Episode 94- Welcome to Season 4: Women Influencing Change

Travel

Sep. 14

Christine Winebrenner Irick, Host of Soul of Travel welcomes you to the fourth season of the Soul of Travel Podcast! She talks about the theme for this season’s interviews and gives listeners a preview of what we’ll be learning from some of the guests who will be joining her and share their story, how travel has changed them and how that has inspired them to create a change in the world.

Welcome to Season Four!

Christine is so excited for season four, she’s already began to record a few of the conversations and she’s feeling something different happening here.

Women are beginning to see what is being created. They're seeing the uniqueness of this space where women from around the world are being celebrated together for their accomplishments. But also recognizing that this is a place where we tell the whole story, not just the big wins. But really sharing all of the things in our lives it took for us to get to where we are today.

Christine is also connecting with guests in a different way this season. So many of her guests now are friends, mentors and colleagues, but also women who are fans of the show and are excited to be a part of this gathering of women, and excited to be in a place creating a space for women at the table for these important conversations.

In this season, you're still going to hear inspirational stories about travel, how it changes our lives, and how it has led our guests to create the businesses that are changing the world. You'll also hear how these women are changing the status quo across the board.

Looking for ways to be a part of the community, learn more here.

Find Lotus Sojourns on Facebook, or join the Lotus Sojourns Collective, our FB community for like-hearted women.

LOVE these conversations...support the production of this podcast by making a donation here!

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=Y76XFGFWCMEV8)

Resources & Links Mentioned in the Episode

Get feature that in our 100th Episode celebration!!!

If you value this content, I'd love to hear about it! You can leave a review on Apple Podcast or send a video or audio comment to my email connect@Lotussojourns.com. I'd really love to hear what you love about the podcast!

You can also show your support by making a financial contribution, either monthly or making a one time donation that will be put towards the professional production of this podcast.

LOVE these conversations...support the production of this podcast by making a donation here!

Join me for my Women’s Wilderness and Yoga Retreat in Alaska in March 2023!

We’ll be traveling 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle to stay at Arctic Hive, owned by my friend Mollie Busby and her husband Sean. This boutique property nestled in the Brooks Range is way off the beaten path and also off grid. We’ll stay in beautiful cabins built by hand by our hosts, practice yoga in their yoga dome lovingly referred to as The Hive, with gorgeous views of the surrounding nature.

We’ll explore the wilderness by snowshoe and dog sled, connect with members of the local community to learn about living in this remote environment, enjoy daily yoga practice and vegan meals all while keeping our eye out for the beautiful northern lights that like to show off their magic this time of year.

I only have 6 spaces for this unique adventure and a few are already taken. Hop over to the Lotus Sojourns website to book yours today.

Please share this experience with anyone you know would love this restorative adventure.

Want to learn more, you can listen to my Soul of Travel conversation, episode 67 with Mollie Busby

Visit www.lotussojourns.com/journeys to join this unique travel experience today.

To watch this interview on YouTube HERE.

Learn more about Lotus Sojourns

Looking for ways to be a part of the community, learn more here.

Find Lotus Sojourns on Facebook, or join the Lotus Sojourns Collective, our FB community for like-hearted women.

LOVE these conversations...support the production of this podcast by making a donation here!

Support the show (https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=Y76XFGFWCMEV8)

WE WON A BESSIE AWARD! The Bessie Awards recognize the achievements of women and gender-diverse people making an impact in the travel industry. To view the complete list of this year’s winners, visit bessieawards.org.

About the Soul Of Travel Podcast

Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. In each episode, you’ll hear the story of women who are industry professionals and seasoned travelers and community leaders who know travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart-centered change makers.

The guests work in all sectors of the tourism industry. You'll hear from adventure-based community organizations, social impact businesses, travel photographers and videographers, tourism boards and destination marketing organizations, and transformational travel experts. They all honor the idea that travel is more than a vacation and focus on sustainable travel, eco-travel, community-based tourism, and intentional travel.

These conversations are meant to educate, inspire and create community. They are directed to new travelers and seasoned travelers, as well as industry professionals and those who are curious about a career in travel.

If you want to learn about new destinations, types of travel, or how to be more intentional or live life on purpose, join Christine Winebrenner Irick for soulful conversations with her community of fellow travelers exploring the heart, the mind, and the globe. These conversations highlight what tourism really means for the world.

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Credits. Christine Winebrenner Irick (Host, creator, editor.) Original music by Clark Adams. Editing and production by Rayna Booth.

Transcript

KEYWORDS

women, travel, find, book, lotus, community, conversations, tourism, world, season, people, guests, hear, connect, inspired, journey, excited, reading, space, explore

Christine Winebrenner Irick 00:08

Thank you for joining me for soulful conversations with my community of fellow travelers, exploring the heart, the mind and the globe. These conversations highlight what travel really means for the world. Soul of Travel honors the passion and dedication of the people making a positive impact in tourism. Each week, I'll be speaking to women who are tourism professionals, world travelers and leaders in their communities will explore how travel has changed them and how that has rippled out and inspired them to change the world. These conversations are as much about travel as they are about passion, and living life with purpose, chasing dreams, building businesses, and having the desire to make the world a better place. This is a community of people who no travel is more than a vacation. It is an opportunity for personal awareness, and it is a vehicle for change. We are thought leaders, action takers, and heart centered change makers I'm Christine Winebrenner Irick. And this is the Soul of Travel.

Hello, Soul of Travel listeners. Welcome to Season Four. Can you believe it? I am so excited for the season, I've already begun to record a few of the conversations and I'm feeling something different happening here. Women are beginning to see what is being created. They're seeing the uniqueness of this space where women from around the world are being celebrated together for their accomplishments. But also recognizing that this is a place where we tell the whole story, not just the big wins. But really sharing all of the things in our lives it took for us to get to where we are today.

I also think I'm connecting with guests in a different way. So many of them now are friends, mentors and colleagues, but also women who are fans of the show and are excited to be a part of this gathering of women, and excited to be in a place creating a space for women at the table for these important conversations. In this season. On the podcast, you're still going to hear inspirational stories about travel, how it changes our lives, and how it has led our guests to create the businesses that are changing the world. You'll also hear how these women are changing the status quo across the board. In the past, the themes for the seasons have been tourism rising for the first season. And we shifted to voices of women for the second season. And we just wrapped up shaping our future.

This season. The theme is women influencing change. Influencing change goes beyond the incredible work that they are doing, and really looks at the ways we can change what tourism means. What our journey as entrepreneurs and business owners can look like. We're going to break down some of the current measures of success and learn what success really means to us. You're also going to hear about the importance of mentors and communities and the unique ways that women rely upon community in business.

These are the women you can look up to if you are someone who never felt comfortable checking those measures of success off an outdated list or cannot find yourself fitting tidally inside some box. I want to flash back a little bit where this all started for me. And I've shared this story before, but I think it's really important in understanding why women influencing change is so important to me. So when I was a little girl, I was always drawn to upsetting the applecart I guess. And I really wanted to tell the stories of women and I found myself doing this over and over again. Anytime I was assigned a report or a project you would find me telling the story of women, the story of women in World Wars, the story of women in media, the stories of women in athletics like it just came back over and over and over. I was trying to create a space for the voices of women. And then I just had this realization or remembrance of when I was younger and I really wanted to be an actress. And I didn't want to be an actress because I necessarily wanted some glamorous Hollywood Life.

What I really really was doing On two was the stage that the actress I saw had. And I also knew that they had access to money. And so what I really wanted was to be an actress so that I could also be an activist and a philanthropist. And I'm very sure I'm probably one of the only kids who has actor slash activist philanthropists on their list of what they want to be when they grow up . There weren't a lot of people that were modeling that but there were a few. And I saw this as a way that I could create the change that I wanted to create. And so that led me to early in my tourism career and noticing that when I looked up at the stage, I only saw a few women. And these were the women that I was inspiring to be the woman that I was modeling success after. And when I started looking around me and all of the other women in the room who were not given a moment to shine on these stages. In boardrooms, as ship captains or guides, I felt that gap again, it is one that I've been noticing since I was a little girl, and it just lives inside of me. And then I realized that I cannot tear down all of the institutions that have historically held women back.

But what I can do is be one of the people who gives them a place to tell their stories. I want other women to find their inspiration, not from just one or two women who have finally earned their spots in boardrooms and on stages, or as leaders and communities, but from hundreds of women from around the world. I'm not just sharing these important stories of women. I'm here creating a bigger stage. Over the past two years, I've seen how powerful it is for women to sit with me and share their journey. They learn about themselves, they connect pieces of the puzzle they hadn't seen before. They find clarity and have aha moments, they are seen and heard. And when their name is put together with all of the other women, they feel the strength of this community. And it is magical.

So I'm so excited to continue to build on that momentum. I am excited to focus on women influencing change, other things that you might expect from this season of soul travel. I'm going to be offering some bonus minisodes. I think we'll be calling them minisodes. These will be episodes you'll find almost every week, maybe every other week, from partners and sponsors of the show. So yay, to those people stepping up to support the work of this podcast. They'll be talking more in depth about the work that they are doing.

Some of these minisodes will be random musings for me about mindful travel, how we can be a more impactful traveler. I'm also envisioning sharing travel inspired book reflections and experiences from my travels or plans for upcoming journeys that you might be able to learn from. So I'm so excited to see what this might bring into our space here at the soul of travel. You'll also be hearing more about what Lotus sojourns is up to, especially as we are finally really moving back towards exploring the world again, you'll hear things I don't want you to miss, like my upcoming women's wilderness and yoga retreat at Arctic hive and Alaska. I have just a few spaces left for this amazing journey, we're going to be traveling 63 miles north of the Arctic Circle, you'll get to spend the spring solstice in this beautiful remote setting, we're going to have lots of time to connect to nature and to yourself.

You'll enjoy daily yoga practices, meditation, vegan meals, as well as having an opportunity to try out snowshoeing or dog sledding, learning about off grid and subsistence living and most importantly, you're gonna get to connect with other light hearted women. So I'm so excited to be guiding this journey. And like I said, we just have a few spaces left. So if you have heard about it and you're interested, make sure you reach out to me. You can email me at Lotus sojourns.com and that way we'll be in touch and we can make sure you get a space. I really deeply want to thank you for being with me for so many soulful conversations. That means so much to me that you're taking the time to sit with me and each of my guests and hear their story. If you'd like to be a part of some of the shows, you can find a link to paypal in the comments, and make a one time or monthly donation to help cover the costs of professionally producing the show.

You can also rate the show and leave a review on Apple podcasts. This is a simple way to help other listeners find us and to further amplify the voices of women who are sharing their stories with me. And the easiest way of all to support us is just to share a favorite episode with a friend. Before we wrap up, I thought it might be fun. I always do the rapid fire questions with each of my guests and thought maybe I would share my answers to the rapid fire questions. We'll see if I can interview myself. So the first question is, what are you reading right now. And for me, I used to be one of those people that never understood reading more than one thing. But now I have become what I previously thought was an annoying multi book reader.

So I'm almost always reading a book for the book sojourn. The book that we're reading right now is rooted in life at the crossroads of science, nature and spirit by Leanda Lindhout And so far, really loving that I've also just recently been diving into understanding of vagus nerve. So I'm reading a book about that. And then I have returned to a favorite book, The Alchemist. And as I'm getting ready to travel again, I felt like I really wanted to read that book. So that is what I'm reading right now. What is always in my suitcase is a water bottle, a journal, a blanket, because I am always freezing. And if I'm going somewhere cold, I might even have a really small sleeping bag with me.

You might see me in a sleeping bag on a plane or a train. It's been known to happen to soldier and is to travel somewhere intentionally as if you live there, where would I love to sojourn so many places, but I do find that or feel that I'm going to find myself spending an amount of time living in Guatemala or Uganda, those are countries that as soon as I traveled there, I knew that there was another part of my story that was still going to be unfolding. So I think I will be sojourning in one of those places. What do you eat that immediately connects you to a place that you've been, I find that fruits and vegetables, because they're in such abundance, and many of the places that I've been to locally, they taste so different. And that just really lets me know that I'm having this unique travel experience.

Like it's just, it's something so out of my daily life, that just always brings me back to feeling like I'm traveling, who was the person that inspired or encouraged you to set out and explore the world. I don't know if I can actually think of one person or someone who specifically encouraged me initially, I was really caught. I was like, really loved reading National Geographic and loved reading in general. So I would say actually, books and authors encouraged me to just become so interested in everything that was beyond the little town that I grew up in Montana. And so I think books that I still have such a deep love for, have allowed me to explore and inspired me to explore the world. If you could take an adventure with one person, fictional or real, alive or past, who would it be? And I know these questions, so you would think I would have an answer prepared for you but I don't. Our guests have often shared, you know, a family member, Anthony Bourdain, comes in here a lot. Jane Goodall, I am going to be traveling with my three daughters for a year and I'm so excited for that journey. I can't even begin to wrap my mind around what that would be like. So I'm really excited for that. And I'm gonna have to think about it. I'll have to share one of these days: who else that person might be and who is one woman in the travel industry you admire and would love to recognize in this space? Well, I hope I'm doing that on a weekly basis.

This is a question we just added this season, and I'm really already loving, learning about Other women or being able to acknowledge people who've already been on the podcast, creating a space for people to share, you know, who they admire and who they love in this industry who they look up to the work that inspires them. So I hope you will love having that question added to this season. And that's it. With that I will see you next week as we officially kick off season four with my interview with Iris Serban SQ who is the founder of women's work, so until then, enjoy your journey.

Christine Winebrenner Irick 15:02

Thank you for listening to the Soul of Travel. I hope you enjoyed the journey. If you love this conversation, I encourage you to subscribe, rate the podcast and share the episodes that inspire you with others. I am so proud of the way these conversations are bringing together people from around the world. If this sounds like your community, welcome.

I am so happy you are here. You can find all the ways you can be a part of the Soul of Travel and Lotus Sojourns Community at www.Lotussojourns.com. Here you can learn more about the Soul of Travel and my guests.

You can see details about the transformational sojourns. I guide women, as well as my book Sojourn which offers an opportunity to explore your heart mind in the world through the pages of books specially selected to create any journey. I'm all about community and would love to connect.

You can find me on Facebook at Lotus Sojourns on Facebook, or join the Lotus Sojourns Collective, our FB community, or follow me on Instagram either @lotussojourns or @souloftravelpodcast. Stay up to date by joining the Lotus Sojourns mailing list. I look forward to getting to know you and hopefully hearing your story.