Welcome to the story of us!

What does “Salt and Charcoal” mean?

Salt and Charcoal is similar to the philosophical concept of Yin and Yang.

The mixture of our traits created the space we now call Salt and Charcoal.

Here, we’re committed to 3 things:

1) Inspire you through nature and the great outdoors

There’s nothing more life-affirming than exploring nature. Standing at the bottom of an ancient gorge, or the summit of a mountain. Walking through an untouched forest or swimming in the ocean discovering new sealife you’ve never seen before!

Nature is the perfect antidote to that feeling of being “just a cog in the machine”… It reminds us that everything has a purpose – from the tiniest ant to the tallest tree. 

The best part is that you don’t have to go far to get inspired by nature. We started by going on quick (and cheap) camping missions on the weekends around Perth’s coast (our hometown!). This is what sparked huge inspiration and passion for us for camping!

2) Encourage you to go off the beaten track (out of your comfort zone too)

One of the mottos we live by is (in Chris’ voice) “Meet cool people, do cool things”. Wow – well said, Chriso.

This translates to a more fancy version, “the only things you regret in life – are the travels and risks you didn’t take”.

In our experience, it’s usually fear which gets in the way of us living our best lives. But when we push out of our comfort zones, it brings about some of the most beautiful and joyous times of our lives.

We’ve met incredible people during our travels, and it’s always surprising how similar we are to them. We really are similar people, those who love to travel. Most of us share the same challenges and dreams, just with different backgrounds, languages, and cultures. 

Everything you want in life – is on the other side of fear.

3) Show you how to create freedom and live life on your terms!

FIRSTLY, You DESERVE to live your dream life whatever that looks like to you:

• Whether that’s traveling full-time (like us!).
• Working from home to spend more time with your family.
• Doing more of the things that matter to you.
• Having more time for pets/hobbies
• Travelling and working a few days a week

How do we afford to travel full-time?

We won’t sugarcoat it, to have all of this doesn’t happen overnight. You can even look at it as a life’s work. We’re still working on our dream balanced life every day.

You have to put in effort. But know this: your dream life is completely within your grasp and oh boy it is worth it all.

Who doesn’t want the freedom to choose what they do? You can create that freedom, with the right tools. We did it and we want to help you get there.

The most common question we get, and still get to this day, is: How do you afford to travel full-time?

We never planned to share how we make a living… Until, we realised how interested people were in earning online, and that many people can do the same thing that we do.

We monetise blogs – and anyone can do it! Let us explain in more detail…

Our online business focuses on building, buying, and selling online businesses. (However, we usually don’t sell we keep them while they earn!) These businesses centre around a website.

We learnt how to do this from a course run by Matt and Liz Raad, founders of the eBusiness Institute.

If you want to learn more about our online business and other ways to work remotely, we discuss all of it in our free PDF – 30 ways to work remotely (so you can travel whenever you want).

Who are Chris and Bec?

Alright, so here’s how it all started…

We met on Tinder, back in 2017. Chris was Bec’s FIRST tinder date. It was efficient! Our first date was walking along Trigg beach with a coffee from Yelo, in Perth, Western Australia.

Talking about all the places we wanted to visit – our love for travelling connected us immediately.

So much so, that on our third date (YES, THIRD) we went camping overnight in the back of Chris’ old Holden Viva!

Bec always laughs about the time she went camping with a guy she had just met, in a busted car with just a mattress in the back.

But hey guess she saw something in Chris? Back then we could barely afford lunch out, if you told us we would travel full time within a few years we would have been happily shocked!

Before he came to Perth in 2015. Chris used to be a sponsored freestyle skier. Spending the previous 4 years in constant winter. Skiing and competing in Wanaka, New Zealand (where he grew up) and then travelling and competing in the northern hemisphere.

At about 19 years old he came to Perth to spend a quick 6 months earning money in the mines before he went back to being a ski bum.

But he got sucked into the money… I mean, he was 19 years old and earning a stupid amount of cash for someone that young, what could you expect?

He stayed in his FIFO routine – fly to the mines, earn good money, spend all of it, back to the mines… Until he hit rock bottom.

Even though the mines earnt him great money, Chris still wasn’t happy. His true dream was to travel full-time and work from his laptop.

Then, Chris dislocated his shoulder. He was at a very low point in his life, having to stay at home while waiting for reconstructive surgery.

Until one day he decided to go to a mindset seminar instead of sitting on the couch, watching TV all day. That’s where he met Matt and Liz from the e-Business institute. 

They were promoting a course that taught what we now do as our full-time work.

Chris wanted to break free from FIFO and that course was his way out. But he lived paycheck to paycheck – how was he supposed to pay for it?

Well, it was a struggle, to say the least. The cost of that course was the price of his freedom.

He threw himself into learning while he still worked in the mines. Offshore, the internet reception was so bad that it’d take 1 hour for a website to fully load!

But 8 months later, he was able to leave FIFO. He built a digital marketing agency, which grew into the remote workplace we own now.

And yes, it was uncomfortable, even painful. But one thing we’ve learnt is that a little bit of pain is necessary to force you to change your life.

As for Bec, she honestly didn’t know it was possible to work remotely, let alone create your dream life before she met Chris. 

Bec is one of six kids, she grew up in Perth, Western Australia used to work in finance, which she absolutely hated. It bored her to tears – literal tears. She would get home and cry from boredom. 

But she thought it was normal to feel that way, “doesn’t everyone hate their jobs?”. Until one day she discussed it with her older sister. She looked at her as if she was an alien… “No, Bec,” she said, “that’s NOT normal!”

That day, she helped Bec figure out other things she could be good at and social work came to mind. Bec resonated so much with that, that THAT VERY NIGHT, a few hours later she signed up to study that career.

Bec stayed in finance until she could dive head-first into social work. She had found her calling and wasn’t going to waste another second.

She worked at a shelter for homeless women and scaled up to management fairly quickly… because everyone else would quit or get fired. She realised the hard way sometimes even charity organisations can be toxic.

No wonder why people quit all-the-time, it was a really high-pressure, high-stress job. Add in the experiences these women were going through… Some of those emotions will inevitably rub off of you.

Still, she loved it. She was helping these women, and seeing them overcome their struggles and it made her SO happy… It fulfilled her in ways she didn’t know were possible.

But the job took a huge toll on her. Her health started to deteriorate after about three and a half years of living under that kind of stress. Bec had three work phones, police would call her in the middle of the night to attend to emergencies with them. It became too much.

Bec was in love with her profession, but she was in a full-blown burnout by 2019. Life pushed her into a corner, and she had to decide whether to stay there or break free.

That was her rock bottom, and she ended up choosing herself. She left the job she loved because it drained her to the point of putting her health in danger. 

So, she decided to join Chris on the remote job thing. But she wondered if it was even possible for her to work remotely… what does one do in a remote job, anyway?

So many times Bec kept thinking like an employee.. what can I do for others? But had to reframe, how can I turn my passions into my business? Chris kept cheering her on and supporting her along the way. This is really important when you are starting out!

Chris taught her the ins and outs, while Bec slowly healed and learned how to properly take care of herself. Then came 2020….

By January 2020, we had booked in to go to Bali to start our journey as full-time world travellers. We were READY, we sold everything… and then COVID hit. 

The world’s doors were closed shut… just when we were about to go through them. 

We had worked hard for years, getting out of debt and saving enough to fund our travels for 12 months.

We were disappointed… But after a regroup, we decided to not let that stop us.

So, we decided to travel to every corner of Aussie instead. That change of plans gave birth to what is Salt and Charcoal today.

As we travelled, Chris was taking amazing pictures of all these places (he loves photography). While he was behind the lens, Bec wanted to share all the things we did and tips for each destination. 

We kept sharing all these tips and photos through Instagram, and we LOVED it. 

And to our surprise, people were really enjoying our content. So much so that we constantly got asked us questions about our trips and our lifestyle. We created this blog to answer those questions more thoroughly.

As you can see, becoming full-time travellers didn’t happen overnight. It took us +5 years of effort and perseverance to get here… But, this means you can do it as well.

When to start? Straight away! One little step per day will get you where you want to go. We’ve learnt so much getting to where we are, and we’re still learning heaps everyday.

We want to share ALL of that with you. Hopefully, you’ll avoid our mistakes so you can go straight to living your best, most authentic life – whatever it looks like.

Everybody’s welcome to join us! But to be honest, you’ll get the most out of our tips if:

• If your ideal holiday is exploring off-the-beaten path destinations, getting outdoors and going on adventures.
• You’re not totally happy with how things are in your life at the moment and want (or NEED) a change.
• If you want to live life on YOUR terms and feel more freedom, but don’t know where to get started.
• If you hate how “normal” it is to work a job that drains you and forces you to postpone the things you really want to do.

We share travel tips on our socials all the time, especially on Instagram. But, we go all out with our travel recommendations in this travel blog. 

As for the personal side of our journey, for the good, the bad, and the ugly of living on the road, where we’re going next, and more, join our newsletter.

You’ll hear from us twice a month. Thank you so much for taking the time to visit our about us page! We’re absolutely thrilled to share our journey with you and help you in any way we can. Don’t hesitate to reach out anytime.

See you on the road, 

Chris and Bec.