Hey friend,
In this episode, you'll hear how I laced up my running shoes and with every stride, I felt a transformative power at work, inspiring me to explore life beyond my comfort zone. It's this spirit of boldness and adventure I'm thrilled to share with you, as we welcome Tanya Hackney and Shannon Jensen, two extraordinary women who broke free from conventional paths to craft lives rich with purpose and adventure. Tanya, a mother of five, set sail across oceans, turning the seas into a dynamic and fluid classroom, while Shannon, a former nurse, embraced the freedom of a digital nomad lifestyle, proving that the world truly can be your office.
From the practical realities of homeschooling on a boat to the sensory journeys of cooking in the Caribbean, this episode is a mosaic of experiences that defy the ordinary. Tanya's tale of progressive dinners in the Bahamas and the educational odyssey of her children intertwines with her ambition of penning a memoir cookbook. Shannon, meanwhile, shares her path from the pressures of nursing to the liberation of travel, offering insights on how women can carve out their own independent and adventure-filled lives.
We wrap up with pearls of wisdom on overcoming fears and the joys of pursuing new horizons. Whether recounting the serenity of a Guatemalan sunset, the thrill of kayaking in Antarctica, or the value of technology in enhancing your travels, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration.
It's a call to all dreamers and doers to seize the day and infuse their lives with extraordinary moments because sometimes, the most unforgettable adventures begin with a single step outside your front door.
Want to learn more about the Superhero Confidence & Strength program? Visit here.
Join the newsletter list for updates, special offers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Want to become a member of Time for Brunch+ to show your support of the show? Join here.
Join the Brunch community on Facebook or follow us on Instagram.
Hey friend,
In this episode, you'll hear how I laced up my running shoes and with every stride, I felt a transformative power at work, inspiring me to explore life beyond my comfort zone. It's this spirit of boldness and adventure I'm thrilled to share with you, as we welcome Tanya Hackney and Shannon Jensen, two extraordinary women who broke free from conventional paths to craft lives rich with purpose and adventure. Tanya, a mother of five, set sail across oceans, turning the seas into a dynamic and fluid classroom, while Shannon, a former nurse, embraced the freedom of a digital nomad lifestyle, proving that the world truly can be your office.
From the practical realities of homeschooling on a boat to the sensory journeys of cooking in the Caribbean, this episode is a mosaic of experiences that defy the ordinary. Tanya's tale of progressive dinners in the Bahamas and the educational odyssey of her children intertwines with her ambition of penning a memoir cookbook. Shannon, meanwhile, shares her path from the pressures of nursing to the liberation of travel, offering insights on how women can carve out their own independent and adventure-filled lives.
We wrap up with pearls of wisdom on overcoming fears and the joys of pursuing new horizons. Whether recounting the serenity of a Guatemalan sunset, the thrill of kayaking in Antarctica, or the value of technology in enhancing your travels, this episode is a treasure trove of inspiration.
It's a call to all dreamers and doers to seize the day and infuse their lives with extraordinary moments because sometimes, the most unforgettable adventures begin with a single step outside your front door.
Want to learn more about the Superhero Confidence & Strength program? Visit here.
Join the newsletter list for updates, special offers, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
Want to become a member of Time for Brunch+ to show your support of the show? Join here.
Join the Brunch community on Facebook or follow us on Instagram.
Time for brunch. Empower, inspire, connect. Ignite your journey.
Speaker 2:Welcome to Time for Brunch. I'm Christine and I am thrilled about today's episode. It is so much about leaving our comfort zone and really heating that little voice inside that tells us that we're meant for more. Like many of you, I can say that running has been completely transformative for me. I feel that it is one of the experiences that forever altered the way that I saw myself and allowed me to live life a bit more boldly.
Speaker 2:Prior to running, I lived a really great life. It was wonderfully comfortable, I had a great job, I had a fairly amazing routine and because of that comfort, I was scared. I was scared to take on chances or opportunities. I lacked a lot of confidence as to whether or not I could go after certain jobs or promotions. So I stayed at my own little part of the world, stayed a little close to home and kept things neatly predictable. And then, step by step with running, I started to have more time to think to myself and also see that I had traits that I never really identified with before. I was resilient, I had strength, I was definitely becoming more confident and in the process, I really allowed myself to maybe dream a bit bigger. Which brings me to training for my very first marathon and the course that I ran every long run, riverside, which is incredibly special and magical in and of itself. There was a home with a sign outside that had two dates and a dash and the word Carpe diem Latin for sees, the day, and I assume that the sign with those two years was likely a birth year of someone special and the passing of that someone special. But in seeing this sign, I really started to think about that dash. It's such a brief, little, tiny portion of what really makes our lives extraordinary. That's where all of the good stuff happens, and I started to think about how quickly life was going to continue changing and that I wanted to take on more adventure, take on more opportunities, say yes to challenges. So I did, and along the way, I can say that my confidence continued to grow and, despite some incredible, fabulous failures, I had a lot of lessons learned. I also had some great successes, informed, some of the most beautiful relationships.
Speaker 2:If I had not said yes, however, I was still waiting for those opportunities to come my way. I was still waiting for the proverbial coach to say put me in the game and I realized wait, why am I waiting for permission to get in the game. I can actually just throw myself into it. I don't have to wait for challenges and opportunities. I can create them Again. The confidence and the memories and experiences that I've gained from that have been extraordinary. Which leads me to these guests, because these ladies have absolutely shown what it's like to leave safe harbors, despite some naysayers because you will have some of those, my friends but they have decided to put themselves in the game of life and pursue it their way. Maybe not traditional, however, they have decided to pursue it in a way that's authentic, to making their own seized a day dash of life.
Speaker 2:So I am thrilled to introduce you guys to our two guests. First we're going to meet an incredible mother of five who turned the world into a classroom, sailing across oceans with her family of five. Then we'll meet a digital nomad who found freedom and solo travel. She's showing others how to do the same. So join us as we explore the power of movement, changing our mindset and crafting those extraordinary lives. Get ready to be inspired. Welcome to the brunch table Hanya Hackney. Hello, tanya.
Speaker 3:Hello and thank you so much for having me for brunch.
Speaker 2:I can't wait to get into quite a bit, but I'm going to go ahead and introduce you for folks that maybe don't know you, because I feel like sometimes we have guests on you guys don't even realize how extraordinary you are. Maybe a little bit of humble, so I'll brag on you. You sit back and listen to all the amazingness that is Tanya. Her life's journey is nothing short of extraordinary. As I've already mentioned, she went from teaching kindergarten in Atlanta to homeschooling her five children on the sailing vessel Take two. Tanya's stories of vibrant tapestry of adventure and dedication and I know for all the folks that had to homeschool during the pandemic or the height of the pandemic they're probably thinking how in the world did she do that? We'll get into that as well.
Speaker 2:Over the past 15 years, tanya and her family have not only lived aboard but have traversed oceans, leaving a trail of incredible stories and experiences captured in her compelling book Take Two Sailing Blog as well. So we'll talk about those more. You guys can find them. Her wanderlust is deeply ingrained, evident from her childhood road trips, a semester in Paris, in a honeymoon in Mexico and then in 2021, as I already touched on Tanya added award-winning author to her repertoire with her memoir Leaving the Safe Harbor the Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Belt, which beautifully encapsulates her unique journey, and I feel like there's quite a few takeaways.
Speaker 2:Regardless of whether or not you guys are going to ever leave those safe harbors, if sailing is something that doesn't really appeal to you, there's still some lessons to be learned. So let me shut up now and, tanya, I'd love to start this conversation with a little bit of brunch. If you could host a dream brunch a board take two and it would be a mix of maybe some of your favorite dishes from the various places you've visited. What would be on the menu and who would be your ideal guests to share this meal?
Speaker 3:Oh, I love this question. What a wonderful question. My idea of heaven is where all the people that I've loved are all in one place. So a perfect brunch would be if I could gather all the people that I met while we were traveling in the Caribbean, from all the different countries and islands, and invite them a board, take two, maybe anchored somewhere in the Bahamas where you have beautiful white sand beach, amazing crystal clear water around you, and then I serve them the dishes that they taught me how to make. So I would invite my Venezuelan friend and I would make arroz con coco, and I would invite Luis and Tachi from Providencia and we would have some, you know, fire roasted fish and, oh my goodness, I could just keep going. I would invite my Guatemalan friends and we would have Mayan nachos, which are fried plantains, black beans and like a sour cream. I don't know. You know, I could just keep going. This sounds delicious.
Speaker 3:I have collected all of these recipes. It's actually one of my goals is to write a memoir cookbook where I get to talk about the stories behind the recipes, because I love to cook and I love collecting flavors. I guess that's a way to really tap into memory. So I do. I love to cook and remind myself of all the places we've been by cooking exotic dishes. Perfect question for me, man. I could just keep going Flavors and stories.
Speaker 2:I'm already putting in my pre-order and I want an autographed copy, my friend. So I'm ready for this, because everything that you just talked about sounds delicious and I love. I don't know if you remember there was a trend there for a while progressive dinners, where you start with like an appetizer at one restaurant and you go on to the next for your main course and it would go through. I feel like with it Takes Two. It would be a whole different thing. Of that progressive dinner We'd start in the Bahamas and who knows where we'd end up by dessert.
Speaker 3:Oh my goodness, yes, yes, I could take you on a whole tour from 2016 to 2019. We were traveling in the Bahamas and you bragged on me, but I am going to fall off that pedestal pretty quick. We did not cross oceans, but we did spend years and years traveling up and down the eastern seaboard and we spent lots of time in Florida and all over the Caribbean. I think I've got 20 countries stamped in my passport, but we're big chickens and we had a kid that got seasick and my husband always needed to work, having, you know, have the internet, so that was pretty starling. So we didn't actually cross oceans, so, but we did travel all over the Caribbean for several years and I would love a progressive dinner. I'd love to relive all of those memories by eating.
Speaker 2:For the record, for a person who barely can swim and I'm already anxious trying to just like traverse a swimming pool, it's an ocean to me, my friend, and that's quite quite a bit of a journey. I too get seasick, so I have something in common with your kiddo. I know every single parent who's listening to this right here right now wants to know how in the world you have a family of seven with five kiddos on one boat and you guys haven't ended up on a different podcast, maybe a true crime podcast, because you're still here to tell the tale and I think everybody's accounted for.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, it is kind of a miracle. I mean, nobody fell overboard. We were never attacked by pirates, nobody got eaten by a shark. I didn't jump ship because I was going crazy, although I have paddled off into the sunset in my kayak many times Feeling frustrated and angry or sad, and then come back feeling better Fitness, as a you know a way to deal with stress. We definitely had a lot of that. Of course, you don't set out to do something crazy like this in one fell swoop. It wasn't like we woke up one day and we bought a boat and moved aboard with five kids. It was more like we had this dream and we took all these tiny little baby steps toward that dream and obviously homeschooling was a part of it. We started homeschooling before we bought the boat.
Speaker 3:I was an elementary school teacher, as you mentioned, in Atlanta, and I use this analogy a lot. You know, sometimes if you've worked at a restaurant and you've seen like rats and cockroaches in the kitchen, you won't eat at that restaurant. So, having worked inside the public school system, I really did not feel like I could send my kids to public school. So you know, and if we had gobs and gobs of money, maybe I would have considered private school, but with a large family, the logical choice was to work within my skill set and homeschool the kids. Now, ironically, and as many of your listeners might have discovered during the pandemic, being a public school teacher isn't necessarily a huge benefit. You have this conception about what schools should be or should not be, and I had to kind of unschool myself when I began homeschooling, because teaching in a classroom with 20 kids that are all the same age is very, very different than teaching in your living room or your dining room with three or four of your own kids ranging in age. You know mine are five kids within 10 years. So at one point I had a high schooler.
Speaker 3:You know I was doing algebra with one kid and then like teaching the five year old to read. So somewhere between you know, like algebra, doctor Seuss, you're trying to do this all in one space and it was challenging. It was very challenging and you're right, nobody got thrown overboard, so we did survive it. It was a big adventure. I think the academic part of it isn't my favorite. It was more about the field trips and the hands-on learning and the on-location learning and like doing a history field trip up the East Coast where, yes, there's some book learning involved. You're doing a lot of background research about the places that you're going, but most of the learning is happening in living history museums or, you know, in the places where things happen, and you kind of absorb it almost osmotically. So for me the benefit of homeschooling has really been the travel and not so much the you know, sit down and do your work kind of stuff, although there's plenty of that too.
Speaker 2:You made me think of Hamilton and the soundtrack. I want to be in the room where it happens, and it does sound like what you've been able to provide your children is like in a full immersion into the education, where they're like engaging all of their senses, which I assume translates to really holding a closer connection to the lessons at hand.
Speaker 3:Yeah, here's a perfect example For my daughter's sophomore year. For her final history project, I said look, I know you read the history book, but what I really want, I want you to pick an experience that we had and I want you to write an essay based on that experience. And she decided to write about this banana plantation that we had been on in Belize and she went into the whole history of the banana republics in Central America and she didn't have necessarily bred in her final paper but the depth that she was able to go on and to really understand the history and the genocide that occurred, the economy and how it's all wrapped. I mean she understood something at an adult level. I learned something reading her paper and I was on the banana plantation with her. So it was really exciting for me to get to see my kids wake up to the world that way and to learn for the sake of learning, because it was interesting and not because I said so.
Speaker 2:And not because they had to pass a standardized test.
Speaker 3:Pass a test right or compete with their classmates, or something like that.
Speaker 2:Okay, I feel like there's a lot of takeaways that I want to touch upon more about the education process and maybe how we can look at bringing some of these lifelong learning lessons to our everyday life Again, even whether our kids may be in traditional school, public school or it's because maybe we're starting to already think about summer vacation and how to keep them engaged. I think this is a great conversation, but I do want to say I want to kind of maybe pull back a little bit. Maybe we have. It's probably really important for us to start at a little bit more of the beginning. Did you know that you were called to live a rather untraditional life? And you had we've already mentioned, you had a bit of a wanderlust calling, and when did it click for you that this was something you kind of wanted to make happen?
Speaker 3:So I wrote a song for my dad a couple of years ago and this theme of that song would answer your question perfectly. I thought that with a life like a childhood, where we moved every few years and did all these road trips, we traveled all the time there was a lack of stability. I mean, my parents were pretty stable people, but we moved all the time and I thought that I wanted nothing more than to find a husband, buy a house, settle down and then, like this house that we bought had a white picket fence and a beautiful front porch with rocking chairs on it. I thought that we would grow old in that house and I could imagine us as old people sitting on this front porch rocking in our chairs. And I realized pretty quickly, like within a few years, that I didn't want stability. It was boring. I was so bored Like we had everything we'd ever wanted. We got it a little too fast maybe. I mean, we had the American dream by the time we were between 25 and 30. And then we looked at each other. We're like, oh, this is it. Okay, so we could buy a bigger house and we could buy a nicer car, but like, pretty much we've arrived and then we're supposed to work and save money and put our kids in school and do all this stuff and we're old and gray. Then we get to travel If we're in good enough health, if we don't have to take care of aging parents, if all of our kids are healthy and we don't have a special needs. Like there were all these ifs where you realize like, oh, if we wait, we might not ever get to travel. So we ditched the idea of stability and that wanderlust. That happened as a child, where we were always moving and always taking these trips.
Speaker 3:I decided that I was made for that. I knew how to live that way. What I didn't know how to do was sit in one place for many years and do the same thing day in and day out, and so, in a sense, I was made for the adventure that came. I thought that I wanted stability, and I've had a different kind of stability, but it's not geographical. So when my husband grew up sailing, and so it was really his dream to do this, but I was on board. Oh, there I go, the puns.
Speaker 3:I was on board, literally and figuratively, pretty quickly. We took a sailing trip when we were newlyweds, with his dad and stepmom on their boat and had just a magical experience in which I decided this is what I wanna do Now. It took us a while. We had to do a pretty serious U-turn, when we had everything that every yuppie ever wanted. We had to turn away from all of that and we made a five year plan, moved back to Florida, bought a small boat, learned to sail again, baby stepping toward that dream, and ultimately we were able to throw off the bow lines and leave the safe harbor and we went cruising with four children under the age of nine. And then we came back pregnant and had a fifth baby while we were living on the boat and then proceeded to travel for the next 10 or 12 years after she was born.
Speaker 2:It's in retrospect and hindsight, it feels while, yes, there were baby steps, it also sounds like there was a bit of fearlessness, and I have to think that there's times where you were doubting whether this was a good idea before you actually did leave that safe harbor. Can we chat a little bit about that and maybe some of the fears that may have come into play?
Speaker 3:Yes, I'm laughing because I had this moment of cold feet, like you would have. You know, like every bride has right before she gets married. We had taken all of these baby steps right up to the point where we were buying a 48 foot catamaran. Yet another reason why we didn't kill each other is because we bought a big boat right With four cabins and we can kind of go into our separate corners. But I mean, it was a huge purchase, a huge risk, because we had no idea at that point whether we were gonna be good at it or whether we were gonna like it. We didn't know that one of our kids gets horribly seasick, for example. So there were a lot of unknowns and the day before we were supposed to, you know, sign off on everything.
Speaker 3:My husband was traveling that week and I called him. He was out of town and I'm like I changed my mind. I don't wanna do this. This is crazy. Why would we leave a perfectly wonderful life to go do this crazy thing with our kids? It sounds dangerous.
Speaker 3:I was thinking about all the what ifs that probably your listeners are thinking what if you shipwreck? What if your kids drown? I mean, those are real risks. And he was like, woman, I need your support, like this is a big, scary step. I thought you were, you know, 100% with me and he goes, go sleep on it, call a girlfriend and we'll talk again tomorrow. And so I hung up and I had a good cry and I called a friend of mine and I did sleep on it and when I woke up the next morning I felt better, like I remembered all the other what ifs. You know the what if it's amazing? What if we love it? What if it's life changing? What if we get to go to those distant shores? And what if we get to raise our kids with the world as their backyard? What if it's amazing? It's hard because we sometimes get lost in the negative what ifs that we forget to ask the positive what ifs? So thank the good Lord, because I'm a praying woman and he walked me through that one to that edge of fear and stepped back from the edge and I was able to move forward without feeling terrified.
Speaker 3:But many, many times on this journey I mean pretty much every single time we have to untie the dock lines. I have to deal with that fear, both the fear of the unknown and the fear of the known because we've been out, you know, in sea conditions that are harrowing. And every time I untie the lines, I know we might leave on a nice day and the sea is sparkling in blue and the sky is cloudless and it's a beautiful day, and within hours it can you know the water can turn steely gray and the clouds can roll in and you can suddenly find yourself bashing in six to eight foot seas. The sea is very unpredictable. So every time you leave, even if you've planned your weather well, you know that that's a real risk. So you have to deal with not just the fear of the unknown, but also the fear of the known, yeah, which sometimes might be even scarier.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm a big chicken. I am actually not a fearless person. I'm just a person who refuses to be ruled by fear. Maybe someday I'll be fearless, but I'm not fearless right now.
Speaker 2:That's actually one of the things that I've come to recognize as a big difference, and I'll never forget the conversation I had with a girlfriend over brunch where I was saying that you know, I kind of wanted to be fearless and she's like do you really want to be fearless, or would you rather be the individual who has the fears and chooses to be bold and brave and still move forward? So I actually love the bravery and the daring versus the fearless, because fearless usually means that there might be something in our brain that has that that doesn't connect well to that, like a fight or flight which keeps us safe. So I think bravery is definitely a wonderful trait. I'm curious, tanya.
Speaker 2:There's so many things that are going through my mind the practical aspects how do you do laundry but also the not so a bit more of, like you mentioned, the unpredictable aspects, because I do think there's a parallel to life where we can plan, we can make sure that every detail is perfectly in place and still life will throw us a few different curveballs according to whatever it has planned for us, just like a you experience on the sailboat. So could you give me some idea, or could you give us a story, potentially of something that may have started off where you planned. It didn't go according to plan but ended up being one of the what if it's amazing and you're so glad to have had that opportunity.
Speaker 3:Okay, so a story where it was something that we didn't plan and it turned out to be amazing.
Speaker 2:Yeah, or you planned for it to be a little differently and it ended up looking completely different when you were actually out there.
Speaker 3:That describes every single sailing trip I've ever been on. I'm struggling to pick one, okay. So there've been a few times where we've actually done a U-turn, where we go to leave here. I'll think of I just thought of the perfect story. So we're big chickens. I already said that we might be brave, like we do things, despite the fact that we're afraid, but we're not totally foolish, like we know that fear is also there to keep us alive.
Speaker 3:So occasionally we get in the boat. We've checked our weather, you know, we've planned our route, we've looked at the charts. We're underway, we're going out a cut somewhere out into the ocean and we get out there and the conditions are not was predicted, or the weather has deteriorated, and faster than the weatherman said that it was going to, or the wind is from the wrong direction or too strong or too weak or whatever. And we get out there and we're like, boy, I really just don't feel like doing this today. Do you feel like doing this today? And my husband and I kind of look at each other and we look at the kids and there've been a few days where we just did a U-turn, turned the boat around, went back in anchored and waited for a better day. I mean, we're pleasure boaters, so why would we punish ourselves or put our crew or our boat at risk If we don't have to? We don't really sail on a schedule, so if we feel like staying in a place for a month, we stay for a month. If we feel like we're done there, we leave when the weather's good. We don't hold ourselves to this, I guess, rigid schedule because we've made a few mistakes and have learned the hard way that you need to go with the flow and not fight mother nature.
Speaker 3:And so there was a time that we were leaving Nevis. We were anchored off of Nevis and we checked out the customs and immigration, we got all our passports stamped and we got back to the boat, pulled up the anchor, started sailing. We were out between the islands and the Caribbean, where you have trade winds and the waves are all trying to pass. All that water and wind is trying to pass in between the islands, so you might be sailing along nicely behind an island. You come out into open water and the waves mount up or the wind is really strong and you just are not sure what conditions you're going to find and we start bashing into just awful seas and we looked at the weather forecast and we looked at the actual conditions where, like, this is not the kind of day that we had planned and you know, we've got one kid already turning green, even though he's medicated poor kid.
Speaker 3:And we look at each other and we're like, well, are we in a rush? Do we have to leave Nevis? And we're like, well, no, it's kind of a pain in the butt if you have to go back in and go back to customs and immigration and pay the fees again or whatever. But we said it's not worth it, we don't really want to spend a day and a night doing this, so we're going to turn around, went back anchored again, went back to town in the dinghy, got all the passports, talked to the customs and they actually tore up our paperwork and didn't charge us the fee. They were like Nevis is nice, stay a little longer. They were very gracious, which was nice.
Speaker 3:And then that day on the beach we met the Swedish family that were traveling on their boat and they had three kids and we became instant friends and we spent the next week with them just becoming close and our kids were playing together every single day. We celebrated Swedish midsummer with them, even though they were far, far from Sweden. We helped them keep some of their traditions and just realized that had we left on schedule if there was a schedule we would never have met them and we would never have gotten close. And we're still in touch today. Your sailing friends become family to you when you're out traveling, all like that. There are so many examples of that kind of a story. That's very emblematic.
Speaker 2:But I love us drawing at the parallel to a lot of the listeners here, where our usual choice or movement of choice is running, and I'm hearing so much of the parallels of going out for a run and not feeling great, listening to that inner intuition reminding ourselves that we don't have to be rigid and sticking to our training schedule and sometimes just calling it for what it is and enjoying the rest of the day, either by spending time with family or friends or kind of figuring out when another time is better for you to get out there.
Speaker 2:I love drawing it back to that parallel, just because I think it's so important to remember that we want to, of course, challenge ourselves, we want to be brave and bold, but we also have to allow ourselves to enjoy some flexibility and kind of go with the flow. The seas may have us need to turn back to safe harbor for just a little bit. I do want to know you are active. You've done some incredible activities in a way that I think that most of us this is the reason why we want to stay active, so we are capable of doing the things that you've been able to tackle. So could you share a little bit about, maybe your daily movement and fitness routine, and then how that's translated to some of your most fond, adventurous kind of physical movement adventures that you have.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. I'm going to start with the confession, which is I'm not really a runner. I don't hate running, I'm just not a runner. My daughter, who just joined the Coast Guard she's at basic training as we speak has become a runner, and I actually am a little bit inspired by her. She asked me what my fitness goals were, and she started challenging me on my motion as I'm aging and am I really doing enough to stay in shape, and so I'm kind of intrigued as I watched her get into shape. I think, while she's at basic training, I'm going to up my game so that when she comes back, she finds me in better shape than she left me.
Speaker 3:That said, I am an avid kayaker and I walk at least a mile a day, and I love things like cross country skiing. I discovered how to skate ski on a road trip that we took in 2021 out to Utah, and I love to skate ski, and I love hiking up volcanoes and jumping at waterfalls and free diving, and so my life does involve a lot of activities that require physical strength and agility and flexibility, and I hate exercise for the sake of exercise, but if you turn exercise into some way of enjoying the great outdoors, I'm all over it. I can kayak all day On the boat. It's actually very challenging to stay in shape because we're in small space. If we're traveling, if we're in a location, obviously you can enjoy all of the things that you might find in that location, whether that's hiking up a volcano or ticking walks on the beach or snorkeling or whatever. But if you're stuck in a marina somewhere or if you're at sea, your chances for mobility are a little bit less. So I was a yoga practitioner for 20 years more than 20 years and so I had a routine where I would get up in the morning and do yoga on deck or cockpit if the weather was inclement. Worst case scenario, if it's like super hot out and we have the air conditioner running. Sometimes I've been known to clear the space inside my boat, like it's just about the same, like my living room floor is about the same size as a yoga mat and I'll just kick everybody out of that space and stretch, because I needed it. I just need to breathe and move and build strength and flexibility and balance. All of those things have been really important to me. I make it a goal to do something for my mind, my body and my spirit every single day, and that involves a morning routine.
Speaker 3:I read the Miracle Morning in 2020. I think I read it in 2020 and started my Miracle Morning practice in 2021 and it really solidified. I had always had a good morning practice, but this really solidified for me that how you begin your day affects your whole day and how you begin your week affects your whole week. And how you affect the first week of the month changes the whole month and then eventually your whole life is different, just because you got up and made your bed and prayed and meditated and did some exercise and gave yourself the gift of that first hour of the day. So that has become a staple and even when my children were small, I would always try to get up a half an hour earlier than they got up and sit with a cup of tea or a cup of coffee, read my Bible, do something that was just for me, because you've heard the saying you can't pour out of an empty cup.
Speaker 3:You want to be sucked dry. Have five kids under the age of 10. There will be nothing left of you at the end of the day, but you've got to start. You've got to get a little edge on the day, and so that practice has been really important to me, and that's physical exercise absolutely, but also a mental and spiritual exercise too. Those are exercises that strengthen all of you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, they all go so seamlessly integrated in hands because, of course, eating well, living our bodies well and connecting to our spiritual aspect or our religious practice and all of that helps with our mindset and just how we feel. So I love that you shared that miracle morning. I think. In honor of that, I'm going to challenge folks to kind of do a little bit of a inventory their morning practice and see if there's maybe some tweaks to add in a little bit of extra self care early in the morning, which brings me to some a little silly but a little whimsical and I can't help myself. I would love to know, because you do have so much fun in your life and you have so many great practices that you enjoy. If you had to choose only one, would you pick that sunrise yoga session on maybe a secluded beach where you're docked, or would you prefer and I think I know the answer already a sunset you go lately sing along with your family on the deck?
Speaker 3:Oh, that's a tough one. Oh, I don't know. I love both. I think I'm a bigger fan of the sunsets. I love sunsets, so probably music at sunset.
Speaker 2:That's a tough choice, though I felt like you would go with that one, because I could just see you wanting to have again that really fun time with your family and creating that memory. So, and since it's our spectacular, I can only imagine how many incredible sunsets you have seen, which, of course, brings us to the next case. I'm not going to even that's. I wouldn't be as mean to ask you to pick a favorite, but maybe could you share a few of your favorite places that you have been able to see some of your sunsets.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite sunsets. We were in Guatemala and my kids and I are often on field trips while my husband is working during the day, so he picks a few sunsets I mean not sunsets a few activities that he wants to do, and then I kind of leave him on the boat some days to work while I take the kids on field trips. So he was working and we were hiking up volcanoes. We were climbing volcanoes all day not volcanoes, my goodness, get your mind straight, girl. So we were climbing up pyramids. We were climbing up Mayan pyramids in Guatemala, in the Petén Province, and we were in Yashá, which is a little more remote location. The roads are worse, there's more jungle, there are fewer pyramids that have been sort of unearthed but beautiful natural setting, wildlife, lots and lots of wildlife, and it had been kind of overcast all day, which was nice because it's also really hot in Guatemala. And our guide, luis, said that he wanted to show us the last pyramid of the day we would hike up. It had been built so that it faced the sunrise and the sunset, perfectly aligned with the heavenly bodies, and he wanted us to watch the sunset from this pyramid. So he timed our walks so that we would climb up this last pyramid at sunset. But again, it had been overcast all day and I'm like I don't know, this is not going to be a spectacular sunset. I could not have been more wrong. So the kids and I go up this last. You know, our legs are worn out at this point from going up hundreds and hundreds of steps.
Speaker 3:Climb up this last pyramid and we sit at the top. And wouldn't you know that right as the sun was setting, it dipped below the gray clouds. There was just a small strip of sky before it dropped below the horizon and it was like this bright red beacon just shining out. The whole land looked like it was on fire. It was stunning. And I snapped this amazing photo of my kids, I took a picture of the sunset and then I turned and I looked at the reflection of this rosy light on all of my children's faces and I took this great picture. And when I look at that picture I think what a fabulous sunset from the top of this Mayan pyramid and all of the history and all the people who had seen the sunset from that location it was amazing and there have been many, many like that.
Speaker 3:I said volcanoes because we've also seen sunsets from volcanoes too. So volcanoes and pyramids and of course, so many beaches that I can't even begin to mention. When we were in Grand Cayman, we had to stop in Grand Cayman because we had to do a quick haul out to fix something on the boat and we had been at Stingray City late in the day, and that's just a place where fishermen have been feeding stingrays for many, many decades, and so the stingrays always come to this one shallow area where the fishermen would clean fish. There's a tourist spot. All the boats come and you can pet the stingrays if you so desire or you can just snorkel with them, but there's sometimes hundreds and hundreds of stingrays.
Speaker 3:It's fabulous. It's so beautiful in the waters. You know this crystal clear cerulean color. And we had kind of waited till all the tour boats left and we were anchored nearby. So we went over in the dinghy and anchored the dinghy and we were snorkeling just our family with all of these stingrays. And I had again, I always try and snap a picture I had my waterproof camera with me and I snapped this sunset picture where you have the water and the stingrays and my family climbing back in the dinghy. So I don't know whether it's better on land or on sea, but I just love sunsets.
Speaker 2:So Tony, I'm going to ask you if you could provide folks with maybe a suggestion or a little bit of a I guess not a roadmap, but maybe if you could help them map their own course. As to a little bit of extra adventure with kids or family. What would you say would be something that you would suggest before they embark on their own adventure, whatever that may look like for them?
Speaker 3:So a lot of what we do is inaccessible to what I would consider like normal people, but other aspects of our life are totally applicable, opening yourself up to the unknown and to unknown adventures. One of the things we did since we've come back from the Caribbean is take a big road trip, and we took a road trip out west. We went to all the places that you can't sail, to the Grand Canyon and the five national parks of Vita and National Park at the end of winter, and we've done some really wonderful road travels. So, whether you like to travel by sea or by land, one thing that families can do is to collect verbs and not nouns.
Speaker 3:We're recording this. We're approaching Christmas. I know this isn't going to go out at Christmas time, but one of our traditions is to not buy Christmas gifts. I know that's very counterculture, but we take all the money that we would have spent on Christmas and we go somewhere instead, and so we almost always opt for experiences over stuff, and that's something that anybody could do in any walk of life is to think what is the money for, and for us it's not for collecting stuff, it's for creating memories, so you can always prioritize memories.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited by that. I love that. I feel like I want you to have a shirt and a coffee mug and I know that we're supposed to be collecting verbs and not nouns, but I want those that saying. I feel it's like such a powerful thing that we need to be able to see it more often.
Speaker 3:Believe it or not, that was a fridge magnet on my friend Davina's boat. She had a boat called Island Girl and she was one of the early families that we met when we were out sailing. She and her husband and their two kids were on another catamaran and I was over at her boat one day and her fridge. She had this magnet that said collect verbs and not nouns and I fully adopted that as my mantra and people always have a priority over stuff for me, and experiences over material objects.
Speaker 2:Well, tanya, I want to thank you and on that I am going to say let's make one exception to this new mantra that we're all going to take on and let's collect one more noun. Let's go ahead and grab Tanya's book Leaving the Safe Harbor the Risks and Rewards of Raising a Family on a Boat, because, as we've already learned in this conversation, there's so much more to learn and how we can draw that parallel to our own lives, regardless if we never choose to set foot on a sailboat or we are actually considering something like this ourselves, there's a lot of lessons to be learned and a lot of really fantastic memories that I can't wait to dive into. Before we officially go, I would love to say Tanya, thank you so much for sharing time with us and friends, don't forget to also check out Take to sailingcom, because she's got a phenomenal blog that you guys can hear more of her adventures.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for having me today and just letting me share a little part of my story.
Speaker 2:I loved chatting with Tanya so much and how she seized the day and, of course, how she really went off in this adventure, despite some naysayers and even some of her own internal doubt. With that, we're going to shift gears just a little bit, because now we're going to bring in Shannon, a digital nomad who found freedom and fulfillment in solo travel. Despite facing lots of skepticism, shannon continues to roam the globe, proving that a life of adventure is not just a dream but a reality that we can all create. So, friends, let's go ahead and bring in Shannon. Welcome to the brunch table. Shannon Jensen, podcast host of Wandering Her, a podcast for women learning to say yes to adventure by creating financial independence as digital nomads to combine their passion of travel while still making a big, positive difference in the world. Shannon, I can't wait to get into this conversation and all of your awesomeness, but first let me thank you for joining us for this brunch chat.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so happy to be on your podcast now, since you were on mine earlier.
Speaker 2:It is true. I mean, we connected immediately. I, though I am nowhere near have the kind of travel under my belt that you do, I aspire, so you're definitely an inspiration for me, and I know you're going to be for the audience as well. Before we get into it, though, let's make sure that people even understand what is a digital nomad.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm not sure if I'm the best example of a digital nomad, but somebody who's able to work from anywhere and to have a lot of freedom with traveling and with their working. So it's something I'm working towards to be 100% a digital nomad so that I can be anywhere and not have to spend winter in Canada. That would be amazing for me.
Speaker 2:I can't imagine why, as I'm here in Florida and everybody's walking around in flip flops as we record this Okay, well, I love that, and I love that it's something that you are working toward and it's kind of a big, audacious goal, as we talk about folks pursuing big audacious goals as well, even though you have a thumbprint, you've already have like a roadmap to do it. But I'm really curious what in the world made you even think this is kind of the lifestyle that I would want to pursue?
Speaker 1:Well, I just recorded a podcast this morning for my own podcast about human design. So I've really been diving into it and I'm a manifesting generator. And now that I understand that, I have so much clarity about how I've lived my life, because it has brought a lot of confusion for people. So I went to university the week after I turned 18. So I graduated high school and, straight to university, became a registered nurse. I moved when I graduated at 21 by 22. I was at a new hospital. I was in charge by 23.
Speaker 1:I was mentoring students, I was orientating, I was the most experienced person on the floor and there was just so much pressure and I was 23. My brain wasn't even fully developed yet and I had all of these adult responsibilities. So I saved up every penny I could and I went traveling to Southeast Asia. And it was just this. I just knew I had to do it. I wanted to go alone, I didn't want to go with anybody and I just knew that this was going to bring me into that version of myself that I needed to become, and it was the push that I would want. And then it turns out traveling's addicting once you get into it.
Speaker 2:It is. It is as addicting as running. That's definitely sure. Okay, but wait, I want to take it back a little bit because we're talking about 2223. You already have responsibilities when a lot of folks are still trying to figure out if they should brush their hair or if they even matters if they brush their hair, or they're patting into maybe even classes with their jammies still on. No hate, I think that's amazing if they're doing that as well. But were you always incredibly independent and, like you, had very goal focused? Is that just your personality type?
Speaker 1:Well, I'm the oldest child, so, yes, I have three younger brothers. So I was a single mom who raised three children before I was even 16, you know, like I was that parent-ified child, so that was just always the way that my life. I always had so much responsibility that it was just natural to step into this role as a nurse and did you find that?
Speaker 2:because you talked about human design, clearly, and then there's a whole family systems and learning patterns. So is that what made you choose a very what we traditionally perceive as a very nurturing role, or what you call it, a healing specifically?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's definitely like a combination. I've always, and still to this day still have that really nurturing and healing Like I feel like I need to be in that role, and then I was also really pushed into it as well. So it was something that the adults of my life were like this will be a really good job for you, you're really good at this, it's going to pay you lots of money, you're going to have benefits. This is a really good way for you to go. And then I got into it and I knew I didn't like nursing from week one. I knew it wasn't for me, but I had to keep going cause I'm stubborn and everyone told me it was going to be a good career. But it was extremely draining for me having to put all that energy into other people and I just really couldn't put it back into myself, which is, in the end, what led me to leaving nursing.
Speaker 2:Okay, I really do want to expand on that a little bit, because I do think that women traditionally especially since both you and I are called to working specifically more with women and I'm sure this is also seen across the judge's spectrum but Definitely I feel like we see more traditionally the roles of women feeling like they need to be in the nurturing role or that they have to give and don't ever really allow themselves to give to themselves as easily or as readily as they would to others. So when you decided I'm stepping back from this nursing role, I'm going to take the plunge to Southeast Asia which, by the way, I want to learn that as well as what was the catalyst behind that specific trip? Where did you innately know at this part that I need to have been experienced for myself versus for others? Or was it just I just want to see the world at that point?
Speaker 1:It may have subconsciously been a. I need an experience for myself because so I moved provinces. I moved 16 hours away from where I grew up. The final straw on the camel's back was I was living with all of my brothers at the time and it was awful. So now I'm like parenting 20 year old boys right, they have no respect for me because I have their sister, and so my options were like continue to spiral into this despair and just depression that I can't see the exit or I leave everything behind. I moved to a different province, I moved to the West Coast and I go on this trip by myself to figure out who I actually am, and yeah, that's just kind of what happened. And then I decided I had to do this on my own and was happy to go on my own, and it took me like a year of planning before I actually did it.
Speaker 2:Okay, I have to ask you in that time, because I'm hearing you talk about this. I automatically hear in my mind and again, maybe that's just my reference point All of the fears and doubts and a lot of naysayers. Potentially, I would imagine that maybe people would have suggested that maybe traveling a bit closer to home or not plunging so quickly into such a big experience, did you experience that?
Speaker 1:Oh, yes, I sure did. So many things happened all at once. I moved to a different province, to a different city, I went vegan and I grew up on a farm, so meat and potatoes. So that was very much like what are you doing, you're so unhealthy type thing coming from my family. And then my parents decided that they could still control me and that they would do everything in their power to keep me from doing this. So I had student debt, I had a Canadian government loan, I had an Alberta provincial loan and I had a bank loan. My parents were cosigned to my bank loan, and my parents also had to cosign to my provincial and federal loans, but they weren't tied to them. It was just if I didn't pay my bills or something happened to me, it would fall onto them, but it had nothing to do with them.
Speaker 1:My bank loan, however, did so. It was impacting their credit for being able to take out more money. So my parents go to the bank and they want to take out a loan and they realize my debt is impacting them. So my dad told me I had to get all of my loans consolidated and then to my own. So I went to the bank, I got my bank loan moved over to my own loan and my payments doubled. Everything quadrupled after I did this. My payments quadrupled so they went from like $200 a month to $800 a month and this was like a long time ago. So it probably would be way more these days, but it was huge then. It was way more than I was paying for rent at the time. And then I called the federal and provincial loans and I said like, hey, this is what's going on. I just want to know like is my debt impacting my parents? And they are like no, nothing is a problem as long as you keep paying. So just keep being responsible, you're fine, it's not tied to them. So I told my dad is like hey, debts are not impacting you at all. I've taken care of the bank one. You guys are good to go.
Speaker 1:And my dad got so mad at me for being responsible and for going over his head and not trusting him that he was right. And we had this huge, huge blow up and he texted me awful, awful things and he said mean things to me. He told me I was being childish and selfish for wanting to go traveling. He said that there's no way I could ever go for a year that was. My plan was to go to Asia for four months, new Zealand for four months, australia for four months. So everything that my parents could do and say to me to get me to stay happened, and I chose not to listen to them and I went traveling anyways. And then I had other people in my life. I had people that I worked with who were telling me I was going to get raped and murdered and that Cambodia was dangerous and all these things like I had it coming from every single angle. But I chose not to listen to them and I chose to go anyways.
Speaker 2:Okay. So I'm hearing a lot of bravery and courage and retrospect. Were you emboldened by the naysayers? Did that kind of help you? You wanted to prove them wrong, or did it at any point? You have those fears seep in as well.
Speaker 1:Well, the fears definitely came in. So the one thing was that everyone told me Cambodia was incredibly dangerous. So I was flying into Thailand, I was going to do my scuba dive course and then I was going to go to Cambodia right after. So it was like within 10 days of being on my trip I'd be in Cambodia. So I decided to pre book a few things and I found a travel buddy. So I went onto a forum and I I don't even know how I found him, but he's from Singapore. At the time he was a flight attendant, now he's a realtor. He just seems like a really good person and he was going to Cambodia the exact same days as I was. So we decided to meet up and we would stay together and we would travel together and we'd like have each other support, and so that to me, felt really good, just knowing I would have some form of support there and that's all I needed. I knew I could figure everything else out once I got there and I had friends who had just been to Asia who were telling me like don't worry, you're going to be fine, you'll meet so many people.
Speaker 1:But when I boarded the plane, this was when it all came crashing down on me. So I'm in Vancouver at the airport, my flight is going to Shanghai. There's myself and another young woman and then everybody else is older and they're Chinese and they're like going to China. So I'm boarding this plane and I pass over my passport, my boarding pass, I get scanned through. I'm walking down like the actual like boardwalk to the plane, like I'm past everything now and the Canadian security guard is standing there judging everyone. Why are you going to China? What are you doing? And so he pulls me aside because I'm one of two white people getting on this plane. And so he pulls me aside and he starts grilling me about everything. Where are you going? Why do you think you could do this? Who told you you could go traveling by yourself? Where's your boyfriend? Why don't you have a husband? What did you study in school? Who packed your bag? Who are you meeting? How much money do you have? Like grilled me and I almost started crying. I was so stressed about it all.
Speaker 1:So I get onto the plane after this interrogation, I sit in my seat. Nobody's in my row. It's like a 12 hour flight. I got the whole row to myself. I should be like so stoked, but I'm just freaking out and I like cried and I was like I can't do this, I need to get off this plane. I need to just get back on the next flight to Canada as soon as I get there. And so I freaked out for 12 hours. I landed in Shanghai. I found that woman. I sat with her we're both like the same age and she was just like yeah, I'm so excited, this is what I'm going to do. And she made me feel so much better. And then my flight to Bangkok was like no, I can't do this, it's going to be okay.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love that I do Okay. So I'm so sorry that you were basically bullied and that had to have been the saddest, longest 12 hour flight of all time, but I love that you found a support immediately by connecting with someone that allowed her like exuberance and her joy to kind of rub off on you to get you back into what you originally wanted. Now you're here, you land. You've been pretty much fighting the negativity of others. Where does it start to turn? We're like this is incredible. I can't believe I'm here and I can't wait to explore this area.
Speaker 1:I think, the first day. Well, I landed at like one in the morning, so I went to my hotel and then slept. And then I took the train into Bangkok and the fact that I made it downtown Bangkok and, like, made it to the touristy section by myself and you have to remember, this was 2013. So technology was not where it is today. We didn't just like a phone that had a million gigabytes of data and space on it, right, like we didn't have these things. So you had to look at the wall with the train stops and, like, figure out where you're going, and we didn't have Google translate at the time. So it was, yeah, just like. Getting myself down to the touristy area, I was like, yes, I got this. This is so cool. And then I set myself up for a few things. I prebooked a few things while I was there, just to make sure.
Speaker 1:But that day was the first moment that I realized how important my intuition is while traveling. So I book a bus. I'm going down to the southern islands to go do my dive. Course, you have to take a bus down. I wanted to take the train, but it was full. So you have to take a bus and then you have to take a ferry. So I booked my bus and I get myself to the bus station and I'm at the bus that's going to the place I'm waiting to board and I show my ticket and they're like no, no, no, no. I'm like yes, yes, yes, this is this right bus and this is the right destination. And I'm like no, no, no, no. Nobody speaks English.
Speaker 1:And then this man comes over and tells me, like gestures, that I need to come with him. So I'm like, oh, okay, something must be weird. And he takes me like forever across this parking lot and then we get to his motorbike and he gestures that I need to get on his motorbike. I've been in Thailand for like 12 hours and this feels like a kidnapping situation. And he's getting mad at me because I won't get on his motorbike. And I'm like, no, no, no, I got to get on that bus. He's like no, no, no, you have to come with me.
Speaker 1:So I finally get on. I'm like, okay, I'm just going to see what happens, like I will, what. I have to trust that this is going to be okay. So I get on no, helmet ripping through big cock. It turns out I'm at the wrong bus station and so he took me to another bus station, drops me off, I get on my bus and that was the moment where I was like, okay, you have to know the difference between intuition and like guidance here and the difference between danger, and that really set me up for success on my whole trip. To like trust when I trust the situations to know I was safe or not.
Speaker 2:You know, we had a guest, nicole Snell from Girls Fight Back, and she feels that that is the number one superpower that women have, and she has all sorts of great science behind it in terms of our intuition is just more highly aligned. And if you start to really trust that and I think that's so hard again because at this point again, as you mentioned 2013, fresh off of the movie taken, you know, having like box office success, and we're hearing this you've heard a whole year of people telling you how fearful you should be. So what made you actually trust yourself in this situation? Because I still think that's rather extraordinary. No matter where we're at in our life, I think that learning how to trust ourselves can be very difficult to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I mean this was 10 years ago, so I won't be able to tell you exactly, but I just remember having this feeling within me that it was going to be okay if I went with this man. Then I had other situations throughout my travels in Southeast Asia where I was like, okay, it's going to be okay if I let this person help me, or it's not going to be okay if I let this person help me and nothing bad happened to me the whole time I was in Asia, like nothing at all. I drowned my phone in the ocean like a weekend. That was the worst thing that happened to me and I had no contact for so long and my mom was so bad. But that was kind of the worst of it and it was my own stupidity.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we're here. We're learning how to be supremely self-reliant on ourselves and our intuition, and also like to. I assume that you're also learning to connect with people when maybe there's not surface wise as much in commonality. So how do you feel like this starts to shape your perspective and obviously start to feed this travel bug that you are? I assume just definitely you've gotten the travel bug officially.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this was so huge for me to become the person that I am today, because previous to this I didn't love myself, I didn't think I was worthy of connection or relationships or good things happening.
Speaker 1:And where I grew up there's a lot of suffering and people think you have to suffer, you have to suffer through bad weather, you have to suffer through a job you don't like, type thing, and so this was the first time where I recognized like no, it's safe to be happy, it's safe to feel excited and inspired, and it's safe to open up and allow other people in and allow them to get to know the real me.
Speaker 1:And so my journey through Asia was more about a self-love journey and spending a lot of time alone. I never really spent time alone before, so spending these long bus rides like 17 hours on a bus type thing by myself and eating alone and forcing myself to interact with other people, but for the most part, I spent most of my time alone in Asia. I spent the better portion of four months alone and it was so powerful for me to start to love myself and to understand myself, and it was the continuation of that trip. I ended up going to New Zealand after and I spent almost a year and a half in New Zealand and that was where now I loved myself and now I could start to allow other people to love me back and that was the first time that I felt real big love and friendships and like I belonged and like I was worthy was the portion in New Zealand. So this whole thing was just so huge for me to have that identification.
Speaker 2:I'm so excited about this because when I'm drawing the parallel to folks that are avid runners, listening in and I think that's something that I really espouse with allowing themselves to kind of be okay, with being alone with their thoughts during those long runs, because that's when you start to really listen to that inner voice and start to become more at peace with sometimes, what you know, we're warring with ourselves, a bit of that primitive part of our brain and it makes it telling us to stop because we're uncomfortable. And then the part where we are able to build that confidence by continuing to push through. So are you journaling? Are you reflecting what? How are you really kind of getting to know your inner voice during this alone time, during your travels, just having?
Speaker 1:the quiet and it's just like what you said with the long run. So when I first started running, I thought I needed to listen to heavy metal, you know, to get through it. And then I started. When I started training for the half marathon, I have my headphones broke, which is why I started listening to nothing and just having that time of like 17 kilometers of nothing but my own thoughts. I love that so much. That's my favorite part about running, and it was the same thing while traveling to having these long bus rides to reflect and lots of time journaling. Well, I'd have to go back and read my journals, but I journaled almost every day of either talking about what I was doing that day or how I was feeling. But there was definitely a lot of growth coming just from my journaling experiences.
Speaker 2:So I'm thinking here You're having these incredible experiences, you're quite literally having a transformational experience with your travel. At what point does it become where it's more than just an adventure for you? It feels like again very much. From the very beginning it sounds like it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely, and at that time the Canadian dollar and US dollar were on par, which will probably never happen again. So Thailand was so cheap. Like street food was a dollar type thing you could eat a whole, like I would order pad thai, spring rolls and a smoothie and I'd spend three dollars. You know it was so cheap and accommodation was like two bucks a night. Like everything was so cheap and so I was just learning that my life was more affordable traveling and learning and growing than it was being in Canada and working as a nurse and like bringing in all of that money.
Speaker 2:Oh, I love. I want to hear that again because I think that we do so often allow ourselves to just go with what is considered the right way, if you will, of living, and that's you get a career and you decide to have the house and the picket fence and all of that, but you're basically saying that allowing yourself to pursue your creativity and pursue your desire to live authentically to your hopes and your dreams actually ended up being more financially of a payoff for you.
Speaker 1:It was and you know, now there's so many ways to make money that now you don't have to just save up and go travel and spend everything and live like a queen while you're doing so, but now you can go save up, go travel, live like a queen but also be bringing in income as well, so that you don't have to have a deadline on things, you don't have to be in a job that maybe isn't serving you. But there's so many ways to do this now, and I just think like if I would have started a travel blog in 2013, what could have happened and that wasn't really a common thing back then, but it sure is now. There's so many ways.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, that's funny that you say that, because I actually, after going to Yosemite and I fell madly in love with our national parks, which I never thought that I was going to want to travel as much stateside, because I always wanted to go overseas but then I realized I had no idea that you could even go work at the state parks or the national parks and have a completely life different experience than what you would, because I too, it was all about achievement and graduating high school and graduating college and getting the job and the career and all of that where I didn't even know there was all of these other possibilities available to me. They didn't have to follow the traditional pathway. So let's talk a little bit about that. In your experiences and working with women who are thinking this is a lifestyle, or working with people who are saying you know, maybe I want to pursue more of a untraditional lifestyle if you will, what are some of the challenges that you've seen that they may have?
Speaker 1:Societal expectations for sure, and this is actually a great segue into what happened in New Zealand and how this has transitioned in my life. So in New Zealand I took six months absence from work, and so in New Zealand, I only had about two months until I was supposed to be back at the hospital, and so I had to make this decision. My nursing registration was coming up, so I had to decide do I go back to Canada and back to my job that everyone expects me to go back into, or do I stay in New Zealand and I try something new? And I had a working holiday visa for a whole year, and so I decided to stay and to try something new. So I told everybody some people were happy, some people were not. I decided to stay anyway. So I ended up in Milford Sound, which is such a cool place If you're ever in New Zealand, and I was working at a cafe and it was OK. It was allowing me to live in a cool place, but it wasn't what I really wanted to be doing. So they have.
Speaker 1:Milford Sound is a huge fjord on the ocean. The mountains just come straight down into the ocean and what you see above, you see below. It's just a total mirror effect. So you get trees up above and then you get like sponges and coral and all these cool things underneath and they do cruises in the fjord. And then there's also an underwater observatory there and because it's the middle of nowhere, they don't really need you to have specific certifications or anything like that.
Speaker 1:And I expressed my interest over and over and over and over again until I was finally heard and I was invited to work at the underwater observatory and I managed to learn everything about the place and I fooled so many people into thinking I was a geontologist. And then I also got to become a kayak guide there and I learned on the job just little kayak things. We just did little trips. We could see penguins, we could see dolphins in there. It was just so magical and that was the first time where I was like, hey, there's other jobs out there that can be fun and that I could like to learn and could explore from and also give you the opportunity to travel and see new places and not just be. You don't have to be a digital nomad. You can still be traveling and working and having new experiences.
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm so glad that you said that because there's a real, realistically, a majority of people may not ever pursue digital nomad life, but maybe they are called to specific adventures. And what I'm hearing you say is that, basically, if there's a will, there's a way you could. It may not be ideal, it may not happen tomorrow, but that if you're relentless in pursuing it, it can actually happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly. So when I got back to Canada, I did go back to my nursing job. I was miserable and left it, and that's a whole story, but I ended up working. Eventually I got my kayak certs. So it took me a while. It took me a couple of years to get there, but I eventually became certified as a Sikai guide and British Columbia, where I live, has really high standards. So it was a whole process to get there, but I did it. I became an assistant overnight guide so I could do multi day trips, campaign trips and also day trips and like short half day trips.
Speaker 1:And this was also another thing where people in my life were like what are you doing? Why are you becoming a kayak guide? Like that's not a real job. And I've had a lot of guests say to me before, like so when are you going to get a real job? Like how is this not a real job? You know, like you paid for this. This is a service, we're operating it. It's a real job. But this opened up so many doors for me. This is how I got downtown Tartica. So, in combination of my Sikai guide training as well as my nursing background, I got hired on an expedition ship in Antarctica doing trips from Argentina down to the Antarctic Peninsula.
Speaker 2:Incredible. Ok, so let's talk about it, because I know that everybody's going to want to know what are some of your favorite places. Plural, because there's no way that you're going to be able to narrow it down to a top one. I don't even think you can narrow it down to a top three. So, off the top of your head, what are some of your favorite places of?
Speaker 1:Antarctica that you've traveled worldwide Well, I've traveled to Antarctica is definitely number one, because really, yeah.
Speaker 1:It's so special and when I went down the first time I thought I was going to just be obsessed with the wildlife, but it's the ice every time. For me, it's the icebergs, it's the glaciers, it's the sea ice. There's so many kinds of ice and it's amazing, like the glaciers, depending on how long they've been compressed, for they might be clear, they might be white, they might be blue. It's just so special and it's back over and over again and hopefully I'm going back again this year.
Speaker 2:Oh good, I love that. I love that. That's definitely what 2024 is going to bring you, of course, because of manifestation. So I want to talk a little bit about that as well. But before we get into manifesting, let's talk about where are some places that maybe you didn't love, that you may not visit or you may not prioritize it quite as high.
Speaker 1:Hmm, I think I've loved everywhere I've gone, so like Antarctica and New Zealand would be definitely in the tops. No, I think I've always found something good in every place that I've traveled and there's always been a certain spot. You know, this year the desert may be a bit crazy, though. We drove down to Baja this past winter in our camper van, so we were in Baja end of December. We left in the middle of March, so like two and a half months in Baja, and then we drove up through the US desert, through Arizona, utah, and then we came back through Nevada and California.
Speaker 1:So I was in the desert for a really long time and I was starting to go a little crazy. And I didn't know that I was going crazy. I was just like why do I feel so miserable and why is everything so hard right now? And the combination of like it was cold, it was snowing, it was the desert, and then we drive through Death Valley, california, and we're finally like dropping down. We dropped down through this desert hill and then suddenly we're in Orange land and there's like almond trees and there's just all this beautiful orchards and trees, and instantly it was this weight taken off my shoulder and I was like, oh OK, that's what that was. It was the desert. I just needed to see some like greenery and like abundance of life. And there is abundant life in its own way, but to have like the traditional sense of abundance of life, I needed it.
Speaker 2:Well, see, I think that's also what like calls to different people, and that's the beautiful thing about traveling is that it's a great big playground out there and there's going to be some people who love the swing set, maybe they love like urban landscapes and they prefer a big city over anything else. And there's going to be other people who maybe love the seesaw and they may like a place where they could have completely different temperatures between day time and night time, like you would find in the desert, and that's what's exceptional about it. But what I want to know too is if you could in your, could you figure out, like, what's your next place Is? I mean, I know you're going to go back to Antarctica, but is there something else that's calling to you?
Speaker 1:Yes, there is. We are trying to get down to Nicaragua this year, so I'm just waiting to find out if and when, when, when I'm going to Antarctica, and get those dates aligned so that season will finish sometime in March and then I should be going up to Alaska this upcoming summer and that could start as early as middle of April. So we're trying to figure out when we're going to go, but the plan is a surf trip down to Nicaragua.
Speaker 2:Ok, so you definitely are well traveled. What would be something that you would suggest for people who are looking into there maybe not going to be digital nomads, but maybe they are looking at an extended trip and they need to figure out how to kind of have a connection to home or work or to stay looped in or maybe to even feel like they're able to navigate the areas more? Do you have some favorite apps or technology that you utilize to help you with these trips?
Speaker 1:I think Pinterest is a great resource. I planned out most of our trip down to Baja using Pinterest, like searching national parks of Pacific Northwest or what to do in Baja. There's so many great resources. I would say definitely Pinterest. And then in my younger years I would just use like a flight search engine, like a hopper or something like that.
Speaker 1:But now that I'm a bit older and flights are weird and, like COVID, kind of messed everything up, I don't really trust booking from third parties as much because it makes it a lot harder if things fall through. So now I'm just using Google flights and doing a search from there and then probably just booking directly from the airline. But definitely Pinterest, for sure. And then, if you are doing a road trip, ioverlander is incredible. That's how we found all of our camping spots from Canada down to Baja. Everything's marked on there so you can find free camping, you can find paid camping places to develop your water, propane, gas, all these different things like that. So, depending on what kind of trip you're doing, there's some really cool resources out there.
Speaker 2:So I know that you're very passionate about, as you mentioned, like human design and manifesting and wellness and all of those things to kind of intersect. For you, do you also love providing clearly you're an inspiration when it comes to traveling and world viewpoints. Do you love helping navigate through your podcast for people? The practicalities, because, like I would have never in a busy linear thought of Pinterest as helping me to plan a trip, ever it just doesn't come to mind. I think of it immediately if I want to look up a recipe, but not that kind of a tip. So is it something that you help provide for folks or do you like more so, the opportunity to inspire people to find their own compass of how they like to pursue their adventures?
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, this is a really good episode. Idea for me is to talk about that, so thank you. Previous episodes have been more about inspiring people to get out and do that unconventional thing, so, whatever it is whether it's starting a business, going traveling, starting running, like things where you haven't really done it before, and it's something that maybe you're a little bit scared to do. So that's been more of what the podcast is about for now, but I would definitely like to do an episode on like trip planning, and I have had a couple of guests on before who have talked about their travels and how they like to plan and their different things like that. So a few things to check out.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, let's definitely talk about where folks can stay connected to you to hear all of this incredible advice that you have, inspiration that you have, and I love and, shannon, I have to call this out that what I'm hearing for you is that if you have that little inner voice that's whispering you, that you're kind of on the precipice of something and it sounds like your podcast is going to help inspire people to take that giant leap and know that, intuitively, it's going to work out. I mean, that'd be like what they thought it was going to be, but it will work out. So I love that inspiration. So where are we finding you at? How are we staying in connection with Shannon?
Speaker 1:My podcast is called Wandering Her. It's on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts, and then you can find me on social media at Wandering Her as well Sounds like we're also going to need to follow you on Pinterest, because that's going to help us plan our future trips.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you probably should come check me out on Pinterest too. You can plan your whole trip from Canada to Baja usually that way. Just follow my board. Yeah, I see some of you are going to be on Pinterest.
Speaker 2:Seems like it's a perfect way of doing it. Before I let you go because this is brunch and I so appreciate you sharing the brunch table with me I'd love to know if you could transport yourself anywhere to have one of your best possible brunches that you've experienced. Where would it be?
Speaker 1:Ooh, somewhere where there's like really delicious tropical fruit, like an abundance of tropical fruit. So wherever that is maybe like I think it's Nicaragua.
Speaker 2:No, no, Costa Rica comes to mind.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Nicaragua I guess I think it's Central America. Some eggs and rice with it too, yeah.
Speaker 2:Ooh, yeah, definitely Costa Rica, for sure is what I'm hearing here. All right, friends, definitely. Please check out Shannon. Her exuberance and her passion for travel is more than inspiring. It absolutely helps to land a what I'm going to call a bit of a compass to where you guys can follow where your heart leads. So thank you so much, shannon, for joining us.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2:I hope that you guys feel exactly how I did, which was a fabulous conversation and a brunch with friends, Of course.
Speaker 2:With this episode, as we wrap it up, we're reminded that life is not just about following a set path, but about creating our own. We've heard from a family turning oceans into classrooms and a solo traveler to finding what it means to live and work, and both stories remind us that pursuing dreams, no matter how unconventional, are within our reach. So, with that said, if you think that you're ready to not just say yes to adventures but start creating them, then we'd love for you to join us in February's Extraordinary League, where we are going to tackle harnessing and unleashing the superhero within with our superhero confidence and strength. We'll have daily mindset exercises, a comprehensive training program and group support to help you navigate your own extraordinary path. For more details on the workbook and the program and how to join, visit the link in our episode notes. Remember, your dash is yours to define, so make it extraordinary. Until next time. Thank you for joining me and I encourage you to seize your day.
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