EP16: Traveling as a Creative

We’re back from some travels this week with STORIES to share! Whether you’re taking a staycation or leaving the country, it’s important to get out of your normal routine and travel as a creative. We hear about getting scammed in Tanzania, meeting randos at speakeasies, and surviving blizzards in Iceland…so get your passports ready, it’s time to get the hell out of dodge!

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, I'm Vanessa Simone.

SPEAKER_03 0:02

And I'm Mimi Hayes. And we are the girls next for Did You Miss Us? We've been away. We've been traveling the way We've been traveling.

SPEAKER_00 0:11

And it's so funny because even though we have a million episodes, you won't miss us because by the time we put this up, we'll be consistent.

SPEAKER_03 0:22

Yeah. That's something we're working towards is consistency. Um, but today's episode is is really fun. Um, it's traveling as a creative, and this one came about because Vanessa, you were just gone for three whole weeks in Africa. Yes. So um just give us the highs and lows, I guess. We'll we'll dive into the episode that way and talk about how you were creative on the trip and how that kind of worked with your travel.

SPEAKER_01 0:48

I think for one, being creative on the trip, it actually allowed my mind to expand. I think when we're stuck in our bubble or we're stuck in our little rut, we kind of forget our end goal. And sometimes to get off the grid to disappear for a moment allows us to remember, oh, you have a deeper purpose. So while I was out there, I was in Kenya and Tanzania, basically doing safari, and then did a little island trip in Zanzibar. But one thing that I started doing more was my photography, which I haven't picked up my for my camera in such a long time. And so getting the juices reflowing and also just doing it for the sake of just having fun taking a photo. It doesn't matter if the photo is a national geographic photo or if it's just a photo that you happen to take on your camera, and then just being able to finally, I feel like my mind was finally free. And when I say free, I mean I wasn't thinking so hard about all the things I think about when I'm here, and it wasn't cluttered with just all of the dreams, all of the visions, and all those things. It was just be. You were just there, just be. Yes, I was just present, and I think as creatives, we because we have such huge dreams and aspirations and goals, it almost becomes so overwhelming to the point where we almost forget to just be, yeah, and to just create. Don't think about the end game, don't think there you don't need an end game, just create. So that's just a very brief, I know we'll get into even more in the episode, but yeah.

SPEAKER_03 2:34

Yeah, I love that you did something that you had stopped doing for a while, you know, either intentionally or not. You were like, ooh, let's do a thing, let's grab a photo. And you were present like in that moment with that photo, and you it sounds like you didn't put a lot of pressure on yourself to make it like the best photo ever. I mean, you've got the landscape and a freaking hyena in your face, like you don't the work is doing itself for you, I feel like, and following your story, watching all your stories. I was like, wow, this is so compelling! Like, I'm just there with you on the trip, you know, and I could tell you were just at ease and at peace. And I know we both have really big goals for this year, and to just see you like just immerse yourself in something different, I think was really healthy for you.

SPEAKER_01 3:22

Yes, very healthy and it's so so incredibly healing. And so, yeah, Mimi, I would love to hear what are some of your advice for creatives who are traveling.

SPEAKER_03 3:34

Well, I would say do it first of all. Um, there's a lot of ways you can do it cheaply. I've done some really creative hacks to get myself abroad, including Kickstarters. Um, anytime I've done a festival um abroad, I have paid for it with my friends and my family. Um, so I'm doing, you know, I'm doing a festival in Scotland and I say, hey, I'm gonna go do go put a production over there. I'm bringing my one woman show to Scotland. I need to get over there. Will you chip in five bucks? And you'd be surprised how many people were like, Yes, take my money. Like, please, I want to see you achieve your dreams. Um, so a lot of my funds were made that way through the kindness of my friends and family and strangers. I got a lot of money from strangers too, just people like, you seem cool. Like, okay. Um, so I've done a lot of things that way. I also make up a lot of my funds and get funds along the way by selling my book. If you have a product to sell while you're away, um, I would bring my book and sell them. I was notorious in Scotland for just like selling books while I was like eating a hot dog and like in my brain costume, just like, oh yeah, I wrote this book. You want to buy it? It's $15. And they're like, Yeah, you weirdo. Yeah, I want to buy yours. Because you don't see authors on the street like selling that's not a common artist to be selling your wares on the street, right? So I had fun doing that and kind of feeling like this like entrepreneur, like life on the hustle, um, on the street, you know, doing that. Um, and then you get creative with your stays. And uh when you're a creative, you can meet a lot of people. Um, and I'm I'm an extrovert, so I meet tons of people abroad. And um, here's I have a really funny travel story of how I got to stay for free in Scotland the first time I went there, um, in terms of my board, my accommodations. So uh I was living in New York City and it was my birthday, and my roommate Joy and I went out for drinks at this speakeasy on my birthday in Manhattan. So we go to the speakeasy, we get in there, we're having these fancy cocktails, and there's this cute English couple sitting next to us, and their accents are so lovely, and you know, Americans were all about those accents. So we're like, hi, you know, we're like, hello, and they're drinking, and they're they're newlyweds. They had just gotten married, and so this was their like, you know, honeymoon was to New York City from from um Scotland, from Edinburgh. And so they buy us a couple rounds of drinks, we're all having fun, right? We're learning about each other, we're just having a blast. At the end of the night, I don't know how this happened, but I got their Facebook information. Like I got their Facebook, maybe if their WhatsApp, like we're like, let's stay in touch, you know, like that's never gonna happen, right? But you just kind of put that out there that you're friendly and that you want to stay in touch and you know they're from a different country and you never know what's gonna happen. A year goes by and I post on Facebook, hey, I'm looking for a place to stay in Edinburgh, Scotland. I'm going there for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. And this woman that I had gotten drinks with in the speakeasy pops up and she's like, I don't know why. I just have a good feeling about you. Do you want to come stay with us? Like, does that a thing? We have a spare bedroom. And so I got to stay for free in this couple's um flat in Edinburgh, super great spot. Like, could take the bus into town. Um, and I'm still in touch with them, and they love me, and I just love that story. And then the only reason why I didn't stay there the second year I went is because I had a child, and then that was then the child's bedroom. Um they had a child. The couple had a child.

SPEAKER_01 7:16

I was like, oh, I was like, me, me, me?

SPEAKER_03 7:19

No, I didn't have a child. I was like, I missed a huge yeah, I had a baby. Surprise. They live in Scotland. I don't know. Um, no, they had a child. This couple had a baby, and so then that spare bedroom was the nursery. So I had a different place that I found um that I ended up paying for, you know, the second year I went there. But all that to say, like you meet people and you stay open and you never know what's gonna happen. And you can get nice accommodations. I've got friends all around the world that they're always like, yes, crash on my couch. I'm like, great. I can't wait to go to New Zealand like and crash on your couch. Like, yes, please. You know, so you gotta you gotta just be creative, I guess, in the process of getting over there. You don't need to spend a shit ton of money. Right. Um, it can get expensive, but you can also get really creative about how you go about travel. Um, I know you were with your family too for part of this this Africa trip. So sharing accommodations, um, going with friends, although I do love a good solo trip. Um, but anytime you can share accommodations with somebody. Um also there's a there's a group, it's called Women Who Travel. I'm not big on Facebook anymore, but this was kind of back when I was, and I found this, I think through a podcast. Um, this I think they have a podcast, the Women Who Travel podcast. How many more times can I say the word podcast? Hear myself and I'm like cringing. Um no, so I was tuning in and they mentioned this Facebook group, and this is when I was I was planning to go to the festival, and I also had this weird idea. I don't know where this idea came from. I think probably my algorithm popped up with this, and it was this concept of Bothys, B-O-T-H-Y, Bothy. And they're these old school kind of cottages that were built at the turn of the century in England, and they were free accommodations, they were just little cottages so that they were all around the countryside that people could stay in for free. So backpackers would go and stay in them. You're traveling, it's like a free, not it's not a hotel, it's a cottage. Um, some of them are very basic, some of them you need camping gear and firewood. And you know, some of them are quite rustic. Um, but I heard the word free accommodations, and I was like, I want to go find a bothy and go stay in it. Yeah, I'll stay in a little cottage in Scotland. Hell yeah. Like, let's go. So bought a book about it, read up about Bothys. I was obsessed for like several months leading up to my trip. I go into the Facebook group. I'm like, hey, who wants to go both hunting with me in the foothills of Scotland on the highlands? And I actually got two women who responded. And a bunch of people liked the comment and kind of flooded the top and got some attention. And one of the women actually was like, I'm gonna buy a ticket and come meet you in Scotland. We're gonna rent a car, and we're gonna go find these bothys. We're gonna find the bothys. And so that is what we did. Uh, I will say we never found a bothy. Um, they were kind of hard to find. The closest we got to finding one, we got a rental car up to this point where there were no more roads. So you had to park the car there, and you had to hike a mile up to the bothy. And there's no, it's not on the GPS. I literally have this like book on my Kindle, and I'm like, this map, it says it's here. So we're like, okay, there's an arrow pointing that way. So do we hike an hour and a half up this mountain to find hopefully a bothy? Like, is this the plan? And we actually just turned around. We were just like, you know what, let's just go find a a hostel, like it's for tonight. And so we actually stayed in um a lot of wigwams and very similarly kind of to a bothy, you do pay for them, but they're just kind of unique. You can find them on Airbnb, the unique experiences or whatever. Um, they're just kind of like little, um, it's like glamping, is all I can say. Like we stayed in a really nice one that had like a shower and a kitchenette and a fire pit. And then the next day we stayed in a different one and we couldn't actually stand up all the way in it. It was like squat, and we had a toaster. There was like a toaster and like two mats for like sleeping bags. So they're very different in terms of like the accommodations, but I was in my 20s and I was like, I can sleep on the ground, like I don't care, I can melt, you know, cheese on bread over this toaster for a meal for the night. Like, we were so like you know, camp style around it, like is all I can say. So I went and road trip with a stranger for a week around Scotland, and we never found a Bothy, but it was a hell of an adventure. And yeah, I don't know if I answered any questions. I just wanted to tell you about Bothys, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

We love a Bothy, but I'm I mean, going off of that, so you said that you don't have to make it expensive, and I want to add on to that because there are many times when you could just take a drive, take you could take the bus or a train. I think even in Denver, we have a train that takes you to the airport or takes you to the mountains, and it's like $20. Even if it's just for a day to clear your head, get off your freaking phone, get off the technology to clear your head to start to remember the reason of why you're an artist. But also going along with that, like you, whenever I think of traveling as a creative, I think of okay, where am I going and who can I meet when I'm there? So for instance, we have we're going to LA in a few, in a couple, oh my gosh, in a month or two, two months coming up here. But whenever I've gone someplace, I would look up other creators, especially on the influencer side or creative side, and see, oh, who other creator is living in that city or state or wherever I'm going? And can I meet up with them? Can I get coffee with them? If you're a videographer, how can you incorporate maybe some videos from that city or wherever you're going into your into your artwork? Or how can you leverage leverage the most amount of art while you're traveling abroad or traveling wherever it is that you go? And I think that's that's helpful because then you're also starting to expand your network. Mimi's an extrovert, I'm an introvert.

SPEAKER_03 13:52

Are you really I'm an ambervert?

SPEAKER_01 13:54

Okay, we talked about this. I'm like, I am very I should get that.

SPEAKER_03 13:58

I understand. Yeah. Completely.

SPEAKER_01 14:00

For instance, today I've been alone, it's been amazing, and like I love when Mimi comes over because Mimi's one of my comfort friends. I can be my full self around her. Um, but I'm not as extroverted. I don't know that I would talk to the random couple at the bar. At the bar. But at some, but actually, when I'm traveling, I am a different self than I am when I'm in my when I'm here. And I think traveling also gives you, you almost become a brand new character, and you get to be a whole new persona. And so it's almost a natural version of acting in a way.

SPEAKER_03 14:39

It is because you're like, I'm a different person in the world.

SPEAKER_01 14:42

Yeah, no one knows who you are. I mean, being in Africa, being in Nairobi, being in the Serengeti, being in all these places, I'm a completely I was a completely different person and version of myself than I am here, but I want to tap into some of those versions that I was when I was there and bring it to the new version that I am. Yes. So because one thing I noticed is when I travel, I truly get off my phone and I start to remember and get to the essence and the core of who I am. Travel for me is my medicine, and it really clears my mind and rem makes me remember my innate gifts, like my things that I am just born with the talent of and the things that I love, and it lights me on fire again. And I sometimes I just need those reminders when I'm going through the day-to-day of the things of whether it's a job or whatever. It rem traveling reminds me and grounds me, regulates my nervous system, makes me remember who I am. I feel like I have a glow again.

SPEAKER_00 15:48

Yes, I'm like, life is amazing. Have you experienced life? Life is um so great in the sky today.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah, and it makes you appreciate the little things, and we get so wrapped up in the big things and wanting everything now, but it really just grounds you to remember that there is so much more, and part of life is us creating as creatives, using those God-given gifts and talents and all of those things. And so I just yeah, I'd want you to be able to travel regardless of you don't have to do an expensive safari. You don't, you could literally drive to the next town over, you could drive to a park, you could drive and make it as simple, as inexpensive as possible, or you could go all out and do as expensive as possible based on your budget, but getting there helps you clear your head, and it also helps with the story because as creatives, we are telling stories. That's part of why we love to create is we love a story, and when you're traveling, it allows you to have more pieces that come part of your story, and so because like Mimi, you're very extroverted and you can meet all these different people, all these people have a different story, but also when you're traveling, you're making a new story for yourself. Like, even if it's the simplest, I went to this town and observed this, this, and this. And it's also getting rid of the pattern that you're so used to and the day-to-day, the mundane that you're so used to, and breaking it up and seeing something completely different and new that also helps with your mind expansion. So definitely travel if you can. It's it's definitely helpful as a creative.

SPEAKER_03 17:39

I want to talk about the intentionality behind it too, because you mentioned like when I go to a place, I have a plan. Um, and you can treat it as like a retreat, as a creative um retreat. And my my best friend and I, Kristen, did this um 2021 when you couldn't go anywhere except for Iceland. Uh Iceland was taking people, and you you know, you had to have a COVID test, and you know, we we packed our bags. She had just gotten divorced, and she wanted to make a film, a dance film. She's a beautiful dancer of all different kinds of genres. And so she said, I want to go make a dance film. And I said, I want to write my book, my second book. So we said, let's go there for a month. Let's find an Airbnb. They are cheaper when you stay longer. Let's split the cost of an Airbnb, let's rent a car, and let's stay for a month and make this film and write this book. And so we did that. And um, just the intentionality that came from the the and the accountability that came from, hey, did you do your writing today? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Hey, did you get that footage today that you said you okay, great? You want me to film it? Okay, great, I'll do that. Oh, can you read this thing that I wrote today? Okay, you love it. Great, awesome. Um, you kind of bounce off of each other and you have this little like artistic retreat. Um, and you mentioned stories too, like, even if bad things happen, you still have a way of seeing it for humor and seeing it for content. Um, so I want to hear from you, Vanessa, and then I can share mine. Like, funniest travel story, like maybe things went off the rails, good things, bad things, ugly, all of it.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

Well, um, in Tanzania, I actually got scammed at the airport. I was booking my flight to Fria Kenya Airways, and I was supposed to fly Kilimanjaro and then from Kilimanjaro to Moanza. I get to Kilimanjaro, and I have to shorten this, but I did make a whole YouTube video about it. That's 30 minutes. So again, yeah, creating stories to your con to your um content. But I get to the airport and they basically say, Oh, yeah, your flight to Moanza's canceled. And I'm like, You didn't think to, you know, email me, maybe put a notification in the app, know nothing. Okay, great. So I end up thinking about, okay, how can I get to where I need to go? Because it's either a 15-hour drive from where I am in Kilimanjaro and $800 to pay for this drive to my hotel, or I could do a flight. So I reach out and I'm trying to get a flight, find a flight that is the last spot on the plane. And this lady tells me, okay, yeah, that's gonna be 450 USD. And I was like, dear God, this is the most expensive flight I will ever pay for, considering the flight is only about an hour, an hour and a half tops. And so I end up book paying for this $450 flight, and this lady says, Oh, what we need you to pay for it in cash in Tanzanian dollars, and so in Tanzanian shillings, so US to US to Tanzanian shilling, it's about 2600 Tanzanian shilling to one US dollar. And so she escorts me to the ATM and I am grabbing all of the money, which equates to 1.2 million Tanzanian shilling. So I'm literally walking out with a wada cash. Wow, in Tanzania, and just praying I don't get robbed as I'm walking around the airport with this wada cash, trying to hide it, stuff cash all over my my blazer. Finally get back to the counter and I I pay pay for I we count the money and I hand it to the lady and she um is about to get me on this flight. Then I'm using the bathroom, and as I'm coming upstairs from after using the bathroom, this other lady who works there is like, excuse me, how much did you pay for that flight? And I was like, 450 US dollar. Mind you, a few people actually asked. Me, how much did you pay for this? How much did you pay for this? I told them each 450, 450. I don't know why so many people are asking me this. It's 450. Okay. Turns out the lady who sold me this ticket scammed me. It's actually $320, still expensive, but they scammed me. But the whole time I'm panicking, thinking that my flight is canceled because this is a tiny plane that's gonna be flying throughout the Serengeti. But I ended up so the lady ends up who sold me the ticket ends up getting fired because in front of me because she's she's scammed people out of money, apparently, and scammed me. And I get my money back in Tanzanian, still a wad because a hundred dollars is a lot of money, is like four hundred thousand dollars pretty much in Tanzanian money. I get on the plane and I finally get to the Serengeti. That is the short story, the very short version of the story. But at the end of the day, I now have a story saying that I can I got scammed in Tanzania at the airport, and not many people can say that. In the moment, was it exciting? No. But afterwards you learn to laugh about it, and now it's in my diary as well. Maybe it'll be in a travel travel stories compilation book too. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 23:25

Yeah, or in your TV series. Exactly. You know, scenes.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

They're all exactly so it added a scene. But yeah, so that's just a little thing that happened. What about you, Mimi?

SPEAKER_03 23:36

I mean, I have a lot. Um, but I would say I would say that one that comes to mind that has like kind of kind of a bit of a happy ending, um, is in Iceland. We were there for the month, and um, we were doing what's called the Golden Triangle, which is you kind of go around the whole country in your car and you stop at like waterfalls and like springs and hot springs and all these kinds of things and all these historic and famous sites. And so we were doing that and going around and um in our bathing suits we had packed because there were all these like hot springs. Iceland is so known for this, so my skin was like amazing. I was just getting all these hot springs done. And um we have our next spot picked out, and we have our hotel and uh or Airbnb, I can't remember which one it was, but um we're in the rental car and it starts snowing and it's like blizzard snowing. Oh, and in Iceland, for context, they have very, very bad wind, and they literally have signs on the road that say if this wind rating, so they have like a number system, if it's above like 15 or whatever the number is, you are not allowed to drive because the wind will blow your car off the road. And frequently, uh visitors, tourists, die that way, and it's because tourists, you know, don't respect nature the same way that Icelandic people do, because they live on a volcano, you know what I'm saying? You have to respect nature when you live on a volcano, you know? Um, so we're driving, it's blizzarding, and we're like, oh my god, and there's like peaks and valleys. We're driving through the mountains, and we're like, I don't know if we're gonna make it to our hotel. Like, we're really sketched out because we have to go up this hill. And I'm like, there's no way this car is gonna make it up this hill, right? And every turn we're afraid we're gonna like fly off into the canyon, right? And and so I'm putting on like funny playlists, like we were listening to Bo Burnham, like on and I'm just like, we're dancing and we're not gonna die, and it's gonna be fine. And just trying to, because I'm not driving, thank God. Kristen was driving because it was a stick shift because she's stick shifting. She wanted to drive the stick shift. There was an automatic available, but she wanted to do the stick shift. So I was like, fine, you can, I will not be able to physically drive, which is great because I'm probably not a great driver in those kind of conditions. Um, so we're driving and we're like, you know what, let's find a backup plan. Let's see if there's a hotel closer to where we are so we can get to safety as soon as possible. So we finally find something and uh we stop in this like we're it was kind of like a museum. And it was like this, like they had this like fake lava show or something in this like hotelslash museum. So we're like get there and we have like soup, and literally my hand is like shaking because I'm like, we almost died. Like I was so sketched out, and it was bad weather, you know. And so um we finally get there and we're just kind of decompressing, and uh we stay the night, and in the morning, um we need to go find breakfast, but this hotel does not offer breakfast, so we pop into another hotel that has a breakfast buffet. So we're just you know, again, like, oh my god, I can't believe last night was so crazy. I'm glad we're alive, you know. And in the distance, I see a celebrity.

SPEAKER_01 26:57

Oh.

SPEAKER_03 26:57

And I know this celebrity because I've been following her career as a filmmaker for some time. And her name is Britt Marling, and she is like my idol because she makes these shows um that have these powerful female characters. I love her show. She made the OA, she made um, there was another one she made recently that she actually she was scouting for the location in Iceland when I met her.

SPEAKER_02 27:23

Wow.

SPEAKER_03 27:24

And so I see, and I'm like, is that of all the celebrities? You know, like it could have been anybody else, and I would have been kind of like, okay, you know, like, all right, it's Jennifer Aniston or whatever. Like, I don't I wouldn't have freaked out the way I did. I was like seeing another filmmaker at this buffet, and I was like, I gotta go to October. Like, I gotta go to October, like, come on, like you're not gonna miss this opportunity because you're being shy, right? You know, so I go up to her and she's eating breakfast, and I was like, I'm so sorry to disturb you. Um, I just want to say I'm such a fan of your work. Like, I was trying not to be that person, but I was like, I just really admire your work and I love your career and your take on filmmaking. And she's like, wow, thank you so much. And then she started asking about me. And I'm like, I am but a lowly peasant in your presence. And so I'm like trying not to actively like shit on myself. And I'm like, I'm an artist as well. I am writing my second book and I am doing that in an artist retreat. Like I made it sound official, even though it was like me, my friend at an Airbnb. Like it's not anything that anyone cares about. And she didn't know, and so I was like, Yeah, I'm working on my second book, and she's like, Oh, what's your first? And I was like, Oh, you know, I had a brain hemorrhage and I wrote this book about it. And she goes, Oh, you know, I know someone, a friend of mine who recently had a brain hemorrhage. I was like, Wow, oh my god, I hope they're okay. You know, and I was like, I'd love to send her my book, you know, if she wants another account of like what it's like to go through this, and she was like, Yeah, sure. Um, so I ended up um connecting with her agent. Wow later in that trip. I was able to find her contact information. And sometimes it's not easy to find this kind of stuff. I think I was probably paying for IMDB plus at the time, IMDB Pro. And you can actually see people's agents' emails, and some sometimes, you know, you got to pay for this kind of information, but sometimes you can find it. And so I was like, hey, I just connected with with Brit, and uh she said, you know, she'd loved to pass along a copy of my book to her friend, and so I sent her two copies. I sent Brit a copy and I sent her friend a copy. Um, or I sent Brit two copies, one for her, one for her friend. So I was like, oh my god, oh my god, Ermiger. Um, so again, it it pays to be an extrovert sometimes when you see someone you really admire, and then this was after a terrible night, you know, we were like almost died in the blizzard, and here's this famous filmmaker in front of me at the buffet, and I'm like, I gotta go see it. Um, so that's one of my travel stories.

SPEAKER_01 29:55

Yeah, not just a famous one though, one that you I'd like very much admire, which is really cool. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:03

So you gotta make those stories happen. Um, we're kind of nearing the end of our episode here. There was uh some recurring um segments we wanted to incorporate this week.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

So what do you think, V? Should we do a call to action? Should we do a delusional goal that we have? What do you want to do with people?

SPEAKER_01 30:25

I actually think a call to action would be great, and I think what you guys should challenge yourself with this week or so is set up something to travel, some sort of travel. It doesn't have to be, it could be a day trip, it could be a weekend, doesn't have to be extravagant, but just for you to just take your mind off and create and let your mind allow the nature, whatever it is, to consume your mind so that way you have new ideas and you come in with a fresh perspective for your whatever your creative endeavor is. What do you think?

SPEAKER_03 31:01

Yeah, I'd say go take your camera, your notebook somewhere different this week. Um, you know, I know in this economy, like sometimes getting out for a full trip can be hard. But if you really think about it, like I'm clearing my mind and I'm gonna do this for myself. Um, what can you do? Right? Or hit somebody up at a place where you want to go and be like, hey, I'm looking to travel to X place. You know, when I make that jump, can I stay with you? Can I meet with you for coffee? You know, oh, I didn't even mention I got to headline, I got to headline for a famous comedian in Iceland, you guys. Hey who I met while I was there and like doing random shit. And I met this the most famous comedian in Iceland, and I met him and he liked me and I opened for him for like 500 people. Wow, I didn't know that. Yeah, man. He's got like two Netflix shows. He's super nice. I met him. I was doing a different show because I was like, I should book some shows while I'm here. Yeah. And so I got on like some Facebook group for like traveling comedians, and I like booked a show, and he was on the show, and so we got to meet each other. And you know, that's the kind of opportunities you just have to make for yourself. I never would have planned that, but once you get to the location, like open yourself up for the opportunities that will come because you're in the right place at the right time, you know. Um, so yeah, I would say like make space for that. Go talk to somebody who you don't know, even if it's at a new cafe, be like, hey, um, what are you working on? I don't know, just be kind of nosy. Like, yeah, just kind of talk to me. Um, because that's what I get out of travel too, is I meet so many amazing people. And um, again, like you said, be that alternate version of yourself. And so, how can you bring that into your life if you don't leave your town? How can you bring that into your life with a new cafe or a new individual or you know, making a new connection would be my call to action.

SPEAKER_01 33:04

I love it. Well, thank you all for watching. We are the girls next pour, and we'll see you on the next episode. Bye bye.