"Time Freedom", with Heather Wick

In this episode of the Frenchitivity Podcast, hosts Kent & Michelle and guest Heather Wick discuss the transformative journey of traveling the world with family. They explore the motivations behind their decision to travel, the challenges of finding a support system, and the adjustments required to adapt to a new lifestyle. Heather shares insights on world schooling, the importance of nature, and the freedom that comes with embracing adventure. The conversation highlights the significance of family connections, overcoming fears, and the balance between planning and spontaneity in travel.

In this conversation, Heather Wick shares her family's journey of traveling the world for over a year, discussing the challenges and joys of embracing uncertainty, the importance of grounding practices, and the balance between freedom and decision fatigue. She emphasizes the significance of community, the lessons learned from packing light, and the enriching experiences encountered during their travels. Heather also reflects on the reintegration process back into home life, the shifts in family values, and her current work empowering women through coaching to create lives of freedom and fulfillment.

Show Notes |
Blog Referenced:  Reflections after 30 days of Travel: Navigating Decision Fatigue While Traveling

Takeaways:

Traveling the world can be a transformative experience for families.
World schooling offers unique educational opportunities.
Finding a support system is crucial while traveling.
Adjusting to a new lifestyle takes time and patience.
Nature plays a vital role in family bonding and well-being.
Embracing freedom allows for spontaneous adventures.
Overcoming fears can lead to unexpected growth.
Planning and flexibility are essential in long-term travel.
Building connections with other families enriches the experience.
Every family’s journey is unique and requires understanding.  Embracing uncertainty can lead to personal growth.
Decision fatigue is a real challenge when seeking freedom.
Establishing routines is essential for family well-being.
Grounding practices like meditation help manage stress.
Building community while traveling enriches the experience.
Packing light is a valuable lesson learned on the road.
Travel experiences can create magical family memories.
Reintegration into home life requires adjustment and reflection.
Children thrive when given the freedom to choose their learning.
Empowering women to create freedom in their lives is vital.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction to the Journey
02:54 The Decision to Travel
05:52 Finding Support on the Road
09:00 Adjusting to a New Lifestyle
12:14 Creating Family Memories
14:50 Embracing Freedom and Adventure
17:51 Overcoming Fears and Challenges
21:00 The Importance of Nature
24:02 Planning and Flexibility in Travel
26:56 Building Connections and Community
32:56 Embracing Uncertainty and Growth
34:48 The Balance of Freedom and Decision Fatigue
35:38 Grounding Practices for Family Well-being
38:39 Building Community on the Road
40:11 Packing Light: Lessons Learned
46:41 Favorite Travel Experiences: Magic and Connection
49:02 Reintegration: Adjusting Back to Home Life
54:06 Shifts in Family Values and Priorities
57:01 Empowering Women Through Coaching
01:01:01 Future Travel Plans an

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Transcript

Frenchitivity (00:01.26)

Welcome to the next edition of the Frenchitivity  Podcast. We are here with Heather Wick. We will talk about how we know Heather here in just a moment, but we are thrilled to have you join us. Thanks for being here with us.

Heather Wick (00:13.513)

Thank you so much for having me.

Frenchitivity (00:15.756)

And we are sitting in Dubrovnik at the present time. And this is all going to make a lot of sense. I'm going to start by just talking about how Heather and I met. And then we're going to get at all kinds of juicy topics. Juicy? Juicy topics. Wow. That's like a tease off the top so people aren't going to go anywhere. Not they would go anywhere, but that's.

There you go. Juicy. So we decided to travel the world for a year and leave our careers behind. knew we wanted to do a podcast and talk to people that are fit in one of three pillars, which we'll talk about in a second. But so anyway, I decided to attend this. It's her turn podcast conference by Kathy Heller in LA last May.

And while I was there, we're talking about people's topics of their podcasts and I kept talking about, we're gonna travel. And they're like, have you met Heather yet? Have you met Heather? I go, no, who is Heather? So then one morning we walk into the same cafe at the same moment and finally connect. And Heather, what did you tell me? You told me you had just done what?

Heather Wick (01:19.271)

Yeah, so we, my husband and I have three kids and we had pulled them out of school for the year and traveled the world. We were gone for about 13 months and we, so we, we had a process where we, you know, pulled them out of school, traveled and then came back and reintegrated into standard public school. But we met a lot of really amazing families along the way who do education in all sorts of different ways.

And yeah, that's the short and sweet version of it.

Frenchitivity (01:53.41)

And so you were my driftwood.

So for people who kind of understand in manifestation and affirmations that, you know, there's signs along the way, call it serendipity, call it whatever you want, karma, life, anything it is, the universe giving you a sign because we knew we wanted to do this journey, but we just didn't really know what that meant yet. And then I had the joy of meeting you and knowing that it can be a reality and that it is a thing and that people do it successfully. And, it's, was a really beautiful moment. So that's

I'm like great. She said, great, can I meet Heather? I don't know. I'm sure she's great. So yes, I get to meet Heather finally. This Heather that you've been talking about for so long. That inspired part of the trip. yeah, so. Okay, three pillars. What are the three So three pillars. So Frenchitivity is a kind of a play on words as we were trying to the word out. Last name is Frenchitivity, but we do have three different pillars we've been working off of.

Heather Wick (02:35.765)

Yeah.

Heather Wick (02:40.233)

I it.

Frenchitivity (02:54.728)

which is positivity, creativity, and tranquility, which all adds up to fratitivity in our eyes. And Heather, you epitomize all three of those things. You've hit it out of the park. And you are, as Michelle said, of an inspiration, one of the few that we've been able to come across who's actually done something like this. I call it maybe brave, adventurous. I don't know what adjective I want to use, but certainly...

you've proven you can do it and then you can reintegrate it and you can you can make this work. And that's why Michelle said Heather said she'd do it. I'm like, hey, this is awesome. We got to do this. I want to talk to Heather. I want to learn about your journey and about everything you did. So that's kind of how we kick things off. And just really you kind of hit all three of them. And throughout the course of this podcast, we'll be kind of talking about, you know, how all those have been integrated in. Yeah.

So to start, how did you and your husband and your family decide what were your careers like, where were you at in life, and why did you decide to travel?

Heather Wick (04:01.703)

Yeah, so we had, you know, like many families out there, COVID was a really interesting time for us. At the time, our kids, when COVID happened, our kids were two, four, and six. And so they were younger. I had had a corporate career up until that point and came to a realization pretty quickly that I could either be a really

crummy mom or really crummy employee or both. And so we were lucky enough that I was able to make the decision to retire when that time came around. And also we live in Arizona currently and we have no family here at all. So we have, my husband's family lives in Ohio and my family lives in Washington state. And so we were in a situation.

like lots of families where we had like zero support system and really felt it for the first time ever because our families had always been really good about traveling to come and see us. And so after things kind of started to improve, we were at this place where we said, you know, we just, need some support. We can't keep doing this on our own. It's just the kids were still young. It was so hard. And so we,

We started planning a move to Ohio to go live closer to my husband's family. And this was also the time where it was next to impossible to buy a house. There weren't that many on the market and they were going so fast. And so we were trying to find a house to buy in Ohio and getting ready to list our house at the same time. And we thought that we were gonna end up having a house built. So we said, okay, we're gonna have like this.

year where the house is being built and we don't have anywhere to go in Ohio yet. We don't have to be in Arizona anymore. And so what if we just like, what if we just traveled? You know, my husband was still working remote. He's in the mortgage industry and he was working remote at that point in time. And so we said, well, we could just, you know, we could just go and, and do it. And we kind of went back and forth on whether or not he would continue working and, and

Heather Wick (06:21.599)

When we first started off, he did continue working. Long story short, we ended up not building the house in Ohio. But once we had the idea to travel, we just couldn't get it out of our heads. We were both, we both loved to travel when we were younger and we had done some when the kids were younger, but mainly just to go visit family. So we started just planning kind of a three month chunk at a time. We started out by, had,

We had had our house pretty much ready to sell. So instead of selling it, we rented it out for a year. And we just started planning three months at a time. we would, I'm sure you guys are familiar with Google Flights by now, but we would kind of, we had a general idea of the areas that we wanted to go to. And so we would go onto Google Flights and just kind of say where we were at and say anywhere and see what flights popped up that were.

amazing that we're kind of in the area that we wanted to travel to. It is.

Frenchitivity (07:21.166)

It's like throwing a dart at a map. That is so cool. That's like, yeah, it's like the new way of throwing a dart at the map. I love that.

Heather Wick (07:27.189)

Yeah, yeah, so we just started, we started to plan things and we had like a few, we had a wedding that we needed to be in the States for, so we kind of like had a few things that we would shift based on where we were needed at certain points in time, but we really just kind of let ourselves go wherever the adventure led us and we ended up, my husband, about

I don't know, maybe three weeks into traveling, his company called and said, okay, anybody who's not gonna be in the office, we're gonna be letting everybody go. And he said, okay, well, I'm in Costa Rica, so I will not be in the office. Yeah, so we were lucky enough that we had enough in savings that it was an option for him to just take the time off and really be present with us. And we were a full-time family for, you know, 13 months.

Frenchitivity (08:25.614)

And I think that you've said so many things within that that people can relate to and have this gleam of, can relate. But one thing that stands out to me when you say that.

is the support system. So you were seeking the support system, which we can all, I would think, very likely relate to, especially when kids are little, and just in general wanting to be in your family. And then the way things kind of unfolded, then all of sudden you go. So talk to me about that, because then this is a transition with really no support system until you create it and find your own. like, so now what does support system mean to you when you're on the road?

Heather Wick (08:54.613)

Right.

Heather Wick (09:00.169)

Yeah, so we actually, had, when we first started traveling, we had planned on still like getting a house in Ohio. So we thought that it was like a year. Like there was a time limit on it, right? So we were like, okay, we can like, we can do this for a year. Like we can have, and also knowing that...

we really had the resources to be a full-time family and we were both present parents that weren't trying to juggle all the things that you're normally trying to juggle, you know, in that sense it really is kind of like a vacation where you really have that like quality of presence that you don't always get in day-to-day life. So we thought it was a like a very specific timeframe and over the course of traveling we were under contract on a house and that ended up like not.

out and so we have just kept our house in Arizona and also the kids have gotten older so that's gotten easier as they've you know everybody's in school now during the day so I can still be here and and doing my thing but the other thing that I discovered as we started getting into this is there is a huge world schooling community out there

And so I could not believe how many people were already doing this on some scale in so many ways. And it was kind of funny. I had my daughter was in preschool when we were getting ready to travel and her teacher was just like one of these really amazing, beautiful souls that are just like very creative in their thinking. And so I told her, you know, we're gonna, we're just gonna take the kids out of school next year and

Frenchitivity (10:46.478)

calling off.

Heather Wick (10:47.989)

and travel and she said, you're going to world school. And that was the first time I had ever heard that term. And I'm like, yeah, we're going to do that. But then I actually went online and started like searching the term world schooling because I'm like, this sounds like it's a thing. And there's like all of these like groups and networks and communities and, you know, Facebook support groups and so many people that are doing this in

Frenchitivity (10:56.718)

Definitely.

Heather Wick (11:15.433)

very unique and different ways. And so it was really fun to connect into that community and to have a space to go to not only learn about new destinations and learn about like, you know, maybe places that were not what you expected or like just someone that had kind of done it before and get ideas. But also to have a place to go like when things are hard.

because as much as I think that this idea of world schooling sounds so dreamy and like, you know, what an amazing thing and it is, it is also a huge adjustment for those of us who have raised our families in like this standard corporate, like everybody goes out of the house to work or out of the house to school and we don't spend a whole lot of time like together all day, every day. It's like a big adjustment.

And so having places to go where you could have conversations that were honest about some of the struggles too was really important for my mental health, I know. Like just knowing that like it was okay to not have every moment of every day be magical was nice.

Frenchitivity (12:33.87)

We're about two and a half months in to this journey and I wanted, know you and I'm, it's so cool. We're still trying to find this community. cause it's been this off season, this weird time we've been in Europe, but we're hearing and we'll get into some of your experiences in Thailand where we're headed here very soon. We're very excited about that. but

When did this experience, this travel experience, when did you start to find a groove? When did you start to get into a flow? Or the other side of the coin is when did it stop being a vacation? Or was it ever a vacation for a minute? I don't know really how to frame that question right, but I guess let's go with first.

Heather Wick (13:19.146)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (13:20.642)

When did you start finding a groove as a family and say, I've got this, we can figure this out? Because we only have one kid. You had three kids that you were dealing with.

Heather Wick (13:30.193)

Yeah, yeah. So I will say for us, it was probably about six months, honestly. Six months was about the mark where...

Frenchitivity (13:41.976)

Thank goodness, because we're nowhere near a yet. I'm so glad to hear you say that, because I keep thinking I'm in a I keep thinking I'm in a groove. And then I'm like, I was wrong. Constantly. thank you. Yes.

Heather Wick (13:54.965)

So yeah, you've got a little bit and you know, every family is different. That's the other thing that I've found. But I have heard more than a few families say that that like five to six month range is like, you know, the first month really, it does. It feels like you're on vacation, you know, you're all of a sudden in a new place and you know, you're learning new language maybe or new culture and it feels really exciting. But at some point...

you have to still live your everyday life. know, the work still has to get done. If you're doing schoolwork outside of, you know, just world school and like kind of the unschooling type school, then schoolwork has to get done. You've got to have like time to cook dinner and plan meals for the week and like all of this like everyday kind of mundane stuff that normally doesn't really creep in on vacation. But when it's your life, you know, it has to find time and space.

Yeah, so the six-month mark, the two things that I think really helped. First, and I know that you guys are having a lot of this experience, but our first five months were primarily in non-English speaking countries. And so that is a, you know, it's a blessing, it's amazing, and I am blown away by how many languages in general the rest of the world speak.

And it's also like really like for my brain and my nervous system it was really hard because I felt like I was always one step behind trying to figure out what was going on around me. And so that six month point is when we spent some time in London and so everyone, not everyone, but you know the the primary language around us was English which was like comforting after a while you know. Yeah.

And also, that was the first time we met up with a WorldSchoolHub. And so our kids started to interact with other kids that were having the same experience. And I think that the more they were able to do that, the easier it became for them to see that they weren't the only ones experiencing things like this. For a while, my oldest, was, he was nine when we left, eight?

Heather Wick (16:16.501)

I can't, it starts blending together a little bit. So I think he was nine when we left. You know, in the beginning it was really hard because he was in that age where social stuff is really important and you know, there was more than a few times when he would have this comment of, I didn't even want to travel, you you made me and so...

Once we got to that point though where he made friends and could communicate with people, you know, he would play some games with friends online and things like that that were having the same experiences, the easier that got. And also like as he started to, I think get the feedback from the outside world that, my gosh, this is what an amazing experience that you're getting to have here. And like, I think that kind of helped him like internalize the appreciation.

never is quite the same coming from mom and dad.

Frenchitivity (17:11.31)

Of of course. When we say like, well later in life, you'll really like, you know, that they would reflect on this and really understand how the value, then also we're practitioners of be in the moment. So I find myself being a bit conflicted with that sometimes where I'm like, well, later you'll, and it's like, no, no, no, no, this is the moment. And while maybe in a young mind, you think,

this is hard and I didn't ask for this or we are doing the same thing we're doing if we were at home. In actuality, nothing would be the same if we were at home. We would be doing the grind that we are all talking about and we wouldn't be together. The part of our momentum for some of this is the way that our

Heather Wick (17:38.346)

Mm-hmm.

Heather Wick (17:44.298)

No.

Frenchitivity (17:51.15)

careers had shaped up is that we couldn't all be together very often and that wasn't okay with us anymore. So while we do still have to work and do these routine things, we're doing them together and it wasn't like that. So I find it really interesting to reflect on some of that too, because we're like, yeah, those mundane parts of life, and I'm really happy to hear you say that too, but we still, we're kind of exploring, is there a paradigm shift here? Are we showing that this can be done and we can all

I'll live a different way and what does that look like? But we also find that there's still the routine and the obligation to take care of our needs and our family and then that in and of itself still has the parameters of the life we live anywhere. So it's like, it's a big mental game of trying to.

Heather Wick (18:43.049)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (18:44.544)

Dissect tease out the parts of that that are just always gonna be what they are and it's you just make everything and experience the best you can and then the aspects that you're like

Heather Wick (18:52.735)

Mm-hmm.

Frenchitivity (18:54.954)

No, we do that at home that why do why were we doing that for so long? That is not something we need to carry with us So we're we're always like playing that game. Like what do we take with us? What do we not and yeah i'm happy to hear you say if you haven't if you haven't figured out already This is a selfish therapy session for us. Yeah. This is not a podcast We are reporting it. It is a therapy session for us. Yes Well, and I do think it still gives everyone some perspective on what it's like and and what it takes to take this

Heather Wick (19:10.229)

I love it.

Heather Wick (19:17.525)

you

Frenchitivity (19:24.8)

Risk, which let's talk a little bit about that and then we'll talk about when you came back what you transition and how you're helping people now with all of this experience Can I jump in real quick? I want to just ask Before you got on the plane When your husband and you were trying to figure this thing out and what you made the decision was there a fear? What was the biggest fear you had and did that fear end up becoming? True was it a real fear or just a preconceived notion that you thought that didn't really happen

Heather Wick (19:56.361)

Ooh, that's a good question.

Heather Wick (20:01.737)

I kind of wish I had my husband here to ask this question to you right now. For me, I am like a... Like I kind of live in like this very optimistic space in general. It's hard for me to like pick out the fears because I tend to... I'm a little guilty of like spiritually bypassing sometimes, right? Like I almost like... I'm like, it's all gonna be amazing.

Frenchitivity (20:06.094)

Hahaha

Frenchitivity (20:30.104)

I love that, yes. That's great. Yes.

Heather Wick (20:31.317)

Yeah, well, it is. And also there can be some things that those fears can show us that we don't get the opportunity to unpack when we don't look at them. But I can't think of, in all honesty, from the time we decided to go until we were actually going was a period of about three months. So we had a pretty small window to kind of get our stuff together and go.

Frenchitivity (21:00.344)

kind of your benefit.

Heather Wick (21:02.695)

Right, right. mean, there was really, I mean, we had to like get all of our stuff out of our house into a storage unit and like find renters and, you know, like do all the paperwork with the school to put the kids' education like in our hands for the year. And yeah, there was just a lot of doing in the beginning. And also we were planning, you know, we were like in the space of

Especially because in the beginning we did not travel slow. We like, we took off like out of the gates. And so the first, that first six months, I think we did like, I think we went to like 12 different countries and probably stayed an average of like three to five places per country. I mean, we moved around a lot. Yeah.

Do not recommend, that was not the right fit for us. But yeah, so I don't think that I had like a really big fear going into it. I think that the concern of the language barrier was probably like, I don't know that it was a fear necessarily, but something that I was like concerned about being a struggle for the kids.

And it actually ended up being not a big struggle for them. Like kids, language is play. You know, they're, they communicate with play. And so it doesn't always matter like what language everyone's talking in, especially for my younger kiddo. The older one was a little like touch and go with not English, but I would say that, you know, there was, there was days of frustration around that. And there was also lots of

I'm where I found that there was way more English out in the world in general than I expected. And it was really interesting to see, like I had feelings of almost like, I will say guilt for like not knowing other languages of like I'm in their country and traveling to their home and they're speaking to me in my primary language and

Heather Wick (23:24.969)

That's still something that I'm unpacking, to be honest.

Frenchitivity (23:29.23)

we understand we absolutely understand. Michelle says that to me every day pretty much and we completely agree with you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

to unpack that for sure, absolutely. And I'm curious kind of on that same line, like I love that you are optimistic about it, it's, I mean to embrace this kind of exploration you sort of have to be like, it's really, you know, what do have to fear other than leaving the fear behind? Like I don't, but were there moments or what, are there moments that stand out to you of being like...

This is what I was, this was my vision. This is a moment that is what I know my husband and I, my family and I created together. Do you have any of those?

Heather Wick (24:13.125)

Yeah, so I would say

our our our funnest memories so everybody has like a different favorite first place almost that we traveled to but our every everybody across the board's second favorite place was Iceland and and one of the things about Iceland is that we were outside almost the entire time we were there and I think that

three things really stand out, not only in Iceland, but in other locations as well. the first one is that almost any like issues that we're having or problems that we're having can be worked through easier when we get outside as a family. Time out in nature is just, there's just something about it that, you know, calms everybody down and...

you know, everybody can kind of get into exploring and adventuring in their own way. And so I think that those times, you know, we just, we spent so much time outside together during this year. And like, I just, there's so many amazing pictures and memories from Iceland where we were, you know, outside at parks or hiking or, know, at like Basalt.

fields or at the ocean and just like every there was so much time outside and so everybody really did thrive in that environment because it was what we were all needing. The second thing is our time on the beach together was always like favorites and there is something that's like really special about being able to be really

Heather Wick (26:11.605)

and I think that for both my husband and I and the kids, like that time at the beach is just, you know, there's just a presence that comes with that space and with the ocean and you know, you're aware of the kids, I think a little bit more sometimes because they're, you know, they're in and out of the water and there's like kind of some things that you've got, you know, some risks you've got to watch out for. So they really get your focus and there's just like a certain playful.

spirit that comes with being at the beach, I think, and it just brings that out in everybody. So those are kind of like the moments that stick out in my mind. And then also, like,

the planning part, like the, when we spent time planning as a family and we're like, you know, what do you want to see? It's almost like a window into like, what are your values? What do you value that's important to you? And spending time with those questions, I felt like we all got to know each other a lot better. And yeah, yeah.

Frenchitivity (27:20.238)

And honoring the thank you, was all of those are beautiful. And I think it goes to, you know, notice that nature and outside and we all sort of know that when we connect with nature, the things that open up inside of us and it's like, we can experience that all kinds of places, but that even as you're traveling together that much, that's still the place where you found that. And that's like beautiful. And then I think on that third one too, like that we're in this space where you can listen to that and be responsive to that. Like so often at home,

in the regular routine, the kids desires, yes they get addressed, but not in the same way, where you can really say, what do you wanna see? And I love that you tied that to values. That's a beautiful way of saying, like what you wanna do next or what you desire is telling me something about you and I can connect to you more, cause I'm listening. And then we can go experience it together. That's just beautiful. Yeah.

have decided and I'm glad to hear you did too to kind of do the Google Maps thing or the Google flight although we're not going that route yet but we we really in mind just we're gonna start in Portugal we penciled this thing out we have not booked it I mean literally we're sitting here as you just made me think about it we said planning is a family Michelle and I have had the computers open and talking to friends who've been to Thailand and trying to take notes because we don't know where we're staying what we're doing and now we're shifting over to Thailand and then we're go to Australia because we just figured

well we're there let's go over there and and so why why did you decide to go the route of the the Google flights and just the adventure and going and not knowing where you're going as opposed to having this itinerary throughout the course knowing where you're going to go next

Heather Wick (29:04.679)

Yeah, so

really this ties back to some of our core family values and one of them is freedom. And the ability to just choose, there's a certain freedom there and just trusting that whatever place you are being directed to, there's going to be something you need to learn or something you need to experience. And...

And you know, there is a certain level, like there's no way to travel long-term without planning, but you can still do it in a way that feeds and nurtures that sense for freedom that I think so many of us that do live this kind of lifestyle are longing for. And so it was just the best way that we could honor what the experience that we wanted to have and...

And still, like I said, we had a rough idea where there would be a few places, like we all kind of picked something that we really wanted to see and would try and end up in that chunk of the world. We didn't make it to New Zealand or Australia, which was a bummer. And we had to choose between Japan or Australia. And so we went north. But for the most part, we just...

followed where our hearts led us. And also the thing that was amazing once we got into it is as the kids started to make friends when we were meeting up with this pop-up, these pop-up hubs and things like that, we can meet up with other families in other countries, like even not as part of a hub, know, just like, hey, we're gonna be in Bali in, you know, April, are you guys gonna be close? And that's been fun. We actually have a family that we...

Heather Wick (30:59.899)

an Australian family that we met in Thailand that is in Las Vegas currently that we're like talking about going to visit for Christmas. So like these relationships have continued on even after the fact. And so that's been really fun too.

Frenchitivity (31:17.046)

Absolutely. The freedom work. Freedom, yeah. Because I think I'll rely, or I'm not going to speak, but for us, I know your life, you're so structured and you're so, you know, you're so, you're in this daily ritual of go to work, come home, or whatever it may be. And it's just nice to be able to, where do you want to go next? What do you want to do? I don't know where I'm going tomorrow.

how it's just, it has been very freeing. I totally resonate with how you said that. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And what I find really intriguing about that also, and maybe this is a good way to go into some of the practices that you can now kind of share with others is what I find really interesting about that is like, yes, it's freedom. And it's the both and with that, because there's this freedom that then comes with this tug at like, but then how do we make the next step and how do we know? And then this like, well, how come we didn't already

Like how can we not know where we're laying our heads in X amount of time and we have fluctuated from that being we were good We know for three months we know and then it all of sudden we're like, but we actually don't know in like five days Well, then the responsibility, you know, like it's kind of have kids now, right? Like it was a junior husband. It's like I don't I will probably don't care We'll figure it out. But now you gotta wait wait a second. You have three heads You got to figure where you're gonna put them We're like, my gosh, we got to be a parent now. We can't be too adventurous, but we can so there's been

Heather Wick (32:29.385)

What?

Frenchitivity (32:39.68)

that I agree with that tug that you're kind of going back and Yeah it's just this total both and of a lot of the experiences for me as being someone who I mean I was an event planner like I'm a project manager like I there's a beginning and a lot of organized steps and there's an end and then now it's like

And it's so, for me, it's this like life. This has been growing. Growing. Yes, growing, expanding my tolerance for everything not being lined up. And we don't know what to expect. And it's been beautiful. I'm really enjoying the very uncomfortable state. Very uncomfortable state.

Heather Wick (33:01.983)

Thank

Heather Wick (33:14.195)

Yeah, yeah. And I think that, I think kind of like the two sides of the coin, right? Like the other side of freedom is like the sense of like decision fatigue, right? Like every day is like something new. And like there's this certain safety in our day-to-day lives around like the decisions are already made for us, right? Like we know we're getting up in the morning and going to work. We don't have to decide what we're going to do today every single day.

And so I think that that like, yeah, that is the other side of that freedom coin is that like it is exhausting to make decisions constantly. And that's actually something that we found as we got on the road is that routines were still important. Even if we had freedom where we were like going to be, the routine of it was still important and we could shift the routine in different countries, but we still had to have like a general structure.

Otherwise, what tend to happen is my husband and I would like collapse. Like we just have a day where we're like so exhausted. We're like, I don't know. Like you guys can like be on your tablets all day. Like whatever.

Frenchitivity (34:26.222)

Yes, yes, can't hold the space for them anymore when you are depleted in that way. Yeah, totally. Well, I love that said that decision fatigue, my blog was about decision fatigue. it down, I just wrote that down. My blog was actually about, because I didn't know, I didn't know that was coming, that like the other side of the coin of freedom is the decision fatigue and the decision fatigue was...

Heather Wick (34:29.855)

Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (34:48.84)

Really interesting. So yeah, we'll put that in the show notes. There's a blog and we're still working through all the things. So on that then, how with knowing what you know about the nervous system and grounding, how did you orientate yourself and your family and ground yourself and hold that space for them? What did you do to do that?

Heather Wick (34:52.777)

love it.

Heather Wick (35:08.521)

Yeah, so the first thing that I did that actually took us a while to figure out, but my husband and I had to start planning time on our own. You know, in the beginning we did try, this is like the other side of like time together as a family, right? Is that like sometimes you get overwhelmed and like need a little space. And so we started to figure out that we had to plan that into our weeks. We couldn't be all together all the time.

and have everybody be, just assume that they would all be okay. We needed to plan time on our own. So some days I would take a day and just go to the beach or go, when we were in Paris, there was one day where I went on a museum tour by myself for the day because little kids are only so interested for so long. And so I went back to the Louvre for the day because I was like, I want to see this for me.

and I just can't have the depth of experience that I wanna have here. So like planning those little pockets and also like date days with the kids so they got like a one-on-one parent experience. So we could have that little bit of space. And then something that's been important to me for years, but my meditation practice is like paramount to me. That's every morning I start out, even if...

Even if all I can get in is 90 seconds of meditation, showing up for that way in myself is so important and the only way that I survived some days. Yeah, I think those were the two biggest things that kind of that really helped ground me when it was.

you know, it is very disorienting. I don't know if you've ever tried to like meditate on a plane, but if you're like trying to anchor into something and you like don't know where you're at in time and space, it's a little bit like, it's a little odd. And so it was felt like that sometimes.

Frenchitivity (37:15.982)

Orientating has been a big part of it for us, like the meditation, absolutely. And yeah, I've found myself needing to orientate often because yesterday you were somewhere else and now you're here and how was that connected and how did you get here? And so really taking a minute to kind of understand where you are in time and space. I don't know if I have...

I that was so important until you know, the ground on your feet isn't always the same anymore. So that's been important to me.

Heather Wick (37:47.497)

Yeah, and I will actually add a third one to that. And I will say that that is community, like finding your people on the road. Because without that, like that is the interesting thing about moving so much, right? Like you don't have necessarily always the same community. And so finding like an online support system and also...

you know, people that you can connect with and like how you can draw in that feeling of community wherever you're at and how you can connect yourself with the land and the people around you. yeah, and just kind of like draw that in as much as you can because it's an effort, I would say that it took some effort and some days I did not have the effort to give, but you know, somebody usually does. And so that's why that.

community aspect is really important too. So I hope you guys are finding a little bit of that at least.

Frenchitivity (38:46.222)

We're storytelling along the way. Yeah. And so the gift of that is that we are making an effort that is a little bit different maybe than when we are if we're just traveling or on vacation and we're checking out and we're not trying to necessarily make those bonds and in this journey we are and so through those moments of trying to tell someone's story or understands them particular aspect I think those

those days for, I'm not going speak for everybody, but definitely for myself and I think for you as well, Ken, like those are the days where I feel like energized and lit up because that is the point. Like we're trying to get to know people and to understand a little more about the people and the places and the community. yeah, we're definitely making our way, but we're looking forward to doing that more, I think. Yeah, I love these hubs that you're talking about. I don't think we've just...

hit it right yet, but we certainly will. I know you mentioned Thailand and that's one of our stops here coming up. So we're certainly gonna make a bigger effort to do some of those things. And I'm looking forward to that. And especially after this conversation, not only for us, but obviously for our little one too, who's seven. And like you said, the interaction is so important. I mean, she can only take us for so much. you know, so absolutely. I mean, there's so many deep things about

Heather Wick (39:43.316)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (40:11.44)

what we're talking about, but I do have a question that is a logistical question. It's a hard-hitting question. How did you pack? That's what everybody asks us, so we've been like, you. It was you two that need to sweat five total. We're like, we're shipping stuff back. Like every stock, we things back home. And we have an extra...

Heather Wick (40:16.565)

Mm-hmm. Okay.

Heather Wick (40:28.967)

huh.

Frenchitivity (40:35.31)

We have too many suitcases. We're spending too much money on extra weight. Like how did you do that and how many times did you have to ship stuff back? And at what month did you figure that out?

Heather Wick (40:46.727)

Okay. So I will say that this was advice that I got from someone else. Well, I got advice and I also like our kids were enough younger when we left that like logistically we knew it was pretty much on my husband and I and like maybe my oldest was the only one who could really have a suitcase. So we traveled with three carry-on suitcases and then everybody had a backpack and that was it. So we went like real small. So

Frenchitivity (41:15.608)

That's impressive. That's awesome.

Heather Wick (41:17.083)

essentially there was one one item to wash like so you'd have one to wash one to wear was our like motto and then like you know enough underwear to get through a week and i we ended up so we did we traveled

Frenchitivity (41:30.456)

Yeah, yeah, what can we do laundry?

Heather Wick (41:41.513)

back to the States at Christmas. That was just kind of how we ended up. We were, we had been in Europe and we were going to stay in Scotland, but it ended up being like really expensive and it wasn't that expensive to fly back to the States. So we said, we'll just go visit family and the kids can kind of have like a touch point to, you know, reconnect with family. And so we flew back to Ohio for Christmas and we did leave like a suitcase's worth of stuff. Well, and then it was like Christmas time too. So they got a bunch of stuff.

in return. But yeah, we really tried to keep it minimal. I would say that that is and even with that amount of stuff, it felt like too much like we would we would get to points where we would leave stuff behind. So for example, when we got to Thailand, I left I had had like a winter coat that I had used in Europe and

We were pretty much going to be in tropical locations after that. And so I said, okay, like I'm just, you know, I'm, this is just going to stay here. And so we would have things that we would like leave behind somewhere. You know, we'd try and find a, kind of charity shop or something along the way. But, and some, honestly, sometimes we would just leave things in the Airbnbs and, you know, unload that way. But we did.

We would do book exchanges when we would meet up with like the hubs. So like our kids would like swap books with people, which was fun. And yeah, we really, I mean, we really just went as minimal as we could and we're very like, you know, I'm just like, I'm in like five different outfits in all of the pictures you see over this year. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (43:27.794)

Yeah, yeah, we're getting rid of that suitcase then yeah, yeah, we are we were that couple where we were I've always you always go and they weigh it right in front of you and then it's like, well

And I'm always behind those people in line. know. then they take it out and they're taking, they're going through their stuff in front of you trying to do it. And I'm like, I don't want to be that person. It's, but I was that, we've been that person a couple, twice. I Yeah. Anyways, so we're to get rid of that. are. Well, so here's the thing with that too, is like exactly what you are, are weaving into this entire conversation as well. Is that like part of that was, we didn't know what to be prepared for. Like we don't

where we're going and we don't know what we're going to need and then remembering like whatever we need mostly is already with us.

internally and then whatever else we need we pretty much confined but we didn't know we didn't know where we were gonna be we didn't know what we might need we're homeschooling we need books we vitamins and all the medicines like because other places couldn't possibly have like medicine like why would they have those like these things that I just that is it so true we packed and we'll have to send you a video Heather of

Heather Wick (44:38.751)

Yeah.

Frenchitivity (44:48.845)

I don't know, there must have been 38 ziplock bags full of different things that would be in a medicine cabinet or in a bathroom that we have taken with us. Whatever you need, I have. Because I'm a mom who needs to have everything for everyone all the time. But it's true though, it's that naive sense like, wait, we're not in the United States, we're not gonna be able to find Yeah, we won't be able to find Q-tips. We have all bagged Q-tips.

I have everything, anything you could want. So anyway, that's been a big part of our learning and we know, and you know, we packed up our entire house, we sold everything. I mean, we, we know how to get, but so I think there's a little bit of that too, that like, you know, we're going and this is our, these are our worldly belongings at this point. And so if it actually fits in four bags, like I'm okay with that until you have to lug those everywhere and it's ridiculous. And, but like at the time when we left,

this is all we own anymore, you know? And it's like, then I need these things, but now I don't. Now I literally am like, none of this is coming with us, none of it. Extreme.

Heather Wick (45:50.549)

Yeah. Yeah.

Frenchitivity (45:52.78)

Before we head, know that Michelle wants to talk about your, kind of what you're doing today. And then also I want to hear a little bit about reintegration. Yeah, reentry. Yeah, that's a good point. But I do one more about your travels for me is I know that you said you're gone about 13 months and that everybody kind of had their own, their own favorite place, but number two is Iceland. What was your favorite place? What place resonated with you and why?

Heather Wick (46:18.537)

Yeah, so for me it's funny. I don't always like to be nailed down to one thing. So depending on the day that you ask me, I will answer this differently. Today, I will say that my favorite place was the Philippines. We stayed on a tiny little island and we did, we...

Frenchitivity (46:27.672)

It was all great.

Heather Wick (46:41.417)

When we were in Thailand, I ended up getting scuba certified and my husband was already scuba certified. So we'd like go out on the boat and my husband would go down and do one dive and then come back up. And then I'd go down and do the next dive and the kids would snorkel. And it was like, it was just pure magic. So today that is my answer.

Frenchitivity (46:58.392)

Magic, I was saying magical, like where are you? That's awesome. That's amazing.

Heather Wick (47:03.113)

It was called Malapascua if you want to go and I would highly recommend the island. The mainland wasn't quite as enchanting for me, but the island was like amazing. And then most of time, if you ask me, I will say Northern Italy because it was, and it was very like Northern versus Southern was very different experiences for me, but Northern was like.

They, just remember this one, we had this one meal and it was normal to have like a playground by a restaurant. And so we hiked up, we did a hike to this like beautiful picturesque restaurant with these amazing mountains in the background. And they serve the kids their meal first and then like they wait until the kids are done eating and the kids go off to the playground and then they bring out mom and dad's food.

So the kids are like entertained playing with other kids. It's like totally normal to not have to be right there parenting your child, which I think for us in the U.S. is kind of like interesting sometimes, right? Because you're like, you can be looked at as a bad mom if you're like not right there making sure that everything's okay. And so like taking that pressure off and just being like, we expect your kids to go play and figure out life on the playground while you sit here and enjoy a nice meal with your spouse and like relax. was...

amazing. So that too.

Frenchitivity (48:31.682)

Love it.

that's awesome. I love both extremes too, right? Like in the water and diving and exploratory. And then you're also like, and I want to have a meal and sit with my husband. And like both of these things are equally amazing, beautiful and important. Like again, both things like, thank you. That's amazing. yeah. So reentry. Then at some point you did come back home. You came back to Arizona. So what was that like and how, how did your kids adjust back? What time of year did you come

Heather Wick (48:46.739)

Yes.

Frenchitivity (49:02.414)

back? it for school? How did you do that?

Heather Wick (49:04.521)

Yeah, so we flew back to the US a little bit before school started, but it was, we were aiming to be home in Arizona where we're weird. start school in July. So we got back to Arizona in July, about two weeks before they started back to school. And, you know, one of the other interesting things, and I think of this because you were talking about all the books and things for your daughter. So when we started out,

had all these plans about how education was going to go for the year and I too traveled with a lot of books for a while there and what we found was that we did not have space for formal education when we were learning through experiencing. We just couldn't hold both and you know I was really

Actually, going back to your fear question, that was actually maybe one of my biggest fears was that when we came back and reintegrated that my kids were going to be, you know, quote unquote behind. And we, as we went through the hubs, we actually met a lot of families who do unschooling. So there's, you know, no, no like formal education. You just follow whatever the child's curious about. And so we kind of went with that where we would.

learn about wherever we were at, whatever culture we were in. would, you know, like we'd have the kids read signs when we were exploring a park somewhere or we did have, we let them have like a math, don't know if remember, a prodigy, I think it's called, it's like a math game for kids. So we let them kind of do that for their math. But I mean, it's very gamified. It's not like formal education at all.

And we would do like we would watch YouTube videos on places we were at or like if there was something that the kids were curious about and we didn't know enough about we just kind of like follow whatever they were interested in learning about and Yeah, when we came back, I was really worried that it wasn't gonna have been enough that they were gonna be behind and What I've found now everybody's been back in school for about a year and a half now my

Heather Wick (51:26.727)

oldest son is in like gifted classes at school, my middle son is in gifted classes for school, they all thrived with the freedom to choose what they were interested in learning about. And without that, not even without, I think that the critical thinking skills that they gained when it was time to, know, part of what we did when we went out was we said, okay,

you know, we got everybody to watch and said, is how we're going to learn how to tell time. We've got to catch this train. How long does it take to get to the train station? You know, like all of these real life things where they're learning a lot of really concrete skills, but for some reason we've stopped valuing it as learning. And, and they really did thrive. My, my middle son, especially like his reading level is kind of like,

I mean it's very high and I think part of that was that there was no, you know, he didn't have any like required reading for that year. It was just whatever he was interested in, whatever books we could find, and he was just like absorbing all of it. And so all of them really, really thrived and I kind of wish that I would have spent a little less time stressing about how that was going to go because I did spend a lot of energy worrying about that, which you know I...

As you guys know, as parents, like it's hard not to worry about doing what's best for your kids. they like trusting that they really do thrive. And also the comment that I get on my kids all the time in almost any setting is that their ability to have conversations with people is next level. Like all the time people will be like, this is like talking to an adult.

And I think it's partly because, you know, they sometimes when we were traveling, the only people to talk to were adults. They were having conversations with, you know, my daughter is hilarious. She will talk to anybody. And so they'd be talking to, you know, this couple in Thailand who was traveling from somewhere, you know, else in the world. And they were just having these like thoughtful conversations where they learned to interact with other people, not just their peers. And I think that that has also served them.

Heather Wick (53:44.885)

in more ways than I would have known going into it.

Frenchitivity (53:49.933)

How is family life, the relationship with your family and kind of your values, how has it changed from when you left for this trip to today? How do you live your life differently?

Heather Wick (54:06.535)

Yeah, so I would say that.

It's so interesting. It's always like a bit of both, right? Like we, so when we came back, there were so many comforts of home that we were so excited to get back to. And also there's like this certain level of busyness that we used to maintain that once we had had kind of the spaciousness, we just realized that it wasn't as important to us to maintain that.

like busyness that we used to have. So it used to be that the kids would be in all these activities. And now we've kind of said, okay, everybody can have one activity. And that's like, that's enough. You don't have to figure out like, if you're going to be the next Picasso or the next, you know, like soccer player extraordinaire, like we can pick one thing and focus on that at a time. And then also, I think that our

Like, our...

I'm to think of the way to word this that makes the most sense.

Heather Wick (55:20.745)

I think our ability to relate to one another and to understand like...

what each other value and how like sometimes we need space or sometimes we need more togetherness and you know sometimes we just like don't even know what we need and that's okay too but just like that constantly being together really shot showed us you know that everybody kind of has the spectrum of

what works and what doesn't and just allowing for that spectrum to be present and knowing that it's going to change and being comfortable with change is something that I think is, yeah, something that we've brought with us.

Frenchitivity (56:16.014)

Take it in. Take it in. Take it in. Yeah, I mean

thank you for everything that you've shared with us about your journey and your travels and your bravery to go into the unknown and to make it happen. then the things that happen along the way that are exactly what you thought, beautiful and amazing. And then things where like, it just brings such a realness to it for us, which is very rich. So then also integrating back in, while you are a travel extraordinaire and you've only traveled, you are actually also an intuitive business coach and you use energy.

in that work so tell us more about your practice right now, who you serve, and just how you bring that work into the world.

Heather Wick (57:01.087)

Yeah, thank you so much for asking. One of the things that I found, and we talked about this a little bit before, but freedom is so important to me. And I think that this is for everybody, but moms especially is who I serve. And not just moms, but women trying to...

create a new way of being, right? Like we kind of got sucked into this like corporate expectations. And I think a lot of us like do really well in it earlier on in our lives. And then we get to a point where we realize that only working is not fulfilling for us. And so I support women who are looking to do things differently, who are ready to invite in a business so that they can create this life of freedom. Because, you know, in all honesty,

It's not possible to travel whenever you want or be there for all of the things that are important if you don't have a certain level of freedom in your life. And so I want more women to have the ability to create this life of their dreams and to, you know, I specifically think that having a business is the easiest way to do this in terms of like financial freedom and time freedom.

And so I support women in doing that. And I also do some life coaching. That was kind of where I started, was life coaching. And then I realized that as it kind of evolved that this freedom that's being called for is really, the time freedom is the thing that is like a common factor. And so many women are looking for this.

way to do it differently and do it better. And so I'm supporting them in that. And I have found that...

Heather Wick (59:00.901)

if I'm only doing business coaching, you're only doing life coaching that something's always missing, that there's this piece of like the energetics of it and the, you know, your connection to source and your highest self that is paramount in being able to even see that this is a possibility. And so that's, I invited that piece in as well because it kind of felt like the missing, the missing juice to create the life.

Frenchitivity (59:27.284)

Drop the mic. I mean, how

Heather Wick (59:30.069)

I brought it back.

Frenchitivity (59:41.8)

I resonate with everything you say in that framework is I mean obviously we found ourselves in the same place in the same space where a lot of women were there to kind of be talking about that and feeling that way and it's it's a complicated state to try to unpack but I so appreciate that you're doing work in that space and then we're all kind of trying to be so curious about is there another way

do this better and how can we still add so much value to this world, this big, huge, beautiful world? How do we add value and still have time freedom and still make it what we always talk about sustainable? Like how do we still, you know, make sure that where you can provide for a certain, you know, a lifestyle and to take care of our people, to give back, to do all these aspects that are so important. And so then therefore the draw to go back to that structure and paradigm and corporate

situation is very strong because it works and it's very valid and yet then energetically how you know how do we fill ourselves up so I think just exploring that is powerful work so that's incredible that's who you're serving and I can only imagine there's a lot of people that want to follow that path so if someone wants to work with you or understand more about your work how can they connect with you?

Heather Wick (01:01:01.599)

Well, thank you. So you can always find me on Instagram. I am Heatherwick.coach or you can go to my website, which is Heatherwick.love and you'll find all of the different opportunities to work with me. And when I'm up to, I'm always, I'm always creating something new. So you never know what you're going to get, but it's always fun and exciting. And I hope something that supports the community.

Frenchitivity (01:01:24.554)

juicy. Bring the juice. Bring the juice as always. Is your family going back on the road? Yeah. How does the traffic, what happens now?

Heather Wick (01:01:34.645)

Yeah, we, for right now, we are, I would say my oldest is like ready to stay put for a little while. And so we are doing some honoring of that. And you know, it is, it's a family and five people is a lot to kind of like manage all of your needs. But we are, yeah, right now we're in a space of honoring what he is wanting and also

seeing that the rest of us are itching to travel a little bit again. So for right now, we're like fitting it into school breaks, but we'll see what the future holds.

Frenchitivity (01:02:15.598)

Yeah, once the travel bug is in you, mean, what are gonna do? But it's beautiful that you're still doing it during breaks and honoring that at a certain age, everybody kind of needs to have some stability for a little while. Yeah. Well, thank you for spending this time with us and selfishly thank you for not only the podcast, but the therapy session. You've helped us tremendously. You gave us some validation in a lot of our feelings and thoughts and stuff. So we really appreciate.

Heather Wick (01:02:24.103)

right. Yeah.

Heather Wick (01:02:36.102)

Yeah

Frenchitivity (01:02:43.532)

you taking the time to do this. And also thank you for the powerful work that you're doing now. It's so well needed and hopefully you can empower these women to follow their dreams because that's what we're doing, that's what you did.

people do the same. And that is Frenchativity, like just letting people know that there's so much possibility they couldn't even have the dream if it wasn't meant for them and that you could help guide them to a way that they could make that possible and have some tranquility with it too. Well, just bring it all back. together. Thank you. We can't thank you enough for this time with you and can't wait to see where the journey takes you and us. Yeah, we'll call you back, Thailand.

Heather Wick (01:03:23.088)

Thank you so much for having me.

I love following along with you guys. am like, yes, living vicariously at the moment.

Frenchitivity (01:03:34.168)

Thank you. And so then you go again and then we'll follow you. So it'll all work out. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks.

Heather Wick (01:03:38.292)

There we go.