Adventure Travel Podcast with Elaine Nelson Peik - Nordic Travel Collective

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Welcome back, everybody, to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler.
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So happy to have each and every one of you back today.
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And also I'm very excited to have our guest today.
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Today we've got a fascinating guest.
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She's gonna tell us about all things north and and maybe south.
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I don't know.
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Let's let's see where it goes.
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But we've got Elaine Nelson Pike.
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She is the owner and founder of Nordic Travel Collective.
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Elaine, welcome to the show.
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Happy to have you here.
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Thank you for having me.
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Thank you so much.
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I I realized as I was uh doing the brief introduction, I I mentioned all things north, and then I thought, well, maybe you do polar stuff in the south.
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Obviously, the name of your business kind of indicates that that we're gonna be talking a little bit about the north.
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Um and so and since I'm on the topic, do you do stuff south of the equator as well?
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Like really far south?
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Okay.
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I have sold Antarctica, but that was only because somebody from the Nordic region was selling it.
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So I don't specifically All right, very cool.
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I just since I since I mentioned that, I thought I'd get that out of the way.
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Yep.
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So we're gonna we're gonna have a fascinating conversation.
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I know we already spoke with you, I think it was only a week ago.
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I was intrigued by kind of uh, you know, your story, but then also just the north.
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I don't know a lot about it, and I know you do, so I'm I'm gonna ask probably a lot of questions that might feel like dumb questions, but I'm never afraid to ask dumb questions.
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It's uh it's how I learn.
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So I'm a TO teacher by trade, so there aren't any dumb questions.
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So you'll be patient.
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All right, good.
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You've only got one person in the room asking dumb questions, so that's probably Elaine.
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Before we we're gonna definitely spend some time on your story, figure out how you got from where you were to where you are now.
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That that's the part I really enjoy.
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And before we do that, I want to give our listeners kind of an idea, a little bit more of an idea than they might have pulled from your name and our brief conversation so far is what is Nordic Travel Collective?
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And we won't go into the history so much, but just kind of what is it?
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How do you, you know, how do you serve your guests?
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Uh, and maybe a little bit about what kind of guests you serve, and we'll discuss that a little bit before we get into your childhood traumas and and everything that caused you.
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Yeah, exactly.
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So so what is Nordic Travel Collective?
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Well, right now, Nordic Travel Collective is something that I've been thinking about for a long time.
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I have been in the Nordic travel world for almost 28 years, and I have just been listening to what people want, and it's really fun to watch how the Nordic travel and Scandinavian region have kind of evolved over the years.
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And having a one particular discussion over and over and over and over being that I worked not as a travel agent, I worked in uh what are called DMCs and tour operations.
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So we only focused on the Nordic region and we worked with directly with customers, but I also did a lot of trips for travel agents who had customers who wanted to go there.
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So one of the main questions was can't I just take your itinerary and do it myself?
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I've heard that.
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I don't know.
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I would be a millionaire if I told you how many times I've been asked that.
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It's probably gonna resonate, resonate well with both the the tour operators, travel agents, and stuff that that I've had on the show that are listening to the show now, as well as I'm really happy you're bringing it up because we've got a lot of travelers that are listening to this as well.
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So they're gonna, you know, let's let's give them the other side of it.
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So anyway, yeah, you were hearing that quite often.
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And what did you do with that information?
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And so I finally thought I'm gonna lean into this and see where it goes.
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So what I did uh last year, last January 2025, was I started this kind of as a I'm not quite sure where I want to lean, but I know how to do all the things to get people over to the Nordics, to get them itineraries, all of those things.
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And so what I first tried was just designing itineraries for people.
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That's kind of what they were looking for.
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They wanted all of the details, they wanted booking links, they wanted kind of how to get from A to B because people would always come to me or whatever company I was working for, and they would have itineraries that were kind of all over the place, or they knew where they wanted to go and they spit out like 30 different places, and it's like okay.
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They've got a week, right?
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We gotta wrangle this in a little bit.
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So being that there is a market for that, there always kind of has been.
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And the more tech savvy people get, the more they're just kind of looking for kind of a starting point.
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So that's where I come in because if I look at something like I'm interested in going to somewhere in South America, my eyes glaze over because I don't know anything about it.
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I don't know how to get down there, I don't know what's good, what's local, what's you know, what's interesting.
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So I would look for somebody who is a specialist in that region or some said country to kind of give me that that starting point with maybe some suggested itineraries or ideas and things like that.
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So I'd be willing to pay for somebody to kind of like push me in the right direction, and then I can kind of go where I want to go.
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So I designed itineraries for people based on the budget that they had, where where they felt like they were comfortable traveling, if they were comfortable driving, or if they wanted to do all public transportation.
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So writing itineraries based on what people want, and I've done such a wide variety of itineraries, whether it's a large group or a small, you know, just an individual.
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I've done a lot of solo travelers, I've done a lot of camping trips, I've done a lot of heritage trips.
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I I can kind of do it all based on what you're looking for.
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So, and if there are new things that come along, I certainly am constantly reading about new companies that come along and what kind of activities they have, what they offer, if there's a new fun museum or exhibit somewhere.
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I've just it's fun reading about it because it's just such a fun, it's been fun kind of sitting again and looking back at all of the progression just in the past 28 years and how how much more there is and how many more fun adventures you can have.
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So yeah, that's kind of where where I've landed.
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And I've I've started to take regular bookings more as a travel agent to just kind of see where that goes.
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I don't necessarily want to operate as a tour operator at this point in time.
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So I've done that and I know I know where what avenues to go through if I need extra help with things or something that's pretty structured that I just don't have the contacts for.
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So that one that one question is of the question of what is Nordic Travel Collective, just and your response opened up a bunch of new questions, which is why I never come to these conversations with a list of questions, because they would all change right after the first one anyway.
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So what I heard, because you you you mentioned that you're starting to maybe do some travel agent stuff.
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Yeah.
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I'm just gonna leave it at that until I finish.
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I'll go back just a little bit.
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But what you started Nordic Travel Collective doing, I'm gonna put it my own words, was you were helping people put together itineraries that they could then go and book themselves.
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That's right.
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If I were to if I were to boil it down, that's what I heard.
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Is that pretty accurate?
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That yeah, that's absolutely right.
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And I give them booking links, or if they have points that they want to use for specific things like airlines or certain hotel chains, they're definitely you're you're welcome to do that.
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So I'm not I'm not promoting anything specifically.
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I have some booking links on my website that people that I generally feel comfortable using, I know they're they're good operators, things like that.
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But if you have, you know, like if you're going over to stay with family, you know, and we want me to write you an itinerary based on where they are or where your heritage is, I can do that.
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So that's kind of the gist of that is I can do a little bit of everything because everybody has kind of a different idea of what kind of adventure they want to have.
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So what do you what do you call that type of service?
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If you had to put a a label on, like, you know, it it's kind of easy.
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Travel agents oftentimes would be travel advisors, we've got tour operators, we've got DMCs, the destination marketing companies that work on the ground.
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There's everything kind of has a label.
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So if you had to put a label on that kind of work, what do you call it?
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Uh I know people are quick to say like travel design.
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I, you know, it can be that.
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Uh I I sort of consider myself more of a Nordic destination specialist.
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Okay.
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So I like to just consider this sort of a destination specialist, you know, like a Nordic with a Nordic focus.
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Travel company instead of travel agent.
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Because I know that the minute a lot of people hear travel agent, they just kind of they they don't I don't need that.
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I don't want that.
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But it's like, well, that's that's not really what I'm about.
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So it's interesting that you went there.
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Uh and I would like to touch on it.
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I would like to touch on it because things, it's a changing landscape, I guess, especially with AI and the ease of I'm not gonna be careful here because I've got a variety of listeners, a variety of guests, but I also but that doesn't mean I'm gonna sugarcoat it.
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I just want to say it right so I don't so you know, so they don't think Jason, you don't know what you're talking about, which is okay.
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But I imagine my imagine, I've never been a travel agent.
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I've worked as a tour operator, put together a lot of itorne, all that stuff, but I imagine people think, okay, I want to go to let's let's use South America as an example.
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I know it doesn't relate directly, but that's why it makes a better example.
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I want to go to Colombia, but I don't know anything about Colombia.
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But I've got the internet and I can book everything directly because I've got, you know, booking.com or I've got, you know, all these different ways that I can book things.
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And I don't need help booking stuff.
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I've booked stuff on most of my trips, so I'll spend a bunch of time watching YouTube and maybe I'll go ask my my friend over at Chat GPT what they think, and and I can just book all that stuff myself.
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So I don't really need a travel agent because they don't even know what that means if they did get a travel agent.
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Are they saving money?
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Is it more whatever, whatever.
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Mm-hmm.
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Mm-hmm.
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So yeah.
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So if someone said, Oh, here's my friend, they're a travel agent, you should talk to them.
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I don't need a travel agent.
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But if they said, Well, here's my friend, she's a destination expert, you know, she really knows the area.
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You can book anywhere you want.
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She'll just help you figure out where to go, help put the stuff all together.
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So then you just have a punch list of bookings that you do, maybe you know, the affiliated links and all that stuff, but she'll help you get started so she can save you those hours and hours and hours of watching YouTube and listening to and I love YouTube.
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I I like travel influencers, but I cannot tell you how many times I've sat and watched a YouTube video about a place that I am intimately familiar with, and it's pretty clear that they've been there a day.
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Yeah.
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You know, they they they arrive in Bogota or they arrive in Lima and uh and create a video about the 10 things you must see in Lima and they've been there a day.
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And that can be a little bit misleading.
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Where am I going with this, Elaine?
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Uh I think what I'm saying is, yeah, I see, I see the difference.
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You can kind of does this make sense?
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If it's something they kind of already came up with themselves, maybe it's just a matter of, I don't know, proofreading or or reviewing so you can suggest changes, improvements, or they could start with you and and make life a lot easier.
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I don't even know where there's a question in this.
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Is this is this resonating?
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No, it really does.
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And you know, it's I love travel agents, I love tour operators, I love travel designers.
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Like I there's there's really a market for all of it.
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There's room for everybody.
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And I have never, you know, not wanted everybody to kind of have an opportunity because there's so many different ways people travel.
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And it's ridiculous to like think that travel is just this or just that.
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It's it's a little bit of everything.
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And uh, yeah, with the internet and with more technology, there's more opportunity for everybody to kind of figure things out.
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But that said, people are still getting stuck because there's so much information and they don't sometimes know what makes sense and what doesn't.
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And that's that's the thing that you know, my first year into it.
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I, you know, I I'd been over there several times.
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I speak Swedish.
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I grew up kind of in the Scandinavian community here in the Twin Cities in Minnesota, and I just love all about like my my family history and all that kind of stuff.
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When when they came over and where they were from in Norway and Sweden and Denmark, and so I just want to be able to show people kind of the best of those areas and all of the Nordic areas that I've fallen in love with, especially Finland and Iceland, Faroe Islands and Greenland.
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I just I love the whole kind of combination of it all and how it's so easy to kind of for me to connect the dots, and it's very can become very overwhelming.
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So people come and they're like, you know, even nowadays where they're like, I've been on AI and I I look at some of the itineraries and I'm like, you know, that's good, or this has been closed for a couple of years.
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Did you know that?
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Or or the itinerary just doesn't flow as well as it could.
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And a very well-flowing itinerary really brings value and it maximizes your time.
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So you're not just kind of going all over the place, or you booked a ticket in and out of one city, and maybe you could have looked at doing something into one city and out of another, like just little little nuanced things like that that that I love to kind of help people tweak so they're getting the best out of their trip because I want them to see the best of everything that they want to see.
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So yeah, cause and I guess I'm gonna speak about AI as though it's a person just to help.
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A lot of a lot of people do.
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You can't really blame AI for not knowing everything, it's based on it, it reviews what's out there, and whatever's mentioned the most is probably what's gonna pop up.
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And anybody that's traveled anywhere kind of knows that what was mentioned the the most doesn't necessarily mean it's the best, and may even mean the opposite of that in many cases.
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So that you know, you you go to to AI or maybe in a sense, maybe even to YouTube, you're gonna see the popular stuff.
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Because even I know YouTubers will sit down and say, well, what's a popular search right now?
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And if it's, you know, the the Roman Coliseum or whatever, just as an example, then they're that's what they're gonna see.
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A lot of stuff about the Coliseum, but they might speak to an Italy expert and say, Yeah, don't don't build your trip around that.
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I have no idea.
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I don't know anything about it.
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But uh But yeah, I guess that's I guess that's where I'm going, where you can you can like now, yeah, you know, if they want to bring you an itinerary they put together with ChatGPT and you can like help them shine light on it, help them make sense out of it and and do all that, that's that's probably fine.
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But yeah, you're gonna mention things that probably an AI would never even come up with.
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And and I also suspect that, you know, if I'm going to Milwaukee for a business conference and I'm trying to figure out which hotel's closest to the convention center and what kind of restaurants are around it, then it'd probably be a pretty efficient way to do it.
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But uh, we're talking about something a little different.
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Yeah.
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Or, you know, just you know, I want to take the train and I want to go to Oslo and then I want to do a a Norway and a netshell.
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And like they'll ramble things off and it's like, okay, let's slow it down.
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And you know, did you know that you might get in, you know, late in the evening?
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Do you want to walk from said train station to the hotel?
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Or did you, you know, like did you know that your VRBO is, you know, 10 minutes outside of downtown?
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Thing little things like that.
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Or they'll come with an itinerary and and they really, really want that itinerary, but I kind of convinced them to maybe, you know, like I'll I'll put your itinerary together, but then I'll write a second itinerary and kind of riff off of that one and make make tighten it up a little and have it make a little more sense and flow a little better.
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So I would say most times people end up taking the second one because they can kind of see all the logistics.
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And that that's what I was really, you know, before all of the internet everything we relied on.
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We used to get the train catalogs, the the route books, like from Norway, they were like this thick, and we would have to flip through them to look at all the ferry schedules and the train schedules and the buses and all that stuff to kind of make sure that what we were putting together made sense.
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And there was similar things for Swedish and Danish rail and things like that, and just really getting into the nitty-gritty of all the logistics.
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If you if you're not familiar with them and kind of don't have some of that in the back of your mind, it's just really overwhelming.
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And I don't want people to get stuck.
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And Norway is a good place where you can get stuck if you don't kind of know a lot of the dots to connect, or maybe things that are getting in too early or too late or don't operate every day, things like that that you know I want people to know that that that's kind of why I'm here.
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I think uh as I was listening to you to you mention that, I was also considering we kind of live in a YouTube or TikTok or Instagram world or whatever.
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And you know, if you I mentioned watching a video of maybe uh, you know, somebody creates a Bogota or whatever.
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And the thing that we have to all remember is these are edited videos, right?
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So we're seeing we're seeing this person go visit the top ten things to do in Bogota and like it's a 40-minute video.
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You know, and it's really hard to get your head around where things are when they arrive at the airport and then boom, the next scene they're up on top of Montserrat, or they're you know, they're they're bouncing around it and it looks so easy.
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You know, and it looks so quick, and you're like, Yeah, we can obviously do all those things.
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It could probably be the same thing about Norway, you know.
00:18:16.940 --> 00:18:25.820
Things you must see in Norway, and they put it together in an hour-long video, and they don't show they don't show the sitting waiting for a train or a bus that that was off schedule or whatever.
00:18:25.900 --> 00:18:27.099
They tend to just skip past that.
00:18:28.860 --> 00:18:33.739
You mentioned did you say Norway was a a a tough one in the sense of getting stuck?
00:18:33.900 --> 00:18:36.940
You said specifically I don't want people getting stuff stuck, and you mentioned that.
00:18:37.579 --> 00:18:38.860
It's kind of its own beast.
00:18:39.579 --> 00:18:42.539
Yeah, let's let's I think we need to dig into that a little bit more.
00:18:42.699 --> 00:19:00.380
Uh you know, this show is not about necessarily travel tips and schedules and you know what time you need to arrive in a place, but uh since you mentioned that specifically, let's uh let's I guess what's the thing about Norway logistics that people that might surprise people or they might not understand before they before they go.
00:19:00.860 --> 00:19:07.900
I would say that Norway is kind of groupings of things like fjords and glaciers and mountains and things like that.
00:19:07.980 --> 00:19:18.699
And so getting, you know, like from let's say Oslo to Bergen or Oslo up to Olasunder, a famous fjord, the Gairunger fjord, there's a lot of obstacles in the middle there.
00:19:18.860 --> 00:19:23.420
Oh and there aren't big, you know, six-lane freeways in Norway.
00:19:23.500 --> 00:19:27.980
It there might be like a two-laner on either side, maybe in and out of Oslo.
00:19:28.380 --> 00:19:32.300
But most of it is, I call it we we named this like 20 years ago.
00:19:32.380 --> 00:19:33.900
We called it interactive driving.
00:19:34.139 --> 00:19:41.019
So if you want to go over there and rent a car, you're never gonna be going over at most maybe a hundred kilometers an hour.
00:19:41.179 --> 00:19:44.539
But like last fall I drove with an old colleague.
00:19:44.699 --> 00:19:51.019
We drove from Buda down to Trunheim and did the the there's a kind of a famous road there called Schistriksvein.
00:19:51.099 --> 00:19:59.900
And I've done that area with one of the the main Norwegian cruise companies, so I've seen it from the water, but I've never done the land portion.
00:20:00.059 --> 00:20:03.579
I don't think we averaged more than 50 kilometers an hour.
00:20:03.739 --> 00:20:22.219
I mean, you really like you're going around mountains and you're following the fjord and there's sheep jumping in the road, and so you're just you're never gonna like you look it up on Google, and we always tell people to add at least 25% to the driving time just because it's not you're not you're not gonna zoom there at 80 miles an hour.
00:20:22.619 --> 00:20:34.940
For for for those that are listening to the audio version of this conversation, if you're watching the video, I don't need you're gonna wonder why I'm saying this, but she's waving her hands up in the air drawing squiggly lines and curves and all this stuff.
00:20:35.019 --> 00:20:43.340
So I guess so and there's a lot of little ferry crossings, so you might come upon a road that has, you know, two or three different ferry crossings.
00:20:43.420 --> 00:20:55.340
So you just you cue up to the the line, you get on the ferry, it might be like a 15-minute ferry crossing, but I mean that that whole process can take over 45 minutes or an hour or more just because the line might be long.
00:20:55.500 --> 00:21:07.659
So just little factors like that that that I've had to think about over the years that that makes it a little more tolerable of an itinerary for people when they get there and they don't feel overwhelmed with travel days.
00:21:07.820 --> 00:21:19.179
So I want to ask you a question that I suspect our listeners, or at least some of our listeners, would like me to ask, but I also want to do it in a way that that takes into account that this conversation is gonna be around a while.
00:21:19.579 --> 00:21:22.139
Your business, your business model may change.
00:21:22.380 --> 00:21:29.340
I don't want to mention specifics that would cause people to feel like it's out this conversation's outdated.
00:21:30.380 --> 00:21:35.579
But I'm gonna ask you the question I know I think people want me to ask is and we're not gonna discuss specific.
00:21:35.900 --> 00:21:37.260
We can discuss however you want to discuss it.
00:21:38.539 --> 00:21:50.860
But maybe in your situation or specifically travel, let's say travel designers, you know, area Nordic specialists, like I'm beating around the bush here because I'm I'm trying to imagine how you're gonna answer this.
00:21:50.940 --> 00:21:51.579
I should just ask it.
00:21:51.739 --> 00:21:53.179
What does it cost to hire somebody like you?
00:21:53.260 --> 00:21:54.380
That's what I'm trying to figure out.
00:21:55.179 --> 00:22:01.980
Okay, so I've right now I've got uh consultation fees or it's kind of what we can call it a customizing fee.
00:22:02.139 --> 00:22:03.420
Uh that's what I've always kind of called it.
00:22:03.739 --> 00:22:04.139
But don't tell me.
00:22:04.780 --> 00:22:07.099
Don't tell me a number, but give me, you know, just yeah, exactly.
00:22:07.179 --> 00:22:07.900
Like you're doing right now.
00:22:08.300 --> 00:22:10.699
The number of days you're traveling, I've based it off of that.
00:22:10.780 --> 00:22:18.699
So uh we'll have on my website I've got kind of a thing so you can read about putting your trip together and crafting your trip.
00:22:18.780 --> 00:22:22.139
So based on the number of days you're traveling, I'll put an itinerary together.
00:22:22.219 --> 00:22:29.179
So the maximum I've done is five weeks, and that's a complicated trip, but uh it starts from like a one to three day trip.
00:22:29.260 --> 00:22:34.059
So maybe you have a long weekend that you want to spend up there or you you want to go for five weeks.
00:22:34.139 --> 00:22:39.099
So the shortest one is one to three days, and that's$75 for the consultation fee.
00:22:39.340 --> 00:22:42.460
And that includes also your final itinerary with booking links.
00:22:42.539 --> 00:22:46.619
And then if you have any questions up until you go, I'm happy to answer them.
00:22:46.780 --> 00:22:50.780
And then anything that's 15 plus days is a$450.
00:22:51.260 --> 00:22:57.099
So that those can take some time for me to put together because I really want to to make sure that everything makes sense.
00:22:57.179 --> 00:23:04.139
And a lot of times those longer trips, um, people have multiple countries that they want to go to and they want to do multiple different types of things.
00:23:04.539 --> 00:23:12.539
Maybe it's part of a cruise and then they're gonna do some hiking and then they want to go do a Michelin star dinner somewhere, and so just things like that.
00:23:12.699 --> 00:23:15.099
So there's a lot of lot involved with that.
00:23:15.260 --> 00:23:21.420
So based on the number of days, I've got one to three days, and then I've got four to seven, so kind of within a week.
00:23:21.579 --> 00:23:26.780
Eight to fourteen is the most popular number of days for a trip, and then 15 plus.
00:23:26.940 --> 00:23:27.659
So okay.
00:23:27.980 --> 00:23:34.780
And I know that a lot of times the North American market, especially, to get them to go for a week sometimes is like pulling teeth.
00:23:34.860 --> 00:23:42.460
But I definitely recommend anything over a little bit over a week because it just takes so many hours to get from A to B sometimes.
00:23:42.619 --> 00:23:48.059
And you don't want to, you know, get there at night, and then the next morning you have to wake up and leave and you haven't seen anything.
00:23:48.219 --> 00:23:48.860
So right.
00:23:49.340 --> 00:23:51.659
I wasn't sure if you were gonna mention specific numbers.
00:23:51.739 --> 00:23:53.260
I didn't want to put you on the spot for that.
00:23:53.420 --> 00:23:55.420
But I actually I actually think it's helpful.
00:23:55.500 --> 00:23:59.179
I'll mention that we're recording this in August of 2026.
00:23:59.260 --> 00:24:04.860
So if somebody's listening to this next year, don't go to her website and think, oh, what the heck, you know, rates have gone up.
00:24:05.019 --> 00:24:05.659
They probably have.
00:24:05.820 --> 00:24:06.219
I don't know.
00:24:06.300 --> 00:24:16.300
I don't have a crystal ball, and you don't have crystal ball, but no, I don't what I heard from that was you know, people are spending I'm gonna say money, but it's also time.
00:24:16.460 --> 00:24:19.179
You mentioned specifically, you know, folks from North America.
00:24:19.420 --> 00:24:20.380
Time is valuable.
00:24:20.539 --> 00:24:32.780
And the numbers you just mentioned, yeah, you know, these are people that have an opportunity to go to Scandinavia, go somewhere, have a vacation with their kids or family, their partner, or maybe by themselves.
00:24:32.940 --> 00:24:44.860
And it it seems like a pretty great deal to me to uh to avoid those situations where, you know, you're like, ooh, man, maybe I should have talked to somebody before I before I, you know, went to the airport.
00:24:45.019 --> 00:24:45.659
So anyway.
00:24:45.900 --> 00:24:50.219
And then after after I give people their itinerary, I don't just kind of shoo them away.
00:24:50.300 --> 00:24:51.980
Again, I have contact with them.
00:24:52.139 --> 00:24:57.099
People ask questions or you know, like, I was looking at booking this and I saw this other thing.
00:24:57.260 --> 00:24:57.980
Can you look at it?
00:24:58.059 --> 00:25:04.460
And and then also a lot of times I tell people that I will redo their itinerary based on what they booked.
00:25:04.780 --> 00:25:10.940
So maybe I gave them 10 options for trip tours in Stockholm and they picked one or two.
00:25:11.099 --> 00:25:14.619
I will load them, put all the details, the time when they need to beware.
00:25:14.780 --> 00:25:18.460
So really giving them a finalized itinerary based on what they book.
00:25:18.619 --> 00:25:27.099
I'll put their flights in, I'll put their train tickets in, put the PDF of the train tickets so they can just pull it up when they're kind of traveling.
00:25:27.260 --> 00:25:34.380
So I use a nice tour software that's been great for all tour operators and agents and travel designers.
00:25:34.460 --> 00:25:37.260
And it it kind of I can update it in real time.
00:25:37.420 --> 00:25:47.420
They can see all of the information on their phone, and I think they can even download a PDF of it while they're traveling if they don't have any Wi-Fi, so they can kind of follow along and have the things that they need.
00:25:47.579 --> 00:25:48.699
So it's a really great tool.
00:25:50.619 --> 00:25:53.739
I don't know, maybe, but I'm guessing a lot of your competitors don't do that.
00:25:53.820 --> 00:25:59.420
I'm because I'm imagining Yeah, I would say I'm using one of the more popular ones, and it is really a great tool.
00:25:59.659 --> 00:25:59.980
Yeah.
00:26:00.380 --> 00:26:05.099
For for the agents and then also for the clients because they can see things in real time.
00:26:05.179 --> 00:26:14.940
So if if there is a change with something or something gets canceled, I can go back in there, they can give me the new information and I can kind of put it in there and set it up for them.
00:26:15.179 --> 00:26:22.059
They can't edit it themselves, but I kind of have control so I know what I'm putting in and I know that that it's correct and things like that.
00:26:22.139 --> 00:26:25.019
So they're not trying to navigate something that they don't understand.
00:26:25.179 --> 00:26:47.099
So I guess the reason I find that so interesting is that they're booking it and you're still after the fact they've booked it, and you're still after the fact helping them organize the stuff, keep it straight, so so when they actually go on the trip, they've got maybe the hotel details, flight details, bus details for things that they've already booked, which yeah, that's uh that's no.
00:26:47.179 --> 00:27:00.539
I I'm just I've been doing this a long time and I'm I'm just leaning into this right now, and you know, people need help and and this type of audience, you know, they they st everybody needs a little bit of help with some things like this.
00:27:00.619 --> 00:27:03.420
So I'm I'm just leaning into it and seeing where it goes.
00:27:03.579 --> 00:27:10.059
So what is before we get into your history, what does the word Nordic really mean?
00:27:10.219 --> 00:27:13.179
Because when I hear Nordic, I think Scandinavia.
00:27:13.980 --> 00:27:20.059
Maybe that's close, but honestly, to some people, Nordic sounds north.
00:27:20.300 --> 00:27:26.219
So it could be all of northern Canada, it could be Alaska, it could be I don't know.
00:27:26.300 --> 00:27:28.059
You tell me what does Nordic mean?
00:27:28.539 --> 00:27:50.780
The basic core Nordic area that at least that I deal with is the Scandinavian countries, which is Sweden, Norway, and Denmark, and then the Nordic kind of bubble holds Scandinavia, and then also Finland, Iceland, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and then the the Northern Territory above Norway, which is Svalbard, which is very easy to get to from Norway.
00:27:51.099 --> 00:27:54.300
Those are kind of the the areas that I deal with.
00:27:54.460 --> 00:28:00.219
I've also done the Baltics, which can get lumped in there a lot of times with a lot of the Nordic operators.
00:28:00.380 --> 00:28:03.900
So I'm familiar with Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania.
00:28:04.059 --> 00:28:06.940
They're very easy to get to from Finland and Sweden.
00:28:07.019 --> 00:28:10.619
Uh so a lot of people do combine those areas as well.
00:28:10.860 --> 00:28:17.420
But I would say the core Nordics are that Scandinavia, Finland, Iceland, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands.
00:28:17.739 --> 00:28:19.900
You mentioned And Svalbard.
00:28:20.300 --> 00:28:20.860
Svalbard.
00:28:21.019 --> 00:28:22.460
Thank you for saying it again because I was gonna do that.
00:28:22.780 --> 00:28:23.980
That's where the polar bears are.
00:28:24.460 --> 00:28:27.820
I was gonna ask you about it, and then I'm like, I'm gonna get the name, I'm gonna pronounce it wrong.
00:28:27.980 --> 00:28:28.780
Svalbard.
00:28:29.179 --> 00:28:37.179
Okay, you mentioned when you mentioned Svalbard, you said the territory, I what I heard was territory, Svalbard, easy to get to from Norway.
00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:41.739
Is Svalbard part of give me the geography lesson?
00:28:41.820 --> 00:28:42.699
Is it part of Norway?
00:28:42.940 --> 00:28:43.739
What's it a territory?
00:28:44.219 --> 00:28:46.539
Norway sort of takes care of Svalbard.
00:28:46.699 --> 00:28:49.739
It's a territory, so most anybody can go up there.
00:28:49.900 --> 00:28:50.940
It's very rugged.
00:28:51.179 --> 00:28:52.460
It always kind of has been.
00:28:52.539 --> 00:29:02.619
Um, it is kind of over again, overseen by Norway, so a lot of the signs are Norwegian and the operators that kind of handle the tourism up there are Norwegian companies.
00:29:02.860 --> 00:29:08.619
Very easy to fly from a nonstop from Oslo up to Longerbien, which is the main city.
00:29:09.420 --> 00:29:12.699
And then you can also get there from a northern city, Trumse.
00:29:13.340 --> 00:29:13.500
Okay.
00:29:13.820 --> 00:29:14.380
There's a flight.
00:29:14.539 --> 00:29:19.659
And then there are cruises that that do go in and around there, but they're really gonna start limiting them.
00:29:19.820 --> 00:29:21.420
I believe it's this year or next year.
00:29:21.500 --> 00:29:28.860
They're really limiting that for environmental purposes to only allow a few companies to go in there and sail around.
00:29:28.940 --> 00:29:35.900
So are they reducing the number the numbers or limiting it because it was getting too popular?
00:29:36.059 --> 00:29:37.340
I mean, were they seeing the other thing?
00:29:37.500 --> 00:29:50.380
I think a little bit of visitors, so they needed to cap it, or it was just I think a little bit of both of environmental protection and then also kind of not promoting over-tourism, which I'm also a very big advocate of.
00:29:50.539 --> 00:29:54.619
Let's look at some places for people to go that aren't over-traveled.
00:29:55.500 --> 00:30:02.219
Because that a lot of times, again, with the influencers and social media and all that, it's like, oh, I want to go here and I want to go here.
00:30:02.300 --> 00:30:08.380
And it's like, well, how about we look at, you know, maybe picking one of those, but then also have you thought about this area?
00:30:08.539 --> 00:30:13.179
It's a lot less tourists there at that time, more things to choose from.
00:30:13.260 --> 00:30:17.500
Um, what happens a lot of times is things are overrun and it's hard to book.
00:30:17.659 --> 00:30:28.860
Like if you want to go somewhere in the winter that everybody wants to go to, and you'll okay, let's book my tours now, and then you go in and look, and there's nothing available because everybody's going there.
00:30:29.099 --> 00:30:31.820
So there are so many other options for a lot of it.
00:30:31.980 --> 00:30:36.619
For the fjords, for you know, kind of that lapland area of Finland, Sweden, and Norway.
00:30:36.780 --> 00:30:37.980
There's so many options.
00:30:38.139 --> 00:30:46.860
So just seeing stuff on the internet or on social media, you know, that's just like a drop in the bucket of what's actually up there or there.
00:30:47.659 --> 00:30:55.900
That's a really good that's a really good point because whether you do it or somebody else puts together an HNRA, we all know, like, okay, you start booking them.
00:30:56.380 --> 00:31:01.500
Maybe the first place books fine, and then you go to the second place and you realize, oh crap.
00:31:02.860 --> 00:31:04.780
There's there's no rooms in this whole thing.
00:31:04.940 --> 00:31:05.820
There's no, yeah.
00:31:06.460 --> 00:31:10.139
And uh because it's a Friday during music fest or whatever, right?
00:31:10.219 --> 00:31:15.099
There's all kinds of reasons, and then you gotta rethink the whole thing and you've got the back and forth.
00:31:15.179 --> 00:31:25.739
And if you can avoid boy, if you can avoid just some of that, or at least have somebody there to help you get help provide alternatives, that's that's worth a lot, a lot more money probably than than what they're paying you.
00:31:26.059 --> 00:31:26.300
Yeah.
00:31:27.500 --> 00:31:37.420
You when I mention when we when I mentioned and we discussed uh Svalbard, you immediately said I saw your eyes light up and you said, Oh yeah, that's where the polar bears are.
00:31:38.059 --> 00:31:39.659
Which is what I had heard as well.
00:31:39.820 --> 00:31:44.619
And I I got the impression that that's like kind of if you want to see polar bears, that's where you go.
00:31:44.780 --> 00:31:45.980
Are there alternatives?
00:31:46.219 --> 00:31:50.940
Because you mentioned they're starting to limit the options and you like to help people find alternatives.
00:31:51.179 --> 00:31:57.739
If you want to see a polar bear, I mean, I know they're in Canada, but I don't know how easy it is to go see them there.
00:31:57.900 --> 00:32:13.900
I'm sure there are other places, but that I'm not quite sure of, but I would say that especially in Svalbard, like if you're in Longerbean and you do kind of a day trip out or you go snowmobiling or whatever, you're going out with a guide and they have protection because they will they they have been known to pop out.
00:32:14.059 --> 00:32:34.460
And so you don't want to just be out there by yourself and not have anybody who knows what they're doing, or be on one of the the kind of ships that have been designated to go up in those areas and having, you know, cruising around and you might see them floating on an iceberg or wherever they are, but they really try to keep them up and away from where a lot of the population is.
00:32:34.619 --> 00:32:42.699
The same thing for Greenland, like they try to keep the polar bears up in the northern part, and that's there's not a lot of people heading up there.
00:32:42.860 --> 00:32:50.139
Uh they try to just kind of keep them isolated so they're not roaming around with everybody walking down the street and things like that.
00:32:50.300 --> 00:32:54.139
And they do get out and they do kind of escape and float around and things like that.
00:32:54.300 --> 00:33:04.539
But I would say that I would say the best chance you have of maybe seeing one would be up in Svalbard on one of the cruises or something similar to that.
00:33:04.619 --> 00:33:05.420
So all right.
00:33:05.579 --> 00:33:08.460
I feel like there's a whole nother conversation around the bears.
00:33:08.619 --> 00:33:18.059
I've I've I've had I have had a conversation really recently with somebody that spent an awful lot of time up there, specifically involved with the the bears, and it was it was an interesting conversation.
00:33:18.139 --> 00:33:26.780
But I also, you know, we you mentioned well they try and keep them up north, but I think I I think I can say, and I don't know, is well that's ops protect them too, right?
00:33:27.019 --> 00:33:32.699
Because they don't need to be around humans because humans are not necessarily the best thing we're invading their space.
00:33:32.860 --> 00:33:34.059
Yeah, trying to keep them.
00:33:34.699 --> 00:33:40.940
So we can say keep them up north or or keep the people out of the area where the polar bears are.
00:33:46.780 --> 00:33:52.219
I would love to, and you and I are gonna have a conversation after this and help figure out how I can make that happen.
00:33:52.380 --> 00:33:52.940
So thank you.
00:33:53.260 --> 00:34:04.780
All right, let's let's figure out how the heck because you kind of touched on it, you alluded some of the stuff you were doing and why a little bit about kind of why you decided to transition and start doing what you're doing right now.
00:34:05.019 --> 00:34:07.579
But let's uh let's go back a little further than that.
00:34:07.659 --> 00:34:11.579
I I want to hear about, you know, 14-year-old Elaine.
00:34:11.739 --> 00:34:12.539
What was she thinking?
00:34:12.619 --> 00:34:15.099
What did she think she was going to do when she grew up, that type of thing.
00:34:15.179 --> 00:34:18.860
So you d that we don't need to start with that question, but let's go back.
00:34:19.019 --> 00:34:26.860
How far do we need to go back to kind of get an understanding for how you ended up doing this kind of work and and uh and why we're having this conversation today?
00:34:27.179 --> 00:34:38.699
Yeah, I would say if you want to, you know, the first memories I have of kind of the Scandinavian community was my dad used to take me on his bike and we'd go down to Minnehaha Falls in South Minneapolis.
00:34:38.780 --> 00:34:55.260
It's every four Sunday in June was kind of a big Swedish festival that used to be in the Twin Cities, and it was started in I want to say the 20s or 30s by all of the immigrants that came over, and they just kind of wanted to celebrate the midsummer in the community, and it just kind of continued.
00:34:55.420 --> 00:34:57.900
And I just thought, hey, this is kind of cool.
00:34:58.059 --> 00:35:08.380
There's little kids up on the stage with Swedish costumes on dancing and doing all the things, and and then I saw them again, I think when I was four or five, and I was like, that looks really cool.
00:35:08.539 --> 00:35:10.860
So I started Swedish dancing.
00:35:11.099 --> 00:35:11.420
Yeah.
00:35:11.579 --> 00:35:14.059
So is your is your dad Swedish?
00:35:14.380 --> 00:35:16.380
Help me make the connection as to why he was going.
00:35:16.619 --> 00:35:17.500
Your great-grandparents.
00:35:17.740 --> 00:35:19.500
My great-grandparents all immigrated.
00:35:19.579 --> 00:35:30.860
My father's family is Swedish, and then my mother's family is her mother's side is Norwegian, and then my grandfather, his her mother her dad was of Danish descent.
00:35:30.940 --> 00:35:37.019
And so all of my great-grandparents were the ones that kind of came over, all came over to the Twin Cities.
00:35:37.099 --> 00:35:41.579
I think my Norwegian great-grandma was in Wisconsin initially and then came here.
00:35:41.900 --> 00:35:49.019
So we've been here for quite a while, and it's kind of the people call it kind of the Scandinavian capital of the Midwest.
00:35:49.099 --> 00:36:02.780
And there are so many Scandinavian communities all around in Wisconsin and Iowa and the Dakotas and all sorts of stuff, but there's a lot of different organizations that have are here and kind of have big followings and the museums and all that sort of stuff.
00:36:02.940 --> 00:36:06.539
So I've always really been involved with the that community, you could say.
00:36:06.860 --> 00:36:17.980
I think be uh, if you don't mind, because I think a lot of listeners that have not spent time in that area or maybe aren't even, you know, very familiar with the US, I kind of knew that.
00:36:18.059 --> 00:36:19.820
I grew up in Montana, Wyoming.
00:36:19.980 --> 00:36:24.700
I kind of knew that there were a lot of Scandinavians around the topic came up every once in a while.
00:36:24.780 --> 00:36:29.500
Um, you know, you think Minnesota Vikings, the football team, and they're, you know, all that stuff.
00:36:29.820 --> 00:36:39.980
Why do you know the history enough to help me understand why there are so many Scandinavians in Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota, and that part of the country?
00:36:40.059 --> 00:36:41.980
Or we don't need to go too deep in that.
00:36:42.140 --> 00:36:42.860
I was just curious.
00:36:43.180 --> 00:36:52.860
No, I I think, you know, we all it nowadays it can be a bit of a touchy subject, and I understand why, but it was all of the farmers that kind of immigrated over here.
00:36:53.099 --> 00:36:57.820
And there was a lot of farmers from like in Sweden, from Varmland, which is a province.
00:36:57.980 --> 00:37:07.260
There's 20 some odd provinces in Sweden and the the kind of farming community that came over from there, and I believe also from Finland.
00:37:07.500 --> 00:37:23.099
There's a lot of uh the Finnish community over in the Dakotas in the kind of very, very flat areas that kind of came over, and that's kind of why they came, because it's like, oh my gosh, it looks so much like it does in Scandinavia with the lakes and the forests and the land and all that kind of stuff.
00:37:23.260 --> 00:37:32.780
So yeah, that was, I would say, the initial kind of draw that brought a lot of people over here in the late 1800s, early 1900s.
00:37:32.940 --> 00:37:42.700
I did a national history project with some of the ladies that uh worked with my mother down at the American Swedish Institute, and they all immigrated back in the 30s, I think.
00:37:42.780 --> 00:37:53.180
And I kind of interviewed them as to like where they move initially moved to, what kind of community did they live in, who did they mix and mingle with, and so on back at that day.
00:37:53.340 --> 00:37:56.700
It was like mixing and mingling the Swedes, the Norwegians, and the Danes.
00:37:56.780 --> 00:38:10.539
It was kind of like, oh my gosh, but like they all found each other and they all kind of congregated down on seven corners here in Minneapolis, and there was a big dance hall, and they all kind of got together and and met each other there and kind of had community and things like that.
00:38:10.700 --> 00:38:18.940
So that that project, and I did that in high school, and that was kind of my continuation of kind of the interest of like heritage and what does that mean?
00:38:19.099 --> 00:38:23.579
And some people, you know, they'd be like, Well, I think I'm German or I think I'm whatever.
00:38:23.660 --> 00:38:29.500
So I've history and and heritage travel has always kind of been on my radar, you could say.
00:38:29.740 --> 00:38:31.180
I just have had an interest in it.
00:38:31.260 --> 00:38:41.660
Because if people want to go back and find out where maybe their great-great-grandparents came from or their great aunt, whoever, and they want to go find a farm, that hey, I'm here to help.
00:38:41.820 --> 00:38:49.019
So you you mentioned when I asked, I think I pretty much asked you why are there so many Scandinavians in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
00:38:49.180 --> 00:38:54.300
And you kind of started out, it sounded like you started out a little bit with, well, it can be kind of a touchy subject.
00:38:54.460 --> 00:38:58.300
Yeah, because I think I don't know how deeply in the politics we need to go, but tell me more about why you said that.
00:38:58.940 --> 00:39:02.059
But I think now, especially in the Minneapolis St.
00:39:02.220 --> 00:39:09.900
Paul community, there's a lot of kind of understanding of like, yes, they came over and kind of a lot of farmers came over and things like that.
00:39:09.980 --> 00:39:15.180
But I think there's a a more of a let's work with the whole community now as a whole.
00:39:15.340 --> 00:39:31.420
And so we've really done a lot with different communities and different people from different heritage and countries and all that stuff that have come over and trying to kind of cooperate and work together and understand that you know we think I know where you're going with us.
00:39:31.660 --> 00:39:41.260
I'm I'm also very happy and passionate about that because I love that I live in a city that is kind of embracing, you know, like everybody lives here.
00:39:41.420 --> 00:39:46.860
And so let's understand a little bit about all the different communities and let's embrace each other.
00:39:46.940 --> 00:39:52.300
And so it's not just it makes me happy that people are, yeah, just kind of understanding.
00:39:52.380 --> 00:40:04.860
Yes, I might be Scandinavian, but I also have so many other people in my community that are proud of who they are and where they came from, and let's let's understand each other together and work together and have community.
00:40:05.019 --> 00:40:09.340
So that's that's in a nutshell, that's that that that makes that makes sense.
00:40:09.900 --> 00:40:10.700
That's what I'm proud of.
00:40:11.180 --> 00:40:13.740
We're having the conversation in August 2026.
00:40:13.900 --> 00:40:20.700
It's been an interesting uh last last couple years around immigration from a variety of different places.
00:40:20.780 --> 00:40:26.220
You've kind of maybe got the older immigrant families and then the newer immigrants, and and uh so I get that.
00:40:26.300 --> 00:40:26.860
That makes sense.
00:40:27.019 --> 00:40:28.300
Thank you for going there with me.
00:40:29.980 --> 00:40:34.940
The other thing that I you said there's a lot of heritage type travel.
00:40:35.579 --> 00:40:49.180
What I heard there was maybe people that live uh close to you now that want to go to Scandinavia to find a kind of connect with their their roots, maybe they want to go see the farm their grandparents were born on that type of thing, right?
00:40:49.340 --> 00:40:50.539
Is that am I tracking?
00:40:50.860 --> 00:41:02.860
Okay, I know after living in New England for a while and just working in the travel business for a long time, I know the Irish, people of Irish heritage are pretty serious about that as well.
00:41:03.019 --> 00:41:07.260
Probably a little bit, I'm probably a little bit more familiar with that, probably because I've been to Ireland.
00:41:07.420 --> 00:41:08.780
Yeah, and so that helps.
00:41:08.940 --> 00:41:31.180
There's a there's a lot of, I guess, memes or kind of jokey things on the social media sometimes where you've got the person that shows up at the bar, the pub in Ireland on their first trip to Ireland, you know, they live in Boston or whatever, and they walk in and like I'm Irish, you know, my last name is this, and and the people that live in Ireland look at them like, yeah, whatever, buddy.
00:41:31.340 --> 00:41:37.099
So I'm wondering, are Scandinavians is that a is that a meme or kind of a a stereotype?
00:41:37.260 --> 00:41:42.220
When Scandinavians go to Scandinavia, do they approach it as like I'm from here?
00:41:42.380 --> 00:41:45.900
As I know that's a stereotype, but I'm gonna I want to ask you anyway.
00:41:45.980 --> 00:41:47.099
I just want to hear your thoughts.
00:41:47.500 --> 00:41:49.099
I I would say sometimes.
00:41:49.260 --> 00:41:52.619
A lot of times my Scandinavian relatives, they'd come over here.
00:41:52.780 --> 00:42:01.099
I had some of the Norwegian family come over for my wedding years ago, and they they kind of joked that we were more Norwegian than the Norwegians.
00:42:01.260 --> 00:42:09.260
And that's kind of embracing the past traditions and all that stuff, and some things that they think is completely silly, but we still do it.
00:42:09.420 --> 00:42:14.300
So they like some type of food that we eat or some sort of celebration.
00:42:14.460 --> 00:42:31.180
So I think there it it can be like that, but it can be that you know people are really again with the technology, there's so many more ways that people can find out about new traditions or really old traditions that the American Scandinavians had no idea about.
00:42:31.500 --> 00:42:35.820
Because they just yeah, nobody did that when they came over back in the early 1900s.
00:42:35.900 --> 00:42:39.500
So yeah, that's really that's actually very super interesting to me.
00:42:39.660 --> 00:42:48.539
I did not expect that, but it makes sense because in let's say Sweden, Norway, which again I don't know anything about, but they probably don't have the Swedish cultural center.
00:42:48.780 --> 00:42:53.500
They probably have centers, they probably have some investment in maintaining culture.
00:42:53.740 --> 00:42:58.780
But I can see where a Swedish or Norwegian community in in St.
00:42:59.019 --> 00:43:13.260
Paul or Minneapolis or something might say, Hey, we're gonna go every Sunday and work really hard to maintain the traditions, and we're gonna have the little little girls dancing on the stage, and we're gonna like this is our whole purpose in life is to continue these traditions.
00:43:13.340 --> 00:43:18.619
And people living in Sweden and Norway are like Yeah, what are you doing?
00:43:18.780 --> 00:43:35.180
Or you know, the there's a Swedish hit dance group at the open air museum in Stockholm, but like they're probably they're more excited about the maybe uh well I I don't want to speak for anybody, but they may be excited about new things coming into Sweden from outside of Sweden.
00:43:35.420 --> 00:43:38.460
You know, popular restaurants, media, stuff like that.
00:43:38.619 --> 00:43:41.820
They're watching they're watching, you know, TV shows.
00:43:41.980 --> 00:43:49.500
Well, I mean, obviously they do they do their own TV and stuff there, but I do not sound like someone that's done a lot of traveling in the last 30 seconds.
00:43:49.579 --> 00:43:50.619
I might have to edit that out.
00:43:50.780 --> 00:43:52.300
But anyway, thanks for it.
00:43:52.539 --> 00:43:56.140
No, I I I think it's you know it's it's so interesting to me.
00:43:56.380 --> 00:44:14.539
And I I think that you know, everybody's got a different version of what heritage means to them and it's you know, people that are up for investigating stuff because they just don't know maybe where their family is from, and I'm just more than happy to help them kind of figure that out or point them in the right direction so they can find something.
00:44:14.619 --> 00:44:21.900
So it's a pretty cool, pretty cool excuse to go to a pretty cool part of the world too, even if it's just like if hey, wait, I I know I want to go somewhere.
00:44:22.140 --> 00:44:27.019
I've been spending my weekends at the the you know the cultural center in Minneapolis.
00:44:27.180 --> 00:44:28.780
Hey, maybe we should go to Sweden or Norway.
00:44:28.940 --> 00:44:29.500
That's pretty cool.
00:44:29.579 --> 00:44:29.820
Yeah.
00:44:29.980 --> 00:44:35.820
All right, so let's go back to when you were little and you'd you'd go to these things and you thought, wow, this is pretty cool.
00:44:35.900 --> 00:44:39.500
And then you started taking, did you say Swedish dance classes or no?
00:44:39.900 --> 00:44:42.460
I was in a Swedish, I was in a Swedish dance group.
00:44:42.619 --> 00:44:43.579
Was how old?
00:44:43.820 --> 00:44:47.099
Boys and girls, up to eight, like four to eighteen.
00:44:47.420 --> 00:44:47.980
All right.
00:44:48.619 --> 00:44:50.300
We practiced every Saturday.
00:44:50.460 --> 00:44:52.619
We kind of did different performances.
00:44:52.700 --> 00:45:11.900
There was a thing called the Festival of Nations that was here for years and years, and so we would perform that was kind of our big performance of the year, and we also did the Swedish Midsummer Festival, and there was a couple other ones that we did, but we Also performed at other random events so people would request some cultural thing, and so that was really fun.
00:45:12.059 --> 00:45:26.220
And then I got connected with the Concordia language villages, which are here kind of scattered all over central Minnesota, and you can learn anything from Korean, French, Japanese, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, German.
00:45:26.380 --> 00:45:34.140
And you kind of go to these summer camps and you can spend anywhere from a week to a month, and you're kind of immersed in the culture.
00:45:34.300 --> 00:45:47.099
So you're learning the language and some of the traditions and eating the the food and the kind of the people that are there for the the month-long programs are getting um uh language credit for high school.
00:45:47.260 --> 00:45:48.780
So I did that for three years.
00:45:49.019 --> 00:45:51.180
You said instead of taking it in high school.
00:45:51.340 --> 00:45:52.059
So okay.
00:45:52.220 --> 00:45:54.539
It sounds a lot more fun actually than sitting through.
00:45:54.940 --> 00:45:56.860
Yeah, that was way more fun than sitting at a desk.
00:45:57.340 --> 00:45:57.900
In high school.
00:45:58.140 --> 00:46:00.860
You said Concordia, is that Concordia College?
00:46:01.019 --> 00:46:01.340
Mm-hmm.
00:46:01.579 --> 00:46:03.500
Which is actually probably more of a university.
00:46:03.579 --> 00:46:06.940
I don't know how the difference between a college and university, but I'm imagining you're right.
00:46:07.500 --> 00:46:14.700
All right, so like kind of cultural summer camps, and you could just pick the culture you wanted to be immersed in and go there.
00:46:15.099 --> 00:46:17.260
Some people would do two or three of them in a summer.
00:46:17.340 --> 00:46:18.220
So that's pretty cool.
00:46:18.539 --> 00:46:19.500
Which ones did you do?
00:46:19.820 --> 00:46:21.260
I did the Swedish one.
00:46:22.300 --> 00:46:31.660
But that that kind of site also hosted the there was a Russian village, and then they moved to another site that they shared uh after I graduated.
00:46:31.740 --> 00:46:39.260
They shared a village with uh Finnish community that would be Swedish for part of the summer and Finnish for the other part.
00:46:39.340 --> 00:46:42.619
So how many how many kids you said you did a few?
00:46:42.700 --> 00:46:43.820
It sounds like a few years.
00:46:44.220 --> 00:46:46.780
Like was this a large group of kids at this point?
00:46:49.099 --> 00:46:53.980
And then for the quick credit program, I think there was like maybe 25 of us on average.
00:46:54.300 --> 00:46:55.820
Okay, so the credit five to thirty.
00:46:56.059 --> 00:46:58.860
You say the credit program, they're the ones that would just stay a little longer.
00:46:59.180 --> 00:46:59.420
Mm-hmm.
00:46:59.579 --> 00:47:00.860
We would stay for four weeks.
00:47:01.099 --> 00:47:09.820
So we would, you know, go to class several times a day, but we'd also do other activities and some of the things that the kind of the one or two week campers would be there for.
00:47:09.980 --> 00:47:15.019
So you'd have relaxing time or you'd do arts and crafts or whatever it is.
00:47:15.260 --> 00:47:18.220
But we would also celebrate all kind of the big holidays.
00:47:18.380 --> 00:47:25.340
So we'd have Swedish Christmas, we'd have Swedish midsummer with a Maypole and the dancing and the whole thing.
00:47:25.420 --> 00:47:26.619
So it's kind of fun.
00:47:26.780 --> 00:47:29.900
But yeah, that was kind of my camp memories as a kid.
00:47:30.220 --> 00:47:31.019
The Maypole.
00:47:31.099 --> 00:47:33.980
Well, it's tell me about real quick, the Maypole.
00:47:34.140 --> 00:47:34.539
Mm-hmm.
00:47:34.700 --> 00:47:35.820
I think I know I don't know.
00:47:35.900 --> 00:47:37.019
You what is a May pole?
00:47:37.500 --> 00:47:52.700
It's uh it's called the Maystang, and it's uh a big tall pole with they have kind of rings around the outside of it, and then people will decorate it with greens and flowers, and you put it up on midsummer, which is the longest day of the year.
00:47:52.860 --> 00:47:57.980
Um, and then they would dance around it and do traditional kind of Scandinavian dances.
00:47:58.059 --> 00:48:07.420
I know that uh Finland does it, but they also do more of I think they concentrate more on like bonfires and things like that, but it's kind of a celebration of the longest day of the year.
00:48:07.740 --> 00:48:09.740
It actually sounds really fun.
00:48:09.900 --> 00:48:11.420
I just fun.
00:48:11.980 --> 00:48:16.140
Eat a lot of stuff and dance and sing and have some Akkavit schnapps.
00:48:16.220 --> 00:48:16.300
Yeah.
00:48:16.539 --> 00:48:18.220
I I gotta I gotta be honest.
00:48:18.300 --> 00:48:23.500
I never once thought living in Minnesota or Wisconsin would be that interesting.
00:48:24.700 --> 00:48:28.380
I don't mean that I'm not saying that I thought it was a bad place.
00:48:28.460 --> 00:48:31.500
I just but listening to you, I'm like, that sounds really cool.
00:48:31.579 --> 00:48:38.539
Like with the that handful of different cultures right there and in the summers, like we didn't have that in Wyoming when I was growing up.
00:48:38.619 --> 00:48:42.220
We had a lot of Scandinavians, so we didn't have get togethers like that.
00:48:42.539 --> 00:48:42.860
Yeah.
00:48:43.180 --> 00:48:44.780
All right, that's that's really cool.
00:48:45.019 --> 00:48:50.940
Did the kids as you recall, because I know it was only a couple years ago that you were still in high school and doing all this?
00:48:51.420 --> 00:48:53.260
Uh just two or three, you know.
00:48:53.660 --> 00:48:56.700
So you probably you probably remember this, probably easy question.
00:48:57.019 --> 00:49:11.019
The kids, both yourself and the other kids that were involved, uh young people, teenagers, were most of them there because they were excited to be there, or was this uh my grandparents were from Sweden, so I didn't have a choice.
00:49:11.099 --> 00:49:13.420
I am at Swedish camp this summer.
00:49:14.220 --> 00:49:24.140
I would say the little kids, you know, obviously were you know, people would send their kids to camp, but I would say the older ones, once you hit late junior high, high school, they were all there because they wanted to be there.
00:49:24.460 --> 00:49:24.780
Okay.
00:49:25.260 --> 00:49:27.660
So good community, good.
00:49:27.980 --> 00:49:33.260
They just wanted to learn more about traditions and also have that as kind of their language focus.
00:49:33.420 --> 00:49:35.260
So I think it was good community.
00:49:35.420 --> 00:49:43.820
And especially too with with the dancing and some of the other things that I was involved with, the older that you got, the people that were there really they wanted to be there.
00:49:43.980 --> 00:49:45.660
They were forced to be there.
00:49:46.059 --> 00:49:55.340
Did the the boys, you know, similar age boys in your community, were they as enthusiastic about you know the dance troop dancing groups?
00:49:55.420 --> 00:49:57.900
There was a good handful of that were.
00:49:58.059 --> 00:49:58.220
Yeah.
00:49:58.460 --> 00:50:05.019
There was a you know, there wasn't, you know, there might have been in the dance group like 20 girls, but only like five guys.
00:50:05.180 --> 00:50:08.140
But you know, the ones that were there, they wanted to be there.
00:50:08.220 --> 00:50:09.099
So yeah.
00:50:09.660 --> 00:50:18.380
Because it it seems like uh looking at some other cultures, some of the the dancing uh, you know, is is important to the men.
00:50:18.619 --> 00:50:32.700
You know, there's some cultures I spent some time in in the country of Georgia over the year uh this last year, and I've been a few other places where the male dancers are quite not I mean on par with females.
00:50:32.940 --> 00:50:35.260
It's like a super serious part of their conversation.
00:50:35.340 --> 00:50:41.340
You can have the biggest, burliest, masculine looking dude, and they're amazing dancers.
00:50:41.740 --> 00:50:47.019
And then there's other, you know, communities or whatever when you don't have that cultural connection, it's just dancing.
00:50:47.099 --> 00:50:49.420
Like, yeah, I'm not gonna or but also Latin America.
00:50:49.500 --> 00:50:59.420
I mean, there's like the salsa dancers, the bachata dancers, and for some reason in the US, maybe outside of the area you live in, dancing's not that popular for guys.
00:50:59.579 --> 00:51:01.740
So I was just I guess that's uh I don't know why.
00:51:01.900 --> 00:51:10.220
I mean we have some adult groups too, and there I would say there's more men in the adult groups, they just come back and it's not embarrassing, and then you know, okay.
00:51:10.780 --> 00:51:15.980
But I've seen a lot of actually resurgence of more local dance groups too in Scandinavia.
00:51:16.059 --> 00:51:35.579
I was just in uh Sweden this spring and I was in the Uppsala area doing an inspection trip after a workshop and they had uh some folk dance group that was in this little castle that we were touring in that area, and I thought, oh, that's cool that people are wanting to take interest in that again and kind of Yeah.
00:51:35.820 --> 00:51:40.940
It's not just something that people did 150 years ago and then now nobody wants to do it.
00:51:41.019 --> 00:51:43.099
So that's very cool.
00:51:43.340 --> 00:51:50.380
What's uh your dad because obviously you had a lot of cultural influence growing up, it's start it's making sense.
00:51:50.539 --> 00:51:51.980
I see where we're going with this.
00:51:52.619 --> 00:51:59.740
Well, I I I I see why you're a little bit of why you're doing what you're doing, but I want to shift it a little bit into kind of your family life.
00:51:59.900 --> 00:52:03.820
Like, what were your parents into other than the cultural stuff?
00:52:03.900 --> 00:52:07.420
Like what kind of work did uh your parents do?
00:52:07.579 --> 00:52:13.660
What was um what other things were going on kind of in your childhood as around that stuff that you're willing to share with the world?
00:52:14.300 --> 00:52:15.980
I was really big into sports.
00:52:16.140 --> 00:52:21.019
My dad was a machinist, so he and machining business, and that's kind of what they did.
00:52:21.180 --> 00:52:33.740
I don't know how my grandfather got into that, but made parts for things like hearing aids and stuff that would go into microwaves or just random little metal parts and things like that.
00:52:33.900 --> 00:52:48.460
But my dad really, you know, he they worked really hard on that, but they really enjoyed kind of coming home and doing not just heritage stuff, but like I played soccer and basketball, and he was my coach, and we did a lot of that kind of a thing.
00:52:48.539 --> 00:52:49.820
So that was really great.
00:52:49.980 --> 00:52:52.140
And my mom kind of embraced all of that.
00:52:52.300 --> 00:52:58.220
And being that she was more in the Norwegian and Danish community, she wasn't doing a lot of that when she met my dad.
00:52:58.380 --> 00:53:01.660
And my dad kind of got her, she was like, Oh, this is really interesting.
00:53:01.900 --> 00:53:16.780
So she actually for years worked uh down at the American Swedish Institute with all the Swedish ladies, and so we always joke that my mom was a little Norwegian and Swedish lady living in a Swedish world, and she just really embraced that.
00:53:16.860 --> 00:53:31.660
But then she started working at a different uh shop that was more Scandinavian and kind of really got to embrace some of the other parts of her heritage and cultural things and meeting some more of the Norwegian and Danish community here in the Twin Cities and loved doing that.
00:53:31.820 --> 00:53:32.619
She really did.
00:53:32.780 --> 00:53:42.380
So were were either of them did either of them strike you when you were young as being the adventurous like go travel, like go to scan it, and maybe we're getting there.
00:53:42.619 --> 00:53:46.059
But uh, you know, was was travel kind of on the radar?
00:53:46.140 --> 00:53:53.500
Did you guys do things as a family other than the cultural events there in in the Midwest?
00:53:53.579 --> 00:53:54.619
I mean, what was that?
00:53:54.780 --> 00:53:55.820
What was that like?
00:53:56.860 --> 00:54:07.740
Travel was always really important, and I really thank my parents for giving me that perspective because I think traveling anywhere kind of opens your eyes to different cultures and things like that.
00:54:07.900 --> 00:54:09.980
So they did a lot of travel.
00:54:10.300 --> 00:54:12.380
Not you know, they didn't go super far.
00:54:12.460 --> 00:54:23.660
They've done a lot of things in Europe, but like we were every summer we'd go somewhere different, whether it was some different place in Canada or some different spot in the US, we would always take off.
00:54:23.820 --> 00:54:35.740
We didn't have a cabin, so my my dad just, you know, really wanted to kind of explore different places and things and kind of spend money on that instead of heading up to the cabin every weekend and doing something.
00:54:35.900 --> 00:54:38.539
So that was I I kind of like that.
00:54:38.940 --> 00:54:58.860
You just you just mentioned something that resonated with me, and I realized, oh, that's an inter that's interesting because yeah, so even in Wyoming, and I've been and I lived in New England for a while, there's the people that have the cabin or or the boat, you know, sometimes it's a boat on a lake or whatever it is, and that's what they do every weekend.
00:54:58.940 --> 00:55:05.500
And almost to the point of like they might not even occur to them to go anywhere else because we've got this cabin we've invested in.
00:55:05.660 --> 00:55:10.220
We almost like we have to go every weekend just to make sure it's okay or whatever.
00:55:10.380 --> 00:55:16.860
And then there's the people that don't have a cabin that frees them up to to go explore other things.
00:55:17.099 --> 00:55:22.619
And the reason it resonates with me is because I've been living the digital nomad lifestyle the last five years.
00:55:22.940 --> 00:55:23.340
Yeah.
00:55:23.579 --> 00:55:29.660
So I don't have a cabin, which means I just kind of, you know, every week I wake up and I wonder where I'm gonna go next week.
00:55:29.900 --> 00:55:30.539
That's interesting.
00:55:30.700 --> 00:55:32.619
Do you think it was oh, that's really I don't know.
00:55:32.700 --> 00:55:35.180
I'll have to I'm gonna be thinking about this all day.
00:55:35.500 --> 00:55:42.059
Yeah, my yeah, I would say my grandmy dad's parents, they were really pushing travel even way back in the 50s.
00:55:42.140 --> 00:55:45.740
My dad still talks about his first trip in 1964, I think.
00:55:45.900 --> 00:55:55.340
They went for five weeks and they didn't just do Scandinavia, they were down in France and Germany and England and Italy, and they did like the whole thing and the logistics at that point.
00:55:55.420 --> 00:55:56.619
I I can't even imagine.
00:55:56.700 --> 00:55:57.260
I think that's a good thing.
00:55:57.420 --> 00:55:59.260
You didn't have someone like you put it all together, didn't they?
00:55:59.500 --> 00:56:04.059
No, they did they worked with a company, a local travel agency here called Birch Travel.
00:56:04.140 --> 00:56:04.940
They're still around.
00:56:05.019 --> 00:56:19.260
Um, but I found all their travel documents when I was cleaning out the basement this winter and kind of looking at all the stuff that my grandma kind of put together for their their trip and how they got around and the train tickets and all all that stuff.
00:56:19.340 --> 00:56:25.900
So that was really fun to to find but the just that's always kind of been an important factor in my dad's life.
00:56:26.140 --> 00:56:36.140
Yeah, I'm curious what you think because sometimes because I've had enough of these conversations and I've also um, you know, I'm I'm fascinated by psychology, personality types, and all that stuff.
00:56:36.300 --> 00:56:51.740
And when you mention that your dad was a machinist, oftentimes somebody that does that type of work might be kind of the engineer type, the really into things and maybe not as always, you know, into the social stuff and traveling and all that stuff.
00:56:51.980 --> 00:56:56.460
But then you said that it was kind of a multi-generational thing, a family thing, that he was a machinist.
00:56:56.700 --> 00:57:10.140
So I'm curious if his family did not have this machining business, do you think he would have done something totally different, or do you think he would have still ended up in some sort of manufacturing type thing?
00:57:10.460 --> 00:57:11.180
You know, I don't know.
00:57:11.260 --> 00:57:15.260
He talks a lot about he went to the University of Minnesota for two years.
00:57:15.420 --> 00:57:22.220
He got his associate's degree, but he thought about, you know, what else he could be doing, and he talked about being a veterinarian.
00:57:22.300 --> 00:57:23.579
He's talked about that over the years.
00:57:23.820 --> 00:57:23.980
Wow.
00:57:24.220 --> 00:57:30.140
That was kind of interest, but he just kind of got drawn into the business and then never ended up leaving it.
00:57:30.300 --> 00:57:34.700
So yeah, I don't know if he has regrets, but he he talks about it once in a while.
00:57:34.860 --> 00:57:42.059
But I think he really was glad that he was able to enjoy his kind of after hours and okay.
00:57:42.380 --> 00:57:47.740
It wasn't just living 24 hours at the machine shop and feeling stuck there or anything like that.
00:57:47.900 --> 00:57:48.220
So yeah.
00:57:49.180 --> 00:57:54.140
Part of why I wanted to ask a question was a little bit of what how did that influence you?
00:57:54.860 --> 00:58:04.220
Because if he's got you know part of the family business that maybe doesn't strike the same chords as the travel stuff, which it sounds like he really enjoyed.
00:58:06.300 --> 00:58:09.740
Do you think it influenced you kind of watching him and maybe your mom?
00:58:09.900 --> 00:58:15.340
Did that have an impact on you kind of spreading your wings and going and doing different stuff?
00:58:15.500 --> 00:58:19.099
Because I know you didn't go straight into the travel stuff.
00:58:19.820 --> 00:58:23.500
You chose something, as I recall, that's a little bit more traditional.
00:58:23.820 --> 00:58:26.220
So I'd love to kind of dig into that.
00:58:26.380 --> 00:58:29.260
Like, you know, what were your parents encouraging you to do?
00:58:29.340 --> 00:58:32.940
What did you feel like you needed to do as a teenager for your life?
00:58:33.019 --> 00:58:36.539
And then let's figure out how you ended up doing more of the travel adventure stuff.
00:58:36.860 --> 00:58:38.220
I was really into sports.
00:58:38.300 --> 00:58:42.140
I would say from third grade on, I was a three sport a year kid.
00:58:42.380 --> 00:58:44.380
My parents were very supportive of that.
00:58:44.539 --> 00:58:52.059
And then with that, I went to Gustavus Adolphus College here, and it's about an hour away from the city's Swedish school.
00:58:52.220 --> 00:58:54.940
I I took Swedish for like a semester, but that was about it.
00:58:55.180 --> 00:59:00.059
Did you did you hang out with when you were young, did you hang out with anybody that didn't have a Scandinavian?
00:59:00.460 --> 00:59:00.860
Oh yeah.
00:59:00.940 --> 00:59:01.180
Yep.
00:59:01.340 --> 00:59:06.300
Being from South Minneapolis, I had all different kind of friend groups and things like that.
00:59:06.460 --> 00:59:07.180
So yeah.
00:59:07.500 --> 00:59:07.820
Okay.
00:59:08.220 --> 00:59:13.900
But I I my focus was on I was certified K-12 health and physical education.
00:59:14.059 --> 00:59:17.900
So I really wanted to teach like elementary school fiad.
00:59:18.220 --> 00:59:21.340
I thought that was fun, just getting kids interested in being active.
00:59:21.420 --> 00:59:27.340
And when did that when do you remember the first time when you thought I'm gonna be a phys ed instructor?
00:59:27.579 --> 00:59:27.980
I don't know.
00:59:28.059 --> 00:59:35.019
I think I was trying to decide what I wanted to do when I was at college, and I looked at like So you were already in school athletic training and things like that.
00:59:35.099 --> 00:59:39.420
And I knew I wanted to do something with athletics or sport or something like that.
00:59:39.500 --> 00:59:44.059
And so this I kind of happened upon it and I was like, oh, I think I could do that.
00:59:44.140 --> 00:59:47.660
And then the obvious choice.
00:59:47.740 --> 01:00:01.099
I don't know, you educate me a little bit on this, but if you're really into sports and you know you want to do something with sports and you go to school, did you start as a major in recreation or sports or something like that?
01:00:01.180 --> 01:00:03.019
I mean, when you first started there, did you have a major?
01:00:03.579 --> 01:00:08.220
I well, I declared sophomore year, uh my major of health and fiad.
01:00:09.099 --> 01:00:19.260
Okay, so it seems like a reasonable thing to it seems I'm guessing most people that would declare a major like that probably have the thought of doing phys ed, is that right?
01:00:19.740 --> 01:00:19.900
Okay.
01:00:20.059 --> 01:00:20.140
Yeah.
01:00:20.940 --> 01:00:24.780
But now the c I I I'm just I told you I didn't have a plan to list questions.
01:00:25.260 --> 01:00:34.380
But what I what I really want to know is if I if I did meet you, Elaine, when you were, let's say, 15, we can adjust the age a little if if the age isn't too relevant.
01:00:34.539 --> 01:00:44.140
But if I met you when you were in high school doing three sports a year and going to these these language camps, I know that's not what you called them, but language camps.
01:00:44.619 --> 01:00:47.099
And I said, Elaine, what do you want to do when you grow up?
01:00:47.500 --> 01:00:48.700
What do you think you would have answered?
01:00:48.860 --> 01:00:49.820
Do you do you recall?
01:00:50.860 --> 01:00:55.420
In high school, I don't know if I would have had the answer at that point.
01:00:55.740 --> 01:00:55.900
Okay.
01:00:56.380 --> 01:00:56.860
At all.
01:00:57.099 --> 01:01:02.300
I never was like, I want to be a te like I I would have said if you would have said do you want to be a teacher?
01:01:02.460 --> 01:01:05.260
I probably would have said no at that point.
01:01:05.420 --> 01:01:06.380
But yeah, I don't know.
01:01:06.460 --> 01:01:17.019
It was just kind of a it felt like a natural progression, but I feel like I had to really investigate things to arrive at that said, you know, conclusion at that point.
01:01:17.340 --> 01:01:18.380
No, no, fair enough.
01:01:18.460 --> 01:01:31.500
As you know, sometimes kids are like immediately they start, I want to be an astronaut, I want to be a doctor, I want to be a veterinarian, and others just kind of taking it in and and exposing themselves to things before they commit to anything.
01:01:31.660 --> 01:01:32.860
So yeah, all right.
01:01:32.940 --> 01:01:36.700
So you get to school, you decide, okay, I'm gonna be, I'm gonna go phys ed in health.
01:01:36.860 --> 01:01:39.019
You've walked me from there.
01:01:39.099 --> 01:01:39.820
What what happened?
01:01:39.900 --> 01:01:42.380
Did you actually end up with a teaching job?
01:01:42.700 --> 01:01:50.140
I I was I did my student teaching and then I was a substitute teacher in a couple different districts to kind of get my foot in the door.
01:01:50.300 --> 01:01:57.820
While I was doing that, I was also part of this Swedish festival organization helping with that and going to the meetings.
01:01:58.059 --> 01:02:11.420
A f an old friend of mine from my dance group, Swedish dance group, who I hadn't talked to for years, was I started talking to her again and she's like, Oh, I got this really great job at at a uh Nordic travel agency or a Nordic tour operator.
01:02:11.579 --> 01:02:12.700
I think you would really like it.
01:02:12.780 --> 01:02:19.099
And I looked at her like, Well, I have my teaching license and I'm trying to get a teaching job, and she's like, I think you would really like it.
01:02:19.260 --> 01:02:20.619
I think just come in one day.
01:02:20.780 --> 01:02:25.740
So I went in uh and interviewed, kind of just I was very ill prepared for it.
01:02:25.820 --> 01:02:33.820
And I went in and interviewed with this woman who would have been my boss then for the next 17 years, and I just she just said, I think you would really like this.
01:02:33.980 --> 01:02:39.660
You've been over there a few times, you're really in touch with your relatives over there, you speak Swedish.
01:02:39.980 --> 01:02:45.420
It's really fun to kind of put tick trips together for people to go see, you know, kind of where your heritage is from.
01:02:45.500 --> 01:02:56.140
And I thought, okay, so I hadn't gotten a teaching job then at that point, so I started with them January of ninety-nine, and I was there until middle twenty fifteen.
01:02:56.860 --> 01:03:01.579
When you started that job, did you think I'll do this for a while until I get a teaching job?
01:03:01.820 --> 01:03:06.059
Or at first, yeah, because I renewed my teaching license twice.
01:03:06.380 --> 01:03:10.619
So I kind of how long did it take?
01:03:11.820 --> 01:03:15.660
I think up until probably about two thousand and three.
01:03:15.900 --> 01:03:22.140
I'd had my first kid and I just came back and I thought this is a really great environment for me.
01:03:22.300 --> 01:03:25.019
I feel really comfortable with what I'm doing now.
01:03:25.180 --> 01:03:26.539
I really like what I'm doing.
01:03:26.619 --> 01:03:28.380
Uh I like the people that I work with.
01:03:28.460 --> 01:03:33.099
Uh and it it was, you know, less than a mile from my house too, where it was working.
01:03:33.340 --> 01:03:36.220
So I don't know this to be the case.
01:03:36.300 --> 01:03:47.180
I don't know enough teachers to know this, but in my teachers, maybe after their first couple years, are like, go work for a travel company helping people book trips to a place that I'm interested in.
01:03:48.059 --> 01:03:49.340
Yeah, no-brainer.
01:03:49.740 --> 01:03:51.660
Oh my gosh, I'm in dream job.
01:03:51.900 --> 01:04:03.180
But when I hear you describe it, and the and the reason I'm asking is because I want you to correct me if I'm wrong, but when I hear you describing it, it's like, well, yeah, I guess I can do this for a while until I until I get a teaching job.
01:04:03.420 --> 01:04:07.579
And it took a while before you kind of said, you know what, this is actually a pretty good job.
01:04:07.740 --> 01:04:09.180
And I'm not trying to put words in your mouth.
01:04:09.260 --> 01:04:10.860
I'm just asking because I think I heard it wrong.
01:04:11.019 --> 01:04:11.500
I don't know.
01:04:11.579 --> 01:04:20.220
So no, that's exactly it because when I renewed my license the first time, I was still up, you know, thinking, Oh, I'm I'm gonna, I'm not gonna be here forever.
01:04:20.380 --> 01:04:26.940
And the more I was the more I was there, the more I enjoyed it, and the more I realized that, you know, I also like this.
01:04:27.019 --> 01:04:30.539
I like sports, but I also like the Nordic heritage stuff.
01:04:30.619 --> 01:04:35.740
So that's Did you did you did you feel like you were giving up your dream at any point?
01:04:35.900 --> 01:04:55.579
Like the dream of was there a dream of being a teacher or was it No, I I think I also had kind of really wrecked both of my ankles playing sports, and so I had to have surgery, and so playing in college was out of the question, and that really broke my heart, and so I got my minor in coaching, and I've done that with my kids.
01:04:55.740 --> 01:05:19.900
I've coached a lot of their baseball and soccer teams, and so I've kind of I I've still kept that in my life, and I think that's still really important, and both of my sons know that you know, women in sports is really important and coaching and all that stuff, but they kind of I think I've given them kind of a well-rounded picture of me that I really pursued a lot of different interests.
01:05:19.980 --> 01:05:24.059
I'm also I used to play the piano, so I started picking that up like a year ago.
01:05:24.140 --> 01:05:28.460
I kind of unfolded the the top and started dinging around on the piano.
01:05:28.539 --> 01:05:38.460
So just trying to keep different in interests in my life, and I think that's important for everybody, whether it's you know, whatever hobby they had or whatever really they were passionate about.
01:05:38.539 --> 01:05:40.220
I think that's important for everybody.
01:05:40.380 --> 01:05:51.340
Whatever it is that they they like, they should pursue it or continue it because there's usually a casual way people can do stuff, they don't have to professionally do anything, they can just do it for fun.
01:05:51.579 --> 01:05:53.980
So what about your kids and travel?
01:05:54.140 --> 01:05:57.500
How enthusiastic are they about trips?
01:05:57.660 --> 01:05:58.140
Travel?
01:05:58.300 --> 01:06:02.140
Can you see, you know, any of them following your following your path?
01:06:02.460 --> 01:06:03.180
I would say so.
01:06:03.340 --> 01:06:06.460
Yeah, my both of my kids have over the years done things.
01:06:06.619 --> 01:06:11.500
My younger son was with scouts and they did a lot of different hiking trips kind of all over the US.
01:06:11.660 --> 01:06:12.700
He really enjoyed that.
01:06:12.940 --> 01:06:19.260
We took him on a couple of trips to Scandinavia now before, you know, like in when they were in high school and things like that.
01:06:19.340 --> 01:06:20.220
They really enjoyed that.
01:06:20.300 --> 01:06:26.780
And now my older son who has now got a job and he and his partner they're traveling around.
01:06:26.860 --> 01:06:31.260
She had never really been anywhere, and so they were up in Canada a couple weeks ago.
01:06:31.500 --> 01:06:36.539
Neither of them had been up there, and so they planned the whole thing on their own, and they went to Iceland last summer.
01:06:36.780 --> 01:06:41.660
Yeah, so I think they they both have the travel bug, and I'm glad for that, you know.
01:06:41.740 --> 01:06:48.700
And if I've told them too, I'm like, if you end up getting a job somewhere far away, we will come and visit you and do all the traveling there too.
01:06:48.860 --> 01:06:50.619
Yeah, that's very that's very, very cool.
01:06:50.780 --> 01:06:53.820
Do you so that first travel job that you got?
01:06:53.980 --> 01:06:58.140
I think you said it maybe you mentioned even a couple times you were there approximately seven years.
01:06:58.460 --> 01:06:59.740
Almost seventeen years.
01:07:00.059 --> 01:07:01.019
Seventeen years.
01:07:01.180 --> 01:07:01.660
Mm-hmm.
01:07:01.980 --> 01:07:03.820
Yeah, that there's a big difference.
01:07:04.539 --> 01:07:04.940
All right.
01:07:05.180 --> 01:07:09.340
Was that the job where you were doing the DMC tour operator stuff?
01:07:09.500 --> 01:07:14.380
Cause you'd met when we first when I first asked you what is Nordic travel, you'd said you'd been doing that.
01:07:14.619 --> 01:07:19.740
So is that one uh continuous job or did you leave that job at some point and go do some other things?
01:07:19.820 --> 01:07:22.140
I just want to make sure we don't miss any big steps here.
01:07:22.539 --> 01:07:23.980
I was there for 17 years.
01:07:24.140 --> 01:07:31.579
I started out as just a destination specialist uh and I worked my way up to the director of the Scandinavian division that we had there.
01:07:31.740 --> 01:07:33.820
I think I I I liked it.
01:07:33.900 --> 01:07:41.660
I just felt like at that point I had hit a wall and I was like, I walked in here as a 23-year-old kid and I I need to do something else.
01:07:41.820 --> 01:07:47.579
So I then ended up a very short stint with the local airline here, Sun Country Airlines.
01:07:47.740 --> 01:07:49.900
I learned a lot of marketing skills there.
01:07:50.140 --> 01:07:59.420
My boss there was amazing and just kind of helped me get me thinking about different things about travel and about advertising and marketing and all that sort of thing.
01:07:59.500 --> 01:08:10.140
So then after that, I started a few years become before COVID, a bunch of my old colleagues from my first job and I started a company and we were a tour operator doing kind of the same thing.
01:08:10.860 --> 01:08:14.140
Booking for direct to the public and also for travel agents.
01:08:14.300 --> 01:08:17.340
And then COVID happened, and so we lasted about a week.
01:08:19.019 --> 01:08:20.939
Yeah, I I'm not laughing.
01:08:21.019 --> 01:08:22.699
I've I've heard that stor that story.
01:08:23.019 --> 01:08:23.260
Yeah.
01:08:23.420 --> 01:08:28.460
We weren't big enough to survive, so it was I mean it was kind of a good thing, you could say.
01:08:28.619 --> 01:08:39.500
We just didn't feel like we could manage with loans and how long it was gonna be we were gonna be closed, and so then I really got to kind of sit and think about maybe the next chapter of what I wanted to do.
01:08:39.659 --> 01:08:42.460
So I started with a company in late 2021.
01:08:42.539 --> 01:08:48.619
It was a Norwegian company, and I started an office here for them for kind of the US and Canadian market.
01:08:48.699 --> 01:08:53.739
Uh doing again, they were a DMC, so they had an in in destination office.
01:08:53.899 --> 01:08:57.739
That's the difference between kind of a tour operator and a DMC.
01:08:57.899 --> 01:09:03.420
So we were catering again to travel agents and then direct to the public here for this market.
01:09:03.819 --> 01:09:09.579
So we're most, I'm guessing we're most of those kind of Midwest, the people travel agents.
01:09:09.739 --> 01:09:10.220
No, okay.
01:09:10.460 --> 01:09:14.380
No, a lot of East Coast, West Coast, people from all over the place.
01:09:14.619 --> 01:09:18.140
A lot of markets too that maybe got a flight put in.
01:09:18.300 --> 01:09:23.180
Maybe Iceland Air was flying into their market and they just had a okay, a lot of advertising.
01:09:23.340 --> 01:09:28.619
So a lot of people use the Nordics as kind of a bucket list, or I haven't been there, so let's give that a try.
01:09:30.699 --> 01:09:35.980
Yeah, or go go to Iceland and see a a volcano or you know, whatever it is.
01:09:36.300 --> 01:09:36.619
Yeah.
01:09:36.779 --> 01:09:37.180
All right.
01:09:37.340 --> 01:09:38.619
That's uh that's very cool.
01:09:38.699 --> 01:09:41.819
And then at at some point you're like, okay, Nordic travel collective.
01:09:43.020 --> 01:09:44.859
How did that idea like I don't know.
01:09:45.020 --> 01:09:46.940
I think I just What do you want to tell us about that?
01:09:47.180 --> 01:09:49.180
Yeah, I think I just kind of I don't know.
01:09:49.340 --> 01:09:52.859
Now that I I turned 50 last year, I'm having a hard time with that.
01:09:53.020 --> 01:09:54.940
But I, you know, I'm lucky to be here.
01:09:55.020 --> 01:09:56.380
It's you know, I'm 50.
01:09:56.460 --> 01:10:02.779
And I just felt like I've been doing this for so long and I wanted to give it a go again and see if I could make something of my own.
01:10:02.940 --> 01:10:08.140
And again, there's the market for every type of traveler, and so I thought, what the heck?
01:10:08.220 --> 01:10:11.739
Let's lean into this this version and see how it goes.
01:10:11.900 --> 01:10:17.739
Because I just that the the thing that I really love is the the product, the suppliers, the things that are offered.
01:10:17.900 --> 01:10:19.819
And I love writing itineraries for people.
01:10:20.060 --> 01:10:26.779
So I get to kind of just do that again instead of managing big massive bookings and all that sort of thing.
01:10:26.859 --> 01:10:28.220
So isn't it nice?
01:10:28.300 --> 01:10:35.420
Like, because I just turned 53 and I actually started this podcast, I guess, right around the time I turned 50.
01:10:35.739 --> 01:10:36.940
All right, congratulations.
01:10:37.180 --> 01:10:39.579
Yeah, and it and it's kind of like, you know, here's what I like.
01:10:39.659 --> 01:10:47.819
And when I started the podcast, I thought I would, you know, kind of do the podcast and kind of around my marketing business, draw some attention into my marketing business.
01:10:48.060 --> 01:10:53.420
Then within the last year or so, I was like, you know, it's not the marketing I like, it's a podcast I like.
01:10:54.060 --> 01:10:54.699
What do you like?
01:10:54.779 --> 01:10:56.380
Yep, going back to the roots.
01:10:56.619 --> 01:10:57.180
Yeah, exactly.
01:10:57.260 --> 01:11:05.260
It's like, what do I actually like to do and figure out how to make that work without trying to inject all these other things that I don't really enjoy?
01:11:05.420 --> 01:11:10.779
And that's that's kind of what I hear you, and you're like, yeah, I want to do the the parts I really like, this part of it.
01:11:10.940 --> 01:11:16.619
So I'm gonna find people that want that part of it instead of trying to do a bunch of crap.
01:11:16.779 --> 01:11:19.659
And sometimes turning 50 will cause you to rethink things.
01:11:20.140 --> 01:11:20.460
Oh, I know.
01:11:20.699 --> 01:11:21.420
Well, even during COVID.
01:11:21.900 --> 01:11:30.539
I thought you just I thought you were in summer camps just a few years ago, but no, well, even during COVID, when I was trying to decide like what kind of job should I apply for?
01:11:30.699 --> 01:11:31.900
Do I want to stay in this business?
01:11:32.060 --> 01:11:32.699
What do I want to do?
01:11:32.779 --> 01:11:45.340
And when we were finally able to kind of go out for dinner again, my old college roommate and I were out, and this couple that was sitting next to us was talking about a trip to Sweden, and my friend immediately looked at me and she was like, Don't.
01:11:45.500 --> 01:11:46.300
And I was like, What?
01:11:46.460 --> 01:11:48.060
She was like, Don't, just don't.
01:11:48.220 --> 01:11:54.940
And I was like, And like two minutes later, I turned around and I was like, So, I hear you're going to Sweden.
01:11:55.020 --> 01:11:58.539
And my friend's just rolling her eyes, and she's like, Yeah, I get it.
01:11:58.779 --> 01:12:01.579
I think, yeah, she's like, just this is what you need to do.
01:12:01.659 --> 01:12:03.180
And I was like, Yeah, I know.
01:12:03.420 --> 01:12:11.819
I think uh I think those of us that are around our age group, and and of course we all experienced COVID at the same time.
01:12:12.940 --> 01:12:22.699
But those people that experience COVID maybe around the age of 50, I think it's I think it impacted a lot of different generations differently, I think is what I'm saying.
01:12:23.180 --> 01:12:28.940
So if you're already kind of approaching 50, some of us have that like, what am I doing with my life and what do I want to do with my life?
01:12:29.100 --> 01:12:29.420
Yeah.
01:12:29.659 --> 01:12:38.779
And then COVID hits at the same time, which basically just like 10 X's whatever thoughts that you're already going through your head, you know, and all of a sudden it becomes even more urgent.
01:12:38.859 --> 01:12:50.220
Because it's it's one thing to turn 50, it's another thing to deal with COVID around the same time you turn 50, and you're like, you see a lot of you know, I think we all saw a lot of people that didn't get to go do those things that they wanted to do.
01:12:50.699 --> 01:12:52.699
You know, because they got sick.
01:12:52.779 --> 01:13:05.739
They didn't, you know, or just by the time travel restrictions were opened up again, they didn't have the mobility that they maybe needed for that African safari that they've been talking about their entire life.
01:13:06.060 --> 01:13:10.699
So I think it had a lot of impact on on every generation, just slightly different.
01:13:10.859 --> 01:13:15.020
And it sounds like you you and I are probably can relate on on some of that.
01:13:15.100 --> 01:13:17.579
So all right, very, very cool.
01:13:17.900 --> 01:13:19.420
We've discussed a bunch of things.
01:13:19.579 --> 01:13:23.020
I know we I know like we're not gonna like, oh, you know what?
01:13:23.100 --> 01:13:35.260
When I was saying earlier, people watch a YouTube video, you know, 40-minute video of top 10 things to do in Bogota, and then they edit it all together, and it's impossible that you can really cover everything in 40 minutes worried about the same same situation.
01:13:35.340 --> 01:13:37.579
We've been chatting for a little longer than 40 minutes.
01:13:37.739 --> 01:13:41.900
Yeah, but I also recognize we're not gonna be able to capture everything that's happened in your life.
01:13:42.060 --> 01:13:45.260
But it's I really appreciate you sharing what we have so far.
01:13:45.420 --> 01:13:46.140
And I've learned a lot.
01:13:46.220 --> 01:13:50.460
And I'm curious though, Elaine, before we wrap up, what do what do you wish I would have asked you about?
01:13:50.619 --> 01:13:57.340
What do you feel like we're missing that we want to make sure our listeners know about you, Scandinavia?
01:13:57.579 --> 01:14:05.020
I mean, we could we could keep going another 15, 20 minutes if you want, but I just want to make sure we don't miss an opportunity to discuss something important to you.
01:14:05.340 --> 01:14:12.060
Yeah, I think just what's important to me is I want the traveler to feel that I want them to feel important.
01:14:12.220 --> 01:14:17.659
I want to f them to feel that what what they want to do and how they want to travel is important.
01:14:17.819 --> 01:14:22.220
I just want to help them make sure that they're gonna have the best trip that they can have.
01:14:22.380 --> 01:14:46.779
And that's kind of the whole reason for Nordic Travel Collective is let's lean into the trip that you want to have and make it the best that it can be, whatever it is, whether it's hiking or you want to go eat specialty food the whole time, or you just wanna you wanna take a bus tour or a cruise, or you wanna you wanna just be in all the big cities and look at museums or architecture, whatever it is.
01:14:46.940 --> 01:14:56.859
I want you to have the best trip that you can have because I feel like I have the knowledge to to put that together for you so you can see it in the most spectacular way.
01:14:57.020 --> 01:14:58.300
So very cool.
01:14:58.460 --> 01:15:01.900
And how do you suggest they start the process?
01:15:02.060 --> 01:15:03.579
Because I know different people are different.
01:15:03.659 --> 01:15:08.619
I've been around long enough to know some people just for some reason like to communicate by email.
01:15:08.779 --> 01:15:12.220
They'll just send an email, they'll fill out a form, and they'll go back and forth by email.
01:15:12.380 --> 01:15:18.380
Other people are super happy to jump on a video call, and other people I don't know.
01:15:18.460 --> 01:15:19.980
There's a lot of different ways people do things.
01:15:20.220 --> 01:15:22.940
I know some people love the phone, some people love email.
01:15:23.100 --> 01:15:23.900
I'm happy to do that.
01:15:24.220 --> 01:15:25.180
What's your suggestion though?
01:15:25.420 --> 01:15:40.060
If if somebody was able to set aside their normal process, and like what do you think is generally the most part of maybe why they're doing this is to save themselves some time in planning, but also mostly to have a great experience.
01:15:40.140 --> 01:15:41.420
So what would you suggest?
01:15:41.500 --> 01:15:46.539
If they could set aside their preconceived ideas of how this should look, what would you suggest they do?
01:15:46.859 --> 01:15:57.980
I would say if you get an inkling that you this is somewhere that you want to travel, like maybe do 15, 20 minutes of Googling around just to see what is in of interest to you.
01:15:58.220 --> 01:16:05.260
Think about you know, things like how long do I want to be gone, maybe when do I want to be gone, what is my overall budget look like?
01:16:05.420 --> 01:16:06.300
Can I do this?
01:16:07.420 --> 01:16:18.140
And then my website, Nordic Travel Collective.com, is an easy way to kind of peruse kind of who I am and what I do and what I offer, what I can offer.
01:16:18.380 --> 01:16:21.180
And then you can easily email me from the website.
01:16:21.260 --> 01:16:25.980
And what I love to get from people is kind of a quick snapshot of what they're looking for.
01:16:26.220 --> 01:16:43.260
Like I want to go to Iceland and I want to be gone for 12 days, and I wanna I really want to camp, but I maybe want to spend a couple of nights in a fun hotel in Reiki Baker, whatever it is, and then we can either touch base on the phone or I'm happy to set up a a video chat.
01:16:43.420 --> 01:16:57.579
I usually tend to lean that way because then we can kind of converse and I can take notes, and at that point, then we kind of go from there, whether it's me then automatically writing an itinerary or them kind of going back to the drawing board and thinking about a few things, and then we go from there.
01:16:57.739 --> 01:17:05.980
So but that's usually when I talk about you know the fees that I have and all that that sort of thing would be during the the video call.
01:17:06.140 --> 01:17:20.539
So and if somebody just like is all they know is that they've got ten days and they want to go to Scandinavia, can they still hire you to start from that position or is it important?
01:17:20.940 --> 01:17:21.100
Okay.
01:17:21.260 --> 01:17:24.060
Yeah, if they absolutely don't know what I would want to do.
01:17:24.460 --> 01:17:28.940
Like, I want to go in the winter and I want to see Sweden and Finland.
01:17:29.579 --> 01:17:29.900
Great.
01:17:30.140 --> 01:17:30.940
I can put something together.
01:17:31.500 --> 01:17:44.619
Maybe a video call with you just to see if it if it feels like the right fit, they they hire you and you go based on the conversation you've had with them, go put together some stuff, propose it, make changes, and kind of that iterative process.
01:17:44.779 --> 01:17:51.819
You mention the video calls, and maybe people that are watching us probably get it, because I can just say, well, there's a reason you're watching the video.
01:17:52.060 --> 01:17:54.940
People that are listening to it might not might not resonate the same.
01:17:55.180 --> 01:18:05.100
But uh, what I love about the video call thing, because I've I used to say I set up a lot of trips, I worked with a lot of people, and what I love about the video is that you can see people's expressions on their face.
01:18:05.260 --> 01:18:13.900
So let's just say, for example, you know, you've got a husband and wife sitting on a video call with you talking about what they want to do in Scandinavia.
01:18:13.980 --> 01:18:16.220
They probably have differences between the two of them.
01:18:16.779 --> 01:18:19.100
They're probably not on exactly the same page.
01:18:19.260 --> 01:18:24.060
And, you know, maybe she's we want to do this, we want to do that, we want to do this.
01:18:24.220 --> 01:18:28.460
And and but what is what is beautiful about it is you can see the facial expressions.
01:18:28.779 --> 01:18:40.699
So if he's over there, like not that I'm suggesting you become a therapist, but you know, it you can see the look on his face with as she mentions the things, so it can kind of help you kind of narrow in on hey, what I noticed the.
01:18:41.020 --> 01:18:41.980
Yeah, what are you looking at?
01:18:42.460 --> 01:18:42.699
Uh-huh.
01:18:42.859 --> 01:18:49.819
He got, you know, he kind of smiled there for a minute, and she may, you know, it's her husband, so she may not be watching his face as closely as you are.
01:18:49.980 --> 01:18:59.100
And I actually think you can end up with a much better experience because when somebody sends you an email and says, We came up with these four things for day three.
01:18:59.180 --> 01:19:02.060
You know, day three, we came up with these four ideas.
01:19:02.539 --> 01:19:10.140
You when you read them in an email, it's four exactly, you know, there's no tone, there's no energy level.
01:19:10.380 --> 01:19:15.100
Maybe they said in this order, these are our preferences, but it's really, really hard to tell.
01:19:15.420 --> 01:19:22.380
Where when you're on a video call with them, well, we thought we might, you know, we might go do the elephant, you know, like let's say Thailand.
01:19:22.779 --> 01:19:29.420
Yeah, we want we really want to go to the elephant sanctuary, but if that one's not available, then maybe, you know, the the street food thing, da-da-da-da.
01:19:29.739 --> 01:19:32.619
Or, you know, we're also kind of open to the something else.
01:19:32.699 --> 01:19:38.619
You know, you can see the look on their face, and it helps you get a feel for what they really, really want as opposed to in an email, right?
01:19:38.699 --> 01:19:39.579
It's it's just easier.
01:19:40.140 --> 01:19:47.500
Yeah, and it, you know, especially too with like small groups, everybody wants something different, you know, or multi-generational trips.
01:19:47.579 --> 01:19:56.220
I've done a lot of those where you know you're going with, you know, maybe a five-year-old and the oldest person is 82, and not everybody can do the same thing.
01:19:56.380 --> 01:19:59.819
There's naps, and maybe there's not as active.
01:20:00.140 --> 01:20:02.060
So you have to have different options.
01:20:02.220 --> 01:20:07.659
Maybe within the itinerary, there might be two or three different itineraries going at the same time.
01:20:07.819 --> 01:20:21.020
So that's a really good that's a really good point because yeah, if you're you know, another example that's not related to the Nordic, Nordic region, but Kilimanjaro, you know, somebody's like, we want to go to Africa to a safari, we want to climb Kilimanjaro.
01:20:21.180 --> 01:20:21.980
Okay, that's great.
01:20:22.140 --> 01:20:27.340
But a video call might be pretty helpful because you see the people not to judge, but it's can you do that, Killy Clay?
01:20:27.579 --> 01:20:28.140
Yeah, be careful.
01:20:28.220 --> 01:20:46.380
I gotta be careful what I'm saying, but it but if they show up on the video call and you know, and the guy's breathing hard just trying to have a conversation on a Zoom call, and you know, maybe his partner, his friend, his wife, whatever is really excited about it, and he's over there like look got that look on his face, like, oh my god, she's trying to kill me.
01:20:48.380 --> 01:20:52.859
There's a lot of questions too, like when you go on a trip, what does it typically look like?
01:20:53.020 --> 01:21:01.340
Sometimes that paints a good picture for how people travel, or you know, like how when you go out for your typical What does that typically look like?
01:21:01.500 --> 01:21:04.779
You know, another one that I heard someone say and I thought was pretty brilliant.
01:21:04.859 --> 01:21:13.340
I wish I had thought of it, was uh, and maybe you do it, is ask people, you know, so your last trip, what did you like least about your last trip?
01:21:13.659 --> 01:21:15.260
Or, you know, and I'm sure you've done that.
01:21:15.659 --> 01:21:21.500
When I heard it, I was like, oh, that's brilliant, because then you're really gonna cut they're gonna it there, that's gonna tell you so much more.
01:21:21.659 --> 01:21:32.940
And if it's if it's because the transfer driver was five minutes late picking us up at the airport, that's useful information, you know, or the you know, there were you know, there was an air conditioning in the hotels.
01:21:33.100 --> 01:21:39.020
And that's something they're not it's funny because they're not likely to say, make sure that every hotel has air conditioning.
01:21:39.180 --> 01:21:43.020
But if you ask them what's the least favorite part, what's the part you hated most about your last trip?
01:21:43.100 --> 01:21:45.100
And it's well, the hotels didn't have air conditioning.
01:21:45.340 --> 01:21:45.739
Mm-hmm.
01:21:45.900 --> 01:21:52.060
Or I ate at a restaurant every day for two weeks, and I can't, you know, I need to be able to cook somewhere, do something.
01:21:52.300 --> 01:21:59.020
So, like maybe look at places that have great markets and good shopping and stuff, so they can do some stuff on their own.
01:21:59.180 --> 01:22:00.699
So yeah, it's fun, isn't it?
01:22:00.940 --> 01:22:06.460
Yeah, everybody's different, everybody wants different things, and I think that's important to embrace.
01:22:06.619 --> 01:22:07.579
So yeah, yep.
01:22:07.659 --> 01:22:08.619
And it's and it's fun.
01:22:08.699 --> 01:22:16.140
And if you're like me, it's that after the trip, they're like, wow, that was great, and you know, and there's that that feedback after the trip.
01:22:16.220 --> 01:22:24.699
I used to I used to spend people in my family thought it was just because I had a big ego, but I used to spend an inordinate amount of time, and I kind of still do reading reviews.
01:22:24.859 --> 01:22:28.779
My reviews and you know, my ex-wife be like, You're so full of yourself, what are you doing?
01:22:28.940 --> 01:22:36.699
And uh, and it's like it's not that, it's just that I just so happy that I was able to be part of that and they had so much fun.
01:22:36.859 --> 01:22:38.380
I wasn't there with them on the trip.
01:22:38.460 --> 01:22:40.460
I used to lead a lot of trips, that was better.
01:22:40.859 --> 01:22:48.859
But it's like, you know, I wasn't on the trip with them, so when I when I hear their feedback and the way they write it, it just makes me feel good because I got to be a part of that.
01:22:48.940 --> 01:22:49.980
It's not you know betting.
01:22:50.380 --> 01:22:51.900
Yeah, oh yeah, that's the fun part.
01:22:52.060 --> 01:22:55.020
So or if something isn't working, what didn't work and why?
01:22:55.180 --> 01:22:57.659
Because you want to know because you don't want to do something that again.
01:22:57.739 --> 01:23:05.100
You don't want to send somewhere somebody somewhere that you know was legitimately suddenly not a good product or accommodation or whatever it is.
01:23:05.260 --> 01:23:18.699
So that's something I think people understand, but that is one of the challenges of working as a planner, advisor, destination specialist, all this or just anything in tourism that's not a day trip that you run yourself.
01:23:19.980 --> 01:23:21.659
There's a lot of other people involved.
01:23:22.220 --> 01:23:36.460
And usually good people, and these might be people you've been working with for years, but they hire new people, they've got a team, everybody, you know, there's so many people involved, and you're not there to and cultural differences and all that stuff.
01:23:36.619 --> 01:23:38.779
So that's that is a big challenge.
01:23:38.940 --> 01:23:49.819
I I think that when somebody like yourself puts together something and it goes off really, really well, it's like a I don't want to say it's amazing because I'm sure all your trips go really, really well.
01:23:49.900 --> 01:24:02.779
But it's kind of amazing when you think about all the different things that have to work together in this and but it's also about setting the right expectations with your clients and getting to know your clients.
01:24:03.500 --> 01:24:12.859
Because if you're dependent on one transfer driver, you know, being able to ruin the whole thing, then it's that's very, very stressful.
01:24:13.020 --> 01:24:22.940
But when you work with people and kind of discuss a little about like like you said, you know, the getting from spot A to spot B and you know in Norway can take a little longer than you expect.
01:24:23.420 --> 01:24:37.900
Just setting that expectation right there helps so much because otherwise they could come back and say, Oh my gosh, it took the traffic was horrible or the roads were so windy and it took us for you know, they don't care about that stuff unless it causes them to miss a bus or a train or a flight.
01:24:38.060 --> 01:24:38.539
Yeah.
01:24:39.980 --> 01:24:43.900
If they know about it ahead of time and you figure it into the itinerary, then it's fine.
01:24:44.060 --> 01:24:46.779
So I don't know where I'm going with this, but congratulations.
01:24:47.260 --> 01:24:48.140
No, thank you.
01:24:48.380 --> 01:24:49.180
Thank you.
01:24:50.539 --> 01:24:56.699
I uh I look forward to uh to connecting with you, talking about Svalbard, Svalbard or Swallboard?
01:24:57.020 --> 01:24:57.980
Svalbard, yeah.
01:24:58.539 --> 01:24:59.020
That's what I thought.
01:24:59.180 --> 01:24:59.340
Yeah.
01:24:59.500 --> 01:25:03.900
So because I need to go see a polar bear and uh and a lot of other things in Scandinavia as well.
01:25:04.460 --> 01:25:11.500
Anyone, you know, the people that are listening, you're listening to this, um, we've got the website, a link to your website right in the show notes.
01:25:11.579 --> 01:25:20.220
So scroll down there, take a look at what Elaine is doing, and I would encourage anybody that's thinking about going there, just it sounds like they can at least just book a call with you.
01:25:20.460 --> 01:25:21.020
Absolutely.
01:25:21.260 --> 01:25:24.060
And and have a conversation and see if you're the right person.
01:25:24.220 --> 01:25:28.220
If they're still if they're still listening to this, they already know you're the right person.
01:25:28.779 --> 01:25:31.260
I want them to make sure that I'm the right fit for them.
01:25:31.340 --> 01:25:32.060
So yeah.
01:25:32.940 --> 01:25:33.579
Absolutely.
01:25:33.659 --> 01:25:42.140
So, and then when you read, and this is for the listeners, when you when you reach out to Elaine, make sure you mention that, hey, Elaine, I heard you uh have that conversation with Jason.
01:25:42.380 --> 01:25:52.060
And um, and then Elaine's gonna let me know, hey Jason, I I helped a wonderful family set up a wonderful trip to Scandinavia, and and then I'm gonna go read the review somewhere and just feel good that I was part of that.
01:25:52.140 --> 01:25:56.220
So, Elaine, thanks for thank you for letting me be part of uh connecting people with you.
01:25:56.300 --> 01:25:59.020
So thank you so much, and I look forward to uh seeing you again soon.
01:25:59.260 --> 01:25:59.659
All right.
01:25:59.900 --> 01:26:00.699
All right, thanks.
01:26:00.779 --> 01:26:01.739
Bye too.
01:26:01.819 --> 01:26:02.140
Bye bye.