CPTJMIY: Kevin Friedman on OfertaSimple and living life as a pirate

It’s been awhile since our last installment of Crazy People That Just Might Inspire You, but if there’s one thing you can count on in life it’s that there are always more crazy people out there.  We think you’ll agree that today’s Crazy Person, Kevin Friedman, is crazy in ways that sound pretty fun.

We originally met Kevin through some mutual friends in San Francisco awhile back.  He’s got an MBA from one of the best business schools and some might even say a somewhat conservative early career in banking, but somewhere along the way he chose a more unconventional path.  When we met him he had  already left the corporate world behind and was engaged in at least a few unconventional and interesting businesses (more to come on these); now, somehow he’s heading up a business in Buenos Aires and other parts of LATAM called OfertaSimple while still living in San Francisco – obviously we had to find out more.  Let’s do this.

Kevin Friedman, the interview

Kevin, before we get started, tell us where in the world you are answering these questions?

At the back table in Jovino on Union Street in San Francisco.

When people ask you what you do for a living, how do you respond?

I usually lie through my teeth and make up the job du jour.  I guess I’m a little bit sensitive that I fill ATMs with twenties for a living.

Fair enough.  Other than filling ATMS, what are your primary motivations/inspirations in life?

I had a list of 30+ inspirational people from a few years ago… except Tiger Woods was on the top of that list.  So I’ve learned to admire specific characteristics of some notable people, but I look to my parents, my fiancée and a few close friends for real inspiration.

Before we get into your current project at OfertaSimple, tell us a little more about your background…

We understand that you are “The man behind the man” at MisterArcher.com…   What does this mean?  What is MisterArcher and what do you do there?

Mister Archer is my nom de plume for a bon vivant gallivanting around San Francisco exposing the unique and under-appreciated.  The motto is “Inspirations for your Explorations” and we share the ideas that are worthy through a members-only newsletter (sign up at MisterArcher.com).

That is a lot of fancy words in a row!  How/why did you get involved with MisterArcher?

I started Mister Archer to fight off my inner-couch potato.

We also understand that you started TValacarte.org in a campaign to take down Comcast… what’s that all about?

Does anyone believe that paying $150/month to watch a dozen or so channels is a good deal?  My frustration boiled over about a year and a half ago when I realized that Comcast’s strangehold on cable choked off the competition.  I believe if we can aggregate our demand and coordinate a movement away from Big Cable, we will ultimately be rewarded with cost-effective, high-quality programming.  Of course, if you prefer channel surfing through 300 channels in order to develop the strongest thumb muscles on the block, then you’re probably better off with the status quo.

Nice Time write-up about it by the way, how did you manage to get them to pick it up?

The Time write-up happened organically.  The author, Brad Tuttle, saw one of my comments on another related story about the cable industry, then he followed up directly with me.

Ok, let’s hear about this OfertaSimple thing…

Give us the pitch, what are you doing down in South America?

I’m running away from the United States economy (half-kidding).  America is flat-lining… while much needed reforms (patent, immigration, tax) are stuck in a rubber room due to partisanship.  On the other hand, emerging markets are implementing thoughtful policies and programs improving their GDP.  I thought it would be a great opportunity to try and launch an international business.

What is OfertaSimple?

OfertaSimple.com.ar is an online service that connects consumers with local businesses. The OfertaSimple business is based on the “collective buying power” concept that has now proved successful throughout the world. Every day, OfertaSimple features an exclusive deal with one local business in each city where we operate. Local businesses benefit from customer acquisition without having to pay an upfront cost. Consumers love the huge discounts and the sensation of discovering local businesses.

Who should be interested in this site?

Some would think that our core customer is the bargain shopper.  In fact, our most loyal customers are working professionals short on time, but excited to experience new spots in the City.  Time is their most important resource.  In the time it takes to cream and sugar their morning coffee, we provide them with a recommendation of a new spot to check out.  And we require that the business provide a 40% – 90% off discount as a reward for our customers for trying out something new.

Can you give us some examples of recent deals?

Sure.  We’ve offered a great range of deals like over 60% off sushi libre at Aires de Geisha in Palermo Soho to 75% off a parapente flight.  Although we are getting some cool spots approaching us to run deals for them, we’re still finding the best deals through our sales team and member recommendations.

How’s business going?

Overall, the business is going swimmingly.  We’ve been fortunate to have hired some tremendous employees for roles ranging from sales to marketing and customer service.  Our country manager, Eugenia, is the glue to the team.  She rocks!

There are a few other competitors who have also recently entered the marketplace, including Groupon.  But I believe there will still be room for them since someone who buys a deal on our site, might also find a few other deals attractive on their site.  Ultimately, these purchases are not mutually exclusive.

How did you get involved?

I got involved with OfertaSimple by buying the website domain.  The rest of the founding team has been living in LatAm for the past 7 years.  We drew straws to determine our responsibilities and I ended up with the CTO short-straw.

Anything else we should know about OfertaSimple?

We are looking to build an OfertaSimple mobile app for Blackberries and iPhone.  Interested app developers, please drop me a line at kevin@ofertasimple.com.

Back to you for a minute…

Were you always off doing crazy things?  When was the last time you had what most people would consider to be a ‘real’ job?

It’s been a while.  I’ve actually been trying to get a part-time job as a sports consultant.  For example, I’d love to share some zany brainstorms with the SF Giants… like bottom of the 9th, Giants are tied with one out and a runner on third base.  The other team hits a deep fly ball… definitely deep enough for the runner to tag.  Typically, the left fielder catches the ball then throws home late while the winning run scores.  Instead, the left fielder should intentionally bobble the ball, as if they are a volleyball setter while moving towards home plate.  They wouldn’t control the ball until they were within range to throw the runner out at home.  It might be tough to execute, but even if there’s a 1% chance of success better than 100% certainty of losing.  These ideas are not available to the L.A. Trolley Dodgers.

What was your last ‘real’ job and why did you leave it?

My last real job was working in Corporate Strategy for Roost.com.  I enjoyed working there and we had a strong executive team, but I decided to leave right after we raised an $8mm series B round.  My passion was to launch our rentals product, but with the real estate market upside-down, we decided to focus on the core search technology.

Would you ever go back to that kind of work environment?

Certainly.  Although I’ve opted for the pirate’s life, I do miss the security of a steady salary.  But what I miss most is the office cooler conversations.  I haven’t heard a good joke in months because it simply isn’t the same chatting with the team through a skype window or on IM.

I can definitely relate to that!  Maybe we should create an online virtual water cooler…  Sorry, back to the interview: Was it scary when you first started off on your own?   Anything you would do differently in retrospect?

Not only was it scary… it still is scary.  I still have doubts enter my mind during some weak moments in the wee hours of the morning.  A little stress might help to motivate, but a lot of stress is counter-productive.  But I’ve been lucky to have a strong support network with my founding team, my close friends and my fiancée.  (Yup, I know how to type accents over vowels.)  I am also heartened by the inspirational Marianne Williamson quote about “playing small does not serve the world.”  Touché.

I am impressed by your vowel accenting – a key skill for the success any international business.  Any advice for people who are reading this from a cubicle at a job they don’t love wishing they could get out there and pursue their passions?

I don’t think I’ve earned the right to share unsolicited advice to others yet.  But, I will share a quote from Charles Swindoll that stays top of mind.

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company… a church… a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past… we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you… we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

Thanks Kevin, good luck with OfertaSimple.com.ar!

THANK YOU, Ryan and Jen!  It’s been a pleasure to meet you both and I sincerely hope your journey inspires others to explore the world and pursue their ventures.

Interview post-mortem

This is craziness at it’s best.  I always have tremendous respect for anyone who risks failure to pursue their passions and Kevin is a great example of someone who is doing just that.  On more of a side note, I also think the idea of starting a business that focuses on international markets without necessarily having to relocate yourself is pretty novel.  I continue to be surprised by just how many different possibilities there are out there… rather than the 3-5 life/career options that most people think they have (e.g., stick with current job, look for other job in same industry, go get an advanced degree, etc.), in reality there are an infinite number of options – often they require risk, but if you know you aren’t ever going to be truly happy doing what you’re doing today and there is some possibility that you will be if you take the leap, the odds seem pretty good.  I heard a story recently of a guy that left his 10+ year successful business career to become a professional golf caddy… it’s been a few years now and he absolutely LOVES it.  Pretty cool if you ask me.

Thanks again for the inspiration Kevin.  If anyone out there knows other crazy people we should be talking to, please let us know!

Our career break came with a happy ending

Today is the end of an era.  The dawn of a new age.  The chocolate of a new chip.

Today was Jen’s first day at work.

It’s been awhile since our last update, so I’ll take a step back…

Jen’s first day at work:  How did we get here?

As previously mentioned, Jen started looking for a real job once we got here to Seattle.  This went well.

She interviewed with 3 companies and got 3 very compelling offers before deciding to halt the process with a few other companies to accept what seems like a perfect-fit opportunity.  I won’t say the name of her new employer (yes, you know of them), but I will say that it seems like a great role for her, the company itself has an awesome culture and it’s the kind of company/job that she can get excited about going to work to in the morning.

As you know, our biggest goal on post-career break re-entry has been to design our new lives with an emphasis on balance.  Long nights at work or working at home on our laptops are a thing of the past for us–especially since Daphne (our new puppy) is now the boss of us (completely and totally) and she would not approve of us working late (and would punish us severely).  In truth, she disapproves of anything other than 100% of our attention being focused on her 24 hours a day – now that I think of it, I guess she is kind of like a consulting project in that way… except much cuter.

Daphne yellow lab puppy asleep image

Reminds me of late nights in conference rooms (except replace the bone with a laptop)

Anyway… so, it’s too soon to tell how Jen’s job will work out, but we take it as a good sign that she was the last person in the office today at 5:20pm.  Yes, I said  5:20 pm.  And, they even pay her!

So, it turns out that you really can go take 6 months off to travel around the world with no negative impact whatsoever on your career – actually, I’d say the career break had a hugely positive impact in differentiating her in the recruiting process.  Equally surprising, you can apparently also find awesome jobs that pay well, are exciting and challenging and offer real-deal work/life balance.  Who knew?

What about me?

I’m currently working on no less than 8 different entrepreneurial projects and advising on a few others.  I’ve started writing code again… pretty crazy, but really fun – so rewarding to actually make something real again after such a long time.  More details to come in the future on what these projects actually are, but suffice to say, I’m having a blast.

Also, as of today, I am now a stay-at-home puppy dad.  Daphne is great.  She will be even greater when she is a little lower maintenance 🙂

What about Daphne?

She’s awesome.  Sometimes we want to kill her, but mostly she’s awesome.  In the last 3 weeks she has gone from 15 to 23 pounds (>50% increase!!!).  There are still some potty training challenges, but for the most part she’s got a handle on it.  We actually were able to apply our consulting skills to this problem and created a pretty fancy and super useful spreadsheet model to track her ‘schedule’ – stay tuned for a future post where we’ll share it in addition to some other thoughts we have on puppy parenting.

Daphne yellow lab puppy image

"it's a good thing I'm cute!"

She loves to play with her cousin Murphy (my sister’s dog).  And, even though he is more than twice her size, she can take him down (sometimes):

In Summary…

This is the (happy) end of our career break and the beginning of the next phase of our lives.  Life is great.  We are living pretty much exactly the lives that we had wanted and it is spectacular.  We highly recommend it.

If any of you are out there wishing you could take an extended career break but are concerned about what will happen after, our advice is to just go for it.  Who knows, things could turn out even better than you could imagine.

p.s. Now that Jen is at work, I will have more time to do some blogging, so stay tuned!

Rehab phase 1 is almost complete; Phase 2 is coming

Today is our last day in Chile. Tomorrow we return to Argentina. Next week we return to the US.

Phase 1 of rehab has been intense

We have been unemployed and in South America for almost exactly 6 months now.

For 6 months we have had no deadlines and no responsibilities.

We’ve had neither cellphone nor blackberry and we’ve tried to exclusively spend our time doing things that we want to do rather than things that we were supposed to do. For instance, look how long it’s been since I last got a haircut:

I need a haircut image

Luckily, I'm getting a haircut later this week

We’ve slept for as many hours as we chose to every night (except for the damn 4am geyser tour in Atacama).

Geysers de tatio image

Stupid geysers. Stupid 4am. Stupid, stupid.

We’ve taken lots of daytime naps, we’ve enjoyed bottles of wine for lunch and we’ve consumed more steak then we had eaten in the previous 10 years combined.

Dinner in Buenos Aires: Perfectly cooked Argentine beef image

And we'd do it again

At times, we’ve seen amazing landscapes. At times, we’ve sat on park benches and watched dogs play for hours. At times, we’ve sat on benches and had people try to steal Jen’s purse – that was entertaining.

We’ve read lots of books. We’ve tried to read many Spanish newspapers. This has gone poorly.

We’ve lived in 2 countries and immersed ourselves in their cultures- Argentina for 4.5 months and Chile for 1.5 months. We are happy to help you plan your trips.

We’ve sat in cafes for hours – in the beginning we had lots to talk about… later we just stared at each other… then we started bringing books… then we ran out of books… Now we don’t go to cafes so much.

Each of these things has been a critical part of our rehabilitation. By completely removing ourselves from our old environment and the associated pressures/peers/challenges, we were forced to gain perspective. We were humbled on a daily basis. It was annoying.

Through immersing ourselves in foreign cultures in which nothing is expected of us and no one cares about our resumes or has a vested interest in what we do next, we found perspective on who we had been and on who we want to be. At times it was freeing, at times it was frustrating – both are part of the process.

Through meeting people on the road (both travelers and locals) our perspective on what life can look like and the sheer number of different possibilities that exist and can lead to happiness has expanded immensely. As has our definition of happiness-now we think it requires frequent napping.

Finding this perspective was the goal of rehab phase 1. This isn’t the end. We don’t have any answers, but this new and broader perspective will serve as the foundation for phase 2.

Rehab phase 2:  Re-entry / where we go from here

Next week we will fly back to the US and begin phase 2. We are not sad to return, we are excited to start a new chapter of this adventure. It’s like a choose your own adventure book, except written for adults instead of 8 year olds.

To say that we are ‘returning’ is not entirely accurate… we don’t have a specific home to return to. We have a storage unit full of stuff in San Francisco and a car in Seattle. We have no jobs and no place to live that is our own. And, due to poor/rushed planning all of our other clothes are in that storage unit, so we will have to continue wearing the same 5 outfits that we have been wearing for the last 6 months even though all of our sweaters and socks have holes in them. This should make a strong impression in job interviews.

We won’t be picking up where we left off, we will be starting fresh in a new city. We are planning to live in Seattle for a variety of reasons. It will likely rain a lot, but also be much cheaper.

The prospect of starting fresh is a little intimidating at times, but with our newly broadened perspective, we are excited to construct lives that offer us balance. We don’t know what it will look like exactly. From a distance, it might look like a dancing penguin. No one knows. That’s what makes it exciting.

dancing penguin image

Let's hope that it doesn't look like this dancing penguin

Jen is looking for a ‘real’ job. I plan to pursue a number of entrepreneurial projects that I have been toying with for some time. In both cases, we will only consider things that we think we will genuinely enjoy. We have already accumulated plenty of option value in our careers and are ready to cash in and find things we love. The evil mongeese can suck it.

We’d like to have a dog. And we’d like to have lives that allow us to keep the dog alive. We suspect that the dog will appreciate this as well.

We plan to have hobbies outside of work. We’ve heard that this is possible. Jen would like to teach English as a foreign language in the evenings. I’m excited to return to improv comedy. Maybe we’ll even do something athletic–fear not, we pledge to continue drinking enough wine to keep ourselves firmly out of shape.

We believe that we are ready for phase 2, but re-entry comes with a number of risks. We need to be ever-vigilant for any signs of relapse.

Signs that we might be relapsing:

If any of the following occur, we may need to buy plane tickets or at least some steak…

  1. We don’t actively pursue hobbies
  2. We eat take-out dinners more than twice a week
  3. We have more than 3 days in a row of unhappiness at work (a couple of days can happen anywhere from time to time – at 3, we torch the place)
  4. More than 50% of the friends that we spend time with on a regular basis have MBAs
  5. We spend more than 10% of our social interactions complaining about our jobs
  6. We eat lunch while still typing
  7. The idea of getting a dog dies due to impracticalities of work schedule
  8. The dog itself dies due to neglect
  9. Multiple instances of cancelling social events occurs due to last-minute work conflicts
  10. We check emails on our phone while mid-conversation with others
  11. We don’t manage to leave the country at least twice a year
  12. We achieve Starwood platinum status (and are proud of it)

There are almost certainly others. We will need your help to avoid relapsing. That is why we absolutely plan to continue this blog. It will become less about South America (though there are still tons of topics we’ve been meaning to write about on Chile/Argentina and still plan to), and more about Seattle and our re-entry.

We hope to be an example not just of a couple that left our jobs to travel for 6 months, but one that also made a successful return to our careers and are better off than we were before we left.

Stay tuned.

Any other relapse warning signs you can think of that we should watch out for??

Addendum to our FAQ: Thoughts on management consulting

It’s hard to believe that it’s September. We’ve now been in South America for almost 6 months and have written ~100 blog posts. What an amazing adventure it has been.

We have just returned from an incredible 5 days in the driest desert in the entire world (Atacama desert–stay tuned for our trip report and photos later this week!). You may be surpised and saddened to hear this, but this post is going to be even drier than that desert. There’s still time to stop reading.

We recently were reflecting on what our blog has become (far more than we ever anticipated!) and realized that given its title, there is some possibility that its purpose could be misinterpreted. We would certainly not want anyone to be offended by it or think from a cursory glance that it is focused on bashing our former employers and/or the management consulting industry. So, while we are likely just being overly paranoid, we figured we’d take a few minutes and clarify a few things about how this blog relates/does-not-relate to consulting.

The below Q&A will be added to our FAQ page shortly, but we wanted to post it here as well to make sure it got some exposure. Apologies that this is a bit dry; we promise to go back to writing about crazy travel experiences, interviews with cool people and ridiculous editing of mongoose photos right-away.

Addendum to FAQ:

Q: Is the purpose of this website to bash/criticize/make fun of the management consulting industry?

A: Absolutely not. While we do make light of our previous lifestyle as consultants using broad generalities and stereotypes in the “Our Consulting Problem” post, that is far from the focus of this blog. If you look at the ~100 posts of content on this blog, you’d see it’s roughly:

  • ~70% Argentina travel experiences
  • ~10% Chile travel experiences
  • ~15% Career Break oriented stuff (e.g., our reflections, interviews of other people with interesting experiences, inspiration to do one, etc.)
  • 2 posts of my comedic management book chapters (and strangely edited pictures of evil mongeese)
  • 1 post that discusses our experience as consultants (Our Consulting Problem)

Feel free to check the Site Map to verify (note, there is some overlap in categories, so the numbers don’t work out perfectly).

Q: Doesn’t the name “Consulting Rehab” imply that you dislike the consulting industry and/or your experiences within it?

A: No. The name was chosen primarily for entertainment value (and we were, indeed, entertained when the ads served by Google for the first few weeks were for drug rehab centers in Northern California!). While there are many ups and downs, I think everyone would agree that, on average, management consulting is more intense from a lifestyle perspective than most jobs and that anyone working hard could use a break for a little ‘rehab’ from time to time. We chose the title for the following reasons:

  • It was somewhat unique that we were both consultants
  • Most of our friends that we thought would be reading the blog were also consultants (Note: At this point the majority of our readers are people planning trips to Argentina/Chile or just looking for travel inspiration, given our content mix)
  • “Consulting Rehab” just seemed more entertaining than “Consulting Break” or anything else we could come up with, and our assumption was that pretty much everyone in the consulting industry is capable of laughing at themselves a bit (as this was one of the reasons we had so much fun there)
  • The domain name was available

Q. So, what do you think about the consulting industry?

A. We think that management consulting is an incredible industry to develop business skills, learn how different industries work and rapidly accumulate expertise across a number of dimensions. It’s hard to imagine another job in which you work with so many dynamic people (both clients and co-workers), learn new things every day and help to solve some of the most complex and high-impact business problems out there. These are just some of the tremendous benefits to management consulting, and we genuinely value the time that we spent in the industry.

There are challenges as well. Like any professional services industry, consultants often have more intense hours, spend more nights in hotels and can be required to be ‘always-on’ and ready to respond quickly to clients or other team members at any time. The degree of intensity varies greatly from project to project – ranging from low-key/relaxed/fun to super intense/stressful – and it can be difficult to predict what it will be like from project to project or even day to day. At times, this unpredictability makes the job exciting, dynamic and awesome. At times it just makes it hard to plan anything else in your life outside of work. None of this should be a surprise to anyone; this is just how professional services goes.

No jobs are perfect. Jobs are jobs. I’d personally much rather be too busy and stressed on an intense consulting project in which I am learning a lot and working with a highly talented team than bored in a monotonous corporate job where I get to go home early (I did that for awhile too). That’s my strong preference and what drew me to consulting to begin with. Probably the best project I ever worked on had me in a conference room with a 12 person team working for ~15 hours a day for 3 weeks–I didn’t get much sleep, but I’ve never learned so much in such a short period of time, and because the team was so great, it was also a tremendous amount of fun. (To be clear, those kinds of hours are not the norm, but they do happen from time to time.)

I’m rambling, so I’ll end with this: Management consulting is an awesome career with tremendous benefits. Along with those benefits come some costs to your life outside of work.  Like any job, each person has to do their own ROI calculation on an ongoing basis to ensure that they are getting enough out of the job to justify what they are putting into it and that it can co-exist with whatever other priorities they may have in their life.  Some people manage the costs better than others, and some firms care about this more than others (we believe that our former firm genuinely cared a lot about this and did a great deal to make the job as manageable as possible). There are definitely other jobs that require even more lifestyle sacrifices, but also many that require less (though may also offer fewer benefits). It just depends on what you are optimizing for (which can/does/should change over time).

I would not think that any of what I have said above would be controversial.

Q: Have you ever written about specific things/people at your old firm or client experiences?

A: Absolutely not and we have no intention to do so. As stated above, we mostly write about travel experiences/inspiration and, more recently, career breaks and unconventional career/lifestyle design.

Q: You have mentioned in various posts that you are hoping to inspire people to take Career Breaks and travel… are you trying to get consultants to quit their jobs?

A: Three things on this:

  • Thing 1: No, we’re not
    This is not about consultants (or consulting) but rather addresses the broader, more diverse audience of our current and future readers who, regardless of what job they work in, are interested in learning more about Career Breaks or at least living vicariously through those of others.
  • Thing 2: We think pretty much anyone can benefit from taking a break
    We have had an amazing experience on this trip and have no doubt that when we return to our careers, we will be refreshed and recharged, have new perspectives from living in foreign cultures, have new language skills and overall be more effective in whatever jobs we land in.

    If there is anyone out there (in any job) that is sitting around wishing they could do something like this, then yes, it is absolutely our intention to help inspire them to pursue whatever they are passionate about and to realize that there are many success stories out there and different paths available.

    This doesn’t necessarily require anyone to quit their job or jeopardize their career–there are many options (e.g., long vacation, sabbatical, part-time, etc.). Our previous firm had a program that allowed people to take 2-month sabbaticals, because they realized that people are more effective when they aren’t burnt out and that there is a lot of value to having time to recharge every once in awhile. Same sort of idea. Sometimes all you need is a break and then you can return to your previous job re-inspired with a new sense of purpose; sometimes a break highlights that you would be happier pursuing a different career. It just depends on you and your situation. Either way, I think taking a break is a very healthy thing to do from time to time.

    Our thought is that time goes by quickly and you never get it back–if you don’t go after your passions now, it will only get harder to do so later.

  • Thing 3:  We’re contemplating changing our name to make this more clear
    We recently purchased the domain names http://www.CubicleRehab.com and http://www.MBARehab.com and are considering switching to one of those as our primary domain to clarify that this is an industry-independent message geared towards anyone in any job that could use some inspiration/advice on how to take a break. We’re still unsure whether or not to make the change as there are some unpleasant technical implications, and some of our readers prefer the current name. Always open to more perspectives on this – let us know what you think.

Q: What if I’m still angry that you are joking around about consulting?

A: Sorry. We genuinely didn’t intend to offend anyone. Part of why we were both drawn to our former firm was how dynamic the people there are and how, despite being some of the most intelligent and talented people we’d ever met, they rarely took themselves too seriously and were always up for a good laugh (e.g., hilarious offsite videos). Our thought was that the very little we have written in regard to the industry would be perceived as entertaining and relateable, rather than as some sort of attack.

To conclude…

Hopefully this has helped to clarify any potential confusion over our intentions and our perspective on consulting–because we know how much you all spend sitting around wondering what we think about consulting 🙂  Thanks to all of you who read this blog for your comments, Facebook “likes” and general support. We never thought it would be more than a way to keep in touch with a handful of friends and family, but we’ve had a tremendous amount of fun maintaining it, especially as its readership has grown. Thank you for your time – we will now go back to entertaining you.

CPTJMIY: Gordon Jack on getting the government to pay for your travel adventures

Last week on Crazy People That Just Might Inspire You (CPTJMIY), we featured Crazy Person Dave Kovac on his involvement with Habitat for Humanity Global Village and how he manages to make his passion for travelling the world and helping people a regular part of his life.  Hopefully, many of you were inspired (if not, let me know and I’ll tell Dave to try to be crazier in the future).

Dave’s success in setting his life up in a way that allows him to balance his passions with his commitments/responsibilities on an ongoing basis is pretty awesome.  What’s perhaps even more awesome is that his is only one of thousands of ways to do this.  If you spend most of your time in an office you likely don’t hear much about all of these less-conventional lifestyles that are out there–it’s not because they aren’t out there, it’s because the people that are living them are not spending much time hanging out in your office (also, conversely, the people that are in the office with you all the time are unlikely to be promoting unconventional lifestyles).  That’s what CPTJMIY is here for.

Diversity is abundant when it comes to Crazy People.  This week’s Crazy Person is Gordon Jack; he represents a whole different flavor of crazy.

Some background on Gordon

We met Gordon in Buenos Aires at an intercambio event at our Spanish school back in ~April.  For those that aren’t familiar with the term ‘intercambio,’ in this context it’s meant to be a gathering of native Spanish speakers interested in learning English, with native English speakers interested in learning Spanish.  You get together, drink some wine and talk half in English and half in Spanish. Perhaps the most notable part of our intercambio experience with Gordon was that there were no native Spanish speakers, so after making each others’ Spanish worse for awhile we just talked to Gordon in English.    We’re glad we did.

Gordon Jack Intercambio image

It was an intercambio just like this one (photo courtesy of Gordon)

We immediately hit it off with Gordon.  Not only is he just a very cool guy; at the time, he was also relatively new to BA and from San Francisco so we had a lot to talk about.  Also, he’s a Crazy Person.  Gordon somehow managed to get the US government to pay for a ~6 month trip to Buenos Aires for him and his family; sadly, we did not.  Intrigued?  Would you like to get the US government to pay for an incredible international adventure for you?  We thought so.  Let’s find out how this works.

Gordon Jack: The interview

Let’s start with some basics…

Gordon, give us some background… what is your career back home?

I am a high school English teacher.

Why do you do it and how long have you been doing it?

Most teachers would say they want to save the world by educating young people to be caring and responsible citizens.  That’s kinda true for me.  Initially, I took the job because I wanted extended vacations. After working in advertising for four years, I needed more than a two-weeks off a year.

Have you done any long-term travel like this in the past?  If so, where/why?

I’ve never enjoyed vacations that involve a lot of traveling.  What I like to do is repeat my routine in a foreign country. That way, I experience both normalcy and abnormality at the same time.  It makes the craziness comfortable (or the comfort crazy, I haven’t decided which.)

As a sophomore in high school, I lived for a summer with a family in Oaxaca, Mexico.  My sophomore year in college I studied abroad in Lugano, Switzerland for a semester.  After quitting my advertising job, I lived in Granada, Spain for two years.  I also worked for a year in Santiago, Chile at the international school there.  Given all this time spent in Spanish speaking countries, it’s surprising my Spanish isn’t better than it is.

What do you like about international travel/living?  What motivates you to do it?

I like the challenge of international living.  Every day, you learn something new about the culture or language.  Back home, I wouldn’t spend much time finding the right medicine for constipation.  But in another country, that can be a whole day adventure!

Do you consider yourself to be a Crazy Person?  Do your friends and family?

I don’t think so, but those funny green men in orange suits who live in my sock drawer disagree with me.

Ok, now about this Argentina thing…

How long were you and your family in Argentina?

5 months

Why Argentina?

I spent a long weekend in Buenos Aires when I was working in Santiago, Chile and fell in love with the city.  I love the beauty of the architecture, the life on the streets, the plethora of parks and museums.  There are also incredible things to see outside the city, like the glaciers, waterfalls, vineyards, lakes, cattle ranches, and dinosaur fossils (OK, my seven year old son made me include that last one.)

We heard that you got the government to pay for a big chunk of this trip… How is this possible?  What did you have to do for them in return?  (We’re hoping it involves secret spy stuff)

Well, I sort of spied on their academic institutions, but I didn’t learn any valuable state secrets.  I went to Argentina on a Fulbright scholarship, which paid for most of the trip. Most people, including myself, think that Fulbright grants are reserved for fancy academics but they have some for slobs like me too.  In return for the money, I had create a project that promoted cross-cultural communication between students in Argentina and the United States.

Tell us more about your project

My project involved having U.S. And Argentine students engage in a visual correspondence of photographs to see what could be learned about a different culture. Over the course of three months, the students exchanged photographs which in some way represented their values or beliefs. The challenge was to find a way to represent an abstract idea with a concrete image (they weren’t allowed to put themselves in the photo). Upon receiving the photo, the partner had to interpret the image and then send one back that matched it in some way (through a similar use of line, image, color, etc.) but communicated something unique about him or her. Here is a link with some examples: http://www.slideshare.net/gordonjack/visual-correspondence-project

So what were the results of your project?

The results were mixed.  Not as many students participated as I would have liked, but the students who participated did amazing work that made me look good to the fancy academics.

Would you consider your experience worthwhile?

Definitely.  It was an amazing experience for my family.  We got to spend a lot more time together, which you might think would be disastrous, but it worked out surprisingly well.

Gordon Jack presenting Fulbright image

Here's Gordon presenting a fancy looking chart. Brings back memories. (photo courtesy of Gordon)

Let’s talk Fulbright…

How did you get the idea to apply for a Fulbright scholarship?

I wish I could say it was through months of painstaking research and thoughtful deliberation, but the truth is, I saw an ad in an educational magazine announcing a new Fulbright grant called “The Fulbright Distinguished Awards in Teaching” and decided to apply. When I asked my wife’s permission, she looked at me kind of funny.  “I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head. “I thought for a second you said you wanted to apply for a Fulbright Distinguished Award in Teaching.”
“I did,” I replied.
“Distinguished?  Really?”
“Why not?”
“Nothing.  Go for it.”
Little did she realize what a misnomer the program’s title was.

Can just anyone apply (age/expertise/education/etc.)?  How do you qualify?

You need some teaching experience.  Here’s the website for anyone who’s interested: http://www.fulbrightteacherexchange.org/dteIndex.cfm

What kinds of projects can you do?  Any good examples of other projects you are familiar with?

Like I said, the goal of the projects is to promote cross-cultural understanding and dialogue.  My project involved a visual correspondence of self-portrait photographs between Argentine and U.S. students.  Another Fulbrighter in Argentina was studying traditional folkloric music to teach to her students in the U.S.

What percent of your time were you focused on your project vs. enjoying your trip?

The nice part of about the scholarship was that it allowed for a more balanced time of work and play.  The bureaucracy in Argentina is pretty bad.  As a result, things move much slower there than in the U.S.  The nice part about this was that while I was waiting for my mentor to find me classes to teach and attend, I could go on nice long lunches with my wife.

If you get a scholarship, what does the government provide?

Money and contacts.  We had to find our apartment and our son’s school on our own.

JWFulbright image

J. William Fulbright paid for Gordon's trip, now he wants to pay for your trip

How does the application process work?  How long does it take?  How competitive is it?

I applied in March 2009, was accepted in May of that year and left in February 2010.  I don’t know how many applications the Fulbright organization received.  The program was new so I benefited from fewer people knowing about it.

Any advice for someone interested in applying?

Do it!  It’s great.  I was burning out and now I feel like I’m burning again (in a good way).

Any pros/cons to trying to get this kind of a scholarship to facilitate travel?

Well, there’s the whole work thing.  That could be a pro or a con depending on your point of view.  We could have traveled more if I didn’t have to work on my project.  On the other hand, the project focused my time and made it feel more purposeful.  I feel like I got more out of my experience because I had this particular focus that put me in touch with people I never would have met if I were just traveling.

Now, a little on balancing this with the rest of your life…

Did you have to quit your previous job in order to do this, or was your employer willing to let you go on sabbatical for awhile?

My employer reacted the same way as my wife when I told him I was applying for this grant.  He had to sign a form guaranteeing my job when I returned, which I think he only did because he never thought I would get it.

Any advice for convincing an employer to let someone do something like this?

Play along with other people’s low expectations but don’t let them dissuade you.  When you approach your superintendent with the form, say “This is something I’m never going to get, but would mind signing it anyway?”  Then be sure to act all surprised when they accept you and apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. You should also mention that it looks good for the district to have a Fulbright teacher on their staff, even though no one probably cares.

Was it challenging to convince your family to go along?  How did that work out?

My wife was surprisingly game for the adventure and my seven-year-old son wasn’t told about it until we boarded the plane so he didn’t have time to complain.

Any general advice for people looking to find ways to make their passions part of their regular lives?

Well, first you have to find your passion, which can be hard because sometimes it’s buried deep beneath the thousands of emails filling your inbox.  Taking time away from your responsibilities can help you discover what you like to do.  As a teacher, I benefit from having three months a year to do this and it’s helped me understand what makes me happy and what makes me miserable.  Now, I’m trying to focus as much of my time on the happy part and avoid as much as possible the miserable part, which is also hard because no one pays you to be happy.  They only pay you to be miserable.

Gordon Fulbright Argentine trip image

Gordon getting paid by the government to happily take a nap with an Argentine horse (photo courtesy of Gordon)

Thanks Gordon!!

You can read more about Gordon and his family’s adventures in Argentina on his very entertaining blog:  http://jackfamilyinba.wordpress.com/

For those of you that aren’t teachers, fear not, you still may be able to hook yourself up with a Fulbright Grant.  They have several programs for people of different backgrounds.  Check out the official site for more details on what grants are out there and how to get more information:  Official Fulbright website If you manage to get one of these, not only does the government pay for an incredible adventure, but it’s super prestigious and according to the Fulbright Wikipedia page, lots of Fulbrighters win Nobel Prizes–those look really good on your resume.

So, to recap:

  1. Government pays for crazy travel adventure
  2. You design your own research project having to do with things that interest you
  3. You get a good balance between living/working in a foreign culture and an amazing long-term vacation
  4. It’s highly prestigious and will very likely help to advance your career rather than looking like a long vacation
  5. You might win a Nobel prize

Sounds like a pretty awesome way to take a career break to us.   We wish our career break had at least one of these five elements (ideally either the government paying for it or the Nobel prize).

Check us out on Career Break Secrets!

We got featured on the “Who’s out there now” segment of Career Break Secrets.  You can check it out here:  Consulting Rehab feature

If you aren’t familiar with Career Break Secrets, you should be.  They are yet another great resource out there to provide planning resources and help inspire you to go on your own career break adventure.  Also, they are one of the sponsors of Meet, Plan, Go! which we wrote about last week here.

Rather than trying to describe them myself, here is a quick excerpt on how Career Break Secrets describes themselves:

“A career break is a way to rejuvenate and reconnect with your passion, whether you want a month away from your daily grind, or a year to find what makes you happy. Career Break Secrets can make what seems like an overwhelming undertaking – easy. Our planning advice and video travel guides, created with the career breaker in mind, will inspire you and show you how. We help you make that dream to take a career break a reality today. Why? Because life is out there.”

Pretty cool.  Check it out.

CPTJMIY: Dave Kovac on Volunteer Vacations, Global Village, and finding balance (Part 2)

It’s been a long and arduous 3 day wait, but I’m thrilled to let you know that you need not wait any longer… Part 2 of our interview with the very first featured Crazy Person That Just Might Inspire You (CPTJMIY) is here.

I’m sure you all read part 1 of our interview with Dave Kovac which focused mainly on his inspiring involvement in Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village international trip program (if not, you should!).  While reading it, you may have wondered how he possibly manages to spend 2-8+ weeks a year out of the country building houses and making a true difference for people in remote parts of the world.  It’s one thing to go on a trip every once in a while, but how has he managed to balance it with the rest of his life/career/family for several years now?  We’re glad you asked.  That’s what part 2 is all about.  Let’s find out:

Dave Kovac – The interview (part 2)

Dave Kovac Global Village image

As a trip leader, Dave is forced to wear many hats. Sometimes simultaneously.

Ok, a little more about you…

We hear you actually have a “real job”. When you’re not leading trips, what do you do with your time?

I split between a couple of things. I teach at Oregon State University, I own/manage some rental properties, I do a little consulting, and I’m easing out of my 12-year tenure as a house-dad.

Did you intentionally choose a career that would allow you the kind of flexibility you currently have? If so, how? And if not, how did you end up this way?

That’s an interesting question. I don’t see myself as having a “career.” I had one. I prepared for it and I worked for it and I followed a well-worn path that was to put me in a career position as a college administrator, but I found that the deeper I got into the career, the less time I spent doing what I initially intended on doing. It’s a fairly common occurrence — people join a profession because they enjoy the work and then move up the administrative ladder moving further and further from the work that they enjoyed so much in the first place. Our reward for doing a good job is oftentimes being given extra jobs for which we have little preparation or interest (or even skill). That produces ambiguity, loss of confidence, stress… In education, at least, good teachers are often promoted to administrative positions which require a completely different skill set. One goes from displaying the ability to connect with students and impart knowledge to balancing budgets and making personnel decisions. That’s not what most teachers are either trained for or want to do.

Now back to your question. When I stopped my career I thought it would be temporary but “knew” that it necessitated a change of some kind. I stopped in order to be a “house-dad” for our three growing children. My wife was in a position/career that she was devoted to and our kids needed the time and attention. It was weird and scary and oddly threatening — to me and to people in our community. A lot of people — including myself — seemed very uncomfortable with the notion of purposely jumping off of the career track. Some were disappointed, many were confused, and a lot, I discovered, were envious of me doing what they secretly hoped to do. So I added the title “consultant” to my name plate and shopped that around for a bit. It was easier than trying to explain what I was doing, an understandable “career-move” (if it brought in the bucks), and wasn’t untrue: I did a lot of consulting — I consulted with the family on what we should have for dinner, I consulted with the kids on when their soccer practices were, I consulted with my wife on what needed to be done around the house…

I began reconstructing my interests, skills, and priorities — not necessarily in any planned sort of way — in order to feel better about what I was doing. What I’ve come to is not a career, really. It’s a mix of commitments, responsibilities, interests, and involvements. I’m much busier now. I’m pretty scattered. I am crazy. But that’s my life — the one I’ve defined, and not the one defined by my “career.”

Dave Kovac Global Village 2 image

Dave and some of his 'clients'

How do you balance being on the road for extended periods of time with work, family, other responsibilities at home?

I don’t know if I balance it. It doesn’t feel balanced. But it doesn’t feel chaotic or stressful, either. I’ve been able to incorporate family into the trips by taking each of my children, separately, on a Habitat build. My wife will tell you that she counts on me being gone a few weeks out of the year so that she can have some alone time with the kids or visit relatives that we just haven’t had the time to see together. I do think that my teaching suffers when classes are interrupted by me being gone, so I’m trying to work on that. But that’s just a matter of me being more conscious of my schedule.

Dave Kovac Global Village Balance image

Looks pretty well balanced to us

Do you feel you’ve had to make any major sacrifices to find this balance?

Not really. This is more of who I am. I’m following my interests, I feel I’m making a difference, and I believe that the good I do in one area of my life seeps through to other areas. I do miss having spending money, but that never worked out so well for me anyway.

What are the biggest challenges? Biggest rewards?

The biggest challenge is packing. Oh, and completing expense reports. As for the rewards…they are plentiful, my son.

Any advice for people trying to create a better balance in their life (for instance, people who work crazy hours in jobs they don’t love)?

The easiest advice that someone could give is, “hey, if you don’t like what you’re doing, stop.” But that’s not very realistic. When we’re talking about achieving balance we’re really talking about developing our own identity. Who am I? What am I good at? What inspires me? What do I like to do? Seek out those activities that help answer those questions and reinforce what you’ve discovered. It’s funny, but I’ve found that during those times I’ve been completely stressed and anxious, instead of subtracting from my list of commitments, I ended up adding to them so that the sum of those commitments held meaning. “Who am I?” is not a question that can or should have one answer — it’s a compilation of many things.

Anything else to add?

If this makes me crazy, then yeah, I’m nuts.

One last thing…

When/where is your next trip? How do you sign up?

Thanks for mentioning that. We are still looking for participants in my next Global Village adventure to Udon Thani, Thailand in November. After that, it looks like I’ll be heading back to Macedonia in June. Habitat for Humanity’s Global Village program maintains a constantly updated trip schedule at http://www.habitat.org/cd/gv/schedule.aspx . Look at when and were trips are being scheduled throughout the world and if my name’s in the trip leader column — bonus!

Dave Kovac Global Village team image

Consider Global Village for your next vacation; these people did.

Thanks Dave!!  We definitely think that you are Crazy–and to us, that is high praise.  We are inspired and we’re hoping that this interview will inspire others as well.

You can get more info about Dave’s upcoming trip to Udon Thani, Thailand in this brochure.  Also, check out the Global Village website for info about this and other trips; they are happening all the time, all over the world and they are 100% worth checking out.

Meet, Plan, Go! September 14th in thirteen cities.  Be there. Seriously.

Listen up.  This is important.  We want to tell you about an outstanding event that will be taking place on Sept. 14th in thirteen cities across the US and Canada called Meet, Plan, Go! Its entire purpose is to provide you with inspiration, contacts and resources to “plan the trip of a lifetime” – and then go.  You’re probably wondering how much something this awesome would cost.  Well, I hope you’re sitting down: this event is free.  If you live anywhere near one of these cities, we think you should go.  To be honest, we’re pretty bummed that the fact that we’re already traveling prevents us from going.  Please go and tell us about it so that we can live vicariously through YOU (seriously, it’s the least you could do).  🙂

If that wasn’t enough to convince you, read on…

If you’ve followed this blog at all in the past, then you know a little bit about our story–we were management consultants with intense jobs for a long time, now we’re hanging out in South America applying our high-intensity, driven personalities to enjoying life rather than making PowerPoint slides.  We won’t be doing this forever, and we wouldn’t want to.  Even if we had the finances to enable doing it forever (which we most decidedly do not), we’d eventually need to go back to doing something that felt like it gave us a purpose.  Going on a long-term trip like this doesn’t mean abandoning your career or even your current job, it just means taking a break.  That’s why we like the term “Career Break”, which we keep coming across more and more during our adventure.

The more we reflect on our experience and the more we learn about what others get out of taking Career Breaks (whether they last 2 months or 12), the more enthusiastic we are about suggesting them to others–everyone really.  I can’t think of anyone that wouldn’t benefit from taking a step back for a little while.  It brings perspective.  It allows you to see more clearly what it is that you want.  It may lead to you returning to your previous job/career with a renewed vigor and sense of purpose, or it may lead you to new epiphanies about who you are and what you really want to be doing.  Regardless of where it leads you, by the end you’ll know yourself better, be more excited about life and probably have some great photos and crazy stories that you can use to make your friends jealous.

If you read our recent post on career option-value and identified with anything in it, you’ll agree that one of the very best ways to remove the stress from your life is to embrace and enjoy failure rather than running from it.  There is no better way to feel like a failure on a daily basis than to immerse yourself in a foreign culture–trust me, it’s pretty fascinating to go from being a senior client advisor to only having the ability to communicate at the level of a 5th grader!  Not only will you be humbled on a daily basis, but you’ll be away from the constant influence of your friends and colleagues who, in an attempt to be supportive, tend to reinforce the idea that you should stay on the path you’re on.  They may be right, but it’s more important what you think–and it’s almost impossible to get real perspective without getting away from it all every so often.  Long-term travel is the best way I know to do it.

Still not convinced?  We’ve got reinforcements…

I could go on and on (and you’ve seen me do it!), but instead I’d like to turn it over to one of the founders of Meet, Plan, Go! who also happens to be the host of the event in San Francisco to tell you more.  Her name is Tara Russell and she is someone you should get to know.  Here’s a quick snippet of her bio from the Meet, Plan, Go website:

TARA RUSSELL is a “Life Sabbatical & Long-term Travel Coach” – a Certified Life and Career Coach with a passion for working with clients who dream of taking time off to travel, live, work, study or volunteer abroad. As the Founder and President of Three Month Visa Coaching and Consulting, her mission is to empower her clients to change their lives (and ultimately the world at large), through meaningful international travel experiences.

Let’s talk about this Meet, Plan Go! thing…

Tara, tell us more about the origins of Meet, Plan, Go!… How did it get started and why does it exist?

The seed for Meet, Plan, Go! was planted back in January of 2010 when Michaela Potter and Sherry Ott who founded Briefcase to Backpack were in town and we met up for coffee.  We realized that there were so many cool ways that we might work together that what was meant to be a half-hour meeting turned into a 5-hour brainstorming session!  Our goal working together has been to take this conversation about Americans and career breaks and start building some critical mass behind it – get it out from the underground and take it national.  One thing that came up was the success of a group I have been running for a few years now in SF – SF Travel Book Club and Lectures Series – and we started to wonder what it would look like if we could take the strength of that in-person group dynamic and expand it nationwide by doing a day of coordinated events across the US.  From there, Michaela and Sherry were able to leverage the strength of their online network to recruit hosts and panelists from across the US and that’s how Meet, Plan, Go! came to be!

Why do you think that taking a Career Break and traveling is beneficial for people?

I would go beyond even saying “beneficial” – I think career breaks are absolutely essential for people…perhaps now more so than ever.  Consider that our office desks are no longer stationary items that we can leave behind after 5pm…with the introduction of cell phones and PDAs, many of us are forever wired and always accessible from the moment we wake up in the morning to the time we go to bed at night. In an age when we are hearing more and more about work /life balance, it seems increasingly difficult to truly “unplug.”

Career breaks and travel give us that opportunity to unplug…to really take a step back, get perspective and regain balance in a way that we just can’t do while we are caught up in the pace of our hectic 9-5.  (Or – let’s be honest – given the crazy hours many of us work, our 5-9.)

Travel gives us fresh and new perspectives, expands our horizons, strengthens our sense of adventure, pushes us to challenge ourselves, feeds an appreciation of our own strengths and abilities and provides us with space and time to examine who we are and what we truly want out of life.  I’m passionate about helping my clients find that and taking that message national is what MPG is all about!

Who is this event for?

Well, it’s pretty simple, really.  Here’s a quick and easy exercise to help readers determine if MPG is right for them…

Close your eyes and imagine taking time for yourself to do exactly what you have always wanted.  Do you see:
* Surfing lessons in Costa Rica?

* Taking classes at a local university?

* Hiking the Himalayan Annapurna Circuit in Nepal?

* Renovating your house into the home you dream of?

* Volunteering at an orphanage in Brazil?

* Japanese lessons in Kyoto?

If you came up with anything other than “I’d like to be right here where I am…in my beige cubicle.”, then Meet, Plan, Go! is definitely for you.

This event is for anyone who has ever had a travel dream and wondered how to make it a reality.  Anyone who has ever thought “Oh, I would so love to do something like that, but…  Anyone who is currently reading this from their tiny little corner of cubicleland and thinking “Man, I wish I was lounging on the beach in Fiji right now.”

You get the picture…if you close your eyes and dream of being somewhere other than where you are, this is the event for you.

What exactly will happen at the event?

We have put together a stellar panel of travel experts – travel writers, photographers, podcasters and bloggers as well as me wearing the hat of Travel Coach.  We will be presenting on the big Whys and Hows of career breaks and long-term travel and helping participants get an idea of resources that they turn to when they can start planning and go for support as they move forward.

What do you expect that people will get out of it?  Why is it worth their time?

I would say this really breaks down into the “big three” of what you need to make your plans for a career break a success – inspiration, resources, and community.  People who attend will be inspired by a panel of speakers / travel industry experts, they will be connected with some of the resources they need to start making their travel dreams a reality and they will be surrounded by a dynamic, supportive community of people who “get it”.  Each element of that formula is really key for us.

Ok, let’s talk about the San Francisco event for a minute…

What are the logistics (e.g., when, where, how long, how do people sign up, etc.)?

The SF event is being held on Tuesday, September 14th from 7-9pm at NextSpace in downtown San Francisco.  The event is free but participants do need to reserve their space and print and bring their ticket with them.  RSVPs can be made at:      http://meetplangosanfrancisco.eventbrite.com

Switching gears a bit, let’s talk about you…

How and why did you personally get involved in this?

When I met Sherry and Michaela back in January, there was such a cool synergy there when we combined our skill sets.  Given their professional and personal backgrounds and their experience running Briefcase to Backpack and also blogs of their own, they are incredibly savvy about the internet, blogging, online networks and marketing, etc.  What I brought to the table was years of experience running in-person travel-related events and also working with one-on-one coaching clients as they prepared for career breaks of their own.  From that, (coupled with my own experiences planning and realizing a year-long career break of my own,) I had a keen understanding of the self-imposed limitations and perceived obstacles that often deter people from taking the sabbaticals that they really want.  When we put our heads together, in short, I saw the opportunity to work with really cool people on a project I was extremely passionate about – how could I say no?

What do you do with your time when you’re not working on Meet, Plan, Go?

I am thrilled that I get to spend a great deal of my time working with one-on-one travel coaching clients, helping them work through the logistical and emotional preparations that go into making a career break possible.  In addition, I’ve been able to do quite a bit of speaking in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond on topics revolving around career breaks, life sabbaticals and long-term travel.  Loving my work makes it something I am pleased to dedicate a lot of time to.

When I’m not coaching, reading travel books or arranging events for SF Travel Lit & Lectures or working on MPG, I do my best to get out in this gorgeous city with friends to enjoy all the great sights, music, food and museums that SF has to offer.  I also dedicate as much time as possible to my passion for photography and some of my work can be seen at www.greentaraphoto.com

And (of course,) whenever I can, I travel!

A few things to summarize…

This event sounds awesome.  It is unbelievably inspiring to me/us that a few people got in a room together and conceived a plan to put something like this together for the sole purpose of inspiring others to get out there and pursue their travel-related passions and that now, in a few weeks, it’s going to happen simultaneously in thirteen cities.  We are at the same time impressed by the ambition and execution of the coordinators, inspired by the concept and, perhaps more than anything, jealous that you get to go and we don’t.  Don’t miss it-we’ll be angry with you.

Check out the Meet, Plan, Go! website for more info