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One Tiny Island, One Big Life Change: One Womans Journey to Freedom
19 Plays10 days ago
What happens when a canceled couple’s trip turns into a solo adventure that rewrites your entire life?
In this episode of Go Far Girl, travel writer and coach Georgie Darling shares how one solo trip to Thailand after a breakup led to a total life transformation. From quitting her job and moving to Southeast Asia, to getting stranded on a tiny island in Indonesia during the pandemic, Georgie’s journey is a masterclass in turning unexpected detours into powerful new beginnings.
We talk about what 5.5 years of full-time solo travel taught her about confidence, freedom, and designing a business that supports the life you actually want. If you've ever felt stuck or unsure of your next step, this episode will give you the courage to choose your own path.
Follow Georgie on her website "The Freedom Route" or on Instagram
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Transcript
Introduction to Georgie and the Freedom Route
00:00:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Hi, welcome to Go Far Girl. Today I'm talking with Georgie. She's a travel writer, a coach, and a founder of the Freedom Route. Georgie has been solo traveling for nine years and has spent the last five and a half years living as a full-time nomad.
00:00:16
CHANTELLE KINCY
Her story starts with heartbreak, includes getting stranded on a tiny island during the pandemic, and ends with a life of freedom, joy, and purpose. So whether you're craving a solo trip, thinking of starting over, or just love hearing about how travel changes us, this episode is packed with inspiration.
Travel Experiences and Community
00:00:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
So Georgie, thanks for joining us today. I'm so excited to see you.
00:00:37
Georgie
Thank you so much for having me on the show. it's It's always funny with these introductions. Like, I always forget how long I've been traveling for until I hear things like this.
00:00:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah,
00:00:44
Georgie
And I'm like, wow, it's actually quite a long time.
00:00:45
CHANTELLE KINCY
you're like, Like, oh, I did that. That's me. I remember reading um all of the things that you sent to me when I was asking if you would be on the show.
00:00:56
CHANTELLE KINCY
was like, how do I narrow this down? Like you have had so many experiences um and just so many things happened over the last few years. Yeah.
00:01:05
Georgie
Yeah, it's it's it's been a busy few years. i feel very lucky and very grateful and very privileged to be able to say that I've done all of these things. But it's funny because when I talk about like my travels and what I've been doing for almost the last decade with people who also travel a lot, if it feels completely normal.
00:01:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:01:22
Georgie
And then when I try and tell the same stories to some of my friends from my hometown who've spent most of their lives, like focusing on friends and partners and stuff within their hometown, it almost feels a bit boastful or like a bit like I'm the the problem child. He wasn't settled down and done all the things that we're supposed to do.
00:01:37
Georgie
I don't know.
00:01:38
Georgie
And it just, it I feel like it means you have a network everywhere, even just stuff like I'm going on a press trip to Azerbaijan in maybe two weeks time. And I don't really know much about Azerbaijan at all.
00:01:48
Georgie
But I was talking to a friend who I met here in Lisbon, who was from Germany, who I first met in Mexico and Colombia. And she was like, oh, yeah, I've got a really good friend who lives in Baku in Azerbaijan. And i was like, wow, I really am secondhand connected to probably most parts of the world by now.
00:02:02
Georgie
It's crazy.
00:02:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
Don't you love that too? I love that when I'm planning a trip and I said, was planning a trip to Amsterdam. I was like, Oh, Nikki lives there. And everyone's like, who's Nikki? I'm like, Oh, this girl I met in Oregon. And she's like, okay, but no, I do. I love that. It's, it's neat to have those little, just makes you feel like the world is smaller and you've got kind of connections to home everywhere you go, which I love.
00:02:25
Georgie
Yeah, 100%. Yeah.
First Solo Trip to Thailand
00:02:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
So take me back to your first solo trip to Thailand you What made you go alone? What were you hoping to get out of it? kind of Where were you at the time?
00:02:38
Georgie
So when I first decided to go to Thailand, it was a trip that I'd been planning with my boyfriend at the time. and And my first ever actual solo trip was a few years before that. And I went to Denmark, Sweden and Poland by myself, but I'd never left Europe by myself and up until that point, until I then went to Colombia with my boyfriend at the time.
00:02:59
Georgie
And when we were in Colombia, The first two weeks were wonderful. and I think maybe four days before we were supposed to fly home, we flew to this tiny Colombian island called San Andre.
00:03:10
Georgie
It's off the coast of Nicaragua. And we got there. He immediately got food poisoning. I spent the three days kind of partially looking after him, and partially exploring the island by myself. On the final night there, he felt a bit better. So we go out for a lovely dinner and I get struck down by food poisoning.
00:03:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh no.
00:03:25
Georgie
So I was the
Challenges in Colombia
00:03:26
Georgie
sickest I'd ever been in my life. We missed our flights next day back to the mainland. And then when we got there, we had to sit in the airport in Bogota after, I think it was five or six hours before we were then meant to fly back to England.
00:03:38
Georgie
So we sat there in the airport. I'm doing everything I can just not to keep being sick. And then our passports were stolen. So our passports were stolen. Yeah. We then had to spend another four days in Bogota, I think, getting emergency passports so that we could then fly home.
00:03:54
Georgie
And when we were there, like our relationship was very much, don't want to say fraying at the seams because that doesn't really give it across in the right way, but hanging on, let's say, by a thread.
00:04:05
Georgie
So we get back to the yeah UK. My anxiety is all over the place. We were supposed to have been then talking about booking a trip to Thailand and instead he breaks up with me. So... you know, very, very stressful week of my life. I think most of the things that could have gone wrong in that week then did go wrong.
00:04:20
Georgie
And it got to this point where I was like, I want to do something different.
00:04:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right.
00:04:23
Georgie
I want to go somewhere new. i was supposed to be going to Thailand with him. And I thought instead, I'm just going to go there by myself. And whilst it was a slightly intimidating prospect, solo travel has always felt very, very aligned with who I am and it's never felt as intimidating as perhaps it does to some other people. So I looked at it as this big adventure, I looked at it as a potential new start and I just thought, you know what, throwing myself out of my comfort zone, go somewhere across the world, see what happens and take it from there.
00:04:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that. So how long did you end up by staying in Thailand?
00:04:59
Georgie
Well, this was the thing. So I flew out there only but only for three weeks because I still had like what I call a proper job back in England at the time. So I used the rest of my annual leave to then fly out to Thailand, spend a few weeks there.
00:05:12
Georgie
And when I was flying home, i remember I had a few days at the end of my trip in Bangkok. And I just remember like exploring Bangkok and thinking, I need to come back to Asia. Like I'm not done with Asia
Transition to Digital Nomad Life in Indonesia
00:05:23
Georgie
yet. And flew back to England and then thought, OK, I think that I do want to go somewhere else or like maybe move back to Asia, but I didn't really know how that's going to happen.
00:05:32
Georgie
And what ended up happening was I then went back to my full-time job where I was working as a branded content editor in London. And within, think, three or four months, I then decided to quit that job and then booked a one-way ticket to Indonesia and moved to Indonesia just before the pandemic hit.
00:05:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
So, wow. What did your family, your friends, your your employer, what did everyone say when you thought out loud, finally? Because thinking it and then like saying it are two totally different levels of commitment, right? So when you said, this is what I'm going to do. I'm leaving everything. I'm going to Indonesia.
00:06:10
CHANTELLE KINCY
Did you have full support? Did you have people kind of questioning you? What what did that look like?
00:06:16
Georgie
I have full support. And I think it was because when I said out loud, everything happened quite quickly. I think I'd had it at the back of my mind for months.
00:06:23
CHANTELLE KINCY
Amen.
00:06:24
Georgie
I was joining these digital nomad Facebook groups. I was listening to podcasts about traveling. I was doing all of the research. I kind of knew that it would happen eventually. i just didn't know what the catalyst would be for it actually happening. And the catalyst in the end was my full-time job getting incredibly stressful and my manager essentially pulling me aside and telling me that it wasn't going to improve and either I could quit and she would help me to quit or I would have to suck it up and get on with it and I'd been speaking to this digital nomad that I'd never actually met in person her name's Rika um i then eventually met her in Indonesia but she worked for this digital marketing company and I'd been speaking to her about maybe moving to Indonesia the following year
00:07:04
Georgie
and enrolling in the program that she worked for. So I have this conversation with my manager. i walk out of the meeting. I immediately go back to my work laptop, send Rika a message and say, you know, we talked about me coming out next year. Do you have any any spaces opening up earlier?
00:07:18
Georgie
This was in November 2019. So she replies to me and she was like, could you come out in a few weeks time? And I was like, that might be pushing it a little bit because right now I have a house in London. I have a job in London. Like all of my friends and family are very, very close to London.
00:07:32
Georgie
So at this point, exactly, lots of lots of loose ends.
00:07:32
CHANTELLE KINCY
Things that need to be tied up too. Yeah.
00:07:37
Georgie
So i was like, going in a few weeks is a bit too soon. I was like, I could be there start of January. So I was like, I can quit my job in a few weeks. I can find someone to move into my house, hopefully relatively quickly.
00:07:47
Georgie
and So I remember I had this conversation with Rika on the Thursday. So immediately after work on Thursday, I rang my sister, told her I was going to move to Indonesia.
00:07:57
Georgie
She fully supported me. I remember I had an interview with the woman who actually owned this digital marketing company on the Saturday morning. On the Sunday, she offered me the job. On the Sunday evening, I then rang both of my parents, told them my plan. They were both very supportive, very surprised, I think, but perhaps not deep down because it is the kind of thing that I would do.
00:08:16
Georgie
And then on Monday, I went in and handed my notice in for my job and then moved out. Yeah, I guess six weeks after that.
00:08:22
CHANTELLE KINCY
Amazing. I love that. And so did you end up by getting the job? That's
00:08:29
Georgie
Yes.
Pandemic Life on a Small Island
00:08:30
Georgie
Yeah. So I then moved to, i actually went to Cambodia for a few weeks before I went to Indonesia, which was a trip that I'd also booked previously. So I ended up flying to Cambodia with my sister for three weeks, um popped into China on the way back in January 2020, which at the time didn't necessarily realise.
00:08:30
CHANTELLE KINCY
amazing.
00:08:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah Good timing.
00:08:47
Georgie
Yeah. Didn't realize the significance of that at the time. And then ended up having to fly back from Cambodia.
00:08:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:08:53
Georgie
And then i think four and a half days later, flew out to Indonesia. And everyone was like, why didn't you just go straight from Cambodia to Indonesia? And I was like, I have a flight book back to the UK already. So it's not really that easy.
00:09:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
Exactly.
00:09:04
Georgie
And backpacking compared to moving somewhere, very different things you need in your suitcase.
00:09:08
CHANTELLE KINCY
Very different things.
00:09:08
Georgie
So yeah. and So then move out to Indonesia and do this digital marketing job. And how it worked was you had one month on mainland Bali and then the company would place you at some kind of tourism orientated company somewhere else in Indonesia.
00:09:24
Georgie
So I got posted to this teeny tiny island called Gili Chawangan. So Gili Chawangan, it's about a three hour speedboat journey from mainland Bali. And it's so small that you can cycle around it in 30 minutes.
00:09:35
Georgie
There's no cars, there's no motorbikes, no motorized vehicles.
00:09:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh.
00:09:38
Georgie
It is teeny tiny. There's no doctor surgery, no supermarket. It's like paradise island, but absolutely tiny.
00:09:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
Do people live there or is it just a tourist um like resort?
00:09:51
Georgie
There's a small community. um So i was, i ended up getting stuck there for seven months at the start of the pandemic, because once I'd moved there and once the pandemic hit, then all of the boats back to mainland Bali were stopped.
00:09:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay.
00:10:03
Georgie
So the only way you could really leave was
00:10:04
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh.
00:10:07
Georgie
essentially sneaking off the island and going to Lombok, which is closer than Bali, and then catching a flight whilst the flights existed, and then taking the ferry until one of the ferries sunk, which very much put me off from going back. And and I would say at its quietest point, I think there was probably about...
00:10:26
Georgie
50 or 60 expats there and there's there's a small number of like locals who live there as well although a lot of them do live in Lombok and usually just commute over for work in the daytimes so there are people who do live there full-time there's like a tiny school and things there but it's a very different way of life
00:10:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Interesting. So yeah there's no grocery, there's no hospital, there's nothing. So how did you ah survive?
00:10:48
Georgie
I mean yeah
00:10:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
What did you do?
00:10:52
Georgie
So there's no traditional grocery store. There are mini markets where you can get fresh vegetables and stuff like that.
00:10:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
Okay, so you got food.
00:11:00
Georgie
Very, very small ones. And the occasional like corner store and things like that. Most of the food deliveries there come on a boat. So what we would do if we wanted to do the the big shop, let's say, is we would order it on WhatsApp. It would then get delivered by boat every other Wednesday.
00:11:15
Georgie
We would cycle down to the harbour with these huge backpacks and we would take all of these like fresh groceries that had come shipped over from neighbouring Lombok and we would cycle back to our house and you know unpack them there. But it was funny because in the height of the pandemic, obviously everyone was very, very security conscious.
00:11:31
Georgie
So all of these groceries were sprayed down with antiseptic when they were on the boat. And it was just such a procedure of you know a handful of people carrying all of these crates of food off of the boat, like stacking them up on the sand and then spraying them with antiseptic and things like that.
00:11:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh my gosh.
00:11:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
Wow. So you, I mean, you were truly isolated. We were all feeling isolated, but you were truly isolated. you had a lot of, you had a lot of time to be on in your own head and, and to think and do right.
00:11:54
Georgie
Yeah, it was, yeah.
00:12:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like,
00:12:03
Georgie
Yeah, it was, I would mostly say it was a blessing. I think there was a point where it does get kind of adjacent to the whole, you know, if you were stranded on a desert island, what are the five things you would bring?
00:12:13
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:12:13
Georgie
There were some kind of elements of that, but generally I felt I was very, very lucky. So the border closed, like for the entirety of Indonesia, very, very early on in the pandemic. And what that meant is that there were no tourists there.
00:12:26
Georgie
And from a business perspective, it was terrible. But selfishly, from a person living on the island at the time, it meant that the island kind of just became our playground. So all of the fancy hotels there were closed, which meant that all of the expats who lived there just became really good friends.
00:12:41
Georgie
We would just be able to go to these places like for free. And, you know, you'd still pay for drinks and stuff like that. Or like on occasion, we get to spend the night in these fancy hotels because it was still a way to inject a bit of money into the local economy.
00:12:53
Georgie
I got really into scuba diving when I was there. I used to cycle around the island at 5.30 every evening and watch sunset. And it became a just ah a staple part of the day. So it was a very different routine to what I had when I was back in London.
00:13:05
Georgie
But there's something very special, I think, about having sunset as like a designated time of day where everyone gets together and sips the coconut and watches, you know, the waves go by as the sunsets and
00:13:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:13:16
Georgie
Yeah, it was really lovely.
00:13:18
CHANTELLE KINCY
And that's amazing because it really takes you kind of back to how people have been living forever. When we weren't so constrained by all of these things and indigenous people that, you know, lived ah the seasons and knew the moon cycles and that's how the farms were raised. It kind of really brings you back to that,
00:13:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
primal part of humanity just okay sunset this is what we do you know you were living your life around the world instead of this nine to five or whatever that's really cool did you feel like at the time like were you trying to find ways to get off or were you pretty content were you like this is what's what I'm gonna do i like it here I'm happy
00:13:35
Georgie
Mm-hmm.
00:13:59
Georgie
Kind
Starting a Freelance Writing Business
00:13:59
Georgie
of in the middle. i think going from central London to a teeny tiny island in the middle of the ocean was very much a case of culture shock. But I think having been in London for a few years,
00:14:11
Georgie
very much approaching burnout before I left. It was one of these things where it felt like, it felt necessary and it felt like, well, I guess a literal breath of fresh air. And it was one of these things where before I'd left London, I told myself I wanted to start my own business.
00:14:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
00:14:26
Georgie
I wanted to go freelance, but I didn't have a catalyst to, you know, force me to do it. And When I was then stuck on this island and I was surrounded by a very small group of people, many of whom had their own businesses, many of whom were also trying to start them.
00:14:39
Georgie
I had the space and the freedom and the very low cost of living at the time to just put me in the perfect position to actually bring that business to life. And it's not something I think I would have had if I'd gone back to London, or even i think if I was on mainland Bali at the time. So I think as much as there were days when it did feel ah bit intimidating and a bit scary because no one knew how long we were going to be there for, I think day to day, I felt very, very fortunate because I realized that I didn't have any distractions. I had everything I needed to be in that position to build the business that I wanted to build.
00:15:12
Georgie
And I was surrounded by great people and beautiful settings, wonderful sunsets, like amazing oceans, like all of the, all of the good things in life, I think.
00:15:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yes. So it completely changed the trajectory of your life. And so tell it so tell us about what you created while you were there.
00:15:27
Georgie
Yeah.
00:15:33
Georgie
So when I was first stuck there, like writing has always been my background. So I knew that I wanted to go into freelance writing and I didn't have any clients to begin with. So what I focused on first was just building up my freelance writing business.
00:15:47
Georgie
And I think the entire time that I was stuck on Gilly Tee, I was just focused on building up that writing business. So finding my first clients, putting together a website, doing lots of marketing, kind of dipping my toe in all of the different areas of freelance writing that I could find just to see what i enjoyed, what stuck, what was going to pay me.
00:16:04
Georgie
So to begin with, it was really random stuff. Like I was writing product descriptions for this Middle Eastern and wholesale website and I was doing Instagram captions for website.
00:16:16
Georgie
like coach for virtual assistants and I worked with a few travel grounds which is what i then refined my business into and what I still do now but at that point it was just a case of kind of playing around with it and thinking I have the freedom and the time and the space to see what enjoy the most and what is going to stick and what I would like to build this into you and it was brilliant because it gave me the foundation to then continue to grow my freelance writing business when I then left Aliti and eventually moved back to mainland Bali seven months later
00:16:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
And if you had been, you know, working full time or like you said, living in London and you have social engagements and work and all of these things, you wouldn't have taken that time to do that because it's easy to keep putting off when there's always something else going on or when you're like, well, I have to work first.
00:17:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
But when that is all stripped from you, you really get a chance to just dig deep and decide what you want to do inside. I love that so much. That's kind of the pandemic is kind of when I started shifting my mindset to.
00:17:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
um you know I'd raised the boys as a single mom. I had to work this job I hated because they ate a lot of food and all of these things.
00:17:20
Georgie
Okay.
00:17:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then when I was off work um for that that time during the pandemic, I started writing more as well. And I started looking at finances and realizing, oh, I just paid like the last tuition payment. I don't have to pay for them anymore. like They don't need me as much anymore.
00:17:37
CHANTELLE KINCY
oh, I can do this. I can do this. So it was a really, it's similar. i was stuck in a house, not on a beautiful island, but um um it just was different because I didn't have to go to work every day.
00:17:48
CHANTELLE KINCY
And I realized, wait, maybe I don't have to go to work every day. Maybe I don't have to burn myself out and work so much and do so much. And I just kind of found a way to start implementing that a little bit into my life too. So I love that.
00:18:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
was just, I know it's a dark time in humanity, but I do have so many stories of people who have made such good out of that. And then just having that time to really force us to reset.
00:18:14
Georgie
Yeah, I think that's exactly that. I mean, obviously such a tragic, stressful, awful time for thousands and thousands of people. But I think I felt very, very grateful that for me, as much as it was a little bit stressful, although not a comparison to so many people around the world, I think it really just gave me that uninterrupted space that I needed to actually start something new. And I think without being stuck on the island, without having such circumstances, then I don't think I would be in the position that I am now.
00:18:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right. so It's so hard to remember to always be grateful for things when things are hard, right? We tend to focus on all this bad, negative stuff. But when you dial it back down, you're like, oh, actually, this could have been a gift. This was a blessing. This was, you know.
00:18:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
So what does life look like now? So because we're five years post-pandemic, you're in Portugal. So you left Indonesia.
00:19:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
What happened after the pandemic?
Growth of the Freedom Route
00:19:12
Georgie
So i moved from Gili T to mainland Bali and then spent the the next year and a half after that continuing to build up my freelance writing business. And then I built that to a point where it was kind of self-sustaining and fortunately has stayed that way over the last few years.
00:19:27
Georgie
So at that point, I then decided to have a think about what else I enjoyed, what else I could do as a business dream. And that's when I started the Freedom Brew. So the Freedom Roo, I initially started as business strategy coaching for freelance writers.
00:19:40
Georgie
And that was mostly because i was constantly in Facebook groups, like sharing advice, sharing tips, answering questions about how to grow a freelance writing business. And then a business coach that I hired had said to me, like, Georgie, why don't you make this into business?
00:19:53
Georgie
And as much as that in itself was very intimidating, I think it came at about the right time to give me another challenge once I'd built up my freelance writing business.
00:20:01
CHANTELLE KINCY
Mm-hmm.
00:20:02
Georgie
And I think that's when things really catapulted. Like I built the business strategy coaching and develop that into a range of different ways that I could help people. And doing that and doing that alongside my freelance writing, I think it gave me the stability to think, OK, so what do I want my lifestyle to look like now?
00:20:19
Georgie
And I ended up living in Bali for another, i think, two years after that. I left Australia. just over two years ago now, and then left Indonesia and thought, okay, I've been on one side of the world for a while. So now it's time to go and see some of the other parts.
00:20:34
Georgie
And that was really exciting.
00:20:34
CHANTELLE KINCY
Oh
00:20:36
Georgie
And then I ended up traveling the world quite a bit faster than I had done previously. I've always loved slow travel, but this ended up being much faster by my own standards. So i ended up visiting six different continents in one year.
00:20:49
Georgie
So, you know, all of them except Antarctica, which I'm and yet to go to still.
00:20:50
CHANTELLE KINCY
ah my gosh. Oh my gosh. Yeah.
00:20:55
Georgie
ah Yeah, so that was incredible. And yeah, I ended up traveling around kind of seeing some countries, ideally for a month at a time, but others if I was on the way to somewhere else for a bit quicker.
00:21:05
Georgie
And it was brilliant. it was It was such a refresh for who I had been before I had moved to Indonesia and just reminded me of how much I did really love travel and how much I love just having the freedom just to visit all of these places across the world. And ended up traveling until...
00:21:22
Georgie
and Until last summer, when I went back to Lisbon, I'd been to Lisbon for the last few summers. And then when I was here last summer, I thought, actually, maybe it's time to slow things down a little bit. And even when I'd left Bali, I was like, I want to find kind of my base. Even if I'm still traveling a lot, I do want to have a base somewhere.
00:21:40
Georgie
And I hadn't been able to figure out where that base would be. So then when I came back to Portugal last year, i kind of infiltrated the communities a bit more, like got to know some people who live here properly and thought, maybe this could be the place.
00:21:52
Georgie
But because being British um and because of Brexit very frustratingly, moving here was no longer just something I could you know hop across the border and settle in.
00:22:00
CHANTELLE KINCY
Right.
00:22:02
Georgie
So then I started thinking about the process of moving here. And I'm very much still in the process of moving here, which is exactly one year later. and So for that time, I ended up going back to Mexico for a few months.
00:22:14
Georgie
And yeah, I've just continued to grow my business, traveled around, spent six months, I think, in Mexico. And then got back to Portugal a few months ago now.
00:22:25
CHANTELLE KINCY
wow I love that everything in life has a season though. There's this time for this, you know, travel, but then at some point you're like, okay, I do want to have a base. i I don't want to just drift forever, but having that base and then still being able to go out is kind of the best of
Balancing Travel and Business
00:22:39
CHANTELLE KINCY
both worlds.
00:22:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then you're running your own company. So you're setting up your schedule to fit you instead of, you know, feeding into someone else's idea of what that needs to look like. So you've done it, girl.
00:22:51
Georgie
Yeah.
00:22:52
CHANTELLE KINCY
You created like the dream life. i love it. Like, yeah,
00:22:55
Georgie
Thank you. It's, yeah, it's, it's been really exciting.
00:22:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:22:59
Georgie
And one thing that I've been really tuning into recently is how different cycles of travel and different speeds of travel allow for different things. So what I really loved about the faster traveling and the more consistent traveling, and not necessarily having a base is that It allows me to focus on the traveling and focus on the enjoyment of that and knowing that my business is kind of ticking along in the background. But one thing that I've really loved since I've been a bit more settled in Portugal is having that spare space in my head for thinking about how I'm developing my business.
00:23:30
Georgie
And I think it's always been a battle between the two like thinking, do I think more about the business? Do I think more about the travels? And I love just being able to switch between the two, depending ah depending on which season of life that I'm in.
00:23:41
Georgie
And what that's kind of allowed me to do over the last few months is really think about where I want to take my business.
00:23:41
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:23:47
Georgie
and what I've kind of learned from my travels and, you you know, experiencing my travels alongside having my business is I really want to help more people develop a business themselves that's going to allow them that same freedom.
00:23:59
Georgie
And it's funny because when I look back at my career history, I never thought I would have ended up in a position where my business is helping people to build a life that allows them to travel or build a life that allows them to have that freedom that they want.
00:24:12
Georgie
But because I've been traveling for so long and building a business at the same time, and It's just interesting to me that those two things have coincided. And now in Portugal, a large thing of what i'm focusing on is helping other women to like refine their writing businesses and other creative businesses in a way that's going to allow them more freedom so that they do can do lots of fun traveling.
00:24:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that. And I mean, you you know that like I am so pro getting women out of their comfy little bubble and exploring just couple steps outside of
Empowering Women to Travel and Work
00:24:43
CHANTELLE KINCY
comfort zone. And and that tiny little push can just lead to such incredible changes.
00:24:49
CHANTELLE KINCY
That at some point you just look at your life and you're like, oh my gosh, this is my life. And it just starts with with that one little tiny step outside.
00:24:54
Georgie
you
00:24:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
And so it just makes me so happy. I have goosebumps. It makes me so happy that that's what you know is driving you too is just, hey, I did this. And I never saw it coming, but you could do this too. And it doesn't have to look exactly like your journey, right? Everyone can like take their own little step, but it's so empowering and it's so life-changing.
00:25:20
CHANTELLE KINCY
And whether you're just out of college or you don't want to go to college or your kids are out of the house or you've just gotten divorced, there's a season for you to take that step and to do the next thing.
00:25:31
CHANTELLE KINCY
And it can totally change the trajectory life. your life and your family's life. I mean, it's just incredible. I just, it makes me so happy. ah
00:25:41
Georgie
Yeah, it's just, it's it's so exciting to me, a to think about what could happen next, but also B, just reflecting on the fact that had I not taken that first step into solo traveling, I probably wouldn't have ever had the courage to go freelance or to start my own business. Because I remember the first solo-ish trip, I don't necessarily count it as my first solo trip, but I did like a a group trip with strangers before I did my first actual solo trip and even when I did that group trip I remember I met so many people who were solo traveling all the time and that was what inspired me to then book my first actual solo trip kind of away from a guided situation and more just going to a country by myself and then I remember each time I would solo travel after that I would meet more amazing people who were doing all the things I wanted to do.
00:26:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Yeah.
00:26:19
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:26:25
Georgie
I remember I solo traveled around Morocco when I was 21 or 22 and just caught buses and trains and explored the country for a couple of weeks and I remember I met this this American girl on a rooftop in Fez and she was teaching English and that's how she was funding her travels and I remember talking to her for like 20 minutes I think we're probably still Facebook friends now and just finding her like the coolest person on this planet for just being able to travel and write and teach at the same time And it's just so interesting to meet all these people from all over the world and pick up different buckets of knowledge from each of them and then develop them into my own travels and my own lifestyle and yeah, see what happens next.
00:27:02
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah, I love that. I was at the train station in York and um there was flooding. um i was going between York and Scotland and there was flooding.
00:27:14
CHANTELLE KINCY
And so I was just kind of sitting at the train station. I was having coffee and this man sat down next to me. He was like 92 years old. And we talked for, I don't know, two hours. Well, he talked for two hours, but you know It was kind of a cruddy day. We had gotten halfway to where we were going, and then we had to get off because the tracks were you know flooded in both directions. So we were really stuck. I was trying to catch a flight, which I did not.
00:27:40
CHANTELLE KINCY
And so I was kind of just like, oh, now I'm just stuck here in the middle of nowhere. And um he sat down, and we just started chatting. And his life experiences were so incredible that being stuck in that train station is like one of my best memories of the entire trip.
00:27:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
Because you just get to hear from this man who has lived for so long. And he was in his 90s. He was going back to college because he wanted to speak German.
00:28:11
Georgie
Wow.
00:28:11
CHANTELLE KINCY
And he said, I always wanted to speak German. And so now I'm taking classes. And I was like, oh, like online. He goes, oh, no, I'm not dedicated enough for that. Like, I have to go to school every day.
00:28:24
CHANTELLE KINCY
And then he's like, and my little study group and my friends. And I was like, oh, my gosh, I love you so much. He was the coolest person.
00:28:32
Georgie
That's incredible.
00:28:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
But I love that about traveling. And you always solo traveling is not lonely. I know people think like, oh, gosh, you're just going to be by yourself. But I feel like you talk more and meet more people and do more things than if you were to go with a spouse or with because otherwise you just kind of stay together. Right. And otherwise, when you're by yourself, you have all these people that are willing just to sit down and tell you their life. And it's so fun.
00:28:58
Georgie
Yeah, exactly that. Like, I would say the majority of my favourite travel memories are all from when I've been solo travelling and I've just met really random people or people that I never would have crossed paths with had I been there with a partner or a group of friends or a sibling or whatever.
00:29:12
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes.
00:29:14
Georgie
and It's just so exciting to me to think that you go somewhere by yourself in a completely new country and you could leave, you know, five days later, whatever it may be, and have met new friends that are from somewhere you've never been before.
00:29:26
Georgie
You've experienced things you've never even considered before.
00:29:27
CHANTELLE KINCY
yeah
00:29:29
Georgie
And you can just get all this firsthand knowledge. And I think so often that can then inspire you to go and do those things or visit those places or do things that you never thought were possible because you've never met anyone before and you hadn't done them or who had done them. And then suddenly you could be doing them as well.
00:29:42
CHANTELLE KINCY
It is. And it's it's crazy to me, too, how open the travel community is. People will tell you. No one's out here gatekeeping. No one's like, oh, I did this thing, but I'm not going to tell you how to get there.
00:29:51
Georgie
o
00:29:54
CHANTELLE KINCY
People tell you their whole life story because we're passionate.
00:29:57
Georgie
Yes.
00:29:57
CHANTELLE KINCY
We love it. We love the things. And it's exciting to tell the stories. And so when people kind of reciprocate that, It's amazing. And and you do.
00:30:07
Georgie
yes
00:30:07
CHANTELLE KINCY
Like, I find things all the time. I'm like, oh, I didn't know I needed to do that, but I guess I do, you know? So...
00:30:15
Georgie
Yeah, and I love the random mutual friends as well. i remember years ago, i was in Budapest, and I met a guy who was staying at the same hostel as me, and he ended up being friends with someone that I'd met in like Prague or Slovakia or something before.
00:30:31
Georgie
And I felt like especially at that time but I would say it's still a thing now there seems to almost be a kind of like unspoken network of where people go or the paths that they take or things like that and I think so often I've ended up going places and being like oh did you meet this person or do you know such and such or and there's just so many more random connections than I ever thought there would be in a world that's so big.
00:30:53
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. Isn't that something? Cause really it is small when you start getting to that.
00:30:57
Georgie
o
00:30:58
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. So you've had this amazing life. You've had this 10 years of growth and empowerment and all of these things.
Advice and Contact Information
00:31:06
CHANTELLE KINCY
If you could go back to give your teenage self some advice, what would you say looking to her now?
00:31:15
Georgie
I would say do more of the things that scare you. I think like 18, 19, 20 year old Georgie was not necessarily timid, but second guessed absolutely everything and stopped herself from taking opportunities. I think one of the ones that rings most true to me is when I was at university, there was this challenge that people did where you got into groups and you would you would try and like get your way across Europe for free or for as little money as possible.
00:31:44
Georgie
And I remember I always really wanted to do it. And I didn't put myself forward for it because I didn't know anyone else doing it. And that's one of my but of my only few regrets, I think, in life. Because had I done that, I think it would have been such an incredible experience.
00:31:58
Georgie
to like try and you know hustle your way across Europe with just a ah random group of people and there were just other things like that that I think I second-guessed myself out of doing when I was younger and nowadays I think I'm a lot more confident I think I have a much better attitude of thinking what's the worst that could happen like this is a fun opportunity worst case scenario you just get a funny story out of it even if it doesn't go according to plan but I think at the time I didn't necessarily have that in mindset
00:32:03
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah.
00:32:24
Georgie
And I think if I were to tell myself one thing, it would be to do more of the things that scare you and to push yourself out of your comfort zone and say yes to more opportunities.
00:32:33
CHANTELLE KINCY
I love that. That's amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us. I know that people are going to love hearing it. ah The Freedom Route. Can people sign up to work with you? Where can they find you to follow your adventures? Tell us how we can stay in your life.
00:32:50
Georgie
Thank So my website is thefreedomroot.com. And just because I know there are different spellings, that is R-O-U-T-E, like the freedom, yeah, root, root.
00:33:01
Georgie
my Instagram is thefreedomroot with an underscore at the end. Or you can also find me on my personal Instagram, which is Georgie R. Darling.
00:33:09
CHANTELLE KINCY
Very good. And I'll put those links in the description so you guys can click right over to there. um But be sure and give Georgie a follow because who knows where she's going to end up next and what the next level of her business is going to be.
00:33:16
Georgie
to
00:33:21
CHANTELLE KINCY
We might just, you know, see her ruling the world someday.
00:33:26
Georgie
Ah, what an opportunity.
00:33:28
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yeah. One step, solo travel. Next step, world domination.
00:33:33
Georgie
Yes, yes, all in the game plan.
00:33:35
CHANTELLE KINCY
Yes. It's so always brewing. Thank you for hanging out with us today, Georgie. appreciate you sharing your story. All
00:33:42
Georgie
Thank you so much for having me on the show. It's been so wonderful to chat with you.
00:33:46
CHANTELLE KINCY
right. We'll talk soon.
00:33:47
Georgie
Thanks.