Power of Play
Power of Play
Love and Travel - How Taking Time To Fall In Love Again is So Important for Entrepreneurs
In this episode, Kelly and Amanda talk about how important it is to take the time to fall in love again and reconnect with your partner and even yourself. Learning how to disconnect and reconnect is vital to your happiness and something that takes intention.
Check out Largay Travel at https://www.pleasegoaway.com/
Connect with Kelly
Email - kelly@theentreprenewer.com
Website - https://www.theentreprenewer.com
Complimentary Free Trip Planning Guide - https://www.theentreprenewer.com/free-resources/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EntreprenewHer/
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LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellyclements/
Connect with Amanda
Email - amanda@largaytravel.com
Website - www.pleasegoaway.com
Schedule a complimentary 15-minute Travel Specialist Consultation - www.pleasegoaway.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/pleasegoawaytravelcompany/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/virtuosotraveladvisor/?hl=en
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amanda-klimak/
Hello and welcome once again to the Island of misfit toys. Yes. I feel like singing the, um, the, the theme song from the love boat with this episode, boots, bring it on you the may. Okay. Well where's that record scratch. So here we are and this episode is a fun one. Yes, we're talking about love on vacation and why it's so important and that hotel sex is the best sex. I call it vacation sex. It can go anywhere. It doesn't have to be a hotel. So I, yeah, and I love this topic because I think that disconnecting and reconnecting and reigniting those relationships is so important and travel has such an amazing way of doing that. Um, and it could be travel anywhere. It could be going for one night to a hotel close by. It doesn't have to be, it could be just going out to dinner. But you know what? I think it's so important that couples really think about this and think about how important it is in a relationship to take the time to do the things that got you interested in each other in the beginning. Yes, totally. And so when we normally talk about travel and entrepreneurship as it relates to ourselves and our families, this episode is dedicated exclusively to the couples, to you and your significant other. Love it. Yeah. So let's talk about this because I think that, you know, it's funny because couples will come to us and they'll say, you know, we want to get away. We want to get a break. We're not going to bring the kids. Or you know, this is our big time to have a honeymoon baby moon, a just a break from the life. And so often, you know, they'll book something but they won't take the time to plan the moments that are what make it so special. And when we know as travel advisors that this is a trip that you want to really reconnect. That's when we get to put on our creative thinking hats. And it becomes super fun for us as travel advisors. Yes. Yeah. And I bet, and you know, again, when I talk about how play gets squeezed out the window because we don't value it becomes a luxury. Once we understand again, that there's a utility to play, there's value to play as it relates to the entrepreneurial marriage. Will any marriage for that matter. But you know, look at the dating relationship, look at the thing that got us to the alter or got us to this point in our, in our longterm relationships. Right? Right. Matthew Kelly in his book calls it carefree timelessness and it's in that, isn't that just perfect? Like, yeah, juicy and effortless and um, it's in that state of carefree timelessness that love grows.[inaudible] right? Like we fall in love in this bubble where we hire hiking or tailgating, traveling and having that dinner on the beach with the candlelight and the waves like breaking it. Oh my gosh, I could totally, I love, this is my favorite type of travel to plan because often time I have couples that, you know, they may be husbands and wives with kids. It may be husbands that are going together or wives that are going together or you know, it may be boyfriend, girlfriend. It may be falling in love with yourself again. Sometimes like that's something that people miss is being able to go away and fall in love again because we lose it so often in our relationships. Yep. Yeah. I mean, when I think about my relationship, you know, I look at my first husband and we met in Disney world. Like how much more carefree do you get? You yeah. Is he like Mickey mouse?[inaudible] snow[inaudible] have a total visual going here. Yeah. Wasn't quite that. How did you meet, and I have to ask this question, how did you meet in Disney worlds? Well, he was, we did the college program, so they have a live learn and earn college program down there. So, you know, college students go all from all over the country and they stay at Vista way. And um, he was my neighbor and you know, so our first day was to Epcot and like, it's, you know, it's an easy place to fall in love. It's a complete bubble from reality. Right. And I'm sure we're not alone. Like Mo, you know, look at college where a lot of people fall in love. It's a complete bubble from reality. And so we get to, you know, we have these fantasy relationships and you know, we go through the dating relationship, we get to the alter and it's like wah, wah wah, here's the house, here's the pats and the kids in the business and we keep on all these responsibilities. And then it's like we wonder, like, I don't, I love you anymore. Yes, exactly. Well, and you know what I think is that it can be a really fun planning process when, you know, both people in the relationship get involved in the planning process. And sometimes I'll actually say to each one separately, let's think of a surprise for the other person, or let's try to do something that's totally out of your comfort zone. Um, and, and whether it be like doing that dinner on the beach with the waves, like crashing up or, you know, my husband and I, Gary, we got engaged in Tibet at the highest monastery in the world. And we were like hiking the pilgrimage trail and, you know, yes, we couldn't breathe cause it was so high up, but it was just like so amazing and blissful and beautiful. And what's neat in our profession is that we have these amazing contacts all over the world. And when we have that pre-information and we know that somebody wants to have that romantic moment, that you know, we can arrange something that's truly special for destination. So Gary, unbeknownst to me, had, I had reached out to Imperial tours, who was the company that had arranged the trip and he reached out to guy Ruben, who's one of the owners. And he said, guy, I want to, you know, get engaged, can you help me? And the two of them worked the whole thing out way. And what was funny was when we were going through the airport, Gary had put, we had this giant ring, um, which was a table cloth ring, but it had a big diamond on the top. And he brought that, cause he didn't want to carry a diamond onto the airplane and they were, they pulled our luggage aside because of the batteries from the cameras and they wanted to search it and he didn't want me to see what was in that bag. So it was the funniest thing and I couldn't understand why are they all acting so weird. But that was exactly what was happening. It was like the craziest thing. But talk about an amazing experience that just leaves you in that sense of awe and connects you in a way that you haven't felt in a long time. Sometimes. Yes. That's so needed and necessary. Yeah. It's when we can see our significant other away from the burdens and the responsibilities of the house and the kids and the business and the employees and social media, you know, it's like, Oh there you are. Yeah. And it's funny because we lose that. It's almost can be for some people uncomfortable at this point because it may have been many years since they've been the romantic or sent the love note or done, you know, something a little bit off what they would normally do. And so, you know, it really can be an experience. We do this all the time with couples and you know, it's so fun to get into that planning and figure out whether it be, you know, having pictures from their wedding on the nightstands or um, you know, making arrangements with the hotels so that when they get back to the hotel room, there's Rose pedals on the bed or something like that. And that could really ignite that vacation sex we were talking about. Yeah. And you know, it, it, it's one of the things I talk about and one of the re I have a, I suggest a rhythm of play and I, you know, every month if you had a standing hotel date night, like that's an extreme ideal yes. Goal. But what would that do? And you know, and the reason why is because it's not like the laundry on the cherry over here is like reminding you that you haven't done this. It's like the the, you know, the dishes are piling up on the kitchen sink. Like do this instead. Like the distractions and the kids are home. Like all of those things are gone. And again, that's where that presence happens and that's what tr that's what travel does. Yeah. We get this undivided attention, this presence. And so when, when I talk about just having a standing hotel date night, once a month and once a quarter, whatever, like what hotel properties are really good at romance packages. Oh my gosh, there's so many. And you know for us, and it depends where you live, but the neat thing is that we can really look around and have like a menu of hotels. We know I have amazing romantic experiences. So right near here we're in Connecticut, we have wind Vion, which is right up in Goshen, Connecticut. And they have these themed rooms and now when you think themed, you're like, Oh, Disney themed kind of thing. But this is like themed, done well. So like they have this Beaver lodge room where it's like got sticks coming in from the ceiling. So you feel like you're in a Beaver lodge and when you go into the shower there's this like beautiful rain shower with all stone and you know, and talk about romance. I mean if that, you know, and a lot of these places, you know, if you set aside a fund, which is your romance fund, you can literally say, okay, I'm going to spend$500 a quarter or$1,000 a quarter, which is my romance funds. That's not a lot over the course of the year. You know, that's, maybe you skip a couple of dinners out or something like that. But what a fun thing to do together. And maybe you even rotate who gets to plan then the night away, like it's a surprise. Like maybe you don't know where you're going to go. And so when it's your turn, you know that you get to choose where you're going to go and what the romance is going to be. And when the other person gets to choose. And it's awkward at first sometimes for people to kind of get into this groove. But we do it a lot with wanderlust where we are literally mapping out their lifetime of travel. But couples will tell me a lot of times, listen, every two months we need to get away, even if it's for two nights or three nights or whatever works within your, your world. Um, and we just plan it in. So it's already budgeted into their annual budget of travel spend. And it fluctuates based on what they've got going on. If the kid is going into college, if they've got, you know, this, then of course those things change. And maybe your date weekend turns into a date night or you know, however it works. But it's all flexible. Yes. You know, and that's, but it's about making it a priority in your life and making it a priority in your life plan. And what I find so interesting is so many people take the time to plan their estate. They plan their funeral, they plan their trust funds, they plan all things, but what they don't plan is their free time and their time with their loved ones on a longterm basis. And that's like your most valuable thing. Like that's the best thing ever. That's what it's all about. Yeah. And when you have a standing date and like a hotel date night, that's another thing that sends the message to your spouse or your partner, your family, like you are the most important thing. I actually am orbiting the business around us. Like if I know on the second Thursday we're going to have this hotel date night, I know I'm not going to schedule anything and that sends a message, you know, it's not just the experience, it sends a message to your family or to your spouse or partner. I am preparing this like this is sacred time and I have clients, may couples and they took turns at every other moms preparing. Oh really? It's a surprise. Well and you know for most people in the United States for certain, there are amazing places within a driving distance of where most people live. So, and this goes across us, Canada and I mean not around the world really. And so, and you know one other thing that I'd like to bring up, cause I know you and how close you are with your children. You can also do date nights with your kids. And so, um, you know I, one of my things was when my kids turned 16, they got to choose a trip that I took them on. And so my daughter chose a trip to Paris and so we did the most amazing things in Paris. We went on a scavenger hunt in the lube. We went to all these cooking classes and we rode the Metro and got lost and went to Versailles together and wandered through the gardens. And it was just a fabulous trip. And my son, it was so funny cause when I asked him, I said, where do you want to go? And he said, Myrtle beach. And I thought, I don't know the first thing about Myrtle beach. Not that Myrtle beach is an amazing destination, but I'm like, gosh, if you had asked me to go to Cambodia I'd have a better time. And it was funny cause we ended up, when speak started to talk about what he wanted to do in Myrtle beach. We actually came down to, he wanted to go skateboarding at different places around the country. So we ended up taking a trip to Miami to escape park there that he wanted to go to. And then we took a trip up to Maine and he wanted to go skateboarding there. So it ended up, but what a cool thing that our date night was actually with my kids. It doesn't have to be with your spouse, your any loved one could really be your date night. Yeah, it's that one on one time. You know, there's not other people competing for our attention or questions or energy. It's just completely focused, left, right or left eye connection. And I think we're all so hungry for that. And to get that from our loved ones and to give that to our loved ones, especially for the ones that tend to be more distracted in our houses, you know, it's a real gift to sit there and just give them that undivided attention. Right. Well, and what's funny is that sometimes when we're working with clients and they ask us to be really creative, we'll come up with teasers that we can start to send out to the clients, whether it be, you know, YouTube things and things like this. And it almost becomes a game. It takes practice for most people to get into that routine of it, but it's part of the play. Right. And the anticipation and that whole love of being, you know, maybe it's sending, um, seashells in the mail to them or you know, sending a little teaser about a little wine or you know, something or leaving a no on this stand that maybe is a quote that's on, um, you know, on a wall somewhere or something like that. So, um, there's so much here that we could talk about, but wow, this is so fun. It is. So let me ask you, so you're a travel advisor. If the phone rang and somebody wanted you to plan just one night at a local hotel, does that excite you? Like this? You're like, you know what, it depends what they're looking to plan. If they want to go to the airport hotel cause they're flying out the next day, nobody[inaudible] hardhats or even the courtyard downtown, maybe not my thing, you know, but when I can actually work with a hotel that I know is creative and you know, a lot of our virtuoso hotels want to be creative. They aren't just dying information. And what's so funny is I always say to clients, you know, you can't VIP yourself cause they'll say, well what's the value of booking with you versus booking the hotel direct? Well first you're probably going to get the same pricing or better, you're going to get amenities and upgrades. And I probably have a relationship with the general manager, with the reservations manager and I could reach out and I could say, Hey, I've got this couple coming. It's a really nice, you know, break for them. Can you help them out and maybe do something really special. And it's very interesting what we, what they'd come up with just by having the information because often they don't know and they want to do special things. Yes. Yeah. So it's very fun. It's that little surprise and delight that we all talk about giving our clients and really doing it for your spouse or partner is awesome. Well this was fun. Love is in the air. I wonder if we could play this on Valentine. I know and maybe we'll think of some good things that we can put on the website that actually would give you an idea of some romantic getaways that are offered. Um, we do have the virtuoso best at the best book, which gives, it's like the Sears and Roebuck catalog, right? You're probably too young to know about that. But that Sears and Roebuck catalog where you could page through and see all those romantic experiences. And that's a great place for people to start, is in that virtual is a catalog. Just looking through and finding the hotels that are near you. And that's something that we give to our clients as a compliment, um, with our compliments when they start to work with us because we want them to stroll through that book and dream and earmark those pages and say, yes, I want to go to this hotel and I want it to be special and I want to have this experience. Yes. And there are some people who are watching or listening who don't know what virtual so is. And if that is you, I want to tell you, look for a virtuoso advisor and the virtual. So property, I'm gonna let you talk about what virtual sway is and why it's so important to make sure that you're traveling within the virtuoso network. Yeah. So we are a network of, um, travel and travel agencies that specialize in experiential travel. And we, it's a meme, it's an invitation only membership. Um, but we have partners all around the world that work with our clients and, um, you know, help to make these amazing experiences. And so, you know, whether it be a cruise line or a tour company or a hotel, we're able to get those, the things you didn't know you didn't know. So knowing that you can get into the Vatican before the general public and you don't have to stand in line and all of those special things, that's our deal. That's what we do. So, um, there are thousands of virtuoso advisors across the country and around the world. And so if you're not already working with the virtuous advisor, I would highly recommend it. And certainly our team of 140 virtual. So advisors are amazing too. They are. Yeah. I know. I'm not actually working in the travel industry. I do a lot of work with the travel industry, but as a traveler, the first time I was exposed to virtual. So what that did for me was it made me realize that I had taken a lot of vacations, but I had never traveled, you know? And that was a key distinction for me. And so that was, you know, as a lay man outside of the travel industry, that's why you're gonna want to look for a virtual, so supplier or advisor because they just transcend vacations. Yes. Well, this was a fun episode. I love it. I'm going to go have a romantic dinner with my husband. We are recording this on my wedding interview. Anybody knew that? But today is my wedding anniversary. So for today, congratulations. Thank you. So we will see you again. We're signing off from the Island of misfit toys and thanks for joining us. Bye guys. Thanks. Hi.