Aligning her life through travel and school bus living with Laura Banks

Laura sold her house and left her corporate job to get the most out of living her life. She now lives on a school bus and runs her own business as a life coach, continually being an example for her clients to show them how getting outside their comfort zone leads to a truly rewarding life.

About Laura

Laura is an internationally certified coach and Neuro Linguistic Programming Practitioner for humans who are ready to let go of their limitations and live into their potential.
 Her unique approach to creating powerful and lasting transformation can be summed up as mindset, magic and mechanics. 

Mindset focuses on subconscious transformation, helping release the deep-seated beliefs, habits, thoughts and emotions that are holding you back, then re-wiring your brain with new programs. 

Magic is about learning how to connect with and trust your truth - your intuition.

And mechanics is about taking the inner and outer action to create a life and business on your terms, one that feels good AND gets results.

After a car accident Laura went on a journey to become the sort of person she wanted to be and live a life she wanted to live – not the life she thought she ‘had’ to live.

Now, she loves challenging herself to get out of her comfort zone, which has seen her compete in a half-ironman triathlon, get a mystery haircut and convert a bus into a tiny home with her husband.



“To be living this lifestyle [on the bus] was a huge step outside my comfort zone.”

— Laura Banks

In the episode...

• Laura’s first experience of travel was when she went to Japan on a school exchange.

• She was originally going to travel to Japan but ended up meeting a ‘Kiwi’ and moved to New Zealand instead.

• Laura has had many variations of stepping out of her comfort zone whilst travelling and the first was moving to New Zealand where she only knew her partner Matt.

• Laura uses travel as a way to look at her values and they way she lives her life at home.

• Laura and her partner Matt sold their house, brought a bus which they renovated and moved into to live in.

• Minimalism was not originally part of something they had intended however it happened naturally when they moved into the school bus.

• They get out and about every week in the bus to explore Tasmania.

• Laura does have to think about all the challenges such as where to park the bus, emptying the composting toilet and managing transport to work.

• Traditionally in her family they followed the ‘normal’ way of life and so living this style of life was outside her comfort zone however she always likes to ‘get outside her comfort zone.’

• Laura was concerned that she would let her parents down when she would tell them they had sold their house and brought a bus to live in.

• When they share their lifestyle with others, Laura recognises that their lives challenges others to think about the way they live their life.

• Laura shares that the big changes were really just a collection of small steps towards something that she wanted.

Why Laura continue to seek out travel and live abroad? Because of the potential and possibilities that travel can bring in you and your life.

“You can just do YOU in the world”

— Laura Banks

Links

• Website - laurabanks.com.au

• Instagram - @_laurakbanks

Circumnavigating South Georgia Island with Chris Porter

Chris circumnavigated South Georgia Island in a Sea Kayak, an expedition that was 2 years in the making. This epic adventure truly challenged his psyche.

About Chris

Chris Porter resides in Anglesea on Victoria’s Surf Coast and is a surfer, surf lifesaver, and kayak paddler. Chris began his love with the ocean over 50 years ago when he joined the Anglesea Surf Lifesaving Club as a “Nipper” That love of the ocean grew into a business opportunity when he founded Go Ride a Wave in 1987.

Although Chris is now retired, Go Ride a Wave is one of the largest Outdoor education operators in Australia, teaching surfing, lifesaving and paddling to over 50,000 enthusiasts each year.

On his retirement, Chris was able to further some of his adventurous ambitions, one of them being to paddle in a polar environment. With four friends, in 2015, they successfully paddled around the remote island on South Georgia a feat that is regarded as the “Everest” of sea kayaking. For their endeavours, the team was awarded the Australian Adventurers of the year. Chris now spends his time, as he approaches 60 years of age, planning further adventurous trips and mentoring up and coming adventurers.

“Every day we were on the trip, I was outside my comfort zone.”

— Chris Porter

In the episode...

• Chris became so interested in travels and adventures as he has always be curious, always wanting to know what is around the corner and more recently wanting to learn about the history of people and places.

• Chris did a paddling trip circumnavigating South Georgia Island in a Sea Kayak.

• There was so much planning Chris and his team had to undertake. It took 2 years to get to the starting point.

• The expedition took around 42 days in total, including getting to the island on the yacht they had to charter, the paddle its.

• They had to get their equipment to Poland (the other side of the world) so they could freight it to where it needed to be.

• Some days winds would get up to 100km per hour, 1-2 degrees Celsius in the middle of summer.

• The paddle in total would be 500km. The aim was just to attempt the paddle - they were never certain that they would complete the circumnavigation because it was so unknown.

• Every day of the paddle Chris felt outside of his comfort zone.

• There was so much wildlife they encountered on their trip, 650,000 king penguins on one beach. This was one of the most confronting things for Chris.

• Chris biggest learning, after seeing so much thriving wildlife was the impact that we are having on the planet.

• This trip has changed Chris’ psyche and realised how hard it is to create change in society. The trip gave him a passion to inspire people who have similar interests to him.

• Chris inspires others by showing them the opportunity and questioning them about how they would start something that they really want to do.

• Chris wants to inspire people who have the tiniest inkling for an adventure. He suggests finding out what it is that you are best at.

• Going away on a trip gives you a chance to think.

• Chris believes that we should always care about what other people think, in a sense that we should be respectful and consider the impact we are having.

• Chris would love to paddle the north west passage as he wants to see the REAL impact that humans are having on the planet as it is very evident. This has never been done all at once.

• Chris has now started up World Paddle to help others train, prepare and go on similar adventures or compete in adventure paddling races.

Why Chris continue to seek out travel and adventure? Its just part of his nature and the curiosity of seeing the world.

“We went down there with a goal to paddle around the island, but to me, the most confronting thing was to see how, left to their own devices, (to a certain degree), animals could thrive.”

— Chris Porter

Links

• Website - www.worldpaddle.com

• Instagram - @cjports and @worldpaddle