An Unexpected Path

I know that many of you out there are wondering, “What is she doing?”  “How is she making a living?”  “How is she surviving out there?”  I often wonder this myself (insert laughing cry face emoji here 😂).  But seriously, there is a method to my madness, and I do have a plan, and it is very multi-faceted.  I thought it was time for some real-life “how did i get here” introspection and explanation.  So here goes…

The road here was a wild one.  To start with, I lost my job of 20 years in March of 2021.  If I’m being honest, the writing was on the wall, and I had lost interest in the gig long before I was forced out.  But it was an amazing job and I had many grand adventures, and although not everything about it was perfect, I wouldn’t trade it for anything.  

I worked at Sony Music as a Promotion Manager at various record labels including Arista, Jive, and RCA.  You would think that the best thing about this job would have been the music, but once I left the US and did some real soul-searching, I realized that the part of the job that I loved the most was the travel.  I covered several different territories with home bases in Charlotte, San Francisco, Chicago, and Minneapolis and I had to travel across the country to do my job.  My boss often called me a Road Dog, and I was.  I LOVED being on the road.  I loved the planes, the hotels, the rental cars, all of it!  I loved going to different cities, seeing different scenery, learning about the local cultures; again, all of it.  It wasn’t so much the music or the actual job – it was the travel!  It was like a lightning bolt struck me in the head when I realized this.  DUH.  It makes so much sense to me now.

In the interim between March of 2021 and January of 2023 (when I first came out to Asia) I struggled to find a job that suited me.  I took 7 months off to try to “find myself” and figure out where my next job should be.  Did I want to stay in the music business?  What was my passion?  I also love wine and food so I thought about that…maybe a wine sales rep?  I did consider travel, but all I could come up with was working for a travel agency and I thought that was a dying breed because of the internet (it is not by the way – but more on that later), so I glossed over it and moved on.  At the end of the day, I had a friend in real estate who thought I might be good at it, so I decided to give it a whirl.  I now have my real estate license, but the Universe had other plans for me.  

Job #1:

Real estate is a tough business to get into.  It can take 1-3 years to really get your client base going, and mine was in the newborn stage.  Right before I left for Thailand in January of 2023, I asked myself, “Why am I coming home?”  Not only was my job not really generating any income at this point, but I was also suddenly getting a divorce.  So I figured – what the hell?  I’d always wanted to take a trip with no return date.  Before I left, however, I weighed my options with real estate.  It seemed like a waste to just throw away all the hard work that I had put into it for the past year.  Plus, I felt like I could still help people.  Insert the real estate referral network here.  I could keep my license active and transfer my license to the referral network, thus still helping people in real estate by directing them to awesome realtors in my network.  I get a cut, the realtor I refer gets a cut, and the client gets a competent and reliable realtor.  Everyone wins!  So – YES – I am technically still a realtor and I am keeping my license active.  Hence, why you see my real estate posts on social media about once a month or so.  I am still working that angle as a side-hustle to generate a little extra income on the side.

Job #2:

After traveling Southeast Asia for about 4-5 months, and having the epiphany that I described above about how much I love travel, I decided that this was it.  I had finally found my calling!  As I said before, I LOVE traveling, and as much as I love domestic travel, I love international travel even more.  In fact, it was one of the conditions of my marriage.  I recall making an agreement with my then-husband that we would travel internationally at least every other year.  Honestly, this was never enough for me, but marriage is a compromise, right?  

Anyway, after having this epiphany, I decided that I wanted to be a digital nomad.  Mostly so I could keep traveling, but also to make money along the way.  Most of you who know me know that I am not rich, do not have rich parents, did not win the lottery, and did not inherit any windfalls or anything like that.  I am living off my savings, and thank God that I was wise enough to save in my past.  Hence, why I am primarily in Southeast Asia.  It is a lot cheaper here and the dollar goes a lot farther.  But it will not last forever.  I need to make money at some point, and I do realize this. 

Now that I know I want to be a digital nomad, what kind of digital nomad do I want to be?  There are many jobs that you can now do remotely, and I did research on a lot of them.  Unfortunately, none of them really got me excited.  I’ve jotted down some ideas here and there, and I may go back to them if times get desperate, but for now, I have decided to pursue my passion.  And guess what that is?  Yep, you guessed it  – TRAVEL.

I have always been good at curating trips.  And I love to do it.  My family and friends love to travel with me because I will do all the work, make all the reservations, and plan all the itineraries.  Everyone I have traveled with has ultimately complimented me on what a great job I have done.  I pride myself on finding unique places to stay and interesting things to do.  I like to immerse myself in the culture and feel like I live there, even if it is only for a short period of time.  AirBnB’s are a great way to do that.  I’ve stayed in a lighthouse in Door County, WI, a windmill in Mykonos, a bungalow in Indonesia, and more!  I also have a knack for finding a good balance between sight-seeing and relaxing.  It took a very hectic trip with my sister in NYC for me to realize that breaks are very important. I think my sister still hates NYC because I overdid it with her (which breaks my heart because I love NYC so much!).  But anyway – in a nutshell, I can curate a bad ass trip with unique lodging and get you feeling like a local, while also allowing you to feel like you are on vacation and not just running around the entire time, while still seeing all the things you want to see.  It is my art, and I love it.  So – if you reference this page on my website https://wanderingtowardthelight.com/travel-services/ you will find the link to my Travel & Planning Services.  Let me help you plan your next trip!  I promise you will have the time of your life and come back feeling different and better.

Job #3:

As I have been traveling over the last year, I have been constantly educating myself on what is happening within the travel industry.  Whether it is travel blogging, luxury travel services, regular travel agencies, independent contractors, or anything else, I have been eating it up by liking it on social media, engaging in Facebook communities, watching YouTube videos, and more.  During this process, I was informed about a new niche in the travel industry called Travel Coaching.  YES, PLEASE!  This spoke to me immediately.  Some of my favorite courses in college were psychology courses and there was a time when I seriously considered going to graduate school for it.  I always loved it and I always wanted to help people.  

After going through my divorce and my job loss, and making a major life change for myself, I felt like I wanted to inspire and help people who may be lost and struggling with these same things.  Life is hard.  Being over 40 is especially hard.  Once you get over 40 it seems like there is an expectation that you are supposed to have your life together and know what you are doing by now.  I am finding that more and more of us are not only dissatisfied with what is happening in our lives at this age, but that we also feel stuck and like it is too late to make any changes.  I am living proof that it is never too late!  I want to help people make those changes that they think they cannot.  Travel Coaching speaks to me on all of these levels.  

For those of you who don’t know, and it is mostly everyone because this is such a new niche, a travel coach is not a travel agent.  A travel agent is going to book your trip and perhaps give you some advice on where to go and what to see.  A travel coach, on the other hand, is going to help you change as a result of your travel.  If you are just looking to get away and go lay on the beach for a week, call a travel agent.  But if you are looking to travel for transformation, and want to get something out of your trip that is going to change your life, that is when you call a travel coach.  I will help guide you through that change.  We are going to go deep.  I am going to ask you hard questions about why you want to travel?  What do you want to get out of your trip?  What do you want to learn?  How do you want to feel when you come home?  What do you want to change in your life?  And then I will help to guide you through a trip that is going to manifest these changes.  It can be done!  I have done it, and traveling for transformation is powerful.  You just have to be open to the possibility.  I want to help people fulfill their dreams and highest potential and I firmly believe that traveling will help to heal your soul and get you started on a new path.  There is a reason so many people tell their loved ones when they leave on a long, extended trip, “Go find yourself.”  Because you will.  There is power in solo travel.  You will learn so much about yourself and so much about the world around you.  There is so much happening outside of our own bubbles, but we get so wrapped up in our own lives that that is all we can see.  I will help you step away from that, not just to escape it for a week, but to learn and manifest real change in your future.  So that when you come back, you don’t fall right back into the same old daily doldrums.  That is what a travel coach does.

I am currently working towards my official Travel Coaching Certification, and I could not be more excited about it.  I am so excited to help you or someone you may know!  You can read more about my travel coaching services at this same link on my website: travel-services. Please reach out and let’s get to work on finding your Happy.

So there you have it!  A 3-tiered approach to surviving across the world.  I am a real estate agent, a travel agent, and a travel coach.  And all of them serve to help you!  Which is all I ever really wanted to do, and strangely never knew it until now.  I am finally combining my passion for travel with my passion for helping people.  It’s about time, and I am so excited to get started!  

Contact me here for more information:  contact