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Jessica Grace Coleman

Welcome to the Travel Transformation Podcast, the podcast where we talk all things travel and all things transformation. My name is Jessica Gross Coleman, and I'm your host, and today I'm talking to travel entrepreneur, author and founder of SoulCare, Marta Hobbs. 

Marta was born in Poland and came to the United States at the age of 13, fleeing the communist oppression of her homeland as a political refugee. The challenges of immigration to and assimilation in the USA left Marta with deep scars and pushed her to relentlessly pursue the American Dream. After a decade-long successful career in TV production in New York City, Marta co-founded a multibillion-dollar business, CheapCaribbean.com, with her husband Jim. 

At 38, after a move to Paris, France and a highly successful sale of the company, Marta experienced a personal crisis brought on by the sudden onset of panic attacks, paralysing anxiety, and terrifying health issues. This unravelling sparked a healing journey into holistic wellness, including yoga, meditation, breath work, nutrition, stress management, trauma recovery, various types of therapy, somatic and energetic work, as well as over a decade of personal development and inner work. This spiritual work brought forth an awakening of insight, wisdom, and a desire to help others navigate the challenges she herself has faced and overcome. 

As the founder and teacher of SoulCare, a spiritual practice to slow down the body, quiet the mind, and reconnect with the soul, Marta now guides others towards healing, self-discovery, and living a heart-centred and soul-led life. She believes that the answers to everything we seek in life are within each one of us and that our external life is simply a reflection of our internal state. We are sacred and whole at our core, we have just forgotten this truth. Therefore, finding lasting happiness, love, health, fulfilment, and purpose in life is a process of remembering as well as an inside-out job. 

We discuss all kinds of things in this episode, from her journey from Poland to the US, to moving to France, to starting her own business, to working in TV production, to her book and her SoulCare initiative, and all the amazing things she has going on. So let's get straight to the interview.

Hi, Marta. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for coming on. How are you today?

Marta Hobbs

I'm great. Thanks so much for having me. It's a pleasure to be with you.

Jessica Grace Coleman

No problem. Okay, so to start with, please can you give me and our listeners a little bit of background info about you? So where you're from originally, where you are right now, and what you do for a living?

Marta Hobbs

I am from Poland originally, although I lived in the United States for quite a long time. Currently I live in Paris, France. And what I do for a living is I'm a writer and I'm a mentor for women in business and in leadership. And I also teach spiritual practice, guided meditations that I partnered up with the Four Seasons Hotels as part of their spa and wellness experience. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

So I know you've got a lot of stuff going on because I was looking at your website and your bio, and there's so much stuff going on; I've got lots of questions. So you mentioned your new initiative, which is SoulCare, is that right?

Marta Hobbs

Yes.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Could you tell me a little bit more about that? And also you mentioned the collaboration with Four Seasons. How did that come about as well? Is that in New York and Paris?

Marta Hobbs

Yes. And, you know, everyone's like, ‘so tell me three sentences about you.’ And I'm like, ‘It’s why I wrote a whole memoir’ because it's hard to sum it up, but yeah, SoulCare is a guided meditation, and I started teaching it one to one. So sitting with a client for an hour where we talk for a few minutes first, I get a sense of where they are in their life and what their stress levels are like. And, really, the intent of SoulCare is to bring a person in touch with a space within themselves where they can encounter quiet, peace, stillness, maybe even a sense of love. So to me, that's who you truly are, your true essence. And it came out of my journey of 30-plus years of living in survival mode. And my favourite coping mechanism was to stay busy and to do big things.

I immigrated as a kid from Poland. It was pretty traumatic. At twelve, I arrived in the United States – that was really intense – and then I spent 20 years building this persona and it became quite successful. I built a large travel company, and once I sold it and I retired and things slowed down a little bit, I found it really difficult just to be. I was tremendously anxious, I was super stressed, and I started investigating it and I started to see that everyone else around me was living that chasing, rushing through life, getting things, achieving and succeeding. And I just started to question, is there a little bit more to life than all that? 

And that led me on a deep journey of self-discovery, healing, trauma, and eventually a spiritual path. So I developed this practice from my own healing, which took about a decade. I feel like the times that we're living in right now are so intense and stressful, and we're inundated with technology and information, and it's overwhelming for our bodies. And so I try to just bring people back to, okay, you live within chaos. And it's why I partner with the Four Seasons. In big cities where it's really chaotic, you live in a really tense environment, but you don't need to bring more chaos and stress by how you're being. So can we slow down, get out of the head, get into the body, breathe together, and sort of go within where there can be lasting inner peace and calm and groundedness amongst the chaos of everyday life? 

And so I just encourage people to do my meditations. We usually start together in person for the first session, and then it's either by recording or follow-up Zoom calls and just returning to that place within where I call it ‘refilling your inner well’ so that you can then reengage with life, which is crazy and chaotic. And that way it regulates your nervous system and it just gives you a bit more capacity for dealing with stress. So that's the practice. 

And yes, I partnered up with The Four Seasons, and launched it in New York City as a part of their collective. It's called The Collective. They do an amazing program there where they bring in healers of all kinds, and I've been honoured to play the role of the one teaching meditation to busy and stressed-out New Yorkers. And so there it's one-to-one sessions, either just meditation or meditation and coaching a longer session of 90 minutes. And in Paris, what I'm doing instead is a group setting. So for Global Wellness Day, for example, I'm doing two group meditations where it's the same hour-long practice, but sitting in a room with a group of people. That's SoulCare, and that's the Four Seasons partnership.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Wow. Okay. I have a lot of questions about this, but as you were talking, it made me think… it's so relatable, everything you're saying, with the chaos of the world. I'm currently reading Four Thousand Weeks, the book about how you have 4000 weeks on average and how it's all about you have to stop just scrabbling to try and do your to-do list every day. And everyone's just so stressed about getting everything done. And it's about prioritising what you want to focus on and all that kind of stuff. They seem quite similar themes. So you mentioned that you do group sessions and one on ones, and do you also do them online as well? Like over Zoom?

Marta Hobbs

Not yet. I mean, yes, I offer them, but I feel like starting in person is a much more profound experience. But obviously, I'm only in New York and Paris, so I guess the short answer to your question yes. It just takes… I feel like online it takes a little bit longer to… my main goal in a session is to create safety. And so I find it takes a little bit longer for someone to let their guard down and open their heart when it's through a screen. So they're in their environment, they're in their office, kids are around. It's still chaotic, so it just takes a little bit longer for them to relax and ease into the openness that we're trying to get to. But, yes, I do offer them online – not as often as in person, but I want to be accessible from everywhere. So it's just using technology wisely in that sense.

Jessica Grace Coleman

And is there a big difference between the one on one sessions and the group sessions?

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, I think we can get a lot more intimate one-to-one. I think in a group session, you're still a little bit aware that there are other people around you. So really it is up to how the person comes in. So if you're coming in open and willing to be vulnerable and let yourself be seen, you will get out of the group session just as much as you get out of the one-to-one. But I have found that people still hold back just a little bit in a group setting because they're worried about how they're seen and if they'll be judged. Whereas in one-to-one sessions, people often have really big releases because when they go in and they slow down and they quiet down, they realise they've been holding back pain, for example, or grief, and so they allow the tears to come, and that is just a huge relief, and so they leave a lot lighter. And I think sometimes it's more challenging to do that in a group setting.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, totally agree with you. Okay, so that's one of the things you do. You also have written a book: ‘Unraveling: a Woman's Search for Freedom and the Journey of Coming Home.’ Can you tell me more about this? What can people expect from the book and what made you want to write it in the first place? 

Marta Hobbs

I started writing it for myself. I dove into my immigration from Poland. First of all, the way we left, we were running away from communism, from oppression. My mother was imprisoned, and so we were – in the middle of the night – sneaking out, my mom, my dad, my younger sister and I. So that in itself was really traumatic. Arriving in the United States, I just turned 13, I didn't speak the language, had never been to the country. This was before the internet, where you could google and see what it's like over there. I had no concept of where I was going. I just was expecting it to be wonderful because everyone said, ‘You're going to be free. It's going to be amazing.’ And for a little girl who just wanted to belong and wanted to have friends but didn't have a means of communicating, it was really crushing. But I stuffed that down for nearly 20 years. 

So, really, the book came out of me taking a long, deep, hard look at the trauma of that experience – not just the departure, but then the arriving and being the foreigner and the stranger. So I went on a deep healing journey and started journaling, and then to honour the little girl who didn't get to share her experiences. And, as I started writing, I just began to think that, gosh, this is really relatable for a lot of people. You don't have to be a foreigner to feel left out or like you don't belong. Then a bigger purpose came to it, and then COVID hit. 

It kept me from not going crazy, especially in the beginning during the pandemic when things were so uncertain and so scary. I had a project, so it kept me focused. And then I really realised that what I'm writing about is freedom. Freeing myself not just from the past and the trauma, but the expectations that are put on me as a woman, as a mother, as a wife, and then asking myself questions like, Who am I really outside of my job or the roles that I play for other people? So inquiring into my own identity and then getting through it and being able to see just what an incredible and extraordinary life I had been able to build for myself, especially if you take into account where I had come from and what I had been through. 

I wanted to share my journey, to give other people hope, those who are suffering, those who feel alone with their pain. I just wanted to say this was my path and this is how I got through it – hoping that my journey would mirror that of other people and give them hope – and then also some practical steps and tools for anyone who's struggling. 

So, really, that was my mission with the book, and now I just try to share it with anyone, men or women. I just want everyone to know that they have access to freedom, but it never comes. The thing that you're seeking, be it validation, love or peace, we tend to seek it outside of ourselves and jobs and relationships where we live and travel, even, right? But long-lasting fulfilment can only come if we’ve curated ourselves from within.

Jessica Grace Coleman

That sounds an amazing story, so I encourage everyone to read your book. I'm definitely going to get it. Like you say, universal themes, like everyone can relate in some way, even if they've not been through such a traumatic event and all that kind of stuff. Did you find the book cathartic to write when you were going back over all the hardships and everything you went through? Or was it a painful experience? Or how was that process for you?

Marta Hobbs

It was painful. It was cathartic as well. An interesting thing that happens when you go through something traumatic… you kind of block a lot of your memories. And so I, for example, couldn't remember a lot of my childhood. And as I started doing therapy around it, and as I started first journaling but then writing the book, I started to remember more. And so I got excited and I started to also have dreams, just remembering little things that happened when I was a kid. And so it was scary, it was painful, it was cathartic, but at the same time, it was also amazing to see it working. And then I was excited and then it gave me hope. And so it was so many things; it was really beautiful. 

It took three years from starting to write it, and then I went ahead and I learned about publishing and I self-published. It was just a massive, massive journey, and I'm super proud of it. And really, the one thing I hope that the book does is just touch people's hearts deeply. We each hold pain, some variants of it, and I just think that's such a universal theme. Like you said, you're hurting, we're all hurting. And if we can just see that in one another and have compassion, that could make a big difference in who we are and how we are with others.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, definitely. And I believe that people can get chapter one for free if they sign up at your website, is that correct?

Marta Hobbs

Yes. So you can get chapter one for free on my website and then the book is available on Amazon worldwide. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Great. Okay, and we'll put those links in the show notes as well for people too. So you worked in TV production in New York for a decade. Can you tell me more about this? What was it like and was it as fast-paced and chaotic a lifestyle as I imagine it to be?

Marta Hobbs

Yes, it was great fun. I was young, it was right out of college, I worked for NBC in New York City, sort of the middle of Manhattan. I mean, I loved it. It was chaotic. I worked for the live news shows and I did the video editing. And so I was the one that sat there until three minutes before the newscast began, waiting for the video to be rushed in so I can quickly edit it while the reporter was already sitting on the set, just waiting for the video so they can tell the story of whatever the latest breaking news was. A lot of deadlines, a lot of pressure. 

But I learned that I was comfortable in that environment and not really understanding that, because I grew up with so much trauma and uncertainty, being in a stressful environment felt normal for me. Okay, but it wasn't healthy in the long run, and so it didn't catch up with me until probably in my late 30s when I started to notice that I had tremendous anxiety and I think, probably, it had been there all along. I just thought it was excitement, and a little bit of stress is healthy, but if we're constantly living out of that stress response, it affects our health. So I did love it. It was chaotic. Would I do it again? Probably not at this stage in my life.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, I don't blame you. That sounds amazing. An amazing experience.

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, it was. I'm grateful for it. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Great. Okay, so let's talk travel because you obviously love travel and you obviously love the Caribbean a lot because you started a whole business around it that you ran for 15 years, CheapCaribbean.com. So can you tell me why you find the Caribbean so special and why and how you started this business?

Marta Hobbs

Sure. So my husband and I started the company. It was our first trip to the Caribbean. We went to the island of Saint Martin and we just loved it. And we both worked in TV and so we were both in that high-stress environment, and when we got down to the islands, it was like life just slowed down. So I think not knowing at the time that that's what I was looking for, that's what I needed, I just felt good being in the Caribbean. It's super slow. The vibe is kind of like, don't worry, it's all going to be okay. And you live in your bathing suit, so it's super laid back and there's just not so much pressure on you and on life. And the weather is amazing. We love the culture, we love the people. Everybody was warm and friendly and it was beautiful, and I love the beach and I feel like being out in nature is massively restoring for me. 

I feel like my whole system would just normalise the minute I put my feet in the sand and I was around the sound of the ocean waves and the wind would hit my face and it was just like this big, massive exhale. And we fell in love with that feeling, and we wanted to live like that. And then we wanted to offer it to other people. And so on the flight back from a second or third trip to Saint Martin, we came up with the name Cheap Caribbean and we just went at it, just the two of us, before all of the incredible tools that are available now to business owners. We did it the hard way, but yeah, the company is still around. We started it in 2000, so it’s still going strong, which is pretty incredible, even though we're not involved in it anymore.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So what was it like working with your husband on this business? Was it difficult working with your partner? Because I know a lot of people would not want to do that with their partner.

Marta Hobbs

No, I think everyone said we were crazy and that we would be divorced within a year. But we met at work and so we already had that dynamic of being coworkers. I think it definitely led to some tension, which just led to deeper conversations about who we are and what we want and respecting the other, seeing what he brought to the table versus what I brought to the table. And we just were a perfect match. He was the visionary. So he was in marketing and he had a finance degree and I did operations. So I broke things down into smaller projects and made them happen. And we were pretty complementary of one another in terms of how we worked together. And still to this day we're like, what else are we going to do? What else are we going to do? So it worked for us. It's not for everyone, that's for sure. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

You mentioned that you’re not involved in it anymore. Why did you decide to sell it?

Marta Hobbs

In 2007 in the United States, there was a huge financial crisis and so we were struggling financially. We grew so fast that our accounting software didn't keep up with the growth, and so while we thought we were making millions, it turned out we were losing millions, we just were not accounting for it properly. So it came to this really frightening emergency moment where we had to go out and get funding – and at a very unlikely time. And we did bring in investors who ended up owning 51% of the company – so the majority – and the vision started to shift. So we brought in money to save our third child – we always called the company that, with our two kids – and thinking, yes, we're going to be able to continue. And it provided jobs for so many. It was 500 people at its height and we were like, we cannot allow for this to fold. 

So when the new investor group came, it started to shift from a beautiful – probably I now romanticise it, looking back – family business where we wanted to help the people we employed, help the people we partnered with, support the Caribbean Islands by giving back. And we did a lot of charity work and the vision shifted with new investors and it became a business, a corporation. So there was a lot of talk about profit and loss and cutting the beautiful programs that we put in place as benefits. And so there was a lot of tension and it got really tiring. 

Running a big company, and running it with new rules, got exhausting because it was conflicting. And so my role within the company started to get smaller and smaller and then eventually someone came in and made an offer that we couldn't refuse. So it wasn't that we were like, let's get out – although we felt it. It was American Express that came in and bought the whole company. It was a surprise, but it was a welcome surprise. So, yeah, that's how the sale happened.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Wow. And how did you feel when that happened? Was it a relief or was it hard to let go because you'd been doing it for so long? 

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, so it was a relief because it took a lot of energy, like the struggle and the tension and still wanting this, but then wanting to be hands-off. It was really complicated. So massive relief for sure. Huge joy and then sadness. It had been 15 years of our life and it was like raising a child and then you're kind of looking and you're like, this is not how I wanted it to go. There was grief and losing contact with the whole team, too. 

We had just moved to France at that time, so there was a lot tied into that transition. And I write about this in my book because that's when I started to experience a lot of health problems. Like I started to have panic attacks. My anxiety became paralysing and I was so enmeshed and tied into the business, as part of it, as who I was in an unhealthy way, that cutting off that part of myself, saying goodbye… it was an identity loss. And so on top of all the complexities of what it's like to sell your own business, I then faced myself and who am I if I'm not the founder and COO? And that was the deeper invitation from life there. But it was challenging. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, definitely. I mean, it's so easy to attach yourself to your career or to certain projects or to certain businesses. And like you say, when it stops, then you lose a part of your identity – or you think you do. And it's hard to figure out what to do next and figure out who you are and all that kind of stuff. So, again, very relatable. I think a lot of people can relate to that. So you mentioned there moving to France. Did you move to Paris straight away?

Marta Hobbs

Yes.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So what is it about Paris that made you want to move there and raise your kids there, I believe? And also you mentioned you had a spiritual awakening. Was that to do with your identity and all that kind of stuff?

Marta Hobbs

So we moved to Paris. It was a year before we sold the company. So the sale actually happened here, and we moved here. We had been coming for vacations, staying a week, and then two weeks and then three weeks. And there's just something about the city that for someone like me, it’s magnetising. I was originally from Europe. I was surrounded by different cultures, different languages. The kids went to international schools. So we were part of communities that were extremely diverse, and I started to realise just how important that became to me as a person. I really wanted that in my life. I wanted that diversity and that variety. I was comfortable being the stranger and surrounded by other strangers. It made me feel at home. 

And then the city itself. Beauty is everywhere. And to me, that's such a sacred… I call it a sacred doorway within for me. Like, when I see… whether it be nature or… that's what happens to me; it opens my heart. And here in Paris, the beauty is the simplest of things, like the architecture or the store displays. Like, you go to the vegetable stands and just the way they stack their apples and broccoli, whatever. It's beautiful the way people dress. And again, even though it's a city, the pace of life is slower here. It's normal to take a two, three-hour lunch, enjoy the beautiful croissants. 

So there was pleasure, joy, and beauty. And I just felt like I had really forgotten those parts of myself as a woman while I was running this company. I became this masculine energy of doing, achieving, and structure, which is important, but I lost contact with the feminine aspect of who I was, which is a little bit more flowy and relaxed and enjoying life and letting things flow. And I think I just wanted that back in my life. So I've always loved Paris. 

Our kids felt really comfortable in international school environments, only because they've always travelled with us so often. And I don't really know why my husband loved it, but he does. But he's American, and he felt at home here too. So I think it was a great place to start over too, sort of leave off the Caribbean life for a bit and for each one of us to find ourselves again. And so it was a transformative period for all four of us, our whole family. So it was hard, but it was beautiful. And we were here for six years, and then it became time for the kids to go to college. They both went to college in the United States.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So do you split your time between there now, or do you just visit Paris occasionally, or how does that work?

Marta Hobbs

I'm based out of Paris, and then I'm in New York a lot for my partnership with the Four Seasons, but my daughter lives there, so I see her quite a bit. My son's in Florida, so I'm there for part of the time, and of course, I'm in the Caribbean. We spend quite a bit of time in St. Barts, so I guess those would be the main places where I bounce back and forth between. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Nice. I was going to ask about St. Barts because I heard you wrote your book there. Is that right?

Marta Hobbs

Yes, a lot of it was written there, yeah.

Jessica Grace Coleman

So was it just the whole relaxed atmosphere that made you want to write your book there, or what was it?

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, that and also the book opens – the first chapter, which is free – it opens with my first ever panic attack, and at the time, I think I'm dying, and it happens on St. Barts, and so there's something really special about the island for me, and so the journey, the spiritual awakening… not maybe the awakening part of it, but the abrupt ‘there always has to be a dying before being reborn or letting go of the old.’ So the jarring, being aware of the event that brought me to my awakening happened in St. Barts. It was a really traumatic ride to the hospital in the middle of the night, and my heart was racing and I was thinking, this is it. I'm leaving behind two children. And so the whole thing started there. I've gone back to the islands since, and each time I do, I have a profound experience in terms of what else I uncover and learn about myself. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

I've never been, but it looks beautiful.

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, it absolutely is.

Jessica Grace Coleman

I also believe you're doing a yoga camp there, is that right?

Marta Hobbs

Yes, I'm participating. I'm doing a workshop, but there is a yoga camp that happens there every year for, I think, 15 years now. And I attend it often for my own healing. And this year, the teacher, Diana, invited me to come back and host a workshop, so I get to share SoulCare, my practice, talk about my book, and sort of introduce that side of me to the community who, really, they've known me until now, just as someone who comes and practices on a mat. So I'm looking forward to that. It'll be this August. 

Jessica Grace Coleman

Okay. So you mentioned your journey to the US from Poland, and then you've done so much since, career-wise, kids, your book, your business. Did you ever think, when you were 13 and arriving in the US, that you would go on to have such a varied, successful life? And looking back now, how does it feel to think that it started that way? Is it strange? Does it seem bizarre? Does it seem like another lifetime ago? Especially with such a successful business, with CheapCaribbean.com? It's like two worlds. You might talk about this in your book. How does that feel, looking back on everything you've achieved?

Marta Hobbs

It feels beautiful. It's not just two worlds. I think that the way I functioned is sort of like making these little compartments. And that was then, and then I had this period, and then I was a mom, and then I ran Cheap Caribbean. And a huge part of healing is about wholeness. So what I've done is I spent time in each one of those buckets in my life, and now I've integrated all of it and it all is a part of who I am. 

So did I ever imagine any of this was possible at 13 or twelve or even younger? No. And again, it was before the internet. So what were my dreams? I probably was hoping that I would have a Barbie because we were so living in communism where everything is grey and you have access to nothing. My dreams were very… I mean, they were small compared to what I now know about the world and what I can now envision. And so it's a beautiful journey filled with a lot of pain, but I think that's the case for every human. 

So I encourage people to look back and find the common themes in your life. And for me, it's freedom. My grandfather was imprisoned. My mother was imprisoned. And my great-grandfather was imprisoned, too, in Siberia. So I'm the first generation were I get to embody freedom because I'm not in jail. And then that becomes a part of who I am. Like, oh my gosh, what's my bigger mission? Oh, I'm here to talk about freedom and to bring it to others. And so looking back at everything I had been through and connecting the dots and the story, it makes for a beautiful book, but it also makes me be able to look back at my life's journey and say, my God, what an adventure. 

Yes, a lot of pain. But I believe my capacity to hold the pain at a very young age… I wasn't able to hold it then, but through my healing work, my capacity for pain directly reflects my capacity for love. And so I can now be a bright light and a presence of love for other people because I've sat with my pain and that of that little girl living under oppression and then escaping and arriving not wanted. It's not painful anymore. But I want for other people to see that whatever pain they are holding, it doesn't have to enslave them. There's freedom on the other side of it. And so the whole journey gives me now a purpose. 

So I feel like, in a way, the work that I'm doing now with my business is really just to give back and to serve from a whole place of not needing anything, but simply to share my heart and be a presence of love for others who are struggling. We all struggle. So I just really want to be that hope just by sharing the deepest, darkest parts of my life to the public, to strangers. Pretty risky move, and people often ask, why did you do that? Why did you write? Or I write about the fact that my husband was an alcoholic for 20 years and what it was like living with that, because I'm sick of a world where we present a beautiful, well-polished facade. I wanted to put a beautiful face on a beautiful cover, but invite people to look at the depths of the pain that I carry inside. And I know that we all do. So what if we connected on that level versus how are you? Great. How are you? Great. That's the invitation.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, definitely. I'm all about getting deeper with people rather than just sticking to the small talk where it's just the same every time. You said so many interesting things there, but what stuck out to me was the fact that so many people – me included – we don't realise often how much of a privilege it is that we’re just in an age where we have freedom. And we have the time to figure out what we want our purpose to be and to go after it instead of just surviving, which is, like you said, generations of your family… that was all they could deal with. And we're in a time now where we can start our own business online and have a purpose-led mission and all that kind of stuff, and we get stressed out about all the stuff we need to do, whereas we just need to take a step back and just realise how amazing it is that we even get the opportunity to even try to live this kind of life. So that's a really important message. 

Obviously, your travels have been very transformative, especially from Poland to the US, and then to France. But, in general, why do you think travel can be so transformative for people? What makes it a transformational experience for you?

Marta Hobbs

I mean, it opens us up to the unknown. And I think any kind of change or transformation happens when you're willing to enter the space of, wow, this is not familiar. And usually we avoid it because it's scary. Everybody wants their routines. I can't tell you how many Americans I see in Paris looking for McDonald's because they need to have their hamburger or whatever or drink their Coke and they want their Dunkin Donuts coffee. Like, we're so used to routine. And they're familiar because it gives us the illusion of safety. And then when we go to foreign countries and we live amongst – or we visit – foreign cultures, we don't understand; it triggers all kinds of stuff within us there that we don't necessarily like all the time. But I find it's those spaces when you're unfamiliar that it just broadens your view of who you are, what this world is, and who we are as human beings. So I think it's beautiful. 

One of my favourite things to do is go to a brand new place where I don't speak the language – and I speak quite a few, so somewhere like Finland – where you’re just like, I don't know what they're saying. And sit at a cafe and watch the people and watch their body language and how they interact and their expressions, and walk into a grocery store and be like, what do people get for dinner? And there's just such excitement for me, being in a place where it's completely new. How does the metro work here? How do you take the bus? What does the money look like? I'm like a little kid discovering something new, and I feel like that is so missing for so many people that are just like, go to work, come home, have dinner, read a book, watch TV, watch Netflix. 

And it's okay if you love that, and that just lights you up from the inside and you feel fully alive when you're in your nine-to-five routine, but for me, no… I want to get out there and I want to feel fully alive. And when I experience new cultures and new countries, new languages, that's when I feel it the most. I think it's just the most expansive thing for your mind and for your worldview. So I just think it's extremely transformative, and all of my transformations have happened… the trip, like you said, from Poland to the States, then to France, to the Caribbean, where it led me not just to start my own business, but to have my first breakdown that led to writing this book. Like, so many things happened for me while on a trip.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, I completely agree with everything you just said, and I love people watching as well. And like you say, if you're in a place where you don't speak the language and everything is new and you have to figure everything out, it is kind of like being a child again, like you said, that childlike wonder. And you don't get that when you're just going through a routine every single day. And that's why I use travel as a tool to get myself out of my comfort zone and experience new things and broaden my horizons and see the world from a different perspective, but also see myself from a different perspective, which I think is really something people should do anyway. So you travel a lot. Do you have anywhere left on your travel bucket list that you'd like to go to that you've not been to yet?

Marta Hobbs

Yeah, I've not been to anywhere in Africa or Asia. I really feel called… I've been to Thailand once, but yeah, just all of Asia. I think I'm super interested in just Eastern mentality, especially the spirituality side. I've been in the Western world for most of my life. I don't consider myself religious, but definitely spiritual, and so I want to explore that, that culture that just seems so foreign. Like going to Asia where even the letters are different. So I would love to just spend some time there. I'm super unfamiliar with that part of the world. How about you? Have you been to Asia?

Jessica Grace Coleman

Yeah, I went when I was about 25. I did a month-long group tour around Southeast Asia – so Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam – and that was incredible. Like you say, it was so different to anything I was used to in the West. And our guide was a local Cambodian guy, so he took us around his friends' houses and stuff that you wouldn't normally get to do if you were doing it on your own. So that was an incredible experience. And I hadn't actually been to Africa until the start of this year when I went to South Africa to visit my friend. So that was the first time I've been. It's an incredible place. So beautiful. Would highly recommend. I haven't been to any other countries in Africa, but everywhere is on my list.

Marta Hobbs

I know, you can spend the rest of your life just exploring France, for instance, and then Europe, and then there are so many places. One of my most memorable trips was Rio. We went to Rio de Janeiro, my husband and my son. And that was really cool too, because that was the first time I was in South America. And that was also a language that's completely new – I speak Spanish, but it's not the same. And yeah, everything there operated so differently and it wasn't the safest, so we had to also listen about how to get around. But I always wanted to go visit the big Jesus statue and so that was monumental when we got there; we have pictures in front of it. I think I just have a connection with the water and the ocean and so seeing the city and the mountains and the water and the sand… it was one of the most picturesque places I have ever been.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Oh wow. I've actually never been to South America.

Marta Hobbs

Me too, it was my only place. Yeah, I mean, the Caribbean's pretty close, but it's not quite South America.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Nice. Okay, so I have two last quick questions. I'll put these in the show notes, but first of all, where can people find you and follow you online? Where are the best places? And is there anything else you want to mention or talk about before we go?

Marta Hobbs

Best place to follow me is Instagram. My handle is Marta Hobbs, and on Facebook, Marta Hobbs Official. My website is just martahobbs.com and I'd love to hear from anyone – you can send me a message. I just really wanted to say that I'm really grateful for your time, and it's always nice to talk to someone else who's travelled and who appreciates the value that it brings, and it's just been lovely to spend some time with you. And so I thank you for that.

Jessica Grace Coleman

Thank you! It's been great having you on, and I've really enjoyed our conversation. Thank you very much. 

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