Meet Kayla Barrera

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Kayla Barrera. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Kayla below.

Kayla, thank you so much for taking the time to share your lessons learned with us and we’re sure your wisdom will help many. So, one question that comes up often and that we’re hoping you can shed some light on is keeping creativity alive over long stretches – how do you keep your creativity alive?

The way I keep my creativity alive is to put myself in new situations as often as possible and that is by traveling often. My creativity and passion comes from learning and experiencing new cultures and meeting new people. It brings life to my thoughts and therefore sparks my creativity.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I am a travel advisor with Fora Travel and created my own company called KaylaBar Travels. After years of traveling and sharing my adventures with my followers, it was clear to me that I had a knack for inspiring and recommending places to travel. As a female solo traveler, I saw the opportunity to encourage and provide confidence in people to travel. I focus my brand on personal experiences and help people navigate travel planning in an easy and stress free way. After a few years of planning all sorts of trips for people, I expanded my business to host group trips. Inviting people to come along with me and discover new places has always been a dream and now its become a reality. I have hosted groups of 8 – 10 people in Morocco, Peru and Thailand so far! Next stop, Bali.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

I think fully understanding that to live life, you actually have to live it. Living a life of waiting for the right time is not actually living. Taking risks is much more rewarding because either way the risk goes, you grow and learn. One quality that I feel is important is not be afraid to be alone. Sometimes being alone opens up a lot more opportunity to welcome new experiences and people into your life. Say no. Saying no can be difficult, especially for someone like me who always wants to help and please people, but over the years I have learned that no is a full sentence. ( Thank you Mary-Kate and Ashely Olsen). Having boundaries and not just doing things because people expect you to do them is a big lesson I have learned over the years. My recommendation to anyone starting out their journey is to trust their gut. Your personal intuition is something you should listen to because your opinion and how anything makes you feel is for you and you alone and you have to listen to what you truly want.

Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?

One of the most impactful things my parents did for me was move my brother and I as small children to a completely different country for two years. They moved us to Chile, and instead of placing us in an American school, they immersed us in an all Spanish speaking school. We luckily grew up speaking a bit of Spanish but never studied it properly. As a 7 year old, leaving my friends behind to go to a completely different country, school and home was scary, but to our surprise, it was the best thing our parents have ever done for us. The experiences, the growth and the mere fact that we were able to embrace this new life paved a way for us to be confident and self assured in the years to come. This daunting challenge became an opportunity for us to always take something scary and make it great in all that we did in life. I am so thankful for my parents for choosing the harder route than the easier one.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.kaylabartravels.com
• Instagram: @kaylabar.travels