Jamaican Beach Lifeguard Vibes: Stories of Heroic Rescues, Coconut Climbing, and Scuba Adventures with Oneike Jackson

When I started thinking seriously about moving from land-locked Orlando to the beach, the first three questions people would ask were, “What beach?” “Where will you live?” and “What will you do?” I would say, “I haven’t decided what beach yet, but I’m sure I’ll find one with a couple of palm trees where I can hang a hammock,  and, I don’t know, I’ll make jewelry out of sea shells, and sell it to the tourists. It was a silly answer, but in my mind, I was serious - if that were what I had to do to live at the beach - I would do it. 

Now, I live in a beach house (not a hammock), and instead of seashell jewelry, I’m making a beach podcast! I love hearing stories about how others have used their love for the beach to fuel their life’s passion - how they create that beach connection - that beach mindset - wherever they are. 

My guest today, Amanda Esposito, artist and creator of Northern Tides Studio, has a unique way of doing just that - taking her passion for the beach and the ocean to create jewelry that reminds you of how you feel at the beach and your connection to it - wherever you are. 

I have been following Amanda on Instagram, and when she posted about her latest creation, “Ocean Love,”  I had to get it! She mentioned that she was looking at places in Florida to sell her pieces, so we ended up on a Zoom call to talk about it, and as she started to tell me the story - I stopped her in mid-sentence and said, “Wait, I love this story - would you be willing to share iron on the podcast”? Of course, she said yes - sharing her love for the beach and what it means to her is what her art is all about.

This conversation means a lot to me. First, I met a new friend! Second, hearing Amanda’s story behind the making of her beautiful ocean love necklace makes me love mine even more! I initially bought it as a birthday present to myself. But when I think about it, it’s more than that - it’s a reminder of the days leading up to my birthday - beautiful beach love memories: the day I met my soulmate for the first time - on the beach, our beach wedding, and celebrating my birthday at the beach. 

I’m curious: what do you do to capture your special beach moments?
Message me on Instagram or Facebook, or record a voicemail and let me know!

ABOUT MY GUEST:

• Follow Amanda on Instagram: Northern Tides Studio to see her ocean-inspired jewelry designs and behind-the-scenes footage of her studio and her brand! 
• Shop Northern Tides Studio here: https://northerntidesstudio.com/
  
  

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
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It’s February, so in the spirit of this Month of Love, I asked my soulmate, Ernie, to join me on the podcast because it’s a very special month for us.

Although I’ve talked about how we met and our journey to living out our vision here at the beach on the podcast before, I thought it would be the perfect time for Ernie to share some of his own beach stories and reminisce about our beach adventures together.  

• We talk about growing up in Tampa and always being in the water, camping, and “spring hopping,” 
• You’ll hear Ernie’s stories about a wild encounter he had on an Island beach in Florida and a rare sighting he had off an aircraft carrier
• We talk about beach adventures we have had together and where we would like to go next. I ask if he has ever considered moving away from the beach. 

You’ll have to wait until the end to hear his answer!

Links to podcasts mentioned in this episode:

Finding My Voice: How the Beach Led Me to Podcasting

 Lost and Found at the Beach: Connected to My iPhone

Meet Your Soulmate, Quit Your 9 to 5, and Move to the Beach! My Story

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
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I love quotes, especially the ones that when I hear them, I think, " Oooh, I can relate to that - or that is so inspiring! I need to write that one down before I forget it! " I’ll rush to scribble it in a journal or notebook - it’s like I’m attaching a sticky note to my brain - you know, a reminder, to go back to it later. And let me tell you - there are a LOT of sticky notes in there. 

However, there’s one quote - it’s actually a question - that when I first heard it, I could “feel” the words, the ideas they invoked, tumbling around my head with an enthusiastic energy that flowed from my brain, through my heart, and then - settled in an anxious knot in my gut, just waiting for the answer.  

The quote is the last line from Mary Oliver’s poem The Summer Day: 

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”  

Whether you want to spend your wild and precious life traveling around the world or live out your dream right where you are, my guest today, Alise Saunders, a digital nomad, coach, and freedom seeker, is here to be our trusted friend and travel guide - from her house on the beach - in Greece!

Grab your copy of The Beach Speaks e-book:  The Beach Speaks - Are You Listening?

Episode with Elise: A Travel Blogger's Tale of an Untamed Soul

About My Guest:

Alise Saunders is a digital nomad, traveling the world, with her husband Gregg and two cats. The media has called her a "thought leader" in the digital nomad space, Alise brings her decades of life skills and business coaching to help people finally have the life of travel they’ve been dreaming about. She helps freedom-seekers create a new business or identify a remote job, and dive deep within to free themselves of the disempowering thoughts keeping them small in their own life through personalized coaching program and other services. 

Visit her website: Tales from an Untamed Soul - Creating a Life Wild and Free to check out all the different ways Elise can help free you to live your one Wild and precious life!

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

Imagine, you’re about to do what might be the craziest thing you’ve ever done. 

And you’re thinking this could be crazy good or crazy stupid.

Then the “what ifs” start to creep into your consciousness: “What if something goes wrong?” “What if I’m not good enough?” “What if it turns out to be nothing but a waste of time and money?”

That’s how I felt three years ago, staring bleary-eyed at my computer monitor, my hand nervously resting on the mouse, guiding a bold black arrow across the screen, stopping to hover over a bright green button that says “publish.”

I spent at least 100 hours working on this podcast and my brain ached.  My heart was pounding. This might be the craziest thing I’ve ever done. Just a simple click of a button and I’ll be taking a deep dive into the vast ocean of podcasts. 

Will I sink - or swim? 

It’s a new year, and I’ve been thinking a lot about this podcast and how it came to be - how what seemed like a crazy thing to do at the time turned out to be something more than just recording my voice and sending it out into the ether. It’s actually helped shape how I use my voice.

More than that, it’s helped me trust my voice. To trust what I have to say is something you want to hear.

The beach is speaking.  I’m so grateful you’re listening, 

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

Recently on The Beach Speaks, I posted an episode sharing my beach story as a guest on Rabiah Coon’s podcast More Than Work. 

Today, I’m bringing Rabiah back - this time as my guest - to hear her beach story. 

Rabiah currently lives in London, but she grew up near the beach in California. When she said she was coming home to California for the holidays, I thought it would be the perfect time to share her story on the podcast. For many of us, this is a time for sharing with family and friends, and when you listen to her story, you’ll find out that family and friends are two very important things in Rabiah’s life. 

In this conversation, Rabiah talks about what it was like growing up at the beach in Southern California and how the beach continues to show up even when she’s landlocked. We also talk about her side gig as a stand-up comic and the important role that service plays in her life. 

After hearing Rabiah’s story, I think you’ll understand why her podcast is called More Than Work. It’s a reflection of a way of living that we all can aspire to.

Listen to More Than Work podcast here:  https://www.rabiahsaid.com/podcast
Instagram:  https:// www.instagram.com/rabiahcomedy/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rabiahcomedy/

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

Hey Beach lover, How is the beach speaking to you today?

I’m sure you have noticed that I’ve been doing a lot of solo episodes: like, how I met my soulmate - on the beach,  watching fighter jets fly over the beach, and how learning to fly was a lot like moving to the beach -  and while it’s been a lot of fun sharing stories about how the beach speaks to me, I thought I’d do something different this time, and share more about my journey to the beach on this episode I recorded with Rabia Coon on her podcast More Than Work. 

We first met as members of the “Squad Pod” - a slack group created by Squadcast - the remote recording platform we both use to record our podcasts. It’s a super supportive group where you can ask random questions, get tech advice, promote your show, and my favorite thing to do - collaborate with other podcasters - like Rabiah!

More Than Work is a podcast that shares stories of individuals who have found that their self-worth is determined by more than their job title - it’s one of my favorite podcasts to listen to on my beach power walks - with each step I take along the shore, I listen to her guests describe the steps they took to create a life beyond their “work” - and think about how I have created mine. The stories are different but to me there’s a similar “vibe”- the kind “vibe” you feel when you stand on the beach, staring across the vast ocean - at all the possibilities.  So when Rabiah invited me to share my More Than Work beach story on her show - I was thrilled. 

This was my first time as a guest on someone else’s podcast, and while I expected to talk about my journey to the beach, what I didn’t expect to come up in conversation were the other parts of my story that go beyond the beach. I have to say, I learned a little more about myself. 

It was a little different being on the other side of the mic, as they say - but Rabiah is a great host and a fabulous human. 

And. . it was a fun way for me to share one of my favorite podcasts with you!

The beach is speaking. . .   

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

Many of you have asked me how I found the nerve to leave my job - to move to the beach - and not have a job to go to, and what beach? Where was I going to live? 

I would laugh and say, I’m sure whatever beach I go to, there will be a couple of palm trees where I can hang a hammock, and I’ll make jewelry out of shells! It sounded silly when I said it out loud, but in my head, I was serious. 

How DID I get here? I’ve done a lot of thinking about that recently, about the times in my life that I just said, I don’t know how this is going to work, but I’m going to do it.  It’s strange because I always thought of myself as pretty risk averse - not at all fearless -  I would rarely try something new if I weren’t reasonably sure I would be good at it immediately.  I needed to feel safe.

What I keep coming back to is the moment 25 years ago:  alone, sitting in the left seat of a tiny, two-seater Cessna, 152 - about the size of a Barbie car - at the end of an 11,000-foot runway (that’s almost 2 miles long!)  waiting for clearance to take off.

My first solo flight. 

Today's episode is about how it felt learning to fly and how the experience of getting my pilot's license was a lot like moving to the beach.   

I believe that our most powerful memories are etched into our brains by the feelings attached to them. The details might not be the same  - but the feelings are, and now that I actually live at the beach, when I think about all that I went through to get here - I can feel it all: from fear and trepidation to awe and joy.

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

You know I love the beach, but I also love airplanes! 

This fact is especially poignant because aviation and learning to fly was one of the (many) surprising characteristics that attracted me to my husband, Ernie (You can hear more about that in my recent episode “How I Met My Soulmate - On the Beach”) 

Ernie spent the majority of his Navy career on an aircraft carrier where he worked on the F-18s (the same aircraft as the Blue Angels) 

Jets aren’t a completely foreign concept to me since I have been around them almost daily in my 20-year career in Corporate aviation -  Lear Jets and Gulfstreams are cool, but supersonic fighter jets - In my opinion - are super cool.

The Blue Angels were in town recently for an air show at the beach on Saturday and Sunday, and I wanted to go both days. Because even though I’ve been to many air shows over the years, n my opinion,  there’s nothing quite like watching one up close and personal on the beach! 

But I had forgotten the announcement that the jets would conduct practice runs along the beach on Thursday. So you can imagine my shock as two navy blue and gold supersonic F-18 fighter jets screamed across the tree tops right over my head - to say that I was thrilled would be an understatement. I was ecstatic!

Immerse yourself in the story of The Blue Angels on the Beach - and find out why I burst into tears! It's one I'll never forget!

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

If you are a regular listener to the podcast, you’ll know that I often talk about how I met my soulmate, quit my nine to five and moved to the beach - it almost always comes up in conversation when I meet someone new, and we get to talking about the beach. 

Of all three, I get the most response from the “met my soulmate” part - like “that’s amazing!” Or “How did you do that?” or “I met my soulmate, too!” - and then they proceed to tell me their story. 

I noticed how, in the past several conversations with my guests, the same topic “How we met our soulmate, partner, significant other” - has come up. While talking about her book One Fire Island, Jane Rosen mentioned that she met her husband on a date at the beach on Fire Island, Cathi Taucher met my guest Oneike, the beach lifeguard, at the beach in Negril, and most recently, in the conversation I recorded with Pam Uzell about her love/hate relationship with the beach, she mentioned that she met her soulmate on her birthday, It wasn’t at the beach, but it was a significant time in her life that was the catalyst for her return to loving the beach again.

It made me think about how similar my story was to theirs  - I met Ernie, my soulmate, on the beach - on my birthday! I have learned from past experience that when such synchronicities appear, it’s a sign from the Universe to pay attention - in this case, perhaps this is a sign that I need to tell my story,  on the podcast,  of how I met Ernie on the beach, on my birthday!

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks

Listening to your voicemails is like going on a beach walk, picking up the messages like seashells and adding them to my collection. The voices and stories are different  -  but what they all have in common is a shared connection to the beach - I love them all - and I’m excited to share them with you!

Thank you Terri Maxwell, Jen Hardy, Terry Brock, Meshell Baker, Keith  Wilhelm and Teresa Lisum for these messages.  It was so much fun connecting this way! 

My intention for this  podcast has always been to create a collaborative space where beach lovers can come together as a community - where listeners can become a part of the podcast. - my co - hosts ! 

I love doing all the things it takes to produce this podcast solo,  the beach is speaking is anyone listening? 

But regardless of how many people are actually listening, I would still do this podcast because  it’s my way of  using the gift of my voice to connect with something greater than myself, the Beach and all it represents - and the bonus is - I get to share that connection with you! 

It takes a lot of time energy and resources to Put the show together, and your support goes a long way in helping keep the show on the air. 

It’s like that symbiotic relationship between the ocean and the beach - the ocean sends waves to the shore and the beach sends them back.  What would one be without the other?

If you’re wondering why I’m talking so passionately about community,  collaboration, and what it means to me, it’s because I'm so excited to announce that I have launched a Patreon - a membership platform that helps build community and a way for you to contribute to the future of the show - 

it costs as little a $5.00 to join and as a member you’ll receive some cool Beach Speaks “goodies,” plus the opportunity to get exclusive bonus audio content and other beachy stuff. 

Join our community here on  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359

See you at the beach! 

PODCAST LINKS:

• Support the podcast on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/user?u=77845359
• Subscribe to the Podcast: https://thebeachspeaks.com/
• Listen on YouTube
• Follow on Apple and Spotify and share it with your friends!
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebeachspeaks/
• Facebook https://www.facebook.com/TheBeachSpeaks