Founder's Story - The World is Her Office: How Ashley Perona Turned Global Travel into a Lifestyle Revolution | S2: E34

Episode Date: June 6, 2024

This is brought to you by BiOptimizers, whom I LOVE their MAGNESIUM BREAKTHROUGH product has helped me sleep better, stay focused, and feel all-around healthier.Check out their products at http://bioptimizers.com/danrobbins use promo code FOUNDERS for 10% off any order.In a refreshing episode of "Founder's Story," Ashley Perona, Chief Experience Officer at Ever Wander Travel, shares her transformative journey from corporate America to becoming a full-time global traveler and biohacker. Ashley and her husband embarked on an extraordinary adventure, selling 95% of their possessions to explore over 59 countries, including Antarctica.Driven by a deep-seated desire for more meaningful experiences beyond material possessions, Ashley’s leap into a nomadic lifestyle was not just about escaping the mundane but redefining success and happiness on her terms. As someone who once felt suffocated by the accumulation of possessions and a high-stress job, her transition to traveling was both a physical and emotional liberation.Our Sponsors:* Check out PrizePicks and use my code FOUNDERS for a great deal: www.prizepicks.com* Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: www.rosettastone.comAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Hey everyone, welcome back to Founders Story. I am a avid traveler. I think if I could spend my money on anything in the world, it would be traveling. It's one of the best things that anyone can do and wandering the world, I think is a dream of mine. That's why I wanted to have Ashley Perrona on. She is the Chief Experience Officer of the lifestyle travel brand Ever Wander Travel, and she sold 95% of her possessions to travel so far over 59 countries, including Antarctica, and I can't wait to dive in. Plus, she's all about

biohacking and traveling healthy. But Ashley, welcome to the show. Awesome. Thanks, Daniel. I'm super stoked to be here. And we're going to dive into this because when I travel, I'm the most unhealthy and I'm super interested in biohacking and everything. But let's go back to when you thought to yourself, I'm going to sell it all and I'm just going to travel. What was that like? And what was going through your mind? That's a big topic because it's not easy. I was in corporate America and pretty high up and I kept getting all of these things. I kept accumulating all these things like the American dream. I need the house. I need the car. I need the next bag. I need the Louis and everything. And I just kind of felt empty inside.

And as I started accumulating all this stuff, it felt like really heavy, like just a ton of responsibility. And like, I had no way out. And then also like corporate America just wasn't really panning out the way that I anticipated it. And so I found myself super stressed, anxious, borderline like an alcoholic, smoking e-cigarettes, taking Xanax and NyQuil to go to bed, rinse and repeat. And I'm like, is this really what life is all about? And so I had to really evaluate like how happy I was and if this is the way that I wanted to continue progressing because I kind of felt like I had one foot in the grave. And my husband and I, we discussed traveling and I was actually going to go out on my own first. So I sold my house. I sold my car. He has two boys and his youngest was still in the house. So he was going

to come visit every once in a while. And so in April, 2020, I had my ticket to go to Japan and then everything just kind of like blew up. It was the time when that ship got stuck in the harbor in Japan and no one could get off. So I kind of got stuck with, you know what? And so I got stuck in the United States. I did some road trips and stuff and did a huge digital purge. And by the time, you know, COVID kind of ended, my husband's youngest was out of the house and we decided to travel together. So we left in September, 2021 and basically sold everything, which was a huge emotional process. What was that like? Because I think it's from what we hear and what we see, you get the success that you dreamt of. You buy the things that you've dreamt of. You've been told that this is the dream. This is what success looks like.

But when you get there, a lot of people are empty. And then they're like, wait a minute, I thought I was going to be fulfilled. And I'm almost more depressed because I'm not fulfilled based on what I thought I would be. And now I'm lost. So what was that like though, figuring out, you know what, this is what's going to make me happy. And then the act of selling it all. How'd you do that? So I had been inspired to travel my entire life. So when I was a kid, my uncle would send me these postcards because his job took him to international places. And I actually have every single postcard still. It's in my storage locker and I reread them not too long ago. But I was always inspired to be like, I want to go there. I want to go where he's going.

And then my parents are relatively conservative. So they kind of instilled the message of like, hey, get a job, work hard, climb the corporate ladder. You know, traveling for you as a female is probably not safe. You're going to get taken. Liam Neeson is going to have to come find you type deal. And so I just hunkered down and I did what they said. Well, in 2019, Cameron and I decided to travel because he's spoken all over the world. He's like spoken in 29 countries and now all seven continents.

And we went over to Europe and I just saw how easy it was. If you're just not, I'm sorry, a loud, obnoxious American, and you are polite and ask people like, Hey, do you speak English? Leverage Google translate, leverage Google maps. It's actually not that hard. And it was pretty easy to travel. So that, that moment in the summer of 2019 really kind of sparked a light bulb and turned things on for me. And I'm like, hey, this seems really possible. And I'm absolutely not happy with what's going on. And I mean, it got pretty dark.

Like I figured if the trajectory that I was on was not going to be a good one if I didn't make some crazy changes because I just was not fulfilled in my job and with all the stuff. So I really did was like, I rather take my chances out there in the world than see what happens in this current environment, which was very toxic for me. So I thought about keeping my house and renting it, but I was like, I really don't want to be a landlord. I don't want to deal with all that. So I decided to sell it. I sold my car. And then really with all the stuff, I ended up selling my house furnished, but it's like all of the stuff that goes into storage. So I slowly went through and I probably went through five rounds of purging. The first one being the hardest, like going through all my stuff, going through all my memories. But what I did is I took

pictures of all of the things that were really important to me. I digitized all of the things where I wanted the memento saved. And then I kind of like put them on the side and I left them there for a little bit. Like I didn't take them immediately to Goodwill. I just kind of was like, okay, maybe I'll want them back. And finally the time came and I did. And I thought I would pull out of the driveway and be like, or out of the parking lot and be like, oh my gosh, I want all my stuff back. But strangely, I was like crazy liberated. I felt so much lighter not being beholden to all of these things, which don't matter. What matters are these beautiful memories and these experiences that I'll have for the rest of my life.

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And back to the show. Doing things that like exhilarate me and also... Yeah, I mean, I think most people would have a challenge it seems easy to purge everything and get rid of it but when you're doing it it's really scary and you're I think a lot of people it brings up all these emotions and you start going back through your past and history and all these things but let's let's talk about going forward. So you've traveled all these countries. What are one or two memories that have really stood out for you? Oh, my gosh. So we have been so blessed, like so blessed.

A couple that come off the top of my head. There are six sort of like key countries or regions, locations that I absolutely love that are tied into experiences. So one being doing a silent disco with a whole bunch of penguins and seals surrounding us on Antarctica. I'm pretty sure we were the first people to actually be on Antarctica with a DJ. So that was quite amazing. Oh my, like I can't even describe it. Antarctica is so beautiful and so pristine and so untouched that it's just breathtaking. So that definitely ranks super up there. We did safari for part of our honeymoon. It was the third part of our honeymoon, 13 days, and just the animals. And in particular, floating over the Maasai Mara.

And I got us two onesies. I was a lion. Cameron was a giraffe. And just seeing the Maasai Mara floating over all of these animals. Whether you're starting or scaling your company's security program, demonstrating top-notch security practices, and establishing trust is more important than ever. Thank you. by automating questionnaires and demonstrating your security posture with a customer-facing trust center all powered by Vanta AI. Over 8,000 global companies like Atlassian, Flow Health, and Quora

use Vanta to manage risk and prove security in real time. Our audience gets a special offer of $1,000 off Vanta at vanta.com slash founders. That's V-A-N-T-A dot com slash founders for $1,000 off. Now back to the show. In Africa at sunrise was complete magic. Then we did another trip with this group called Wayfinders to Bhutan. So it's in between India and China. And it's like you've traveled back in time. And we hiked 14,000 feet to this beautiful monastery. And we were hanging out with these orphan monks. And we had a bonfire dance party with them,

singing like Katy Perry's Firework and Justin Timberlake, Can't Stop the Feeling. And they only get like one bonfire a year and all good deeds get amplified on a full moon. So that was just another experience that completely touched my heart. Uganda, we were standing like mere feet away from silverback gorillas. And Iceland,

oh my gosh, beautiful, so beautiful, like the iceberg lagoons, all of the waterfalls. And then I happened to be able to hike to the volcano that was erupting. So I got to see an actual live volcano erupting. And it was just something out of a movie. Like it looked so fake. I can't even describe it. And then in January, we crossed off my number one bucket list item, which was seeing the Northern Lights in Northern Norway. And we just got so lucky. They came out full force one night and we were just like ridiculously giddy because it was so spectacular. I mean, those are like every single bucket list item that I have you mentioned. So that is amazing, which I enjoy being able to follow along the journey of you two and all the things that

you're doing. So I'm appreciative that you're sharing it with the world. And I think everyone should be, you know, paying attention. If you want to travel, if you want to do bucket list, it's something to watch. It's something to listen to. If people want to find out more about it, if they want to visit the site, how can they do so? Yeah. So everywhere on every platform you can pretty much think of except Twitter, I am on there. My handle is everwander travel. Uh, I have the website, the blog, you can connect with me there. Love YouTube. And, uh, on the website in particular, you know, we just want to share our overall experience. We want to inspire others to drop the work. Like you're not going to be on your deathbed wishing that you worked or grounded out

more hours at the office. Like you want these bucket list experiences. So we not only published our bucket list, both of us on the website for people to see, and it's actually quite vulnerable. And Cameron has this concept called the vivid vision. Well, we did one for our marriage. So we have actually published our vivid vision of what our marriage is going to look like by the end of next year for people to read and maybe produce their own. Because it's a really great experience and activity to do with your significant other. And then I also have a bucket list template on the website as well.

That's amazing. Let's dive into where do you want to go next? What is a future? I mean, all the things you've done, what is another bucket list item that you're excited for in the future? So a couple, we've done already a few, like I did, I'm starting to host these experiences for our friends. So one that we did just a bit ago was Niseko in Japan. We did a seven day ski trip and we had 10 friends come over and meet us. But we're about to go to the Arctic. We had this Arctic trip just like fall in our laps a few weeks ago. And we pulled the trigger on it because after going to Antarctica, I'm like, I really want to go to the North Pole. So we are going to go to the Arctic. And then we're doing this cool event in Montenegro called Onda Linda, which is kind of like a very

small knit Burning Man meets entrepreneur in Montenegro type event. And then we're also doing a trip to Vietnam and Laos, which is the same group that we went to Bhutan and Uganda with. And I also want to do the Lantern Festival in Thailand. And then we'll probably do F1 in Dubai in December. Epic. I love the fact that you're doing, it's not just traveling somewhere. It's like going to a, an event or something that they do, a tradition that they have, which I've always been fond of as well, like a festival or a wedding or, you know, some,

some sort of localized event. So you're not just learning about the place. You're also getting a localized experience, which I think is so different. But how do you stay so healthy? Like that to me is the hardest part. Every time I go on a trip, I can't stop thinking about how the scale is going to go up in a negative way when I get back. And how do you do that? Okay. So I do want to just say one of my big bucket list items is going to an Indian wedding. I have never been, so I do want to just say one of my big bucket list items is going to an Indian wedding. I have never been, so I totally want to do that. So if anyone has like is Indian or has Indian friends and wants to invite us to their wedding, I'm all in. I can't wait to like dress up and do

like the whole five days. But as far as health goes, I was always kind of a health nut. And I'm not going to lie, after our wedding in Mykonos in 2022, that was very stressful for me. And I kind of just started feeling really icky. And we were on the road full time at that point. We started in September 2021. And after taking some tests, I mean, my H. pylori was back. I had hydrogen dominant SIBO. My vitamin D levels were on the floor and I was actually technically pre-diabetic. So I was like, whoa, we got to figure something out. So I did a whole bunch of tests and then I kind of dove head first into

this whole realm of biohacking and longevity. So I read a whole bunch of books. So for me, um, I know that a lot of people's favorite thing with traveling is probably food oriented. Mine is, but I definitely watch it. Like, so I definitely am a modifier when it comes to the menu. Um, I try and make smarter decisions. That doesn't mean that I don't splurge here and there. Trust me, I probably splurge more than I should, but I definitely have the supplements and stuff. Like I probably have half of a suitcase of supplements and peptides. So I do prep a lot. So I make sure that I have all of the things that I would have at home with me and available to be able to take. And then I do spend about a couple of weeks in advance to going to places and I will figure out where is the gym? Where is the yoga studio?

Where's a sports massage? I always look for like cold therapy or, you know, infrared sauna. And, you know, there's a whole bunch of free things that you can do with like seeing the sun, like the sunrise, grounding, breath work, meditation. So I do practice a realm of free things. And I also practice, you know, a lot of NAD IV drips when we're in Dubai and stuff. So I just always try and plug a lot of those things in whenever we can. And like we're in Dallas right now about to attend the biohacking conference and then going to London to attend the health optimization summit just to learn more about how to stay healthy and how I can take some of those nuggets and take it with us on the road without it being too much of a burden. I mean, it's amazing, I guess, what you can do when you really put your mind to it and you prepare and you focus. So there's no excuses for me. And I appreciate that. I am inspired now. And I think I have the know-how. And I want to check out those biohacking events, the health events. I'm just so interested in this topic. And I think I have the know-how and I want to check out those biohacking events,

the health events. I'm just so interested in this topic. And I think we all want to live longer. We want to, we want to be able to travel till we're like 120 years old. So thank you for that. And thank you for sharing. Everyone checks out everwander travel.com so they can follow along. Do you open up any of these events to other people going along as well? We share what events, so our travel calendar for the entire year is actually on the website, where we'll be. And I do kind of put in brackets where we'll be. And then people who, friends that we have, if I come across an event where I feel it resonates, I'll actually message them and be like, hey, we're going like here. Want to come with?

And I always like send the link. So like Una Linda, the thing in Montenegro, we now have three friends joining us. And then I may have another friend that was in Antarctica coming up to the Arctic with us. So I'm always mindful of like our friends of like what might grab them. But as far as the experiences I did, like where we had friends skiing in Niseko, next year, we're probably either going to put one together where sailing around the Mediterranean, or we have a group where we can rent Porsches

and drive through different countries in Europe for four nights, five days. Well, I want to do everything that you've done and I can't wait to follow along. So I know what to do next, but Ashley, thank you so much for joining us and have fun at the biohacking event. And next time, share with us all of the biohacking stuff

that you're learning from this conference, the next one, and all the experiences that you're going to have. Thanks again for being here on Founders Story. Awesome. Thank you so much, Daniel. Thank again for being here on Founders Story. Awesome. Thank you so much, Daniel. Thank you for tuning in to Founders Story. Keep exploring, keep dreaming, and join us next time

for more inspiring entrepreneurial journeys.