. We did this, we did the cycling tour in Corsica, we did the ferry over to Italy, we trundled around Italy, then we went over to Croatia. I know it sounds kind of weird, but we did it all so we'd have to avoid airports. And we're meeting up for a friend's big birthday there. we hadn't really encountered overtourism and a lot of busyness in

Corsica and Italy, but when got to Croatia we started to see the impacts of over-tourism in Split. We didn't plan to go down to Dubrovnik, well maybe leave that for another trip or not, just because it is so over-touristed, but we had an experience in Carca National Park. It's beautiful and we eventually did get up to the southern area, Roski Slap. We got a tip from a local kind of where to go to get away from the crowds, but

Nicole (55:34.279)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (55:45.398)
I would say a serendipitous moment is that we decided just on the fly, we had a rental car, and I said, we need to change our plans. Like we are going to go to this other national park the next day. so I just started looking and scrolling for, initially it was around renting a boat. thought, let's just go north up to, you know, maybe Peg Island. Like, let's go north and get away from the tourists. we're both sailors, we're licensed boaters. so we thought, and so I

Nicole (56:05.021)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (56:13.908)
initially I was looking for boats and then but then I found this other place this really cool place it was called the olive olive garden olive olive tree olive my god I should remember the name of it it's on my blog on peg island and it just it was like one of these like this looks really cool and I said to my husband he said yeah okay so I just booked it and we had the most amazing experience on that island really away from the crowds the

Nicole (56:26.067)
Yeah.

Mary Charleson (56:43.084)
The host, it was like this waterfront place. was a unit in this house, this little town. She was actually American. They live there six months a year. She's married to a fellow from Germany. We stayed in the suite that had been the suite that they stayed in when they first bought the property because they used to, I guess her husband's family used to vacation there. They went down from Germany down to what had been Yugoslavia.

Nicole (57:02.803)
Wow.

Mary Charleson (57:10.478)
They decided they wanted to buy property there. So we stayed in that place and wandered around the little town, the little beaches, the talk to the boats, the owners coming in, the fishermen. That was a serendipitous, more than a moment, it was several days, but it was a serendipitous moment that caused us to go there. Again, that was time that we had left unplanned.

I had had a rough plan on where else we were going to go. And we changed it on the fly due to an experience. honestly, was, know, the over-tourism drove us to have a serendipitous moment that was probably one of the more memorable pieces of that trip. You know, was that unexpected surprise, right? Yeah.

Nicole (58:04.615)
I love that. love the people like you talk about the people. That's beautiful. Like so much of the serendipitous moments that we have are serendipitous because of the people that we meet or we encounter or the relationships that we have or that we connect with more deeply through those experiences. That's so cool. Yeah. Yeah.

Mary Charleson (58:07.96)
Mm.

Mary Charleson (58:19.08)
Mm. Well, it's even the stories, right? Learning the stories of the family and how they had come down there and realizing the history, right? OK, that was Yugoslavia. That was like there was the war. was, how that area had been. And we went through areas that had been like we saw, like old homes that had like bullet holes and like, you know, tank holes through them.

they just chosen to build next door. So you could still see the ravages of war on the mainland. hearing that part of the family's story of how they had come there since then, how they had chosen to buy that property and why it was so special and how frankly we just ended up there. was shoulder season, September. She said they're totally booked out during the summer. We just happened at that time she had an opening at

the perfect place and like I said, created that memory.

Nicole (59:21.927)
lovely. Mary. Thank you for coming on the show. This has been such a joy. I love talking to you and I thank you for telling us about your mom and your daughter and your son and Tess and so many wonderful people that have influenced you and thank you for being such a wonderful influence in the work that you're doing. I love reading your content. It always is so insightful as someone who loves to travel.

Mary Charleson (59:22.786)
Yeah.

Nicole (59:51.057)
I love the way that you travel. It's very inspiring how thoughtfully that you travel. So how can our listeners get a hold of you and connect with you? I know you mentioned carryonqueen.com, right?

Mary Charleson (59:54.168)
Thanks, Nicole.

Mary Charleson (01:00:02.07)
Yeah, so carryonqueen.com is my travel writing site and lots of travel and inspiration on there. Canada, US, international, it's all there. You can, and if you're interested from the marketing strategy side, there is the fiveminutemarketing.com. So it's F-I-V-E, minutemarketing.com. And from a marketing consulting speaking,

in particular as it relates to travel, travel industry. I also do a regular newsletter out of 5inmarketing.com and it's kind of weekly, although I've kind of bi-weekly at that one since the New Year out of an experiment and in the Carry On Queens monthly. So yeah, either of those. We can put both websites in the show notes if you like. Yeah.

Nicole (01:01:00.019)
Well, thank you, Mary, for sharing your wisdom and your moxie with us today. And like Mary, every step forward into discomfort is proof of your moxie. So trust your voice, own your power, and lift others along the way. And we'll see you next time on Hello Moxie.

Mary Charleson (01:01:18.092)
Thanks again for having