I
grew up as an only child with a single mom on a struggling middle class
income. We never had excess funds for things like vacations or traveling
although traveling wasn't something that I thought about doing because I hadn't
been many places outside of my own bubble. I was never one who could pin
point the exact career that I wanted, ever. It wasn't until I was in an
international tourism course in my 3rd year of university that I got the urge
to travel. I remember the very first day of class where everyone took
turns around the class introducing themselves and the countries that they had
been to. I was just in awe. There were a few foreign exchange
students who had been to 10, 15, 20 countries. There was my professor who
had been to like 35 himself. I sat there with my measly 3 countries
(mexico and canada which i was too little to really remember and a family
holiday to an all-inclusive in dominican republic) and a few U.S states.
It was in that course that I told myself that I was going to travel the
world. There was one problem though. I had NO CLUE how I was going to do
that. I had no money. I had a $1000 a month rent living in the expensive city
of Chicago. My mom had no extra money to give me. Regardless, I knew i'd find a
way. In the 2 remaining years of university, I hustled my butt off and worked
as many jobs as I could (at one point I had 5!) plus being in school. I
then got into working in high end restaurants in chicago which allowed me to
quite my other random jobs and I worked worked worked. I also saved saved
saved! I quickly mastered how to minimize my expenses, live on a budget,
make money in the randomest ways (I even found furniture in dumpsters and
refurbished them and sold them online and i also sold the majority of my clothes)
I graduated from university in 2010 and i finished working the rest of the last
summer and i moved my belonging from my apartment to my moms place (so i didn't
have rent to pay), i packed my bags and went on my very first backpacking trip
which was to western Europe (the usual first trip!). I was hooked. I have been
traveling the world for various lengths of time and working any odd jobs or
restaurant jobs that would replenish some of my bank account. I never
allowed myself to go broke (many assume this though). I wouldn't and
couldn't allow that to happen, especially because my mom was going through a
lot of financial problems and needed my help (big time!). Despite the financial
burden that i have on my shoulders by my mom, i didn't want to give up traveling.
It's what i loved. it's what i knew best. So i found a way to keep living
my dream lifestyle and having a financial safety cushion. Resulting in my
mastering money management.
Although
I STILL do not know what career i wanted, what i was meant to do for the rest
of my life, I kept telling myself that it was ok. I was young still and
had "time" to figure it out. I never let society or family
pressure, of when i was going to get a "real job" or "settle
down" or have a "normal" lifestyle, get to me. I just kept
following my heart and my passion. I knew that in time, the perfect
opportunity would come along or come to mind. I allowed time to provide
me with a safety cushion for figuring it out and i allowed and used traveling
to help me. I faced so many struggles as a traveler, especially because i
started backpacking years before the technology and tools that are available
today. My very first trip i didn't even have a clock because my flip
phone didnt turn on. I l learned a lot about visas, visa on arrivals,
passports, entrance and exit fees, and much more, the hard way because i never
liked overplanning for my trip. I once almost got deported going from
Qatar to Turkey because my passport was full and i didnt realize that Turkey
required a visa on arrival sticker put on an empty page once i got there.
Luckily, i had just one empty page left! haha. You can bet that i never made
that mistake again! I realized how difficult it was to get all of the super and
helpful info that i needed rather than the pretty and fun list of things to do
and see when traveling. So, i started keeping a small notebook and
documented every important fact and info that i came across as i traveled and i
slowly transformed my blog from an online journal to a info packed portal of
necessary travel info. I created what i wish i had beforehand!
Traveling
is the number one reason for who I am and where I am in my life.
Traveling taught me so much about myself, my life, what kind of life i want to
have, the type of relationship that i want, where i want to live, what kind of
person i wanted to be, what i cared about most, what i didn't care about at
all, what i was passionate for, what skills i had, what i was good at, what i
was not very good at, have triggered my anxiety (i've struggled with an anxiety
disorder and depression for a while now), it strengthened me, it challenged me,
it made me independent, self-sufficient, compassionate, caring, understanding,
accepting, and so much more. But, one thing remained missing. I still did
not know what career i wanted. Although i was unsure, i was sure about
what I did NOT want in a career. I did not want to work the regular
unfulfilling 9-5 job, the corporate world did not resonate with my values or
interests, i didn't want to hate having to go to work, and more. I also knew
what i DID want too. I did want to have financial, time, and spiritual
freedom, i wanted to do what made me happy and didn't feel like a
"job", i wanted to be able to work from anywhere that i wanted and to
create my own schedule. A part of me always knew that i wanted to start
my own business but i never knew what, when, or how. I felt so successful at
figuring out how to travel to 76 countries (was 75 until today when i arrived
in my 76th country of Argentina!) by the age of 30, all on my own funds,
without ever going broke. Plus, i even took my mom on several trips to
countries like Thailand, New Zealand, the UAE, Indonesia, Taiwan, and many
more. But, as the age of 30 crept closer, i had an internal pressure
coming along on what path i wanted my life to go down. When am i going to
meet someone and have a family? buy a house? have a real career???
It
was after a 5 month trip that i returned home from last June that i finally did
it. I took the leap (and the time commitment) to figure out what type of
business i wanted. I had spent quite a few months leading up to June doing
research on everything about the travel industry, see what motivated me, learn
what was needed and desired in the travel world, and most importantly, asked
myself what I really wanted. I wanted to be able to use all of my travel
knowledge, experience, expertise, and skills to help others achieve their
travel goals (i had been helping people for free for so many years because i
loved it and i wrote a blog that helped people too but never wanted to make
money from it). So i decided to become a travel coach. As i was
doing more research, i soon realized that there were no travel coaches that i
could reach out to and learn from (unlike the online business, life, and health
coaching industry). Therefore, the natural problem solver in me decided
to dive deep into learning everything that i needed to know, use, and do to
become a travel coach and to start my own online coaching business. Just
like before i traveled, i again had no clue what to do or how to do it. But, i
worked my butt off and made it happen. Now, i am a business owner and the
founder of The Travel Coach Network. I wanted to create a place where
people can learn everything that they need to know to become a travel coach and
be their own boss or to simply learn how to incorporate more travel into their
lives. I've created exactly what i wish that i had or had known about
years and years ago when i was just a confused backpacker! I I not only help
people achieve their travel goals (through things like confidence building,
overcoming fears and anxieties, budgeting, money management, figuring out where
to go and when, and how to use travel to transform their life like it had done
for me) but, I also help travel-lovers and wanderlusters who are in the same
exact spot that i was of loving to travel and not knowing what kind of career
they wanted or could have. So, i help people turn their passion for
travel, their travel skills and knowledge, their experiences and expertise,
into their own online coaching business so they too can have the desired
lifestyle that i have created for myself.
I
have had a few ah-ha moments in my life where i told myself that despite not
knowing how i was going to make something happen, I knew I'd figure out a way
because it's what i wanted in life. There were also many times in my life
where i didn't let any excuses told me back or prevent me from achieving my
goals. So many people use any and every excuse that they can to push
something off, to not do have the life that they truly want, or they choose to
just settle for something isn't 100% fulfilling to them.
The
lessons that I tell people are to always follow their heart, listen to their
gut, try new things, keep on exploring not only the world but everything about
life, learn as much as you can about everything and anything, don't settle for
something that you just don't feel is right for you, live to your highest
potential, go outside of your comfort level and challenge yourself, if you
can't find the solution to something then create it yourself, don't let
society, friends, family, social media or anyone else tell you who you are or
how to live your life, don't be afraid of not knowing, don't be afraid to fail
(because you will over and over again), apply purpose and meaning to every
single thing that happens in your life (it helps you get through a heck of a
lot much easier), it's okay to not always be or feel okay, just keep on going,
do what you feel like doing every day (even if that's turning your phone off
and having a lazy day on the couch and not doing anything else all day), and
always always be a good person and do the right thing (i like to think that any
good that i have done in my lifetime is the reason that i had so many
"travel angels" ,as i like to call them, help me at some point during
my travels, sometimes when i was in dire need of help or lost. It will
always come back to you!)
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