Power of Play
Power of Play
Adventures in Disconnecting: A Journey Beyond Work
Do you ever grapple with the urge to check your emails while sunbathing on a pristine sandy beach? Or struggle to resist the pull of work while you're supposed to be exploring a new city? We've been there, and we're here to share our experiences and solutions in this candid chat about the trials and tribulations of disconnecting from work while traveling. From a remote Lindblad Expedition on the National Geographic Orion in the Kimberly Region of Australia to the bumpy bus rides on the outskirts of bustling cities, we've seen and learned it all.
Using personal anecdotes and humorous misadventures, such as an accidental tour booking to the wrong city, travel specialist, Amanda Klimak, and Entrepreneur Coach, Kelly Clements shed light on the upsides of stepping away from work. You'll be surprised to learn how your absence could actually benefit your teams, instilling them with trust and independence! We also discuss the critical steps of prepping your team before you jet off, setting clear expectations, and returning to work recharged and ready to go. Get ready to embark on a journey of self-discovery, adventure, and giving your work-life balance a much-needed boost. So, strap in, wave goodbye to your work worries, and let's hit the road together!
Hello everyone, welcome back to the Power of Play. I'm your hostess, amanda Climack, and I'm here with my co-host, kelly Clemens.
Speaker 2:Hello, everybody, welcome back.
Speaker 1:We'll be back for our next episode, all about disconnecting or not disconnecting while you're traveling.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to dive into this one. This is a big one for most entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I have just come back from one of the most epic trips I have ever taken. I was in the Kimberley region of Australia, which is on the northwest coast of Australia. It's a very remote part of the world and it was kind of a last minute trip for me. I planned it in. We started planning in May to leave in July, so, holy moly, I was away almost three weeks. Wow, yeah yeah. And what was fabulous about it is it was a limbblad expedition, also in conjunction with National Geographic, and I actually sit on the advisory board for limbblad expeditions. So, because this part of the world is a part of the world most people don't know about or haven't heard about, they asked me if I wanted to go and then share my experience. So I wanted to share my experience from a lot of different ways, but today we're going to focus on what happens when you plan to be working while traveling, and that doesn't necessarily work out, and we'll talk about that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or when, or probably the flip side too, if you plan to work a little bit and then it ends up taking a lot of bit and your family gets upset. So I can see that there's going to be two sides to this coin of giving yourself a little bit of leeway to work while you're on vacation.
Speaker 1:Yes, so what I want to preface on this one is you know, one of the great things on cruise ships is that they have now put into play on these ships. They've outfitted them with what's called Starlink, which is satellite internet. So limbblad has updated all of their ships with Starlink, except the one I was on which is going to be updated in the next month or two. And the reason that ship the Orion, was not updated yet is it hasn't been to a major port yet, so they haven't gotten the equipment on board and upgraded. But they will have that.
Speaker 1:So I being my own worst travel agent, I think this is why I, including everyone in the world, needs a good travel advisor. You know, with planning on being on the ship and working for my entire trip, but when I got on board the internet was still kind of slow and you know most people that would have would have researched this in advance and I wasn't aware of it. No fault of my, you know, only my fault, but it is what it is. So it was an interesting thing because I got on the ship and when I realized I wasn't going to be able to communicate in the way that I wanted, I couldn't do my Zoom calls. It was a little stressful and the first couple days it took me a while to really chill out and realize you need to be in, you know, in the moment, be present and enjoy this experience and trust that your team back home has your back. They know what they're doing and they can handle things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, amanda, so often entrepreneurs, I think, get tied up in the story that the business can't run without us, and you know we need to check in just to make sure the team is okay and the clients and the customers are taking care of, and there's, you know, these stories are pretty prevalent.
Speaker 2:It's like sometimes it forces you into it and it's not a path that you would have chosen. But as soon as you get put into the situation where you don't have any control over it, it's like, oh, it does take a day or two, sometimes three, to like really decompress and get into it. And one of the things that I find most fascinating and I consistently find this is that my clients will come back and be like the team actually did better without me, because they actually had time to finish the projects that they were working on. They got to run their own priorities without me coming in with fire drills every other hour with you know, with a new set of priorities, and so somehow the team was more productive when I was gone, and so I wish we could do this without the anxiety. But I do wish this experience for every entrepreneur who has a hard time disconnecting from work.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah Well, and the fabulous part was I did a great job prepping everyone that I would be away. So you know everyone and you know what's great is my leadership is amazing, my leadership team is amazing and I trust them and I know they can handle things. Of course, you know, in my own mind I'm irreplaceable, but it was fabulous in that once they understood she's not going to be on these Zoom calls, she's not going to be able to participate in town hall or at our L10 meetings each week, when I went back and watched the recordings because we do record a lot of those meetings they did a phenomenal job. And so you are so right in that. You know, yes, there's the stress of oh my gosh, the everything stops when I'm gone. You know it's amazing because we do a great job of selecting people that are so capable and amazing at their jobs. That you know. I guess we do have to just realize.
Speaker 1:And, you know, once I did disconnect while I was on the trip oh my gosh, it was, honestly, when I go on an expedition, because that is my type of travel, the trip I was on is what I'm all about as a person and my husband, gary's all about as a person. We traveled with amazing people, so I had a few friends on board that I don't get to spend time with and be with on a regular basis my friend Lisa, who works for Limblad just an unbelievable human being and a few other travel advisors from other companies that I just hadn't gotten to know and I got to really get a deep understanding of them and how they do business. And then one of the things I love about the type of trip I was on is it's all about learning, it's all about being curious and as entrepreneurs, we, you know, I have a hard time sitting on a beach and drinking you know cocktails all day. Some people love that. That is not my you know game, but I'll tell you when I get to me. I met Peter Hillary, whose father was Sir Edmund Hillary, who's the first guy to ever climb Mount Everest and I'm going to do a different podcast which I recorded with him, which is phenomenal.
Speaker 1:These amazing naturalists who literally are experts in crocodiles and whales and sea snakes and geology and cave art, some of which is, you know, 15, 20,000 years old, some of the oldest rock formations in the world Like I was touching rocks that were 1.8 billion years old, before there was even life on the planet, and so, you know, for me this was like my dream trip and I was able to disconnect and really immerse myself in the experience. And although I love the idea of having fast internet on ships because we do want to, you know, do those meetings and still run our businesses there is something beautiful about having some slow internet. So I, you know it's like you're tweaked in between. Do you really want the internet? But when you don't have it, it does. Yeah, it is a benefit.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and you know too. I think, like I said earlier, if you go into a big vacation like that and you know, you tell yourself the story like it's going to be three weeks. How can I possibly gone for three weeks? And yeah, it's a stretch. But when you start to say like, well, I can just, I can make a couple of calls or I can work a couple of hours every morning before the family gets up and you start to have like, make these crevices of work into vacation. Yes, especially, especially on a big, once in a lifetime trip like that, what can end up happening as you check in and the teams used to you checking in, and then when fires happen, they're like, well, we'll just talk about that tomorrow and he calls, or we'll just talk to her about that later today when she calls to check in and now what we think is going to be a 20 minute check in becomes maybe a three hour crisis or it spills into your next day because you're worried about the clients at home and you're so plugged in and present to what's happening at home you miss the time with your family and that's when the family is.
Speaker 2:I work with spouses as well as entrepreneurs and the spouses. A lot of times are like, you know, it's the one time of year I look forward to getting like just undivided attention and just time with the family, without, like, the distractions of all the business. And when we look forward to this one time of year on these, on these big trips, where we just get the undivided attention and even that gets stolen by work, like I feel ripped off, you know, I feel I feel like I got ripped off and they're right. And so when you go on these big ones in a lifetime trips or mini trips, just setting the expectation to everybody that you're going to be present to your family, it's time to invest in the family, it's time to engage in the love relationship and really dive in there, because that spills over. When you get home, you know, when you're back in business, it's like oh, you know, this whole stack of emails doesn't feel so quite overwhelming because my batteries are fully charged again.
Speaker 1:Yes, and you know it's funny, kelly, because one of the previous podcasts we had done was disconnecting when you're traveling or setting expectations like, okay, I'm going to take from you know eight to nine each day, and that's my time when I'm going to check in and talking to your family travel companions about that in advance. And I have to say, I returned so recharged and energized because I disconnected and it really I think everyone around me appreciates that and it's in my leadership team and everyone in my company did an amazing job. So, yes, I had a gazillion emails to catch up on and yes, I've been waking up at 1 am because my body clock is going what the heck. And even the day after I returned, I had to go to a board meeting in Rhode Island. So I've been so screwy since I got back.
Speaker 1:But you know what what I say to myself is it is so worth it and even though guess what, I am exhausted, I'm not sleeping right yet, I don't care, Like I would give that up any time of day. So I you know what. This was a really good reminder to me as an entrepreneur that I do need to disconnect and I do need to allow people on my team to do that as well. So it's turned me into a more conscientious leader. And so it's funny because one of my leaders is out right now on vacation in Aruba, and every time I see her respond to an email I say to her no Hori, we've got this. Go back to the beach. I hope you have a margarita in your hand. Please disconnect. So it kind of allows when people do it for me and I do it for them, it's a wonderful reciprocation and I think it really is so important.
Speaker 2:Totally yes, totally Good for you.
Speaker 1:I know, I know it was fabulous and the trip itself. I hadn't planned it far in advance and actually I should have let someone else plan some parts of it. But yeah, you did your own travel. Well, kind of sort of. So it's really funny because I decided the trip itself up in the Kimberley was about a 10 day trip on the ground on the ship. But I decided to add three nights to the trip and I am not an Australia expert. I know very little about Australia and I have people on my team that are experts. But because it was three nights I was like you know what I'll do what I can myself. And oh my god, funny story which anybody listening to me is going to go what being who, how experienced that.
Speaker 1:I've been in this business for 30 years. This is going to be crazy Interesting. But I booked my ground transportation and activities myself in Australia and I'm so embarrassed that this happened to me. But you guys are going to find it funny. So I normally would have one of my specialists book a trip. Who knows Australia for a client? I would never try to do that myself. I did my own hotel, I did my own transfers. I had this amazing company do a full day tour in Sydney for me. So that part of it was all arranged and was fabulous, my transfers fabulous, because we work with a ground operator there who's amazing.
Speaker 1:But two activities I wanted to do. One was the bridge climb. I thought I'll book it myself, I can do that, that's not a big deal. And then I also wanted to go to the Australia Zoo and I thought how hard is this? I can book it myself. So I booked my tickets to the Australia Zoo. I had wanted to do a koala experience but that was sold out. So I booked myself the Meerkat experience. Yes, I know they're not from Australia, but I thought wouldn't it be fun to have all these little Meerkats on me and take photos and everything?
Speaker 1:So the morning of I wake up and I'm like oh my god, I'm so excited. I said to Gary, my husband, I'm like I had dreams of Meerkats. I am so excited for this experience. So I handed him the confirmation and I said babe, I'm going to get in the shower, can you check if we should take Uber or we should take the ferry to get to the zoo? So he's like OK, he's like I'll figure it out. I get out of the shower and he goes. Well, he goes. If you want to take the Uber, take Uber, it's an 11 hour drive. And I'm like what? And I'm like no, you put in that we're walking. And he's like no, it's an 11 hour drive.
Speaker 1:No-transcript on the Australia Zoo that you booked is in Brisbane and we're in Sydney. And I'm like no, no, no, no, no. I no, I did not do this, I did not do this. So we go. I go down to the concierge right and I hand her my confirmation. She looks at it and she goes do you have a flight booked? And I'm like no. She's like do you have a private plane? I'm like no. So, literally, I emailed the Australia Zoo. I booked the Australia Zoo with Steve Irwin and all of that $600 for this experience. I'm supposed to be there in an hour and of course, we're not gonna be there. And I emailed them out and I'm like, oh my gosh, I have made a horrible mistake. Now, mind you, this is from my Largay travel email address.
Speaker 2:Yeah right.
Speaker 1:How about thinking what is wrong with this woman? And so I emailed them and Kelly, no lie, I. Literally the first words they send me are in all capital letters and it says crikey To their benefit. The woman said I'm so sorry this happened. We would love to have you at the zoo. However, you are 11 hours Drive. And she said I will gladly refund you. And to their, you know, bless their heart, that they would refund me. I did not expect it. I thought I would have a credit and they were wonderful and I look forward to going back to Australia, booking with an Australia specialist on my team and and going to Brisbane to see the zoo. But I, you know, I tell the story and I'm so embarrassed because you know I've been in this business a long time. I know a lot about a lot. Australia is not one of it. One of those things.
Speaker 2:You know what, amanda, sometimes our mess is our message, and and sometimes you know, now you have another reason to explain to people why they need to work with a travel advisor.
Speaker 1:Yes, well, I know that for sure, you know. I mean I've made a lot of mistakes in my life Along the way. I always own them and I'm gonna own this one. But I thought it was pretty funny when it happens, because I think it it really reminded me why using a specialist is so important.
Speaker 2:First, you know, right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so that's some learned. Yes, so anyway, kelly, as we sign off today, I know we, you know, really talked about. You know what happens when you make your plans and then life laughs, and you know what I? I think for me it was a great reminder at how much I can trust my team and how important it is for me to disconnect, because I Returned a better person, yeah, and, and I'll tell you, this expedition was I've been on a lot of expeditions in my life.
Speaker 1:This was probably one of my top three in my life. I've now hit all seven continents, so I'm excited about that. And you know what the ability to be curious, to learn, to explore, to have the choice whether I am busy on the ground all the time or some of the time, or none of the time, you know, it's just, it's a wonderful thing. And the people we travel with I know we talked about doing another podcast about who is your tribe that you travel with and, and you know, are they people you know already or are they people you meet along the way? And I met a tribe on this trip and I'll tell you I can't wait to explore the world again with them.
Speaker 2:That's so great. Oh, I love that. Congratulations.
Speaker 1:Thanks so much. Well, we look forward to future podcasts. We have a couple others that will be recording and getting out to you. And then I also have a podcast I recorded with Peter Hillary, which honestly, one of the most fascinating people I've ever met in my life. The guy has climbed Mount Everest five times. He did it 50 years after his father, sir Edmund Hillary, climbs the first time in 1954. He's traveled around the world with his children, with his wife and on expeditions and mountaineering trips. He's been at the South Pole on cross country skis and he's been in the North Pole with Neil Armstrong. I mean, this guy is beyond. So I can't wait to get that out. I'll get that out in probably the next week or so. And then, kelly, are there some future podcasts you're hoping we get recorded soon?
Speaker 2:Yes, there's a couple more coming out. We have an interview with Jim and Jamie Shields, who are authors of 18 Summers, and that's about really going deep on quality time with your kids, and travel is a hobby of theirs. We have another one I'm going to be doing on sober play, and so people that are into maybe sober curious how they have recreational experiences or travel without alcohol, so that one's coming down the pipes as well.
Speaker 1:And that's near and dear to my heart, and I think everyone has someone they know, whether it's themselves or a loved one who is sober, and it's wonderful because I know we always love to support the people we love and be true to ourselves. So I think that's going to be a really great podcast. So thank you, thanks Kelly and everyone. We're so happy you came in and are listening today to the power of play. Have a great day. Bye, everybody.