CX Leader & PreK Teacher + Cruise Event Cofounders, meet Wendy and Elizabeth Pochop of Baltimore, Maryland
In this episode of The Career Flipper, host Jenny Dempsey sits down with sisters Wendy and Elizabeth Pochop of Baltimore, Maryland, co-founders of Untethered Voyages, a side hustle turned passion project that creates cruise-based retreats for leaders, communities, and organizations.
We connected through Support Driven, a global community for customer support professionals, and what started as a conversation about side hustles turned into an inspiring look at building something new from burnout, curiosity, and passion for travel.
What You’ll Hear in This Episode:
Connect with Untethered Voyages
I've never really stopped to think about my mental health until I literally just crashed and burned. Hello and welcome back to the Career Flipper Podcast. Your permission slip to flip your career, reimagine work life, and everything in between. I'm your host Jenny Dempsey Furniture Flipper, career change coach and a customer experience day job worker while wearing the title of.
Slightly unhinged cheerleader for figuring it the heck out right alongside you. This podcast was born after I got laid off from my startup tech job back in 2022 and spiraled into full blown, what am I even doing with my life mode? I can't find another job. Who am I without work? I was firing off resumes and cover letters that I spent way too much time customizing only to get rejections and well, lots of ghosting back.
And then one day I found a junky coffee table in my friend's basement. And honestly, I felt like how it looked, I didn't have a plan. I didn't know how to use power tools and I definitely didn't know there were different kinds of wood stain, but I got curious. I started asking questions and I flipped that coffee table and somewhere between sanding and ceiling, I realized I wasn't just giving that furniture a second chance, I was giving myself one.
Now this show is my love letter to reinvention. Each week I sit down with people from around the world who flip their careers, and sometimes I'll purpose, sometimes by total accident, and they're here to share the real stories behind the flips. In today's episode, you'll meet Wendy and Elizabeth Po Chop of Baltimore, Maryland, their sisters, roommates, travel buddies, and the co-founders of Untethered Voyages.
What makes their story so powerful is that it's not just some polished, weak, quitter jobs In went all in fairytale. Right now, this is still their side hustle. Elizabeth is a teacher. Wendy is navigating her next career, step in tech, and in between lesson plans, job searches, and everyday life, they're carving out time to build something they're really excited about.
You'll hear how they set boundaries, divide responsibilities, and keep each other accountable so the dream just doesn't stay a dream. You'll also hear how burnout and a sabbatical cracked open the door to curiosity and how that small spark slowly turned into a business idea. So if you're listing on your lunch breaks, stuck in traffic on the way home, or I don't know, squeezing in this podcast while folding laundry, this conversation is for you.
It's, it's proof. You don't have to burn everything down to start something new. You can take small steps, build alongside your full-time job and figure it out as you go. So if you're craving a career change, a mindset reset or just a flicker of hope that your next chapter is out there waiting. Hey, this is your sign.
Hit follow, subscribe. It's, let's dive into the episode now. I can't, I can't wait anymore.
So while Support Driven is not sponsoring this episode, I wanna say thank you to Support Driven for bringing us together. I am here with Wendy and Elizabeth because we connected through Support Driven and so welcome. Welcome to the Career Flipper Prince. Thank you. Thank you. We're so happy to be here.
Yeah. Support Driven. For anyone listening, it's a global customer service community where people who are like actually on the front lines answering the chat supports and the phone calls and all that stuff. Can talk in Slack and vent and cry and generate ideas and like there was a post about like you had posted a job, Wendy, and I was, then you mentioned something about a side hustle and I was like, wait a second, I need to talk to her.
So I slid into your dms and here we're happy to be here. I love it. I love it. Well enough of me rambling on. I would love it if you both introduce yourselves and share what you're doing right now. Okay, great. We're pretty good at talking over each other, so hopefully we'll be able to Perfect. We don't do a lot of that, but I'll go first.
Um, I'm, I'm Wendy. Um, and I actually, um, am am a co-founder of a side hustle that makes, um, cruise retreats for, um, leaders that are doing educational retreats. Or wanna get their groups together for celebration, retreats or other kind of, um, of events. And, um, Elizabeth is my co-founder, but my background really is in customer success and customer experience.
Um, I've been doing it for 20 years and I've held pretty much every post sales role that you can imagine. I started as an instructional designer, moved into technical writing, moved into product training, moved into account management when customer success became a thing, I moved into customer success.
I've run, um. Professional services teams and customer success teams. And my passion really is, um, with seed and series A startups and building teams from scratch. I'm a builder and so, um, one of the things that I really love about untethered voyages is that we have this opportunity, um, sisters and travelers to build this thing together that.
Sort of focuses on something that we're really passionate and excited about, um, for ourselves and being able to introduce that to, um, people that want to build their communities in person while having adventures kind of around the world. Love that. And I'm Elizabeth. I am the other co-founder of Untethered Voyages, our side Hustle.
Um, and Wendy and I decided to start this about a year ago. We are. I'm really excited to help people get onto cruise ships and discover the joy of cruising, um, while doing everything else that we do. So my background is in, well, honestly, my background's kind of all over the place. Uh, I started, uh, working in a college in a financial aid department, and then I was a nanny for a while and then.
The main portion of my background is in executive assistant. So I was an executive assistant for, um, 10 years and really worked with, um, running some events for companies there. And that's where my passion for events is really come from and is really, uh, shining in this new business. And then about, um, three and, well, four years ago now, I decided to become a teacher.
So I am now a teacher. I taught second grade for a couple years, and I currently teach pre-K. Wow. Lots of flipping going on in your current path. Yes. Well, she's a,
you know, I think it's so cool how you both have these very, you know, unique, independent career paths of one another, but yet you came together to create this, what we call right now, side business, which may be one day it'll be more, and we'll talk more about that. But you know, to kind of do like, uh, bring people into the world of cruising because I feel like that is something also, I mean, I don't know too much about that, but like the way that you do it and the way you show up to bring people in with leaders and education and the things around that.
It's just so interesting and just makes me wonder how you even got to this point. Like how did this begin? Because a lot of people listening could also have, you know, whether they flipped their careers in the past or they've worked the same role for many, many years. They might have this like little nudge in the back of their mind of like, oh, you should start this, or, oh, you love this, or maybe you'd wanna do this, or Is there anything else out there for me besides this desk job that's killing my soul?
Like, there's so many things, but a lot of people are afraid. To even start, and I'm curious, how did this all happen? Where does this, where does this originate? Wendy, Elizabeth like. How'd you get here? So that in itself is a story. Um, it wasn't like we woke up one day and said, Hey, do you wanna, um, I, um, mentioned before that I have been building customer success and customer experience teams for a long time.
Um, right before the pandemic, I took a role that wasn't so much a builder job, it was more of a. Fixer role, which I have since discovered. I'm not, I'm not a fixer. Um, but it was at a healthcare company, um, when the pandemic hit about six weeks into my role. So on top of, um, software that had a lot of tech debt, um, and was already, you know, sort of experiencing a, a huge surge in technical bugs.
We also then had to support doctors and clinics. Through the pandemic. Um, and I, um, I burned out about two years into that role. I tell everyone my, my role really was just like chief complaint officer. People would find me on LinkedIn and call me at like four in the morning on a Saturday just to let me know how unhappy they were.
People would call me and let me know that they were considering bankruptcy because they, um, you know, due to some, some issues that they were having with their software, they weren't able to pay their bills and, um. Anybody that's been in a support role knows that you have to be really empathetic that there's not a lot you can do to.
Fix the problem. You know, you have to partner with other teams. And, um, just because again, of the, of the sort of, um, extent of, of what was going on with the software, we weren't fixing things quickly enough to keep our customers happy. And so, um. You know, I was working remotely. I was in my basement all by myself, um, trying to, you know, sort of get myself through it.
Um, I had, um, a manager who was more interested in sales than he was in supporting our customers, so I wasn't very supported and I, I just knew it was time for me to maybe like, take a break and do something. So, um, I decided to take a sabbatical and. Take some time for myself and sort of get through the PTSD that I had, you know, sort of gotten over the, the few years that I'd been there.
And so when it was time to, to come back into the, the work world, um, I've always been a traveler. I've always been passionate about traveling, and Elizabeth has always been my travel partner. So we've gone all over the world together. Um. And, um, so I said, okay, well I'm, I'm really passionate about travel, I'm passionate about hospitality.
I wanna be in that space in the tech world. And, um, about the time that I came back from my sabbatical was about the time that ERP ended and customer success was sort of being questioned across the industry. And jobs were not as plentiful as they were when I left. And so I said, okay, well how can I make myself as.
Stronger candidate when I'm going into pitching myself for these roles. And so I decided to get a, a, a travel, um, certificate or some sort of travel advisor certification so that I could. Increase my knowledge in the industry. So I went through a program, um, through, uh, a company called Careers on Vacation.
And part of learning how to be a travel advisor was also learning how to create a travel business. And so way back then, um, multiple years ago, the business that I was creating was a retreats business. And, um, it, it was something that I always, I'm not great at. Um. Um, at managing myself, I need to be accountable to someone else.
So I've never been a great solopreneur or somebody that can just run a business on my own. So even as I was going through that, my goal was to get a job in the travel industry, travel tech industry, or hospitality tech industry. And, um, you know, it just didn't happen. You know, I've been trying for a while.
I'm still trying. I would love to, um, you know, I still am passionate about, um, startup tech and, and so I'm still trying to, to find my way back there, but. In the meantime, I just started doing travel for friends and family and saying, Hey, like, can I book you a trip? And um, and then Elizabeth and I went on a family trip together, um, for our parents' 50th anniversary.
They took us all on a cruise ship in Mexico. There were 23 or 25 of us, four generations. And um, a lot of the family had never been on a cruise. We've been on a few. We love them. We think there's such a great way to travel because you can. Uh, you know, unpack once and kind of see a lot of different places.
It's all inclusive, the food is covered, the, you know, entertainment is covered. So as we were sort of talking through that, we were like, Hey, what if, um, we. Looked into somehow doing something on cruise ships. And so over the course of the last year, this thing has evolved a few times. We started out, um, thinking that we wanted to do workation on cruise ships.
So meaning anybody that was working remotely that wanted to pack up and work from a cruise ship, we would sort of help facilitate that. But as we started doing market research, um, people weren't so much interested in the idea of like remotely working from a cruise ship. They were more interested in.
Finding community with other people that had the same passions and things that they did. So then, um, we sort of iterated on that. We found, um, a really great marketing coach locally who sat with us and said like, what are you really trying to do? What are you really trying to deliver? And so we were like, well, group experiences that build community.
And then, um, we sort of iterated down a little bit more on that and got to this point where we are today, which is events and retreat. For folks that want to stand out from the crowd and give their community, their team or their clients a really unique way to get together and see the world and do, um, you know, experiences and have experiences that you can't really have in a land-based environment for much less money.
Um, and so we've really doubled down on this idea over the past, like probably four or five or six months. Um, and we're starting to. Really be able to deliver on that with some associations and communities and coaches that we've met. And, um, we fall in love with the idea. Um, and I think it's really starting to catch on.
Um, in fact, the software company that I was talking about and support Driven is doing their very first user. At sea in September. And so, um, you know, it was great to see them do something like that and sort of validate our idea. Um, and so that's the really long story about how we got here. From my perspective, I don't know if Elizabeth, you wanna add anything?
Yeah, I just wanna say like, when Wendy approached me with this idea of like, let's do something around cruises, my background with events really, I felt like, oh yeah, I could totally see that. So as we've gone through the iterations, it's been really fun to think about, like, can you take your team on a cruise ship?
Yes. Take your team on a cruise ship. Can you take your clients on a cruise ship? Yes. Take your clients on a cruise ship. Like all of these different segments work well in a cruise setting. And so, um, having the events background that I have has really just given us like, um, a, a really. Open-mindedness about who we can talk to.
And part of the problem we had was like, oh, we wanna sell to everybody. Everybody could be on a cruise ship. And then we had to figure out, oh yeah, not everybody, not all the time. So like niching that down and really honing in on who would benefit the most. Most in our opinions from being on a cruise ship.
And, um, I think that we're, we're in a really sweet spot with who we are talking to. Um, just for the, the benefits of like getting your group together in a place that's away and unique and sometimes is often, usually almost always is cheaper than a land-based retreat. So, um, it's been really exciting to iterate on that.
Wow. Wow. Okay. I have, so, I have so many questions, so many questions. 'cause this is, this is just so cool to see how it unfolded in such like. I mean a very organic way. Like there was something that you two as sisters enjoyed doing together, which was traveling. And I think also just as a side note, like finding a good travel buddy is so crucial because a hundred, you heard a lot about how someone travels.
And so to have that like built in with your sister, I'm like, that's, yeah, that's a gift right there. You are so lucky. Um, and so. You have this and you, you know, you, you already had some cruises under your belt and then you organize with your family and you have this 23 people and your family together on this cruise and you're together and you're just like.
And then Wendy, you get, you get curious and you were just like, I'm gonna, I'm gonna take this certification class and there's this open door to curiosity after what you had already been through, which you were so burnt out. And then to just kind of take the initiative to one, take a sabbatical and own that, that is something that you need.
'cause I don't wanna overlook that. I think that that is. It's hard. It's while such a wonderful thing to do and a gift to be able to do, it's hard to get to that point, especially in the very busy working world of where society's like you have a job and this is what you do to be able to take that time off.
So maybe we could talk separately about that, but like you were curious and you took this class and then together you just started to build this up and really niche down. So the question that I have that I wanna kick off with is. You're already working other jobs and you already have a life going on of other things.
How did you find the time to even start building this? Well, so first and foremost, we live together. We're roommates as well as travel buddies. And so, um, you know, whereas other people may not have the opportunity to just bump into someone in the kitchen. We do. Yeah. Um, but I would say my sort of other full-time job right now is a little bit more flexible than Elizabeth.
My other full-time job right now is, is finding my next sort of, um, technology role. So I'm gonna let Elizabeth talk about that because she has to be in a classroom every day, so she can't just be like, I wanna talk about this Right. This month we're really lucky, number one, that we started our position last.
June or our new, uh, site has the last June because I am a teacher. And so I had June, July and August to really start to focus on that. Yeah. And that gave us a really good foundation. So, um, being able to focus on that and then, you know, Wendy still had other things to do, but I had a significant amount of time and then was able to pull her in.
Um, and we just really. Built a foundation, um, when I had more time. And then over the past nine months since I was been back in school, we've really had to figure that out. It's been, um, it's been tricky because I am in a classroom with four year olds all day long and while I can't just say, hold on, I know we're in the middle of a science lesson, but I've got this thought I've gotta think about.
Yes. So, um, really. Uh, we have figured out a couple of things that have helped us. Um, a division of duties has been really important for us, so figuring out who owns what. Not both of us trying to do everything, but really like splitting, splitting up, who's owning what has given us, um, just, uh, the flexibility of time to work when works best for us.
Um, and then number two, also just feeling like responsible for your own stuff makes a difference, right? As opposed to, um. Oh, we've both got that, so I can't do it right now. It's okay. I'm not even gonna worry about it. Yeah, like feeling responsible is really important. Yeah. Um, the second thing is we started our own Slack channel and so I think that's been really helpful for us.
Um, so we have a Slack channel that we just kind of dump ideas into. Um, put thoughts into Wendy sometimes like. Goes to a webinar and she'll just put everything that was important from that webinar in there so that I can kinda keep up, even though I'm not actually at the webinar too. If we have thoughts when the other person's not around, you just kind of dump it in there.
And then we have a place where we're in constant communication, even when we're not in the same place. And so those two things have really just been. Uh, the foundation of how we're able to work together. Yeah. Um, so well, even with the separate responsibilities that we have outside of this side hustle.
Yeah. Wendy, do you have anything else that you think has been helpful? I mean, I think, I think you covered it. I would also say that, you know, um, hiking time on the weekends or when we're out to dinner, like a lot of times will organically cause conversation to happen because, you know, when you step away from your normal environment, a lot of times you get into.
Fired. And so, um, you know, we've come up with a lot of our best ideas when we're out on a hike and we just have to remember to like, just kinda come home and deliver on them, you know, and we've also just made a, a commitment to each other that, um, you know, while. Previously weekends were for lounging. Now we need to have a little bit more structure and strategy and a plan to get stuff done on the weekend so that nobody feels overwhelmed during the week.
And so, you know, we just, um, we hold each other accountable for that. Okay. I am gonna derail the entire conversation because I have to let you know about something after this episode was. Hoarded Elizabeth and Wendy reached out to me because they wanted to let me know that they're actually hosting a cruise through Alaska in July, 2026.
Oh my gosh. It sounds like a dream. And they wanted to extend a perk for Career flipper listeners. Essentially, if you book this cruise. They will waive the planning fee if you enter the code Career flipper at signup. If you're curious and wanna take a look what this all entails, I mean, I'm just looking at a dreaming about it.
Check out untethered voyages.com/alaska and if you do book it, just enter the code Career flipper when you sign up because. That'll take some cash off this amazing experience for you and I, I really hope you go. Okay, back to the conversation now. I think to just follow up on what Elizabeth said about really understanding our, our strengths and our responsibilities, um, you know, I think we've had to sort of figure that out.
Um, you know, um, I've always been in leadership positions or for the past 10 years I've been a leadership position. So, um, I would say I, I am an idea person, but the beauty is Elizabeth's been an executive assistant for 10 years and she is amazing at execution. And, um, so I think, um. You know, for a while I was trying to put a lot of that like idea iteration and generation on her.
And a few weeks ago she just said to me like, I don't wanna do that. Like, you know, stop it and gimme all your ideas and I'll do them. Just tell me what the plan is, what the vision is, and I'll execute it, you know, amazingly. And so I think that took a lot of pressure off of both of us to think that we had to sort of fill every role and try to do everything.
And so, um, we have very clear cut. Work that we do now. And so, um, I think that's helped a lot too. Wow. Yeah, lots of, lots of ways to work together. Smarter use technology and resources, but also paying attention to the things you actually wanna do and how you wanna spend your time and still getting out there and doing things to move around and enjoy life.
While building this together, it sounds like the structure and that accountability is just crucial to this. And I think that that's so important for people listening who are thinking about, well, maybe I could start something, whether it's on their own or with someone else. Like if you don't have the structure, and I will say, and very clearly, like same with furniture restoration or even the podcast, like I have it built into my schedule and it is just me doing it.
Um, at this point, but it's just like having the structure and even my own accountability of like reaching the deadlines that I set for myself, um, is so, so important. And I, I'm really glad you brought that up because it's possible. It's just sometimes you do have to sacrifice a little bit of things in order to make the big things happen.
In very small, small stages and steps and, and, uh, and Saturday morning sleep ins have gone the way of Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that's okay because the goal is in a few years, we would love to be on a cruise ship full-time for a year or three years doing our job from the place that we're selling and promoting and sharing with people.
And so if we have to wake up a little bit earlier now to be able to live. A dream life that most people won't have. The opportunity's Yes. We'll do it. Yes. Oh, totally. Yeah. Every Sunday I work on furniture in the garage, so I'm saying no to Sunday brunch with my girlfriends. I, you know, don't go out, uh, late the night before because I'm like, I know I gotta get up and be working in the garage all day.
Like there are certain things, but I. I wanna have my own workshop one day and my own HGTV show. I gotta do these things, you know, big dreams. Yes. I love that. But I think that that's, yeah, that's an important thing, that the sacrifice doesn't necessarily feel as dreadful. Like, I mean, I, I don't feel that, and it sounds like you both don't feel that either.
It's like, it feels totally worth it and aligned. And I also wanna, I, I do wanna pop back to a second to talking about taking the sabbatical because I think. You know, taking that break from something that's incredibly stressful, especially, you know, a lot of folks listening have those job, they're like, I am fried, I am burnt out.
Or maybe they were laid off and like jumping right back into the job search too can sometimes be like, especially what you found too. It's just, it's a little bit more challenging to find something. I mean, I was right there with you. Like it, it's, it's really hard and it's really stressful. So what encouraged you to take.
Sabbatical, like, how did you, how are you, how did you do it? How were you okay with making that choice, knowing that it was, you know, a bit of a, a off the beaten path type of choice? Yeah. I mean, I, I would say that I, I probably would not have made it had I not done. Yeah. Like it was, um, you know, I was crying at work for.
Hours every day. I was, um, you know, I just was not in a good place. And so, you know, I, I was fortunate enough to have, um, you know, some money saved up. Like, definitely make sure that you, you know, you've prepared for it. Um, and you can't prepare for everything, you know, but, um, you know, make sure that you, you, you.
Made a plan. Yeah. Um, and then, um, you know, I would say, um, you, you, you just have to know yourself well enough to know when you've hit your limit. Because I have worked in stressful environments my whole life. Startups are not cake. They are not, you know, they're not an environment where you walk in and you have sort of the five things on the list that you check off and you go home, you know?
I've, I've, you know, worked 24 hours in a row before I've worked, you know, like my whole life has been in sort, and I loved it. Like I, again, I'm a builder and I loved that. But there is also, um, you know, the, the flip side where when you're, when you're in an environment, when people, where people are trying to, as everyone always says, like, build the rocket ship while you're trying to fly it, it takes, it takes the toll on you.
Um, and so I would say probably I've never. I've never really stopped to think about my mental health until I literally just crashed and burned. I mean, so I would, I would say to anybody that's listening to this, you know, well ahead of when that happens, that you're not in a good place, um, and do what you need to do to, to get yourself into a good place before it's kind of too late.
Um, you know, whether that's talking to a mental health professional or, you know, taking advantage of, you know. Conversations with people that can sort of give you some coping mechanisms and things. I didn't do that. Um, I just sort of thought like, this is the life I signed up for and so, you know, whatever, everybody, everybody's going through it.
Yeah. Um, and so for me it, it was just, it was a necessity. I wasn't really going, I don't think I was gonna make it otherwise. Um, and then take, take the time because, um. Your body needs to heal, your brain needs to heal. You need to get through all of the, you know, the, like my, my body was so conditioned to two, 2:00 PM on Thursdays was when I was supposed to have my meeting with my boss.
And I just knew it was going to be horrible. And so my body was conditioned at 2:00 PM on Thursday to like seize up and I would get headaches and I would just like, and it took some time even after I wasn't working anymore for that not to be. Something that I just had a stress response to. So give yourself the time and the space to work through all of it, you know?
And then I really did, I, I went out and looked for a coach and um, you know, started to think through like, how can I be spending my time? So. I tried to mentor some, you know, some folks that were in CS and tried to sort of give back in that time, you know, helping look at resumes and, and, you know, help people that were looking for jobs and things.
Um, because that was, I think, what I needed to do in that moment. And then again, um, sort of as it got. You know, six to nine months along and I started to say, okay, I, I'm better. What's next? That's when I knew I wanted to do something that I personally just felt really passionate about. Um, you know, like I've worked in a lot of different industries that have been interesting, um, but I wouldn't say I'm passionate about fleet management.
I wouldn't say I'm, you know, passionate about EHRs and I wanted to be in a space where I felt passionate about what work I was doing and what kind of impact I was having on the world. So. Wow. Thank you for sharing all of that. I think that's like everything that you just mentioned of how sometimes all of that crash and burn happens.
Well before you even know it's gonna show up knocking at your door and it, it comes as a surprise, but it's really not a surprise. You're like, yeah, I kind of knew this was coming. And also just the way that your body remembers the time. Like when you were saying that, I was like, oh, I can think of things like that in my past career.
Just like being able to just, okay, it's not happening. We're not having that today. Like, and so I think that that's, those are really important reminders as someone kind of thinks about, well what does my career path actually look like? Do I want to be having a headache at 2:00 PM every Thursday? Like, is this how I wanna be spending my life?
And so you both have created this on the side, but it. Really sounds like it's not gonna be forever on the side. It's gonna be something that takes over as the full-time thing. So can you both talk about a little bit about what, what's your vision? Where do you see this going? Uh, where do you want it to go?
How do you want this to change your career paths and your lives? I mean, a career flip is really a life flip at the end of the day, and it's like, where do you see this flipping your life? Yeah. Elizabeth, why don't you take that one? Yeah, sure. So we have, Wendy touched on it a little bit earlier, but um, we have big plans.
So this is a side hustle right now and it is something we're really enjoying doing, and we, um, have plans to grow this business into full-time jobs for both of us. And it, ideally, eventually we think that this. Could be done from anywhere. And so, um, we would like to take our passion for travel and go, we'd like to take it on the road.
We'd like to do this full time, um, from a cruise ship for a while so that we can, number one, generate content in an easier way. Number two, really have the. A hundred percent full, full on expertise of what it's like to live on a cruise ship and where the best cruise ships for events are and why you would wanna be on this specific cruise line as opposed to that cruise line.
Like, you ha there's some experience that's required with that. And we have significant cruise experience, but living on a cruise ship would give us just a lot more, you know? Mm-hmm. So, um, that, that's one goal that we have to be on a cruise ship full-time. Um. Not next year. Probably not the year after probably, but sometime soon or soon-ish.
Yeah. And then you know from there, the world's our oyster. So we'd really love to just go and explore and see and, um. Do this full time. We'd like to, we'd like to help people get their groups together. Um, and if we can, you know, try things out and then have that expertise and really give you the joy that comes from that, um, and as we're talking to you, we really think that will benefit you, um, knowing that we really are the experts and knowing that we have lived this and can really show you the, the way to do it.
Yeah. Yeah, you're, you're, you're walking the walk and talking the talk, like you are doing, you're doing that. And that's what incredible, like traveling everywhere, living on a cruise ship, like, I mean. That's amazing and you absolutely will do it. And I have a couple things I'm like, okay. In a couple years or honestly even a year, like come back on, let's talk about like where this is and also like maybe there's a future career flipper cruise in the works.
Like Yeah. Unity of career flippers. Like let's this conversation going because Amit, definitely, yeah. We like to say that right now we're, um. We're doing this so we can travel, but someday we'll travel because we're doing this like, we'll, we'll have built the life that we can, you know, we can live and kind of go and do whatever we wanna do.
So yes, yes. You took something that you both love to do independently and together, and that you have a lot of knowledge on, and you are creating this whole company based off of it, and it is. A lifestyle. It is something that is so near and dear to your hearts, and you're pouring the time and you're making the sacrifices to make it happen and.
It's incredible that you're doing that in addition to all the other things that you're doing. Um, I mean, working with children sounds exhausting and you're still finding the time. So here we go. It's proof. It can be done, it can be done. Um, you know, I, I wondering if both of you might have some insight on this.
This is a question for you both. Picture someone right now listening in, they are on their lunch break. They're burnt out at their job. They maybe got five minutes to pop away, or they're listening to this in their commute home and they're just like fried and tense and just irritated with everything and don't like the way their life is.
What are some pieces of advice that you both would offer to that person if they're thinking that something needs to change? Their career. Um, I'll start, find joy somewhere. Um, it doesn't, your, your career doesn't have to bring you joy and if it doesn't find joy somewhere. Um, and so that doesn't have to be a side hustle or your second job.
It can, uh, volunteering. It can be a plan with friends that you have every week. It can be anything. But really finding one space where you can just find the joy. Um, translates to the rest of your life. And so if you can find joy somewhere, it's easier to make it through another day of your horrible life Frazzling job.
It's, and it's not the end all be all, but it is, uh, perhaps something that can help you get through. Yeah, and I would say, um, you know, everyone else says like, if you don't like it, change it. Like, it's just something like a shirt that you can just turn around and like, you know, change, change. And while, um, I don't think it's that easy, I think take a baby step, just, um, you know, again, like maybe it's not gonna be your.
Full-time, new thing tomorrow. But find a volunteer opportunity that's something that you're passionate about, that's gonna spark ideas for maybe how you can turn that into something that, um, maybe is a full-time job down the road and you'll get some, um. You know, you'll, you'll get some joy from it, but also you'll get some experience from it.
You'll be able to take that experience and turn that into whatever you want it to be. Um, you know, and so for us, um, it wasn't like we decided that, um, we were gonna be full-time travel advisors tomorrow. Like this was a, a long-term plan for us. And so we knew we could. Probably only dedicate five to 10 hours a week on top of everything else that we had going on.
Um, and so we just said like, let's start small. Like how many retreats can we do? And so, um, you know, we're boutique right now. We don't take a million clients. We take the clients that alliance. And really closely and deeply with the philosophies that we have around community and adventure and things like that.
And those are the people that we wanna work with and get really good at working with. And so just, maybe it's something that you do a few hours a week and um, you know, and then three to four or five years from now, um, you know, maybe it's your full-time thing. Yeah. But don't feel like you have to change everything in your life in one minute.
Sometimes just makes it worse. Mm-hmm. Yeah, that's so true. Taking the big leap is not always, in most cases, necessary at all. You can start small and at the same time find the joy in the other parts of your life that are present. And you might not be looking at them because you're so clouded with everything else, but they are there.
I do think, just to add, um, one more Yeah. Sort of thought. Um. Find, find a solution that maybe was a solution to your own problem and start start solving that problem for other people, because you're the expert, you know how you fixed it and you know how you can help other people fix that problem. And, um, you know, that can be something that's really easy to start doing tomorrow through, you know, coaching or advice or, you know, a service that you can provide to someone.
And you can do as little or as much of it as you want. And when you give back to someone else. It links back to Joy. Right. Um, you know, and I think it brings good karma to you as well. So True, true. That, true that I think that, that's such a great way to put it too. Looking at the things, the problems that you've already solved and like what can you do to, to make that more, I feel like.
Like the only reason this podcast even started was 'cause I was just like, I'm curious and I have questions. And so like, oh, I'm gonna put this out there and maybe, maybe it'll help someone else. And that was really it. Like that was it. It was just, yeah, I didn't know what I was doing. I still don't. And I'm still F out.
But talking to Wise, but someone who doesn't know what they're doing, you're a greenhouse. Well, it helps to have wise people like you in my corner. So, Wendy, Elizabeth, thank you so much for. Being here, sharing your story of where you're at right this second. I think it's just so important to capture moments like this in time because you know, there's these small steps that you're taking.
You know, once we end this podcast, everything, there's gonna be more small steps and they're gonna lead to bigger steps. And your vision and knowing that you have this place where you started and you shared it, and it's not all the most, you know, perfect situation. It's like it's working out Exactly. You know, as it needs to right now because you're putting the time and energy into it.
So where can people find you? How can they connect with you? Share all the links and all the places. Yeah, I think the best place to find us is our website or untethered voyages.com. Um, and if you're, uh, a group organizer, somebody that wants to put a group together, um, there's a great form. You can fill out a complimentary discovery call where we'll just dig in with you and find.
Find out what your goals are and what you're trying to accomplish, and you know, then we take it from there. Our joy is to really figure out the best ship, the best itinerary, the best destinations that are gonna support the transformation that you're trying to have with your group. But if you're a member of a group and you think, gosh, my group could really benefit from something like this, we also have a referral form on that website where you can introduce us to your group leader and we'll take the conversation from there and, um, hopefully get your whole group on on a ship.
So. Yeah. Yes. I love that. That's awesome. Wendy. Elizabeth, thank you so much for being here on the Career Flipper and sharing your stories. This was awesome. This is so awesome to talk to you. Thank you so much for having us. Thank you. Thanks so much for hanging out with me, Wendy and Elizabeth on this app.
Episode of the Career Flipper Podcast, you can find all the links to connect with Wendy and Elizabeth and join the cruise in the show notes. And if this episode helped you feel a little more seen or inspired, or honestly validated, because these career flips are no joke and you feel kind of wacky. Okay, I'm, I'm getting off topic here, but honestly I'd love it if you subscribe to the pod.
Cast left to review and honestly shared an episode with a career flipping friend because this whole thing is way easier or a little less delusional when you know you're not the only one out there doing it. But if you've got a career flip story of your own or maybe one stolen folding, I would love to hear it.
Head over to the career flipper.com. And share it with me. Who knows? Maybe you'll be a guest on a future episode. And hey, if you are looking for a speaker for your team, event or community who can just talk about career change in a real, honest and maybe a little goofy way, I do that, just send me a message to hello@thecareerflipper.com.
More than anything, though, I hope that this story reminds you that it's okay to start over, to change your mind, to want something different. The first step that you take toward. That can be really fricking scary, but it can also be the most necessary life changing thing. So take the step, even if it's messy, even if you're scared, what's the best that could happen?