Today we’d like to introduce you to Marche Kaanehe.
Marche, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
A few years ago I found myself in a job that made me very unhappy. The stress in the workplace started to bleed into the rest of my life. I wasn’t the positive, happy person I normally am, I found myself being short tempered with my loved ones, easily irritated and with a negative attitude. My wellbeing took a big hit during this time and it wasn’t until I went on a trip to the Big Island of Hawaii with my mom that it all hit me, I realized I was burned out.
When I arrived in Hawaii to meet my mom, she called me out on how high strung I was (gotta love moms), she forced me to relax and take a breather. It took a full two days for me to unwind from all the stress I was carrying. It was on that trip I realized I was burned-out; I hadn’t had a real vacation (meaning a full mental break from work) in over a year. I finally saw how my unhappiness and stress at work was impacting my entire life.
This realization was pretty shocking for me because I’d heard of burn out but never thought it would happen to me. I used to be so good at planning trips and vacations each year but that year I had some financial goals I was working on and limited PTO so I ended up neglecting travel altogether because I felt like vacation had to be a big trip across the globe for two weeks at a time.
This experience was my motivation for starting my travel blog, Briefcase 2 Suitcase. I wanted to create a place to empower and inspire other women to enjoy travel and make self-care top of mind to avoid burn-out. Traveling doesn’t have to be something that costs a lot of money or requires a lot of time off work and the benefit of it on your well-being is so important. It forced me to shift my mindset on travel and it was so enlightening I had to share it with others.
Has it been a smooth road?
It’s been challenging juggling a full-time job, side hustle and my blog. I am someone who thrives on to do lists and busy schedules but that said, I’ve had a busy year starting a new job and juggling a few other personal priorities that my blog has not grown in the way I’d like it to. I’m definitely not making excuses here but have found that I need to adjust my schedule and sacrifice social activities (and maybe a little sleep) to make it work.
Tell us more about the business.
Briefcase 2 Suitcase is a place of travel inspiration for career driven women. I primarily focus on travel but I also highlight the importance of self-care. For me, travel is one form of self-care since it’s one of my passions but there are many other ways to practice self-care. I wanted B2S to be a place where other women with careers, families and side hustles could go for inspiration to make self-care a priority and to make travel more accessible.
As I shared in my story earlier, when I got burned-out at my old job it had an impact on every other area of my life but with a conscious pursuit of self-care that can be avoided. I acknowledge that there are busy seasons of life so I pride myself on sharing self-care and travel tips that can be quick and simple as well as more in depth.
One thing I am an advocate of and I talk about this a lot on the blog, is local travel, meaning you don’t have to hop on a plane to get the high of traveling to a new place. There are lots of neighborhoods around town you may not be familiar with or a destination that is only a road trip away. These smaller local adventures are just as fun and easier to plan throughout your year to keep you going. For example, a friend and I recently spent a day exploring Convoy trying different Asian restaurants, desserts and getting pampered, something we’ve never done but it was fun to do something new and explore a part of San Diego I wasn’t as familiar with.
My goal with Briefcase 2 Suitcase is for women everywhere to feel like they can still enjoy travel while managing a full-time job. There are so many reasons we don’t travel, limited PTO, expenses and feeling like you can’t step away from work, so I hope that B2S can help inspire others to see travel in a new light.
If you had to start over, what would you have done differently?
There isn’t anything I would necessarily do differently but one of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is to launch quick. Once you have your idea get it launched as soon as possible. While you do want to launch with something well thought out, it is going to take so much time to scale up to the level you want so it’s best to start sooner than later. It’s also likely you’re going to adjust your strategy or certain areas of your business once you see what people are engaging with. These learnings are much more valuable than holding onto something until it’s “perfect”.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://briefcase2suitcase.com/
- Email: briefcase2suitcase@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/briefcase2suitcase/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/briefcase2suitcase/
- Other: https://www.pinterest.com/briefcase2suitcase/
Image Credit:
Clara Wang Photo
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