Guest Bio
Doni Belau is the founder and CEO of Girls’ Guide to the World, a company dedicated to empowering women to explore the globe through curated, women-only travel experiences. An inveterate traveler, Doni has visited over 70 countries, finding joy in exploring new cultures and cuisines. Her passion for travel led her to create Girls’ Guide in 2009, initially focusing on Paris and later expanding to over 40 countries worldwide. Doni’s diverse background includes a career in television production, philanthropic work in South Africa, and a deep appreciation for culinary adventures. She divides her time between France, New Orleans, and sailing in Connecticut.
Show Summary
In this episode, Doni Belau shares her journey from a passion for Paris to founding Girls’ Guide to the World. She discusses the transformative power of women-only travel, emphasizing how shared storytelling, dreams, and discoveries create lasting bonds. Doni reflects on her experiences in over 70 countries and how these adventures have shaped her mission to empower women through travel. The conversation also touches on the challenges and rewards of curating authentic, responsible travel experiences that honor local cultures and environments.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Empowerment through Travel – How exploring new cultures can lead to personal growth and deeper self-awareness.
- ✓ Authentic Connections – The unique bonds formed among women traveling together in small groups.
- ✓ Responsible Tourism – The importance of engaging with local communities in a respectful and sustainable manner.
- ✓ Overcoming Challenges – Insights into navigating the complexities of organizing international travel experiences.
- ✓ Cultural Appreciation – The value of immersing oneself in the traditions, food, and customs of different regions.
What You’ll Find on Girls’ Guide to the World’s Platform
- ✓ Curated Trips – A diverse selection of women-only tours across more than 40 countries.
- ✓ Authentic Experiences – Opportunities to engage deeply with local cultures, cuisines, and traditions.
- ✓ Responsible Travel – Commitment to sustainable tourism practices that benefit local communities.
- ✓ Expert Planning – Personalized itineraries crafted by experienced travel specialists.
- ✓ Community Engagement – A supportive network of women travelers sharing their stories and experiences.
👉 Visit Girls’ Guide to the World’s Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about Doni Belau’s dedication to empowering women through travel.
Learn more about Girls’ Guide to the World and connect with Doni at:
https://www.girlsguidetotheworld.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 (00:01.41)
Welcome back everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small podcast for the adventure traveler. We have a fascinating guest today that I’m super excited to hear about her and what she’s been doing. We’ve got Doni Belau here. She’s the founder of Girls Guide to the World. I kind of messed that up a little bit, but did I pronounce your last name right? Because we just mentioned that right before I pushed the record button. Are we good? Belau, all right. Okay.
Doni Belau (00:25.324)
Yeah, it’s B-Lo. It’s B-Lo. You were very, close. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (00:29.934)
Very good. Well, I appreciate you joining joining me here. You and I had a conversation a couple weeks ago and I was just kind of really fascinated about what you’re doing because it’s it’s different. There’s some other people that are doing similar things, but I think your approach is different. So I want to kind of get into that a little bit. But before we get into your business, I always am interested in the story like how did you and I end up here having this conversation today? How did you get from where you started to where you are now? So help. I don’t know how far back we need to go, but.
Let’s go as far back as you think is relevant.
Doni Belau (01:02.606)
Yeah, well, this is actually my third career. I started Girls’ 15 years ago. Basically, I was trying to escape working in not-for-profit and political realm because it’s kind of a burnout field. Saving the world, if you will, is pretty exhausting, although really interesting. And we’ve had a place in Paris for about 24 years or so.
I had a place in France one way or another. And I think I just wanted to do something a little bit lighter, less heavy, more sort of really just it was a passion project. And I started out thinking that I was going to create, and I did create, a content-focused website around Paris. So it used to be called Girls’ Guide to Paris. I had no business plan. I had no idea.
how I was going to make money. It was just the exact opposite of doing it the Harvard Business School way. So I always say I could write a book about how not to start a business. You could take advice from me and do everything opposite. Anyway, about two years in, we started doing the tours. Finally, that was some way to make money. As you know, the content area is an incredibly difficult place to make money. So eventually, we morphed into really
the premier women’s only tour organizations in the world. now from, you know, starting with one tour and then two tours a year just in France and then moving further and further outside of France. Now we, next year, 2025, we have 65 trips going to 40 different countries. So it was organic and yeah, but it’s really blossomed.
Jason Elkins (02:53.517)
Wow.
Jason Elkins (02:58.894)
I’ve got quite a few questions, but I want to start with, because you kind of mentioned like I didn’t really have a business plan. This was just kind of passion project. And what do you think it was that really made it work? What, do you think was the, the brilliance behind that approach? Cause I know there, I know there is some.
Doni Belau (03:16.736)
Yeah, well, again, I don’t think that I had figured out how to bottle lightning, you know, in the beginning, it was something that has morphed into what it is. So today, and I could say looking back that this was my grand plan, but it wasn’t. I mean, it really was a learning process. But I’ve always enjoyed empowering women, bringing women together.
I love travel and I love seeing the world. I love meeting new people. So all of that sort of, which is part of me has come together into this business. And it is really wonderful if you can find a way to bring those things that you already are good at, that you already are passionate about and make them into some way to make a living. you know,
It is kind of, feel like a little bit of a miracle that all of this has worked. But it’s obviously, it has been hard work and I’ve had a lot of help along the way. But at this point, what’s I think special and unique about it and that, you know, that’s something that we kind of organically discovered as we went as I, and now we went along. So of course, everything in the beginning was just, I’m doing everything. And now I’ve got a great team and.
And my husband is on board helping me. He’s a tech guy. He’s really helped us expand because he had a big company himself. So he knows sort of the hard business side of it. But the special quality of this, and I think the piece that has really worked, is the idea that women, particularly over 45, but we have ladies join our trip, you’d only have to be 21. And as long as you can walk, you can be 101.
So anybody from 21 to 101 can join. But the idea is to keep these groups small, six to 10, so that women have the chance to bond and really meet each other, like-minded women who love to travel or who are just getting out there traveling. And they’ve maybe been held back. Either they were busy with their career or with family or with both.
Doni Belau (05:37.132)
busy or just waiting around really for someone to go with. Maybe they don’t have a partner. Maybe their friends can’t or don’t want to go to the same places that they do. So we feel like we’re offering a really much needed service to those 53 % of women in the United States, at least, who are single, either divorced, never married, or widowed. And then you’ve got lots of women in addition, including myself, who are married or partnered up in one way or another.
you know, their partner can’t travel, doesn’t want to travel to that place, whatever the reason may be, or, you know, it’s just really nice to get out and, you know, on your own, do something on your own. It’s empowering. It just brings you back to life after, you know, six months or a year, or God forbid, even longer without any time away. It’s rejuvenating for a relationship too. So that special quality of bringing women together
Jason Elkins (06:33.422)
Very, very cool.
Doni Belau (06:36.654)
is really what this is about. And not anybody else is really doing it the same way that we are keeping it super small. It’s quite upscale. know, women who, it’s not luxury for luxury sake, but it’s women who want to, you know, see the world, but, you know, with some nice sheets and a king size bed and maybe a glass of wine or two at night, you know.
Jason Elkins (06:58.478)
You
Hence the minimum age requirement of 21. Well, of course, that’s that’s there’s other places in the world that’s different. But actually, so what I heard in that was kind of the brilliance in your business and getting started. And what what what I found inspiring when I heard you was you just took action. You did something right. That’s like I don’t have a business plan. I don’t know where this is going. But I know I have a passion.
Doni Belau (07:06.587)
Exactly.
Jason Elkins (07:30.112)
And instead of waiting, because you use the word waiting a few times in that, in what you just told me as well, instead of waiting, you’re like, I’m going, I’m just going to do this. I’ll figure it out along the way. And then I hear you speaking kind of to our listeners, to your potential clients as well. It’s like, you know, don’t spend time waiting, just go do it. We’ve got the opportunity, go, go with a group of women and go do something. Just take some action. So I think it’s brilliant that you did it because I suspect there’s an awful plot.
Doni Belau (07:55.16)
That’s right.
Jason Elkins (07:58.838)
awful lot of people that either are listening or would listen to this podcast that would love to start a travel business. You know, if I was sitting at home wanting to start a travel business, I’d be listening to this podcast. So that’s the reason I want to touch on this is just take some action. You don’t have to have the website all fleshed out. You don’t have to have necessarily the business plan. All this stuff is just take some action and start following, following your dreams or just what you did. And it worked. So congratulations. That’s very cool.
Doni Belau (08:25.634)
Yeah, yeah. Now, of course, it’s harder that way. So I’m not necessarily saying that this is the way to do it because it took me a little bit too long to make this profitable, like definitely too long. I think, you know, if I were to give someone advice who wanted to start a business, and actually, I just spoke to someone yesterday, I get, I’d love to encourage other women to do, you know, any entrepreneurial thing that they that they have in mind, I really
Jason Elkins (08:29.514)
Well…
Jason Elkins (08:40.097)
Well.
Doni Belau (08:55.09)
I’m just really here to support women in whatever way I can. But I spoke to a lady, actually, she’s out of Switzerland yesterday, who wants to start a business. I think it’s true with every business. You have this kind of glamorous idea, and it really is a great job. I love what I do. But it is work at the end of the day. You are taking care of people. You’re creating itineraries. There’s a lot to it. So I suggested to her, if you can, start small and really just take
Jason Elkins (09:14.156)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (09:24.686)
a group of your friends away at first and see if you really like doing this. even when it’s your friends, it’s still work. It is work. It’s not like going on vacation. Exactly. Your friends can be the most difficult of all. Totally.
Jason Elkins (09:29.612)
Right.
Jason Elkins (09:34.37)
Maybe more work. Maybe more work.
Jason Elkins (09:42.252)
If you, think if you can take a group of girlfriends on a trip and not want to kill anybody before it’s over, then I mean, I don’t know. I’ve never been on a women’s only trip, but I’m just, I’m guessing it’s the same way with guys. yeah, okay. But, at the same time it’s take some action because I think that’s where people get into trouble is they just don’t take any action. It’s like, I want to do this. I want to do this, but they get overwhelmed.
Doni Belau (09:51.551)
Exactly.
Doni Belau (10:04.142)
All right, no.
Jason Elkins (10:07.768)
Like, think of all the things that are going to be involved. I got to have the business plan and the this and the that and the this. it’s but you’re right. It’s just takes start small, take some sort of action for some people that might be a website. If they really like websites and they know how to build a website, they might just build a website or for me, I’ve started a couple of businesses just by buying a domain name, just taking some action, just like thinking about, OK, what would this business, what would I want to call it? And then as soon as I bought the domain name.
Doni Belau (10:29.26)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (10:37.062)
maybe I’ll change my signature block. Maybe I’ll put something on my social media. And then it just kind of keeps going and going. And it’s so much better than waiting until all of the ducks are in a row to take any sort of action. So I just I just wanted to touch on that because I think it’s brilliant. I think it’s great advice.
Doni Belau (10:49.422)
Absolutely. Absolutely. think it’s an important thing to remember in life is that fear or this idea that we have to have everything all aligned perfectly figured out. It’s not possible to have everything figured out before. It’s like trying to have a baby and know exactly how you’re going to parent and how much time it’s not possible. I mean, this is a learn by doing.
business. Now, if you’ve already worked in the travel world, great, you’ve got to leg up. But I don’t think that should stop you. also with regard to people coming on trips or doing whatever it is that their dreams are, inside each one of us, we all have these dreams and aspirations. And a lot of us just keep pushing those down and stop saying, that’s not possible, or that’s not
okay, who are you to think so big or whatever it is, you know, all that sort of negative voice that’s in your head. And this is a very short, precious time that we have on this planet. And I was listening, I was on another podcast and this lady said, who’s a coach life coach? said, it’s your obligation to fulfill those dreams. If it’s not your, it’s not anyone’s. So if you’re not going to do it, who the heck
can you just you can’t sit in your house and wait for life to happen. You’ve got to go out the door and and and as you said take some action even if it’s going in the wrong direction you can always pivot. So I agree if you want to start a business if you want to go on a trip if you want to buy a house in Italy whatever it is it’s all possible as long as you don’t stop yourself.
Jason Elkins (12:14.508)
Yes.
Jason Elkins (12:36.426)
Absolutely. this, the subject of travel, adventure, travel, whatever words we want to use is a real metaphor for life because it’s, it’s yeah, get up and go. And for in travel, that’s clear. We understand what we’re talking about, but that’s in life as well. And if, I mean, I think anybody listening to this, I’m sure you know people and I know people that I’ve heard for years say,
and I’m not speaking of anybody in specific, just in case my mom’s listening to this. I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland, for example. I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland. I’m really into Scotland. I’ve always wanted to go, okay, then go.
Doni Belau (13:04.472)
No.
Doni Belau (13:18.286)
Let’s go. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (13:19.73)
Yeah, let’s go. Well, I don’t want to go by myself. OK, guess what? I know Donnie. I don’t know if you’re doing Scotland, but it’s like just go or. Yeah.
Doni Belau (13:25.644)
Yep. Yep. You bet. Of course we do Scotland. Scotland’s amazing. My son went to school there. We do a great trip to Scotland and everybody has always loved it.
Jason Elkins (13:34.734)
All right. So maybe maybe I’ll make sure she doesn’t listen to this because that’s exactly the type of trip that I think would be a lot of fun for her. And but it could be anything. It could be somebody saying, I’ve always wanted to go to Southeast Asia. OK, for whatever reason. OK, what’s the first step? Maybe it’s a passport for a lot of people live in the US. It’s a passport because you there’s so many people in the US that talk about I’ve always wanted to go here. I want to go there. I want to go there.
Doni Belau (13:37.688)
There you go.
Doni Belau (13:55.596)
Yeah, that’s right.
Jason Elkins (14:03.79)
but they haven’t even got the passport yet. It’s like, okay, just start with the hat. Just start with that. You don’t have to figure out where exactly. Yeah, you don’t have to book the plane flights right now. You don’t have to pick the hotel. Just go get the passport. And then there’s a book. It was very popular. I worked in real estate for a while and it was by Gary Keller. And I think it was the one thing and it’s what’s the one thing I can do today that will make everything else easier. And if you want to go to Scotland, well, what’s the one thing you can do today?
Doni Belau (14:06.232)
Right. That’s right. That’s an action that is not that difficult. Right.
Jason Elkins (14:34.092)
Maybe it’s, you know, go down to the post office, go down, get your picture taken. So now you’ve got those pictures in your hand. Well, I might as well walk over to the post office and, and set up an appointment for a passport. And then once you’ve got the passport, then it just got a lot easier, you know, and then you figure out what’s the next thing and just take those little steps. But you have to take action because if you don’t take action, mean, last year at this time, I was like, I think I want to do a podcast, you know, and here we are, you know, we’ve got,
Doni Belau (14:53.781)
Exactly.
Doni Belau (15:01.486)
Why not?
Jason Elkins (15:03.906)
by the time our listeners are listening to this, we’ll be at about 90 episodes, just a little over a year. And I had no idea what that was going to turn into. I thought, well, I’ll do a couple and just have a couple of conversations. Then once I’ve got the recorded conversations, I’ll figure out, what do I do next? it’s, but so anyway, I just, love that you brought up that you didn’t have a business plan. So thank you. Cause that created this whole opportunity for this conversation. And I know there’s other things, other things to discuss.
Doni Belau (15:27.118)
Hahaha.
That’s great. Yes, that’s great.
Jason Elkins (15:33.704)
because I want to make sure that anybody that’s listening to this, I think they probably already feel the connection you’re easy to connect with. So let’s, let’s really help them see what possibilities are out there. Do you do only organized set departure group tours or if a group, if, somebody came to you and said, me and my girlfriends want to go here, can you do a custom trip for them as well? Or just tell us a little bit more about what you do and what you can do for them.
Doni Belau (15:56.14)
You bet. You bet.
You bet. So our primary business are these group tours. we have created everything from, you know, we had the first trip in 2025 is a retreat with a life coach. So going back to when I started the business, I really attribute being able or having the courage to start this business because of a life coach and that experience.
So I’m a big believer in getting coaches for whatever it is that you are struggling with or are stuck with or in a transition and you just don’t even know what you want to do. So we do a number of retreats each year, but that’s our first one in January, cause January is a great time to really take a look at what you want to do, what’s going on this year. And then we do everything from that to like trekking with gorillas. we’re, we’ve got a huge amount of trips on offer.
Jason Elkins (16:45.72)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (16:56.77)
So but the reason why that’s the primary business is because I said that it’s I’m not sure if I actually, you know, I guess it’s specified this. That’s what I’m trying to say. But it’s 85 or I think somebody where between 80 and 85 percent of women, excuse me, 80 to 85 percent of solo travelers are women, which is interesting.
And most of those, some 80 % of those are women over 45. So that makes sense because after 45, you know, you’ve maybe got the kids, at least in high school, or you’ve got your career in a place where you can take more time and get more time, more money. So there, and because there’s so many single women out there, it’s, it’s really offering a service. So you’ve got 65 trips to select.
Let’s say you and your family, you’re looking at my website and you say, I’d really like to go trekking with gorillas. But I know that my family and my teenager, college age kids would love that. That would be, I just couldn’t do that without them because they would just be pissed at me. We create private trips for any group that wants. So we can really take you anywhere in the world with any group you want. Obviously, if it’s just two of you or just one of you, it is a lot more expensive than if it’s
Jason Elkins (18:08.046)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (18:20.3)
five or six of you, you know, because it’s it all depends. So we have done everything from recently this year. We did a trip for a lady who just retired as schoolteacher. So she wanted to spend six weeks in France and she went all over France. She drove herself. So we put the whole thing together, but it was a DIY in general. She had a couple of tour guides here and there. And then we’ve got a family going to Australia for Christmas. So
Jason Elkins (18:23.949)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (18:49.646)
You know, we can do any of those type of things. It is, I would say, you know, not as big of the rest of it is kind of a bigger part of our business. However, you know, we know that we want to be a full service organization for anyone who also, you know, maybe has four or five friends and wants to go with them. So we do that all the time.
Jason Elkins (19:00.14)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (19:12.578)
I’m trying to envision how that got started and it’s not hard to envision. You correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m envisioning one of the ladies that goes on a trip with you. And she’s like, wow, this is amazing. I would love for my husband, my kids, my whatever to see this. she’s like, know, Donnie, can you, can you set that up? Because I want, I want to go back to the, either the same place, similar experience, whatever, but I wanted, I suspect that’s where that, what we’d call the FIT or the.
The custom itinerary business is kind where that started, I’m guessing.
Doni Belau (19:40.3)
Yeah. Yep.
Yeah. And then other people who just looked at the website, they got excited about one of the trips, but then they, their husband, this happened when they said, but I want to go. And then all their friends wanted to go. And then, you know, and then, so I said, okay, well, we’ll put it together for you guys. You know, I mean, you’ve got to be as a business owner, as you know, you’ve got to be able to, you know, not be so rigid. got to go with the flow and,
Jason Elkins (20:02.33)
Uh-huh.
Doni Belau (20:11.47)
really help people in whatever way that you can. And we love to do that. We love to create bespoke special experiences for women. We’ve done it in New Zealand, we’ve done it in South Africa, all over the place, you name it. Because we’ve been to a lot of countries now. Yeah, so we can do it almost everywhere.
Jason Elkins (20:25.26)
That’s, it’s so cool. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (20:32.31)
You mentioned I have to go back to this because you mentioned the stat and it’s first I’d heard it and I’m still trying to get my head around it. You’d mentioned 80 to 85 correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you said 80 to 85 % of the solo travelers are women. Which. Yeah, it frankly blows my mind a little bit. Help I don’t know help me get my head around that.
Doni Belau (20:49.377)
Isn’t that amazing?
Jason Elkins (21:02.894)
because you’ve thought about this obviously a lot. Why is that the case? What am I missing?
Doni Belau (21:07.01)
Yep. Well, there’s an organization called Journey Women. And so they’ve done a lot of the research on this. So that’s one of their stats. And then, of course, I’m plugged into all the women’s only groups. And I’m part of women’s travel leaders. It’s interesting. when you think of the adventure traveler,
It’s actually a woman. There’s more women out there traveling alone than men. It’s like a huge, huge amount more. I don’t know. I think it goes back to, and I would, you know, this is anecdotal and, you know, I’m not a scientist or a researcher, but the at 50 years old and I listened to this is years ago now, I think it was on NPR. I listened to a woman who was a sociologist who said, you know,
At 50, our hormones are shifting quite a bit, both men and women. Women, because it makes sense, kids are mostly grown, you’re in a different place and there’s a hormone change, women get more adventurous and men become more into nesting, cooking, like gardening and staying at home. there’s actually, there’s hormonal
Jason Elkins (22:22.606)
Doni Belau (22:33.634)
sort of reasons for this. And it’s really interesting. So because I all these women that we take, we take hundreds of women every year and they will say, especially those who do have a partner, well, he just doesn’t really want to go anywhere anymore. And I do. I’ve got X number of years left to travel and I want to travel. So, you know, we see it and then the evidence is also in the in the research. So it’s it’s it’s fascinating. It’s fascinating. Obviously, there’s
Jason Elkins (23:01.172)
It’s interesting because I’ve.
Doni Belau (23:02.414)
plenty of solo travelers that are men too, but a lot more women. I I saw it when I walked the Camino, the Camino de Santiago in Spain that comes from all different places in Europe. Many more people who are walking it alone were women.
Jason Elkins (23:22.048)
It’s it’s thank you because now I’m starting to see it. There’s another, you know, we speak a little bit about hormones and life changes. And I’ve, kind of into some of that stuff. And I think John Gray and various other, other writers have talked about, you know, as women get older, the hormones shift and they generally become a little bit more independent. I don’t want to necessarily use the terms masculine feminine, but
but guys also kind of shift the other way to where they’re a little bit more kind of the teddy bear kind of just like when I hang out at home where when they were 24 that you couldn’t get up to sit down and sit still. okay, I can see that. And I suspect that.
Doni Belau (23:49.379)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (24:01.518)
Yeah.
Yeah, just to back up what I said, I’m just looking it up because I’m, you know how it is when someone asks you, you’re worried, did I get those stats wrong? But Condor Ferries, you know, out of the UK, they did a analysis, 84 % of solo travelers are women. PBS reported 85 % of their solo travelers after the pandemic are women. Travel Bug Tonic, 84 % of solo travelers are women.
Jason Elkins (24:12.102)
huh, yep, yep.
Doni Belau (24:34.606)
10 sources if you Google it. it is really shocking.
Jason Elkins (24:37.634)
That’s awesome.
So now let’s take that and speak directly to the woman that has been like, I want to go, but women don’t travel alone. I can’t travel alone. The world is a big dangerous place. How can I possibly travel alone? Because she’s got this story. Now she just heard you say 85 % of solo travelers are women, which hopefully will cause her to reflect on, maybe the story in my head is just a story in my head.
Doni Belau (24:53.88)
Yeah. Yep.
Jason Elkins (25:10.826)
Okay. And realistically, they’ve got some concerns. let’s address those most common concerns that you’ve seen with women that keep them from traveling so we can address them head on and maybe someone will take action and go get a passport today when they’re done listening to this.
Doni Belau (25:24.75)
Yeah, Jason, I really appreciate that question because again, we go back to what we were talking about before, but fear stops us, right? And we know that fear stops us. And it doesn’t mean that you don’t want to, you want to just discard fear and just go, you know, walk down the street, you know, half naked in the middle of the night. That’s not smart. You know, yeah, I’m not running over to Jordan right now, even though I know people who are still traveling there. you know, we,
Of course, do not ever go to places that are not safe because that would be bad for business and obviously just stupid. But absolutely, the number one concern for women traveling alone is safety. So we do offer a safer experience because you’re in a group. Obviously, if there was somebody to be concerned about when you’re walking home, let’s say in Morocco,
Jason Elkins (26:00.238)
Yeah.
Doni Belau (26:22.828)
which I did one time, did go there by myself. And it got a little sketchy, even in Marrakesh, just one night. And it wasn’t that there was anything necessarily wrong, but you start to feel a little worried. You don’t have that when you’re in a group, obviously. And then we go, especially when we are going to a little bit more developing country, shall we say. I always have a guide, a local guide. mean, I always have a guide, a knowledgeable local guide,
Jason Elkins (26:35.405)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (26:52.298)
usually as well as our trip leader. we we’ve got that. We take fans or chauffeured situations usually to and from dinner. So you’re not walking at night. But I do want to alert people because I think because of the news, we’re all very, especially in the US, stressed out, nervous, anxious, overly anxious, overly worried, overly fearful. Because if you look at the
the stats for the safest countries in the world. And actually, we’re just doing a newsletter about that coming up. Savest countries in the world for a woman to travel solo. None of them are in the US, actually. So we are 139th on a list of 174 countries. That’s how unsafe it is in the US. So you kind of start thinking because you live in, I don’t know, Arkansas, wherever you live, you think it’s safe because you’re used to it.
Jason Elkins (27:39.416)
Wow, yeah.
Doni Belau (27:49.578)
actually not very safe here statistically compared to a lot of other countries in the world. there’s, know, Columbia is safer than the United States where you live. So it is, you know, it’s there is a, and I do like to put stats out there because I think the preconceived notions that we have in our head that do cause us the fear and stop us from doing things are often completely wrong.
Jason Elkins (27:51.97)
Yeah, yep.
Jason Elkins (27:59.853)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (28:15.918)
Another thing that stops people is, in addition to the safety factor, they worry, will I get along with these people that I have never met? So it’s sort of that social anxiety, kind of like when you go to a cocktail party and you don’t really know anyone. Or, and will they like me? It’s kind of that fourth grade cafeteria fear that you’re sitting at the…
the uncool table and nobody wants to sit with you and we all have a little bit of that trauma from school. Even though, even if you were the most popular kid in school, everybody has one day where they felt like the misfit and the uncool one. So that’s another thing women ask me.
Jason Elkins (28:57.59)
Right. And I, and I suspect, Donnie, suspect I’m envisioning like, okay, the woman we were just speaking to that is going to go get her passport today might imagine herself sitting at a, in a restaurant in Paris with, you know, eight, nine other women who’ve been all over the world and they’ve explored. And, and am I going to be that one? That’s like, can’t like, I’m just sitting here listening to all these other women talk about all the amazing places they’ve been, all the cool things they’ve done.
and I’ve never left Arkansas until today, or until three days ago when I got on the plane, I’m imagining that could be very intimidating and like, how am gonna fit in? And I know that you’ve seen it probably on every trip you’ve done.
Doni Belau (29:29.901)
Yeah.
Doni Belau (29:35.15)
Absolutely. And yeah. Yep, absolutely. Because you’ll have we did a trip to Namibia, one lady had been to 150 countries. So that’s like 70 more countries than I’ve been to. And I said, well, you should obviously be working with us. And then other people who’ve, you know, who’ve never been to Africa at all. But that happens on every trip because you’re going to have a mix between, you know, young.
Jason Elkins (29:49.146)
huh, yep.
Doni Belau (30:02.304)
middle age, older, wiser, people who are really go-getters, who’ve traveled all around, people who are much more timid, who are more, you know, or just not the time, the money or the wherewithal, whatever reason. We train all of our facilitators. So I do lead some trips still, but we have 20 other women who do. We actually just recently had a training with a coach because we want
to establish a safe sisterhood kind of environment. So each night you’re going to sit next to someone else, get to know them so that you can bond with each and every person on the trip as well as the whole group as a whole. Plus we have a personal acknowledgement form that we ask everybody to read and sign before they go on the trip. And it sets up the trip and the group dynamic in the way that we’re saying to you, this trip
is about bonding, is about supporting each person wherever they’re at. So we emphasize that it’s not just you’re coming on a trip, you’re coming on a group experience. people understand that because we stress it a lot on the website. We make sure that you read that and signed it and that you understand that if you’re that person who’s been to 150 countries, you will never ever make that other lady from Arkansas feel lesser than.
You’re just going to be excited for her. You’re going to encourage her and you’re going to say, you know, if I can do it, you can too. And you’re, that is the, the type of lady that we attract people who support each other. will not tolerate anything else.
Jason Elkins (31:31.608)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (31:45.838)
Very, very cool. think that’s, I’m happy that subject came up because I know that’s the story. I mentioned my mom earlier, we’ve had conversations about, well, if I go on this group, what’s that going to be like? So, thank you for bringing that up. There are so many things you and I could discuss, but we don’t have enough time to discuss all of them on this episode. Maybe we’ll have you come back. But what are the top, is there something, is there a question I forgot to ask, should have asked or something really specific that you want to make sure we share with our listeners before we wrap up?
Doni Belau (31:56.184)
Yeah.
Doni Belau (32:05.634)
Thank you.
Doni Belau (32:17.228)
No, what I do want to say are that the…
which I think make a special beyond this big attention that we pay to GroupDynamic and to Sisterhood, which is the overarching and most important thing. But the fact that our groups are small, six to ten, we never take more than ten. Why? Because when you have twelve, when you have fifteen, and of course it’s much more affordable to go with a group of forty than it is a group of eight, right? It just obviously makes sense. But when you have a group of twelve,
Jason Elkins (32:48.44)
Mm-hmm.
Doni Belau (32:53.006)
20, 40, you know, you’re never gonna bond with that whole group. You can’t possibly get to know everybody. And then you’ve got little clicks. There’s a group of three, there’s a group of four, and there’s one maybe who’s left out. That does not happen on our trips. And that’s another really important part of the group dynamic. But we are also staying in four and five star hotels. You have wine, two glasses of wine included with dinner, almost all your meals are included. So for the person, for the mom, for the busy.
you know, lawyer or doctor or whoever she is out there who doesn’t have time to plan a trip. This is such an easy thing to do. You just sign up and you show up as long as you have that passport. And then your job is just to figure out what you want to drink, what you want to eat that night and you know, how many interesting people you get to talk to. mean, it’s so I do think it’s a ready made plan for.
women to go out and meet each other, empower them to see the world, you know, and to go for it really in this moment that you are alive to seize the day. Because the other thing that we have seen in science, and you’ve seen it recently, I was just quoted in an article in the Huffington Post, and it’s been all over the place about how science is showing that travel, getting away
pattern interrupt from your daily life is life extending. So you have a much better chance of living longer if you invest in yourself in this way. It’s really, really important. This is a matter of life and death. It’s not a frivolity to go to Scotland. So it keeps you alive. Really, it’s true. mean, you can see it. It helps with depression. It helps. And it’s scientifically proven. So now we don’t need to say,
Jason Elkins (34:37.516)
Yeah, I’m with you.
Doni Belau (34:45.429)
you know, I am indulging or whatever. This is just as important as going to the doctor, eating right, eating healthy. It’s taking time for yourself. That doesn’t have to be on my trip. You could just, you know, go take a road trip to California. Just do anything to get out of that same pattern. Yeah, exactly.
Jason Elkins (35:01.506)
Do something, right? Do something. And the connection, it’s a huge part of the pattern, but it’s also the connection because in this week, loneliness is an issue, you know? And if if you look at, OK, I’m going to sit at my house and not leave the house for a year or I’m going to go take a week or two and go meet a group of women and have new adventures and experiences and stuff like that, you need that. It’s like you said, it’s not indulging. I don’t think I mean, I recognize.
Doni Belau (35:10.338)
The connection is huge. Yeah, absolutely.
Jason Elkins (35:30.242)
finances or finances and different people have different resources. get that. And that’s why you said just go do something. So Donnie, thank you. Thank you so much. I look forward to having another conversation with you in the future and collaborating with you on some projects. I’m super great conversation and I hope a lot of women are listening to this and a lot of men, because a lot of what you said is for everybody. Maybe they’re not going to go on your ladies only trip, but anybody listening to this should it should resonate with them. So.
Doni Belau (35:32.707)
Sure.
Doni Belau (35:54.126)
Absolutely.
Jason Elkins (36:00.13)
Donnie, thank you so much. appreciate you joining us. Yes, absolutely.
Doni Belau (36:00.448)
It’s universal. Thank you. And I just want to shout out the website, which is Girls Guide to the World, T-O, the world. And on our contact page, can see our social media, as well as a private women’s only Facebook group where we cheer each other on to go out there and realize your dreams. So thank you so much, Jason, for the time. I really appreciate it.
Jason Elkins (36:23.33)
That that’s awesome. And we will and we will have the website link in the show notes. So if you didn’t get a chance to write that down, just look in the show notes and go over to Donnie’s website. And thank you so much, Donnie. We’ll chat with you soon.
Doni Belau (36:36.152)
Thank you.
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