S01 Ep05: How to Strategize to Make Travel Dreams Come True with Jessica Tappana

EntrepreneurshipSelf-ImprovementEducation

Jan 16

Written By Melissa Wesner

Have you ever dreamed of traveling the world with your family? Jessica Tappana is doing just that! As a mom of 2 school-aged children and owner of 2 businesses, she faced all of the same barriers that anyone else in her shoes would face, but what makes Jessica’s experience unique is that she and her family decided to troubleshoot and find a solution to each of those barriers rather than letting them stop the pursuit of their dreams.
Jessica loves traveling so much that she has also found ways for her team to have amazing travel experiences while getting work done! If you are interested in traveling with your family or team, this episode is for you!!
In this episode, you’ll learn about:
• The inspiration for the Tappana family’s 6 month world cruise.
• Strategies Jessica and her family used to ensure that her partner and school-aged children could have this amazing experience on board a cruise ship for 6 months.
• Ways Jessica approached 6 months of travel with her team (and her team’s response!)
• Cruising with your team and navigating those logistics
Follow Jessica Tappana:
Instagram: @simplifiedseo
www.simplifiedseoconsulting.com
Special Offer: The code "Dreaming" will get you 20% off any DIY Search Engine Optimization courses which can be found at www.simplifiedseoconsulting.com/online-seo-courses
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (00:03.925)
Welcome back to the Dreaming and Doing Podcast. I am really excited to be talking with our guest today. We're gonna be with Jessica Tappana, who is a licensed clinical social worker with a private practice in Missouri that specializes in treating trauma and anxiety. She is also the founder of Simplified SEO Consulting, which helps private practices get their websites in front of their ideal clients.
And one of the things that I find so interesting about Jessica is that she loves traveling and it's not just the love of traveling. It's just that what's that she's pursuing some really incredibly inspiring dreams right now. And that's what we're going to be talking about with her today. So welcome, Jessica.
Jessica Tappana (00:51.63)
Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be recording this right before starting out on probably following the biggest dream I have ever followed.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (01:02.725)
Yes, well, and I know, well, one, thank you for recording with us today because I know you were like, "Ah, it's going to be a really busy week and I'm going to cram this in." And so I know that you said you're going to have a lot going on. So where are you at today and how are you doing with everything that's going on?
Jessica Tappana (01:22.398)
Yeah, Today is an exciting day. Today is the last, it's Monday, the last week before, the last week I have at my office or work, but I'm actually at home behind my computer. There are seven bags that are halfway packed, well they're mostly packed, that we're going to take on as we leave for my family of four to travel for six months. So...
yeah, excited. And then we found out this morning that our itinerary might change again for, it'd be the third itinerary change, the second major itinerary change, so I'm a little anxious trying to know that we're about ready to embark on this journey but we could have another major itinerary change. just because of the state of the world um you know a week before we leave home and uh only a couple of weeks before we embark on the main portion of our trip so yeah
doing okay, but it's all a it's all an exercise and just being ready for being ready for anything and being flexible and I'm not necessarily naturally the most the most go with the flow person so it's definitely a growth edge for me.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (02:35.861)
I hear that. So I have been seeing these amazing pictures online, pictures of things that you're doing with your family, pictures of things that you've been doing with your team. Talk with us a little bit about what you have been doing with your family and with your team and what you are about to do.
Jessica Tappana (02:55.478)
So I've always loved to travel. My parents really, we live in Missouri, which is the middle of the United States. And my parents always kind of saw that as a home base. And they said, you know, the nice thing about being in Missouri is nowhere is really that far in the United States and it's a good jumping off point. And they prioritize travel. They said they'd rather live in a really modest house and travel and we have, are lucky enough to have the ability to do that.
And so really forego whatever we need to forego in order to travel. And that was the way that my sisters and I were raised. And we've always followed in that. All three of us really have always kind of followed that from the day I got married. It was whatever we have to do to travel. I remember sleeping in my car with my husband in order to road trip it when we were engaged. And so.
that's been our attitude, but as we've scrimped and saved and worked really, really hard in our respective careers, we've been fortunate enough to be able to do more and more traveling. And then we saved and saved for our dream 10-year wedding anniversary trip that was canceled because of COVID and we were supposed to go in April 2020. And when it was canceled, I remember in May 2020,
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (04:08.101)
Hmm
Jessica Tappana (04:17.558)
refunds were coming back in and saying, you know, to my son, like how important travel was to us and how much we wished we could have gone. And I shared with my then, how old was he? He was seven year old, that one of my biggest regrets in life was not traveling, not studying abroad. I'd spent a month in China my freshman year of college, but I'd never officially studied abroad. He goes, well mom, why can't we study abroad? You're working from home. He's very...
Jessica Tappana (05:02.915)
it's very,
Jessica Tappana (05:11.798)
So ultimately what this turned into is my husband found an incredible deal on a world cruise and that's what we're embarking on is we're going on this world cruise and we've been planning it now for three years. And in addition to that, we've gone on some test cruises because you can't just put two children on a cruise that had never cruised before. And then.
We, in the meantime, started taking my team on trips. My Simplified SEO consulting team lives in three different states. I started looking at bringing them all to Missouri for a team retreat to do some training. And we realized it was actually cheaper to take them on a Caribbean cruise than to bring them all to Missouri and pay for all their food and stuff for a few days. So we've now taken them on two different cruises. And that's also great for testing out, you know, I took my kids and that's been great for some other test run.
cruises. So yeah, I, people are like, you must really love cruising. I'm like, yeah, I do. But I also just love, I love seeing the world. And for us, cruising is a really logical way to do it because as extravagant as it seems, it's actually often, if you find good deals, very reasonably priced way to do it. There's childcare. And so when I'm trying to work, it's great for sending kids to kids club and my kids are in heaven.
doing that. They love going to kids club. For a team, it's great because we can have times that we come together and work, but then my team can go off and do their own thing for a while. Same with family. We can have family time, but then the kids can go to kids club and we can have dates. My husband and I can go to the show or whatever. So yeah, that's what we've been doing is we've been going on little test cruises. We even did a transatlantic one this year.
after I'd gone to a conference overseas, then my sister convinced me, she's like, okay, you've got to like test going across the Atlantic Ocean with your kids and make sure that they can survive that. So we did one that crossed the ocean in September and we survived that. In fact, we got off and my seven-year-old who, or my six-year-old, she'll turn seven on the Transatlantic, or on the world cruise. She has always been my not so apt.
Jessica Tappana (07:26.882)
not so excited to travel one. She's the one that's like, do we have to travel? She got off the transatlantic in September. She goes, do we have to get off the boat? And my husband and I like looked at her and like high-fived her. We're like, we've turned her into a traveler. We can do this. So she's now excited about the world cruise. When we thought we'd have to cancel it because of kind of everything in the Middle East, she was upset. And so we're like, okay.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (07:30.726)
Bye.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (07:53.929)
Mmmm
Jessica Tappana (07:54.942)
Slowly over the last three years, we have somehow turned this child from crying at the thought of having to sleep on a boat to now being excited about it.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (08:03.857)
Wow. Well, and I listened to this other podcast that where you were talking about this and I remember you telling the story of your son on that podcast as well and that he, you know, your family and how your parents kind of inspired a love for traveling, but then also that your son was the one who said, hey, well, why don't we do this? And the thing that I was thinking about as I was hearing you on that episode and I was going for my walk, I was thinking about, you know, what?
Jessica Tappana (08:05.134)
So.
Jessica Tappana (08:09.602)
Thanks for watching!
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (08:33.701)
an important message that send your son, right? I think about, I mean, obviously not every family is going to be in a position where they are logistically able to or even wanting to, you know, cruise around the world. But I think how many children might have a really cool idea like that to be told like, that is absolutely bananas. Like, there's no way in the world that is possible.
And that's not what you did. You actually heard him out, you entertained his idea, and rather than shooting it down, you were like, huh, let's kind of sit on that a little bit and let's think about it. And I was thinking about what a big message that sends to children who have big dreams and to have adults say, you know what? Yeah, maybe that is possible.
Jessica Tappana (09:26.902)
Well, and even like, I think one of the hardest things for the first year was figuring out how each member of our family have different dreams and have different priorities and how to figure that out, right? Because we are all
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (09:36.078)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (09:40.95)
different and we have different personalities and even take my two children like at first this sounded like a horrible idea to my daughter and my son's big thing was like of everywhere he was like I have to go to Africa and my daughter like I said she's a homebody like she really would be happy just to stay home all day and so putting her like the idea of like at first my son and I were like okay we want to go to once we realized we couldn't just like hang out and
London, we looked at the different visa options and it would have been hard. Like we could have figured it out, but like maybe one of the work visas, but that was going to be more of a challenge. So then we're like, okay, we'll go to four different countries and spend two months each on the four different continents. But like my son and I wanted to live like the locals. And so we had this beautiful idea of like, we're going to go integrate ourselves into the like local culture.
And knowing my daughter's personality, we just realized this was not going to work for her, right? And so figuring out for each of us what this meant, the cruising idea was truly what was going, fits my daughter's personality better, where she can lay down her head each night on the same, in the same spot. It just is gonna fit her better. And then, but then to me, I was looking at world cruises and a lot of the-
a lot of the companies, if you look at the cost of it, there was no way that was ever gonna fit our budget for four of us. And so I totally gave up and said, there's no way we're gonna make this work. To be completely honest, we're talking about dreaming, I'd love to be like, I pursued our dream relentlessly, but I gave up and was just like, there's no way it's gonna happen. It was my husband that like, and he's always been more of an idealist where I'm more of a realist. And so he like snuck around quite frankly, continuing to look it up until a Black Friday sale that had kids sale free.
And he was like bound and determined. And he's like, I found it. And I didn't even want to look. He's like, no, you have to look. Like legit, I found a way that we can make this work. And we'd been setting on everything that had come back from the dream trip that got canceled that was going to be a bit more extravagant and everything that we hadn't been spending in COVID because I thought that, you know, the whole.
Jessica Tappana (11:59.886)
I was convinced my businesses were going to totally crash and we'd be on the streets or something and so he just was like, no, we actually can do this. And then still when I went to both of the leadership teams at my business and I like whispered it to them, I was like, my husband thinks that we can do this thing. I know we can't. I know you're going to think I abandoned you guys. And both of my leadership teams at each business were like, I mean, don't you trust us? Like we can do this. We can make this work.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (12:26.53)
Wow.
Jessica Tappana (12:29.814)
But yeah, just figuring out, I want to support my children in dreaming. I want to support them in figuring out how to problem solve and how to figure things out and how to respect each other and how to be okay with the fact that sometimes it might even look like our dreams contradict each other. And even in a partnership, I love seeing your posts about you and your significant other and how you guys.
have very different traveling styles. I love it because that's how me and my husband are. Our personalities often are, could not be more different. And just figuring out how you live with that in our family, my husband and I are very different, my kids are very different, and how do we find ways to help promote each other's dreams and support each other when at first glance, it might not look super compatible. And it can be, it just takes thinking outside the box.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (12:57.108)
Yes.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (13:19.724)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (13:24.537)
Yes, and so many of the things that you just said are things that I wanted to ask you about, right? Because I think, you know, one, you have two businesses, you have two children. I don't even know what your partner does, but like he's in the mix too. And I think that there are a lot of people who might say, oh my goodness, I would love to travel. Wouldn't it be so amazing to travel the world? And...
a minute after this exciting statement comes out of their mouth, then they're like, but this, but that, but, but I can't do it for all these other reasons and they shoot down their own dream. And your situation is, I mean, it's not like it's a unique situation, right? I mean, you're a parent, you have two kids, they're school age, you have not one business, two businesses and a partner who might have his own work stuff that he's doing. So it's not like
magic pixie dust fell and put everything in place for you, you had to be creative and you had to be someone who's going to say, yes, these are real challenges. Yes, we still want to do this and what are we going to do to troubleshoot? And so I'm wondering what is it that you and your family had to do to navigate some of those very real challenges that anyone else in your shoes would have had to navigate?
Jessica Tappana (14:51.434)
I think if COVID hadn't happened, I never would have dreamed it would be possible. But I think that, I think, I'm not saying COVID was good. It was not. It was horrible. But I think that when we had to make COVID work, it taught my very like, I'm not always, I'm a good problem solver. I'm good in a crisis, but I'm not, but I like to kind of know how things are going to be done and do them right.
And I like things to fit in a box. And during COVID, they didn't. And we had to think outside the box. And somehow we were able to do jobs we never thought we could do from home. And we were able to make things work. And I'm not saying that we're not all still recovering from collective trauma. We are, we're still suffering the consequence. Certainly a whole generation of children are.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (15:21.766)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (15:29.251)
Yeah.
Jessica Tappana (15:42.846)
And I don't want to minimize that by any stretch of the imagination. But resiliency is a thing and we were able to do, you know, we were able to come through it. And that's when we started thinking of this. And we were able to go, if we're able to do this right now, that's where this dream was born. And that's what inspired it. And so that's the mind frame we were in when we started dreaming of this. And we started saying, you know, and at the time my husband is a nurse and so he was still going to the hospital.
And quite frankly, our nurses and our health care professionals were carrying such a burden at that time. And I say that I think I was also carrying a burden having the husband that went to work every day while I was trained homeschool and run two businesses. And as a mental health professional was doing counseling with people while I was still going through it. So I'm not downplaying what I was going through. But what my husband was walking into every day at the hospital and to be clear, he was in a nice protected part of the hospital.
But still, that was a lot. And so with all of this, a big portion of it was what kind of job can he do? And so we talked originally, like I said, we were going to go to four different places. And so originally, we had talked about him doing travel nursing was the plan. Well, once we decided to go on a cruise ship, that went out the window. That doesn't work.
And so he's taking like a leave of absence from work. His work has been incredibly supportive. Like I just don't have words for how wonderful the hospital that he works for has been. And nursing is a field that's so needed. We're not terribly worried about him getting a job when he comes back. It might not be the exact same job, but he loves the hospital that he works for. And so, you know, he will be able to get a job in the field of nursing when he comes back.
We don't know exactly what it'll look like, but they've actually been able to keep him on his period technically at the hospital where he is. And in the meantime, he is going to take on the bulk of the education, which I've been carrying the bulk of for the fall. I've been homeschooling our kids this fall because I decided I was going to homeschool them for one semester. I'd rather homeschool them for the whole year. And so we've been actually doing a lot of the homeschooling for the fall.
Jessica Tappana (18:01.346)
the spring semester we can do a lot more of the fun stuff, learn from where we are. When we're in Rome, we're gonna go see the Colosseum. When we're in all of these amazing locales, when we're on the Amazon River, we're going to be talking about food chains while talking about what that looks like in the Amazon. And so it'll be a lot of location-based learning, but a lot of, like they've each been through the entire spelling curriculum for their grade level prior to leaving on this trip.
But my husband will be taking lead on education during the trip. He's going to be keeping a YouTube channel for anyone that's interested in following that. And then he does payroll and benefits for my businesses. So he will technically our income is taking a hit. And so what we did is we looked at he's going to make a little bit with payroll and benefits for my businesses. We looked at the loss of income of his job, which is significant. And then we looked at well, what does that?
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (18:39.957)
Love that Jessica! Oh my gosh.
Jessica Tappana (19:00.614)
what expenses do we have to cut down at home? And they're significant. His income as a nurse is significant. And so what do we have to do? Every single subscription that we can possibly cancel, we have canceled. But there are expenses that we won't have. On a cruise ship you have all your food paid for. And so when we go into ports we won't be having a ton of local food, but snacks. We're going to get a snack everywhere we go instead of having a bunch of meals.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (19:18.232)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (19:26.206)
In ports we're going to have snacks. We are doing all of our excursions when we go into ports. We're not going to get a lot of excursions through the cruise ship. There are 15 included with the cruises, but mostly we're going to do local tour guides. They're much cheaper and it supports the local economy as opposed to the big cruise line. But for the most part we're cutting down no child care expenses, just the child care on the ship. We're cutting down
like Netflix and all of that type of thing were cutting down. Gasoline from our cars were actually selling all except for we had three vehicles we had one that was like a backup it was really old but we're still paying property tax on it but we're selling two to the vehicles we've sold one Andrea has an appointment to sell this week so we'll be down to one vehicle so we're only paying property tax on one this year and it will sit my sister's driveway and so we won't be paying for gas or anything on it.
but we'll still have one car when we come home, which will be important. But all of those sorts of things and so we had to figure out his income that we would lose since all he will be doing will be the part-time job and then what expenses to match it and that was that was probably the biggest thing. The schooling, a lot of people are like there's no way I could home school my
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (20:49.573)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (20:50.922)
I get that sucks. Like I'm not saying that's easy. I'm not going to, I'm not gonna discount that. I mean, gosh, teaching my son to write has not been my favorite thing this year, but it's worth it for the experience that we're having. That's a sacrifice I decided I was willing to make. And quite frankly, my kids have gotten a fabulous education this year.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (21:06.393)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (21:15.802)
And in my hardest moments, I'm not saying I've been the world's best mother. I have said things like, well, I guess I'll put you in public school and we won't go to, and we won't go on the world journey. But let me tell you, my kids, when I say that they do go, no, I'll do it. I'll do it. Like they react pretty well when I say it. You'd certainly think going to school is the most horrible thing they have had this year we've had on Mondays, my in-laws watch them and my father-in-law is a retired public.
school teacher and so he's been teaching them music and helping with math which are the two things that he's certified to teach and then on Fridays they go to public school for our gifted program. They've gotten lots of socialization with their extracurriculars so it's not like they you know we've had a ton of help with their education this fall and then on the cruise they'll have child care out there and we've been in touch with some of the other families with children they'll be there but yeah those are the big things.
From a personal perspective and then with work. Oh my gosh, that's a whole other thing Like my teams are amazing and I could not I would not I could not go and it's still not perfect I'm still very anxious about leaving work, but
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (22:22.369)
Yeah, well, and that's what I want to know. You know, I think that can be a big thing for a lot of business owners, right? Like, so I'm doing this retreat in Costa Rica right now. So I've been advertising that. And there are a lot of people who I hear say things like, leave my business for a week? Like, how in the world am I going to do that? And I was talking to someone recently and they were like, I never leave my job. Like, I feel more stressed when I'm away than when I'm here.
Jessica Tappana (22:34.818)
Yeah, it's amazing.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (22:51.085)
And so I think, you know, sometimes it's our own limiting beliefs that impact what we can do. Limiting, it could also be limiting beliefs about money. It could be our own need for control, beliefs that if we're present, everything will be fine and things will blow up if we're away. I know that can show up for me, that one. Like feeling like I need to be present so everything can go smoothly, even though like we have systems, we have a team, and that's ridiculous.
And so I'm wondering how have you navigated any of that anxiety that might've shown up for you and what are you currently most anxious about?
Jessica Tappana (23:28.846)
I mean, some of it's exposure, so I have taken other trips. And I remember the first big one when I went to a conference in Hawaii was the first time I was like over an ocean, many hours time difference from my team. In truth, be told, sometimes things do, you know, blow up so to speak when you're away from the office. I've definitely had to hop on Zoom calls from, I hopped on a couple of two different Zoom calls with two different people from Spain.
I've been on the ocean and had to hop on Zoom calls. And that's the bottom line is Zoom is great. But also to say like when those anxieties come up, what my team will say is, don't you trust me? And if we are, and so I would say the single biggest thing I have to do is be good at hiring. And I don't have the most confidence in myself when it comes to hiring.
Because for me, I didn't go to school. I'm not a business major. I'm a therapist I'm a social worker and I wasn't even like anybody that's not very familiar with social workers. We have a couple different tracks I was the clinical track. So I went to school basically to be a therapist. I did not go to school There is a track of social work. That's like more macro that they do learn some about being a good leader That was not the track I was on
And so I do have a lot of imposter syndrome around my ability as a leader. And I think that makes me very anxious, but I've had to gradually expose myself to it and realize. And again, I think that 2020 was a good exposure because we were primarily running our businesses remotely. And I remind myself of that. I'm like, we got through that. I think now sometimes it's a little anxiety provoking to be like, but everybody else is in the office and I'm not there.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (25:10.693)
Hmm hmm.
Jessica Tappana (25:17.406)
But I think again, it's relying on my team and knowing that they've got my back. One of the things that I really struggle with is this fear that they're going to see me out having a good time and they're going to think I'm not working. And that's a huge one for me. It's like they're just financing me out having a party. For me, that's the one that I still struggle with. And so I think sometimes I still feel like I have to justify.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (25:31.522)
Mm-hmm.
Yes!
Jessica Tappana (25:45.83)
what I'm doing and I have to prove to them how hard I'm working and that's the one that's the that one is so hard for me and so I do feel like I still sometimes go over the top to prove how hard I'm working to the point where they will call some of my team members will call me out and it can be problematic because I'll come in and start doing more work than I should almost where it looks like I don't trust them and I just have to keep reminding myself that I have to be empowering of
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (25:49.502)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (26:15.042)
I can be doing things to help them and I can say, what can I do to help you? I'm here to help you. That sort of thing. And I can show them that I'm working without disempowering them or without looking like I don't trust them. And I think that at the bottom of the day, but at the end of the day is the important thing. Like they know I love my business if they know that I care about them and appreciate them.
I don't have to prove how hard I'm working. They can see that I'm working. They can see in the morning when they open their email that they've gotten emails from me, even though I'm somewhere else. And like we're talking about with this trip, my team knows like I'm gonna try to be on team meetings, but if I'm not on team meeting because I don't have email or I don't have good internet that day that so-and-so is assigned to lead it, but they're still gonna see that like they'll get emails from me. They'll get check-ins from me when I'm available and I need to hop on Zoom.
I'll hop on Zoom. It's not like I've disappeared. And then there are other times where like, if I am at a retreat, then I'm gonna come back and be more present with them. And at the end of the day, we have talked about, like my team, as I have gone to more trainings and retreats, they've heard me come back.
and talk about, hey, I made this connection here, I learned this here because of this. And I really think that both of my teams have seen the value of when I go spend time with other business leaders, especially those sort of things, they benefit. I believe in my heart that every time that I have gone and been around other business leaders, I come back a better leader.
And I try to communicate that and I think that it's a little bit different with the world, but it's not that different because It's still this matter of like I shouldn't have to prove to my team How hard I'm working if I am empowering them because they're still going to see The result like they're still at the end of the day going to see and be empowered by me having a Having a better perspective and being a better leader because I have chased my dreams and quite frankly I'm getting out of my own way because when I just stay here and I just get burnt out
Jessica Tappana (28:16.818)
I'm in my own way. I don't think as clearly I'm not as good of a leader.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (28:21.017)
Jessica, I feel like I'm talking to myself right now. Everything that you're describing sounds like my 2023. I went to some business coaching retreats, several of them last year and they were amazing and they were at some beautiful locations and every single time that I would go away, even though it was a lovely experience and I was learning a lot, I would feel so guilty.
every time I was leaving because I felt like, oh, my team is back home and they're working. Oh, and I wish that they could be here with me having this experience. And to the extent that there were some people who were like, you are the business leader of your company. Like it is your job to be learning this stuff so you can move your company forward. And...
One of the people who was on the retreat with me, they saw my out of office, like my automated email where I'm like, I'm out of the office, I'm away at this business retreat. And she's like, you don't need to justify to anybody why you're out of the office. But that like needing to prove that you're working so people don't think that you're just like off partying. I feel that so much.
Jessica Tappana (29:38.806)
just like at the end of the day the proof's in the pudding right like they're going to be able to see that they're going to be able to see the results and that you're a better leader because you took that time I think and I think that I think it's okay like there are ways that you could be obnoxious about you know if you came back and you're like look at all the pretty pictures to everybody in the office oh you were stuck working that sucks
you know, but none of us that really care about our teams are doing that. And I really believe that when you are taking care of yourself, it's really been, it has been pointed out to me that there have been times where I have been such a, I don't know, I'll say it, a workaholic, to the point where it's not good for the team culture. And I've jokingly said I'm running away to the other side of the world to fix it because...
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (30:30.809)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (30:35.833)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (30:37.474)
Because people know when I work too many hours and it sets the expectation that I don't expect anyone else to do that. I don't expect any of my team to do to themselves what I've done to myself. But when we don't take care of ourselves, when we don't prioritize our wellbeing, then it does accidentally set the expectation or the culture that we want them to treat themselves that way.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (31:03.563)
Yes.
Jessica Tappana (31:04.967)
But if we are working on bettering ourselves as a leader and we are working on finding work-life harmony and we are working on finding balance, then they are going to, and we're gonna show that that's a value of ours. And I think that sometimes stepping away sets that example. And if I'm saying like, hey, I can go on...
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (31:15.793)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (31:31.054)
I can go on a trip and that can be part of like finding myself and I can still do my job and do that. Then that communicates that. It's Simplified. Our jobs are completely remote and I love, I have one employee, I like never know where she's going to be when we sign on for our Monday morning meeting because she's like flying to New York today and then she'll log on from Jamaica the next week. But she always does her job. 100% of the time she does her job because we are remote. And
I'm like, I love that we have set that. And it might be that she's like, hey, this is gonna be a bit delayed today because I'm gonna work these hours instead because I'm driving today. And we're like, cool. It's not like she's missing a deadline. She's just letting us know this is gonna be slightly different. And we have several employees who that's the case because we have set that culture that we value as long as you get your stuff done. It's cool. Live your life.
Go have your weekend with your friends. Go do this, go do that, as long as you do your job well. But that culture starts with us as leaders.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (32:35.689)
Yes. And one of the things that I love, Jessica, that you've been doing is I love that you have been taking your team on cruises and that you've been integrating them in the travel experience. That is one of the things I don't know that my team realizes that I fantasize about this, but like it's kind of ridiculous how often I am dreaming and fantasizing about traveling with them. And you've done it.
Jessica Tappana (33:01.526)
the best.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (33:03.793)
And so I totally want to hear more about what that has been like to include your team in travel. Is it as shiny as it seems?
Jessica Tappana (33:15.518)
Yes, it's every bit as shiny as it seems. It's the best. Oh my gosh. So we've done two, we've done a couple of like little leadership things that are smaller here in Missouri, but we've done two now team cruises and we're choosing a third. We, for next year, we have it down to two. So my team will probably this week or next week vote between the two to decide what we're doing for next year for our annual, now annual team cruise.
Cruising is the best way, I think, but any kind of retreat. But we like cruising because it's reasonably priced and it allows people to bring their family when we do it that. And I love having their family. The way we've done it is, port days when you go into port, we have your time with your family. If you wanna go with your coworkers, great. If you don't, great. We come to dinner for dinner every night. So all the families and all of the employees have dinner, unless they don't want to. Couple people have gone to a specialty restaurant or something.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (33:52.826)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (34:11.853)
cool, that's fine, but it's fun to have that social time. And then we have work time during the sea days. And so that's our time that we're training people on new stuff and really digging in and getting an amazing amount done. You would not believe when we're there having fun and then we come together and we do work on the sea days, I am amazed by how much we're getting done. It's incredible. We get more done in that time. Both times we've done it, I have just been absolutely like.
it's like we have this agenda and then like two or three times more than is on our agenda actually gets done. But to share that experience with the team bonds us closer and to me we pay for the team to come and then they have to pay if they want to bring their family. Most people have been able to bring their family and the most incredible, that to me is actually my favorite part, is getting to meet the families.
And sometimes the families say nice things to me, which of course feels really good when they're like, let's draw from so much to so and so. They have just lit up as they've come back. But really like, I'm not even doing it for the nice things that the family says. Although I remember that all year. But it's really because then throughout the year when it's like my significant other has this going on with them, it's like that is a face. And I'm like that. Or like Friday, I called one of my employees to like chat about something and her husband answered. And I'm like, oh, hi, Jaffrey. You know, like.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (35:09.521)
Hahaha
Jessica Tappana (35:35.294)
It's like I know him and we just like to get to know my employees Family is so special like that's just I don't know. There's like something so intangible about that and those memories that we're making To me that is the most incredible thing. I also have never really used travel agents before My mom was always like, ah, you don't need travel agent. So we've been very anti-travel agents, but that actually has been like
transformative to actually use a travel agent. She's been incredible. Now we found a good one. I told you before we got on the call that we had a bad experience trying to plan a group cruise before, but now we have a really good one. And so she's been really helpful too, and even like gave us some extras this year. And so we've just been able to do little things and have that special time and
it's just a different experience than you usually have with your teammates and quite frankly it's worth every single penny that we've spent because being from three different states at Simplified we would spend just as much to bring every bay to Missouri but it's so much more fun to travel with them and if I brought every bay to Missouri they wouldn't bring their loved ones and they do when we go on a cruise and we eat way better
and they try random foods. I'm not that adventurous with foods. I mean, kind of, but like they really get adventurous and people are trying all kinds of things together. And we're just making incredible memories. Like it's unlike anything that I've ever had anywhere else I've ever worked. And so yeah, it is as amazing as it sounds.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (37:17.617)
Well, and I think, yeah, when I think that that's the other thing that I love, right? It's like you as a business owner, you have this dream, right? You have a love for traveling, but also in including your team, right? Like you're getting, you're allowing them to be a part of the dream. You're letting them have an adventure. You're allowing them to make these really important memories and have these experiences. And I love that sometimes when we're pursuing our own dream that we get to include other people in that.
So I love that. And some things that I wonder about, since we have not traveled as a team yet, I say yet because it's there in my brain. Yes, so it's a yet. But some things I think about like our team, we do a question of the week that everyone answers. And for a while, there's a lot of talk about travel, places people would wanna go travel, but there's a little thing in the back of my brain that's like.
Jessica Tappana (37:59.094)
You will.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (38:14.769)
Hmm, are they just talking about travel or are they people who would actually travel if given the opportunity? So I'm curious like how did your team react to having the option of traveling? How has it been like spending extended amount of time with people because I think when you travel with people you see things that you Wouldn't normally see or know about traveling Can be great and it can also be like Oh
It's kind of a lot. We might not have similar traveling styles. As a business owner, I'm like, but what if someone has a little bit too much? Would those be unforeseen experiences? Just because my brain goes to all the possible places, even if they're a little bit far-fetched. Any thoughts on any of that?
Jessica Tappana (39:06.154)
Yeah, I mean, a couple of thoughts, lots of thoughts. But first of all, of my two teams, one team I've traveled with and the other I haven't yet. I would really like to travel with my other team, but my other team, I'm like, we're gonna do a retreat as a team. In the first year, they're all like, better be on Saturday. I'm not canceling my clients, my private clients. I'm like, guys, it's gonna be fun. They're like, I'm not canceling my clients. So I.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (39:27.736)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (39:34.166)
held on Saturday. And then two people complained on the survey afterwards about it being on Saturday. So this year I put my foot down and said, fine, we're making it on Friday. And then they all went credit for it being on a Friday. So they all got like credit for their missed clients this year because it was on Friday, but then they all need CEs. So we've all had to do CEs the last two years for them to do it. So that team, like, we're probably not going to travel with that team because that particular team would be so anxious about missing their clients.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (39:59.841)
Mmm.
Jessica Tappana (40:00.854)
their client because even now they were very concerned about missing a Friday because their clients need them so bad, which is probably a sign that they need the travel. But they are very concerned about how their client about their clients clinical needs. And so if I so what we have discussed is doing like a three day cruise over a weekend. With that team, but it would be because we're those are all from Missouri, it would be I'm worried very stressful for them because they would at least have to miss a Friday and a Monday at work.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (40:13.316)
Yeah.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (40:29.908)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (40:30.698)
And that would be, so we have discussed with them. So just think about like the personality of your team, my Simplified team, their personality, like I knew would mesh really well with. But yeah, my Aspire team, I've thought about being like, if we did it, like, look, Friday morning, before you get on, you can do your like virtual sessions from the hotel room. We can make this work if you really want to, but you really shouldn't. Like you really shouldn't, trust me. I travel all the time, my clients have survived.
Anyways, so I so just knowing that like the personalities of the team as a whole as far as like spending the extended time together. That's why we've really set it up so that it's so that it's you can kind of spend as much time or as little time together as you want. The requirement is before we get on, they know approximately how much time they're going to have to spend together and you can they can take vacation time for the rest of the time they would normally work if they would like or they don't have to.
can just take it off or they can some of them choose to work more on the ship. We buy then we do buy internet package for them so if they want to be working more on the ship they can as long as they're being mindful of drinking. But they can some and it's been a variety some people just take it off unpaid some people take vacation time and some people will work the whole time on the ship and I leave that up to them to decide. But as far as the required time together, sea days,
a few hours, like sea days, we do like, what is it, like four, four-ish hours each sea day that we're spending together and you need to be sober for that. And so that is, that's a requirement. Other than that, some people will spend a lot of time with their co-workers and some people will like make the rest of it a family trip and that's okay. Dinner, most people come to that and we really haven't had any drama with that. I've been amazed, I really have been shocked that there's been no drama with it.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (42:06.637)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (42:26.826)
I was prepared the first year. I'm like, I asked her, I'm like, there's gonna be some people that like, we'll have knockout drag out fights. We haven't had that, but I see where there could be. And I was totally prepared for the first year, but there hasn't been any. But I guess if there started to be, you just could go to dinner on the Lido, you know, you could go to dinner on somewhere else. You wouldn't have to come to dinner the next night if you didn't like your coworker. So yeah, we haven't had issues. We've had a couple people choose not to come.
Jessica Tappana (42:57.203)
because they've had other things going on. And you can choose not to come. I haven't required people to come, so if you choose not to come because you don't like cruising or because the dates don't work out, there's no consequence for it. You also don't get something in replacement necessarily because that's not really how it works. And so it's not like if you choose not to come, you get something else in there. But there's certainly no consequence.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (43:11.209)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (43:18.576)
Right?
Jessica Tappana (43:23.902)
This year we had one person who didn't come and last year we had two. The one person that didn't come this year was going to go on another trip with their family and that ended up being canceled. So we felt really bad that he didn't get to come. We really missed him. And then the last year the two people didn't come were very new and so by the time they like we extended the invitation to them but it just didn't work for their family for them to come.
So yeah, it really hasn't been that somebody didn't come because like I had wondered if somebody would come because I don't wanna cruise, but that hasn't happened yet. So yeah, I don't know if that totally answers, but we haven't had the problems that you would expect.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (44:01.617)
No, it definitely does. Yeah. And yeah. And all of those things are things that I've thought about. So that is super helpful to hear. So I'm wondering, right, for someone who's listening and is like, oh my gosh, that sounds so amazing. Like to get away with my family for an extended period of time to travel, that would just be so amazing. But then they find themselves talking themselves out of it.
But, but, but that wouldn't be possible because reason, reason. What would you say to that person who wants to do it, but is finding themselves talking themselves out of it and coming up with reasons?
Jessica Tappana (44:44.878)
I feel like generally I would be that person. So it's so interesting that I'm doing this. And I think at the end of the day, you just have to decide, oh no, you just have to decide are you gonna keep being that person? And I think I just got to the point in my life where I'm like, done being that person. I don't know any other way to put that because we only have so much time on earth.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (45:06.644)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (45:07.806)
And for me, it comes down to I only have so much time with my kids. And I think that quite frankly, that's what influences me. And not everybody has that particular reason for it. But a lot of people are like, I'm going to do this when I retire. I'm going to do this when I retire. And that's great. I plan on having the most incredible retirement too. Um, I also know that having an incredible retirement isn't always a given. Some people, um, by the time they retire, have health issues. Some people, why they're, some people will.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (45:29.882)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (45:35.718)
lose a spouse before they get to retirement. And quite frankly, I won't have my kids with me when I retire. They're going to be doing their own thing. I sure plan on raising children that won't be living, even if they were living at home for some reason, they'll be living their own lives. I'm not paying for them to travel with me when I retire. And so, at some point, I think that we live our life constantly in pursuit of what comes next and thinking that we will put off our dreams.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (45:37.809)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (46:05.338)
and that's great to have that ability to wait to eat the marshmallow. You know you think about it as therapists like we think about like that ability to like when you're told like wait here's a marshmallow if you wait when you come back you're going to get two marshmallows and that self that self-discipline right but at some point at some point you're never going to eat that marshmallow if you keep waiting to eat the marshmallow and so at some point you have to just
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (46:10.413)
Hmm.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (46:29.469)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (46:32.178)
start actually living and start actually doing things. And I think there's always going to be an excuse to wait. And I think I even though, even though I'm still very young, I've waited so I've spent so much my life thinking that like, I just need to do this or I just need to do that before I start following my dreams, that I just started realizing at some point, I just need to start doing the things or else something could happen tomorrow.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (46:58.609)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (47:02.03)
to a member of my family, and then we've given up all of these opportunities to actually follow our dreams and make them come true. And I would rather, even if things are imperfect, one of my biggest things that I fear, and I know my team hates it when I say this, but I'll say, even if I go on this trip and one or both of my businesses totally falls apart, I've got to be okay with that and still decide it's worth it. And I've said this in front of leadership members.
members of my leadership team of both businesses and they hate it they're like, Jessica you're saying that as if you think that's going to happen and you don't trust us and like you would like that is such a horrible thing and they think it's just horrible. But I mean it because I have to say that to myself in order to go because if I didn't believe that I don't think I could leave on this trip. And it's not that I don't trust my team and it's not that like if things start failing in either business you can bet I would start working night and day from afar to make it work.
But I have to have that attitude that my dreams matter enough that I'm going to follow them because if it did, if I came back to know businesses, I have a degree that I could use to get another job and my dreams matter and my family matters and having this time with my family is worth it. Again, I think my businesses are really awesome. I think they're in really good places.
We've got, I've got amazing teams. I've spent three years getting the systems in place. I think that a new service that I've kicked off at Simplified has got it set up to be really well. I think that the trainings that my staff has been through at my private practice are incredible. I have every reason to believe that if anything, my businesses will be in better shape when I get back. But at the end of the day, I'm just, at the end of the day, I think if you're sitting around talking yourself out of it, you just have to ask yourself.
What is it worth to follow my dreams?
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (49:00.249)
Yeah, and I love that idea of maybe it doesn't have to be perfect. And that's a conversation that I've been having with myself. Like there are a few very specific dreams that I have. But I keep coming back to the conversation of, Melissa, like if you spend years and years and years working your butt off so you can achieve this dream, and what happens if something in life happens that doesn't allow you to achieve your dream?
to experience this big thing that you've been working towards, and how do I start taking those steps now? And maybe it's not as ideal or perfect or dreamy as the one I envisioned, but how do I do it now instead of waiting for one day when everything will be perfectly lined up? And so I just love that reminder that we can start doing things now, and even if they're not perfect.
Jessica Tappana (49:56.446)
If I waited 10 more years, I could afford a lot fancier excursions. If I waited 10 more years, maybe I would feel more confident in leaving my business or is or a little bit less anxious. If I waited 10 more years, I know there's a million things. But if I waited 10 more years, I wouldn't have my kids with me. It would be less empowering of my employees. I would be less physically able to do some of the super cool things that were that we're hoping to do, you know.
truly would be once in a lifetime. Now it's probably once in a lifetime, but like my husband and I are already going like, who knows, maybe once the kids are out of the house, maybe we could save up and do it again if we really like it. I don't know. So why not just do it now? You know, it could be imperfect. And I really, because I'm such a perfectionist and I care about my teams so much, I love my employees and I really feel like I'm abandoning them and they keep telling me I'm not. And I really have to, so I have.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (50:35.877)
Mm-hmm.
Jessica Tappana (50:53.614)
totally had to steel myself for the fact that something will go wrong, probably at each business, probably multiple times. And I'm having to just tell myself it will be imperfect. And I'm going to forget something, even though I have meticulous lists, I'm looking above my computer right now because I'm like, I'm looking at my sea of organized planning that I've spent like two years of last three planning years, like two years of those have been working on these packing lists. And I'm like, I'm still going to forget something. And I just have to be okay with imperfection because I'm going.
I'm going, even if there's another itinerary change, even if I forget something, even if something starts to fall apart at home, we're going and we're gonna have an amazing time and that's okay.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (51:32.657)
Well, one of the things that I've been asking everyone on this show is, what is the big dream that you have? And I don't even know, but you'd say you're like living it right now.
Jessica Tappana (51:45.258)
Yeah, the big dream that I have, I guess, really the biggest dream that I have is to raise children that have a world view that is founded in kindness and an appreciation for people who may live differently than they do and may see the world differently than they do. And so I would say that the big dream that I have for my family right now is really founded in that, in raising them in a way that they'll have an appreciation for.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (51:57.989)
Hmm.
Jessica Tappana (52:14.39)
different types of people.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (52:17.137)
I love that. And for anyone who's listening and who's wanting to learn more about you, your work, your SEO services, or even your therapy practice, how can they find you?
Jessica Tappana (52:29.91)
Um well our um our SEO services are simplifiedseoconsulting.com our um our uh um my counseling practice is aspired aspiredcounseling.com and that is in Missouri or our YouTube channel that my husband will be keeping trying to remember it's World Journey Family or World Journey Dad I'm looking up I think it's World Journey Family um
But it's his YouTube is Andrew Tappana at World Journey Family at World Journey Family on YouTube.
Melissa Wesner, LCPC (53:08.893)
I love that so much, Jessica. I love this idea of the YouTube channel. Thank you so much for joining us. We're gonna include your information in the show notes. This conversation has been so much fun, and I hope that people who are listening just feel really inspired and more inclined to consider what is possible for them too.
Thanks for coming, Jessica.
Jessica Tappana (53:32.322)
Thank you.