We were lucky to catch up with Rachel Larkin recently and have shared our conversation below.
Rachel, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?
Absolutely, naming our brand was definitely a process. The Real Bonne Vivante draws inspiration from the term “bon vivant,” meaning someone who enjoys living the good life — a connoisseur of all things that go along with a life of leisure and luxury in world travel. The French, where the term originates from, is used as an adjective that translates to “good living.”
As a whole, the term encapsulates the lifestyle our readers live inside and outside of traveling. Whether it’s enjoying a fantastic bottle of wine in a hole-in-the-wall restaurant, exploring an untraveled corner of the world, supporting design-forward and locally-owned stays, or slowing things down to savor the most luxurious thing of all — our time— our content focuses on rich experiences that, more times than not, don’t always necessarily have a high price tag attached to it.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Of course. My name is Rachel Larkin, and I am the Founder and CEO of The Real Bonne Vivante. We are a travel and lifestyle brand that highlights topics on remote destinations, slow travel, and boutique places to stay. Each month, we enable an audience of tens of thousands of discerning travelers to reach far-flung locations around the world, offering in-depth itineraries, curated travel products, and inspiring editorial visuals.
However, my story begins long before The Real Bonne Vivante. My career was in the marketing and advertising world for most of my life. I was the Principal Creative Director and later Chief Growth Officer of a respected marketing agency with national and global clientele. One day, I stumbled across the Japanese concept of “ikigai,” which means one’s reason for being. This concept made me question my life’s purpose and how I best positioned myself to help others. For me, the answer was educating travelers on lesser-known destinations to promote responsible tourism for small and local communities. That’s when I started a modest blog sharing my travel stories, photography, and recommendations of those places. And, the idea ballooned into a huge following of people with an appetite for authentic experiences away from the glossy magazine versions of a destination.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
To me, owning your own brand gives you the ultimate form of freedom. In many ways, The Real Bonne Vivante is an expression and open dialogue of who I am as a creative and as a writer. The challenging part is that you are always evolving, which means your brand inevitably always evolves with you. There’s a constant puzzle to make sure our stories feel inspiring, authentic to our ethos, and accurately portray destinations where there isn’t always a lot of content that already exists. I love solving that puzzle!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://therealbonnevivante.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/therealbonnevivante
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/therealbonnevivante
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/larkindesign
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@therealbonnevivante