Freedom Looks Like This – solo travel for women over 40 ready to choose themselves

Damianne President – solo travel for women over 40
  • 5.0 (3)
  • Self-Improvement

Freedom Looks Like This is a solo travel podcast for women over 40 who feel restless, disconnected, or tired of waiting for the "right time" to start living differently. Hosted by Damianne President, the show explores intentional solo travel as a way to rebuild self-trust, stop waiting for permission, and create a life that actually feels like yours again.  Solo travel is just where the story starts. What this show really explores is what happens when women stop waiting, take themselves seriously, and begin making decisions for themselves, without over-explaining or asking for approval.  Episodes dive into topics like:  solo travel for women over 40fear, self-doubt, and the hesitation to go alonelearning to trust yourself againidentity shifts in midlifechoosing what you want and acting on itWhether you’re planning your first solo trip or simply craving more freedom in your everyday life, Freedom Looks Like This offers real conversations and relateable reframes to help you move forward, whether at home or on the road.

  1. 7h ago

    Why “I Can’t Afford It” Keeps You Stuck Dreaming About Solo Travel

    Someone says a trip is too expensive, and someone else hears "I don't have the money," when what she actually meant was "I would never spend that much on a holiday." I used to say I couldn't afford things by default, and it took me years, and a $500 star sapphire in India, to realise that I didn't know what I meant when I said it. So what do you mean when you say you can't afford a trip? In this episode: A star sapphire in IndiaSeveral sentences, same wordsMental accounting and the "too much" jarHow I actually decideSaying no to $25,000Japan, but not right nowThis episode is for you if: You've said "I can't afford it" about a trip without stopping to ask what you really meantYou're a woman over 40 who is careful with money and still feels guilty spending it on yourselfYou dream about solo travel, but the trip keeps landing in the "maybe someday" pileYou want to make money decisions that fit your own values, not someone else's rulesResources mentioned: Mark Butler on Changes Big and Small, episode 74: the conversation that changed how I think about "expensive"Mental accounting, Richard Thaler's research on how we sort money into mental jarsEpisode 42 with Jillian Johnsrud, on pricing a trip line by lineThe Solo Trip Fit FinderSupport the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    Why “I Can’t Afford It” Keeps You Stuck Dreaming About Solo Travel

  2. Oct 7

    You Can't Afford a Solo Trip You Haven't Priced

    Most of us say "I can't afford it" about a trip before we've ever sat down and worked out what it would cost. What if the number you keep saying no to is one you've never actually looked at? Jillian Johnsrud, author of Retire Often, has taken more than a dozen mini retirements, and she explains why a month away rarely costs what we imagine. She gives us a surprisingly easy way to turn a someday trip into a real decision you can make. In this episode: Mini retirements, not holidaysChipotle or salsa dancing in MexicoThe $12,000 math mistakeA $20,000 week in ParisStarting with a one- or two-week trip This episode is for you if: You've said "I can't afford it" about a trip you've never actually pricedYou're a woman over 40 who wants to travel solo and money feels like the wall you keep hittingYou only have a week or two of leave and wonder whether any of this applies to youYou're curious how a mini retirement or sabbatical could fit around your work and your life Resources mentioned: Retire Often by Jillian Johnsrud: her book on planning a month or more away from work, available wherever books are soldJillian's website and newsletter: https://www.jillianjohnsrud.comJillian on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jillianjohnsrud/ Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    You Can't Afford a Solo Trip You Haven't Priced

  3. Sep 30

    From the Vault: Why a Beautiful Solo Trip Can Still Drain You

    Even when the place is beautiful and you are grateful to be there, a trip can still leave you depleted. I used to think that meant I had chosen wrong.  What I have come to think is that it is a question of fit, between what a place asks you to carry and what you were already carrying when you arrived. This one is from the vault, and it starts with a very long day in Kandy. In this episode: The twelve-hour tourTwo measurement systemsRain on the museum roofWhat you're already carryingThis episode is for you if: You came home from a good trip more tired than when you left, and you have never quite worked out whyYou're a solo female traveler who keeps adding one more stop because somebody said you shouldYou're a woman over 40 fitting travel around work, and the weekends are not restoring youYou have let somebody else decide what counts as worth seeingTake my fit finder quiz here: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/solo-trip-personality-quiz/ Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    From the Vault: Why a Beautiful Solo Trip Can Still Drain You

  4. Sep 23

    How to Use Delight to Guide Your Next Travel Adventure

    I was on a walkway in Brazil, soaked through, my raincoat sitting on the bus, walking back as fast as I could and repeating under my breath, "This is crazy." Most weeks I talk about solo travel as practice for self-trust. But that Saturday at Iguazu Falls wasn't about practicing anything. And it made me wonder why so many of us need a reason before we let ourselves have the thing we love. In this episode: An update from the roadThe coati and the alfajorTwo sisters from belowA raincoat on the busThree frontiersLove is a reasonThis episode is for you if: you only let yourself go when you're burnt out enough to have earned ityou're a woman over 40 who keeps putting the thing you love behind everybody else's needsyou travel solo, or with friends, and are intrigued when you hear "pure delight"you've ever felt you had to justify a trip before it felt allowed Resources mentioned: Iguazu Falls blog post with photosLive Lab founding cohort available for $147.47, closes September 28 at 12:00 UTC. Email contact@freedomlookslikethis.com. Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    How to Use Delight to Guide Your Next Travel Adventure

  5. Aug 12

    Solo Travel Taught Me Mine and Ours Aren't Opposites

    By the time I actually landed in Lagos, everyone else had already been there for a full day because my visa came through late. Once I was there, surrounded by family for my stepmother's 61st birthday, the same skills solo travel built in me were still firing, in taking Uber to the grocery store, in figuring out a food delivery app alone in my room. How could this trip be mine as much as it was ours? I think the answer is yes. In this episode: The delayed landing in LagosTraveling with familyThe Uber grocery runSelf-efficacy, definedMine as much as oursThis episode is for you if: You've wondered if solo travel confidence holds up once you're surrounded by family againYou're planning a family or group trip and are worried you'll lose the version of yourself solo travel builtYou're a woman over 40 who notices old family patterns showing up the moment you're back in familiar situationsYou've ever reached for the easier, hands-off version of something instead of figuring it out yourself and wondered what that choice actually costs youResources mentioned: Episode 36 with Kristine Madera about belonging as a set of skills you build Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    Solo Travel Taught Me Mine and Ours Aren't Opposites

  6. Aug 5

    This Solo Travel Skill Saved My Family Trip to Nigeria

    I was standing in the corner of Edinburgh airport with two suitcases, a backpack, a side bag, and no visa, making call after call that went nowhere. The plan had been for my whole family to fly to Lagos together for my stepmother's 61st birthday. I had to let go of that plan at eight in the morning and what actually got me through the experience wasn't the thing I expected. In this episode: Checking the visa portal all night Alone at the Edinburgh check-inThe woman without the visaTrying to switch to Ghana insteadBuying two new ticketsSix hours in the airport loungeLanding in Lagos This episode is for you if: You've had travel plans nearly fall apart the night before you were supposed to leaveYou're a woman over 40 traveling with family and still figuring out how much of the decision-making is yoursYou've assumed a plan would hold and didn't check it until it was almost too lateYou're a solo female traveler who wants to hear what actually gets you through a travel disaster, not the highlight reelSupport the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    This Solo Travel Skill Saved My Family Trip to Nigeria

  7. Jul 29

    From the Vault: Feeling Ready When You Take The Solo Trip

    I'm bringing this one back from the vault. I recorded it in April, before this month took me through Nigeria, Ghana, and Rwanda, and before I missed an episode for the first time because I didn't have reliable internet. It still holds up. The next two episodes are going to get specific about this trip, the Nigerian visa that almost didn't come through in time, and what I learned about connecting with strangers. I left a fourteen-year teaching career without knowing what would come next. I remember standing on a balcony in Canada that September, watching a school bus go by, and feeling relief instead of grief. That relief was the confirmation, not a plan. Since then I've spent three months living as a digital nomad in Southeast Asia and built a life I would not have believed was available to me back then. None of it started with feeling ready. It started with one decision I was willing to name. In this episode: - The planning meeting that broke something - Watching the school bus go by - The conditions that kept multiplying - Clarity comes in the decision - Three months as a digital nomad - Naming the trip as a decision This episode is for you if: you keep waiting for one more condition to be met before you'll book the tripyou're a woman over 40 who left something certain for something you couldn't yet imagineyou think clarity has to arrive before the decision instead of inside ityou've been telling people about a trip for longer than six months and still haven't named a dateyou've caught yourself treating "someday" as a real plan instead of a way of avoiding one Resources mentioned: Laurie Santos's course The Science of WellbeintBarbara Oakley's Learning How to Learn Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    From the Vault: Feeling Ready When You Take The Solo Trip

  8. Jul 15

    The Papua New Guinea Trick That Turns Solo Travelers Into Instant Micro-Tribes

    You never find somebody who's just like you, not even twins. My guest today, Kristine Madera, has backpacked solo through China, Russia, and the Baltics during the fall of the Soviet Union, served in the Peace Corps in Papua New Guinea, taught English in Japan, and spent years since teaching other travelers how to belong in cultures that were never built around them. We get into the two-minute trick a Peace Corps trainer taught women stationed in Papua New Guinea, why small talk is never actually small when you're the one traveling alone, what to do when someone comes on too strong in a culture that isn't yours, and what it means to belong In this episode:  The Dali hostel, sixteen strangers, one hourBelonging to yourselfThe Papua New Guinea micro-tribe trickSmall talk as the doorPacing yourself as an introvertsPracticing curiosity as a skillThis episode is for you if:  you've walked into a room full of strangers and felt like everyone else already knew each otheryou're a solo female traveler who wants real connection, not just polite distanceyou're an introvert, or a recovering shy introvert, who assumes small talk isn't for youyou're a woman over 40 who's curious about other cultures but isn't sure where you actually belong in themyou've ever needed permission to say "I just need a few minutes"For more from Kristine, see The Art of Belonging (free guide) Support the show Freedom Looks Like This is a podcast for women over 40 who want to travel solo, or who already do, and want to go deeper. Host Damianne President explores self-trust, decision-making, and what it actually takes to stop waiting and start moving. New episodes every Wednesday. For solo female travelers, midlife women, and anyone who suspects that the real barrier isn't logistics. Email: contact@freedomlookslikethis.com Join Skool: https://freedomlookslikethis.com/community

    The Papua New Guinea Trick That Turns Solo Travelers Into Instant Micro-Tribes
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About

Freedom Looks Like This is a solo travel podcast for women over 40 who feel restless, disconnected, or tired of waiting for the "right time" to start living differently. Hosted by Damianne President, the show explores intentional solo travel as a way to rebuild self-trust, stop waiting for permission, and create a life that actually feels like yours again.  Solo travel is just where the story starts. What this show really explores is what happens when women stop waiting, take themselves seriously, and begin making decisions for themselves, without over-explaining or asking for approval.  Episodes dive into topics like:  solo travel for women over 40fear, self-doubt, and the hesitation to go alonelearning to trust yourself againidentity shifts in midlifechoosing what you want and acting on itWhether you’re planning your first solo trip or simply craving more freedom in your everyday life, Freedom Looks Like This offers real conversations and relateable reframes to help you move forward, whether at home or on the road.

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