Guest Bio
Kit Parks is the creator and host of the Active Travel Adventures podcast, where she inspires and empowers listeners to lead a bigger life through adventure travel. Since its inception, Kit has shared stories and insights from her travels to nearly 50 countries across all seven continents. Her platform offers resources for planning multi-day adventure vacations, focusing on authentic and active experiences. Kit’s mission is to be a primary resource for those seeking to incorporate adventure into their lives.
Show Summary
In this episode, Kit Parks discusses her journey into adventure travel and the creation of the Active Travel Adventures podcast. She shares experiences from her extensive travels, emphasizing the transformative power of stepping outside one’s comfort zone. Kit also highlights the importance of physical fitness in adventure travel and offers practical tips for those looking to embark on their own adventures.
Key Takeaways
- ✓ Embrace New Experiences: Stepping beyond your comfort zone can lead to personal growth and unforgettable memories.
- ✓ Physical Preparation: Maintaining fitness enhances the enjoyment and safety of adventure activities.
- ✓ Resource Utilization: Leveraging available tools and information can help in planning successful trips.
- ✓ Community Engagement: Connecting with fellow travelers enriches the travel experience and provides support.
- ✓ Continuous Learning: Each journey offers lessons that contribute to personal development.
What You’ll Find on Active Travel Adventures’ Platform
- ✓ Adventure Travel Podcast: Episodes featuring destinations, travel tips, and inspiring stories.
- ✓ Travel Resources: Guides and checklists to assist in planning and preparation.
- ✓ Skill Development: Information on necessary skills for various adventure activities.
- ✓ Community Interaction: Opportunities to connect with like-minded adventurers.
- ✓ Newsletter Subscription: Regular updates on new episodes, travel tips, and exclusive content.
👉 Visit Active Travel Adventures’ Official Website to explore their offerings and learn more about Kit Parks’ contributions to adventure travel.
Learn more about Active Travel Adventures and connect with Kit at:
https://activetraveladventures.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 (01:38.718)
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Big World Made Small Adventure Travel Podcast. I’m super excited today because I have a fellow podcaster that’s been doing this quite a bit longer than I have and has some interesting travel stories, but also some insights into sharing those stories and how you go about that. So today we have Kit Parks. She is the podcast host of the Active Travel Adventures podcast, as well as the Adventure Travel Show podcast. So Kit.
So, so happy to have you here. Thanks for joining us.
Kit Parks (02:10.402)
I’m delighted to be here, Jason. Thanks for having me.
Jason Elkins (02:13.118)
No, it’s my pleasure. I spoke with you, I believe it was last week, and you were just so kind to give me some insights and suggestions on this show. So I wanna thank you, I acknowledge you for that right off the bat. And definitely wanna learn about your podcast, but mostly wanna learn about you, because I think you’ve got an interesting story. So Kit, share with us, what got you into this? What’s your story? I mean, were you traveling from a young age or what?
What happened?
Kit Parks (02:44.238)
I did travel at a young age when my father worked for Pan Am. So we did some international travel then. And then I thought travel was something that you did when you retired. I was a workaholic. All I did was work from the time, actually as a teenager until now, I never seemed to stop. And I did not get back into travel until around 2008 when my late husband and I had a plant nursery. We-
We’re no longer anchored to the farm because every time we tried to go anywhere, the plants would die. It was very expensive and we just got the bug. It was, it was time. We had the time. We had saved up the money to start doing things, but I still didn’t even know something like adventure travel even existed. That was a few years later after I had discovered hiking and backpacking, oddly enough, through a book on the history of the Appalachian trail that just started me down this rabbit hole of
that it’s not such a bad thing to get dirty and sweaty. And that sometimes to see the really pretty places in the world, that’s the only way you can get there. And I met a gentleman when I was trying to learn how to do the Appalachian Trail, who was every year doing these really exciting trips that I thought were for special athletes or special people. I didn’t think somebody normal like me could do that. And about six years after I met him, he said, I said, where are you going next year? He said, oh, we’re going to Nicaragua. Why don’t you come? And I was like, what? Me? How could I go backpacking to Nicaragua?
And I said yes, because he said he thought I was strong enough to do it. And it was a life changing event. Jason. I mean, I, I totally changed my life.
Jason Elkins (04:17.954)
Did you, I’m curious, did you meet him on the Appalachian Trail or how did that, how’d you make that connection?
Kit Parks (04:22.082)
No. So I was trying to learn everything I could, because to me, the woods were this big dark scary place that you, you know, you safely saw from the seat of your car. You didn’t go in the woods. And so I read every book I could find. And I’d seen that this guy Warren Doyle had done the Appalachian Trail more than anybody in the world. And he had an institute, the Appalachian Trail Institute that had a class the next month.
For five days, he would teach you how to through hike, even though I only went to section hike, I figured the more knowledge, the better. And that’s where I met John.
Jason Elkins (04:54.638)
Okay, that is very cool. And so tell us about your journey on the Appalachian Trail. Did that come through to fruition or did you get distracted by Nicaragua or what happened?
Kit Parks (05:05.458)
No, no, because Nicaragua was like, six years later, seven, yeah. So this was 2011. I went to the school. I had planned to do a two week section hike that next summer, which I did. So I went from Damascus down to Hot Springs and which Warren Doyle had, he had told us all the prettiest parts of the AT. So that’s what I’ve been trying to do over the years, just doing day hikes or backpacking trips to see the best of the AT because I’m not.
Jason Elkins (05:08.598)
That was years later. Yeah.
Kit Parks (05:31.114)
willing to give up five months of my life to do the whole thing. I don’t have that desire. And after two weeks, I really would like comfort again, is what I’ve learned about myself. And again, that backpacking trip was life-changing as well, because I had just finished remodeling my dream house. It had everything I ever wanted in the house and yard. And over that two weeks, I was like, everything I need is on my back. And why am I a slave to my house? And so that just reframed my whole life and what was important to me. So all, everything was just.
leading me down this whole change of mindset.
Jason Elkins (06:05.634)
So what I hear is, had you never been camping at all before you started this? I know there’s a lot of definitions.
Kit Parks (06:12.654)
Girl Scouts one night in a cabin. Yeah. Girl Scouts one night in a cabin when I was probably 12 and then a weekend in Boone, North Carolina with my sister when I was probably 10 and that was it.
Jason Elkins (06:27.522)
Okay, very, very cool. And so when somebody, there’s a few things you mentioned there that really I think are super interesting about learning how to do it, right? So you’re like, I was trying to learn, I was reading books, I went and did this course, because it was a big change. If you’ve never done that type of thing, it probably felt fairly overwhelming, right?
Kit Parks (06:47.718)
Yes. Uh, I can gratefully thank a gentleman by the name of Casey, who I was like, surely I was living in the Raleigh area, Raleigh, North Carolina area at the time. And I was like, surely there must be hiking clubs or something that I can learn how to hike because I just had never done it before. And so that’s when I discovered Meetup, which was another life changing thing. Cause I’ve been a work at home person without children. It’s really hard to meet people in a new area. And so I showed up.
Jason Elkins (07:05.431)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (07:16.386)
to the hike and Casey didn’t laugh at me. When I told him I wanted to learn how to hike and I wanted to section hike and he kind of took me under his wing and was very helpful and giving me encouragement. And then I also, they had a backpack conditioning meetup and I signed up for that. I didn’t even know what a backpack was, Jason. They said, bring a backpack with like 10 pounds of weight in it. I didn’t have a backpack. I went next door to my, the high school kid. I said, I need to borrow your book bag.
And I just put books in the book bag and brought that. And so Sherry, who is the leader of that, quietly rolled her eyes when I showed up, but she and I are now very, very close, but she could see that was serious. But when I, it was just, it was amusing, but I totally clueless beyond clueless.
Jason Elkins (07:44.014)
I’m sorry.
Jason Elkins (08:00.13)
You were really putting yourself out there, right? Is what I hear is just kind of like, okay, I don’t care if people laugh at me. I don’t care, I’m gonna do this. I’m just gonna do this. And I suspect that there’s, that you have characteristics, the kind of personality characteristics like that from prior to, so let’s go back to before you got into this in your career, you said you worked all the time, you’re workaholic. In hindsight, are you able to look back and see, oh yeah, I had these skills.
that I acquired from my previous life that I was able to kind of parlay into what you’re doing now.
Kit Parks (08:36.386)
I would say just thinking the way you phrased that question, I would say two things come to mind. I’ve been selling something all my life. So I’m used to rejection, I’m very thick skinned and I’ve also started lots of small businesses, many of which failed. So I’m used to failure. I found that it’s not the worst thing in the world. And I generally learn something even in the biggest catastrophe. So I’m not afraid to fail. I think that’s my superpower.
Jason Elkins (09:01.662)
I thought you might say something like that. That’s kind of what I was sensing. That’s why I was curious what you were doing before. And not everybody has that as their superpower. And I’m sure there’s some people listening to this that might not identify with that. And I’m curious, what would you tell them if they’re listening to this, they’re interested, right? In doing it. So what do you think most people, what’s the barrier? What’s getting in the way that you can help people get across right now?
Kit Parks (09:29.73)
First of all, they probably have the same mindset that I did that is for special people, for extraordinary people. I’m about as ordinary as you can get. And if I can do it, anybody can do it. And that’s the whole reason I did my show.
Jason Elkins (09:41.238)
What do you? Right, and what do you, I’m curious, what do you mean by special people? What does that mean to you?
Kit Parks (09:47.534)
athletes or endurance people or people with special grit and fortitude and resilience and I found that’s actually a learned skill.
Jason Elkins (09:59.266)
Very, very cool. So what was, okay, so you read books, you took the course, you started, you just took action. You got on, Meetup is great, by the way. If anybody’s listening to this that’s not aware of that. I don’t know if it’s shifted a little bit in the last couple of years. It seems like it has.
Kit Parks (10:12.29)
It has. Yeah, I think it’s moved out of Facebook groups now. I think they started getting expensive. So people moved over to Facebook is what I’m seeing because I just again moved. So I’m in the same boat again, trying to meet new people.
Jason Elkins (10:18.711)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (10:23.498)
Yeah, I was using Meetup for a while, and then kind of the whole pandemic thing, it just kind of really seemed to shift and never really got its traction again. And so Facebook group, let’s discuss that. Some resources, because obviously you provide resources. There’s other resources. So what are the best resources for somebody that’s listening to this thinking, like, I wanna be more adventurous. I wanna go have adventures. What are your top three, four resources for that?
Kit Parks (10:52.182)
First of all, I would give a little piece of advice that I probably shouldn’t include on the other question. And that is to do something I learned once, it’s like plus one, whatever your comfort zone is, wherever your starting point is, just go just a little bit outside your comfort zone. Once you say, hey, that wasn’t so bad, then you go just a little bit outside and just keep pushing yourself. And eventually you’re gonna have whatever your big audacious goal is, you’re gonna get there. But don’t necessarily just leap, all right, I’m gonna climb Kilimanjaro.
Maybe the big thing to do is to climb the mountain in the next town over or the next state over, whatever it is. If you’ve never been out of the state, go to the next state. If you’ve never been out of the country, maybe go to an English speaking country. Just challenge yourself to just do one little twitchy thing more than you did the last time. And I think you get confidence also with training. And that’s the thing I promote very heavily on my show is I push people to go outside their comfort zone, just that little plus one.
and I pushed them to train so you have confidence. When I did that section hike on the AT, they nicknamed me Xena, like the warrior princess, because I had so over-trained. I could have done anything. I’ll never be that fit as long as I live. Just, I was scared to death. And so to compensate, I was an Amazon woman.
Jason Elkins (12:08.654)
Okay, so based on what you just said, do you feel like you maybe should have taken your own advice and just went a plus one to work your way up to it? Cause it kinda, what I heard was, man, I was like really kinda in my head about this and over trained, over trained, over trained. And did that maybe get in the way? Did that make it more difficult or did it, I mean, obviously it worked for you, you’re still doing it.
Kit Parks (12:31.191)
Well.
But over the five, six months that I trained before I even went on my first overnight backpacking, so I backpacked two nights prior to my June adventure with my meetup group. So one was just an overnight just to test it and see it. And then Grayson Highland’s beautiful place, we recommend. And then the other was a two or three night weekend with my friend Casey and his group. And…
Jason Elkins (12:48.994)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (13:04.494)
I guess it probably would make sense. I just, I didn’t have that time. So, and I, and I, so I did it from more of an educational and I picked everybody’s brains. I read every book and I said, I hiked every single weekend on these conditioning things. And then I was biking or walking or doing lifting weights or doing everything else during the week.
Jason Elkins (13:09.058)
Yeah, I guess.
Jason Elkins (13:26.582)
If you had done half the training that you did, would you still have had a successful two week hike?
Kit Parks (13:34.626)
Yes, no doubt. I was determined. And I went with two girlfriends, neither of which had time to… Oh, this is a funny story I can tell you. So with two girlfriends that did not train as well as they should have, and I had gotten on the trip with Casey, I… Again, you don’t know what you don’t know. People were always treating their water, and I was like, you know, people all over the world drink their own water.
I bet you I could save some weight because I was really into shaving the grams and all that. If I didn’t have to treat my water, maybe I could teach myself to drink untreated water. So that weekend, everybody’s treating their water. Now remember, you don’t know what you don’t know. I took my SteriPin, I just kind of dabbed it in there and man, did I get giardia. Oh my God, I got so sick. I didn’t know it was a parasite. I just thought it was something you could get used to. And Moran Doyle also, he brags that he never treats his water and so I was stupid.
Anyhow, and then, so I had the antibiotics for that. This is two weeks before my big trip and it goes away, but then it came back. There was some lives, some super ones lived. And so it came back with a vengeance. I’ve never been so sick in my life. And I lost six pounds in two days. And I was supposed to start my big adventure that weekend, but fortunately they had not trained as well. So they were slow getting started that first week. And by that time my body had recovered, but I could have.
done far less training. I just felt more comfortable being that strong, but no, it was stupid. So memo to everybody, treat your water.
Jason Elkins (15:09.026)
It’s a really good one. I’ve had that as well. And I’m not going to say it’s a good weight loss strategy, but it is effective, maybe is the right word. But instead of trying to lose 20 pounds by getting Giardia, maybe just trying to hold a little bit more so you can carry that extra 20 pounds around with you. Yeah. So the reason I ask that is because I believe, and I know in my personal experiences, it’s not that I’m not going to lose 20 pounds.
Kit Parks (15:17.501)
Right.
Jason Elkins (15:37.086)
Sometimes I get a little bit too much in my head. And I’m like, oh, I gotta plan everything, over analysis paralysis or whatever. It’s spent so much time getting ready that I don’t go. It’s like I spend so much time getting ready, I don’t go. But then I also, on the other side of the spectrum, I see the value of preparation. Because just showing up, not knowing anything, with a book bag to hike two weeks, that could be an issue as well.
So I’m curious like how in this particular area, how do people know whether it’s too much, not enough? I don’t know how you qualify that, but what do you think? Because I think it’s important that people don’t, I don’t want anybody listening to you thinking, oh my gosh, I got to train for six months. I got to do this, I got to do that. I got to do so much that then they’re just like, I’m not even going to do it.
Kit Parks (16:19.57)
I would, uh…
Kit Parks (16:31.274)
Okay, there’s two pieces of advice I would give. Number one, I would refer them to my other podcast, the Adventure Travel Show podcast, where I break down the different skills that you need for adventure travel, and that includes things such as training. Also, I’ve done several episodes on the Active Travel Adventures podcast, as well where I talk to personal trainers about how to best prepare, and then…
If you don’t have a circle of friends that can help assist you or you feel confident, they do have online personal training coaches that are very reasonable. I can refer you to the one that I use and Is that all right or May I say okay. Okay. So I recommend becky at trailblazer wellness And if you tell her that we talked that she will give me 10 off, but she will customize a program for you
Jason Elkins (17:14.326)
Yeah, no, absolutely. Yeah, tell us.
Kit Parks (17:25.45)
using the equipment you have at home, using the time that you have at home, so that you feel confident as best as you can to accomplish whatever it is that you’re trying to do, whether it’s hiking, biking, paddling, whatever it is to get your body in shape for whatever the adventure you have planned. So that gives you that confidence in your back pocket.
Jason Elkins (17:45.23)
Very cool. I’m curious, is this a conversation that’s different for women as opposed to men? I mean, there’s certain elements or very much a lot of crossover. I know you’ve got a lot of, you know, both listening to your shows and following your advice. And I think it’s worth having a conversation about, you know, what is the difference for women? If you’re speaking to an audience of women as opposed to an audience of men, what, let’s get real. What do we need to discuss?
Kit Parks (17:56.675)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (18:12.99)
The main thing I see between women and men doing something is women will worry more about their safety, generally speaking, in regards to being around a strange man, or sometimes even being hurt. We cannot, I mean, almost, that’s the fear of rape is the thing that women seem to be afraid of the most, because guys and gals can trip and sprain their ankle, and then they’ve got to figure out how to get back to base camp. Guys, you know, we can, everything else seems to be…
pretty much the same as far as the responses that I get. Outside of that, aren’t you scared to go by yourself? And again, I wouldn’t recommend that people do that right away and always check. I always like to ask the locals and I will do what the locals tell me, even if I think I’ll be all right. And I did that recently. And we talked about that last time we met, last time we talked, that because of locals advising me not to go to Medellin by myself as a solo female.
I didn’t go even though that’s where I wanted to go and talking to you like, ah, it’s fine. I was like, oh shoot, I should have done it. But I will air with the side of the locals.
Jason Elkins (19:20.29)
Yeah, it is a tough thing. And I realize, I believe anyway, that men and women live in a different world. Everybody lives through their own perspective, whatever your perspective is. And I think, yeah, I’m happy that you brought that up, because I think that’s something that holds a lot of women back from doing adventures stuff. And
groups. I mean, what advice do you, I mean, listen to the locals, but I’m just curious, like, tell me a little bit more. Like, what are you going to say to these women that are like, I’m just really scared about it.
Kit Parks (19:50.19)
All right.
then go on a guided tour. And I do that a lot of times because not only are you safer and you have somebody that knows the territory and has all that figured out, it’s also easier logistically for me. So I very rarely will go into strange mountains that I’ve never been to before because I don’t know what I’m gonna come across there. And also that’s always an up and back. Whereas if you go on a guided tour,
I’ll give you the example of the Tongariro crossing in New Zealand. Beautiful. You know, one of the world’s greatest day hikes. You don’t want to go there and back. It’s too long. So you go with a group, you start, you get there. And then at the end of the day, there’s a van waiting for you, off with a cooler, a beer or sodas for you. That’s really nice way to travel. And you have the safety in numbers. You have the safety of the guide and you have the camaraderie of the other people on the adventure with you. And I’ve met friends from all over the world by going on these guided tours.
And generally speaking, we’ll do that.
Jason Elkins (20:51.278)
It’s very cool. I have actually spoken with a few different operators now that offer specifically women’s adventures. You know, that they only take groups of women. Have you had experience with that? What are your insights in that to anybody that might be listening?
Kit Parks (20:58.797)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (21:09.266)
I did one and I did a rafting trip down the middle fork of the Salmon River as a women’s only group. Even our rafting guides were women, which is pretty cool because that can be a pretty gnarly river. And I wasn’t sure what the dynamics were gonna be, to be honest with you, because frankly, most of the people I ended up going with are men and, or couples, and that’s a different dynamic. And we had a, yeah, we had a blast. You know, I was like, you know,
Jason Elkins (21:33.706)
It is. That’s why I’m asking.
Kit Parks (21:38.074)
Sometimes women will have some reputation, sometimes they’ll be a little more competitive. Everybody was so supportive and helpful and encouraging and that’s a terrific way to go.
Jason Elkins (21:52.65)
Yeah, I thought that might be. OK, so let’s shift gears a little bit, because you’re unique. You’ve traveled an awful lot. And over the course of, when would you say the, I mean, you took a period of time where you were basically traveling full time, right?
Kit Parks (22:03.307)
Yes.
Kit Parks (22:09.226)
Yes, for about from, from 20, in 2016. So I had the lag. So 2008 through 10, I traveled a lot and that was with my late husband. Then he got sick right after I got back from that big backpacking trip. And so the next few years was dealing with his illness, his death, trying to, the business we had let kind of falter while he was sick. So just life was chaos from, he got diagnosed the day after I got back from that backpacking trip until.
around 2016, I finally was coming out of the fog. I got upset with one of my tenants. I was the landlord at the time. And I just said, I’m gonna book a trip to France for six weeks, I don’t know how I’m gonna do it. I don’t know how I’m gonna get away, but I’ve had it. I don’t wanna live my life like this anymore. I’m not having any fun and I’ll just figure it out. And I did it. And I was like, that worked all right with the internet and something broke, I could call somebody and they could do it. And I said, that’s pretty sweet. And
That led to within a year, I was traveling six months out of the year while still working. And then at 2020, end of February 2020, I by accident bought a camper van. And right after the lockdown in April, I went on the road. And so I traveled most of COVID. And once
Europe opened up, I went to Europe and I was then traveling full time and sold my house, sold the business and just got off the road just a few months ago. So almost half time 2016 through 2019 and then full time 2020 until recently.
Jason Elkins (23:58.958)
Do you mind if I ask what, so losing your husband at that point in life, you had done some traveling and then you lost him and I can’t even imagine what that must be like. And I suspect that it shifted your perspective of life, your perspective of travel, adventure. So if you don’t mind, I’d love to hear kind of what came out of that as far as you’re, you know, you’re talking to other people maybe that
Kit Parks (24:03.75)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (24:27.806)
are waiting for retirement to travel. I guess that’s where I’m going with this. Is they’re waiting for retirement. You know, they have this dream of spending this time with their partner traveling the world or by themselves, whatever, but shit happens. Life happens.
Kit Parks (24:31.123)
Yeah.
Kit Parks (24:42.622)
It does, my parents warned me so many times. They were very adventurous. And I don’t know why I never made the connection because they didn’t do it until they retired. Fortunately, they had the body that they were able to do it. But they said most of their friends waited to do the things they wanted to do when they retired. And they had the money and the time, but they didn’t have the body anymore. And so all their big dreams, whether it was just to walk the streets of Paris, they couldn’t do it anymore. And so…
Definitely the Carpe Diem sees the day because you don’t know. I’ve had two friends in the last year have catastrophic accidents that one may be a quadriplegic, he fell down the stairs and snapped his neck. The other one, and he just finished a Camino. He just finished a 500 mile walk, you know, a couple of weeks before. The other one, I met when she just finished Machu Picchu and she got mauled by some pit bulls and lost a leg. So now she’s…
regrouping, trying to figure out how to do everything again. So you don’t know. Neither one of them had any idea this time last year that their whole lives are about to just go topsy-turvy on them. And it could be the illness or death of a spouse or partner. It could be some silly slip of the ankle, who knows?
Jason Elkins (26:01.442)
Was your husband interested in travel? Did he travel with you those first two years or?
Kit Parks (26:07.335)
He did. He was, to be frank, not my favorite travel partner, because he wasn’t very adventurous as far as food or activity. So he was somebody I would spend like a half a day and then I’d park them in a pub somewhere. I said, I’ll see you later. And so I would do my own thing. If I want to travel with somebody specific, I usually go to my sister, Terry. She and I have been on like five or six adventures together. And she’s gotten into adventure travel.
since the group I went to Nicaragua with. I invited her to join us the following year when we went to Costa Rica. Now she’s got the bug and that’s the only way she travels now.
Jason Elkins (26:43.886)
How do you test somebody? I remember when I was young, my father used to tell me. We were into adventure stuff. We’d be up climbing, caving, doing all the stuff, camping. And he used to tell me, Jason, when you choose a partner, a life partner, before you decide on anybody, you should take them camping for a week, or take them caving, or take them exploring, because you’ll see a whole, you’ll see their true self will come through.
Not necessarily in a bad way. If people don’t like to go camping, that’s fine. I get it. But how do you test a travel partner? If someone reaches out to you and says, Kit, I want to, I see you’re going somewhere. I want to go with you. Like, what are you looking for? How do you figure that out?
Kit Parks (27:28.558)
Your father gave you excellent advice. And I think that adventure travel is a good way to test that. Maybe just do a smaller mini of whatever it is, because you will find out if they’re high maintenance, if there are whiners, because you just, in fact, I led the only trip I’ve ever led, although I’m thinking about another Camino, Costa Rica Camino last year. It’s a brand new long distance trail from the Caribbean to the Pacific. And I had a rule that they had to agree to a one wine rule.
that they could tell us their problem one time, but that’s all we wanna hear about. We wanna know they have a problem, but we don’t wanna hear it. And everybody abided by it, and it was great because you don’t wanna go with somebody that’s gonna complain. I’ll give you a great example of why I love Terry. We went to Peru for a month last year, and I planned, we did the Machu Picchu, and then I kind of outlined what we were gonna do, and I wanted to go see the salt flats in Bolivia.
and the company I was getting the transport with, it made it look like you could get to La Paz, go to the Salt Flats for a day and then come back. But no, it’s eight hours each way. So we ended up spending three nights in a row sleeping on a bus to go see the Salt Flats because she had to get back. She never even said, boo. That’s the kind of person you wanna travel with. I mean, I totally messed up, totally, totally. And she’s like, well, whatever, you know, that’s who I wanna travel with.
Jason Elkins (28:53.398)
I remember there’ve been a few times in my life where I met somebody, you know, maybe romantic, but not necessarily that it’s just like, okay, let’s go have an adventure. And you don’t really know him that well. But I’ll tell you by the end of sometimes three days, depending on what you’re doing, you really know that person. And it’s like, okay, yeah, we’re aligned. I’d like to travel with this person again, or oh my gosh, because of just my personality, I probably never talked to him again.
Because if they don’t want to go out and adventure, I feel like I don’t have anything in common with them typically. But it’s, yeah. And part of why I ask is because so many people that are thinking about getting into this, I see them in social media. Oh, I’m looking for a travel partner. I want to go here. I want to go there. Who can I? And frankly, I always get a little nervous when I read those posts. I’m like, man, that sounds seems so risky to just pick up and go share a place. And Nick Rogg went together for two weeks. It’s like.
But, you know, I guess.
Kit Parks (29:55.938)
However, if they’ve already been adventurous and done fun things, like adventures like we’re talking about, then they’ve been pre-vetted because you get sifted out pretty quickly if you’re the high maintenance kind. And I’ll give you an example. So I love my listeners, most of which I’ve never met, although I have emails back and forth, but I was like, hey, I’m gonna be going to, I was gonna do the hike in the Dolomites.
Jason Elkins (30:08.214)
It does self select a bit. Yeah.
Kit Parks (30:23.83)
going to bike and boat in Croatia. And I was like, well, there’s, these are postponed trips from COVID. I was gonna combine those. I was like, Slovenia’s right in the middle. So I think I’ll go to Slovenia in between, just work my way down to the boat. And so I said, hey, if anybody wants to go. And so this gal said, I’ll go with you. Never met her until Ljubljana. And in fact, we have this photo because everybody’s like, are you crazy? I was like, you know, Mr. MasterCard can actually solve any problem.
may not be fun or it could be expensive. We just go our own ways and you take the, we did a self-guided tour of Slovenia. It was fantastic, but people are like, you’re crazy. So we posed with a big butcher knife. Like we were doing that ee out of a psycho and sent it to all of our friends, both of us holding the knife over the other one, exclaiming how they’re about to die. And they’re like, and it worked out fine. In fact, she went to Costa Rica with me last year and
Yeah, so she was a big hiker. It had worked out fine. Anybody that’s listening to my show, that’s done anything, it’s fine.
Jason Elkins (31:31.322)
I think you’re right, especially because they can listen to your show. So they can bet it a little bit as well. Like, OK, let’s get somebody I think that I would align with. And if you don’t have that ability, those recorded interviews, those things, I’m imagining like a Zoom call or something with a potential travel buddy or partner. It’s like, let’s spend 20 minutes, 30 minutes on a Zoom call. And because I’ve never traveled with you, I don’t know. Would you advise that? And if so, like.
Kit Parks (31:35.307)
Mm.
Kit Parks (31:50.123)
Hmm.
Jason Elkins (32:00.49)
What are your top three or four questions you would ask somebody like to quickly? Because when we’ve had experiences, we tend to look for flags. We kind of know like I would ask people what they want to eat. I would ask them what they like to eat. Honestly, that would probably be my first question, because I feel like I learned so much about somebody sometimes when they, you know, in that regard. But I don’t know what’s your experience.
Kit Parks (32:01.788)
Mm.
Kit Parks (32:09.422)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (32:21.282)
Mm-hmm. Well, I’ll use the trip with Sheeran as an example, because even though we were on a self-guided tour, we had an itinerary today, we’re going to be biking such and such tomorrow. We might be doing whatever. We were sharing a hotel, but we didn’t necessarily have to share every meal together. We didn’t, and often we didn’t. We would, if she wanted to walk around the lake and I wanted to go…
We still had the bike. I still want to bike ride some more, whatever the case may be. Um, I don’t know. And like I said, I, I tend to be. Probably more bold than most on something like that. I would just leave, you know, what’s the worst that’s going to happen. You get a funny story out of it.
Jason Elkins (33:07.478)
You’re right. Yeah, no, you’re right. I did meet somebody at one point that we had talked about doing some traveling together. And she told me about her trip to Egypt. And she was there for two weeks. And all she ate were potato chips out of a bag and Coca-Cola for two weeks. I thought, hmm, because I really enjoy food. But a big part of what I enjoy about the food is sharing the food.
Kit Parks (33:26.222)
Yeah.
Kit Parks (33:30.539)
All right.
Kit Parks (33:34.05)
Alright.
Jason Elkins (33:34.126)
I see it as a real social thing. I’m like, I’m not sure. I mean, she’s a great person. We’ve done some stuff together It’s a lot of fun, but I was there’s definitely some differences in the way people travel. So Anyway, don’t
Kit Parks (33:46.958)
I love good food, but I would just do my own thing. You eat your chips, I’m gonna go there, and I don’t know, I can strike up a conversation with anybody, so it wouldn’t be long I’ll be talking to somebody.
Jason Elkins (33:56.898)
That’s that is true. I see that in you. I’m going to ask you the dreaded question just to see how you answer it. Where’s your favorite place? Where’s the favorite place you’ve been? I know you’ve been asked this probably a thousand times and just curious how you answer it.
Kit Parks (34:14.61)
I have an answer for you. I used to call my favorite place is a little harder than favorite trip. My favorite trip used to be my month in New Zealand. And it’s still like, it can’t be more epic than that trip. But last year around this time, a little closer to about a year ago, I went to Antarctica via the Falkland Islands and the South Georgia islands. And that was so magical between.
the animals and the landscape and the people on the expedition and just getting out and kayaking around penguins and icebergs. I mean, how cool is that? And hiking on the trail of Shackleford. I mean, it was just mind blowing. And the people that went there, it’s very hard to get to. It can be very expensive to get there. So it was self-selected too to be just really interesting people that had done, they’ve done everything else and what’s left was in Antarctica. So it’s just a really cool group.
people.
Jason Elkins (35:12.142)
It’s that is cool. And yeah, and I guess we’ve already touched on, but that self-select thing, right? That, cause something like that. Yeah. You’re going to get interesting people that are open-minded, curious, which is what I love about adventure travel. I love just travel and I can create adventures traveling, however I travel. But when it comes to being with a group, I really kind of want it to be around adventure because it does attract those people that an adventure could be. Anything a cultural stay at a, um, you know, indigenous.
Kit Parks (35:15.884)
Yeah.
Kit Parks (35:26.501)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (35:41.634)
camp in northern Columbia, to paragliding, to whatever. But it’s about that open-mindedness, that curiosity, that, like you said, ability to do that plus one, do what I’m comfortable with plus one. And generally, you find that in groups. So I’ve always really, really enjoyed that. And OK, so where’s the place? Magic Wand. You can go anywhere in the world you want to go.
Kit Parks (35:55.918)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (36:11.362)
that you haven’t let’s say you haven’t been because you already told me you’re some of your favorites but you could go anywhere that you have not already been for two weeks where do you go magic one.
Kit Parks (36:22.538)
Hmm, is this, I would say if I had to pick one place, I keep not making it to is I would like to do the Kumano Kota trail in Japan.
Jason Elkins (36:33.678)
Oh, okay, why? I know nothing about it. So tell me.
Kit Parks (36:35.678)
Well, Japan fascinates me on so many different levels. It’s just, I like going to cultures that are completely different. They’re very homogenous. So unlike a lot of countries where it’s a mishmash and people all look and dress the same and act the same, they have a very distinct culture. It’s very neat and tidy and orderly and the food.
I understand from chefs, if they had to decide they could only eat one cuisine for the rest of their life, virtually always pick Japanese. And I thought that was very interesting. My girlfriend went there and I had interviewed her for the show and she sent me a picture of this one dinner she had that had like 40 little individually beautifully decorated bites of things that she got for dinner. And it just looked amazing. I just would like to see it for myself.
Jason Elkins (37:08.512)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (37:28.246)
And I would like to do that Caminacoto, which is the sister trail of the Camino.
Jason Elkins (37:28.771)
So.
Jason Elkins (37:32.286)
OK, so specific to the trail, but also Japan, because you have not visited Japan in the past is what I’m hearing. Yeah. Yeah, my son and I, yeah. No, I get it. My son and I were coming back from, I guess we were flying out of Bangkok back to the States. I’d spent a couple months with him this summer. He was 16. He’s 17 now. Amazing experience in Southeast Asia. And we had.
Kit Parks (37:37.65)
Only the airport, yep, yep. So for the culture, the food and the adventure.
Jason Elkins (38:00.398)
12 hour layover in Tokyo. So we got there, left the airport, went and got on the train, basically fell asleep on the train. And it was a commuter train, fell asleep on the train and pretty much woke up fortunately in time to get off at the stop where we thought we might wanna get off. Anyway, just walked around, went and had food, just kind of saw everything and I was like, oh my gosh, I have to come back. The food experience, but also just, yeah, it was just an interesting place.
So we got a very, very short glimpse of Japan, but I can see why people wanna go there. So, very cool. So when are you gonna do it? Let’s make a decision, Kit. I’m gonna hold you to this.
Kit Parks (38:42.373)
I haven’t… It might be spring of 2026. I’d love to, if I could time it with the cherry blossoms, that would be lovely. But also fall, I understand is gorgeous too, with the leaves. So, probably very crowded with the cherry blossom. I don’t know, but it won’t be this coming year, I don’t think, but possibly the following.
Jason Elkins (39:02.798)
That was very specific, spring of 2027.
Kit Parks (39:06.382)
No, 20, let’s see, next year is 24, 25. Spring of 25. Is that what I said? Yeah. That’s what I meant. That’s what I meant to say. Yeah. That’s what I meant to say. Yeah.
Jason Elkins (39:09.75)
Oh, OK. I don’t know. When I edit this, I’ll check it out. Yeah. Anyway, all right. So when did you decide to start podcasting and why?
Kit Parks (39:25.986)
I decided after, all right, so from Nicaragua, I met Jamie who lived in Scotland. He was having a 40th birthday party in Scotland, a hiking party and invited our whole group to go. And I was like, well, I wanna go, how about I’ll give you a party with Scots. And I was like, I can’t justify a weekend. So what else can I do? And Jamie lived in Glasgow, the party was in Fort William, and I’m looking around and Scotland’s most popular long distance trail is called the West Highland Way.
you can connect from the Kelvin walkway all the way there. So I walked a hundred miles to the birthday party and discovered walking holidays then where they move your luggage. They’re like, this is sweet. I love this way of travel. And I just, again, so between the Nicaragua and the West High, I was like, I didn’t know you could travel like this. Other people must not know. And I became so fascinated by it and so enthralled by it. I was like, I’m gonna spread the word. I’m gonna.
And I was a podcast addict at the time. So that was a natural vehicle to spread the word. Cause I didn’t see a podcast out doing the kinds of things that regular people could do on an adventure. So I was like, it’s not there. I’ll just start one. And that’s what I did. And that was about six years ago.
Jason Elkins (40:36.514)
That’s very cool. And it’s great. And when I got the idea of I was listening to a lot of podcasts and kind of felt like there weren’t a lot of conversations like we’re having. So I started looking around at the podcast came across yours. I was like, Oh, yeah, that’s great. What you’re doing is a little different than what I’m doing, but super, super fascinating. And the way you do it is great because there’s just so much variety. And like you said, inspiring, I guess, real people that aren’t athletes.
to go do things. And you kind of personify a lot of your listeners, I suspect. I mean, or, yeah. It’s a great pleasure to be here.
Kit Parks (41:13.466)
I am my target market, you know, and the bar set, I have to be able to do it. So it’s never gonna be Everest. It’s, I think the hardest thing we covered was Kilimanjaro, which I think I could do. I was worried because I don’t do altitude that well that I might not have been able to, but in Peru, I handled the altitude fine. And so I could do it. I don’t have necessarily the desire to do that, but I…
Jason Elkins (41:30.69)
Mm-hmm.
Kit Parks (41:38.794)
like the Mont Blanc circuit, things like that. I cover, that’s about as hard as we get on my show. So they’re challenging, they’re hard, but they can also be easy too. But, yeah.
Jason Elkins (41:47.426)
Yeah, well, I just suspect you’ve inspired so many people to get up off the couch and go do something. Because if I was doing your podcast, having the same conversations about the same places, it would not inspire the same result. Because there’s something different between you and I. Like you said, you are your target audience. And I think, you know, it’s maybe sometimes a little easier for guys to just pick up and go do stuff. They’ve got one less thing to worry about.
when they go do stuff. So I think it’s great to see somebody like yourself doing something. It just makes it just a little bit easier, that little threshold to get across and go do something. Do you, I know you’ve met a lot of your podcast listeners on trips and led trips with them. I’m sure you have some stories of somebody that comes to mind that just like really transformational, life shifting type of thing.
Or not, I’m not going to put you on the spot. And if you don’t, I’ll edit this out. But I’m curious.
Kit Parks (42:51.049)
Let me, let me.
Kit Parks (42:55.438)
probably, I would say my dolomites. So two listeners joined me on the dolomites hike. And we were in a group, a guided group tour and both Noma and Peg. Peg was a hiker. She was formerly quite heavy, but had decided she did not wanna live the rest of her life that way and had lost the weight and was hiking, but she had terrible knee problems. And she willed herself to do the dolomites. And I was very proud of her. And then Noma,
was just this teeny little thing. And I think she did some minor hiking in her neighborhood in Alabama, but you know, they don’t have really big mountains there. And, and she’s like, you know, they both listened to my podcast and like, well, she, if Kit can do it, I guess I can do it. And, you know, and, and so we met for the first time in Italy and both of them were just amazing. And I was proud of them and inspired by them because
like I said, no, it was such a teeny little thing and these were big mountains. And you know, they were the inspiration for me, even though they might’ve got inspired to do the trip because of my show.
Jason Elkins (44:06.926)
Yeah, no, that’s pretty cool. It’s one thing I like about this adventure tourism is you really get to see people have life-shifting changes and awarenesses. I mean, I’m sure there’s people that go do these adventures and then decide, well, it’s not for me. They don’t do it again. But I don’t think that’s. I know. That’s what I’m saying. There’s got to be. I just logically, I’m like, yeah, there’s got to be.
Kit Parks (44:25.942)
Have you met one? I haven’t. I’ve not met one. I haven’t met a one, so I don’t believe that’s true. Ha ha ha.
Jason Elkins (44:35.338)
But I guess that’s where I was going with this is the norm is, you know, it’s that first one, just like the dominoes just start falling and it goes from, you know, a couple of weeks on the Appalachian Trail to having a travel podcast, travel in the world and leading groups and hiking all over the place. And it’s, it’s pretty cool. That’s why I think it’s so important to get, not to get people. I don’t want, I’m not manipulating people, but just to encourage people to go do something.
Kit Parks (44:36.288)
Hmm.
Kit Parks (44:51.277)
Mm.
Kit Parks (44:59.595)
Mm-hmm.
Jason Elkins (45:03.222)
You know, and maybe it’s just go out and learn how to paddleboard on a lake and, you know, close by or something like that. Just start doing something. And oftentimes it really can be a huge, huge impact on your life. I’m.
Kit Parks (45:15.522)
And I, oh, sorry. I think that doing these things makes you feel better about yourself. It gives you self-confidence. It encourages you to keep trying. So I think it has a lot of benefits in your everyday life that those skills that you learn by going on an adventure transfer into being a more confident, powerful person in your day-to-day living.
Jason Elkins (45:18.35)
I
Jason Elkins (45:40.522)
I agree completely. And I recently interviewed Tom Smith, Vice President over at Intrepid. And we spoke a little bit about the loneliness issue going on in the world and how adventure travel can really be kind of a solution to that group travel. It doesn’t even need to be, again, we can define adventure however we wanna define adventure. Maybe getting up.
you know, out of your house and going and doing anything as an adventure. Um, but it, the travel really brings those connections together, I guess, where I’m trying to go with this. So go out and join the meetup or whatever, not necessarily to. To hike, not necessarily to get in shape or whatever. There’s a lot of reasons we do things, but it’s the connection that comes out of adventure, travel and tourism that I think is the most valuable for me anyway. And so.
If you’re sitting at home alone, that might be enough reason. If you’re sitting at home alone and you don’t like it, that might be enough reason to go out there and listen to your podcast, whatever. Get inspired. Go, even if that’s get on a bus and go to, where’s that place in Missouri that a lot of people like to go for the music? Branson, Branson.
Kit Parks (46:57.814)
that mall? No, that’s not Missouri. Oh, Branson. Oh, yeah, that was a drive thru town for me. Sorry, Branson folks. That was in the van. I was like, not my town.
Jason Elkins (47:04.974)
Well, I remember like, no, and that’s fine. But I’ll tell you what, for some like, my grandmother was often, you know, geez, I don’t know, you know, a lot of my friends are gone. Really like to go make some friends and stuff. And finally she went, you know, I did a couple trips on the bus to Branson and it was perfect for her. It was beautiful for her. That was an adventure trip. And so it’s anything, you know, you don’t have to go hike a mountain, but anyway.
Kit Parks (47:30.814)
And there’s something important to you were saying there as well. I think when you go on how we’re typically defining adventure with these other people, whether they’re strangers or friends, it’s a very bonding experience and you tend to get very close very quickly. And so they, you develop friendships and I’ve made lifelong friends from my adventures that I’ve gone on.
Jason Elkins (47:46.136)
Yes.
Kit Parks (47:56.594)
other adventures from them and met some of their friends who I’ve become friends with. And my friends are all meeting my other friends. And so it’s, I call it like a tangled slinky, we’re all getting together and we’re meeting all these really cool people. And I met Eva, the gal who lost her leg because one of my listeners knew I was going to be in Cusco doing my shit. I got a friend down there. Why don’t you meet? We met for coffee and became friends. And
So it’s all these different connections you make.
Jason Elkins (48:27.562)
It is, it’s so cool. And I’m happy you described it the way you did, because if you really haven’t done it, let’s, you know, let’s say you’ve just kind of done the normal thing your whole life, raise the kids. What? And there’s that that’s valuable too. I have kids. And if you’ve never been on a trip like this, you don’t really understand the dynamics, just frankly, you don’t, um, I don’t know how you could. And
as somebody that’s led a lot of group trips and have been on a lot of group trips, it’s amazing how you get a group of people, maybe you get 15, 12, whatever. This group of people comes together, they don’t know each other. Some of them have some common, maybe common friends, maybe common places they’ve been or whatever, but you might get the one person that shows up that’s never really been anywhere. They’re probably feeling a little overwhelmed. Oh, I’m new to this. I don’t know how to, what to bring, whatever. They show up and by the end of the week,
Everybody is so close. It’s just so fun to watch that, you know, the hugs, like, you know, when it’s time to say goodbye at the airport or wherever it is, the hugs and the exchanging of contact details and sharing all the photos, you just don’t realize how quickly experiences bring people together. I mean, it’s just a psychology thing. Shared experiences are one of the quickest ways to create bonds with people. It’s why dating coaches…
will tell you to, you know, don’t just go sit at a restaurant and have a conversation, you know, take your date, go do something, even if it’s dancing or go right up the tramway up to the top of the mountain or whatever. And so anyway, I’ll get off my soapbox there, but.
Kit Parks (50:04.97)
That reminds me of my New Zealand trip. One of the guys, Manny was, first of all, our group was a little bit older than Manny. He was probably easily 20 years younger than us and all the rest of us were in our 60s or nearabouts and very fit, but still. So he’s this young guy probably, well, I’m gonna say maybe early 30s. So he’s sitting in our little van that was taking us to our adventures with his earbuds in, just totally in his own world and we’re all, you know.
chatting and he was just not going to be real slow. By the end of that trip, he, no more earbuds, he was in, a complete personality change compared to the man that we met in the beginning. It was a riot.
Jason Elkins (50:46.186)
No, you’re absolutely right. On a very small micro scale, I guess, I’m a balloon pilot. I had a hot air balloon ride business. And often it was kind of similar in the sense of people don’t know what to expect. Most people that go for balloon ride have never been in a balloon. A lot of them have some apprehensions, nerves, whatever about it. And I always noticed that in the morning, well, it was early, so maybe they hadn’t really, the coffee hadn’t kicked in, but in the morning you picked them up and then on the way out there,
Kit Parks (50:52.417)
Mm.
Jason Elkins (51:15.966)
one person is just super quiet, not talking about anything. And no matter how much you try and pull them out, they’re just, nope, I’m just not gonna talk. And then you go have this experience and then on the way back, it’s like, they are your best new friend and you’re talking about family, where you used to live, where they worked, just all this stuff. And it’s just that experience of just experiencing something new. It just opens people up, most people.
At least probably anybody that’s listening to this podcast, I’m assuming, it probably is probably a good fit. We covered a lot of things. And I know that you could do a ton more episodes. You’ve done a ton of episodes. We could probably do a ton of episodes together on a variety of related topics. And I’m curious, is there anything that I forgot to ask you, should have asked you, anything that you feel like our listeners here should hear before we wrap up?
Kit Parks (52:16.17)
I would say if you’ve done adventure travel, you don’t take that part out. I would say if you have never gone on an adventure, thank you. All right. I would say that if you’ve never done anything like, adventure like Jason and I are talking about, but you’re intrigued, you wanna do it, I would recommend actually going to my website, the ActiveTravelAdventures.com website and use the search bar. So I spent a lot of time.
Jason Elkins (52:26.35)
Start again.
Kit Parks (52:41.826)
breaking it down by activity, by the month, by the continent, so that you can see, I mean, if you have no idea even what kinds of adventures we’re talking about, you’ll see right now over 150 different kinds of adventures all over the world and in the United States for all different levels of activity, that you can do it on the timeframe that’s available to you and just poke around and…
pick out something that appeals to you and just commit and do it. And then listen to the training things or like I said, I’ve got all the resources that I think you need to feel comfortable going out on an adventure, no matter what adventure means to you.
Jason Elkins (53:30.687)
Very cool. Kid Assistant, more of an informational website or do you have actual trips on there where somebody could actually take action and book a trip?
Kit Parks (53:40.554)
They don’t book directly. I do work with affiliate tour companies that I recommend. And so I will send links to those tour companies, but I don’t do the actual booking. Although I am considering putting together a Camino trip for next year, but I generally speaking, I don’t want to be the one leading the groups. So I would just, I do it, actually I do a travel planner for every adventure I cover on the show. And in that it helps you.
see when’s the best time to go, how difficult is the thing. And that’s a free thing that anybody that gets my newsletter gets of every adventure that we’ve covered. And that gives you a snapshot printer-friendly link, all the links are in there to figure out everything from your flights to the tour companies, to any, if I have a promo code, a lot of my affiliates will give me an exclusive promo code. So they can, but it’s more an informational.
website so they can kind of cull down and figure out what it is they want to do and get more information about it see Pictures see what the thing looks like when they get there because my guests will send me photos so they can see
Jason Elkins (54:44.494)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (54:49.838)
Well, that’s what’s great. It’s gather the information, and then it sounds like you can connect them with the right, maybe potentially right tour operator. And if they’re listening to this thinking, man, I really want to go on a trip with Kit, you mentioned you might do the Al Camino. I’m guessing that if they make sure they get on your mailing list, which probably involves entering in their email address somewhere on your website, then they’ll hear about those things, those opportunities, if and when they present themselves as that.
Kit Parks (55:13.11)
Yes.
Kit Parks (55:19.038)
Yep, they can do that. Or they could just email Kit at active travelventures.com and just say, hey, keep me in the loop on that. But if they do get, I just do one email a month, I don’t spam, I don’t sell people’s names. So it’s just a one back and forth conversation and often people write back and let me know what they did that month too. So I like that one-on-one, but I hate getting the bazillion emails. So I do my whole show. I have no ads because I hate ads. I have no, I don’t sell names
Jason Elkins (55:19.126)
What I’m hearing is, am I hearing that right?
Kit Parks (55:48.91)
people spam an emailer. So it’s my podcast, I can do it the way I want to, and that’s how I choose to do it.
Jason Elkins (55:54.25)
No, it’s beautiful. And I mean, I get a lot of emails in my inbox, but I’ll tell you what, if it’s travel, adventure travel related email, talking about something exciting that happened or something new, I mean, I don’t know, but I’m guessing the bounce rate for the adventure travel industry when it comes to email bounces, it has to be, I’m not gonna say high, low, better than other industries. I mean, I…
I have noticed very few people opt out of my emails because we’re bringing something interesting, you know, it’s something they’re passionate about.
Kit Parks (56:25.242)
If you opt out and most open up, yeah, when you compare email open rates to what’s normal, minor in the stratosphere compared to, because they know me. It’s like getting an email from a friend because the people know me and it’s good information.
Jason Elkins (56:36.278)
Yeah.
Jason Elkins (56:41.346)
Well, someone will sit and listen to one episode, multiple episodes. I’ve listened to you. They’ve created a connection with you. It makes sense, which is why I chose to do this as well, is to just create more connections. And I certainly appreciate the opportunity to connect with you today, Kit. Thank you so much for being here. All right, well, let’s do it again soon. I’ll talk to you soon.
Kit Parks (56:57.45)
Same here, Jason, it’s been great.
Kit Parks (57:01.895)
Anytime. Thanks, Jason.
Jason Elkins (57:03.639)
Thanks, guys.
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