Today we’d like to introduce you to Farrin Stanton.
Hi Farrin, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
In 2014, I started a travel blog to not only document my travels but as a way to hold myself accountable as Igrew into adulthood. After completing the checklist of goals set mainly by my mentors and parents, such as graduating from college, getting a “good job”, buying a house, etc., I realized my work-life balance negatively impacted my mental health.
And although on paper everything was going great, my passion was not in what I was doing. I soon learned thatafter taking vacations, I always returned feeling recharged, but the feeling was only temporary. I later realized this was because I was not walking in my purpose, one that allowed me to live and experience different places as a career. Thus, blending my passion and my career into one.
From a young age, my aunt traveled to places far and wide and would come back with trinkets and stories I still hold onto today. She is a wanderer and often challenges the status quo. As the first black entrepreneur in my life, I always admire how she speaks of her cultural experiences in a way of enlightenment thatI find mesmerizing. When I became an adult, she started to share more details of her travel business and even took me along on trips she hosted.
Seeing her work in real-time, meeting her clients who have become lifelong friends, and watching her experience the world unapologetically,was the motivation behind the beginning of my very own journey. In 2016, I decided to follow her lead, but specifically for people like me. I hosted my first travel experience to my blog subscribers to see if I could mirror what she did. It was an experience of a lifetime in Bali, Indonesia, and lifelong bonds were made from it.
Often, I heard from friends and acquaintances alike how they didn’t know how to travel, they were scared, or they did not have a community to connect with to begin their journey. It opened my eyes to travel in a way I never imagined. In 2018, I founded my travel agency to connect people in the self-care practice of travel with an emphasis on connecting those impacted by the diaspora (like me) who truly had a hunger to learn the world.
Since then, we’ve traveled to 5 continents and a dozen counties collectively.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been a rigid road especially in the beginning when I left my full-time “good job” to pursue my passions abroad. The initial leapinto a new cultureand language was truly a new and sometimes daunting experience. It also meant unlearning social norms that I found only to be apparent in western civilizations or in the USA.
It meant learning to live with less in order to start to build. I went from my two-bedroom condo to my first extended experience abroad in Brazil sharing a room with four roommates from four different countries. It meant public bus rides/hitchhiking in places where I did not speak or read the language instead of driving my luxury vehicle. It meant I had to reimage what I thought to be religiously the only way to salvation. And it meant that I went from having a team of people to work with to just being me. I tradedmy social life for countless hours working on my business.
I traded sitting at a computer all day in an office where I barely experienced the sunlight, to me challenging my comfort zone in different countries with people perhaps I may not have worked with in my previous career path. In 2019-2020, my business was growing globally, servicing clients and arranging travel to 5 different continents, with an extensive plan to explore the continent of Africa in the near future.
COVID not only impacted my business, but has negatively impacted the travel community at large. The good news is it’s coming back, but the rebuild is going to take patience and continued commitment. I am up for the challenge and so ready for the climb! Although it hasn’t been smooth, the lessons learned along the wayhave been invaluable and I’m so happy I took the leap that I have.
We’ve been impressed with Be HUEmane, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Be HUEmane provides services that intersect travel and education. We provide personalized opportunities for those who wish to learn through the wonders of travel and focus on socioeconomic issues, as well as highly captivating cultural experiences. We enjoy bringing awareness to global issues facing marginalized communities.
My goal is to create a travel community where we not only experienced different places for a holiday, but to produce a sustainable connection with people who are interested in becoming positive influencers wherever we go. So on any travel escape, we may have a beach party island hopping tour, but we will also visit or connect with an organization that addresses a prevalent problem in the country we are visiting. We find a balance between sightseeing, exploring, and learning.
This means including activities like bringing supplies to orphanages in countries that struggle with child abandonment, providingunique experiences for children in school systems unable to afford to provide them, or connecting educators to new and sustainable teaching practices they can incorporate into their classroom upon their return home just to name a few. Our hosted group experiences leave our travelers with a connection to a region or country that lasts for a lifetime.
People who start off as first-time travelers gain confidence to travel and meet new people, to try new foods, to solo travel, to return to places they enjoyed with their families, to purchase properties in foreign countries and so much more. Our reach is beyond the “trip” because we are focused on encouraging our travelers to connect and form a community so they can grow in the world. I’m most proud of the phone calls and messages from travelers, hearing how they conquered a fear on their own because of something they’ve experienced with being HUEmane. These are all the reasons we do what we do. Allowing our community to grow through travel is what sets Be Huemane apart.
Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
Travel has changed significantly since 2020, but with the right travel company working with you to help plan travel can still be an enjoyable and educational experience. At Be HUEmane we host group trips (escapes as we call them) and also plan experiences for travelers whose schedules do not allow them to come on one of our hosted escapes. We enjoy helping travelers navigate through the muddled world of COVID so they may continue their self-care practices. We even offer a free yoga journey (as yoga is often incorporated into our escapes) for those that enjoy self-care in their homes until COVID levels out. Yoga continues to play a major part in our experiences by bridging health and mindfullness into our hosted escapes.
Contact Info:
- Email: travel@behuemane.com
- Website: behuemane.com
- Instagram: @Be_HUEmane
- Facebook: @beHUEmane
- TikTok: @behuemane
Image Credits
Push the Button and Ime Umoh
