We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rachelle Gordon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Rachelle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you walk us through some of the key steps that allowed you move beyond an idea and actually launch?

When I moved from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City, Utah, back in 2009, I was not an adventurer in the traditional sense of the word. I took a leap and changed careers, homes, and basically uprooted my life. When I made that transition, I realized how comfortable I was with the whole shake-up and it got me curious. I had a new home to explore and I started checking out restaurants, points of interest, and cultural events.

Not long after my great shake-up, I met a friend who was a real-life adventurer – someone who flew solo to Europe for the weekend, explored remote areas of Utah, and became my Yoda. She opened my eyes to what adventure truly was.

With her guidance, I started learning the ropes of what an adventurer was and began to journal everything for myself. After a while, I learned about travel bloggers and put 2 and 2 together. I started a blog and chronicled my adventures of discovering my new hometown and places I’d started to visit.

Rachelle, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Rachelle (ruh-SHELL) and I love adventures of all kinds. I was born and raised in the suburbs of Los Angeles, growing up surrounded by other cultures and customs. I didn’t realize how lucky I was and took it for granted until I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, to pursue a job at the University of Utah.

I’m just an average person on a quest to enjoy life and hopefully help others do the same through adventure. I live life in neon colors, believe adventures are personal and only go where I want to go, and do what feels right to me.

Here are 5 fun facts about me:
*I was a certified roller blader at Disney’s California Adventure
*I was born without hip sockets
*I am terrified of dinosaurs
*I can’t drive a manual transmission (after 3 separate attempts at learning)
*I recharge by going on solo adventures to unglamorous destinations

I help individuals struggling with listlessness, stagnation and monotony in their day-to-day lives go from feeling bored and detached from the world, to experiencing excitement and feeling fulfilled, invigorated and alive by cultivating an adventure mindset so that they can regain their sense of (identity and self) through seeking adventures in everyday activities.

I focus not only on showcasing potential adventures in my own backyard and around the world, but teach others how to do it themselves, step by step. A lot of travel bloggers simply showcase adventures or point people in the direction of websites, but I take it a step further. I provide actionable steps that individuals from any background can replicate to empower them to choose their own adventures in life.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I love being able to stand by my brand and practice what I preach. I truly believe that: 1. adventure can be had close to home,
2. it doesn’t have to be pricey to be impactful, and
3. it can be extremely personal.

I keep a running list of local adventures that I want to go on: restaurants to try, places to visit, corners I want to explore, etc. All things that I would put off for “later.” We’ve all got one of those lists, right? Local things to do that we put off because we’ll “have time down the road.”

On July 1, 2021, I created a challenge for myself. I wasn’t ready to lose another summer, so I designed a “30 Adventures in 30 Days” challenge.

Using my list of local adventures, I planned out 30 days of adventuring. I was working full-time at the University of Utah (50 hours/week), so I set myself some parameters so I didn’t lose my mind:

COST: no adventure could cost over $100 (gas included), and had to be evenly spaced out amongst the free adventures.
DISTANCE – each adventure needed to be located in the northern half of Utah.
LIST – the adventures had to be things that were on my personal bucket list.
TIME – I would not be taking any time off of work or use any PTO for the adventures, which meant early morning/evening adventures during the week.
SOLO – most of the adventures would need to be solo missions. This was a personal challenge and I want to keep it that way, but I also understand how fun it is to share certain adventures with friends.
SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY – the best way to ensure that I saw this adventure through was to have some pressure by putting the word out there.

So in addition to planning out the adventures, working full time, trying to remember to do my laundry and clean my house, oh, and eat meals, I also decided to shoot, edit, and publish daily videos about each adventure to my YouTube channel.

It was a challenge, but I made it the full 30 days embarking on local adventures, knocking quite a few things off of my personal bucket list for Utah, and managed to create a library of vlogs, blogs, and photo albums to remember the whirlwind of a month July 2021 was.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

It’s truly rewarding to hear from people who have used my examples, itineraries, or tips to plan and execute their own adventures. I love being able to watch others grow in their own journey.

For example – there was an older couple in a neighborhood I used to live in. We were friendly and they were always keen to hear about my adventures. I thought I was just entertainment to them – some young cat that jetted around the world and was always looking for fun local things to do.

One day they told me how I inspired them to try new restaurants around town. In one of my blog posts highlighting my favorite ethnic restaurants in Salt Lake City, I outline a few tips for trying new restaurants, especially when trying a new or unfamiliar cuisine. Apparently they took that to heart and tried it out to great success, and have now worked trying new local restaurants into their dinner schedule.

On paper, this might not seem like a big deal. There aren’t any real quantifiable metrics to judge, well, anything. But to this couple, their world became a little bit bigger. And who knows? Maybe their example will rub off on their kids/grandkids, creating a small snowball effect.

Contact Info:

• Website: adventureisneverfaraway.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adventureisneverfaraway/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/adventureisneverfaraway
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rachellejgordon/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@adventureisneverfaraway