Crystal Richard on Entrepreneurship and New Brunswick Travel

00:54
Erin
So I hopped on the Internet and quickly stumbled upon a blog by the East Coast Mermaid that outlined with detailed precision exactly what we needed to do to navigate the ferry crossing and a timed itinerary of what to see, do, and eat during our adventure on the island. We followed it religiously and had one of the most memorable days of our trip. By the end, all of my questions had been answered, except for one. Who is this mysterious and miraculous mermaid? It turns out that the East Coast Mermaid is the incredible Crystal Richard. Crystal is an award winning entrepreneur, digital creator and wavemaker behind CRN Company, a boutique PRN creative agency dedicated to helping brands make waves in the media. She is also the founder of East Coast Mermaid, a travel and lifestyle brand dedicated to coastal living in the Maritimes. 

01:48
Erin
She loves sea glass seafood and spending time on the Bay of Fundy with whales. And she is a talented oyster shucker. Today we’re going to dig into her experience as an entrepreneur, how she finds creativity in storytelling, and why we should all develop a coastal crush on New Brunswick. Welcome Crystal. 

02:08
Crystal
Thank you so much for having me. That intro gave me the shivers. 

02:13
Erin
We are going to have so much fun today. I just had such a cool time in New Brunswick, so I can’t wait to talk about all things entrepreneur, creativity and also like, just what a hidden gem New Brunswick as a whole is. And I think maybe we can also get some like, tips and insider secrets on some of the specific hidden gems within New Brunswick as well. 

02:38
Crystal
Oh, you absolutely can. That’s like my favorite thing to talk about. 

02:42
Erin
So let’s start with the entrepreneurship piece because it’ll give us a chance to get to know you a little bit better. Can you tell me more about yourself and the journey that led you to ultimately start your own business? 

02:53
Crystal
Yeah, so I have quite the wild Entrepreneurial journey. Mostly because for the first 30 some years of my life, I never in a million years thought I wanted to be an entrepreneur. I went to university to study marine biology. I ended up pivoting to psychology, adding a minor in business. And this was in the early 0’s. So the Internet was still just the Internet as we know it. You know, Instagram didn’t exist yet. Facebook had just come out. My second last year of university, YouTube was just starting to kind of get some momentum. So at the time I really didn’t know what I wanted to do in my life. But the idea of creating a job for myself on the Internet was not something anyone was really talking about. 

03:35
Crystal
It was basically just Mark Zuckerberg at the time that, you know, started Facebook and we thought that was cool. So I was sort of just splashing around and trying to figure out where I belonged and what I needed to do in life. And so I tried a bunch of different careers. I thought for a while I wanted to work in casino marketing. So I did a work travel visa and worked in Las Vegas for a summer after university. 

03:55
Erin
Oh, that sounds exciting. I bet you have stories from that. 

03:58
Crystal
That could be a whole podcast in itself, you know, graduated from university, moved to Las Vegas with two suitcases and my then six month old cat who’s now 17, so even Bella can say she’s lived in Las Vegas but came back home and just really didn’t know what I wanted to do. Kind of went through that slump where everybody else that was graduating from university seemed to have it figured out and they were settling down and buying houses and I was just sort of floating around trying to figure out what I wanted to do and what my dream job looked like. Fast forward to a couple years later, I somehow found myself working in marketing and getting an interest in social media. 

04:40
Crystal
At this point, you know, we had Instagram had come out, but at the time it was still just posting pictures of your food, choosing a filter and putting, you know, one or two word caption. We weren’t really thinking about it that much, but I found myself getting a job at an agency working in pr. It was something I had been kind of on the back of my mind, thought maybe I’d like pr, maybe I would like to be a publicist. But at the time I had all these student loans from my five years at university that the thought of adding more student loans for something I wasn’t 100% sure if that’s what I wanted to do seemed crazy. So I found some mentors. I used the Internet. 

05:19
Crystal
I taught myself everything there was to know about PR and pitching and media coverage and started using social media to build relationships with journalists. And I worked at an agency for five years before deciding that, you know, maybe I would like to work for myself. Maybe I did want control over the kind of clients that I was getting to work with. And you know, the only person that could shatter that glass ceiling was myself. So by creating my own company and doing it myself, I could sort of hit all of those goals that I wanted to a lot faster than working for someone else who, you know, really sets the bar, sets the salary, sets the potential for what you can do. So that was eight years ago, in February, I started my PR company and never looked back. 

06:00
Erin
Oh my goodness. So cool. I think for me it was a really big transition and I still am learning and growing around, moving out of an environment where things are structured and kind of judged and evaluated by others and the rules are very straightforward and simple. And then stepping into this entrepreneurial environment where there’s endless possibilities because there are no boundaries, but there’s also a lot of uncertainty and ambiguity and requires you to be self driven. You’re not going to get that direct feedback necessarily from others, maybe from your clients. How have you learned and grown with respect to some of those skills and navigating that somewhat less clear and finite environment? 

06:51
Crystal
So I know this has absolutely no science behind it, but honestly, just trusting in the universe and myself, and not to say I don’t still worry about stuff if I lose a client and go through this little mini spiral of oh my gosh, you know, I’m going to be eating ramen noodle and we’re like gonna have to sell the cottage and all this stuff. It, that still happens, not to the degree it did in the early days. It’s, it’s interesting because I, I wanted to start my own company so that I got to choose who I worked with and the types of clients I worked with. 

07:21
Crystal
But in the early days, in the first couple years looking back, I definitely said yes to some clients that weren’t necessarily aligned because of scarcity mindset and thinking, well, you know, it’s been a little, there’s been a little bit of a dry sprout lately. Maybe I should say yes to this client because it’s good money and now I’m in a place where it doesn’t matter if I need to fill a spot. If it’s a hell no, it’s a hell no. I really stick with the kinds of clients that I want to work with and that I believe in and that I know deserve to get media coverage. So it’s really just a mind over matter thing. You’re still, it’s. It never goes away. I saw another publicist I know that’s an entrepreneur post the other day. 

08:02
Crystal
You know, she still gets nervous after 10 years sending a proposal to a potential client. I still get that feeling when I send a proposal. I still sometimes get weird when I send an invoice. You know, like, who am I to ask this person to send me this money? That never really goes away. But I think you just get better at rushing it off. It’s kind of like that little voice on your shoulder that’s saying, oh, you know, you don’t have a client lined up for Q2. What’s going to happen if you don’t? What happens if you lose a client? And then you just sort of just say, I got this, it’s all going to work out. Because it always does. 

08:35
Crystal
And after eight years and going through a global pandemic, which I lost 75% of my clients in one week when that happened, because the first thing to get slashed were marketing and PR budgets. That was a moment where I thought, okay, I’ll just be a housewife, I’ll make bread. That’s what everybody on the Internet’s doing these days. It’s going to be fine. Really. 

08:56
Erin
That’s the backup. I need to make a note of that, I did. 

09:01
Crystal
I downloaded Rollercoaster Tycoon on my phone. I played that obsessively. I downloaded TikTok. That lasted for about two weeks. And then what ended up happening was all of these startups and small businesses that were thriving because of the pandemic suddenly started calling and saying, hey, we need media coverage. We need more people to know that we’re out there and that we’re helping and that we’re doing this. And so that was, I would say the only dark period was about two weeks where I thought my life was just going to be, you know, TikTok, dancing, and sourdough. But it worked out. 

09:33
Erin
That’s so funny. Beyond the trust piece, what did you learn through the experience of navigating a pandemic? And I’m talking about like the long haul. I mean, the thing was at least a couple of years in duration when it was said and done. 

09:49
Crystal
I think it’s. You really realize what matters. It caused us all to slow down a lot. And I’ve really noticed since the pandemic, the holidays even. This year, I am so proud of everyone that really, honestly took like two weeks off. People were checked out after the 20th, and even if they were back in the office on the second or third, they weren’t really giving it their all until this week. This was kind of like, okay, we’re back, we’re doing things. And I think that was really refreshing because I think what, you know, when you’re faced with uncertainty and death and illness and all that, it made us all really take inventory of what was in our life and what was meant the most. Right. 

10:29
Crystal
And so I always say, as an entrepreneur, I often work less than I did when I worked for someone else. Because when I worked for someone else, it felt like I always had to prove myself and I always had to be, you know, pleasing all of these clients that I didn’t sign up to work with. And, you know, you’d have clients thinking they’ve got me 50 hours a week when really I’ve got 10 clients all thinking that. Right. So that was a time where I was burnt out, truly burnt out. Working too much and just unfulfilled, working for myself has certainly been able to give me a little bit more flexibility and ability to have more of a work life balance. And I think the whole pandemic experience really just made us realize that it can all be gone tomorrow. 

11:12
Crystal
So you really need to make time for those that you love and doing the things that you love and spending time and making the memories with people that matter to you. Work is work at the end of the day. 

11:21
Erin
Yeah. As an expert in PR and marketing, what’s some of the best advice that you might give to small businesses around showing up in this space? Because a lot of the time a business is focused on what it’s doing. It’s not necessarily in the business itself of marketing. So what are some of the key things that you would share with small business owners? 

11:47
Crystal
First of all, don’t be afraid to put yourself out there. So many startup founders I’ve worked with over the years are afraid to talk about themselves, their company. They want to focus on the product, they want to focus on what they’re doing. But at the end of the day, most media don’t necessarily care about the product. They care about the people behind the product. They want the stories from the people that are building the product and are selling it. So a big thing. And a lot of people fight with this is, you know, I really don’t want to put myself out there because it’ll sound, some people say it sounds like I’m bragging, some people will say, I just don’t like talking about myself. 

12:20
Crystal
But if you can put yourself out there and share your story, that’s how people relate to you and then want more. If someone gets to know you, if you’re trying to sell your services, let’s say, or a product. But if someone gets to know the founder and they ultimately want to be their best friend and know everything about them that makes them want to buy all of the things that they promote. Look at influencers and content creators and figures that we all look up to. The reason that we buy everything, that every brand partnership that they do, every, you know, Amazon link that they share, is because we feel a connection to them. We feel like we’re friends with them. So therefore we want all of the things in our life that they have in their life. 

13:01
Crystal
So that’s as easy as if you’re starting a company, sharing your why, talking about why you’re doing it. If you’re comfortable sharing a behind the scenes look at your life, your family, what that dynamic looks like. People want to get to know people, they don’t necessarily want to get to know a product. The product that’s just a natural byproduct of getting to know the person is then buying their product. 

13:21
Erin
And any advice for overcoming that hesitation to be so vulnerable? Because I can certainly understand that. 

13:30
Crystal
Yeah, honestly, it’s. What’s the best way to say it? It’s. Put yourself out there. Because I can assure you, if, even if it makes you feel uncomfortable and even if there’s someone on the Internet that sees something that you post and they’re like, they’re not going to think about that in an hour. It’s kind of like, it’s a weird example, but I saw someone lately, say, and this was in regards to wearing a bathing suit and feeling confident and if you want to wear a bikini, wear a bikini. When you go to a beach, we can get very self conscious and think, oh my gosh, everyone’s looking at me, they’re going to notice that little dimple. No one actually is. 

14:07
Crystal
When was the last time we all went to a beach and were literally going through each person at the beach and looking at what their bathing suit looks like and what they’re like. We think that people care about this stuff and that thinking these things in their minds when really they’re not. So if you put something on the Internet and somebody doesn’t like it, I can assure you they’re not going to think about it again and it’s not going to impact you. So just go out there and share what you want to share. And the people that are meant to find you and that are going to resonate with it will find you and that community will just continue to grow. And those that don’t like what you have to say, they’ll just move on. They’ll just keep going. 

14:42
Erin
So true. You had brought up storytelling, which is great because this is where I wanted to go next anyway. So that was a lovely segue. I know the fulfillment foundation of creativity had popped out for you. And when we spoke briefly earlier, you didn’t necessarily relate it to storytelling. But I wondered after if that is what it looks like for you or maybe creativity shows up in other ways. How does creativity show up for you and how does it relate to your sense of fulfillment? 

15:14
Crystal
Oh, my goodness, definitely. Storytelling and writing, I love it. That’s why I started East Coast Mermaid. When I was a little girl. So I’m. I was an 80s baby. So my parents, I remember went to this big yard sale and my parents bought me a typewriter. So before there were laptops and Macs and stuff, they bought me this typewriter. And they were having to refill the ribbons for that typewriter all the time. For anyone that’s very young that’s listening to this, yes, you had typewriter. 

15:42
Erin
They’re like, what’s a typewriter? 

15:44
Crystal
There was a black one and there was a red one. And they were constantly having to do that. And then because I was. I was just writing so many stories, I loved writing stories. I actually loved writing ghost stories. That was probably my first step into writing. And then when I was a teenager, my dad came home one day with the first, you know, computer that was probably 96, 97. And I remember sneaking out of my bedroom after I was supposed to be in bed to go downstairs and I was writing. I was still writing. I was writing novels, I was writing short stories. I loved writing. 

16:14
Crystal
In eighth grade, our English teacher picked the four top performing students to not have to do all of the stuff that everybody else was, and they got to write their own novel and then they would get the same credit. And I was very upset that I wasn’t selected. I think I was like fifth in line. So I said to her, I said, well, what if I did all of the regular stuff that everyone else in the class has to. But then I also wrote a novel to show you that I can do it. So I did double the work. I did all the classwork. And I wrote a novel on my. On the side, and when I ended up presenting it to her, she couldn’t believe it. She was like, Crystal, this is insane. I can’t believe it. 

16:52
Crystal
Like, when did you find time to do this? So I’ve always loved writing, and I think now as a publicist, I mean, I write pitches every day. I write emails every day. I get to help clients with speaking applications and presentations, so I write a lot through that. But really, that’s where East Coast Mermaid kind of came in full swing. A year before I started my PR company, I was still working at an agency. I was feeling very unfulfilled. I wanted something that was my own, not realizing at the time that was entrepreneurship. So I started East Coast Mermaid, and I just started writing about life in New Brunswick and coastal living and all the things that I loved. And so, yeah, I. I can’t imagine not having that creative outlet. 

17:31
Erin
So cool. I know that you had a. And hopefully you don’t mind me sharing this, but, like, a milestone birthday last year. 

17:40
Crystal
I did. Yes. I turned 40. 

17:42
Erin
So exciting. 40 is a big one, I found. Like, did it get you thinking at all when you turned? 

17:48
Crystal
Oh, my gosh, it did. It’s funny because when I turned 30, all my other friends loved turning 30. For some reason, I hated turning 30 because I hadn’t figured out what I wanted to do in life. I was single. All my friends were getting married, buying houses. Some of them are having kids. And here I was just sort of trying to figure out where I fit in the world. When I turned 40, it was interesting because a lot of my friends did not get excited about turning 40. Some of them were dreading it. I was just over the moon, pumped about it. Like, I’ve. I’ve absolutely loved the last year. I’m turning 41 in two weeks, so I would say 40 has definitely been one of the best years yet. 

18:25
Crystal
But I looked at the life map I had made for myself, and I had kind of checked all of the boxes that I had set for myself turning 40. So for me, it was just. Just a way to celebrate. Okay, you’ve hit this big life milestone, but you’ve also checked all those boxes that you wanted to check up until this point, and that’s worth celebrating, too. So it just made. And in a weird way, it made me excited to start planning for 50, which totally creeped half my friends out. Like, what kind of psychopath are you? But as an entrepreneur, it really opened my eyes in the sense that it said, okay, here’s 10 years until 50. What do I want 50 to look like? Because I’ve checked the boxes for 40. What are those? What are those new boxes? So I love it. 

19:05
Crystal
I just look at it as one big. Like I said, it’s like a life map. It’s just figuring out where you want to go and adding those destinations on the map. 

19:12
Erin
Yeah. I have had the chance to learn more about and hear more from women who are in their 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, and I think that has started to make me much more excited about turning 50. 

19:27
Crystal
One of my clients is 57, and she just started her second startup. So she’s been, you know, she’s sold and exited one startup and easily could have retired and just said, I’m done. But here she is at 57 with another startup. She’s raising money, she’s talking to investors, she’s just getting started. And so it’s very empowering to see women, you know, 50, 60. You know, I mean, look at, there’s a meme that goes around about how many famous people that we admire only really getting started in their 50s. So I see it as so much potential, so exciting. 

20:03
Erin
So I know sometimes milestone birthdays can cause one to be a bit reflective. And so this is a bit of a reflective question. How has your relationship with experiences and travel compared to acquiring and owning stuff, changed over time? 

20:18
Crystal
Oh, so I would say. And I, I love stuff. Ever since I was a little girl, I always had my little trinket kids. We’d go on vacations. I’d come home with all the little souvenirs. I had my little sea cave at my car, at my family cottage that I grew up at. It was this little sea cave. It’s not there anymore because climate change and storms have since eroded that little cave. But I had this little cave where I used to have all my little treasures, my sea glass and my seashells and things I had found. So I do love to have. Even if you look behind me, I’ve got little trinkets everywhere. But I have noticed that since turning 40, I’ve definitely prioritized experiences, living, travel, over, acquiring more stuff, being less into. 

21:05
Crystal
Not that I was ever super into fast fashion, but I’m the kind of person that if there’s a special event, I’m tempted to go buy a new outfit or a new dress. This is the year, you know, I went thrifting once for a special occasion dress and found the most perfect dress. And I’m not adding to, you know, the buying another cheap dress that’s just going to end up in a landfill. So I’d say it’s definitely caused me to want to prioritize experiences over buying more things and accumulating more things. 

21:34
Erin
Why do you think that happens? It seems like that’s a theme for folks that I talk to who are kind of, you know, rounding that bend in around 40. 

21:45
Crystal
I don’t know if it’s just because we’ve had life experiences to this point. I read this really fascinating article. I think it was in Business Insider or New York Times, and it was talking about the different generations and how, you know, the boomer generation was the first generation that really felt economic stability. So, you know, they were finally, they were making it, they were getting paid well, so they wanted to buy things. It was the era of going on vacations, of coming home with souvenirs from everywhere as you went and multiple souvenirs. Not just, you know, a shot glass, but like a shot glass and a T shirt, like the whole gamut. Right. And it was saying how our generation, having grown up seeing how much stuff our parents generation has, it’s actually causing us to want less, to want smaller homes. 

22:33
Crystal
I, I joke about down. We, my husband and I talk about downsizing all of the time and we’re only in our early 40s and we’re already kind of dreaming of that 1200 square foot, one level house. Right. 

22:45
Erin
Yeah. 

22:46
Crystal
So I think it’s just, I think a lot of us grew up in an era where there was a lot of stuff, everyone had a lot of stuff, and now we’re seeing what it’s doing to our planet. I mean, just watch any documentary that’s showing where a lot of stuff we’ve accumulated is ending up. It’s ending up in our oceans, it’s ending up in landfills. Turn on the news, we can see what’s happening to our planet right now. So I think it’s just coming from a place of wanting to do better and just not have things we don’t need. It’s not to say we’re not still going to get stuff, but I think it’s just being more intentional about the stuff we do bring into our home. 

23:21
Erin
Yeah. And I know that you like to host dinners and stuff. And sometimes I’ve seen in your newsletter, you know, you’ll have a lovely picture of a table setting, which I think is maybe another way that creativity shows up for you. It certainly seems that way in the picture. 

23:37
Crystal
I love I love to set a good table. That makes me very happy and excited. Yes, I talk about having less stuff, but the exception to the rule would be whenever it’s holiday themed. Because I definitely have a lot of. I love decorating for the holidays and I love decorating for Halloween. Those are my two. My two areas where I definitely have an area in storage that’s my seasonal stuff. And I like setting the table any time of year, whether it’s for the holidays or whether it’s just for a girl’s get together or. I love photography too. So staging the perfect photo to make sure that everything looks perfect is definitely another. Another creative outlet for me. 

24:12
Erin
Oh, neat. I bring it up because I think that, gosh, I feel like if there’s anything I’m learning as I continue to age, it’s that nothing is ever binary. Right. There’s no. Things aren’t right and wrong, black and white. And so I bring it up because I think that we can talk about acquiring less and moving more towards experiences, but doesn’t necessarily mean, like, we all have to be minimalist.

24:38
Crystal
Right. 

24:39
Erin
So I don’t know, it seems like you’ve kind of found the things that, you know, you really love and that’s where you’re gonna invest in maybe having a few things and then let go of the rest. 

24:52
Crystal
Absolutely. And the dinner party thing’s interesting because that was one of my ins. I always do an ins and outs list every year. So things. The ins are all things that some of them, many of them are already in my life. But I want more. And then I do outs are kind of the things that don’t serve me anymore and I want less of. And dinner parties was a big one on my ends list. And we actually were able to somehow get all of our friends together for a party closer to Christmas. And many of us, the men and the women, hadn’t all been together since our wedding three years ago. 

25:26
Erin
Wow. 

25:27
Crystal
And the one thing that everyone kept saying throughout the night was, why don’t we do this more often? We need to do this again soon. And some people said, you need to do this every year. And then someone else would chime in and say, no, we’re not waiting until next December. We need to do this again before that. And I think that’s another thing that sort of. It’s a ripple effect from the pandemic that we don’t necessarily think of. But went through this stage where we weren’t allowed to see anyone and weren’t allowed to have big gatherings. And then it’s almost like once things went back to normal, we never really brought back those big friend gatherings. And so now it’s like, okay, why aren’t we having more dinner parties? 

26:04
Crystal
So, you know, we’re going to dinner at another couple’s house this weekend that I’m really looking forward to. We’re already talking to friends who want to come from Nova Scotia to come have dinner at our place. So we’re really trying to put more effort into booking those evenings and those experiences and making those memories. 

26:22
Erin
Oh, amazing. I want to switch to travel because, I mean, we have to talk about travel and specifically New Brunswick travel. When it comes to Atlantic Canada, we always hear about iconic places like Nova Scotia, Cape Breton, Prince Edward Island. Why don’t we hear more about New Brunswick? 

26:42
Crystal
I don’t know and I’m trying to fix that. It’s the only thing we ever hear about New Brunswick is that it’s a drive through province, which breaks my heart because I’ll admit if you’re driving through and you’re on the highway, you might not see anything compelling that makes you want to pull off the highway, but you need to pull off the highway because once you get off the highway, and especially I’m very partial to Southern New Brunswick, Southeastern and Southern New Brunswick. Like the beaches, we have some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, but you have to get off the highway to see those. So everybody likes to say we’re a drive thru province. 

27:19
Crystal
And I like to say, okay, but yes, you can drive through us, but you need to actually get off the highway if you want to find the magic. I think we’re getting better. I think more people are starting to realize the magic of New Brunswick. But I don’t know if it’s because we don’t have, you know, we don’t have the Cabot Trail, but we have the Fundy Trail Parkway, which is equally as beautiful and follows the coastline and has stunning coastal views. We have the freshest, most amazing seafood in the world. We have all of this stuff to offer. I just, for some reason don’t think people realize it. We really are Canada’s hidden gem. If Canada had a hidden gem, it would be New Brunswick. 

27:58
Erin
Yeah. One of the first places we stopped when we visited New Brunswick was Kouchibouguac National Park. And oh my goodness, I think this might have been the first. Like, shockingly, because we have been RVing for years now, but I think it was the first national park we’ve ever stayed in. And it was memorable for a lot of reasons. I mean, firstly, we didn’t realize that we could get full hookups in a national park, because in Ontario, the provincial parks don’t have full hookups, but they did at Kouchibouguac. And just the amount of investment into these parks. When you look at the landscape of national parks, it’s probably not one of the ones that would come to the top in terms of being most recognizable. 

28:48
Erin
But now that we’ve been to a few, I can honestly say it really set a bar for us. It was incredible. 

28:56
Crystal
I grew up. So our family cottage is in St. Thomas, so near Bouctouche, so about 45 minutes from Kouchibouguac. And I. So that was the national park that I definitely, that and Fundy, that I spent most of my childhood going to. And I mean, yeah, to your point, it doesn’t have cliffs, it doesn’t necessarily have mountains or anything like that, but it has these gorgeous sand dunes. It has, you know, Kelly’s beach and that warm water and the sand and it’s just. It’s. It’s so magical. But, yeah, it’s true. It’s not exactly what you would think when you would think of a national park. 

29:31
Erin
Yeah, St. Andrews was incredible. Can you talk a little bit about that? 

29:36
Crystal
Oh, my goodness. St. Andrews is. So we got married there, actually. So it’s very special to us. They have the historic Algonquin Resort and Hotel. 

29:47
Erin
Yes. 

29:47
Crystal
So that hotel. When I was a little girl, my dad used to always go to conferences there every spring, and my mother used to always get to go along, and I didn’t get to go because I was too young and it was an adult thing. And he’d bring back postcards and T shirts and all these souvenirs because, again, it was the era of souvenirs. And I would put these postcards of the Algonquin Hotel on my mirror and, you know, because I was a typical teenage girl and say, you know, one day I’ll get to go there. And so when my husband and I started dating very early on, he surprised me with a weekend to go there. And then we kind of just kept going back and we’d go in the summer and we’d go whale watching there. 

30:25
Crystal
And then eventually when we got married, it was just a natural decision to say, well, hey, what if we actually got married? It was kind of like that dream wedding I hadn’t really thought was possible. And then when I realized it was, we just ran with it. But that town is, it’s like a Hallmark movie. We go every December because it’s actually the closest thing to a real life Hallmark Christmas movie I think we have around. You know, the shop windows all have gingerbread houses in them. I got to be the celebrity judge for a dog holiday costume competition this year. 

30:58
Erin
So fun. 

30:58
Crystal
They had the most incredible Santa that came for two hours to take photos and chat with everyone. It is just something out of a movie. It doesn’t seem real. It’s this, it’s, it’s. I would say it’s like Canada’s equivalent. I’ve heard it referred to as a bar harbor dupe or, you know, a Cape Cod dupe. But it really is our version of kind of those New England coastal cities and towns that we’ve grown to know. 

31:24
Erin
Yeah, yeah. Hopewell Rocks we had the chance to go see. So that was pretty cool. Now that’s a more popular one. People know about that one. 

31:34
Crystal
That one’s popular. But what always blows my mind about the Hopewell Rocks. So living in Moncton, they’re about a 40 minute drive away. And it always blows my mind when I talk to people who live here who say they’ve never been before and it’s right in our backyard. And then they go, because even me, I didn’t. I think I went to the Hopewell Rocks for the first time when I was maybe 16, 17 years old. I didn’t get there when I was a kid. It was just this thing that existed. We would drive by the exit, going to Fundy national park, but never actually turn in. So I’m always telling people, locals that have grown up here that have never been to go because they think it’s just rocks. It is so much more than just rocks. 

32:14
Erin
Oh, it’s so cool. 

32:16
Crystal
Yeah. 

32:16
Erin
We have, you know, the quintessential photos of high tide and then, you know, the kids standing on the ocean floor for low tide. So amazing. 

32:26
Crystal
I always love to tell the story. I was there once and there was a school trip and the teacher was definitely not having a great day. One kid found a squid that was out of water and so he picked the squid up and the squid inked all over him, so he was covered in black squid ink. And then about 10ft away, another kid had ventured out too far and he’d started to sink into the mud and so he couldn’t get out. So you had one kid screaming, I’m stuck. You had another kid that was covered in squid ink, she was just, she was not having a great day. But that’s the kind of cool stuff. I mean, you know, where else can you go and walk on the ocean floor? 

33:03
Crystal
And actually last summer they launched a new dining experience so you could actually go dine on the ocean floor. My husband and I did it. It was phenomenal. They cooked this beautiful three course meal for you. You drink wine and you’re literally on the ocean floor at low tide. And then you basically have to kind of wrap it up and move along before the tide comes back in. 

33:24
Erin
So fun. What are some other hidden gems or secrets that you can share with us about New Brunswick? 

33:33
Crystal
So what would I would say? I mean, first of all, whale watching. I don’t think enough people realize that you can come to New Brunswick and literally be in the Bay of Fundy with giants. I mean, we have the, you know, we’ve got minke whales, we have finbacks, we have humpbacks, we have a rare orca, a killer whale, that’s just a solitary orca. His name’s Old Thom. He tends to hang out between Cape Cod and the Bay of Funday. So you really have to go off of Grandan to see him because he doesn’t really come. He came up further than Grandman once last summer, or not last summer, the summer before. But he’s very mysterious. He’s kind of like the unicorn of the Bay of Fundy. There’s no way to predict when you will see him. 

34:16
Crystal
But I did see him for the first time this summer and I’m not kidding when I say it was like the best day of my life. Which funny enough, it was on our wedding anniversary. So I, I kind of choked. I’m like, okay, well, August 6th continues to be the best day ever because wedding anniversary, old time anniversary. But that kind of, you know, great white sharks, we have great white sharks out in the ocean. So, so people don’t, like, even people that live in New Brunswick don’t realize that all of this is just a short drive away depending on where you are. If you’re in Moncton, if you’re in Fredericton, you know, you can do a day trip to St. Andrews. 

34:48
Crystal
Go out on a whale watching boat, see humpback whales and all of these amazing creatures, and then get back home to put your kids to bed at a decent hour all in one day if you want to. Now I would make a night of it and stay and get to enjoy it more. But if you know, you’re crunched for time or budget. You really can just take a short day trip and go see these beautiful creatures. So I would say that’s a big hidden one. The Fundy Trail Parkway I mentioned. So that has actually now been adopted into our park system. So it’s a provincial park, but it’s a 30 kilometer parkway. It starts in Sussex or Saint. Saint Martin. So Saint Martin’s is home to our beautiful sea caves that you can explore at low tide. 

35:29
Crystal
That trail and parkway, you can drive it, you can hike it is beautiful. You’ve got, you know, huge cliffs, you’ve got waterfalls, you have suspension bridges. It’s. It’s absolutely breathtaking. And then I can’t not shout out the Fundy Islands, Grand Manan, Deer Island, Campobello Island. You. You go to these islands and you feel like, I’m sure you experienced this when you went to Grand Manan. You sometimes don’t even feel like you’re still in Canada. 

35:55
Erin
Yeah. 

35:55
Crystal
You’re on the southern head of Grand Manan and you see those stunning cliffs. That’s like something you would see in Europe or in Hawaii. It’s. It’s really neat how you can go to these places and really do feel like you’ve left the country without actually leaving the country. 

36:08
Erin
Yeah. On the day that went, it was quite foggy. And I remember at first being kind of disappointed, like, oh, the weather’s not that great. 

36:17
Crystal
Yeah. 

36:17
Erin
But we have these photos now because the first thing we did when we got there was to go out to the lighthouse house. 

36:23
Crystal
Yeah. 

36:23
Erin
And we have these photos that when they come up on our little. On our TV or Google home or whatever Josh has hooked up for us to see our travel photos. It’s like out of a magazine because they’re these beautiful small marine, like, buildings and this beautiful landscape and just the fog settling on the water like out of another world. It’s so cool. 

36:53
Crystal
I love the fog. I love the foghorn. The foghorn. You haven’t slept until you’ve been lulled to sleep by a foghorn. It’s. Now, some people say it’s too much. There’s a campground not far from the lighthouse. And I. I do have friends that have stayed there that said okay, but it was great. But then one night, the foghorn was going and we couldn’t get to sleep. But that. That could rock me to sleep any day. I absolutely love the fog.

37:19
Erin
Truly are a mermaid, aren’t you? 

37:23
Crystal
Salt, air, and fog. 

37:27
Erin
The other thing that I found really incredible was how quickly you know, as humans, we’re so adaptable. And so were in the area for two months. When we got back, we lived near, or at least our home base is near Lake Ontario, which is beautiful for all sorts of other reasons. But we found ourselves really missing tides, missing sea life. Like, we would be driving along Lake Ontario just near our home and look out in the water and then kind of remember, like, oh, there’s nothing to look for. Whereas we’d almost trained ourselves to be constantly looking out into the water because you never knew when you would spot a whale tail or sea lions. Yeah, yeah. So fun. I missed that. 

38:15
Crystal
It’s interesting because I have a lot of. I help a lot of people plan their trips to New Brunswick, and I stay in touch with all of them. So whether it’s on email or Instagram. And this summer, I had a record number of people from Ontario that came out east. Some folks came for one week, some came for three and ended up staying for four. But when they get back to the city, you know, some of them come from Toronto or Ontario. Those are the kinds of messages they send me. They’ll tell me I’m, you know, I’m not sleeping. I can’t stop thinking about it. I miss it. I miss the sea life. I miss the fog. I miss the foghorn, whatever it is. And, you know, even here, I. 

38:53
Crystal
It’s funny, when we first bought our cottage on Grand Manan, one of my friends on the island said, make sure to keep your windows open tonight. It smells extra grim. And I’m like, what is she talking about? And I open. I went and stood out on the deck and it was true. It just had that smell. And even now, every time we leave the city and the minute we get to the ferry landing, we just roll the window. It doesn’t matter what time of year it is. It could be minus 30 out. We roll down the windows and you just breathe it in and it’s. There’s something about it and it does stick with you. And I, I. So I love hearing what people going back to where they came from and saying that. 

39:31
Crystal
It’s almost like they still have a little bit stuck to them that, you know, is calling them back. 

39:37
Erin
Yeah. Oh, and the dolphins. Oh, and I should ask you, because you have your background in marine biology, were they sea lions or were they seals? I actually don’t know the difference. They’re seals. 

39:47
Crystal
So we don’t have sea lions. We have seals. And then dolphins. High probability it was a. It might have been a porpoise. But if you were out on a whale watching tour, it could have been white sided Atlantic dolphins. Dolphins. So we have their, they’re tiny, they don’t look like the typical bottlenose dolphin like Flipper that we know of. But they’re darker in color and then they have a white side. But they tend to travel more south of Grandman. And funny enough they actually hang out with Old Tom. So Old Tom is an orca whale and he hangs out with a posse about 200 or so dolphins, which is fascinating because typically he should be eating the dolphins and he seems to have built this little friendship and community with all of them. 

40:29
Crystal
So if you do see a significant amount of dolphins that sometimes is a sign that he might be around. 

40:38
Erin
Wow. Yeah, he’s a legend. 

40:40
Crystal
He really is. He’s. And it’s funny because everybody’s like, well that’s so sad that he’s alone. But everyone that studied him, that’s followed him over the years genuinely thinks he is just a cranky old whale and he likes being alone. 

40:55
Erin
Posse of porpoises. 

40:56
Crystal
Posse of dolphins and porpoises. Yeah, yeah. 

41:00
Erin
That’s awesome. Sounds like a movie in the making. One thing I learned when were there, and this might be relevant for people who are thinking about taking a trip out there, is that the opportunities to see Wales are best between really July, August, maybe beginning of September. Right? Yeah, we are like, we’re gonna do the shoulder season. Like we’re all out there, you know, beginning of June, I’m like, let’s see some whales. Yeah, they weren’t ready. 

41:29
Crystal
So people don’t always realize that the whales don’t actually spend, they’re not here all year round. So most of the whales come to Atlantic Canada to feed. So they, when they get here they’re really hungry because a lot of them haven’t eaten since they’ve swam up from down south. And so they get here and it’s their feeding ground all summer. And this is basically how they fatten themselves up to then make the trip back down south, which is where they will mate, have babies and do all of that. So the earliest I’ve seen them roll in, so I, I say it, seen them. I’m partial to the humpback whales because the humpback whales are a bit of the showboat of the ocean. The minkies are great, the finbacks are great. They don’t jump out of the water like the humpbacks do. 

42:10
Crystal
We do have one minky, his name is Gonzo – the name’s appropriate. Gonzo does jump out of the water, but he’s the only minky around that we’ve seen do this. But the humpbacks, they’re the ones, you know, the humpbacks, you get the tail shot. So if you’re a photographer, you want the tail shot. They’re the ones that, you know, they’ll flip their pectoral fins. They. They show off and they like to show off, and they breach, which is another thing a lot of people have. Their whale watching bingo card is seeing a whale come out of the water, jump and make a big splash, which is both incredible and terrifying for some people because they’ve done. I’ve been on the boat before when they’ve done it, you know, five feet from your boat. 

42:51
Erin
Oh, wow. 

42:52
Crystal
Yeah. So the humpbacks tend to. I’ve seen them come as early as end of May, but typically they’ll. They’ll show up in June, they’ll stick around for July and August, and then in September they will start to move further south. I’ve had really great whale watching end of September. But you’re taking a chance. If you really are dead set on seeing whales, I say July, August are the best months. And honestly, I tend to lean more towards August because July can be known as a foggy time. And if it’s too foggy, sometimes the whale watching boats can’t go out. 

43:22
Erin
Right. 

43:23
Crystal
Yeah. 

43:24
Erin
We were lucky that our trip was long enough. We were able to hold on and do something later in June and we ended up seeing some whales. So. Yeah. Yeah. All right, let’s build your equations. 

43:33
Crystal
Okay. 

43:34
Erin
So to get started, we’re just going to think about what are the kinds of things you’d love to do in a week? If you could fill a week of want to dos, what would it be filled with? 

43:46
Crystal
Oh, my goodness. So this is outside of work. 

43:50
Erin
Yeah. I mean, I think sometimes there’s a bit of a purpose piece around work, so we can feel free to include it. If you find that you get fulfillment from that or if you want to create one without it, that’s fine too. 

44:03
Crystal
So I would definitely include work because one of the reasons I’m an entrepreneur and love what I do is because I get to have fun and help and work with amazing clients. And that’s. I mean, all of my clients, they’re not just clients, they’re. They’re friends, they’re family. You know, I have clients that we all literally say love you when we get off team meeting. So clients are a very big part of my life and fulfilling me. So I would say a perfect, you know, all of the things I love to have in a week. Definitely, you know, my mornings, sitting down, working on my company with my clients. I love writing. So making sure that I’m carving out time to send out my newsletter, which we’ve sort of hinted at it, but we’re. 

44:50
Crystal
We’re rebranding it to now be known as the Tide Pool. So it’s. It’s going to, you know, it’s going to continue to be a regular email that goes out, but I love sharing what’s going on in my life with subscribers. And in the last year, it went from being very much structured to new blog posts. Check it out. To actually starting to share more of a behind the scenes of, you know, what did we do this weekend? What books are my reading, what shows are we watching? And I love sharing that. So that writing activity, I would say date night in there. My husband and I both work from home, except for the two days he’s at the office. But I like being able to prioritize a night that we can go out for dinner or go skating or do something together. 

45:28
Crystal
Also including some time with family. So whether that’s having my parents over for dinner, going for brunch with his parents, but ensuring that there’s a family component and getting to see our parents, getting to see friends would be another one. So, yeah, lots of making sure we’re connecting with the people that fill our love cup. Movement. Movement’s a big one. So whether that’s a walk on the beach, going to a spin class, going to the pool, just making sure that I’m moving my body every day is really important. Spending quality time with my cat is as silly as it sounds. I love those moments where we just curl up and I’ve got the heating pad on my lap and she’s just living her best life. Yes. And reading. Reading’s a big one. 

46:15
Crystal
For the first, gosh, I would say six or seven years that I was an entrepreneur, I just stopped reading. I used to love reading, and then I became an entrepreneur and I just, I guess I just didn’t prioritize it. And when I would go to bed at night, I would be so tired that I just didn’t have time to read. Last year, I wanted to try to start setting better bedtime habits, so I reintroduced reading. Also with us spending more time on Grand Manan, you know, there’s an hour and a half long ferry ride. That’s a great time to curl up with the book. So reading is a big one that I’ve reintroduced. I hit 15 books last year, which I didn’t think I would even hit that at the start of the year, because the year before, I think I’d read one book. 

46:52
Crystal
So doubling down on that is a big one, too. And making sure to have time before bed to curl up with a good book. 

46:58
Erin
Oh, nice. Yeah. One of the things I like to think about with this in terms of, you know, a litmus test for including things, is if it was to be taken out, would you miss it? Would you feel off equilibrium? 

47:13
Crystal
Oh, I would say everything that I put in there, I would definitely feel off equilibrium. For sure. 

47:19
Erin
Yeah. 

47:20
Crystal
Family prioritizing, you know, a date night with my husband, seeing family and friends. That’s all really important. When I don’t get to do that, it. I don’t. I don’t feel good. Yeah. No, I would say movement, reading, writing. Those are all things that if I’m not doing those and not making time for those, I’m not a happy person. 

47:37
Erin
Yeah. All right, so then our second step is to attach weights to them. When it comes to work, sometimes I’ll do bigger blocks, like, you know, either a morning or an afternoon or. Or, you know, a full work day, if that’s what you want to include. So how many blocks of work would you include in a week? 

47:59
Crystal
So I would say if. Perfect scenario, I’d say morning. Would you count each morning as a block? 

48:07
Erin
Yeah. 

48:08
Crystal
Yeah. So let’s say five morning blocks. 

48:11
Erin
Great. What about writing? 

48:13
Crystal
I like to at least spend at least an hour a day writing. 

48:15
Erin
And you like to write every day? 

48:17
Crystal
Yeah, I make sure I’m writing something. Yes. 

48:20
Erin
Nice. 

48:21
Crystal
Whether it’s a newsletter or writing in a journal or just writing something for, like, a social media post. But I. I want to. I always like to make sure I’m writing. Writing. 

48:30
Erin
Let’s do reading, because I feel like it follows well after the writing piece. 

48:35
Crystal
Yeah. So reading. I wouldn’t give it as big of a wait because reading would be the thing that if I was running out of time in a day, that would be the one thing that would get dropped. But I would dedicate at least four or five hours to reading. 

48:48
Erin
All right, let’s give it four blocks. 

48:50
Crystal
Yeah. 

48:51
Erin
Now, you talked about date night, which really felt like opportunities for connection with your spouse. So if you think about, you know, how many opportunities for true connection you’d be looking at in a week. 

49:04
Crystal
Yeah. So that’s a good one. So every night, it’s funny because I try to not. I’m trying to watch less TV this year. But I do prioritize, you know, an hour every night where we’ll watch a show. So right now we’re rewatching Severance because the new season’s coming out, so we will do, like, an hour together of watching tv. So I would say at least every day, there’s at least an hour of doing something together. Maybe two if we go for a walk and then also watch some tv. And then a date night, I would say, you know, adding a couple hours to be able to go out for a nice meal or do something that’s just getting us out of the house and. And really able to connect with each other. 

49:43
Erin
Nice. So maybe nine. 

49:45
Crystal
Yeah, let’s do that. 

49:46
Erin
Yeah. What about family? 

49:48
Crystal
We’ll give that a four. Because I usually. We try to at least do something with them at least once a week, and then both our parents live five minutes away, so it’s very easy for me to just pop over and go see my parents and just have coffee with them or something. So I would say at least four hours. 

50:02
Erin
Oh, that’s so nice. 

50:04
Crystal
Yeah. 

50:05
Erin
What about friends? 

50:06
Crystal
Friends, I’m gonna say let’s pop two hours in there. 

50:11
Erin
All right. Movement. 

50:13
Crystal
Oh, so that one. Definitely an hour a day of some form of movement. So I would say seven. 

50:20
Erin
And last but not least, Bella, your beautiful cat. We haven’t had a chance yet to meet in the video here. 

50:28
Crystal
Yes, I know. I think Dan has her locked up because she would be screaming and trying to overtake the interview. She’s quite vocal, I would say. Bella. Oh, my gosh. Well, we have to give her. We’ll give her at least an hour a day, too. So at least seven hours, because she’s 17. So we. We try to prioritize the cuddles and the quality time with her. 

50:50
Erin
Absolutely, yeah. Does she like to cuddle? 

50:53
Crystal
Oh, she’s. Yeah, Especially if there’s a heating pad. But she comes everywhere with us, so she even comes to Grand Manan with us. We have a little backpack for her. So she. She. She travels on the ferry. We brought her to St. Andrews for the first time in December for our holiday trip. So she stayed at the Algonquin and was spoiled rotten. And. Yeah, so she’s. She’s. She goes everywhere we go. 

51:14
Erin
When I come back in another life, I want to come back as Bella. 

51:20
Crystal
It’s funny because my mother often jokes. She’s like, wow. She said, not that I want to think about that time. But she said, when she passes, you’re going to have to write one hell of an obituary for that. I said, I know it’s true, because, you know, started out living in the streets, lived in Vegas in her first year, you know, now she’s got the cottage, she’s lives here, so she’s quite well traveled. 

51:41
Erin
I want to get Bella’s fulfillment equation. All right, so, but here’s yours. Five, work, plus seven, writing. Plus four, reading. Plus nine, quality connection moments with your spouse, plus four family, plus two friends, plus seven movement. And plus seven for your beautiful cat, Bella. Okay, how does that sound? 

52:08
Crystal
So now what all does that mean? 

52:09
Erin
It’s really not a productivity exercise, to be clear. So let’s say that off the bat, this isn’t about checking things off and feeling a sense of achievement. It’s about monitoring your mood and your sense of fulfillment and using this like a scientist to help you understand when something might be missing and what the relationship is between that and your sense of fulfillment. So you might find that your. Maybe you kind of hit a period where you’re not feeling as fulfilled, and then you realize, like, oh, actually, the movement’s been really down lately. Or you can use it to think about how you’re spending your time. So if this is the way you want to spend your time, are you actually spending it that way? And then if not, why not? And then can we adjust? Or do you know? 

53:03
Erin
Or do we need to kind of question the way that we’ve designed this? So, so all that to say that I. This sounds like a lot of analysis, but it’s a really great tool for being able to help guide yourself towards living your best life and, you know, showing up in the way that you want to, doing the things that you want to do. 

53:24
Crystal
Yeah, I love that. Well, that. That’s why I do that ins and outs every year, and I love it. And I reflect back on that a lot throughout the year to say, okay, am I actually following what I said I was going to do? Have the outs stayed out? Have they crept back in? I think it’s so important for all of us to have some of compass that, you know, we can kind of use to guide us. Yeah, I used to do word of the year, which is very popular. A lot of people will pick a word of the year and we have this inside joke because the year of 2020, my word of the year was bask. I wanted to travel less. We had just bought a new home. I wanted to spend more time in our home. I wanted to slow down. 

54:04
Crystal
And then a global pandemic happened. So everybody in my life was like, this is your fault, because. Right. You literally said you wanted to spend more time at home, travel less. Like, it was uncanny. 

54:15
Erin
So you didn’t have to bring us all with you. 

54:18
Crystal
I know that wasn’t my intent. So after that year, I was like, no more word of the year. And I haven’t done it since. 

54:27
Erin
Yeah, that’s hilarious. Let’s do some rapid fire. Okay, finish the sentence. Fulfillment is. 

54:36
Crystal
Oh, alignment. 

54:39
Erin
Give me an example of a small moment of joy you had in the last 24 hours. 

54:45
Crystal
A new person joining spin class today said, oh, my God, are you the east coast mermaid? I follow you. And that made me so happy. 

54:54
Erin
What is a book you read or a podcast you listened to that changed the way you think?

55:00
Crystal
That’s a good one. I would say Big Magic. 

55:06
Erin
That’s my favorite, too. 

55:09
Crystal
It’s. And that one blew my mind because I had written a book that I never did anything with. And she talks about how if you have an idea and you don’t do anything with it, that idea will leave you and it will find someone that will do something with it. And there was a book that I wrote no one knew about. And a couple years later, a book with a very similar title about the exact same scenario came out. It landed a TV show and everything. And it blew my mind because I thought, wait, how? Like, how is this even possible? And then I read her book and I. They talked about that how if you don’t. If you ignore an idea, it’s going to go find someone else. And that just rocked my world. So I would say that would be. 

55:53
Erin
Yeah, very powerful in one sentence. What does freedom look like to you? 

55:59
Crystal
Oh, freedom looks like the ability to design my day in a way that brings me joy. 

56:07
Erin
What is the coolest place you’ve visited? 

56:10
Crystal
I’ve been fortunate to do a lot of cool things in my life. I’m gonna say Machu Picchu in Peru was pretty cool. And then I would also say Chateau Belsay in Paris to just. I mean, you’re walking around thinking, you know, Marie Antoinette walked there and ate macarons on that lawn. And that was pretty cool. 

56:32
Erin
What is something you do regularly to fill your own cup? 

56:35
Crystal
Sea glassing. 

56:37
Erin
Oh, and can you just describe that? Because I did not know what that was before we did your itinerary. And now we know.  

56:46
Crystal
Yeah. So sea glassing or beach combing? Beach combings. I guess the would be the actual activity, it’s just walking the beach at low tide or high tide. I found some real treasures at high tide too, and looking for tumbled polished glass that’s been in the ocean for hundreds of years and collecting it and seashells too. I like bringing home seashells and driftwood and everything else I can find on the beach, but definitely bringing home sea glass. That’s a big, big hobby of mine. 

57:16
Erin
We still have our little baggie of sea glass and it was so fun. I can see how that would be a little bit addictive after a while. Is just looking for that. 

57:26
Crystal
Yeah. 

57:27
Erin
So cool. For those listening if you are thinking of planning a trip out east, I encourage you to check out the season one episode of this podcast on Atlantic Canada Travel and eastcoastmermaid.com for New Brunswick specific highlights. Crystal, thank you so much for being here today. This was a blast. 

57:47
Crystal
This was so much fun. Thank you so much for having me. 

57:50
Erin
I feel like we need to end it one of your east coast mermaid phrases. Do you want to cast us out? 

57:57
Crystal
I would just say in a clamshell. There has never been a better time to make a splash. So I want everybody out there to just make some waves in 2025. 

58:07
Erin
I love it. Thanks. Thanks Crystal. 

58:09
Crystal
Thank you. 
58:12
Erin
If you like this podcast and want to support it, tell a friend about it. You can also connect with Fulfillment Equation through Instagram or Facebook for updates on new episodes, daily doses of joy and fun travel tips. And if you are really into it, feel free to join the Fulfillment Equation community through the website at fulfillmentequation.com where you will get a weekly email with insider information and free resources to help you build more fulfillment into your own life. I hope you enjoyed the episode today. There’s more to come this season, so stay tuned.

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