About Salt and Charcoal

Why Salt and Charcoal?

The mixture of our traits created this space we now call Salt and Charcoal. Here, we’re committed to 3 things:

1) Inspire you through nature and the great outdoors

There are few things more life-changing than standing at the bottom of an ancient gorge, staring at a +60 metre-high waterfall. Or seeing a huge stingray approaching you curiously, letting you pet it. 

Nature is the perfect antidote to that feeling of being “just a cog in the machine”. It reminds you 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 to quick (and cheap) camping missions on the weekends around Perth’s coast (our hometown!).

2) Encourage you to go off the beaten track

One of the mottos that we try and live by is “meet cool people, do cool things”. 

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

Also, as adventure travellers, we focus on checking out places off the beaten track. Those are the coolest locations for us – there are so many hidden gems waiting to be explored… Plus, that extra isolation makes the trip way more memorable! 

3) Show you how to create the freedom to live on YOUR terms!

You DESERVE to live life on your terms, whatever that looks like:

• Travelling full-time (like us!).
• Working from home to spend more time with your family.
• Do more of the things that really matter to you.

We won’t sugarcoat it, though – doing so won’t happen overnight. You’ll have to put in some effort. But know this: your dream life is completely within your grasp.

Everyone wants the freedom to choose whatever they wanna do. You can create that freedom, with the right tools. We did it and we want to help you get there. More on that a little later, but first let us explain a bit about ourselves.

But the most common question we got, and still get to this day, is: How do you fund your travels?

Our business focuses on building, buying, and selling online businesses. Commonly websites. 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. Our first date was walking along the beach in Perth, Western Australia. (Trigg beach for those in the know).

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?

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. But doing that sacrifice snapped him out of what he was already doing. 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 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 most days crying about how much she hated that job. 

But she thought it was normal to feel that way, until one day she discussed it with her 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 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. 

No wonder why – 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 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 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?

Well, he taught her the ins and outs, all while finally taking care of herself. Then came 2020.

See, 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, and 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 frustrated, disappointed, and angry… But after a few sessions of screaming into the pillow, 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). 

So, while he was behind the lens, Bec wanted to share all the things we did there 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 +3 years of effort and perseverance to get here… And this means you can do it as well!

We’ve learnt so much while getting to where we are, and we’re still learning heaps. 

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

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

• If your ideal vacation is exploring off-the-beaten path, or want to do it for your next adventure.
• You’re not quite happy with how things are in your life and want (or NEED) a change, but you don’t know where to start.
• If you want to live life on YOUR terms, but don’t know how 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, like 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. We hate spam as much as you do, so don’t worry about that.

Thank you so much for taking the time to visit us! We’re absolutely thrilled to share our journey with you and help you in any way we can.

See you on the road, 

Chris and Bec.