Who We Are
We are two divorcees who learned the art of resilience and flipped the page of hard times into a future of inspiration and passion.
Our resilience has allowed us to realize our potential:
- Entrepreneurs
- Investors
- Reality show personalities
Our History in a Nutshell
We are a couple of mid-lifers who have come together to do it right the second-time-around. Having spent the first half of our lives doing exactly what we were “supposed to do” – you know what that looks like… Graduation, the job, getting married, the house, kids and a dog.
Only then to have it all go to shit.
Partners leave, houses get sold, lawyers get paid and kids have two homes. Then what?
Having both come out of long term marriages, we decided to do it different the second time. To do it our way, and that meant burning down the white picket fence. We decided to unpack what middle age looked like, and to us, it doesn’t look like wasting every day working hard towards a static life, groundhog day, only to retire to matching lazy-boys and our “I wish I…” lists.
To us, mid-life looks like being in a relationship with our best friend, stepping out of the rat race and prioritizing our health. We focus on travel, both local and abroad, with the goal of living somewhere we are passionate about part of the year.
Life should be an adventure, not work.
I know what you’re thinking, possibly what a lot of people think… “They must be rich, they can probably afford it.”
Keep in mind, we’re nobody special.
We’re just like you.
We’re the couple next door.
We live in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. We play softball – Doug is good, I am not. The important thing is that we do it together. We go out for dinners, enjoy movies, walks, scoots on the motorcycle and time with our families. We have bills to pay, we’re on a budget and there are kids to take into account every step of our journey.
The one and only difference between us and other people is…
WE NO LONGER LET FEAR DICTATE OUR LIVES.
We’ve decided what we want in we work to achieve it. If we learned anything at all from the fall of our first marriages it would be:
LIFE IS SHORT AND NOTHING IS GUARANTEED.
That, and, make sure the person you’re with is your best friend.
This was the key ingredient lacking in our marriages.
Meet Shannon
Shannon… Well, she’s me.
I’m the writer, designer and general workhorse behind our enterprises. I’m the better half of Doug and Shannon and, well, I can say that because Doug has no technical skills to change it.
(uh oh, I got that look)
I was married at 22 years old, and divorced by 34. Not by choice, but that’s how life began to change. My world changed with 4 short words from, my then, husbands lips – “I don’t love you.”
The years to follow saw me as a reluctant single-mama to my three children, who were at the time all under 10.
This was not the life I had in mind.
I was stay-at-home mom for the last 10 years of my marriage and was secretly fighting post-partum depression. When my marriage fell apart, I found myself a part-time parent over night; no job, uninspired and unfulfilled.
I needed a change.
I started the painful yet prosperous journey into “finding myself.”
Shannon was lost. She had no idea who she was or what she wanted. She had put others ahead of herself for decades and was now paying the price. She was lost.
I did the work, it took time and there were moments where I stepped back followed with leaps forward. I spent the time unpacking my white picket fence. I read everything that gave me pieces of the map to living an inspired existence. I craved passion and inspiration. I wanted to truly live and get off the hamster wheel.
The result?
- Successfully raising 4 children to be inspired, polite and independent young adults.
- Learning not to settle and finding a true partner and best friend. (not to say I didn’t kiss a few frogs through my education.)
- A career where I make a difference. I wake up inspired and excited to begin each day.
- I am a travel maniac. Life’s to short not to explore the world!
I learned resilience. I fell in love with the life that I could have.
Living does not just happen, I was going to make it happen!
Meet Doug
Doug bought his first house at 23 years old. He had a knack for business and has a passion for opportunity.
Fast forward to his thirties, he settled down and married. He began a backyard startup business importing used off-road vehicles and within 2 years he had a full-time corporation.
Business was good, Mexican vacations were yearly and the wife and step-kids were picture perfect…
12 years past in a blink. The dollar dropped 25% and business went cold. The marriage did too; dried up with every dollar that left the bank account.
Doug never wanted to divorce, or be divorced. He was in the daily grind that so many marrieds find themselves in. But like myself, he too had his ah-ha moment, where he realized he was living a life he never wanted to live. His divorce looked very different than my own, as men mourn in different ways over loss. But his realization was the same…
He was unfulfilled, unhappy and uninspired. More than he cared to admit. His onward and upward vision was to live free and full of passion for each day adventuring with his best friend.
That’s me!
This is us!
We are Doug and Shannon.
Join us and prepare to be inspired and take action!
