Hello listeners welcome back to The Science of Self, where you Improve your Life From the inside out, I'm Russell, and today we have a guest, Zach Smith. Zach is the founder and CEO of anywhere.com. Your bio information says that, uh, the concept possibly for the for anywhere.com or what built into anywhere. Dot com was a trip to Oaxaca. us through that experience to give us background on where the seed was planted for this organization.

Sure. It was, um, yeah, post-college trip to a warm part of the world. That, so a friend and I took a one-way ticket to Oaxaca, Mexico, and we, basically just were, you know, moving along the Pacific Coast. I was reading lots of books enjoying the way of life there, practicing my Spanish, and really just sensing and absorbing and experiencing the surroundings and a serious, a series of encounters just. Occurred throughout my time there I was, I was, I remained open the whole time and that was probably why these things happened to me. So what ended up happening was I, I, I went to another couple towns and was exploring the country just to see if I was really able to do this and if I, I really liked it. I'm on an aerial tram going through the rainforest, just taking pictures, enjoying myself and a stranger across from me asked me what I was up to I just said, well, I'm thinking about buying this, this website in this little town. It's kind of tourism related. And he was curious and he gave me his contact information and said, I think we should really stay in touch. I'm a software engineer. We were of a similar age, and so I just basically started. Sending him the sort of information and the, the ideas that I had and what I wanted to develop what was lacking in the current business and where we wanted to take it. And so it took, you know, about a year or so later before we were able to actually go into business together. I think our intentions are pretty much the most powerful thing in the world. And, and they, they drive. They, they, they, they drive relationships, they drive choices, they drive you know, a lot of what, what shows up in this world. And I, I think then my parents had certain intentions about, you know, what they wanted and, and because they. They were idealists that, you know, left the city and moved to the west coast. They got five acres out in Oregon. My mom was a ceramicist making pottery, selling stuff, and, um, I. My, my father's last name was Smith, and they wanted to do something more interesting and come up with a fun middle name for, for, for me and my, my three brothers, I'm the oldest and so they named, named me Zachary Bonaventure Smith. And so they, they in some ways like set my course in some, in some ways, but then of course I had to learn le many lessons along the way to figure out, you know, how, how I could play my role and be who I'm meant to be. Um, which I don't think is, you know, pure destiny, but it's, it's not also a pure chance. And so I, I do think there's, there's an aspect of, of serendipity and I think there's a little bit of the, the. The natural laws of this world cooperating with you when you bring attention intentions that are aligned when you have certain core values. And I mean, this just brings up like a really, like we've talked about intentions a little bit, but like just a childhood story. I remember. We were at our house, there was a few kids and one friend brought over a slingshot. I had never held a slingshot in my life. And I was like, wow, what is, you know, this is, this is a fun toy. And so I wanted to turn playing with the slingshot. And so I got the slingshot and we're just standing there and there was a little pebble. Loaded it. And at the time there was this beautiful yellow finch that flew into this apple tree. And all of a sudden I was like, well, now I have something to aim for. I'm gonna aim for this bird. And so I was at least 20 yards away. I was not that close. Never saw a shot, a slingshot. But then I was like, I'm gonna hit that bird. And so I aimed shot this thing, and just like in the cartoon, this bird spiraled right down to the ground, perfect shot on the neck, and I was devastated. I was like, oh my God. I didn't intend to kill that bird, but I did try to hit it. So I, my intention was a powerful force. It caused death. So, I mean, I felt guilty and shame and bad. I, me and my dad buried it. And, uh, that was a lesson that I, I felt like I internalized and never really wanted to cause that type of. Reaction in the world through my own kind of thought or intention. if, if you're, if you're in the present moment, and if you live your values and you know yourself, that it's a natural byproduct for good things to start showing up in your life. Whether you wanna, whatever you wanna call it, whatever, you know, media, you want to sort of build around that. I, I, I think that those things you know, they're, it's good, good to put it out there, I suppose. Yeah, I, I mean, I, I don't really, frankly, I just, I don't really follow like too, too much with, you know, social media or what, what is, um, being amplified at, at certain points. Familiar with that, that, that concept. And I, you know, and I think that's like, that came with good intentions for people to understand that they have a lot of, you know, power over their, you know, their, their life. And it starts, I think, with just that subtle listening. And but you know, sometimes it's like the ego gets involved and people want like, oh, I just want more, more, will make me happy. And, and, and then you're filling this void, or, oh, I wanna manifest all these material things. And you know, that, that to me is, um, again, like not. Not really the goal, but you know, sometimes that's just where people put their, put their you know, put their in, uh, their, their attention. You know, and again, back to like one of the most powerful things I think we do know about the nature of life. Yes, our intentions really matter, but. Where we put our attention, our attention is actually changes the nature of, you know, the world or, you know, the, you know, the, the entanglement of you know, people, relationships ideas, whatever. So it's that's another big area that, people should be more cautious, I think, of where they put their attention.

One of the phrases I took from your website or from your introductory email focusing on travel as a tool for transformation. Like I said, we're getting short on time. I don't want to. Make you brief on that answer, but can you expand on that phrase as a tool for transformation as far as travel goes?

Yeah. Basically I've, I've always felt that perspective generating experiences are very valuable for humans to go through. Um, and. I mean, this traces back when I was, I'm gonna give you the, the, the backstory and then I'll give you the, the, the current. So when I was 12, 11, 11 or 12, we had to do a big class project. And you know, it was just like an independent study have to, you know, come up with any topic and you have to research it and do it. And. I was thinking about all this stuff and I told my mom, she was in the art studio and I remember this, and I said, I want, I think I want to do my project on perspective. And she's like, what? What do you mean perspective? And, and, and, and then she, she's like, well, that's tricky. Well, maybe it should be about. Perception. 'cause then that, that gets into the mind and the eye and all this sort of stuff. And so we, we land, we landed on visual perception. So I've always been interested in. How people see the world. And so I, you know, modeled the brain and did a little heart HyperCard program and, you know, it was like a interesting, cool project.

do you have certain habits, meditating, reading, exercise, mindfulness practices that are, sacred to your day-to-day success. if so, would you share two or three of those things just in a list form or elaborate however much you'd like on those?

Great. I would say that these days you know, I really do prioritize sleep. You know, seven-ish hours is, is pretty core. I, I have a. A mattress that records my, my sleep. And, and, and so that's something that I, I track and I you know, just, just know that I got a bank hours there and, you know, make sure I'm getting enough good deep sleep and REM sleep. I also yes, like exercise from. Time to time. I, I'm not religious about it, but I, I like, you know, pushing myself or even just going on a long walk, but just moving the body, using the body. I like to play basketball sometimes, but that's harder on my body as I'm aging. I mean, I'm 44 and, you know, it's like all of a sudden like getting bumped around or the herky jerky actions are just a little less congruent. And I think that consciously eating is important. Like, uh, I don't eat just because it's lunchtime or, you know, oh, it's breakfast. So I think the body it responds really well when you're disciplined with it. So, you know, recently I've, I've been you know, not. Not eating three meals a day. I, I pretty much eat you know, twice a day. You know, have a, have a nice long 16 or 18 hour period where my body's just processing whatever it's processing. And, and, and I feel like that that also helps balance out the mood and balance out you know, just, um. Extra weight or stuff that you just don't need. start with each relationship that you have in your, in your community and, and be, you know, be a good listener. Be you know, be available you know, respond to. Uh, two things be proactive and, and again, that that has a, a, an effect that is immeasurable because that gets passed on to other people and, and, and, and, and so you just gotta FI think you know, just be the change you want to be. I mean, I know that's very dated and whatever, but I actually do think it's kind of true. So and then. Yeah, I don't, I don't have a, you know, plug, I mean, we're, you know, we're, we're, we're anywhere we, we have a number of published countries that we are activated in. We have about a dozen more that we are quietly in the process of activating to our repeat and our referral clients. So the goal. Is that we become that, that trusted source to, you know, use your perf your vacation time as precious, your precious vacation time as wisely as possible. You know, your budget and your resources as wisely as possible. We are a co-creator with you to make sure you get what you want out of your experience. These are. Oftentimes, you know, big once in a lifetime trips, you know, going to Peru or going to the Galapagos, or taking your, your family to, you know, eco lodges in Costa Rica. Uh, these are, these are things that, uh, are rare and we treat them as being special, uh, each and every time. So that, that's our role. And we also want. Tourism to be supportive of the communities that are hosting rather than extractive. And, and so I think there's a, an awareness from the visitor, uh, that needs to also start to emerge, um, that their, their choices really matter. Um. And, and, and the, the cr, the will culture be more sustained or will it erode to more of a homogenous you know, all-inclusive type model where, you know, people just show up and they, you know, are eating and drinking and that's it. They're going home and that's travel. And the truth is that's not travel. That's, um. That's, that's gluttony. Doesn't mean that, you know, it's not okay to go take it easy. Sometimes it's just don't confuse the two. You know, that's not travel, that's not experiencing culture. You know, being on a cruise ship with 5,000 people, you know, cruising around is not, not real travel. I'm sorry. So, you know, we're, we're just trying to play our role and you know, call it as we see it.