Sailing Solo: A Journey to Sustainability

Speaker 1: [Music] I always had to be finding that inner strength to keep going because the external challenges were constant all the time always different never simple or one straightforward answer what I learned is that when you really want something when it's your dream and your passion you always reach and find that extra strength that you didn't think you had I'm Melanie bar welcome back to the Sheil it podcast your go-to place to empower you to live the life and business that you crave I'm here to talk about everything from Having the courage to make life and career leaps to the details of how to lead effectively create successful teams Implement strategies for growth and Infuse Tech Innovation I'm here to celebrate your wins and navigate through your challenges I live in the city now but I grew up in a town of a thousand people I've navigated major life leaps a senior level corporate career worked in professional sports and now as a successful entrepreneur who loves business technology family and making meaningful connections with you and the she built it Community I also love a good workout and dose of self-care magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy so turn up the audio open your favorite Notes app grab your favorite drink and here we go welcome back to the Sheil podcast thank you for joining us Liz you started your solo sailing Adventure at 25 years old what inspired you to embark on such a bold journey I was looking for a life outside of the box and closer to Nature as a surfer and learning to surf in Southern California and I was really excited about finding remote waves with fewer crowds and having that unique experience of surf exploration that can be done by a sailboat I was also trying to look for a lifestyle that fit in more with my values of respecting the planet and I found that it was hard to do in modern land life and I saw my sailing Adventure as a way to try to live out those values live closer to Nature live more simply and see how I could do better in my own personal journey to respect the planet and when you set out what did you set out to do my original plan was to sail around the world and I thought that it would take me about 2 to 3 years in total and when I got out there the reality of traveling by sailboat was very different than I had imagined before IID actually tried it and there's so much to do to maintain the boat and traveling by sailboat takes time and there's Seasons involved and you can't go as quickly as you think you would and I realized that slowing down was the only way I was going to have time to enjoy these places and be able to find the waves and have the experiences I really went out there to do I ended up spending 10 years right in the Pacific so I may end up completing my circum navigation someday but the deeper goals were finding who I am as a person and learning to love myself and finding a lifestyle that really fits who I am and then those goals were mainly accomplished it takes so much bravery to really look at who we are and also to be doing that in the middle of the ocean yes it's hard for me to believe what I did at such a young age but that setting of being out there on the ocean being alone a lot of the time that really is conducive to self-growth and looking within and the goals went hand in hand that external exploration for Surf and meeting new people in cultures and then also the journey within of seeing myself in the context of the bigger world and my place in the universe and all of that it was a really good setting to be able to think about all those things and with the tech that we have today we're always distracted and that makes it hard for us to be able to look inside of ourselves to figure out who we truly are absolutely I don't think even at that time when there wasn't social media to scroll I found it hard in today today's world it's even harder for young people to find that space and we really have to create it and go looking for it so yeah I feel so lucky to have had that time on the ocean and that time to to have that journey within because it is very difficult to carve it out in the modern world your Memoir swell a sailing Surfers Voyage of Awakening dives into your personal and spiritual growth during your Voyage what motivated you to share your story with the world after about 10 years on the ocean I had gathered all these experiences and all of these Revelations that I felt could help other people on their own Journeys and Inspire them not only to follow their passions but to face things that are hard and see them as part of their bigger personal journey and experience my biggest motivation was because I felt like I had something worthwhile to share with the world that could help people what was one of the biggest challenges that you've been able to overcome while you were on the ocean there's two challenges that are very different categories the challenge of physically maintaining the boat and affronting nature and all the physical challenge that go along with running a sailboat and Crossing oceans those were constantly bringing up my inner challenges so it was like a parallel Journey the exterior external challenges were constantly pushing me to look within and become stronger and more positive and I always had to be finding that inner strength to keep going because the external challenges were constant all the time always different never simple or one straightforward answer what I learned is that when you really want something when it's your dream and your passion you always reach and find that extra strength that you didn't think you had or you might not be willing to dig down deep or if it isn't something you love very much if it isn't your big dream or your big love in life that really helps you realize how strong you are and find those strengths and characteristics that may be hidden just a little bit beneath the surface so true and you had to find such a sense of Independence making me think I'm an only child so like when I wanted to move furniture in my room or something I had to figure out how to do it by myself and then I grew up in a town of a thousand people in Missouri and at 19 I came home and told my parents I'm moving to Los Angeles and they said but you don't know anyone there and I said I'll meet people and those leaps that we make are so life defining you're such an inspiration to someone who wants to make that leap and follow their dreams thank you so much I hope that my book and my journey my story resonate with people no matter what their goal or their journey is because it's all so relative I try to express how important it is to not compare yourself to other people's Journeys and make sure that your next step that you give yourself credit for whatever that is and you're so right going and taking your own adventure putting yourself out of your comfort zone no matter if that's having a trip down the coast for a weekend alone that you've never done that before that alone makes you feel more confident it doesn't have to be setting out on a journey on a sailboat alone that there's so many ways to take your own Journey tell us more about your book and the work that you do and your organization I wrote swell when I was in French Polynesia at ankor it took me about three years to complete the task it wasn't easy to write the book and keep swell maintained like halfway camping when you live on a sailboat you have to be wary of the weather you have to keep your water tanks full doing all the things that that demands as well as trying to write the book it was a big adventure in itself and the book came out in 2018 and now so now they're releasing it in paperback this year which is really exciting it sold more than 35,000 copies and amazing congratulations thank you yeah it's really exciting to see the diversity of people men women all different ages that it touches I get feedback notes and emails that always makes me really happy to see who it reaches and the scope of who it touches is really fascinating to me I'm excited to see it entering its new phase in paperback and since the book came out in 2018 I was living in a small community in French Polynesia while I was riding and seeing the different challenges within the community and once SW was off and published and out in the world was ready to grow some roots and it had been so many years living a nomadic life and I'd met my now husband at that time I wanted to grow roots in that community and a group of my Surfer friends that also were looking to make change we started a nonprofit called AA Mata which B basically means stand up for your Island in taian and we just started taking on the different challenges in our community that either were affecting environmental issues or Animal Welfare issues and that was the start and now we're also branching into Youth Empowerment and children's programs which is really exciting May 19th we'll have our fiveyear anniversary really been a fun new adventure for me as a solo sailor and someone who really held Independence and autonomy as something really important I did realize when I was out there that to tackle these big environmental crises we're facing and get us back on track as a whole Humanity needs to learn how to work together and so I thought gosh I've shown myself I can do these things by myself but to be able to make change on a bigger you have to work as a team and you're stronger with a group and so I'm really lucky to have found this incredible group of people that work with me we are five really active participants all volunteer at this point and we have succeeded at creating a lot of amazing positive changes on our island in the last five years and feels like we're just getting started we have lots in the works right now and it's been a really fun and exciting new adventure good for you and it's great that you're also giving back to the Next Generation and May 19th is my birthday so I'll celebrate with you oh that's so exciting fellow Taurus woman yep independent but also fun to work with teams totally wonderful your journey like you mentioned has allowed you to learn from various cultures what are some of the most valuable lessons you've learned from the people that you have met I think the lesson that stands out the most growing up in Western Society like I was saying we tend to Value Independence we tend to Value being able to do everything ourselves and these Island communities that live so remotely and it's impossible to survive without each other and on a global scale we're really needing to learn this lesson of interdependence and how important it is to be able to get along and to treat each other with the golden rule it's pretty simple but we depend on each other and we need to act like we do and treat each other like we do you being from a small community you know how it is when you're from a place that has a thousand people you think a little bit harder about how you treat others because everybody's going to find out one way or somebody's cousin or you know them somehow and we tend to treat each other a little bit better when we know that those actions have consequences to our world and to each other so that's a huge lesson that I've learned from other cultures the other most valuable lesson I would say that I've learned is the resourcefulness of other cultures of other peoples that around the world in places where it's harder you know you don't have stores you don't have a Target to go shopping or a West Marine to buy the boat part you need is just watching the resourcefulness of people in these communities where it's hard to get things it helps make me look at things differently instead of when something breaks instantly wanting to go buy a new thing think about how can I fix it or what do I have that can replace this without having to go buy something else and I think in this era of overc consumption it's something that we could all really benefit from yeah so true along those lines living so closely with the ocean how has that connection influ your views on Environmental Conservation living so close to the ocean has made my passion for wanting to save her and save the planet just that much stronger and More Alive the ocean it's just a part of me and feels when I'm seeing her suffering it's like I suffer too this year we had a big warming event the ocean got so hot because of the Nino and the climate warming and watching the corals bleach over the last few months it's been really sad and hard to witness it's just that more tangible feeling of desperateness and I got to do something about this how has your role as a writer and photographer helped you in spreading awareness about environmental issues that you're passionate about just like anything when people are distance from it and they don't understand it's hard for them to want to care it's hard for them to want to participate in conservation you know being able to share a story or an experience through writing and photography for me it's a way to help draw people in and have them feel the same things that I'm feeling when I'm out there and having these experiences and from the beginning realized that what I got to live on swell it's really hard to do no matter what your position is in life it's not easy to get the sailboat ready and get out there and be in those places and have those experiences I almost felt a responsibility to share and draw people into that world as much as I could and pass those experiences along and hope that not only they would feel closer to my experience but encourage them to go have their own experiences and intimacy with nature that automatically makes you want to care more magic happens when we focus on the part of ourselves and our business that brings us joy what is one thing that you do for you to make sure that you're finding and living your joy we've talked about a lot I think yeah surfing is still the thing that I do for myself and for my joy it's so important to take the time to do those things that keep you filled up all of my work is work with passion and love but you definitely have to do those things that really keep you going going even though they might not seem like they have any direct benefit to your business but it's really important for me getting in the ocean and being in the waves when I get back to shore I'm that much more inspired to keep doing the work that I do thank you for sharing your bravery with us and with the world and for all that you're doing to protect the environment please share with us how and where we can find you and swell so you can find me on in Instagram at Captain Liz Clark I'm also on Facebook at Liz Clark and The Voyage of swell I have a website that's swell voyage.com you can also check out my nonprofit work at ATM Island protector.com and swell will be coming out in paperback it's exciting cuz it's the price point is better it's $22 and it is a book that'll be much easier to travel with then the hardback and that'll be able to be found you can already pre-order it at your independent book stores or order it online from Patagonia or wherever you get your books thank you for joining us today I'd love to hear from you reach out to me at hello Sheil it.com on our Sheil it website or at Sheil it on social thank you to my editor Rich draino who always makes us sound good until next time let nothing stop stop you from experiencing the life and business that you crave