In this episode Megan shares her journey as a Traveling Therapist. She discusses her adventures working as a therapist abroad as well as her creation of international retreats. She has navigated working all over the world and shares tips and strategies to help you accomplish this goal as well.
Episode key points:
About Megan:
Founder & Director of the Thriving Well Institute, Psychotherapist, Writer, International Retreat Leader, Public Speaker and Coach working in Grosse Pointe, MI. A leading expert in wellness, self-care and mindfulness, her work helps clients transform, restore and reach their highest potential. A dynamic public speaker, she has presented and facilitated workshops and retreats globally in Finland and Costa Rica and nationwide most notably at the Bryant University Women’s Summit, Rhode Island, at Miraval Resort and Spa, Arizona, at Red Mountain Resort, Utah and for notable institutions such as M.D. Anderson and The University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center. With over 20 years experience in the healthcare and therapy industry, she has extensive clinical experience both inpatient and outpatient and a wealth of knowledge to support profound change and growth.
You can find Megan here:
Thriving Therapists Facebook Group
https://www.facebook.com/groups/819786088456375
Building International Retreats
https://www.thrivingwellinstitute.com/retreats.html
And in her membership teaching therapists how to scale and grow beyond the 1:1 therapy model.
https://www.thrivingwellinstitute.com/membership.html
Travel the World, Increase your Income and Provide Transformative Retreat Experiences
Create, Plan, and Launch Your Profitable Retreat in Just 5 Weeks
Say goodbye to the burden of mental health notes with automated note and treatment plan creation! www.berries.icu/therapists
Sponsored by Alma: Managing a private practice can be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn — from navigating the credentialing process, to managing finances, to finding new clients. That’s where Alma can help. Alma is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. https://helloalma.com/kym
Connect with me:
Instagram: @thetravelingtherapist_kym
The Traveling Therapist Membership:
https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/travelingtherapistmembership
Revolutionize Your Private Practice with AI Course:
https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/ai
Signup to learn more about life as Traveling Therapist:
https://www.portablepracticemethod.com/free-training
The Traveling Therapist Facebook Group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/onlineandtraveling/
Bill Like A Boss Insurance Billing Community:
https://kymtolson.kartra.com/page/blab
Subscribe to the Podcast:
Apple iTunes | Spotify | Google Podcast | Stitcher | Amazon | Castbox
TRANSCRIPT:
00:01
Being immersed in the culture, trying to stay there as long as you can, like, three or four days somewhere, you just really can't even start to feel like, what a community and a country feels like, you know? So we can figure out ways to do it long term. That's amazing. Hi, I'm Kim Tolson, and I'm the traveling therapist. It's my passion to teach therapists how to navigate online, private practices and multiple income streams so they can travel the world. I'm a digital nomad with a virtual insurance based private therapy practice and a multi six figure coaching business. I'm obsessed with entrepreneurship and developing tools that can help therapists live an adventurous lifestyle. In this podcast, I will discuss my journey as a digital nomad. I'll chat with other traveling therapists and help you navigate the complexities of running an online insurance based practice. I'm so glad to have you with me on this journey. You There are challenges at every turn when it comes to managing a private practice with Alma, clinicians get the support they need to focus on what matters most, delivering great mental health care. When you become a member at ALMA, you'll get credentialed with major insurance payers in less than 45 days and access to enhanced reimbursement rates, plus you can take advantage of HIPAA compliant EHR tools like intake forms, progress notes and treatment planners. Visit Hello alma.com/kim to learn more, that's Hello a, L, M, a.com/k, y, M, to get started. You Hey everyone. I'm so excited to be re releasing one of our favorite episodes, episode 12, travel the world and offer retreats with my good friend and retreat leader, Megan Gunnell, in case you missed it, the first time around. Megan is an incredible therapist who runs the thriving therapist Facebook group, and she also leads retreats all over the world. She's doing some truly amazing things to help therapists like us find ways to scale our businesses and add more adventure into our lives. But before we dive back into the conversation, I wanted to share a little update on my personal experience with Megan's work. I just returned from her incredible food and wine tour and Crete. And let me tell you, it was everything you could dream of. I even brought my mom along, and we had the most amazing time exploring Greece together. The tour was full of luxury and indulgence, and we stayed in this beautiful villa right across the street from the Aegean Sea. And every night, we were treated to five to eight course meals prepared by three in House chefs. One of the highlights for me was a cooking class in rikmeo where we learned how to make traditional Cretan dishes like stuffed crepe leaves and lamb and this beautiful Greek salad. And then we got to walk around the streets of Riccio right after the picking class. It was amazing, and we even went on a food and walking tour in herculane. It was truly a once in a lifetime experience. During all of this, I was able to manage my business remotely, which is a true dream. It's something I've always thought I wouldn't be able to do, and now, of course, I'm able to do it easily. I've got automations in place by see just a few clients. Now, because I've scaled everything I've learned into courses and memberships and all kinds of different income streams that allow me to take two weeks off and explore Greece and have my business run seamlessly in the background while I'm having fun, this is exactly the kind of lifestyle I love talking about on this podcast, balancing business and travel, living life on your terms and making memories. This experience really reminded me of how much potential we have as therapists to not only build thriving practices, but also create new opportunities for ourselves, whether it's through retreats, Food and Wine Tours, or just adding travel into our lives. There are so many ways to scale up and do something different. Speaking of that, Megan has an incredible program launching soon where she teaches therapists exactly how to create and leave their own retreats. So if you've ever dreamed of traveling the world while earning income, this is definitely something you should check out. And guess what? I've got a link for you in the show notes, so you can get started right away. This round of the program starts October 24 I'm sure she'll have other opportunities, but this one is launching soon. If you've always wanted to do this, jump on the snail. I'm sure the price is going to go up after this. It's a fantastic opportunity to learn directly for someone who's been running retreats successfully for 20 years. So let's dive back into my conversation with Megan and get inspired to dream big, build something exciting and live a life full of adventure. Welcome back, everybody to another episode of the traveling therapist. Today I have Megan Smith Gunnell with me. She's one of my business besties, and I just love her so much. So she's come in to tell us about her life as a traveling therapist and all the exciting things she does as a traveling therapist. So I'm so excited to have you, Megan, I'd love if you just tell them a little bit about yourself and then we can get into all your awesome adventures.
05:19
Oh my gosh, Kim, thank you so much for having me. It's just wonderful to be on your podcast. I just love having you as my business bestie, and you inspire me constantly to continue to travel and seek adventure in everything I do. I am a psychotherapist in Michigan. I have a solo and a group practice here. I'm also the admin of the thriving therapists, Facebook community and the founder and director of the thriving well Institute, and I absolutely love combining travel and my work, and being a traveling therapist has been a lot of fun
05:53
for me, amazing. You've really been doing it for quite some time, too. I love your stories and adventures that you go on, so I'd love it if you would tell the audience just What took you from being just your typical psychotherapist sitting in an office every day to a traveling therapist. We could share a little bit about your story,
06:10
sure. Well, a long time ago, when my husband and I were first married, we lived in Munich, Germany for a little while, my sister has done a ton of international work and travel herself, and she kind of inspired us to to take a year and live abroad before we really settle down. And so I think that's when, like the spark was lit for me, and the fire started burning. And I just was so excited to explore living and working in another culture. I was a music therapist at that time, and I actually bought a guitar without a case and carried it on the train and took it into these schools and did some music therapy, like English music programs for these little preschool of students, like in the foothills of the Alps. And it was truly like a scene out of the sound of music. It was so much fun,
07:04
amazing. And you're, you're really, you really are kind of a hustler, like in an entrepreneur at Spirit IN SPIRIT anyway, that's really cool. So you just decided, like, Hey, I'm going to do this. I'm going to make this career as a music therapist work over here. And I need a guitar. I'm just going to grab this one and start it, just see what, just make it
07:23
happen, you know. And that's the thing I think I always, I mean, to this day, as I continue to coach therapists and building businesses and kind of, you know, scaling their business, I always encourage them to, like, look for the the void and fill it. So always try to seek opportunities to fill a need. And what I knew is that I knew how to run a little music therapy program for these preschool kids, and I just kind of hunted down a school that was willing to take me on, and I bought the instruments I needed and figured out how to get there. This was all like pre cell phone, like pre, you know, Google. I mean, it was like, very early AOL, days of emailing and and I managed to, like, you know, build this whole little program for international preschool students. And it was so much fun. And, you know, then on our off days, when we weren't either teaching English or doing these music programs, we would travel all over Europe. And it was just such an amazing time to be able to literally pack a backpack, go to the train station in Munich, watch all of those like tracks flip forward. It would be like track seven Venice, like track, you know, five Rome. And it was like, we literally would stand there and watch all of the things flip up, like the city names. And we were like, Okay, let's hop on track seven, Venice, let's go, you know, so that was just like, so free and so wonderful. And I just, I always recommend that people, at least, you know, have an opportunity to make a long stay when they travel abroad. And, you know, not, not to travel like a tourist, but to really learn the language, learn the culture. You know, not everyone can take a year off and do that, but it is a wonderful experience. If you can even do like a semester away, it just give yourself a little longer experience, you know, to kind of get to know another culture and another, you know, whole set of living kind of values that really influenced my life to this day. Oh, that's
09:19
amazing. Yeah, I totally agree. If you can, if you can figure out a way to do it, it's, it really is, to me, at least, about being immersed in the culture, trying to stay there as long as you can, like, three or four days somewhere, you just really can't even start to feel like, what a community and a country feels like, you know? So if you could figure out ways to do it long term, that's amazing, right?
09:43
And then I think, honestly, from there, I continued to just, you know, want to build more experiences. And I got really hooked in the idea after I got my, you know, MSW degree and kind of built my private practice, I really was long. For these kind of, like transformative experiences that really only happen when you are on retreat. And so I started to really, you know, discover that I could combine, you know, my love of travel and being in these different amazing places with, you know, the work that I wanted to do, too, in a really, like, big and powerful and transfer transformative way. So that's kind of like how the whole retreat thing caught fire for me, and then that continued to grow and grow. And it started like, you know, from a one day retreat to a weekend retreat, and then week long International, you know, offerings. And it grew and grew and grew, and now I'm teaching therapists how to do that too, because it's just so powerful and such an awesome way to, you know, build that into your offerings.
10:51
It's amazing. I'm so glad you're teaching therapists how to do it, because I actually am going to Megan's upcoming retreat in Costa Rica, and it's, I'm super excited about it, but it's been really cool to watch, like the behind the scenes, like how you put everything together and organize everything for us. And, you know, it just seems like you've thought of every single detail, which is amazing. And I think must be a huge thing for people that are planning these things, is to just have all these details figured out. You know, make it a very smooth experience for the people that are going to be attending the retreat. And that's been my experience so far with this one
11:26
coming up. Oh, good, good. I'm glad to hear that. And yeah, that it takes some time to kind of, you know, rough that out because there is a formula that really works for, you know, building and designing and kind of launching this retreat, and then, you know, helping your guests feel ready for the experience. And you know, not overwhelming them with too much information, but giving them enough so that they feel prepared. But yeah, there is kind of a recipe that works for that, and I feel grateful that over the years I've done enough of these that I really know that formula now, and it's been really fun to teach it. And, you know, building that workshop on how to design and build and launch a retreat was a really fun thing for me to kind of give to my audience. And I have been so excited to hear that a lot of people who have taken the workshop have gone on to build and sell out successfully international retreats of their own. So I mean, I think for me, and I'm sure you feel the same way, Kim like, the goal in building the thriving therapist Facebook community was really to create a ripple effect, and I knew that if I could inspire a few other therapists you know to learn how to build a successful, thriving practice, or scale their business or build retreats that I would be helping them serve their community, and more and more people would be impacted, you know, by whatever I have to share. And I have been really humbled by that, because it's really fun to like hear how people you know can do this and integrate traveling and their work. You know, absolutely,
13:00
yeah, so it and when you when you do these retreats, you've also been able to figure out how to maybe go a week longer after bring your family down, yeah, and be able to enjoy these places for longer than just maybe the week of the retreat Exactly.
13:14
So I recommend people do that, whether you go a couple days early or you want to stay later and have your family join you. There was one year that I ran two back to back retreats in Costa Rica. The first one was for women only, and the second one was co Ed. And for the second one, I had my husband fly down and meet me there, and he's a chef, and so he did some cooking classes with the group, and he took them on some of the adventures, like zip lining and surf lessons and, like, it was really fun for him and really good for me, because we got to kind of tag team a little bit of the work and, you know, spread out a little bit of the experiences throughout the week. And I didn't have to attend every single thing that he was taking the group on. So it gave me a minute to kind of rest and recharge, too. And then at the end of that second week, I had my family fly down, so my parents brought my children down, and my sister's family came, and we all ended up staying in the retreat house a couple days together before moving on to an Airbnb. But let me tell you, like, as a therapist who hosts retreats and builds kind of the schedule for these and all that stuff. It was really amazing to like, have my mom and my children and my husband and my sister and, like, everybody on the yoga deck doing yoga with the retreat leader. And like, you know, here's our iguana that comes out every day at 10am and, like, crosses over the, you know, it's like, so fun to like, have them see what we see, and they're eating, you know, the lunch that was prepared, and they're going to the little excursions that we, you know, did. And it was kind of like a mini family retreat. And it was a really powerful, loving, transformative feeling for my family too, because they got to see me kind of in action. I wasn't really running like pre. Programming for them, but they were able to kind of have a little taste of what the property is like and why I love it there, and, and honestly, it was just a really treasured experience. And then we rented an Airbnb and stayed another week. So I was in Costa Rica, almost the whole month of April that year, and, and that was like a really amazing way to combine vacation, like, with work, you know, a little bit of, you know, a little bit of both.
15:25
Mm, hmm. How did you handle clients while you were down there? Did you see your clients still, or did you take a little sabbatical? Or, how did you manage that? Because I know people will have that question like, Okay, now, what do I do if I'm staying in Costa Rica for a month or, you know, and doing a retreat? What do I do about my clients? Well, this
15:42
was way pre covid, pre telehealth, like this was, you know, this was years ago when really none of that was being done. But honestly now, especially with what you're helping, people understand it is possible to continue. You know, sometimes, depending on where you're traveling and what the licensing laws are and such. You know, sometimes you're able to continue offering telehealth while you're out of the country or out of the state, but at that time, I just decided to give myself a sabbatical. And I just thought, you know, I should be able to take three weeks off and I'm working while I'm gone. So it wasn't really like I was off the whole time. But everybody in my practice pretty much knew that I led retreats, and so they knew that at one point or another I'd be gone for, you know, 10 days or a week and a half, and this one was just a little bit longer, and I set it up so that if anybody needed, like, you know, you know, some sort of extra support while I was gone, I had people in place for that, but it is amazing. Now with telehealth and what we can do that people are kind of used to the idea of, you know, tuning in on a on virtual sessions, telehealth sessions for, you know, their continuing care, if you're out of the state or out of the country, absolutely,
16:57
yeah, you can do it both ways. And it's, it's an important question to ask yourself, do you want to go and and still see clients? I mean, like you said, it's okay to just take the time off. Also, you know, a lot of us are yes, me myself. I'm a hustler. Like, I feel like I've always got to be working, you know, we've got this upcoming retreat. And I'm like, Okay, how's the internet? Megan, while I go to check Facebook, and she's like, yes, but don't you want to just have a little downtime? Of, like, Yes, I
17:22
did that hard for us. You know,
17:26
it is, oh my gosh, it is hard but, but that's such a good point. It's something, it's like a decision point when you're trying to decide all this traveling stuff, if you want to host retreats or just travel in general, you know, do you want to make it working? Do you want to take the time off, you know, that's something to to really think about,
17:44
and not Not everything has to be done abroad. Like, you know, there's some years when I host international programming and I get there several days early because I always want to be sure I'm, like, fresh and ready and not super jet lagged or overwhelmed when I arrive. Or just like, you know, I just want to feel grounded and centered when I start some programming abroad, especially so I always try to go a couple days early. But then on the back end, sometimes I leave the same day that everybody else leaves, but when I get home, I'm sure to schedule a few days off to kind of help myself with integration when I return, because it is really rough. I'll say that to go from, you know, hosting something super powerful and transformative and then just like, hit the ground running with your lineup for your zoom sessions the next day. I mean, you can't really just do that. So I always try to tell people to, you know, whether they're participating as a guest in the retreat, or if someone's learning how to host one that that pre and post care is really important for yourself as a retreat leader, but also for your guests,
18:47
absolutely. Yeah. Oh, such important. We always need to be working on integrating that self care into this stuff. I mean, traveling is self care, but like you said, it can be exhausting, and you know, it's okay to just, like, actually just travel and not see clients the whole time. So that's right,
19:03
I think, like, especially therapists, have a really hard time sort of, you know, disconnecting from that the weekly rhythm. And you know, it is possible to do it. You have to prepare your caseload for it well in advance. But of course, if you're planning to host something internationally, you know about that about six months ahead, so you can determine whether or not that means you don't take on new clients that are high risk, or, you know, you kind of adjust your schedule knowing that you're going to be gone and again, sometimes it's only 10 days, it's like, you know, a week and a long weekend or something. And other times you might want to do like I know a retreat leader who hosts at the same facility that I do in Costa Rica, and she takes a week before she leads and has like, a little breakdown there. Then she leads two back to back retreats, and then she takes another week on the back end. So she's definitely there a month every year. And her, you know, her. Clients just are aware of that rhythm, and they understand that that's, you know, she's offline for that month. I know other therapists too that like spend August in Greece or like that, you know, they go to Italy for, you know, three months or whatever, and somehow they make this rhythm work. So I think we have these myths that are in our mind as therapists, that we have to be sort of ever ready for the next client that's coming down the pipeline, or any issue that might come up with our clients. But the truth is, we're allowed to recharge and, you know, restore to absolutely
20:33
yes, managing a private practice could be challenging. There are obstacles at every turn, from navigating the credentialing process to managing finances to finding new clients. That's where ALMA can help. ALMA is on a mission to simplify access to mental health care by focusing first and foremost on supporting clinicians. How for starters, Alma makes it easy and financially rewarding to accept insurance and get credentialed within 45 days and access enhanced reimbursement rates with major payers. Alma handles all the paperwork, from eligibility checks to claim submissions, and they guarantee payment within two weeks of each appointment. Members also get access to HIPAA compliant EHR tools like intake forms, progress notes and treatment planners, plus administrative support, so you can spend less time on paperwork and more time delivering great mental health care. Visit, hello, alma.com/kim. To learn more, that's Hello, a, l, m, a.com/k y, M, to get started. You and I really like what you said about your clients were kind of already on board with the fact that you're a retreat host, because you would do client facing retreats and therapist facing retreats, right? So, so, right. So your caseload was familiar with this part of your life anyway, so it was a sort of probably a natural integration into, okay, well, I'm going on my retreat now, and it was probably pretty acceptable and fine for they were
22:07
excited, actually, yes. And many of them would say, I want to go next year, or, like, you know, they knew that this was coming. And so they would, you know, be able to save for it, or, you know, be able to earmark some time off for it. So, yeah, it was something that was well known in my client population. I had a newsletter that I always sent out to everybody, so they would know that was coming up. They had the chance to register for it if they wanted to, and they were very familiar with it. And any new clients that came, I would just make that known to them, like, you know, I just want to make you aware, you know, you're starting with me in February, but I will be gone in April for two months or two weeks, or what feels like two months sometimes. And yeah, that just was fine. They would, they would either say, I don't think I can handle that. I need to have more consistency, or they would, you know, work with me and then and take that break with me. But yeah, it's amazing now with covid and how telehealth has changed everything. And you know, if people did want to do like a one day workday and maybe stack up a bunch of clients and do little check ins or something while they're out of town, they could do that and still have many days of rest and play and relaxation. Absolutely,
23:15
yes. Oh, I love it one one day. I think I'll do a retreat too. Oh, you have to do it. I think, you know, with my bill, like a boss membership, I thought, like, Wouldn't that be fun to have a, you know, maybe a little bit of insurance talk, but the rest, just have a nice, fun retreat with the members of Bill, like a boss. I think that'd be so great. Yeah, I
23:33
think people would love it. And you know what they want the most right now, community, and I think everybody really needs that. And you you know, when you think about why people attend retreats, that's one of the largest factors. So that's something to keep in mind as you're thinking about building like people really want to feel connection, and you can get that when you build community in a retreat setting.
23:55
Oh, sounds so fun. And I can't wait for ours. I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to a little monkeys on the deck that watch you all day. It's gonna be so fun. It's gonna be amazing. So let's just shift gears a little bit. This is the question I like to ask sometimes in this podcast, in your traveling and your all your adventures, has there been anything that's really throwing me for a loop in your traveling? And how did you handle that.
24:20
Oh my gosh, I have the best story for this. So my husband and I, at the end, we lived in Germany for about a year and a half, and at the end, we were feeling really adventurous, and we thought, we're going to rent a car, because we didn't have a car over there. Obviously, we were taking the trains and walking, and we were like, we're going to rent a car, and we're going to drive to Croatia from Munich, Germany, and we've heard it was amazing, and this was back in 1999 so this is like way before Croatia hit the tourism maps. And you know, it was really unheard of, and only our dearest expat, like insider secret type friends who knew all these cool like travel tips, were the ones that knew that. Croatia was like, really this gem of a travel experience. And so again, pre internet, pre cell phone, we just grabbed, like, some tour books and a couple maps, and we were like, praying we would find our way there. And we drove through all this crazy adventure, driving, like, through all these border crossings, and we used our broken German to try to, like, explain, you know what, where we were going, and get directions. And it was just, it was really amazing. And we we got there, we loved it. It was incredible. And on our third day there, we were like, you know, maybe today we should go visit this little island off the coast, because we heard it was amazing. And everyone was like, Oh, if you're, if you're here, you have to see what's on this island. And I was like, sounds great. Sign us up. So we took a ferry. We drove our car onto this ferry. And I remember, and I'm a planner, so I remember sitting in the hotel room, I was reading the map and the ferry, the ferry map and everything, and it wasn't in English, so that was probably my first mistake. And I was like, I think I figured this out. I think I know that it looks like from the map, there's a ferry that goes to the bottom of the island, and then there's a ferry that you can take from the top of the island, and I right back to the, you know, mainland. And I was like, perfect. We're gonna get off. We're gonna deboard the ferry at the bottom of the island, or whatever you call that. And then we're gonna drive through the whole island and enjoy the whole day. And like, you know, see all the little coastline villages. And like, you know, eat lunch there and have a great day. And then we're gonna get all the way to the top of the island, and we're gonna catch the ferry back. Well, you can predict we get to the top, and there's, like, no one working there, and I we get to, like, this little sand. And I was like, hello. I was like, you know, and the guy was like, no fairy, no fairy. And he's like, and he's looking at his watch, like, you're never gonna make it all the way back to the ferry that leaves. The last ferry leaves the island at the bottom of the island in like an hour. And he's like, you're never gonna make it back. And I was just looking at my husband like, we are now stranded on this island, and we have, like, nothing with us. And so I remember we were like, Let's go back to the Biggest Little Town on this island and see if we can, just, like, figure out housing. Of course, this is again, no, there's no Airbnb, like, there's no internet. Like, we, you know, we're in 1999 like, this is like, pre everything. So we just walk into this tourism office, and this lady was like, hello. Like, you guys look so lost. And we said, like, we have to find a place to stay tonight. And she was like, every hotel here is booked, like, you guys are really going to be out of luck. And I'm like, You must help us. Like, we have to find a place to sleep. I'm like, we're going to be in our car. And she said, there is one farm that has a room. It's a goat farm, and you can stay on this goat farm. And I'm like, done, just give me the address, you know. And so I like, pay her some money. And, like, I didn't even know if this was legit, but like, she points us, it could have been like, her aunt's like, goat farm, and we get to this place, and we end up spending the night in this tiny room. And I'm not joking, this could be, like, right out of a movie. There was like, mosquitoes in the room all night, and we were like, standing on the bed, like trying to kill these mosquitoes. Like we had our clothes. We had no pajamas. My husband put his contacts into a tiny cup of, like, seltzer water. We split a piece of gum in the morning because we didn't have toothbrushes. I mean, we were just like, this is an adventure, and it was really fun. And to this day, we love telling that story. I mean, in the moment, we were like, What are we gonna do, but it was just a really awesome adventure. And it's kind of like, you know, you as a traveler, you have to be flexible, and you have to be ready for anything. And that was just so much fun. But we did it. That's
28:57
amazing. Oh my gosh. And then I guess the next day you got the berry, yeah, next day that was very bad,
29:03
and it was beautiful. And actually, that night, we had a wonderful dinner. I still have the picture on my mantle. It's like, 22 years later. It's one of my favorite photos from our time abroad. We had, we ate like kings. We had this amazing seafood dinner. We were like, tan, and we just, like, had, you know, we just had found out we had found out we had to spend the night like we were adventurers. You know, we were just like, lost in this island, and we just felt like, I don't know, it was really free and wonderful, and we had this great dinner and a great night on the goat farm, and like, the next morning, we just took off and went back to the mainland. But we, to this day, like, still kind of cherish that memory. Because I think when life throws you a curveball. You really learn how to just, I don't know, show up in the moment and roll with it.
29:45
Absolutely, yeah, and, you know, at the time, it can seem so stressful, but then, like you're saying, you look back on it, it's like, wasn't that the best when that happened and we got through it? And cool little farm, I love stuff like that.
29:58
I. Know, it was great.
30:01
What an amazing story. Thank you for sharing that. It was really a good lesson to just go with it. It'll be okay. Even if you had to sleep in your car. You probably would have been, I would have been fine. We would
30:11
have slept on a beach or something. You know, everybody kind of has one of those stories where they're like, You won't believe this one, you know, but it's just totally it was really a great experience living over there. And if I ever get the chance to live abroad again, I would do it in heartbeat. And, you know, I just, I really loved it. I felt, I don't know, so alive and so in the moment. And I, I'm a person that values, you know, beauty, and I really appreciate the way the cities were set up in Europe. And like, I get a lot of joy and satisfaction out of the markets and the culture and the museums and like, just, I don't know the history, there's just a reverence I feel when I'm over there that I don't really have in the same way when I'm traveling in the US. And I also love traveling in the US, but it's just a different experience for me. And I don't know, I feel more at home over there. I think it's more my speed.
31:02
Yeah, I totally agree. I love going all around Europe. And it's, it really is. It feels so much older. You know what? I mean, it's just something about it absolutely yeah, thank you for sharing that you're mentioning your husband. And you know, this is not really a traveling therapist thing, but it's something you and your husband do together. Husband do together. So I'd love if you talk just a little bit about your culinary stuff you guys do, because that takes you all over the world also. Oh, that is
31:31
so much fun. So when we lived in Europe, we kind of always had this little secret dream that one day we would rent a villa in Tuscany and maybe host like a little culinary tour for people. And we kept thinking about it and thinking about it, and over the course of time, my husband ended up owning and operating a small bakery and cafe in our local town here, and we built an audience, kind of from that the bakery followers, and we started doing pop up dinners at the bakery. So every once in a while, we would transform the bakery into these white linen tablecloth like five star restaurant nights. You know, it's a one night only three chefs, five courses, and they were, like, sold out in minutes, and we, I was the waitress, and like my kids would help wash dishes, and like my husband would cook with two other chefs, and we just had these spectacular, really intimate, exclusive dining experiences. And it was, like, so unusual, because it was, you know, in this bakery, and like we would set it up like it was, like a formal, you know, dining, you know, restaurant, like in the evening. And it was really, really fun. And everybody in town really knew about these pop ups and loved them. And after about three years of running those pop ups on a consistent basis, we were like, we definitely have an audience of people who love food and who probably love travel and would love to do this Italy thing. And so that's also just a lesson for people out there who are thinking about kind of combining travel and work. Because you know, if you can think about pitching something to your audience, and you have a large enough audience with enough interest in something, then you really have something to sell. And so we built this idea of like, let's rent a villa, and, you know, take the chefs that do the pop ups with us and book the whole thing out. And, you know, do a week over there and go to the markets and do cooking classes and have these amazing dinners, farm to table dinners, outdoors, and visit the wineries and and we we built it, and instantly it sold out. And we've been doing them ever since, and they have been so much fun. And we're going again in October. We have two back to back tours over in Tuscany. We rent the most spectacular Villa you've ever seen. It's like a movie set. And we take 20 people, we have 10 couples, and we just absolutely love it. It's outside of Florence, close to Luca, and we actually have a traveling therapist who signed up to join us in October. Wonderful. So that'll be really fun. Oh, my gosh.
33:57
Oh, that's amazing. I love that. So I just wanted to throw that in to say, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be like traveling, working as a therapist. If there's other passions you have, you could also figure out ways to do sort of retreats or culinary tours or whatever around your topic as well.
34:13
And you know, I want to encourage your listeners to also think about joining forces with someone else. So if maybe you have a friend who has a, you know, they're, they're a yoga teacher, for example, maybe you could, you know, build an offering together and cross promote it, because it is kind of hard to think about filling your own international offering when you're doing it on your own. But if you have another co facilitator with you, or someone that specializes in something else, then it's not so scary to build it at first.
34:42
Absolutely yes. Thank you so much for sharing that. Yeah, one other thing I'd love for you to talk about. As I said in the beginning, I love Megan, so I do everything Megan offers pretty much eventually I'm going to do a culinary tour too. I'm determined to. But there's another you have another thing coming up. It's a summit that you put together. Sure, yes, wondering if you would tell tell the audience about that so they can learn about it in May. I'm going to that as
35:07
well. Yeah, and you're a sponsor, so thank you for your sponsor.
35:10
You're welcome. Yes, I believe everything Megan puts together, so oh
35:14
my gosh, yeah, I appreciate your support. And you know, friendship, it's been so great. The Thrive Summit is amazing. It's for therapists who want a combination of a retreat and an inspirational learning Summit. So I have invited eight amazing industry leaders who are going to be telling us exactly how they scaled their businesses beyond the one on one model of care. And I'll be also presenting and doing workshops there too, but it's going to be so great. It's out at Red Mountain Resort in Utah. I've hosted there before. I've done a couple retreats there myself, and I love the property. It's surrounded by amazing state and national parks. We go hiking with expert guides who take us on really fun hikes, and you don't have to be a big time hiker to do it. I was so worried before I went out there, I thought, oh my gosh, I should start training. But honestly, it's just like walking. You know, you don't have to be big time hiker, you know, to join us on the hikes. There's also a world class spa right on site, so you can get spa treatments, and, you know, they have beautiful amenities and great food, and it's going to be may 19 through the 22nd so it's just a long weekend. But my whole mission for doing this was not to have a crazy, jam packed CEU conference where you're literally going from one session to the next, and you get home and you're like, dizzy and exhausted. I don't like that myself. I'm an introvert, I was gonna say expat. I'm an empath, and I'm an introvert and an empath, and I feel like I get overwhelmed when I go to conferences and they're just like, you know, kind of shoving information down my throat. And then I get home and I'm like, I can't even digest it. So I didn't want to design something like that. Instead, I wanted to combine my love and experience with hosting retreats and invite people in for a weekend, a long weekend of restoration, but also give them real life, you know, tools from experts who can really guide them through the process of learning how to scale their business. So we've got some amazing speakers coming. I can't wait to hear what they have to share with us. And registration still open. So if anybody out there would like to join us, and you're a therapist who's looking to thrive this year, then you can find out more at my website, thrivingwell institute.com,
37:34
thank you so much, and I'll put all the links in the show notes too, so people can can find you wherever they want to to find you. They want to learn about retreats or about the summit or anything else. I'll put the links for them. Great. Yeah. Thank you so much. Megan, oh, it's
37:51
been my pleasure. Kim, thanks for having me.
37:53
Welcome. Thank you so much for listening to the traveling therapist podcast for show notes, links and downloads, head over to the travelingtherapist.com where you'll be able to learn more about my journey, the courses I've created for you, and other exciting resources to make your dreams become a reality. If you've enjoyed this episode, please share with your traveling therapist friends. Subscribe to the podcast, and if you love this episode, please leave a review. You.