In this inspiring interview, meet Carolyn Ray, CEO of JourneyWoman who empowers women over 50 to travel. She is a dynamic and visionary leader who is shattering age-related stereotypes and encourages everyone to embrace their full potential.
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Lisa Niver:
Good morning. This is Lisa Niver. I’m the founder of, We Said Go Travel, and the author of Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty. I’m so excited to be here today with my guest who I’ve actually met recently in real life. Good morning, Carolyn Ray. How are you?
Carolyn Ray:
Good morning. I’m great.
Lisa Niver:
I’m so happy to have you here to talk about JourneyWoman. You and I met at the incredible Women’s Travel Fest in NYC earlier this year, so could you tell people a little bit about your panel and how that got started?
Carolyn Ray:
We had a panel called Kickass Solo Women over 50, and we had three women on it. One was 83 and the others were in their fifties and sixties. I’ll just mention Diana because she is really, really amazing and we wanted to inspire people that you can still travel when you’re in your sixties or seventies or your eighties. And in Diana’s case you can travel like a rockstar and do all the things that you’ve dreamed of.
Lisa Niver:
It was a really inspirational panel. I love hearing about how did people get started traveling. What is a memory of your first trip or the trip that made you think, I’m going to keep doing this?
Carolyn Ray:
Well, I wasn’t a big traveler as a kid. I grew up in Florida, so most of our travel was to the Caribbean or kind of close to home. And when I was 18, I was actually sent over to Europe for school for a year, and it was the first time I’d been away a actually first time I’d been out of the North America. First time I’d been anywhere on my own. I had the opportunity to go to Spain and Italy and Morocco and learn a little bit about the world. When I got married in my twenties, I married somebody who wanted to travel, but within Canada, and which is where I live now. I really did start traveling until I was in my thirties and on my own. I had a little girl. She and I went to Europe when she was barely four years old. My first solo experience, if you will, with my little daughter who’s now 23.
Lisa Niver:
That’s amazing. For me, I started traveling on a family trip and then studied abroad in Israel. Studying in another country really changes your whole life.
Carolyn Ray:
It definitely does. And I don’t know that I really appreciated it at the time, but I certainly did as I got older and started to travel with work. I started to appreciate travel and the benefits of travel more than I did when I was younger. And as a mom, it’s something I’ve tried to expose my daughter to. She is an avid solo traveler. She travels all over the world. She’s living in London at the moment, so that makes me feel like I did something right. She’s got great perspective, one of the things you learn through travel. She’s got that nailed.
Lisa Niver:
That’s so incredible. I do think it’s a great gift that parents can give to their children–the freedom to explore, but also the safety net of knowing that they’re there for them. Ready to help them figure out how to travel in a way that feels comfortable to them. People often ask me; how do I get started? I tell them to take a cooking class in your own city. You don’t have to leave home to feel like you’ve started a traveling.
I know you have evolved professionally. Can you tell my listeners about owning Journey Woman and how can they get involved in the incredible women’s business directory and traveling with you? There’s so much support in your organization!
Carolyn Ray:
I wasn’t a big traveler growing up, but I went into consulting for about 25 years and I had this really incredible travel experience going to Kenya. And I came back from that, it was about five years ago. It was the year I turned 50, and I came back from that and I decided that I did not want to play into the consumerism that I was seeing in the world. So I sold my house, I auctioned off everything, I got rid of everything and decided that I was going to travel full-time. And coincidentally or not in that same period of time, Evelyn Hannon, who started Journey Woman, her daughter and I, Erica were having lunch and talking about her mother. Her mother had cancer and they were looking for somebody to take over JourneyWoman.
Erica said to me–you would be the perfect person. And I said, I don’t know anything about travel. I don’t know anything about websites, but there were many, many things that happened that convinced me this was the right path for me. I had left my corporate job as well. So I was in this state of possibility. Whatever the world brings my way, I’m open to it.
Within six months, I had bought JourneyWoman and redesigned it. It was a 25 year old website and we had to build a new one. I had to get familiar with all the content. I had to learn about websites. It has been five years of completely learning a new a new career and an unexpected, but amazing new career and reinvention for me.
Lisa Niver:
So we have some similarities because I did 50 challenges before I turned 50. And one of them was I went to Kenya and I actually hula hooped with the Masai warriors.
Carolyn Ray:
I ran in the mornings with them, but I didn’t hoop.
Lisa Niver:
I travel with a hula hoop and I had special permission from Chief Richard to bring something so strange into their community. I had hooped in several of the Sanctuary Retreats camps. I was there with Abercrombie and Kent and I asked for permission. It was actually the best reaction I’ve ever had. One of the warriors was excellent at Hula hooping. One of them laughed so hard he fell down. It was a funny day.
I love that you were thinking about what you wanted in your life. For someone’s listening and they are interested in reinvention and changing their life and traveling, what do they see when they come on JourneyWoman? What’s available?
Carolyn Ray:
Journey Woman, when I bought it was one newsletter. Now we have four newsletters that go out every month. We’ve expanded the site quite a bit. We have an editorial team of 10 women all over 50. I just brought on a new writer Tanzi Con who writes about accessible solo travel. And not only is there great travel writing, but there’s also travel tips, there’s safety information. We have a women’s travel directory that has women friendly tours and trips and retreats and we’re just about to launch small ships. We also have places to stay so women can either recommend or find a safe place to stay recommended by another woman. It always was seen as a resource, but now even more so. We don’t book travel. We don’t operate tours. We’re separate from that.
It is a place where women can go if they want to learn how to get started in solo travel. We have a lot of women that are in their fifties or sixties that are widows that have never traveled on their own. That are kind of doing what I did, which is you suddenly get divorced, and you have this change in your life and you realize that you want to go see the world. You want to do things and you’re curious and all the stuff you’ve never done because you’ve been raising kids and looking after families and a job and all of this. So that’s what the site is. We are the oldest in the world. We’re probably the largest in the world in terms of mailing list and the women are amazing.
Lisa Niver:
That is great! You said you studied in Europe and I know you’re always looking for somewhere where you can speak Spanish and get a great margarita when you’re traveling. When you’re traveling, what are you looking for? What’s a destination that inspires you or calls to you?
Carolyn Ray:
I like to travel in places that are a little lesser known. And I like to stay for a long time. So in 2021, I spent four months in Mexico. Last year I spent three months in Europe, two of those in, in a small town in Spain. I’m looking for places that are a little bit off the grid, but still close enough to a big center for transportation and safety and healthcare. I live part of my life in Toronto, but the rest of the year I am trying to live for a long time in a place so I can learn about it. I’m just in the process of figuring out where I’m going to do that this winter.
Lisa Niver:
Congratulations! Travel Pulse named you one of the most influential women in travel.
Carolyn Ray:
When we talk about women’s travel in particular, this is about empowering women to live the life of their dreams, to achieve their potential. Travel for me is all about self-discovery and in some cases healing. That’s what I see JourneyWoman as– it’s a place where we can not only inspire women to travel, but empower them to be bold, to be confident, to be brave by supporting each other. We have this amazing Facebook group called Solo Travel Wisdom for Women Over 50. It is growing by 500, a thousand people a week. Women are finding us because we’ve never done any promotion or advertising. JourneyWoman has always been a word of mouth secret and now people are finding us and they’re signing up and getting the newsletters and joining the groups and book clubs and community calls and meetups and all the other things that we do. There’s a lot going on.
Lisa Niver:
Wow. It’s so incredible. Congratulations.
Carolyn Ray:
I have a wonderful team. I have a lot of volunteers. A lot of women have been part of JourneyWoman for 25 or more years. We have volunteers that run our book clubs and our Facebook group. These women are so wise and they’re so strong. When you reach a certain point in your life, you don’t worry about what everyone else is thinking. You do what serves you. And when we get into our fifties, that’s the way we think. We are not so worried about I should do this or I should do that, or there’s rules or any of this stuff. Now it’s my time. And that’s what we see happening with Women Over 50.
Lisa Niver:
You focus on empowering women to lead their best lives. You hired someone specifically about accessibility, which is really crucial. So many people have invisible disabilities that really impact how they feel in the world, especially on the road. Can you talk more about the issue of ageism and travel?
Carolyn Ray:
We did a study last year and talked about it at Women’s Travel Fest. We discovered that first of all, 70% of women over 50 feel ignored or undervalued by the travel industry. And that’s exhibited in things like the single supplement and terminology that’s used to describe older women as well as the photography that’s being used. Not only isn’t it diverse, but also not showing women with mobility aids and that kind of thing. It is about women over 50 being seen and this isn’t just a travel problem. This is a Western society problem. We have to change that.
This is a lot of what I’m spending my time on, talking about age in a positive way. JourneyWoman has always done that, but now we’re being much more vocal about it. We’re also talking about things like human trafficking and accessibility. We’re talking about things tha, sometimes people don’t want to talk about. It is really important to me that we provoke conversation in a healthy, positive way about all these topics and issues that need to be discussed. If I don’t do it, who will?
I’m happy to do it and I’m happy to use Journey Women as a platform to help women understand all the challenges we’re facing. And that includes sustainable travel and understanding the impact of carbon and there’s a lot of things in travel we need to be talking about. We really need to think about what we’re doing and how we’re doing it.
Lisa Niver:
I completely agree. Travel is a great way to educate people. I know for myself, the more and more I travel everywhere I’ve been around the world, every parent I’ve met wants the same thing for their children. They want their children to be happy. They want them to be healthy, they want them to have great opportunities. We’re really so much more the same. It’s so important that we focus on that. That study sounds incredible that you’ve got in information that 70% of women feel ignored. Is there a link to that on the website?
Carolyn Ray:
We have a whole section about women over 50 travel. We have all kinds of articles in there and they’re partly targeted to the travel industry, but they’re also targeted to us as women to find our voice and speak up and make sure that we’re advocating for ourselves. We have tools there to work with both the industry and with the traveler.
Lisa Niver:
My final question I’ve been asking people is related to my book that’s coming out. My book is BRAVE-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents, and Feeling Fearless after 50. I did 50 challenges before I turned 50. What do you think was the most worthwhile challenge you have done or something that’s bubbling up, something you really want to do? We know that you turned 50 and pivoted. You bought this company and you went to Kenya. You’ve really done a lot of incredible things already, but is there something still bubbling up for you or something from when you were younger that led to your ability to make those action steps?
Carolyn Ray:
I want to go to places that I haven’t been at all. I’m looking at Africa, I’m looking at places that are a little bit off the beaten path where I can go and lead the way in terms of places that need tourism. I think we’re all learning to be fearless. Lisa, something I did recently that was a scary experience for me was this idea of transformational travel and working on your stuff. It’s not just going to see a place, but it’s actually taking yourself out of your normal environment and putting yourself in a place where you can feel free to kind of work on, in my case, things that were holding me back, from fully expressing who I am.
Travel can be great because you’re out of your normal routine. You’re in a place that you may not now, it opens up possibility and all kinds of other things.
Lisa Niver:
Many people now are using this term transformational travel. So when you say that, do you mean that because you left your normal routine and you’re somewhere else, it’s transformational? Or, do you mean that it was a guided group where you did meditation and therapy and group work? Or somewhere the middle?
Carolyn Ray:
Yes, it was guided. It was facilitated. I thought I was going on a wellness yoga and meditation retreat but that is not what it was. I actually wrote about it on Journey Woman and it was so unexpected. I lost both my parents during the pandemic.
Lisa Niver:
I’m so sorry.
Carolyn Ray:
I don’t think I ever really dealt with the grief and, and a little bit of the anger from when you can’t get to people, which was the case with my father, I couldn’t get to him in time. I was carrying around that emotion and I wanted to be rid of it and I wanted to move on. Acknowledge it, but move on. And I didn’t know I needed that until I went to this experience which was nearby in Quebec City. Not too far from where I live now in Toronto. But it was enough of a shift with a really amazing woman Tania Carriere at Advivum Journeys. I had this massive moment where I realized how connected my mind and my body are and how the way we think affects the way we feel.
If you’re not feeling yourself or you’re not feeling like you can be brave or courageous in your life, it might change the way you travel too, because you might hold back from the things that you really want to do and, and the experiences you really want to have because you feel guilty or you feel scared. And, that’s what this transformational experience was. I came out of it so full of energy and so full of optimism. I’ve been clearing out all this negative energy that I was carrying with me and now look out!
Lisa Niver:
I’m glad that you were able to do that. There’s a book, SuperSurvivors, I love and they talk about how there is post-traumatic stress, but there’s also post-traumatic growth. I’m so glad that you had this opportunity. Again, I’m so sorry about your family and not being able to be with them. We can link in the notes to your article so people can read more.
Carolyn Ray:
And it’s never too late. I did some work on myself 30 years ago –that was like the last time I had a therapeutic experience when I went through my divorce. And I thought, I’m good now, I don’t need it again. Now I realize our internal journey is just as important as our external journey and they’re completely connected. If we don’t acknowledge that, then we’re holding ourselves back from what we can be. The journey is ongoing. I would invite anyone, even if you think I’m okay, which is what I thought, there’s a reason the universe put this retreat in front of me. There’s a reason that I went to it because it was very impulsive and it literally changed my life. I advocate for transformational Travel.
Lisa Niver:
I love that I got this chance to speak with you and I know people are going to be so interested and curious to learn more from you and read your article and join Journey Woman. So tell everybody how do they get involved, what do you recommend when they come on the site? Where is it and how do they start?
Carolyn Ray:
We’re at JourneyWoman.com. I would invite women to sign up for our newsletter. There’s a button right at the top of the site. You’ll get our book club emails, our monthly email, you’ll get recommended products called Things She Loves and also travel deals and discounts on solo travel with all of our all of the companies and small businesses and our women’s travel directory.
Lisa Niver:
I can see why you’ve had so many women’s awards and business awards and why you are the chair of the Canadian Society of American Travel Writers. Everyone would like the chance to be near you and learn from you. So thank you so much for sharing and coming on my show and sharing your insight with us.
Carolyn Ray:
This was fun, Lisa. Thank you.
Lisa Niver:
Thank you. And happy birthday
Carolyn Ray:
<Laugh>. Yay, 60. Here I come.
BIO
In 2022 alone, Carolyn travelled to 17 countries in the off season, spending several months in Mexico and Spain. She is always seeking new destinations where she can continue to enjoy margaritas, learn Spanish and live the life of her dreams. Carolyn was named one of the most influential women in travel by TravelPulse in March 2023 for her work bringing awareness to the influence of women in travel. Incoming chair of the Canadian chapter of the Society of American Travel Writers (SATW), she is also a member of the Travel Media Association of Canada (TMAC) and the Transformational Travel Council (TTC).
Last week, I woke up to this article – TravelPulse's 2023’s Most Influential Women in Travel – and saw my photograph, alongside women I admire greatly, like @LolaAkinmade and Christine Winebrenner Irick.
— Carolyn Ray (@thecarolynray) March 30, 2023
Journalist @MiaTaylorWrit…https://t.co/QGmTkin4xF https://t.co/zdVLR7vXnD
Led by CEO and Editor Carolyn Ray, JourneyWoman™ is beloved among mature women 50+ and known as the original women’s solo travel publication, inspiring generations of adventurous, courageous women to travel safely and well. Through our Women’s Travel Directory, we support and connect women-owned businesses around the world. If you’re a woman passionate about travel, join us at www.journeywoman.com.
Carolyn Ray, CEO, JourneyWoman
Carolyn Ray has been a driving force in empowering women to travel solo and fostering a well-connected community of women travelers. In 2019, after 25 years in senior consulting roles, she took over JourneyWoman, the world’s first publication for solo women travelers.
While JourneyWoman has always been an important source of inspiration for solo women, under Ray’s leadership the brand continues to expand as Ray works to empower women to live their best lives, while also supporting women entrepreneurs and small businesses through the publication’s Women’s Travel Directory.
“As the CEO of the world’s largest and oldest solo travel publication, I feel a deep sense of responsibility and accountability to continue the legacy of JourneyWoman,” says Ray. “I also want to represent my readers and give mature women a voice in an industry that they feel has ignored them. I also love that we’re leading discussions that aren’t happening at all at any other women’s solo travel publications, around issues like human trafficking, ageism and accessibility. Four years ago, I transitioned into travel and full-time travel writing, and I have loved every single moment of it.”
More on Facebook, and find Carolyn on Instagram and in the New York Times
Carolyn Ray and Lisa Niver filming for Make Your Own Map July 2023
LISTEN on APPLE PODCAST: MAKE YOUR OWN MAP
Lisa’s book: Brave-ish, One Breakup, Six Continents and Feeling Fearless After Fifty
Lisa Niver and Carolyn Ray at Women’s Travel Fest, NYC, 2023
