Episode 177: Why Traveling Could Fuel A Life Change | Candice Young | Founder, Trek Relief
What if your love of travel could fuel real change? Candice Young didn’t plan to start a nonprofit. But when a trek to Nepal collided with a need for earthquake relief, she launched Trek Relief, an organization that combines adventure travel with on-the-ground impact. We talk about how curiosity, movement, and a willingness to say yes led her from fire dancing in Thailand to leading treks in the Himalayas and Patagonia.
“There is so much that conspires to help you when you share your vision with others and put it out there. When there’s a good idea that’s beyond yourself a lot of people can get behind it and you. ”
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Follow along using the Transcript
Chapters:
00:00 Meet Candice Young and the origin of Trek Relief
01:45 From travel addict to nonprofit founder
03:30 Fire dancing, scuba diving, and finding clarity in motion
06:15 The Nepal earthquake that changed everything
08:00 Building Trek Relief from a Facebook post
09:45 What makes a purpose-driven travel business
11:00 Career advice for aspiring changemakers
13:10 Behind the scenes of running an international nonprofit
15:00 Learning to lead teams while living abroad
17:00 Balancing values and visibility in the nonprofit world
18:45 Choosing impact over comfort
21:30 Lessons from trekking the Himalayas
23:15 Letting go of old paths to build something new
25:00 How to create a career that reflects your values
27:10 Finding community as a solo traveler
29:00 What powerful means to Candice now
When somebody puts an intention out there and they put the energy behind it, it's gonna happen. You make it reality, you put energy behind it, and then people hear your energy. They hear that excitement and that enthusiasm. They feel that conviction behind it. And then there is so much that conspires to help you when you do that.
That's Candice Young and this is The Powerful Ladies Podcast.
Hey guys, I'm Kara Duffy, a business coach and entrepreneur on a mission to help you live your most extraordinary life. By showing you anything is possible. People who have mastered freedom, ease and success, who are living their best and most ridiculous lives and who are making an impact are often people you've never heard of until now.
So many people dream of being a global nomad, traveling and working around the world and breaking free from the hamster wheel. We often find ourselves in. The poll is to live a life of purpose and adventure. Today's guest, Candice Young, has mastered both a nomadic lifestyle, but also a purpose-driven lifestyle.
She's the founder and executive director of Trek Relief, a nonprofit that combines adventure travel with giving back to the local communities. Get ready to be inspired to level up your life.
I am very excited to talk to you today. You are doing a lot of very cool and very important things. Before we jump into all of that, let's tell everyone who you are, where you are in the world, and what you're up to.
All right. Thank you so much for having me on here. My name is Candice Young.
I am based right now in Los Angeles. And I say right now because I do a lot of different kinds of travel, I would say most of my twenties, I was backpacking. I was just, I considered myself a dirty backpacker, just living in a hospital and just. Collecting stamps in my passport and just exploring the world.
But my home base, I grew up here in la I have work here in LA and my community's here in la so it's a really great springboard to be able to go out into the world and do what I do.
And you have a big variety of roles you play in different communities and different jobs you have. Let's just run down the list for everyone to get an overview of all the things that are you.
Oh gosh. Okay. I have held quite a variety of interesting jobs in my life. None of them were corporate, I would call them all contract and gig style work. I guess in order that makes things easy for me was I was a scuba diving guide in Southeast Asia for a year, a fire dancer by night, which paid for my living and travel expenses.
And scuba diving bills. A marine biologist working as a fisheries observer up in Alaska, working on fishing boats, commercial fishing boats. A diver who was counting, endangered and threatened species over in Santa Cruz mountains. Most recently. Now, I am a wedding efficient professionally, and that supports me as I do my work leading a nonprofit that I started six years ago that basically fundraises for different communities around the world by tying active, adventurous trips to them in the Himalayas, Patagonia, and Mongolia currently.
I think I'll stop there. Just a
few things, just a few things. Let's dive into Trek Relief. Why did you start it? Where did that idea come from and how has that surprised you?
Yeah. Yeah. So like I mentioned, I spent a lot of my time in the, in my twenties traveling as a backpacker and I felt very fortunate to have had that opportunity working the contract style of work I did out in the fishing boats in Alaska and basically just had a chunk of money that saved up.
'cause there's not enough internet to. Spend it just satellite internet could barely like load emails. And so by the time I got off my three to five month contracts, I would be, I'd have a chunk of change. And so I'd spend it on plane tickets and hostels and I'd go be abroad for five to 19 months at a time.
And I did this for most of my twenties. And I would say that at some point I did get to a point where I was. Really questioning myself and my lifestyle. And even though I felt so lucky to be able to be traveling as much as I was at the age that I was, I also was getting to this point that a lot of long-term travelers they might come to as well of is travel selfish?
And that was a question that a friend posed to me is is this, what is the point of all this? Like I can say, yes, I am bringing my money and spending it abroad and helping with those economies and res and communities, but but really what is the point of all this? And so that was in the back of my mind as I kept on buying these plane tickets.
And I remember I was getting jaded on travel. It was so weird to get to that point. And I was like, you know what? At this point now, like buying plane tickets is just my default mode. And actually what's more exciting to me, the next adventure is actually staying in one place and just like being able to say yes to birthday parties that are planned like two months in advance or like actually being able to tell you where I'd be in the next three months or so. So that became actually more exciting to me than just like being on the road all the time. And so I was like ready to put my traveler's hat down.
But there was like one more kind of travel that I hadn't tried yet, and so I was curious about it, which was getting involved with disaster relief, volunteer work. So I remember trying to apply for jobs on land as like a change. And then also I applied for volunteer work abroad and then the volunteer work got back to me first.
And so that's how I ended up in Nepal. And I had already fallen in love with them like on a previous trip. And in the sense of the trekking there is amazing. I didn't even know what trekking was when I went, but I just like. The border from India. I was actually part of an India trip. I was like, oh, Nepal's right there.
I'll just go check it out. And then hopped the border. Didn't even download any lonely planet stuff. I just Googled, what are you doing Nepal? And I was like, go Trek. I was like, alright, what's Trek? And I just ended up on Anaperna Trek, which is like this 20 day trek. And I didn't hire a guide or anything.
I just bought a book in the bookstore and just followed the book. And I didn't even read ahead. I just bought the things on the packing list and I just go day by day. And I think day six, I realized, I was like, am I Himalayas? Like not, I was like, really not planning ahead. I was just really going by with the flow and anyway, so I fell in love with Nepal and the Himalayas because that was just the best hiking of my life.
Every day was different. I, my fit, I was not even that into hiking before, but by the time I was done I was just like so this is the best. I felt so fit. I was eating like. Vegetarian, vegan, like vegetarian, like local foods, like three meals a day is like power mountain food. And it was so delicious.
'cause every they call them dede's, like older sisters. They cook it in the teahouse for you every day and you got three hot meals. And and the culture, there's amazing, it's like Tibetan Buddhism, it's so beautiful, the Buddhist principles, but also mixed with this really cool demonic images of Tibetan bond religions of it mixed in.
So very interesting and fascinating. Anyway, so that's the backstory of why I love Nepal in the first place. But anyway, so I went back and ended up volunteering there for them after the earthquake and they volunteered for another nonprofit called All Hands, which is an amazing disaster relief nonprofit.
And I gave them three months. I. And after three months actually during that time they realized that I was sticking around for so long and then I ended up getting hired as their project coordinator. So that became like kinda my foot in the door of what it was like to work in the nonprofit world in Nepal and how to build and construct and work on rubbled or destroyed buildings after the earthquake. And so when that project finished three months later, then I had already set aside two more months to do trekking in the Himalayas. So I had three more re lined up. And then one of them was to go check out the earthquake, like epicenter area.
So I went into the Himalayas, which nobody was like, everyone was like, you can't go. They got really destroyed. It's really dangerous. They're still having like aftershocks, but. I still went. 'cause I found out you could go, you just had to figure it out. So I grabbed a friend, we went, and then I saw way more destruction there than I did, like in the past three months that I had spent in the epicenter, supposedly.
And so that's when I decided, you know what I. I'm so moved by this. There were people who are like they were asking my friend and I'd like, please stay the night. Please have lunch here. Please share the business and make it fair. And it was like, when I got there, it looked like a bomb had gone off like it was a year after the earthquake.
And because there were high up in the mountains and not as densely populated as other areas, they weren't getting as much help. And so then I got off the trail like 10 days later and I was like, oh my gosh. If anyone wants to go on vacation, come here, they could really use your money.
And and yeah, that would be so helpful for them. And so I just put, made a post on Facebook like it, gosh, action or not really. But then. Over the course of the next two months, I had more treks and I was just hiking. Just hiking. And thinking, and just like reflecting on all the experiences and people that I met and my passion of trekking and and really getting involved in nonprofit world.
And I was like, you know what, like I feel like I should do a fundraiser for this village. And so that's how. Started, it was just a personal fundraiser to help out this village and I offered to help guide, organize guided in the porter, REKS into the village. And basically met somebody on the trail who, he was like, it was like super scary to even be sharing this idea.
'cause it's one of those things where you say it out loud and then you're like, no, I have to do it now. Yeah. But to even, but I like had the confidence to share it with him 'cause he was just a stranger on the trail, but he ended up being the perfect person to meet. Because he is a professor and he taught crowdfunding and entrepreneurship.
And so he just basically was like, oh, that's a great idea. By the way, I teach this and lemme give you a crashed course on the trail. So we walked in the same direction for seven days and he just gave me gave, I was just like taking notes of everything. We came up with the name track for like together, and originally I was thinking, okay, I'll try to aim for raising like $10,000.
And then he was the one who challenged me. He was like, no, I think you should go for higher. And so I was like, I came back to the next morning, I was like. 50,000 and he was like yeah, go for that. And I was like, oh man, that's gonna be a lot of work. But then, yeah, it was because of him that I set that original goal and I set aside after you get off the trail.
I said a year to get myself. Time to do that. And by following all of his notes to a t. Like, we actually reached that goal in eight months and just Wow. Through yeah, making a lot of posts on social media, just like sharing, tagging, appreciating all the things. We had 40 people come through.
Each of them, they either donated or helped them create a fundraising page to come on this and then. That's how track relief started and now it's become much more than I originally thought. Yeah, it's been
before we dive into what it is now there's so many things that had to happen that were almost, KISS met or magical or the universe saying putting breadcrumbs down for you to make this happen.
What are the chances. That this professor is on the same track that you're on and is willing to share, and you were brave enough to share with him and what are the chances that you ignored everyone's advice and went to the village anyway? There's it everyone who's doing something they're passionate about.
I think that we sometimes skip over how many magical moments had to happen to even make the idea like possible. When you reflect on that, like what do you see, what do you think and does that keep happening for this business?
It is so true. I would say that like through this entire journey of starting this, nonprofit or even, for-profit, anyone who's an entrepreneur has that drive, has that vision. I, I believe in this amazing divinity of each person. And so when somebody puts an intention out there and they put the energy behind it. It's gonna happen, and then especially if you share your ideas and you're like the more you speak about it, you make it reality, you put energy behind it and then people hear your energy. They hear that excitement and that enthusiasm. They feel that conviction behind it. And then there is so much that conspires to help you when you do that and yeah, I think I had to, for me, I had to really believe in the idea of me wanting to do this enough to.
To say it out loud to a stranger and then that stranger is oh, that is a good idea by the way. Ha what I, what you might need. And yeah, with when there's an a good idea, that is something that is beyond yourself and it helps others, I think people can really get behind that. Yeah. It's been a really amazing journey to have Trek relief become what it is now because of the help of friends, community, strangers.
Just people rising up and seeing something greater in that.
And so let's get into what Trek Relief looks like now. So you correct me if I'm wrong, you're now organizing trips for people to go have this amazing trek, vacation or holiday while doing good and helping out in the local community.
And you're doing that in Mongolia, you're doing that in Nepal, and you're doing that. There's a third one, right? Patagonia, Chile, Patagonia, yeah. And so how many trips have you done since this started? How many people have been involved?
Yeah we're having our 20th trip launched this November back in the Everest Re or yeah, Everest region.
And we are currently, we had trips in Mongolia, but there, the travel there is a little bit still difficult with the borders. But we just ran our first, our second trip in Patagonia this past March. And then our. I guess it was our 14th trip in Nepal this past November. Wow. So we've had different kinds of trips that have ranged from.
It started with earthquake relief in Nepal, but it's also expanded to doing different kinds of projects based on what the requests, what the needs, what the resources that we had available and the people, what kind of offerings they were bringing. They've done like medical trip to the Everest region, bringing like a bunch of supplies and also nurses and even a doctor.
We've done educational park cleanups in Mongolia and installed the national park's first trash cans and also planted trees. And then also in Patagonia. We installed the first recycling point in one of the townships. In that area and also built a educational community garden to help promote the principles of permaculture for students in the community alike.
So it's really just a matter of what is the flow? What is the inspiration? What is the thing that someone feels passionate about? And then how do we bring it all together to make it what happen possible.
I love that I haven't had the pleasure yet to go to Nepal, to Everest or Patagonia, but I have gone to Mongolia and it was one of the best trips I've ever done in my life.
I like if anyone's asked her to go, I'm like, go to Mongolia. Like it's that perfect blend still of untouched. But functional enough for Western people to not lose their minds at the same time for, especially for beginner travelers. And, it was just such an incredible trip and all we did was rent a van with a driver and we just went yurt to yurt and stayed with families with this root that he knew and.
Like we couldn't speak, we couldn't communicate in the same language with most of our hosts. And the driver spoke German. And luckily my friend and I, who were on the trip had lived in Germany, so we could speak German to him a little bit. But it was really an exercise of just like watching and observing and figuring it out and being like, all right, we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Let's go.
Yeah. Yeah. Mongolia was so wild and so special. I totally resonate with you on that. And that just brought me back to my memories of when I was in Mongolia too, for scouting out the project for track relief. And it was just like so unique, yeah. And I felt one of the big takeaways I felt from that time, that experience was like, it felt.
Timeless. Every country has its different things. America has resources, but no time. Yeah. Mongolia has time. Yeah. And it felt very special to recognize that in the yurt, setting and grandpa's sitting in the chair and looking at nothing for half the day and you're like, dude, we got time.
Yeah. And even seeing, like I we saw Wild Horses in Mongolia and like that was amazing to see. And it's just the diversity of the country as well. I don't think people expect Mongolia to be as diverse as it is. We saw everything from the Goby desert to mountains with snow to huge green areas that I was like, it felt like Ireland with waterfalls and rainbows and back to things that looked more like Colorado.
And it was just the diversity of the landscape was surprising. And of course, like the stars, it was just, and everyone was nice, like there was this laid back approach. At least towards us as foreigners, but everyone was just really relaxed. Yeah. And okay. Yep. It was just like this. Okay. Keep going.
Okay. Keep going. You're like, what is going on around here? I want, how do I take some of this magic home?
Yeah. Yeah. Mongolia is so special. So special. And I can't wait till we get to start our trips again over there.
Yeah. I wanna go back to you traveling through your twenties. Because there's so many people listening who would love to take a year and just travel even.
Even just the US, let alone internationally, or they would love to figure out a way to make travel, just how they lived their life. How did you mentioned before that you would work intensely for a few months at a time to pay for the rest of the year. You also mentioned finding jobs on location.
What was your plan? How did you figure out how to make that work? What did you have to give up or let go of to make it all happen?
Yeah. Yeah, that's a great question. And I, like I had so many different directions that I wanted to answer that, but I think to I guess what helped me in that was I started this right after I graduated college.
So I had this point in my life, I was like, I graduated with a bio degree emphasis in Marine, but I don't know exactly what I wanna do with it. And I like three options that like seemed appealing. One was go live in San Francisco at this like artist commune and go like spin props with people.
And another one was my mom's suggestion to, travel the world before I got, a job and kids, 'cause that was something she always wanted to do. And then the third was like, apply for jobs that I would just end up somewhere. I didn't know exactly where I wanted to be. And so the second one's not the best.
So I was like, no, go for that. I had $3,000 in my pocket saved from my college lab job. And my plan was, is just to make it last as long as possible and come back when I was ran out. And so basically with that mentality, I went into it with first of all a freshly graduated college student.
So used to roughing it and making my honey stretch, so at least I wasn't having this super high standard of living that I had to like. Be able to match or meet. I was okay with like ramen and noodles and stuff. So basically I was just looking for the cheapest hostel every night and then eating street food.
So I was like spending probably like $15 a day. In like Thailand and also having the best time of my life it was like I was with my friend. We were doing this together and we were saying like, we'd look at each other like, how, what did we do to deserve this? This is so amazing. Life was so colorful.
It was just like new experiences all the time. Meeting friends, like the travel magic was happening all the time and it was great. And so that was a really beautiful way for me to realize there's a very nice life lesson early in life of not needing that much money to be insanely happy.
And that was like a lived experience. And so one message I would share is just that there's this misconception that you need a lot of money to travel. And I basically learned that I do not, I really made that stretch and I would say most of my money went to like scuba diving.
Like I was just like, I, with my friend, we had gotten our scuba certification together two years prior. And so when we met up, we're like let's go dive at least once in every country you visit. And so along the way the dive masters were like trying to sell us courses and stuff, and they're like, if you pay a flat rate you can get unlimited diving.
And then you can even work off what you owe too, just because like you can work in the dive shop. And then she and I were like, oh, that sounds great. Let's go find somewhere beautiful and do that. And so that's how we ended up in Copp, Thailand, where I also, so I, backstory. I got into fire dancing like my last year in college.
Picked it up in Costa Rica studying abroad. Anyway, that's another story. So I went to Thailand for the scuba diving and the fire dancing culture, and then got stuck there. And then by the time I finished my that course I was broke. But also I was a professional diaper, and so I ended up continuing my travels and prolonging them by working as a scuba diving guide.
And then fire dancing by night.
I, we can't skip over going to Costa Rica learning fire dancing. So most people study abroad and they. Have stories like they slept on the steps to the Coliseum and they drank a lot and met other foreign students and they came home and kept going. But you went to Costa Rica and it sounds like you really got a lot more out of it than the average college student abroad.
So why did you pick Costa Rica? What were you studying there and what did you learn besides fire dancing? Yeah,
great question. I would say this all started from that trip. But I was a. I was pre-med at that time when I had signed up and I wanted to go study some sort of like biology program abroad.
And then that ended up being my second choice, like Australia had already closed by the time I, like last minute, decided to study abroad, so I just went to Costa Rica and and then that was the first time I ever went snorkeling. I had never gone snorkeling before that. And when I snorkeled, I just saw the ocean and how beautiful it was, and then I was like, oh my gosh.
Suck money. This is, and I changed my major from pre-Med to Marine Bio 'cause it was just so beautiful and so striking to me and I remembered I loved the ocean just from, it was literally just a aquarium visit, like in my middle school and high school years. Like I grew up in an hour away from the ocean in downtown LA so it's not per in LA so it's not like I was at the ocean all the time. It was just something I just. Saw the cram. I was like, this is so cool. And I like geek out at the fish and read all the placards and all that stuff. But finally to have my first snorkeling experience. And then shortly thereafter, my friend and I got SCUBA certified.
Then I was like, you know what, this is beautiful. And I just changed my emphasis. And then my last, my senior year in college, all my classes are about fish. So yeah, so I picked up that switch in major or switch in emphasis and then. On a side note outside of the academics, like this woman was spinning poi, which are basically like balls at the end of string outside of our Spanish class.
And then my friend and I were like, oh, what's that? And she's oh, we're going to do a free fire show later tonight if you wanna come back. And we're like, oh yeah, let's come back. And so we came back and she was teaching everybody that was there. And then that night she let us all try with fire for the very first time and wow.
We barely had any tricks but we just were like sitting on this grassy hill under the stars and then all of us were silent. There was no music, and we just basically each took turns with the fire and we were like safety for each other and. When it was my turn, like the experience was so exhilarating, like it's like you don't think about, you don't realize how that much sound the fire makes through the air, and especially when you are the one that's making that and surrounding you.
It's just this like sound, like all around you. And then. When I was done, like the fire goes out after a while and then I was done, like my heart was beating for two hours straight. I like was so pumped with adrenaline. I was I can't believe I just did that. I like bought my own set and I had them waiting for me at home and I like made hacky sacks on a string and I like made practice ones.
I just. I was practicing throughout the rest of the trip. And so finally when I got home I was like, okay, I guess I have these now. Like I was watching YouTube videos and just like being a total nerd and like practicing and finally found like a fire community in Davis where I was gonna school and got swept up into that and yeah, that just led me into whole different directions in friendship circles.
Yeah,
I really love the academic nerd approach that you took to fire spinning, because most fire spinners are not putting together a practice routine. They're not building like the props in advance. It's not like this. Regimented approach, but I think it's so interesting to see how everyone learns and like the commitment level, like clearly when you're a yes to something you're all in, there's no, I'll think about it, I'll do it.
Sometimes you're like no. We go in and we get certified and we get the degree and then we're an expert and then we do it everywhere. Like it's so interesting for to see that process you have of, if we're gonna do it, we're gonna be great. Who's on board?
Yeah. Yeah. And also I feel like something to note though is there's something you said about the setting and what you set yourself up for.
Because when I'm back at home, there's so many things calling for my attention. There's things to do, things to watch, like obligations, commitments. But when I'm studying abroad in Costa Rica where I'm like barely having internet and just like hanging out with people then there's just you just have to be more present.
And so that was something that really set the stage for me to create time and space for me to be like, I couldn't order like some stuff and have it ready for me. I just had to work. And then just going off of that that excitement and then just having it on my door and I was like, I paid $70 for these.
I guess I should use them. Yeah. So like really having, I wanna also appreciate all those little steps in the ways that the environment really set me up for that too. Yeah.
I often ask people on the podcast, if eight year olds you would be surprised about what you're doing today.
And another question I often ask is do your parents support what you are, like how you're living your life? Which I think is interesting 'cause your mom was the one who instigated you being a lifelong traveler. First question, 8-year-old you is it like are would 8-year-old? You be surprised of how you're spending your time and how do your parents feel today?
No. All right. I love that first question 'cause it like takes me into imagination land of okay, what was I like when I was eight? But I wanna say no because I think that I still live in this mentality that I had back when I was eight of the world is. Infinite. And there's a world of possibilities ahead of you.
So like of course that's all possible. So I was just like, yeah, okay, that makes sense. Sure, why not? And then as far as my parents, I wanna say that they have been my biggest supporters through all of this. And I'm so grateful and appreciative of them. Especially having Asian parents who stereotypically would not let their daughter travel abroad or not be pursuing corporate style work or or travel as long, much, or as long as I have. So I'm really appreciative of them for that and so many other things. But now I feel very excited about being in this stage of life where we're supporting each other in the sense that we all work together in the family of business. And so then when they travel then I can also help take care of the office where I'm at right now.
And then I get to say the same things that they used to say to me where I check in at home and my mom would say, instead of her going come home, when are you coming home? She'd be like, enjoy every minute. And so now I get to be in a place where I get to say that to them. So it's really sweet.
What's the family business? So we are a two part legal office and so we, my mom is an immigration consultant. She's been helping people get their green cards and citizenship for over 30 years, and then also we help process marriage paperwork as well. It's something that's unique in Los Angeles County, like how in Las Vegas you can do those, drive through weddings and all that.
Like they actually exactly exist in Los Angeles, but even more convenient and faster you're an office that has been helping people get legally married for I think like a decade. So I've been helping out. I think it was a year after I started Trek Relief. I was running outta savings and so then I was like asking friends for waitressing jobs or like whatever that would just gimme some part-time, flexible work.
And then my mom found out I've about me doing that and she's okay, I've got some work for you, you can help out. So then, so that's been, what's been supporting me through all these years.
How cool. Yeah it's. No matter what your family culture is, there's always, most parents are coming from a place of fear and what will set you up to be successful, to the point where they don't have to worry about if you're going to eat and be okay.
And also having parents that are pro adventure and really encouraging whatever that looks like. For my brother, my sisters, and my brother and I, it's. I can't imagine life that where it's not encouraged to go and see what's possible. And when I think about how many people don't have that as their like family baseline, it like is almost, there's an entire like confusion part of what is life like if that's not where you're coming from?
Like I almost can't understand it. But then the second part is just almost heartbreak for people who haven't been encouraged to just go and be curious. 'cause there's so much curiosity, even in our own backyards or with our careers or with, our friend groups and activities, let alone everything else that's, requires a passport.
But there's just so much to see and do and taste and people to meet in the world. I can't imagine not going and doing that.
Yeah. Yeah. I think we're both very lucky to have parents that are very supportive in that way, because I have like friends who also, they share about what their parents are like, and it's not the same.
So I, yeah, it makes a big difference.
It really does. You mentioned before about how you traveled a lot and then you then, what was exciting to you was more stability and maybe being local for at least a little while a year. How has that evolved? Are you still no, I'm cool eating ramen?
Or are you like, okay, like now I to go out to dinner? Sometimes I some of these things like how are you balancing. Maturing and expanding as a global nomad who also enjoys having LA as a home base.
Yeah. Yeah. I definitely have evolved, I would say, from eating Robin all the time.
I'm not, it's my twenties anymore, so I do have to feed myself a little better. I would say that I've in my travels I have gotten to a place where I've really started to appreciate very deeply healthy, almost in the direction of like raw foods. And vegetables, fruits are like my favorite.
But also I do enjoy, being able to go out with friends and I walk this line of, I don't know if we can go, it's a whole nother topic is like diet and preferences and like all that stuff. But yeah, I would say that over time balancing, what is needed in the moment to be like, just making deal with what's available for like, when you're traveling versus like when you're here in LA and is it a social situation or is it at home?
Yeah I, a whole different direction comes with food and ethical food and stuff like that too, but I don't know if that's answering your question
No, I think it's just, there's. I think that there's a Pandora's box that opens when you become a global citizen of when you realize that the culture that you were raised in is so different than cultures elsewhere.
And it's not the standard that we're told It is. Everything changes, like what clothes you wanna buy, where you wanna buy from, like what food you want to eat, what you don't want to eat. As a traveler it's often really hard to wanna maintain. A plant-based or a raw, or a vegetarian or vegan diet, because that's just not how every culture is.
And there's this honor of oh, if someone's hosting you and feeding you. Do you eat it no matter what it is, or do you like, what do you like? Do you only eat what you've committed to eating? That's, for me is like the biggest conflict I have with what I consume. If I'm buying it and I can control it, then the conversation's easier.
But if it been someone's home, it's like when we were in Mongolia, every meal. That they served to us was a rice blend with like really small pieces of goat meat and veggies. I could pick out every piece of goat meat or I can just eat it because they, these people have nothing. They just gave us this whole meal and we were spending $6 a day.
They were feeding us three times before they would eat, and it was like. Just fucking eat the goat. Like it's, you're, it's less than a quarter of a cup and you can like just do it. Don't, it's like you don't wanna insult them. And I had no control what we were eating. I couldn't talk to 'em in their language.
So you just go with it. I did draw the line at the fermented yak milk that they serve. 'cause I, it just literally was making me nauseous and I'm lactose intolerant. I'm like, this is not gonna be good while traveling and staying in a yurt with everyone. But it's, it is that's the biggest food conflict I have as a traveler of knowing when to enforce my personal convictions and when to be an appreciative guest.
Totally. And I resonate so hard with you on this 'cause I did an experimental vegan month with some friends that I was, we were like living together for a moment and we were all being vegan and really holding ourselves to the line. And it was fun. It was like jokes and all that stuff.
But then we went out to a nice restaurant and, then it came to this point where the salad we ordered had pesto, but the pesto was made with cheese. And then I was like do we like send it back or are we gonna hold our line? Or what? And so it was just like really faced with dilemma of where is this line, right? I've come to this place of saying that everyone's got a line and it could be squiggly, and this squiggly line can change over time based on Yeah. The situation, circumstances. Health or whatever. You, it has to change over time because of Yeah.
And you have to be flexible with it. Yeah. And and even like judging other people's squiggly lines, it doesn't make sense because everyone's got, their own squiggle in their line. So ultimately when it comes to, my food preferences I do what I. And I know what feels good for my body, but then when I'm presented food my squiggly line is I just receive with gratefulness. And so I recognize that yeah, like for me, when I haven't had meat in a while, I do notice how it makes my body feel like I actually feel less powerful. Yeah. And so having a little bit of meat in my diet is actually I feel.
Different, and it feels feels better. So my spoo line at this moment is I I love cooking veggies and like eating all that really clean when I'm cooking for myself. But when it's presented to me, then I receive the gratefulness.
Yeah. And even, I even went through the whole process of thinking this goat is treated way better than any goat in America because his family cared for it.
His family raised it. If you're going to eat an animal who had a great life, this goat had a perfectly happy life in Mongolia. It did. So totally. It's just get over it. But yeah, I think that's true. And like similarly with in the trekking, outdoor hiking environment, there's, there's the bougie side of it and then there's the economic side of it.
And, a friend of mine has started a group called the Bad Outdoors Woman. Where they wanna celebrate women who like, don't know all the things and just wanna show up and be outside. 'cause there's this pressure to be like, oh if you've never backpacked or you don't know what to bring, or you don't know how to hike, or you don't know the equipment or the the rules that go into it, like no one wants to look stupid.
But really we just want everyone to be outside. So like how do we give all that other stuff up? Because I think your story of even just how you, for your first trek in the Himalayas. People would tell you like, you have to plan, you have to practice, you have to have a guide, you have to have all these things.
What was it that, that, going into it, not knowing what you don't know is always helpful, but like you made it happen. Was there moments in that when you got nervous or scared, were you ever under prepared? How did you just. Trek the Himalaya is by the seed of your pants and come back with to tell the tale.
Yeah. It's so funny how you said that because like when I did the trek, I had the packing list that the book had. Like prepared, but I didn't go for I came from India with a, just a dayak. Like I was going on super lightweight just trying to be a super minimalist whatever.
And so I just bought the most basic things that I needed for the trek based on the list. But then it said stuff like, rain jacket, whatever I like bought 'cause they have really good shopping there. So they, I bought like all this like weird. Tibetan hippie clothes. It was like not, no one wears it except for like tourists.
I like ended up with that. So I was wearing like this wizards lecture with a pointy long like hood and like bright orange kites and like I was hiking around like. Every day with the same outfit I had, like this crusty white line sweat, this weird outfit that I had chosen for myself. At least I had a coat, but the coat was like not down, not fleece.
It was just this weird like with Prince. But it was fun and yeah, I was not equipped in the most proper way, but but then the thing is that there's settlements everywhere. Like every hour, every two hours, you'll find a place to warm up, even if you got it got like slightly drizzled on or rained on, like there was a place to dry your stuff.
So everything is possible in the sense of it's not like complete, super removed from like help or anything like that. So there was always like, it's just just a matter of, okay, just keep going. Just keep going. Yeah. And you'll be able to see other people soon. And so we.
We did great. I had all the basics and then just filled up my water bottle, every couple hours and kept going. So it's very doable actually, in the himalays it sounds impressive and daunting in your head, but then when you get there, you're like, oh, wow, there's people living here.
This is awesome. This is like I've watched friends play Assassin's Creed, like I've. I used to be a video gamer in college and like I've seen that and I remember seeing scenes of assassin cruise being like, oh, that's like Nepal. That's cool. It's like a very almost like medieval esque setting.
And you're like of walking through like these terrorist towns and it's so cool. It's so cool. That's why I keep my back.
And people for who are not in, not used to backpacking or trekking hiking, what's, what does, how is trekking different than backpacking or hiking or climbing a mountain?
Ooh. So trekking is basically just multi-day hiking. Okay. And in the case of the Himalayas, there are tea houses or basically like lodges that invite you to come and stay for tea or lunch or dinner or breakfast or, and even have like warm beds for you to sleep in. And so it's not like backpacking in the sense you don't have to carry the tent, the sleeping pad, all that stuff.
I actually wasn't even a backpacking at all before it. I did my first trek in the Himalayas, and I just carried a day pack with my water bottle, and you're supposed to have a rain jacket and all that stuff. So yeah, I it's very, it's just basically it was like three hours of hiking in the morning and three hours of hiking after lunch, and then you're there.
And then just keep doing that every day and just keep moving through the most spectacular mountains. Like I can't get up. I remember the first time I saw the Himalayas, it was like from Capmandu, this the capital of Nepal. And I remember looking up into the sky and just seeing these hard edges that were like white colored.
And I was like, what is that? Is that cloud? And I was like, oh my god, that's not a cloud. That's, those are mountains. I was like, that's so huge. It felt like seeing, like when I imagined like seeing the ocean for the first time, I was like, oh my God, that's so huge. Yeah. Yeah. It awesome.
You just keep looking up and up and you're like, wow.
Yeah. Or like when people go to New York City for the first time. And you can't see where the building stops. Yeah. Of course we are on the Powerful Ladies podcast. And I would love to know, when you hear the words powerful and ladies separately, what do they mean to you? And does the definition change when they're next to each other as powerful ladies?
Oh, that's a great question. Oh my gosh.
When I hear the word powerful, it means to me that there's a lot of energy and strength behind it. When I hear ladies, I just think of like infinite possibility. And together that just is this podcast? Yeah. Yeah, it's a beautiful combination of things. And it's been really wonderful to witness other women just kill it out there.
And so it's really special to be here and even be considered to be on this podcast.
Thank you. You are more than welcome and more than deserving for the impact that you're making. And you know when, to me, powerful ladies is really about the curiosity and the adventure and the impact and the entrepreneurs like all coming together because I think it's really hard for someone to.
Lean in on their life path and their curiosity and not end up being entrepreneurial at some time. Even if you get to be entrepreneurial within a corporate setting, like for 20 years. I got to do whatever I wanted at work. And of course there were rules and limitations and expectations, but I really had a lot of autonomy to do whatever I needed to achieve that goal.
And thank goodness for that. 'cause I don't know how I would've made it in corporate life otherwise, but it's, there's just so many amazing women out there like you who are just doing what you. Like you're not doing it to show off to other people. You're doing it because you almost don't have a choice.
And I think that's, I just want people to know listen to that poke, listen to that thing that won't leave you alone. Because there's this whole other magical world on the other side of it that you can't even imagine or wish for or attempt to manifest. 'cause you haven't opened that door yet.
Yes. Yeah. And it, it sounds so cliche, but it's so true. Like the biggest limiting factor is yourself when you tell yourself like, no, not yet, or not now, or not enough, or like whatever that's atory thing might be. But when it like flips over to the why not mentality, then yeah, everything is possible.
Who are women in your life that have either inspired you, influenced you, or supported you along the way?
I would say my biggest supporter and giver is my mom. Yeah. She has been the one who put the idea in my head to travel in the first place. She has given me work and support to be able to continue what I'm doing now, and so this would not have been possible without her.
Hands down.
Even when you're living a life of your own design, there's still moments of defeat and frustration and impatience and thinking, maybe I should just choose the simple path. Maybe I should just choose the ordinary path. How do you get through those moments and how do you remind yourself to S stay brave and optimistic and courageous?
Oh man. I'm like I know it's a podcast. You can't really see me, but I'm like laughing and smiling because I'm like nodding. It's so true. Yeah, like I think a lot of entrepreneurs who start something, they go through that like first like crescendo of oh my gosh, like this is fun, we can do it.
And then there's something that happens, you're like, oh my God, I'm so burnt out. Like, why did I start this? What was the reason? I know this. Why am I not just living a normal life like kind of thing. And yeah those moments do happen and it could be from whatever it is in that path for you.
And I think for me, what helps me go through those moments is first just take a pause and be okay with. Letting go of timelines. I think number one, because there's always this self competitive drive that like pushes you forward. Oh, I need to be like, hit this number by the time I'm this age, or like whatever that dialogue that's driving you and you're like, wait, why am I having those? Those things, who put that there? Really, where did that thought come from? What would happen if I release that? Oh, I can relax. Oh wait, that's really nice. And then recognizing where those dialogues or those narratives are in your mind, releasing them and then just doing for the sake of doing, not for the sake of impressing or being or whatever.
That was, I think the first release into relaxation of just being able to be. And then number two, giving yourself permission to. Fill all the other cups in your life because there's this cup, which is, the, like the entrepreneur I wanna show, you know what I can do in this world.
But then there's all the other cups of. Family, friend relationships, self, like all the things that make you a human being and not just a human doing. And also leaning into this idea that everything helps everything. And so when all the cups are filled, then everything just overflows abundantly.
So really just relaxing into permission
ly. I think so. And so much of that for, in my case anyway, is based on. Like coming back to having like faith in things, whether it's faith in myself, faith that it will work out, faith that I'm not alone, faith, that there's people who wanna do these ridiculous ideas with me.
For me, I always notice that when I am. In the valley of motivation and being energetically in the right space. It's always when I come back to a place of, it's me, by myself on my own and thinking I have to do all the work and I have to. Build the mountain, not just climb over it.
What do you do to bring yourself back to the faith that you have and how things work and how the universe works for you and faith in yourself as well?
How do I bring myself back into faith? In myself? Yeah. Yeah. I think that lends into the different. Aspects that everyone has, right? Not someone isn't just one person or one thing.
There's so many facets to a person, right? And so even if I'm feeling down because of one side of myself is feeling a little bit dull or like a little bit leg damaged and needs a little bit of. Healing time, then I can just focus on other parts of myself that really bring me back into this energy state that can lend into that healing.
Say like for some reason I need to take a break on trek relief, then I go into the other things that I'm very passionate about, and that could be spearfishing, it could be dance, it could be acro and because when I go into those things, I'm filled with all this. Energy and just excitement of, learning a new thing or like connecting with different people.
And then somehow that energy spills over into Trek Relief. And then I am like, at some point I'm like, wait, I haven't taken care of Trek. Now I feel so full and ready. I can go back to it now. So really recognizing that there are different tools to be able to reach that energy level and giving yourself the permission and time away to, to fill yourself in other ways.
Yeah.
What is someone, something, sorry. What is something that you wish everyone knew?
Oh, okay. Okay. I got one. Now we're all, okay. This, I'm gonna try to say it without being too wishy-washy, but we're all the same person, but looking at each other from our sorry, I'm gonna take it back. We're all the same person, but looking out at the world with a billion eyes or 8 billion eyes.
Love that.
What does that mean to you?
If you're gonna summarize it and to just rephrase. We're all one. Yeah. But but more to, I guess go into more, it's more of this idea that we're not all. These individual beings we're actually all we're a lot closer to each other than we thought.
And COVID showed us that mushrooms and mycelium show us that they're nature. There's so many different things that show how one person, how they affect each other. It, it just kind, it just like butterfly effects. And and so when you're helping someone else, you're also helping yourself.
It's just like this beautiful, non-tangible way of looking at the world, which feels beautiful. It's a lot more beautiful than having a perspective on the world where, my name is Candice, your name is Kara, and that's it. No, actually we're living our lives for each other and we're all supporting each other and doing our best for each other, not just for ourselves.
Brings a lot more compassion and connection. Yeah, it's. Part of why this podcast exists is I was just so sick of negative content and divisive content when I'm like, I don't know. I've traveled the world and everyone seems to be real similar and like same concerns, same motivations. Like when we get down to breast tacks, like we're there.
There isn't a di, like humans are humans, and I don't know why we're so much oriented towards mine. It's mine. Yeah. And I'm like, is it, I don't know if you, I don't know if that's how it works 'cause I don't, when we look at native cultures or we look at how animals operate, no one's walking around going mine.
Yeah. It's exactly, it. It's such a waste of energy. Totally. Totally. Yeah. We ask everyone on the podcast where they would put themselves in the Powerful Lady Scale. If zero is your average everyday human, and 10 is the most powerful lady you can imagine, where would you rank yourself today and how would you rank yourself on average?
Oh my gosh. What a question.
Okay. There's two sides of me that wants to answer. There's like the humble side. I'm like, nah but there's also the part of me that I believe too, like I don't wanna okay. There's part of me that's the part tapping into the divine that is in all of us. We all just are split up into different bodies and our, and awarenesses.
So 10 would be that answer. I'll just leave it like that.
10. Perfect. Perfect. Yeah. For everyone who wants to participate or support Trek relief or connect with you, learn more about you, where can they find you, follow you, and support you?
Our website is trek relief.org. That's T-R-E-K-R-E-L-I-E-F.
And then there's also us on Instagram Trek relief Facebook Trek Relief. One words on those. We try to keep ourselves up to date on there, so feel free to check us out. And we have a trip coming up in the Everest region to support climate resilience projects and equipping mountain foothills with greenhouses in these coming years of climate change.
So pairing it with an Aand Dalin base Camp track, 15 days, come join us.
Very cool. And what is the registration? Like when do you have to register? By to be able to go on that.
You can sign up for it by September, I think 27th was the date I've seen on our website. Of course, even if you had to join last minute, we wouldn't turn you away, but that would be helpful if you let us know.
And we try to keep things flexible 'cause, COVID and all that stuff. So payment and really we call 'em contributions 'cause people can fundraise to be part of this as well. That's not until right up until the trip date. So keeps things simple.
Very cool. It has been such a pleasure to meet you and have this conversation today.
I'm glad that you're close by so we can plan to meet up in real life. But. Just thank you for being you and be being an example of how you can do all the things and be all the things and be happy and thriving and continue to be creating as you go.
Thank you so much, Kara, and thank you. This was such a pleasure to speak with you, and your energy is so beautiful.
I feel you through all of this and wonderful.
All the links to connect with Kansas and Trek relief are in our show notes@thepowerfulladies.com. Please subscribe to this podcast wherever you're listening, and leave us a rating and review. They're critical for podcast visibility. Come join us on Instagram at Powerful Ladies. And if you're looking to connect directly with me, visit kara duffy.com or Kara Duffy on Instagram.
I'll be back next week with a brand new episode and a new amazing guest. Until then, I hope you're taking up being powerful in your life. Go be awesome and up to something you love.
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Instagram: @trekrelief @candicecandela
Twitter: trekrelief
Facebook: trekrelief
Website: trekrelief.org
Email: hello@trekrelief.org
Created and hosted by Kara Duffy
Audio Engineering & Editing by Jordan Duffy
Production by Amanda Kass
Graphic design by Anna Olinova
Music by Joakim Karud
