How to Find Joy and Freedom in Full-Time Travel with Heather Markel

Aransas Savas (: 00:01

Welcome to the Uplifters podcast. I'm your host, Aranza Savvas. And today, you're going to meet Heather Markell. So like so many of us, she started her life behind a desk in a corporate career. And then in 2017, she did that thing that so many of us have fantasized quietly about and talked ourselves out of time and time again.

She made a bold decision to quit her job, to take a career break and travel the world. And in doing so, she found a new way of life. One that has led her to 39 countries on six continents and spending two years in New Zealand during the pandemic.

And here she is six years later, she still has no permanent address and she's become a coach for people who want to travel full time. She works with professionals who wanna start or sustain extended travel or work remotely while traveling. She's become a bestselling author and a TEDx speaker who focuses on the.

beauty and the opportunities of full-time travel. She teaches her clients the mindset, money, and mastery they need in order to achieve and navigate that fantasy lifestyle that so many of us have. And she has empowered so many people through that work to live their fantasies. And I'm so excited to have Heather join us today to tell us what

helped her find the courage to make that big change, and then how she helps others navigate change as well. Heather, thank you for joining us on the Uplifters.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 01:56

Thank you for having me. That was quite an introduction. Thank you.

Aransas Savas (: 02:01

It's quite, it's a really exciting thing you've done here. I mean, it's something that for so many people feels so alluring and yet scares the tar out of them. And so we don't do it and then we pile on all these excuses and regrets and fears and we just make it harder and harder and harder on ourselves to do it. So how long did you think about living as a full-time traveler?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 02:25

So I never, when I thought about it, I didn't see it as a lifestyle. I just saw it as a like, oh, I'll just go, you know, quit my job, do this for a bit, and then go back to real life afterwards. And I had that thought for a good 10 years. I lived with a French host family in 1986.living there with that family is what gave me my first exposure to immersing in a culture instead of just darting around and doing the tourist thing. So I knew from a very young age that I wanted an international career, but I thought it was going to be a career. And it wasn't until my, I had an international career for a while and then it became domestic.

and I was just so unhappy. And I began dreaming about a real life where I was doing what I loved, which is traveling and meeting great people, using my language skills, adding on. But it just seemed like such a pipe dream. I couldn't get to it for a long time.

Aransas Savas (: 03:44

Mm-hmm. And what specifically about it felt insurmountable and made it from just like a, oh, this is my dream I'm going to build to it, and a, this is a pipe dream.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 03:59

So, you know, initially it was the battle between my head and my heart, which was, you know, my heart was very clear, like, I want to do this. And my head's like, well, how are you going to pay rent? Oh, how are you going to get health insurance? I don't know. Right. And so I just felt like every little dream I had was cut out by that domineering voice in my head.

And as I waited, then it became, now you're too old. You've just waited too long. There's what you're gonna ruin your career. And the people I was surrounded by cared about me and didn't want me to ruin my life. And so also strongly encouraged me not to live this lifestyle. And I find it ironic what you were saying earlier. I actually reached a point where

the year I finally quit, I knew if I hadn't quit that year, I knew that the next year I was gonna make peace with not having the courage. And just, you know, cause I spent one of the images in my head that helped me was, oh my God, I'm gonna be 90 and I'm gonna look back at my life and wonder what if, what if I had the courage to do this and I'm gonna be so regretful about not doing it.

But I realized, oh, I'm gonna, yep, that's what's gonna happen. And I'm gonna make myself okay with that. And ironically, when I think I got stuck in New Zealand for two years in the pandemic, I would have been stuck in a tiny apartment for two years, probably going stir crazy, looking out the window. Instead, I got to walk around in nature and had a year of no COVID and got to live life, travel. So, you know.

So glad I made the decision I did.

Aransas Savas (: 05:59

Yeah. And what, in that moment, you had that image of yourself and you said, if I don't do this now, I will be 90 and I will be living with regret. And so did you dip your toe into the water or did you just say, to heck with it, I'm going full in?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 06:18

So what happened for me was that every year, these 10 years that I dreamed of this, in January, I would say to one friend or to myself, this is my year, I'm gonna quit this year. And I'd get to December, hadn't quit, and then I'd get depressed for a week, beat myself up about it, clock reset with January, do it again. And I repeated that for about 10 years.

And on the 10th year, that one week depression lasted a month. And then I felt a pain in my chest. And I knew from several years earlier, I had been in the wrong relationship and had that same head heart conflict. And I felt a pain in my neck that became two herniated discs that were the most excruciating pain I had ever felt.

and which are, you know, I still have them, right? And when I felt this pain in my chest, I said, no, that's it. I'm not turning this pain into some debilitating health problem, I'm out. And then I set that year, cause that was January. And then I said, well, if I'm, if I think I'm gonna quit this year, I better, you know, step up to the plate here. And I allowed the universe to sort of like, I grabbed onto anything that I could say was,

Aransas Savas (: 07:39

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 07:46

a chance to prove to myself that I was ready and I did it. And there were three kind of things that came up and I stepped up to all three and then that was it. So when I quit, it was really anticlimactic actually.

Aransas Savas (: 08:01

I relate to that story on so many levels. And for me, it was this, I should leave. I should leave. And then each year, the response sounded like, but is it really better on the other side? I mean, there's so much you can tolerate about this and that you kind of like about this. And it wasn't until I got really specific, and I actually, I think I've shared this on a prior episode,

and I said I will leave on March 1st. And I didn't. And then I got laid off two days later. Whomp.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 08:41

Yup. Ha ha ha.

Aransas Savas (: 08:43

I was like, OK, universe, I hear you loud and clear. I get it. And it was that freedom then to say, OK, I don't know if I'm going to like this better. I don't know if this is going to be perfect or everything I dreamed it would be, but it's going to be different. And so what were those early days like for you?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 09:13

So when I first quit, you mean after quitting? What was that like? Well, it was so funny, because I thought, okay, I've done it. I quit, like I've taken this huge step, all right. And then I went into a frenzy because I had to figure out where to go as my first destination. And you'd think I'd just be like, because I can go anywhere. And I was paralyzed for two weeks. It was a drama. I did pendulums. I did...

Aransas Savas (: 09:16

Yeah.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 09:41

Frozen conless. I couldn't figure out where to go because suddenly this small world was huge there's a lot of airports, and I'm like where I'm going and So I picked Costa Rica eventually Freaking out about do I go into Liberia or San Juan and how do I get around and this island is so good What am I doing? so yeah, so the first the initial period after the

I did it was this complete craziness that I didn't expect. And then I went and I remember when I was online for immigration in Costa Rica, my heart, I felt my heart thank me for doing this. And I was like, wow, like I just melted. It was like I was standing in the airport looking around and my heart felt like it.

Aransas Savas (: 10:29

Oh.

What did that feel like?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 10:40

and it was like a bigger part of me. And it, I think in my before life, like I wasn't really tapped into my emotions very well. And that was the beginning of feeling and learning to live my life through feeling instead of thinking. So it was this beautiful, overwhelmingly, sentimental moment online. And I was like tearing up. And I'm like, oh my God. So, yeah.

Aransas Savas (: 10:57

Mmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 11:10

It was amazing.

Aransas Savas (: 11:12

Wow, how profound that must have been. And then I think you also point out something here that's really important to understanding the mental hurdles of making big change, which is that we know we want different, but we don't necessarily even have a clear vision of exactly what that different is going to be. And that stops us in a lot of cases.

Whereas I think if we can reframe it as part of the process of discovering what is really true for us contextually, so rather than the idea of the doing, figuring out what we want by doing it, we free ourselves to find something more right.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 11:57

I think that society, and especially if you are or have been in corporate, trains us to be goal-oriented and that a goal is a very specific thing that we want and it looks exactly like this. These are the steps we need to take to get to it. If something goes astray, you tweak it, but you're arriving here. The life I chose was a very nebulous one. I didn't know how to do it.

How do you set the steps? How do you, like, what exactly am I doing? And I've learned from the lifestyle that I think it's a lot easier and a lot more rewarding to set goals that don't have a exact, don't be marriage the exact picture. Okay, I might want to go to Honolulu.

But instead of saying, I want to go to Honolulu, and I want to stay at this hotel, and I want every day to be sunny, and I'm going to do diving and this and cooking. Instead of all that, it's like, I'm just going to get to Honolulu. And you might get there by direct flight. You might win a prize on a radio show that gets you a free round trip ticket to Honolulu. I don't know how it's going to happen. And then when I'm there.

I'm not planning out every moment. It might be, I might go diving, I might just sit on the beach. Who knows? Because when we let go of the fixation of things being perfect or exactly some way, I think it removes some of the stress and the pressure on the detail of getting to it because it allows our heart to be involved in the process.

And I have found it much, a much more rewarding experience to make goals based on feelings rather than, you know, the logic because then it's like, I know what I want to feel like and now, but I will say before I wasn't tapped into my emotions. So I don't know what I'm feeling, right? So you got to learn how to tap into that and feel, and then you can, you know, you just arrive at a place and you're like, there's that feeling.

Aransas Savas (: 14:03

Yes.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 14:25

Or this is an absence of that feeling, so I need to tweak something. So it's a whole different way of approaching goals.

Aransas Savas (: 14:30

Uh-huh.

Heather, that is so good. And I think it applies, obviously, yes, to travel or not to travel, but it also applies to relationships and to career and even to parenting. And I mean, I think friendship, I could go on and on to every major domain of our lives, that being feeling-led as opposed to stuck in the specifics.

And I talk about this all the time about falling in love with my husband, that it was about how I wanted to be loved, not about the specifics of what his height would be or his hair color. And all of those specifics, like, I don't know, maybe in my mind, it would be nice to sit next to no one on the plane and to have six hours to sleep and watch movies uninterrupted.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 15:13

Yes.

Aransas Savas (: 15:29

But also maybe there's that spontaneous magic that happens. And I sit next to somebody who becomes my soul sister. Who knows? So we have opening ourselves up to the present opportunity and the reality while being true to what our heart is telling us. I just think there's such deep wisdom in that, Heather.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 15:38

Exactly!

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 15:52

Yes, thank you. Yeah, I thank my taking this opportunity to go into this lifestyle and tap into that wisdom.

Aransas Savas (: 16:02

And so just continuing on with your story a little bit more you went on this first trip and what happened?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 16:11

So the very early thing that happened, it was very funny. I, so I'm in this van. I'm like traveling solo by the way, for six years. And I knew Liberia wasn't the safest of places as the airport I flew into. And so I like booked a shuttle and we're driving along and we pass this sign that says zip lining. And I've never heard of zip lining at this point. So I asked the driver what.

What is zip lining? And he basically explains to me, you like hang from a thread, that's thousands of feet in the air and you slide down it. And I'm like, that's just stupid. Like not just is it unsafe, it's totally stupid. Like I would never do that. And two weeks later I was in La Fortuna and I had met this lovely Canadian couple. And we were like,

exploring the hanging gardens and we heard these howls over us and we're like these are not howler monkeys what is that and we realized they were people zip lining and so we all looked at each other and we're like all right all right we'll do it and we go to um Monteverde um to the Selvatora park i think it was called and there's like 17 cables at which and i'm thinking

one long cable that's got, how does this work? But no, it's 17 separate cables. And so, would they strap us in? And the guy that does the final check, he looks at me and he says, I hope I'll see you later.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 18:00

I was just, and we like, the whole way to the first cable, I'm like, oh my God, I can still turn back, I can still turn back. I'm like, I feel my limbs are getting heavier and heavier. And we get to the first cable, and I'm like, okay, if I look down, I'm like, this isn't so bad. If I fall off this cable, I'll break some bones, but I'll still be alive, it'll be okay. And it was the old school one where you have a glove on your hand, and so you're like.

You know those, I don't know, there's clips. You can put your, people like put a clip on their belt and you can put big key rings and stuff like that. It seems like a big one of those clipped onto the cable with. And then I've got a glove on my hand to like slow me down and I'm just like gripping, because I'm just terrified. And I don't know how I managed to smile. There's a guy taking pictures and I like smiled. But by the end of the third cable, I had gripped

Aransas Savas (: 18:37

Uh huh. Yeah. Blay clips. Is it?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 19:00

the cable so hard that literally my arm was like stuck and I had no power left. Like I couldn't do it. So they paired me up with one of the guides. His name was Andre. So he's like, I'm going to be your boyfriend for the day. So I feel like he interconnected with me. I felt like we were doing Kamasutra poses to go down the cables together. And

So it was such a really, because he was talking to me and distracting me from the whole experience. And so eventually we get to, I don't know what number cable and he makes me go first and I'm like, oh, okay. So I go off first and I'm like chit chatting, blah, blah. And I'm noticing Andre's not answering me. Like what? And I turn around and I see Andre hasn't left the case. He's let me go down by myself. So, and I was like,

Aransas Savas (: 19:55

Awww...

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 19:57

I'm okay. And then I relaxed into it. And by the last cable, I was howling, like I was like, I'm, you know, I now I get it. So it was one of those experiences where I will say, I don't know that I will ever do it again, but I, it was so scary. And, and I'm like, I wonder was this more scary than quitting my job or not, you know, it's this whole self reflection going on and

You know, this is definitely something I would never have done if I hadn't quit my job. And for months, like other, you know, I used to be, sometimes like now I still am, but like on a boat, I have like, you know, when little boats move, I'm like gripping on like, oh my God. And I get like turbulence. And for a while, like I had no fear. I was just like, it's okay. Everything's fine. It's all going to be good. Um, so it was this amazing.

experience of, and I think it mirrored, like it was like I caught up to myself and my own courage in my life through that experience. And the other big thing that happened in Costa Rica was the meltdown, because you know that when you radically change your life and you've been like dreaming of this forever, right? The universe is totally going to give you some hardship that's going to have you have to prove.

Aransas Savas (: 21:14

Yes.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 21:24

Like how badly do you really want this? And that came to me in Costa Rica when I was trying, I was in a national park, this beautiful national park in the middle of nowhere, trying to meet up with those two Canadians that I had ziplined with. They went off to another city and basically my, I was staying in a tent on the beach, which sounds really romantic, except there were giant cockroaches in it.

Aransas Savas (: 21:42

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 21:52

And I just, I was like, all right, you don't bother me. I won't kill you. That was our deal. So, so like I had, there was a hotel manager that could have helped me and just, I think he just didn't like his job and had no interest in helping. So, so I was, I couldn't figure out how to meet them. All I could figure out was it's either a dangerous overnight bus ride where I know after midnight, I'm not doing that.

Aransas Savas (: 21:58

Thank you.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 22:21

or a really expensive flight. And once I realized, like, you know, one, I'm two weeks into this adventure, oh my God, it's not vacation. I'm not going back to my desk, I'm not going, what have I done? And I can't even get where I wanna go. What was I thinking? And I had a whole meltdown and I...

Aransas Savas (: 22:33

Hmm

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 22:46

envision just I'm like, all right, I can pack my stuff up. I can go back to New York. I'll just ask for my job back. At least I tried. And that'll be that. And then this wise voice came up in my head and said like, Heather, rather than fixating on getting where you can't go, why don't you just figure out where you can go? And I was like, oh. And that changed and that then I was in.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 23:15

And once I did that, I was like, oh, like you can always figure out somewhere you can go. It may not be where you thought you could, you want, you know, you were going or whatever, but it's not about the destination. It really is about the journey.

Aransas Savas (: 23:20

Mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas (: 23:27

Yes. And there's another huge point in what you just said, which is that when we are radically upending our lives, and there are so many different ways we do that from, I mean, even just taking a new work schedule can do it, or folding in a new person into our lives, or moving. When we are upending our lives, things are not going to feel settled and figured out.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 23:53

Nope.

Aransas Savas (: 23:53

And we're not going to have all the answers on how to do that new life until we live it for a little while. And so for me, anyway, every time I can remind myself, because I have these moments when I'm in a big transition that I start going, I hate everything. I hate everyone. This is not working. And then I say, oh, wait. You're in a transition. You just don't know how to do this yet. And when I give myself that patience, I feel so much better equipped.

to make those discoveries like you made, which is like, but where can I go? How can I do this? So for you, at what point did you feel like you knew that this was going to become your full-time life?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 24:28

Yep.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 24:32

Exactly.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 24:46

It was sort of a journey in itself because after Costa Rica, I actually had to come home for jury duty. So, which was really weird. And then I went off to Europe for a few months. And at this point I'd held on to my New York City apartment because I really thought it was gonna be six months of travel and then go back to real life. And then while I was in Europe, I'm like, wait, I'm really enjoying this.

Aransas Savas (: 24:49

Yeah.

Aransas Savas (: 24:54

Oh, that thing.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 25:15

I'm learning so much about myself. Why am I going back and getting a job, huh? So that's when I decided that I was gonna travel longer, but at that point I thought it was a year. So when I came back and gave up my apartment, I put a lot of stuff in storage thinking a year. And then I guess it was the, 2019 was the best year of my life. I went to South America and Africa for the first time.

Aransas Savas (: 25:34

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 25:44

And these are places you can't, you know, depending where in the world you live, I'm living in New York. Those are huge trips. To take a week or two weeks to go to any either of those places is sort of sad because you can, all you can really do is make a list of the top four tourist things you want to do and then come home. So I realized I think in 2019, I was like that no, this is, this is something more. And that's, and then of course.

when I got marooned in New Zealand, and that was another really tough one, because it was like once the world closed, I was like, wait, I finally have the courage to quit and follow my heart and travel, and now the one thing in the world I can't do is travel? What? So that was hard. And a friend helped me realize that actually once New Zealand opened again, for us, they closed the country to anyone not there already.

But after our 75 day lockdown, I got to travel freely throughout the country for years. So it's like, yeah, it's not the travel I thought I'd be doing. And I was bummed I couldn't leave and go see other places. But in the meantime, I was able to see a bunch of great places in New Zealand. And now I'm better at New Zealand trivia and like, you know, follow Jacinda. So I had this great experience.

Aransas Savas (: 26:52

Mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas (: 27:08

How incredible. And this unfolding, I think, is such an important message to all of us in life, too, whether we want to full-time travel or not, that we may not know if we want to continue on down this path until we're on this path. And so it is a series of decisions. You knew you wanted to experiment with this. And I think so often we get stuck by, is this right?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 27:37

Yes.

Aransas Savas (: 27:39

And you didn't know. And so you let yourself keep deciding, is this still right? What would be even righter? And letting the path unfold there.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 27:50

I think that's such an important point because I had some friends telling me before I quit, years before, a British friend said to me, Heather, you should go do this because if it doesn't work out, you could always just get your job back. I heard the words, but it didn't really come into me. Now I'm like, oh yeah.

I think at any given moment we don't know how anything is going to work out, including relationships, including jobs, including anything. That's what struck me is this idea that I held on to a job that I thought was stable and reliable and all this stuff when in fact they laid people off every year. I got laid off for a couple of months, years before I quit. In a way life isn't stable.

but we're seeking stability. So it's this weird irony. And so the full-time travel life is sort of the ultimate of instability. So like, it's a neat lesson in finding your bearings and landing on your feet or standing up from falling off of them. That I think is a really helpful life skill just to be able to remember when things don't quite go as I hoped.

Aransas Savas (: 28:45

It is.

Aransas Savas (: 29:01

Mm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 29:11

to remember, well, wait, look at what I just did. And it all worked out somehow. So again, maybe the picture looks different or maybe I'm supposed to go a different direction. That's fine. But it gives me a lot of inspiration in my life to be able to use the lessons I've learned from travel.

Aransas Savas (: 29:32

Mm, yes. And I think seeing that bigger picture, as you said, it gives inspiration. It gives us the motivation to keep overcoming all these hurdles, both logistical, mental, physical, and seeing the higher order impacts of these things. And yet, those little logistical, physical, and mental hurdles can feel really big in the moment.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 29:58

They do,

Aransas Savas (: 30:00

And so I see you creating this whole life for yourself where you have figured out how to do those things. So how do you process your way through those steps that can feel like hurdles or stopping blocks?

the first year was really surprising for me because I did not expect it to be such an inward journey. I thought I was going to see the world, but it turned out that the world was introducing me to myself. And so, it was hard. It sounds beautiful, but it was actually not always beautiful.

Aransas Savas (: 31:35

Ah, that's so beautiful.

Aransas Savas (: 31:41

Yeah, yeah.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 31:42

there was a lot I didn't like. And as someone that's done a lot of self-development work, I've been trained as a professional coach. So anyone that's done that training, I did a year long training, it causes you to basically break yourself up into little pieces and pull yourself back together. And I thought I'd already done all that work and yet here it was again. So I can say that this is definitely a life

that is not for someone running away because you will simply meet yourself or whatever you're running away from will come meet you. And so I dove in and it was really hard that first year, but I did a lot of writing. And I guess because of who I am and how I am, I actually just started journaling and writing down specific steps that I was living through in the moment. So I thought,

I don't know, somehow maybe this is gonna be important stuff. And especially with my journey of the head and heart connection and all of that started. So I kept myself going by just reminding myself that this isn't easy, but I think it's worthwhile. And I'm...

Aransas Savas (: 33:03

Mm. This isn't easy, but I think it's worthwhile.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 33:07

Yeah. And, you know, I think also I had, so I had, I had divorced before, you know, several years before I went and traveled. And that was what, you know, I remember when making the decision to divorce, I mean, my, you know, I said to my then husband, I said, you know, this is not the easier path. But I think it's the right path. And that's sort of

I know that I made the right decision there. And in my travels, I was just reminded of that. Like, while, yes, there's a definite search for the flow of ease that I'm looking for now in my life, back then it was really about going through the hard stuff to be able to get to the other side. And I did it faster and more in depth.

than I would have in my corporate job because there was no distractions. And that's the thing, when you have no distractions and no one else around you, and you're suddenly confronted with something you don't like about yourself or your life, guess what? There's no one else to blame. And that's when you have to realize like, oh, I did this, right. So if I did it, I can change it. But it takes a while to go from the disempowerment of how could I do this to

Aransas Savas (: 34:09

Mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas (: 34:30

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 34:35

Oh, wait, I have a lot of power. Oh, hold up here. I can just figure out here what don't I like and how am I contributing to the creation of it and stop and create something else. So that was a big, huge part of how I managed my own trials and tribulations and also looking for mentors that would appear.

And yeah, I had some great people I met that first year that really gave me great role models of things that I was looking for to be able to grasp onto. So it was a process and a very worthwhile one.

Aransas Savas (: 35:15

I think that so much about that is so reassuring. And that last point, I think part of what stops us from doing big, brave things is feeling like we're gonna be doing them all alone and we're gonna have to figure out all this hard stuff alone. But you're so right. Every time we venture into new territories, we connect with new people who can teach us new things. And we are not journeying through any part of life alone.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 35:44

We're not end, I would say sometimes mentors show up. Again, there's another area like you can't say, oh, I'm looking for someone that's got like 26 years experience, you know, no. And it's not always a work thing, especially when it's a personal journey. I was surprised to meet a woman half my age who role modeled a specific skillset I was looking into. I was like, I can't, I'm so bad at this.

And I just watched her and I was like, oh my God, she's like 20 something and she, like, whoa, she gets this already? And I was just, so she was my role model. And so they'll come as, you don't know what gender they are, you don't know what age they are, and it doesn't matter. It's just, they model what you need in that moment.

Aransas Savas (: 36:34

Yeah. I think too, speaking of age, that is a factor that stops a lot of people. So you're not 27. How old were you when you started this?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 36:47

Well, I mentally ate. I keep my mental age. But no, I was 48 when I started.

Aransas Savas (: 36:53

Amazing, amazing. So you're this full grown woman with a life behind you and a life ahead of you. And you were able to make these changes because I do think there's this sort of old idea that we get sucked into that it's too late to change our lives. So what helped you manage through that?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 37:21

Well, I think first was that I, like I said at the beginning, I didn't think this was as long as it's turned into, but I just reached a point where like the culmination of the feelings in my heart and then looking around me, like everyone says I'm supposed to hold on to my job and do all this stuff, but year over year.

my salary increases were lower than my rent and cost of living increases. And so, and then my health and also the health insurance increases. So I'm like, I watched and I did my taxes every year. I'm like, why am I coming away with less money every year, even though I got a raise? Like something's just wrong here. And I'm basically dipping into my savings just to live my life here in an expensive apartment. And something about this just doesn't make sense anymore. So, um,

Aransas Savas (: 37:55

Mm-hmm.

Aransas Savas (: 38:06

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 38:20

You know, I guess at some point I just said, so many people around me think this is nuts, like a completely weird wrong decision. And when I was able to say, this is about their fears, not my fears. This is about what they believe life is like and how it should be lived, but maybe it's not my recipe for life. When I was able to separate out them from me.

I suddenly was able to take that step and go. And then what happened was, I mean, I think it's funny. I mean, at the time, I actually did try to get a sabbatical and I was told that I had a boss that I had tried to get a sabbatical from like three years before I quit, who told me to never ask for a sabbatical again because people would think I didn't want my job. And ironically, three years later,

when I decided to quit, he was my boss again. Like he came in just at the moment when I was like quitting. And this time he actually tried to get me a sabbatical, but it didn't work out because of some like, human resources couldn't interpret their own policies and it just ended up really complicated. So, so, you know.

When I look back and I think all these people that thought I'm crazy, the reassurance I have is, look, this is like a thing now. Like digital nomadship, I think the biggest, I have a Facebook group with like 7,000 people that I started a few years ago as like, I can't be the only one that wants to travel full time. There's gotta be some other people out there, right? And I think the biggest growing group of travelers who do this are in their 50s and above. So this is normal now.

So I take great, you know, gratitude in the fact that when I started, this was really not just weird if you're not a millennial or in your 20s or 30s, you know, and now it's like, yeah, go for it. People don't want to wait until they retire to live this life that they want. They want to go and have some really wonderful life experience before that point. And so I love that it's just a normal thing now. And that's, that makes me feel like if you're out there,

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 40:46

in your late 40s, in your early 50s, not quite ready to retire. I mean, also there's remote work now. Like I would have told, I would have gladly worked, kept my job and if they let me travel, but that wasn't allowed then, but now you can. So if you're really worried about having tons of money, keep your job. You can probably find a job that will allow you to do this lifestyle. And if not, just know that there's so many other people out there just like you, just like me that are doing this.

If you're not surrounded by them now, you will find them when you're out there doing it.

Aransas Savas (: 41:22

Yeah, and I think this idea of being a solo traveler, is another thing, at least for a lot of the women I talked to, that idea is a bit overwhelming

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 41:38

I actually was somewhat fortunate that, you know, I lived with this host family when I was 16. I went by myself. I studied in Paris and worked in Paris for about two years early on in my career. And I went...

by myself, so I was used to some solo travel. But I mean, Europe is fairly safe. I think if you're younger, I'd say as a young woman in Europe, sometimes sexism is different. So when we talk about safety, I think there's layers to that. But I think, like I just went to Cape Town for the second time a couple months ago, and that's...

one of the most dangerous cities on earth. And yeah, it was a little bit rougher this time than it was the first time I was there. But I mean, as someone that's been to Cape Town, that's been to Columbia, that's been like, I mean, I traveled solo by bus throughout South America. I'm not gonna say, look, the world can be dangerous. The world can also be safe. And I do think that we attract the experiences to us that...

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 43:00

resonate with our energy level. I try to help, I try to always help people and I always when I travel find the most helpful, lovely people. So I think be giving in your life and you'll attract giving people. And I think you have to have some trust at some point. It's like I know that we've got the US Step program that tells you about like security levels, like reconsider travel to these places.

Aransas Savas (: 43:14

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 43:30

Absolutely. I mean, there are probably places, like specific cities you shouldn't go to. But as an example, I was in Rio de Janeiro and everyone told, I must led to believe it was very dangerous. I loved it. I don't know. I just had a great experience there. And I met the tour, I took a tour one day and the tour guide explained to me.

that a lot of the bad reputation they get is from the, like the favelas and that there are incidents that happen, but they're outside of Rio. They're like in the suburbs of Rio. But if you have never been to Rio and you're reading the newspaper, well, you know when you ask somebody where you from and they're like, oh, I'm from Rose County. Where's that? Oh, it's close to San Francisco. Same thing. Where's the favela? Oh, you know, in this.

Aransas Savas (: 44:08

Mmm. Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 44:25

you know, this tiny location, where's that close to Rio? Well, so now we lump in danger with Rio because that's our only way to, right. And the same thing, there have been incidents here in New York City, I'm in Manhattan, if something happens in Brooklyn, that's not that close to where I am and vice versa. So you learn like, oh, the world number one is made up of many different cities and a-

Aransas Savas (: 44:34

close to Rio.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 44:53

danger in a city does not make the whole country dangerous. And that the people of any given country are not their government. And we know that our governments are constantly doing what they do. And then, but you're you, I'm me, and we may or may not agree with our government and we're not gonna treat people the same way as the government. So take that with you and know that.

when you go traveling, like there are the best of people in the worst of situations. I'm not condoning, like right now, probably wouldn't go to Israel, probably wouldn't go to the Ukraine. But I would go to Columbia, I just went to South Africa. So I think that unknown.

Aransas Savas (: 45:27

Mm.

Aransas Savas (: 45:33

Mm-hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 45:45

is always a scary thing. It was scary when before I quit my job to you know, I didn't know what would happen to me. I going to South America and Africa for the first time after having all of my travel pretty much be Europe and one trip to Australia, like I didn't know what would happen to me. Yeah, you don't. But I do think I have my own safety protocols and I take those with me. I teach those to other people. And I think if you

find your path of behaving safely that will follow you throughout the world and keep you safe.

Aransas Savas (: 46:19

Yeah.

Aransas Savas (: 46:23

it is this building of confidence and clarity. start somewhere where you feel super comfortable. And then expand the bubble as you feel more comfortable is really part of what I'm hearing in there as well. what is the biggest thing you personally have learned on this incredible journey of journeying?

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 47:56

Oh wow, that's hard because there's so many huge epiphanies.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 48:07

I think a big thing I learned which created the hurdle and also eliminates the hurdle is that you don't need tons and tons of money to be happy. It's great to have it. I certainly like luxurious things, but I was really shocked. That was my...

Aransas Savas (: 48:24

Mmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 48:32

first huge lesson was that full-time travel was so much less expensive than a fixed life in one place. And, you know, in a fixed life with lots of money, you can buy lots of stuff. It turns out having all that stuff made me less happy than traveling and having less stuff. So, you know, I think if money is your biggest hurdle,

Aransas Savas (: 48:53

Hmm.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 49:01

if you can make an effort to know that yeah, your life will be different in this lifestyle, but it might be even happier than the one that you have now.

Aransas Savas (: 49:10

What a perfect full circle return to where we began, listening to our hearts and not the specifics that become barriers to our hearts. Heather, thank you so much for showing us what it's like to live boldly, to live courageously, and to lift others up along the way. For those of you listening, we'll make sure you were linked over to all of these resources and insights from Heather and Wade

over at theuplifterspodcast.com. Find us there where every week you'll find more and more tools, resources, and research specifically for you, Uplifters. Thank you all for what you do in the world to make your corner a little brighter. Let's keep rising higher together.

kel - Full Time Travel Coach (: 49:57

Thank you.

Aransas Savas (: 50:00

Thank you.