How a Teacher Exchange Program Turned Into a Green Card | This is Raleigh with Craig & Caz

Craig and Caz Makepeace didn't just fall in love with Raleigh, they fought a decade-long, White-House-visiting, tent-living, paperwork-hauling battle to be able to live here for good. The husband-and-wife team behind This Is Raleigh (and the globally recognized Y Travel Blog) sit down with Kayleigh to talk about how a teacher-exchange program in 2004 turned into an accidental green card journey, complete with a nearly-blown White House invite and eighteen months living out of a tent with two little kids.

Along the way they get into what it actually takes to build a brand people trust in a world of shifting algorithms and AI, why "growth is not linear," and their honest answer for what to do on the weeks you want to quit (because it happens more than people admit). Grab a coffee, this one's a journey.

Resources: 

Website: thisisraleigh.com

Global travel site: ytravelblog.com 

Instagram/Facebook: @thisisraleighnc | @ytravelblog

Transcript

Welcome & What Craig and Caz Do

Kayleigh 0:03

Hey there, welcome to All Up in Your Business Podcast with me, Kayleigh Bain, founder and owner of Honey Gin Marketing, where as you know at this point I focus on storytelling and I'm so nosy. I love the story behind the people in the business, so why not make a podcast out of it? So today I am here with Craig and Caz or Caroline with This Is Raleigh. So welcome. Thank you for having us.

Craig 0:29

Great to be here.

Kayleigh 0:30

Also, they have way more than this is Raleigh, and we're gonna get into it. So tell me, what is it that you guys do? What do we do?

Caz 0:38

That's a bad question. It's a loaded question. It's a loaded question because I feel we I feel we wear so many different hats and labels, but I think essentially we're storytellers, we're passionate about crafting a life that's in alignment with your values. For us, that's travel. So we've lived a life for over 20 years where travel has been the core of it. It's still that way. And so what we really

Meeting at the Hurricane Helene Donation Drive

Caz 1:00

want to do with both our sites is just help people connect to what's meaningful for them, to be grounded and to love wherever they are, whether that's on the road traveling or in the case of Raleigh, living here. And for us, we want to make their lives easier, filled with more joy, because we truly believe and we experience this ourselves through travel, that the more that you feel connected and grounded and have experiences that are based and steeped in joy, the happier you are as a person, and then the better the lives of yourself and those that you impact are. Yeah. Love that. Wow, that's great.

Kayleigh 1:43

Just end it there. It's fine.

Craig 1:46

Can I join this business?

Caz 1:47

See, on the on the service level, people see us eating hamburgers and drinking cocktails and think that's what we're doing. But underneath that, it's way more there's a deeper purpose that we're aiming for.

Craig 1:58

The industry has penned us or classified us as influencers, which I I've never liked that term. I hate that term actually. It just sounds super um manipulative and look cringy. But um so we we see ourselves more as like um like we have a media company or publication or content creators, I guess. But yeah, so and we do, yeah, the content we create through all the platforms like blogging, podcasting, videos, social media, email marketing, all the above. So, but yeah.

Kayleigh 2:27

Yeah, I was gonna say, you guys do a lot of all of that. You guys are great content creators. I would totally say you I love following you guys. And I say fun fact way too much. I'm trying to find a new catchphrase for this. But fun fact.

Craig 2:41

Here we go. Right.

Kayleigh 2:42

So this is how I start everyone. When was it? About a year and a half ago at this point. I actually met Kaz and Craig without even knowing I met them. I was um I was running a donation drive at Bond Brothers, and for Hurricane Helene, that was a wild weekend there. It's like, hey, by the way, can you just like put this all together? We need donations. And I was like, sure. We did a great job.

Caz 3:04

We need to hear that.

Kayleigh 3:05

It was the very last minute effort. So it was me and a team of probably like four people, five, give or take, and we put it together. And I'll I remember I put like an SOS out there, and I was like, we need donations. Oh, and we need help, and oh, we need a truck. And so it's like everyone showed up, which was.

Caz 3:21

I think we ended up having too many people. I think we had to take a break and come back because there were so many people.

Craig 3:27

Yeah, you know, that's right. That's we just sent away.

Kayleigh 3:30

I felt so bad because I've met some people since that, and they're like, Yeah, you're the one who sent me away. And I'm like, I'm so sorry. I think we just went into the bar and had a drink. But that's okay. That's exactly what I said. I'm like, just go have a drink. I'll come in and get you, or you can come out here and see it. And it was so funny, but it was just it was wild. It was like the whole town of Carey showed up. Yeah. It was so great to see. I wasn't expecting it. And I was like overwhelmed, and I'm like, I don't even know where to send people right now to say what's happening.

Craig 3:56

Yeah. I mean, that's rather in a nutshell, like very collaborative community, whether it's business or helping through natural disasters and stuff like that, the whole triangle, oh the whole North Carolina, really.

Kayleigh 4:06

Yeah.

Craig 4:07

Always been um great at helping out when people have need and stuff. So coming together. Yeah. And people can help, you know, they could donate stuff, donate time, money, resources, what have you.

Kayleigh 4:18

So that's one thing I've noticed too about Raleigh. It's like either in Raleigh or around, you know, Durham, Carey, Wake, all the places around. Like, you put an SOS out there and like everyone shows up, which I think is like the coolest thing, because like you can't get that everywhere. No, you can't. No. And Raleigh's special. It is. Raleigh is such a cool community. There's someone, um, another business I interviewed, and they kind of did a similar thing last summer. They didn't even ask for it. They talked about their life a lot. They're like, RAC broke, and it's in the middle of winter, middle of summer, and what do we do? Or a restaurant. Yeah. And then like the next day, like a ton of people donated to them, and they were able to get it the next day. Yeah, I love that. It's amazing. Oh, I love it. It's my favorite thing about Raleigh.

Life Down Under: Prawns, Spiders & Growing Up in Australia

Kayleigh 5:00

Yeah. Let's take it back to like the beginning. Where are you guys from?

Craig 5:04

Um down under, mate.

Caz 5:08

Where we don't throw shrimps on the Barbie. We throw prawns on the barby. You throw what? Prawns. A prawn. Prawn. Prawn. Prawn. It's not a shrimp, it's a prawn.

Craig 5:17

Yeah, bigger shrimps, like good shrimps.

Caz 5:19

A prawn type. Am I saying it right? Prawn. Prawn. Uh-huh. Yeah. Okay.

Craig 5:24

Yeah.

Caz 5:24

What is it again? It's a shrimp. It's a shrimp, but it's a big, big, they're about that big.

Craig 5:28

Jumbo shrimp, too. Jumbo shrimp. Oh.

Caz 5:31

We do have the smaller ones too, but we do we call them baby prawns. Oh.

Craig 5:36

I'm probably showing my age here now, but I'm sure you've heard of Paul Hogan from um uh Crocodile Dundee movies. And yeah, he did a lot of TV commercials for tourism back in the day and to attract Americans to Australia, and it was like, come down under and throw a shrimp on the Barbie. But we we call them prawns.

Kayleigh 5:54

That is so funny.

Craig 5:55

Yeah.

Kayleigh 5:56

Anyway, a little bit of a sod doing too. I learned a new animal. Yeah, that is so funny.

Craig 6:02

We do have we have great seafood. I mean, we're an island nation, of course.

Kayleigh 6:04

So surrounded by I was gonna say that has to be amazing seafood. It's very good. And you guys have some of the scariest-looking spiders I think I've ever seen in my life.

Craig 6:12

Yeah.

Kayleigh 6:12

They are scary. Oh my god.

Craig 6:14

That's the most common thing Americans come up to is like they really want to go to Australia, but they're like, we have so many things that are gonna kill you down there, like snakes, spiders, everything.

Caz 6:23

Frocks, great whites, jellyfish that'll kill you in eight minutes.

Craig 6:27

We get that comment. We get that comment all the time.

Caz 6:33

But yeah, we do have a lot of spiders. It was a very common habit, actually, every night before going to sleep. My sister and I would get down in our sheets and it would do the spider check, check to make sure there were no spiders in your bed. Oh my god. You always Australians, a lot of Australians will leave their shoes outside the house because our culture is pretty much everyone wears barefoot inside. But you have to make sure you check your shoes before you put them on, because we have a red-backed spider which is deadly and they like to live in shoes and because spiders hang around your mailboxes, so getting getting the letters from the mail every afternoon is a little bit fraught with fear. I would live terrified.

Craig 7:16

Oh my god, I know. Like damp, moist, wet areas. You've got to be careful. Like gardening and stuff like that. Yeah.

Kayleigh 7:23

Oh my gosh.

Craig 7:23

But come on down under, come on down. We're still here, so we're fine. We survived.

Kayleigh 7:29

Like me, along with like probably every other human in the world, loves Robert Irwing. Yeah. And Irwin. Irwin, there we go. Because his dad, Steve, was like one, I have three idols. It was always Steve Irwin, Jane Goodall, and Dolly Parton.

Caz 7:42

Oh, it's those three great.

Kayleigh 7:45

I love them. And so when Steve like passed, I cried. I was like, oh my God. Like, what do you mean? And so, of course, like Robert as like the next Steve, and I lost it.

Craig 7:58

Give it to me. I worked at Australia Zoo after he passed. So I never got to meet him, but I met Terry and Bindy, and Bob Bobby was just like a little toddler. Just a little angel. So this was in when was this? 2008.

Caz 8:12

It was after our daughter had just our eldest had just been born.

Craig 8:15

It was like 2008.

Caz 8:16

Okay.

Craig 8:17

Yeah, so um I'd worked on the construction team at the zoo, like building new enclosures and stuff like that. Um so yeah, I got to see behind the scenes and saw the Croc Show many times and saw all the fun stuff. But yeah, there's a full circle moment.

Kayleigh 8:29

Oh, that is so cool.

Craig 8:31

Yeah, I mean Steve Irwin is yeah, he was such an animated character, obviously. And now like his son like looks exactly like him and just wanted to dance him with the stars thing or something, whatever it was.

Kayleigh 8:41

Now they both have the dancing. They have, yeah, that just goes, or whatever those are called.

Caz 8:45

Yeah, yeah.

Kayleigh 8:46

I love the most that he just like taught you just like just to love things, like don't be scared by how they look. And I'm like, it's just he's great. Yeah. But yeah, I saw Robert, he posted a TikTok or Instagram, or I don't remember what it was. It was along the lines of he was getting in his car after a night, and he's like, this is a true Australian moment. And he like opens the door and one of those spiders were like on his seat and he's like, come on, little I would die. I would die if I lived.

Caz 9:14

Yeah, yeah, it's pretty scary. I know a lot of people the um the what do you call this? The visors. The visors where you pull them down. Sometimes spiders will fall on your left. Fall on your left. Nope.

Craig 9:25

Well, people have played tricks and put rubber spiders up, like fake spiders up there and have them drop on your lap. Which is a dangerous thing, and I freak someone out when they're driving. I don't recommend doing that.

Kayleigh 9:34

No, that sounds terrible. I had like a traumatic incident with a spider, and like I had to climb a tree, I was doing a videography thing, wrapped around this tree, uh, spider bit me, my leg got so swollen I couldn't walk on it for a week. Oh my gosh. And so now I'm just like, I don't mess with people. Yeah, don't mess with them. I won't mess with you if you won't mess with me. I think that's a good, you know. Oh my gosh. So when did you come here? You said

How a Teacher Exchange Program Brought Them to Raleigh

Kayleigh 10:00

20 years ago?

Caz 10:01

Yeah, so it's um we've had quite a long romance with Riley. We originally came over in 2004. Um I was previously an elementary school teacher. We were living in Dublin at the time, and I was teaching at a school there, and came across an ad in the back of a teachers' union magazine. Don't ask me why, I decided to read that. And obviously it was meant to be saw the ad and you know, showed Craig because we'd always kind of we would we had travelled and lived in other countries, that was what we did. And we always wanted to live in America, but there was no sort of a pathway for us in terms of work visas. And so I came across this and showed Craig that it was a company based in Chapel Hill, they're still there, they're called Participate Learning now. But they were advertising for teachers, so they recruit foreign teachers to come and work here temporarily to expose American kids to other cultures. So that opportunity dropped in our lap, so we we took it, got the job, and just was I was placed at a school in Johnson County, which is how we ended up in Raleigh. So that was in 2004, and we knew nothing about Raleigh, and it was like this could go really badly. We'll toss the dice and take take a risk. But surprisingly, both of us immediately fell in love with Raleigh, and both of us just felt really at home. And you know, from that moment we both wanted to live here permanently, and we were only on temporary visas, so we could stay, we stayed here for two years, went home for two, had our first daughter, came back on that program for another two years, and then went home, and that was in 2010, and we were stuck because we had no legal way to live here then. So we were stuck at home, and that's when we started looking for ways that we could create our own business so that we weren't dependent on work visas. And we started our travel blog and ended up um that took off when we were in Australia, and we had really great success with that. We worked with the biggest brands around the world. We were actually invited in 2014 to come to the White House, which was an amazing email to receive.

Kayleigh 12:06

That like what do you even do?

Caz 12:07

You stare at it. We thought it was spam. Yeah. Because you know, you get this message, it's all caps in the subject line. We want to invite you to the White House. They're asking us for our social security numbers in the email. It was secure email, we didn't know that though. And um, so we were just we were actually very cheeky in our reply because we thought it was spam. And then we found out it wasn't, and we sort of had to like back cuddle. We're really sorry that we were cheeky, we actually thought it was spam, and they were like, it's okay, we've had a few people thought that. But anyway, it was the first ever travel summit that Michelle Obama was her one of her initiatives, and we're invited um as one of the top um travel bloggers in the world to go to that, which was incredible, an amazing experience and accolade, and through all of these things that eventually led us to be able to get um beginning, it was an 01 visa,

The White House Invitation (and Almost Getting Turned Away)

Caz 13:00

and it's the the visas that like celebrities and that get actors and stuff, because you can prove that you're at the top of your field. So we were able to come back in 2017 on that, and then from that, we were able to turn that into a green card because we could prove we're at the top of the travel blogging field, and that we did contribute significantly to the US economy. Yeah, so that's our very long story in the short form.

Kayleigh 13:26

But that is wild, but that is so cool.

Craig 13:29

Oh my gosh. So you we got that house invitation. We're actually on a uh 18-month RV road trip around Australia. So we're in the outback of like Western Australia in a mining town. We barely had any Wi-Fi.

Caz 13:41

We didn't have any.

Craig 13:42

So we go like two or three days before you get emails, so that was the back and forth with that. And um, a few of our other friends who do online businesses got invited as well, and we're like, is this for real or whatever? And just started seeing more chatter on Twitter about it, and then looked up the person on LinkedIn to verify, and then Yeah, it was crazy. We ended up in Perth. This was summertime in Australia, so we flew from Perth, which is the most isolated city in the world, by the way.

Kayleigh 14:07

So I've never even heard of it. Perth, Western Australia.

Craig 14:10

So we flew from there, like it was say like 100 degrees Fahrenheit there. Um then we flew to Sydney, dropped our daughters off there with our parents to look after, and then flew to LA, then to Atlanta, and then Raleigh, and then drove up to DC in the middle of winter. Oh, yeah. And uh, yeah, so and then we're like, yeah, this is crazy. Like, we're from a small town in Australia. We didn't get invited to the White House.

Kayleigh 14:35

This is the way it's oh no, you can do it, but then you're yeah, that was a nice thing.

Craig 14:40

And then we almost we come all that that long, massive journey, investment of time and energy, and that and then and we get to the White House gates, and we almost didn't get let in.

Caz 14:50

Yeah.

Craig 14:51

Because on your documentation, because we put the dates, we do day, month, year, and then for the the form, we had it the the opposite way to you guys do in the US, so the Secret Service guy wasn't gonna let us in.

Caz 15:03

And we're like, Because the dates were mismatched. So we had two different forms plus the passport, and on one form I had put the US date, and on the other, just out of habit, I had done the Australian date. And so they were like, this is not matching, not gonna let you in. And eventually I've just started crying because that's what you do when you're in trouble, the damsel in distress. But no, legitimately, I was really upset, and I just said, You have no idea. I have come from Perth, Australia, the furthest place in the world just for this event. You don't understand why I just went through the game.

Craig 15:41

We might not probably never get invited here ever again. Like this is our one shot.

Caz 15:45

Oh, come on. And he said, wait a minute, ma'am, let me see him. And he's on the phone, he's talking to security, he's getting our contact in the White House to come out, and eventually it got sorted. Thank goodness.

Kayleigh 15:56

Oh my god, what would I even imagine if like they wouldn't have let

Turning an O-1 Visa Into a Green Card

Kayleigh 16:00

you in.

Craig 16:00

Oh, and we just stood up there. And it was raining, we're under umbrellas, it's freezing, we're like, oh, this is horrible. Like, what's going on?

Kayleigh 16:08

Oh my god.

Craig 16:08

Anyway, we got there.

Kayleigh 16:10

Yeah, wow, that was an adventure. Yeah. Wow. So, okay, so then from there, you get the award, you get your green card, and then when did you come here then in 2018, 2019? 2017, 2017. Okay, so you finished okay, got it.

Craig 16:23

Yeah, so that um we initially got 01 business visas, which was for three or five years, I believe.

Caz 16:30

Three.

Craig 16:31

But then yeah, we um we got that we got help through our immigration lawyer over here to help us get that 01 business visa, and then we met up with him. He was based in Nashville, Tennessee, and we met up with him, had lunch there one time. And uh we had no idea you could leverage that visa into a green card. So that was the next path. Got a you know, kept documenting all our document documentation, you know, doing our best to get in traditional media, which helps and stuff like that. And um yeah, and then applied and leveraged it into a green card. And like, you know, 10, 20 years ago, we'd never in a million years would think travel blogging would get us like a business visa and a green card, and then now become dual citizens just very recently to live in the US like that is just crazy how things work out.

Caz 17:15

Yeah, it's when you at least expect it. Yeah, it's just an example of what uh you know, we love to share that, and I'm sure you have a lot of listeners who are, you know, pursuing a path of entrepreneurship, creating their own business. And I think our story is just an extraordinary example of what can happen when you do that. Doors open that you never even saw. Like it was impossible for us. Literally, we tried every avenue except we entered the green card lottery, but it was impossible for us to get a green card. And then we enter this new world of travel blogging, and then this door magically opens up. So, you know, you just never know uh what is in front of you, and we really believe and we've proved it, and we there's so many people come on your podcast, and so many people who are doing extraordinary things simply because they're following a passion, you know, some things they they love or that they're skilled in, and providing some service, and just having, as you mentioned, you look at the why behind it, having really strong whys behind that. Uh then I think magic starts to happen and doors align and and all these incredible things can happen for you. Like, I'm just amazed at our story all the time. Not because of what we did, but I know like we took risks and we did all of those things that are required on the entrepreneurship journey. But I think for me, I'm in awe of it because of the magic that was there and things that just magically appeared for us that we never ever knew was there. Yeah.

Craig 18:47

Yeah, another prime example is that like we didn't even know this 01 business visa existed, but when we put the intention out there and like, I don't know, I guess you put your order into the universe and want to find a way to live in the USA. Legally. And um I was just scrolling through Instagram. We were in Australia at the time, living in on the um the Gold Coast in Queensland. Just scrolling through Instagram through the feed, and I just saw this photo of another travel friend that was living in Wellington, New Zealand. It was just like a sailing boat, and I don't know why, I just clicked on it and read the caption. But she started talking about this 01 business visa that she had got. I'm like, oh wow, that's interesting. So I just sent her a message, tell me more. And then she put us onto James, an immigration lawyer in Nashville at the time. And um, yeah, so if I wasn't scrolling through that day and saw that photo and clicked on and read the captions, like, who knows, what we might not be here right now. Yeah, it's just amazing. But we put that energy and that focus and intention out there, and the door found a way to open, and but we had to walk through it, of course, and um we had to be um worthwhile um, you know. Yeah, just to get that, just to get that 01 business visa was insane, it was incredible. And like I mean, we had to just one small part of that, we had to go to a um US consulate in Sydney

Why They Chose Raleigh Over the Beach

Craig 20:00

and we're walking around with a a 500-page application each in a cardboard quad for the interview, and like Oh my god. Yeah, to print it, like it cost me $120 to print it out.

Kayleigh 20:11

We have to ask you, where do you print that? How much?

Craig 20:16

Just one other crazy fact, like it was for a three-year one visa, but we had to prove like we're gonna contribute to the US economy. I had to write a three-year travel itinerary for the US, like step by step. Again, that was over 50-something pages. I mean, like, who writes a three-year itinerary? I'm like, No one.

Caz 20:35

That's nice.

Craig 20:36

Yeah, so there's many, many things that went into all this, but um yeah, this is some crazy part.

Caz 20:41

But that's how much we love Riley, right? Yeah, truly. It really is. And we come from an amazing country. And people say all the time, why are you living in Raleigh when you're from Australia? And you know, we grew up living on the beach. That was just most Australians do. And you we have this wonderful lifestyle and all of that. So, you know, why would we live in Riley and why would we go through all of that? That process of coming to be able to live here permanently was incredibly difficult because we love Raleigh that much, and I think that's why we started a business around it. And that's why I think this Is Raleigh has been so successful because, and many people say it to us all the time, that they can tell that what we do is genuine and authentic, and it is like we fought so hard to live here, we really did, and I don't think people really know the depth of our story and what we went through to actually be here, and that's one thing that really drives us is that we love it so much, and we're like this for Australia as well. We see ourselves as you know the self appointed ambassadors for Australia here in the US and for Raleigh everywhere else. Like, we love those two places so much that we passionately talk about it and share about it and just want people living here to love it. We were recently awarded uh for TBEX, it's the biggest travel blogging conference in the world.

The This Is Raleigh Podcast

Caz 22:00

And they have content creator awards. And we recently they had an award for Best Local Lens. And we were finalists for that. And that's in the whole world. And just that recognition that and this award is for local content creators who really are passionate storytellers and really work to uplift community. And that's what we we're just so passionate about it because we feel that Riley has given us so much that we just want to give that back to this city and the people here. Yeah.

Kayleigh 22:29

I love that. I love when people love a place like I do. Yeah. So tell me a little bit about your podcast that you have.

Craig 22:38

Yeah, so um, yeah, with this is Raleigh. Obviously, we have the blog articles and social media and stuff. And um, yeah, we initially started the podcast, just another way to tell our story. Like, obviously, people consume media in different formats. And um, so it was part us telling our story and then also interviewing. We wanted to interview like local business owners and people doing creative and interesting things in the community. So it's kind of it's on been on pause a little bit for a while because we've just been resource-strapped and time-strapped with other parts of our business, but we do intend to bring it back because a lot of people in the community come up to us and that's how they've first come across us through our podcast. And it's just so yeah, we know it it's helpful and useful, and you can talk for an hour as long as it's interesting, of course. But yeah, no, we we enjoy it, and you know, meeting new people that way and doing that. And um, so yeah, it's on the list for 2026 to bring it back again. Um I don't have an exact time frame, but yeah.

Kayleigh 23:35

When it works, yeah.

Craig 23:38

The intention is there. Yeah. And uh yeah, no, we we enjoy it.

Kayleigh 23:41

So yeah, and then what's the name of the podcast?

Craig 23:43

Uh just This Israeli. This Israeli umbrella. Yeah, it's just under the This Israeli umbrella, basically. Perfect. So like if anyone's on all the people look it up. From the you know, all the major um podcasting platforms. We've got like 50 or something episodes. A lot of those episodes, like evergreen content, very helpful,

Favorite Things to Do in Raleigh

Craig 24:00

like it's about how our story, how we move to Raleigh, you know, getting the community, what we like to do in Raleigh, getaways, all the above. Like just different stories and stuff.

Kayleigh 24:10

So awesome. So that's a great segue into my next question. What's your favorite thing to do in Raleigh? It could be either together or both. Or together or subroom. Oh wow. I know that's a question. Great question.

Caz 24:23

Well, I think we love uh, you know, we're outdoor people, we love being outside. So I think hiking, biking last uh fall, I think, no, last summer actually, I think we biked from Durham to Kerry along the American Tobacco Trail. And a lot of people may not know, but there is a winery in Apex. And so we stopped there along the way and had some wine and cheese and then finished the rest of the bike trip. So what's the winery called? Cloa family vineyards. Oh, is that like on a farm or something like that? Um it's actually in the suburbs of Apex, but it is on a farm, but it's surrounded by suburbia. Okay, cool. So it's quite an unusual spot. But they have horses and you can sit outside, they have really great outside gardens. And the wine is not too bad. Like North Carolina doesn't have a great reputation for wine, but and I like dry white. And they do have quite a nice dry white there that's you know, drinkable, enjoyable, a nice sunny day. And it was a wonderful pit stop after this because this bike ride was like 35 miles. Yeah, it's quite an adventure. It's flat most of the way. Oh, flat, yeah.

Kayleigh 25:31

Oh, flat 35. Okay, I can do that. I can do that all day.

Craig 25:34

And you take your time. Like we started very early in the morning from Durham, or we got the train from Kerry up to Durham and then biked back. So you make a whole day of it. Like, no rides.

Caz 25:42

So cool. Yeah, it was fun.

Craig 25:43

So yeah.

Caz 25:44

Doing adventures like that. There's a few other bike trails we want to explore when the weather starts getting a bit warmer. Yeah. Yeah.

Craig 25:50

It's sort of the nature stuff. Obviously, like, yeah, the thing we love about Raleigh, how green it is and like the capital greenway system, like 100 miles of trails. So we love doing all the trails, whether it's biking or walking. We lived on Lake Johnson for four years near NC State campus. So the three-mile Lake Johnson loop. I'd love a dollar for every time we've done that.

Caz 26:10

I'd love to retire. My dollar system.

Craig 26:14

So we we take all visiting friends and family, anyone to Raleigh, do the Lake Johnson loop. And obviously Umsid State Park is pretty cool. So close to downtown Raleigh. Yeah, so the nature stuff, um, festival and events are always cool.

Caz 26:26

Like Brigaloo, that's always fun.

Craig 26:28

I'm a big sports guy, so the college stuff. Like going to uh tailgating at Carter Finlay. It's such a for Australian, such an American experience. Like we don't grow up tailgating all with American football, obviously.

Kayleigh 26:40

I never did tailgating until I moved down here because it's not a northern thing to do. Oh, all across Chicago. Well, where I'm from I mean, again, there's Buffalo, so like Bills.

Craig 26:49

Bill's mafia, they're crazy. They get down to the biggest.

Kayleigh 26:51

But that's also like four hours. Oh, I was in the middle of a nowhere. So like I didn't grow up with any of that. So I never knew about it until I came for NC State in the hurricanes. Yeah, I mean, it's really good.

Caz 27:04

It's fun, yeah.

Craig 27:06

I don't think they tailgate it hockey anywhere else. Or maybe they do in Florida. Maybe too called, yeah. Um Yeah, I mean, yeah, so the the sporting scene, like hurricanes games, women's basketball at Reynolds Coliseum is fun, like women's soccer. We go to the courage games, NC Courage games all the time. Yeah, we love that. I mean, and then obviously, like the ACC basketball scene here, like the the Carolina Duke NC State rivalries, it's you know, it gets under your skin.

Kayleigh 27:35

It's fun. Yeah, I'm not even a part of it.

Craig 27:37

It's like I'm a big sports guy, so and like music, you know, go to concerts. We've been to many concerts at Walnut Creek. Yep, we always call it Walnut Creek. It's called Coastal Credit Union Park and Red Hat and the Lincoln Theater and the Ritz and Poor House, and I guess some fun, fun music experiences to have. And so I love it. Yeah, that's good.

Kayleigh 27:57

Yeah. Yeah.

Craig 27:58

Yeah.

Kayleigh 27:59

I love it. I just went to Red Hat for the first time over the summer to see Alex Warren. Oh, yeah. First off, super affordable place. It is super. It's right next to pools, so I went there for an espresso martini beforehand, and that's where I learned how I like my espresso martini, which is like all the things need to be fresh. Yes, espresso things need to be freshly ground, and I got real mic. I got real bougie about it because now I won't I won't take my espresso martini anymore. No, I agree. I'm I'm bougie about eating essential martini.

Craig 28:27

I'll have to check it out because we've been exploring the best espresso martinis in the Raleigh area. Okay.

Kayleigh 28:35

They do a good espresso martinis. Oh yeah. They have three options too. They got the Bailey's espresso martini. Oh, that's what we like, the Bailey's one. Oh my god, that's the one I like too. Yeah. There's a peanut butter one, so they have like a screwball type thing in there, and then they also do an Orchata one. Oh, okay. I've tried all three. Bailey's is my favorite, but they're all really good. But they do all the fresh, like they freshly grind the beans and everything. We haven't been there, but to know it's a coffee shop in the morning and then it's a bar in the night. We've had coffee with your parents when he's here.

Craig 29:04

Oh, William. Oh, sorry, I'm thinking of another place. Okay.

Kayleigh 29:06

Williams and Williams House in downtown Cardiff.

Craig 29:10

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It used to be Bull City Cider. Yes. Gotcha. Gotcha. Sorry, I'm thinking of another place. My band.

Kayleigh 29:16

Matthew's house, maybe? Yes.

Craig 29:18

When you said house? Yep. I instantly gravitated to that. Yeah.

Kayleigh 29:22

They have a great genotonic. Okay. And I think a French 75. Oh.

Craig 29:26

Well, it sounds like we need to hang out more.

Caz 29:31

If we want to stay in Carrie, the albatross bar, the golf bar, then they have the best old-fashioned. That's the best we've had in the. No, we haven't done the smokey one.

Craig 29:40

So you have?

Caz 29:41

No, smoke it. Isn't it? Then we No, it's just a normal thing.

Kayleigh 29:47

Okay. They have really good drinks, though. They do, yeah.

Craig 29:50

And then the RBF shape. Oh my gosh. Great wine.

Kayleigh 29:54

RBF's really good if you take their mocktails and you add champagne to it. So it's insanity. Oh yeah. The mocktails are in this giant bulbous glass, and then you just add them and make it boozy, and it's really good. Yeah. Sidebars also really good there. Bomb Brothers, I love good Bomb Brothers. Gosh, there are there's so many good.

Craig 30:17

I mean, there's endless breweries, obviously. Like, you know, breweries went crazy there for a period of time. Yeah.

Kayleigh 30:22

Like I can't drink beer, but I love when a brewery has really good non-beer options. Me too. Because like all my friends are beer drinkers. Yeah. And I'm like, I want to come hang out too.

Caz 30:31

I don't drink beer either because I'm gluten-free. So I know it's hard to do.

Craig 30:34

You like to go to Crank Arm in downtown?

Caz 30:37

I love Crank Arm. That's a cute place too. It is.

Craig 30:39

Brewery and yeah, cocktails are that now and sauces. And they've always got fun events going on.

Caz 30:44

Yeah, I was going to say, like, we really love them for how community focused they are. Yeah. They're really focused on bringing people together. Yeah. It doesn't matter who you are, where you're from, what you're like. And so, yeah, we we we really love that.

Craig 30:58

Because they've done yoga there. They love the places to do yoga. You bring in your dogs and stuff. They have the cycle club. Um, they always got fun events going on. And then the beer's great too. Like I don't drink a lot of beer myself actually now anymore, but um they do some of my favorite beers when I used to drink beer.

Kayleigh 31:16

So that's what I like about Bond Brothers in downtown Kerry, because they also they have a run club, they do puzzle tournaments, there's trivia, there's gosh, there's like everything. And then they have their east side location, which is the music venue about quarter mile up the road. Yeah. And it's just I love when a good brewery like does like those kind of things. Yeah. I mean, a lot of people are starting to do that, so it's like, thank God, because now you have options like I want to do trivia night, but like let's go here this day and go to the trivia over here this day. Like I love trivia. I'm trying to build a trivia tower here.

Craig 31:43

That's the number we did trivia at Craig Comp. Yeah, we need too much.

Kayleigh 31:46

I need to go to downtown Raleigh more. I just love it out there. I I now live closer, so I can easily get there, which is exciting.

Craig 31:52

Yeah. Yeah. The warehouse district. Um I mean there's mini little districts within downtown that you can bounce around. I think it's so cool.

The Hardest Business Lesson: Growth Is Not Linear

Kayleigh 32:00

Oh, and the speakeasies? Oh, yeah, they oh my gosh, I love a good speakeasy. Yeah, we do too.

Craig 32:04

Watson Wards.

Kayleigh 32:05

There's so funny. Yeah, Watson Ward's like one of my favorite. Green lights good. Yep. I love a good, like moody atmosphere. Yeah. There you go.

Caz 32:13

Yeah, I think everyone remembers the first time they've walked into Watson Ward because you walk down those stairs, you think it's going to be a dinky little room, and then you walk in, you like just keeps going and going. It's a historic ethication.

Kayleigh 32:28

Yeah. Oh my gosh, I love it. So as we wrap up, I got two last questions. One of them, question one. What is a hard lesson you guys have learned throughout all your processes of doing stuff with a business or moving or lifestyle, all the all the things you guys do. What's one of the hardest lessons you guys have learned?

Craig 32:48

Oh wow. Yeah. Umise. Man, so many, so many lessons.

Caz 32:56

I think, yeah, that sorry, go ahead.

Craig 32:59

Uh business wise, like uh through both of our blogs, like, yeah, um like growth is not linear, like it's and um and it takes time. Like starting up a social media business or a blogging business, like it's kind of like easy access. Like you're not spending like half a million dollars to buy a brick and mortar business, and and you know, it takes time, like any business, time and resources, investment of funds. I always say to somebody if they're gonna start a business like online, like being it two years from now, like to grow. So and then uh it's constant changes, whereas the algorithm changes, constantly evolving yourself. Algorithm changes, AI changes, the pandemic, you know, like who would have thought like having a global travel business when the pandemic started was not ideal, and the whole world shuts down literally overnight, and you'd lose like 80% of your income. So that was a massive challenge. And actually, we always wanted to start a Raleigh-based business, but that gave us the time and the space to do that. So that was kind of a oh man, I'm gonna say that word, pivot. I haven't said that for so long. And um, but yeah, so many challenges.

Caz 34:08

You've got to understand, and I think we've learned this business and life that Craig mentioned growth is not linear, that growth is actually cyclical, that kind of moves along a linear path. But I think you have to understand that you're never going directly from A to B. You're going on a journey there and it's up and down. And it's the cycle of life. Everything moves in a cycle, the seasons, nature, everything. So we're gonna move in a cycle in our own lives and our business as well. So have that expectation that you're never gonna reach the mountaintop and stay there, that you're actually gonna come down at some point, but you'll come down, your lower point will be higher than the last lower point, but you're still going to come down, and so be prepared for that. Anything can happen at any time. As Craig mentioned, we learnt that very hard lesson. Travel, not everything's safe. Travel is a certainty to us, and then it wasn't. Anything can happen. So you have to, along the journey, you have to be building your character traits so that you can handle those moments and know what to do and not give up. Never give up. Give up's the failure. You're going to learn some lessons along the way. They're not failures, it's only when you give up that it is. So I think we've had to change all the time, especially if you're looking at a business in the world that we live in now, algorithms changing all the time, just life is moving so quickly, and things, AI, all of these stuff happening rapidly. You have to be very open and very ready to change at any moment. And sustainability matters. Like you want to build a business that can sustain for the long term, and AI is being spoken about a lot. And I was at a conference in New York last week where AI was spoken about, and you know, the messaging is and and this is the core of our business and what we've done since 2010. It's now it's all about the thing that can't be replaced as people, community, connection, brand, story. And there's only one Caroline and Craig mate piece. We have our own story that we own, and that's what we lean into in both of our businesses, and it's very much built on life experience. And we go out and we walk our talk, we go out and we find the things to do and we experience it, and we then share that information based upon that perspective. We always say we make the mistakes so you don't have to. We make those mistakes because we're the explorers figuring it out, and then we'll share with you what we think is worth your time to go and pursue and do. So that for us, we can't be replaced by AI. So I think you know, if you're in business or creating whatever in life, if you put your whole self into it and be authentic and genuine with an intention of doing something meaningful, don't make it about the money. It's a side benefit. Make it about something bigger than that. And when you make it about something bigger than just money or vanity likes, or you know, rewards, awards, success, all of those, they're all nice, but don't make that the core of what you do. Yes.

Craig 37:06

Yeah, we've chased the money in previous business ventures, and um they ended up a disaster. Like it was all about the money. And then we've finally figured out like travel is our life, it's what makes us feel most alive. Then we put our focus and intention on building a business around travel, and eventually the money comes. But yeah, I mean, the lesson is like going from the job mindset to an entrepreneur, going from a steady paycheck to business. You know, you go through it's like a roller coaster, you know, like some really good months where um you know clients are beating down your door, and then you can go through a dry spell where you're like you're chasing clients again, and that can be scary. So and mindset building.

Caz 37:45

Yes, can be terrifying, yeah.

Craig 37:46

Yeah, working on your mindset was key. And getting started before you're ready, like you know, pike we we knew nothing about blogging or email marketing or even photography or doing videos, and we built our own website initially, which was horrible,

Leap and Grow Your Wings on the Way Down

Craig 38:00

like so ugly, like I was had no idea about coding or anything, and but we just got started, just hustled. Like we were Caroline was doing her teaching job. We actually started our Y Travel blog um business. We're living in Ghana at the time. She was teaching. I was working for Delta at RDU. Like, we'd do our jobs, we'd be up to midnight working on our first website, and then up at 4 a.m. in the morning to go to Delta at RDU and just hustled, just got started, just made things happen. And like for the first six, twelve, even eighteen months, barely made any money. But um we believed in it and stuff with it. We built the foundation and yeah, so many lessons.

Caz 38:39

Our daughter, our youngest, was writing an essay for high school the other day and ten lessons about life. Well, um, I was talking with her about that, and I said, Well, you know, what about one is like leap and grow your wings on the way down? And she's like, What does that mean, Mum? I said, Well, that's kind of like your entire life and our entire life. Like, you know, when we first set off on our Australian road trip, our girls were six and two, we were um three years into the bulb, we weren't making much money. Nothing on paper made sense. We weren't making much money at all, but we believed in it, and so we were like, we're gonna leap into this and we'll figure it out as we go along. We left, we didn't even have a car. We had a sponsored car, we were working with um Nissan at the time because I was writing content for a Australia's biggest parenting site, and the column I was writing was sponsored by Nissan, and so as part of that, we had the car and we would go on family adventures with the Nissan and create content on it. We say Nissan, I'm conscious of saying Nissan. Um, and so that so we had that car that enabled us to, and they were on board when we said, you know, this is what we want to do. Are you on board? And they said yes. So we didn't even own that, we did have hardly any money, we didn't own much at all. And we slept in a tent for three months with a six and a two-year-old. Wow. And so that was us growing our wings on the way down, like we were figuring it out as we went along, and that risk paid off because our community saw what we were doing and that we were walking the talk, and they got on board and they joined us and they followed along and they gave us loads of tips and advice, and then they watched us follow their advice as we traveled around the country, and many of those still follow us now, and they'll often say, Oh my gosh, I can't believe you know that your eldest is now in college, like we've been following you since she was like four.

Kayleigh 40:32

Oh, so that's that's so sweet for like the viewers, like they'll grow up with your kids too, and that's actually really sweet. Yeah, yeah.

Caz 40:38

Oh, well, because they're not only watching you and your business, but they're like they watch your kids grow and all of it. They feel like they're part of our family, they've seen us evolve and go through the challenges and um you know, and figure it out. Like if we did not take that leap, and this is what I was trying to explain to my daughter, that if we didn't start before we were ready, if we did not take that leap,

Naming a Business & Prioritizing Experiences Over Stuff

Caz 41:00

we wouldn't be here now. Like it's those moments that are critical, even though you're afraid and it doesn't make sense and everything is telling you this is stupid, you're gonna fail, and on and on those voices go. If at the in the core of you there's a a calling or a strong that this is what I'm meant to do, then like just take you're not gonna die. Like, that's what we said. Okay, worst case scenario, what's gonna happen? Well, worse case we were living with Craig's parents at the time because we literally had nothing. Worst case scenario is we end up back living with your parents and we go and get a job if we have to work at the local supermarket. Can we handle that? Like, is it worth taking the risk to maybe get something better? And if it fails, is it worth taking that risk and then we just accept what the worst case scenario is? Yeah.

Craig 41:49

Yeah, I mean, you're never fully ready. Well, we're still figuring stuff out now and having to evolve with industry and stuff and learn new skills and get found online different ways and do content different ways and constantly. Yeah, so you're never fully ready. Yeah, no, I think you may as well just get started and figure out most of it along the way, as we've done.

Kayleigh 42:11

Yeah, I mean, I've explained it before on here that um like my podcast, I had like in the thoughts for two years because I love talking to business owners because I like storytelling and I like to hear people's story, and I I just want to know like what made you do what you do. I had the idea for so long, but I was so stuck, like what to name it?

Caz 42:29

Yeah, there's little things that trip you up.

Craig 42:32

What's my logo gonna look like? What colors isn't gonna be the website. The two things that everyone's gonna know you by. Oh my god.

Kayleigh 42:38

It had me stuck, and I'm like, that's never gonna happen. Yeah. So finally, like, yeah, I went to lunch with uh some friends from back home, and her little sister's like, oh, Kayleigh Duh, all up in your business.

Caz 42:50

I'm like, it's so mean.

Kayleigh 42:53

She knows me, and I'm like, oh my, that's it, that's it right there.

Caz 42:58

The longest how you can lean on people, right? Yeah. Not sure, just ask a friend, and they give you that game changer for you. They gave you the name, and then boom, here you are. Yeah.

Craig 43:08

Yeah, thankfully for that, that come pretty easy for us. Like, this is Riley come pretty easily, and the why travel blogger she mentioned before. Um, a reason behind that, like our why, our other why was like our tagline is accumulate memories and moments, not just possessions. Because going back to something you said before is like we made travel a priority. Because our friends used to say, like, oh, how do you get to travel so much and go to all these countries and because we made it a priority. Like, we weren't buying brand new $80,000 cars or big screen TVs, like we're sleeping in tents. All our money and focus and time and energy went into trouble.

Caz 43:41

Yeah, yeah.

Craig 43:41

So we didn't have nice house or nice car, or and we were totally fine with that because it was all about memories and moments and experiences. And it still is, you know. I mean, and it's nice to have nice things, of course, but like we've always prioritized travel and moments and memories, like still even in Like with the Rowley business.

Kayleigh 44:01

Yeah.

Craig 44:01

It's a huge focus.

Kayleigh 44:03

So yeah, my cousins, my family and I, we're trying to be more active about like thinking that like, hey, like, let's just stop buying each other's shit. Yeah. And let's like go do things. Yeah, experiences. And so like my cousins taught me that. She's taught me a lot, but like her and I are like sisters. And so the one thing she's taught me more and more is like she's always said, like, quote unquote, I don't want more shit. I just want to go do something fun.

Caz 44:27

And I was like, okay.

Kayleigh 44:28

So like her birthday was this past week. And so we're going to um the rage room tonight to smash some things up. And I'll like first off, like, you can get rid of some of your anger. I know you can. And I know I can. And I know all of us can. Like, plus it'd be fun. Like, we haven't done it before. And like last year we did a cooking class. And like we like, like, we love to actively go do things. Yeah. And so it's like creating the memories is more like what we're trying to get our parents, but like, because our families all do stuff together for holidays or trips. And so we're just trying to be more like mindful. Like, okay, like, don't want this, but let's go book this trip to here. Yeah. Like we all love the mountain. So we try to go to Asheville and the other ones out there that I can't think of that we already have booked, but like the Asheville area. Black Mountain? Which one?

Craig 45:12

Black Mountain.

Kayleigh 45:12

Boom.

Caz 45:13

No.

Craig 45:13

Booming.

Kayleigh 45:14

It's not Boom. Glowing Rock. It starts with the beach.

Craig 45:18

On the Blue Ridge Parkway. Yeah, we love the Blue Ridge.

Kayleigh 45:21

And so it's just fun. Like they have kids, so we get to go do things with the kids now. Yeah. It's just like creating the memories of it.

Caz 45:27

Or intentional living.

Kayleigh 45:28

Yeah. Like it's just more fun.

Caz 45:30

Yeah.

Kayleigh 45:30

Like I don't I hate shopping for clothes. I hate clothes shopping more than anything. Yeah. I'll go to Plato's closet, get it for cheap, or go to go, like, I don't care. But like that's why I said like this year, next year, especially next year, I want to make. If I don't do it this year, like next year is the year of travel. It will happen. It will. Because I want to go to Scotland, I want to go to Ireland, because I used to do Irish dancing for eight years. I did Irish dancing and I taught kids for five years. Cool.

Craig 45:57

Did you go in the same Patrick's Day parade or anything?

Kayleigh 46:00

So we used to do like Irish festivals back home. But we weren't like in the wigs or anything like that. Like we didn't do like those kind of things. We more did it for like the local community, nursing homes. Like we'd go around the community and do it for fun things like that.

Craig 46:14

Love that. As you mentioned, we lived in Dublin for a year. I know when you said that I was like, She's lived there twice.

Kayleigh 46:19

Yeah, I've lived there twice.

Craig 46:21

Irish dancing is awesome. Yeah.

Kayleigh 46:26

And there's the Cayley dance, except they spell it totally differently than my name, but I follow these two guys, the Gardner brothers on Instagram.

Craig 46:33

They're twin.

Kayleigh 46:34

I think I know who you're talking about.

Craig 46:36

No, they're not twins. I think they're like a year apart, but they look like twins. But yeah, they're they're very cool. Yeah.

Kayleigh 46:43

Yep, and then all I got obsessed with them.

Craig 46:45

Yeah, they moved to Nashville recently.

Kayleigh 46:47

Really?

Craig 46:48

Yeah, they live in Nashville now.

Kayleigh 46:49

Oh wow. I did not know that.

Craig 46:50

Yeah, they went to like a Vanderbilt football game and stuff like that. But yeah, they're cool. I mean, they still travel a lot and dance all around the world, but yeah.

Kayleigh 46:57

Like just watching them, so mesmerizing.

Advice for Aspiring Entrepreneurs

Kayleigh 47:00

And I'm like, oh my God, just the sound of the hardshoe, I love it. I was always terrible at hardshoe. So I can appreciate like when you have a Michael Flaley out there just killing it. I'm like, all right. Yeah. A little jealous of you. That's funny.

Craig 47:12

You have to go and dance at the Hibernian on Glenwood sometime or something.

Kayleigh 47:16

Oh my gosh. It's been a minute since I've done it. It's just so much fun.

Craig 47:20

We've got context. We have the context. We know the manager.

Kayleigh 47:24

Of course.

Craig 47:26

If you'd like Irish coffees, the best Irish coffee, hands down at the Hibernian plate.

Kayleigh 47:31

Ooh, good to know. I haven't been there in minutes.

Craig 47:33

Keith Keith Doyle, the manager there, is he's from Dublin. And um he actually won an award in Boston. A competition for best Irish coffee. So that's where we go when we need our fix.

Kayleigh 47:43

I've never had one before. I need to go try it one.

Craig 47:47

Oh.

Kayleigh 47:48

I had a lot of Irish soda bread. Yeah, yeah, that's good too. Oh my god, I love a good Irish soda bread. So good, Stones. Love it. Last question for you guys. What's a piece of advice you'd give someone wanting to start a business?

Craig 48:03

I think like online, like I said before, like be online two years from now. Like it takes time to take time to build an audience, and you can't really monetize until you've built an audience and build something sustainable. So um and I would say like really niche down. Like the hard thing for us with our global travel site is just was just so broad. The audience was just so broad, and like people that come to our site who want to go to London, like maybe once in their life, and then we've lost that audience again. But the Raleigh side is so much easier to build a community around, which is important. And like in in person, not just online, like because we spend so much time offline. It's like to get offline and build a community. Um and then yeah, just yeah, build a brand, not just traffic, because that traffic can disappear through algorithms, through AI, constant changes in Instagram. So yeah, build a brand. Because our focus is like we want people to, like, if they're thinking of going to eat somewhere or go into an activity, like oh the folks on this Israeli probably got that on their website. We'll just go straight there instead of typing into Google or Chat GBT. So yeah, building a brand is key. Like getting on camera. I know it can be scary at times, it's still hard for me. But um people follow people and they like to con that's how they connect more with people through personal interaction. So get get offline as much as possible, as well as you know, be online too.

Caz 49:25

So I think have a purpose, as I said before, beyond the money, beyond the accolades. Because it's tough. Being an entrepreneur, having your own business is tough. I think every week I probably want to quit. So, what's gonna stop you from not quitting? So you really want to understand what those things are because you're going to lean on them when you do want to quit because it will happen. And so for us, that's the greater purpose of what we're doing and why. And you think of okay, if I didn't quit and if I went and got a just a normal job, what am I gonna lose from that? I'm gonna lose a deep sense of purpose. I'm gonna lose a lot of control that I have over my own life right now. I control my schedule, I have that freedom, which is very, very important to me. Some people may value security more, that paycheck. Whereas I'm willing to give up the security of that paycheck so that I can have that freedom that I really desire to have control over my life. So I think those are really important things that probably you're never really taught to consider when you're starting a business. It's about the logistics of a business and the money and the growth and the scaling and all of that. But you know, what about those really important things about why are you doing this and what what are your sacrifices gonna be, and can you handle those sacrifices and what will you do when those moments come where you I don't want to say fail because it's not a fail unless you quit, but going through setbacks and challenges and struggles, and you do want to quit, how are you gonna handle it?

Kayleigh 50:54

Yeah, those are both huge. Yeah, yeah, those are the amount of times I wanted to quit when I had my business, and I didn't quit my business, I just do less of it now, so I can have a steady paycheck for this time in my life or whatever, but I'm still doing my business, so I just had to slow down and take a different route. But like, yeah, knowing yes, just to everything.

Craig 51:14

Yeah, yeah, your why is big enough to keep going, like knowing your why is like and the like the pain as well. Like, I mean, like well, you worked in construction for a long time and banging nails for a little, there's nothing wrong with that at all. But like the pain of thinking of going back to that like motivates me and drives me to figure it out to stay in business.

Kayleigh 51:36

Yeah, 100%.

Craig 51:37

And time freedom and the ability to travel when we want on our own schedule instead of like working Monday to Friday and told we're not gonna have lunch and go to the bathroom and stuff like that. It's like yeah, so that um you know knowing all those things helps you know keep you in the game, so to speak.

Kayleigh 51:53

Having a motivator is huge. Like it is definitely huge. And luckily, like I work somewhere where it's like they're awesome, like very flexible and work you can work remote, should be want to be in the office like twice a week, but like even if you can't be, like they're not gonna like fire you for it. Like, yeah, I love that. I finally found somewhere where I can be flexible and do what I want. And they're very supportive, which is what I love too.

Caz 52:19

So yeah, like that part too. It's smart of them to be that way because whatever you're doing on the side, or it it's only contributing to you growing as a person, yeah, which they're gonna benefit from.

Kayleigh 52:30

Exactly. And like the big the big thing for me is like I told them I was gonna start. I'm like, so I'm gonna be starting a podcast. Yeah, don't know when yet, but I'm starting it, so you're cool with that, right? And I'm like, I made sure they were cool before I even said yes, and they said yes, and I'm like, all right, cool. Awesome. Don't know what's happening, but it'll happen soon. And then like four months later, I'm like, oh, by the way, in six months of starting a podcast.

Caz 52:50

Love it. Love it.

Kayleigh 52:52

No, so I've always wanted to tell other people's stories or help tell the message of other people's stories because everyone has such different audiences. Yeah.

Where to Find This Is Raleigh

Kayleigh 53:00

And so it's like having different people every week from very different groups and sectors, like they may be like, ooh, I like that. Like, what's this one now? Oh, what's that one? Oh, wait, I didn't know what that one is. And so I think that part's just so cool. Like, that's how you get to know people. So of course, yeah. But yeah. Well, thank you guys so much for coming today. This has been great. Yeah, no, this has been great. Oh, lastly, tell everyone where they can find you on all your things. Yeah, yeah.

Craig 53:25

Uh so yeah, thisisraeli.com is the website, like the main hub, and um at this israeli on Instagram, Facebook, we have a big presence there. It's thisisraeli nc. And then why travelblog, as we mentioned, our global travel site is a little why for yellow, and then travelblog.com, and then at why travelblog on social media. Um, and then yeah, our email, actually for this is Raleigh, our email, Caroline does a great job with our email list. So if you go to thisisraeli.com, you can subscribe there and we send out emails once or twice a week with all the cool stuff going on in and around Raleigh. That's the way you can stay up to date with what we're doing too, because you know, it's getting harder and harder to see things in social media with so much noise and stuff, what have you. Um but yeah, uh, thisisrally.com is uh where we live most of the time.

Kayleigh 54:13

Awesome, love it. And for anyone listening, watching however you're taking this in, it will all be in the show notes, so you can find it way easier if for some reason it's just like what'd they just say? So, yeah, show notes is where we will be. Yeah, so that's all we got for today. Thank you. And thanks for tuning in, watching, listening again, however, you're taking this in. If you don't know where this is at, it's on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Patreon, YouTube. It's everywhere where you listen and watch, honestly. So it shouldn't be too hard to find. But yeah, so thank you again, and we will see you guys next week. Thanks for watching. Thank you. Thank you.