There’s nothing worse than a rich person who’s chronically angry or
unhappy. There’s really no excuse for it, yet I see this phenomenon
every day. It results from an extremely unbalanced life, one with too
much expectation and not enough appreciation for what’s there.
Without
gratitude and appreciation for what you already have, you’ll never know
true fulfillment. But how do you cultivate balance in life? What’s the
point of achievement if your life has no balance?
For nearly four
decades, I’ve had the privilege of coaching people from every walk of
life, including some of the most powerful men and women on the planet.
I’ve worked with presidents of the United States as well as owners of
small businesses.
Across the board, I’ve found that virtually every moment people make three key decisions that dictate the quality of their lives.
If
you make these decisions unconsciously, you'll end up like majority of
people who tend to be out of shape physically, exhausted emotionally and
often financially stressed. But if you make these decisions
consciously, you can literally change the course of your life today. Related: Tony Robbins on the Importance of Being Fearless
Decision 1: Carefully choose what to focus on.
At
every moment, millions of things compete for your attention. You can
focus on things that are happening right here and now or on what you
want to create in the future. Or you can focus on the past.
Where focus goes, energy flows.What you focus on and your pattern for doing so shapes your entire life.
Which area do you tend to focus on more: what you have or what’s missing from your life?
I’m
sure you think about both sides of this coin. But if you examine your
habitual thoughts, what do you tend to spend most of your time dwelling
on?
Rather than focusing on what you don’t have and begrudging
those who are better off than you financially, perhaps you should
acknowledge that you have much to be grateful for and some of it has
nothing to do with money. You can be grateful for your health, family,
friends, opportunities and mind.
Developing a habit of
appreciating what you have can create a new level of emotional
well-being and wealth. But the real question is, do you take time to
deeply feel grateful with your mind, body, heart and soul? That’s where
the joy, happiness and fulfillment can be found.
Consider a
second pattern of focus that affects the quality of your life: Do
you tend to focus more on what you can control or what you can’t?
If
you focus on what you can’t control, you’ll have more stress in life.
You can influence many aspects of your life but you usually can’t
control them.
When you adopt this pattern of focus, your brain has to make another decision: Related: Tony Robbins on the 7 'Forces' of Business Mastery
Decision 2: Figure out, What does this all mean?
Ultimately,
how you feel about your life has nothing to do with the events in it or
with your financial condition or what has (or hasn't) happened to you.
The quality of your life is controlled by the meaning you give these
things.
Most of the time you may be unaware of the effect of your unconscious mind in assigning meaning to life’s events.
When
something happens that disrupts your life (a car accident, a health
issue, a job loss), do you tend to think that this is the end or the
beginning?
If someone confronts you, is that person insulting you, coaching you or truly caring for you?
Does
a devastating problem mean that God is punishing you or challenging
you? Or is it possible that this problem is a gift from God?
Your
life takes on whatever meaning you give it. With each meaning comes
a unique feeling or emotion and the quality of your life involves where
you live emotionally.
I always ask during my seminars, “How many
of you know someone who is on antidepressants and still depressed?”
Typically 85 percent to 90 percent of those assembled raise their hands.
How
is this possible? The drugs should make people feel better. It's true
that antidepressants do come with labels warning that suicidal thoughts
are a possible side effect.
But no matter how much a person drugs
himself, if he constantly focuses on what he can’t control in life and
what’s missing, he won't find it hard to despair. If he adds to that a
meaning like “life is not worth living,” that's an emotional cocktail
that no antidepressant can consistently overcome.
Yet if that
same person can arrive at a new meaning, a reason to live or a belief
that all this was meant to be, then he will be stronger than anything
that ever happened to him.
When people shift their habitual focus
and meanings, there’s no limit on what life can become. A change of
focus and a shift in meaning can literally alter someone's biochemistry
in minutes.
So take control and always remember: Meaning equals emotion and emotion equals life. Choose consciously and wisely. Find an empowering meaning in any event, and wealth in its deepest sense will be yours today.
Once you create a meaning in your mind, it creates an emotion, and that emotion leads to a state for making your third decision:
Decision 3: What will you do?
The
actions you take are powerfully shaped by the emotional state you're
in. If you're angry, you're going to behave quite differently than if
you're feeling playful or outrageous.
If you want to shape your
actions, the fastest way is to change what you focus on and shift the
meaning to be something more empowering.
Two people who are angry will behave differently. Some pull back. Others push through.
Some
individuals express anger quietly. Others do so loudly or violently.
Yet others suppress it only to look for a passive-aggressive opportunity
to regain the upper hand or even exact revenge.
Where do these patterns come from? People tend to model their behavior on those they respect, enjoy and love.
The people who frustrated or angered you? You often reject their approaches.
Yet
far too often you may find yourself falling back into patterns
you witnessed over and over again in your youth and were displeased by.
It’s
very useful for you to become aware of your patterns when you are
frustrated, angry or sad or feel lonely. You can’t change your patterns
if you’re not aware of them.
Now that you’re aware of the power of
these three decisions, start looking for role models who are
experiencing what you want out of life. I promise you that those who
have passionate relationships have a totally different focus and arrive
at totally different meanings for the challenges in relationships than
people who are constantly bickering or fighting.
It’s not rocket
science. If you become aware of the differences in how people approach
these three decisions, you’ll have a pathway to help you create a
permanent positive change in any area of life.
This piece was adapted from Tony Robbins' new book, Money Master the Game: 7 Simple Steps to Financial Freedom. Related: Inspiring TED Talks Every Entrepreneur Should Watch
The multimillionaire self-help guru gives investing advice in his new
book, but anyone who listened to him in 2010 would be hurting
financially now
Tony Robbins in 2010, the year he recommended that everyone sell their
stocks. Four years later, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has hit new
highs. Photograph: Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images
I’m sure if I met Tony Robbins, I would find him charismatic and even charming.
I’m fairly confident he could teach even me – relentless curmudgeon and skeptic that I am – to reach for success, to awaken my inner giant.
But to become a millionaire by following his investment tips?
Cue the sound of screeching brakes.
Robbins – in case you have somehow never turned on a TV set in the
last few decades and found yourself in front of one of his infomercials,
never walked into a bookstore and found yourself staring at an entire
bookcase devoted to his self-help tomes – is a life coach. But this
being the United States, that description dramatically understates his
role in American society and his impact on our psyche. After all, this
is the guy who persuaded Oprah Winfrey to walk across burning coals. He has counseled former president Bill Clinton,
in and out of office. He coaxes “peak performance” out of sales
executives for people like Marc Benioff, founder of Salesforce.com.
All of which is great. But being good at counseling and pep talks doesn’t qualify Robbins to provide financial advice.
Yet that’s Robbins’ new gig. He’s everywhere, it seems, promoting a new book: “MONEY: Master the Game.”
True, all the yelling (“I own you!”), chanting, inspirational words
and a little bit of firewalking on the side has made Robbins himself a
millionaire. But that’s becoming a millionaire by doing what you’re good
at doing – in his case, being a life coach and convincing other folks
to pay him to inspire them. Being good at your job is a good way to make
money. It’s how Bill Gates got rich, by building the software programs
that became Microsoft, or Howard Schultz transformed a coffee shop into
the global retailing phenomenon that is Starbucks.
It’s a common American superstition that those who have earned wealth
are qualified to provide advice to others on managing it. That’s what
has encouraged Robbins, whose confidence may be as outsize as his 6’7’’
frame.
Except that it doesn’t. As professional money manager Barry Ritholtz points out in a rather scathing review, when Robbins has tried in the past to give his followers specific market advice, he’s been wrong.
In 2010, Robbins suggested his followers pull money out of stocks: to
the extent they followed his advice, they gave up 90% gains in the next
four years.
Robbins’s new book doesn’t seem to provide much in the way of trading
tips. Instead, he is offering the reader a mixture of market insights
and thoughts from such investment industry luminaries as Vanguard’s Jack
Bogle, Warren Buffett, famed hedge fund manager Paul Tudor Jones (when
the latter lost his trading “mojo”, Robbins apparently helped him track it down) and activist investor Carl Icahn.
That kind of advice is always going to be interesting to folks who
pick up Barron’s and other publications to read what the big names in
finance are doing with their money.
But here’s the rub: what guys like Paul Tudor Jones and Carl Icahn are doing with their money probably isn’t what you should be doing with yours.
They have billions and have access to a vastly different array of
investments. They can afford to take far more risk, too. It’s like
watching a stunt driver in one of those car ads: you watch with
fascination, but woe betide you if you fail to heed the writing
underneath, “professional driver on a closed course.” You can’t do the
same tricks in your Volkswagen on the highway.
There’s also some hype. Robbins coaxes a model portfolio out of Ray Dalio,
the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates and one of the
world’s largest hedge fund investors, describing it as a “never-before
revealed strategy”. Well, it actually has been fairly openly discussed
before and, as those familiar with what Dalio and Bridgewater are doing
have noted, Robbins’s depiction of it doesn’t accurately characterize
the way Dalio’s portfolio really works.
Warren Buffett, the chairman of
Berkshire Hathaway, became a billionaire by investing wisely. Yet what
works for billionaires rarely works for the middle class, since richer
investors can afford to take more risks.Photograph: Nati Harnik/AP
The Dalio portfolio, as described by Robbins, recommends putting 55%
of assets in bonds and another 15% in commodities. Commodities are an
exceptionally volatile asset class that many veteran financial advisors
are wary of recommending. Even their most risk-tolerant clients keep
commodities to well below 10% of their portfolios.
Advertisement
But
what scares me witless is the idea that a bunch of the folks who are
lining up to buy Robbins’s book – it’s Amazon’s No 1 new release in the
“Self Help” category – will try this portfolio at home for themselves.
And that might be a recipe for real trouble.
Here’s why. Like it or not, we’re now at the tail end of a 30-plus
year bond bull market. The Federal Reserve’s next step will be – at some
stage – to begin raising interest rates. When that happens, bond prices
are going to fall. It’s mathematics.
It’s already happening, to some extent. Treasury securities were the worst performing asset class in October: a harbinger of sorts.
It’s lovely that this portfolio worked well in the past. But as the
wording attached to every mutual fund that we buy says, past performance
is no guarantee of future returns.
None of this suggests Robbins has nothing useful to say. His book takes aim at the too-aggressive marketing claims and high fees
associated with too many actively-managed mutual funds, few of which
manage to beat the market consistently. Hurrah for that. He says target-date funds are no panacea. Bravo! You shouldn’t automatically dismiss annuities as an invention of the devil: that’s another tip worth heeding.
So, too, is Robbins’ suggestion to automatically question the
credentials of anyone who tries to give you financial advice. He just
doesn’t mention that one of them may be named Tony Robbins.
Last week, I was talking to Joe Polish,
Founder of Piranha Marketing and the Genius Network, catching up on
recent happenings and discussing his latest efforts, helping Tony
Robbins promote his latest book, MONEY: Master The Game, 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom.
Joe,
along with his podcasting partner-in-crime, marketing guru Dean
Jackson, brought together the legendary Tony Robbins, as well as thought
leadership Robin Sharma, JJ Virgin and Mike Koenigs, for an incredibly insightful conference call on the I Love Marketing Podcast.
After
listening to the interview, I wanted to share with you some of my
biggest takeaways from the conversation because when Tony Robbins shares
his 7 simple steps to financial freedom you should listen!
Here's my 3 top, curated takeaways for all of you! 1. Become More Valuable in Order to Make More Money (and Here's How!)
The first question in the interview came from Robin Sharma,
the world famous leadership development effort and bestselling author
of many, many books on the subject. He recalls the story of Jim Rohn's
advice to a young Tony Robbins, where Jim Rohn said to a seminar group
that Robbins was a part of, "All you have to do to earn more money in the same amount of time is to become more valuable to the marketplace."
This
has obviously struck a chord with Tony, and the philosophy is the basis
of many of his companies, coachings and this new book, so Robin asked
Tony, "For anyone who wants to be more valuable, is the strategy to
develop ourselves...or is it to focus on generating more value through
our work."
Tony's response (summarized)...The most important thing
you can do is to constantly grow personally. Spend every day working on
yourself because (as Warren Buffett would agree) there is no greater
investment you can make than in yourself. When you do that, you will
become more valuable to the marketplace, and have the ability to make
more money.
After a system for self-improvement is in place, you
need vehicles for sharing that new value with others through your work.
The best vehicles are becoming a business owner, and also becoming an
"owner" of your own personal investments. The first is riskier, so the
second is crucial for longer term strategic safety. With these vehicles,
you can take your increasing value and share it with others
exponentially. 2. Health IS Wealth (and What You Need to Find Breakthroughs In Your Life)
Up next to question the "money master" was JJ Virgin.
JJ is also world-renowned as a celebrity nutritionist and fitness
expert, and she asked Tony for the three things we need to look for in
order to make breakthroughs in our lives in our finances, health and
lives.
In response, Tony recalled a memory where he encountered a
Canadian billionaire who was close to 400 pounds in weight. While
others whispered, "He's so rich! He's so rich! He's a billionaire," Tony
brought the experience back to earth by noting that, without your
health, you are certainly not rich.
More importantly, there are multiple types of wealth and different definitions of success (as I've previously discussed myself on Addicted2Success.com).
And, in order to continue building your success, you need to find the
breakthrough moments in life that allow you to finally lose weight, look
for a new job, make the extra sales calls, etc.
What you need:
strategies, stories and state. Strategies will give you the systems that
help you build habits for success, stories will give you the
motivation, removal of excuses and mindset re-framing that is necessary
to achieve those breakthrough moments necessary to have peak performance
in business, health, and life and state will give you the positive
mental attitude needed to execute properly in improving the first two. 3. Investing Comes Down to One Thing...Proper Asset Allocation
"What's your investment advice for a small business owner" asks Mike Koenigs, #1 bestselling author and serial entrepreneur.
While no one is the same, Tony suggests, every entrepreneur needs to create a brand new company right away.
He calls this new business your "money machine", and this new business has no employees or public-facing front.
Tony
strongly advises every entrepreneur set up a second area of asset
allocation that takes a percentage of your company's profits and/or your
salary and puts it in investments that will make money work for you and
compound over time. If you don't automate this process, your growing
business will suck up extra profits, or your growing lifestyle will suck
up new salary bonuses, and while you may be in good shape (or in the
favorited growth shape at times), when sh*t finally hits the fan with
your job, company, or outwardly investments, you will still be in good
shape financially as an individual because you've taken the necessary
precautions to create a "money machine" that is created of super low
risk investments based on your personal risk tolerance, age and earning
power. In Summary
Check out Tony Robbins' new book, MONEY: Master The Game, 7 Simple Steps To Financial Freedom
to find out how some of the world's most financially successful people
have mastered the money game so you can apply those same rules to your
own financial situations, and check out the rest of the stacked podcast
conversation that I have attempted to distill into three major takeaways
for you. All proceeds of his book go towards feeding over 50 million
people in need this year. Then, check out the advice on The Huffington
Post "Smarter Ideas"
section to begin finding the motivation and tactics you need to improve
your strategies, stories and states as you climb your way to financial
freedom.
- - - Jared Kleinert is a forthcoming author
and entrepreneur who has been featured in Forbes, Fast Company,
TechCrunch, Huffington Post and at TEDxYouth Miami. He is currently the
co-founder/co-author of 2 Billion Under 20 as well as the Chief Test Subject of The Gap Year Experiment. Say hi at jared@2billionunder20.com
Welcome to the second edition of the ranked list of the top Australian and New Zealand travel bloggers as assessed on 19th April 2014.
Thanks everyone for the massive response I have received to the first edition,
it has been really great to see everyone’s interest. The first list is
now ‘above the fold’ on the first page of the Google search rankings
for both ‘Australian travel blog’ and ‘New Zealand travel blog’, so I
have been seeing good traffic to the first article which has translated
into many click throughs to your blogs.
How Many Mature Australian and New Zealand Travel Blogs Are There?
I
always knew that there were many excellent Australian and New Zealand
travel blogs which I missed on the first assessment, and I was correct.
Since then I have continued to actively collect information about many
other Australian and New Zealand travel blogs and this time I assessed
103 blogs to come up with a top 50 list, compared to assessing about 60
blogs to come up with the first top 40 list. Of the top 50 there are 19
travel blogs which were not assessed for the first edition! So if your
ranking has reduced it is probably at least partly as a result of the
inclusion of these other blogs.
I have constructed a Top 50 list on Twitter so if you would like to quickly follow all of the Top 50 please subscribe. There are also separate Twitter lists of Australian Travel Bloggers and New Zealand Travel Bloggers which include every blogger I am currently monitoring for this series.
Please
let me know via the comments below if there are additional travel blogs
which should be included for consideration in the next edition.
Assessment Criteria
As
before, I am using a purely metrics based approach to assess each
blog. For the first edition I had a criteria that to be included that a
blog needed to include content about either Australia or New Zealand in
the previous 12 months, however upon further reflection I have decided
to discontinue this element as there are many great travel bloggers who
call Australia and New Zealand home who are on multi-year travels who
should be included.
I have also made a conscious decision that to
be a travel blog requires at least 75% of the content to be travel
related. For that reason while there are many good lifestyle and food
blogs which have some travel related articles I have excluded them from
this edition. I have also only assessed sites which have their own
domain name as that is also a sign of blog maturity. The majority of
the sites I assessed are using self hosted WordPress with about ~20%
using mainly WordPress.com or Blogger.com. There are very few of the
top 50 blogs which are not using self hosted WordPress.
I have used a weighted combination of the following elements to assess each site:
Please
let me know via the comments if you agree with the approach I have
taken or whether you have an alternative suggestion on how I should
construct the scoring.
Check Your Own Site Metrics
If you
are not on the lists below I also suggest you check whether all of your
metrics data is available via the four sources above. For several blogs
I was unable to obtain metrics information and as a result they have
not been included in the list. If you can’t see your data then I can’t
either. If any of your data points are unavailable each site has
information on what actions to take to get your site included.
Also
have a look at the assessment summary below to see whether your data is
within the ranges I have indicated for all four data inputs. If they
are not in the assessed ranges for all four areas then your blog may
still be in the beginner phase and you should focus on further
developing your blog via regular posting of relevant new articles,
interaction and using SEO principles in your articles. These metrics
are all lag indicators of the actions you are taking every day and week,
and consistency of effort and learning new skills to improve your
writing and interaction will progressively pay off.
Assessment Summary
To give some perspective below are the typical profiles of the top 50 Australian and New Zealand travel bloggers:
Google Page Rankings for
the top 25 bloggers are typically between 3 and 5, with the top 26 to
50 bloggers typically being between 1 and 4 out of a maximum of 10.
While
Google Page rankings only change slowly, I noticed a trend where some
of the blogs I assessed for the first edition have had their Google Page
Ranks reduced to 0 or not available, perhaps as a result of breaches of
the Google rules.
Alexa rankings for the
top 25 bloggers are between the top 25,000 and 600,000 websites in the
world, with all except 6 being under 300,000, with the majority of top
26 to 50 bloggers being between the top 110,000 and 1,200,000 websites
in the world.
The majority of travel blogs are under the
1,000,000 level so from both a numbers perspective and my personal
experience breaching the 1,000,000 on Alexa is a good indicator of a
travel blog shifting from being in the beginner phase to shifting to a
higher level of maturity. Usually once a blog has been consistently
assessed by Alexa as being one of the top 1,000,000 websites in the
world the other metrics are also reaching a higher level of maturity.
Domain Authority scores
for the top 25 bloggers are between 30 and 51, with the top 26 to 50
bloggers being between 20 and 35 out of a maximum of 100.
Page Authority scores
for the top 25 bloggers are between 41 and 58, with the top 26 to 50
bloggers being between 30 and 47 out of a maximum of 100.
Over
time in assessing my own site metrics I have noticed that both Domain
and Page Authority regularly oscillate between a range of values on
about a 1-2 week cycle. I usually collect all of these measurements
monthly for my own site and have therefore seen some large changes to
these metrics, so I suggest you monitor these metrics for a period and
understand what is the typical top and bottom of your range as this will
give a better indication than a single point in time.
Finally here are the top 50 travel bloggers in Australia and New Zealand as at 19 April 2014.
The
next 51 to 78th ranked Australian and new Zealand travel blogs are
detailed below so you can see who else is out there with a maturing
travel blog!
I
plan to put together the next edition in 3-4 months and it will be
interesting to see how many more Australian and New Zealand travel blogs
I discover in that timeframe! Subscribe via Email to ensure you receive future Pretraveller articles. You can also follow Pretraveller via Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and RSS Feeds.
Please
share in the comments below if this article has helped you to
understand how your travel blog is currently tracking in terms of
maturity.
I also welcome comments on other travel blogs which have
not yet been included on the list, and comments about my approach to
calculating the metrics to generate this edition.
I’m Anne Sutherland-Smith, travel blogger and spreadsheet queen.
Pretraveller is a travel blog to help people travel with confidence and give them ideas and inspirations for travel. The Awesome Australian 2WD Road Trip
series provides a great overview of Australian 2WD road trip options.
I also curate all of my articles so they remain current with the most
recent information and links.
I started blogging to share my love of travel. Just two years later thousands of people read Pretraveller articles each month.
More on Australian Travel Blogger Anne Sutherland-Smith I have loved travel ever since I was a 7 year old getting on my first airplane to live with my family in Kenya for three years.
My
parents really made an effort to make the most of our stay so we had
adventures ranging from camping in a tent in Masaii Mara Game Reserve
(no, I don’t need to go to the toilet during the night), to exploring
the historic town of Mombasa with no spare clothes after the airline
lost all of our luggage! I was absolutely hooked… At the age of 20 I departed on my first solo trip
to backpack around Europe for 9 weeks. Since then I have also
travelled to New Zealand, Vanuatu, Hong Kong, Europe again, New Zealand
again and many trips in Australia. Over the past 20 years I
have lived in Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and have also
had family spread all over Australia. I have made the most of local
travel options in every place. Our most recent big trip was a road trip
to visit Outback Australia. We currently live in the beautiful city of Sydney in Australia. Thank You for Joining Me
I look forward to sharing my travel stories and planning tips with you.
I’d love to connect with you on Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest, but most of all I hope you’ll subscribe forfree email updates or RSS updates.
Best of luck with your travel plans this year!
Anne Sutherland-Smith – Australian travel blogger and creator of Pretraveller.
Hi, I'm Victoria Brewood, a British girl who
travels and blogs. In 2008 I graduated from university and decided I
would be my own boss. Since then I've been to over 40 countries and have
had some pretty epic adventures.
I hope you find this site useful when planning you're next trip and
you're inspired to see the world!
Well we are almost half way through our trip now and having a
fantastic time since we left Melbourne in the middle of December, having
travelled through the Eyre Peninsula, South Western WA, up the coast of
WA and through the Kimberley, across the Savannah Way and down to
Brisbane. The last half will be across to Birdsville, down to
Oodnadatta and then up to the Red Centre, back down to the Flinders
Ranges. From there we aren’t quite sure but we have booked into Bright
in Victoria over Xmas and NY, then we will meander our way back to
Brisbane by March 2013 where we will make our new home.
I am Michela, Italian born and raised in Italy. At the age of 20, I started travelling on my own and first visited UK, Austria and Germany. As a student I simply loved London because of its great music scene, but
I could not make up my mind where I wanted to live. Actually Vienna was
my first love affair but since I couldn’t find work there as in the
80ies Austria did not belong to EU. Italy was not my ideal country for
career, so after a few years searching for the right place I found
Munich quite interesting and in my late tweenties I decided to move and
settle down there. Munich is where I spent 12 years of my life.
After a long time working as a sales & project manager I realised corporate life was not my “real thing” and was searching for something new, I needed something different into my life. As an old sayings says
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone”
In March 2004 I decided to step out of my box and venture out to
travelling Australia solo with my backpack. In a few months I prepared
my first long solo travel trip to discover the other side of the world.
It was one of the best experiences in my life. Thanks to what I call the “therapeutic power of travel” I could regain confidence in myself and find my own way. But this was just the beginning of my love affair with Australia.
I was keen to go on long break again and 4 years later in 2008 I
finally made the decision to leave my job and hit the road for 3 months.
I had a big desire to press on the button RESET, fully unwind and start
my life with a different perspective. I knew the job I was doing for
over 15 years belonged to the past and my second trip to Australia was
going to mark the beginning of a new life cycle.
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail”~ Muriel Strode
Travelling to me means learning more about myself than just holidaying.
Travel is an integral part of a deeper personal development process. It
contributes to enrich my life both spiritually and mentally. Moreover
it gives me the chance to learn more about others and see the world from
different perspectives. First and foremost travel means freedom to me.
This is how it all started, while I was in Australia on my second
trip in 2008 one day on a day trip to the Adelaide hills, I just thought
how can I keep this travel experience alive? How can I share my love
for Australia with other fellow travellers? How can I help other women
discover the benefits of travelling alone? This is how RockyTravel was born. A travel website about Australia to share my travel experience and help you make of your travels in Australia a memorable experience.
When I first visited Australia in 2004, I soon fell in love with the richness of its unique environment, the friendly Australian people and
their easygoing and relaxed lifestyle. I found the Australian Culture
and the Australian Lifestyle very much different from the frantic
lifestyle we have in Europe. Since then my Love for Australiamakes me going back to explore more and more of this fascinating remote country.
“Travel and change of Place impart vigor to the mind” ~ Seneca
One thing that most impressed me is the feeling of freedom and
lightness that reigns everywhere, in the outback, in the countyside, in
the vibrant cities. And this is something I very much appreciate when I
travel alone. f you love freedom, unspoilt nature, then Australia
will offer you unique travel destinations with stunning places, lots of
adventure opportunities along with fun lovely local people.
On RockyTravel you will find lots of
travel ideas, travel tips, useful and practical information put it in an
easy form to help you better planning, and organizing your trip to
Australia. This will save you long hours of searching online.
This website is for people who love to travel Australia independently, don’t want to spend a fortune, and want to get the best value deals for their money. It has a special focus on Female Solo Travel. But it is also a great resource for independent travellers who love to travel with a travel companion.
I have been travelling alone for over 25 years and Australia is my
preferred destination as a solo woman. I think Australia is the ideal
destination for first time travellers and especially for Single Travellers.
Here you can read more about why I fell in love with Australia how my Love Affair with Australia has evolved.
“It’s beautiful to be alone. To be alone
does not mean to be alone. It means the mind is not influenced and
contaminated by society.”
If you to learn how to travel independently
Australia and make of your Australia Trip a unique experience,
RockyTravel helps you travel Australia with confidence, gives you tools
to maximize your time by 200% and save up to 1500AUD.
Owner and Founder of Rocky Travel Blog. Guide Book Author. Solo and
Independent Travel. Independent Online Publisher. Travel Blogger. Travel
Planner.
____________________
Skills:
- Travel Writing and Blogging
- Travel Photography
- Content Creation and Management
- Social Media Marketing
- Website Management
Rocky Travel is an Online Travel Guide and Blog that inspires women and
independent travellers to discover Australia on their own, without
spending a fortune! Responsible for writing, editing blog posts and
photography, publishing ebooks, social media promotion and marketing.
Media/PR relations.
Travel Planning Services
Rocky Travel
May 2012
– Present
(2 years 6 months)Worldwide
Travel Planning Services. I help solo (especially women) and independent
travellers by creating cost-effective trip plans and personalized
itineraries.
Marketing Consulting
Fantinel Consulting
January 2009
– Present
(5 years 10 months)Venice Area, Italy
Online Marketing and Business Development for travel, lifestyle, media brands.
Privately Held; 501-1000 employees;
Food Production industry
January 2005
– December 2007 (3 years)Trieste Area, Italy
Responsible for the realization of Expressamente illy Coffee Shops in
Middle East, South-Africa, South-America, Central and North Europe.
Negotiation with business partners and clients. Managing projects from
location assessment and business plan to Food & Beverage Menu
Creation, to Marketing and PR/Media activities, to the Launch and
Opening of the Coffee Shop.
Privately Held; 1001-5000 employees;
Food & Beverages industry
September 2000
– March 2004 (3 years 7 months)Munich Area, Germany
Area Sales Manager. Responsible for McDonald's Business in South Europe.
Planning and Managing McDonald's Promotional Products. Realization and
Launch of new Products. Study & Development of new Packaging.
Sales & Marketing Director's Assistant
Löwenbräu AG
January 1996
– March 1999 (3 years 3 months)Munich Area, Germany
Sales Assistant for the Italian Market. Product Launch and Marketing Coordinator. Oktober-Fest Event Manager.
Michela Fantinel's Volunteer Experience & Causes
Wildlife Warrior Volunteer
Wildlife Hospital Australia Zoo
Animal Welfare
April 2011
–
April 2011
(1 month)
An enlightening and empowering experience that taught me how we can protect koalas from dangers and hazards and help save them.
A
lot of people want to travel long term but few know how to make that
dream a reality. Michael and Randi are two friends (just friends, geez
guys!) who decided to embark on a year long journey throughout Latin
America, Europe, and Asia. We
started this site in February of 2014 in hopes of encouraging friends
and strangers alike to travel and will be updating it constantly. We
will share budget advice, travel tips and tricks, introduce you to the
awesome people we meet on the road, detail our experiences, adventures,
misadventures and show you just how easy and exciting long term budget
travel can be.
"We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls." -Anais Nin
RANDI Randi
is a girl without a home who has moved over 20 times in her life. She
has lived in Texas, Louisiana, New York and London, and has been to 4
continents, 21 countries and too many cities to count.
MICHAEL Michael
started backpacking five years ago, and has thought of doing little
else since. He's spent months in Asia, Europe, and Latin America, One
day he hopes to explore Saturn...but only if he can bring his backpack.
