Ep #113: How to Travel Stress-Free with Marsha Sharpe: Travel Tips and Advice for Packing and Long-Term Travel

So hi friends, I'm super excited. I have a special guest on today.
She is a neighbor, if you will. She lives up the road just a few miles. She was
also my very first client when I became a coach. And I have since coached her and
I have coached her team. She is the co -owner of an international company known as
Song Division. And I will let her explain that company later in our conversation.
She is also the board president of the Maui Food Bank. She's also the board vice
president of the IMUA Family Services organization here on Maui. So she wears a lot
of hats. She wears a lot of hats personally and professionally and in my life,
personally and professionally, I adore her. And ironically,
the reason I have her on this podcast today is actually not because of all of the
professional hats that she wears or because we have a personal relationship, but she
has a particular expertise in addition to being a great wife and mother and friend
and colleague. She is also a world traveler, which is something that for any of you
who've ever listened to my podcast know, I'm not a huge fan of. I have been around
the world. I have traveled to many places. I don't have that calling that so many
people do who love to travel for business or love to travel for pleasure. And the
truth is the reason secretly is partly because I'm a homebody and partly because I
have an inordinate fear of packing, which I have done many blog posts on. And every
time it comes up and I have a trip coming up, I call my My friend, Marsha Sharpe,
and I say, "Oh dear, I have to pack for a trip. What do I do?" So with that,
I want to welcome my dear friend and client and colleague and all things Marsha
Sharpe to the podcast. Thank you, Jackie. It's an honor to be here.
Oh, thank you. So Marsha, I'm going to kind of dive in in the middle. Okay.
Okay. You and your husband, Andy, and your daughter, Coco, went on a family
excursion around the world in which you decided because your company,
Song Division, which I'll ask you to explain what that is and who that is, but
Song Division is international. And so because you are so international, you decided,
you and your husband decided you could take two years and travel around the world
and homeschool your daughter for a few of her grades. She is off the charts,
intelligent and could probably teach school herself, but you decided to pack up as a
family and travel the world and while running your businesses. So I'd love for you
to talk about how that came to be. And then we're gonna get into how do you pack
for when you're traveling around the world as a single person, as a couple, or as
a family. So start with just the impetus for wanting to travel. The impetus for
wanting to travel was Andy and I kind of always talked about it, but there was a
fear of extracting ourselves from our beautiful life of Maui and our community and
taking off into the unknown and not knowing what it would be like to work and home
school and do all those kinds of things. So COVID was really the gateway to see
that our daughter Coco was an independent learner. And so she could get her work
done, very autonomous learner, and then explore, travel. She's very crafty.
So just do extra -curricular activities that she loved in her own time. So COVID
kind of taught us we could do that. She could do that. And So we took off after
COVID. As soon as things started opening up, it was Australia and then I can't even
remember the order. Nicaragua and Costa Rica and Japan and Africa and London and
Croatia and Portugal. The list is long and it wasn't planned. I think it was just
like we're here and then something someone would call us or there was some reason
to go. So Nothing was planned, which was difficult for my like spreadsheet brain,
but it also opened these opportunities for us to go and spend time at a vineyard
in Florence. And anyway, it just, it was an amazing opportunity to sort of live
freely and without a plan and structure. And as you said, still work,
still be a family, raise a daughter, educate her. I mean, incredible opportunity.
But you do have to be very flexible to have how many months was it total that you
were on the road? 20 months. 20 months. And it was everything from hotels to
Airbnb's to friends homes to camper vans. All the things. And also everything from
tropical locations to beautiful spring and fall to real winters,
all of those things. So when you started, what season were you in,
in what country? I think you started in Australia and then you went to Tasmania. So
what are we talking about fall, winter? - It was summer, it was summer. So that was
easy for both of those places. And then, I don't even know where we
America. Maybe. You know, like it was, it's kind of a blur in a good way. We
would tuck back into Maui, I was still on both of those boards, so I'd come back
for various, you know, strategic planning or events and things like that. So we were
touching base and could refresh a wardrobe. Yeah. But you did it all with a carry
on. Is that correct? Most of the time when we hit a winter location, we might take
an extra bag between the three of us or actually it was last summer we went to
Europe and we had a wedding and a black tie event and so we needed an extra bag
for that and I figured out it's a hundred pounds to post back three pairs of dress
shoes a men's suit and a dress back to Maui instead of taking it to five other
locations so there's ways of doing that of either mailing it back or We have a
great network of friends that are always moving. So I keep threatening to draw where
our luggage went, you know, like, we'd hand it back to somebody and it would go to
their house in Boston. And then it would be picked up in Las Vegas. And we had
some unbelievable. We had some transiting luggage around the world as somebody like
myself, who prides himself on being extremely organized and a great planner and a
relative analyst and always has things sort of in its place and a place for
everything. For some reason, my brain, when it comes to packing, goes into a fear
-based mode. It was interesting. I was talking to another colleague of mine, my
friend, Maggie Reyes, who was a coach, and she was getting ready. She worked in the
cruise industry, not on the ships, but in the back, and she was getting ready for
a big cruise with her husband, and she sent me a note and she said something like,
oh dear, now I have to pack. And it's like, here's somebody who's worked in that
industry, who's been on a million cruises in her life and has traveled quite a bit,
she travels quite a bit for work and conferences and things. And she said, packing
was such a drama for her. And so she texted me because she knows it's a drama for
me. And I thought, okay, it obviously is not a problem for many people. I know
people who travel for a living and they've just got their suitcase already packed. I
know people who have no fear of bringing like five bags and they don't care what
it costs and they don't care how much it weighs. They just figure I want all the
things and I'll just bring as much as I need. It's gotten very expensive to travel
with a lot of luggage. It's also very unwieldy if you're traveling by yourself and
you don't have somebody to help you. Ideally, it's great to pack small and minimally
and I just have this thought like I'm gonna need something or I'm gonna forget
something or I'm gonna be cold or I won't have the right clothes or I'll be
inappropriately dressed. And it's definitely a hangover for me from my corporate days
of going to retreats and then finding out there was a fancy dinner and I didn't
know about it or there was the tag football game that I'm supposed to play in and
I don't have sports clothes. I don't know what it is. But so can you walk us
through how you do most of your packing. I'm about to go to Whistler Canada pretty
soon for a few days, which has me on my heels 'cause I don't have any winter
clothes. How would you go about packing for five days in the snow when you are
like us and we live in a tropical location? Where would you begin? - I'd begin with
friends. I think the first couple of times we went to the snow, it was like, who's
got what? Who can lend me things. So the snow is quite, quite unique, right?
Especially when we live in Maui, we're not equipped with that. But I think my
biggest thing when traveling to different climates is layers, you know, and you've
got plenty of layers at home. So that's the best way to make yourself comfortable.
You need, you need the outerwear to protect you from the elements. Like, I is not
going to help you. So borrow some of them. If you find yourself going to those
climates regularly, then you invest in it. But in the short term, I would borrow
things and then and then layer it up, you know, and like yours is not a work
trip. So there there isn't the stress of events and things like that. But it's
always in that case, looking ahead at what those events are. But I want to hold a
mirror up to you in something that you've taught me. And can you frame the packing
situation. You know, like here is this empty suitcase and I have this opportunity to
take the things that I love and put in the suitcase. You know, I don't have a set
packing list. Like there's always white linen shirt and there's always black pants.
So there's always those staples in my suitcase. But like there's those things of the
moment that I'm really into, that I'm really excited to take with me. You know,
like I think our first stint, I was really into making smoothies and wanting to be
healthy. And so I had a portable blend jet in my carry -on, and I would set it up
in the hotel or wherever we stayed and pick up protein powder from the local health
food store and bananas and greens from the grocery store and make my smoothies in
the hotel room. You know, I'd run three of of them or their mislast trip, a friend
of mine put me onto this like LED red light mask and I was like, I'm going to do
this every day when we travel. So like, it's like, what's your favorite thing? What
brings you joy at the moment? You take that with you, you know, because then you're
excited to like, that's a little bit of home, that favorite jacket or those sweats
that you like or whatever it is, think about like, oh, I get to choose my favorite
things to take with me. That's so fun. Talk to me about what are you wearing on
the plane? I'm always wearing black pants on the plane. It's like done and a linen
shirt. And I've learned not to wear the white one because it can get stained. So
I've got kind of a gray, greeny one. And then there's layers with that. And then,
you know, my bulkier shoes, really. So if I'm going to be taking boots, then I'll
wear the boots on the plane, which is a little bit haphazard when you're leaving
Maui. And if you're taking a long flight, like I like to walk through the airport,
I like to get some steps in before we're sitting down for a long time. Oh, that's
a smart thing. That's really smart. Use the airport as your exercise for the day.
Do you bring food on the plane? Because you and I are both healthy eaters and
plain food is typically, if there is any food on the plane, sometimes there and
it's not the healthiest place to eat. So what do you do when you're traveling?
What's your meal plan? - I do take some food on the plane, depending what standard
it is. I might've had made something at home that I'll take on the plane with me.
I'll always pre -order on the flight what it is. So maybe you can get, you can put
your food allergies or preferences in. But I hate being hungry.
And so I'll have a bag of some nuts and you know almond butter sachets and some
granola bars all those kind of little things on the plane for myself and my family
who are often hungry too. I was gonna say you're also packing for your family so
what's your carry -on preference like what goes in your carry -on not not your carry
-on suitcase but you're like your extra bag. I've got a backpack because I don't
want to be weighing one shoulder down you shoulder down. We tend to shove everything
in and then you're off balance. I've got a backpack that slides onto the handle of
the carry -on. So then you're pulling that along with you. But in that is my
laptop, a notebook, snacks. I do have a very light change of clothes in there
because sometimes you ask for me carry -on. And so then I have a small cleanser,
all those kinds of things. So if I get stuck, I'm a creature of habit and my skin
is very sensitive, so I've got all of those things with me and slip gummies and
organizer for all my charges, headphones, all those kinds of things. They're the
staples that always go in my backpack. That's my next question. If you're going to
different countries, it's different electrical outlets and chargers and things, so
you've just got a little kit and then that goes in and that stays with you in
your backpack. That stays with backpack. I'll take the ones out that aren't relevant.
I've got this right now that has the prongs that come out, so it's not all these
attachments. That's getting easier and easier, I think. Yeah. And cosmetics.
So again, as men, like my husband uses, it's like the joke that you see on
Instagram, where women have shampoo conditioner, leave -in conditioner, defrizzing for
their hair, this kind of gel, this kind of whatever. And then men have a bottle
and they can literally shampoo, clean their body, wash their face and shave with it,
like one thing. So again, probably not applicable to men, but to women, we have a
lot of cosmetics, the older we get, we have more because of all the things you've
just mentioned. How do you deal with all the different cosmetics? And you can't get
everything around the know. So my cleanser is like this special one from Australia,
which is a pain, but it's the only one that works for me. And so I've bought that
in bulk, and then I decanter it into smaller, aeroplane friendly tubes.
So if it's a long stand, I might be taking multiple cleansers in multiple small
containers. So that's, that's it. It's just moving them into smaller containers and
anticipating how much I'm going to need. And then there's a Sephora all over the
world, right? So if you're buying something, you know that's a support, then you
know you can pick that up somewhere else if you're going. Yeah, it was challenging
to kind of anticipate I'm going to need this much when the stint was unknown.
For sure. And actually, some of the countries were unknown because you weren't sure
exactly what order you were going in. How often did you get to a place And either
there was a freak rainstorm, freak snowstorm, freak heatwave, and then you've got all
these maybe woolens or heavy stuff, and you don't have a t -shirt and a pair of
shorts. How often would it be completely the opposite of what you'd expect? Or like
you said, something got stained, your beautiful white linen shirt got stained, you
can't get it out, and that was your staple for going out for dinner or something
like that. Then what? It's easy to buy a white linen shirt and it was kind of fun
sometimes to be like well now I get to buy one You know unfortunately the white
linen shirt blends really well into hotel bedding So sometimes when packing would
miss that because you'd look at the bed and go up left nothing and then that that
was
Shirts which now have nice memories attached to them because I bought it in
Barcelona or somewhere different
And then we went to London last June, May, and when I looked at the weather,
it was sunny and bright and everyone was telling me it was great. And then we got
there and it became freakishly cold. And I went to Uniqlo and bought a whole bunch
of, you know, very thin thermals and a rain coat jacket, which then I just gave to
one of my team at the end. So I wasn't going to use it here. Like you've got to
be willing to part with things along the way, right? and expect to lose things like
my husband was always like, we've lost a charger. I'm like, that's the cost of
traveling. Like it's going to happen. You're going to lose things along the way.
Yeah. I've got a funny story though. Someone gave us Apple tags as a Christmas gift
last year, which was the most amazing thing ever. - Yes. - After I got rid of this
suitcase in London to mail back our formal wear, I accidentally left them Apple tag
in there. So now when I look at my phone, I can see this suitcase in the
outskirts of London that has my apple tag in it, which makes me laugh all the
time. You intentionally gave it away, but you forgot the apple tag was in it.
That's hilarious. And so you keep getting reminders that your bag is somewhere.
Somewhere else. I see this bag on the outskirts of London. That's a great story. If
you don't have them when you're traveling, they're amazing. Yeah. What do you do?
You're in a new place and you're uncertain about, like, is the water drinkable?
Is the food edible? Is the street, because a lot of times great countries have
great street food, but street food doesn't mean it'll agree with everybody's digestive
systems because you kind of have to get used to it for, you know, Mexico being
classic. Like street tacos are amazing, but can you eat the street tacos and can
you drink the water or Thailand? I whether it's known as Bali Belly or something.
- Yeah, Bali Belly comes from Bali, but it's the same thing. It's that Asian water
and I Google it. And sometimes in a new place just to normalize all of our bodies,
we might drink bottled water or I will, you know, I'm the most sensitive, but I
will ease myself into it. But you know, we had the situation of we're in Athens
and the tap water is great and then we go to one of the islands and I drink the
tap water and I spit it out because it's desalinated so I assumed that all of the
tap water in Greece was great but it wasn't so you live and learn but I just
google I google I asked the hotels but yeah I mean touch would we we didn't get
that kind of sick we picked up cobs and coughs and all those kinds of things along
the way but we didn't get that kind of sick on our travels, which is great. - And
how do you deal with jet lag? - It gets worse as we get older, I feel. - I agree.
- But trying to stay on that time clock as soon as possible, as soon as you can,
getting as much sunlight as possible, having some melatonin, some sleep gummies,
to just try and get into the time zone as quickly as possible. But, you know, we
got to London, we had took a nap. Like, we couldn't fight it. So yeah, I know
everyone has their theories on it. You start to get in the time zone two weeks
ahead or every hour for every day or whatever, but we just rip the band -aid off.
I don't do any pre or post. We just get there and figure it out. Just do it.
Yeah, for me, the hardest is always going east because I can't sleep. And it's the
not sleeping that messes me up more than anything. Going west is easier. I don't
know. There's some reason why that is. I don't know what the reason is, but going
east, I'm like, when I go to New York, I'm always like wide awake for the entire
time that I'm there. But they say that that way is, I don't know what the science
is, but you're not alone. And what about getting comfortable on long flights,
particularly with a family? Like how do you all manage that? Now you have a teenage
daughter, but you had a little girl when you were doing this travel. So how did
you keep her entertained? How do you avoid incredible back pain after 12 hours of
being on a flight and things like that? What were some of your tricks? - I bought
every travel pillow known to man and I didn't find the one. So some people will
find the one, but I even bought that kind of hideous, big triangle one that you
blow up and put on the tray and stick your head in your arms in and Andy and
Coco didn't wanna know me. They were so embarrassed, but that didn't work. You suck
it up, you know, like you get as comfortable as you can. You try and move at one
point when I had some back pain, I traveled with a small tennis ball and I would
put that behind my back on the seat and move that around just to kind of,
you know, move the muscles and then on my feet and things like that. But yeah,
it's just a bandaid, you know. - But that's a clever idea though, so that when you
get kind of those knots in your back or you just start getting Utsi just from
boredom or sitting there or whatever. A tennis ball is a really good idea. Yeah.
Roll it around your back, get it on your feet, that kind of movement. Watching a
movie. Coco was great at keeping herself entertained. So she'd read a book, she'd
watch a movie. She was just like unlimited binging, right? She's not allowed to do
that at home. So like I will plug in and watch and, you know,
it'd be like we're arriving here in the daytime so it'd be really great if you get
some sleep on the plane so we would try and do that and obviously the airline
wants you to do it too so they shut everything down and make it easy to try and
fall asleep and depending on that maybe it's a melatonin to help you drift off and
get some sleep. And what's your favorite activity to do on the airplane?
Like what do you sort of relish being able to do because you are limited. I mean,
it depends if you have internet or not, but you're limited to distraction. So how
do you enjoy passing the time when you're doing a long haul? And when I say long
haul, I think anything over five hours. The first little bit, I just like to sit
in silence. Like, I just, no one could call me, nothing can be done. My husband is
the one around occupied. It's great. I then clean out my computer and my emails.
Like, I'm not a great filer of emails like some people so then that's my
opportunity to really clean house new things coming into that feels really good and
then I might watch a movie like people are really surprised I think I've watched
all the movies because we're flying so much but I kind of don't get to the TV
movie thing until I've cleaned out my emails and listen to a lot of good podcasts
too I like to just kind of sit have my eyes closed those. You need variety, I
think, right? You want to have a book, you want to have a movie, you want to
have, you know, a journal, like, yeah. Okay, so just a couple things,
and then I want to recap what you've talked about. First, tell my audience about
yours and Andy's company Song Division. And I know it's so hard to explain because
it is 20 years old and it is international and it has a lot of components, but
kind of in a nutshell, what does song division do? - We use the science of music
to bring people together, teams, groups, corporates, interactive songwriting and
experiences for teams all over the world using their creativity. I'm the worst at
explaining it. - But it's team building through music. - It is team building, yeah.
And conference energizes, like sometimes it's a group of 10 ,000. So then it's not
really team building, but really energizing through music. So it's, yeah, over 20,
we're 21 years this year. So it's morphed and changed over the time, but
fundamentally it's getting people to be creative with their teammate. That's awesome.
And I've loved working with them. So thank you for including me in that team
periodically. And I just, I love your staff and the whole mission. And talk about,
I mean, self -explanatory a little bit, but now as the acting board president for
the Maui Food Bank, talk a little bit about what the Maui Food Bank does here.
- It helps feed the hungry in Maui County. Maui County includes Lenine Molokai as
well. And, you know, COVID was a big surge for us. We were starting to recover and
then we had the fires. So the Food Bank has its work cut out for it. It's a
great organization, well -respected in the community and does amazing work. So yeah,
it's a great stuff, a great group of dedicated people. And you've been part of it
for as long as I've known you. So seven years, yeah. Amazing. Amazing. A long time.
A long time to give your service. And then talk about your vice presidency on the
board of the Imua family services and what Imua does here on Maui as well. - Imua
empowers children to reach their full potential. We're really between zero to the age
of eight is our therapeutic services. But as you know, Imua on the island, it's
really out there for the whole community. So it has events from paddle to get the
water sports people involved, to pedal for the bicycle people, to a gala,
to festivals of children and color. And so it's a very community joining organization
on this album that's been around maybe 77 years, 78 years. So it's been around a
long time. And it's a beautiful organization. - So those are the three professional
hats you wear in addition to raising your daughter and traveling the world and being
a great consigliary to me for all things and just awesome but just to recap the
travel tips because that was why I had you on today was to just help people like
myself who tend to panic when it's time to go on a trip carry on if possible the
heaviest shoe wear it on the plane heavy jacket wear it on the plane layers are
key to going to different climates It's not so much about having the perfect wool
sweater or whatever as it is one great outer layer and then layering up Black pants
seem to get you into most restaurants. A white linen shirt is very forgiving and
Kind of universal never goes out of style Bring something from home that you're
excited about whether that's that infrared mask or the little blender that you know
Allows you to make smoothies in your hotel room because you feel good starting your
day with something healthy, having a laptop or an iPad to occupy you on the plane,
whether you're catching up with work or to read or to watch movies or TV or listen
to a podcast, obviously travel chargers if you're going to a foreign country. Any
other tips? You and I have talked about packing cubes, so keeping that suitcase
organized, the compression cubes so then you can fit more into them especially when
you've got something fluffy and bulky you can really pull that down into something
smaller but then as you travel internationally you've got to think about the weight
of the suitcase sometimes they'll pin you on that and then the sizes the carry -on
size in Europe is smaller so you've got to do your research before you go. Oh I
actually didn't know that maybe because I've never done a carry -on through Europe
it's smaller than at US - Okay, good to know. And compression cubes,
is that the one with the little vacuum sealer or without? - Like a double zip. So
you start off kind of big and then you zip it down to kind of compress it. So...
- Oh, I think I need to invest in those. I have the regular packing cubes, which
you made me get a few years ago and they are game changers to have an organized
suitcase. Yeah. And you're a reader. So how do you deal with books and things like
that? Because books tend to be very big and very bulky. And if you're carrying
laptops and iPads or snacks for your family and you're in a carry -on, a book could
take up like an eighth of your suitcase or certainly a third of your backpack. So
what do you do for that? If there's a book that I'm reading, I'll take it and
know that I'm going to leave it somewhere, give it to a new. Otherwise, As much as
I love it, I read on my phone or iPad. - Hmm, I think that's a good alternative.
I listen to a lot of audiobooks, so that allows me to have a lot of books going
at once. - Well, your book is little, so if somebody could take that on the plane
with them. - Nice plug, Marsha, I'd love that. Your point that you made is a good
one psychologically, which is be willing to part with things. Not be wasteful,
right? We can't go buy double wardrobes. We shouldn't be buying double iPhones and
headsets and things like that. It's prohibitively expensive. But if you lose a
charger, it might be the cost of traveling, as you said. And if you're going for
long periods of time to multiple locations like you were talking about, where you
know you have this black tie event, 'cause Andy does these black tie events, or you
go to these beautiful weddings in Europe, packing a bag but then knowing you'll ship
it back so that you're not schlepping it to your other five countries that aren't
business related. They're just social and fun and I think that was a really smart
tip. But also being willing to part with things like bringing a good book and
knowing that you're not going to bring it back but you're going to maybe donate it
to the hotel where you're staying or a library or a friend and a lot of time
there's like little kiosks in neighborhoods where it says, "Take a book, borrow a
book," that's kind of a beautiful thing. I've done that a lot. I've picked up a
lot of books from those places and dropped in a lot of books. I get that reading
experience. And at longest ends, I've joined the local library and borrowed books. So
I have a bunch of library cards from other countries.
But yeah, being willing to part with things like that blender that I loved so much,
I gave it to someone in Sri Lanka, like the housekeeper at the Airbnb who was
staying to, I was like, "Would you like this?" And she was so excited about it,
you know? And so then I got more space for my spices in my carry -on. So even
some things that you love, you can part with and to replace with something else
that you might love more. Yeah. And I like the idea that giving it away to
somebody, I went on a ski trip years ago and obviously very wealthy people,
but they had bought like an entire wardrobe for skiing and then weren't planning on
ever using it again. Like they were just in, I forget where we were, Deer Valley
or something like that. And so they just donated it. And so there was all this
brand new ski stuff in a secondhand store. That store that I told you about, the
Goodwill in London that I took the suitcase into, I walked in in towards the
counter, making eye contact with the guy, and two people ran from different
directions to grab that suitcase. It didn't even make the counter, which is why I
didn't even do that thorough check at the end, because I was like, "Wow, it was
grabbed." So it found a new happy home. I think that's just such a nice way to
look at it, as opposed to thinking about, "Oh, I don't want to throw that away or
be wasteful, but that it would be rehomed somewhere with somebody who would need it.
That's kind of nice. To that end, from my trip to Whistler, I'm borrowing a jacket
from you. Another girlfriend gave me a few pieces for skiing as well, even though I
don't ski, but to stay warm. Layers. Layers is the key. I like the idea of being
able to buy, like you said, big cities have most of the stores that we shop in
anyway, whether it's Sephora or Ulta or Target or what have you, and the idea of
being able to go to a store and buying relatively inexpensive layers if you're cold.
So I think that was a great piece of advice too, whether it's Uniqlo or I think
you told me Costco carries these, what's the layers that they sell, heat tech or
something. Anyway, but I think that's a great idea too. And sometimes it gives you
a mission, like I'm not a big buyer of things. And so if I need something,
that gives me an excuse to go shopping in that city or neighborhood. And you're
hunting for something, right? So you're on a mission, you're looking for a layer,
you're looking for a new linen shirt, you're looking for something and... - If left
to my own druthers, I would just pack everything black. I like black, it's easy.
It's both formal and casual. And if it's dirty or if there's a stain on it, you
can't see it and you can get away with murder in black. I also love white, but
white is less forgiving. 'Cause as you said, you're on the airplane and all of a
sudden ketchup is on you or something spills on you and that's the end. But to
break it up so that you're not always the woman in black or the woman in white
with stains, do you bring accessories to kind of differentiate and what's the trick
there? - I have lots of scarf that I love. I love a big scarf on the plane.
Like is that I get colds, I like to wrap myself in my scarf. So that's fun. I'm
not a big jewelry person, but obviously that's a great way to accessorize. I just
don't think too much about the clothing, right? Like you're there to experience what
you're there to see. And so I kind of think you can wear the same thing over and
again, 'cause I don't know these people, they don't know me, it doesn't matter. You
know, it's almost like, I find traveling It simplifies things. This is all you've
got. You've got these three things. Wear them. Don't worry about it. That's like the
paradox of choice, right? Like kind of refreshing not to open the wardrobe and have
to wonder what you're going to wear today. The options, off you go. But for people
who are going to say a family event where they're going to spend a week with the
same people, and they are going to see the same people over and over again, or
when you are going to a work event and there are multiple dinners with people that
you're there to impress presumably if it's that fine I don't get a spreadsheet. I'll
write each day I'll write the outfit and then mix and match like these pants can
go with these things this shirt can go with these things And so I can mix up the
outfits But same staples So I'm not looking like I'm wearing black every day and
have a few key pieces that move around and shoes with well right like if you're on
a work event or a trade show you can't wear those same shoes every day so you
want to alternate shoes is a big thing because if you need to move you have a lot
of walking to do comfort is key the older you get the more important it is to
make sure you don't destroy your feet in my old life we all wore stilettos and all
the things my feet were miserable I was miserable, I had a lot of them. I wouldn't
be able to put my foot in a stiletto today. So I have like a lot of cute
sneakers and things like that, but I tend to just wear white sneakers everywhere.
- Okay, just do it. I wear workout shoes that double as walking shoes. And luckily
like we have these great brands like on clouds or hokers that look cute that you
can wear. And I know that's boring, but you can get away with that one pair of
sneakers that double up. And then depending on where you're going, it's either boots
or sandals. And like, if you don't have to do the boots, you have the opportunity
to take a couple of pairs of sandals. And like I said, I'll mail the heels back
once I'm done with an event. I don't want to be flipping them all over the place.
No, absolutely not. Marsha, this has been so fun and so helpful. And again,
you know, for those who are great travelers or great packers, or just don't stress
out about the little stuff, they might skip this episode. But I know that there is
like a lot of people like me who just would love things to be simple that kind of
should be simple, but aren't. And we could do a whole other episode on like what
to make for dinner party when people are stressed about cooking, 'cause you're also
a great, great chef and you are amazing at throwing together, fabulous dinner party
with like no thought at all. You're just like, I just know how to do it. So maybe
we'll have another episode about that. But I do think it really helps people,
whether they travel for business or pleasure, to know that there's a way to simplify
it and to be sort of unapologetic and comfortable, but also look appropriate and
feel comfy. Marsha, thank you so much for all the things. And I wish you a Happy
New Year. And where is your next trip speaking of which? - I don't know.
- That's unusual for you 'cause you're usually always on an airplane. - Spring break,
Andy's off to Australia shortly. Spring break's coming up. Coco did a PowerPoint
presentation about why we should go to New York. So we'll see if she gets that
wish. But we've got a couple of weddings coming up from the team. There's a wedding
in Manchester and a wedding in Australia and so yeah there's lots of trouble coming
up. Good good good good all right well I will see you soon and I thank you again.
Bye for now.