Welcome back to the Sunshine Travelers podcast, where we help you travel more and better. In this episode, we'll explore how one couple turned their passion for travel into a lifestyle that feeds their passion. With insights from Katie and Joe of Katie and Joe on the go, we'll explore how they turned their love for exploration into a dynamic lifestyle in business. into a dynamic lifestyle and business. Whether you're dreaming of crossing off bucket list destinations or chasing your next big adventure, this episode will inspire you to turn your wanderlust into actionable steps towards a more enriched life. Let's get started.
Scott, we wanted to take this opportunity to remind everyone about our group trip to Antarctica. So if Antarctica is anywhere remotely on your bucket list, we would love for you to come and join us. We're getting super close to announcing all the nitty gritty details and having everyone actually like sign up and say, yes, for sure I'm going. And here's all the steps that you need to do. So in the meantime, go to sunshinetravelers.com slash group trip and drop your email there. And then you will get the first opportunity. You'll get the details first and have the first opportunity to sign up before anyone else.
I'm Scott. And I'm Melissa. And we're the Sunshine Travelers. Our passion is travel and sharing our experiences with those who enjoyed as much as we do, or those who want to learn more about travel, or even those who just want to live vicariously through our travel stories. No matter where you fall along that journey, get ready to hear about our firsthand experiences as we visit some of the most interesting and amazing places on earth.
Melissa, this episode was very inspirational for us as we take steps towards turning our passion for travel and sharing our experiences into a full-time lifestyle for ourselves. It also made me think about the stories that we hear from many of our listeners who have told us recently that they are now inspired to start a travel bucket list and figuring out how to cross those items off has become a fun and exciting experience for them.
Yeah, they were able to travel to some pretty amazing places for work, but because it wasn't on their own terms, they decided to leave their corporate jobs and fulfill their passion for travel using their skills as content creators to really fuel that passion.
Well, let's hear from Katie and Joe as they share the stories, lessons, and wisdom from their travels and work both in the U.S. and abroad. And then we'll come back and talk about how their story can translate to our listeners. So Katie and Joe, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you for having us. We're excited to talk. Can you introduce yourselves to us and tell us a little bit about your passion for travel? So Katie and welcome to the Joe, Thank you for having podcast. We're excited to talk. us.
Can you introduce yourselves to us and tell us a little bit about your passion for travel?
Yeah. I'm Joey. I'm half of Katie and Joe on the go. My passion for travel started when I was in high school. Up to that point, I didn't do a lot of international travel, just a lot of like four corners U.S. travel where I grew up in Durango, Colorado. And there was a notification on my Spanish classroom wall. And they're like, do you want to do a study abroad program in Costa Rica? And I was like, I have never thought about going anywhere outside of the US. And absolutely. So I applied, I got in and I spent a semester in Costa Rica, learning Spanish and then continuing on normal high school education through that. And that kind of opened up my eyes to the rest of the world. Up until that point, it was very US-based, US-focused, all that stuff. And at that point, I was like, I want to do more traveling. And not just traveling internationally, but I want to live internationally. And I went to school, graduated college, we moved to New York City. And then I got an opportunity to move to Berlin, Germany. And I was there for about four and a half years, just immersing myself in all your culture. And honestly, I never thought I was going to leave. I thought I was going to leave, I was going to go from Berlin up to like London, and then maybe over to Japan and kind of just like keep seeing the world through different cities and advertising. But a family member got sick and I decided that it made most sense for me to move back to the U.S. But since then, we have gone on many international travel trips and a lot of U.S. road trips. I think if we rewind
if we rewind a bit, we, after he graduated college, we went backpacking across Europe. And I think that was pretty eye-opening, again, to see more of the world, but also to see how much we enjoyed traveling together. And then from there, it grew. We ended up living in New York. And then when he was working in Germany, we would just do like weekend trips and it's so cheap to fly over there if you don't have a lot of baggage. It's like 10 euros, you want to go to London for the weekend? Sure, why not? And we did that quite frequently while you were over there. And then we finally decided just two years ago that we were going to figure out how to do travel and work and all of that on our own terms, which is where we started our company. Global Adventure Media is a way that we fund the beginning startup of our broader travel company, which is Katie and Joe on the go. So we have YouTube, blog, all of social media where we're working to encourage and inspire other people to go out and see the world because it was so transformative for us. And Global Adventure Media helps us.
Funds it.
Funds it. So we took our passions and our careers and just went all in on us where we have more control because when you work for someone else you don't have a say you have a contract in front of you that maybe says you have five days off in a year which i had a contract in front of me once that's that and it was just like, like that is far too limiting and life is far too short to be in that constraint. So we bet on ourselves and it's a grind. I'm sure as you guys know, starting your own companies as well, you just got to put in the sweat and, and we've been growing and really making it happen. Yeah. Awesome. I wanted
to back up for a second because you said you talked about you did this in high school, which is pretty unusual. A lot of people will do study abroad in college. So that's a really cool opportunity to be able to do that. It's, you know, as far back as high school.
Yeah, it was a fantastic experience. I don't think anyone in my family or friends had any inclination that like I would even apply for something like that or be interested in something like that. So when I brought it to my family or friends had any inclination that like i would even apply for something like that or be interested in something like that so when i got brought it to my family they're like costa rica is like a different country you know that right like they don't speak english we're gonna have like you're not gonna be around us for like three months like can you do this and i was like sure like i i would really try i'd be really interested in trying this. And I think the freedom of being in a new country, the fear of not knowing the language, like I knew a little bit of Spanish, but like not a lot. And I think that actually that fear of being in a new location has continued on in our travels, even to now. I love feeling not afraid, but not knowing the language, not knowing what I'm going to order when I get to a restaurant, you know, like traveling by like the seat of your pants. There's a lot to that that I miss, especially while we travel in the US right now.
Yeah, because we've primarily over the course of the last year just done national parks, which if anyone follows Katie and Joe on the go has seen that. And that's sort of like our messaging so far, but we love being in an environment where we don't, we can't read anything. We can't speak anything. And it's just so new. And we found a little bit of that, not with a language barrier, but with new places and new cultures because hogs in the US are very different than each other. But I think we're really excited to wrap up this leg of it and finish the national parks so that we can share more of those experiences outside of the U.S. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about that because visiting
talk a little bit about that because visiting that, like you just mentioned, has been a large part of what you've been doing and what you've been sharing. So tell us a little bit about how that came about and why that is a goal of yours. So when we were looking
we were looking at each other and like, okay, are we actually going to do this? Are we going to leave the corporate world and try to travel. It was still 2020. So the pandemic was going on. And then in 2021, things were starting to open up a little bit. And that's when it was like, actually, we should do this for real. And it takes planning to do these things
it takes
to do these things to make this jump. So because the greater world wasn't fully open to us, we were like, what could we do and see in a safe way? That's when we were like, let's convert a van. Why not? And then see the US. And we had done in 2022, right after he had left his corporate job, a road trip in a Ford Bronco. And we went to, gosh, I think five or six national parks without a camera, without anything. This was like purely a mental health journey. And when we saw
those national parks, we were like, wow, the U S is beautiful. And we, if we were going to spend money to travel, never in our minds, we're like, let's go see something in the US. It was always like, oh, for $300, I could fly to Arizona, or I could fly to Europe. And it was always Europe as the option. But because things weren't open at that time, we were like, okay, let's see the US, let's see these national parks that are epic locations, like incredibly beautiful. epic locations, like incredibly beautiful. And so in we got 2022, the we converted van, it.
Things started to open up again, but we had kind of committed to ourselves. Right. At that point, you know, we had a $65,000 van. We had $30,000 worth of batteries and water systems and solar panels and all of these things that like,
and water
we invested and we have to finish this or else, you know, we're just going to take a bath. I think we were also really excited
and we have to finish this
we were also really excited after doing all the research for the national parks, seeing the pictures and seeing like, we love a challenge. So it was like, oh, can we get to all 63? And our initial goal was to do it in one calendar year. And that slowly trickled away. But we were so excited. And I think that the van has been an incredibly interesting way to travel. Because it hadn't been something... We had done a camper trip in France once, but it was like three nights. To actually live
To actually
live in the van and drive almost 30,000 miles last year up to Alaska and back was a crazy experience. One that I wouldn't trade, but we are excited to get international once this is done. Yeah.
So tell us a little bit about the van life because, I mean, van life, you are very close and intimate, right? There's not a lot of space to get away from each other. You know, even in an RV, maybe you could go from one end to the other to get away. But in a van, you're right there together. So talk a little bit about that.
I think we learned a lot about each other.
We have been so close throughout our lives since we met in college 20 years ago that I really never had a fear going into van life.
I don't think it was... I also don't think we had a whole lot of problems with personal space. I think there were times when it was like, oh, you can't shut a door and just have your own time where you could just be by yourself since we were within like touching distance at any given moment but fortunately like we were also out of the van the van became a means of transportation and a place to sleep we very rarely were sitting in the van for an extended period of
very rarely
of time. Yeah. I feel like we are not quote-unquote van life people. We're not. We have a van that we can live in, but we're not van life people. We never
parked it for like eight days and lived that nomadic van life, like slow pace. We moved so quickly last year that up until we got to Alaska, we had never spent two nights in the same location. So we were constantly
So we
finding somewhere safe and legal to sleep every single night and driving hundreds of miles a day after hiking for 10 hours a day. We definitely didn't do it right because we know other friends that have lived van life and they're like, oh, it's slow and calm and joyous. And we were like, go, go, go the whole time. But I loved it. I love you. So it wasn't weird. And we got used to headphones on if someone was using the restroom, like blinders up. and we got used to headphones on if someone was using the restroom like blinders
the restroom like blinders up so i'm curious so like you know where did you start and then like what all you were were you able to accomplish because you you talked about how okay we had this goal and we didn't quite make it but you know like what was the path and and you talked a little bit about the pace but maybe share a little bit of that with us.
Because you've definitely done a lot of the 63. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah. We're like two thirds done. And we have we've gotten the hardest ones out of the way. So all the ones that we've seen, all eight of eight of Alaska, which require extensive planning and a good budget to be able to see them. But you can't drive into them. Right. You have to charter planes. You got to charter a plane to another plane or hike in or all these crazy things.
into them. Right.
So that's why we didn't finish it in the calendar year, but we'll get back to that. So we started, we're Colorado based. At the beginning of last year, as we were building the van before we were even done, we got burnt out on building the van. And so we just drove to Texas to try to knock off three national parks on that route. So we went south, we went to Big Bend, worked our way back up and went to Carlsbad Caverns. Guadalupe, because it was January, was dealing with weather. And the one activity to do in that national park was not available to us. So we skipped it. So we saw those two, came back to Colorado, spent about three more months finishing the van. And then we left full time in it in the spring. And we went south through, well, back to Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and then worked our way up California. And that we had mentioned previously, our pace was very quick. One of the parks in Alaska, I don't know how familiar you or your audience are with Alaska, but like Joey had mentioned, the parks are hard to get to and the best experiences in some of the parks require a reservation that is an unbelievably hot ticket to where I think they open on January 5th. And if you refresh it at, let's say it opens at 8 a.m., if you refresh at 8 a.m. in less than 60 seconds, all of the camping reservations for the entire season in Katmai National Park are gone. Reservations for the entire season in Katmai National Park are gone.
So we got so fortunate that we got a camping spot in that in January. And we had this hard deadline of when we needed to be in Alaska. So we were just cranking up the coast of California. We did a quick trip to Hawaii. We're both really close with our families. And we had the opportunity to go visit a national park with my family. So my brother and my parents met us in Hawaii and we did Hawaii Volcanoes National Park together, which was really fun. It was last minute, quick thanks. My brother was still in residency and got just like a last minute vacation day. So we squeezed that one in and then we drove up to Alaska to hit that deadline to get into Katmai. And then from there, like Joey had mentioned, it is wild how much planning and also like uncertainty and lack of planning you need to be able to see all the parks in Alaska because everything is weather dependent. Everything other than two or three of the eight, you have to fly in.
Yeah.
But it's not like you can just go online and Delta will take me to this national park. It's like, for example.
You start researching, you get a list of people who are known to fly to these national parks. They don't have websites. They're like, oh, text this number and maybe they'll call you back in four to five days for you to meet randomly if the weather's good at an airstrip. And you get into a plane that's 70 years old with someone you've never met before. You have no idea if he's a real pilot. He's a real pilot. And you're like, all right, let's go. And you're like, all Let's right, let's go.
no idea
Let's right, let's go. hope this works out. Let's hope this works out. And that's what happened. For Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk which are two of the Valley, national parks located above the Arctic the least Circle, arguably hardest visited, to get to because there's no infrastructure. We did. The people we used did have a but it doesn't website, have any information other than a phone number.
And I got a call back after leaving a voicemailail and he was do you like, want to go tomorrow?
We were like, okay, I guess that's good because my flight anxiety didn't have that much time to really marinate my system. And then we met that morning and he's like, weather's kind of bad. Like we'll just wait. So we kind of sat around for an hour and he's looking at the charts and then he was like okay let's go we
anxiety didn't have that much
got into the itty bitty plane and just went and it was wild and amazing and probably the best time of our lives it was the
was the most like raw emotion i think any place has ever given
to us either we both cried yeah it was so
us either we both cried yeah it was
powerful it was us like we
us like we were the only people who visited that national park probably that day maybe that week like there are 10 000 people in the entire year who get to that park versus like you know grand canaan could see 50 000 people in a day yeah right it was it was so
yeah right it was it was so incredible, but also incredibly expensive. So all of Alaska, every park having to fly in, two of us booking tickets. It was like each park at minimum was close to $700 in a flight just to get us there on top of whatever resources or stay we may have there. And so when we finished Alaska, we had another hard deadline, which was Joey's sister getting married. So we had to drive back from Alaska to Colorado to make sure that we were here for the wedding, which had us moving and grooving again, going very quickly. I think we drove from Alaska to the U.S. border for the Southern 48 within two days. within two days. It was something ridiculous. It was something ridiculous. He was driving like 500 miles a day to make it so that we could squeeze
ridiculous. It was something
driving like 500 miles a day to make it
squeeze in the three Washington parks before getting back to Colorado. And after all of that, we had hit 29 national parks in the van on the van road trip. But we had also exhausted financial resources, especially because Alaska was so expensive. So we were like, let this be a mid-season break. We've done half of them on this journey. And then this year, we're going to focus on growing our business, growing our social channels so that down the road, we can fund ourselves through our blog or our YouTube or sponsored posts within Katie and Joe on the go without having to rely on other clients on global adventure media side. So we've been spending this year, not on the road, but actually just focusing on building the business and building that back up the bank account and getting us set to see the second half next year okay cool and so that was what about six months or what i think it was just shy of seven months that we have full
shy of seven months that we have
we have full time in the van wow that is that is a lot and we have had so we've only done
is that is a lot and we have had so we've only done well i guess we did a couple of national parks in alaska one, Kenai Fords, which is take the boat
one, Kenai
the boat and you're kind of, you know, car and then boat. You kind of see some different parts of it. But going into Denali, my sister, thankfully, had planned all that. But for
the boat and you're kind of, you know, car
example, what you're saying, she made sure she wanted to fly in, drive out. And she did it that way because there were actually people who were going to do the opposite. And the day that they I supposed to fly they were were, you're guess, taking the bus back out out, because it's like, no, you it's not going to Right. just, know, happen. So totally get that. And I'm glad you pointed that out because a lot of people just don't know that, you know, know that or think about that in Alaska. And then, of course, like you said, the cost as well. And then the season. You have such a short To be able to be able to see And then of like Right. you the cost as season. And then Yeah. the right? Alaska. course, You said, well. season, have such a short season to be able to see Alaska. And we had a great pilot who,
a great pilot who, he tried his darndest to get us a view of Denali. He kept circling and going different routes and he was like, it's going to come. I know it's going to be
going to be
there. And we never did get to see it but but it was a great adventure going into Denali so yeah and
and too and I don't know what your experience is with this but it's also a lot more difficult a lot more people camp and have campers and van life and and things like that these days especially post pandemic than I mean years ago when we would. It's very difficult to secure places to camp all over, right? We stayed, we were fortunate on getting lucky a few
on getting lucky a few times in national parks with, like, we were able to get a very last-minute reservation at the Ho Rainforest and a few nights in a row in Mount Rainier. But one of that was us getting up at 4 a.m. and queuing at the little stand in the National Park campground to maybe, hopefully, get to stay another day. But we slept in a lot of Love's Travel. Cabela's. Cabela's. A lot of places that aren't the glamorous van life that you see online. We did have some very beautiful places where we stayed. And fortunately, this first half was on the western half of the United States where there's a lot more BLM land where you can camp for free. And also National Forest land, which is why the second half we're not quite as excited for because it's going to be a lot more designated campsites. And it's going to have to have a lot of planning because on the East Coast, there really isn't BLM or national forest. So we're going to have to have that much better planned, where on the West Coast,
So we're going to have to have that much better planned where on the West you can be a little bit more free Coast, flowing as long as you're open to sleeping at a loves if you don't get into the national park because people book that stuff ones, like you said. out, Yeah. months in advance before it happens. And then occasionally in a few parks, they do kind of hold a cluster and it's like night before that you go on to the recreation.gov and like, maybe you can get it. And we've, we had some luck with that as well.
So I want to talk, we want to have you share a little bit more about your international travels as well, but what tips would you have for people who are trying to, you know, do national parks? You've shared a few of them, but any apps that you would recommend, websites you would recommend? Because, I mean, even state parks these days, not just the national parks, but it's hard to get into the state parks to find campsites too. There are a lot more
are a lot more reservations and it's like, it's a double-edged sword, right? You want to have a good experience for visitors, which sometimes means restricting the number of visitors that are in because crowds can kill the vibe. I think there's people on every end of the spectrum that are super planners, where if you're going to recreation.gov for stuff like national parks or looking into state parks ahead of times most often i believe it's six months in advance when they start releasing campsites or even hiking permits entry permits definitely do a little bit of research on the area and the park that you're looking to go to to see if those are things that are factors fortunately like i had mentioned there are a lot of next day opportunities at most of the national parks like we just recently went to rocky mountain national park and the night before we got an entry time because it's still in time to entry until the end of october and we were able to do it because they released probably 150 to 200 next day entry reservations and then a tip like if you can't get one oftentimes you can go in before yeah you're talking like four to five a.m before the timed entry starts to happen so you'd have to get up pretty early but if you really want to see a place it would be worth it if you didn't get the
entry which is the benefit of the van is we can just wake up wherever we're at like right outside of the park entrance, get through the entrance, go to where we want to go, the hiking camp spot or something like that, and then just make coffee, have a slow morning. Yeah. It's a little
little more comfortable than people showing up in a vehicle that early who don't want to immediately hit the trails. I think another few apps that we've really found valuable on our journey through the national parks is offlining Google Maps. Not everyone knows that when you go into these places, there really isn't cell service. So if you haven't offlined it, you may have a hard time getting around the park. So offlining Google is a huge one what are the other apps i feel like recreation.gov recreation.gov yes that's a huge one and the nps app as well it's very informative giving you tips for hiking
trail closures and all the like things
and all the like things you need to know in the immediate all the alerts are there as well yeah And then if people are on a road trip, sort of like us, there's different apps that you can use to find campsites that aren't within the park. So there's stuff like Onyx that will help you find BLM land and free places to stay. HipCamp also does campsites and BLM and free properties.
Dirt is another
one that we've utilized quite a bit on this journey too. Just to find those places where the campsites start to add up, right? We live seven months in the van. If we had been paying $15 to $100 a night for a campsite, that would not have been an efficient use of our money. Yeah. So anything, if you have a vehicle that can do it and the comfort to do it, be allowed. That's a good point. Yeah. Because a lot
Because a lot of people don't think about that. It's also not like a cheap, like it used to be, I guess, years ago when we kept as well. So tell us, let's talk a little bit more. You alluded to some of your international travels and some of your work there and being able to do that. So how many countries have you guys been to or been to together? And then maybe share, like, I don't know, some of your favorites or memorable ones.
I think together we've been to like 33. You have been to a few more than me. so i think you're probably closer to 40
yeah like 40 45 right around there i saw almost all of europe outside of a handful of countries just for work which was great and then a lot of in the caribbean that you haven't seen yet yeah and then i have done production as
seen yet yeah and then i have done production as like my profession for the last decade or so. So I've been to a handful of countries that you haven't been for productions and different video shoots as well. But I think together, one of my favorite countries we've
of my favorite countries we've been to would be Japan. We went there for three weeks in 2019 and we got to kind of mesh some of our passions on top of travel. We went to a couple race events, like racing. It was a Formula One and an
racing. It was a Formula One and an endurance racing series in Japan.
To six hours of Fuji. And then he rented some like supercars and we drove around uh like the hokone pass which is fun to like meld those passions in with also being in a new country we rented a
rented a motorcycle and did a charity motorcycle ride where we were the number one fundraisers in the entire country of japan yeah one and two oh yeah yeah people were very confused about that because
a charity
one and two oh yeah
yeah people were very confused about that because like they like announced us and they're like joey burtonian katie run like looking around like where are the white people it
yeah people
around like where are the white people it was really it
really it was really but then japan is a country just it brings a different feeling and i i've been twice and each time is just like the culture is so welcoming to, even though there is a very big language barrier, more so there than we've seen elsewhere. But they're so open to helping you find the right train, get to where you need to be. And then, of course, the food.
Yeah.
The food in Japan is unmatched.
Yeah. You can't beat it. We crave it. We talk about it daily. Our Instagram reel today that we put up was talking about egg salad sandwiches from 7-Eleven in Japan. And just the cult following that those have.
For good reason, because they are phenomenal. Once you've had one, you dream about the next time you can get to Japan to have another. Just like that and hot dogs in Iceland.
like that and hot dogs in Iceland. Oh yeah, the hot dogs then all the nordic countries with the little crispies on top oh
with the little crispies on top
oh yeah joey has a secret hot
hot dog account i don't know if you guys are aware of that no joey eats hot dogs and he's tried a hot dog i think in every country we've been to and ranks them yeah we've been
joey eats
them yeah
okay but it's still there and he still tries hot
it's still
still tries hot dogs everywhere we go that's true i had no idea i just heard this thing about the hot dog
i had no idea i just heard this thing about the hot dog in iceland and like you can get them at every gas station and yeah like it's a real thing yeah i don't know
why hot dogs in all the nordic countries are such a big deal but they are like they go hard with them and they're just super clean simple just like a little bit of ketchup. So my crispy fried onions.
Something about it is just amazing.
The things you'll learn listening to the Sunshine Travelers podcast. That's right.
So let's talk a little bit about, you know, you guys transitioned into the full-time travel because you were, you know, as you said, you were trying to do some travel, but you had these jobs. Talk just a little bit find whatever that is, that passion that can help support what my true passion is, which is travel or whatever it would be. So talk a little bit about that.
I would say that the world is changing. There are remote work opportunities. There are jobs like content creation that didn't exist the way they do now 10, 15 years ago. There are so many things outside of the traditional way to go through life that probably a lot of your listeners have been told and is the only path and that's just not the case anymore so we decided to do what our skill sets are for ourselves so that we could travel more and it just so happens that our skill sets are content creation and paired with travel and wanting to run a travel blog but that doesn't mean you have to do something travel related to travel more. And honestly, working your passion is not always the best approach either. It's a really easy way to burn yourself out. If travel is work and you go too hard, all of a sudden the enjoyment of travel, which is something you love, may not be there anymore. So it's trying to find the balance. And I feel like my best advice would be to find work that fulfills you and also has the, I guess, flexibility or whatever that may be so that you can pursue whatever your actual passion is. And if those marry together and it works, that's a beautiful thing. But if it's not, and you're working a trade that gives you, you work six months out of the year and then you have enough money to go travel, there is nothing wrong with that. You bartend, come back for a month, and then go out and explore again. If that's what you want to do in
do in life, that is a wonderful career. I worked almost 12 years in advertising, solely focused on automotive global OEMs. And I loved it. It was a dream job to tell people, I run social media for all of Mercedes-Benz and Smart Europe. That is what I do. And I was so proud of it. It was so exciting to me. Everything was a new challenge. All of these things, melting travel and foreign languages, foreign living, cars, all that stuff. And then it got to a point where I couldn't do it anymore. My passion for the automotive world was completely gone. And I had another YouTube channel and all that stuff that was also cars. So I was like hitting it myself at, you know, both ends of the spectrum of like, I want to do car stuff on YouTube. Like I built that up to like 80,000 followers. Then I took a step back. I couldn't do advertising anymore. I took a step back. And that's when my little mental, my mentee, my mentee B, I was like, I can't do this for 50 years. Like this is it. So that's.
And so at least now that we are in control of that by owning the business and working for ourselves, we are able to have the flexibility to take that step back so that the burnout doesn't hit to where you never want to get on an airplane again.
Right. Like you never
Like you never want to travel again. And I think when we were in that corporate world where you don't have the freedom to take a step back and it's just like, go, go, go. And you may not have the influence within a company to bring a vision to life to where you are just frustrated. You're like, I love travel or X, Y, or Z, but the hindrances within a company make it not fun anymore. That is like the pitfall. company make it not fun anymore that is like the the pitfall but now that we own it it's like we can take the steps we need to ensure that it is still enjoyable yeah and still sustainable and at the end of the day we answered to each other yeah which
to ensure
end of the day we answered to each other
is really nice to have two of us working together doing the same thing focus on the same goals and all of that, because, you know, it, we put a lot of stress on right? ourselves, We, we made big jumps. We left high paying jobs with, you know, with, with the titles that people like, you know, aspire to have. And we're like, we're going to do this full time as content creators. Like, what does that mean? That means like, we need to like, we need to hit this follower count. We need to make sure we have our email subscriber list up. We need to do all of these things is like we know that is where success is going to lie but at the end of the day like we don't control all of those things like we can put in the best work that we've done and you know have content that we're super proud of but you know we still have to live by algorithms so like what if i get stressed or frustrated katie would be like go ride your motorcycle for a minute like go you, you know, go hang out with your friends, go do this for a day. And then like, I will handle all the things saying, all right, I'll handle all the content for the day and the emails and like vice versa. So I don't think we have, we have this conversation a
I don't
conversation a lot with like content creators who are like by themselves. It is a monumental task to do it on your
to do it on your own. Yeah. And we have the highest, highest respect for the people that are doing it successfully and the people that have the desire to do it on their own as well. Like it is doable, but it's the funneled into
one person, like would just blow our minds. We could easily hire another
could easily hire another three, four people tomorrow and like give them 40 hours worth of work a week.
Yeah. So props to people who do it alone. Doable, but who are we?
You're in for it. So balancing that passion, but just from what you've learned in the past is saying, okay, we've got to do it in such a way that we don't burn out. We're just like, okay, I can't, I can't do this anymore. I get the growth is slower. Or I like what you said about, okay, we had this goal. We were going to take this whole year. We were going to do all these national parks, but then when it's like, okay, it's okay to stay, take a step back, right? It's okay to change that plan. And I, and I love that because you don't know in a business, I mean, even in life, right? But you mentioned, you alluded to it earlier. Our plan was to do this and sometimes life happens and you may have to change those plans, but still using that to follow your passion. And I love that. I think that's very, I think that's just very honorable too. So just to kind of wrap that up
of wrap that up is, is there any advice you would give to people about, you know, creating an income and a lifestyle that supports your dreams and goals for yourself?
I think my biggest advice would be to cut yourself some slack. Because I think when you're starting it and working for yourself and following your dreams, everything is self-imposed because you don't have a boss telling you what to do or giving you the deadlines. And so cutting yourself a little bit of slack on your journey because things take time will benefit you in the long run. Because if you just are hard on yourself for whatever it is, not making a deadline that you set, you're only going to make it not enjoyable and you're not going to live the life you are trying to build. So following your dream, going full at it and putting everything into it, but also giving yourself space to fail on occasion, give yourself space to step back, give yourself a little bit of grace and forgiveness. Because at the end of the day, what you're building will come together when you have a good mental space in it. And you will be happy on that journey if you are taking care of yourself.
That's why she's a smart one.
Well, we like to wrap up every episode by asking our guests three questions. So everybody gets the same questions and you guys can either answer them together or independently, whichever one is fine. But the first one is, what is your favorite place in the world that you've ever visited?
Honestly, it's probably Japan. We dream of it. When we finished the National Park Series, our goal was to just go spend three months in Japan, going flying to the south end of it and kind of slowly making our way to the north end getting fat and stupid on ramen skiing or driving cars just like the fun things that we love about travel but in such a slow manner as we like are talking about like after national parks like what our youtube and content series is really going to look like it's all going to be about slow travel like our goal is to go to a city and spend a week there spend two weeks there really becoming a local and like getting as much information as we can we're also like giving ourselves like slow days like we don't need to be out and about every day but we want to just like go have a nice coffee day yeah
and when we think to the future of like what is the reward when we finish the national parks it's always been like let's go to japan yeah So I think that's definitely our favorite.
So I think
That's awesome. So we actually just talked to my sister, just interviewed my sister. Funny enough, she was also, she was the one that we went on the Alaska trip with. So she is, she's on the Alaska episode with us and then just the pan. But it's interesting because her, like what she did is probably completely different, you know, from what you guys are talking about doing. So it just goes to show there's so much that Japan has to offer, you know, for all kinds of different travelers. So that's very cool.
kinds of
The next question that we ask is what are the top places that you still have on your bucket list of places you haven't been yet?
you still have on your bucket list of places you haven't been yet a big one for us is iceland i've flown through iceland and flown over it more times than i can count yeah but i've never spent time there and it just looks like the coolest place in the world and i it's so high on my bucket list i
think yeah iceland new zealand is up there i am very interested in just exploring china just all of the country i think it is massive and they're so it's so unique so diverse yeah depending
yeah depending on where in the country yeah so
i feel like those mongolia all of the stands i
like those mongolia
all of the stands i was like i don't know like if it's like the new iceland on instagram right now but everyone is going there and the mountains just look absolutely stunning i think it's hard to pick when you're a
it's hard to pick when you're a lover of travel and crave that it's like what is on the top because i if the opportunity presented itself i would literally go anywhere just to experience it.
Same. And you know what? It's interesting you say that because that's what we tell people. Make yourself a list. Our very first episode was creating a travel bucket list. Make yourself a list of places that you dream about, whether you think in your mind in a million years you'll ever be able to go. So that when you watch flight deals or whatever, you're like, hey, that's on the list. Let's grab this one, you know, for example, or if you had the opportunity to do a longer layover in Iceland or something. But I think that's great. I think it's, I think we think it's great to dream and have that long list of places you want to see. We've
started like looking at not just like countries and cities but also like cultural moments within cities like i really want to go to mexico city but i only really want to go there during like the day of the dead festival like all of that because i feel like that is such an interesting cultural moment that like to really understand like you have to be there and if you're gonna go it would be
all of that
gonna go it would be so special to go in a time of celebration like that and experience the culture even deeper than just being there. Right.
Christmas markets in Europe.
I love Christmas markets.
Yeah, we're a big Christmas market fan.
That is on our list. Yeah.
So one of our recent guests talked about doing the Silk Road in reverse. One of our recent guests talked about doing the Silk Road in reverse. That might be something that you want to look at because you're mentioning all the stands. Yeah. And then finally, our last question that we ask where is, are you going next?
Okay, I get to answer this because I which is something i have been dreaming of for two years and we finally i only have a ticket so we don't have two yet but we're hoping and manifesting we get another one but it'll be really excited to go on a trip that's not content capture yeah because. Because everything so far has been, if we're going somewhere, we're bringing cameras, we're recording YouTubes and TikToks and all those things. And this is just like a joyous occasion and an actual vacation. And I could not be more excited.
It's been interesting to watch the amount, or I guess the number of people who have gotten to go to the concerts, but then also paired it with travel, right? As the different, you know, travel to other cities, if it's in the U.S. or travel to other, you know, countries in Europe. It's been interesting to watch that, you know, as a lover of travel. Yeah. Yeah. And so while we've
while we've been to Indianapolis for work for BMW at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This will be the first time we go for pleasure and we'll get to actually explore, like find restaurants and check it out. I think it's going to be really fun. Of like
fun. Of like our first like an only vacation this year. It's a while that we're like, we're going to Indianapolis. We're so excited.
We're so excited.
You know, it's great, you know, even in the U.S. to I mean, so many great restaurants, right. And hidden gems that you can find and you, you know, I mean, of course, look online. But that you just asking people who have been and once we had we went to Pittsburgh, what, about a year ago for a concert, you met some friends and we were just surprised at all the, you know, the neat things to do. some friends and we were just surprised at all the, you know, the neat things to do. And oftentimes we are like you guys, oh, we could go to Europe and do this and do that. And just taking those opportunities to explore places in the U.S. too, not just national parks, but the city. So I think that's awesome. Yeah. We have a lot of people tell us
Yeah. We have a lot of people tell us like, why do you need to travel all over the world? There's so much to see here in the U.S. and it's true. There really is. There's so much here to see. And just in our season of life, we're like, hey, we have our health. We have our youth. And so right now we want to go as far as we can. And then when we can't go quite that far anymore, we'll check out the things here in the U.S. So Katie and
Joe, tell everybody where they can find you and connect with you. So you're at Katie and Joe on the go pretty much everywhere? Everywhere.
YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Threads. Our website is Katie and Joe on the go. I think. Yeah, that's it. Those are the platforms. Yeah. Yeah, basically everywhere. And
then the hot dogs again was? Okay, it's joey eats hot dogs i'm gonna find the login and update it with all the hot dogs we've had since okay and that's only yeah okay well thank you guys so much for
much for coming on and talking with us and just sharing your journey and your love of travel and just your encouragement to people who, you know, want to find some creative ways to be able to travel more or just follow their passion.
Yeah. Thanks for having us.
for having us.
Yeah, this was great.
Scott, recently, we've had a lot of conversations about not how everyone wants to travel outside of the United States.
Yeah, that's true. A lot of people, you know, are like, hey, it's great that you guys do this and you go to all these places, but I'm not interested. Yeah. And there's so much to see
Yeah. And there's so much to see right here in the U.S. I mean, in every state, even, you know, the state that you live in. I mean, there's just so many things that you probably hasn't, you know, explored as a quote unquote tourist. Yeah. I
mean, you don't typically tour in your own backyard. Well, Joe talked about one of the things for them was that they were inspired by the freedom of being in a new country and the excitement and fear of not knowing the language or what you're going to eat in a restaurant. But I can tell you that definitely doesn't translate to everyone. No, I
I mean, I think that fuels me as well. But yeah, there's a lot of people who are like, OK, I don't mind, you know, go into a place for a few nights, but not if I can't read the menu and have to use Google Translate and I have to like do a currency converter to see even what I'm paying. So and that's OK. Right. Everybody has their own style of travel. And like we just said, I mean, and like they said, I mean, there's so many places to explore.
Yeah, I agree. We haven't been to most places here in the US. I mean, we've been to a lot of states, we've, you know, kind of mapped that out and said, Oh, we've been here, we haven't been there. But there's a lot of places here we haven't seen. Yeah, we have a lot of states to explore.
a lot of states to explore. And even here in Florida, there's lots. I mean, Florida is a huge state in amongst itself, you know, in places to explore. And so they had set a goal when they first kind of started their journey to visit all 63 national parks. And they started that at the end of the pandemic. And what I loved about it is that they couldn't plan it all out, you know, from the get go and kind of having a goal, but then they quickly learned, okay, we are going to have to take like a break and then, you know, figure out how does our business continue to fuel our travels. And that's okay. And I love that because, I mean, that's just such that's a, such a great lesson is that it's not a, you know, it's not a race to, it's not a race to finish, but just having that goal of seeing those places. And I think before you
I think before you start out on an epic journey like this, you maybe think, oh, well, 63 parks, we'll just go down and we'll do them kind of in order. And we'll just knock it out in a couple of years and be done. But I love the fact that they're kind of hanging in there, even though their desire deep down is to go out and travel a little bit further. And like Joe said, go to those places where he doesn't speak the language and be inspired by all of that.
So their goal was to hit all 63 national parks. But so but this is a great way to just begin thinking about like setting your own goal, like what in as far as the travel inspires you? Is it to go visit all 50 states? Is it to try to visit all the state parks in your own state? And then just seeing so much more of our country along the way, you know, towns and cities and just all kinds of things that you can explore. And one of the things that Katie said that I loved is remember that like your journey and what you would enjoy, what your family would enjoy is not necessarily the same as what somebody else is going to enjoy. What you saw on Instagram is not necessarily going to translate to your trip. And a perfect example of that was what she talked about, the exciting adventures, the things that they like to do in Japan, the cars and skiing and doing the motorcycles is completely different from the trip we talked about with Stephanie a few episodes back, right? She was very interested in a lot of the cultural experiences and things like that. So making these journeys, making these bucket lists your own and making these travels meaningful for you, not just what you saw and not just to get the photograph, right? Having your own unique and authentic experiences along the way.
And I think one of the joys of actually writing down your bucket list is being able to cross things off. And then once you get that crossed off, then it's like you just want to keep going, right? And you want to cross that next thing and add new things to it to keep that list fresh and inspired and to give you that motivation to get out and just travel more.
Yeah. And one thing that I've been thinking about is when we say cross this off our bucket list, it's not as in a checklist of, okay, I'm done with that. It's more as of a checklist of inspiration, right? To fuel your exploration of everyday life, right? To give you some inspiration about, you know, some of the things that excite you that a lot of times that you have to work towards, right? Saving the money or having the vacation time or whatever, not to necessarily check that off, but to look forward to that exciting adventure. Yeah, I think of the safari being the
I think of the safari being the perfect example of that. Safari was something that's on our bucket list. Well, we've crossed that off, but it doesn't mean we're done with safari. Yeah, and that's a great
Yeah, and that's a great point. Yeah, exactly.
Well, no matter what you do is you're going to have some stories. Think of their trip to the national parks. It's not just a journey to that national park. It's everything that happens along the way. And so it's all the detours and the side roads that you take and the ball of twine that you go and visit and whatever else, right? And it's those memories and experiences that you make along the way that really are what's behind the reason for the bucket list anyway.
Yeah. And Joe's hot dogs and thinking about the flight and then, well, and then just you sharing the story of, okay, here was our flight experience as well. Completely different, but you have some common ground when you share your travels with other people too.
And I just want to say for all of our listeners, it's important to note, you don't have to quit your job and become a van camper to achieve this goal. Maybe you just want to make this a family goal where you're going to visit all the national parks before your kids get out of high school. Or, you know, if you're retired or near retirement, maybe you set a goal of visiting all of them in a two to three year time frame to achieve this. And, you know, you can slow travel across the U.S. while you're doing it. Just have some great experiences as you do so. Yeah. And I think Katie
Katie and Joe would agree that however you decide to do this, make sure that it doesn't become your quote unquote job to where you can't enjoy the experiences and they're not fun and exciting along the way. Well, Katie and Joe inspire listeners to dream big,
inspire listeners to dream big, plan intentionally, and embrace the challenges of turning travel dreams into reality. Their advice to cut yourself some slack and find balance in your journey is a reminder that success and fulfillment often come through patience and adaptability. If this episode has encouraged you to think about your travel bucket list, we'd love to hear about it. Send me an email, scott at sunshinetravelers.com, and let us know. We're always inspired by your travel journeys. We hope you enjoyed this episode and found some inspiration to help you with your travel journeys. If you could take a moment to leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform, it would be greatly appreciated. Your five-star reviews help us get discovered by others and possibly featured on your favorite platform. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to our podcast to get notified of new episodes as they are released. You can also find us on Instagram and Facebook at Sunshine Travelers Podcast. Remember, that is Travelers with one L. Most importantly, please share it with your friends to help them catch the travel bug. You never know, they may become your greatest travel companion.
