Josephine is a a French-born ex oilfield engineer turned sports and fitness industry professional. Josephine started getting into longer distance challenges while she was in her final year of university, when she took on the Marathon des Sables desert ultra-marathon in 2012. Since then she has cycled down the US West Coast from Seattle to Santa Barbara, ran and hiked, 3,000km across New Zealand, followed by cycling across Sardinia and Taiwan!
Josephine has a passion for ultra running, outdoor adventuring and travelling. She enjoys spending her free time hiking through the hills, running on dirt trails and swimming in the ocean – the closer she is to nature the happier she feels. She currently lives in Indonesia where she is starting a new business, Outventure Hub which is a platform full of resources to help passion-driven outdoor sports entrepreneurs grow successful, long-lasting businesses. At the same time, she continues to explore the world through long human-powered journeys - which she shares on her blog -Spark of Adventure!
Show notes
Social Media
Blog - www.sparksofadventure.com
Instagram- @josephineanselin
Website: www.outventurehub.com
Twitter : @outventurehub
Facebook: @outventurehub
We first spoke with Kiko on the 1st May 2018, where she shared more about her solo and unsupported row, 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean. Kiko tells more about her life, the challenges she faced and overcame, from being diagnosed with Cushing's Disease and having brain surgery only months before the Atlantic row. Kiko achieved the impossible, she broke the women's record by 5 days and crossed the ocean in 49 days, 10 hours and 13 seconds. Kiko had never rowed before deciding on this challenge!
In this Tough Girl Extra podcast episode, we catch up with Kiko to find out what’s she’s been up to, how she decided on her next challenge - Kik Plastic, how she funds her life, what motivates her and what the future looks like.
Kiko does not hold back and shares all the details, she’s authentic and as real as they come! Enjoy this episode!
Show notes
Social Media
Website: www.kikomatthews.co.uk
Twitter: @Kikomatthews
Instagram: @kikomatthews
Women Overlanding the World began as a Facebook group where traveling women could congregate for information and community related to all things overlanding. After the first year, they had grown to an active group of over 1,600 members around the world.
They started to realised that they had created something amazing and that something exciting was happening in the space.
“Women were no longer listening to messages that say “you can’t” or “you won’t.” They are refusing to stay quiet in the predominantly male worlds of overlanding, off-roading and exploration. Women are out on the road. They are going where they want to go. They have expertise and knowledge. They are defining their own lives and redefining their own limits.”
Women overlanding hopes that the group, the website, the book, the meet ups and overland retreats will serve as a source of inspiration, and be a catalyst for you to have courage as you start your overlanding journey.
During the podcast we speak with the 4 founders: Sunny Eaton, Karin Balsley, Taylor Pawley, Ashley Giordano.
Sunny Eaton is a criminal defense attorney and social marketing manager who travels with her wife, Karin Balsley, as the Vagabroads. Sunny’s mother is the original Vagabroad and introduced her to travel at an early age. She went to high school in Germany, and after college had planned a round-the-world trip, starting with a trek from Istanbul to Cairo. She bought a plane ticket, gave notice at work – and a week later, the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks occurred. Parts of the world were no longer safe for Americans, and the whole world seemed much scarier. She cancelled her ticket, retracted her notice, and put that trip on a tall pile of "some days". A few years later, she realized that when you look back at a year in your life and can’t distinguish one day from the next, it’s time to make a change. Within a year, they had sold everything, quit their jobs and headed south in their ’97 Toyota FZJ80 Land Cruiser with their dog, Gracie.
Karin Balsley is a systems architect who grew up in Franklin, Tennessee. She got into the offroading community at the young age of 15 when she bought her first 1978 Jeep CJ-5. Since then she's owned and rebuilt 6 jeeps and is currently building a Jeep Scrambler. She's always loved cars and enjoys seeing what they are capable of.
Recently her and her wife, Sunny, decided to sell everything they owned and buy a 1997 Toyota Land Cruiser. They built it out over six months and hit the road with their dog, Gracie, in November 2015. They traveled for two years throughout Mexico and Central America. They enjoyed it so much that they turned around and drove the same route home instead of shipping the car. Afterwards they traversed the United States, east to west and south to north, stopping in Canada along the way. Future plans include overlanding throughout South America and traveling via motorcycle across Southeast Asia.
Taylor Pawley grew up in Eastern Oregon on a cattle ranch where hiking, fishing, hunting, and off-roading were just a normal everyday activity. But travel was the thing that really called to her. She married her high-school sweetheart at the young age of 19 and together they traveled across the Mediterranean on a 10-day cruise, backpacked through Uganda, and rented a Hi-Lux to chase desert elephants through Namibia. When it came time to choose between settling down and starting a family, or being kids themselves a little longer, they chose to sell their house and everything they owned and travel the Pan-American Highway. She also took the opportunity to compete in the inaugural Rebelle Rally, an all-women’s navigation rally, and took second place out of 36 teams. Taylor’s Pan-Am journey ended in Uruguay in 2018 when she and KP decided to split amicably, but she has continued to travel on her own as often as possible, with plans to complete the remaining part of the Pan-Am journey solo someday as well as a trek through Africa.
Ashley Giordano recently (okay, 3 years ago) completed a 48,800km overland journey from Vancouver, Canada to Buenos Aires, Argentina with her husband Richard in their well-loved but antiquated Toyota Pickup. On the zig-zag route south they hiked craggy peaks in the Andes, discovered diverse cultures in 15 different countries, and filled their tummies with spicy ceviche, Baja fish tacos and Argentinian Malbec. You can usually find Ashley buried in a pile of travel books, pouring over maps, or researching wild medicinal herbs. Ashley grew up in Kelowna, BC, Canada, and spent most of her time training as a competitive figure skater. She worked in Vancouver, BC as a Paralegal for eight years while completing a Diploma in Holistic Nutrition. She is currently studying herbal medicine with a focus on women’s health.
Show notes
Social Media
Website - www.womenoverlandingtheworld.com
Facebook Group - @womenoverlandingtheworld
Instagram - @womenoverlandingtheworld
Instagram - @wowoverlandretreats
Twitter - @womenoverland
We first spoke with Fiona back in February 2018, where Fiona shared more about walking Great Britain; 993 miles, solo and unsupported over 57 days in 2017. This was followed in September by cycling almost 1200 miles, solo and unsupported, from Lands End to John O’Groats.
Fiona has come back on the Tough Girl Podcast EXTRA episode to share more about her most recent challenge, which involved setting 3 world records in 2018 for stand up paddle boarding the length of Great Britain!
Fiona shares more about the challenge, from the logistics of getting a support crew together, funding the challenge as overcoming her deep seated fear of the sea. Fiona goes no to share more about her ambition for cycling around the coast of the Mediterranean, and what she has learned so far by cycling from Gibraltar to France.
When she's not outside adventuring, Fiona runs the Adventure Book Club to inspire and support people to take on their own adventures. Fiona also coaches entrepreneurs to utilise the power of action to bring their own story to life.
“Getting to the start line is often the hardest part. You’ll never be 100 per cent ready so making that decision to just go and figure it out along the way is hugely liberating. Adventure has taught me more than anything else in life, that if I keep believing something is possible, I can push forward and make it happen.”
Show notes
Social Media
Website: www.fionalquinn.com
Twitter: @FionaLQuinn
Instagram: @FionaLQuinn
FaceBook: /FionaLQuinn
Medium: @FionaLQuinn
Book Club: http://fionalquinn.com/adventure-book-club
In 2012, Kate was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and for the most part, doctors weren’t particularly optimistic about how she could improve her quality of life. Kate was living in the no-man’s land of having received a diagnosis, but nothing was relieving her symptoms.
It took her a few years to find out what the combination of things would be that that would get her system working again. In 2015, Kate began training for her first triathlon, following her fist success a few months, later she had set her sights on doing an half-Ironman!
Training for Kate was really intense, and she often found it frustrating, because she felt sick and fatigued more often than other athletes, it was also taking her longer to recovery. Nonetheless, she persisted, and for Kate her goal of finishing a half-Ironman was her way of saying to the world that she was in charge of her body.
Kate made the decision that it was all about her mindset and deciding to make the conscious choices to practice courage even after setbacks. During this podcast, Kate will teach you how to change your old patterns of self-doubt and create new courageous habits, which is turn will help you lead a more courageous life. Kate will share more detail about the powerful principles of habit-formation, psychological courage and emotional resilience.
Show notes
Social Media
Web :: https://www.yourcourageouslife.com
Instagram :: https://www.instagram.com/katecourageous
FaceBook :: https://www.facebook.com/YourCourageousLife
Community :: https://TeamCLCC.com
*Please note this episode has been marked as explicit.
Katie-Jane is a British adventure girl living in the French Alps. She’s addicted to type 2 fun, powered by sugar and sunshine, and a lover of marzipan! Katie is mostly known for her organisation and planning skills (a queen of lists and highlighters), and her unwavering belief that anything is possible, whilst bringing a touch of pink and girly glamour to adventure.
Katie in her own words…
“My friends often refer to me as slightly crazy! But don’t be fooled… I’m not very brave, nor an adrenaline junkie or a daredevil, I’m just a normal girl, that through adventure is perpetually learning that ordinary people can do extraordinary things if they just can be bold enough to begin. When I am not busy at my desk designing websites for clients, or organising expeditions, you might find me looking out of my tent on a mountain summit, snuggled deep in my sleeping bag, drinking a cuppa, watching the sun creep up over the mountains at dawn.
I have a passion for exploring this wonderful world in which we live. Having visited over 50 countries on 5 continents so far, I still feel there’s so much more to explore. I have often found that stripped of comforts and faced with hardships and adversities, the completion of each journey becomes so much more rewarding. My life goals are to fill my day’s with wonderful adventures, making memories, seeing new places, meeting new faces, doing things that are difficult, and scaring myself a little, so that nothing feels familiar & therefore everyday becomes extraordinary.”
Show notes
Social Media
Website: www.katiejaneendurance.com
Instagram: @katielherpiniere
Facebook: @katiesenduranceadventures
Mara had a massive year of big challenges in 2018, from training for her first triathlon and Ironman UK. She then ticked off completing a multi-stage ultra marathon off her bucket list by taking part in the Wadi Rum Ultra marathon in 2018. The race was held in the desert in Jordan, and involved running just over 250km in five days!
During the podcast Mara shares more about her triathlon training, how she bought all the gear she needed with a budget of £1000! Mara then goes into more detail about her biggest challenge to date - The Speed Project which she did in March 2019, involving a 340 mile (550K) relay race from the Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles all the way out to Las Vegas. There are no rules and the only aim is to run from LA to Vegas as fast as possible! This is a jam packed episode filled with motivation and top tips!
Show notes
Social Media
Website - www.thefitlondoner.com
Instagram - @mara.thefitlondoner
Twitter - @thefitlondoner
Facebook - @thefitlondoner