The Travelers

On this episode, I’m sitting down with a Canadian outdoors adventurer, explorer of remote places, online entrepreneur and consultant, writer and photographer, snowboarding enthusiast, and digital jack of all trades -- whose skills have, I discover, led him to live different lives in multiple places he calls home. Matt Gibson lived and taught english in Taiwan for 6 years, where he learned to speak Mandarin and founded his own travel magazine. His website has been featured on Afar, the Atlantic, TSN and more, and he's interviewed a lot of people on this show to get insights from their experiences in travel. Today we explore the unique path he's taken by pursuing a love of travel that's guided his decisions and professional skills. Matt demonstrates how it's okay to not go after that one thing, and instead explore a world and the many opportunities for experience - in work and life - that are out there to be found along the way. What we cover: How Matt found an opportunity to teach English in Taiwan. Why teac

How do you feel when I say, “Staying in your current job?” How do you feel when I say, “Taking a new job?” How do you feel when I say, “Starting your own business?” This last option was the one that this episode's guest knew she had to pursue, and one she eventually discovered she could do from a life of full-time travel. She also knew that she needed to see the world. Gigi Griffis has been to over 30 countries across 6 continents and living and working on the road for the past 2 years, running her business from inspiring locations with her dog, Luna. Without letting the belief that you need to be rich or famous, she gave herself permission to live her dreams. Traveling. Writing. Running a business and challenging herself regularly. What we cover: How Gigi got started as a writer by sneaking her way into the role through her job at the time. How she came to the realize was able to step out to try full time travel and supported herself. Where Gigi found her first clients by asking friends and attending conf

"I don't buy a lot of things. I buy pins on the map." Mandy France is the founder and contributing editor of The Responsible Traveler. She is a freelance travel writer and editor, a published children’s author and an illustrator. She is an ethical adventurer at heart. From trekking the Inca Trail in Peru to climbing the highest mountain in Africa, she’s made adventure a priority in life. She’s also a vegan which gives her further insight into what ethical travel is and how to be compassionate in the things you do abroad. In this episode we get into how the passing of her mother sparked a curiosity and burning desire to stop playing life safely and instead experience as much as the world has to offer. We also explore specifically how Mandy now lives her lives and the takeaways you can apply to make the decision to travel more. What we cover: How the passing of her mother sparked Mandy's decision to leave a career at Disney to see the world, something she previously wasn't curious to do. Her first trip, a 4-d

Anne Lowrey is a small town girl who discovered the rest of the world. Those are her words — and she’s been to nearly 40 countries while still holding a full time job. She’s done this by prioritizing travel in her life, which is what I want this show to encourage you to do — at the very least. She’s a writer, editor, and content creator for hire - as well as a lover of good food, books and good hearts — spoken like a true explorer. You can find her work on her website, Part Time Traveler, where she champions the idea that “You don’t have to give up the life you’re already living to see the world.” Let’s find out how. Anne was recently named one of the Top 15 Travel Instagram accounts to follow by Buzzfeed. Check her out! What we cover: How Anne got started traveling How travel can help you step outside your comfort zone to grow as a confident person. What is a part time traveler? The things you can do to hold on to that traveler self of yours when you’re back home. Anne's best travel advice Explore furt

Saving money is tricky. There are people listening who want to know how to save more at home, spend less on the road, or save more on the road so they can perpetuate their travels. So often, we ask travelers about travel saving strategies — and while I think the more well-traveled are particularly good at saving money on the road, saving money at home is equally - if not more important. And when I want to know more about money, then I want to spend time talking to the people who spend all of their time thinking about money, and not travel. Today I get to sit down with two financially-minded gentlemen — Andrew Fiebert and Matt Giovanisci from the award winning, fun, at times hilarious blog and daily podcast, Listen Money Matters, to have a casual, upbeat conversation about money saving strategies. What We Cover: Craft beer, and products, as a great way to explore a particular location. 3 tools to create automated systems to save money for (and on!) your travels. A system for saving money if you don't have s

Rebecca Burg is the author of the book Sail With Me, which chronicles her experienced as a home-owning, career-focused lady who gave up the security for an uncommon lifestyle — living aboard a small boat, earning a living with low-paying odd jobs instead of that steady career she once had. She wrote this book on her solar powered laptop while anchored at sea. I’m excited to get into what inspired this decision, and her story — as well as where this unconventional life has taken her, and the stories she’s found along the way. Explore further: Rebecca's Youtube Channel RebeccaBurg.com Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by Aaron Static Become a Friend of the Show: Please subscribe and review! It just takes a second and you can help the show increase its rankings on iTunes just by this simple and quick gesture. We’d be grateful for a review. Leave one here. If you do, click here to let me know so I can personally thank you! Your Feedback If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or a question about a

Today's guest is the author of The Footloose American (get it on Amazon), a travelogue following the footsteps of famed-writer Hunter S. Thompson across South America. This was a journey I wasn't aware he'd ever taken that Brian recreated, studied, pulled out the stories from and became an expert on. I'm curious about the trip, how that changed him, and what sorts of stories he found along the way. Brian Kevin has written about travel, adventure, and culture for Travel and Leisure, Outside magazine, Sierra, Men's Journal and currently lives in Maine where he calls in from. In this episode, we dive right into his adventure and how a book comes out of a trip like that, as well as the transformative power travel can have on you, if you let it. And be sure to stay tuned for the lightning round! Explore further: BrianKevin.com The Footloose American website The Footloose American on Amazon Check out a gallery of images from Brian's trip! Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by Aaron Static Become a Friend of the Show:

Kelly Lewis is an avid traveler with a love of writing. She’s also the founder of Go Girl Guides, a series of travel guides written by women specifically for women. And by the way, if you’re a guy, then give it a listen because Kelly’s got travel advice for all of us. I learned a lot about solo female travel through this conversation, a subject that I think is important for everyone to understand how to approach as something more nuanced than just an issue of fear. So, after growing up in Hawaii, Kelly spent time in New Zealand, the South Pacific, and South America — and has since been to 6 of the 7 continents, writing about her travels on her blog, TravelBugJuice.com Kelly and I ran into each other in Mexico and i’m excited to bring to the show what is that she’s doing — which is encouraging and empowering women to experience the whole wide world. What We Cover: Why Kelly chose Thailand as her first independent destination. How the idea for the guides actually came to Kelly in a dream. Her most challengin

On this episode, Robert Holmes shares his stories from his career as a travel photographer, covering an expedition to Mount Everest and meeting Ansel Adams, and more. Robert Holmes career as one of the world’s most successful and prolific travel photographers has extended over 35 years.  He was the first photographer to be twice honored by the Society of American Travel Writers with their Travel Photographer of the Year Award and he is the only photographer to be given the award 4 times, most recently for 2015. He has worked for National Geographic, Geo, Saveur, Wine Spectator, Life, Time and hundreds of other major magazines and international companies.  His stock catalog of over half-a-million images is represented for licensing by National Geographic Image Collection, Corbis and Getty. His assignments have taken him from coverage of the 1975 British Everest Expedition for the London Daily Mail and Paris Match to searching for snow leopards in the remote valleys of western Nepal for National Geographic Maga

Mickela Mallozzi is a dance instructor turned television host of the travel show called Bare Feet, which has aired on Travel and Escape and NYC Life, a PBS affiliate in New York. Starting in the Fall of 2015, Bare Feet will be nationally distributed on PBS in the US and Canada. Each episode, she travels to a new place and embeds herself into the people there through the traditions of dance. Occasionally, I speak with painters and photographers on this show, but I’ve never discussed dance — which, like food, is easily one of the most elemental and original expressions running through the blood of any culture. Through the lens of both the camera and dance, Mickela has explored Buenos Aires, Uzbekistan, Puerto Rico, Curacao, Italy, Germany, Ireland, all 50 states, and her home, New York City - and more places. She’s also the organizer of the Women’s Travel Fest, which is held annually around the end of February, this year in San Francisco. Explore further: Barefeet with Mickela Mallozzi Watch Barefeet on Youtu

“Instead of wondering when your next vacation is, maybe you ought to set up a life you don’t need to escape from.” Today we’re talking to Shivya Nath, who at the age of 23 quit her job in the tourism industry to build for herself a life of travel as a social media consultant and entrepreneur. She’s a travel blogger at The Shooting Star, as well as the co-founder of India Untraveled, a company on a quest to help travelers gain greater visibility and exposure to the lesser known parts of India, and encouraging others to make travel not just a break from life, but life itself. At the heart of things, Shivya’s just a girl who loves to travel and I’m excited to let her take us through her life and explore India. Explore further: @shivya on Twitter The Shooting Star, Shivya's travel blog India Untraveled Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by Aaron Static Become a Friend of the Show: Please subscribe and review! It just takes a second and you can help the show increase its rankings on iTunes just by this simple and

Today's guest got started traveling around the US as a young kid - visiting all the National Parks in a Volkswagen Van, right out of a postcard. Jesse Krieger has spent living as a musician in Vienna, touring Europe from there, and musicianship -= along with a strong desire to maintain a life of travel - led him to entrepreneurship, And that is as far as my intro can go because his story winds down a twisting path of careers, from the unexpected to the bizarre. However, Jesse helps others build careers that support the lifestyle they envision for themselves - which includes a life of travel. What we cover: How Jesse found himself on the road, alone, by choosing to stay on the road at the end of a trip with his friends. After dreaming of seeing it for his life, what it felt like for Jesse to see his name in lights at one of the biggest rock clubs in Los Angeles. How Jesse got fascinated by business and entrepreneurship through managing his passion for being in a rock band. How Jesse recommends you can star

Matthew Karsten has been an Expert Vagabond for the past four years, and if you want to know what that means, then you’re in the right place because we are going to get to that. Matthew champions the belief that travel doesn’t have to be expensive, getting out of your comfort zone is healthy, and the world is a safe place — and so adventure is both attainable and good for you, no matter how old you are. In 2010, despite the bewilderment of his family, Matthew quit his job, sold it all and bought a ticket to Guatemala where he found clarity in his life, in following his dreams, for the first time. Today he supports his experiences through travel blogging — and so often I hear it’s not a sustainable model for supporting your travels, and I’m curious to hear how Matthew does it and where it’s taken him, including skydiving in Fiji, camping on an erupting volcano, hitchhiking across the States, shark diving without a cage, and seducing an ostrich, in his new life of travel. What we cover: How hard it was for Mat

Juno Kim is the founder or Runaway Media, a career breaker, having escaped the confines of her cubicle and embracing the realistic life of full time travel. She covers her work at her blog, Runaway Juno, where she writes on her experiences and why she did what she did. She and I both believe in travel as a healing method of sorts — travel as therapy, even if you don’t believe you need it. It simply is, to us, "the best tool to make life better" — and those are her words. On this episode we get into her life, what she's up to, and the things she's doing to empower Asian women to see the complexities of the world. What we cover: How Juno discovered a love for travel and found her path as a travel blogger Juno's transformative experience with a person she met and the ways in which that person helped her experience the world, in New Zealand speaking Her career break experience road-tripping in the United States. How she's making a new career from her travels. The ways in which she's empowering Asian women to

JR Johnson is the CEO and founder of Trippy, a really fantastic Q&A website for anyone who has travel questions and wants answers from real people, or feels compelled to share their own travel stories and information. Formerly, JR founded Virtual Tourist, which became one of the largest travel communities in the world — and he's also started other companies which have since been acquired by Expedia. Having grown up in Southern California, I’m curious where in his life and why travel has played such a prominent role for JR and how it has led him to launch my favorite of his endeavors to date Trippy. What we cover: How JR got into the travel game with Virtual Tourists in 1999 through a burning desire to create great content about travel. How listening to the advice of a stranger led JR to uncover a simple, life-changing travel experience that would go on to inspire the course of his career in tech. JR’s fondest travel memory (Read it on Trippy) that he never experienced had he not ventured into the unkno

In yesterday's session, Everything Everywhere's Gary Arndt shared with us how he went from software entrepreneur to world traveler, earning six-figures from his blog and traveling to over 160 countries in 7 years. If you want to create for yourself a life of travel, there are few people more accomplished than Gary in travel blogging entrepreneurship. Have a listen to part 1, if you haven't already or sit back and enjoy part 2 of my conversation with Gary Arndt. Today’s guest is known as one of the most prolific and trafficked travel bloggers in the world. Gary Arndt has been traveling around the world nonstop since 2007, across all 7 continents and over 160 different countries and territories, and writing and photographing his experiences on one of the biggest travel blogs out there, Everything Everywhere. He also podcasts at This Week in Travel with our mutual friend and podcasting legend, Chris Christensen. Because Gary got started at the right time, lived his message of travel, and delivered quality conten

Today’s guest is known as one of the most prolific and trafficked travel bloggers in the world. Gary Arndt has been traveling around the world nonstop since 2007, across all 7 continents and over 160 different countries and territories, and writing and photographing his experiences on one of the biggest travel blogs out there, Everything Everywhere. He also podcasts at This Week in Travel with our mutual friend and podcasting legend, Chris Christensen. Because Gary got started at the right time, lived his message of travel, and delivered quality content across the board, he's become one of a few bloggers who makes six figures from his travel blog, which alone seems to captivate a lot of people, particularly those attempting to follow in his footsteps. As a result, I’ve had the pleasure of running into Gary a couple times and always enjoy my interactions with a person so widely knowledgeable about the world and travel industry. But I’m excited today to get to know Gary the person, where he’s from, and where he

Get $25 off your next Airbnb rental! This is part 2 of my conversation with Jasper Ribbers. Listen to part 1. If you’re interested in knowing everything there is to know about Airbnb, then today’s episode is for you. Today’s guest is the co-author of the book Get Paid for Your Pad, easily the most comprehensive resource I’ve seen on the subject of maximizing your profit from your Airbnb listing. He also runs the brand new podcast by the same name, Get Paid for Pad, which anyone interested in earning form Airbnb should check out. Jasper Ribbers has a place in Amsterdam that he rents to fund his life of travel. And as a result, he’s able to go where he wants, when he wants - while automating the process of renting his place back home. On this episode, we explore the realities of his lifestyle and business and how he’s able to get it going while also diving deep into Airbnb, what it is, how to use it and get the most from an amazing platform. What We Covere How Jasper automates his rental The best things you c

Get $25 off your next Airbnb rental! If you’re interested in knowing everything there is to know about Airbnb, then today’s episode is for you. Today’s guest is the co-author of the book Get Paid for Your Pad, easily the most comprehensive resource I’ve seen on the subject of maximizing your profit from your Airbnb listing. He also runs the brand new podcast by the same name, Get Paid for Pad, which anyone interested in earning form Airbnb should check out. Jasper Ribbers has a place in Amsterdam that he rents to fund his life of travel. And as a result, he’s able to go where he wants, when he wants - while automating the process of renting his place back home. On this episode, we explore the realities of his lifestyle and business and how he’s able to get it going while also diving deep into Airbnb, what it is, how to use it and get the most from an amazing platform. What We Cover Why Jasper left his job for a life of travel, looking for more fulfillment than salary afforded him. An experience Jasper had f

Today's guest is an Indian-born writer, photographer and media professional having worked at one of India's most read newspapers. Her work has been published by dozens of media outlets. In 2007, Lakshmi Sharath left her 15-year career to take a creative sabbatical to travel the world. Since then she's been to 25 countries across 5 continents and continues covering her journeys in her work, which is published internationally. I'm excited to get Lakshmi on the show to discuss why she travels and her perspective on her home country of India. Explore further: LakshmiSharath.com @lakshmisharath on Twitter Music credit: Intrepid Journey, by Aaron Static Become a Friend of the Show: Please subscribe and review! It just takes a second and you can help the show increase its rankings on iTunes just by this simple and quick gesture. We’d be grateful for a review. Leave one here. If you do, click here to let me know so I can personally thank you! Your Feedback If you have an idea for a podcast you would like to see or