Zero To Travel Podcast

Erin Carey 0:00
We had a big mortgage, we didn't have any savings, we were not in a position to buy a yacht and take time off work and sail around part of the world. But we knew that we were going to make it happen.

Jason Moore 0:12
That was a clip from today's guest, Erin Carey, she is a public relations expert, she is here to share with you how you on your own can get featured in those big publications, websites, major media, you know, at some point, like everybody has something they want to promote. And it's good to know how you can do PR for yourself, if you want to be able to do that for your company, or for something that you're starting, you'll hear who should invest their time and getting PR in the first place some resources that I'm sure you've never heard about before, and much more. But that's just part of this conversation. We also get into Erin story and how she was able to kickstart a whole new life built around travel, specifically living on a boat with her whole family and traveling the world. And sometimes these types of changes happen over a period of time they're discussed, they're kind of figured out other times, they can really be decided in a moment. And she shares that moment. It happened for her. In this conversation. She also talks about the thing that really pushed her over the edge and caused her to break the golden handcuffs forever. And we discussed the challenges of being on the road as well. It's one thing I love about these in depth conversations is getting into the tough stuff about living on a boat, living around the world, and having that nomadic lifestyle. So plenty going on in this conversation for everybody. I know you're gonna love it. Plus, I want to give a shout out to somebody in the community that brought some tears to my eyes right before this recording. You'll hear all about that. And I'm going to share my number one takeaway from this conversation, something I was reminded about. That really is my favorite part or one of my favorite parts of being a business owner. And having that lifestyle business mentality. So all of that and much more happening right now. Buckle up strap in. Thanks for being here and welcome to the zero to travel podcast, my friend. You're listening

ad 2:27
to the zero to travel Podcast where we explore exciting travel based work, lifestyle and business opportunities helping you to achieve your wildest travel dreams. Now your host World wonder and travel junkie, Jason Moore.

Jason Moore 2:44
Hey, what's up? It's Jason with zero to travel.com Welcome to the show. Thanks for hanging out letting me bring a little travel into your ears today. This is the show to help you travel the world on your terms to fill your life with as much travel as you desire. No matter what your situation or experience. Welcome, welcome. Welcome. If you wonder why I'm so hyped all the time when I'm recording these intros. It's because I'm at least 45 cups of coffee into the day. All right, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it's the afternoon here and believe it or not, this ice and the snow is starting to melt. Here in Norway. It's actually starting to melt. I've been precariously balancing on ice for months, constantly, almost falling. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to the spring. How are you hope you're doing? Well, wherever you're listening to this, we got a great show for you today. As you heard at the top, we're diving into some DIY PR expert tips and being able to get coverage in major media is a valuable tool for everybody to understand to be aware of. Because even if you don't have anything to promote right now you never know where life will lead maybe you'll have a cause you believe in you want to get out there to the world. Maybe it'd be your own business, maybe you'll have a Kickstarter or crowdfunding project at some point. Who knows. I mean, part of the thing I like to do at this show is to bring a lot of different perspectives on the long term and nomadic travel lifestyle, but also mixing some of those practical skills and things that can help you in other aspects of your life. And it's a wonderful mix that we have for you today of exactly that. I know you're gonna love it. And be sure to stick around on the back end I want to share a shout out somebody in this community who really inspired me by a message sexually an audio message I'm going to share with you that I received and a little something that this interview reminded me of something I love about lifestyle business so stick around for that. Before we dive in I do you want to thank our sponsor betterhelp.com for supporting today's show, it's better help. H elp.com. They make professional therapy accessible, affordable and convenient. So if any Buddy out there struggling with life's challenges need help, you can get it anytime, anywhere, which is perfect for travelers. And now if you go to better health.com/zero To travel, you'll get 10% off your first month when you sign up BetterHelp will assess your needs match you with your own licensed professional therapist, you can connect in a safe and private online environment. So it's super convenient, and start communicating in under 48 hours, convenient, professional, affordable. When I signed up and went through the onboarding, it really couldn't have been easier. And you know, us travelers we like to move around. So we want to be able to have somebody to talk to from anywhere in the world. This way you can have that consistency, and still have the freedom to travel. So if you want that discount better help hvlp.com/zero to travel again 10% off your first month. Thank you to better help for supporting today's show. Now what if I told you that you could get cashback just for being yourself? The US Bank cash plus Visa Signature card lets you customize your rewards to maximize your cash back receive up to 5% cashback on the to reward categories that best fit your lifestyle, and adjust your cashback selections each quarter as your spending changes. Learn more at us bank.com/cash+whether You're a movie buff or a gym rat a foodie or a techie, a homebody or a jet setter. You can earn 5% cashback doing the things you love. Just be yourself and get rewarded. Plus you'll get 2% cashback on one everyday category like gas stations, Evie charging stations, groceries or restaurants Apply now at us bank.com/cash+and discover how you can get a $200 Cash Back bonus. The creditor and issuer of this card is a US Bank National Association pursuant to a license from visa USA Inc. Some restrictions may apply. Now, let's slip and slide into this wonderful conversation and I will see you on the other side my friend

let's all take a deep breath. The trials and tribulations of being a digital nomad

Erin Carey 7:28
right. It's not like you can just rush out to the Apple store and

Jason Moore 7:33
you can't rush off the sailboat in Sicily and run to the Apple Store. No, Aaron. Well, I'm excited to talk to you about what you're doing on a boat and Nomad life. And of course, get your expert advice on how to get media coverage. And that's something you know kind of help everybody. So if you are somebody who has ever wanted to get featured on a major TV programs or in big magazines, newspapers or on highly traffic websites, listen up. Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur at some point, you might want to get media coverage to promote something, perhaps a new product, business charity blog, podcast, YouTube channel or something else. How do you convince those big media outlets to publish something about you or your company? And is it even worth the time and effort? Well, today, I have an expert here to help you do just that. Aaron Carey is the founder of Rome generation. It's a PR agency focused on helping Travel Leisure and luxury brands, experts and destinations share their unique and inspiring story with the world. She has helped clients get featured in Forbes, BBC News and CNN travel among other major publications. You can learn more at roam generation.com And we'll link to that in the show notes. We're going to get her advice on how to conduct your own PR to get media buzz discover why she left the rat race to live on this sailboat that she's on now, as we're recording this and much more. So Erin, welcome to the zero to travel podcast, my friend.

Erin Carey 9:03
Hi, hello. Hey, this has been a long time in the legs. So thank you so much for having me.

Jason Moore 9:09
It has indeed Yeah, and when we got on the call on when we're on videos, we're recording this but I wasn't sure what was going on in your life. Like if you were actually living on the boat what you were doing, but then clearly it looks like a boat environment. And then I heard one of my favorite noises because I'm an audio nerd. I do a podcast so that's expected the creaking sounds of the ropes. That sound you hear in the docks with the ropes, the tension there. Anyway, so if you hear that, in this interview, just enjoy it. Enjoy your you're catching the sailboat vibe. So do you what do you think about that? Is that like a calming sound for you, Aaron?

Erin Carey 9:46
You know, when we were back home in Australia, there was a period that we had to go back home and so my children were having trouble sleeping and I am like what can I do? So I googled, this is actually a thing yacht noises and I played it and they were like, Oh my God, that's so good. Leave it on. Leave your phone in here. We went to sleep to this all night long. And it was just that creaky kind of noises. Yeah, because we're on the dock at the moment in a marina. And it's a really windy day and actually had sent my husband earlier going, please, can you stop that sound? I've got a podcast interview coming up. I did his best, but it's like 40 knots. So he's like, we live on a boat. There's really not much else I can do. So I'm glad that you appreciate it.

Jason Moore 10:31
Oh, yeah. Well, listen, this is a travel podcast. So I think we always appreciate ambient travel themed noises in the background of this show. So the kids relaxed because they have been living on a boat for so long that that's just calming to them. Is that the deal?

Erin Carey 10:45
Yeah, I guess so. They I think it was it was harder to move back than we anticipated. And so they were having kind of bit of troubles getting back in high school and trouble sleeping in a bed that wasn't moving anymore. And also being separated like in their own rooms. Like when you live in a bar. It's small. And we're all together all the time. And we went home to this big house. Well, you know, it was a regular sized house, but it felt enormous. And yeah, they're all like we actually all want to sleep in the one room together. And can you put the boat noises on so yeah.

Jason Moore 11:18
How old are they?

Erin Carey 11:20
They are 1211 and seven now, but when we first set off, they were like three, seven and eight or something. So yeah, young.

Jason Moore 11:30
Yeah, this is crazy. Okay, I don't know anything about how this happened. I do know you grew up in Wagga Wagga. Is that right?

Erin Carey 11:39
Did what? Oh, yeah.

Jason Moore 11:40
I just been wanting to say Wagga Wagga all morning. So I finally got to say it.

Erin Carey 11:44
So nice. They named it twice.

Jason Moore 11:47
Yeah. What's it like growing up in Wagga Wagga, the ninth largest inland city in Australia by the

Erin Carey 11:52
UK, you know more facts about it than I do? Look at it was great. It was fine. It was an inland town. We never saw the ocean. Besides the one holiday that we would go in every year with my family. We'd go to like a caravan park or camp in a tent and we drive the five, six hours and it was always dad would announce Okay, we're gonna come over the hill and we'll be able to see the ocean in 10 seconds we'd all kind of count down and it was a big deal to see the ocean coming from an inland town. So it's rather ironic now that I live on a boat. It's also ironic because I grew up sailing with my dad in dinghies on an inland lake. Because Wagga Wagga doesn't have the ocean. But we have a lake but it's not like a lake that you might imagine would be in Canada or you know, the Rocky Mountains or something. It's, it's brown. And it's probably about as big as a football field. And yeah, we just sail around in little boats and dad would drag me along because he used to teach kids how to sail these boats. And I had no desire to be there whatsoever. I wanted to be at the mall with my girlfriends, I was super embarrassed to be dragged along to this sailing school. But you know, mum needed a break every now and then. So dad would take a kid each weekend. And you know, every third weekend, it would be my go. And so that's why it's quite ironic that I now live on a boat and MSA left because I and never ever would have predicted that.

Jason Moore 13:22
That's really interesting because that being a part of your childhood was unexpected to me because you didn't live near the ocean, like you said there. But I saw the inland lake when I was looking at the map and the area around Wagga, Wagga Wagga Wagga again, it's funny because sometimes I've noticed some patterns here amongst interviews where there are things that happen in people's childhood that kind of manifest themselves later on through their travels. Even though at that time, you didn't necessarily enjoy the experience on some level. Did you feel like it was a positive experience from your childhood? And that was maybe part of the reason that carried you into the sailing life? Or am I just getting to armchair psychologist here?

Erin Carey 14:07
No, not at all. You know, I've never actually thought about it that way. And I'm a big believer in manifestation and on some level, I think I enjoy the you know, the adventure and every now and then, like dad upgraded his boat slightly became like a 16 foot boats out just for reference. Our boat is 47 foot. We've never had a yacht anywhere like this, but the biggest he got I think was around 16 foot, which had a little cabin which would allow all five of us to kind of squeeze into and sit out, you know, a couple could be down below a couple could be up sailing. And so dad would tow that away on the back of the car to the ocean and every now and then we'd go for a little holiday sailing around on the ocean and I loved that I loved being towed behind the boat on a rope. So and sometimes we take it to a dam. So you know what? I shouldn't say that I didn't like it because I did enjoy those parts. But I think I kind of forgot a lot of those. And I just remember, the main thing I remember is to being taken to the sailing lessons and all the cool kids were in this speedboats and here I was with, you know, the hat with a flap at the back and the Zinc plastered on my face, and it was mortified. All the cool kids were zooming past and here I am stuck in this little dinghy. And I got given the name sailor girl, which was set up. So yeah, that was my nickname at school say Lego. Like you know, that's meant to be really mean. As a 1012. And yeah, exactly that was saying it to be mean. But I mean, it's ridiculous now because it's barely it's not even a mean word. Like I'm on my phone with it. Call me say like, go look at me now. You know, I live on a yacht. What are you doing with Kayla? Yeah,

Jason Moore 15:55
look at you guys. cubicles. Aerogel Yeah, well, good sailor girl. Now here we go. For you, that's, that's awesome. I can understand that. I mean, as a teenager, of course, you know, a lot of that stuff is heightened to around. You know what people are thinking about you and you know, the situation you're in and how embarrassing it can feel. And you're out there with your mind making imagine all of that. So that's really interesting that you came from that background. And you are where you are today, I want to figure out how that happens, really, because I was on your LinkedIn, and you worked for 18 years and two months as a senior security analyst for the Department of Defense now. I'm guessing there's a lot you can't talk about

Erin Carey 16:47
this position. I have to kill you. You know how it works. But yeah,

Jason Moore 16:54
I don't want to die today. So but yes, I mean, what I expected, you know, the see a whole slew of just PR work and different things. How did you? First of all, what was that like working at the Department of Defense? So what can you talk openly about?

Erin Carey 17:12
Yeah, I can absolutely. You know what it, that job set me up for what I'm doing. Now, without me knowing it, I interviewed people. So I would do several interviews a week, where I'd be on your side, and I would interview people all about their life and their background. And I got really good at cutting to the chase, getting out the juicy bits, knowing what was important knowing what wasn't taking those nuggets of gold, and then writing up reports getting to the point of the report and coming to a decision. So I was assessing them whether or not they could get their security clearance to have access to government information. So it was a communications role of sorts, because I was interviewing, I was writing reports, I was you know, making decisions, all that kind of thing. It was interesting, I learned a lot about people a lot about how normal most people's lives are, but also how unique some people's lives can be. Nothing shocks me anymore. I'm also incredibly noisy. And that was probably partly my personality to start with. But now I'm just, you know, I'm that person that asks the slightly inappropriate questions sometimes, or I get too familiar with people quite quickly, which I think is a skill in itself. But I'm not afraid to go there. I'm not afraid to go there. And sometimes my husband's like, sorry, guys go to apologize, Erin used to work in the you know, this is what she used to do. And like most people think it's funny and love it. But, you know, I used to have to ask about people's sex life, you know, and not blush or be shocked by the answer. So it's interesting. So that's how I it was a great job. It was a safe job. It was all of the things that you would want in the rat race of your job. You know what I mean? Like we had good benefits I got three lots of maternity leave, we got pay raises regularly, I worked my way up the ladder and you know, got promotions after promotions, and I never left because it was safe and golden handcuffs. Exactly. And every now and then I thought about it. And something would happen to keep me back you know to keep me there and then every now now and I broached with my parents are how you don't want to lose that job. It's such a good job. And yeah, it was it was I don't regret it. I do wish that I left earlier. I wish I had have had the courage to do something earlier. But you know, I'm here now. So it is what it is.

Jason Moore 19:45
Yeah, boy, I'm glad you're not interviewing me right now. We'll talk about all those questions you have as well. I think this brings up an important point for people listening and no matter where you're at in your Your life journey. Never discount the experiences you're getting at a current job or in your life at this time, like, even if it seems nominal, or it doesn't seem like it's going to contribute to your future, or some way, I'm always fascinated by these conversations because it, it tends to be untrue. It's, it's a myth, right? Like, somebody might be working in a restaurant job or something and be like, you know, I'm never gonna get out here. This is not doing anything for me for my life or whatever. But, you know, I think back to even being a short order cook in high school. And that taught me multitasking in a very visceral way. You know, when you get like, 10 tickets that you have to cook people's breakfast, you're like, bam, your brain just starts working in a certain way. So I mean, I think there are there, every experience is valuable, and you never know how it's going to play into your life later on. So enjoy it while you're there and make the most of it, I guess. You said you kept. You kept putting off leaving, because of all the reasons you mentioned. Yet. At a certain point, you did leave. So what was that process? Like for you? How long? It sounds like you might have been thinking about it for a while planning, plotting and scheming. But there's a lot of soul searching in the decision like that. Right? Because a big life change. So what did the soul searching portion of that look like for you?

Erin Carey 21:27
Well, you know what, it played out a little bit differently to that. So we were what I like to say a normal, regular family, whatever that is, but I think I was working full time or maybe four days a week at that stage, I'd been a variance of full time, three days, four days, depending how many children I had at the time. We didn't have anything exciting planned out. Our excitement was one probably overseas holiday you and but you know, life was good. We had no complaints, we had a nice house, we live near the beach, good family, three kids or you know, nothing to complain about. But one night, we sat down and we were watching Netflix, and my husband just randomly chose something, I had no input, I didn't really care. I was scrolling on my phone, you know how it is like you finally sit down at night, you're exhausted. And he puts on a documentary, and it was called maiden trip. And it was about Laura Decker, the youngest girl to ever sailed around the world. And at the time, we had a one year old, and like a four and five year old, I think they were and we watched that documentary. I remember like, in silence after a couple of minutes, I put my phone down. I never looked at it again for the whole duck taco. And I remember the credits rolling. And we literally turned to each other and went, Wow, let's do that. It was that simple. And we moved, we moved to the computer, we googled family sailing around the world. We didn't know if it was possible if it was like ludicrous if we're going to, you know, kill ourselves and our children because it was just so crazy. But we found that there were actually plenty of other families out there doing it. And straightaway, our motto kind of became if they can do it, why can't we? And literally within weeks, we had decided that we were doing it we told our friends we told our family, and we didn't know how we were going to make it happen. We have we had a big mortgage, we didn't have any savings. We were not in a position to buy a yacht and take time off work and sail around part of the world. But we knew that we're going to make it happen. And it was two years and two months from that date that we flew out of Australia on one way tickets to go and see our yacht for the very first time over in the Caribbean. So on that sabbatical, it was we knew it was a sabbatical. And we both took leave without pay from our jobs. So it was never a thought of quitting my job at that stage because I needed that job more than ever to make as much money as we could in those two years. And then I also needed that job because I would never have got this at any other job, which is, you know, in hindsight, amazing that maybe it was good that I didn't leave because I was able to take two years leave without pay. I mean, no jobs going to give you that in the private sector. And very few jobs even in the public sector would give you that but because I'd been there for so long. They didn't want to lose me. So I got given two years leave without pay. And we went off on a sabbatical and you know, had this amazing time. It wasn't until we ran out of money. Our two years was over, we came home that we were I was then doing my PR as well at that stage. I started that on the boat. And so this is coming a little bit of a big story But in answer to your question, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. was when we were back in Australia, I had to go back to my job. And I'm trying to do my, my PR company that I had started up probably about 12 months prior. Doing that as a side hustle every other spare moment outside of working in my job, which I was working about three days a week. It was that a everyone was miserable at work and it just like, well, we weren't sabbatical,

Jason Moore 25:22
you were still working, or I took

Erin Carey 25:25
she I got labor that pay for two years or two years. After the two years is over. We're back in Australia, we're back in our house, we're back in the rat race like full on straight back.

Jason Moore 25:36
Shocking culture shock. Like it was

Erin Carey 25:38
like the kids struggled, we struggled like, we came back with nothing like, obviously, we still had a house and most of our furniture, but we'd sold cars and everything. So we came back. And we knew that within two weeks, we'd both get a paycheck. And we'd be we'd be fine. After that. We just start started getting we were great at saving. We've done it before we just keep digging our way out. We got a car after a couple of weeks. And you know, we just kind of kept getting back to normal. And within about six months, we'll find back to normal back to living in the rat race flown. And my boss by this stage Coronavirus, had started and my boss emailed me one day and she's like, the cells in the spreadsheet, you've done them the wrong color. And you know, you haven't written this correctly. You know, like that was so menial, like the most ridiculous menial tasks and like a were the same level. I'm like, way above this, I don't need you to tell me this, but be I've sailed across an ocean, you know, like, we kept our kids alive for two years on the ocean. And we've sailed across the Atlantic Ocean, and you're complaining about the colors of the cells and a friggin spreadsheet. I just can't do this anymore. I just cannot have a boss, I cannot be told what to do. I've had two years of freedom and adventure and absolutely like living life to the fullest to come back to me working in an office where by that stage, it was at the start of the pandemic and I had to move my mouse every 30 seconds or my little button would turn red. And they were taking notice of how you know whose button was red for what percentage of the day. So I was like having anxiety. I'm like moving my mouse every two seconds I go to the toilet. And I'd say to one of the kids, can you move my mouse every 30 seconds just so they don't know that I'm taking a break. Like it was ridiculous. And I just caught out to my husband in the next room. He was working like in the other office doing his online job at home. And I was like I can't do this anymore. And he said, Just quit. And I'm like it that was a we had talked about it before. It was always like smart, quiet, right? Like, I've just got to get my business just that little bit more just one more client. And in the end, I was like, I'm just quitting. I know that I'm going to make this work. There's no way I'm going to fail it as if I'm going to quit this amazing job that I've had, and then also just let my business fail. It's not going to happen. So I sent the email, like right there. And then and two weeks later, I've quit and I've never looked back and I like reached my level of income like within two months or something that I was getting and surpassed now and it's I've never once thought about it and there's been zero regrets. The funny thing is like you hear that all the time no one ever has a regret about quitting their job usually usually ever I'm kind of always says I had no regrets quitting. So I worried that I'd be that nominally that didn't that did regret it and that failed. But thankfully, I wasn't and yeah, who we are now but so if you're listening to this, anything in it quitting a job and it's like destroying your soul and you have a backup obviously, I don't condone like just quitting without a backup. But I had a backup. I had my business I built it for a been building it for you know, 12 or 18 months by that stage. I just had to back myself and I did and it worked out thankfully.

Jason Moore 29:05
Yeah. Wow. Amazing. Congratulations. I think about the sabbatical. That was sounds like that was a really cool way to transition to this. I mean, you came back and you gave it the old college try. You tried to settle back in and do the normal thing, but wasn't for you guys. And if it was, maybe maybe you were done with the traveling, then you would have been set up for that too. And I know not everybody can take a two year sabbatical from their job and have it waiting for them. You know, there are other versions of of that where you can set yourself up for you know, alright, if I don't like this then or if I'm just tired, I can change my life again. I mean, I think it's cool that it was a chunk of time that you guys got to go out and give this a try in two years. What What was that two years like? I mean, how did the

Erin Carey 29:52
it was amazing. You know, it was as amazing as you would expect it to be. We weren't working. We had this New York. We were in the car Ben like the kids were little. It was awesome. There were we have lots of friends over there. It was prior to the Coronavirus. Families were everywhere. There were kids everywhere. It was like a summer camp for the kids. It was like one big party. Way too much like Rum Punch and just good times. It was a lot of fun. It was also really hard. It was definitely the hardest thing we've ever done. It continues to be hard living on a boat.

Jason Moore 30:27
What's fine are the biggest challenges. The biggest, honestly,

Erin Carey 30:30
the biggest challenge is homeschool. It's not even the boat. It's just homeschooling our kids. I didn't know if we're not cut out for both my husband and I really struggled. I don't do it anymore, thankfully because I run my business but so he's responsible for doing the homeschool now. And it's really hard on him. He tries his hardest, but we've got three boys. They are rambunctious and egging each other on and don't do as they're told and fight and carry on and don't want to do it and I've got a sore tummy and blah, blah, blah. So it causes a lot of stress that so that's number one. Number two is probably the you know, the boat breaks a lot. That's normal, whether you have a brand new bow, or hydro foot boat or a 20 foot boat, things on boats break, you were living in this like really crazy environment. And so there's always something that needs fixing. So my husband kind of has two crappy jobs, he he has to do homeschool. And then when he finishes homeschool, he's got to fix everything that's broken. Luckily, he likes that part because he's really handy and hands on. I get think the other part for me is being isolated from all you know, away from family and friends. I like like I'm fairly social. But I think luckily my job provides these opportunities where I get to talk to people, I've got my team. It's not the same though and this time around, because if people haven't already figured we went back to Australia, we decided we can't do this. We sold our house and we came back to our boat and now we're on like, like to this time around. It's been the Coronavirus the entire time that we've been out here. And I can count the number of friends we've made on one hand compared to the Caribbean was like every day was come to my boat for sundowners come for a barbecue, come for dinner meet, let's meet on the beach. We've had hardly any of that this whole time. So

Jason Moore 32:28
that's just because people can't really be around each other.

Erin Carey 32:32
We'll figure that out. I think it's a bit of both were in the Mediterranean. So there are not many Americans, Canadians, Aziz. And maybe were like the like minded parties that all get together normally. They what else? I think we figured that maybe people are just used to not really socializing or we're all kind of become hermits because of Coronavirus. So people aren't making the effort to catch up and hang out and come knock on our hole and say hi. And you know, I'm also working a lot. So I'm not putting myself out there like I did, probably in the Caribbean. And there just aren't as many kids over here. And so my kids, we went a good three months with no no other children. And that was hard. The kids were like crying, they wanted to go back home, they'll say they're lonely. And that's like that pulls at your heartstrings and makes you doubt that you've made the right decision. But thankfully, we've arrived into Sicily here and there are like 13 kids that this marina not huge, but that for the Mediterranean is awesome. And so like we're finally we have them children to play with. And we put them into school because it was like, either we go home or we figure out something to

Jason Moore 33:56
do to find a place to get them into school or

Erin Carey 33:59
at surprisingly, wasn't snowing there in Italian local school up the road, I

Jason Moore 34:05
went to the village and you're like, Hey, can my kids go to school here?

Erin Carey 34:09
Exactly. Really. I emailed the principal like months in advance and just kind of said, you know, we really want to integrate our children in the community and we're willing to, you know, be involved in the school and help out and you know, made it sound as great for them as it was for us. And he just said yeah, come and see me when you arrive and I'm like, I really want an answer because I would love to know that they're going but he wasn't willing to commit anyway, we arrived literally the second day I was like right get on your bikes, kids were going to school. And um, you know, we went and went until the principal and yeah, he's he rolled them and they all in like the equivalent grades to what they would be back in Australia and they don't speak a word of Italian and most of the people at school don't speak a word of English. So we have literally thrown them in the deep end. And yeah, they they've just slack This is a benefit of being about kids, you just, you're resilient, and they've just taken it on the chin. And they're just going to school in Italy, not knowing aware of what's going on. And I'm hoping that yeah, within a few months, they'll learn Italian and then they'll have another language under their belt. Wildlife,

Jason Moore 35:21
I really appreciate hearing the struggles, because that's why I love these podcasts as opposed to, you know, scrolling through social media, and everything looks like everybody's living the dream all the time. And it's like, well, no, there are a lot of facets to a life like this. And when you go and live on the road, you're just living your life on the road. So you're going to have the ups and downs, there's just going to be different ups and downs than you might have at home. But it can't all be up all the time. Right? Are you then based in one place for multiple months? Is that how you guys do it? Or are you skipping around?

Erin Carey 35:57
Yeah, so let's let's seasons when you're sailing, so you can never just sail for a year straight will usually kind of depends how fast you want to move. But usually, like if you're in the Caribbean, there's the hurricane season. And then the season where you can sail around, it's usually like six months on six months off in the Mediterranean this summer, and this winter. So in winter, it's like right now there's 40 knots, you wouldn't want to be out in an anchorage, it's just the weather's too unpredictable, the winds are too strong, it would just be dangerous. So most people find a marina and they kind of like hunker down for the winter. And so usually that's like November through to April. We didn't get here because we also have to deal with the visas. And being Australian, we can only stay in inside the EU for three months. And we have to get out of the EU for three months. So we were in Tunisia before we arrived here. And then we arrived here in about December. And then when we got the kids into school, the principal wanted to know that we would stay for as much of the school remaining school year as possible. And I had heard that there was this thing called a bilateral agreement that allows Australians to get an additional three months in Italy. So thankfully, for that reason, we've got six months here. And that's it is isn't actually the longest we stayed in place. When we're in the Caribbean. We stayed in Grenada for eight months, but that was more kind of on and off. But in total, we were there eight months. Yeah, we're slow travelers, it's hard enough to kind of live this lifestyle without also moving every day. Obviously, like when you sail, I can't work, the kids can't do school. So we usually stay in a place for about two months. And then we try and fail on a weekend. And then you know, get set up again, to start work on a Monday. I work essentially full time flexible hours, but essentially full time, but I still feel like I get to see and do a lot of things because you know, I don't have the obligations of living a normal life and going to the school meetings and then having to, you know, drive back and forth from work, or we've got a lot of spare time, I guess is what I'm saying. So luckily, I get to also travel the world and see see places but you know, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, I do I work I work full time. And some people will be like, well, what's the point of being out here, but I kind of argue that I still feel like I get to see really experienced a culture because we stay in each place for quite a while. Well,

Jason Moore 38:32
sure. And a part of the point is that you guys weren't happy the way you were living before.

Erin Carey 38:37
Well, the thing is, we weren't unhappy though, either. So I don't we weren't running away from anything. It's just that this really sparked something inside of us. And I think we knew that we didn't want to just do the rat race forever. I knew that there was something else inside of me. I didn't know what it was a if I had have guessed I would have said that we would have you know moved to Spain and worked as expats for a year or two or something I'd never dreamed it would be this or this crazy but I knew that I wasn't going to be just be happy with working the nine to five forever.

Jason Moore 39:15
You're going to spend another 18 years.

Erin Carey 39:18
Exactly that was the thing we went back home and we went to like all these high school tours and we went to enroll my son and as we're heading in the forms were like this is this means like 12 years or more about a time we get all three of them through high school of like this is it. This is like you go to work you go and you're on holiday you I just don't think we can do that. I can't commit to that life. So then we just throw it all out and went What the hell let's just sell the house and go and be free. If it if it doesn't work at you know, we can go back we can buy another house if we have to be it's not might not be as great Ask us, we'll be out of the market for a while, but because you know, we lived on a boat for a few years, it's worth it.

Jason Moore 40:06
Yeah. What a wonderful attitude. And sounds like you use some of your PR Mojo with the principal of that school. We're gonna get into that in a minute, because I do want to get your advice around all the stuff we talked about when we introduced you, but I just had a couple more sailing questions. What is it like to sail across an ocean? I, for some reason, when I think about, and of course, I have no sailing knowledge whatsoever. When I think about throwing my kids, getting my family on a sailboat and going across an entire ocean, you must feel so vulnerable just being in the middle of the ocean. Nobody around nobody to come save the day, if something happens. It sounds a little terrifying. To be honest.

Erin Carey 40:52
It does when you say it like that it does. But honestly, it just felt like we were sailing across all like, so weird. For the first like week and a half, it was blue skies, flap seas, and it was like we were just Yeah, going sailing across a big lake. And also, because in the cockpit, you've got the chartplotter. And it's almost like a video game, you see a little dot. And so you might have, you know, five centimeters at the side of you. And so it's just feels like five centimeters. So yeah, we're not that far from lands, you know, Europe's there. And America is there and we're just here. It just, it never really felt real. I guess I never once felt scared. I never felt worried. But you know, Touchwood we also didn't have anything go terribly wrong. And, like, it's one of my proudest achievements. I mean, I didn't do a great deal. Of course, I was there. And I did contribute to the night watches and did all the sailing and, you know, not not downplaying that I did obviously do a lot. But it's my husband, I think, who did the, you know, he prepared all the boat, I had faith in his ability that he had our boat, like, had spares for spares. And you know, I knew that if something broke up how to fix it. We went did the hard work. It wasn't a last minute decision. We spent months preparing the boat, we had all the safety gear, we had all of the like contingency plans and shore support. And yeah, so I don't want to make people think that it was just a rush last minute, just took a chance and sat across an ocean kind of thing we did do a lot of work for. But I'll be super proud of that till the day I die, Eric. And it's just awesome to get to say yeah, we sat across the nation. 18 months earlier, we literally didn't know how to move the boat from A to B. And then we sailed across the Atlantic Ocean.

Jason Moore 42:47
I think it's one of the joys of travel when you look at a map and you see a place on the map and you can you know what it smells like and what it tastes like and what it sounds like and some of the experience of being there. It's satisfying and you can look at a globe and look at an entire ocean and know what it's like to go across that something about that excites me to maybe I get these conversations and then that you know, for the next like week and a half I'm gonna probably be trying to talk my wife into even though I get seasick,

Erin Carey 43:21
right. Plenty of people actually get seasick. I just make it work. Do you get over it? A lot day. There are the few who don't. And I feel dreadful for them. They must just be in hell. How

Jason Moore 43:33
do you live on? Yeah, I mean, my daughter can't get in the car and drive for a half hour without getting sick. So I don't know. This mailing family.

Erin Carey 43:40
Yeah. Finally, but you don't know, mine real fine on the boat. And now that when we get back in a car, they get carsick. So I'm like, How can you cross the ocean, but then now get sick in the car. It's this route of practice. We don't drive in a car very often anymore.

Jason Moore 43:56
Well, let's dive in to your expertise in public relations, PR getting media coverage, media buzz, whatever you want to call it. I don't know. I'm using all the industry lingo, I guess. And what I really wanted to focus on here is how somebody can conduct their own PR in some ways, but of course, if you want to go next level, and or you need help doing it, that's what you do. I mean, you can tell people really quickly because it sounds like you work with your PR companies, Rome generation. So you work with a lot of people that are you know, world and adventures and isn't that kind of your niche?

Erin Carey 44:35
Yeah, absolutely. So Travel Leisure and luxury is our you know, big umbrella, but if you kind of come down more, I love working with like minded people. So yachting, obviously is a big part of what we do. Adventures, people who are living life differently. Anyone who if you appreciate the quirkiness that your PR agencies run from a yacht then you probably like Have the right kind of client for us. And I just want to share the stories of people that are doing amazing things with their life in the hopes that by sharing those stories, you know, I've got a hand in encouraging more people to experience the gift of travel because it's life changing. And so to be able to, even if I'm not promoting my own business, but if I'm helping promote another business, who is a tour agency, or a boutique hotel, or you know, they run a ropes course in the Azores, or whatever it is, if it's something that's going to make people step out of their comfort zone and experience life, and we're all for it.

Jason Moore 45:38
Yeah, I mean, that's, I'm sure one of the joys of what you do, and for me as well, getting to share these conversations and stories, and it's inspiring, and it gives you so many ideas, you get the practical, but there's a lot so much around it. And stories are a huge part, of course of the PR process. And I guess the first question is, you know, is it even worth pursuing? Getting featured in major publications and things like that, who should invest their time and doing PR?

Erin Carey 46:07
Yeah, look, you can pay anything. So there are publicists who promote pens, or a bag of flour, you can promote a lipstick or anything, but obviously, we are in the travel, leisure and luxury space. And the kinds of businesses that benefit from this. Well, everyone can benefit from PR. But the things that you're looking to gain through PR, is that you're going to raise your credibility, you're going to raise your authority in your niche, you're going to become known as a thought leader, you're going to generate brand awareness. So PR is a long term strategy. It's not an overnight when it's not going to be a quick fix. It's to wear hat, you know, how do you measure the feeling that someone has when they read about you, that's really hard to measure, but they're the kinds of things that we're trying to, to increase. Because, you know, if you think about advertising, let's just say advertising and PR, two different things. They're both necessary. And I don't want you to think that PR is in place of the other marketing and PR are both necessary. At the same time. If you do them both together, they have like, they have the best results. But advertising is what you say about yourself, you know, you've written the ad, you're telling people what's happening, put it in a magazine, probably going to pay 1000s of dollars. If you wanted to get an ad in CNN, for example, you might be looking at $250,000. I mean, very few people are going to pay that. But if you wanted to have your your business advertised on that site, that's what it's going to cost you. And how much weight is it going to have? I mean, I know myself, if I see an ad, I'm like, Yeah, I you know, okay, that vacuum looks interesting. But what I really am going to do is I'm going to google it, and then I'm going to hear what someone else has said about the vacuum. I mean, we all do that when we purchase from Amazon, I don't know about you, but I scroll straight to the reviews, because I just want to know what people think of it. That's what PR is, PR is like your best friend saying something really good about you to a guy that, you know, is thinking of asking you out. We compel journalists to write stories about your company. And then those stories because they've been written by third party, we're not paying them to write the stories. We don't tell them what to sign the stories, or the articles or the features, whatever that you know, kind of publicity, you're getting those features contribute to the credibility of your business. And then you're able to put those logos on your website. And when you arrive to somebody's website and they've got these as seen in logos straightaway it you believe that the business is credible. And so we've maybe removed all of those months of building that know like and trust factor, because straight up we're like, Oh, they've been in Conde Nast. Travel and travel and leisure and on CNN travel. This must be a good hotel. Well, this must be an awesome to accompany.

Jason Moore 49:20
Yeah. No, it makes sense. And yes, that I experienced that often. I'm sure everybody listening does when he goes somewhere and you see the as seen on Oh, cool, okay. They know what they're doing.

Erin Carey 49:32
Exactly. And so that's

Jason Moore 49:35
so somebody opens up their laptop. They crack their knuckles. That's what I do. And they're they're like, Okay, I'm gonna get me some PR here. What are the what are the steps people need to take to make that happen for themselves if you were gonna give them the DIY solution?

Erin Carey 49:54
Yeah. So the first thing I suggest is go to my website and download my freebie book. purpose that asks you arrange your questions. And like I explained, I used to ask interview questions for a living. So I've really come up with, like the most important questions that you need to ask yourself to get to the real nuts and bolts of your story. And you've got to think, okay, is this newsworthy? Is this of interest to an audience? Because the journalists aren't doing us like a solid or a favor by writing the story, what they are doing is giving value to their readers. So you've got to think about story angles that really give something of value to the people that are going to be reading it. And then you've also got to come up with Okay, well, what's my target audience? Is it worth getting a story published in women's weekly if my product is targeted at men? No. And is it worth getting it published in Time Magazine, if it's 60 year olds? Who are my target audience? So you really got to figure out who your target audience? Where do they hang out? What kind of publications do they read? Then once you narrow that down, you've got your story angles, then you've got to figure out okay, what journalists write about this? Because now we've got to track them down. And Have they written stories like yours before, can you imagine yourself in the headlines, do like stacks of research, do Google searches, find stories that are similar to what you want to share. But they can't be the same, you know, so then you've got to kind of come up with a new angle or a different angle. And then you've got to track down that journalists name and email address, which is not always simple. And then finally, we're ready to write the email, which is called a pitch and send it to them. So they say that it's called earned media for a reason, by the time you get an article published, like you, you've really earned it, because it takes a lot of work, a lot of research, a lot of building relationships. You know, that's the key to what we do here. But it's not to say that you can't land press, if you're not a publicist, and that you can't learn press, if you haven't build a relationship, you just have the better results when you build relationships first. And so that means that you've then found that journalists on LinkedIn and you found them on Twitter, and you've commented on their Instagram, and you've kept this up for a few months. And then once they received the email from you, they're gonna be like, oh, yeah, I recognize that name. I'll actually open the email, because they're receiving hundreds of pictures every day. To get an open is a win, to get a reply is like amazing. Even if it's a no, we still kind of record that in our results. And it's like, okay, they've opened an email. In future, they might say, yes, so it's still a win. And then together, yes, I'd love to interview. It's like, hallelujah, oh, my god, the process works. But it's not easy. And you have to have resilience, and you have to have thick skin. So I think it's good to know that it's normal to get rejected, it's normal to not hear back whatsoever. And it's normal to have to email the same person numerous times before you get a reply. So I guess if you know that, and you don't take it personally, then it is possible to do your own PR. But you need to put in like a lot of time and effort to make sure that you're emailing the right person at the right time with the right story angle. Is it newsworthy? Is there something else happening in the news right now that's going to make like what you're saying not valid or not important? Can you news, Jax something that's happening in the media right now and say, you know, with this new strain of the Coronavirus, I'm actually an expert in you know, sanitizing hotel rooms. And I'd love to offer my opinion on blah, blah, blah. That's kind of what you do, you've become really involved in the news and the media know what's going on. And then try and come up with story angles that are fresh, and that are going to provide value to the people that are going to read them.

Jason Moore 54:12
So breaking that down, strong story angle, figure out your target audience, find the journalists within that audience, write your pitch, and send it and ignore and then a long time,

Erin Carey 54:25
stay persistent. So the key is to send follow up so you send your first email. And so that's usually like a two or three paragraph email really concise. What What's the story? Why is it interesting? And you know, what, what value can you kind of add, and then in the follow up a little bit more value and just be like, hey, just a polite follow up. Did you get my last email, I'd love to share the story with you. And then the third follow ups a little bit more general. Hey, just bumping this email up in case it was lost. Still have to chat with you. If you do all of that you usually get a risk bonce Well, you know, I say usually maybe if you've been doing it consistently for a while, but eventually you'll start getting a response around the second or third email. So don't be disheartened if you don't get any responses from your first round of emails. And you might need to send 100 emails to 100 Different people to get one result. That's, that's just how it is, as you get better, you'll have to send fewer emails and you get more responses. But if as long as you know that you have to be persistent, then it's you can do it because you're not going to get disheartened. The minute you quit, obviously, you're not going to get any results. So just keep going. And you'll get there eventually.

Jason Moore 55:39
When someone's figuring out their story angle, how do we tell a compelling story? What are your tips there?

Erin Carey 55:50
Well, you've got to really dig deep. What are other people? What questions that other people asking you? What do people say you're good at? What What are other people coming to you and asking advice about? What? What makes people kind of like, stop what they're doing? And really listen to you? And how you serving other people? What value are you giving? What transformations have you had in your life? Or has your product? Given somebody? How are you helping other people. So you know, to if you do something good, obviously, don't, don't do good just to get publicity. But if you are doing something good, share it with the media. We love feel good stories, we love transformations we love, you know, people doing inspiring things, changing their life. And I think that's why I love working in this niche because I get to share those kinds of stories that people generally want to hear. But you need to, you know, if you are promoting something that's not as exciting or inspiring, there are some there is still a market for that you just need to find, find where that is. And maybe you might promote the founder story, you as the CEO might have an interesting background of how you got to where you are today and by someone else reading that you might inspire them to start their own company or something. So yeah, it's it's gonna take some time and looking inwards and answering those hard questions. And then doing research and finding what other kinds of stories in the media and seeing if you can find any parallels to your story. And then experimenting, you know, it doesn't. I'm a publicist, I've been doing it for, you know, a number of years now. But it doesn't always land, even the best, publicists still get ignored and still get rejection. So keep playing around until you get get a bite.

Jason Moore 57:55
Great, thank you. How about practical hacks for tracking somebody down if you're trying to get somebody's email or a particular journalist and X, Y or Z publication? And and yeah, what's your process for finding that person if you can't just find their email address right away? Or they just have a generic contact form on the magazine's website or whatever?

Erin Carey 58:20
Yeah, look, I in my experience, contact forms don't normally learn to press or get you anywhere far. So I avoid those kind of as much as I can. In saying that I have learned some podcast interviews with through the contact form, when I've got had no other choice. But I'm I like to think I'm pretty good at finding email addresses. As a publicist, we kind of cheat because we have a database. So we pay access to this database, which then gives us the email address of millions of reporters around the world. But aside from that, there's this one little tool, which I love. So you know, I'll go on to LinkedIn, I'll go into Facebook, I will go on to Instagram kind of do you know, like, some stealthy searching there, you sometimes find the email addresses there. If it's not on any of those, then there's this program called signal hire. It's free. I think you get five free emails a month. And so yet signal higher.com? I believe. So no higher signal higher? Yeah. And then it you put in like their LinkedIn name, and title and location, and it digs it out. And nine times out of 10. I find their email address on there if I haven't managed to find it anywhere else. So it's a

Jason Moore 59:35
it's a good little tool. It's a Chrome extension.

Erin Carey 59:38
It is a Chrome extension, but you can also just use it like on Safari on the internet. And I think you have to kind of sign up through Facebook or whatever, but it doesn't cost anything. There is a paid version, I guess what you would get unlimited searches. So that's kind of like my little secret that I that I used Last Resort. And other than that, I've pretty much found everything I need through that. And if I haven't found everywhere else, but also you know, send them a LinkedIn message, introduce yourself and provide thoughtful comments on on their socials. Don't spam them. Don't be like love that oh my god. Same, you know, but if you can provide some minutes educated and thoughtful as commenting to articles that they write or something, share their articles. So then they don't see on Twitter that you've shared their article, do things like that, and they'll start to notice you be genuine. But yeah,

Jason Moore 1:00:37
great. Any other resources you want to share that are helpful to people in this room?

Erin Carey 1:00:44
Well, as a publicist, I mean, unless you're a publicist, you probably wouldn't bother with this program. But I love my crack. And then there's also a decision again, outside of us using it, you guys wouldn't go to that expense. What else do I use? That would be helpful? I mean, I do use a lot of things, but I probably don't even think about it now. Because I've been doing it for a while.

Jason Moore 1:01:09
Even if it's like trade publications or anything. Yeah, like,

Erin Carey 1:01:13
don't forget about trade publications, they don't seem as sexy. But it's still, you know, there's they've got an audience. Don't forget about podcasts, podcasts are huge right now. And it might not seem like you're reaching the the audience size of CNN, or BBC or Fox or whatever. But when you think about it, the the percentage of people that read that those articles that are going to be interested in your story is probably so slim, that it might be like, you know, point something of a percent of people that are actually your target audience. Whereas if you get on a podcast that is all about what it is that your business does, then 99% of the audience is probably going to be listening to you. And they're going to probably listen to the entire episode, you're going to get like that know, like, and trust factor built so much faster than if they just read your article, then they might click on your website, you know, and then they might follow you on socials. But if they've listened to you for an hour, and they've, they've got to know your personality. You can't share those kinds of things in an article. So don't discount podcasts. They're super, like, sometimes clients question like, Oh, really another podcast and like this is they're really important. So don't discount them.

Jason Moore 1:02:32
Thanks. Shout out to the podcast. Yeah,

Erin Carey 1:02:35
definitely. Especially this podcast, like go. I mean, for me, this podcast is called this is part of me doing my own PR. I mean, I do love getting on podcasts and sharing my story. It fires me up. And I want you to

Jason Moore 1:02:50
just come here to meet me. Come on.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:54
secret's out. But you know, I do try and do a few podcasts a month because it is great PR for me. So Oh, and it's making those connections.

Jason Moore 1:03:04
This is a meta example, right? Like here the conversation we're having. I mean, you're here to provide value. And also, people now know, of Rome. generation.com.

Erin Carey 1:03:17
Right. Yeah, exactly.

Jason Moore 1:03:20
Yeah. While we're on that, do you want to share? Yeah, I mean, I just shared the link. But is there anything else you want to share around what you guys do? Or where people can find you if they have questions or anything like that?

Erin Carey 1:03:30
Yeah. So I think a lot of people don't quite understand how PR works. So I'll quickly explain that we work on like a six month retainer, usually, you know, we can do three months if like, we absolutely have to. But I say to our clients that really, if we only work together for three months, you're leaving money on the table, because PR does take time to build that momentum. And usually it's around like the three or four month mark that we start seeing the momentum. So if we end up three months, it's just like, we'll get somewhere but not as great as if we had have worked together for six or 12 months. And yeah, it's like a month to month retainer, and you pay monthly. So it's also like it's I know people usually have no idea what payout costs. And just know that it we've put in a lot of hours I guess is what I want to say we usually spend around 20 to 30 hours at least on each of our clients per month. So it's not cheap, unfortunately. But it's it's extremely worth it and the value that PR provides doesn't just last for that six months or that 12 months it's it's like usually lasts for the life like I've been in centum Conde Nast Traveler and insider and Forbes and you know a stack of publications forevermore that's going to be on the internet and I'm forevermore going to be able to include those logos on my website. So, yes, if I hadn't paid someone for six months, it might have cost whatever it costs, but the value is, like, lasting for the life of my business. So what I guess I'm trying to say is it's an investment. And it's worthwhile, I believe, of course, I'm gonna say that. But any public service, I think will tell you the same, like, we believe in what we do, because it does work. It just isn't an overnight, like, you're not going to go viral. But you might,

Jason Moore 1:05:30
it can happen. But before I let you go, just a couple more things. Thanks for sharing, by the way. And then thanks for coming and sharing everything you did today, I wanted to ask about your career change when you went to PR from being a senior analyst at the Department of Defense. And if anybody else out there is listening, and they're considering a career change, what is your advice, because that, again, you said a lot of the skills that you built there, translate to this, but you could have gone into anything. And sometimes when you have so many options in front of you, it's kind of hard to pick one, it can be hard to just get your get settled in a new direction that's different from what you've been doing. And for people out there that are quitting their jobs and starting something else, it's hard to go in a different direction sometimes. So I just wanted to hear your and I know, you can only speak from your experience. But what is your advice around that pivot?

Erin Carey 1:06:29
I think because because we're out on the boat. And I had time I had space, I had never actually had a period where I hadn't worked, you know, besides maternity leave, but you've got a newborn, and you can't really think straight then anyway, but that is what exactly. So I had this time, and I knew that our bank account was doing billing and that I wanted to make some money. I also felt like, Okay, I haven't worked for 12 months, I would actually like to do something while we're out here. And that's just when I started really leaning into what can I do, what value can I bring to people? I didn't have a university degree, I didn't know what direction to go in. You know, being a security analyst analysts, it's not that transferable to other things I didn't think. So I started asking people, What do you think I'm good at? What can you imagine me doing and at that stage, I still do keep a Facebook page where I don't do it as often now, but I used to regularly just write about our life and what was happening and IMs, like these 4000 followers who were saying things like we love your writing, we love you should write a book you should write for magazines. And I started going, maybe I can do that. Like, I'm not a good speller. I never thought that I was a good writer, but people are saying that I'm okay. I don't maybe I'll just try it. And that's what I did. So and that led me to, to getting my job in PR. So essentially, I started writing for magazines, which led me to interviewing amazing people. I interviewed SV Delos, the number one selling YouTube channel in the world at the time. And then they asked me to, to work for them in a marketing way. And that was going to look like me writing stories about them and pitching them to magazines. After a while I was like, This feels like I'm doing a real job. Is this an actual job and then I started learning oh, what I'm doing is piano. And then I was like, I'm good at this. I'm like a dog with a bone. I don't like not getting what I want. So I'm the perfect person to this. I've got my interviewing skills, I've got my writing skills. So I guess my advice is be open to what the universe is presenting to you. And I know that's really woowoo but we've experienced it a few times now that sometimes opportunities fall in your lap for a reason. And lean into it and see where it takes you. But at the same time think about what do you love? What are you good at? What are your natural What's your natural personality like my husband shadows at the thought of him having to do my job like this would be the last thing that he would ever want to do. So it it does have to be obviously in line with your personality but then I think what he does is like oh my god, I would I would hate to do that. So it's it's funny but and I think that's where in the direction we're going now is that we I don't know where we're gonna be in six months or 12 months I don't know whether my husband like he's the captain at the moment but we're open to things kind of falling into our lap I don't know does that make you lazy or that you just kind of not being proactive or does that mean that you really intuitive and thinking about things and like you know when you know the secret when you think positive or think about something, you know a new car or suddenly every car you see it's the car that you want type thing. I think it opens our mind to opportunities all the time because We're always kind of in the back of our mind thinking, Whoa, you know, like, I just got a new client the other day called financial wonder. And he's given me access to do his roadmap, which is taking wonders like us, teaching us how to trade on the stock market. And it's an $800 course. And in the back of my mind, I thought maybe one day, I'd like to do that we've got our house money, just kind of sitting in the bank, what are we going to do with it? And now my husband, like, maybe this has happened for a reason, you know, maybe you could trade stocks. It's not really something we've thought of, but we've got this course now. And my client is going to teach us everything he knows. So yeah, that's just a little example of just like, be open. Don't rush it. Don't force it. Trust your gut, if it doesn't feel right, probably isn't right. But if things things fall in your lap for a reason, so run with it, lean into it, run with it, see where it takes you. But don't give up.

Jason Moore 1:11:03
Yeah, I think intuition can be an underutilized asset in people's lives. And that is something important to pay attention to. And I think what you're describing for those that are listening, that may be, you know, if you're on the more woowoo end of the spectrum, you might be open to the universe might make sense. If you're on the more other side of the spectrum, or that other half, I'd say maybe it's just listening. Right, it sounds like you did a lot of listening, especially in the beginning, I think that was great, practical advice, to just start talking to your friends in your immediate network, or people that interact with you on social media or whatever, and really listen to what they're saying, Oh, you're a great writer. Oh, you know, ask them, What am I good at? What are what are the things that you think I'm good at? And you know, sometimes we need to step outside of ourselves and get the input from other people to get some insights into

Erin Carey 1:11:54
who we are. And that can be uncomfortable.

Jason Moore 1:11:58
Yeah, well, we can't let them validate us either. Like that's, that's not the job, but it's more just like being open. And listen. Yeah, I guess that's my point. Yeah, I'm sorry. Go ahead.

Erin Carey 1:12:07
No, I was just gonna say like, being it's, it's like, get comfortable with being uncomfortable. It's a great thing, because it's true. Nothing, nothing really changes when you don't do something different. So the minute that we started doing something different, like our lives change completely, and there's so much more fulfilling, because when we got off the treadmill, and yeah, like, it's uncomfortable, a lot of the time, it's scary. And, you know, you don't know where you're going to be next year. But then that's also super exciting. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Jason Moore 1:12:44
Yeah, there is a sort of domino effect that takes place when you start taking different actions. And sometimes it's almost immediate. And other times you have to take a few plot a few steps down the path before different things start happening. But it always does lead to some kind of changes, that's for sure. Last question, when you think back to yourself on the couch, scrolling the phone 15 minutes before that documentary started. And you think of yourself now how have you changed?

Erin Carey 1:13:19
Like, completely? And actually, I, I could have never predicted that I would be here. I think it was about five years ago, six years ago now. Yeah, I wonder what I would have be like if we if we didn't watch that documentary. I mean, I'd like to think that somebody else would have caught our attention. And we would have done something else. Maybe not equally as crazy, because I feel like there's not much a lot crazier than what we're doing. But how have I changed I believe now that we can pretty much do anything. And I know that that sounds a little bit maybe full of myself. But because we've pulled this off, and I mean, I've I've aside all the time and I'm maybe I need to not not believe this, but I do think that there were pretty average, you know, like average intelligence, average education, average wealth. I feel like if we can do it, so many more people that don't give themselves credit for it could also do this because we Yes, I might be like more determined than the average person or more resilient than the average person. But that's also grown since doing this. So it was I like this beforehand, not necessarily. So it's almost like it's opened up this whole world of possibilities because we've done this one thing and that's why it's kind of exciting not knowing where we're going to be in a year's time. I think about you know, if this happened if I could never have predicted this happening, what other crazy things are out there that I'm never gonna get As you know, like I try and think of the most random, crazy things. I said to us one day, maybe we'll like ride motorbikes across Africa one day, or, you know, you think of random things and be like, Well, why don't why not? I could never say eliminate. We sat across an ocean, I can't run a motorbike. But you know, I'm sure I'll figure it out.

Jason Moore 1:15:21
It's empowering. It is really wonderful. Congratulations to you and your family for everything that you guys have accomplished have done going out there. You're living the life. I can't imagine I'm thinking about your kids in class right now having no clue what anybody's saying around them.

Erin Carey 1:15:41
I terrible. I'm a horrible mother. You'll thank me one day, you'll thank me for this.

Jason Moore 1:15:49
Yeah, but you know, all of this stuff prepares them for, for the world, they're going to be adults in so it all plays in and just really appreciate you sharing your experiences here today. And your advice as an expert in PR. So we'll include all the various links in the show notes. Thanks for your time, and hey, come sailing up to Norway someday.

Erin Carey 1:16:13
Like it when it's cold enough here in Sicily. I can't imagine what kind of like sailing up there. I'm feeling we're intrigued by the cold places. We've done lots of beaches. So you never say never. Hey, that's, that's my new motto. Never say never.

Jason Moore 1:16:26
Listen, when I if I'm talking to my wife into buying a sailboat in the next week and a half, I'll be hitting you up again to get some advice there. So

Erin Carey 1:16:34
yeah, definitely. And honestly, besides pay, if people are interested in like our life, you know, anything but pa still reach out to me because I always get messages. And I love to be able to help people and know that I've had this like tiny little part in them doing something crazy as well. And it doesn't have to be sailing, it can be anything. But if you need some inspiration or advice, reach out because I love to help people in that sense as well. Amazing. Thanks, Erin. Thank you so much, Jason. Take care. You too.

Jason Moore 1:17:11
Have it thank you very much Aaron for stopping by sharing your wisdom, your expert advice. loved having that chat and hearing about boat life. always fascinating to me, what is it like to live on a boat, I got to have a little taste of that today. And you did as well hope you enjoyed it. And I wanted to share a couple things that I took away from this interview. One, just that power of travel, the the ability of travel to unleash your potential, unleash your inner Explorer. And it really can kind of instill a certain level of confidence and open up that that freedom, at least it did for me. And it sounds like for Aaron, based on this conversation. When I did that first solo trip that changed my life. I just felt like, I could do anything. Well, if I can do this, I can I can solo travel here I can, I can go there, I can take on this adventure. And it all seemed so open and possible. And sometimes that doesn't come until after you have the experience. Some people maybe have that confidence right away. Others maybe have to have some experiences to get that confidence. And it was just a reminder of how travel has that ability to to unleash that potential. I love that. And also a reminder of one thing I really love about having your own business, lifestyle, business, whatever you want to call it is getting to choose who you serve. And you can see that with Erin, I mean, she has this PR company, but she could serve any number of organizations, people entities, but she's choosing to stay in travel, something she knows something she loves. And there's a lot of power in that as well. When you're really intentional with who you choose to serve, you can get to put yourself in circles that you want to be in. And that makes can make all the difference in the world. So that was something that also kind of stuck out to me and something I took away from this interview as a nice reminder. Now, I wanted to share a snippet of a little voicemail I got from a listener that brought me to tears. So I want to thank Holly for taking the time to leave this message. Play it for you now.

Holly 1:19:29
Hi, Jason. My name is Holly and I recently found your podcast. I'm in the northwest. I have a huge desire to travel more and I just don't know how and the stories about people who are just from beginners mindset. Yeah, it just really inspires me and I feel like in a way I may or may have found my people just people that are aware that value adventure and connection community those kinds of things. And so it just shed like so much hope and light into my life. And I just wanted to say thank you

Jason Moore 1:20:08
holla you ever deed found your people, thank you so much for the heartfelt message. And that's what this is all about, right? This is a community powered show I say it time and time again, this shows for you. So please, let's make it a community. You can leave me a message anytime like Holly did. You can get in touch Jason at zero to travel.com. Recommend guests, and anything you want to share, always love to make this two way conversation and just want to thank Holly for reminding me of why I do this. This really is why I'd make the show and have been doing it for eight years. So Thanks, Holly, congratulations, keep us posted. I know you got some great things planned. I'm sure of it. And you're just diving in now, it's a lot to Lot to uncover here at the zero to travel podcast. So I'm curious to get a follow up from you at some point to hear about your first trip or your next trip I should say. So keep in touch. Let me know what's going on. Before I leave you with a quote I do want to remind you if you want access to a private zero to travel podcast feed where you can get access to all the archives, bonus episodes, exclusive content, my how to quit your job and travel the world audio series and much more. Go to zero travel.com/premium with two taps, you will have access to this private podcast feed for the price of a fancy chain coffee latte, let's say per month, you can get hundreds of hours more of life changing content, add free episodes and more. Check it out you also be supporting the show. So I appreciate that helped me keep the lights on here go to zero to travel.com/premium Thanks for your support. Thanks for being a premium passport member. If you haven't checked it out, just take a minute and check it out. We'd love to walk him into the community there. Now let me dig into the quote drawer here and see what we got for you as we wrap this one up another one in the books thanks for listening. And this quotes coming from Swami Rama who said you really do not need to know many things. But you definitely need to practice what you know. Very ago. Have a great day. Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next time peace and love.

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