Transcripts
Hello listeners welcome back to The Science of Self,
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where you Improve your Life From
the inside out, I'm Russell, and
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today we have a guest, Zach Smith.
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Zach is the founder and
CEO of anywhere.com.
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Your bio information says that, uh, the
concept possibly for the for anywhere.com
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or what built into anywhere.
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Dot com was a trip to Oaxaca.
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us through that experience to give
us background on where the seed
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was planted for this organization.
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Zach: Sure.
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It was, um, yeah, post-college
trip to a warm part of the world.
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That, so a friend and I took a
one-way ticket to Oaxaca, Mexico,
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and we, basically just were, you
know, moving along the Pacific Coast.
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I was reading lots of books enjoying the
way of life there, practicing my Spanish,
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and really just sensing and absorbing
and experiencing the surroundings and
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a serious, a series of encounters just.
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Occurred throughout my time there
I was, I was, I remained open the
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whole time and that was probably
why these things happened to me.
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So what ended up happening was I,
I, I went to another couple towns
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and was exploring the country just
to see if I was really able to do
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this and if I, I really liked it.
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I'm on an aerial tram going through
the rainforest, just taking pictures,
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enjoying myself and a stranger across
from me asked me what I was up to I just
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said, well, I'm thinking about buying
this, this website in this little town.
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It's kind of tourism related.
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And he was curious and he gave me
his contact information and said, I
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think we should really stay in touch.
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I'm a software engineer.
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We were of a similar age, and
so I just basically started.
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Sending him the sort of information
and the, the ideas that I had and
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what I wanted to develop what was
lacking in the current business
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and where we wanted to take it.
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And so it took, you know, about a year
or so later before we were able to
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actually go into business together.
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I think our intentions are pretty much
the most powerful thing in the world.
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And, and they, they drive.
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They, they, they, they drive
relationships, they drive choices,
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they drive you know, a lot of
what, what shows up in this world.
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And
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I, I think then my parents had certain
intentions about, you know, what
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they wanted and, and because they.
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They were idealists that, you know, left
the city and moved to the west coast.
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They got five acres out in Oregon.
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My mom was a ceramicist making
pottery, selling stuff, and, um, I.
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My, my father's last name was Smith,
and they wanted to do something more
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interesting and come up with a fun middle
name for, for, for me and my, my three
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brothers, I'm the oldest and so they
named, named me Zachary Bonaventure Smith.
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And so they, they in some ways like
set my course in some, in some ways,
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but then of course I had to learn le
many lessons along the way to figure
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out, you know, how, how I could play
my role and be who I'm meant to be.
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Um, which I don't think is, you
know, pure destiny, but it's,
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it's not also a pure chance.
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And so I, I do think there's, there's
an aspect of, of serendipity and I
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think there's a little bit of the,
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the.
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The natural laws of this world
cooperating with you when you bring
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attention intentions that are aligned
when you have certain core values.
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And I mean, this just brings up
like a really, like we've talked
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about intentions a little bit,
but like just a childhood story.
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I remember.
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We were at our house, there was a few kids
and one friend brought over a slingshot.
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I had never held a slingshot in my life.
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And I was like, wow, what is, you
know, this is, this is a fun toy.
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And so I wanted to turn
playing with the slingshot.
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And so I got the slingshot
and we're just standing there
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and there was a little pebble.
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Loaded it.
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And at the time there was this
beautiful yellow finch that
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flew into this apple tree.
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And all of a sudden I was like, well,
now I have something to aim for.
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I'm gonna aim for this bird.
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And so I was at least 20 yards away.
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I was not that close.
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Never saw a shot, a slingshot.
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But then I was like,
I'm gonna hit that bird.
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And so I aimed shot this thing, and just
like in the cartoon, this bird spiraled
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right down to the ground, perfect shot
on the neck, and I was devastated.
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I was like, oh my God.
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I didn't intend to kill that
bird, but I did try to hit it.
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So I, my intention was a powerful force.
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It caused death.
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So, I mean, I felt
guilty and shame and bad.
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I, me and my dad buried it.
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And, uh, that was a lesson that I,
I felt like I internalized and never
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really wanted to cause that type of.
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Reaction in the world through my
own kind of thought or intention.
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if, if you're, if you're in the present
moment, and if you live your values
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and you know yourself, that
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it's a natural byproduct for good
things to start showing up in your life.
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Whether you wanna, whatever you wanna
call it, whatever, you know, media,
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you want to sort of build around that.
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I, I, I think that those things
you know, they're, it's good, good
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to put it out there, I suppose.
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Yeah, I, I mean, I, I don't really,
frankly, I just, I don't really follow
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like too, too much with, you know,
social media or what, what is, um,
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being amplified at, at certain points.
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Familiar with that, that, that concept.
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And I, you know, and I think that's
like, that came with good intentions
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for people to understand that they
have a lot of, you know, power over
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their, you know, their, their life.
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And it starts, I think, with
just that subtle listening.
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And but you know, sometimes it's
like the ego gets involved and
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people want like, oh, I just want
more, more, will make me happy.
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And, and, and then you're filling
this void, or, oh, I wanna
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manifest all these material things.
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And you know, that, that to
me is, um, again, like not.
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Not really the goal, but you know,
sometimes that's just where people
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put their, put their you know, put
their in, uh, their, their attention.
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You know, and again, back to like one
of the most powerful things I think
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we do know about the nature of life.
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Yes, our intentions really matter, but.
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Where we put our attention, our attention
is actually changes the nature of, you
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know, the world or, you know, the, you
know, the, the entanglement of you know,
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people, relationships ideas, whatever.
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So it's that's another big area that,
people should be more cautious, I think,
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of where they put their attention.
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Russell Newton: One of the phrases
I took from your website or from
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your introductory email focusing on
travel as a tool for transformation.
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Like I said, we're getting short on time.
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I don't want to.
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Make you brief on that answer, but can
you expand on that phrase as a tool for
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transformation as far as travel goes?
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Zach: Yeah.
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Basically I've, I've always felt that
perspective generating experiences are
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very valuable for humans to go through.
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Um, and.
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I mean, this traces back when I was, I'm
gonna give you the, the, the backstory and
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then I'll give you the, the, the current.
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So when I was 12, 11, 11 or 12,
we had to do a big class project.
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And you know, it was just like
an independent study have to, you
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know, come up with any topic and
you have to research it and do it.
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And.
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I was thinking about all this stuff
and I told my mom, she was in the
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art studio and I remember this,
and I said, I want, I think I want
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to do my project on perspective.
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And she's like, what?
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What do you mean perspective?
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And, and, and, and then she,
she's like, well, that's tricky.
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Well, maybe it should be about.
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Perception.
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'cause then that, that gets into the mind
and the eye and all this sort of stuff.
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And so we, we land, we
landed on visual perception.
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So I've always been interested in.
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How people see the world.
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And so I, you know, modeled the brain
and did a little heart HyperCard
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program and, you know, it was
like a interesting, cool project.
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Russell Newton: do you have certain
habits, meditating, reading, exercise,
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mindfulness practices that are,
sacred to your day-to-day success.
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if so, would you share two or
three of those things just in a
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list form or elaborate however
much you'd like on those?
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Zach: Great.
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I would say that these days you
know, I really do prioritize sleep.
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You know, seven-ish
hours is, is pretty core.
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I, I have a.
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A mattress that records my, my sleep.
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And, and, and so that's something that
I, I track and I you know, just, just
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know that I got a bank hours there
and, you know, make sure I'm getting
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enough good deep sleep and REM sleep.
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I also yes, like exercise from.
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Time to time.
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I, I'm not religious about it, but I,
I like, you know, pushing myself or
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even just going on a long walk, but
just moving the body, using the body.
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I like to play basketball sometimes, but
that's harder on my body as I'm aging.
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I mean, I'm 44 and, you know, it's like
all of a sudden like getting bumped
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around or the herky jerky actions
are just a little less congruent.
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And I think that consciously
eating is important.
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Like, uh, I don't eat just
because it's lunchtime or,
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you know, oh, it's breakfast.
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So I think the body it responds really
well when you're disciplined with it.
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So, you know, recently I've,
I've been you know, not.
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Not eating three meals a day.
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I, I pretty much eat
you know, twice a day.
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You know, have a, have a nice long 16
or 18 hour period where my body's just
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processing whatever it's processing.
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And, and, and I feel like that that
also helps balance out the mood
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and balance out you know, just, um.
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Extra weight or stuff
that you just don't need.
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start with each relationship that you
have in your, in your community and,
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and be, you know, be a good listener.
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Be you know, be available
you know, respond to.
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Uh, two things be proactive and, and
again, that that has a, a, an effect
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that is immeasurable because that gets
passed on to other people and, and, and,
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and, and so you just gotta FI think you
know, just be the change you want to be.
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I mean, I know that's very dated
and whatever, but I actually
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do think it's kind of true.
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So and then.
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Yeah, I don't, I don't have a,
you know, plug, I mean, we're, you
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know, we're, we're, we're anywhere
we, we have a number of published
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countries that we are activated in.
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We have about a dozen more that we are
quietly in the process of activating
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to our repeat and our referral clients.
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So the goal.
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Is that we become that, that trusted
source to, you know, use your perf your
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vacation time as precious, your precious
vacation time as wisely as possible.
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You know, your budget and your
resources as wisely as possible.
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We are a co-creator with you
to make sure you get what you
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want out of your experience.
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These are.
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Oftentimes, you know, big once in
a lifetime trips, you know, going
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to Peru or going to the Galapagos,
or taking your, your family to,
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you know, eco lodges in Costa Rica.
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Uh, these are, these are things that,
uh, are rare and we treat them as
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being special, uh, each and every time.
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So that, that's our role.
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And we also want.
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Tourism to be supportive
of the communities that are
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hosting rather than extractive.
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And, and so I think there's a, an
awareness from the visitor, uh, that
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needs to also start to emerge, um, that
their, their choices really matter.
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Um.
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And, and, and the, the cr, the will
culture be more sustained or will it
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erode to more of a homogenous you know,
all-inclusive type model where, you know,
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people just show up and they, you know,
are eating and drinking and that's it.
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They're going home and that's travel.
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And the truth is that's not travel.
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That's, um.
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That's, that's gluttony.
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Doesn't mean that, you know,
it's not okay to go take it easy.
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Sometimes it's just don't confuse the two.
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You know, that's not travel,
that's not experiencing culture.
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You know, being on a cruise ship
with 5,000 people, you know, cruising
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around is not, not real travel.
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I'm sorry.
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So, you know, we're, we're just
trying to play our role and
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you know, call it as we see it.
