This is the story of a woman who doesn’t live in a straight line. It’s the story of someone who says yes, and chooses to live outside of her comfort zone. It’s the story of a woman who sometimes travels 11 months of a year; whose home is the world. And it’s the story of a woman who wants to share all the beauty and wonder of her world with her clients and followers. This is the story of Dana Brown.
Dana Brown’s ‘gap year’ lasted three years. And perhaps it’s never really ended. At 23, she bought a one way ticket to London via a month in Thailand. Then after three years in the UK and Europe, she spent a year on a private yacht in Qatar, working for the royal family.
She finally came home after a further nine months in North and South America.
“I had no idea what I wanted to do,” she tells Karryon.
“I was at a party and ran into a friend who was working for Flight Centre at the time,” she recalls.
“And he said, I think you would really love it.”
She wasn’t fully sold on the idea, but applied for a role there. Dana went in with the mindset that if she got the job, she’d give it a year until she figured out what she really wanted to do. That year turned into seven.
She ended up running the Bondi Junction store, “and I just loved it,” she says.
“It was the only job that I’d never gotten bored with. Every day was so different. It was so exciting.”
Dana had fallen in love with travel on her own travels, she says. “And I think that’s why I’m so passionate about this industry.”
“It’s just constantly meeting new people, learning something new. And it’s being exposed to newness that makes me thrive.”
But at the end of her seven years, Dana was feeling burnt out. So she left the comforts of a regular pay cheque and went out on her own.
“I decided that was the right thing for me.”
“I wanted to free up my time, I wanted to be able to choose who my clients were. And I wanted to be able to travel, work from anywhere in the world. So that’s why I ended up joining with TravelManagers.”
On taking risks
But something profound happened in the first six months of Dana starting her business. And it’s something she says completely changed her life.
“I just had this feeling. I knew something had to change but I didn’t know what it was.”
She’d been following this person who she saw was “releasing this coaching thing”.
“I knew I had to work with them. I didn’t care how much it cost.” She signed up to do the course and gave herself six months to do both it and build up her business.
“It was really scary. I must have been 32 or 33 at the time. And I remember thinking, ‘Oh, my god, I have to move back home with my parents. What am I doing? I’m a failure.’
“But I knew I needed to change. So I just had to deal with those feelings of failure and hope to come out of the other side better.”
Dana gave up her Bondi apartment and Bondi lifestyle. She downsized to six bags, and flew home, up the coast, to her parents.
Six months later, she took off overseas and has since spent ten or eleven months of the year out of the country.
“I changed my mindset within that six months. I feel like every single area of my life, I took the craziest risks and I just became such a better person.”
The course challenged Dana to stretch her belief system and how she did everything. It pushed her to the edge and then over her comfort zone.
“I have this belief that you need to always take the leap and trust that things are going to work out. And if they don’t, what’s the worst that can happen? You have to go get a normal job again?”
On becoming a travel ‘influencer’
At school, Dana loved photography and art and did work experience as a photographer at the local newspaper on NSW’s east coast. After joining TravelManagers, she set a goal to get back into her creative passions. She started her blog Wild Hearted World.
She is now living a kind of dual life as a personal travel manager and content creator.
“I kind of created my little dream role here that I’m living,” she says.
“I’ve got a great client base and I’m posting on my social media. And I think I stay front of mind for a lot of my clients and get some really beautiful referrals from socials. So that just flows really well. And then the rest of the time, I’ve got that time to travel and write and take photos and do all of those creative things. That is my joy.”
Dana is inevitably labelled a travel influencer. And it doesn’t always sit easily with her.
“My favourite type of influencer, and I hope that I am one of these people, are those that just keep it as real as possible,” she says.
On baring her soul (and body)
Late last year, Dana posted a rather revealing pic of herself and asked her followers if they would undress to participate in a cultural performance. Because she had.
Cruising the Solomon Islands with Heritage Expeditions, Dana was invited to join in a circle with the Kwaio peoples after a cultural performance.
“You were given a choice to either take your clothes off and dress in the Kwaio attire (a loin cloth and string lei for women or leaves for men) to take part in the circle, or go back to your cabin and wait for the announcement that we had finished.
“The only way you can be in this space is if you participate. There are no videos or photos online showing the experience you get to share because it is exclusive to the Kwaio people and the guests they invite in.”
Posting an unfiltered picture of yourself while mostly naked is not easy. I ask Dana how she balances authenticity and protecting her self.
“I definitely have boundaries around what I post,” she says.
“It may not seem like because I do because I am quite an open book. But I do.
“If it’s an experience like the getting naked one, I remember asking myself the question, ‘Would you regret this if you didn’t do it?’ And the answer was an absolute Yes. So that was a no brainer for me.
“It was one of those experiences that not many people are ever going to get to have. So when I have the opportunity to share what it’s like and potentially influence someone else’s decision, then I will.”
On living an untraditional life
Dana has spent a lot of time building herself up so that she has the inner strength and tools to deal with tough times (like the odd global pandemic). But she is also unbelievably grateful for the support of her family and friends.
But it hasn’t always been easy for them to process her lifestyle.
“My dad didn’t understand how I was making money working from home and not working the normal nine to five.
“But then one of the most amazing moments happened. I was upstairs in the office at their house, which is above the front door. And I don’t know who my dad was talking to at the time. But he was boasting about me, and he was really proud of what I was doing.
“And I was like, ‘Oh, wow, he’s starting to understand how my non-traditional life works’.”
As amazing as Dana’s current path is not set in stone. Having already taken a few leaps in life, she knows that if she comes to a point where she feels that something’s not working or something needs to change, then taking another leap isn’t too big a stretch.
“Everything’s constantly changing. So I don’t want to overwhelm myself with things that may possibly never happen. Or will.”
Dana turns forty this year. Suddenly, questions about marriage and kids are being raised.
“I always felt that if I met the right person, it would just naturally happen. But now it might not happen. Am I okay with that? I had to ask myself if I want all of those ‘traditional’ things. If I’m okay with the rest of my life looking like this.”
But people with those traditional things often ask themselves the same questions. And I think in travel, especially after the pandemic, our measure of success has changed. So for your birthday Dana, I leave you with the words of someone far smarter than me:
To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty;
To find the best in others;
To give of one's self;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition;
To have played and laughed with enthusiasm and sung with exultation;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived -
This is to have succeeded.
Ralph Waldo Emerson.
