Passion, fire, adventure… all sparkling through Deb Widdick’s eyes. She’s a traveler, dreamer and the founder of Globelle Travels.
As you know, we LOVE young people supporting other young people in making their dreams happen, and that’s why we love the Globelle Travels brand and community. They are all about female travelers supporting other female travelers, through sharing their stories, celebrating their achievements, and inspiring others to take to the road.
Aside from their inspiring photos, what drew us in the most was the authenticity and depth behind each post. From just one photo, you can feel the message and passion behind the screen. We’re excited to introduce you to Debs as she shares about taking risks, funding dreams and going for something you would love to create.
Meet Debs…
Where are you in the world?
In Sydney, Australia drinking far too much coffee and eating far too much avocado on toast. But you can never get too much of a good thing, right?
How do you follow your bliss?
For me, it’s really about appreciating the little moments. Be it when I catch a glimpse of a beautiful sunrise when I’m in a rush in the morning, discovering the perfect song to encapsulate my current mood or finding a new running route which takes me past some beautiful scenery I’ve never seen before. Making time for family and friends is important too, their guidance and support for what I’m doing when I’m geographically on the other side of the world has been crucial. Gratitude, for being able to appreciate that I have the chance to experience all of these things, is also essential.
But most significantly, I follow my bliss via running globelletravels. There’s nothing quite like reading the messages from fellow female travellers who have been inspired by the instagram account and hearing how it’s positively impacted their life. Although there’s a lot of work to do with the website launch, I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.
I think working towards something you’re passionate about, which gives you the chance to achieve something that is not going to just benefit your personal goals but those of others can be instrumental to maintaining bliss. Happiness is only real when shared after all. And if you’re not quite sure what that passion is yet, that’s okay too. Just don’t be afraid to go out there and look for it.
When did the inspiration for Globelle Travels first come about?
Having left for Australia from my native England in October 2013, I received a fair few messages from friends and acquaintances asking about my experiences, ranging from how I found it travelling alone, to how I went about getting a job and place to live in a foreign country, to how I went about sorting out visas, to whether I felt safe when on the road. The sort of questions any first time traveller might have I guess. Over time, the volume of these messages increased and I realized that there wasn’t any one resource out there that female travellers could turn to.
I felt there was a real need for a compilation of information from a variety of knowledgable sources, which if you were a first time female traveller would make the prospect of exploring less daunting. And voila, in April 2014, the concept for how globelletravels could work was conceived. The name ‘globelletravels’ was chosen to emphasise that we are accessible for women everywhere, and that our aim is to celebrate the daily achievements of all female travelers. Hopefully by celebrating the truly amazing and inspiring women who take to the road, we can inspire more girls to take the plunge.
Did you know that you wanted to create this online hub before you started the Globelle Instagram account or did the response from that inspire the site?
The goal has always been to have a website to provide a resource of information and inspiration for all the wonderful female travellers out there. However, the idea for how globelletravels could work was conceived just before I headed off to rural New South Wales to complete 3 months of regional work to obtain a second year for my Australian working holiday visa. Whilst there, despite having an amazing experience, I didn’t have access to a regular internet connection, which didn’t help in moving things forward.
Another major problem was the fact that generally speaking I’m pretty incapable when it comes to technology, so the task of creating the website seemed mammoth. Where there’s a will there’s a way however, and I grew determined that even if it would take a while longer than I would like, the website was going to happen.
The positive response to the Instagram account has definitely helped inspire me to not give up; it’s not just about what I want to do anymore, as I genuinely feel something like this needs to be available to women. The woman out there achieving brilliant things in extraordinary situations deserve to be celebrated, and I think it can pave the way for many to do something more with their adventure time. The instagram account has created a brilliant community of incredible female travellers already, and I can’t wait to watch this continue to grow as globelle does. If the community does continue to grow, I think there’s a lot of potential for what globelle could offer female travellers in the future beyond the website, but it’s about taking things one step at a time.
How do you fund your dreams? Do you do Globelle full-time? Do you do other things to support you and your passions?
I fund my dream for GlobelleTravels and travelling from working full time in Sydney. Apart from when I have been on the road myself for up to 6 weeks at a time in the past year, this has always been the case regardless of what city I’ve been based in. This doesn’t always make for the ideal situation, as time to work on the site is more precious and limited than I would like.
I’m fortunate however to have a great team of gals contributing their time and efforts to globelletravels, so I do still manage to find some time for myself. More and more though, I find myself dedicating any free moment to the website; once you realise your dream is down to you to make happen, it’s incredibly motivating. If you really want something, you have to not be afraid to work for it. And sometimes this can seem daunting, as there’s no specific existing guide on what exactly the work you need to do might entail to make your dream happen, so you just have to keep trying until you find your feet.
I was recently inspired by a conversation I had with a woman on top of the Marina Bay Sands Hotel in Singapore about this. She was working on one of the docked ships, as staff captain. In order to achieve her dream of a nautical lifestyle, she had been required to study extensively. To fund these studies, and to reach her goal, she had worked relentlessly. This had been difficult for her friends to initially understand, since the lifestyle she was desperate to attain was so alien to their own goals. She only had a three hour break before she was due to go back on board for to not return to land for a further three months. I rarely meet someone who seemed so fulfilled, so happy to be living her dream. If it’s your passion, your efforts will be worth it.
In short, dreams don’t work unless you do.
If fear ever shows up in your life, how do you move passed it?
I engage with fear on a daily basis and often with regards to globelletravels. I worry my work won’t do the concept justice, and that I might let people down. It’s not a good enough reason to not try though: when this fear hits hard, I normally just take a deep breathe, make a list of what I need to do, then get to making sure I’m working on what needs to be done.
I also have the regular traveller fears; the worry I’m not making the ‘right’ decision of where to go next or where I’m staying, I worry about how I’ll manage to budget for the next few months ahead as well as whether I’m managing my time correctly. I’m currently working full time alongside running globelletravels to fund the site and I sometimes feel guilty during downtime with friends when I know the time could be spent on globelletravels, but I appreciate it’s about achieving a healthy balance. Again, when this sort of fear hits, it’s just a case of recognising the fear for what it is, assessing the situation and what action needs to be taken to overcome it, then implementing it.
I’d be concerned if I wasn’t feeling the fear however, as I actually think fear can be a good thing for a person. It can provide a driving force. If you’re afraid of doing something or the consequences it could have, it normally means there’s more you can gain from the experience than lose.
Why do you love what you do?
I love what I do because of what it’s able to offer others. I love thinking that something I’ve written might put a smile on another person who I’ve never met and probably never will’s face. I love imagining the reaction of the traveller who looks on their instagram account to just discover they’ve been featured.
I can get upset sometimes from not so friendly messages and criticism, either from trolls or people who view their projects as competition. There are a lot of similar female travelling communities which are popping up and doing a really good job of it, and I think that’s great because ultimately, the way I see it, the more support for female travellers, the better. But even these messages are a result of something I’ve put out there, and there’s nothing quite like going to sleep every evening knowing that that day, I shared a message which will have resonated with other women, and potentially even change their lives.
What’s one of the biggest risks you’ve taken, and how did it feel to go for it?
One of the biggest risks I’ve taken, aside from setting up globelletravels, and I’m not sure my parents are going to be too happy reading this, is deciding to fly to Sydney from Melbourne when I had $18.29 to my name, no accommodation organised and no employment lined up. I recall explaining this to the astounded woman sitting next to me on the plane with a look of incredulity and pity in her eyes as she just shook her head and said I was mental.
I don’t regret the decision though: I needed a change of landscape and the thrill of the sense of urgency ensured that I worked hard to land on my feet. Fortunately, within four days of landing, I’d managed to sort a sublease and a job to start the following Monday. I think part of that is down to luck, but fortune favours the brave. I think you can really surprise yourself when you put yourself in challenging situations, they give you the opportunity to excel.
That’s not to say I’d necessarily recommend someone to do the same, $18.29 won’t get you very far. But I do believe in taking risks, and the skills you can gain from them. They’ll prove invaluable for the rest of your life, and if nothing else, give you a good story to share in the pub with some friends.
Tell us a time when something totally synchronistic happened?
I’ve noticed recently there seems to be a pattern emerging; a lot of the people in my life who’ve had a lasting impact on who I am and what I want to do should only have technically made fleeting appearances. These people, some of them my dearest friends, could have just as easily never become part of my life in the first place, as our meetings were often a ‘sliding doors’ esque moment. Yet their influence and presence has remained, and as I said, proved crucial to how I am today.
For example, I met two of my greatest friends in a field at a music festival in Tasmania. I had been about to pitch my tent somewhere else, then suddenly decided to move position. 9 months later, we found ourselves unintentionally reunited on the street and discovered we were both living in the same city. That’s another thing I love about travelling and what it offers to women; the further afield you explore and the more that you see, the smaller you realise the world really seems.
What advice could you give to someone who knows what they love to do, but haven’t gone for it?
However scary it might be, you’re not getting any younger. It is better to try something and fail the first time, than let the prospect of failure hold you back and forever more be open to the ‘What If’s’ of what could have been. In the long term, what have you really got to lose?
Follow her journey on Globelle Travels, Facebook and Instagram x.
