During the last twelve months, I have been working on a project to do We Said Go Travel before I turned 50. I honestly never could have imagined the things that would happen. I went on the Olympic Bobsled, I jumped out a plane and I went mountain biking at Northstar California Resort. I have never been so terrified but I never gave up and now I know that I can reach beyond what I think are my limitations. In Chip Heath and Dan Health’s book, The Power of Moments,” they write: ”
“Learning who we are and what we want, and what we’re capable of—it’s a lifelong process…Self-understanding comes slowly.”
I have been building We Said Go Travel and there have been challenges. I recently learned about amazing resources here in Los Angeles and wanted to share them with you.
Lisa Niver at Los Angeles City Hall “Grow With”
I have been accepted to be part of the Bixel Exchange Startup LAunch. What is it? “Bixel Exchange is Los Angeles’ Center for Innovation and Technology. We are hosted at the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. We cultivate talent and empower entrepreneurs with the goal of creating a more prosperous Los Angeles. We do this through our two core programs: Tech Ed Partnerships & Startup LAunch.” I have been to two co-working days and had my first meeting with my mentor. Get ready for big changes at We Said Go Travel as we grow.
Through Bixel Exchange, I learned about a program at City Hall through the Office of Finance, “Grow With.” Over 300 women gathered in the Council Chamber to network and listen to the success stories of female entrepreneurs including Sky Kelley, founder and CEO of Avisare, who was also in the Bixel Exchange program. You can hear her speak about some Los Angeles resources in this video clip:
It was a wonderful night and I left feeling very inspired! In The Power of Moments, they also remark that:
“Courage is contagious…[Courage] is easier if you’ve practiced, and when you stand up, others will join you…[Remember,] your moment of courage might be a defining moment for someone else.”
Thank you Claire Bartels, Mayor Garcetti, Ana Guerrero and everyone who created this event. I loved when Guerrero said, “We want you to feel supported by the resources the City of LA has to offer.” She also told us that for the first time in the history of the city of Los Angeles there are no all male commissions and half of all deputy mayors are female. The funding to girls sports programs was 20% and is now 38% and increasing. I am ready to “Grow With” the city of Los Angeles.
Bethany Yellowtail said: “There is not one way to do anything. I can build a business and brand my way.”
“It takes a village to raise a child. It takes a community to start a company,” Sky Kelley told us!
“Don’t let then name your value. Name it yourself and believe in yourself.” from Lea Endres
“Be able to say I need help and reach out!” moderator Ramona Wright.
Look for more news about the next chapter of We Said Go Travel coming soon! I am reaching for the stars and I am grateful for these women and these resources to help me get there. Lisa Niver
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Lisa Ellen Niver is an award-winning travel expert who has explored 102 countries and six continents. A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, she worked on cruise ships for seven years and backpacked for three years in Asia. She is the founder of the website WeSaidGoTravel which is read in 235 countries and was named #3 on Rise Global’s top 1,000 Travel Blogs. Niver is a speaker at the Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Dallas Travel and Adventure Shows for 2023. Her podcast, “Make Your Own Map,” has been watched in more than 11 countries on 4 continents. Niver is represented by Chip MacGregor of MacGregor Literary, Inc. Look for her memoir in Fall 2023 from Post Hill Press/Simon and Schuster.
You can find Lisa Niver talking travel on broadcast television at KTLA TV Los Angeles, Satellite Media Tours, The Jet Set TV and Orbitz travel webisodes as well as her YouTube channel, where her WeSaidGoTravel videos have nearly 2 million views.
With more than 150,000 followers across social media, she has hosted Facebook Live for USA Today 10best, is verified on Twitter and listed on IMDb, and is the Social Media Manager for the Los Angeles Press Club.
As a journalist, Niver has interviewed Deepak Chopra, Olympic medalists, and numerous bestselling authors and been invited to both the Oscars and the United Nations. She has been a judge for the Gracie Awards for the Alliance of Women in Media, and has run 15 travel competitions on her website, publishing over 2,500 writers and photographers from 75 countries.
For her print and digital stories as well as her television segments, she has been awarded three Southern California Journalism Awards and two National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards and been a finalist twenty times.
Niver has published more than 2000 articles, in more than three dozen magazines and journals
including National Geographic, Wired, Teen Vogue, HuffPost Personal, POPSUGAR, Ms. Magazine, Luxury Magazine, Smithsonian, Sierra Club, Saturday Evening Post, AARP, AAA Explorer Magazine, American Airways, Delta Sky, enRoute (Air Canada), Hemispheres, Jewish Journal, Myanmar Times, BuzzFeed, Robb Report, Scuba Diver Life, Ski Utah, Trivago, Undomesticated, USA Today, TODAY, Wharton Magazine, and Yahoo.
https://bit.ly/m/lisaniver
Awards
National Arts and Entertainment Journalism Awards
2021 Winner: Book Critic: Ms. Magazine “Untamed: Brave Means Living From the Inside Out”
2019 Winner: Soft News Feature for Film/TV: KTLA TV “Oscars Countdown to Gold with Lisa Niver”
2019 Finalist for: Soft News, Business/Music/Tech/Art
Southern California Journalism Awards
2022 Finalist: Book Criticism
2021 Winner: Technology Reporting
2021 Finalist: Book Criticism
2020 Winner: Print Magazine Feature: Hemispheres Magazine, “Painter by the Numbers, Rembrandt”
2020 Finalist: Online Journalist of the Year, Activism Journalism, Educational Reporting, Broadcast Lifestyle Feature
2019 Finalist: Broadcast Television Lifestyle Segment for “Ogden Ski Getaway”
2018 Finalist: Science/Technology Reporting, Travel Reporting, Personality Profile
2017 Winner: Print Column “A Journey to Freedom over Three Passovers”
Social Media Presence
YouTube Channel: We Said Go Travel (1.7 million views)
Short form video:TikTok, Instagram Reels, Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts
Twitter: lisaniver (90,000 followers)
Instagram: lisaniver (24,000 followers)
Pinterest: We Said Go Travel (20,000 followers and over 70,000 monthly views)
Facebook: lisa.niver (5,000 followers); We Said Go Travel (3,000 followers)
LinkedIn: lisaellenniver (9000 contacts)
During the last twelve months, I have been working on a project to do We Said Go Travel before I turned 50. I honestly never could have imagined the things that would happen. I went on the Olympic Bobsled, I jumped out a plane and I went mountain biking at Northstar California Resort. I have never been so terrified but I never gave up and now I know that I can reach beyond what I think are my limitations. In Chip Heath and Dan Health’s book, The Power of Moments,” they write: ”
It was a wonderful night and I left feeling very inspired! In The Power of Moments, they also remark that:
