Beachside Banter w/Bee

Continental Drifting with Ralph: Photography, Mindful Travel, and Stories from 30+ Countries

• Bee • Season 1 • Episode 19

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Discover the incredible journey of Ralph Velasco, a seasoned travel photographer and tour organizer, who has been crafting unforgettable travel experiences for over 16 years. Learn how Ralph transitioned from photo-centric tours to culturally immersive adventures, guiding travelers through the historical wonders of destinations such as France, Cambodia, Spain, and Cuba. Based in an 11th-century castle in Southern France, Ralph shares his meticulous process of organizing over 120 international tours, always seeking to provide meaningful and memorable experiences.

Join us as Ralph reveals his personal transformation from seeing the world solely through a camera lens to embracing the beauty of living in the moment. Inspired by his book series, "The Mindful and Intentional Traveler," Ralph opens up about the importance of mindfulness in both travel and everyday life. Hear captivating stories of the welcoming Cuban culture and their burgeoning culinary scene, underscoring the growing interest in authentic cultural exploration.

Ralph also discusses the unpredictable nature of the travel industry and the importance of adaptability. Whether dealing with unexpected events during tours or expanding his ventures during the pandemic, Ralph's journey into new territories like YouTube and writing showcases the benefits of diversification. Discover how he manages to balance his passion for travel and photography while offering resources for those eager to explore the world alongside him. For more on Ralph's tours and content, visit ContinentalDrifter.co.

ABOUT MY GUEST:
Meet Ralph Velasco, a seasoned travel photographer, small group tour organizer, and founder of Continental DRIFTER. With over 120 multi-week international tours under his belt, Ralph brings a wealth of travel expertise and stories from around the globe. He’s also a podcaster, YouTuber, and author of The Mindful & Intentional Traveler series, which inspires readers to embrace a more meaningful approach to exploration. Holding a Master’s in International Business Administration, Ralph blends business acumen with his passion for travel, always on the lookout for his next adventure.

You can find Ralph Here: Website | Facebook | IG | LinkedIn | X | YouTube

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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, hey, everyone. Today is another day and I am super excited to hang out here with Ralph Velasco, who is a travel photographer and tour organizer. I'm so excited. He's full of so much information. We're gonna learn lots today. So, ralph, go ahead. Take full of so much information, we're going to learn lots today. So, ralph, go ahead, take it away. Tell us what you're here for and what you stand for.

Speaker 2:

Sure. So I organize and lead small group trips around the world and have been doing so for about 16 years now. I'm currently in Southern France. I just had a group here myself, france. I just had a group here myself staying at an amazing 11th century castle, and then I stayed on to help out a little bit and drive some subsequent groups around. For the owner, who was a bit shorthanded, I had some time and so know one of the best things about my job is just sharing the world with people and seeing these places through their eyes, and I've got a very loyal following of clients and people that have traveled with me before, and some have been on upwards of 25 trips and 15 trips and so a lot of repeat customers and referrals that's awesome.

Speaker 1:

So, uh, sorry, I want to rewind just a tiny bit. You said there that you were hanging out in a castle in france. That is like. I'm not gonna lie to you. It's always been one of my dreams is to visit like though that, or like scotland castles, because they're always so like full of history and I love buildings. My husband makes one of me for that, but I love architecture and like just the way the things are built and all that. So castles are like super interesting. So tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so it's an 11th century castle. It's in a town called Grand Brassac, in the Dordogne region of France. It's been owned by the same person, same family, for about 35 years now. I've been bringing groups there for about seven or eight years, I guess, and so I had a group here myself and then, as I mentioned, I stayed on for a couple of weeks. It's going to actually be a couple of months that I'll be there helping out. I'm actually not at the castle this moment because they had a specific group there, but I'm staying in a nearby town called Ribberak as a beautiful Friday market. But the castle is just unbelievable. He said he bought it with a table and two chairs in it 35 years ago and now it's an absolute museum, which is really incredible.

Speaker 1:

That is so cool. Yeah, I don't know why, but they've always piqued my interest, so I definitely have to make it there one day. You've led what 120-plus international tours in how many different countries.

Speaker 2:

Well, I've got about 30 different itineraries. Some of them are multiple countries, each, Like you said, over 120 international tours. Some are repeats that I do over and over again. But yeah, about 30 itineraries, so probably 40 plus countries.

Speaker 1:

That is so neat. What was your very first tour like? Tell me about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that one was back in 2008, I believe 2009. And it was to the Central European Christmas Markets and that was different from what I do today because we were a part of a bigger tour and it was a way for me to get started to kind of test it out. You know, not have all the responsibility of putting together a trip together from soup to nuts, and so that helped a lot and kind of got my uh my feet wet and so, um that, I think I did one other trip like that, but other than that, for the most part I organize everything with the help of a local tour operator in the destination who knows everything. I can't possibly know everything about all these places.

Speaker 1:

Oh, come on. Yes, you can.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know a little bit about them now, but especially when I'm putting the trips together, because I typically work on a trip a year in advance. So I'll go there. I'll find a tour operator, someone that I trust and has a history and experience to work with, knows what I'm looking for for my groups. I'll go there, I'll do a scouting trip when it's typically just me and either the tour operator themselves or their guides, and we'll go around and probably see two or three times the amount of sites and activities and places that I'll end up putting in the trip itself, the itinerary.

Speaker 2:

When it comes to traveling with a group. When it comes to traveling with a group, because obviously it's a lot easier for me to see a lot of places than it is for a group of six or 10 people that I'm bringing with me the next year, but it also gives me time to scout it out, get the photographs and video I need during the season when I plan to bring the group back, so I you know I'm not there in the fall and then I bring them back in the winter or the spring or something. So I think that's important. It's really important to set expectations and let people know. You know what they're in for, what the trip's going to be like, so, and then it takes me a couple months to actually put the itinerary together and about eight or ten months to market it, and then the trip will run about a year later.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's awesome. So you're really putting a lot of heart and a lot of detail into your itineraries. That's, that's amazing. So how do you find your your tour guides? How do you go about? Is there like a hidden network that we don't know about?

Speaker 2:

Well, the tour guides typically come from the tour operator. So the tour operator is a person in the location. They know all the guides hotels, activities, restaurants, transportation companies. I tell them very specifically what I'm looking for. We don't necessarily need a lot of museums and monuments and things like that, but we like food and restaurants and cooking classes and money for them to show me too much stuff that I know wouldn't make sense for my clients and that's something I learned over the years, but I learned it very early on.

Speaker 1:

That totally makes sense. So are you living the nomadic lifestyle or do you have a home base?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm from Chicago in the US and I am what's considered nomadic or intentionally homeless, but yeah, for a long time. When I first started out, I was living in Southern California one of the most expensive places in the world and I was there three months out of the year, because even today I'm spending about eight or nine months of the year on the road. So I learned very quickly that it didn't make sense for me to pay rent somewhere for 12 months when I was only there for three.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, that totally makes sense. So how does the photography piece kind of play into the tours and stuff? Is it just like a marketing aspect or do you take like actual, like family photos and that sort of thing while people are on tour?

Speaker 2:

Well, I started out doing photo tours and so this was like I said, back 16 years ago. I started teaching just local tours. I mean doing local tours in Southern California, where I was living at the time and you know there's a lot to see and do there. But I was this was at what I would call the dawn of digital photography, back in the early 2000s and so I saw an opportunity to help people to learn their new digital devices, these new digital cameras, and so I said I bet I could build some tours around that, because I also teach a course called Tour Organizer Training how to get paid to travel and teaching people how to do what I do, and I always say to you should have some sort of a theme or, you know, some sort of common thread to run through your trips, whether it's learning a language or mindfulness, or food, or photography, painting, anything like that, to sort of build your trip around and niche down.

Speaker 2:

Now I'm getting away from the more hardcore photography parts of it, because Now we're all some sort of a photographer, because we've all got these digital devices, the cameras, in our pockets that are very powerful and so of course we're all taking pictures. But I've made them more cultural tours, so it's more about the food and the people and the culture of the place and then often staying in one, maybe two locations instead of trying to see a whole region or country, which when I first started out we kind of did. So it's become more quality than quantity, so it's spending more quality time in fewer places than just touching on several places.

Speaker 1:

Gotcha, gotcha, yeah. So cultural tours are right up my alley. I've done a couple of like more immersive type tours, you know. So I've, like hung out with family members of like locals and, you know, had those kind of trips and I feel like those are the most meaningful and the most memorable that I've experienced anyway. So I love the idea that other people are starting to get more into like those culture immersion tours and that sort of thing, because I feel like, you know, 10 years ago that wasn't really what people were looking for. They were looking for all inclusive. You know, just lay back and relax, not do anything. And now people are really starting to kind of explore the world more and not just, you know, hang out in one resort. They're like actually wanting to see things and visit it and experience it, which I think is amazing. So I love that. You do that. That's amazing. So, out of all of the destinations and stuff that you've been to do, you have a favorite?

Speaker 2:

That's always a tough question, but I've got several favorites. Okay, cambodia is a favorite. It's a wonderful place, kind of off the beaten path, but still has a very good tourist infrastructure. It's got Angkor Wat and a lot of ruins that are 800 or 1,000 years old or more. Fantastic food, great hotels. They work on the US dollar, so you don't have to think about changing money and what the exchange rate and all that stuff is, so that makes it real simple.

Speaker 2:

One of my all-time favorites is Spain. It's a place I've been going to since I was in high school and I was 15 years old and I studied in Spain for a summer, so I've always loved it. My background is Spanish, my last name is Spanish, I speak Spanish, I spent a lot of time in Spain and the food is fantastic. I call Spain the other italy. Yeah, italy's got the big name. Uh, everyone wants to go to italy, and understandably. But spain is, uh, maybe a little bit off. I wouldn't, you know. It's not really off the beaten path because it's just as accessible, if not more, than italy, but, uh, I think italy just has a bigger name. Yeah, spain has just as great food, I bet. Landscapes, hotels, architecture, history, everything is just wonderful. Okay, other places I go to Cuba a lot.

Speaker 1:

Oh, okay, I'm interested in Cuba. That's definitely on my list, but I hear it's kind of difficult for Americans to head over there, so I haven't recommend because that could lead to problems.

Speaker 2:

But like you say, these are fully licensed programs that have itineraries that are approved by the US government. Oh, awesome yeah, and it's mostly the US government that makes it difficult to travel to Cuba, not the Cubans or anything really going on down there. But the people are absolutely wonderful. The food's getting better. That was a time when the food was somewhat questionable. The standing joke was the three things they lost in the Cuban revolution were breakfast, lunch and dinner Terrible.

Speaker 1:

No, though. Well, I guess it might be fake Cuban that I'm having up here in the States, because I think it's pretty good.

Speaker 2:

I say the best Cuban food is in Miami, but it's it's changing a lot because they're able to get more of the raw ingredients and just better ingredients, and so that was something that was a problem for a long time. So it was just a lot of rice and beans, beans and rice, rice mixed with beans and, you know, overcooked steak and local lobster which, um, you know, isn't like a main lobster, but, right, it's come a long way. Now there's some really wonderful chefs. They're opening up great restaurants that, uh, so the food's gotten much better. Uh, the hotels are are improving as well, and uh, but it's still a place that's uh, around the edges.

Speaker 2:

But that's what I love about it. The people are just, they say that they're the most pro-American people in all of Latin America, and I believe that. So I've made such great friends, having been going there for so many years now great friends, having been going there for so many years now and I love to bring groups back, and I hadn't been since 2018. And I just brought my first group back since this past April, in 2024. And so you know, it's just a wonderful place and I can't wait to keep going back over and over again.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, absolutely. So you'll have to let me know when your next trip is down there, because I definitely want to hop on board that wagon. I've seen so many pictures of the buildings there, the really old cars, all that really like it just seems like it's just like a really cool vibe. So I feel like I don't know, maybe my heart's a little there and I haven't even been there yet, I'm not sure.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I know it's like a step back in time and that's why we go, because it's very different and we handle everything as far as the paperwork and the visas and stuff like that. So it's all very simple because we handle everything and so it's very easy for the traveler. But again, we're going through the front door via Miami 45 minute flight to Havana and you're there. It's wonderful.

Speaker 1:

That sounds amazing. I can't wait. Tell me a little bit about your books. You have a traveler book series, is that correct?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I've written a new book, a new series this year called the Mindful and Intentional Traveler. Oh, okay, I just released a three-in-one book bundle as of pretty much yesterday as we talk, and so I bundled all three books into one book books into one book. That's about 494 pages, so you get the complete three books in one and the idea behind that being a mindful and intentional traveler. It really started because I needed the book myself, especially as a travel photographer and anyone who enjoys photography and video and things like that. We end up going to these wonderful places and I started realizing that I was just seeing them through the viewfinder of my camera. You know I would get home and I'm like, yeah, I was there physically. You know I've got the passport, stamps and the receipts to prove it. Was I there mentally? And the older I get, the more I'm much more interested in slow, high quality travel than just seeing a lot of places to tick things off a bucket list. To me, that's what mindful and intentional travel is all about. It's about being here now and it doesn't have to be just travel. I mean, it could be in your own backyard, you know, in your own home, just being present. Quick story.

Speaker 2:

I learned about this sort of idea back when I was 16 and I studied and I was a volunteer in Peru for a summer. That was after the Spain trip the year before and we were young boys from an all-boys high school in Chicago and we were starting to moan a little bit about the different food and missing our own beds and our friends and family back home beds and their friends and family back home. And one of the priests that was a leader of the trip. He said you know, you guys have such an incredible opportunity to be in this different place, this new place, learning about different cultures and food and ways of living and perspectives on life. Be here now. And that always stuck with me. It was the importance of just being present wherever you are. The past is gone. The future, you know, kind of never really gets here because we're always in the present. So make the best of now and certainly we have to plan for the future, but every now and then at least stop and look around and plan for the future. But every now and then at least stop and look around and literally smell the roses, feel the sunshine you know, the rain on your face, taste the food. I don't know about you, but you know I.

Speaker 2:

How many times have I sat in front of the TV while I'm on my phone, eating and listening to music? You know trying to do four things at once because I think I'm multitasking and getting, you know, getting things done Right, and so instead, you know I put the camera down, put the devices down. These devices are made to take us away from where we are. That's specifically what they're made for and yeah, they're great. I mean, they're wonderful tools and you can search anything you want at any time, but they take us away from where we are and really we can only do one thing at a time. Well, and so put the device down.

Speaker 2:

I'm talking to myself, and you know, taste the food, enjoy it, appreciate it. You know the place that you are, wherever that is, and I think you're going to just have a much better experience, especially when you travel. I was with a friend of mine just a couple of weeks ago in Spain. He was constantly on his phone, videotaping everything he was seeing, sending pictures to his family and kids and texting this person and that person, and I'm like be here now. You know, I mean he was trying to share the place, which is admirable, but he was missing out on the experience himself, and so to me that was just such an obvious example of that. So I really encourage people to, wherever you are, be here now 100% guilty of that.

Speaker 1:

I mean, I've gone to concerts and stuff where I've been videotaping the whole time and then I've left. I'm like, but was I even at that concert? Like I don't even remember any of it because I was so focused on my phone that, you know, I wasn't actually paying attention to the stuff around me. So I've started to. I think it is. I think it's because, you know, once you hit like 35, 40, you start to kind of like really explore who you are as a person and learn all of that. And I think that that's kind of when you start to stop caring about, like, what other people think and you don't really necessarily need your phone as much and you don't have to be in touch with people 100% of the time. You know you're able to kind of step back and take time for yourself. And I don't know what it is in our heads that makes us do that. But I feel like once you get to that point is when you actually really start to enjoy life, because you're not right, you're not focused on, like other people, you're focused on yourself, you're focused on your mindfulness, your journey, and doing that, I feel like, is one of the greatest gifts that I don't think we really get until 30, 35, 40 years old At least 40 for sure.

Speaker 1:

I feel like once I hit 40, things just like totally changed. My whole mindset was different. I started taking time for myself, I stopped worrying about what other people were thinking, and I feel like once I did that, I was actually able to start zoning in on happiness, which is crazy, but yeah, so being in the moment is definitely it's a huge gift, because a lot of people can't, you can't just turn it off. So being able to do that is huge for yourself. And I don't know if it's you know, taking 10 minutes out just to meditate or just to stare at a wall for a couple minutes or something, just to clear your mind and kind of be there for your own self, your own mind, your youthfulness, all that. So, anyway, sorry I just got on a little bit of a rant, but I totally agree with that. I'm excited about your books. I have um, I have to pick them up now for sure. It sounds like it's it's 100 what I'm thinking about and kind of how my mindset is, and all that stuff.

Speaker 2:

So that's awesome I like to think they make great, great gifts for any traveler in your life, or if you're a traveler or you don't even have to be a traveler. But, it's good. It's good sort of armchair travel. There's there's 60 affirmations for travel. I've got 60 gratitudes for travel. That's awesome. One of the books is how to be a mindful traveler using your five senses, and so I recommend setting a timer on your phone for every hour or two to remind you to just stop, look, listen, hear, smell, taste, wherever you are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah absolutely. And that will become a habit and you'll do it more often. Yeah, absolutely, christmas list, just throwing that on there, anyways. So what's the first couple of steps that somebody could take other than turning off their phone? Is there, like meditation practices or anything like that, that you would suggest that they could start to be more mindful?

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, like you said, turn off the phone, the distraction. That's one distraction. Certainly there are others, perhaps talking about it with your travel partner, husband, wife, partner, whatever, maybe getting them on board as well and doing it as a team. It's always easier, you know, they say, to work out. You know, getting that buy-in from whoever you're traveling with, but doing it together and setting that timer and it'll remind you to just stop. Stop, because again we're walking around, we're looking at things, we're doing, you know, multiple things at a time and I find myself, you know, I always thought that, like I said, I was multitasking and getting more down because I'm doing two or three things at a time.

Speaker 1:

Right, you know, listening to a podcast while I'm driving, while I'm, but you're not paying attention to any of that stuff because you're too busy focused on all the other 800 things that you're doing.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, yeah. So trying to minimize the distractions and simply stopping and looking around and seeing. Okay, what can I really appreciate about this place? Those gratitudes you know, being grateful for where you are, the opportunity to travel or to be wherever you are, and knowing that that's something very special that we need to appreciate.

Speaker 1:

Tell me a little bit. So your brand is called the Continental Drifter, is that correct? And you have a YouTube channel?

Speaker 2:

I do Also at Continental.

Speaker 1:

Tell me a little bit about that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so I created the YouTube channel during COVID. I'd been traveling pretty hardcore for about 12 or 13 years. At that point I didn't realize how many balls I was just keeping in the air. Uh, uh, certainly at the end there, you know, doing 10 or 12 trips a year, always planning on the you know for the next five and sort of winding down from the previous two or three. Uh, because there's things to do that I need to do after a trip has finished. But I'm also planning on future trips and I'm usually on a trip. So you know it would get to the point where, you know, I wake up and I wasn't sure where I was, or I have to think about it, because you know I'm in France but I'm working on a trip to cuba, but someone's asking me questions about vietnam, you know. So it's like yeah, so I've got to think wait, wait, where am I?

Speaker 2:

you know, today I don't even know yeah, oh yeah, I'd never know what day it is, but uh, it's kind of. I mean, it's a good problem to have. Obviously, you know, no one's going to feel sorry for me because I travel too much.

Speaker 2:

I get it. Yeah, but you know there is a lot to be said for you know, I am working. People, of course, think I'm on vacation all the time, right, but this is my work. I just have a really great office, which is the world, and, like I started out saying, I really enjoy sharing the world with my clients and seeing these places through their eyes and getting their perspective on things and introducing them to the incredible people I've met, the restaurants, I've been to the markets, whatever it is. There's nothing more satisfying for me than that.

Speaker 1:

You're taking these tours with these people, right? So you're always there as a resource for them in person.

Speaker 2:

I lead every one of my trips, except for a couple like Antarctica, which I just started doing, a couple that like Antarctica, which I just started doing. That's one that I can send people on their own because I know they're going to be handheld from start to finish, trust the company a hundred percent. So typically I'm on every trip.

Speaker 1:

Okay cool. So I was wondering, like, is it stressful to be there? And I mean, basically you're playing dad for everybody, right?

Speaker 2:

Kind of yeah, I mean I'm the trip leader and you know I've got a lot of responsibility. I mean they're paying, you know, good money for a once in a lifetime experience and so I want to give them the best experience possible. So that's a lot of pressure. I feel like I've got it wired because I've been doing it for so long and so often that I've got a pretty good system.

Speaker 2:

I'm pretty much a one-man show other than working with the locals in the place that are my guides, and the restaurant owners and activities et cetera drivers. But the responsibility is on me in the end and so, being there, I'm able to sort of make sure things don't get too far out of whack if there's that direction. But I also learned early on that it's about setting expectations. The people that come on my trips tend to be very well-traveled, so they know that they need to be flexible. That things do happen it's part of the experience. But my job is to double and triple confirm everything, make sure things don't go wrong. That I can prevent, and so I've gotten pretty good at doing that.

Speaker 1:

So has anything gone wrong? I'm kind of curious. Is there any awesome story? Well, I guess it wouldn't be awesome. Any stories that you want to share?

Speaker 2:

I had a really good 10 or 11 year run where almost nothing had gone wrong. That's awesome's a couple things started happening, nothing terrible. I did have two women break uh ankles on a trip oh no, yeah, two trips like I think they were back-to-back years and were they walking in heels? No, but simply. Yeah, they slipped on some gravel.

Speaker 1:

Oh, no, okay.

Speaker 2:

And you know, the simplest thing in the world, something that we encounter pretty much every day of our lives, but you know, wasn't on any kind of a hard hike or anything. Gotcha Just happened with one that's just on the slope of a driveway. And yeah, I think you know, sometimes, when you're not on a you know, maybe a more serious hike or walk or something, you're not as careful.

Speaker 2:

And so they just slipped on some gravel which you know sometimes can be like ball bearings and you know anyone's going to trip. So that was a real bummer because it ruined the trip for the two ladies and one of them was with their husband, so for him as well. So that's always a drag. I've had a couple. One time the fan belt went out on one of our vehicles in Cambodia. We got it fixed in 15 minutes.

Speaker 1:

Oh wow, that's awesome minutes.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, that's awesome. I've gotten my luggage lost a couple times in the last couple years, after having gone like 14 or 15 years without having lost anything, so that's always a bummer, but I don't even think I've had any clients that have lost theirs.

Speaker 1:

Oh, that's awesome. They must not be flying United. Sorry, I think bad things, things about them. I actually have never flown them, so I should. I should be making fun, but that's what I hear. My, my son, actually just flew over to amsterdam and he, he was one of those unfortunate people whose luggage was lost, but luckily he got it the next day, so it wasn't too too bad for him. But it helped.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, so we joke about that all the time down the house. Okay, wow, this has been such a fruitful conversation. I'm so excited about the different things. Spain sounds amazing. Cuba is so high on my list. I need to be there one of these days. The beaches there look absolutely amazing, so I've definitely got to do that. Make it there. How, how do you go about balancing all of this stuff? I feel like you've got your hands in a bunch of different cookie jars. How do you keep it all balanced?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know the pandemic really drove it home that it's important to be diversified, to have different streams, and you know, because, as you can imagine a one-man travel business you know, as you can imagine a one-man travel business you know the pandemic hits and people can't leave their homes, let alone go on an international trip. That was a real kick in the pants and so it was actually. You know I talked about having all these balls in the air, but it was actually somewhat welcomed. The stop, you know, stopping traveling so hardcore, because it allowed me to take a breath. Start my YouTube channel, which you had asked me about. The channel is youtubecom, slash Continental Drifter, and it's about my travels. So it's become a really good sort of record of the different places I've been, different experiences that I've had. So sometimes the videos are about a whole trip or a country, or maybe they're about a specific experience or activity, and so it's become a really nice record of all those travels.

Speaker 2:

I wrote a couple books, I got some other things done. So during the pandemic I was able to get some things done that I was never able to do because I was traveling so much. So in a way it was somewhat welcome but it was tough for a one-person travel business when no one can leave their homes for two years, so that was good. What I was happy about is that I'd gotten my expenses down. I was location independent, so I didn't have a rent that came up. I didn't have a retail space or employees. You know, it was about keeping those expenses down as opposed to, you know, having all these different costs and responsibilities, and so I was able to do that.

Speaker 1:

Wow, yeah, I just I feel like man, that's the entrepreneur, not entrepreneurial. I can never say that word, right. Never, never, never, never. You know what I'm saying. I feel like that's that's how we all think, right, like we don't. We don't want to have just one nine to five job with one steady stream of income. We want 17 different streams of income. None of them have to be reliable as long as they're all coming in here and there. So I don't know what it is, but I feel like every person that I've met who's on their own business has been of that same mentality. It's like, oh, I've got this, this, this, this, this, this, this and this going on and you're like, how, how do you? I'm guilty of it. I have several things going on that I don't even know how I'm doing it, to be honest with you.

Speaker 2:

But yeah, that's we're getting there. Yeah, with mine it was. You know, the. The theme is travel through everything. So, whether it's the, the trips themselves, I do a lot of public speaking about travel and photography. Yeah, books are all having to do with travel and photography, but the mindfulness part of it now. And so you know, these are all things that I know, and I'm just looking at different outlets for sharing that knowledge, right.

Speaker 1:

No, I love that. I think that's amazing. So, gosh, this has been such a pleasure. So if people are looking for you to come and book a tour with you, where would they be able to find you?

Speaker 2:

Sure, so everything's at ContinentalDrifterco and you can find my. I put up a blog about every week and all my trips, my books, my YouTube channel, podcasts I've been on podcasts I've had. I don't have a podcast right now, but that's sort of the hub of everything I do is continentaljurorco.

Speaker 1:

Wow, that's awesome. Thank you so much, rob. I really am so excited that we had this conversation. Before I leave every episode, though, I always ask this one question what does paradise mean to you?

Speaker 2:

Oh, good question. It's hard, right? Yeah, it's a tough one. Paradise to me is being able to have the time and means to do what I want to do, right Wherever that is. To do what I want to do Wherever that is it's not a particular place, but wherever I am being able to do what I want when I want not have to do things that perhaps I'm not interested in or that someone else is going to need to do.

Speaker 1:

That's a great answer. I agree, I don't know if we can ever get to that sort of paradise, but if you do find it, please let me know, because I'm more than happy to come hang out. I think that would be awesome. Thank you so much, rob. I really appreciate this conversation and we will definitely keep in touch because I want to hang out with you in Cuba. I think that would be great.

Speaker 2:

So much for Anne Willard. This was fun.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, have a good one. Thanks, hey there. Beach lovers, that's it for today's episode of beachside banter with b. I sure hope you had as much fun as I did. Hey, don't forget to subscribe and leave a review if you enjoyed the show. You can catch me on all social media platforms at life, love and travel, and if you've got a question or you just want to stop by and say hi, feel free to slide into my dms and I'll make sure to get those answered for you. Big thanks to everyone who joined me today and for all of you tuned in, and until next time, enjoy your week.