9. On A Year Off & Deviating from the Norm with David Brown

Overview

Joining me on this episode is friend, author, and traveler David Brown. David and I met working in the marketing and branding world, but we also have another thing in common. We both took time off and traveled. Shhhh! Don't tell anyone!

David and his wife, Alexandra, took a year off traveling the world and then chronicled their journey and learning in a beautiful book, “A Year Off: A story about traveling the world—and how to make it happen for you.”

I wanted to talk with David about his experience of taking time off, in addition to talking about general career satisfaction and walking your own path. In the end, David shares more about the impact of what he learned from traveling and shares wonderful insights for those of us who follow more non-traditional career paths.

David talks about the importance of paying attention, being present to your life and experiences, and that it’s okay to carve your own path leaning into who you are. He states so beautifully, “There really isn’t a sustainable option other than to be yourself.”

Now, I know that during the pandemic, we’re all not traveling. But I think David shares good lessons regardless of how you travel (meaning daydreaming or side jaunts!), and I think at this moment in this pandemic we could all use a little dreaming about what a pause might look like. Also, David and Alexandra’s book includes beautiful photography throughout, so I encourage you to pick it up to carry you abroad now while we’re hunkered in place.

A final thing I will note, as I ran out of time to discuss this with David, is the lasting impact that travel has. Dr. Rick Hanson talks about building resilience by having an experience and embedding it within you. I love his advice and I know for myself, I consistently go back to my memories of my extended travel, and it sustains me and fills me up. I still call upon my travels and its reserves. It is the gift I have given myself that keeps on giving. David also shares, “It was such a good decision. I loved it!”

And, David - I loved our conversation and so appreciate your wisdom! Thanks for being on with me.

More about Our Guest

David Brown is a Brand Strategy & Marketing expert who was most recently CMO at Honey Mama's, a Portland-based natural food company making absolutely delicious cocoa truffle bars. David just did an amazing rebranding for the company. So check them out (link in show notes below)!

But David is much more than his branding and marketing work in the CPG world, he is deeply engaged in areas that enrich our everyday lives. He is a published writer and photographer, involved in the food and wine industry, an avid cyclist, a vintage car and motorcycle enthusiast, an aspiring audiophile, and a longtime spirits and coffee lover. He has a fervor for life and a passion for learning.

That love of life and learning took him and his now wife Alexandra on a year off from everyday life, traveling the world and learning about themselves and each other. They chronicled their glorious year of travel in a book called, “A Year Off: A story about traveling the world—and how to make it happen for you.” A Year Off is one part memoir, one part travel essays and one part travel guide. It's a wonderful way to indulge your travel lust during this time.

Topics Covered

  • What is it like to take a year off?

  • How do you know it might be time for you to do something similar? Take a break? Travel? Simply change what you are doing?

  • Pay attention, and see if you are satisfied with what you are doing. If not, go do something you want to do! If you are doing something that doesn’t feel like you, act as quickly as you can and make those pivots when you are more nimble.

  • If you are evaluating, think about your values and what you value for yourself right now. How do you shape your career and life to be in alignment with what you value?

  • Travel isn’t all rosy! Change is challenging! Prepare for that. Be awake to what you are doing. The more present you are, the better the travel.

  • A valuable lesson not just for travel but for life - keep space for presence and spontaneity.

  • Being present requires that you sit with both the positive and the negative in life. Sit and be uncomfortable with what’s going on. Even if it’s negative, look at it with a lens of interest, which can be hard but worth it!

  • “There really isn’t a sustainable option other than to be yourself.”

  • We are dynamic people. Trust and lean into who you are vs. what you think you need to be.

  • That for many of us, it is only momentary that it is clear that we think we know what we are doing. Otherwise, it is a journey filled with constantly new adventures. 

  • There are ups and downs of exhilaration in one’s career. It requires constant alertness. It’s an active process.

  • That often we are taking incremental steps—what is most genuine, most aligned, the best next decision to get to the next thing that you value and that you hopefully value later on, which is not guaranteed.

  • How our desires change in different stages of life, like when we have children. We want different things; we see things differently.

  • It takes courage to move from the norm that’s become your norm. That as many times as you might veer, each time can feel uncomfortable and can ask you to call on that courage again.

  • From David’s book: “From our experience, there is no simple path to follow when it comes to mustering the courage needed to deviate from the norm of your norm.... We each had unique processes of coming to terms with our decision once it was made, but we also found comfort and insight in the stories of others who had consciously deviated from more traditional paths, as well as from the people we were so afraid of disappointing with our decision to go.”

  • David advises that perhaps we need to to not be so precious in making career decisions. We’re just going from one thing to the next thing. Why not look at it as your next adventure? Look at it with a softer edge. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t require discipline. But, there’s a lot about the journey that is quite important. (I love this counsel. To not hold so tightly to making the "right" decision. To view it as the next step in your journey and adventure.)

  • Think of it as: “My next best bet on optionality that enables me to be an authentic me based on who I think I’m becoming.”

Resources Mentioned

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9. On A Year Off & Deviating from the Norm with David Brown

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2021, 2020Kathy OnetoRight Success, Right Aspiration, Right Effort