Ep 024 – World Travel, Couch Surfing, Finding Meaning and Purpose

Suburban Folk 0:00
this episode of the podcast is brought to you by healing wonders travel. Healing wonders travel is a full service travel agency who takes all the stress and planning out of your next vacation. We had Dr. nikoline ambi on episode 21 and go back and listen to the great tips, strategies and philosophies that she brings to the table to take you on your next adventure. You can contact nikoline at 310-293-3355 again 310 to 933355 or at her email nikoline at healing wonders travel.com that’s nikoline n IC o l i n e at healing wonders travel.com and she’ll be sure to get you set up with your next great adventure. Also a reminder that there’s only two weeks left for our giveaway for the month, we’ve teamed up with lash binder to give away one set of their false lashes to a subscriber of our email list. Simply head over to Suburban folk.com. Enter your name and email and at the end of the month will randomly select one winner to receive the lashes. And now enjoy the show health, travel finance, parenting and home improvement. This is the Suburban Folk podcast

Unknown Speaker 1:16
$250 a month into my child’s 529. From the month that they start kindergarten, I should be able to pay for 80% of my child’s college. I don’t trust that most people will eat their vegetables. So our kind of standard is three servings of vegetables per meal. You take something like a two by six and you cut it with a circular saw. That’s like a superpower. Those middle school years are not as fun but at that age, they’re still willing to talk to you.

Suburban Folk 1:43
Welcome to the Suburban Folk podcast. I’m your host Greg. Today’s episode we’ll continue our exploration into the world of travel with our guests. Simon Skipper Christiansen, he’s a multi award winning documentary photographer and CEO of Skipper photography. He is a sought after keynote speaker and coach certified by the Tony Robbins mastery University, a successful entrepreneur and seasoned world traveler. He’s now helping people visualize their dreams in his capacity as a transformational photographer. Pairing coaching skills gained through his own personal development with his mastery behind the camera. He photographs a vision of his clients that embodies them as the person they are capable of becoming. The success of his clients has made him more determined to share his insights with others, and he knows the ripple effect that can be achieved when we empower people to help themselves. He has given talks about being a young creative professional about coaching, traveling vulnerability, Authenticity, and business tools for freelancers. One note about this episode, we talk in detail about hitchhiking. I encourage all of our listeners to use their best judgment and be safe wherever they are in their travels. And if it doesn’t feel like something that will put you in a safe situation. Please make sure that you find other accommodations to get to where you’re going, Simon, thanks so much for taking the time to join me today. Can you start us off by walking us through your background, how you got into travel and photography and then ultimately being a life coach for folks.

Unknown Speaker 3:11
Yes, absolutely. Thank you, Greg, thank you for having me. It’s an honor. It’s a pleasure. And I’m really excited for where we’re going today and the nuggets of gold and, and travel experiences and good and sometimes more treacherous adventures that I’ve been on. So I was born in 1990, and the mark just outside of the second largest city called ohms. And I’ve always been creative. I came from a creative background like my mother has been a professional dancer before she gives birth to me and my dad is in position and it was kind of in the blood to do something creative. Though I was never really sure about what during high school was getting really, in my youth I really got into skateboarding. And that’s inviting into a lot of creative endeavors. You find skaters doing all kinds of creative stuff, like being architects or designers, photographers, anything because it is a it’s more than just a sport. It’s a form of self expression. I wouldn’t even compare it to dancing somehow, right? So obviously, we wanted to film and photograph each other because you never knew if you were going to dance, the the tricks, the maneuvers you were trying or if it would, you know, you get hurt. So you wanted to get it recorded. And so I started filming, I thought maybe maybe I’ll get into filming. I went to this high school with focus on media. But then I found out that actually photography was more immediate. It didn’t require as much of a storyboard or cooperation but I could just you know, go explore it. Take my camera around. So the the main, the turning point for for my, my photography happened after high school, I had a pretty rough childhood in some sense. So I really when I turned more independent, I thought I would catch up on all the things that I feel that I’m missing out on in terms of traveling and self exploration. So I decided to go travel for one year, all around the world on my own. I had not really any clue what I was doing, but I’ve always been pretty happy go lucky and, and trusting in and how life will unfold. And I went for an entire year on my own. It was a mix of visiting friends around the world that I had gathered through skateboarding and just through curiosity and couchsurfing and some other other coincidences through my life, and it was a mix of volunteering as well. So that was pretty personal. Because I had some rough framework around my trip I wasn’t just going completely randomly. And at the same time you know, I was going on my own visiting some friends and some places so but I wasn’t dependent on them so I quickly realized that going around the world like in places from Japan to Costa Rica and Hawaii being this open minded young, pretty new to adult life guy, I figured out Oh, wow, photography is really a way to have a notice not so much an excuse, but more a reason to to get close to people and, and to be curious and to be able to knock on someone’s door and say, What’s going on here? It looks really interesting. And can I come in or you know, like, talk to people on the street or just to create amazing memories. So it really came to me then.

Suburban Folk 6:58
couple of questions. Go back to I’m curious, when you were filming yourself and your friends skateboarding versus the experience that you had at school, which one of those experiences helped you actually hone your craft more, you know, just like going and doing it? Or the actual sitting in a classroom?

Unknown Speaker 7:21
That’s a great question. I think it’s, it’s somehow it’s a it’s a balance and a mix, I really feel that the practical aspect was was invaluable. So if I would have to choose one, I would go with you know, going and doing it, like work it out as you go, like more of an entrepreneurial approach. And this is also the approach I would take to anything like learning a language or learning any kind of craft because we have a tendency sometimes to overthink or you know, and it gets boring all the theory but but turning back to my my knowledge of my photography and experience that I have now. It’s If I if I wouldn’t have studied for journalism and if I wouldn’t get the network and the skills from from those four years of studies later on in my life, I wouldn’t have probably wouldn’t have found the foundation to you know, have the experiences and the career that I have now. Do you think that

Suburban Folk 8:21
you growing up in Europe as compared to folks in the US that may be contributes to you being more curious about other cultures? What did you find as you first started to travel like similarities as well as differences?

Unknown Speaker 8:36
Yeah, yeah, that’s a good point as well that obviously, I mean, I went all over the world so so it wouldn’t even like I could have grown up in in Texas or Milwaukee or anywhere and it would have the same things would have been possible but if you ask like, like you do if you know the incentive, or the The curiosity would have been the same I don’t think so. Because being in Europe, it’s it’s, it’s so awesome and especially around Denmark, which is a pretty small country, but you know, there’s so much international community going on within Europe within the European Union and, and just the fact that you’re always going to be people around speaking another language or especially, like if you travel just for an hour or two, you’re already in another country and and that’s for sure has sparked a lot of curiosity

Suburban Folk 9:31
that does sound about what I would expect that go from one country to another couple hours away, different culture, different language. And I’m curious if as you went to she mentioned Costa Rica, I think you mentioned Japan set any similarities there where people maybe seemed more isolated and not as interested sort of explore the world versus areas that are like Europe, where they’re very interested in travel and wanting to get out and see how different cultures are.

Unknown Speaker 9:56
I mean, there are huge differences in terms of culture and what I met was always places that I went, people were very curious to me like, what’s this young Scandinavian guys doing here? And, you know, I went to i, even in Japan, I spent some time in a Buddhist temple and I was doing some community work and in this center for handicapped people, and, and probably nobody there even spoke English one, but everyone was so curious and so compassionate around me. So, you know, one thing is that I don’t think all cultures or some societies offer the resources that that makes it easy to go travel. And in that sense, I feel very privileged, right, because I mean, many of the people I met I’m sure they would have love to do the same or maybe they weren’t brave or both, or you know, maybe their circumstances didn’t provide the same like I told also Bunch of Eastern Europe. I spent some time in Lithuania, for example, which maybe some of the listeners, have you ever heard about this small Baltic country. And, and in a lot of Eastern Europe, its eastern Europe is amazing, by the way, if you’re looking for travel tips, because it’s very undiscovered in many ways, but but you know, these very traditional societies where, you know, if you’re 25, and you don’t have kids, and I’m married, like your parents, or at least your grandparents are starting to be really concerned, and it’s like, I mean, then then it’s a bit higher or takes, of course, much more courage to say, you know, I don’t care about cultural expectations. Now, I’m just gonna go explore the world on my own. So So in that sense, there are some differences as well. But I mean, and of course, I went to some more suburban places like I went to Los Angeles and, you know, going to a big city of course, people are more busy and They’re not maybe not so. So looking for that.

Suburban Folk 12:05
Yeah, the same kind of experience like I was having during my trip, but, but I wouldn’t say that I, in some certain place felt like people were uninterested or disinterested enough when you mentioned depending on how, what the means are for a person as far as if they can travel and sort of experience people coming to them, sometimes more success than others when the few times I’ve gotten to travel abroad, I have such a better experience if you can find you know, a pub or a bar that is not a tourist place. So you get local people that that are like you said, I think more genuinely interested in somebody from you know, somewhere else somewhere farther away. And I think there’s authenticity there as well with the people vs. Yeah, like a Los Angeles. There’s people from all walks of life. It’s great sort of people live But to really have a chance to have a real conversation and get to know people, it’s probably a little bit harder I would imagine. Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 13:06
yeah, I agree with you. And just on a side note, I mean, tourism is such a funny construct, because we’re like the thing that we’re going somewhere for as tourists, we are kind of diluting the essence of that by being tourists. So it’s, it’s important to be mindful when when we travel, right?

Suburban Folk 13:24
Do you have a certain set amount of time that you try to visit a particular area with that same concept in mind that, hey, if I only spend a day I’m not really going to get a chance to experience of culture, you know, meet new people, but if I spend fill in the blank amount of time, you get a better sense of sort of what the culture is.

Unknown Speaker 13:44
Yeah, you would, you would be surprised actually because in in theory, or in planning it’s it’s like for me for example, as a as a European and thinking yeah, I want to go and just taking an example of I’ve heard from from friends and I’ll go to the US And I’ll spend a month I’ll just really see the country. I’m thinking, you know, like, if you want to experience the US like, maybe you want to take a year because, yeah, so it depends it depends on your ambition and, and it depends on the time you have at hand. Of course, like I did a road trip a few years ago with my fiance through Europe. And, and in some places like it was beautiful, to be free and to be able to travel and I know a lot of Americans also do road trips very often, you can stay somewhere as long as you’d like. Right? So you leave it a little bit up to, to circumstance but I would say you know, if you really want to experience a place you want to have more than two weeks. It depends again on the place. I see a lot of people also very in this more stereotypical tourism industry or a group that you go travel somewhere to tick off some boxes and say you’ve been there like, that’s, I wouldn’t want to throw like that. You know, like often when I travel and Coming back to what, what you said, as well about authentic authenticity that I’ve been in places and I haven’t even checked out check out like some of the top highlights because I would just like sit on a bench talk to some people on the street and here like, what’s your favorite place? or? Yeah, that’s another really cool way to do it.

Suburban Folk 15:17
This is a question I actually had later in my notes about Yeah, guided tours. Admittedly, I must raise my hand that the age of our kids right now we’re doing we’re doing some cruises because, you know, it’s just easier sort of then having to cart the kids around. Like, you know, public transportation is not so easy when they’re that little and all that kind of stuff. So what is your recommendation sort of throwing those responsibilities out the window of how to travel what types of accommodations and you know, how structured should you be? When should you use a touring company? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 15:48
it’s it’s good to get those things straight because obviously it depends on your character on your preferences and your lifestyle. Some people are really satisfied going to Some resort staying on a beach and going home. But I’m not exactly like that. And I think you’re also more adventurous even with your children, right like finding your way around. And of course, if you have if you have kids or if you have to really need to relax and rejuvenate during your trip you really want of course it’s it’s it can be great to have a guide it can be great to go on tour, but I always try to be mindful of Okay, so what’s the what are the values of this, this company or you know,

Unknown Speaker 16:42
so, so like, it’s always it can be a mess because

Unknown Speaker 16:49
yeah, for me like traveling on my own somewhere I could even go to a place not even know where I would go to sleep in the night or take it really impulsively or spontaneously, but obviously if you have a family or if you if you have a stronger need for for structure then then that’s maybe not the way to go. But some people they, they get actually more exhausted when they come home from their holidays and then like if you feel like that, and I would, you know, really start to, to examine So okay, what’s, what’s not working here because holidays are supposed to be fun and awesome and inspirational.

Suburban Folk 17:30
Just like anything. There’s a balance to be had, right? Because I remember the first time I went to Europe was a big trip that my dad had planned for years and years to Germany, like our family history is a German background and like you mentioned, he had we traveled over Christmas. So the only hotel that he booked ahead of time was for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and everything else was staying at. I believe the word is Zimmer. Correct. Yeah. But you know Breakfast. And, you know, each night was a little different. And one story that we tell that, you know, we wouldn’t have otherwise had if we sort of had everything mapped out for us. When we got to Berlin, basically, everything was crowded, and we spoke very little German. So anytime my dad would stop for directions, and he’d say we need a place to stay, they were saying Novotel, which at the time, I don’t know if they’re still around, but that was that was a brand new hotel. He thought they were saying no hotels, like there’s nothing available. So you know, so we have a story of like driving around being in some, you know, we weren’t sure how how safe certain areas and then eventually figured out what was being said and it’s this giant hotel that that we had to stay in stories like that you’re not necessarily going to get from the structure but you know, on the stress side of it, hey, if you’re not, you know, sort of ready for that, then you may come home, not feeling like you got a chance to relax. So I guess it depends the type of person And maybe even if you can have more than one vacation in a year, let’s say a beach vacation where you’re just sitting around and then some more exploratory vacations where you again get to get into more culture and and just see a part of the world that you’ve never been to before.

Unknown Speaker 19:16
Absolutely. And I think like getting back to what gets wrong

Unknown Speaker 19:23
in a lot of travels that could have gone better it’s it’s, you know, what are the expectations right? And especially if you’re a group if you travel as a family and and let’s say your partner really wants to go to the beach and you want to go explore and see all their cultural sites or, or go to the local pub or cafe and mingle with some of the some of the locals and maybe you you have to at least let up during that some of the days or you know, your expectations right with each other. What’s your take on costs When we first opened up in your you know, acknowledging, feeling lucky enough to have the means to travel the way you do, do you feel like

Suburban Folk 20:09
travel is just inherently expensive? Is there certain ways that you tell people to travel so that hey it might seem expensive but it’s actually less money than you think. So where do you Where do you fall in the budget

Unknown Speaker 20:20
so this is a great area to address as well because some people have a lot of excuses or or a lot of concerns around the cost of travel and and I, I don’t believe really anything is set in stone and in life so regarding traveling, I would say you know, there’s so many ways to fellow there are so many ways to to find opportunities that could even make you money while you’re traveling or at least you could break even or go really cheap like coming from a country with a pretty high buying buying power such as Denmark like you can, you can rent out your home. Airbnb or privately whatever you can, you can do a house swap so you won’t have to pay often that the two highest cost of traveling is you know, flights or getting to the place and then staying. So if you if you don’t mind going a bit unconventional you know you can you can do a house swap or if you’re sure maybe not with kids and family you can do couchsurfing as well. I’ve made great relationships with couchsurfing. And there’s also such things as initiatives as as wolfing where you’re staying on on a farm for example, or you can even if you’re young and you go travel, you don’t have to be on if you just go travel and you don’t mind. You know, doing it a bit. unconventionally, again you can just ask at a hospital or ask in a in any place that you know bed and breakfast, whatever if you if you can stay there and spend some hours to to help with the business and In terms of staying for free, so you know, there are tons of ways of cutting the cost of traveling.

Unknown Speaker 22:07
And also, you know, if you’re just as a final note, if you’re a

Unknown Speaker 22:13
creative or have something to offer, then you can also think if you at least if you go travel for a couple of weeks, and, you know, maybe I can find, maybe I can say I was making some jewelry or whatever, I could bring it, I can sell some some of that might be a cool experience. You never know where it’s going to take you or if you as me you’re a photographer, like who knows, maybe some of the people you stumbled upon you could, you could help them out. And we’ll even give you us an extra dimension to travel in a connection to the lasting connection to the place you’re going.

Suburban Folk 22:47
Those are all really good ideas that admittedly some of them I’m aware of. So let’s maybe dive into some of the others that if folks are like me, they might not even know what all those are. So Airbnb, I’m familiar with and It seems like Airbnb has gotten better and better over the years as far as the vetting process and just accessibility is concerned. I’m pretty familiar with the term couchsurfing, as far as you know, making a connection with somebody. And hey, if you got a place to say it’s like Airbnb only, maybe not as official, as far as the booking and stuff is concerned,

Unknown Speaker 23:21
they basically, they basically take money out of the equation, I actually, one of my, my friends is in a relationship with one of the founders of the company that you know, coined the term and everything, which is basically if you have space at home, and you’re up for meeting people, or if you’re traveling somewhere, there’s this huge community built on trust. And it’s really easy to meet cool people like everybody’s verified by friends for your review, like so. There’s a huge degree of trust. I never had bad experiences from more than 50 experiences with people there. You can even just meet someone for a coffee or language exchange or or you know it’s incredible like it’s even saved my I don’t know if it saved my life but pretty close a few times so if my sleep for sure

Suburban Folk 24:11
yeah I would imagine and at least again there’s somebody that is verified that can at least tell you were safe to go or or other things like that that that lives there that’s that’s a nice thing to have are there particular websites that you would point people to Airbnb obviously is a pretty well known name or what else you use you know

Unknown Speaker 24:31
couchsurfing was really has really been big for me and all my travels and that’s just couchsurfing.org and that one is really strong and then I’m not sure if I recall any specific website but I would really recommend people to look into volunteering or you know, any creative things that are happening if you want to travel for a bit longer you you wish to travel more like Like a local right? There are tons of things happening. Suburban Folk is part of the pot

Suburban Folk 25:06
all the time podcasting network with 11 other great podcasts, including the round and round podcast. Hey, this is Jeff. I’m Chris. We’ve been friends,

Unknown Speaker 25:16
acquaintances, friends, shipmates do come on. We’ve been friends. Fine. Sure, whatever. We’ve been friends for 2324 whatever, dude, it’s been a long time. No kidding. We host a show called round and round. We discuss the worst sometimes the best headlines we can find August for signs of the Cold War heating up again and desperately try to find some good news to celebrate. Occasionally, we delve into important topics impacting the world to nation, or those around us. And every once in a while we take a break from the real world to talk about

Suburban Folk 25:51
new movies or to revisit and reimagine old movies we love. Find us at r&r the podcast. com tweet us at all. Or the podcast, and download round the round on Apple podcast, Spotify, I Heart Radio, or wherever you cast your pods. Join us every Wednesday, won’t you? I wouldn’t recommend it. That’s fine. That’s a concept I’ve not didn’t even know existed when you’re mentioning like even offering to work if somebody could put you up at a farm or something like that. So something I definitely am learning right now, that is something to be done in. And again, especially I feel like people that are just getting out of school if you’re 1819. And maybe you don’t know what you want to do, but you want to go travel and sort of figure things like that out where money is presumably tight. Unless you’ve got a family that’s paying for it. Those seem to me to be really good ways to sort of get out there and do it while you’re young. And you know, like, physically, you’re able to go out and explore and see as much as you possibly can, because they’re really good ideas for people to explore

Unknown Speaker 26:59
and recently Also another way I’ve actually didn’t think about it by the way, I’ve been traveling a whole bunch recently also given my involvement in personal growth is also go to retreats and, and, and workshops across the place because there’s also a way both to grow as a person and to explore and to meet amazing people too. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I’m curious what types of retreats kind of like just related to your specific work or or something else. I’ve done a few things related to photography like master classes or the place like Amsterdam and few other places and then I’ve done tons of events with personal growth. I’ve done one in Bulgaria this summer, which was absolutely amazing. One called summer diva, which would encourage people eager for for growing and going to Europe to check out we can put it in the notes and And also I’ve done a whole bunch of travels as part of my master’s University program at Tony Robbins. I’ve studied from there. I’m sure most people are familiar with, with him, the leading coach in the world and cool. Well, let’s

Suburban Folk 28:18
jump all the way back to that first year when you, you know, traveled to all the different places. And you I think you mentioned that you ended in Hawaii. And I know when we were first trading notes before this show, that sounds like you had a very interesting experience there. Do you want to walk us through that? I did.

Unknown Speaker 28:39
Yeah, for sure. Let me find the version which is just swivel not too short. And so I had this I’ve had tons of crazy adventures where, you know if, if my mom would have have known like, what I was getting myself into, but she has her heart would have skipped the beat. But I’m still here and everything is. It’s great. So I was staying in Hawaii with with a friend of my gut. And I was there for a couple of weeks. Just taking it easy surfing and peeling bananas off the trees. And then then I thought I have to go exploring and like the inner adventure came kind of came back out. So I thought, yeah, let me hitchhike around the island. That should be possible. And my friend said, Yeah, you can you can do that. I kind of got I got off to a late start. So it was like 2pm right when I started so that was not too good for my eyes already. But there we went. I got picked up through through hitchhiking by a whole bunch of people. This is very there wasn’t there’s some strange characters there. I was on Maui. The island and picked up by this wedding photographer slash stripper with a princess pretty and all kinds of very nationalistic Americans and also people that were very different super friendly and cool. So as I made my way around I came to this this lava trail, which there’s a whole place in the circumference of Maui where the like that it has a Hawaii is constructed from volcanoes as I’m sure most people know. And then you know that this lava from previous eruptions has calf blocked the coast so there’s this national park and I was pretty aware of it but I wasn’t really aware of how big it was. So it was already starting to get dark I was I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into. I remember like walking past the scraped side of a surfer and that doesn’t help with with my outlook on things but what what else could I do but put one foot in ahead of the other I wasn’t going to turn back dislike hundred miles or however far I have gotten, right. So as it was getting dark and I kept walking, getting more and more tired, I meet these fishermen. So I think, Oh, this is here’s something that can possibly save me right. And and

Unknown Speaker 31:37
so I asked him, you know, what’s the way to handle this type of thing? And they just said that you’re trying to get too high. No, you must be crazy.

Unknown Speaker 31:47
But they they pointed me towards, they play me too. I just thought Oh, my god again, more.

Unknown Speaker 31:55
More challenges wasn’t really what I was needing. So I walked up, up this Kind of poultry lava rock trail. Luckily it was it was full moon so I could see what I was doing. And it’s I mean, Hawaii is pretty warm but at night it’s not that warm and I was walking Justin in there some t shirt, you know, like summer coats and, and things were just going to continue comfortable for me and I didn’t really know the way out of it. And I was even starting to hallucinate a bit around seeing cars or hearing sounds and like I was playing some music from the last percent of battery that I had on my phone. And finally, I got to a road and there was one car and I thought this has to be my savior coming up but

Unknown Speaker 32:44
nobody starts off again another another slap in the face. So so I am

Unknown Speaker 32:53
I thought well, what can you do and you just move forward again, right. So so at least Finally, I See that I was in a around some houses and I almost stumbled into a huge cow in front of me on the road It was pretty scary pretty pretty intense with yeah Imagine you’re being super exhausted and not having food or water and it’s getting pretty cold and I didn’t know what I got myself into but I needed I knew that I had to get myself out of it. So I walk up to this one house I can see with light in it and it’s probably like approaching midnight or something and and you know me coming from from Europe and knowing about us and private property and gun laws and and these things you know, I did have this voice in the back of my head like you’re but what else could I What else could I do? Right so I was hoping that a you know, innocent look on my face with with compensate for all the dirt on my My buddy so so this old lady she opened the house and she was keep smoking and being pretty weird but she loved me and I had some water I couldn’t even eat a little bit of this leftover lasagna and it was it wasn’t exactly the welcome I had hoped for. I was looking for I was hoping I was getting a place to spend the night right and she was just saying Oh, she’s not gonna like it when you come when when when she sees you and she was keeping making these references to her daughter coming home so even now that anxiety was piled on top of my my whole experience of the day but luckily this this lady she wasn’t hostile hostile or anything she just said that I couldn’t sleep there but there was some some place around some farm where I could probably sleep but then on my way to that fine luckily I managed to find the last car of the night and and a year he stopped for me and he took me almost home so I gave my my friend a huge shock when I don’t An eye to eye

Unknown Speaker 35:02
you have no idea what I just went through. So that was pretty much that story summed up crazy man. And that

Suburban Folk 35:11
sort of springboard you into wanting to do more travel rather than souring you from being being more adventurous.

Unknown Speaker 35:20
Yeah, for sure because I was I was like, I don’t need more of such experience to be clear but but at the same time I felt you know, I I threw myself into the depth of adventure and and spontaneous you know, just like really getting out there and even just that’s also one of the reasons that I like hitchhiking I would recommend it to everyone because you never know who you’re going to meet and you’re completely free but at the same time, you are dependent on others and I like to take that feeling into my my traveling as well. So I might have venturer didn’t didn’t stop after after that one trip No, it actually stoke the fire for for more more traveling.

Suburban Folk 36:08
Bring that over to what you do with photography, and also what you try to do with coaching. Is that the main idea of using your photography to show folks that maybe have not gone and traveled and gone on these types of adventures that hey, there’s literally a whole world out there for you, you know, kind of get you out of your day to day grind. What, what are your goals when you are approaching people as a coach?

Unknown Speaker 36:37
Yeah, so I’m happy. So as a coach, or as a human being in and I would say, you know, after having spent around a decade in personal growth, it’s just, it keeps surprising nor astonishing me how much How much you wonder and and joy and and fulfillment there is for all of us in this life and we’re just so privileged to be alive and kicking in this time and age where there are so many opportunities and and you know so much wealth and abundance around so so really what I do we can start with the coaching and then I can tell you also about photography so so what I basically in my in my coaching, I focus on getting rid of all the BS that might be preventing you from being blissfully happy. Because Yeah, our our reptile brains are constantly wired for looking for, you know, the negative and keeping us in survival mode, but the thing is the culture we’ve created this society and technological growth and the systems we have around us They are you know, they are so abundant and and it’s just now we have to adapt our mindsets and grow our awareness, our consciousness to realize that hey actually we’re not fighting anymore. I mean, I’m not able to talk for everyone because for some people life literally is a fight and wealth. But for most of us we’re we’re pretty privileged and even if I look back at my life I’ve also been through some some crazy stuff and some really hard experience but but once again, this is what it’s just if you use the metaphor of a tree like you can only grow as high as your roots are, are deep so so that also goes out to anyone living the digital a fight, right but I’m just such a strong believer in in mentorship and coaching and in challenging our own beliefs and generally just challenging ourselves. And this is where I come in as a coach that I know that there’s so much for us to, to experience into to create and so much positive impact we can each and every one of us has to offer this world. But you have to get all the DS sorted first because, yeah, that’s just the way it works,

Suburban Folk 39:21
to your point of sometimes getting focused on all the negative things out there. Actually, when we got into the new year, one of the books that I had just finished listening to admittedly, I did it as an audio book rather than reading it, but a guy named Steven Pinker and an awesome yeah. And, you know, he has a number of books, but the one I read was called enlightenment now, and it’s, you know, lays out all this information to say, you know, if you look at all the progress that has occurred, like people coming out of poverty, and like you said, even wars and things like that, statistically, there’s a lot less going on. Then there has been historically So, you know, as a human race, we tend to focus on the negative and Hey, keep progressing, you know, for sure there are problems to be solved. To your point. Don’t let that sort of get you down day over day and just, you know, wallow in self misery.

Unknown Speaker 40:17
Absolutely. And I mean, there’s the whole tendency, there’s this amazing shift of consciousness happening at the moment and the more that I managed to, to work with my own understanding and my own consciousness, the more I see it around me as well that you know, the this old paradigm that it’s really getting becoming more and more challenged, which is good because, you know, we need our planet and the environmental situation needs some some radical change to happening to happen. And also, in terms of consciousness, there’s just so much more that like, we have literally everything at our fingertips right now, but but there’s also so much manipulation psychologically happening that is, the first thing that needs to happen is for each of us to stop and say, okay, what’s all the programming and all the beliefs and all the habits and all the things that I’m carrying around and what actually is mine and what has been imposed upon me from authorities from society, from religious beliefs or from whatever and then consciously start to construct yourself as individually want to be rather than just living by default. And that’s where the wake up, the awakening starts to happen, right? For my experience, and I think what we’re trying to communicate to any listener is travel is definitely an effective way to just see that just to see it for yourself. Absolutely. Because you get you get out of all the things that are normally it’s I get the static with the radio, just going on with all the things that are pulling and pushing you around, but the moment you throw suddenly, at least if you leave your phone and the internet for a while. Then suddenly you can feel okay, what do I really want? Who am I and all these new experiences happening to to make you grow and an experience that Yeah,

Suburban Folk 42:10
so while people are traveling, and obviously we’ll get into more of the specifics for photography for you, and for you, it’s part of your job, I would imagine you’d also argue that it helps accentuate the experience. But for me, for example, I am terrible about taking pictures or videos or anything like that. So, you know, after the trip, it’s like, oh, would have been nice to have something things, but I’m at least happy that I forget about that and have some of the memories experiences because I think there are definitely people that get still they can’t get away from their phones, for example. Yeah, totally to live in the moment. So what are your thoughts? How do you balance again, your job of photography, and capturing the experience to living in the moment and making sure you’re sort of soaking up the experience

Unknown Speaker 42:58
and that’s a that’s a A great subject to include in our talk as well because it’s, it’s, it’s actually a bit scary if you if you look like around here and Copenhagen where I live, people are biking, biking around a lot and, and you see often like everywhere doesn’t matter where you’re listening to this but if you see people in public spaces, like any kind of blank space in your day, it’s just being taken up by staring into your screen, hoping that it’s going to save you from boredom or that someone is you know, validating you or something’s going to entertain you rather than listening to you know, your inner wants and needs like this is also where meditation is the one thing I would bring with me to a deserted island actually. But but that and I really encourage everyone to just spend a few minutes even just daily meditating but but to to keep this balance of Being in the in the moment, which is all we got, that’s really why it’s called a present be a cliche or enough to, to be to be able to be in the moment at the same time, you know, document what what you’re living. For me one thing that’s helped me a lot is actually to shoot a lot of photography on film, like analog because there’s no screen. So plus I concentrated way more because every exposure costs money and it also takes more of the art back in the in the trade in the craft because a lot of I see a lot of people with phones also when I go travel and not to not to find a finger at Asians but but anyway, it seems like a very Asian thing to me. That or it could be for anyone to, to you know, just like you should like 24 hours of something and then then you like you leave the place or, and I also might know might even myself even though I’m aware of it. I still do it. Like I have a whole bunch of photos on my phone that I never really get to see. Right. So it’s also just about like sometimes just go somewhere without your phone. Like even I even like to have, I don’t always manage to do it. But I like to have one day of my week where actually I don’t have any digital devices. It’s called an untouchable date something that I got from a book by an author called Neil Pasricha, and it’s called Getting back up, we can put that in the notes as well, because there was a really powerful habit. So it’s it again, it comes down to being mindful, like me personally, being a professional photographer often, like if I go somewhere. Let’s say I go to Paris, and I’m walking around the Eiffel Tower or something. I don’t take any pictures because I can find it on Google. Like why would I want to compete you know, with these like Julian photos of the Eiffel Tower out there? What I want to photograph it’s like The morning light hitting my my chance a like in some hotel room or you know like these moments that are filled with emotion. So I would really like just to give a tiny photography tip for yourself and for anyone that’s like just stopping and if you’re about to take a photo then ask yourself like, what is this really about? Like, what is it that I want to bring with me or remember because often I see people also if I’ve been teaching photography, and if you want to make a photo of a building, or if or like three of your friends for like, there might be like two cars and a mailbox and a road sign sticking out of the head of someone and then it’s like, like maybe maybe eliminate all the clutter, right? So you just you just create some much better images.

Suburban Folk 46:51
I’m so glad to hear you describe it that way because that has been one of my unofficial philosophies as well. To your point, there are way better photographers out there, like someone like yourself that can take a picture of the Eiffel Tower. The one I remember when I was in Rome, like the Coliseum, I got plenty of pictures that I can go get to the Coliseum. But like you said, the people you’re with, whether that’s the people that you meet, or your family loved ones that are with you, those are the memories that you actually want to keep, and nobody else has a picture of that.

Unknown Speaker 47:25
Yeah. And like I would also say like if you’re just taking photos to show your friends on Instagram, how how awesome your holiday has been, like just why I mean, come on.

Suburban Folk 47:38
My philosophy on that too, is whether it’s Facebook, Instagram, all of this stuff. I feel like the people that post the most actually are probably leading the least exciting lives because the people that are actually out there doing it, don’t have time to you know,

Unknown Speaker 47:53
post all of this stuff. Excited. Exactly. And,

Unknown Speaker 47:56
you know, like I to two short anecdotes, I And everyone is is like and another amazing I love to reference to two books I love to read or listen to audio books as yourself. One book which has really blown my mind is called letting go the pathway to surrender. And it’s going through also all your emotions and how to, you know how we deal with with all emotions of our lives. And I just he says, the author says tons of great quotes as well and one thing he said that really stuck with me also relates to like showing off with, with photography or or posting in journalistic. If you’re really what what he says is if you really know something, you never need to defend it, or show it like you’re not gonna look for a shoot if you know the value of something. So that really hit me because, you know, sometimes I’m also looking for validation and I should look for it inside rather than outside. Right.

Suburban Folk 48:59
Yeah, I mean I know you can hear it in a lot of different places, but I guess just reiterating, like, even the art of conversation like we’re having here and meeting people and so on, when you’re done, it’s so much more fulfilling than the likes and the, you know, look at me through this filter and all those kinds of thing. So I wholeheartedly agree for folks to step outside of their digital world, whether it’s travel or even your daily life, because that can sort of cloud what’s really important on a day to day basis and just what are you trying to gain? You know, at the end of the day, like, is the social media or is other things like that actually contributing to when you’re at the end of your life? You look back and say I did these things, and I’m very happy I did these things, or, boy, did I just get distracted? And I wish I had more time back. You really got to think about that.

Unknown Speaker 49:48
Yeah, because one day it’s going to be too late like time is the most valuable resource and, and the thing like if we if we fail to look ahead of the the impact that our daily actions have Like suddenly you’re just old. You know what you’re doing on a day to day it really ends up really mattering a great deal.

Suburban Folk 50:06
So let’s hit some quick hits that I have on my list that I’m curious from your perspective. So we’ve talked briefly about some of the areas that you have visited. If you were to give somebody a bucket list of places to definitely try to travel to what would those be and why Greenland is absolutely amazing.

Unknown Speaker 50:28
And go, go dogsledding there. I learned to I even got a license for for dog sledding, because I want a photo competition where I could go to Greenland that was absolutely mind blowing and seeing the Northern Light. That’s one of the most magnificent things from from nature. Like, I really just encourage everyone to go go out in nature because we really have to take good care of nature and it’s easier if you if you know how to appreciate it. And you’ve seen some of these wonders around the world, right? Then I’ve also been to Guatemala and I really, really had an amazing time there, they have these old ruins in this place called tickle, which was also in one of the Star Wars movies. I know you have some Star Wars fans and all your listeners are nice. You reviewed the film. And, and then again, I, there’s, I mean, the list is infinite, right? Because I mean, I also had an amazing time in New York. And that’s just maybe just me as a European, you know, coming to one of the biggest places for you know, like, the history modern history that we have, and so on. So that was, that was really powerful, but on a more like, original note, and you know, like Eastern Europe is amazing. And also just like, if you’re around Asia, then going off the beaten path and Thailand can be really, really interesting. Like so many of the Asian cultures. They are so polite. Like they have almost no crime, you know, they have, like, people are just so nice and so kind and it’s just so life affirming to go to those places. But yeah, like also just like, for me, I like x of holidays, right? So So I like to go hiking. I would love to go hiking in Canada one day as well, like just some of these, like, just really getting out and feeling nature and getting out of the more urban setting where we’re normally located. But But you know, it can also be well, yeah, the list is pretty endless. I also had amazing times in many places in Germany. I hope you you did when you were there.

Suburban Folk 52:42
Yeah, we definitely definitely did. I remember a bunch from that and it is on the list for my family to go back. We’ve got a lot of lot of spots to hit in Europe. Well, let’s go back real quick to the US one because I think for folks that live here. That’s not a question that people think of Like for somebody coming to visit the US, what do you think are the main places to go see, so you mentioned New York City, but then you also mentioned liking hiking, so that could take you to Yellowstone or the Grand Canyon or something like that. If somebody had like a one time trip to the US, what would you tell them to try to hit?

Unknown Speaker 53:18
I understand you’ve got so many amazing places. I’ve only been to five states. So I’m not sure I’m the most qualified to answer your question. But I mean, from from my experiences, I

Unknown Speaker 53:34
had an amazing time in Hawaii, which is obviously a little bit out of the way. And then also just down the coastline in Florida. I had a great time like down to Florida Keys. It’s pretty, pretty amazing. And then, you know, you have all the amazing parks, national parks and, like I haven’t been to too many of the great sites of nature. In the US, but but like there’s, there’s just so much like some of these parts and like you can also do it as a road trip, right? I really like this more slow paced way of travel also because our day to day lives are usually so fast paced and I client can be convenient but but you lose the process. And I really speaking of being present, which is also one of the themes in our talk, right? It’s just so different to take a train or a London Greyhound bus or, you know, there’s also a that’s also a circumstance where you can meet really, really cool people. Right?

Suburban Folk 54:34
I have a story where my friend was getting married in Connecticut, and I was supposed to meet my family the week before and go see the rest of New England. Long story short, they were not able to make it so I basically was landing in New York on my own, you know, kind of, like, not quite as crazy as your Hawaii story. But you know, I had to figure out whether it was bus train, so on I was still going to see some of the sites that I wanted to see while then making my way back to the wedding at the end of the week. And a lot of the memories I have from that was just the challenge and adventure of getting from one place to another. So yeah, like you said, versus flying is like, you know, just the pain of the airport and just, you know, sitting there and you don’t get that part of it.

Unknown Speaker 55:22
I’m happy to or blessed to always have you know, had this extroverted kind of

Unknown Speaker 55:29
haphazard way of being like being okay to travel without having much structure because I mean, the structure is always there in our day to day life like it’s fun to challenge these things a bit and it’s actually safer than most people would think like if you’re somewhere if you have a credit card and health insurance and you know a bit of money on your on your account, like and a phone and like, it almost doesn’t matter where you are. You’re pretty So yeah, and and No, I just want to say that I Spend some time in Africa. That’s also really been amazing as well. I didn’t I didn’t mention that on the previous list.

Suburban Folk 56:08
Well, actually, that’s perfect because one of my other Quick Hits before we end is I saw in your bio that you have escaped project in Africa. So where specifically and tell us a little bit about that.

Unknown Speaker 56:20
Yeah, with With pleasure. So I just came home from Mozambique, which is on the east coast of Africa. It’s, it’s, like, put between Madagascar this island people maybe know it from a movie. So it’s, it’s between Madagascar and South Africa and Tanzania to the north.

Unknown Speaker 56:43
And it’s one of the world’s poorest countries. They have around 30 million people there and 15

Unknown Speaker 56:52
million are half of the country’s population is actually 15 years old or younger. So that gives lot of challenges, right? So me and, and my, like, we were a group of friends going there, but one of my friends he has been doing a master’s in African Studies and part of their school project was was to go build a skatepark in Mozambique and he’s a skater and I’m a skater and I always love to combine more than one passion. So I could I could be of good use with my photography and my my photo journalism and, and while you know, showing the power of skateboarding as well, in in as a tool for growth and for building community because that’s really something that skateboarding can do. You don’t need a coach, you don’t really need much just some kind of facility and it really brings people together. So I was there for three weeks documenting I had I had to to stories I was doing mainly and one was on these, these two organizations, one called skateboards better and the other one called wonders around the world, which we’re building to skate parks from, from donations only, which I think is super awesome. And that that’s one story like all these people going there and the impact that the project is gonna was gonna have on the locals and the tons of kids right. And and I did another story as well, which I’ve already been exhibiting and actually, I’m going to Florida to exhibit as well, which is about this young kid who is one of the most talented skaters in Mozambique, but he also comes from a very rough background and and his father’s is dead. And you know, I keep being telling that isn’t something that just comes easy to him. So that was the other story I was doing. There

Suburban Folk 58:56
was a three week long it was escape project. Also escape park or just you know, kind of highlighting and documenting.

Unknown Speaker 59:04
Yeah, they we were also building I was also I was also part of the brick and mortar work of putting the concrete and everything I learned to build a skate park three months. So it took it took a bit like the idea was that the park should have been done within the period where I was there and it took a little bit longer ultimately because of some local challenges and you know, issues with the police which is a little bit corrupt, to say released and so on but, but in the end they in mid December they finished two awesome skateparks and you know, they’re going to last for a lot of years. It’s super

Suburban Folk 59:44
Yeah, I would imagine just being able to sort of put your your name next to something like that. It’s gonna feel very, very satisfying.

Unknown Speaker 59:53
As I’m starting to get my own things worked out pretty well. You know, things are just for me, my focus is just great. What’s hitting more and more about giving, like towards giving back and creating value for not only myself, but for the people around me. I mean, I think there’s also a part of the tendency that I’m, I’m seeing in this new paradigm that we’re going into, right and, and it’s just, it’s such a beautiful thing.

Suburban Folk 1:00:17
Talk a little bit about what the future holds for you in the next couple years and beyond. Yeah, that’s

Unknown Speaker 1:00:22
really interesting. Sometimes. It would be hard for me even to say what I’m doing in a week from now. But as a you know, like independent business owner and entrepreneur, you never really know but me and my fiance were joining forces also professionally, which was going to be very interesting in launching a photo agency together called the photo agency, which is an easy name and I’m also continuing my coaching Career or path with putting a therapy degree on top of it, which is, is amazing and all these things are just unfolding in front of me and like it, it came as a I didn’t even know I was going to get a coaching education but one of my photography clients they just suggested, well, you can just have our education as a pay for the, for the work you are. So I said sure. And there’s a lot of serendipity This is one point I was thinking actually, that I didn’t come across for this are talking about is that once you get out of your head and out into the world, like whether it’s traveling or just going a different way home from work, like all these things start to unfold. Like once you open these doors, metaphorically speaking, or just you have no idea what opportunities that we like whether it’s around traveling or it’s just in at home, like changing of your routines a little bit like there’s so much look like fortune really favors the bold in that sense.

Unknown Speaker 1:02:00
Yeah so I’m just gonna keep growing keep impacting as many as I can

Unknown Speaker 1:02:09
fix up the the blind spots and myself that that I’m finding them like I’m doing also this Tony Robbins master university where there is a part on TV called leadership mastery where you’ve also become more of a facilitator so so that’s coming on on top like I’m I’m working towards creatively or professionally to be able to be more of an owner than an operator which can be a bit hard as a photographer because ultimately you’re a consultant, right? No matter how good you are, it’s like a one to one between the time you put and the results you get, like the finances you get and the impact and everything so, so I’m working, that’s also part of making the agencies is also to to take things to a higher level, right? Yeah, and skateboarding all around the world. That’s another thing. I have many plans for you Careful getting started on on my plans and dreams. Yeah, but for me, well maybe it’s a theme that we

Suburban Folk 1:03:07
kind of keep coming back to if if I make you state them out loud then that’ll be something to hold your feet to the fire to make sure that you’re making progress on all of these things. So

Unknown Speaker 1:03:18
yeah, I can really run I mean being a coach myself and one of my favorite tools is to keep people accountable and when they when they say something like or they expressed some, some desire or a want and I okay good. So when you’re going to do it good, I’m going to call you this day to make sure you’ve done it. You know, I have to, to practice what I preach. I have to be able to live the same way myself. So it’s, it’s it’s awesome to say these things out in a great podcast and,

Unknown Speaker 1:03:49
you know, I can’t escape now. Actually,

Suburban Folk 1:03:54
real quick. One of the things for myself, even with the podcast, one of my first episodes was a trial. Ashkelon because I was interested in learning more and maybe transitioning to that and I’ve been a runner by background so after the show was done and talking to some friends they said hey, you know, FYI next year is the hundred and 25th anniversary of the Boston Marathon so maybe you should try and qualify for that. Like I don’t know I don’t know if I have the time but you know, talking about it enough in this recorded version, okay. also held my feet to the fire. So

Unknown Speaker 1:04:25
here I am, was a natural Yeah,

Suburban Folk 1:04:27
yeah. So it transition so so I’m, I’m a few months away from the race to see if I’ve done enough training to to qualify, but but it’s a good thing. But when you say it out loud, you can have people around you. Yeah, hold your feet to the fire and make sure you’re doing what you say you want. Exactly.

Unknown Speaker 1:04:46
And ultimately, I mean, the few times I’ve, you know, aspired to do something and say I was gonna run a triathlon. It’s not what i say i’m going to do but, but and then you find out that you don’t qualify it like in the end, you know, you used to One because you, you, you did the work you did the process. And now you know, if you want to qualify for the next one, it will require only a small part of the work you already did from getting to that level, right? So so that’s really gratifying the process the whole process.

Suburban Folk 1:05:16
Maybe it’s a cliche statement, but you know, whether it is personal growth, or again back to travel, a lot of it is the journey, not just the destination, as they say. So yeah, that experience really is what you remember, and you probably take with you on to the next thing for sure, Simon, I really appreciate it. And I really enjoyed our conversation. Hopefully you did as well. If folks are interested in getting a hold of you, what is the best way to contact you or your social media info or any events that are coming up that you’d like to tell folks about?

Unknown Speaker 1:05:47
So to reach out to me I’m always open for supporting as much as I can or for anyone to be inspired by the stories. And the work that I do. So you can you can reach out through my Instagram which is at official skips, sk IPP set. And then that’s ready to my photography then I have another one for my coaching which is at simply be with a dot with a period and a dash after it or sorry period and underscore, we’ll put it in the show notes. And I have my website which is Skipper photography DK. And also to find me on LinkedIn if that’s your thing. It’s Simon Skipper, Christiansen. Yeah. Anyone feeling inspired over leading small nudge, and I would be happy to give it

Suburban Folk 1:06:50
perfect. Well, like you said, we’ll be sure to link all of your information into the show notes to make it easy for folks to to find you. Well, like I said, Simon, I really appreciate you coming on the show and

Unknown Speaker 1:07:01
is there anything that we missed before we end today, like going back to being present and to now it’s always it’s always empowering to you know, just take a step back and and, you know, acknowledge ourselves for how far we get in life like being young creators, Suburban Folk and, and everything like to not only look forward like I see so many people, achievers mindset, which is great, but we also have to remember to give each other and ourselves

Unknown Speaker 1:07:30
credit for

Unknown Speaker 1:07:32
how far we regard and yeah,

Unknown Speaker 1:07:37
put yourself first right or you’re not going to be able to do to be anything for anybody else.

Suburban Folk 1:07:42
I think that’s a good sentiment to sign off on. So again, much appreciate it and we’ll be in touch.

Unknown Speaker 1:07:46
It was a pleasure. Thanks, Ray.

Suburban Folk 1:07:48
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Transcribed by https://otter.ai