I want the fairy tale. I want the prince charming.
She how do I put?
This?
Isn't a fan of my kissing style.
We would a boyfriend and girlfriend for about twelve hours. He's in a trash bin, he's non recyclable.
Catching them mu.
I love being in love. I love love. On today's episode of Where's your Head At, we're sitting down with Marie and Jake, the stunning blogging couple who have traveled the world doing exactly what they love.
This beautiful couple also run two Bali hotels, have their own online academy, have an Instagram, reels masterclass, and a clothing label too.
We get the chance to hear how they met and why they started a traveling blog, and what they have planned for the future.
Stay tuned to hear how you could create a living doing what you love. Also, Where's your Head At is a podcast that talks all things relationships, breakups, reality TV, trending shows, and everything in between.
This is your new go to destination for laughs, gossip, intimate detail, advice, and much more. Hey guys, Hello, welcome to Where's your Head At?
Thanks for having it you.
Yeah, great to see you guys.
Look at them.
You guys are living the dream, but you also look like the most stunning couple ever. There's palm trees in the background. We thought that was We thought those were real, but it's actually a picture, but it just suits the vibe.
We genuinely thought that was them on the balcony Enviviron. It looks amazing. It is.
We are environ but we were inside and it's a painting and we thought it would look cool. But it's very great to be here to actually chat because I think a big part of what we do online is to show this dream life and to inspire couples and people to go after what they really want. And you know,
if you love somebody, tell them go after it. But also in the long form context, we can probably talk more about how it's not always the dream and it's a lot of the times hard and there's a lot of tension sometimes, so that would be cool to get into.
Yeah, that's literally, that's literally what we wanted to chat about. Those exactly that stuff right there.
Because I mean online I followed you guys for a while. You guys, the account that you've created, it's so wonder lost, it's so dreamy. I mean you guys are both gorgeous. You seem soul in love. It's just like it's very picture perfect and amazing, and I as like an Instagram like viewer of you guys, am totally hooked. So like, congrats,
double tick. But there's so much work that goes into this, Like I look at the content you guys create on a daily basis and I'm like, these guys are working overtime.
Like this is busy.
Yeah, and you guys are entrepreneurs, like you have your like feet in every single pie. So tell us about that.
Well, first of all, we didn't plan for any of this in the beginning. It kind of just evolved. We met on a beach in Thailand and it's a long, crazy story and we could tell it if you guys want to hear it lately, it really evolved.
You can start, Well, that's probably long now, okay, but yeah, okay, let's start from the beginning. I'm from Germany and I quit my job in twenty sixteen. I wanted to move to Spain because originally I grew up in Spain with my family. It was always my dream to move back, and at that time I hadn't traveled that much, so I was like, Okay, before I'm going to get into that, I'm going to go to Asia.
I'd never been to Asia.
Just got a ticket to Thailand and they wanted to see Thailand, Vietnam and Bali.
And at that time, I just came out.
Of a six year relationship. I was like single for six months. I didn't I wasn't interested in meeting any guys at all. And then there was this one day, it was actually only five days into my trip, where I went to the beach with a few friends and Jake was sing as well, and yeah, we hit it up super quickly.
Jake was a bit of a this.
Is this was kind of like this stage of the last stages where people weren't sharing everything online, so we met really organically.
Yeah, we never Instagram accounts or anything.
I was on the on the beach with my mates and Marie and a couple of her friends, and she walked to the water and I like looked dark and I was like, all right, how am I going to bag this? You know already?
And it was a bit of a hobby of Jake as well, let's be honest.
Yeah, back then, but me and my mates were sitting there. We looked down and said, Okay, how are we going to do this? My mate actually broke the ice and he went over and started to talk to them first, and he was speaking with Marie and we're sitting in this big circle in the water, and he went to get some drinks and then I was like, cham slipping in here. And then Marie and I just we just
we hit it off like crazy. That day. We were playing games, drinking games, and just really enjoying each other's company. And the next day we met up again. I was just kind of head over here straight away, which was rare for me because usually it was just like a fun thing. I would always mention to the girl in the beginning, this is not going to be serious. I just want to put it out there to begin with. And I was young. I think I was twenty four
when we met. But then I bought Maria bracelet the next day because she told me the favorite color and I saw it as her favorite color, and I gave it to her and the next day we had a really deep conversation. The next day, Marie told me about her background and some of the difficult things she had to go through and her dad passing away and things like that, and I really just felt like this deep connection and then I just we kissed on the second night.
And then Marie was going to Copanyan, the next island, and I said to my mates, we got it where they were going to meet up with these girls. We went to Copagnan and then we were there for four days together. And I already had a flight with my mate book to Cambodia. So we left on the ferry and like you know, the girls were waving because Maria was with a friend of hers, they were waving goodbye, and I was on the ferry, and I was just like what am I doing? Like why am I leaving her?
This is the stupid This doesn't make any sense, just because I have to go to Cambodia. And so we were flying to Cambodia with my mate and I told him on the plane, as soon as we land, I'm going directly to Vietnam because that's where Marie is. And so we got there. I had to get a visa, and it usually takes a week or so to get this visa, and I just paid some random guy to take my passport and go and get it, and I forced my mate to do the same thing, and he
was just like, this is insane. I had two passports, he only had one, so he was he wasn't super happy, but I just told him, I think I'm in love. I don't even know what that feels like, but I'm pretty sure like there's something different here. And then so Marie went to Vietnam and we met at the hotel, and I think she was kind of pretty impressed by the effort that I was putting in.
Absolutely, I was going to say, have you ever had a guy put that much effort in before?
No?
And you got even crazy afterwards.
Because we spent two weeks together, it was super intense. I think it was like we actually fell in love within like two and a half weeks. And then Jake had to go back because he was playing Izzie football in Australia and he had a job in the winery in the Barossa Valley in the essay and yeah, and he was like, look, my season will enter in six to eight weeks and then let's catch up wherever you want to, maybe Spain or whatever you think.
And I was like, okay, sounds good.
And then we went to Bali and I have to say this, Jake was the first Australian I ever met.
Coming from Europe.
You guys are like so easy going, so happy, positive vibes. So I was like hooked right away.
I was lucky because like, if another Aussie come in first, I would have had no chance to know Jake.
Though I was going to Bali and I didn't know Bali is like, you're travel destination number one.
So he's like, okay, she's going to go to Bali.
She's going to be so many other Aussie guys that have long hair that can actually serve, and she might just pick another one, you know, not just.
Fake surf, you know, can actually serve.
So yeah, and my friend who actually wanted to meet a guy, she's like, we're going to party every day, like I don't care what you say that Jake's not here, and I was like okay. And then three days the end of partying, Jake's calls me and he's like, I talked to my boss and I told him I really like you and I would come over in two days if you want to.
And I was like what, So his give two games, came over to Bali, spent two weeks with us.
Well.
The brutal part was I had to miss these two games, so I had to talk. I had to have a meeting with the captain of my because I was on a contract. I was playing country football, but it was just a contract and I was getting paid a small amount to play. I had to have a meeting with my coach and my captain and tell them why I was leaving and I couldn't play the next two games. And I just said to them, I don't know what to tell you. I'm in love, it's like, and they're
just like, what is wrong with you? They literally thought there was something wrong with me, because.
Well they would have been like, yeah, this comes first before everything our so it's.
True, like I think they credit to them. They were just like, you're you're crazy, but okay, if you know this is what it is, and I think I was. That's when I knew feeling something, what it was with her was real because I was willing to make myself look like the biggest idiot in front of all my teammates,
my coach, whatever, and I didn't care. I just didn't care because I wanted to see her so bad, and I had this empty feeling in my stomach, knowing she was in Bali with other long haired Aussie guys and she would like forget about me, and so I flew back the We spent twelve days together and that's when
we became like boyfriend and girlfriend. And it was also a period of time where we fell in love with Bali and we started like really imagining what our life could look like together and imagine if we could be in Bali and have our own place here and do you know, just live a free life, like we were truly thinking about it. I flew back home to Australia and that's.
When I decided to change my plans. So I was already deep into my Spain plans. My entire family was going to come in December. We met in July. My family was going to come in December for Christmas to Spain, and they'd already booked flights. Everyone gave me like goodbye presents to move to Spain. I'd organized an apartment, I've spent like seven thousand Ausie dollars to like go to a UNI there and do my master because I'd only
done my Bechlan in Germany. So it was like really committed and I was like, oh my god, what am I doing? And I told my friends. One of my friends actually flew out, but she's like, Marie, you're out of her mind. You just quit your job after six years. Now you met like this random dude, Like have you seen his Facebook account?
Like it's crazy, he's just drunk all the time and like, and I was like, no, he's amazing.
And she's like, I'm going to come over and check him out and tell you whether you should really go for him. And she really liked him and she could see the energy we had together. But yeah, so I quit everything. I decided to call my mom and I was like, I'm not going to Spain anymore. I'm not coming back.
And that's when we decided to start traveling together.
We both had saved some money, so I think at that time we had like four or five weeks left.
Jake went back to Australia.
I was still in Bali, and then I think a few days later he called me again and he's like, look, Marie, I've got four days off in between my game and the next training or like practice or whatever, and I'm going to come over for three days to Bali. And I was like okay, like he's really committed, so I could commit as well. And I know this is what made me then quit my dreams.
It's pretty crazy that you guys obviously have met, one from Australia, one from Germany, and it's almost like against all the odds, you've chosen each other. And I feel like that's just so special to hear, because I'm sure there's lots of people who meet from different countries and they just think put that in the too hard basket. But I guess you guys do have something special, and I feel like I think that's why your account has done so well, because you can feel that energy through
the screen, like it's not put on. You can feel the love and that's I mean, it's beautiful to see. And you guys are obviously super authentic. But obviously, as with all relationships, there's hard times, and I guess you guys probably I don't know, but I'm assuming that you don't speak too much about the hard times, just based on your account, like I have heard some things. But obviously you guys are a normal couple. I'm sure you fight. Can we delve into that a little bit for sure?
It's actually interesting because we've just sit an update on YouTube. We used to do YouTube, and we stopped for three years when we stopped traveling during the pandemic and stuff, and we just started again and did like a bit of an update what has happened in the last three years, and we also mentioned it there. So if you look at our account, if you first get there and you just see the reels, the reels are like an outlet of like our niche, which is travel couples and like
travel like destinations. So it's it looks very perfect and inspirational. But if you dive into our stories a lot of times there, I especially am very vulnerable because I just realized, like a lot of people can relate to it. And Instagram is not only about being perfect anymore. It's more
about being relatable sharing the things you go through. So whether it was like I had really really bad skin issues when I came up my pill like a few years ago when we were traveling and we did a lot of adventure travel, so it was always dirty and I just couldn't handle it, like even being in front of the camera holding my phone in my face.
It was like a big issue for me.
But yeah, the community is really interested in hearing those things as well, because obviously it's also relatable and then also like my past, that my yeah that my dad passed away, or like I'm still trying to go through some mental issues because of that, and how Jake acts with it and stuff. I'm always trying to share these things in terms of like having arguments whenever.
We do Q and as we do mention it.
But obviously it's not the first thing you do that you grab your point and like record it when you're in an argument. We're trying to Yeah, I use the Instagram now in the stories, as I said, to just give a bit more content and authenticity.
But I think the hardest part in our relationship, it's our strength, and it's also our biggest weakness, is that coming from Australia, I'm very laid back. Things don't really bother me too much. And when I'm too much like that, it leaves a lot of the stress and and everything up to Marie to deal with because I'm just not caring about it. I'm like, yeah, whatever it will help,
it'll deal with itself. And then because Marie is not like that, she will have to jump in and try to fit you know, deal with whatever's giving her anxiety and so and especially once we started working together, we've never had fights just based around our relationship, our relationship, what we like, the things we want to do. It's all about work where we've really hit some really hard hurdles. And the hardest thing I think for both of us is to try to balance the work, the social media,
the fun, the relationship, the love. And we've found in the past we've maybe gone too far into the work side of things, and then with social media, it's just
all encompassing. So Marie is online on her phone a lot, and then in the past I've sometimes started to like look at social media as the enemy because I'm like, I'm like, social media has taken my partner away from me, and Instagram is toxic, and you know, because there's so many good things about it, but of course there's also so much bad and communicating those things has been the
biggest part of our relationship. It's me trying to understand where Marie's coming from, and even though it doesn't make sense to me, it is her truth. And I think that's I heard I heard once a metaphor which made so much sense to me. And made me realize that I have to like listen to Marie and how she's feeling,
even if it sounds like insanity to me. And it was like, you know, if you have a young you have a young child and they are you know, coming into your room and they're two years old and they're saying, d dad, there's a monster under my bed, and like, I'm really scared. As a parent, you wouldn't tell the kid, you know, just go to bed, like stop thinking about it, You're fine, Like there's not a stupid monster. What are
you thinking? You're you're crazy, like you're seeing things. You would just give them a hug and say, hey, look, I'm going to come in there with you and I'm going to show you that there's nothing there. It's all good. I'm here for you, hug them, be there for them until they go to sleep again. And that's how you need to treat your partner. So if they're feeling something and it doesn't make sense to you, they're still feeling it,
that doesn't change the fact that they're feeling it. So you just got to hug them, say I'm supporting you, I'm going to be there, and you know, over a bit of time, they will calm down and it will all be okay.
I think a general man and women are quite different already, like in terms of how they act, but then being from two different countries or even continents, it just shows a lot of times the way we grew up.
It's just very different. Jake was always like very protected.
To make money in Australia so easy, like what you make even twenty six dollars an hour when you work at McDonald's or something, so like for you.
Like.
Everything just seems a bit easier, and I just, yeah, I have to. I think I've already grown a lot before.
Also, I haven't really experienced really intense loss like Marie with her with her father, so that's also something that we're working through. It's like Marie has experienced that life can be amazing and then just completely change in an instant, and so that that fear is still there for her. For me, I've never had anything like that. Everything has been okay, it will be okay. So just dealing with that as well is something that we try to communicate
about a lot. And it's not perfect. Like we fight, I think just as much as any other couple. But what we're really good at is quickly turning it around, coming together, saying sorry, talking about it. We kind of have to because we're so close and we spent every single day together.
Last we're online every day.
But I've already started to choose this show and say, guys, today we're not feeling it or like it's not a good day.
And people are also really supportive.
Like I've never tried to pretend I'm okay and then put a face on and do it.
I think it would just make me sick from the inside. I couldn't be I couldn't be late.
I agree with that. I feel like though, as well, if you're honest with your audience about you guys, and that you're like having an off day and you're arguing in that, I feel like your audience would come more invested because nobody wants to be honest. Nobody wants to see this couple that are like posting like all this glamorous.
Times, like yeah, nice to see the back end.
Yeah.
If you think about it, like any TV show or anything you watch, you always get invested in the couple that has like trials, yeah, trials and tribulation. So I'm the same I say with my girlfriend, like I don't want to be fake and post us like having a glamorous time all the time, Like that's not it's not real, Like it's just yeah, I had that sort of stuff.
Do you guys find that? Like, I don't know, this is just personal for me. So I was wondering if you guys feel like this. But I feel like the more engaged my account becomes, the more anxious. I guess, like, do you guys feel anxiety from like that high engagement?
Absolutely, I have openly spoken about it. But I had my first like really mental breakdown during the time when COVID hit and it was like Black Lives Matters and the bushfires in Australia. We did a big campaign for that where a few influences in Australia came together, like Jake had this idea and I think all up. We donated half a million dollars, which was great, but then
on the opposite side we were graced. Yeah exactly, but then people were like you you were the reason why those bushfires happened because you travel and during COVID a lot of people just felt super negative. So I don't know if you felt it, but like the negativity just gets put on you.
And then we were in Bali where it wasn't that bad.
So people hated us because we could go out, but if we didn't go out, they're like, oh, now you're pretending you're also not in a good place even though you are. So it was like you could you I can't please everyone.
Yeah, I was going to say that you can't please everyone. They're always going to find a way and they try to take it out on people in your position.
Delete or block the best two buttons on sexual media.
Yeah, so do you get much hate?
Then?
On a daily.
Basis, we're really lucky. We're also very.
I think over the years we've been doing this now for six years, we think about how we communicate things and what to say. Sometimes in some like sensitive topics we're not even like talking about anymore, or like if something political comes up, we're like, look, we're not journalists, like we are doing something to inspire you guys.
We travel a couple. We don't know what.
Is true about this war or this whatever it is, so we're just trying to stay off it, which has made it a bit nicer for us.
But I would say in general, compared to the rest, we get very little, very little compared to other people.
I think the trol those over anyway, Like if like control now, it's just like, come on, you fucking lose like I had on the other day, and I was just really I was like, what come on, Yeah, how.
Do you guys go being away from family and friends? Because obviously, I mean, you're in Australia now, but you are based in Bali, So how do you go being away.
For the longest time?
To be honest, we were traveling NonStop, so we wouldn't be in a place longer than ten to fourteen days, which meant we had zero connection to anyone really except of ourselves and maybe people that would travel with us for a bit. In the beginning, it wasn't a problem
during the pandemic. It was the first time that I really struggled with it because there were people left in Bali, but also quite a lot of people left the island and everything was so you didn't know what would happen in the future, and like I needed someone to talk to and also like a bit of female energy to have by my side, just being with your your man, you know, and talking on the phone. It's different. You have different time zones, so like it's just not never
the same. So I really struggled.
I think have them. What changed was that we had the choice to be able to see our family whenever we wanted. So all of a sudden, like hey, even if we wanted to, if we wanted to fly to Australia right now, we cannot.
That's crazy because Australia was close for two two and a half years and we tried to get a visa for me.
They denied it. They were like, no, not enough proof that you were a couple, and we're like, okay, wow.
We got denied. It was like, yeah, we've been We've been planning this elaborate scam for five years. We can get a fake visa. What we got denied denied? We now are setting up more of a lifestyle where we can spend a bit more time in Australia to visit my family, We can go back to Europe to visit Marie's family, and then we can be in Bali for a few months to have our own little family with
our dogs there as well. So now we are planning a life where it's maybe like four months four months here, four months here and we just kind of rotate with a couple of like cool trips in between for now.
Because we've realized, like how how much can change, Like.
Within the six six years, it feels like a lifetime already, so we're like, you know, the next few years, we can really imagine ourselves. We're looking for a base in Spain right now, actually to have a base in Europe, have a base in Bali, and then see our friends and family at home and they can visit us because now your friends are coming over from Bali, and then they can visit us in Spain from Germany, so that's nice.
And then who knows in the future.
It's hard to imagine. It's hard to think about that this is actually a reality for us. And it was kind of what we were planning in the beginning when we came together, because, like you said, we said, we love each other, we will make it work no matter what, and life will figure itself out. And it was that true belief and it sounds cheesy as anything, but we followed our hearts. We said, let's just go with this feeling and figure it out along the way. Nothing else matters.
And about a year into our relationship. It was pretty clear that if we were going to be able to see both of our families and live this life together, either I would have to go to Germany and live there or Marie would have to come to Australia, and neither of those things were really an option. So we realized, we have to be online. We have to do something where we can work remotely from anywhere and earn an income.
And the first goal that we had was how do we make enough money, like eight hundred dollars a month so that we can pay for some flights and live in Bali and be a little bit in the middle. And so that was kind of the goal that we had. And now it's become a reality and it's so cool now and I think it's much more possible for anybody than what a lot of people think. Remote work has become huge. There's so many digital nomads working in Bali
right now. Everyone kind of realized a little bit over the last two and a half years that you don't
have to be in the office. You can find a way to work from anywhere, and so it's really cool now to see this new generation of people like us figuring out what their dream life is and realizing, hey, it might not be in Australia, or it might be a little bit of Australia and a bit of Balley, or it might be a little bit of Europe as well, and working on how they can make that actually happen by figuring out how they can earn an income online. Are we seeing so many people doing it?
Yeah?
And I reckon, like so many people would look at you guys and be like, it is possible, and these guys are living proof that this can be done. And I mean it's awesome that so many people look up to you guys, and it's such a great quality of life that you guys are almost promoting. And I think, you know, people would be silly not to try, right.
I mean, if you have like an idea, if you have an.
Idea about the business, go do it.
Yeah.
What would you say to people who are thinking about taking the leap?
That's it's a perfect start. I would say that first of all, if you really feel like it's something that you want, don't do it because it looks cool that other people are doing it. That's a big mistake that a lot of people make. It's like they see us and they go, Ah, that looks really cool that Marie and Jay can just live anywhere and work anywhere. But I'm a homebody and I actually like being at home.
It doesn't make sense because Marie and I we travel a lot, and that's actually one of the hardest things is that we're constantly moving. It's really hard for us to have a routine. And some people just like routine. So it looks cool what we're doing. But if it's not you, then don't go for that. So go for something that's truly important to you and it's who you really are, and that if that is what you feel and you know it to be true, then you really
just got to dive in. I think the most important thing for people nowadays is to figure out what skills are going to be useful in the future.
And what do you also love doing and.
What you love doing. Don't just learn it because it looks cool. And what's coming is all of this kind of stuff like how to create content, how to tell a story, how to manage a social media channel, how to market, how to do Facebook ads, how to do graphic design. So many people are starting up little of freelance businesses because they have skills that other people don't have. And so if you have something like that, if you committed to it for six months, you can get so
far ahead. But a lot of people give up in the first couple of weeks. But if you say, if Marie and I, it was like two years of posting every single day before we really realized, wow, this is a real thing. This could actually set us up to do as a career. And so it does just take
time and anyone wanting to do what we do. Specifically, yeah, get a camera or your phone, start to record as much as you can, start to figure out what captivates people like to tell a story, and then just post, post, post, post post post, do it every single day for two years and where you will be into. Like, guys, when you first started the podcast, I bet you were like, we have no idea, what is going on right now?
This is crazy, this is scary, And now you're so confident with it and it feels normal to you, guys, But it takes time.
I have a question for you, guys. So you said you got engaged in Turkey. Are you married yet?
No? Okay, we planned our.
Wedding in twenty eighteen, which is five years ago, and we were going to get married in June twenty twenty in Bali. We'd organized everything, everyone had booked flights at my wedding dress and everything was organized. And then in mid March COVID hit Obviously no one could travel anymore.
We had to cancel the entire wedding, and we were thinking, we actually were thinking to do a.
Little wedding in Greece in twenty twenty two, twenty twenty.
One, twenty twenty one, I think, but.
Then COVID had like another spike, so we canceled it again. And now we're getting it this year, this year in Bali.
And no we haven't mentioned.
We're getting married in August in Bali. And this is a bit of a stupid but we're we're going to have the ceremony and at our own place, at our own boutique hotel, which is like really cool. So we're planning out how that's going to work.
Yeah, it's pretty it's pretty crazy.
Amazing, Gras, that's so awesome. I'm so happy that you guys finally get to tie the KNA. That's awful that you've had to cancel two weddings.
It's been a roller coaster, and that's like what you were saying. It looks perfect on the outside, but having to do that twice, it's like a real life it's a movie, the ups and downs, the roller coasters. But in the end, hopefully the wedding will be magical and it can kind of seal the notot on this fairy tale that we've been living for the last six years.
But I have to be honest, I'm not really excited about planning the wedding neither.
Well, if you've planned it twice before, I'm sure you're going to have it down part you know exactly.
Not to do.
Yeah, it might even put more pressure on it, you know. Now it's like we've had so much time to plan it needs.
To be but yeah, this is your third wedding essentially. Yeah.
Leaning we're just happy that it's finally going to happen, and it feels more organic now because we've lived in Bali for three years now and we were going to have it in Bali in twenty twenty, and I don't think we really understood how everything worked there. We didn't have a team, we didn't really know who to trust, and so now we have our own places we've got
businesses there, we've got a community there. We feel much more comfortable now that the whole operation of it will be awesome because we've been there for three years.
I'm so a bit borried because half of the whole family hasn't been to the island and I'm like, oh my god, I hope it's going to be and.
Our family's never met before as well.
Yes, thank gosh, it's going to be super exciting. Hopefully they don't get Bali Bali. I've got couple of times during a wedding.
Great.
I got Bali belly last time as well, and that's crazy for me because my gut is pretty good and we've lived in Bali for a while. But last time going back, everyone got hit. So I'm sure some people in our family will get it. Just got to get the charcoal tablets. Put those down and then six hours, eight hours you should be good.
Yeah, charcoal tablets. That's a good little tip for anyone going to Bali. Is it parts of your I guess relationship that you keep private, like certain things that are going on, or are you kind of like very transparent with everything.
I think I think we're pretty open. It's more like the intricacies of how we worked together. I think Marie and I are seeing a therapist at the moment, actually like a couple's therapists, because it was one of those things we listened to so many podcasts. Everyone says, you go to the gym for your body, why don't you see a therapist for your mind, so that you can
control how you think and how you act. And so we started seeing a couple therapists and then she really like dug deep into why we are the way we are in some respects, and.
It's really interesting because some things you don't even notice until she points them up.
Yeah, yeah, And so we are doing that at the moment. We only started it a few months ago, and we're really looking forward to actually sharing that because I think it will help people. I have a real issue with control, and if I'm not in control of something, I have this inner fear of it not turning out the way
I want. And so then I was kind of in the beginning controlling all of the decisions, and then Marie has this fear of loss, and we're trying to figure out exactly how to handle those things, and we're excited to share more about that.
Yeah, it's super interesting and a lot of times when you communicate with each other, it's like you never have someone who can truly tell you why you feel the way you feel or what.
Has caused certain trades your house, and then.
When you fired, you definitely don't. You're not your best self in those moments, so you're not communicating clearly about why you feel a certain way.
Yeah, and we don't have like a business coo in between us, so she's like, really everything, like it's great, Yeah.
But I think we do. We're pretty open about almost everything. We've written a lot of captures in the past about experiences we've had. I think mainly the only thing that a lot of people probably wouldn't know the full detail of is exactly how we work together and how that has changed over the years because now Marie is mostly doing the Instagram. I kind of a bout out of that.
At one point I started to just feel, like, like I told you before, negative about it, and I didn't like the way it was, you know, harming Marie and how she was getting caught up in it. So I said, you know, I don't want to be involved in this anymore. And then we realized pretty recently that it's not about the Instagram itself that Marie really is passionate about. It's like she actually really enjoys creating and sharing and doing that.
And so I got that mixed up with she's just doing it for the likes or whatever, or we don't need this anymore because we've got enough money, we've got enough businesses. And I was always thinking about what's the outcome? Why am I I'm not going to do this if there's no outcome, And I think that's a male thing, but we're always like ready to do the work if there's a reward at the end of it or there's a specific outcome that we're aware of, whereas Marie is so that I just want to do it because I
like it. It's a journey. I could do it every day for the rest of my life. And that kind of getting that clear on both of our sides was like I have to support Marie every day that because that's who she is, that's what she likes. And then Marie has to understand that I need some kind of guidance. I need to know what the plan is, why are we shooting this, what reels do we have this week and have a structure around that and not just rock up at a place and be like, Okay, what are
we going to create pressures on us? I have got nothing to post tonight, and then what Isid's ideas do you have? And I'll be like nothing, I've got nothing, and then Marie will then, you know, get upset because now she's under pressure because she has to post something. And so this is something that we're really working on and just trying to get back to the point where it's really fun just to create, just just enjoy that creation and not put too much pressure on how well it does or Yeah. I think.
I think like the first few years of US was like pure growth, like growing the community and everything.
Then it was how do I do businesses?
Setting up the businesses, And now the businesses are running and we have teams around it and stuff, and now it's like, I think this year we just want to improve ourselves as well, and like find a place where we feel like we can settle a.
Bit and get a bit out of the growth.
Yeah, and find a balance that is kind of smooth, not like let's go crazy right now and doing this it's like it becomes more of like our daily a habit, like Okay, this is the photo that we're going to create today, or the posts that we're going to create. And for me, it's like I'm going to go to my gym because that's what makes me happy. Marie is going to do her creating because that makes her happy.
And understanding each other and supporting each other and what we like so that we can be better for each other, because in the beginning it was just all in both of us going crazy. You're forgetting about everything else, just constant post post post post posts.
Yeah, thank you for sharing those intricacies, because I just think like when people see social media, it's very like black and white. They don't see like the many layers of what it takes to create. And you know, being a creator, there's yeah, there's so many different levels of things that you have to think about and do, and it's it's very full lot. It's exhausted.
It's a full time Yeah, people forget it's a full time job. And yeah, do you.
Guys think that once you get married that you want to potentially expand your family?
We absolutely love kids, and I think, yeah, I mentioned it in the beginning of Decks like, I don't even know if I need a kid, because sometimes he feels like it's just like a natural next step that people do, and it's like you don't even think about it.
Is this actually something that I want in my.
Life or is it just to feel, you know, like get the next step, you get married, get the house, and then you have kids. But yeah, we truly love kids. Some of our close friends now have kids and we just yeah, we just love it.
So definitely at one point I.
Had a big change of opinion just recently because my brother, my younger brother, had a kid and he now the boy Kelly, his name is. He's five months old. And when my brother went through the whole process and the Kelly was born, and I met Kelly, and like, I felt like this is my blood. This is I felt when friends and that have kids, I was always like, yeah,
you know, good for you, awesome. But then when it was like my brother's kid, I was like, WHOA, Like this is different, Like this feels like a part of me. And my brother went through it and did an amazing job with his partner and they just became awesome parents. Just like this just adapted. That kind of made me not scared of the of it anymore, because before I was kind of like, I don't know, am I are we going to be good at this? What's it going to be like for the rest of our work and
our life and all of that. But now seeing how how my brother adapted to it, now I'm really just not afraid. And Marie and I both talked about it is it is something we definitely would love to do. There's so many cool experiences we would love to give them, and another something that would also bring us even closer. And yeah, we definitely I would say we definitely will expand for sure. If we can't.
Explain you guys would be awesome parents. Would you even Bali with kids if you had kids?
I think the way I picture it right now we've talked about it, we would definitely have two bases, so probably one in Europe and one over here, like let's say Bali and go in between. We meet actually quite a lot of young families and learn so much about how it can happen nowadays to not be in one location. So people tell us about online work. We recently did
an interview in Bali weheb. We did an interview with a girl who used to be a teacher, and she said, I calculated the time that kids actually learn in school, and if they go to school from morning until after lunch, it's just one and a half hours of actual learning time. And now I'm doing which our kids do online learning. They're so productive and then they can go and do their surf lessons or meet their friends at the skateboard park or whatever.
So I think we're definitely going to.
Be a bit more like kind of new parents, trying out different things, but not be stuck in one place.
So BALI and maybe I don't know, somewhere you're I could imagine.
Well, I feel like the yeah, when we do have kids, they will kind of maybe have to adapt to our lifestyle and we're just going to have to figure it out as we go and see how it feels like.
Meeting families with young kids that travel.
You could just see how open minded those kids are, and I think it can be great obviously, probably also challenging, but very challenging.
Well I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I actually grew up traveling around the world with my family and I turned out okay.
So I mean, wow, who's charging okay, guys, thank you so much for coming on our podcast.
Yeah, it's been a pleasure just getting to know you guys. Thank you for being so open with us, and we're so excited for your wedding in August. So excited to see that all unfold on socials. Thank you for sharing your life on socials with us and we can't wait to talk to you soon.
Thanks, guys, Thank you so much.
Thanks for having us guys. It was awesome.
Thank you.