This episode of the “In a World with Real Media” podcast features Erik and Emily Orton, founders of The Awesome Factory who share their inspiring journey from Broadway producers to sailing adventurers. They discuss overcoming a business failure, embracing fear, and finding freedom through gratitude and adventure. The Ortons now lead sailing trips and coach others to pursue their dreams, emphasizing the importance of stepping outside comfort zones and finding peace in nature. Their story is a testament to resilience, family bonds, and the transformative power of embracing the unknown.
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-Transcript-
Brad Burrow (00:00:01):
Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m your host, Brad Burrow. In this podcast, we’ll dive into the lives of the most successful people in business. We’ll learn how they overcame adversity, took advantage of opportunities and learned from their experiences. Learn from our experts. Get inspired, then go live your story. It’s in a world with real media. Welcome to In a World With Real Media. I’m Brad Burrow, the host today. And today we’re gonna speak with Eric and Emily Orton. They went from broke to Bootstrapping, a life aboard a sailboat in the Caribbean for a year with their five children. It’s an amazing story. They’re authors of the New York Times top 10 travel book called Seven Sea. And they teach and write and speak about how to create unforgettable memories with their kids before they leave home. They coach moms and dads on how to live their best lives and inspire kids to do the same. Pretty cool family first doesn’t mean mom and dad last. So, hey guys, how are you doing, man? I, so I’ve been looking at your website guys, and um, I’m ready to book my trip.
Erik Orton (00:01:13):
<laugh>. Let’s go,
Brad Burrow (00:01:15):
Man.
Erik Orton (00:01:15):
Where, where do you wanna go?
Brad Burrow (00:01:16):
Oh my gosh, Greece. I wanna go to Greece. I saw that you guys are going there. Are you already, have you already been to Greece?
Erik Orton (00:01:23):
We have been to Greece and I was just there, uh, last month. Yeah, in July.
Brad Burrow (00:01:27):
Man, was it, was it amazing? I, so I wanna hear all about the trips, but I think if I’m, uh, if we can kind of go back, tell me, um, I think Eric, are you, you were working, uh, in production in New York City, is that correct, before you started doing this?
Erik Orton (00:01:43):
Yeah, if you go way back, I, I studied music in school and I was working in Broadway Theater. Uh, I was writing musicals and then also, uh, got into the side of producing and managing the tours that went out and some of the, the New York productions as well. And so that’s, that was why we lived in New York City, you know, right outta college. And we raised our family there. We had five kids there, three of them were born there. So that, that’s what, that’s why I I, New York was kind of where our family started in a lot of
Brad Burrow (00:02:13):
Ways. And So you guys met in college?
Emily Orton (00:02:17):
Yeah, we did. We, we met our freshman year and I think I was a junior when we got married. I actually, that I graduated three weeks after our first child was born.
Brad Burrow (00:02:28):
Is that right? Wow. Wow.
Erik Orton (00:02:31):
Emily, Emily pulled double duty. Yeah, so we got married young. We got married at 21. We had our first child at 22, 23, 23. Okay. Sorry. We were almost 22 when we got married. Yeah. Our oldest came when we were 23. And then yeah, we moved to New York and, uh, lived in a two bedroom, one bath apartment that we still have to this day.
Brad Burrow (00:02:51):
Is that right?
Erik Orton (00:02:52):
Yeah. We raised all of our five kids there and, uh, and yeah, I mean, I’m, I’m happy to give you the whole rundown about where it went from there, but I don’t wanna take it a direction you’re not interested
Brad Burrow (00:03:02):
In. No, I, I actually am really interested in hearing kind of what got you guys to the point where you’re doing awesome factory. You know, even, you know, I, I wrote down in my notes kind of the, the business failure. I, I think people are, are, are, can get inspiration from learning how people overcome adversity.
Erik Orton (00:03:23):
Alright. Yeah. Well I’m happy to go there. So we moved to New York and I was a junior manager on Broadway shows and eventually worked my way up, I guess you could say. And I was working on a show called Wicked that, um, has toured around the country a fair bit. Uh, and I kind of had a niche managing big show tours of big shows.
Emily Orton (00:03:46):
I wanna say here, like so many people would say, oh, you’re going for a career in the arts and really kind of try to deflate our balloon or something and say like, oh, that’s not possible. It’s not possible. But for a decade or so, that is how we took care of our family was working in that business in New York. So yeah, I just wanna say like there’s always naysayers, whatever it is you’re going for, but it’s, it’s also possible to succeed.
Erik Orton (00:04:15):
Yeah, I was, I felt fortunate to provide for my family. ’cause Emily was a stay-at-Home Mom by choice. And we were a single income family and, you know, we weren’t living living large, but we were living happy.
Brad Burrow (00:04:26):
Yeah, yeah.
Erik Orton (00:04:27):
And, and so, um, while I was working on the, I was helping him put out the second national tour of Wicked, I decided that I, I had been wanting, before I even started on Wicked, I’d been working to produce my own show and I wanted to produce a, a musical off Broadway. And it had the rights and I was working on raising the money and getting the director and the managers and the designers and all that. And it was, it was a pretty exciting time. Emily was expecting our fourth child, our, our only son, and they kind of coincided. And this show opened the night before she gave birth to our son and uh Wow. For a variety of reasons. Yeah. She was amazing. I know the opening night party looking,
Emily Orton (00:05:07):
Everyone’s just looking at me like, please do not have that baby tonight <laugh>. Like, I have any control.
Brad Burrow (00:05:12):
Did you have a deal with the doctor’s? Like, don’t give her any Pitocin, let’s to wait until tomorrow.
Emily Orton (00:05:17):
Right, right.
Erik Orton (00:05:18):
Yeah. I think my co-producer probably made that deal with the Doctor
Emily Orton (00:05:21):
<laugh>. Yeah, maybe. I mean, it was New York City, so there was a hospital pretty close my, which direction we went, but it all worked out perfectly.
Erik Orton (00:05:28):
Yeah. So Emily went into labor the next day and we had our, our son, our baby boy. And, uh, I guess kind of the hard part about it was that, uh, I told my co-producer, I was like, Hey, I’m gonna just, we open the show, I’m gonna go be with my wife. We’re gonna have a baby. And you just kind of take charge of things while I’m in the hospital for 24 hours.
Emily Orton (00:05:48):
Yeah. And I think it wasn’t even 24 hours ’cause I’m like, we did a natural birth. There wasn’t a lot to worry about. And we were home in less than 24 hours later
Erik Orton (00:05:57):
When I came out of the hospital and called to check in. She said, well, the reviews weren’t great. They were kind of mixed. And as a precautionary measure, we’ve decided to post a closing notice for the show. And I was like, what? Like without like, you, without waiting, you just decided to, ’cause once you post a closing notice, you know what people don’t buy
Brad Burrow (00:06:21):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:06:21):
Tickets, they Right. Even if it’s a, even if it’s a kind of a preemptive closing notice. I was like, you just killed our show.
Emily Orton (00:06:30):
Yeah. Can we give it 48 hours?
Erik Orton (00:06:32):
You just killed our show. And, and, and she was, she’s a generation older than me and this was not her. This, you know, she was, she was hoping this would go well, but she had other ways to survive. We did not, I had left Wicked to do this. We’d put all the chips on the table. And so basically in a quick 36 hours, we opened a show. My son was born, I found out that, um, we were gonna be unemployed and broke probably within, you know,
Erik Orton (00:07:01):
Days a month <laugh>.
Erik Orton (00:07:02):
Yeah.
(00:07:03):
Wow. And, and that just made my head spin in so many ways. And it was just a real, it it, and it kept going down just sort of like the emotional cascade of worry and fear and discouragement and confusion. And at the end of that I finally realized, you know, I kind of, Emily was, you know, she was encouraging me all on the way, but I knew that some level I needed to provide for my family. And so, but I was ashamed and embarrassed to try and go back and look for a job in the theater industry. And so I went and applied at a temp agency to just get any job providing for my family.
Brad Burrow (00:07:45):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:07:46):
And when I did, I had to take a little entrance test and to my shock, I failed it. I was like, are you kidding me? Like I <laugh> I failed your entrance test for a temp job. Wow. And, uh, and uh, so
Emily Orton (00:08:00):
Was it like a computer skills test
Erik Orton (00:08:02):
Or something? It was like, you know, how well do you know a Microsoft office? <laugh>? Yeah. Thought I knew it pretty well, but clearly there was a lot more to learn.
Brad Burrow (00:08:08):
Yeah. It’s
Erik Orton (00:08:08):
A very, you know, a big tool. Anyway, I, they said, Hey, you know, we’ll give you a class and teach Eddie. I was like, sure. I don’t have anything else going on. I took their class two weeks later they placed me at an investment bank, working a night shift. I didn’t have to talk to anybody. I didn’t have a phone line. You know, I didn’t, I don’t even know if I had my own email. I was just like, I was just a grunt worker and I was just happy to bring home a paycheck, but I just wanted to disappear and be anonymous.
Brad Burrow (00:08:32):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:08:32):
And you were in recovery still. Yeah. And I guess to just kind of put a pin in it, I think for me in a, in a, in a time when everybody has a smartphone, we had one cell phone with a a minutes package, I think it was 200 minutes per month. And to save money, I would go downstairs to the lobby of the building where I worked at Work Financial Center and I would call Emily from a payphone. ’cause they still had a few straggler payphones left in New York City. And I would call her, read the number off the payphone, hang up. She would call me back so that we could talk for my full dinner break and not use our cell phone in this. Oh my gosh.
Emily Orton (00:09:12):
Yeah. We, we were working the system. We knew, we knew how to get what we needed without overpaying <laugh>.
Erik Orton (00:09:18):
And, and I think just to connect it back, Brian, it was during those conversations that, and, and I worked this office building. It was right on the Hudson River and then Manhattan. And I would see these sailboats going up and down the river. And I would describe it to Emily and I learned that there was a sailing school immediately downstairs from where I worked. And had I not taken this job at that time, at that place, I, it would’ve been a long time before I discovered that this was a possibility. And Emily, I talked about it so much that she said, you really need this in your life. You should go check it out.
Brad Burrow (00:09:53):
Yeah. That’s amazing.
Erik Orton (00:09:55):
Anyway, that was kind of how we came from nose to the grindstone up around Times Square, a theater district down to Salem School, the Manhattan, Salem School
Emily Orton (00:10:05):
Downtown. Well, I wanna point out that I did encourage him, and I did think it was something that he needed in his life, but he thought we should all have it in our lives, <laugh>. And so it kind of went sideways on me. ’cause I’m, I really had a big fear of deep water, even in the swimming pool. I wouldn’t go to the deep end. And so, um, he was trying to find people to take the classes with him to learn how to sail and just, you know, he worked nights, so he was available in the middle of the day and it wasn’t a match for most people. And so finally he said, what about, what if you and the kids, you and the older girls join me for this class so we can actually start a
Erik Orton (00:10:41):
Class older being nine.
Emily Orton (00:10:42):
Yeah. Nine or 11. Right. And, and I really did not wanna do it. Like I really wanted him to do something without me doing it. Also <laugh> and, and, uh, that isn’t how it’s gonna work out. The girls were really excited and he’s like, this will be perfect if you’re afraid of the water, you should, you should learn how to sail. And then you never have to go into the water and Oh my gosh, <laugh>. So, um, anyway, we did it. We came around, we, we all took the first, uh, course of sailing lessons together. And I was like, how, how are we gonna afford this? And, and he went back into the theater and just did some contract work to, you know, make up the difference to cover the
Brad Burrow (00:11:24):
Yeah. That’s
Emily Orton (00:11:25):
Classes and, and just got us started. It was like, I always like to say, it doesn’t really matter what you achieve. That doesn’t, that’s not a measure of your greatness. It’s what you were willing to overcome, the obstacles that you overcame to get there. And I felt like it was so obvious how important this was to Eric because of what he was willing to overcome, what he was willing to do to get, you know, across that threshold. And so, you know, I couldn’t, I couldn’t resist that, how, how much it was something he really wanted. I didn’t wanna be the, the person who was the obstacle <laugh>.
Brad Burrow (00:11:58):
So Emily, you could see in him that that was something that kind of lit him up a little bit. And he, it’s something that, you know, I should, I should support this so human. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:12:08):
Yeah. It’s so human. He’s just like, oh, I just think about people from millennia ago who were charting by the stars. Like boats have been around forever, just like learning how to exist on the water. It just felt, I think, I think he thought it was gonna be relaxing, and I think it’s only relaxing sometimes when everything lines up Jokes on me.
Brad Burrow (00:12:28):
<laugh>. Yeah. But
Emily Orton (00:12:29):
Just this, this skill he, he wanted to develop. It was just, I don’t know, maybe it was just something that was so different from what he’d been doing before and where, where he had kind of felt hurt. But yeah, clearly it was something he had just even as a young teenager, he used to do a morning paper route and he would just look at the stars after he’d finished delivering newspapers. I don’t know if anybody listening remembers newspapers, but, um,
Brad Burrow (00:12:57):
Yeah,
Emily Orton (00:12:57):
We do <laugh>.
Brad Burrow (00:12:59):
We’ve heard of those things.
Emily Orton (00:13:00):
So it goes pretty, pretty far back.
Brad Burrow (00:13:02):
Right. Yeah. <laugh>
Emily Orton (00:13:02):
That he, he, he felt there was like maybe a simpler, more meaningful path. And I don’t know if it was simple, but
Erik Orton (00:13:12):
There’s kind of a timelessness to say.
Emily Orton (00:13:14):
Yeah. There was a timelessness
Erik Orton (00:13:15):
To it. Timelessness, and it’s a little bit romantic.
Brad Burrow (00:13:17):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:13:18):
So that, that was the draw.
Brad Burrow (00:13:19):
Yeah. Very cool. You know, one of the things that, uh, I was kind of looking through the website and one of the videos you guys talked about fear or not, you know, I’m a faith guy, so my antenna goes up when I see things like that in scripture and things. Talk about that a little bit. I mean, we all struggle with that. I mean, I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had real media for 27 years and we’ve been through many ups and downs and you know, where things do not look too good and, you know, something happens, I get a contract or, you know, something comes through, whatever. I mean, it happens all the time. But the fear, I I believe this, that fear makes us do things we shouldn’t do. And, and you guys are, are, I just love the fact that you’re, you’ve embraced that. It’s like, not the fear part of it, but I’m gonna overcome this.
Erik Orton (00:14:14):
Well, I think that the great commandment that most of us are the best at breaking is being afraid. You know?
Erik Orton (00:14:22):
Oh, yeah.
Erik Orton (00:14:22):
So many times in the scriptures it says to fear or not. And we just keep doing it. Most of us do it.
Emily Orton (00:14:28):
We just keep getting scared. Anyway,
Erik Orton (00:14:31):
<laugh>. Yeah. Right. And I also think this is, you know, personal thing here. I think that, uh, God loves to put us in impossible situations. And sometimes if we, if we choose to go there in a, in a, in a healthy way, it really gives him an opportunity to show up. And I think God likes to, when, when everything’s going smooth, it doesn’t give him much of a space to make an appearance. But when our back is up against the wall and we’re humble and we’re open, then you know, it, it’s a way to let him and I, I always think that like you’re describing with your business, you know?
Brad Burrow (00:15:03):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:15:04):
That you feel it when it shows up and you’re grateful for it. And if we’re never there, we don’t, we don’t feel that gratitude. It would give us a chance to, to be receptive of his good gifts,
Brad Burrow (00:15:14):
But you’d never choose to go through something like that. You know, it <laugh>, isn’t that the truth? It’s like, ah, I’m gonna, I I’m gonna do this work on this play. And, uh, you know, it’s, they’re gonna take it away from me. And I, this is part of my plan.
Erik Orton (00:15:28):
I honestly, Brian, I think I stick back like I, my life would be so different if that play had worked out.
Brad Burrow (00:15:34):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:15:35):
I would’ve been like, Hey man, this was great. Let’s do another one. Let’s do another one. Let’s put out a tour. Let’s, you know. And, and my life just would’ve gone in a, in, in a, in a direction. And it could’ve been great, but I’m so happy with my life and I love where it’s going. It’s definitely, we still have challenges. We’re still moving uphill in a lot of areas, but I just think if, if it had worked out, it would’ve led in a totally different direction. And I’m, I’m okay with it not going that direction. Yeah. In hindsight, yeah,
Emily Orton (00:16:02):
Sometimes I wanna see more of the path ahead, but sometimes it’s better not to know. It’s better to just be surprised. Right. Because if you knew it was gonna go that way, you might turn back. But because you see what’s coming, but you don’t know all the good stuff that’s on the, the other side of that thing that you would run away from. And I totally agree with Eric. Like some of the surprises that have come up in our life, like we might not have had the character to face them if they knew, if we knew they were coming. But at the same time, when we decided that, you know, we started out learning how to sail and then it air up the auntie and suggested we maybe live on a sailboat for a year as a family and not see that coming. And
Brad Burrow (00:16:44):
Okay, I gotta know how you felt about when you first heard that <laugh>. It’s like, you wanna do what <laugh>,
Emily Orton (00:16:50):
I remember exactly the moment when Eric said to me, I think the seven of us on a sailboat would be enough universe for me. And in my mind I thought, really? ’cause you have so many interests, so many things you wanna do. Like, it’s hard to imagine like that one thing meeting every need. But in addition to that, I just had all these alarms going off in my head. That fear we were talking about earlier, just immediately flared.
Brad Burrow (00:17:16):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:17:17):
Uh, you know, we had, um, five young kids. Our youngest has down syndrome, and she was working with, I don’t know, like eight therapists or something, <laugh>. And we had our community, we had our kids’ friends, we had school. Like, what if there were needs with the doctor? And not to mention we don’t really even have that skillset. How would we pay for it? Like, all these questions kind of like shooting down the idea and kind of reasons why we shouldn’t go naturally appeared in my head. I think that would happen to just about anybody. But the thing that I feel really grateful for was that in that moment I didn’t just let them fly outta my mouth, which after being married to me for 28 years, Eric knows usually if it pops in my head, it also then comes around.
Brad Burrow (00:18:03):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:18:04):
And on that, on that occasion, I just left it all up in my brain and I wondered, you know, how serious is he about this? How much has he thought about this? Or is he just, you know, impulsively saying an idea? And so instead of letting out all those fears and concerns, I asked this one question, when would you wanna go? And he actually had an answer for it. And, and he said, I want wanna go before our kids leave home. Like the window of time that we have with them is closing so fast. This is something that I would wanna do as a whole family before our oldest child leaves for co college. And, you know, maybe I don’t wanna be a swashbuckling sailor adventurer, but to a mother heart to have my husband, the father of my children saying, I wanna spend more time with our children.
Brad Burrow (00:18:56):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:18:57):
Like, that’s straight in the center of the target. And I was like, oh, <laugh>, that’s a
Erik Orton (00:19:02):
Good salesmanship right there.
Emily Orton (00:19:03):
That’s what that is. <laugh>. And, and the kid spelled it too. He said, we wanna do this with you. We wanna learn together, we wanna grow together. And, and we decided that we wanted to disrupt ourselves. That we weren’t trying to escape from our life. Maybe it started from a place of escape. If I want somewhere else, I can succeed because this failure was so painful. Yeah. But
(00:19:28):
We, we were like, we have good friends, we have good community. We’re, you know, we’ve recovered from that reversal. At least financially we’re steady now. But he just said like, I think there might be something more for us. And we even told the kids, I don’t think this will make us happier, but I think we’ll learn a lot and we’ll, we’ll grow together and we’ll make new memories. And anyway, everyone was on board. It still took us a while. I think if we, if we had completely removed fear from the equation, we would’ve left a lot sooner. But I think from that conversation, it still took us about four years. Yeah. To actually,
Brad Burrow (00:20:06):
So you had to like save up
Emily Orton (00:20:07):
And
Brad Burrow (00:20:08):
Yeah. I mean you saved up and
Emily Orton (00:20:09):
To actually Yeah. Part of it was saving up, part of it was getting creative. And I think, um, actually learning to sail, learning to sail was important. <laugh> an important
Erik Orton (00:20:19):
Part. <laugh>. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:20:21):
Bigger, a bigger boat. Um, not just like a 20 foot boat. And, um, but Eric, you know, we, we came up with this question, what could go right? And it, it really helped us to do, I love the way Eric explains it. You talk about how we created an opportunity cost, you wanna
Erik Orton (00:20:39):
Share about that? Yeah. So, you know, I’ll kind of skimm through real quick here. How we went from taking a one-on-one class to buying a boat. We,
Brad Burrow (00:20:45):
Yeah,
Erik Orton (00:20:47):
We sail, you know, I sailed for a couple seasons, taking friends out just to kind of share the costs. And then we started sailing as a family on Long Island Sound. We’d take all the kids out and Emily and I went to the Caribbean after a couple years and got certified on bigger boats and bigger water. And then we started to take friends out there. And then we were really boat shopping and getting serious about it. And we, we were on a budget, pretty tight budget for what we were trying to pull off. And so we, we found a boat, but we didn’t really wanna spend the money to go see it. Oh yeah. And so
Emily Orton (00:21:19):
We were like, we couldn’t afford to <laugh>.
Erik Orton (00:21:20):
We’re like, that’s take the trip. A flight, hotels time off work. And so we just sent a, an a, what they call a surveyor. It’s like, kinda like you get a home inspection, but it’s for a boat. And we had somebody go take a look at it and they gave us their report and we signed up a deal. But it was time to basically pony up. We were either buying this boat or we weren’t. Like we had, we’d arrange some financing and it was time to wire the money. And we just thought, well, you know, what could, what could all those worries about what could go wrong? Those questions that Emily, you know, so maturely, impatiently kept in her
Emily Orton (00:21:57):
Brain, miraculously
Erik Orton (00:21:58):
Could financially ruin us. We could sink and drown. We could get injured, we could, you know,
Emily Orton (00:22:03):
Oh man, we could have to like never
Erik Orton (00:22:05):
Recover,
Emily Orton (00:22:05):
Send all our kids to live with each of them a different relative. Like we got dramatic about how bad it could get <laugh>. Oh
Erik Orton (00:22:11):
Yeah. We, when it comes to what could go wrong, we have a good imagination. So we made that list and then we said, okay, how likely are these things? And most of ’em were real long shots.
Brad Burrow (00:22:21):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:22:23):
But then we made a list of all the things that if we do this, what could go right. You know, we could come together like as a family, like never before. We could make amazing memories. We could see beautiful places, we could, you know, learn new skills, grow and confidence, learn new skills, make amazing friends. You know, and that list got pretty long. And the thing about that list is that it was pretty likely. And so we had a few pretty thorny but unlikely downsides. And then we had a really robust likely upside of what could go. Right. Once we put we, but if we didn’t go, we knew that for sure none of this would happen.
Brad Burrow (00:23:01):
None of the good. Right.
Erik Orton (00:23:01):
And then we just thought, man, this feel at that point not going feels stupid
Brad Burrow (00:23:06):
<laugh>.
Erik Orton (00:23:07):
Yeah. You know, and that’s when the what could go right scales tipped. And we said, okay, that’s, we need to go. ’cause if we, if we don’t, we’re for sure missing out on all this. And that’s a no brainer. And that’s why our podcast is called What Could Go. Right. Because we just really believe that if you really wanna have an intellectually honest conversation about these things that you’re interested in, you have to, you know, yes. Okay. The mature responsible part of you is gonna explore what could go wrong. But you have to also look at what could go Right. If you’re gonna have an honest conversation. And once you make that list and look at the likelihood of it, then you can really make an informed decision.
Brad Burrow (00:23:40):
You know, if you think about it, either way, some things could, could go wrong. Right. I mean, if you do nothing, some of those things could still go wrong. So <laugh>,
Erik Orton (00:23:50):
Can I share a short, short story like
Brad Burrow (00:23:52):
This <laugh>? Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:23:54):
We’re in New York. I’m in bed reading a book. I have it kind of held up in front of my face. I’m laying down and the book slips out of my hand.
Emily Orton (00:24:01):
I think you were falling asleep.
Erik Orton (00:24:02):
I was falling asleep. Yeah. But the book was, it was a new hardback, so it had a sharp corner on it. And the book hit me right between the eyes and cut my forehead open. I had a drop of blood come outta my forehead. Yeah. And I just thought, man, if I can cut my head open, laying in bed reading a book, there is no safe place anywhere. And so there just, there is inherent risk in any day you live on Earth. And so just choose the things that you wanna do and go for it and know that Yeah. There’s always gonna be risk.
Brad Burrow (00:24:30):
Yeah. That is so true. So tell me about the first trip I, you know, you get the boat, um, and you’re in New York, I’m assuming, was the boat in New York where, where you bought it? Or did they have to get it to you?
Emily Orton (00:24:43):
Oh, we bought a, uh, we, we bought a boat that used to be a charter boat. So it’s like buying a rent a car from a rental car company.
Brad Burrow (00:24:52):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:24:52):
We don’t wanna use this one anymore. Um, and we bought it in St. Martin. Oh,
Erik Orton (00:24:58):
Okay. And
Emily Orton (00:24:58):
Then we flew to St. Martin to meet the boat. So, so we had to get all the way down there and, you know, come up the dock that, anyway, that’s where we got our boat and it was all part of the bigger financial plan that if we wanted to be able to resell it when we finished, it needed to be new enough that the next buyer could also get financing. Right, right. That was all part of our strategy. Right. We had to buy a more expensive boat so that it would be cheaper for us in the long run.
Brad Burrow (00:25:28):
Easier to sell. Easier to sell. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:25:31):
So, so we went down to, to meet the boat and, um, so yeah, everything changed immediately for us. Right. We changed climate, we changed our home. We, we changed everything at once.
Erik Orton (00:25:44):
Yeah. And, and it’s obviously a long story there. It is a year’s worth of wild ride. And, and we have a book called Seven at Sea. If you want to just go to Amazon and buy seven at Sea, you can read
Brad Burrow (00:25:54):
Yeah. The
Erik Orton (00:25:55):
Whole thing. It’s the bumpy version, the whole thing. <laugh>. Uh, but, but we’re happy to to share a few highlights if you’d like, if there’s something specific
Emily Orton (00:26:02):
Want, but yeah, I think Eric should tell you about the very first trip out, because we got there and it wasn’t ready, even though we waited an extra month and there was no main sale on the boat. And Oh. Anyways, not everything was working, but when we finally got out the first time, we were like, okay, we we’re not gonna give up before we even tried sailing anywhere. You know, let’s just, let’s get out there. So do you wanna tell about leaving Oyster
Brad Burrow (00:26:28):
Park? So you left without a main sail or
Emily Orton (00:26:31):
Well, we waited until they get the main sale. Okay. But you know, here, here’s something that may, maybe you’ve had this experience, but anytime you do something scary, like good on you, if you actually do the thing Right. But you get there and you’re doing it, the fear doesn’t, um, get less, it gets more <laugh>. Right. Like the, it’s like the winds are blowing harder. Right. The closer you get to that thing. And so we got there, we did it, we overcame all those obstacles, our kids, our, our luggage, whatever. And then we were like, oh no, this was a bad idea. We wanna reverse out of this. You know, we were like the, that’s actually when the fear was probably at its strongest was when we arrived. So we were like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like, we can decide to turn this around. We can, we can back out. But before any of that happens, let’s, we’ve got the main sale now, let’s at least go out one time. Right. Let’s go one time.
Erik Orton (00:27:27):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:27:27):
So you wanna tell about it <laugh>?
Erik Orton (00:27:29):
Yeah, sure. So yeah, we, ’cause at, at, yeah, we were ready to just sell the boat and head back home and beg for my job back in. But we decided let’s go sailing one time. And so we picked a little spot about an hour away. It was a little national park island off of St. Martin called Team Tamar. And, uh, we just thought, we’re just gonna go check this out. And so the kids, we, they’ve sailed with us a lot, so they’re up on the bow, they’re gonna be raising the sail as we head out of the, the marina into open ocean. And, uh, we’re tooling along, kind of motoring out to where the wind is. And then all of a sudden the boat just sort of plummets down, straight down. And then the kids go flying up on deck. And then there had been this big sort of deep wave coming at us. And then we hit the bottom and then we bought straight back up and all the kids came crashing back down the deck. We had an iMac computer inside for school. And that went flying and stuff was just exploding. I mean, not, not like literally it’s getting
Emily Orton (00:28:35):
Into the channel.
Erik Orton (00:28:36):
Yeah. And anyway, we did not know what hit us and fortunately we did not lose any kids overboard.
Brad Burrow (00:28:42):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:28:42):
But we get out of this, we get out of this channel and we get to open ocean and I would later learn that we bought our boat in what is considered the most treacherous entrance to a harbor in the entire Caribbean.
Brad Burrow (00:28:55):
Oh
Erik Orton (00:28:55):
Wow. We did not know that <laugh> and nobody warned us. Uh, anyways, so we make it out to open ocean and we get the sails up and we turn towards team tomorrow, and now we’re sailing and we’ve got the wind, but we’re also sideways to the waves. And so the boat is rocking in one of the most uncomfortable ways and we all get seasick. So we kind of recovered Wow.
Emily Orton (00:29:17):
Trying to have a dance party to that. That was our strategy.
Erik Orton (00:29:20):
But now we’re also puking and we just sort of limp over to this nearby island and then we cannot get this boat anchored. You know, it’s like a new boat with the new new system and the kids didn’t know what to do and I’m yelling and ah, it’s just a mess. And
Emily Orton (00:29:35):
It was like a three stooges show for everyone who was already anchored and having their dinner. Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:29:39):
Yeah. So we finally get the boat comes to rest and we’re just exhausted from puking and, and everything else. And I just, we’re laying on the floor in the kitchen of the boat and I just say, whose dumb idea was this? <laugh> and Emily? And well, the kids kind of like, look at me and like, uh, it was your idea. Yeah. <laugh>
(00:30:03):
And Emily comes to my rescue and she says, no, no, we all wanted to do this. Which is true. We all came over the years, we all decided this is what we wanted to do. But you know, when you, when you chase your dreams, you’re gonna have those moments when you think, Hey, I, I, I’ve, I’ve arrived. I’m on my boat in the Caribbean, I’ve achieved my dream. And you’re gonna think this was the worst idea ever. And that’s just, that’s just part of it. And you then you’re going to pick yourself up and not fly home and keep going. And you know, if, if you want to be a hero in your own story, that’s what you do.
Emily Orton (00:30:35):
I’ll tell you what made the difference for us though, Brad is the next mor we slept that night, no one could eat. I just gave them broth for dinner. It was, it was pretty pathetic. But the next morning we took the, the dinghy, right, the little outboard motor
Brad Burrow (00:30:48):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:30:49):
Boat into the, the national park. And we pulled it up on the beach and we just started wandering around, see the lizards and the different kind of trees and different things, the seashells, the water. And we sat at a picnic table and Eric actually pulled out his, his, uh, video camera at the time. Or maybe it was on your phone. The phone,
Erik Orton (00:31:07):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:31:08):
And we asked the kids what is awesome about right now? And every single one of them had something to say, whether it was like, I loved the breeze last night, or I love that we had pancakes for breakfast. Or they were just, we took a moment to focus on what was good, what we were grateful for. And that really avoided us up. And I think it gave us the stamina to keep going. And I just think while there fear is inevitable, how much we listen to it is our choice.
Erik Orton (00:31:45):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:31:45):
But at the same time, it can always be countered by gratitude. Gratitude always makes the circle bigger. And that is really what helped us keep going. So like, whatever your journey is or whatever your adventure is, I feel like that’s one of the main components for moving from fear into freedom. When I say that, I mean the freedom from the fears. Like, okay, there’s fear here, but I’m gonna ignore that as far as like a decision making factor. And the gratitude really helped us to overcome that.
Brad Burrow (00:32:16):
Yeah, that’s a great point. That’s, I need to hear that. That’s, that’s awesome. So what I’m sitting here thinking, you know, is like you’ve gone through going through, you know, the, the boat going down and then back up and everybody’s sick. You know, you’re going like this. When did you know that okay, yeah. We are on the right path.
Emily Orton (00:32:38):
Ooh. That we might, different answers. Yeah.
Brad Burrow (00:32:41):
So you’ve never been asked that before, man, I feel, I feel, uh, very
Erik Orton (00:32:45):
Special. Yeah. This is good. This is good. <laugh>. No, I’m just trying to think. ’cause I, I, I’ll tell you, when I felt reassured, we, we bought our boat in a place called Oyster Pond on the northeast side of St. Martin. And after this little episode, a few days later, we sailed around to the other side. It’s called Simpson Bay Lagoon. And it’s kind of a gathering spot for people to live on boats. ’cause there’s a lot of resources for repairs and
Brad Burrow (00:33:17):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:33:18):
You know, grocery stores, the other place was a little bit more remote. And so we, we took our boat around to the other side and we met other people that were moving on boats, other people that had years of experience, other people that had kids. And we met them through what they call a radio net. Everyone has a little VF radio.
Brad Burrow (00:33:37):
Yeah. And
Erik Orton (00:33:38):
They have a town hall every morning at 7:00 AM We just get on, they tell about, you know, Hey, welcome to whoever just came in and dropped anchors so long to the people that are, who’s leaving today. And, and uh, you know, we’re gonna have a kid’s volleyball thing. You know, it’s like really, like it’s all connected. And we realized, oh man, there’s a community out here, there’s people. And I made a fool out of myself and I just jumped right in. ’cause I didn’t know the protocol for the meeting. I was like, Hey, my name is Eric. This is on our, we’re on this boat. We we’re new. We have no idea what’s going on. If anyone wants to help us, you know, tell me what channel you wanna talk on
Emily Orton (00:34:11):
<laugh>. Yeah. We’re we’re looking for these items to buy. Yeah. <laugh>
Erik Orton (00:34:14):
And uh, bless their hearts. Uh, some, a couple that has lived on, they lived on their boat for probably
Emily Orton (00:34:22):
11 years at that point.
Erik Orton (00:34:23):
Yeah. I think 11 years at that point. Anyway, they just said, yeah, come on over this afternoon, happy to talk shop. And anyway, they were so gracious to us and they listened to all of our questions and worries and reassured us and gave us advice and ideas and gradually made friends with other boats, families that had kids and our kids made friends. And we were able to replace a lot of the things that had made our lives on land comfortable. Not like we weren’t, not not replace them, but,
Emily Orton (00:34:49):
But we have new friends now.
Erik Orton (00:34:50):
Yeah. We don’t need their old, we have new friends, but, but we needed, we needed help, we needed reassurance. And once we had people that we, that seemed to care about us and would help us with information and answers and encouragement, I, I felt like we’re gonna make it, you know? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> we’re not, there’s no need for us to, we don’t need, we were still looking at the planes that were leaving off from St. Martin, headed back to New York. And, and actually you told me at some point there was a time when you, when you finally realized you were looking at that plane and you wished you weren’t on it.
Emily Orton (00:35:20):
Oh no. I used to always see the plane and be like, oh man, I wish I was on that plane. I could be back home. We just a few hours <laugh>. Yeah. But at a certain point I stopped thinking it, I stopped thinking it. But I wanna go back to that, that first couple that reached out to us, they were on a boat called Silver Heels and they now live in Grenada, Grenada and help other people who wanna move to Liverboard. So, and I just wanna shout them out because one of the things that they said to us is, we’ve been doing this for 11 year, 11 years. They made the trip from Canada down to the Caribbean. They go down to Grenada like every year and then back up again. And they said, yeah, there’s a lot of stuff you guys don’t know, but good for you for getting off the dock. Because what we see so often is people trying to perfect their boat. Like, oh, I gotta get the updated navigation system and I gotta get that and I have to replace the cushions and I’m not gonna be able to leave until everything is absolutely perfect. And I think you can apply this metaphor in so many areas of your life or your business to, they said, but good for you. Or just getting off the dock. You don’t even know what oil to gasoline ratio your outboard motor needs
Brad Burrow (00:36:26):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:36:26):
But here you are, you know, like you jumped, you’re out here and now you’re definitely gonna figure it out what works and what doesn’t. What you need, what you don’t, because you got out here and
Erik Orton (00:36:37):
You’re fools, but you’ll figure it out <laugh>.
Emily Orton (00:36:38):
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And I am really, I feel like that was so encouraging. And for me the answer is a little bit different because um, you know, I was initially very scared, but as we started sorting through our possessions and Oh, what books are we gonna take or leave this, leave that, what are we gonna do with these things? Every time I would just take one little baby step that was moving in the direction of living on the sailboat. Whether it was that sorting through our things or, oh, now we have life jackets. Or I would feel like God was just giving me a little post-it note right on my heart saying, this is good. There wasn’t a big vision, there wasn’t a lot of explanation, but it was just, you’re going in the right direction. And, and so as we kept going, even though sometimes things were inconvenient or challenging or even discouraging, I knew that we were going in the right direction and that this was going to be something really good for our family.
(00:37:37):
And if you can’t tell, like what’s good for our family is like the most important thing to me, <laugh>. And so like, okay, well if this is good for our family, then whatever else happens happens. Yeah. And um, and so for me, I, I just had collected even before we left a little, a little stack of those post-it notes and I would just make a note of it in my journal and I’m like, if, if this boat sinks, then that was the right direction for us. But I didn’t, I didn’t think that was what was gonna happen, but I knew we were going on the right, the right path.
Brad Burrow (00:38:06):
Yeah. That’s awesome. One of the things that I, I wrote down ’cause I looked through the website and, and watched some of the videos and, and um, you know, I’m gonna book my trip here coming up to you before too long. I wanna do that. Um,
Erik Orton (00:38:20):
Awesome. Happy
Brad Burrow (00:38:21):
To have you board <laugh>. Yeah. But I wanna talk about the faith aspect of it a little bit. I mean, you’ve mentioned it a few times, Emily, and, and, uh, you know, it, it is what you guys did was a leap of faith. And I love that because I, I think God stretches us when we step out of our comfort zones and do something that we don’t feel comfortable doing. And, and man, you guys are the poster children for doing that. I mean, what you guys did with a, a family of four or five, um, and going out and doing that and wow. I mean, not too many people would actually do that. So can you talk about the faith aspect of it? You know, seeing God and all those things. I can imagine being out on the deck of the boat on a very calm night and just laying there and looking up at the stars. I mean, you probably see the stars like nobody in the United States has ever seen them. I bet. Right? It’s so good. It’s
Erik Orton (00:39:19):
The best
Brad Burrow (00:39:19):
Talk about the witness of, of seeing God and what you’re doing. I mean, that could be amazing.
Erik Orton (00:39:25):
So the moment that comes to mind, hearing what you’re saying, I don’t know if it was a particularly spiritual or faithful moment per se, but it was a peaceful moment. And just a quick overview of our journey was we sailed from St. Martin around the Caribbean a bit then st sorry, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico up to The Bahamas over to Florida and up the east coast, up the Hudson River to our, our neighborhood in New York City. That was the whole trip. We had just made the big crossing from Puerto Rico to The Bahamas, our biggest crossing that ever. Were out at sea for five days straight, nonstop. And then we landed in the southern end of The Bahamas, kind of this remote place where there’s very little there and we’d kind of resupply and regathered ourselves. And we were starting to move up The Bahamas, the Bahamian chain. And we were sailing at night. And as we sailed away from an island called ua, I think we were going up to a place called Long Island, not the New York one.
Brad Burrow (00:40:25):
Yeah. <laugh> The Bahamas one.
Erik Orton (00:40:26):
And it, it was just, the stars were unreal. The wind was perfect coming out of the east, it was all blocked by the islands. And so the water, we had great wind, but the water was flat and the boat was just flying smooth and the sales were aligned and there was just a harmony and a piece to it. And I say that because you can find that out there. And even, even on a boat, those are rare moments, you know? Yeah. There, it’s hard to find peace on land in the hustle and bustle, what I’ll call sort of regular life. It’s also challenging to find it on the water ’cause there’s always something to worry about. But I felt peaceful in this moment and it was beautiful. And, and I was grateful for that. And I’m grateful. I, one of the things that I love about being on the boat or being outside at all, is I just feel like being in nature is one of the great witnesses of our creator. And I love being surrounded in that. And
Brad Burrow (00:41:33):
That
Erik Orton (00:41:34):
There were just countless moments where I think I drew a lot of strength and peace from that. Because nature can also be violent and turbulence and am not harmonious. Uh, and, and I think that, but to the extent that we’ll let that piece in, it can really, it can guide us and reassure us and help us move forward.
Brad Burrow (00:41:56):
Yeah,
Emily Orton (00:41:58):
I agree. I felt that a lot. I feel like the ocean is incredibly humbling to be a tiny boat on a huge ocean. Oh man. I also, we would see the constancy of the ocean. That the waves, you know, especially when we are near an island of waves, they just never stopped. And I would think about that is how constant god’s care is for us. Like, you go, maybe you wake up in the middle of the night, the waves are still going, get up in the morning, the waves are there having lunch, the waves just keep going. <laugh>. Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:42:30):
Just
Emily Orton (00:42:31):
There’s always another wave. Another wave, another wave. And so at the same time as being on the ocean was really humbling. It also, um, was a witness to God’s power. Like he created all of this and he knows where we are in here. If nobody else knows where we are or any of our, you know, navigation devices, were to, I don’t know, stop working or glitch out for some reason. He would always know right where we are. And I always, you know, very often would just be praying to him when we’d be in situations that where I didn’t know what to do. And sometimes maybe it was related to the nature because we, we, we experienced some storms
Brad Burrow (00:43:13):
And
Emily Orton (00:43:13):
Things like
Brad Burrow (00:43:13):
That. Yeah. I was, I can imagine.
Emily Orton (00:43:15):
But also it would be, you know, with our family, like can you imagine now you’re seven people on a 38 foot boat that’s 21 feet wide and it’s just a, this giant yard of ocean.
Brad Burrow (00:43:27):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:43:28):
I can’t imagine. We, we imagine what it might have been like for Noah and his family on the arc. ’cause like, oh, you cannot run away. You cannot pretend it’s something else. Like you have to face what’s right here. And so good thing we started out as a happy family. ’cause there were some tough times when you have no privacy and no, or like escape <laugh> mechanism. You’re like, oh, maybe we’ll just have to deal with this. Yeah. Talk it through <laugh> and come to a new or, um, agreement. And I think over the course of the entire journey, it was so refining for us and there were intensely beautiful experiences like what Eric was saying.
Brad Burrow (00:44:02):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:44:02):
We made incredible friendships so quick because you could put the hours in fast instead of like, oh, maybe I’ll see you in six weeks or six months, you know, <laugh>. Um, but there were also some really challenging circumstances. And at the end of it, we asked our daughters, I think we were just, we had just maybe arrived in Florida, we’re about to head back to the States and asked him, you know, what have you learned from this experience? Yes. And our 17-year-old said, uh, or I said, have you changed? Or what have you learned? And she said, it didn’t change me as a person, I became more myself. Which I love that answer. Yeah. What a genius. Right. Because she’s not, because she didn’t become a different person. She just became like more fully
Brad Burrow (00:44:47):
Herself. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:44:48):
And through those refining experiences. And then our 15-year-old said, um, I got comfortable being uncomfortable. And that’s what a gift. What a gift.
Brad Burrow (00:44:59):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:44:59):
You know, one of one of our plans was let’s disrupt ourselves so that when things come up that are disruptive, that weren’t our choice and that are out of our control, we’ll we’ll be ready with some strategies for how to handle those. And we did cultivate those strategies.
Erik Orton (00:45:16):
And I’ll just say a core corollary to that is, I think comfortable being uncomfortable, but I think our kids and us became confident where we weren’t confident before.
Emily Orton (00:45:28):
Hmm. Oh yeah.
Erik Orton (00:45:29):
That there’s, there’s a piece that comes with when you, when you look back on an experience like that and say, man, there was some crazy stuff that happened and we figured it out. And also when you give teenagers the helm and say, you’re in charge of the boat for two hours, we’re going to sleep. You know, when you’re doing a night crossing, they grow up in a, in a kind
Brad Burrow (00:45:48):
Of way. Yeah. <laugh>,
Erik Orton (00:45:49):
You know, they feel trusted and you and you do too. Yeah. Because you’re trusting your kids. They’re accepting that responsibility. Granted, you’re sleeping right there. It’s not like, you know, something comes up, they don’t, they, they can ask for help, but, but they became confident people that I think they moved through life in a way that as a parent, I’m really, I’m really proud of them. I’m really happy for them and, and I’m great. And we did as well. We grew up and just coming out, like we came home, we’re like, man, if we could do that, what else can we do? And it just kind of propels you to the next level in so many ways. All of us, us and our kids.
Emily Orton (00:46:27):
And I would say we, we talk about three kinds of confidence that the first is competence. Like, you naturally get confident when you develop a new skill, no matter how small is like, oh, like our daughter, our youngest daughter recently, I think we mentioned she has down syndrome and she hasn’t always been like coordinated everything the same as her. Typically developing peers. Last week or two weeks ago, she learned how to snap. She cannot get over herself. <laugh>. She’s like, check it out.
Brad Burrow (00:46:54):
Check it out. Okay. Awesome. Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:46:54):
Just even something so little, so competence builds your confidence. And then, uh,
Erik Orton (00:47:00):
Credibility.
Emily Orton (00:47:01):
Credibility. When you do the things that you say you’re gonna do, you, your credibility goes up with you with other people. And it doesn’t mean you have to do more stuff. Maybe it means you agree to less stuff that also makes your credibility go up. Yeah. Because your ratio for what you said you’re gonna do to what you actually did is, you know, the more that’s close to being one to one, that credibility makes your confidence go up. And then, um, what’s the third one? Calm, competence, credibility, and calm. Yeah. And that’s what Eric was talking about saying, oh, I’ve been through this, I’ve been in similar scenarios and I handled it, so probably I’ll be able to handle this.
Erik Orton (00:47:39):
Yeah. Well I think in your case you’re talking about your business and the ups and downs of that. Yeah. You look back on how many years did you say you’ve been running real media?
Brad Burrow (00:47:45):
27.
Emily Orton (00:47:46):
27. Congratulations.
Erik Orton (00:47:47):
When you can look back on your business and, and look at 27 years of surviving.
Brad Burrow (00:47:52):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:47:53):
The next thing that comes up, you’re like, oh yeah, I, I may not have been in either. I have been in this exact same situation and I know what to do ’cause I’ve been through it five times. Or this is a variation on something I’ve done before, or I have no idea. But you know what, I’ve figured out everything, everything that’s come my way in the past 27 years. And that’s why you’re still where you are because you figured it out. And once you learn to trust your track record and you trust that hey, no matter what comes I’m giving the answers are gonna emerge. I’m gonna figure it out. You start to be less and less worried about solving the problems that are out there that are inevitable because they’re gonna come.
Brad Burrow (00:48:30):
Right.
Erik Orton (00:48:31):
And when we, and and when I talk about turning worry into wonder, you can tackle the same situation from vastly different points of view. You can, you can wr your hands in fret or you can say, huh, I’m curious how this one’s gonna work out because everything else up till now, we’ve figured it out.
Brad Burrow (00:48:50):
I, I think they call that counted so wonder. I’ve been worried. They call that counted all joy. Right? Isn’t that the scripture that talks about, that counted all joy. I
Emily Orton (00:48:57):
Love that
Brad Burrow (00:48:57):
<laugh>, which is not easy to do. Wonder this
Emily Orton (00:49:00):
Trip, going back to, we started out talking about the scriptures about fear. Fear not, God has not given men the spirit of fear, but of the sound line. Like it changed our relationship to fear because we pushed through the fear and we found something incredible on the other side. And so the next time, you know, fear came up, we were that much more willing to just push past it
Brad Burrow (00:49:26):
And you knew what to
Emily Orton (00:49:27):
Do. You know, I like to call it weeding the garden. You know, there’s always little fears popping up. Just pull ’em out right away. Don’t let ’em get too big. But when, you know, when you’re faced with that, then, then I kind of think about just running that direction. Maybe that fear is actually a little sign that that’s something important for you in your life. Otherwise you would be apathetic.
Brad Burrow (00:49:47):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:49:47):
Like, oh, that doesn’t matter. I don’t care about that. I’m not going that way anyway. But if you’re afraid of it, you’re kinda like, I kind of feel like I should go that way. <laugh>. And and then you do. And there’s something that’s for you to do or for you to learn.
Brad Burrow (00:49:58):
One of the things I think about, the first thing I think is that we need to make a feature film about your, your <laugh>. I mean, I can’t believe you haven’t done that yet, Eric. What, what’s happening
Erik Orton (00:50:08):
Here? Well, I’ll, I’ll call up our agent. We’ll see. We can get that going <laugh>. Let’s,
Brad Burrow (00:50:12):
Let’s do it. Um, man, what a great story that would be, you know, that, that’s awesome. But, um, you know, I wanted to, I think about society right now and, you know, there’s so many people that are depressed that are, you know, fighting anxiety and all, all kind of the things that are the core things you guys are talking about. I mean, what you’re doing with the come sale with us, and it’s probably a fairly expensive thing to do, I would imagine, but I don’t know the cost of it. But being able to take people through a mini version of the process that you went through and to teach them how to overcome their fears and, and their anxieties. Wow. That’s, that’s an amazing thing.
Erik Orton (00:50:59):
Well, first of all, thank you for saying that. And yeah, they’re, they’re not cheap. I mean, they’re, they’re, you know, a couple thousand dollars per person. Uh, and it varies by place and duration and all that. But I think one of the reasons I really enjoy doing it is because it’s something that I wished had been there when we started, because we had to go through a very steep learning curve. And eventually, as we talked about, we did find the people that helped us. And, you know, we, we were
Emily Orton (00:51:25):
Living on our boat by then.
Erik Orton (00:51:26):
We did the best that we could. We, we, we took some classes with an instructor, but we never went out with somebody who had done the thing that we wanted to do. And so when not everybody that goes, Stanley with us wants to live on a boat, a fair number do, but it’s a chance to try it out to remove a lot of those barriers to entry, to get rid of the risks of first of all, having to know how to sail, figuring out how to charter a boat, figuring out if you had a boat, where to go and what to do with it. You know, we just, and the food family does an amazing job planning the food and the menu. And so we just take, basically it’s like, Hey, show up. We’ll give you a packing list. We’re gonna take you sailing. You get to try it out. And then from there you can decide, first of all, you can have a great week, a little bit of sailing location, and then do what you want from there. But it’s, we wanna make it easy to explore it and then people can go in any direction they want. And it’s, and plus I get to go sailing <laugh> all the places that I want to around the world on beautiful boats.
Brad Burrow (00:52:28):
How, how often do you guys go out? How often do, do you have trips going out?
Erik Orton (00:52:33):
Uh, honestly, the pace is picking up. ’cause it’s more people find out about it the more we’re doing. And so, uh,
Brad Burrow (00:52:39):
Yeah,
Erik Orton (00:52:39):
In July, I was in Greece in August, I was in The Bahamas in September, I’ll be in Italy.
Emily Orton (00:52:46):
It’s trying to be about once a month.
Erik Orton (00:52:48):
It’s gonna be, yeah, I’m going to Thailand in November, and we try to do it winter months. We’re warm places like The Bahamas in the Caribbean, and then the summer months, we also go to warm places,
Brad Burrow (00:52:57):
Like And you have the same boat, is it, is it the same boat that you had before? No.
Emily Orton (00:53:01):
No. And that’s actually a really important thing to know because the boat that, that we were able to secure for our family, <laugh>, if you do read our story, be like, I don’t really wanna go on that. I don’t wanna go on that boat. It sounds small and crazy. Yeah, yeah. These boats are, they’re big and beautiful and most of the features are, what do they call it? Like push button.
Erik Orton (00:53:23):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:53:23):
Sales.
Erik Orton (00:53:23):
Our boat was very and small, and we were the biggest family on the smallest boat out there if you wanna Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:53:29):
We were just trying to make a way to make it happen.
Erik Orton (00:53:31):
But we sold that boat about a year after we got home. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And now I charter a boat just like you rent a car.
Erik Orton (00:53:38):
Oh, okay.
Erik Orton (00:53:39):
I have the credentials to rent a car, so I can go to Italy, pick up a boat there. We sail around Italy, we fly home. It’s okay because we go to The Bahamas, I pick up a boat there, we sail The Bahamas, we all fly
Emily Orton (00:53:49):
Home, and they’re usually about 45 to, up to 54, maybe even 56 feet long,
Erik Orton (00:53:55):
40 to 50 ish feet long,
Emily Orton (00:53:58):
That full size refrigerator. They’re air conditioned, but you are also, the ocean is always gonna be bigger than you. Yeah. No matter how big your boat is, <laugh>. So you still, you still get that, um, adventure explore experience. What I really love, I love what you were saying about coming out and you have, uh, emotional shift or a mental shift. Because when you get into a new environment and your brain by 72 hours in your brain kind of has fully released all your little, like, oh, I should pick up that or repair that chair or gotta drop something. All of that, that’s a constant chronic drain goes away. And those connections and energy in your mind is available to think about what could go right to consider new possibilities. So whether or not you’re like, I do wanna live on a sailboat, or if it just is a time where you can open your mind and get clear about what really matters without all of the, the pull of your previous routine. It’s so beautiful for that. You get all the fun of anticipating it, the joy of being out there. And you probably know whenever you go into a new situation, time seems to expand because there’s so much fresh input. So it feels like longer than it is, you know, that one day feels like three day that I just lived. Right. Like, time slows down for you and, and then Yeah, you go, you go home with some level of transformation. Yeah. And hopefully intentionality about how you wanna proceed going forward.
Brad Burrow (00:55:31):
So I have two more things. Um, we’re already at an hour, so that’s awesome, but Oh
Emily Orton (00:55:36):
Man, we love talking. You,
Brad Burrow (00:55:37):
You guys are doing awesome. Um, so advice that you would give to somebody that you know is fearful. Like, there are a lot of people that can’t move because of fear. They’re bound up by fear. You know, I’ve been there before. Um, what would you, what would you say to that person?
Erik Orton (00:55:57):
First of all, I love the question, and Emily May have a different answer, but I’m gonna say start small. Find something that you’re afraid of. Find, find the smallest thing that you’re afraid of and start there. Um, you know, our our son, he’s pretty open about this. He’s, he’s had a lot of sort of mental health challenges and he’s gone through some therapy work that’s been really productive for him. And he has talked to us a lot about exposure therapy. Yeah. Disputing, you know, kind of like the thing that you’re, you know, if you’re afraid of crocodiles, don’t go to the swamps of Florida. Look at some pictures on the internet and get comfortable looking at pictures of crocodiles on the internet. And, you know, and so ease into it. Don’t put, don’t push yourself. Don’t try to jump off a cliff to face your fears if you’re, and so I feel like I’m just trying to make this concrete here. Let’s say, like, can you gimme an example of something that you might be afraid of?
Brad Burrow (00:56:56):
Um,
Emily Orton (00:56:58):
Or anybody? It doesn’t have to be you personally.
Erik Orton (00:56:59):
Yeah. Not, doesn’t, not a per,
Brad Burrow (00:57:01):
Um, heights. Fear of heights. Mm.
Erik Orton (00:57:04):
Okay. So you’re afraid of heights. I would say don’t go rock climbing. I actually am a rock climber and I love, like, I love you, love heights, love being, I love being high on a cliff. It’s like
Brad Burrow (00:57:16):
I have to, I’ve seen some pictures of you, uh, laying at one of the, you laying on the side of the cliff there.
Erik Orton (00:57:22):
I’ve, I’ve slept on the side of a cliff.
Brad Burrow (00:57:24):
Yeah,
Erik Orton (00:57:24):
A few, many, many, a few times. So, you know, if you’re afraid of heights, then just say, start by going standing on a chair, you know, and then stand on a chair every day until you’re like, okay, now I’m gonna stand on the table
(00:57:38):
And then now I’m gonna stand on a ladder and then, you know, work up there and say, now I’m gonna, you know, but just like ease it into it. And when we coach and when we talk about, you know, we help people that are pursuing their dreams. We, we talk about, um, it’s a concept called navigating out of the harbor. We teach a framework that’s all about based on sail metaphors and navigating outta the harbor is this, you cast off and you go out, let’s say, you know, you’re scared of, of deep ocean. Go out a quarter, mile the channel, stay there, turn around and come back, say, whew, I made it.
Erik Orton (00:58:13):
Yeah.
Erik Orton (00:58:13):
And then the next time, go out half a mile, get comfortable, half a mile, come back, whew. I made it. And then just keep slowly expanding what we call concentric circles until you get, so you’re like, man, I’m 10 miles off shore. I never thought I’d make it 10 miles off shore. Now I’m 25 miles off shore. But keep going back. Give yourself a rest, give yourself a break, and then slowly work it out to the way you, you know what, I’m so far out the sea. I might as well keep going to Spain, <laugh>, you know,
Brad Burrow (00:58:41):
<laugh>.
(00:58:42):
Yeah.
Emily Orton (00:58:43):
I love what you’re saying. ’cause Eric, so many people say, especially in the growth world, um, there’s no growth in the comfort zone. And I get where they’re coming from, and I do, obviously we’re advocates for trying something new and stretching and, and facing those fears and pushing past them. But I also wanna push back a little bit on that idea, because like Eric’s talking about go out and come back and you come back to your comfort zone and like recover and think, oh my gosh, look what I just did. You reflect and you have that chance to be proud of yourself and then set a new bigger goal. Like, what else can I do? I think that is really the value of the comfort zone when it’s that place for you to come back to after you’ve done something really outside of your comfort zone and, and, and re-acclimate and reflect and then go again. It’s when you go in your comfort zone and then you never wanna do anything outside of your comfort zone that it starts to become a little bit of a trap on your personal growth and what you have to offer the world.
Brad Burrow (00:59:45):
See, I think God knows that about us, and, uh, I think that he, uh, puts us in positions where we have to get out of our, or he gets us out of our comfort zone that because we, we won’t go on our own <laugh>. Yeah. Right? We’re, it’s rarely you guys are different than most people. I think, you know, most people won’t choose to go out of their comfort zone. You guys have done a great job. That’s, so that’s my transition to the last, last thing is what does the future look like? I mean, you guys are doing speaking. Um, you, you have trips coming up, you’ve got other things happening, the book. Tell me, tell me what the future looks like for you guys.
Emily Orton (01:00:23):
Well, we’d love to help more and more people move from fear to freedom one adventure at a time. If that adventure looks like coming on a sailing trip with us, that’s awesome. If it looks like letting us come share our stories and saying, wait a minute, those guys don’t seem any smarter than me. Maybe I could actually do something as well. Um, maybe they’re like, we can help people knock down some of their excuses and, and get out and contribute. You know what it is God has created them to do. That would, that would just
Brad Burrow (01:00:55):
Be amazing. So
Emily Orton (01:00:55):
Satisfying.
Brad Burrow (01:00:56):
Yeah. Yeah.
Emily Orton (01:00:57):
That’s what we love is to, because other people shared their stories that gave us the courage to get out and, and do this with, with our life. And so we are just, I think Eric was talking to me the other day, he said, you know, we can consecrate our story if we share our story, if we consecrate our vulnerable and give up a little bit of our personal privacy to help somebody else find some courage, then that’s a, a good way to use it. And so, yeah, whether you wanna come sailing with us, you wanna come coach with us and learn about our, our framework, or if you just wanna share this podcast, tell people what Brad’s doing over here and if, if this was useful to you, share it out. We just wanna expand the message.
Erik Orton (01:01:42):
Yeah. To echo what you’re saying, Emily, I just say that the thing that we’re most excited about is helping people discover what’s, what’s possible in their own lives and helping them move in that direction. It’s really satisfying to be a cheerleader for people. And we just wanna be the world’s best encouragers.
Emily Orton (01:01:58):
<laugh>. And we’re having a first grand baby this fall. Oh yeah. Wow. And we’re gonna become grandparents.
Erik Orton (01:02:02):
Congratulations.
Emily Orton (01:02:02):
We hope this legacy will continue to run through our own family as well.
Brad Burrow (01:02:07):
Yeah. That’s amazing. Congratulations.
Emily Orton (01:02:09):
Thank you.
Brad Burrow (01:02:10):
Pretty, pretty cool. Well, I, I, I want to end here. Um, how would somebody get ahold of you? What’s the best way, like, somebody sees the podcast and they say, I I want to go on a trip, or I’d like to book you for a speaking gig, or maybe I wanna buy the book. How would they do that?
Erik Orton (01:02:27):
The most central place is just to go to our website. The awesome factory.nyc NYC is in New York City. and@theawesomefactory.nyc, you can reach out about a sailing trip. You can contact us about speaking, there’s links to the books. You can just get seven at c That’s the name of the book on Amazon. Okay. And also, you know,
Emily Orton (01:02:45):
Yeah,
Erik Orton (01:02:45):
We have, we link to it through our website,
Emily Orton (01:02:46):
Links to everything are central right there. So,
Erik Orton (01:02:49):
Yeah. And social media, the awesome factory, NYC on Instagram and Facebook. Happy to keep in touch.
Brad Burrow (01:02:54):
Well, I think we need to start working on that screenplay, just, uh, just so
Erik Orton (01:02:58):
You know. I love it. I love it.
Brad Burrow (01:03:00):
I mean that, that I, I can just see this being a really, I mean, we need inspirational films right now. You know, that story is amazing and it’s got everything in it. I mean, you know, that it probably, it sounds like, I haven’t heard it hardly any of the stories, but, but there’s a drama and conflict and man, probably, uh,
Erik Orton (01:03:19):
Well, if, if there, I was gonna say, if there are any producers listening that wanna team up, you know, <laugh>, just reach out.
Emily Orton (01:03:25):
Yeah. Could it, could it be a musical <laugh>?
Erik Orton (01:03:27):
Ooh, there you go. There you go. My agent did say, would you wanna write the musical version of this? I don’t know. Maybe, maybe I need a,
Emily Orton (01:03:34):
We’ll see, maybe comment below <laugh>.
Brad Burrow (01:03:36):
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Exactly. Exactly. I just, I just wanna direct it, just so you know. Okay. I’ll leave that there. Okay.
Emily Orton (01:03:42):
Okay. Oh, nice. Thank you,
Brad Burrow (01:03:45):
<laugh>. All right. Well thank you guys so much. Uh, I really appreciate it. And, uh, man, I wish you the best of luck. I’m, I’m gonna go home tonight and talk to my wife about, uh, how we can get on one of the trips. Maybe we’ll bring a camera with us.
Emily Orton (01:04:00):
Oh yeah. Oh, perfect. That would be so fun. Brad, thank you so much for, for having us. It was a pleasure to talk with you today.
Brad Burrow (01:04:06):
You too guys,
Emily Orton (01:04:07):
Thanks for
Erik Orton (01:04:07):
Having us on.
Brad Burrow (01:04:08):
Alright, thank you. This has been in a World with Real Media. Thanks for joining us. And be sure to subscribe on iTunes and follow real media on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. So you never miss an episode. I.