Beyond Destinations: Zach Smith's Story

Russell Newton: 00:00:00

Hello listeners welcome back to The Science of Self,

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where you Improve your Life From

the inside out, I'm Russell, and

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today we have a guest, Zach Smith.

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Zach is the founder and

CEO of anywhere.com.

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Your bio information says that, uh, the

concept possibly for the for anywhere.com

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or what built into anywhere.

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Dot com was a trip to Oaxaca.

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us through that experience to give

us background on where the seed

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was planted for this organization.

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Zach: Sure.

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It was, um, yeah, post-college

trip to a warm part of the world.

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That, so a friend and I took a

one-way ticket to Oaxaca, Mexico,

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and we, basically just were, you

know, moving along the Pacific Coast.

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I was reading lots of books enjoying the

way of life there, practicing my Spanish,

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and really just sensing and absorbing

and experiencing the surroundings and

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a serious, a series of encounters just.

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Occurred throughout my time there

I was, I was, I remained open the

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whole time and that was probably

why these things happened to me.

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So what ended up happening was I,

I, I went to another couple towns

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and was exploring the country just

to see if I was really able to do

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this and if I, I really liked it.

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I'm on an aerial tram going through

the rainforest, just taking pictures,

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enjoying myself and a stranger across

from me asked me what I was up to I just

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said, well, I'm thinking about buying

this, this website in this little town.

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It's kind of tourism related.

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And he was curious and he gave me

his contact information and said, I

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think we should really stay in touch.

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I'm a software engineer.

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We were of a similar age, and

so I just basically started.

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Sending him the sort of information

and the, the ideas that I had and

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what I wanted to develop what was

lacking in the current business

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and where we wanted to take it.

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And so it took, you know, about a year

or so later before we were able to

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actually go into business together.

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I think our intentions are pretty much

the most powerful thing in the world.

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And, and they, they drive.

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They, they, they, they drive

relationships, they drive choices,

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they drive you know, a lot of

what, what shows up in this world.

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And

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I, I think then my parents had certain

intentions about, you know, what

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they wanted and, and because they.

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They were idealists that, you know, left

the city and moved to the west coast.

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They got five acres out in Oregon.

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My mom was a ceramicist making

pottery, selling stuff, and, um, I.

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My, my father's last name was Smith,

and they wanted to do something more

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interesting and come up with a fun middle

name for, for, for me and my, my three

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brothers, I'm the oldest and so they

named, named me Zachary Bonaventure Smith.

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And so they, they in some ways like

set my course in some, in some ways,

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but then of course I had to learn le

many lessons along the way to figure

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out, you know, how, how I could play

my role and be who I'm meant to be.

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Um, which I don't think is, you

know, pure destiny, but it's,

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it's not also a pure chance.

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And so I, I do think there's, there's

an aspect of, of serendipity and I

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think there's a little bit of the,

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the.

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The natural laws of this world

cooperating with you when you bring

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attention intentions that are aligned

when you have certain core values.

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And I mean, this just brings up

like a really, like we've talked

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about intentions a little bit,

but like just a childhood story.

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I remember.

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We were at our house, there was a few kids

and one friend brought over a slingshot.

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I had never held a slingshot in my life.

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And I was like, wow, what is, you

know, this is, this is a fun toy.

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And so I wanted to turn

playing with the slingshot.

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And so I got the slingshot

and we're just standing there

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and there was a little pebble.

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Loaded it.

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And at the time there was this

beautiful yellow finch that

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flew into this apple tree.

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And all of a sudden I was like, well,

now I have something to aim for.

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I'm gonna aim for this bird.

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And so I was at least 20 yards away.

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I was not that close.

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Never saw a shot, a slingshot.

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But then I was like,

I'm gonna hit that bird.

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And so I aimed shot this thing, and just

like in the cartoon, this bird spiraled

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right down to the ground, perfect shot

on the neck, and I was devastated.

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I was like, oh my God.

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I didn't intend to kill that

bird, but I did try to hit it.

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So I, my intention was a powerful force.

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It caused death.

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So, I mean, I felt

guilty and shame and bad.

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I, me and my dad buried it.

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And, uh, that was a lesson that I,

I felt like I internalized and never

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really wanted to cause that type of.

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Reaction in the world through my

own kind of thought or intention.

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if, if you're, if you're in the present

moment, and if you live your values

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and you know yourself, that

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it's a natural byproduct for good

things to start showing up in your life.

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Whether you wanna, whatever you wanna

call it, whatever, you know, media,

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you want to sort of build around that.

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I, I, I think that those things

you know, they're, it's good, good

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to put it out there, I suppose.

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Yeah, I, I mean, I, I don't really,

frankly, I just, I don't really follow

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like too, too much with, you know,

social media or what, what is, um,

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being amplified at, at certain points.

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Familiar with that, that, that concept.

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And I, you know, and I think that's

like, that came with good intentions

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for people to understand that they

have a lot of, you know, power over

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their, you know, their, their life.

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And it starts, I think, with

just that subtle listening.

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And but you know, sometimes it's

like the ego gets involved and

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people want like, oh, I just want

more, more, will make me happy.

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And, and, and then you're filling

this void, or, oh, I wanna

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manifest all these material things.

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And you know, that, that to

me is, um, again, like not.

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Not really the goal, but you know,

sometimes that's just where people

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put their, put their you know, put

their in, uh, their, their attention.

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You know, and again, back to like one

of the most powerful things I think

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we do know about the nature of life.

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Yes, our intentions really matter, but.

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Where we put our attention, our attention

is actually changes the nature of, you

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know, the world or, you know, the, you

know, the, the entanglement of you know,

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people, relationships ideas, whatever.

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So it's that's another big area that,

people should be more cautious, I think,

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of where they put their attention.

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Russell Newton: One of the phrases

I took from your website or from

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your introductory email focusing on

travel as a tool for transformation.

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Like I said, we're getting short on time.

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I don't want to.

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Make you brief on that answer, but can

you expand on that phrase as a tool for

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transformation as far as travel goes?

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Zach: Yeah.

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Basically I've, I've always felt that

perspective generating experiences are

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very valuable for humans to go through.

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Um, and.

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I mean, this traces back when I was, I'm

gonna give you the, the, the backstory and

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then I'll give you the, the, the current.

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So when I was 12, 11, 11 or 12,

we had to do a big class project.

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And you know, it was just like

an independent study have to, you

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know, come up with any topic and

you have to research it and do it.

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And.

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I was thinking about all this stuff

and I told my mom, she was in the

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art studio and I remember this,

and I said, I want, I think I want

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to do my project on perspective.

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And she's like, what?

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What do you mean perspective?

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And, and, and, and then she,

she's like, well, that's tricky.

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Well, maybe it should be about.

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Perception.

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'cause then that, that gets into the mind

and the eye and all this sort of stuff.

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And so we, we land, we

landed on visual perception.

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So I've always been interested in.

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How people see the world.

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And so I, you know, modeled the brain

and did a little heart HyperCard

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program and, you know, it was

like a interesting, cool project.

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Russell Newton: do you have certain

habits, meditating, reading, exercise,

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mindfulness practices that are,

sacred to your day-to-day success.

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if so, would you share two or

three of those things just in a

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list form or elaborate however

much you'd like on those?

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Zach: Great.

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I would say that these days you

know, I really do prioritize sleep.

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You know, seven-ish

hours is, is pretty core.

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I, I have a.

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A mattress that records my, my sleep.

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And, and, and so that's something that

I, I track and I you know, just, just

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know that I got a bank hours there

and, you know, make sure I'm getting

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enough good deep sleep and REM sleep.

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I also yes, like exercise from.

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Time to time.

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I, I'm not religious about it, but I,

I like, you know, pushing myself or

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even just going on a long walk, but

just moving the body, using the body.

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I like to play basketball sometimes, but

that's harder on my body as I'm aging.

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I mean, I'm 44 and, you know, it's like

all of a sudden like getting bumped

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around or the herky jerky actions

are just a little less congruent.

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And I think that consciously

eating is important.

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Like, uh, I don't eat just

because it's lunchtime or,

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you know, oh, it's breakfast.

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So I think the body it responds really

well when you're disciplined with it.

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So, you know, recently I've,

I've been you know, not.

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Not eating three meals a day.

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I, I pretty much eat

you know, twice a day.

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You know, have a, have a nice long 16

or 18 hour period where my body's just

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processing whatever it's processing.

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And, and, and I feel like that that

also helps balance out the mood

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and balance out you know, just, um.

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Extra weight or stuff

that you just don't need.

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start with each relationship that you

have in your, in your community and,

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and be, you know, be a good listener.

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Be you know, be available

you know, respond to.

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Uh, two things be proactive and, and

again, that that has a, a, an effect

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that is immeasurable because that gets

passed on to other people and, and, and,

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and, and so you just gotta FI think you

know, just be the change you want to be.

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I mean, I know that's very dated

and whatever, but I actually

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do think it's kind of true.

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So and then.

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Yeah, I don't, I don't have a,

you know, plug, I mean, we're, you

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know, we're, we're, we're anywhere

we, we have a number of published

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countries that we are activated in.

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We have about a dozen more that we are

quietly in the process of activating

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to our repeat and our referral clients.

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So the goal.

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Is that we become that, that trusted

source to, you know, use your perf your

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vacation time as precious, your precious

vacation time as wisely as possible.

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You know, your budget and your

resources as wisely as possible.

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We are a co-creator with you

to make sure you get what you

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want out of your experience.

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These are.

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Oftentimes, you know, big once in

a lifetime trips, you know, going

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to Peru or going to the Galapagos,

or taking your, your family to,

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you know, eco lodges in Costa Rica.

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Uh, these are, these are things that,

uh, are rare and we treat them as

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being special, uh, each and every time.

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So that, that's our role.

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And we also want.

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Tourism to be supportive

of the communities that are

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hosting rather than extractive.

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And, and so I think there's a, an

awareness from the visitor, uh, that

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needs to also start to emerge, um, that

their, their choices really matter.

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Um.

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And, and, and the, the cr, the will

culture be more sustained or will it

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erode to more of a homogenous you know,

all-inclusive type model where, you know,

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people just show up and they, you know,

are eating and drinking and that's it.

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They're going home and that's travel.

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And the truth is that's not travel.

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That's, um.

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That's, that's gluttony.

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Doesn't mean that, you know,

it's not okay to go take it easy.

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Sometimes it's just don't confuse the two.

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You know, that's not travel,

that's not experiencing culture.

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You know, being on a cruise ship

with 5,000 people, you know, cruising

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around is not, not real travel.

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I'm sorry.

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So, you know, we're, we're just

trying to play our role and

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you know, call it as we see it.