Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You're waking up in the morning. Kiss what seven one? Hi,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're not far off from your chance to win tickets
here on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The when I say the phrase.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Solo travel, what immediately happens to the inside of your body?
Are you what's that first immediate reaction when I say
you're gonna go on a trip by yourself?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Do you coil up and you'll I.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Don't know about that, man, that sounds great, but I
don't know if I'm that type of person or are
you open to the adventure and it excites you?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Maybe you might be somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we started having this conversation after I got back
from Amsterdam, which was not a solo trip, but I
had told Sarah, you know sometimes she pops into my show.
I think this could have been a good city for
a solo trip. Do you remember this video we posted
on Instagram and she said it's just not for me.
So in studio today I have Michelle Walters. Good morning, Michelle,
good morning, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, and
(00:53):
she she was she heard the conversation and she's like,
wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait
a minute. I went to Europe for three months by myself,
and I said, and she said, it ultimately led to
me working in the travel industry and trying to help
others book travel for solo.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I said, why don't you come in and let's chat
about it.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Three months in Europe by yourself, And this is the
girl that was afraid to do a museum trip in
Italy alone?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
How did that go? Walk us through a little bit
of the story.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, so, way back in twenty thirteen, I did a
study abroad program in Italy and there were a handful
of museums that I wanted to see. Some of the
other girls that I was rooming with didn't want to
go with me, and I thought, I did not come
all this way to not see what I want to see,
So either I go by myself or I don't see
it at all. So I bucked up, made an itinerary
(01:42):
for myself and spent two days bouncing around all the
different museums, walking around the cities.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Eating by myself. And it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I very much surprised myself and how much I loved
that alone time and how amazing I felt at navigating
the city by myself and doing all of those things
all on my own as just a college student, and
I was hooked from there.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Michelle, you would categorize yourself though, as the girl before
you went to these Italy trips, as someone that would
have never done it by themselves. Would you say that
that's true?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I would have been scared to death right do that,
even dining by myself, going anywhere locally by myself, just
doing really anything.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It was I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So we're going to intertwine some tips in between your
storytelling here a little bit. So let's go with, like,
what's your top tip for someone that wants to book
solo traveled?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
My top tip is get out of your own head
exactly where I was with.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What are people going to think? Are they gonna judge me?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Are they going to think I'm some empathetic loser that
doesn't have any friends. The mind can spiral, but be
kind to yourself, right, So people are not going to
think about you in the same way that you are
thinking about yourself.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, it's gonna sound kind of mean.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But we're all a little bit self absorbed sometimes, so
people are probably not even noticing that you're there by yourself,
and if they are, and if these thoughts start to
creep in, you're gonna do some thought restructuring.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Okay, this is a little therapeutic technique here we go. Okay, right,
I'm putting this psych degree to use right now.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Okay, So you're gonna say, instead of all these people
who are looking at me right now probably think I'm
so pathetic, I can't even find one friend to come
to this coffee shop with me right now, Nope, you're
going to say, instead, Wow, I bet all these people
are so envious of me.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm so brave here.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I am just enjoying this day on my own by myself,
just so powerful, sitting here with my cappuccino. You're going
to rephrase every single negative thought that comes into your
head like that, and eventually you're just going to convince
yourself of it. Your mind is your most powerful tool.
So you've got to get out of your own head. Michelle,
I love that. Okay, So take us back to Italy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You do the museum trip, and then you come home
and you have discovered that you really like this. What
do you kind of go from here? If you're like
looking to dip your toe in the water. Maybe domestically
right is where you kind of want to start. And
maybe you're not going to Europe right away, but where
where would you recommend for somebody here in Cincinnati that's
curious about doing things solo?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I would say definitely start small and start with the
one thing that scares you the most. You're never really
right in. Yeah, we're doing we're diving, we're deep diving.
We're going four folks, it's not to get real right now.
So whatever scares you the most, you've got to get
yourself out of your comfort zone. So if what it
is is going to a super fancy restaurant dining by yourself,
(04:37):
scared of it, that's what you need to do first.
Just pick a restaurant that maybe you've passed by and
you're really curious about. Maybe it's a new one that's
opening and it's your favorite type of cuisine.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Treat yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Okay, go there, get out of your own head and
just do that, and don't try to force it. Don't
try to do one thing every single day that scares you.
I've seen that kind of stuff pop up on the
internet as well. Start small, be patient with yourself, trust yourself.
Just go out there, do that one thing, and then
take a step back, reflect on it, process it. What
did you love about it? What did you not love
(05:09):
about it? Would you maybe try something different next time?
Was that maybe just too much for you? Maybe a
new museum exhibit is more up your alley instead. And
so eventually, as you start to try and just naturally
organically work these things into your life, you'll discover what
it is that you like, and that's going to give
you the confidence to do maybe a weekend in Seattle,
maybe down to Mexico, and eventually in fifteen years you
(05:32):
also will be on a three month excursion solo through Europe.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Right, you don't need to necessarily go through three Yeah,
well we're going to get to the three months here
in a second. If you're just walking into this conversation.
Michelle Walters heard our conversation weeks ago about solo travel
and she says like, oh my god, I was a
girl that would have never gone anywhere solo, and I
just did three months in Europe. Walk me through that
(05:56):
portion now, because someone listening is like, how do you
go from being afraid to go out to dinner to
go into seven different countries.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Slowly but surely. Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So I was at a place it was just about
a year ago, maybe fourteen months ago. I had this
corporate sort of dead end job where I wasn't making
any upward progress that I felt like I should. I
was coming up on my lease ending. I knew I
didn't want to renew, but I didn't know where I
wanted to live. I had a remote job that allowed
me to work anywhere, which was great, but I had
(06:28):
sort of this decision paralysis where I couldn't figure out
where I wanted to go and what I wanted to
do next. So I had these thousands of skymiles just
gathering dust in my Delta account, and I was like,
you know what I need inspiration. I need something different,
some novelty, adventure, excitement. I don't know when this situation
(06:49):
is ever going to happen to me again, where I
can just pick up and go. I mean, no mortgage,
no car payment, no husband, boyfriends, to have to make
these arrangements where you know, I was freezer.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Bird walk me through. When you get where did you
go in Europe?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I mean you don't have to list out all the countries,
but like, where did one start.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
The main way this came about is I was dying
to go to London, so I started with three weeks
in London, bought a one way ticket to London, and
just kind of freestyled the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I also had a friend in Switzerland. She was doing
a graduate program there. I said, Hey, guess what, I'm
getting ready to come to Europe. Do you want to
hang out? So she hosted me for a week, which
was great for my wallet, so bounce around there. There
were a couple other cities in Italy that I didn't
get to see back in twenty thirteen. Decided to attack
those onto the list and then I was also really
(07:35):
craven Dublin and a friend of mine was from there,
and she was like, you have to go, You have
to hit these places. It was like I got some
insider knowledge. So I ended the three months in October
and Dublin.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
We're for somebody that's listening right now, we're gonna we
did the top what's the top tip to get you know,
solo trip? And that your advice was to get out
of your head? What about a logistical tip? Now for
all my type ayears that are like all right, what's
the one thing I need to know about, like getting
out here, not just the personal one inside the head.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I would say there are two big ones. First,
hire travel advisor. Okay, it helps, it very much helps.
It's a great time to be live and on the
internet with all of the travel influencers, travel bloggers, destinations,
they hit, bringing it right to your phone. But you're
gonna want a bespoke itinerary, not following somebody else's itinerary,
and a travel advisor can help filter through all of
(08:25):
that stuff and get you what you want and need
out of that trip. The second one is definitely come
to your travel advisor with some ideas, and you should
probably pick somewhere that already has an established infrastructure. So
now is probably not the time to throw caution to
the wind and go in like a week long safari
to Africa or something. Start with a place like Amsterdam.
(08:47):
A lot of people in Europe, at even in primary school,
they learn English as their second language. So if you
need help, if you need restaurant recommendations, if you're lost
on the metro, you can very easily find help, and
some of that can go a lot long way and
helping you navigate around versus a country where maybe English
isn't as prominent, or there isn't as many restaurants or
(09:08):
kind of top touristy sites things like that. Okay, so
make it a little bit easier on yourself and go
somewhere that's like Cliche or London or Paris.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Before we get to help, people can contact you, Michelle.
The one personal thing I have if I can go
on a personal note here, that I would be afraid
of with solo travel is language barriers.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What do you have to say to that? That is huge?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I think that is why one of my top
logistical tips is going somewhere like London, Paris, Amsterdam, somewhere
where there are already millions of tourists going there, because
the locals are going to be familiar with it. The
attitude towards it is going to be a little bit different.
But a guidebook can help, a translation like a dictionary,
(09:50):
having these people translate on your app, little things like that,
And honestly it sounds kind of tacky.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
But practicing what you're going to say.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
The number of times I practice what I was going
to say in order before I actually walked into the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You'd be surprised how much that can put your mind
at ease.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Michelle Walters, Guys, I know we went on a little
bit long about this, and you guys you know that
I just I'm curious. When I am curious about something,
I'll ask you eight hundred and seventy five questions and
that might be a touch of my ADHD.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
But thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
If people want to find you because you do book
solo travel, where should they go to find you? Social
media sometimes is the easiest way for people to connect.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, the easiest would be Jane of All Travel. So
my handle is She's the Jane of All Travels on
Instagram and that can link you through link tree to
my various websites, email address, things like that.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
She's the Jane of all Travel. I love it. Thank you, Michelle.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Of course, if you've gone somewhere solo and you want
to contribute to the conversation five point three seven four
nine one oh seven one, we can get you on
the air as well.
You're waking up in the morning. Kiss what seven one? Hi,
good morning.
Speaker 2 (00:04):
We're not far off from your chance to win tickets
here on the show.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
The when I say the phrase.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Solo travel, what immediately happens to the inside of your body?
Are you what's that first immediate reaction when I say
you're gonna go on a trip by yourself?
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Do you coil up and you'll I.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
Don't know about that, man, that sounds great, but I
don't know if I'm that type of person or are
you open to the adventure and it excites you?
Speaker 1 (00:30):
Maybe you might be somewhere in the middle.
Speaker 2 (00:32):
So we started having this conversation after I got back
from Amsterdam, which was not a solo trip, but I
had told Sarah, you know sometimes she pops into my show.
I think this could have been a good city for
a solo trip. Do you remember this video we posted
on Instagram and she said it's just not for me.
So in studio today I have Michelle Walters. Good morning, Michelle,
good morning, thanks so much for having me. Yeah, and
(00:53):
she she was she heard the conversation and she's like,
wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute, wait
a minute. I went to Europe for three months by myself,
and I said, and she said, it ultimately led to
me working in the travel industry and trying to help
others book travel for solo.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I said, why don't you come in and let's chat
about it.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
Three months in Europe by yourself, And this is the
girl that was afraid to do a museum trip in
Italy alone?
Speaker 1 (01:18):
How did that go? Walk us through a little bit
of the story.
Speaker 3 (01:21):
Yeah, so, way back in twenty thirteen, I did a
study abroad program in Italy and there were a handful
of museums that I wanted to see. Some of the
other girls that I was rooming with didn't want to
go with me, and I thought, I did not come
all this way to not see what I want to see,
So either I go by myself or I don't see
it at all. So I bucked up, made an itinerary
(01:42):
for myself and spent two days bouncing around all the
different museums, walking around the cities.
Speaker 1 (01:47):
Eating by myself. And it was amazing.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I very much surprised myself and how much I loved
that alone time and how amazing I felt at navigating
the city by myself and doing all of those things
all on my own as just a college student, and
I was hooked from there.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Michelle, you would categorize yourself though, as the girl before
you went to these Italy trips, as someone that would
have never done it by themselves. Would you say that
that's true?
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (02:13):
I would have been scared to death right do that,
even dining by myself, going anywhere locally by myself, just
doing really anything.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
It was I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
So we're going to intertwine some tips in between your
storytelling here a little bit. So let's go with, like,
what's your top tip for someone that wants to book
solo traveled?
Speaker 3 (02:36):
My top tip is get out of your own head
exactly where I was with.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
What are people going to think? Are they gonna judge me?
Speaker 3 (02:43):
Are they going to think I'm some empathetic loser that
doesn't have any friends. The mind can spiral, but be
kind to yourself, right, So people are not going to
think about you in the same way that you are
thinking about yourself.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Okay, it's gonna sound kind of mean.
Speaker 3 (03:00):
But we're all a little bit self absorbed sometimes, so
people are probably not even noticing that you're there by yourself,
and if they are, and if these thoughts start to
creep in, you're gonna do some thought restructuring.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Okay, this is a little therapeutic technique here we go. Okay, right,
I'm putting this psych degree to use right now.
Speaker 3 (03:18):
Okay, So you're gonna say, instead of all these people
who are looking at me right now probably think I'm
so pathetic, I can't even find one friend to come
to this coffee shop with me right now, Nope, you're
going to say, instead, Wow, I bet all these people
are so envious of me.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
I'm so brave here.
Speaker 3 (03:35):
I am just enjoying this day on my own by myself,
just so powerful, sitting here with my cappuccino. You're going
to rephrase every single negative thought that comes into your
head like that, and eventually you're just going to convince
yourself of it. Your mind is your most powerful tool.
So you've got to get out of your own head. Michelle,
I love that. Okay, So take us back to Italy.
Speaker 2 (03:54):
You do the museum trip, and then you come home
and you have discovered that you really like this. What
do you kind of go from here? If you're like
looking to dip your toe in the water. Maybe domestically
right is where you kind of want to start. And
maybe you're not going to Europe right away, but where
where would you recommend for somebody here in Cincinnati that's
curious about doing things solo?
Speaker 3 (04:15):
I would say definitely start small and start with the
one thing that scares you the most. You're never really
right in. Yeah, we're doing we're diving, we're deep diving.
We're going four folks, it's not to get real right now.
So whatever scares you the most, you've got to get
yourself out of your comfort zone. So if what it
is is going to a super fancy restaurant dining by yourself,
(04:37):
scared of it, that's what you need to do first.
Just pick a restaurant that maybe you've passed by and
you're really curious about. Maybe it's a new one that's
opening and it's your favorite type of cuisine.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
Treat yourself.
Speaker 3 (04:47):
Okay, go there, get out of your own head and
just do that, and don't try to force it. Don't
try to do one thing every single day that scares you.
I've seen that kind of stuff pop up on the
internet as well. Start small, be patient with yourself, trust yourself.
Just go out there, do that one thing, and then
take a step back, reflect on it, process it. What
did you love about it? What did you not love
(05:09):
about it? Would you maybe try something different next time?
Was that maybe just too much for you? Maybe a
new museum exhibit is more up your alley instead. And
so eventually, as you start to try and just naturally
organically work these things into your life, you'll discover what
it is that you like, and that's going to give
you the confidence to do maybe a weekend in Seattle,
maybe down to Mexico, and eventually in fifteen years you
(05:32):
also will be on a three month excursion solo through Europe.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Right, you don't need to necessarily go through three Yeah,
well we're going to get to the three months here
in a second. If you're just walking into this conversation.
Michelle Walters heard our conversation weeks ago about solo travel
and she says like, oh my god, I was a
girl that would have never gone anywhere solo, and I
just did three months in Europe. Walk me through that
(05:56):
portion now, because someone listening is like, how do you
go from being afraid to go out to dinner to
go into seven different countries.
Speaker 1 (06:03):
Slowly but surely. Okay.
Speaker 3 (06:05):
So I was at a place it was just about
a year ago, maybe fourteen months ago. I had this
corporate sort of dead end job where I wasn't making
any upward progress that I felt like I should. I
was coming up on my lease ending. I knew I
didn't want to renew, but I didn't know where I
wanted to live. I had a remote job that allowed
me to work anywhere, which was great, but I had
(06:28):
sort of this decision paralysis where I couldn't figure out
where I wanted to go and what I wanted to
do next. So I had these thousands of skymiles just
gathering dust in my Delta account, and I was like,
you know what I need inspiration. I need something different,
some novelty, adventure, excitement. I don't know when this situation
(06:49):
is ever going to happen to me again, where I
can just pick up and go. I mean, no mortgage,
no car payment, no husband, boyfriends, to have to make
these arrangements where you know, I was freezer.
Speaker 1 (06:59):
Bird walk me through. When you get where did you
go in Europe?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
I mean you don't have to list out all the countries,
but like, where did one start.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
The main way this came about is I was dying
to go to London, so I started with three weeks
in London, bought a one way ticket to London, and
just kind of freestyled the rest of it.
Speaker 1 (07:14):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
I also had a friend in Switzerland. She was doing
a graduate program there. I said, Hey, guess what, I'm
getting ready to come to Europe. Do you want to
hang out? So she hosted me for a week, which
was great for my wallet, so bounce around there. There
were a couple other cities in Italy that I didn't
get to see back in twenty thirteen. Decided to attack
those onto the list and then I was also really
(07:35):
craven Dublin and a friend of mine was from there,
and she was like, you have to go, You have
to hit these places. It was like I got some
insider knowledge. So I ended the three months in October
and Dublin.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
We're for somebody that's listening right now, we're gonna we
did the top what's the top tip to get you know,
solo trip? And that your advice was to get out
of your head? What about a logistical tip? Now for
all my type ayears that are like all right, what's
the one thing I need to know about, like getting
out here, not just the personal one inside the head.
Speaker 3 (08:03):
Yeah, I would say there are two big ones. First,
hire travel advisor. Okay, it helps, it very much helps.
It's a great time to be live and on the
internet with all of the travel influencers, travel bloggers, destinations,
they hit, bringing it right to your phone. But you're
gonna want a bespoke itinerary, not following somebody else's itinerary,
and a travel advisor can help filter through all of
(08:25):
that stuff and get you what you want and need
out of that trip. The second one is definitely come
to your travel advisor with some ideas, and you should
probably pick somewhere that already has an established infrastructure. So
now is probably not the time to throw caution to
the wind and go in like a week long safari
to Africa or something. Start with a place like Amsterdam.
(08:47):
A lot of people in Europe, at even in primary school,
they learn English as their second language. So if you
need help, if you need restaurant recommendations, if you're lost
on the metro, you can very easily find help, and
some of that can go a lot long way and
helping you navigate around versus a country where maybe English
isn't as prominent, or there isn't as many restaurants or
(09:08):
kind of top touristy sites things like that. Okay, so
make it a little bit easier on yourself and go
somewhere that's like Cliche or London or Paris.
Speaker 2 (09:16):
Before we get to help, people can contact you, Michelle.
The one personal thing I have if I can go
on a personal note here, that I would be afraid
of with solo travel is language barriers.
Speaker 1 (09:27):
What do you have to say to that? That is huge?
Speaker 3 (09:29):
And I think that is why one of my top
logistical tips is going somewhere like London, Paris, Amsterdam, somewhere
where there are already millions of tourists going there, because
the locals are going to be familiar with it. The
attitude towards it is going to be a little bit different.
But a guidebook can help, a translation like a dictionary,
(09:50):
having these people translate on your app, little things like that,
And honestly it sounds kind of tacky.
Speaker 1 (09:54):
But practicing what you're going to say.
Speaker 3 (09:56):
The number of times I practice what I was going
to say in order before I actually walked into the restaurant.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You'd be surprised how much that can put your mind
at ease.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
Michelle Walters, Guys, I know we went on a little
bit long about this, and you guys you know that
I just I'm curious. When I am curious about something,
I'll ask you eight hundred and seventy five questions and
that might be a touch of my ADHD.
Speaker 1 (10:14):
But thank you for coming in.
Speaker 2 (10:16):
If people want to find you because you do book
solo travel, where should they go to find you? Social
media sometimes is the easiest way for people to connect.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Yeah, the easiest would be Jane of All Travel. So
my handle is She's the Jane of All Travels on
Instagram and that can link you through link tree to
my various websites, email address, things like that.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
She's the Jane of all Travel. I love it. Thank you, Michelle.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
Of course, if you've gone somewhere solo and you want
to contribute to the conversation five point three seven four
nine one oh seven one, we can get you on
the air as well.
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