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Episode #185: Becki Rupp

Personal Trainer + Adventure Travel Coach

Trailblazer Wellness

Episode #185: Becki Rupp
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Guest Bio

Becki Rupp is a certified Personal Trainer and Adventure Travel Coach, and the founder of Trailblazer Wellness. Through her coaching, Becki helps travelers build the strength, stamina, and confidence they need to take on meaningful adventures without feeling overwhelmed by the physical or mental preparation. Her work is especially valuable for people preparing for big hikes, cycling trips, Camino-style journeys, Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, and other active travel experiences that stretch the edge of their comfort zone.

Becki brings together personal training, coaching, and her own extensive adventure travel background. She has summited Kilimanjaro, hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, completed the Portuguese Camino from Porto to Santiago, and taken on numerous multi-day hiking and cycling trips around the world. Over the past several years, she has supported more than 100 clients preparing for adventures in 27 countries, helping them move from uncertainty to readiness so they can enjoy the journey before the journey — and the trip itself.

Show Summary

In this episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast, host Jason Elkins speaks with Becki Rupp, founder of Trailblazer Wellness, about helping travelers prepare for the adventures they have dreamed about for years. Becki explains how adventure travel coaching goes beyond simply handing someone a workout plan. For many travelers, especially those joining group trips or taking on a physically demanding itinerary, the real work involves building confidence, managing fears, staying accountable, and learning how to enjoy the experience rather than worry about holding others back.

Becki shares how her own path combined a lifelong curiosity about the world, a love of movement, and years of experience in fitness, coaching, and communications. From childhood memories of watching her grandparents’ travel slideshows to eventually hiking iconic routes like Kilimanjaro, the Inca Trail, and the Camino, Becki’s story reveals how travel, preparation, and personal growth can become deeply connected.

Jason and Becki also explore the emotional side of adventure travel: why people worry about being last in the group, how partners and friends may not always know how to support a big travel dream, and why having someone in your corner can make the difference between merely completing a trip and truly experiencing it. Becki’s approach helps travelers prepare their bodies while also reconnecting with the deeper reason they said yes to the adventure in the first place.

Key Takeaways

  • ✓ Adventure travel preparation is about more than fitness — it also involves confidence, mindset, and emotional readiness.
  • ✓ Many travelers worry about “holding up the group,” even when nearly everyone else has the same fear.
  • ✓ A strong training plan helps travelers enjoy the destination instead of focusing only on surviving the physical challenge.
  • ✓ Coaching can help uncover the deeper concerns behind a trip, from group dynamics to travel anxiety to self-doubt.
  • ✓ Becki helps clients stay connected to their bigger “why” so training feels purposeful and motivating.
  • ✓ Physical setbacks, busy schedules, and unexpected life events are part of the preparation process, not reasons to give up.
  • ✓ Group travel can feel intimidating, especially for people taking their first active trip or traveling without a partner.
  • ✓ Becki’s own adventure experiences give her clients practical insight and reassurance from someone who has been there.
  • ✓ The “journey before the journey” can become a powerful part of the overall travel experience.
  • ✓ With the right support, travelers can move from uncertainty to capability, presence, and genuine enjoyment.

What You’ll Find on Trailblazer Wellness

  • ✓ Customized training plans for active adventures and big travel goals.
  • ✓ One-on-one coaching for hikers, cyclists, and multi-sport travelers.
  • ✓ Support for preparing for Camino routes, Kilimanjaro, Machu Picchu, long-distance hikes, and cycling trips.
  • ✓ Guidance for building strength, stamina, confidence, and consistency before departure.
  • ✓ Coaching that addresses both the physical and mental side of adventure travel.
  • ✓ Practical support for travelers balancing training with work, family, and everyday life.

Learn more about Trailblazer Wellness and connect with Becki at:

https://trailblazerwellness.com

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Podcast Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated on recording, and has not been edited by a human. It may contain lots of mistakes, crazy words, and stuff that makes no sense. The host and the guest are not responsible for the accuracy of the transcript.

Jason Elkins (00:01.293)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. So happy to have each and every one of you back today, but I’m also very excited to have our guest today. We’ve got Becky Rupp. Becky is a personal trainer and adventure travel coach and she has trailblazer wellness. Becky, welcome to the show. So happy to have you here.

Becki Rupp (00:21.688)
Thanks Jason, I’m so excited to be here. Can’t wait to talk to you.

Jason Elkins (00:24.491)
It’s gonna be a lot of, yeah, it’s gonna be so much fun. We spoke a few weeks ago and I was just, yep, absolutely, we need to come back. There’s some things you’re doing that I don’t know very much about. And honestly, if I don’t know much about it, probably some of our guests don’t as well. So we’re gonna dig into that and then we’re really gonna go deep and dig into your childhood traumas, all those things that caused you to end up doing this type of work, which I’ve noticed most of our guests have something that happened in their childhood that impacted them.

Becki Rupp (00:43.606)
Hahaha

Becki Rupp (00:51.367)
Hehehehehe

Jason Elkins (00:53.347)
but we won’t go that deep. Becky, before we get into your story, how you got from where you were to where you are now, let’s just share with our listeners, what is Trailblazer Wellness and mixed in. I think we’ll just start with that and then we’re gonna talk about adventure travel coaching as well, because that’s a little different, but we’ll mix that in, so go ahead.

Becki Rupp (01:08.355)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:13.678)
Yeah, Trailblazer Wellness is a company I started seven years ago, which is so hard to believe, to support travelers who want to take big adventures, but they aren’t really sure how to get ready for them to do their training, to prepare physically and mentally for this dream trip that they’ve wanted to do for a really long time. And it’s just a bit of a stretch or

Jason Elkins (01:20.27)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (01:43.688)
just something that is out, just on the edge of their, or outside of their comfort zone. And I brought together my personal training experience, my adventure travel experience, and my coaching background to support people in achieving those things.

Jason Elkins (01:58.169)
Very cool. sounds like you’ve practiced that a little bit. That’s very, very concise.

Becki Rupp (02:01.421)
I’ve said it a few times in the last seven years.

Jason Elkins (02:03.535)
I’m sure you have. And I think the first question that maybe comes to someone’s mind might even have came to my mind. Is it always a physical endeavor? Because the way you described it almost made it sound like that person that wants to go to Everest Base Camp or climb Kilimanjaro or do something very physically demanding. But I recognize there’s more than just physical hurdles to overcome when you’re thinking about going to a new place. can you help me understand that a little bit?

Becki Rupp (02:20.749)
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Becki Rupp (02:30.198)
Sure, yeah.

Yeah, mean adventure is such a wide open term, right? And it’s what you define it. And so that could be physical, it could be mental. Again, just stepping outside your comfort zone doesn’t necessarily mean climbing a big mountain or doing a big trek. It could be just visiting a new place, a different continent, going to a place where you don’t know the language. Though most of my clients do fall in more of the physical adventur-y

Jason Elkins (02:37.145)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (03:02.479)
kind of thing, I mean, I’m up for all of it. So if you’re just, you know, feeling like, hey, I could use some help with getting prepared for, you know, your dream trip of hanging out in cafes in Spain, sure, let’s talk.

Jason Elkins (03:17.773)
Mm-hmm. And I get that because, you know, as the name of this podcast or, you know, the Adventure Travel Podcast, I learned very quickly that there’s a lot of different definitions to adventure. And it sounds like you kind of maybe define it the same way. It’s kind of like those things that push you outside your comfort zone and open you up to new experiences, whether those are physical like.

Becki Rupp (03:30.977)
Yeah, for sure.

Jason Elkins (03:43.885)
you know, jumping out of things or climbing things or whatever, or just like you said, you know, just going to a new place and experience a new culture, maybe that language barrier thing that comes up, you know, quite often. Do I also have this story in my head that…

Most of your clients are single travelers and honestly, the idea rolling around in my head is that most of your clients are probably single female travelers. Is that, am I way off base or am I pretty close?

Becki Rupp (04:16.747)
Nope, that’s pretty, absolutely. The majority, vast majority of my clients are, they may be doing their adventure. They come to me as a solo individual. I have had some couples, which has been really interesting and fun as well, but most of them are.

you know, maybe married, they’re or have a partner, but they’re going on this trip on their own. Or a lot of them are actually going with a small group with a travel, like a tour operator. They may be going on their own or with a friend or with a, yeah, someone that they know. But I work with people one on one primarily. So from that perspective, solo, some of them are doing solo trips to a particular destination, but

Jason Elkins (04:49.789)
cool.

Becki Rupp (05:08.697)
Again, a lot of them are going with an organized tour operator or an organized trip of some sort. Though again, they may be going just on their own as well. So, yeah.

Jason Elkins (05:16.654)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (05:21.741)
Right. I’ve worked with enough groups, mixed men, women, just a variety of different types of people. And I recognize, and I think probably a lot of our listeners do is even if you’re going with a group, there’s sometimes when you’re going to the group, it’s all, it’s even more stressful. I think, I don’t know. I’m curious to hear your thoughts, but somebody that maybe, maybe you’re going with a group tracking and Northern Italy or something.

and or walk in the El Camino or something. What are the things that you see come up? Like, why would someone hire you when they’re going with a group?

Becki Rupp (06:01.17)
lots of reasons. Probably the number one thing I hear is, I don’t want to hold up the group.

Jason Elkins (06:07.151)
I knew you were going to say that. How did I know that?

Becki Rupp (06:07.597)
Like, yeah, yeah. I mean, it’s kind of becomes funny to me. It’s like everybody’s worried about that. you know, like 90 % of the people are worried about that. And so not everybody can be the last one, right? They’re worried about being the last one holding up the group, you know. But I think that’s, you know, just, again, that’s maybe like an innate fear.

Jason Elkins (06:14.287)
Everybody.

Jason Elkins (06:20.153)
Yeah

Jason Elkins (06:31.033)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (06:31.967)
for people and wanting to be part of the community, wanting to be capable, wanting to be able to really enjoy themselves. you know, really, that’s what I try to refocus the attention on is like, yeah, I know you’re worried about being last. Like everybody’s worried about being last. Let’s focus on your other goals in terms of your level of enjoyment, your ability to be present, your ability to

Enjoy the nature around you, to enjoy the culture, to enjoy the interaction that you’re having with the other travelers in your group and not…

have all of the focus be on, I just don’t want to be last in hold of the group. but yes, that is a lot of the reason. And some people also just recognize that they may or may not, I mean, I’ve worked with people of all fitness levels, I would say, like literally like coming off the couch for various reasons to people who are very active and very fit and things like that.

Jason Elkins (07:18.489)
You know, I…

Becki Rupp (07:40.918)
But some people really want the accountability, they really want support in something, in planning for something that they don’t have the expertise in. They want to tap into that expertise and set themselves up for success.

Jason Elkins (07:58.511)
I kind of jokingly, we talked about childhood traumas. And then when I heard this little bit of conversation we just had just now, it’s like, yeah, it’s that, you’re in gym class and they’re picking sides. They’re picking sides. Who wants to be the last one picked because they, right?

Becki Rupp (08:11.073)
Yeah, totally.

I was one of those kids. I was one of those kids. I was not like super athlete, you know? Like I was among the last to be picked and maybe this is a result of that trauma. I don’t know. So there, I’m not last anymore. But

Jason Elkins (08:23.747)
Yeah, I was too.

Jason Elkins (08:30.889)
Mm-hmm. We got to the trauma really quick, didn’t we? Well, I get it. It’s yeah, it’s like, you know, you don’t want to be the one like you said, the one in the group holding everybody has to get picked and I don’t want to be the last one to get picked. So you can say, don’t worry, the group’s not going to leave you. That doesn’t matter. That’s that doesn’t really help alleviate anything, does it? Because the gym teacher is going to say the same thing. Don’t worry, everybody is going to get picked. OK, well, I don’t feel any better about that.

Becki Rupp (08:51.361)
Right. No.

Becki Rupp (08:57.045)
Yeah, right.

Jason Elkins (09:00.943)
I’m also curious because I can imagine a scenario where people think they’re coming to you because they need to get in shape physically for a trip. And I guess what I’m curious about like…

I just imagine, Hey, I need to get in shape for this trip. And then two or three calls in you guys talking about childhood drama, or you’re talking about, just releasing fears and anxieties and, preparing yourself to, like you said, be present, enjoy it, connect with other people. And it, by the end of the, of the coaching program, they’re kind of like, spend a lot more time and energy discussing those things as opposed to, you know, did they go to the gym? Like they said they were going to, I I’m guessing, right?

Becki Rupp (09:29.505)
Yeah. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (09:45.718)
Yeah, absolutely. And that’s why that is one of the reasons that I have the coaching certification, the coaching aspect of this, which I love just as much as the physical. You know, personal any personal trainer, chat, GPT.

whatever can give you a training plan, right? Like that’s, that’s, you know, there’s, there’s absolutely some thought and magic to it, but it’s the coaching piece of it is what really amplifies the experience to address, or like he said, like things you may not have even realized were rolling around inside your head. And as the trip gets closer and things,

Jason Elkins (10:04.215)
Yeah, right, right.

Jason Elkins (10:25.071)
you

Becki Rupp (10:28.605)
And sometimes, I’ll be honest, things go wrong during training. You twist an ankle, you get COVID, you fall down and hit your head. I mean, not to be like a doomed, like you’re doomed, but these things happen and or just you get really sick, whatever, like things or a member of your family gets sick or something comes up where things are not going as expected. And that is sometimes where it like switches from just like, am I checking

Jason Elkins (10:42.569)
Yeah,

Becki Rupp (10:58.559)
the boxes on the training plan to.

Holy crap, what are we gonna do? How am I gonna manage this? Am I gonna still be able to go? I mean, I literally just had a client come back from the Inca Trail who, you know, really inflamed her Achilles, you know, about seven or eight weeks out from the trip, and it was a long recovery. And, you know, three, four weeks before the trip, she’s like, all right, let’s talk about the go, no go decision. And this is someone who is, again, like really fit,

and didn’t necessarily anticipate that she would have a, you know, like a medical thing go on, but it, yeah, just ended up being a little more, you know, had this twist that we worked through together and ultimately she went and everything was great. But yeah, things come up along the way and so that can take them to different directions sometimes.

Jason Elkins (11:54.734)
Right.

Jason Elkins (11:58.605)
And I also, I’ve been around some of the coaching world and kind of familiar with things like saying, the thing is not the thing. So maybe an example is the client that’s worried about being the last one on the track or the one that’s walking the slowest. But then as you dig a little deeper.

maybe there’s something else that is even bigger concern, but it’s easy to, it’s a little easier to focus on, well, honestly, it might be easier to focus on my perceived physical limitations as opposed to my ability to make friends or my fear of maybe just actually leaving the country. So maybe your friend talked you into going on this trek thing and…

Becki Rupp (12:39.201)
Mmm.

Jason Elkins (12:50.703)
and you tell yourself, well, I’m worried I’ll be the last one on the hike or whatever, but maybe you’ve never been on an airplane. Maybe you’ve never been outside the country. Maybe you’re afraid that your friend is gonna connect better with the rest of the group than you do. Does, suspect some of that stuff comes up sometimes, right?

Becki Rupp (13:07.255)
For sure. mean, actually for a lot of people, it is their first group trip and that has its own dynamics, which you’ve kind of alluded to. And, you know, it can be tricky, right, to…

Jason Elkins (13:13.327)
Hmm?

Becki Rupp (13:22.475)
to navigate that and to know what to expect and know how you’re going to react. And like you said, am I going to connect with people? Am I just going to be like sitting by myself at dinner or, know, which you’re not because it’s a group trip. But people don’t know what those dynamics are often before they go. And even people who have been on other group trips, maybe they’ve done trips that are more

Jason Elkins (13:36.141)
Yeah. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (13:52.75)
culturally based or whatever and this is again maybe a more advanced or just challenging thing and so yeah we we get into I’m here for all of it I you know if you want to just you know talk about what you’re what you’ve done this week in terms of your training plan and that sort of thing that’s fine if you want to dig deep and and go into like all those underlying things absolutely I’m I’m here for it

Jason Elkins (14:21.283)
Yeah, it’s very cool. Yeah, because I imagine some of your clients maybe haven’t even been with a group of women in 15, 20 years because they’re coming out of a marriage and they don’t have any friends. And that could be, I think that could be very intimidating, you know. So yeah, I could see coaching sessions going into conversations around around that and almost don’t have anything to with the trip. But obviously are important to make that to make that happen. You mentioned.

Becki Rupp (14:47.309)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (14:50.263)
couples you mentioned you know there’s there’s couples out there that may come to you what is that does that typically look like one person’s really excited and gung-ho and the other one’s not so much so the the one that’s excited says well okay what do need to make this happen and she says well i need some support or or the other way around it could absolutely be the other way around i’ve just what is what does it usually look like when a couple comes to

Becki Rupp (14:54.34)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (15:10.667)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (15:15.853)
yeah, I’ve just had a few. usually it’s like both people recognize that they really need some support with getting ready and they’re in it together. So they’re really there to mutually support each other and it’s not necessarily one dragging another one to it, fortunately. So why do you ask, Jason?

Jason Elkins (15:36.067)
Look, I, well, the reason, the reason I ask that is, yeah, why do I ask that? Well, you know, when I was, I was running a travel business for a fairly large company. had a bunch of retail employees and different types of people around the world. And they, and this guy came up to me and he said, geez, Jason, you know, I love to travel.

I want to get my wife to go with me, but she doesn’t, you she’s nervous about everything and we should set up trips for people that are afraid to travel, which I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a good business model, but I could see the desire on his, from his perspective, like I really want to go and she, you know, she thinks Europe is dangerous. So she’s not, you know, she doesn’t want to go anywhere. Yeah. And I was thinking instead

Becki Rupp (16:20.535)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (16:24.673)
Hmm, interesting. I’ve actually found the opposite, Jason. It’s so interesting. Cause when I, well, like the role reversal. So when I started the business or when I was conceptualizing the business, was kind I almost need to admit this sometimes cause it’s…

Jason Elkins (16:29.633)
Yeah, probably.

Becki Rupp (16:42.837)
not very progressive, I guess, that I thought that a portion of my clients could be women who were going with their husbands and they were wanting to make sure that they could keep up. What I found is actually kind of the opposite, not really the opposite per se, but I work with so many women whose husbands are not interested in traveling.

Jason Elkins (16:56.845)
Mm-hmm.

It’s opposite,

Jason Elkins (17:09.538)
I bet,

Becki Rupp (17:10.731)
Yeah, it’s so interesting to me. they’re, or their spouses, whatever, I work with a lot of women who have, you female spouses as well. But it’s often the women who, or women who are traveling either with a group of women or on their own whose partner is staying at home.

and they want the extra support because they just don’t really necessarily have somebody in their life who can relate and who can… their spouse can be very… or partner can be very supportive.

but they may not know how to get ready for a big hike, a big multi-day hike. They may not just have any desire. They might have health issues that’s keeping them from doing the things with their partner. So it was kind of a surprise to me that I do have a few that are like, husband is just gonna race up the mountain and I wanna make sure that I’m feeling good.

That is a small minority of my clients.

Jason Elkins (18:22.049)
It makes sense that you would attract those folks, I say women, or just people that really want to travel, but their partner doesn’t, or other people in their world just don’t get it. Because even if it was just a, it would just, I’m excited about my trip, and every time I mention it to him or her, they’re just like, yeah, I’m sure you’ll have fun. There’s no enthusiasm, there’s no like,

Becki Rupp (18:31.116)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Becki Rupp (18:50.189)
Or there might be a ton of enthusiasm, but they like they just don’t know what to do to support them even you know cuz that’s just not their jam Which is fine

Jason Elkins (18:58.381)
Yeah, yeah.

Well, yeah, because I could imagine a scenario where someone would say, oh, I’m really excited about my trip, but I’m worried about the language barrier or whatever. Or I’m worried about keeping up with the rest of group. And your partner may be trying to be supportive and may just say, ah, don’t worry about it. Or they might, yeah, you’ll be fine. Or they might say, well, if you don’t want to go, you don’t have to go. OK, that’s helpful. And.

Becki Rupp (19:17.461)
Yeah, you’ll be fine, you know, whatever.

Yeah, yeah. Or, you know, some people are problem solvers, especially some men that I know. Okay, well, all you have to do is blah, blah. All you have to do is do this. All you have to do is do that. So.

Jason Elkins (19:31.183)
you

Jason Elkins (19:36.27)
Yeah.

So wouldn’t it be so nice to have someone to talk to you that was supportive in a really supportive way? it like a coach that gets excited with you? Yeah. Yes. Well.

Becki Rupp (19:42.903)
Yes.

Becki Rupp (19:46.846)
And yeah, and a person who’s like done these things too. That’s what I hear a lot. It’s like, you’ve done these things. You’ve hiked the Incantrell to Machu Picchu. You’ve climbed Kilimanjaro. You’ve done the Camino. You’ve done these hikes in Europe. You’ve done things in South America, whatever. I do hear that a lot from people is just, you can.

you can relate and having someone in your corner who can relate and who I try not to offer a lot of advice necessarily. but I, but I will if, if pressed and, you know, and I have

Jason Elkins (20:23.151)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (20:25.909)
I’ve certainly not done everything, far from it. Sometimes people ask me, do you go on your trips, on client trips with them? And I’m like, I haven’t seen cloning work yet, so no. We’ll often have, obviously, multiple clients in different parts of the world at the same time. But I have had some experiences that I have gone on with clients. But yeah, but I have done.

Jason Elkins (20:38.671)
You

Jason Elkins (20:43.021)
Mm-hmm. Yep, yep.

Becki Rupp (20:54.461)
similar kinds of things to most of what my clients are doing. So that can be useful in the context of the conversations.

Jason Elkins (20:56.153)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (21:00.774)
Well, oh, Absolutely. And a bit, I guess, from from my perspective is there’s a lot of value in a coach. And I’d like to I mean, I think we’re kind of touching on that. But also like. I you tell me your perspective or you can just tell me I’m crazy. But for a while I was thinking that, you know, the value in the coach was just helping you get really clear on.

Becki Rupp (21:15.969)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (21:29.325)
what it is you want to do, but also why, like what’s the big why behind it? And do maybe some visualization, some stuff, you know, because you’re not going to the gym to get in better shape. You’re going to the gym because you want to enjoy the experience. And why do you want to enjoy the experience? Cause you want to connect with other people that maybe have similar interests or whatever. So it’s like, why are you doing it? Not just what do you need to do, but why are you doing it? And then figure out, you know, what’s getting in the way? What are the stories in your

Becki Rupp (21:32.299)
Yeah, yes. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (21:53.228)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly.

Jason Elkins (21:59.201)
or whatever and then just the accountability part of it. It’s just like, so when they show up and say, well, I’ve been eating mac and cheese and haven’t been to the gym all week, you can have that conversation. Okay, well, what was behind that? And then you might find out, well, I’ve been eating mac and cheese and didn’t go to the gym because I’m worried about my safety and wherever we’re going hiking. It has nothing to do with all these things that come up.

Becki Rupp (22:10.877)
Hahaha

Becki Rupp (22:23.243)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (22:30.285)
What’s your typical program look like or is there a typical program? I’m sure it’s customized, but do you typically meet with people once a week or something like that for a certain period of time or is it more, what does that look like?

Becki Rupp (22:31.085)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (22:44.449)
Yeah, so just to like kind of circle back on what you were saying about the why and the vision. That is something that absolutely we dig into. We talk a little bit about it in a consultation call. I do a free 30 minute consultation call with people to just, you know, see if it’s a fit, to, you know, find out a little bit more about what they’re planning to do.

again, like what’s their vision, what are they concerned about, that sort of thing. But then in the kickoff call, in our first call, our session, it’s mostly video. Occasionally I do like calls, but actually it’s video. We definitely talk about your vision for the trip and why it’s important to you and why now.

that can be very grounding, like you said, for when things maybe go a little off the rails or when you’re struggling with motivation. I was just having conversation with one of my clients earlier this week about, you know, staying on track and motivation. And one of the things like we talked about was

maybe putting a picture of Mont Blanc as a screensaver to help her remember to get up at lunch and go do her workout, break away from her desk. Because I work with people who are busy executives, who are nurses, who doctors, people who all walks of life. Retirees, definitely, but people who are full on in career mode.

Jason Elkins (23:52.803)
Yeah,

Becki Rupp (24:18.443)
I’m a corporate refugee. know, I quit the corporate world to start this business. So I get the 50 hour weeks that, my gosh, now I have to travel next week for business. I get it. I get it. get it. So having that vision, having your way and also knowing your strengths and digging into your strengths and other successes in your life. That’s like the coachy part and drawing on that to support how do you get back

on track or how do you break away from your desk? How do you fit in? How do you prioritize this training in your life with your kids and your spouse and your job and your this and your that? You know, because most people don’t come to me like twiddling their thumbs, right? They’re like, I’m not sure what to do. So, you know, some people, again, some people do have the luxury of time, but a lot of people don’t. Even people, you know, who are retired, they have volunteer responsibilities or

responsibilities or whatever, we’re busy, right? We’re busy people. so having that why, that vision, that grounding can help with, you know, the prioritization or the negotiation with yourself and maybe with others around.

okay, this is really what I need to do to set myself up so that I can enjoy this trip that I’ve invested in. It’s investing in yourself. I call it the journey before the journey. The pre-trip journey is all about what do you do beforehand so that you can really make the most of what you’re doing.

Jason Elkins (25:59.789)
Right. And I imagine, I mean, I don’t understand it, but I’ve been around long enough to under to see that there are some people that actually do just like to get up and go to the gym or go for runs. But do you, but, but somebody that, you know, but somebody that wants to climb Mount Kilimanjaro isn’t necessarily the same person that likes to wake up and go to the gym. So if you’re.

Becki Rupp (26:10.541)
I I’m one of those people. Yes. I know. It’s kind of crazy, but…

Becki Rupp (26:22.693)
No, definitely no, absolutely. There are a lot of people who climb Kilimanjaro as I’m sure you know. And yeah, no, not all of them are like runners or people who want to get up in the morning and go, you know, whatever. No, absolutely.

Jason Elkins (26:28.345)
Hahaha!

Jason Elkins (26:35.587)
Yeah, so for the rest of us that don’t wake up motivated to go to the gym, that’s why you’re talking about like a screensaver at Mont Blanc or something, or that really clear vision. And I remember doing some work with some folks in the past where it’s like, okay, we’re gonna imagine, know.

Becki Rupp (26:46.829)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (26:51.535)
If we figure out that just being at the top is the thing, if that’s what your thing is, it’s like, okay, how are you going to feel it, taste it, smell it, hear it, and implement all those sensations so that you can feel it in your body. So that, you know, so it helps you believe that it’s real because the brain doesn’t know the difference between reality and what it feels and, know, and so create that feeling. And then when you wake it up, they can, should I go to the gym? You to take that moment and think about,

Becki Rupp (27:00.203)
Sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (27:06.497)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (27:13.193)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (27:20.557)
Yeah, how it’s gonna feel

Jason Elkins (27:21.489)
how it was you know I don’t know drinking coffee on the top of Kilimanjaro whatever but anyway anyway so it’s very very cool let’s I want to figure out because you kind of mentioned a couple thing your corporate escapee or whatever word you used refugee so let’s go back and figure out how the heck you got into this because I think I think there’s a few steps along the way and let’s let’s try and get to the first step because I really

Becki Rupp (27:35.915)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (27:42.295)
Sir.

Becki Rupp (27:45.591)
Just a feel.

Jason Elkins (27:49.953)
I think the stuff we’re exposed to in childhood tends to always kind of come through somehow. So I guess I’m just going to ask you, how far back do we need to go to get a feel for what’s going on?

Becki Rupp (27:56.245)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (28:02.957)
Yeah, let’s go in the way back machine.

Jason Elkins (28:06.029)
You’re a coach, you’ve done this before, you’ve done these exercises, this should be easy for you.

Becki Rupp (28:10.605)
necessarily go back to childhood. That might be a little like I’m also not a psychotherapist. That’s very clear in my contract.

Jason Elkins (28:17.583)
That’s it. I’m happy you mentioned that because yeah, because I make that joke, but it’s not so much about that. But sometimes it’s helpful to like, you know, how do you feel now? And when’s the when’s the first time you remember feeling that way? It’s not psychotherapy, but it’s just creating connections. You mentioned, you know, like when have you had successes in the past, you know, and how do you like, hey, you can do this type of thing. So what’s what’s your first memory?

Becki Rupp (28:30.785)
Yeah. No.

Becki Rupp (28:36.397)
Exactly. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I do. That’s definitely part of the process is understanding what people’s successes have been in life and how that relates to what they’re about to do. But yeah, in terms of me, how did I get here?

Jason Elkins (29:00.245)
I know, man, Jason, this sounded like such a good idea. But no, no. how did you get here? Yeah, OK.

Becki Rupp (29:06.477)
Yeah, so, yeah, actually, let’s yeah, let’s go back to childhood and I I share this story on my website and stuff too. My grandparents were world travelers and I have vivid memories of sitting in their basement watching slideshows. Yes, slideshows of their travels.

Jason Elkins (29:31.225)
Wait, you might need to, you might explain that to a few of our listeners. What’s a slideshow? Is that like Instagram?

Becki Rupp (29:33.751)
I might need to explain this to those who are a little younger. So my, yeah, my, yeah, right. My grandfather was a, you know, really loved photography and took some amazing pictures. And I actually recently, we’re kind of going through some things in my family right now. And we came across a folder that had a list of my grandparents’ trips from 1977 through 2000.

And I, what I remembered for the trips was definitely Mexico. They went to Mexico a lot in the late seventies, early eighties, that they went to Vietnam, that they went to China, that they went to South America. I actually have a picture my grandfather took of Manchipichu here in my office. So I knew that, but this list was like, know, one of their last trips was in 1999, I think was to Uzbekistan. Okay.

Jason Elkins (30:33.285)
wow, that’s out. Yeah, that’s off the beaten path. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (30:34.146)
Like seriously, 80 year olds going to Uzbekistan in the 1990s. So they were pretty adventurous. But they had gone to Nepal, which I had forgotten or didn’t realize. They had been to South America multiple times. Yeah, just like…

It was insane. I was like, well, no wonder I have the travel bug, right? they, yeah, and they just, you know, they lived very modestly. In fact, my uncle still lives in their old house. So when I go to visit, I like literally go to my grandparents’ house and it is a thousand square feet, maybe. And.

Jason Elkins (30:58.777)
That explains a lot, yeah.

Jason Elkins (31:11.983)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (31:18.752)
The basement seems so much smaller than it did when I was watching the slideshow, right? And they just, you would never guess. Like if you just drove down the street and looked at their house and looked at their cars, you would never guess they were rural travelers. So it just made, opened it up and made it all very accessible to me. And yeah.

Jason Elkins (31:21.839)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (31:38.083)
So it sounds like you have vivid memories of sitting in the basement watching slideshows.

Some people would think, this is really cool spending time with grandma and grandpa watching slideshows. Other people probably that are not listening to this podcast would hear that and think, oh, that reminds me my grandparents used to go on and on and on about their trip to Yellowstone or whatever they did. Do you remember at the time, were you as enthusiastic or are you looking back at it now kind of through the lens of somebody that’s traveled a lot? do you remember how you felt at the time?

Becki Rupp (31:50.946)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (31:59.459)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (32:13.166)
think I must have been excited. I mean, I must have been really interested and curious because yeah, it was just amazing to me. Like all these different cultures and people that didn’t look like us and mountains and oceans and just, yeah, just amazing things. And I was like, yeah, I want to go see all that stuff. All that.

Jason Elkins (32:15.031)
Yeah, I’m guessing so.

Jason Elkins (32:37.443)
I love it. Were these your mom’s parents or your dad’s? Your dad’s parents. So now tell me a little bit about your dad. Did that rub off on him? Was he enthused? mean, you guys weren’t traveling when you were young. It doesn’t sound like, but yeah, I mean, was.

Becki Rupp (32:41.1)
My dad’s parents. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (32:48.238)
Somewhat. No, didn’t have any money to be honest. So, you know, I didn’t travel internationally. I didn’t cross the ocean until I was in, after college.

when my sister did study abroad, my younger sister did study abroad. So my first trip overseas, outside of the country besides Canada and Mexico, was when I was like 22. So I didn’t grow up traveling outside, like very exotically I guess.

Jason Elkins (33:19.951)
Okay.

Becki Rupp (33:28.726)
I had these experiences with my, you know, through my grandparents, hearing them talk about it, seeing the things that they brought back and the pictures they took. But yeah, I didn’t start my own international travel career or overseas travel career until, you know, into my twenties. And then, even then, I just, you know, I felt, there were people who, you and I knew people who, you know, after college is like, hey, I’m just going to go backpack across Europe. I was way too financially conservative for that. was like, nope, I got to stay here and get a job and pay off my student loan.

Jason Elkins (33:54.755)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (33:58.593)
And then I’ll go and do all the big things. I always knew he’s gonna do them It was always part of the plan, but I was like nope. got to feel secure I need to you know get get my ducks in a row before I before I undertake that so Yeah Well

Jason Elkins (33:59.213)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (34:15.673)
Sounds like a reasonable way to do it. There’s a few different schools of thought. I’m not sure it’s schools of thought. There’s…

Becki Rupp (34:20.92)
There are different schools of thought and there are definitely, yeah, different approaches. you know, am I incredibly envious of the people who did that right out of school? Yeah, I was. And yeah, that’s true.

Jason Elkins (34:31.555)
Well, some of them just could do that. Some of it, they weren’t intentionally being careless. They had a backup plan. They had other people in their lives that made sure they were financially secure. I do want to ask you this before we move too far forward though, is if I do the math in my head and try and make a few assumptions or it sounds like your grandparents didn’t start traveling until your father was an adult on his doing his thing. Okay.

Becki Rupp (34:39.232)
Sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (34:57.326)
Yeah, yeah, yeah for sure absolutely no it was like

Jason Elkins (35:00.235)
So he didn’t benefit from traveling with them at all. He moved out and they went and started traveling.

Becki Rupp (35:04.48)
No, yeah. Yeah, they had four kids and they were all grown and on their own before they started traveling that way. Yeah. Yeah. So I guess maybe that was part of my model was like, you know, I saw again, I saw them travel into their 80s like very, you know, roll it fairly easily. And that was obviously way before, you know, the Internet and so many international flights.

Jason Elkins (35:13.135)
Okay, so they took the same approach that you did early on, right? Yeah, maybe that was an influence as well.

Jason Elkins (35:23.416)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (35:34.306)
they figured it out, so I guess I was like, okay, that’s what I’m gonna do when I’m able. So, yeah.

Jason Elkins (35:39.311)
Yeah. Did have you had conversations with your dad or mom about like how they felt about like, how did your dad feel about his parents, retired parents traveling around the world? Did he think that was cool and different? Do you, or do you have any idea how he felt about it?

Becki Rupp (35:52.802)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (35:56.141)
Yeah, think he thought it was cool. He and my grandfather, his dad took a couple of trips together. They went to Israel together and they went to Greece together, I think it was. And so, yeah, they had some travel experiences together.

Jason Elkins (36:02.38)
cool.

Becki Rupp (36:12.076)
my sister and my nieces to South Africa. They did not travel as extensively as my grandparents did. They’re a little bit more home bodies, but they traveled. They were totally on board with it and they’re very supportive of me doing all this, absolutely. They’ve never tried to stop me or said they were worried or anything like that. They’ve always fully supported this and said, yeah, go.

Jason Elkins (36:21.327)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (36:39.823)
All

Becki Rupp (36:42.114)
Go see the world and enjoy and yeah, very supportive.

Jason Elkins (36:42.255)
for a call.

Jason Elkins (36:47.063)
It sounds like your grandparents just through their influence in the slideshows and stuff like that kind of opened you up to it. Was there a point in your, do you remember a specific point in your life where you’re like, I’m going to work in the travel business at some point. Do you remember that?

Becki Rupp (36:53.421)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (37:01.541)
Well, when I was, I was a journalism major, so I was a writer as a kid and decided to be a journalism major and at one point I thought, I’ll do international reporting. You know, that sounded great. I’ll travel, get paid to travel and be this international reporter.

Jason Elkins (37:05.935)
Okay.

Becki Rupp (37:20.782)
That didn’t really work out for a number of reasons, but yeah, so it was kind of like no this like yeah, like again I was too I decided for one thing that after my internship with doing like real news Reporting that that was not my jam. It was too negative I didn’t I didn’t like all the negativity so I was like alright. Well, I Won’t be a reporter. So what am I gonna do? So I actually moved to DC after college

Jason Elkins (37:24.473)
Tell us more, tell us more. We’re not gonna pass over that.

Jason Elkins (37:37.143)
Mm-hmm. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that from a few people, yeah.

Becki Rupp (37:50.689)
and so I was in kind of an international scene, but I ended up doing communications and marketing and things like that with my degree. you know, again, always maintained interest in various cultures and countries, went to several events at embassies in D.C., which were a lot of fun, so got some exposure that way. But yeah, the…

Jason Elkins (37:54.243)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (38:10.894)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (38:18.134)
international travel reporter thing didn’t really pan out for me.

Jason Elkins (38:24.109)
You know what? get that though when you, when you mentioned that, because I can imagine it seems very glamorous, sexy, whatever word you want to use. but then when you think about, well, what do I see about international news on the television? It’s like, yeah. You know, you don’t see a lot of in the mainstream media, you don’t see a lot of reporting on.

Becki Rupp (38:29.932)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (38:37.356)
Yeah, I was not gonna go to war-torn countries. That was not me. Yeah

Jason Elkins (38:47.649)
cool places to go and visit and cool, you know, cultural communities and all that stuff that you probably imagine. We do now because, yeah.

Becki Rupp (38:53.71)
I mean you do now, but you know back then it wasn’t you know there were there were obviously some magazines you know cut in ass, Traveler existed you know when I graduated from college and some other things but at the same time I was

Jason Elkins (39:07.353)
There’s a lot of journalism majors fighting for those jobs.

Becki Rupp (39:10.67)
Well, exactly, exactly. And I just, yeah, I just wasn’t up for that kind of rat race. And I also had this dual interest in fitness and sport. And, you know, I was always interested in sports as a kid as well. And so I kind of like started to go down that path a little bit with my degree. I worked at a sports related magazine for a local sports related magazine in DC area for a bit.

Jason Elkins (39:37.006)
No, okay.

Becki Rupp (39:40.617)
and did some freelance writing for some sports related publications. there were kind of those two things going on. so, yeah, and then magically over the next 30 years, then I brought them together. The fitness and health and stuff I put together with the travel.

Jason Elkins (39:59.021)
very cool. So you went to Washington DC for a specific job. already had the job lined up or was there something? Why did you choose Washington DC? Well, if you’re willing to share it.

Becki Rupp (40:04.43)
No. No! I just moved there after college.

Becki Rupp (40:12.374)
Yeah, yeah, no, was, you know, it’s just, it’s a city of a lot of opportunity. And I was also a poli-sci like concentration under my journalism degree. My sister was there. One of my sisters was there going to American University. I had a friend who was moving there to actually go to George Washington for grad school. I was like, well, why not? I wanted to get out of Chicago because I went to Northwestern. So I was like, know I don’t want to spend another winter in the Midwest.

Jason Elkins (40:42.063)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (40:42.328)
for sure. And DC seemed like it could be relatively warm and nice and exciting. And it was. It was all of those things. And it was it was fascinating. It was a great year, a great place to live. I believe every at least every American should live in DC for one year. It’s just an education in and of itself. You just learn so much, so much about the world. But yeah.

Jason Elkins (41:02.631)
I can imagine. But you, I know you live in Colorado now, but where did you grow up around Chicago or in the Midwest? sounds, where did you actually grow up? In Michigan. Okay. Yeah. Do you?

Becki Rupp (41:12.502)
in the Midwest, yeah, Michigan. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, yeah.

Jason Elkins (41:22.189)
I guess I’m sure when you went to Washington, you mentioned you kind of a lot of international exposure to different people from different places. Did you have that in Michigan growing up? Do you remember in high school? Like did you guys have exchange students? Do you remember? No, not, really? Huh, okay.

Becki Rupp (41:38.06)
Not really, no. I grew up in a, I know, I grew up in Michigan in the 80s in a semi-industrial area and it was very blue collar and.

Jason Elkins (41:48.239)
Okay, so then my question makes sense. Do you remember the first person you met from another country that inspired you or had any influence on your decisions?

Becki Rupp (42:00.757)
us.

Becki Rupp (42:04.472)
Really? I think college was when I was first really exposed to people from all over the world. mean, the school I went to, Northwestern has a big international draw, and it’s a smaller school, so smaller than the big state universities, so it had the opportunity to mix and mingle, I think, a little bit more. were…

Jason Elkins (42:10.563)
Yeah, that makes sense. wait, journalism, yeah.

Jason Elkins (42:21.135)
I’m sure. Yeah, I’m sure.

Becki Rupp (42:32.608)
less likely to just kind of fall into your pod and not be exposed to other people you could. yeah, I got to meet people from, yeah, from all over the world at Northwestern and no one really stands out specifically offhand, but just more the experience of the broadening of the aperture of.

Jason Elkins (42:37.432)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (42:55.842)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (42:56.184)
possibility. you know, college also was a place where people went on study abroad. Unfortunately, the journalism program at that time, because of our requirements, I was not able to do study abroad. really wanted to. But my sister did. Yeah, my younger sister did. And

Jason Elkins (43:08.921)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, bet.

Becki Rupp (43:16.364)
friends, you I had a lot of friends who did it and now, you know, I have two nieces who both did study abroad and it’s just such an amazing experience. So I guess I just had to make my own little study abroad later in life.

Jason Elkins (43:28.195)
Well, based on what you told me, you said you were 22 the first time you left the country, other than North America.

Becki Rupp (43:35.712)
Left, yeah, yeah, first time I left for North America,

Jason Elkins (43:38.863)
Okay, so, and that would have been, I’m guessing somewhere around the time you finished school and moved to Washington. So was it before you went to Washington? Because I want to learn more about that trip. Okay, so tell us about that trip.

Becki Rupp (43:44.877)
Yeah, had graduated. No, was after I went to Washington. Yeah, it was after. Yeah, I went to England. My sister was studying abroad there, so I went over to visit with her and spend time with her. So that was in the early 90s. And yeah, got my passport.

got on the plane. Now I had flown by myself as young as 10. So I, you know, certainly I was not afraid of flying. wasn’t, I wasn’t worried about traveling by myself. Like I didn’t have any of those fears. Yeah, it was, it was awesome. We, landed in London and met up with her. She was, her program was outside of the city. So.

I learned some very important things like Leeds Castle is not in Leeds.

I assumed that Leeds Castle must be in Leeds, right? So no, seems reasonable, but not so much. You know, just learned about navigating. Well, was living in DC, and in Chicago I’d already used public transportation, so that was no big deal either. But just, you I was just fascinated by the age of everything, you know, finding my grandmothers, great grandmothers church in

Jason Elkins (44:45.847)
Yeah, I would… that seems reasonable.

Jason Elkins (44:57.613)
Yeah, yeah, you’ve been in.

Jason Elkins (45:11.631)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (45:12.342)
you know, this little hamlet outside of London. We did some family history things and, you know, I have ancestors from England and Scotland and Ireland, imagine that, with the red hair. so we, you know, we did some exploring. My sister and I did some exploring with that. And just, it just was mind blowing to see all these things that were built far before anything I’d ever encountered in the U.S. Yeah, it was cool.

Jason Elkins (45:39.406)
Yeah, it’s interesting as I think back from some previous conversations I’ve had here on the show. London seems like a, I wouldn’t say, I don’t know if I’d say a common theme, but yeah, it’s a common theme. It’s surprising how many people that have ended up in tourism.

tell me about their kind of their first overseas experience in London. Some of it involves a lot of drinking and partying. Because I don’t know, I’ve never spent any time in London, but I’ve noticed that is part of the trend. I’m not going to ask you about that, don’t worry. But it just, yeah, I feel like, geez, I missed the London stage of my life. I don’t know what I was thinking. But okay, very cool. And you said a few weeks, a couple weeks, like that? All right.

Becki Rupp (46:00.868)
Yeah.

hahahaha

Becki Rupp (46:10.723)
We might have gone to a few pubs, yeah, for sure.

Becki Rupp (46:24.418)
Like 10 days. I think that’s as much time as I could get off of work. You know, was the old two week vacation. Mm-hmm. Yeah, ready to go.

Jason Elkins (46:28.345)
But now you had your passport and you had a stamp in your passport, so that can kind of open up things. Yeah, ready to go. All right, so where do we go from here in this conversation? You went to London, that was your first trip out of North America. You said you were working PR marketing type of stuff, or communications, I think you said. Was that…

Becki Rupp (46:38.51)
Hmm?

Becki Rupp (46:45.228)
Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (46:53.559)
international type stuff, can imagine that scenario in Washington, what kind of work are we doing? Tell us.

Becki Rupp (46:56.088)
No.

I worked with associations, trade associations, nonprofits, worked in that field. So actually that does tie into my, I can’t tie that into my current experience and my current, like how I approached my business because I did work for this organization. My first job was with an organization called the American Society of Association Executives. So there’s an association for everything.

Jason Elkins (47:05.199)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (47:24.495)
It sounds like an association for associ… Something like, okay. All right.

Becki Rupp (47:27.57)
Associations, yeah, pretty much. So I was exposed to the world of, you know, trade associations, professional associations, organizations where you bring together people who have common interests, right? Whether it’s business or personal or whatever. And I, you know, was like, wow, there really is an association for everything. So when I started my business, when I decided I was going put together this travel thing and adventure travel, I thought, well,

There must be an association for adventure travel, right? And sure enough, there is. So I joined it and that it was.

Jason Elkins (48:02.479)
course.

Which there may be a few that call themselves that so I don’t want to make any assumptions. Which one are we talking about? I was 99 % sure that’s the one you just didn’t want to. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Cool.

Becki Rupp (48:09.11)
Right. Adventure Travel Trade Association. Yeah. Yeah. That was it. And…

Yeah, so I was like, okay, and I also had over the years gone into business to business marketing, and so I thought to myself, well, where is my target audience going to be? So if my target audience is adventure, well, people who want to do adventure travel, aspiring adventurers, well, where are they gonna hang out? Where are they gonna go? Well, they’re gonna go to companies that take them on adventure trips.

And where do the people who do these adventure trips hang out? Well, they hang out at ATTA. And so I joined and started networking. And my plan was and is and still works that I get referrals from adventure travel companies. Now, that’s not all my clients, but I thought that’s going to give me the mass as opposed to just hoping that Google finds me.

Jason Elkins (48:57.647)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (49:10.851)
Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (49:19.504)
Which people do find me through Google and AI and things now but back in the day it was a little Less, you know, didn’t I I needed to get my foot in the door and understand the industry because I was not in the industry I worked before I quit my job. I was working for a health insurance company

Jason Elkins (49:23.599)
But I got it.

Becki Rupp (49:40.384)
So I was new industry, new role, new, you know, everything was brand new. I started from ground zero. Like it was.

Jason Elkins (49:51.898)
How, so, because I wanna get smooth, it doesn’t have to be smoothly, we can take the scenic route, but from Washington working for the Association of Associations, that’s what I heard, to, I’m working at a health insurance company and there must be an association in Colorado, yeah, so we took, so let’s not miss anything big here.

Becki Rupp (49:57.231)
We’re going back and forth.

Becki Rupp (50:03.278)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (50:08.942)
In Colorado.

Yeah.

Yeah, so I met my husband doing wilderness search and rescue in DC area.

So I had discovered the mountains and that I love to hike and ride my bike and do all those things after I moved to Washington. And there are lovely mountains outside of Washington, outside of Washington DC, Virginia, Maryland, you know, the Blue Ridge, all that Shenandoah. And I just fell in love with all that. So when I was not doing my day job, I wanted to be outside and doing, doing all that stuff. And I decided to join a wilderness

search and rescue group in the area, go find lost people. And my husband joined at the same time and so we met doing that. Then he got transferred for work out to Colorado. We were both really done with DC. DC is great for a few years and then if you’re not a hardcore political junkie, it gets really old. So…

Jason Elkins (51:11.268)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (51:15.363)
Well, and if you like, I mean, I heard you say there’s mountains around Washington, D.C., but by Colorado, it’s a little different. All right.

Becki Rupp (51:19.353)
yeah, there’s a ton of great recreation, outdoor recreation in the area. But Colorado’s, yeah, it’s different.

Yeah, definitely different. we, he got transferred to work. I followed along and we made our home here in Colorado in 2000 and we’ve been here ever since. then, yeah, I just kind of my career trajectory took me to the health insurance space because I wanted to do something related to health and wellness. had gotten my personal, I got my personal training certification because I wanted to help people actually get

Jason Elkins (51:49.112)
Okay?

Becki Rupp (51:55.977)
healthier. I really wanted people to help people, you know, find a way to make exercise work in their life. I could see and feel from my own experience how…

how much of a difference it could make in my life, in my confidence, in my enjoyment, in all the things. So, but I was working this big corporate job and I didn’t really have time to do personal training clients because you can’t just like say, I got called off to do a video shoot in Tucson and I gotta go tomorrow and fly down there. Sorry, we’re not gonna be able to have your session this week. So I eventually got to the point where the golden handcuffs

Jason Elkins (52:31.117)
Yeah, yeah.

Becki Rupp (52:35.66)
were just a little too tight and I was able to leave that and go to the personal training and coaching. So that’s kind of a roundabout wave.

Jason Elkins (52:45.417)
Right. Did the coaching come into play before you started thinking about adventure travel?

Becki Rupp (52:54.966)
Yeah, so I was doing the, yeah, I had the personal training. I decided to the coaching because I was like, yeah, you know, can give someone a plan. Like I said earlier, you can give someone a plan, but the coaching is really about how do get people to actually make changes and do things differently in their life and sustain and, you know, it’s the whole teach people how to fish, not, you know, not just give them fish. And so, yeah, I got the coaching certification. I worked with a career coach to figure out what do I want to do with all this? And that’s

And she’s like, well, you could train people to hike. And I’m like, yeah, I don’t know. That seems kind of goofy. But the more I thought about it, the more it became kind of intriguing. And so I’m not necessarily teaching people how to hike, but I’m teaching people how to, or helping people with progressing their hiking or their biking or whatever so that they can do the things they want to do. I had a client, a coaching client who was retiring and she, this really actually like crystallized it for me. She’s like, when I retire,

really want to go do these volunteer experiences down in Guatemala and over in the Philippines and this sort of thing. I want to travel and do these volunteer experiences, but I’m afraid I’m not, you know, it’s going to be pretty taxing and I want to get to the point where I feel comfortable doing that. And I was like, huh, well maybe this really is a thing. And then I thought back to our experience, my husband and I had hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu years before, but I was like, yeah, people are really struggling.

Jason Elkins (54:11.311)
Flight bulb! Ding ding ding.

Becki Rupp (54:21.934)
It didn’t have to be that way. You don’t have to struggle. I mean, it’s hard. Don’t get me wrong. It’s definitely a hard trip. if you prepare, and my experience had been with doing half marathons and triathlons and other things, if you prepare, then you are likely to be able to do it. I mean, there can be extended rings for circumstances, obviously. But for a lot of these things, they’re eminently doable with proper practice.

So that’s how I was born.

Jason Elkins (54:54.45)
it. I appreciate the path you just described makes perfect sense. And, you know, I see more and more of kind of the outdoor coaching, um, some travel coaching stuff. Was that on your radar? Did you find that very quick? Like, did you think you were like the first one? Were you the first one? I don’t know. I, okay.

Becki Rupp (55:03.852)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (55:13.246)
made it up? Well, I made it up for myself. I did do market research because I was in marketing and after I kind of conceptualized it, I did go and say, is anybody else doing this? And I found a few people. Yes, there was somebody else who was doing a pretty similar thing to me that I was doing and had started like six or seven years before I had.

Jason Elkins (55:20.409)
okay, all right.

Becki Rupp (55:38.317)
But I didn’t find that person until after I had already like put it all together. I wasn’t copying him. But no, I know. But, you know, there are like more and more of these kinds of things nowadays. I feel like in the last kind of post covid almost or maybe I just discovered it. I discovered this world of niche coaching as I was doing, you know, figuring out my own business and building my own business. I found more and more of these people. But it is

Jason Elkins (55:44.665)
No, I wasn’t, I was not suggesting you copied anybody.

Becki Rupp (56:08.24)
still pretty unusual. It is definitely an unusual niche. Most of the people that I talk to say, I’ve never heard of such a thing. So, yeah.

Jason Elkins (56:18.063)
Well, that’s interesting because that was going to be kind of my follow up question was sometimes when you’re the only one, like I’m just giving example. Let’s just say you’re the only one and nobody has a, like it doesn’t make, there’s no awareness of it as even a product or service. And sometimes you’re like,

Becki Rupp (56:25.91)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (56:34.966)
Yeah, absolutely. Yep.

Jason Elkins (56:39.755)
Some people might think, well, being the only one means you have captured the market. Yeah. But being the only one is kind of sucks because you’re right. So you need some other people out there to get the word out. So, and then you just have to be the best one. Yeah. Yeah. I’m teasing. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (56:44.0)
No, it’s hard. It’s hard. Exactly. Or, you know, it’s different coaches and different things for different people. know, most, many of the people that I’ve seen in this space, there are a number of males. Okay, so I’m different than that. And or younger.

There are some females who are much younger. I’m in my mid-50s and my clients tend to be most 45 up to 70s. So, and sometimes they’re surprised when they find out how old I am, but I can relate to that.

Jason Elkins (57:14.543)
Okay.

Jason Elkins (57:23.343)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (57:31.186)
swath of people who are later in their careers or retired and I have more experience in that realm than perhaps some of the others who are doing this kind of coaching.

Jason Elkins (57:44.208)
Yeah, and I wouldn’t want to say anything that would knock anybody that’s doing anything, but yeah, just that maturity, you know, the, the, the ability to relate. And I don’t, I’m going to ask you this because I haven’t really had an opportunity to ask anybody with personal training experience, uh, this question, but there’s gotta be a lot of different reasons people choose different trainers or coaches, but I suspect that intimidation or is a big one.

Becki Rupp (57:47.694)
you

Becki Rupp (57:51.308)
Yeah, life experience.

Becki Rupp (58:08.354)
Sure.

Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (58:14.189)
especially maybe for women, I don’t know.

Becki Rupp (58:14.464)
It can be. It can be. mean, and it’s again, like I’m very relatable. I’m not a super athlete. Sometimes I’m like, but I’m not as much of an athlete as XYZ person. But that could be, like you said, intimidating. But I have, I do have experience, relevant experience. And I think I’m pretty approachable. Like again, I was not, I was.

Jason Elkins (58:38.743)
I think so. I would agree.

Becki Rupp (58:39.982)
I’m pretty, I’m certainly the person who likes to run and go work out and I’m pretty active. So from that perspective, I might be more active. I am more active than some of my clients, though not all of them. Like I said, there are definitely people who are as active, if not more active than I am, that I work with. But I’m in the realm, I’m kind of in that ballpark, if you will, that people can…

Jason Elkins (58:58.669)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (59:04.025)
Well, you definitely don’t come across as the gym rat. don’t know. And I don’t know if that, I don’t know what that word means. So please anybody that doesn’t like me saying that muscle head or whatever, you know, the, the it’s, there’s one of the gyms that know, whatever the no something zone. No, you just nice. You’re friendly, right? You’re outgoing. You, you don’t come across as, as intimidating. a couple other things that came up as you were saying that was

Becki Rupp (59:07.692)
Hahaha

Becki Rupp (59:11.98)
I’m not a muscle head, right?

Becki Rupp (59:23.726)
Yeah

Jason Elkins (59:34.384)
I mean, okay, so maybe you’ve got clients that are muscle heads. I don’t know. But no, I’m guessing not. Yeah, yeah. But the thing about it is like, well, I don’t know if Tiger Woods is a good example, but I’m gonna use it. Maybe it’s not, maybe he’s out of popularity right now. But Tiger Woods as a coach, know, all the big basketball players.

Becki Rupp (59:41.002)
No, not generally muscleheads, but definitely people who are like very accomplished athletes.

Becki Rupp (59:53.037)
Okay.

Becki Rupp (01:00:00.899)
That’d be intimidating.

Jason Elkins (01:00:04.365)
have coaches, they’re better athletes than their coaches are, guarantee it. And I’m not making any indications about you. Or there’s a lot of CEOs of billion dollar corporations out there that have business coaches. I’m sure those business coaches are making pretty good money as well, but probably not as much as the CEO, right? So there’s a lot of value in that. And I remember a coach I was working with.

Becki Rupp (01:00:04.407)
Sir.

Becki Rupp (01:00:07.926)
Right. True. Fair. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Absolutely.

Becki Rupp (01:00:18.348)
Yes.

Becki Rupp (01:00:23.853)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:00:30.027)
about coaching other people. He was like, Hey, if you’re on chapter two, you can help someone that’s on chapter one, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. But also, but also just that, just understanding how to help people get clear on their visions and figure out what’s getting in the way. mean, I used to joke, I’m not going to run a marathon.

Becki Rupp (01:00:36.588)
That’s very common in the in their coaching industry. They’re like, you just have to be two steps ahead of the person. So yeah, from that perspective, yeah, yes, it’s.

Becki Rupp (01:00:51.478)
Yes. Break.

Jason Elkins (01:00:56.751)
I was in the army at one point in my life. I was in pretty good shape and I’m still in decent shape. But, but I felt like I could, you know, with some coaching or a good coach, not me, but a good coach that has never ran a minute or ever ran a marathon could probably still be a fairly effective coach. Maybe not the best, but could still like, you know, have those calls. Okay. What did you commit to last week? What did you actually do? What got in the way and what are you going to do next week? You know, that type of thing. But, but.

Becki Rupp (01:01:14.87)
Yeah, sure.

Becki Rupp (01:01:19.318)
Hmm?

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Jason Elkins (01:01:26.935)
You add a lot more than just coaching this. You know, I know you titled adventure travel coach, but obviously you add the, just the actual experience of traveling and there’s so much more to it than, that. very, cool. Okay. So you got to ATTA. You were, I think that was brilliant. Do you know how I started this podcast? I went to ATTA and I went on their website and I started going down through the list of people that I knew would be interesting. Cause I had been, you know, I

Becki Rupp (01:01:36.076)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:01:46.19)
There you go.

Jason Elkins (01:01:56.528)
been to an ATTA summit in Africa many years ago. And I was like, when I thought, who do I want to have conversations with? It’s the same thing. It’s like, people that are doing this stuff, where do those people hang out? So here’s a plug for ATTA. And yeah, I went there and did the same thing. And it sounds brilliant. Because I’m thinking, depending on somebody to sit down and have the awareness that they need a, you know.

Becki Rupp (01:01:59.094)
Mm, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:02:22.803)
Travel coach and type that into Google when most people don’t have a clue what travel coaches But here’s the thing you here’s the thing you go to a tracking company and say hey, this is what I do Can you think of anybody that might want that they’re gonna make my gosh That would be great because we’ve had a lot of clients or potential clients that said I would love to go on your trip, but

Becki Rupp (01:02:26.828)
Yeah, don’t even know it exists. Yeah, absolutely.

Becki Rupp (01:02:47.489)
Exactly.

Jason Elkins (01:02:47.531)
I need help and what do you say to somebody like that? You say, well, you could go join a gym. could, you know, let us know when you feel like you’re ready and call back and we’ll set you up on a trip. It makes perfect sense that they would say, hey, we know somebody.

Becki Rupp (01:02:56.833)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:03:00.357)
Order!

Or I won’t necessarily say worse, but they go on a trip unprepared and then they have a terrible time and the group maybe has not such a great time because there’s someone who really is like just not ready. And then the company has a problem too.

Jason Elkins (01:03:23.213)
Yeah, reviews, refunds.

Becki Rupp (01:03:23.34)
because you know you don’t want yeah exactly you don’t want unhappy customers so you know my value proposition is i know here i am in marketing speak is it’s a win win win everybody wins like if someone comes and works with me they’re gonna have a better time the group is gonna have a better time the guide is gonna have a better time because they’re not worried about this person the tour operator is gonna have better reviews everybody wins it’s a no win profit it’s a no lose proposition

Jason Elkins (01:03:37.198)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:03:44.131)
The tour operators get it. Yeah, it’s going to be easier, better reviews, referrals.

Becki Rupp (01:03:53.31)
Nobody loses. Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:03:54.768)
I, this great conversation because so many of our listeners are tour operators and maybe they’ve already connected with you or they maybe they’re way ahead of me. This is when I was more active as a tour operator, honestly, I’d never heard of it. Like, you know, that was 20 years ago, but I’m imagining now.

Becki Rupp (01:04:10.638)
Mm-hmm.

Jason Elkins (01:04:15.149)
Yeah, I mean, I work with some clients that are tour operators doing their marketing stuff. sometimes I help put together trip planners. I’m like, what a great thing. You got a section in there. Hey, know, before your trip, you might want to consider at least having a conversation with somebody like Becky, you know, to, know, to just have a conversation with her about any concerns you might have. And it’s just part of the process. That’s brilliant. That’s exactly what you’re doing, isn’t it?

Becki Rupp (01:04:18.316)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Absolutely.

Becki Rupp (01:04:35.274)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. It is.

Yeah, and so that’s exactly how it works is with the folks that I’m actively partner with. They put my information on their website and their materials, that 90 day out email, right? You’ve probably worked on a few of those. And by the way, it’s three months out. If you haven’t already started your training for Kilimanjaro, now’s a good time to think about it.

Jason Elkins (01:04:56.055)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:05:05.357)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:05:08.43)
Actually for Killy, it might be a little late to think about it if you haven’t really started, but certainly at three months, that’s kind of a wake up call. And oh yeah, this is coming up. I booked it six, nine months a year ago and all of a sudden you’re like, oh yeah, it looks like that you’ve never had that experience before, Jason, where it just snuck up on you. Yeah, oh yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:05:10.381)
Am I?

Jason Elkins (01:05:27.215)
And now, yeah, you could see the look on my face is like, yeah, I was involved in a program where you set these kind of big goals and you had like four months to do it. And yeah, I remember reaching out to a coach about two weeks before, hey, I still have 20 pounds to lose in the next two weeks. Can you help me?

Becki Rupp (01:05:38.082)
Mm. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:05:43.863)
I’m

Becki Rupp (01:05:47.63)
Yeah, 20 pounds. Good luck. No, no, you’re too late.

Jason Elkins (01:05:52.208)
No, I did it, but it was really, really, really miserable and probably not the safest thing. yeah, but anyway.

Becki Rupp (01:05:56.909)
Yeah.

probably not the healthiest thing to do. But yeah, so that’s how it works with the tour operators is yeah, they send people my way and you know, then I pick up the ball and take it from there. If someone wants to work with me, great. And if they just want to talk and they just want some advice, that’s fine too. I just love to do this stuff. I love to help people. If you do want to, if they do want to work with me, you know, I have several levels of packages and I customize things based on how much support people want. And you know, my goal is to really

to make it easy for all of us.

Jason Elkins (01:06:30.659)
I’m afraid to ask you this, but what’s the most frustrating part of your job? We can edit this out later if you’re like, Jason, this was going so well. And then I started talking about people that don’t listen to my coaching or whatever. don’t know. But anyway.

Becki Rupp (01:06:35.822)
Aww.

Becki Rupp (01:06:42.154)
No, no, no, I love it. I know. Seriously, it is hard for me to think of what’s the most frustrating. I think the most frustrating is actually honestly is not having more clients. Like I just it has taken a lot of time, like you said, to to make people to build the awareness. And I feel like, you know, I’m biased, but again, I feel like it’s a no brainer. But sometimes it’s like pulling teeth to get people to understand

you know, that this really is just like something easy that you can offer or getting enough, getting people to really get it. So that’s the most frustrating thing is that people will just be like, that sounds great. That sounds really cool. I’m like, okay, so why do I not have like…

Jason Elkins (01:07:30.127)
It’s getting in the way, yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:07:31.252)
a million clients. I’m not that I would want a million clients, but that is like, it’s interesting because it is such an unusual thing that it’s just taken a lot of time and effort to build that awareness.

Jason Elkins (01:07:45.808)
Where’s the, I don’t know, I’m not sure I’d ask this, but where’s the point, not where it breaks down, because obviously, you know, it’s working, you’d like to help more people, get that. But where does it break down? Because I’m imagining you approach the tour operator and the tour operator is like, great, this is awesome. You know, yep.

Becki Rupp (01:07:52.898)
Yeah. Yeah. I looked out.

Becki Rupp (01:07:59.759)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. They are busy people. You know there’s a lot of moving parts. Two rappers have a ton going on. I completely appreciate that they have so many things that they’re trying to manage. And the feedback I’ve gotten from some…

Jason Elkins (01:08:14.243)
But what you do helps them, right? So help me understand what you’re saying.

Becki Rupp (01:08:17.878)
Yeah, but some people have just like integrating my information into their systems, getting it part of the process. Yeah, some tour operators are just like, know what, it’s just one more thing that I have to.

Yeah, and it’s just one more thing I have to manage or think about or handle when, you know, what I really need is for my, you know, travel insurance vendor to be on deck. And I really, really need to have, you know, there’s just the list is long and

Jason Elkins (01:08:49.453)
So your, so your struggle is figuring out how to make it easier for them to incorporate it, but at the same time, coaching them, what’s getting in the way. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:08:58.722)
Yeah, yeah. Well, again, I get it. And some people are like, you know what? All our people are great. All our people come on trips. They’re good to go. We don’t have any problems with that. Whether that is a thing where they think there’s no problem and maybe there is, or maybe there’s not. Maybe they do really get, all their clients are really qualified.

Jason Elkins (01:09:20.239)
But here’s the thing, okay. And maybe they’re just happy only working with people that are ready to go. But it’s pretty easy to, I’m just thinking out loud here. If I could be like, no, all of our clients made it to the top of Kilimanjaro last year, we don’t have a problem. Okay, but what about the 10 % of clients that didn’t book because you weren’t able to give them.

Becki Rupp (01:09:28.482)
Yeah, that’s fine too.

Becki Rupp (01:09:38.574)
you

Jason Elkins (01:09:47.204)
the confidence that, we can help you make this work. It’s just a black or white. Like if we think you can do it, we’ll tell you, can do it and we’ll book you. And if you come with to us with any doubt at all, we say, know what? Maybe this isn’t right for you. We can’t help you. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:09:51.117)
Right.

Becki Rupp (01:09:56.76)
Mm-hmm.

Becki Rupp (01:10:02.083)
And I have heard that there are operators that do that.

Jason Elkins (01:10:06.381)
Well, it might be fine, but they might also subconsciously be doing that. That’s where I’m going with it is, you know, when the person has these concerns and says, can you connect me with somebody that can help me get ready? Can you, is there somebody on your team that I can talk to once a week as I’m getting ready? And they’re like, yeah, I’m sorry. We just, really don’t know anybody. That would be the opportunity to get more clients. and.

Becki Rupp (01:10:10.466)
Yeah, yes.

Becki Rupp (01:10:26.574)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:10:32.647)
work with somebody like you to help them get prepared. So now that instead of having a hundred clients that made it the top, maybe they’ve got 120 and you know what? Those 20 that worked with somebody like you that had all those doubts and concerns going in and the company referred them to you. Those 20 people are going to be the ones that write the best reviews. I guarantee it. Right. I’m preaching to the choir and I, you’ve thought this out. You’ve, you’ve had years. They get this out. Yeah, you should do that. That’s a good idea. Becky, you should do that.

Becki Rupp (01:10:51.576)
Yeah. Yeah. Yup. Let’s do this!

Jason Elkins (01:11:02.191)
Anyway, just I think it’s fascinating. I’m just I’m just interested in it. So thanks for indulging with me All right, very cool. We’ve discussed a bunch of things Did we miss any big gaps in and how you got there or maybe starting the business that you want to touch on or basically what I’m trying to ask you is Becky, what did I forget to ask you? What do you wish I would have asked you so we don’t miss out any on anything before we wrap up?

Becki Rupp (01:11:04.984)
Yeah!

Becki Rupp (01:11:29.292)
Well, I’ll go back to, I kind of redirected you earlier when you said, how do you work with clients? Like, what’s the like process? So, maybe let’s circle back on that because people might be wondering, you know, this has been a super fun conversation, but people might be still wondering like, well, how does this actually work?

Jason Elkins (01:11:36.586)
yeah, yeah, I’m easily distract distracted. Okay.

Jason Elkins (01:11:49.145)
Thank you, thank you. Hey, you should start a podcast. You’re good at this. Thank you. How does it work, Becky? Yeah, yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:11:54.607)
So how does it work? I mentioned, you know, consultation call and people come to me. So I develop a customized training plan for them. And then we have coaching sessions based on basically how much support that they want or need. Usually at least three sessions. So I have a kickoff session with them and then two other sessions between the time we start in the time of their trip. But it could be as often as weekly. I do have some clients who wanted to

do like weekly 30 minute sessions. These are often the people who want more accountability, who just want that extra support. Some people are every other week for an hour or every three weeks for an hour. I really customize it based again on what people want. And during those sessions, so I developed the plan. It’s always changeable. We can always modify it based on.

life, right? You again, back to the, you’ve twisted your ankle, you have an Achilles flare out, you know, kids are sick, you’re sick, whatever parents are sick. Life happens, we can recalibrate it whenever you need. And then the coaching sessions are to work through things like challenges you’re running into, celebrating, but also celebrating wins, celebrating those victories, digging into yeah, any

like things that are coming up like my gosh I just you know I am not really sure I can do this you know overcoming fears things like that and gear consultation which has been which is always fun but I you know I surprised that the number of people were like will you just go through like can we just like go through with my bed full of stuff

and we can look at everything and you can tell me what to take with me and what not to take with me or you know or like you know

Jason Elkins (01:13:53.648)
So they take out everything, every outdoor piece of equipment they have ever accumulated over 50 years. Okay.

Becki Rupp (01:13:58.543)
No, they’ve usually windowed it down, do I take this jacket or this jacket or you know, but or just, you know, I need what brand of trekking poles do you like? you know, things like that.

Jason Elkins (01:14:10.863)
you should.

Jason Elkins (01:14:17.967)
man, if I’m a tour operator and you come to me and say, you know, I want to work with your clients and need support and that includes the checklist part, here’s, cause that’s where you save the tour operator time.

Becki Rupp (01:14:29.101)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:14:31.855)
is just, hey, look, anybody that, know, books me, does coaching with me, I will handle all those, check those packing list questions. And then they’re like, ooh, maybe this is a good idea. Maybe she’s gonna save us some time. I don’t know, it’s just a thought that popped into my head. I’m sure, I’m sure. Well, yeah, because you don’t want them showing up with the wrong thing. Well, Becky told me, Becky told me I didn’t need hiking boots.

Becki Rupp (01:14:39.886)
Well, I will refer them back to their tour operator for some things, but I don’t want to take the liability on that. But it’s fun. Right. Yeah. No, but the bottom line is.

Yeah, right. Now the bottom line is like that the coaching time is their time. Whatever’s on your mind, like what’s keeping you up at night? What’s you know, what’s coming up in your everyday life that’s that’s challenging? What benchmarks do you want to set? How do you want to measure your progress? How do you want to build your confidence? It’s a lot about building confidence in your ability to do this. So

Jason Elkins (01:15:05.271)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:15:30.343)
That’s yeah, a lot of the coaching is just yeah kind of around all those things especially the stuff you talked up We talked about in the beginning. What’s your vision? Wait, what do you want to get out of this? And how do we how do you bring that to fruition? So? Yeah

Jason Elkins (01:15:42.688)
For some reason as I as I listen you discuss this I’m thinking like Actually, just had this conversation with someone recently about how I’ve heard the body doesn’t really know the difference between anxious like or nervous or excited So I guess the question I want to ask you is like do you feel like most of the women or or men or in just clients just people

Becki Rupp (01:15:59.533)
Mm. Mm.

Jason Elkins (01:16:11.065)
Do you think they start out mostly scared or excited or are they able to put their finger on it? What comes across when they have that first call with you? Is it, I booked this trip and now I’m scared or I booked this trip yesterday, I’m so excited to start planning. What does it usually sound like? Is it good? Good.

Becki Rupp (01:16:28.142)
Mostly excited, mostly excited, yeah. But with, I mean, one of my consultation call questions is always like, what are you most concerned about? Because if you’re not concerned, you wouldn’t be talking to me, right? So, you know, people have concerns, but they’re mostly excited. I would say, you know, 70, 80 % excited.

Jason Elkins (01:16:41.155)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:16:48.814)
and wanting to do the things that are necessary so that they can realize that dream. And there’s a, depending on the person, 10, 20, 30, 40 % of it that is, holy crap, what did I just sign up for?

Jason Elkins (01:17:05.433)
Holy crap, I just put down my deposit. It’s non-refundable. I told my sister and she told me I was crazy and my gosh, now I’m scared. Cause I don’t wanna tell her she was right. So I gotta make this work type of thing I can imagine. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:17:10.369)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:17:15.447)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:17:22.094)
Or there’s like, yeah, people are like, I told all my friends I was doing this, so now I really gotta do it.

Jason Elkins (01:17:28.547)
which actually is like probably a coaching technique. Sometimes I don’t know what your approach is, but it’s like, yeah, know, the more it’s that accountability. Now you’ve got your whole family holding you accountable, but that also can create some scaredness and some problems if something happens, right?

Becki Rupp (01:17:31.564)
Yeah, sometimes. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:17:37.518)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah, and you know, well, and that’s what I talk to people about too. And that’s part of some of the coaching too is like, okay, so what if you don’t make it to the top of Kilimanjaro? Because there are a lot of reasons you might not. Weather, illness, you know, there’s a lot of things just outside of your control. Yes.

Jason Elkins (01:17:52.591)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:17:57.55)
People fall down going up the stairs. There’s reasons that you might not make it to the second story of your house. So yeah, and you’re talking about Kilimanjaro, know, something might happen. Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:18:03.278)
exactly so but yeah so it’s it’s it’s all it’s super fun though I really love it it’s good

Jason Elkins (01:18:12.655)
Do you have the opportunity, I’m sure you get feedback and I’m sure you connect, but I just wanna ask directly, is there like a after action review, like when they get home, do you have another call with them? Yeah, yeah, that’s cool.

Becki Rupp (01:18:24.3)
Yeah, we have a debrief. Yeah, we do a debrief call. I mean, if people want it. mean, most people do. I would say probably 80, 90 % of my clients, we have debrief and, you know, ask them what they are glad they did, what they wish they, you know, what advice do they have for me of things that I could have done better that they wish they would have done more of or known.

Jason Elkins (01:18:46.701)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:18:52.706)
Yeah, we definitely have a debrief and that’s really valuable for all of us. For both of us.

Jason Elkins (01:18:57.167)
I’m curious if you had the situation where you’ve had a, what do you call it, your first call? Is it a discovery call type of thing? you, what term, consultation. Have you had situations where you do the consultation and then they either disappear or just flat out say, nah, I don’t think so. And then this is a two part question. One is, and then they call you back a week before the trip.

Becki Rupp (01:19:05.708)
Yeah, consultation, whatever.

Jason Elkins (01:19:23.195)
Or two, or two, okay good. Or two, do they come back, like do they, hey I’m doing Kilimanjaro, I’m thinking about this, okay, no I’m not gonna hire ya. They go do Kilimanjaro and then a year later they say, okay now I’m Everest Base Camp and I should have booked you, I learned my lesson, I should have booked you the first time. I’m just curious if that happens. No, okay.

Becki Rupp (01:19:23.554)
No.

Never.

Becki Rupp (01:19:46.583)
No. I’ve had people say that they realized from a previous trip that they really would benefit from this kind of service, but nobody who had been in touch with me before and decided not to has come back.

Jason Elkins (01:19:57.155)
Yeah, that makes sense.

Jason Elkins (01:20:01.156)
It’s just, I just want to ask you like, I told you so. Not that you would do that. You’re too nice for that. But all right, this is very cool. So we got through the process that you reminded me that we definitely wanted to get through. What else? Is there anything else that you want to leave with our listeners before we go?

Becki Rupp (01:20:05.632)
No, no, no. Of course I would never say that, but yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:20:22.574)
I just, you know, like to encourage people to go ahead and pursue what they want to do and you know, some people I think say, now I’m too old or, you know, I’m too this or I’m too that, but just, just let’s, let’s give it a try.

Let’s see what we can do, because it’s not going to get any easier. Nobody’s getting any younger. Nobody’s getting any younger. So I have worked again with people in their 70s. And it’s really inspiring to me. It’s really inspiring to me to work with my clients and who go do all this stuff when they’re, I’m like, still got 20 years. It’s awesome.

Jason Elkins (01:20:44.877)
Yeah, you’re not going to get it. No.

Jason Elkins (01:21:05.433)
Yeah, not cool. And I can, going back to the, maybe they’ve got a partner that’s just not enthusiastic, has no desire to go do these things. They don’t have friends or family that are gonna talk them up.

So if you’re surrounded by that, it’s easy to just, I guess I’m too, I’m too old. My, my partner’s telling me, what are you crazy? You’re too old. You know, you wake up in the morning complaining about how your legs hurt. Now you want to go climb Kilimanjaro whatever. So they’re not getting a lot of positive reinforcement and support. And so for somebody that’s living, you know, with, you know, their loved ones around them are kind of like that.

Becki Rupp (01:21:21.603)
Yeah.

Becki Rupp (01:21:35.725)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:21:45.399)
It’s easy for us to say, well, just go do it. But nobody else in their life is telling them to just go do it. So I love that you’re able to do, a tour operator might on a sales call. So yeah, you should just go do it. But to have somebody that can.

Becki Rupp (01:21:49.634)
Right.

Becki Rupp (01:21:54.752)
Yeah, sure, absolutely. And just to be clear, I’m not saying that anybody and everybody should necessarily do it. Let’s just have a conversation, you know? Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:22:05.763)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. That’s the point is, you know, if you’ve got something in your head that’s like, I really would like to do this, but no, but everybody around me thinks, you know, I’m crazy for whatever reason. And maybe it’s because their partner doesn’t want you spending the money. Maybe it has nothing to do with, you know, whatever it is. So at least have a conversation with somebody that is, you know, that can tap into that part of your brain or your heart that’s saying, I want to go do it before you make any decisions. Right.

Becki Rupp (01:22:26.626)
Yeah.

Jason Elkins (01:22:34.807)
So yeah, that’s very cool. I’m really happy we had this conversation. I knew it was going to be fascinating. Honestly, it was, I don’t want to say it was a lot better than I thought, because that makes it sound like I didn’t think it would be a great conversation, but I’m just really, really happy we did it. And thank you so much for sharing your insights, experiences, and just your energy. It’s great. Thank you so much, We’ll chat with you soon.

Becki Rupp (01:22:38.413)
Me too.

Becki Rupp (01:22:45.762)
Thanks

You too.

Becki Rupp (01:22:56.494)
Thanks Jason. Yeah, thank you too. It’s been fun.

Jason Elkins (01:23:00.247)
Yep, we’ll do it again soon. We still have more stuff to talk about, I’m sure. all right, thanks Becky. All right, bye bye.

Becki Rupp (01:23:03.567)
Thanks. Take care. Bye bye.

 

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