Ageless Ambition: Inspirational Leadership of Carolyn Ray, JourneyWoman

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Lisa Ellen Niver

August 7, 2023

In this inspiring interview, meet Carolyn Ray, CEO of JourneyWoman who empowers women over 50 to travel. She is a dynamic and visionary leader who is shattering age-related stereotypes and encourages everyone to embrace their full potential.

Listen or watch our interview on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, YouTube or your favorite podcast platform

READ THE TRANSCRIPT BELOW

Lisa Niver:

Good morning. This is Lisa Niver. I’m the founder of, We Said Go Travel, and the author of Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty. I’m so excited to be here today with my guest who I’ve actually met recently in real life. Good morning, Carolyn Ray. How are you?

Carolyn Ray:

Good morning. I’m great.

Lisa Niver:

I’m so happy to have you here to talk about JourneyWoman. You and I met at the incredible Women’s Travel Fest in NYC earlier this year, so could you tell people a little bit about your panel and how that got started?

https://youtu.be/9XF9tEE13Qk

Carolyn Ray:

We had a panel called Kickass Solo Women over 50, and we had three women on it. One was 83 and the others were in their fifties and sixties. I’ll just mention Diana because she is really, really amazing and we wanted to inspire people that you can still travel when you’re in your sixties or seventies or your eighties. And in Diana’s case you can travel like a rockstar and do all the things that you’ve dreamed of.

Lisa Niver:

It was a really inspirational panel. I love hearing about how did people get started traveling. What is a memory of your first trip or the trip that made you think, I’m going to keep doing this?

Carolyn Ray:

Well, I wasn’t a big traveler as a kid. I grew up in Florida, so most of our travel was to the Caribbean or kind of close to home. And when I was 18, I was actually sent over to Europe for school for a year, and it was the first time I’d been away a actually first time I’d been out of the North America. First time I’d been anywhere on my own. I had the opportunity to go to Spain and Italy and Morocco and learn a little bit about the world. When I got married in my twenties, I married somebody who wanted to travel, but within Canada, and which is where I live now. I really did start traveling until I was in my thirties and on my own. I had a little girl. She and I went to Europe when she was barely four years old. My first solo experience, if you will, with my little daughter who’s now 23.

Lisa Niver:

That’s amazing. For me, I started traveling on a family trip and then studied abroad in Israel. Studying in another country really changes your whole life.

Carolyn Ray:

It definitely does. And I don’t know that I really appreciated it at the time, but I certainly did as I got older and started to travel with work. I started to appreciate travel and the benefits of travel more than I did when I was younger. And as a mom, it’s something I’ve tried to expose my daughter to. She is an avid solo traveler. She travels all over the world. She’s living in London at the moment, so that makes me feel like I did something right. She’s got great perspective, one of the things you learn through travel. She’s got that nailed.

Lisa Niver:

That’s so incredible. I do think it’s a great gift that parents can give to their children–the freedom to explore, but also the safety net of knowing that they’re there for them. Ready to help them figure out how to travel in a way that feels comfortable to them. People often ask me; how do I get started? I tell them to take a cooking class in your own city. You don’t have to leave home to feel like you’ve started a traveling.

I know you have evolved professionally. Can you tell my listeners about owning Journey Woman and how can they get involved in the incredible women’s business directory and traveling with you? There’s so much support in your organization!