Travel Talk is a new Sosauce blog series in which we chat with our favorite travel experts about celebrating the saucy side of travel. With such successful experiences in travel media, we want to highlight their journeys from turning a passion for wanderlust into a profession, their travel plans for 2010, and how they recreate and share their own travel memories. This week we are putting the spotlight on Kerri Minns, Gap Adventures intern and full on wanderluster. Kerri has a thing for travel and you are about to find out exactly why.
Read our previous traveler spotlight interviews here.
Kerri Minns – World’s Coolest Gap Intern & certified Wanderluster
When did your passion for wanderlust begin?
There’s a photo of me in Europe when I was about a year old that my mom captioned ‘Future Monaco Jetsetter’. I spent my early childhood growing up in Germany and Belgium when my dad took a job with the Canadian Armed Forces. After moving back to Canada, my family was always on the move, driving and visiting new places, or moving throughout the country. I guess you can say I caught the bug and their desire for constant change.
How did you turn that passion into a career?
I grew up focused on career, and after spending my early 20’s in the corporate world and still unsure of what I wanted as a job, I realized that for me, I should be spending that time exploring my options. The opportunity to change my vacations from a beach holiday to a culture holiday was the real spark for me – I spent a week with a friend and her family in rural Cuba away from the resort. I realized I wanted to see more of that, and why not just go after it.
Kerri waiting for her turn to supervise the pig on a spit for a family birthday dinner in Gibara, Cuba
Viva Fidel in Holguin, Cuba
Your quote, “I’d like to be a part of a progressive, growing and global minded adventure” is a great motto, and so similar to Sosauce’s community concept. Can you tell us how you came to this realization?
The world is changing so fast, and I think that the best people and businesses are the ones that can keep up. You need to be flexible, open-minded and able to embrace all ideas and events going on around you. No idea is a bad idea – it just might need some finessing. I grew up with this motto on the fridge, ‘Blessed are the flexible, for they shall never be bent out of shape.’ I credit it now to the person I have become. Throw anything in my way and I’ll find my way through it!
Sosauce strives on being a passionate and progressive community for Travel Geeks. Check out our online applications to easily document and share your travel experiences at Sosauce.com.
How did you get started in the marketing world?
Growing up, I was continually inspired by the design and media world, but never knew quite what the right ‘job’ was for me. At age 18, I really didn’t know what I wanted to be. I was lucky to have attended a high school that let me experiment with those disciplines, and I supplemented my typical courses with things such as graphic design, painting, interior design, architecture and yearbook classes. I thought I was pretty good at those things, but didn’t know where to channel it.
After applying to a bunch of schools that offered graphic design, and what I thought I wanted to do, I ended up in a program at Humber College in Toronto for advertising and graphic design. My focus shifted from graphic design to advertising the more I learned about why people buy and act as they do. I became extremely interested in social trends and marketing and devoured books and magazines based on them.
After finishing school, I took the opportunity to move back to Vancouver where I had spent some years, and worked a retail job to pay the bills. It was from there I ended up in marketing at Starbucks – it was a great opportunity to learn a lot about the purchasing and influence factors of cultures around the globe. I was fortunate to have a view of the entire company, in the know with what was happening in South America, Europe, Japan, and even Australia and New Zealand. I spent five years in different marketing roles in both Vancouver and Toronto, but knew there was something else tugging at me to follow in my heart. It was all about learning about as many cultures as possible, and to then share it with others.
How did you get involved with Gap Adventures?
I went on a trip to India with Gap Adventures in October 2008 which really threw my curiosity in other cultures into high gear. Sure, I’d traveled before, but it was visiting somewhere so different from home that made realize I wanted to explore more. I was blown away by the people at Gap, and their pride in their workplace, and it was really that that made me want to be a part of it.
A pose by an elephant handler in Jaipur, India by special ‘stay still!’ request from Kerri
Jama Masjid, the principle mosque of Old Delhi, India
Can you tell us about your application process to become one of the World’s Coolest Travel Interns at Gap?
I had been following a few of the crew at Gap Adventures and Bruce Poon Tip on Twitter for a while just to keep in the know with the company, and saw the announcement from Bruce in September about him looking for the ‘World’s Coolest Travel Intern’ to help with a few projects. I don’t think Bruce or anyone at Gap was expecting the type of attention the competition got, so the original deadline for submissions had to be extended. I decided to lean on to my love of social media, and created a brand for myself, and the website, Twitter feed and Facebook group for ‘awanderluster’ was created to promote my application. I took travel advice and dream Gap itineraries as submissions from people, and for every submission I donated $1 to Planeterra, who works with sustainable development projects around the world. Then, I had to convince Bruce to give me the spot!
How is life interning at Gap now?
I am one of two ‘World’s Coolest Travel Interns’, Taylor Hess was also awarded a spot. We work on an array of projects, anything from converting boardrooms into the bridge from Star Trek and jungles, to organizing a large scale fundraiser for Planeterra. We’ve been given an amazing opportunity to see the inner workings of Gap, and to be a part of building something special. It’s the most hard working and fun environment I’ve ever been in.
You see Bruce Poon Tip as a mentor of sorts. Can you explain how he and Gap continue to inspire you – not only through travel – but in life as well?
Being able to now compare working with Bruce, to what I had read before about him, it’s easy to see why he’s been so successful. He’s built something really amazing and is completely down to earth. I admire his ability to be so busy and yet so connected, he’s able to know what it going on with anything at anytime. It’s also really great that he sees his role as being able to provide the environment for his people to reach their potential. I believe that in work and in life, people should love what they do, and never be afraid to try something, so this type of environment really lets people lead and have a say in ideas.
India is one of Sosauce’s most popular destinations! Can you talk about your experience in India? Would you ever return there?
I LOVE India! I can absolutely say that it was a life-changing experience for me. I loved seeing a culture so rich in tradition – it was the colours and beauty in everything that really blew me away. Everything was either really raw or perfectly manicured, and within all the chaos it still seemed so peaceful. It must be one of the best places in the world to watch a sunset from. The evening light there is really magical, and the perfect setting for an incredible meal (my favourite -thali!) and to drink a Kingfisher. I would absolutely return there – I need to see the far south and east side of the country. I’m a tea snob too, so up to Darjeeling one day too.
Over the top entrance decor for the Ajmer Fort in Jaipur, India
The Taj Mahal!
Interested in traveling to India, too? Read up on reviews, sights to see, volunteer programs, and trips others have experienced in India at the Sosauce Guide.
Now that you have left some footprints on the world, what is your favorite way to document your travel experiences?
I’m a huge believer in the traditional notebook and pen – I carry my black Moleskine with me wherever I go. It may seem like a lot of work and duplication, but I like to rewrite my experiences for home through email or online journal so people can read the exact experience I had along the way. I’ve started working a lot more with video in the past year as well, sometimes I don’t think pictures and words do somewhere justice. A bit of motion and some appropriate music adds just the touch to share the experience I had and inspire others to visit.
Check out Kerri’s photo album on Sosauce and learn how to make Sosauce your one-stop shop for documenting travel experiences.
Are you involved with any other travel networks?
I’m active within the Twitter travel community, have a Sosauce profile, and make sure I pass through a few travel sites a day. There are so many! I am about to launch a new website, awanderluster.com. which will feature travelers, their websites and projects – kind of like a home base for all people and companies in travel, so that people searching for info will get a quick snippet of that person, and a link to their sites. Now taking submissions!
What are your travel plans for 2010?
I don’t have anything on my radar right now of where I can get to in the near future, but the spots on my priority list include North Africa, the Middle East, Brazil and Argentina, and Scandinavia. I’ve got a friend with family in Beirut, so I’ve been looking out for the next opportunity to tag along and explore there. Now, where to start!
What advice would you give other young people who are thinking about traveling for the first time?
Don’t wait. Really – it might seem like you’re passing up opportunities for career, school, friends or relationships, but all those things won’t disappear, and there won’t be a better time in your life to just go for it and experience all you can. Work and save what you need, and then go see all the world has to offer. There will absolutely be something for you when you come back, and you’ll be a better person for pushing yourself with new experiences.
Thanks to Kerri for chatting with Sosauce and inspiring us to release the wanderlust cravings Travel Geeks may be hiding. Be sure to keep an eye out for Kerri’s travel site, awanderluster.com, and befriend her on Sosauce!
We want to put the spotlight on more expert travelers! So if you have great advice and amazing tales to share, email us for a chance to be interviewed here on the Sosauce blog.
Read more posts by Alisha
Great interview!
Looks like someone should make their own travel blog!