Jess (00:02.356)
Welcome back to another episode of How to 20 something where today I’ve brought on a very unique guest to talk about how she turned her love for travel from a treat to a lifestyle. I know a lot of people dream of doing this for themselves, but are either too afraid to make that leap or don’t know where to begin or the logistics around making it sustainable for them. And speaking for middle-class Americans only, as that’s the culture I grew up in, travel is viewed very much as a luxury.

and your work only gives you X amount of days to enjoy said luxury. Like my second job out of school only gave me five vacation days for my first year. So traveling wasn’t an option for me. Fast forward to the corporate climate now, almost five years post the start of the pandemic, and it’s becoming less and less common to pack up your belongings and work from anywhere as in office demands are continuing to increase.

which is why I brought on Liz to talk about how she made this move for herself last year. And we’ll be discussing the process, expectations, the planning, and what she hopes to do for the foreseeable future. So that hopefully by the end of this episode, you will have a better understanding as to how you can do this for yourself or seek out the proper resources to help you do so and not break the bank in the process.

But before we jump into that conversation, I’m going to introduce Liz so you guys know more about her background. wait, I need to ask, is it Erhardic?

Liz Erhartic (01:39.297)
It’s like Amelia Earhart.

Jess (01:41.238)
Erhard. Erhardic. Okay. That’s a hard part. right. Liz Erhardic is a restart. Liz Erhardic is an ex career professional recently turned nomadic entrepreneur and author to be she’s recently upturned her seemingly perfect life in search of the lifestyle she really wants the freedom to exchange a few weeks of PTO for an explorative and experiential location free life.

From travel hacking to get places cheaply to taking a plunge to starting a couple of travel businesses and self-published poetry books, there’s no going back now. And now Liz is here to bestow her travel lifestyle with all of you. So hi, Liz, and welcome to How to 20 something.

Liz Erhartic (02:24.897)
Hi Jess, thank you for inviting me. I’m excited to be here.

Jess (02:28.098)
Yeah, I’m excited to hear about your story and just how you created this life for yourself. But first, let’s begin with telling the listeners where you’re calling in from for this recording and a little bit of a background of how long you’ve been living this lifestyle.

Liz Erhartic (02:45.539)
So I’m calling from Marrakesh, Morocco. I have been here for about two and a half weeks. This is my last week in Marrakesh, Morocco right now. My lifestyle in terms of travel has been a slower transformation that all kind of went off the wire basically last month when I quit my corporate job to do this full time. But I had been since a couple years.

after the pandemic started, been very intentional about trying to turn travel from a treat into a lifestyle. it’s gradually increased to this point till now.

Jess (03:27.512)
That’s so cool. Were you working remotely with your full time job while you were traveling? Because you’ve been traveling for a couple months now, right?

Liz Erhartic (03:37.187)
Kind of. I was in Kenya for three weeks in September and I actually took those three weeks off of work to go on a group trip and work on my side projects and then I went back to work, turned in my resignation and then left again at the beginning of December.

Jess (03:56.566)
Okay, and when did the travel initially start? Was Kenya the first one or did you travel before that within this last year of your life?

Liz Erhartic (04:05.653)
In terms of longer term, slower travel, it’s been since September. But lots of other trips before then.

Jess (04:13.313)
Okay.

Yes, yes, it’s why you wanted to make this a full-time thing. So what ignited this initial decision to fully release your corporate lifestyle and the stability and security of that to be a travel nomad?

Liz Erhartic (04:31.937)
I’ve had the itch, as I’ll call it, for a number of years, since before the pandemic. And I think that while I really loved my career, I was kind of split in two internally, where half of me really wanted that stable, really good, projected career that I had worked for, and half of me just wanted to just be gone. And I struggled a long time with…

feeling two very different needs and two very different desires. I was working on the plan for escape for the last one to two years. I joined a women’s travel community called Wonderful. I started going places, seeing all of these people living this location-free life that I really wanted to and slowly understanding that

travel looks different for people. They’re doing it in different ways, that it’s not just this one thing that you have to do. You kind of make it work for you. I, through work, was introduced to someone who has her own business, traveling with people to places, and she had a training. So I took that at the beginning of this year, 2024, when we recording it, and…

started the slow process of creating a business, registering it, doing my insurance contracts, everything like that. And I had the plan to quit at the end of January, 2025. And Kenya kind of was like, no, I could do this and accelerated the timeline a little bit. But I also went through a bad breakup.

Jess (06:24.408)
Yeah.

You keep going.

Liz Erhartic (06:30.723)
this at the beginning of this year. And that kind of changed the whole trajectory. I didn’t have to make myself small to fit into anybody’s world anymore. And kind of, even though I was planning this already, gave me the push to, this is the perfect time.

Jess (06:50.626)
Yeah, I think that’s a relatable to anyone who has made a very big transition in their life is something has sparked it. It’s a lot of times we get caught up in the, well, it’s not that bad. Like, yes, I have these dreams and I want to go do these things, but this is fine. This is okay. And you just kind of get settled and you get comfortable in your life that usually it takes something fully pulling the rug out from underneath you.

to actually pursue these dreams that you’ve slowly been working towards. It’s not like you went through this breakup and then all of a sudden you’re like, I’m leaving and I’m going to be gone. It was something you were working towards and that was that final push. it’s one of those blessing and disguises that yes, it sucks in the moment, but looking back, it was something that you’re very grateful for, that it’s allowing, it gave you that freedom. Nothing was holding you back anymore to

go after these dreams to pursue that. So I want to ask you, did anyone in your immediate circle try to talk you out of this decision or was everyone kind of supportive knowing that you had been working towards this for some time?

Liz Erhartic (08:03.561)
I was terrified for very long time that everyone was going to think I was crazy. I had from the outside looking in this perfect life, this perfect job, just everything was how it’s quote unquote supposed to be. And some people knew that I was working on it. Some people like my coworkers, my boss, they had no idea. I…

was met with only support, which kind of still blows my mind. Everybody believes in me and my boss, my coworkers, they’d go so far as to say that I was brave when I just kind of felt silly, but it is very scary to leave something good is very scary. And…

Some of my coworkers were telling me, I wish that I had done that when I was younger and I didn’t have responsibilities or a family. So it’s a shockingly been that no one to my face has told me that they think that I’m being stupid. So that’s at least very nice on my end.

Jess (09:16.13)
Well, it’s what your 20s are for when you are single, when you don’t have a mortgage or you’re not fully settled in one place yet. It is the time to take these risks. I tell people it’s like, need to take calculated risks. That’s not you just throwing everything out the window and crossing your fingers and hoping for the best. It does require planning. It does require strategic thinking. But at the end of the day, it is a risk and you’re taking a bet on yourself to go do this, to pursue this life.

Also knowing that worst case, if it doesn’t work out, you have all these experiences, all this knowledge, all this culture exposure, and you can always go back to the job, the corporate, the nine to five life that you were doing previously. It’s not an end of the world thing. I think that’s also why people are supportive is, yeah, now’s the time, go do that.

Liz Erhartic (10:06.499)
I did have to change and challenge my limiting beliefs that were telling me I work my, I worked. My professional job was in a very niche field. I did accessibility at an airport and for a long time I was the only one that did that job. It was just me. And so it was kind of one of my fears of if this doesn’t work out, I can’t just go back to that job because it’s gonna be filled.

And even to find it out at a different airport is only if there’s that vacancy. But I am actually capable of doing more than this one career that I’ve had. And I still need to remind myself of that sometimes, but all of those skills or those transferable skills, the knowledge that I have, that is something that I can use and that deepens something that I’m doing now with this business, it’s a pivot of my career.

Jess (10:37.964)
Hmm.

Liz Erhartic (11:00.779)
I know airports very well, I’m very experienced in traveling and I have professional experience and certifications in working with seniors and people with disabilities, specifically in airports. This is the pivot that I needed to make to not be stuck in one place doing that kind of work.

Jess (11:19.278)
Yeah, I love it. What measures? We’re talking a lot about planning and that this was something you had worked on one to two years and originally you forecasted for an end of 2025 to fully leave the corporate life. So what measures did you need to put in place to make this transition as seamless as possible or as sustainable as possible as well?

Liz Erhartic (11:45.379)
It’s funny, you were talking earlier about taking risks in your 20s and being at the tail end of my 20s, I almost feel like I’m doing everything backwards. But you’ve talked about this in a previous episode, kind of the importance of planning for things, that balance, right, between planning and doing. And I feel like I was able to dedicate the majority of my 20s to setting myself up to be able to live the lifestyle that I’ve dreamed of, and I’m very grateful for that.

feel like when you’re going into your thirties, maybe people are always a little down now and I’m doing the opposite, but the chunk of my twenties was so vital in, you know, building experience, building, building knowledge, building a savings, building a network, all of that stuff. That’s kind of sometimes boring, but it’s helpful at this stage where I am right now in my journey. So.

The planning.

I could have gone faster if I was more confident in myself, but it took me at least a year to convince myself that it was okay for me to quit my job and pursue this. And as the planning kind of continues, I am working on trying to create multiple streams of income. And I’m putting a big emphasis on investing in my projects from the beginning so that

I do things as right as possible from the start so that I’m not as stressed as I could be so that I know who to outsource things to so that I don’t get overwhelmed, when to go to an attorney, when to go to an accountant, and set myself up in the best way possible to be able to make this sustainable for the long term.

Jess (13:46.242)
break down a couple things that you had said, because it you said that you feel like you did this a little backwards. And I disagree. I think, well, there’s the saying there’s the paradigm of my coach loves to say it, you’re always right on time. There is no backwards, there is no behind, there is no ahead, like you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. And

with this specific dream, I don’t think would be possible for a majority of the people earlier in their 20s for the reasons you gave for building up their career base for building up their savings for building up these soft skills for doing micro doses of traveling like you need to use that time in your 20s to figure out who you are as well and get into those experiences so that

by the time you reach your late 20s, if not early 30s for anyone else listening, you’re ready to make this transition. it is, it’s, that’s what your 20s are setting you up for is for your 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s to be what you want it to be. It doesn’t mean you have to have it all planned out, but it’s a majority of people don’t know what they want out of their life. And a lot of your 20s is for that navigation, for that exploration of figuring it out. I mean, I am one of,

the lucky ones who figured it out when I was 24, but that’s not common. That’s very young to have that kind of stuff figured out and the trajectory of where I wanted to take my career in that point in time. And it’s still, what I’m living out today. So I’d say you’re not doing it backwards. You’re doing it exactly right. It’s exactly how I would advise a client to do it. If someone came to me who was between the ages of 22 and 25 and they’re like, I want to be a full-time

traveler, it’s like, okay, we need to build up to that. That’s not going to happen in three months. That’s what systems, what foundations do we need to put in place so that you can support this transition? And that’s exactly what you did.

Liz Erhartic (15:49.429)
I think what is different maybe about my story is that I wasn’t miserable in my day job. And I think we have this perception that you can only be so bold as to like walk away from everything if you’re miserable. And

It took me a while to convince myself that no, it’s okay to walk away from something I’m very happy with because I was very, very fortunate to walk into my dream career when I was an intern, before I even graduated undergrad. And I loved every moment that I spent doing my day job and learning that industry. And it is also okay to walk away from something that you love.

for something else that you love because humans are complex and we have multiple dreams and it’s just a new chapter.

Jess (16:48.332)
Yeah, I’d say it takes a lot more courage to walk away from something that you do love for something else that you also love because that something else that you also love comes with no guarantee. And that’s terrifying.

Liz Erhartic (17:03.117)
Bye.

Jess (17:05.39)
So back to the planning of making this possible for yourself. We talked about the savings, you talked about outsourcing. You also mentioned that you’ve met other people who have done this location-free lifestyle. Have you sought out an actual mentor to help you with this transition, or is it through these different experiences and these interactions with other people that you’ve created your own system to make this possible?

Liz Erhartic (17:34.015)
I don’t have a mentor for this specifically. I did spend the whole year talking to my therapist when I still had corporate insurance about the transition and working through that a little bit. But I’ve been very fortunate to have gone on a lot of trips and have met a lot of people that have this lifestyle. And there’s, everyone’s different, but there’s a very

familiar mindset within travelers, especially long-term travelers or slow travelers. They’re very easy to just connect with. They’re very open. You have to be open-minded to be traveling more than just your two weeks PTO. And I also have my little women’s travel community that I could always go to. But just learning how everybody

does things and does things differently. It’s kind of a trial to see what works best for each other. I don’t believe in a one size fits all, mostly anything, but I don’t believe in travel being one size fits all. It’s what works for you, what fulfills you, what are your priorities? And in the period that I’m in right now, I consider myself to be in a bit of a testing period.

Things are going to wobble a little bit for me as I’m kind of getting my things off the ground and going back and forth between the states and abroad. And I need to be able to figure out what are my priorities. Keep those in mind. For me, that’s going to be working on my projects, keeping myself healthy and enjoying experiences, and how can I fit that framework into changing environments.

So things might look a little bit different depending on where I am or what I’m doing, what I’m focusing on, but it’s really just a trial to see what works and what doesn’t work. And being okay with that.

Jess (19:42.06)
Yeah, what is your purpose with traveling? What do you hope to get out of it?

Liz Erhartic (19:50.115)
Traveling, it makes me feel alive in a different way. The more I do it, the more I can see my perspective even on travel shifting where I’ve seen my adaptability, just my skill for that skyrocket. I look at

making home into wherever I am now. And when you look at it from that mindset, you kind of lose that sometimes sense of urgency that is like, no, I need to exhaust myself doing every single thing while I have the chance capitalizing on opportunities, you’ll exhaust yourself. And you that’s not sustainable if you want to do it long term. And it’s

It’s also walking out the door into a place as different as the Medina and Marrakesh and be like, this is normal for so many people and this is my normal now. For an amount of time, sure, but it’s creating home wherever you are and just being so open to those experiences and with the way that other people live, what you can take back from a place.

and just respecting, being grateful for every little moment. Just being grateful that this isn’t what I have back in the States and I get to experience that right now.

Jess (21:30.734)
It’s beautiful. When it comes to making everything a home, I want to ask, how do you find these homes? Are you in hostels? Are you living with locals? How do you even figure that out of where you want to live, for how long, and who you’re living with?

Liz Erhartic (21:53.389)
Some people have preferences, ways they’ll only go, they’ll only do Airbnbs, they’ll only do hotels. That’s not for me. I like to hack it as much as possible and then within my travel is not a one size fits all. I have, you know, travel styles, but even certain trips, they’re gonna be for different purposes. So I’m going to do different things depending on my purposes.

I try to do some points and miles. So sometimes that might be a hotel. sometimes things might be an Airbnb. Sometimes things might be hostels. Right now I am in a co-living space, operated by Outsite. They have locations around the world. but I’m also with a group of digital nomads right now with a company called Noma Collective. So we’re all living together in a Riyadh, which is kind of

the traditional housing in Morocco, and also very similar mindsets because we’re all actively working, so we’re actively living. Sometimes we don’t live the Riyadh because we’re having a productive day. Sometimes we do. Sometimes we go out into the Sooks and shop or go get food or take some day trips. It’s just quote unquote normal life where you are.

But I shop around to fit whatever type of travel I’m doing. If I am doing slower travel, well, I will be working on projects a lot or just kind of around home base. Then I really like to use this website called Trusted House Sitters, which is where people can let you stay in their home for free in exchange for you watching their house or their pets for free.

It’s a great value and I have been a member for like three years because also if you’re an animal person, traveling could be missing that. So that’s also a good way to get in some cuddles if you need them. But the way that I do things is just very case by case and that’s what works for me.

Jess (24:17.782)
Okay, I, I always forget there’s all these other options that you can do. Like, I know you could even work on a farm and you get to live there for free and you get food and you could just get a side job somewhere and it’s not nearly as expensive to live abroad as it is in the US. So there’s so many other opportunities that come with traveling outside of I’d say I’d even say the closed minded Airbnb, these hotels, even hostels, there’s a lot of

Liz Erhartic (24:25.421)
Yeah.

Jess (24:46.592)
options to make this as affordable as possible. And they make sense. They’re not putting you in a sense of danger. I’m sure you do your research with where you’re staying, where the location of the house is and who you’re living with, even though maybe you won’t, you don’t get to choose who you’re living with. Have there been any conflicts with anyone that you’ve come across that you’ve lived with? Or is everyone pretty go with the flow? We’re all traveling, we’re all having a good time mindset.

Liz Erhartic (25:16.897)
The people that I’ve met up with or met while I’ve been traveling, I can’t think of a conflict. In my experience, a lot of times there’s a very chill kind of respect about people doing their own thing and people needing space, people wanting to be social. I haven’t had that problem specifically. It’s been…

very welcoming, very lovely. And the connections that you make while you’re traveling, I think are just accelerated because a lot of what goes into connection is shared experiences. And you basically only have shared experiences when you’re traveling. So the friendships that you need as a traveler are just next level.

Jess (26:05.302)
Yeah. So with traveling, you said that you’re going back, you’ve been going back and forth between the States and abroad. You travel around with wherever you’re at and traveling in general has the chance of having some hiccups or some ups and downs you can’t fully account for. Were there any hiccups that maybe made you question if this was the right decision or just hiccups in general that you had to work through and how you did work through the things that came up?

Liz Erhartic (26:37.095)
I haven’t had a hiccup that has made me question whether this is what I want to do. I think I’m at peace with I’m going to do the best that I can to create my businesses and to write my books and market them so that hopefully those things can be my main sources of income. But whether things are a chapter or a book, you

enjoy them for what they are. I, especially coming from a career that I loved, I know that even if it, even if it doesn’t fail, like even if it’s successful, but one day I’m like, okay, I’m getting tired of taking people from place to place and I need a break or I’m going to shelf this right now, I can do something else. And that’s freeing in itself. I did have

a moment yesterday where I was, I I was on LinkedIn and I was thinking, you know, my old team is probably having their Christmas party and they’re going to do that thing where the COO steps up and lets everybody have a half day and kind of missed it. But I’m more excited for what I’m doing now than sad. I definitely had a bittersweet experience leaving, but

When I was younger, I was very like three year plan kind of thing and I needed things to go a certain way. I needed life to go a certain way. And it did as much as it can. And now my mindset has shifted more to how exciting is it that the future is unknown, that my life could branch off in all of these different ways and I don’t know yet.

Jess (28:34.732)
Yeah, so I think it’s a quote in a movie, but it keeps coming up in my head a lot of I don’t know what I’m doing tomorrow. And then someone else goes, how exciting. It’s like, you don’t know what you’re doing tomorrow. I mean, not literally, you probably do know what you’re doing tomorrow. But it is it’s that planning ahead that you don’t know. And you don’t need to know you get to embrace the present moment right now. Well, at the same time planning for some future version of you to

Liz Erhartic (28:44.748)
Yes.

Jess (29:04.268)
continue to thrive in whatever version that is and what that looks like. And there’s a sense of grief that comes with leaving what you previously knew. This is all so new for you and anything that’s new is uncomfortable, it’s scary and it’s exciting all at the same time, but there’s still that part you can be happy and exciting for what’s to come and where you’re at right now while also feeling that sense of, I’m missing that. And I feel a little left out.

that I’m not taking part in those traditions anymore. And it can work together and it’s okay to have those things. I know for me, I found out recently that the job that I left is actually going under a little bit. And I’m in the mindset of, wow, I’m so glad I left. I don’t regret anything. But I know that’s not the case for everyone. I also left a company that had great people. The work I was doing was just not for me.

and I had bigger dreams for myself.

Liz Erhartic (30:06.347)
I think sometimes when we’re too, too focused on everything going exactly how you want it to go, you miss things that you would have never even dreamed of. And sometimes things just fall into place better than you could have ever dreamed they would. That’s what happened to me with my career. I had no idea that that was going to fulfill me for so long. And I remember being

a business major and undergrad being like, okay, I think I want to be an entrepreneur, but what am I going to sell? No idea. took me almost 10 years to figure out what I want to sell. And this is work that I would have never known existed unless I was in the chapter that I was before this. And that goes along the same concept of the open-mindedness of traveling is we are allowed to

change our dreams or to have our dreams evolve and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Jess (31:12.386)
Yeah, that’s why I don’t like five-year plans. I say, take your five-year plan and throw it out the window. You can realistically only plan for one year out of your life, if that. And I always say the global pandemic taught us that, that you really can’t plan for anything. And you should have an idea and intention of where you’re going and what you’re working towards right now, but don’t be glued to that outcome.

Liz Erhartic (31:27.751)
Thanks.

Jess (31:38.178)
Don’t put all of your eggs in that one basket if that’s exactly how it’s supposed to turn out. And traveling is that good lesson for anyone, whether they’re wanting to become a location-free person or they just want to use their PTO and go travel, there’s a ton of lessons that come with traveling. What would you say is the biggest lesson you’ve learned since leaving your full-time job to pursue this nomadic lifestyle?

Liz Erhartic (32:07.444)
I…

I want to say kind of what I said before where it’s adaptability. I think that I’ve learned that I’m actually so much more adaptable than I ever gave myself credit for because I was like, I like getting a paycheck for the same amount every week and knowing that I have, you know, the 401k and all of that. And I thought that I was someone who was meant for stability.

And I do try to create stability in what I’m doing now, even though it’s unstable stability. But the adaptability is huge, I think in life in general. But this has really showed me that I’m capable of being way more adaptable and that you don’t have, the world’s not ending when something doesn’t go to plan or work out how you can and.

My philosophy is that even if something bad happens, if you can take a lesson from that, then something good happened. And timing works out how it’s supposed to work out. I have been planning this for a year or two, but I wouldn’t go back and say that I wish I had started it any earlier. I think it all shook out how it needed to shake out. I only wish I had a little bit more confidence in myself earlier on, but I’ve gained now.

Jess (33:37.516)
Yeah, can you talk about how you’ve gained that confidence? Like what switched? What narrative did you have to change in order to grow that sense of confidence within yourself?

Liz Erhartic (33:50.763)
I think that my breakup actually did a lot of that for me. Once I kind of finished my hurting, sobbing on the floor stage and got a bit of distance from that trauma brain, I was like, actually, I’m the magic and I’m capable of all of these things and that can extend.

beyond loving someone or doing anything like that. It’s just…

Liz Erhartic (34:29.473)
I don’t know, the lesson that I had to learn that was like, you don’t need to.

Like if you’re a puzzle piece, you don’t need to cut off that little thing that juts out to make yourself fit with someone else or something else. Like what’s for you is for you and it will find you and take up the space that you need. Make the asks that you need of someone, of you know, a partner, of a job, of a life and don’t settle for less than that.

Liz Erhartic (35:07.724)
Yeah

Jess (35:09.516)
Yeah, and I think part of that is with your story is you did have that moment post breakup of wallowing in self pity of being on the floor of just being upset with yourself and had you stayed in that position, you wouldn’t be where you’re at today. So there’s that part of resiliency that you have to have in those types of situations because sometimes things are just going to hit the fan and it’s not going to go your way. And you have to know how

to bounce back from that, give yourself that time to heal and to cope and to readjust to your new norm and who your inner circle looks like and what life looks like for you. But then you have to go do something. And it’s the doing something, no matter what step it is or what that looks like or advocating for yourself or speaking up for yourself to whatever capacity is what’s going to help move you forward so that you don’t stay stuck.

on the floor. I’ve had my own moments of being on the floor of my bedroom and my coach had to be like, what are you doing? You need to go do something. Stop waiting. It was she told me stop waiting for the invitation. And I think that was literal. That was I was literally waiting to be invited to go anywhere on a weekend. But it’s also metaphorical of don’t wait for someone to hand you your life. You have to go create it.

Liz Erhartic (36:30.913)
Yes. Yes, and this is definitely one of those things, especially given that.

It’s not a formula, it’s a creation. And you can want something, but wanting something doesn’t mean that you’re going to get it. You can’t assume that someone’s going to treat you the way that you think they should, or that opportunities that you think should come up are going to be handed to you. You have to kind of go create that. And I think a big part of creating that is

stand in your ground and your worth and confidence is almost like an aura, like people can see it. And I have this little like self-worth core wounding that I’m still working on, but the shift this year of being like, no, it’s okay, I actually deserve better or I deserve this life or I deserve this flexibility. How do I make that happen?

It’s like if you’re standing on one cliff looking at the other.

There’s not a bridge yet, but there’s not going to be until you create that first step. And then you build that next step, and then you build that next step, and then suddenly you’re at the other side.

Jess (37:56.684)
Looking back, could, well, I guess like, could you identify what that first step was for you?

Liz Erhartic (38:12.363)
the first step in a confidence shift or in the strategy of starting the work.

Jess (38:21.09)
both.

you

Liz Erhartic (38:26.357)
I think the first step in kind of trying to allow myself to believe that I am worthy of more and capable of more was

Turning my mindset from my breakup at first, it was kind of what’s wrong with me? Why wasn’t I enough? And eventually being like, no, I was worth it. That person just wasn’t capable of loving me the way that I need and…

life goes on, someone out there will be. It was kind of a…

forced in a way recognition that

I don’t need to, I said make myself smaller to be something that I’m not to fit in somebody else’s world, but just the hope of if I can love like this, then someone else must exist that also can. And I’m gonna hold onto that. And then I’m gonna believe that I’m both capable of finding that person, but also deserving of that and kind of raising the bar in that way.

Liz Erhartic (39:57.035)
And I think that that kind of came out into my life in other ways as well, which I am capable of, even if I’m scared, even if I don’t exactly know from start to finish how to have a business or how to write a book and get it published, I at least know that I’m capable of finding people that can help me with that. And that’s a way that I know I will be less overwhelmed.

That’s a sustainability measure for me. like, okay, I get overwhelmed when there are too many options or whether too much information. So what can I do to mitigate that? And the first step and starting the plan.

Liz Erhartic (40:46.817)
I almost want to say that that was a mindset too in terms of challenging myself. How much do I want this? Do I want to stay in one place for the rest of my life because I have a good career and yeah, I’ll retire early, but will I have both of my hips? Will my knees work? Will I actually be able to do what I want to do? Is that worth the trade off? And…

giving yourself permission to question your reality or the reality of the trajectory you’re on. And be like, actually, no, because what if I do need hip replacements? What if, you know, it would hurt? What if I’m not even alive then? I mean, coming from a field of accessibility work, there’s this concept of everybody is only temporarily abled. If you are, you’ll either…

you know, become disabled at some point, whether that’s an accident or whether that’s through aging, or you’ll die. And we don’t need to wait to do the things that we wanna do. And then from there it was, okay, let me take this opportunity. Let me test this out. Let me get the certification and go through this workshop and…

Let me send my manuscript to an editor and get some feedback, send it to beta readers, make sure that it’s not just the artist loving the art that other people actually might think it’s all right. And giving myself confidence through those things too.

Jess (42:28.588)
Yeah, confidence gets built and people forget that. And some people are naturally more confident than others. I will say that, but confidence is developed through taking action, through proving to yourself that you can do it, that you are capable, that you are worthy, whatever it is that you need, it’s through the action. It’s through the proof that you can do these things. I have a client right now at the end of every session.

we do a takeaway or an aha and hers for the last three or four sessions, at least it has been, I can do hard things and she can, she is doing hard, scary things right now for her life. And it’s the truth. It’s that’s what doing those hard things and seeing it through to the other side or surviving at the end of each day is developing that confidence. It’s building that up. So it makes sense that your first steps to

getting through this journey into building your confidence was around your mindset. Because our mind is a very, very powerful thing and can be our best friend or our worst enemy. So I want to ask you a question about this process. Because you’ve mentioned that at first you wish you did it faster, but then you through our conversation, you’re like, it actually happened exactly the way it was supposed to unfold.

If you were to go back in time and make this transition all over again, is there anything you would do differently or anything that you would tell someone else to do differently?

Liz Erhartic (44:01.921)
I would tell someone else to do it definitely because this is just what’s working for me, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be what works for the next person. And I’ve been able to see and live with people who some people are still doing their corporate job and they’re fortunate enough to have a remote job or some people are freelancing. Some people were like, you know what, instead of going to medical school, I’m going to go into media and marketing and…

try that out or it’s a there’s so many ways to do it that I would never want to give someone any formulaic advice on it which might be a cop-out to answering the question but I was fortunate with

the last few years of my life and my career that I was able to make myself stable enough to where the leap wasn’t going to be a free fall. So I would advise that if possible to have plans or contingency plans, options, be thinking about what you wanna do and how you wanna do it. Do you want to travel fast? Do you wanna travel slow?

Do you want to do something that’s, you can kind of fit into chunks of your day or do you want to have like calls and meetings and schedules like that? It’s all customizable, I guess you could say. And it’s being open to that trial of if I try something one way and it doesn’t work out, am I gonna let that defeat me or am I gonna take note?

okay, I need to tweak something or I need to look into something different and create your own formula that mine will still change. Because I’ve kind of been working on a lot of admin stuff right now. So I’ve been able to be in another country for a few weeks, but I’m going to need to go home to the States and I’m going to need to kind of start getting my clientele worked up in the States first. And

Liz Erhartic (46:26.167)
When I leave for the summer and I spend it abroad, that might be a time where, if I’ve worked really hard for a quarter on this business, then maybe I have free time now to really just go into marketing my book. And if I’m traveling around taking people places, that is gonna look extremely different from either of those things where, okay, I’m packing my laptop, my notebook and gym clothes. I’m gonna order more salads in the airport.

to keep my little priorities right so that I can hopefully kind of fend off the burnout or consequences of not prioritizing the right things.

Jess (47:10.03)
Yeah. So you’ve given a little bit of an insight of your plan. And I you’ve told me briefly, but right now you’re in Morocco, the time that’s recording, you’re going to come back to the States right now today. What is your foreseeable plan? What is this business that you’re trying to build up in the, with the clientele in the States? Like what can you elaborate on everything that you just said for what Liz’s life looks like from the start of 2025 to however far in advance that you’ve.

Forecasted you’re gonna take things.

Liz Erhartic (47:42.827)
Yes. Right now I have insight on what I want my life to look like through September of next year. Anything after that? Up in the air. But that’s also part of the exciting part. I’m going to come back from Morocco and I do have the little hiccup of I need to figure out the situation for my cat if I’m traveling more. I kind of let my lease end while I was in Kenya.

and I need to make sure that he’s squared away, he’s been staying with a friend. But I’m gonna come back. I’m planning on home-basing in the States until about…

the end of May. And that’s going to be time where I’m really focusing on the travel companioning business, where I’m taking people who might have mobility issues, disabilities, seniors, unaccompanied minors, people who just have travel anxiety or want a companion, I’m going to go with them on their trips, whether that’s just dropping them off, picking them up or staying with them through vacation.

going to focus a lot on that. And then in the background, I’m also working on trying to self-publish my first poetry book. I’m aiming for a launch of maybe May, June for that. And so in June, I am going abroad for the summer. I’m traveling with a few of the friends that I’ve made. We’re doing a slow travel, kind of a month in a different country as we go. And we’re going to end with a kind of van life trip around Iceland.

so I’m probably not going to be taking business clients for the summer, but working on the book and maybe some live events to promote that and maybe booking clients for when I’m back. that’s the insight I have right now and what I think is going to shake out. But with the business, I think I’m fortunate enough where I can kind of

Liz Erhartic (49:56.871)
work it to be, you know, I think holiday will be a high traffic time for me. Maybe I go really hard on the holiday so I can take those summers off and still have a little bit more of my travel instead of hopping to different airports with people on their trips. But it is a trial. We will see how it goes. But it’s all part of the game.

Jess (50:25.132)
Yeah, I’m excited to follow this journey. I’ve been seeing your stories pop up over the last couple months and I was like, this is, this is awesome. It’s why I wanted you to on this podcast and talk about it. So to wrap things up, do you have any final piece of advice for someone listening who is curious about becoming a full-time traveler?

Liz Erhartic (50:47.701)
Yes, I would start by doing what I did and just looking, experiencing, finding different people, whether that’s online or whether that’s in person, who are doing what you want to do, and then expanding that to this person does it this way, this person does it that way. I followed a lot of travel hackers as well.

Liz Erhartic (51:19.647)
I like to stretch the dollar, right? Everything’s different. But if you need to start out by testing, by going on some trips, by seeing, hey, do I like solo traveling or would I rather be with people? That might be important because if you wait until you’re full-time traveling to figure out you don’t like what you planned on, that could be a kind of a mindset setback.

but seeing what possibilities are out there. How are people doing this? They do it on all different ways. It can be content creators, freelancers, remote workers, entrepreneurs. Across the board, people are doing things differently.

see what’s out there, see what people are doing, see what calls to you. Potentially look at, you know, how could I make this sustainable financially or with my time or anything like that. And find all of the, I don’t know, options, I suppose. And then kind of test them out, go with your gut, feel what might work for you. And…

Start the planning.

Jess (52:34.07)
Yeah, planning is going to be your best friend. So start planning ahead for that, mainly financially. think anyone would want to stretch a dollar where they could to make this as sustainable long-term as they want it to be. But this is amazing, Liz. I’m so glad we were able to find a time to record so that you could share your story and your expertise behind becoming a full-time traveler and how you worked your way to this point.

Where can people find you if they have more questions, if they want to follow your journey, or if they want to support your business in any way, any of your businesses?

Liz Erhartic (53:10.743)
Yeah, to follow my journey, I’d say I’m mainly on Instagram at Liz underscore enroute, E-N. And that is, I have my other businesses linked there. I have a pen name for my poetry, so that’s going to be Jade DeVock. So on socials, that will be at JadeDeVockpoetry. then my business is called Help Enroute. And that’s on all the socials as well.

as the website, justhelpandroute.com. it will be a journey. very big into sharing.

the imperfections or, you know, that it’s not a one size fits all and vary into what I call like attainable and value travel. That is my kind of methodology there is it really, like I’ve said, you create what you want. And I, for anybody that doesn’t want to just use their PTO to travel.

That’s a very big important part is all of the little ways that you can make that happen.

Jess (54:30.124)
Yeah. So if you need any refreshers on some of those ways, just re-listen to this episode or they might be in the show notes. I haven’t decided yet, but all of Liz’s information is going to be linked in those show notes. So as I wrap up this episode, you can go check those links out. Otherwise, this does conclude another episode of How to 20 something. If you liked what you heard, if you felt inspired to start incorporating travel more into your lifestyle or know someone who needs to hear this episode, then

please pass it along and tag me and Liz be shared on social media. And as always, I can’t wait to be in your headphones again next week with another brand new episode.