Lisa Niver's Blog: We Said Go Travel, page 33

Springing into Success: My Blooming Awards Collection

April News 2023 with Lisa Niver & We Said Go Travel:I am grateful to have been recognized with several prestigious accolades this Spring. I am honored to be #11 on the Best Travel and Lifestyle Blogs List! Thank you Afluencer for naming me the #3 Top Travel Influencer for 2023 Thank you Feedspot for naming me #21 on your 30 Best Jewish Book Blogs and Websites  My website is now available on Google News! I was honored to be a speaker EIGHT times at the Travel & Adventure Shows in 2023! I spoke in FOUR cities: Los Angeles, Chicago, NYC and Dallas! Thank you to the Jewish Journal for their support of my speaking at the Travel Show! THANK YOU for watching my podcast! It has now been seen and heard in 23 countries on 6 continents!

USA   Canada    Italy   Singapore   UK   Switzerland Hong Kong    Australia   India France Latvia   Netherlands Japan Philippines    Mexico   Guatemala Germany Uruguay Bangladesh Spain Kenya Panama Thailand

THANK YOU for your #PODCAST support!
6 #CONTINENTS
21 #COUNTRIES
99 #DAYS
USA Canada Italy Singapore UK Switzerland Hong Kong Australia India France Latvia Netherlands Japan Philippines Mexico Guatemala Germany … pic.twitter.com/2pf3hVQgIo

— Lisa Niver (@LisaNiver) April 10, 2023

New PODCAST episodes with: Mermaid Rachel Novak, the poet Maggie Smith, On Brand author Aliza Licht and Katie Thompson from PADI about the Save the Ocean Pledge for Earth Day! WATCH my podcast, “MAKE YOUR OWN MAP: Are YOU ready to be BRAVE?” on Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Podcast,  Google Podcasts, Audible, Anchor, Pandora & iHeart RadioWHERE CAN YOU FIND MY TRAVEL VIDEOS?

Here is the link to my video channel on YouTube where I have NEARLY TWO MILLION views on YouTube! (now at: 1,840,000 views)

Thank you for your support! Are you one of my 3,900 subscribers? I hope you will join me and subscribe! For more We Said Go Travel articles, TV segments, videos and social media: CLICK HERE

Find me on social media with over 150,000 followers. Please follow  on TikTok: @LisaNiver, Twitter at @LisaNiver, Instagram @LisaNiver and on Facebook, Pinterest, YouTube, and at LisaNiver.com.

My Podcast: “Make Your Own Map!”

Fortune Cookie SAID:

A dream you have will come true.

We travel not to escape life, but for life not to escape us.

With PADI at the 2023 Dallas Travel Show–Megan the Mermaid and my friends, Julie & Stacey, from working on the LOVE BOAT–Princess Cruises!

The post Springing into Success: My Blooming Awards Collection appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

#11 in 100 Best Travel and Lifestyle Blogs 2023

Thank you Feedspot!
I am honored to be #11 on the Best Travel and Lifestyle Blogs List!100 Best Travel Lifestyle Blogs and Websites

Congratulations on the outstanding achievement of being ranked #11 of the 100 best travel and lifestyle websites! This recognition speaks volumes about your hard work, dedication, and passion for sharing your experiences with the world.

Your website, featuring both articles and videos, captivates visitors with engaging content, stunning imagery, and a unique perspective on travel and lifestyle. The way you share tips on adventure travel, review the latest luxury hotels and restaurants, and recount your experiences draws audiences to your authentic voice and infectious enthusiasm.

Your website’s ability to inspire, inform, and entertain visitors is exceptional, and sets it apart from countless others competing in the crowded travel and lifestyle space. The storytelling you offer transports your visitors to new and exciting destinations, introduces them to fascinating cultures and cuisines, and inspires them to pursue their own dreams of adventure and luxury.

Your success as a website owner is a testament to your many years of hard work, talent, and dedication. You have created a brand that people trust and look to for guidance and inspiration, and have established yourself as a thought leader in the travel and lifestyle space.

This well-deserved recognition marks the beginning of a new chapter in your success story. Your website has touched the lives of countless visitors around the world, and we are confident that it will continue to do so for many years to come.

Once again, congratulations on this incredible achievement, and here’s to many more years of inspiring adventure and luxury travel content!

Other recent honors: #3 Top Travel Influencer and Top Jewish Book Site!

The post #11 in 100 Best Travel and Lifestyle Blogs 2023 appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

What You Do Matters! PADI Save Our Ocean Pledge

Happy Earth Day! What you Do Matters! Join with PADI in the Save the Ocean Pledge, learn more in my interview below with Katie Thompson, Global Director, Corporate Social Responsibility at PADI

“The pledge is a personal commitment to say YES! I’m going to help create balance between humanity and ocean. I’m going to respect the ocean or the underwater world when I travel. I’m going to respect the cultures that take care of the ocean when I travel, when I’m diving, when I’m on vacation, and even in my own community.

PADI’s mission is to create a billion torchbearers to explore and protect the ocean. Local action from an individual person can make a difference. What you do does matter.”

INTERVIEW with KATIE THOMPSON from PADI about SAVE THE OCEAN PLEDGE

Lisa Niver:

Good morning. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel, and I am so honored to be here today with Katie Thompson from PADI, which is one of my favorite and most important organizations on the whole planet. Hi, Katie.

Katie Thompson:

Hi, Lisa, and I’m honored to be here as well, and that’s a great introduction. Thank you for saying that about our brand, I appreciate that.

Lisa Niver:

Many people know I’ve been speaking at the Travel and Adventure Show this year, and it was my great honor to be able to speak on behalf of PADI, which for anybody that doesn’t know, we’re talking about scuba diving, not a person named Patty. PADI is the professional association of dive instructors, and that’s how I learned to scuba dive, and scuba diving changed my whole life. I really feel so thankful for everything that you do to save the ocean and help people get in the water.

Katie Thompson:

Thanks, Lisa. PADI has been around since 1966 teaching the world to dive, and that actually was our tagline until a couple years ago. We changed it to Seek Adventure, Save the Ocean to show that…we are enhancing and expanding our commitment to the ocean, to ocean conservation, to ocean preservation.

We really like to think of PADI…P-A-D-I, I love that you said that…as a deeper purpose brand. Our PADI dive centers around the world and instructors have issued nearly 30 million certifications. We want to mobilize those divers to take action for the ocean! We’re not only teaching them to dive, we’re teaching them to protect what ultimately they end up loving at the end of the day.

That’s our purpose and what we’re trying to do —to save the ocean– that’s where it all kind of stems from.

Lisa Niver:

It is amazing. I love being under water, I love being with the fish, I love being with the creatures, I love being with my buddy, but it is really important that we take care of our planet, and that’s why we especially wanted to talk about your big project for Earth Day.

Katie Thompson:

PADI’s mission is to create a billion, with a B as in boy, a billion torchbearers to explore and protect the ocean. We are reigniting the ocean torchbearer campaign. If you look at our logo, there’s a diver carrying a torch, and that’s what they used to carry under water when they were diving so they could see.

In Jacques Cousteau’s Silent World, that’s where you can actually see them diving with a torch under water. It’s pretty amazing. When you look at the logo, it’s really awesome and it’s just, it seems so serendipitous that we ended up where we are after all these decades that a diver’s carrying a torch.

And now we have this campaign for any person and they don’t have to be a diver, someone that’s an ocean advocate, an ocean lover, someone that wants to protect what’s below the surface of the water. And even because the ocean is tied to everything, it’s really someone that just wants to protect our blue planet. For Earth Day, we’re reigniting our Ocean Torchbearer campaign with a Save the Ocean Pledge.

Lisa Niver:

Everybody can make a difference, and everyone can spark change. I like that I could spark change just like my candle could light the next candle. Through the billion torchbearers, there’s a lot that’s already happened, right? Aren’t there almost 60 thousand actions that have already happened?

Katie Thompson:

We definitely measured a lot of actions, including people that have taken conservation courses, divers that have taken conservation courses, people that have reported data. We have with our PADI AWARE Foundation and we created an Underwater Citizen Science curriculum, and we created the largest database about marine debris on the planet.

What’s so valuable and important about that database is there’s over 2 million pieces of debris reported,. There are many reports about the millions of tons of plastic in the ocean, but what’s so critical about this database and being a diver that collects debris and reports it is that that data is used to influence policy.

The database tells us what kind of debris it is, where it’s coming from, the concentration of that debris, and having that data is critical, and that’s really where all the policy change comes from.

Other actions include protecting sharks which we have been doing for several decades. We are involved with programs like CITES to protect sharks. Now, we’ve protected over a hundred species of sharks and rays, and anybody can participate in these actions.

Our pledge starting on Earth Day is not only that you are making a commitment to be part of this bigger community, but it’s also your gateway into conservation with PADI and we will be able to communicate with you and provide you a pathway to take clear actions that ladder up to this global picture of protecting our ocean.

Lisa Niver:

One of the things that I love the most about PADI is the focus on how local action has a global impact. Could you talk about the new shark legislation that will protect sharks around the planet?

Katie Thompson:

Local action from an individual person can make a difference and collectively it helps protect sharks. We sent out communication about a petition to all of our torchbearers, and we asked them to sign the petition for CITES, the governing body that helps protect species.

Because sharks and rays have been in our wheelhouse for so many years and we’ve worked so hard to protect sharks, we have a Shark Conservation course which we are updating, and we are going to be releasing a new Global Shark Census, so that’s exciting, so stay tuned for that. But so, what the consumers do, or what our fans, what our torchbearers do, they sign this petition. Now, we can segment that database of where those signatures are coming from digitally, and then we have people on the ground at CITES, at the convention for Biological Diversity. We have people taking the petition to the different government officials saying PADI’s collected 30 thousand signatures.

When we talk about the individual local action leading to bigger or global impact, it’s that collectively, when the signatures are taken and provided to the elected official or the Minister of Tourism, the Minister of Trade, whoever that person- that is at that convention -that we’re trying to change policy, those signatures are very influential.

We are able to make a significant difference this year and every year. We protected 54 sharks and ray species, so now we’re up over 100. PADI has helped protect over 100 shark and ray species, which is really exciting because sharks are the apex predators of the ocean and if they’re in balance it helps keep the rest of the ocean in balance.

Lisa Niver:

The PADI reach is so AMAZING! You have so many different conservation projects — helping the coral, helping the turtles, helping the sharks, but tell people about the Save the Ocean Pledge–how do they sign up and what does it do. What happens?

Katie Thompson:

There’s so much happening. We launched the PADI Blueprint for Ocean Action, which focuses on five different areas- marine debris, vulnerable species, which includes sharks and rays, marine protected areas advancing the amount of ocean that’s protected. There’s coral reef restoration and recovery. And then, the fifth one will be restoring blue carbon habitats, so blue carbon would be things like seagrass, mangroves, and kelp.

We narrowed it down to five critical or key threats to the ocean, and what’s important there too is that divers especially can take actions under water. We’re creating programs and curriculum where divers can learn specific skills. They can take a course, and then on the Marine Debris app, the Dive Against Debris app, they can upload all that data, and that data is then used to change policy. We’re going to have a course for each of those key threats.

Our one billion torchbearers will be essentially one in ten people on this planet that can take action for the ocean, whether you are signing the CITES petition to protect sharks, or taking marine debris datat, that is an action that counts.

All of the courses are tied to the global agenda to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030. Of course, we’re looking way beyond 2030, but we want to make sure that the work that we’re doing is connected to that bigger picture because what you mentioned, the scale that PADI has, we can indeed make a significant impact with millions of people around the world taking action.

Lisa Niver:

In order to have one billion torchbearers and protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, we want everyone to sign the Save the Ocean Pledge. Tell us about the ocean pledge.

Katie Thompson:

The pledge is a personal commitment to say YES! I’m going to help create balance between humanity and ocean. I’m going to respect the ocean or the underwater world when I travel. I’m going to respect the cultures that take care of the ocean when I travel, when I’m diving, when I’m on vacation, and even in my own community.

There’s a set of commitments that you can see on the pledge page that you’re saying, yes, I’m going to do all of these things, and then I’m going to pledge to save the ocean, and I’m going to stand up for the ocean, and then be part of the world’s largest community that we’re trying to build to create ocean change.

What makes this pledge unique is that it is backed by three decades of the PADI AWARE Foundation and with PADI members and operators around the world taking action, and now we’re inviting more people to stand with us.

Once you sign up as a torchbearer, once you join this community by taking this pledge, you are going to be kept informed of these opportunities. Because if you think about the ocean conservation space or any conservation space, it’s a little overwhelming and I think a lot of people, they almost get apathetic or they just feel overwhelmed. They think what they do doesn’t matter or that their little contribution won’t change anything, and that is not true at all. It completely does matter, and we have all these examples to prove that it does matter. What you do does matter.

We feel like this pledge is a way to reach people all around the world that care about the ocean, ocean citizens I like to call them, that want to do something but maybe don’t know how to get started, they don’t know what they can do, so we’re trying to connect, make a bridge between the ocean change and people around the world so they have a clear pathway to action.

Lisa Niver:

I think it’s so important, and I love that PADI has certified almost 30 million people. When you think about most of those people, their children, their parents, their sisters, their siblings, their cousins, they work somewhere, so it’s a really huge community, and so this is a great way to get connected.

I’ve been a diver since 1990, and I know one of the big projects you’ve done is to encourage women in diving. When I first started diving, I’d go in the dive shop and they always thought I was someone’s girlfriend, and I aid no, no, I’m the good diver. I’d be with someone who was brand new and they would focus on that person. But I’m the divemaster.

I’d love if you could talk about Women’s Dive Day.

Katie Thompson:

I love to talk about Women’s Dive Day. We started it, me and my team here at PADI, I can’t believe it, but it’s been nine years. Next year we’re going to celebrate our 10-year anniversary of Women’s Dive Day, and it’s just been an incredible journey.

On the day of Women’s Dive Day on social media, I love to see all these women posting and saying diving changed my life, I took my first breath under water, and we always say it’s for everyone.

Even though our mission is to create these billion torchbearers, our true deep down mission is to increase access to the underwater world for everyone. This idea of inclusivity is really what Women’s Dive Day is about. It breaks down those barriers to diving to make them feel comfortable. It has happened to so many women that they would walk into a dive shop and they just felt like they didn’t have the confidence to ask about equipment, or they weren’t treated with respect.

And this happens in a lot of different sports and activities, but that’s why we do these things, we can dive just as well as anyone else. It makes them feel comfortable and gives them the confidence to be diving together in a group on a special day.

We need all those women to be part of the community. We need women divers. We need women ocean advocates. We need people to take those same actions.

So, really, Women’s Dive Day is about inclusivity, it’s about inviting everyone in, creating access to the ocean, and giving everyone this opportunity to be part of this to experience nature and the beauty of this planet.

Lisa Niver:

This year Women’s Dive Day is July 15, and I believe last year were there over 4,000 events?

Katie Thompson:

There were over 4,000 events with all of our PADI dive centers around the world the first year. We really wanted them to adopt this concept and this initiative of women and diving and they did!

Women are often the decision makers in the household for vacations, for lots of different things, so there’s a lot of benefits to including women. Every year we have thousands of events taking place all around the world, and our dive centers love it. It’s just incredible to see the diversity of the events themselves. You have everything from women doing yoga days and diving to doing wine afterwards, to people doing incredible conservation work, bringing in the community together, so it’s turned into something that’s really incredible. I want to plan something pretty significant for the 10-year anniversary.

Lisa Niver:

Beaches and Sandals Resorts used underwater footage of me scuba diving and dancing in Turks and Caicos for Women’s International Dive Day. It was really funny!

Katie Thompson:

They always do a great job down there with Women’s Dive Day, so that’s good to hear.

Lisa Niver:

Tell us a little bit about the women that are behind you in these beautiful murals.

Katie Thompson:

Thank you for asking about that. The murals are from when we launched the PADI Pillars of Change corporate social responsibility framework. It’s the roadmap for the actions that we take. Our three pillars are ocean conservation, dive industry sustainability, and people and humanity which includes Women’s Dive Day and our adaptive diving services.

We have amazing PADI instructors and PADI dive centers around the world that are teaching divers with adaptive needs. There’s one billion people on this planet that have a disability, and diving has shown to be an amazing healing opportunity for people that have a disability, people that are paralyzed, people that have some kind of spinal disorder, people that suffer from PTSD. There are many veteran programs that are scuba diving-based. So, all of that falls under people and humanity.

And the other part of people and humanity is the healing and wellness aspect of being in the water for anybody. You don’t have to be necessarily suffering from anything, but that immersion therapy is just such a powerful drug. It’s the same with surfing. If you talk to a surfer – when we’re out there on the water, it’s the same feeling that you get.

Being in the water is healing, and diving offers people in this crazy world that we live in that you can go under there and it’s quiet, and all you’re doing is just blowing bubbles with the fishes, as we say.

Our pillars provide guidance, and focus us in a direction that is meaningful, impactful, that strengthens our core values and shows the deeper purpose that PADI has.

Lisa Niver:

The murals beautiful to look at, and the meaning is beautiful as well. I agree with you, it’s really magical to be under water. I have a special connection with my buddies and being with the creatures, and you really sense how we all are connected on our entire planet.

Katie Thompson:

Yes. The water definitely does that for people. I’ve worked for PADI for 10 years, and I’ve been really lucky to work with a lot of people, especially on the Three Pillars, people that have a disability and taking them under water and seeing firsthand what happens to someone when they feel for the first time like a whole person again, being under water, and it’s just such an incredible transformative experience.

For Women’s Dive Day, we’ve had women in the Middle East that previously didn’t have the ability legally to dive, and now we’ve had the first PADI instructor there. We’ve helped open doors for people and helped them break down barriers and it’s inspiring to see other people that have overcome their fears to get under the water and find that connection.

And if you can’t scuba dive, there’s other things you can do. You can go free diving, you can go snorkeling, you can experience the ocean in different ways. And now mermaiding is a really popular activity around the world. PADI offers courses in all these things.

Lisa Niver:

During this time of the COVID coaster with everyone managing issues with health and illness and wellness that many people that were adventurous have gotten a little less. And for myself personally, I actually was pretty hard to teach to scuba dive. I had a near-drowning as a child, and so I’ve spoken to a lot of people that are afraid, and I know it can be scary. The thing I always tell people is we never go diving without our buddies, so you’re never alone.

Katie Thompson:

Yes. That’s true. That’s a really good point because I think people do worry that under the surface they will feel claustrophobic because you’re breathing out of this device that you’re not used to breathing out. But once you get underwater, people love it.

And when you’re learning you’re never alone absolutely, you have someone there with you every step of the way, your instructor and most oftentimes a divemaster or another instructor helping you. So, there’s lots of opportunity for encouragement.

And there’s no pressure and you don’t have to be done in a certain timeframe. There’s no requirement that you have to do this in one day or seven days. You can take time and get comfortable. And your PADI instructor is making sure you’re comfortable and confident under water before moving you forward.

Lisa Niver:

It is such a great experience. And there’s so much now with technology. You can do the e-learning class. You have PADI Reactivate. For people that have been out of the water, it’s a great pathway back.

I had been out of the water quite a while in 2020 to 2021 due to COVID and I took a reactivate class. I love PADI. The instruction is excellent, and a huge focus obviously is on safety, and I think it’s amazing.

Katie Thompson:

Yes, it is amazing. And you’re right, there are so many ways to learn now. Since the pandemic, what you call the COVID coaster, I love that, a lot of people did choose to do e-learning, and it was easier for people because people had more time to do something.

You can do the academic portion at home, and then you can really dive into the material and take the time to understand it, and then your instructor is there to help support that, and there’s knowledge review questions to make sure that you understand the material.

30 million people can’t be wrong. So, if it’s something that you want to do, you should just go try it. Grab a friend, grab somebody that you know that might be interested or is already a diver and just have them help you along and go do it.

Lisa Niver:

It’s Earth Day or Earth Month, and we now say every day is Earth Day and we will put in the show notes the link to sign the Save the Ocean Pledge and become part of the one billion, with a B, torchbearers. Any last thoughts you want to share with us from PADI and yourself about Earth Month/Earth Day and the ocean?

Katie Thompson:

Go to padi.com/savetheocean to sign the pledge and you can read all about it. You can learn about torchbearers, you can learn about all the things we’re doing in conservation and why what you do matters, and that’s what I want people to remember is that what you do matters. Get engaged in your local community in some way. There’s lots of opportunities out there for you to engage. It doesn’t have to take a ton of time. Just find out what you’re passionate about and take action.

And I want to say thank you for letting me speak about all of this today, and I hope people really enjoyed it and they want to come stand with us to help save the ocean.

Lisa Niver:

Thank you so much. It’s so important right now. What you do matters. We need to save the ocean. And I hope people come diving with us. I love scuba diving.

Katie Thompson:

Thanks, Lisa.

Katie Thompson about PADI Women’s Dive Day: Celebrate July 15, 2023

In time for Earth Day, PADI is reigniting our Ocean Torchbearer initiative with a Save the Ocean Pledge, asking for a personal commitment from everyone to sign on to protect the ocean and join the world’s largest community creating ocean change.

The purpose of the Save the Ocean Pledge is to expose more people around the globe to tangible and realistic ways to engage in ocean conservation by providing a clear pathway to action in what can often be an overwhelming experience, leaving people feeling what they do doesn’t affect the big picture, or worse, doesn’t matter.

But what we do individually, and collectively, does matter, and this shared optimism and conviction that change is possible, combined with tangible PADI AWARE actions, makes the Ocean Torchbearer Community a viable solution to creating a more resilient ocean and brighter future for all.

What happens when I take the pledge?

Upon taking the Save the Ocean pledge, you begin, deepen or reignite your conservation journey with PADI. As part of the Torchbearer Community, you will be kept informed of opportunities for conservation action – like conservation courses, citizen science opportunities and policy advocacy campaigns, both above and below the surface.

Ocean Torchbearers also receive quarterly newsletters and notifications to participate in conservation campaigns throughout the year – this allows everyone (not just divers) to be part of the solution. Immediately upon taking the pledge, you will receive a series of emails onboarding you to the Torchbearer Community, informing you on the various opportunities available to you. 

Here are some recent examples in which Torchbearers created notable impact:

Above the Surface ActionsBy signing an online petition and sharing images on social media, the Torchbearer Community helped protect over 50 new species of Sharks at CITES.They supported Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef by analyzing thousands of reef photos to allow scientists to better understand the health and state of the reef.Fundraising and generous donations have enabled over USD $200,000 in grant funding for local marine conservation projects that tackle marine debris, habitat loss, vulnerable species protection and climate change.Through PADI’s Partners The Ocean Foundation’s SeaGrass Grow Program, Torchbearers have helped restore critical and endangered seagrass and mangrove habitats in Puerto Rico.During the upcoming Plastic Free July, Community members will be asked to support a call to action to demand the world’s governments agree on a legally binding agreement to end plastic pollution by 2040.Below the Surface ActionsThrough Dive Against Debris®, divers around the world have helped collect and report more than two million pieces of debris, resulting in the largest underwater citizen science database and movement for marine debris on the planet. By early 2024, divers will be able to participate in the AWARE Global Shark Census and Conservation Course, further advancing protection of vulnerable shark and ray species.Together with PADI dive operators, PADI Divers are engaging in conservation activities all around the worldWhat makes the Save the Ocean pledge unique? 

Backed by three decades of conservation achievements through PADI AWARE Foundation and PADI Pro-led initiatives, PADI Members and Divers have implemented more than half a million discrete ocean actions. These include protecting more than 100 shark species, removing and documenting tons of ocean debris, and rescuing more than 13,500 entangled animals.

To date, PADI Mission Hubs and Eco Center Members, through Adopt the Blue, have adopted more than 1,000 dive sites for monitoring and preservation, with 10,000 dive sites set as the goal over the next few years. The PADI AWARE Foundation’s grant program has funded more than 200 local conservation projects directly related to the PADI Blueprint for Ocean Action (below).

PADI’s global community of 6,600 dive centers and resorts, 128,000 professional members and more than 29 million certified divers to date provides the scale to drive meaningful impact for the ocean.

Why should you take the Save the Ocean Pledge?

In 2020, PADI and AWARE Foundation announced the Blueprint for Ocean Action, a comprehensive strategy to empower local ocean-conservation actions for a global impact. This Blueprint addresses the five biggest issues facing our oceans: key habitat destruction (corals, mangroves and seagrass), vulnerable species loss (including apex predators), marine debris, the effects of climate change, and lack of marine protected areas. 

This framework is adopted across the global PADI network and provides a roadmap for consumers connected to the global picture – meaning, the goals under the blueprint are tied to the global agenda that is followed by most organizations in order to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.  By connecting PADI’s conservation blueprint to PADI Mission Hubs, PADI Professionals, divers and Ocean Torchbearers internationally, we are taking scalable and meaningful action to help restore balance between humanity and ocean.

When you take the pledge, you are raising your hand to say that you want to be involved in being part of the solution for a healthier planet, including:

Taking individual and collective action to tackle the ocean’s greatest challenges and protect 30% of the ocean by 2030.Acting as an ocean steward, exploring with care and leaving ecosystems in an equal or better state than I find them.Respecting culture, traveling with an open heart and mind, showing consideration for all. Sharing my passion to explore and protect the ocean with friends, family and my community. 

TAKE THE PLEDGE

You ARE part of the SOLUTION.

In 2018, PADI instituted a new global brand vision to create balance between humanity and ocean and thus the new mission of “create a billion torchbearers to explore and protect the ocean” was borne out of the necessity to bridge the gap between ‘teaching the world to dive’ and teaching them to protect the underwater world they were exploring.

From the beginning, PADI Co-Founder John Cronin knew that we – as divers – had a responsibility to protect what we love:  “We want to feel that our children, their children and generations to come will be able to enjoy the underwater world that has given us so much. There are so many significant problems facing mankind, but as divers this is truly our cause. If scuba divers do not take an active role in preserving the aquatic realm, who will?

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Female Divers that inspire PADI: 

PADI AmbassaDiver + PADI Master Scuba Diver Trainer Nouf Alosaimi from Saudi Arabia who founded the Pink Bubbles, a female diving community that encourages women to connect with the oceanEhdaa Al-Barwani who is the first female PADI Instructor from Oman and runs women-only dive courses through PADI Dive Center Aura Divers.Here’s a round up of amazing PADI Women from around the world we highlighted for IWD on ScubaverseHere’s a great feature in The Sun on PADI Diver Tara Roberts and how she is diving with a purpose Here’s a feature story in the Bombay Times on how AmbassaDiver Parineeti Chopra is inspiring more females in India to diveHere’s a fun story on iNews that highlights how Professional PADI Mermaids are being a voice for the ocean+

The post What You Do Matters! PADI Save Our Ocean Pledge appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

Aliza Licht on being the Chief Brand Officer of YOU

Thank you Aliza Licht for joining me on my podcast!

“It’s never too late to start over. We hear stories all the time of people later in life going back to school for something completely new and different...You get one life, but many chances.” 

Both of Aliza’s books train you to be a publicist for YOURSELF! I learned so much from reading them. I changed my social media bios immediately after reading her suggestions. Her actionable steps helped me so much. Remember, no one will care about your book, your project, your job as much as YOU do –so learn to be the best Chief Brand Office of YOU that you can!

Get your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or BookShop

Aliza says: “You are your best PR person.” Keep planting seeds and growing your brand on your carefully crafted social media, your newsletter and perhaps even your own podcast.

Remember: “Don’t wait for someone to shine a light on your. Make your own SPOTlight (strategically).”

FROM OUR INTERVIEW

Lisa Niver:

Good morning. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel and I am so, so honored and excited to have the amazing, incredible author Aliza Licht here with me today.

Aliza Licht:

Lisa I am so honored to be here. Thank you so much for inviting me on your show.

Lisa Niver:

You are so welcome. I don’t know that everyone knows about both your books! You have so much going on. We want to talk about both books because they’re both incredible, but will you tell people a little bit about the whole history of the DKNY PR Girl and the millions of followers and the red lipstick. Tell us a little bit, in case people don’t know — how did this happen for you, that you were the fashion voice of Twitter for so long?

Aliza Licht:

H everyone. I started my career in the fashion industry in magazine editorial back in the day, but fun fact, I was pre-med in college and thought I would graduate to be a plastic surgeon. I majored in neurobiology and physiology and then gave it all up to work in fashion. I spent a few years in editorial and then moved over to Donna Karan corporate PR in the late ‘90s. And honestly, I did traditional PR for many years. I ultimately spent 17 years with Donna Karan working in communications. On the tail of the career, the last six years, we started doing social media.

And one day we were sitting around having a marketing meeting and we said- we should probably join Twitter. And I was in PR, so my fear was that because the person was named Donna Karan and the brand was Donna Karan, I was scared people would assume she was tweeting and then that complicates what are we going to write? How are we going to respond? Do we need approvals? So,Lisa, you remember this time, it was Gossip Girl original and we were all obsessed with it. And I said to myself, well, why can’t we just make an anonymous character–nobody has to know who she is?

We can call her DKNY PR Girl and she can be the voice of Twitter and share her work doing PR in New York City. And that ranged from working with magazines to celebrity dressing, red carpet, fashion shows. It seemed like a good way to share our story, so we positioned it that way and we pitched it to our legal team. And our general counsel said–this sounds great. Aliza– you’re the only one allowed to tweet. Truly initiation by fire. I started on Twitter in 2009 as an anonymous character. I didn’t think of it as myself. It was represented by a fashion illustration, and I started tweeting.

And what I found was that engaging with people around the world was really exciting and telling a great story is what really got people to engage. So, showing the behind the scenes of my job in PR in an industry that didn’t really show its cards very often. Showing people–what happens in awards season? How do the dresses go from one celebrity to the next? Who’s working with who? What’s really happening behind the scenes? All of that was what I shared, but at the same time I naturally found myself mentoring. So, I started tweeting about how to break into fashion, how to work in PR.

And it became known as career advice mentoring that I would do, which ultimately led to being offered a book deal, which was Leave Your Mark, which is why there is a coffee cup with red lipstick on the cover, which is my signature and what I stare at every day. Because it’s really my way of grabbing coffee with people who wanted to know how to break into the industry.

Lisa Niver:

Thank you that was a great introduction. I personally loved your book about branding and I agree with you the book does feel like you’re having coffee together. Because you’re giving tips and I remember you talked to people about how to work on their resume and what do you say at their interview and make sure you send a thank you note. That book was wonderful and that came out and you gave a lot of professional advice. And now fast-forward to your second book.

Aliza Licht:

On Brand really picks up where Leave Your Mark left off. I do a little refresher course for people who didn’t read Leave Your Mark. I had over 1.5 million followers organically at a time when that was a really big deal for brands. DKNY PR Girl back then was really one of the first examples of a fashion influencer even though we didn’t know that word at the time. So, when I finally revealed myself as the person behind the Twitter handle two years later, imagine keeping a secret for two years, that was not easy, it generated over 230 million media impressions, which was amazing, and now the secret was out, I was known as this person.

But when my book, Leave Your Mark, came out that coincided with a management change at Donna Karan. We got a new CEO. We got new creative directors and ended up leaving the company. On Brand: Shape Your Narrative, Share Your Vision, Shift Their Perception starts with the idea that I had to re-find my identity. Because now I don’t have a lofty title, I don’t work in luxury fashion, I’m not part of LVMH, I don’t have a garment allowance anymore, I’m just saying.

Lisa Niver:

But you’re open to it.

Aliza Licht:

But I’m open to it. If anyone wants to give me one, I’m open to it. I don’t have millions of followers and it was uncomfortable. So, this book starts off with my rebrand and all of the tactics that I employed to transition myself from a corporate PR person to an entrepreneur, author, podcaster, mentor.

Lisa Niver:

I love the book.

Aliza Licht:

Thank you.

Lisa Niver:

You’re welcome. I really took a lot of notes and honestly made a lot of changes for myself. When I was reading your book, I was just starting speaking for the Travel and Adventure Show in four cities. And I read your book and it said, make sure every quarter you look at the bios of your social media. And I looked at the bios of my social media and I’m thought– wow, that stuff is old. So, I made them all match that I was speaking and it was really just because of your book. I think there are really practical tips that people can use, it’s full of action steps!

Aliza Licht:

Thank you and I’m so glad that you took action from that. I structured the book with my story throughout, but then I bring in expert contributors. And one of the things that I always like to start off when I talk about On Brand is this is not about becoming famous unless that’s what you want to do, I can certainly help you do that. But this is about understanding what you want to be known for in any medium and making sure other people see you that way. So, it is part career guide and it is part workbook. I lead you along the way in small, mental gymnastics activities to help you think through what your brand is currently speaking to and how people are actually perceiving what you’re doing.

Lisa Niver:

Right. And I think it’s really important that you even use the term chief brand officer of YOU! All of us are out there on social media and especially for younger people that maybe are new in the job market, they have to understand that everything they’re putting out there can be seen by current employers, future employers. It’s so ubiquitous now all the social media, that people forget that it’s very searchable.

Aliza Licht:

It’s very searchable. And of course I take you through the pitfalls of what can happen if you don’t do it properly, but at the same time, there’s also a whole chapter on how to establish your personal brand at work. Because making sure people understand your value and getting the credit you deserve is an art, right? And we need to be strategic about it and we need to be elegant about it.

Lisa Niver:

Yes, elegant I agree with that. And I liked what you said about planting the seeds that things don’t happen overnight. You didn’t get to millions of views on the DKNY PR Girl instantly. If you want to get somewhere –you have to keep putting in the work. And another thing I loved that you talked about is how to amplify your voice. You started a podcast, I have a podcast, what do you say to people that are thinking could I have a podcast?

Aliza Licht:

Well, I would say that you’re getting on a hamster wheel that you can’t get off, as you know. I always believe that you should start as you mean to go. I committed to a weekly show and I do a weekly show, but you have to think about what is really possible for you to handle. I would say the most underrated asset or the most underrated surprise to doing a podcast is how critical it is to meeting and networking with people that you wouldn’t normally meet. I never thought about that.

I did it because I wanted to extend Leave Your Mark into something more immediate, right? The book had come out in 2015. The podcast started in 2019. It felt like a great way to live out my dream of being a talk show host. But I never thought about it from the perspective of getting clients and networking. Because when you have a podcast people like to come on and talk about what they do and it’s an easier way to get in the room with someone that might be a little bit out of your reach.

Lisa Niver:

Who is an example of a guest you had that you wouldn’t have normally thought you would get to talk to?

Aliza Licht:

Well, I would say Mandy Teefey the producer of 13 Reasons Why, Selena Gomez’s mom, the cofounder of Wondermind mental health media site. Mandy was launching Wondermind and came on Leave Your Mark to talk about her entire career journey, having Selena when she was 16 and having suicidal thoughts. Thirteen Reasons Why is inspired, unfortunately, by her experience and I mean I would never meet Mandy Teefey otherwise.

Lisa Niver:

Amazing. And who’s a bucket list guest you’d like to invite on?

Aliza Licht:

That’s such a good question, Lisa. Shonda Rhimes.

Lisa Niver:

That’s a good one. I hope that she comes on your show !!

Aliza Licht:

We were in touch back in the day. As DKNY PR Girl, I was live tweeting Scandal. Shonda if you ever hear this episode, I’d love you to come on Leave Your Mark. She’s an incredible inspiration as a writer and a creative and that would be a dream.

Lisa Niver:

I’m so excited for you because we’re manifesting it. I think it’s going to happen.

Aliza Licht:

Manifesting it, yes.

Lisa Niver:

It can happen. It’s going to happen, manifest it. I love that idea. I’m going to make a bucket list of people. So, another thing you say in your book is you are your best PR person! Your book talks about knowing who you are, knowing your value, knowing what you want. Can you talk about newsletters? Do you think people are still building newsletters? Is that still valuable?

Aliza Licht:

Yes, newsletters are really important. And when we talk about owning audience the only way to own audience is actually to collect email addresses and cell phones, because for social media we are renting our audiences. If you are putting out free content, like a newsletter, where you’re providing a service to your readers that is a great way, that’s lead generation to actually build your database.

But I also want to go back to what you were asking before about being your own best publicist. And I think that a lot of people assume that people know what they’re doing and that they’re great at what they do or they’re adding value. But if you’re not shaping that narrative, if you’re not positioning yourself so that people really are getting the story from you, you’re missing an opportunity to brand yourself. And that has to be done in a really careful way so that people are not bragging.

Lisa Niver:

One of the ways that you can control the story with your audience is with Linktree in social media. Because I know for myself, one of the things that can be frustrating is people like your post on Instagram, but it doesn’t connect to anything. So, I actually started using Bitly similar to Linktree where it links to multiple places, but what do you like about Linktree?

Aliza Licht:

I use Norby which is like Linktree, but it has many more attributes including email marketing. It’s also live events and connects with Zoom. It’s also SMS marketing. So, it’s a much bigger bucket of things you can do in your marketing mix. You sign up for a monthly charge depending on what aspects of the platform you want to use.

Lisa Niver:

We’re going to all look into that. And a question from people, especially authors, if you have two different books–Are you making a website for every book? Do you have a website just for yourself? Do you think you should have a social media name for your book? What would you recommend to people?

Aliza Licht:

I love this question so much. I only have alizalicht.com and everything is in my name. Because it’s very hard to build multiple, vibrant social handles for each thing that you’re doing. I always gather the social handles to make sure I have them, and I get the URLs to make sure I have them, but everything is on alizalicht.com. There is the book section that has Leave Your Mark and On Brand. There’s nothing that isn’t within the Aliza Licht domain because that is just a way for me to keep everything cohesive and it’s just much easier to navigate.

Lisa Niver:

I have one of the quotes that you wrote that I really liked about, you mentioned this before about that creating a personal brand is not about being famous. But I like what you said that it’s about communicating who you are, what you align with and what you do well. It’s about getting the credit you deserve and everything that comes with that. It’s very impressive.

Can you talk more, you mentioned bragging, and I think that women, in particular, in the United States, but maybe humans all over the planet, sometimes have trouble standing up for their accomplishments.

Aliza Licht:

Thank you for sharing that quote. It’s a really hard thing to do to talk about your accomplishments. And in my book I bring in Meredith Fineman, who wrote Brag Better, as one of the expert contributors in the communication section. Meredith dedicated her book to a group of people that she calls the qualified quiet. People who do a great job and are waiting for people to notice that they do a great job. And that, my friends, is not a strategy. So, one of the ways that I think it’s important to amplify your wins is to make sure that you’re not getting tone-deaf to your own words.

Every time that you’re talking about an accomplishment on email, on social media, in person, make a conscious effort to amplify and promote five other people publicly, so that you’re not just someone talking about yourself. No one wants to listen to someone who talks about themselves all day. Another way to do it, especially in a corporate environment, is to work behind the scenes with a colleague. Maybe you want your boss to know something you accomplished. Why not say to someone you trust, hey, I would love for my manager to know this, maybe at our next meeting you can mention it.

And if there’s something you want amplified tell me and I’ll make sure to amplify it. So, doing that behind-the-scenes whisper network is very effective. Or if you don’t want to talk about anything at all, put a deck together for your manager to give someone an update of what you’ve accomplished. But people need to know or they’re not thinking about you and they’re not thinking about the value-add. It’s just how it is. Everyone’s too busy with their own stuff.

Lisa Niver:

Everyone is really busy and one of the things that I’ve noticed, and I’m sure impacted you and the launch of your first book, is during this time of the COVID coaster there’s been so many traumas and people have lost loved ones and lost jobs and companies have changed. So, one of the things I really liked is you said– it’s never too late to start over. We hear stories all the time of people later in life going back to school for something completely new and different. You get one life, but many chances.

Aliza Licht:

Yes, I still believe that.

Lisa Niver:

I do think that’s really important right now that people know it’s never too late. There’s lots of chances. In my book I talk about, taking lots of small steps. In your book, you talk about planting a seed.

As we look to close our talk about your incredible new book, where can people find it and how can they find you? Are you doing events? What should we do to find more of you?

Aliza Licht:

Well, first of all thank you. My book, On Brand, is about self-reflection and marrying self-reflection to public perception. That, to me, is the definition of a strong personal brand, when how you think about yourself is actually how other people think about you. Because the goal of this, to me, is to have your name dropped in rooms you’re not in, and to be offered opportunities that other people haven’t even heard of yet. So, the book is called On Brand: Shape Your Narrative. Share Your Vision. Shift Their Perception.

It is available anywhere you buy books in the US and Canada right now. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Indie books, Apple or on alizalicht.com. You can buy signed copies through Porchlight. I’m proud of this work and I think that if people actually put the thought process into it, people will be shocked at what can happen.

Lisa Niver:

That is incredible. So, they can find you on social media, they can listen to your podcast, they can buy your book. And I didn’t know about Porchlight, so they can get a signed copy. That sounds amazing.

Aliza Licht:

On alizalicht.com you have all the options for where to buy and then on Porchlight it says signed copies available.

Lisa Niver:

Thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me. I really have loved your books, they’ve really helped me, and I hope everyone else finds them and enjoys them. And congratulations, we look forward to seeing more and more of you and big giant success.

Aliza Licht:

Lisa, thank you so much for always supporting me and reading the books. I appreciate it and I’m so happy to be here.

Get your copy from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or BookShop See Aliza on Jessica Abo’s podcast on Entrepreneur.com: Shaping The Narrative of Your (Personal) Brand is The Secret to Your Success. Here’s Why. My article on Thrive Global: Are you ready to PIVOT? Be Your Own Publicist! Ask Aliza Licht

The post Aliza Licht on being the Chief Brand Officer of YOU appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

Thank you Afluencer #3 Travel Influencer 2023

40 Top Travel Influencers of 2023Thank you Afluencer! I am honored to be your #3 Travel Influencer of 2023.

From the USA, Lisa Niver is an impressive award-winning travel expert and writer who has explored 102 countries and 6 continents. 

Niver started her global podcast, Make Your Own Map, on Dec 30, 2022 and in its first 99 days it was watched in 22 countries on 6 continents.

Niver was honored to be a travel speaker at the Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows in 2023. In the Southern California Journalism Awards and the National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards, Niver has won five times and been nominated as a finalist twenty times.

She has sailed the seas to exotic locations for 7 years, and she embarked on a self-reinvention journey to discover herself as she backpacked through Asia for 3 years. Niver has published more than 2,000 travel articles on multiple renowned media, including National Geographic, Teen Vogue, Saturday Evening Post, AAA Explorer, USA Today, and more. Her memoir about 50 challenges before she turned 50 will be available in Fall 2023.

With such an outstanding profile, Lisa is a notable influential travel professional.

Content

On Instagram, Lisa’s content is organically presented – sharing her life travel experiences with thoughtful and inspiring captions.

From cultural experiences with local children in Indonesia, a visit to the world’s biggest Buddhist monument, temples in Cambodia, skiing in Utah, to brave snorkeling with jellyfish in Palau.

With images and videos, Lisa’s travel content will certainly captivate you enough to inspire interest to explore these places and live these experiences for yourself.

Blog

For more depth into Lisa’s global adventures, visit her We Said Go Travel blog.  Here is where the strength of her travel influence can be found.  Home to her blog are stories, adventures, and travel info. Like her “Tell Me More About” series, and posts like “I Remember When:  We Went Cruising”, and “My Sonoma Adventure:  Redwoods, Hiking & Wine”.

YouTube

On her YouTube channel which has nearly two million views, Lisa shares a series of stylish videos on each place she visits – providing aspiring travelers with more than enough inspo on where to go, what to do, and where to stay.  You bet videos like “Dive with Volcano Island Divers” will influence your own adventure to Tanna, Vanuatu.

Collabs

Among many features, Lisa has been published in top travel publications.  Such as American Airways, National Geographic, Robb Report, Saturday Evening Post, Scuba Diver Life, Sierra Club, and Ski Utah – just to name a few. It’s no wonder she made it to our list of top travel influencers!

#3 Travel Influencer of 2022Thank you Afluencer: I am a Top 10 Travel Influencer of 2021

The post Thank you Afluencer #3 Travel Influencer 2023 appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

Segment – Video

Videos

The post Segment – Video appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

The Poet Maggie Smith Makes This Place Beautiful

Thank you Maggie Smith for joining me on my podcast!

What now? I am out with lanterns, looking for myself. But here’s the thing about carrying light with you: No matter where you go, and no matter what you find—or don’t find—you change the darkness just by entering it. You clear a path through it....My life is like the ocean that scientists just discovered—something that’s been on maps and atlases, hiding in plain view as part of another whole. This new ocean was always there, always itself, but we are only now recognizing it.Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Maggie Smith joins me on my podcast to discuss: “the power of learning to come home to yourself.”

I loved reading her book and her prose is truly like poetry. Her chapter titles are guideposts and the way they repeat like a chorus of a song but add more information is nearly like having a narrator sitting at your side.

Order your copy TODAY: Amazon Barnes & Noble Bookshop

Lisa Niver:

Good morning. I’m so honored and excited to be here today with the most incredible poet and author Maggie Smith.

Maggie Smith:

Hi. Thanks for having me.

Lisa Niver:

Congratulations. I am so excited about your book and to share about your book. I read on Instagram, is it really true, it’s your seventh book, but your first book tour– where you’re actually going to be in person?

Maggie Smith:

Yes. My first few books I published were books of poems with small presses and they don’t send you on a book tour. So, I started out loading books into a canvas tote in my car and driving, and doing bookstore readings or house readings. But this is the first time that I actually get to go on an honest to goodness, fly from place to place book tour. The last few books all came out during peak pandemic.

Lisa Niver:

Peak pandemic is a good term. I generally say we’ve been riding on the COVID coaster.

Maggie Smith:

Yeah, I’m like reticent to talk about it in past tense, because it’s not past tense, but of course it’s not quite what it was three years ago either. We’re coming up with language for it, aren’t we?

Lisa Niver:

Yes, you’re right it’s absolutely not past tense. I feel like we’ve been riding the highs and the lows. And I love that you brought that up about creating language for it, because I feel like reading your memoir there’s so much in the way you designed it –that’s structured like a poem. Can you talk a little bit about, I felt like I got so much information, as I was reading, with the chapter titles and which things repeated, but still change. It was almost like the chorus of a song.

Maggie Smith:

Oh, I love that. I’m a big fan of sort of offering the reader a breadcrumb trail or two or three in a book. Because as a reader, whether its poetry or prose, I really love those moments of recognition where I see something I think I’ve seen before and it gives me a chance to make connections. And for me, at least as a writer writing a memoir, it was all about making connections both between past experiences and present time and parts of my life. How the writer part of my life relates to the mothering part of my life or the wife part of my life or daughter or friend or all of these different aspects of what it is to be a human being.

The desire to use repetition in that way was to speak to the truth of the experience, which is we tend to not think of life or remember things in a straight line. We tend to come back– ideas tend to echo or remind us of other things. We tend to reflect in a way or ruminate in a way that makes things return and return and return. And so, the form for me was probably just the most psychologically true way I could present the story.

Lisa Niver:

You shared a lot about what it’s like –not just the experience of the changes in life –of meeting someone and deciding to spend your life together or deciding not to spend your life together, but also so much about the career and how that worked.

And I loved that in your memoir, you talk about not being a tell-all, but a tell-mine, but also the way you really spoke directly to the reader. I felt like there was a lot of breaking a fourth wall of just — let me tell you where we are.

Maggie Smith:

Yes. I started doing that fairly early on and it’s not something I typically do when I’m writing. And maybe it’s just because this genre for me was new, so I was making up my own rules as I went.

Lisa Niver:

Yes.

Maggie Smith:

But I really felt like I was being vulnerable in the book. And speaking directly to readers was a way of acknowledging the vulnerability and also just a way of acknowledging the reader’s intelligence. –I know you’re here reading this book with me, and there are going to be things you want to know about that I’m not sharing and I respect you enough to acknowledge that. We’re in this together for the next 300 pages.

Lisa Niver:

It’s true. And I love that you felt very personable in it, and still set the boundary that I don’t have to tell every story. The story is still very cohesive, and I think that’s very lovely to see a memoir where it’s not about oversharing, but it’s about going on this journey together.

Maggie Smith:

Thank you for saying that. I write about this in the book and if there’s one thing that my therapist says constantly is boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. Not just in life, but in writing. What do we owe the reader and what do we get to keep to ourselves? And when we write about our lives it’s not a deposition it’s a memoir, we don’t actually owe every single detail to the reader. Some of the, maybe the most powerful things that we can do for a reader is to give them the space to actually reflect on things and think about things and make connections to their own lives. And sometimes pulling back is the way to allow that to happen.

Lisa Niver:

Yes. As your title says, I do think you made this place beautiful. There was space to follow along. And I like what you said about the breadcrumbs. To me, it felt like the chorus of a song like, now I know where we are. And I thought that was beautiful.

One of the things that I really related to, that I think many humans will relate to, is being in a relationship where as good things happen you’re withholding them from your partner because it’s not going so well. And I loved what you said that: I stopped sharing good news, I made myself small, folded myself up origami tight.

Maggie Smith:

I think probably a lot of people will relate to that, and maybe women in particular. The phrase don’t get too big for your britches is not usually applied to men. I see it as being gendered, although I realize that that’s not always the case. That sometimes a partner might have good news for them that they want to be family good news, but because of the way that perhaps it inconveniences the other person, or perhaps because of whatever is going on in that person’s professional life, it’s hard to hear. And I think we all hope that we will be able to accept good news on behalf of our partner or best friend or sister.

When someone tells you I met someone wonderful–and you’re single or just went through a breakup. You want to feel good for that person. If someone gets promoted and you just lost your job or feel like you’re languishing in a job you don’t love you really, I think we’re all hoping that we’ll be “the bigger person,” but it doesn’t always happen. Llife is complicated. And it doesn’t necessarily make us bad people when we can’t just be wholeheartedly gung-ho happy for someone else, but it sure makes it hard to live together when you don’t feel like someone is cheering for you.

Lisa Niver:

Absolutely. And you had such good examples when you were signing books and someone offered to take a photo and you’ said–no– I don’t need that help. That won’t make things better for me. It is very relatable and to your point –not oversharing.

Maggie Smith:

That is something relatable whether you’re a writer or not, whatever your sort of like success or shine moment is you can tell a lot about any given relationship, parent, child, friend, neighbor, spouse, by the way they handle both your failures and your successes. Using that as a barometer that can be really telling.

Lisa Niver:

It can be and I think it’s a really great moment that other people can hold onto to think about what happened the last time I shared good news or challenges and how did the person respond?

Maggie Smith:

Yes. And how am I responding? That’s always the most interesting thing is how can I not ever blame myself? But on the other side of self-blame is personal accountability, there is a difference. And one thing I really worked hard to do in this book is take personal accountability for my own choices. And so, I’m thinking about if X really hurt me I don’t want to do that to someone else, right? So, how do I check myself and my own ego or my own disappointment and make sure that I’m showing up for my people in a way that is wholehearted and generous even if there are parts of it that are difficult for me?

Lisa Niver:

Yes. Yes, I think that’s really true– How do we show up as wholehearted? The other thing that struck me so much was when you talked about lonely versus alone. And you said — feeling lonely when you’re with your partner is worse than being alone, being with someone who doesn’t want the best for you is worse than being alone.

Maggie Smith:

Yeah. I’ve talk to a lot of divorced people who will say the worst part wasn’t the after– the worst part was when things weren’t going well. Because it is really lonely to feel a lack of connection in a relationship, especially if it’s a long relationship and it seems like it should be different, right? And so, if you are alone and you don’t have any expectation of having a conversation with someone in the room, because there’s no one there, that feels different than being in a room with someone who’s not engaging with you.

Lisa Niver:

Absolutely. And if you’re alone you can make an active choice– I’m going to go skating.

Maggie Smith:

Amen. I’m going to watch a movie. I’m going to bake. I’m going to put headphones on and listen to music and dust and pretend that’s fun, because anything with loud music is suddenly a party. Or I’ll leave the house because there’s no one here, so I’m going to go find a friend and have a happy hour or yes roller skate, if necessary and weather permits.

Lisa Niver:

Right. But I think that’s also about that origami unfolding. That are you folded in –someone is holding it all tamped down and now you know–I can change the shape.

Maggie Smith:

I think it’s one of the gifts of middle age. I mean, there are enough downsides. One of the gifts of middle age is learning how to be your whole self. You couldn’t pay me to be a teenager again, you couldn’t pay me to be in my 20s again. Yeah, my 30s were a little better, but I feel, and my mother has always told me this, the older you get the more yourself you can be and the less you care about what other people think. And I do think that is a gift of aging is just not only knowing your own worth and being able to sort of stand in your own power, but just not being so wrapped up in other people’s opinions of you.

Lisa Niver:

That is a huge advantage. And that reminds me of the review about reverse midlife crisis. I thought that was really interesting.

Maggie Smith:

I love that.

Lisa Niver:

I do too. I’m trying to think if it feels the tiniest bit pejorative. If there’s another reframing of those words. Because I feel like midlife crisis is not something necessarily to strive for.

Maggie Smith:

No.

Lisa Niver:

And I get the reverse midlife crisis, as in I’ve gotten to this place and I’m beginning again and it’s beautiful and I’m opening up, but I’m just questioning the words. I do love the sentiment.

Maggie Smith:

I love it too. And actually as soon as I read that review I went to, I do what I do, which is go to the dictionary and look up synonyms and antonyms. So, I looked up what is crisis, right? And it’s an emergency, it’s a problem. And what is the opposite, what is an antonym for crisis? — words like recovery and return. And so, if the memoir is chronicling a reverse or the opposite of a midlife crisis to me it’s like a return to self, a midlife return to self, and that I love. It makes a lot of sense. And the epigraph for the book actually plays perfectly into that, which is Emily Dickinson, “I am out with lanterns looking for myself.“

That’s again another opportunity that we have, as we get older, is to really think, but who am I? What do I want? Not what do these other people want for me, not what are the expectations for what I should be doing now or what my career should look like, what my house should look like, what my kids should like. What do I actually want and can I make that for myself? Can I carve that out for myself? And so, that’s kind of how I read that and it resonated with me.

Lisa Niver:

I love what you did with that. And I also love in the book when you talk about the lanterns and about bringing the light. That you change the darkness just by entering it. And I think that’s one of the challenges of memoir is you often are going into a dark place in your life otherwise– I don’t know that people would be that interested in reading it. Your book is the top Goodreads most anticipated spring book!! Congratulations!!

Maggie Smith:

That means a lot to me because that’s readers adding it in their read pile. That means a lot if people are excited to read the book and are looking forward to it.

Lisa Niver:

I loved it. I think it was fantastic and it was really helpful to me, as I said, in thinking about what I’m writing. And you are an accomplished poet and so supported by the country and Meryl Streep and all these poet organizations. Your prose sounds like poetry to me.

Maggie Smith:

Oh, thank you. I write everything as a poet. It’s not a hat I can put on and take off, so that’s just who I am no matter what I’m writing. I’m glad that was your experience of the book.

Lisa Niver:

I am honored that you have a National Endowment for that Arts creative writing fellowship and you are here speaking to me. It’s very exciting for me. I love things about language, so one of my favorite things being in Indonesia is the word Timor means east. So, when you’re in East Timor you’re in East east.

Maggie Smith:

I see where this is going.

Lisa Niver:

Tell people what was your thing about the words.

Maggie Smith:

It’s the great river, river, isn’t it?

Lisa Niver:

Yes.

Maggie Smith:

The Ohio River. Ohio itself means great river. So, when you say Ohio River you’re saying great river river.

Lisa Niver:

I love things like that.

Maggie Smith:

So, do I. I’m a complete word nerd, as my kids will tell you. Any chance I have, even as you heard with midlife crisis, any chance I have to look at the etymology of a word and the origins and take it apart, I geek out about that stuff.

Lisa Niver:

The other thing, speaking about words is the geography. Talk about the new ocean.

Maggie Smith:

I remember reading a news story and it said: we’ve added another ocean. And I thought it’s not like they just discovered it. It’s not like some insect that has been located in the rain forest that we never knew existed, although that happens too. But this is something that is an ocean, it’s giant, it exists on maps, it’s just been combined with something else. It didn’t have its own name, so it was lumped in, right?

There’s probably a marriage metaphor in there. It was lumped in with something else and then at a certain point they decided there was enough criteria to give it its own name and so this ocean got to be its own thing. And I thought that feels like life. You think it’s one thing, it’s hiding in plain sight, and then over time you realize in fact it was maybe something else. And you have different language for it and a different sense of recognition of what it is and yet here we’ve all been looking at this thing all along.

Lisa Niver:

I do think it’s a marriage metaphor because we’re in a relationship, like you said it could be a family relationship with a parent or a spouse and we think we know how things are going. And then at some point we think, no, that’s not how it’s going to keep going.

Maggie Smith:

With any kind of change, we look and maybe it’s been like this for a while. We think how far do I have to trace my steps back before it was like this? And there’s often no easy answer for that kind of retracing to happen.

Lisa Niver:

Not easy and mostly not pleasant.

Maggie Smith:

And probably not productive.

Lisa Niver:

It makes me think about when you talk about the nesting dolls and how what’s inside, and what’s outside and what do we see. It’s somewhat like the ocean. You know maybe a species in the rain forest that hasn’t been recorded, but we weren’t looking for it. Whereas with the oceans you think about many times we look at those weather maps when they’re saying, this front is coming in. And all of a sudden –no that’s not the name.

Maggie Smith:

Much of life is hiding in plain sight. And until we have the opportunity or are forced to reevaluate and recalibrate things –sometimes we don’t actually see as clearly as we think we do. And in some ways it’s a perk, it’s a bonus. I think seeing clearly is a wonderful thing. Even if the thing that comes into focus is painful, it’s still a gift to see it clearly. Understanding a gift, even if it’s hard, it’s still a gift.

Lisa Niver:

And often it’s hard. The beginning of your book starts with the quote about the lanterns and bringing the light. And in this season where we have Passover, we have Easter, we have spring, there’s more light, so it’s such a beautiful time for your book to come out.

Maggie Smith:

I agree. I think spring is such a time of renewal, a time where everything looks so dormant and gray, especially here in Ohio. Everything is gray and wet and sad and overcast and cold for months and months and months, and then spring happens and it seems like overnight all the trees are in bloom and it’s warm. And the sun, you can feel it on your face. And that that’s the spring in us, when you feel like you’ve been a little dormant for a while. And then you can feel that change happening, you feel like you’re turning into kind of a new season in your life. I mean, thank goodness. Thank goodness for the personal springs.

Lisa Niver:

If people are ready to read your memoir and get involved in this incredible book, tell them where can they find the book and how can they find you.

Maggie Smith:

I always encourage people to shop at independent bookstores. Anywhere books are sold, any independent bookstore should be able to get it in for you. If you like to order books online bookshop.org gives money to independent bookstores and will ship right to your house. I am at maggiesmithpoet.com. That’s my website so that people don’t confuse me with the dame. And I’m maggiesmithpoet on social media, again because I’m the poet, I’m not the incredible British actress, and so that’s a good way for people to find me.

Lisa Niver:

Everybody should right now go out and get You Could Make This Place Beautiful. I loved your book and it has really been so lovely and such an honor to hear more from you. And I can’t wait for everyone to respond and say how much they loved your book as much as I did.

Maggie Smith:

Thanks for having me Lisa.             

What now? I am out with lanterns, looking for myself. But here’s the thing about carrying light with you: No matter where you go, and no matter what you find—or don’t find—you change the darkness just by entering it. You clear a path through it....My life is like the ocean that scientists just discovered—something that’s been on maps and atlases, hiding in plain view as part of another whole. This new ocean was always there, always itself, but we are only now recognizing it.Maggie Smith, You Could Make This Place Beautiful

Maggie Smith joins me on my podcast to discuss: “the power of learning to come home to yourself.”

I loved reading her book and her prose is truly like poetry. Her chapter titles are guideposts and the way they repeat like a chorus of a song but add more information is nearly like having a narrator sitting at your side.

Order your copy TODAY: Amazon Barnes & Noble Bookshop

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Do you own all SEVEN of Maggie Smith’s BOOKS? Find Maggie Smith on Instagram:

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Maggie Smith on Twitter

I’m taking this book on the road—and I can’t wait to see you! pic.twitter.com/vmEf8wxpmB

— Maggie Smith (@maggiesmithpoet) March 2, 2023

Spring at Simon and Schuster 2023

THANK YOU for watching my podcast! Discover more episodes of MAKE YOUR OWN MAP especially Christie Tate who recommended I interview Maggie Smith!

FROM LIBRARY JOURNAL

 In her memoir, award-winning poet Smith (Good Bones) uses poetic vignettes to dissect the ending of her marriage and her journey toward self-love. Smith starts with her husband’s infidelity, something she tackled in her 2020 book, Keep Moving. She moves effortlessly between first and third person, short sections, repeating titles, and recurring themes to examine a life she never imagined for herself. The author never refers to her ex-husband (the addresser) or his lover (the addressee) by name, keeping them both on the outskirts of the new life she is creating. But her children, Violet and Rhett, play a central role as she leans on them, her family, and friends as she makes sense of motherhood, gender roles, and power dynamics that exist in every relationship. Through self-interrogation, Smith crafts her experiences into ones that connect to the larger struggles of women’s lives and how people work to create something new out of places in their lives that have ghosts and hold secrets.

VERDICT This innovative memoir will attract readers who are drawn to poetry hidden in well-written prose and memoirs and will appeal to those who seek meaning in reinventing their lives.

Reviewed by Rebekah J. Buchanan , Mar 01, 2023

The post The Poet Maggie Smith Makes This Place Beautiful appeared first on We Said Go Travel.

Thank you! 30 Best Jewish Book Blogs

Happy Passover! At this time, Jews celebrate that once we were slaves in Egypt and now we are free. It is a time to think about the narrow places in our lives and how we can start again and grow in Spring!Thank you Feedspot for including me in your 30 Best Jewish Book Blogs and Websites along with the Jewish Book Council, the Jewish Journal and the Forward! What an amazing way to celebrate at this season! 1. Jewish Book Council

 New York City, New York, US
Jew­ish Book Coun­cil, found­ed in 1944, is the longest-run­ning organization devot­ed exclu­sive­ly to the sup­port and cel­e­bra­tion of Jew­ish lit­er­a­ture. For over sev­en­ty years, we have used lit­er­a­ture to bring peo­ple togeth­er for mean­ing­ful discussions about Jew­ish life, iden­ti­ty, and cul­ture.

5. Jewish Journal » Books

 Los Angeles, California, US
The following section of Jewish Journal is dedicated to Jewish Book authors and reviews. Get all the recent posts on Religious and Reform from Jewish Journal. We regularly offer live webcasts of community events and original videos. Our mission is to provide fresh news to the Jewish community of Los Angeles.

Read about Woman On Fire and Lies My Mother Told Me on the Jewish Journal 21. We Said Go Travel

 Los Angeles, California, US
We Said Go Travel is a Passport to a Global Community. Get inspired by stories from every continent published by over 1600 travelers and writers. Connect with tens of thousands of readers who share their personal journeys, photos and comments from every continent. Gain global awareness and immerse yourself in other cultures. Lisa Niver is the founder of We Said Go Travel and the host of Make Your Own Map. In its first 99 days, Make Your Own Map was watched on 21 countries on 6 continents.

Happy Holiday Humor from Melissa Rivers! Women’s History Month: READ Woman On Fire

Passover is a Jewish holiday that commemorates the liberation of the Jewish people from slavery in Egypt, as described in the biblical Book of Exodus. During this holiday, Jews retell the story of their ancestors’ enslavement and their journey to freedom.

One of the central themes of Passover is leaving the “narrowness” of slavery and oppression for the freedom of self-determination. The Hebrew word for Egypt, “Mitzrayim,” is derived from the word “meitzar,” meaning “narrow.” According to Jewish tradition, the Israelites’ physical enslavement was accompanied by a spiritual narrowness, a sense of limitation and confinement that permeated their lives.

Through their liberation from Egypt, the Jewish people were able to break free from this narrowness and attain a sense of personal and national freedom. The Passover Seder, a ritual meal that takes place on the first two nights of Passover, is designed to help Jews reenact this journey from slavery to freedom.

During the Seder, Jews retell the story of the Exodus and participate in a series of rituals that symbolize the journey from narrowness to freedom. For example, they eat bitter herbs to symbolize the bitterness of slavery, and then dip them in sweet charoset to remind them of the hope of freedom. They also eat matzah, a type of unleavened bread that symbolizes the haste with which the Israelites left Egypt.

Overall, Passover is a holiday that celebrates the Jewish people’s journey from the narrowness of slavery and oppression to the freedom of self-determination. Through its rituals and traditions, Jews are reminded of the importance of breaking free from narrow thinking and embracing the possibilities of a life lived in freedom.

THANK YOU FEEDSPOT for the honor of being in the BEST JEWISH BLOGS list!

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Best Things to do in the Finger Lakes: A Four-Seasons Destination

BEST THINGS TO DO IN THE FINGER LAKES: A FOUR-SEASON DESTINATION

The Finger Lakes region in upstate New York is known primarily as one of the great wine-growing regions of the United States. And with good reason: The area is home to an impressive range of innovative wine producers, including world-acclaimed Rieslings. 

The harvest usually begins in mid-August and depending on the weather, can continue through the end of the calendar year. But what if your best time to visit doesn’t coincide with the grape-growing season? 

As I’ve discovered on repeat trips, the towns that cluster along these 11 digit-shaped water bodies make fantastic year-round destinations, with plenty to see and do. 

Here’s your guide to the best things to do in the Finger Lakes on and off-season. Check websites before venturing out, as some sites and venues operate on reduced hours during the cooler seasons.

A Guide To The Best Things To Do in The Finger LakesExplore museums and historic sites

From the women’s rights movement to the Underground Railroad, and from the origins of the Mormon faith to a museum that showcases exceptional examples of early airplanes, the Finger Lakes is the birthplace of unexpected culture and social advocacy.

Civil rights pioneers

Harriet Tubman Home in Auburn

Cayuga County, which surrounds Cayuga Lake, is in the midst of a yearlong celebration of Harriet Tubman’s bicentennial birthday. The civil rights pioneer lived in Auburn later in life, and you can pay a visit to the Harriet Tubman Home. 

Excellent interpretive tours give a detailed look at her life—not only as an abolitionist but also as a businesswoman, social advocate, and military veteran—and the care facility she founded for seniors. You can also view a beautiful Ghanian carved wooden bust of the icon at the Harriet Tubman Memorial AME Zion Church, the same congregation she belonged to. Or stop at her gravesite at Fort Hill Cemetery.

Tubman was connected to various other abolitionists, including Frances and William Henry Seward. At Seward House Museum, take a deep dive into the couple’s groundbreaking work. Next, 15 minutes away, visit the Howland Stone Store Museum and Opendore, properties owned by the Quaker abolitionist family Slocum, Emily, William, and Isabel Howland. 

Seward House in Auburn

The Sewards and Howlands were also involved in the fight for equal rights, and you’ll find more about them—and a range of other luminaries—at the National Women’s Hall of Fame and the Women’s Rights National Historical Park, the site of the first Women’s Rights convention in 1848, in Seneca Falls. 

Wesleyan Chapel in Seneca Falls: Site of the First Women’s Rights Convention

Mormon roots

Meanwhile, in Palmyra, you’ll find the humble Smith Family Farm. The childhood home of Joseph Smith Jr. is close to the Sacred Grove. Here, Smith said, he experienced visions that led to the founding of the Mormon Church. The forest-shrouded, 10-acre plot at the western edge of the farm is lovely, with walking paths for quiet contemplation and appreciation of nature.

Historical and cultural treasure houses

For an up-close look at the area’s rich indigenous history, visit the Seneca Art & Culture Center in Victor. The facility is dedicated to Seneca and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) contributions to art, culture, and society. And the replica Bark Longhouse, open only from May through October, offers a fascinating look at everyday life for the Seneca people.

In Hammondsport, you’ll find the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum, named for the aviation pioneer. It contains an eye-opening collection of historic aviation, transportation, and local history artifacts, including vintage motorcycles and bikes, P-38 fighter planes, and automobiles.

The Erie Canal Museum is located in a historic building where canal cargo was once weighed. The museum documents 200 years of history through interactive displays, hands-on exhibits, narrative audio tracks, and artifacts. 

Founded by the venerable Corning Glass Works (now Corning Incorporated), the Corning Museum of Glass is a triple threat. It houses the world’s most comprehensive collection of glass, the planet’s foremost library on glass, and a top glass-working school. Exhibits span 3,500 years of history, from a portrait of an Egyptian pharaoh to contemporary sculpture. and if that’s not enough, the museum also presents daily demonstrations.

Enjoy the great outdoors

Sunset at Seneca Pier

From scenic drives to boating and waterfall hikes, the region is all about the wide-open outdoors. Hiking trails are abundant in just about every town. The hardest part is narrowing down the selections.

Don’t miss Watkins Glen State Park, home to 200-foot cliffs, a spectacular gorge, and 19 waterfalls, all within two miles of easy to moderate trails. The best views come from taking the Gorge Trail (often closed from November through early May). While you may visit the park during the off-season, you must enter via one of its other trails.

Along the “backbone,” a ridge of land between Seneca and Cayuga lakes, lies the Finger Lakes National Forest,  covering more than 16,000 acres of land. Here, you can traverse 30 miles of trails and picture-perfect gorges, meadows, and woodlands, including old-growth forest. Cross-country skiing and snowshoeing are both popular in the winter.

Experienced boaters can rent a vessel and putter along the Erie Canal from May through November. In warmer seasons, you can paddleboard and kayak; the latter is a singular experience when you travel through one of the canal’s famed locks (paddleboards are prohibited in the locks). Rather let someone else do the driving? Take a Finger Lakes cruise.

The region is located along the Atlantic Flyway. This affords plentiful opportunities for birding, especially at preserves like the Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge and Letchworth State Park. Visit in late March or early April, and you’ll witness the migration of hundreds of thousands of snow geese, who alight on Cayuga Lake during their annual trek north from warmer climates.

Sip craft beverages and more

There are so many wineries, distilleries, meaderies, and cideries in the Finger Lakes that you could fill an entire trip solely with sampling. 

Since wineries and vineyards get all the love, I’ll mention just a few of my top picks. Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars makes my all-time favorite Moscato—light and fruity, with the barest hint of black pepper. It also has don’t-miss views of Seneca Lake. 

Wine tasting at Lamoreaux Landing Wine Cellars in Lodi

Though I tend to prefer whites, roses, and light reds, the mildly cedary Cabernet Franc at Bright Leaf Vineyard could convert me. And Herman J. Wiemer, which is both architecturally beautiful and forward-thinking in its growing methods, makes some of the country’s best-loved Rieslings.

If vodka, whiskey, brandy, and liqueur are more your speed, you’ll find plenty of makers. Like their winery counterparts, most use locally grown grains and fruits in their products. 

A great place to start is Finger Lakes Distilling, which crafts whiskey, gin, brandy, grappa, and three different fruit liqueurs. I’m a special fan of the Maplejack Liqueur, an apple brandy aged in oak barrels, with New York maple syrup added to the finished product. Four Fights Distilling, a micro-batch distillery in Corning, makes the usual suspects like whiskey and vodka. But it also specializes in uncommon selections like moonshine and barrel-rested beverages.

Cider Creek Hard Cider uses 100% New York State apples and no sugar or artificial sweeteners to create a range of accessible French-style and fruit-blended ciders. For something a little left-field, try Earle Estates Meadery, which makes unique meads (fermented-honey wines). 

Can’t decide? Try a map-guided tasting experience, like the Southern Finger Lakes Beverage Trail. I’m not an expert on breweries, but you’ll find three dozen-ish listed on The Finger Lakes website.

Enjoy dining locally

Salt of the Earth Restaurant in Union Springs

As with the beverage scene, dining in the Finger Lakes is rich and varied. With its happy mishmash of cuisine styles, Port’s Café in Geneva is the rare restaurant that’s beloved by both locals and tourists. The regular menu is good, but the rotating specials are even better.

New York Kitchen in Canandaigua is a nonprofit collaboration of several organizations, including the Rochester Institute of Technology and the New York Wine and Grape Foundation. It serves upscale, farm-to-table versions of pub favorites and ocal craft beverages.

In Watkins Glen, Graft Wine + Cider Bar, owned by local chefs, is the region’s only wine and cider bar, restaurant, and market. Seafood—especially the PEI mussels in a red curry cream sauce—is the standout here. Unless you’re gluten-free, order the warm sourdough bread. You’ll be talking about it long after your trip is over. 

On the southern tip of Keuka Lake, the Park Inn in Hammondsport (built in 1861) is a boutique inn and restaurant. Here you’ll find locally focused dishes and a 200-plus-selection wine list in the dining room. I usually go for a craft cocktail made with locally sourced ingredients like fruits, purees, and herbs. 

Drive east, around Cayuga Lake, for a pair of worthy food stops. Opened in 2021, Salt of the Earth is warm and laid-back. Its menu encompasses perennial favorites like burgers, tacos, and freshly plucked salads, alongside hearty specials like shrimp and cauliflower “grits.” Save room for dessert: You’ll want to savor the generous portion of small-batch ice cream from local maker Little Cow. 

Little Cow Salted Caramel Praline Ice Cream: Salt of the Earth

At 1833 Restaurant & Bar, indulge in rich appetizers (the burrata, served with marinated tomatoes, is exceptional) and flavorful entrées like Iberico ham served with broccolini, chorizo, and potato hash.

Appetizer at 1883 Restaurant and Bar in Aurora

Call it a night

The 1833Restaurant and Bar makes it an easy night by lodging where you dine.  It’s located in the Inns of Aurora, five separate boutique hotels in one historic district along the shores of a former Erie Canal resort town. Founded by Pleasant Rowland, the creator of the American Girl doll, the Inns of Aurora are exquisite in every detail, from their location overlooking the longest of the Finger Lakes to their décor, collections of original art, luxury spa, and curated guest experiences.

Queen Premier Lakeview Room at the Inns of Aurora

All photos in this article courtesy of Robin Catalano, Once More to the Shore

READ MORE FROM ROBIN–Road Trip Inspiration in the Finger Lakes and Upstate New York:

Finger Lakes Road Trip: Watkins Glen & Seneca Lake

1000 Islands Road Trip: Penn Yan to Clayton, Cape Vincent & Sackets Harbor

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Blowing Bubbles with Rachel Novak, Miss Mermaid Nevada and Freediving Instructor

Thank you Rachel Novak for joining me on my podcast!

Rachel Novak — Miss Mermaid Nevada, Freediving & Mermaid Instructor, Stunt Performer, Mermaid Performance Artist, Content Creator

Rachel Novak is a PFI and SSI freediving and mermaid instructor based in Las Vegas, Nevada. She was named Fire Entertainer of the Year 2016, Miss Mermaid Nevada 2022, and Miss Sea Queen of Nevada 2023. Rachel is no stranger to the stage or the camera! She works as a professional mermaid and fire entertainer, was an official commentator for the Vertical Blue 2021 freediving competition in the Bahamas, and worked as a stunt performer on Marvel’s Black Panther 2: Wakanda Forever, where she used her diving skills (both scuba and freediving) to perform underwater stunts.

Rachel is the owner and content creator for The Sailing Siren on YouTube, a freediving and travel vlog that highlights the freediving communities, sailing adventures, and unique freediving destinations around the world. She owns and manages the brand Aquanauts Freediving, which includes an athleisure clothing line for merfolk and freedivers, freediving and mermaid courses, and customized mermaid and fire performances. Rachel is a passionate advocate for freediving education and believes that those who care most about ocean conservation are those who spend time in the water. She is dedicated to helping others learn how to safely explore the underwater world on one breath. Rachel was invited to compete on season 15 of American Ninja Warrior, which films in spring of 2023.

Lisa Niver and Rachel Novak at the 2022 Scuba Show

FROM OUR INTERVIEW

Lisa Niver:

Good morning and welcome back. This is Lisa Niver from We Said Go Travel, and I am so honored and thrilled and excited to be here today with you with my favorite mermaid, Rachel Novak.

Rachel Novak:

Hi.

Lisa Niver:

Oh, my gosh, ever since we met at the scuba show I’ve wanted to talk to you more. I’m so excited to talk to an actual real mermaid.

Rachel Novak:

Well, thank you for having me on your show. I’m really excited.

Lisa Niver:

Let’s tell the audience about you: You currently live in Nevada, and you’re Miss Mermaid Nevada. Did you grow up in the desert and you were desperate for the water? Were you born in the water? How did this happen?

Rachel Novak:

It’s kind of this crazy path that I took to it. I’m a pharmacist and I also work as a circus artist. But throughout pharmacy school, I needed some sort of creative outlet and so the circus was my fitness, my social life, pretty much the other half of me. From there, I used to work as a fire dancer quite a bit. I got into mermaiding because eventually at some point in time I wanted to have another skillset to add to my repertoire of things to book me for. So, I got into mermaiding. Because of mermaiding that’s what got me into diving. I wanted to be a better mermaid, so it went from progressing into diving and going all the way up to dive master and then progressing into free diving and going all the way to free diving instructor. So, that’s kind of the long story for how I became a mermaid.

Lisa Niver:

You’re incredibly well trained and have a whole YouTube channel, The Sailing Siren.

One of the things I love about your YouTube channel is that you share your challenges. Could you talk about the video about failing the first time you were trying to be an instructor. For me personally, I think it’s really important that people who see you as this incredible mermaid and so talented and so skilled and an instructor know that it wasn’t just a walk in the park. You had struggles. Because people have struggles and think I’ll never be like her, but it’s very valuable that you’ve shared that it was challenging.

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Rachel Novak:

For those of you who haven’t seen my YouTube channel, my YouTube channel started when I went from having no formal free diving experience all the way going through the instructor course. The reason why I wanted to document it is to give people an idea of what to expect in a course because you say, oh, it should take me two to three days to pass a course. I wanted to humanize the fact that — that is in absolutely perfect situations where somebody can equalize perfectly. For me, one of my biggest challenges was learning how to equalize properly in a head down position, because it’s different than scuba diving. So, it took me quite a while to figure that out.

I wanted to be able to share that with people. Especially on that video, people related to how they failed, too. Now that I’m an instructor, I can say you just have to put a little bit more time in, and it’s just about learning about your body and figuring out what works for you.

Lisa Niver:

I think that’s so valuable, and I really appreciate you being honest about that. We’ve all learned over time. And now you are a free driving instructor and a scuba instructor. Tell us about how you’re in Black Panther 2, the movie.

Rachel Novak:

Over a year ago, I saw a post on a free diving memes Instagram that I follow. It said looking for people comfortable modeling elaborate costumes on breath hold with no masks working in depths. I thought- I’m a mermaid. I got this.

I didn’t hear anything back, but I kept the dates on open and about four days before I got a call from the stunt coordinator. He interviewed me about my background, so said I’d like to hire you. I thought great, but what am I on? Because around that time Avatar was shooting. Every free diver hopes that they might get to be a stunt performer on Avatar. But that did not happen. I still did not know what I was going to be on. When I landed on site where we were going to be shooting, the contract was in my DocuSign, and it said Black Panther 2 Wakanda Forever.

Lisa Niver:

What an incredible experience. You’ve been so fortunate to do things all around the world. I know part of the free diving course you were living in the Philippines. Is that right?

Rachel Novak:

Yes. So, I was in the Philippines for about six months. That was where I learned to become a free diving instructor. I wanted to be able to see some family while I was out there. I’m half Filipina, so it was nice to be able to get back to my roots while also getting to explore a beautiful place. The ocean out there is amazing.

Lisa Niver:

It is beautiful out there. I would really like to go back again, but you also meet people for courses in Washington, right?

Rachel Novak:

Yes. So I teach courses in Las Vegas and in Washington state. Primarily in Washington state, it’s during the summer just because it is a lot chillier.

Lisa Niver:

A lot chillier.

Rachel Novak:

If you’re going to be spending time in the water, it’s nice to be able to have adequate thermal protection and relatively warm dive conditions. So I do teach there and then I do setup courses across the US or wherever there is interest if there are enough people to book out a course.

Lisa Niver:

But you teach all different kinds of classes, right? You teach free diving but don’t you also teach a bucket list how to be a mermaid class?

Rachel Novak:

Yes. So I teach SSI and PFI free diving and mermaiding courses. So if somebody wants to learn how to be a mermaid, we can go from just an intro of trying to put on a tail all the way up to I want to be an underwater model and I want to get free diving skills so I can have a longer breath hold, dive deeper in a mermaid tail, and mermaid out on the reefs with no mask on. So it goes all the way up from beginner to professional.

Lisa Niver:

That is incredible. One thing I would like to make a good pause here to talk about with mermaiding and free diving is the importance of not being alone. That people should not ever breath hold under water without an instructor, without skills and just think I’m going to see how long I can hold my breath. Can you talk a little bit about the safety concern?

Rachel Novak:

Yes. Absolutely. I say this with my free diving students as well. But while many of us are do-it-yourselfers, learn it off of YouTube and while I have a YouTube channel, is strongly say that a YouTube education is not going to be a complete education. So definitely take a course because if you’re just starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know and you don’t know the potential safety sides of things. Especially in the free dive community when people, if you hear about a free diving related fatality in the news it’s usually somebody who’s diving alone and often they don’t have diving education. So, this is something that we’re trying to stress in the free diving community, especially since free diving is becoming much, much bigger in the US. We also want to make sure that we have access to places to dive and places to train and that free diving has a good reputation as it grows in the US.

Lisa Niver:

Yes. Very important. I remember that you do something with free diving competitions.

Rachel Novak:

Yeah. So I dabble in free diving competitions as well. I was a commentator for Vertical Blue so it was nice being able to talk about the amazing accomplishments of people in the free diving community. Many of them whose deepest dives or their warmup dives are deeper than my deepest dives.

Lisa Niver:

That’s okay. It’s not a contest. Oh, it is a contest. Go on.

Lisa Niver and Rachel Novak at the 2022 Scuba Show

Rachel Novak:

But that’s the thing, especially with free diving, people are so approachable and there’s always going to be somebody who dives deeper than you. It’s all about the learning process and it’s all about going with what your body is able to accomplish at the time. So, I get into the world of competitions and it’s a completion against yourself. It’s how deep can I dive and how deep can I do it safely, know my body, and progressing at a safe level. So, I am starting to dabble more on the competitive side as well as continuing on the commentary side.

Lisa Niver:

So we see you behind the camera, in front of the camera, under the water, above the water. You’ve got flames. You’ve got the ocean; you’re also helping people look more beautiful in all of these things. Tell us about how can we find your clothing line and what’s in your clothing line?

Rachel Novak:

I’m also an avid backpacker and trail runner among other things. I often don’t have a lot of space in my backpacking pack. I wanted to have a modular clothing line, so something that I could use while out trail running–yoga pants and sports bras. Then I also provide thermal protection. So if you’re out on the reefs you’re not using sunscreens that are unfriendly to corals. You’re actually using rash guards that match with the leggings and the sports bras if you want. I wanted to have something that was ocean themed for free divers, mermaids, and people who are generally active. As far as where people can find that, they can find that at www.aquanautsfreediving.com. It’s like astronauts but aquanauts.

Lisa Niver:

And we’ll put that in the show notes so people can click through and find you. Give us an example, does it have mermaids on it or is it colorful or how do we know that it’s your aquanauts line? What’s special about how does it look?

Rachel Novak:

Well, some of them are like cheesy mermaid jokes, because if you’re in the mermaid community we have all sorts of mermazing and fintastic puns. So, if you are a mermaid and happen to see some of those on certain t-shirts, this is one of the shirts that I have on there. It’s fairly generic. I also have it on my laptop cover. Give me vitamin sea. I love spending time in the water and obviously being in a landlocked state I don’t get to do that as much as I’d like. I do get to spend a lot of time in the water. So, as far as leggings and sports bras, like I said, they are matching and modular so you can mix and match. But I have mermaid scales and then I have some other brighter colors as well.

Lisa Niver:

You have so much going on between being a movie stunt performer and a model and saving the ocean with no sunscreen, but you also are very active in ocean conservation. Are there some things where people could participate with you or maybe you could give tips like what can people do if they’re also in a landlock state but they care about the ocean.

Rachel Novak:

Absolutely. It’s not necessarily just caring about the ocean being in a landlocked state. There are so many beautiful waterways, especially here in Las Vegas. I spend a lot of time out on the Colorado River and Lake Mead and Lake Mojave. It’s nice to be able to do a dive site clean-up or a beach clean-up. There are definitely ways that you can get involved. As far as the most recent beach clean up that I’ve been a part of, if you’ve ever heard of the 321 Free Dive Conference that happened this year. It was the first free diving specific conference in the US or basically in North America. We were actually able to organize a beach clean-up in conjunction with 4Ocean. A lot of the participants were able to come, pick up trash, and then also learn about free diving from free divers from all over the world.

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A post shared by Rachel Novak//Freediver (@thesailingsiren)

Lisa Niver:

That’s amazing. 4Ocean, they’re the ones that have the bracelets made out of recycled things that they’ve taken out of the water at the trash clean-up?

Rachel Novak:

Yes. The organizer of that event, Jennifer Morgan, she was in contact with 4Ocean, and I believe for every…there’s a certain amount that they’ll actually pledge to pick up Ocean plastic for everything that you purchase from them. It’s just nice to be able to know that you are supporting and being supported by a company that also cares about the ocean.

Lisa Niver:

That’s very exciting. Now I know there’s something new and exciting coming up for you. I mean already we’ve said you’re a free diving instructor, you’re available for events, you mermaid at events, you do photos, but now you’re going to do something different on television. Tell us what’s going to happen next because this is one of my favorite shows. I can’t wait to watch you.

Rachel Novak:

We’ll see how it goes, but I was invited to compete on American Ninja Warrior. I’m really excited, but at the same time I’m a free diver and most of the time I’ve got little chicken arms. I do like rock climbing, but it’s a very, very different technique. I don’t know if you can see it, but I’ve got blisters on my hands from all the pullups that I’ve been doing in the ninja gym. But I’m really excited to be able to go on this show and just do the best that I can with the six weeks that I have to train. We’ll see where it goes from there.

Lisa Niver:

I think it’s so beautiful that you’re always challenging yourself in different ways.

Rachel Novak:

I interact with flame. I interact with water and now American Ninja Warrior to me is like interacting with crazy obstacles.

Lisa Niver:

What made you decide you wanted to be a ninja next?

Rachel Novak:

A casting producer contacted me on my Instagram. And said– we are looking for applicants for the upcoming year, season 15. I thought: Why not. I used to watch that as a kid. That would be really funny if I actually got on. I applied by the deadline. Then the holidays passed and I didn’t hear anything back. I was out free diving with a friend in the springs in Florida when I got a phone call from a number that I didn’t know. I found out later on the voicemail –that it was a casting director from American Ninja Warrior. “We’d like to extend an opportunity for you to compete. Please give us a call back.”

So, I called and found out that they want me to compete. Now I have six weeks to train. I am going anywhere between two to six hours a day.

Lisa Niver:

Oh, wow. A lot of training. Well, we will all be rooting for you. That is for sure. So which thing started the journey? Was fire dancing the beginning of circus or how did you get into circus in the beginning?

Rachel Novak:

At age 16 I was living in a small town in Southern Oregon and I saw somebody spinning basically balls on a cord. You see this primarily in Polynesian cultures. It’s called poi. I was like oh, my gosh, you spin poi. I have to learn how to do that. We ended up becoming friends. He taught me and from there it was a progression of picking up skills and getting better as I was progressing through pharmacy school. Once again, I said with pharmacy school you’re so busy all day that you really don’t have time to go out and have a job, at least during the day, and so I would be doing shows at night. In between my sets you’d have four to five sets a night. In between sets I’d be stretching in the green room and studying my pharmacology.

So, that’s kind of what started everything. Along with pharmacy came circus and then when I graduated and got a job as a pharmacist part-time. Performing is something that I’m very passionate about. I’m very happy that I took the jump and worried that my boss was going to think I’m the weirdest pharmacist ever, but they were really accommodating. So, I was able to have a career both in circus and in pharmacy. From there, I moved over to Vegas because I wanted to be on a show here, and I was able to book out a contract on a show. Now I’m doing it freelance because you are able to set your schedule.

Lisa Niver:

Wow. One of the things I most loved when I first met you at the scuba show is that you have built this incredible mosaic for your life. You’re figured out that these are the things I need to do to make my life work. I make money in different ways. You’re always looking for new adventures and new skills and bringing people along. It’s really so inspiring. I think that people will be so interested.

Let’s say someone is interested in free diving and mermaiding and said to you–but if I’m a bit afraid of this idea but I’m also a little bit curious. What would you recommend to people? How do they get started?

Rachel Novak:

This is something that works for rock climbing, for skydiving, for scuba diving, for free diving. A lot of different activities that I already do. It’s really about just taking the time to educate yourself. So, for fire dancing I started out with different tutorials on YouTube without the fire. Then when it got to the point where it was a potentially scarier or riskier part that’s when I took on mentors and when you have a mentor who’s able to help you through some of the potential safety issues of whatever you decide to do or if you’re scared they can at least validate what you’re feeling and then tell you whether or not from their experience that is something that you should be afraid of or something that you should slowly and sequentially challenge.

It’s the same thing with free diving, too. When people are in a free diving course, a lot of the time they’re worried about the depth, but you build the foundation, and you say you know you have breath hold that will take you all the way down to the depth that you need to do and you tell them the safety aspects of it.

So, if you notice this then you turn back around. So, it’s basically like having a mentor and educating yourself if you want to summarize things.

Lisa Niver:

I do and that was really beautiful, but you snuck something in there that we didn’t talk about. You’re also a skydiver?

Rachel Novak:

Yeah. I have an A license, so I am a baby jumper. I have 38 jumps under my belt solo, but once again that is another amazing community to be a part of. I would say that I’m a baby skydiver as well.

Lisa Niver:

I don’t know what I am if you’re a baby because I did 50 challenges before I turned 50 and for my 50th birthday I did one tandem jump, so I’ve only been one time. I think you’re way bigger than a baby to be honest. Thirty-eight sounds like a lot of jumps.

Rachel Novak:

It’s just like free diving or just like mermaiding. There’s always somebody with more jumps than you, too. You have to find somebody that you can learn from.

Lisa Niver:

It’s true and you are literally so inspiring and I’m impressed that you have been part of major motion pictures. You’re going to be on American Ninja Warrior and you’re working hard to save our planet and help people make their dreams come true by either being a mermaid that they can meet or training people to be a mermaid.

Before we let you go because obviously you have to go back to the gym and get underwater and get the fire and jump out of a plane. It’s a busy time. Remind everybody what are the best ways to find you and follow you and book you and learn with you and jump out of planes with you.

Rachel Novak:

If you are interested in following my journey through American Ninja Warrior or want to find free diving and travel-related content you can look me up on YouTube and Instagram @thesailingsiren.

Then if you want to book a course with me, whether it’s mermaiding, free diving, or you want to book me as a mermaid or an entertainer at your next event you can look me up at www.aquanautsfreediving.com and you can also find me on Instagram and Facebook under those handles, too.

Lisa Niver:

And tell us the last thing with being Miss Mermaid Nevada, is there an event? Can we watch the next Miss Mermaid Nevada or how does that work?

Rachel Novak:

There are mermaid competitions out there and mermaid pageants. A few years ago, it was during the pandemic, and I applied to win a title and once again it was — whatever happens, happens. I was awarded a title to compete and then there is a conference called Mermagicon, a convention for merfolk to get together. It was an actual pageant there. There I scored top 10 and won some runway awards for modeling and from there, there were title holders that were able to continue to advocate for the different volunteer platforms. There are ways that you can participate in those but that’s a whole other can of worms.

Another thing is I won the title of Miss Sea Queen of Nevada. There was a competition with Virgin Cruises and there is more information that I’m not allowed to talk about yet, but I can say stay tuned for later this year if you want to see something on the big screen.

Lisa Niver:

Oh, my goodness. You’ll have to keep me posted. I knew you’d have more stuff going on. I’m so excited that you’re telling us a little tidbit. Again, everyone, we’ve been spending time not quite underwater with our favorite mermaid, Rachel Novak, and you can find all her information on The Sailing Siren, and we are wishing you so much luck. We hope that we see you on the top of the mountain at the end of the season for American Ninja Warrior.

Rachel Novak:

I hope so, too. If not, maybe next year but I’m definitely going to do my best. Thank you so much for having me and letting me share some of the things that I love talking about.

Lisa Niver:

Thank you so much, and I look forward to blowing bubbles with you soon.

Rachel Novak:

Yes. Absolutely. Take care.

FOLLOW RACHEL: YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and her clothing line

Rachel Novak and Lisa Niver filming for the podcast

The post Blowing Bubbles with Rachel Novak, Miss Mermaid Nevada and Freediving Instructor appeared first on We Said Go Travel.