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??

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.

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

Quitter to Winner interview part 2: This time hear from Jen

Our friends over at Quitter to Winner just put up a part 2 interview about us featuring Jen.  You should definitely check it out to read Jen’s thoughts on our future (I know I found it intriguing…):  Quitter to Winner interview with Jen

If you missed the original interview, you should check that out too:  Original Quitter to Winner interview with Ryan

If you don’t know what Quitter to Winner is, it’s an interview based site offering  “A resource for those quitting their job for a career break, sabbatical, entrepreneurial venture or new gig.”  There are lots of interviews on it of very interesting people doing some unconventionally cool things with their lives.  Try it, it’s neat.

We got featured on BudgetYourTrip.com

BudgetYourTrip.com is a very cool site.  They would be cool even if they didn’t post an interview of us.  That said, they did post an interview of us and you should check it out.

If you aren’t familiar with the new site Budget Your Trip, there are at least three reasons why you should be:

  1. It offers great resources to help you budget any upcoming trip you might have ranging from categorized cost benchmarks to planning tools
  2. The people behind it are very cool corporate America run-aways that have created a new life for themselves allowing them to pursue their passions
  3. They featured us in an interview on their site!  You should check it out:  Consulting Rehab feature on Budget Your Trip

Seriously, their site can really help simplify the planning for your next trip.  Check it out.  Tell your friends.

Enjoy!

We got interviewed by Quitter to Winner!

And you should read it!  :  Consulting Rehab interview on Quitter to Winner

Quitter to Winner is a relatively new interview-based blog dedicated to “providing a resource for those quitting their job for a career break, sabbatical, entrepreneurial venture or new gig.”  There are some very interesting interviews on there providing inspiration for exploring some less conventional paths in life and I have no doubt the site will only grow.

Thanks to Michael at Quitter to Winner for including us!