QUARANTINE CALL FROM Leeds, UK
The future of travel publishing with Laura Bartlett, Founder of House of Coco magazine
On this episode of Adventure Calls, I spoke with Laura Bartlett, the founder of House of Coco, a luxury print travel magazine sold on the newsstands in London. During a time when the world became overrun with travel Instagrammers, Laura chose to go in the opposite direction, launching a print magazine, with the goal of creating a platform that allowed her and her team to travel and live their best lives. It definitely worked. Today, Laura has over 50 creators who create content for the magazine, inspiring readers to see the world and step out of their comfort zone.
Born in Leeds, England, Laura started a few different magazines and had an unsuccessful pitch on an episode of Dragon’s Den, the show that inspired the US show, Shark Tank, before landing big with House of Coco. She is a larger than life example of failure breeding strength, and the tenacity it takes to make it in the world of publishing today.
In this call, we discuss the role of travel magazines in the current climate of Covid-19, and how she thinks print magazines will fare in the future, once the world starts back up traveling again.
Note: This next Adventure Call took place roughly four weeks ago, the world has changed yet again, and it wouldn’t be right to continue without acknowledging that. There is a second pandemic that has erupted since the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmend Aubrey and Breonna Taylor, among others. The disease of racism has always been there, and has now come to light with millions marching around the world. In March, when I realized that travel, as we knew it, would stop for a while, part of what made that chill run down my spine has nothing to do with the money and jobs that are lost. Travel opens our minds and our hearts to each other in a way that no other action can do. You meet strangers and people who don’t look like you at a time when you are not bogged down with work, or chores, and your spirit is open and ready to receive new information. “Vacation” is a trojan horse that lets light in to our fear of the ‘other’.
In the words of Mark Twain, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.” Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. That is what drives me and what makes me passionate about helping people explore the world. You can not generalize when you know so many specific cases. You can not stereotype all black people, all latinos, all asians, all white people, when you have seen, with your own eyes, the different ways in which all humans live, the different societies in which different people thrive. I stand with the Black Lives Matter movement and I stand with the protestors.
episode highlights
4:30 Quarantine survival: how a daily routine is helping Laura Bartlett turn lockdown into a positive experience.
8:20 How Laura launched House of Coco magazine.
11:20 Why print publishing is actually a safer bet, and why less readers in print is better than more followers on social media.
14:23 During the pandemic, House of Coco was forced to pivot to an online only publication, but once stores open, Laura talks about why not all print is dead, and why magazines offer a rare moment of ‘me time.’
16:10 Laura talks about declaring bankruptcy after her first magazine failed, and her vision for starting House of Coco just a few days later.
21:05 The future of travel kicking off with traveling on their doorstep with the staycation.
26:30 How the epidemic might make her and other travelers make decisions differently on where to travel, based on a destination’s handling of Covid-19.
30:30 The staying power of a print publication versus an Instagram influencer in a post-pandemic, trust-based economy.
Links mentioned in this episodE
About Adventure Calls
From her quarantine to theirs, world-traveler and author of How To Move Abroad And Why It’s The Best Thing You’ll Do, Jessica Drucker, calls up travel experts to find out what they envision for the future of travel in a post-pandemic world.
Full episode transcript
Jessica Drucker: Okay, hi, Laura, thank you so much for talking to me today.
Laura Bartlett: Thanks for having me.
Jessica Drucker: So first of all, most important question, How are you feeling? How's your health?
Laura Bartlett: My health is good and I feel bad for saying this but I'm in a good place and actually quite enjoying lockdown.
Jessica Drucker: How are you handling quarantine? Do you live on your own? And where are you actually Where's Where are you quarantined at the moment. So
Laura Bartlett: I'm in my apartment in Leeds which is in the north of England. So I was actually quarantined with my fiance and we actually broke up. So I'm quarantine by myself now, which is making life a lot easier because I've gone back to my routine that I had when I was by myself. So one of the things that's helping me get Through it is having a really solid morning routine. I wake up, I go for a walk or do meditation. I have a bath, I really kind of ease myself into the day. And sticking to that structure has helped me get through it and probably one of the reasons why I'm enjoying it.
Jessica Drucker: Wow. Well, I'm happy for you. And I think that routine is is super important. It's funny that you say that though, because I was actually obviously doing some research about you and looking into some of your wisdoms out there online. And I'm gonna let you talk all about House of Coco and all of your amazing work, of course. But one of the things I took from you that you that you said somewhere was, hold on, and I want to get it right, but you said something about routine. And I just find it really interesting because you said like the most the most success you can have is like when you adhere to a routine, no matter how boring That may sound. And I actually wanted to ask you, do you think that there are entrepreneurs out there because that really resonates with me. There's just something about this time where I'm not sick. I feel very lucky about that. But the routine is really just helping me get more done than I've gotten done in a long time. Do you think obviously, I feel, I guess the same, the same for you.
Laura Bartlett: Yeah. And I don't feel like life has changed too much. From being locked down. Aside from the fact I am supposed to be on a first class flight to Dubai right now. But apart from that, and work wise, I'm still doing the same amount of work. I'm still sticking to the same amount of work hours. I do think when it initially happened. I was kind of drinking wine on a night like the first few days I was on a holiday. And I thought Actually, this isn't a holiday. This is still work. And I kind of like haven't had any wine for last few weeks. But yeah, sticking to a routine is the only thing that's helping keep me sane, and take advantage of that one hour a day out to kind of get lost in nature and Just have some peace and quiet. And I think as well I don't I'm not somebody who watches the news. So I haven't watched the news for years. But obviously with what's going on in the world I've had to a little bit. But then sort of 10 days ago, I decided not to watch it anymore. And that's had a massive impact. I think, you know, our mental health is I will I read a statistic actually, that suicide rates in the UK have risen by 37% since lockdown was put in place, and I can kind of understand why they would rise because people are not used to being on their own or not having a form of routine. And yet it's quite a worrying statistic, really, but um, yeah, I'm just making sure I'm taking time out to focus on my mental health and keeping away from the news and focusing on positive things.
Jessica Drucker: No, it's true, but actually so it what what's good is that it sounds like your brand, your magazine, everything is still like moving along, which is really positive because in this time and part of the reason why, you know, I wanted Just start reaching out and talking to a lot of people was, all of a sudden half the people that I knew or more were just unemployed and didn't have jobs and the travel industry just kind of like imploded on itself. But why don't you take this time to talk a little bit about House of coco, and how you found it? And I think I just read this morning that you're a team of 50.
Laura Bartlett: Yeah, so um, that's, it's crazy. Everyone's freelance. Everyone has their own side hustle going on. And so in this time, everyone's got other projects that they're working on. And, and I think what a lot of businesses have done is they've sort of press pause. And I think what you need to do is pivot. And so House of coco. We are a quarterly print luxury travel magazine, sold on the newsstands in London. And obviously, all the shops have closed distribution outlets have closed. So what we had to do with our latest issue is I sort of rewrote my editors letter so it was relevant to what's going on in the world right now. And we released it for free as a Digital Ocean. addition in the App Store, so I've been reading loads of research or getting loads of research emailed over to me and people, the general consensus is that people are actually fed up of hearing about COVID-19. We already know what's happening. We don't need every single business to turn into a professional news outlet. And people are still craving escapism. So we're sort of just doing what we normally do giving people travel inspiration, aspirational travel, and making sure that when the travel industry does return to normal, and we will like the place that supported that, so we're doing a lot about what's opening next year. armchair travel, we're sharing a lot more video content so people can just get lost for a few minutes and a different destination. And then we've been doing loads of takeovers on our stories. So for example, we've got a foodie series coming up where you can taste Have a taste of the Caribbean at home with a chef from the Caribbean or have a taste in Mexico with a chef from a Mexican hotel, and we just saw changing our content. So it's still relevant for people while they're at home. But it still has a travel aspect to it as well.
Jessica Drucker: And so for people listening, what is your Instagram so we can learn to cook all of these foods.
Laura Bartlett: So it's house underscore of underscore Coco @house_of_coco.
Jessica Drucker: Okay, great. And so you did you reach out? How did you get these people to come on? And do these shows? Did you hear the cooking or you know, whatever? Did you reach out to them and say, Hey, we want to feature you, or how did you go about doing that?
Laura Bartlett: I literally get about 300 emails per day from different PR agencies, hotels, and they just kind of reach out and say, What are you working on now? What can we help with? And I said, Oh, look, we're looking to do the series. And just sort of dealt with the PR agencies or directly with the hotels, and then they're arranging for the Chester, do the takeovers. And I just think Well, one thing that I am seeing a lot of is every single person seems to be doing Instagram lives now. And I think that is kind of getting a bit lost. So we might be tweaking it. So it's not a cookie Long live. It's more a pre recorded video that we can share. Through your website and all social media, because you don't want to just get lost amongst the noise as well.
Jessica Drucker: So how does it feel though? Because what's so interesting about you and about the path that you've chosen with House of Coco, is that when everybody's obviously digital, you know, you're dealing with a millennial audience or maybe even now Gen Z audience that is, you know, obviously never thinking about anything but a digital world except you say, No, I'm gonna have a print mag. I know it's a glossy, beautiful, inspiring travel magazine. And you went the other way, when people went left you went right. Can you talk about your decision to do that and not just fall straight into like, sort of Instagram influencer trappings, that sort of world?
Laura Bartlett: Well, I think the thing is with Instagram and the trap that people fall into is when your business relies completely on Instagram, for example, you don't even own that, you know, Mark Zuckerberg owns it. You wake up one day and the algorithms have changed. You can't control who sees it, who you can create this amazing content and one day 20,000 people You might see it in the next day the algorithms change. And a handful of people see it and it's soul destroying. Whereas a print magazine, we can control exactly what stores we're in, we can, you know, work with those to make sure we're positioned correctly to get the most buyers and we can control our readership that way. So I think having multiple outlets to share your content, so social media, and print and podcasts and all the different things that you can do, and a newsletter is where it's at. I think the mistake people fall under is just relying solely on on social media,
Jessica Drucker: right or rented real estate, right? Yeah,
Laura Bartlett: yeah, absolutely. And so for example, I have been one of the only people in the UK to be sponsored by Landrover. So for the last four years, I've had a brand new Free Range Rover as part of this partnership. Now, as a magazine, we don't have as many followers. It's because we have the engagement. We have an offline readership as well. And Yeah, like mainly just because we have such an engaged audience. It's not about the number sometimes people get so caught up in the numbers.
Jessica Drucker: And that's absolutely true. Because a lot of you know, just in any genre or any niche, you have 500,000 followers, you don't really have necessarily a relationship with your audience. Anyway. And so I think those numbers are totally skewed. And I think businesses are getting pretty hip to that I heard for the first time the other day, the term nano influencer, so I don't know what the numbers are. I just know that now. It's not just micro influencers that companies are looking for, but also nano influencers, I guess it's like 2000 and under. But that's because the people who follow them actually know them and like that, and that's what people are looking for now.
Laura Bartlett: And that's how influencing started because people genuinely were buying things because they influence their audience to do so. Whereas now, as an influencer, people are putting content out there and everybody knows they're just trying to sell to them. And so people are wanting to it so it's going to be a very interesting landscape once this COVID-19 situation has moved on just to see how brands will work with influencers moving forward.
Jessica Drucker: So and how do you feel so right now obviously you've gone digital I mean, you've you've done that now you've gone digital your print is is not being able to be accessed. But do you? Do you see Coco going back to being a print magazine and the desire still being there?
Laura Bartlett: Like 100%. So we obviously the issue that just came out is digital only. The next one, which is out in June will be digital only. And then from September, we assume we'll be able to go back to print because the store should be open by then. But we've got no plans to ever stop doing print. And we have advertisers in there and brands that are really keen to still have the print coverage. But back to your sort of initial question around that. We launched house Coco just over five years ago and at that time, so many brands were sort of stopping print and saying print is dead, print is dead, and print isn't To a certain extent when you're a news outlet, so by the time you print the news, and people read it the next day, it's irrelevant. Whereas we're creating timeless inspirational content. So whether you read it today, or you read it next year, it's still relevant. But what our magazine is, and our audience were like the last generation to remember what life was like without the internet. So we love to have time to ourselves to sit with a magazine and a cup of tea and read through the pages and get lost for those for the hour, that two hours. And right now in the world with all this noise that's going on, we all need me time and there's nothing more meantime than reading a magazine.
Jessica Drucker: You know the difference though, is that right now, if I wanted to, I just go on Instagram, it's free and I make my little travel account and I pay $12 for a domain and that's pretty much as much money as I have to sink in. But you actually have to, you know, lay cash out on the table when you are doing a print magazine. So you needed capital to start this I think that's kind of one of the barriers difference between when when things start online versus off. How did you know how to do that? How did you know how to get P I assume you must have sold ads right away to get some Yeah. So
Laura Bartlett: I've never had any investment or anything like that. I literally started how to coco in zero pounds. I'd actually had a magazine before that, and called urban Coco, which was all about fashion and events in Leeds, it was a monthly magazine that went out across the city. But after appearing on Dragon's Den, which is like Shark Tank, and didn't get investment, I went on to prove them wrong. I actually launched this magazine fashion magazine all around the world in 16 countries and sold out worldwide. And then through the exposure of the TV show, I was approached by the clothes show which at the time was like one of the biggest fashion events in the UK was on TV. And so my magazine, Owl and cosmopolitan, with a media partner for the clothes show this specific year, and I thought worst case scenario based on what the organizer told me I should make sort of 50 grand, best case scenario, half a million quid. So I put all my eggs in one basket thinking I'm gonna make all this money, and I made five pounds. So the company went into liquidation, I got made bankrupt, and I lost everything. So when I decided I sat in a coffee shop in Leeds with my two friends, and I said, I've decided I'm going to launch a new magazine, I literally have no money I just got through a bankruptcy has been made bankrupt. And I said, I'm going to start a new magazine, I'm going to call it House of Coco. And this time, it's not gonna be about fashion. It's gonna be all about travel. And it's going to be a platform for my team to go and live their best lives all over the world, and inspire our readers to go out and do the same. I don't have this vision. And I just believed in it. And five years later, we were the third largest sold, distributed title on newsstand. I've got 50 people in the team, we traveled to pretty much every country in the world. I've been abroad 60 times in the last five years, and we literally live our best lives and encourage our readers to do the same. So just how Having like a vision and a belief as paid off
Jessica Drucker: and to have the vision, right after going bankrupt having that big maybe someone even bought your coffee that day, who knows? And then you're just like, you know what, I'm gonna do it again. I'm gonna do it bigger and better what gives you the nerve to do anything?
Laura Bartlett: Because people go oh my god, how did you have like how are you brave enough to do that? And I'm like, but what's the alternative? Like sit at home and cry for the rest of my life or go and get a job like I'm probably unemployable by this point. So I knew I always knew that was gonna work for myself and I just believe in myself so much.
Jessica Drucker: And where did they so obviously travel is a beautiful thing to cover and it's beautiful. Like a glossy magazine. It's the perfect content. Were you an avid traveler before that, or have you become one since running the magazine?
Laura Bartlett: I'd become one since when in the magazine I had traveled a little bit before then I didn't know anything about I didn't even know about you know, going on press trips and having you know, partnerships with Hotels and brands I didn't even know that was a thing at the time, I was excited about getting a free lipstick in my old magazine. So then to be able to work with eight PR agencies and be going on trips all around the world, it was like Wow, I didn't even know this world existed. And when I sat there and I came up with the idea to do a travel magazine, I didn't even know that that was the potential I just thought I just believed. And at the time, I could see how much the travel industry was booming in comparison to the fashion world. And it just seemed like the obvious thing to do. And then I just sort of worked my way up and understood it more and fell in love with the world.
Jessica Drucker: So So I wanted to ask you a little bit more about this. I think it's this month or this quarter. Your cover is about the road trip.
Laura Bartlett: Yeah, so actually the Yeah, the road trip issue is the issue that's out now and that's the one that you can read for free in no actually that was the last issue. The one that's out now is dreams issue. Oh, it is okay. And the cover for that was shot in Jordan by kailyn who's part of the team we sent her off to Jordan to shoot the cover. Because her father who sadly passed away many years ago, he had a dream to go to Jordan. And so we, she decided she was going to go and like live out his dream. And she shot the cover for the magazine. So there's such a nice, beautiful story behind this cover. And we will we chose the theme for the magazines a year in advance and it just so happened that this issue that we released for free is the dreams issue. And it's like now that travel is nothing but a dream. It couldn't be so any more perfect.
Jessica Drucker: Yeah, the timing is actually perfect because that's what we're all doing right now is dreaming about travel. I saw the road trip cover and it made me just wonder, you know, because I think a lot of people that I'm talking to are talking about how travel is going to change at least in like the medium term that people will be doing a lot more road trips more local travel regional travel at best. And I and I know that that's what companies are really starting to plan for but how do you think your readers are going to change in Are you going to change your content as a result of changing consumer interests or for fears?
Laura Bartlett: Well, we with what you said in the sense that I do think people are gonna travel locally initially. So the rise of the staycation people even, you know, going on a staycation in a city where you live right now when we can't even leave our houses aside from an hour a day anyone would give anything to go and stay in the local hotel and go to the local restaurants. So I think first of all, people will travel on their doorstep traveling their city, then maybe travel to another city and I think international travel like just hopping on a plane for fun, to me feels like a long way off like not until at least September even longer.
Jessica Drucker: Yeah. And how how do you feel you know, how is your audience reacting on Instagram right now are the comments all very wistful and missing travel or is there some like you know, different feel a lot of fear from your audience.
Laura Bartlett: No. So the feedback that we're getting is Oh my God, I really needed to see this today. This escapism has really helped me. People are just loving the normality that we're kind of putting out there. And as much as we're referencing what's going on in the comments, you know, so for example, we posted a beautiful secluded destination in Bali and talks about how that would be the perfect lockdown destination without being all heavy. So I think we're just trying to keep it light hearted and if people want to have Coronavirus related information, then they can go to the news outlet like we're not trying to be something that will not work. inspirational, aspirational. Am I gonna sort of stick to our guns on that one?
Jessica Drucker: So you have a team? Team Coco, by the way, Coco Your name's Laura. Where is coco coming from? What's the story with Coco?
Laura Bartlett: It's so random but there used to be a shop near my house called Coco Loco. And she sold handbags and it was a beautiful little boutique and every single month, I would go there and treat myself to a new handbag and the way she arrived Tip of above. And it was just a beautiful shopping experience. And I always thought, Oh my God, if I have my own company one day, I'm going to or when I have my own company one day, I'm going to call it Coco something. And that's just where it came from. I launched out of coco and I kept the coco because that was always mine in the house. I've just made it feel like a grownup version of what I was doing before.
Jessica Drucker: Well, and also House of Coco. And you really do have a big team of freelance writers who are a part of of this, and it's funny, I didn't I just heard heard you recently say 50. But I was actually reading a little bit about your backstory, and it was 30 just a little while ago. So
Laura Bartlett: we've been 50 now for probably a year but we got we have a waiting list of people that want to be a part of what we're doing. So obviously, like you said, we're called team coco. So this hashtag we've been bouncing around for the last five years, and everybody just wants to be a part of it. So in the beginning, people were like, Oh my god, what team coco Watson Coco, how can I be a part of it? And then we built up this Wait List of writers who want you to join and the people that are on now are all just impatient. of all, and some of them. They've been involved in the beginning, some sort of one of them actually came up on my Facebook memories today, Hannah. She joined the company two years ago. And for her first trip, I sent her to Coachella. And I was like, I thought wait for life to return to normal. Like I miss being able to ring them and say, like, Who wants to go here? Who wants to do this?
Jessica Drucker: But did she cover at Coachella? Or did she just lose her shed and run around naked and not cover anything?
Laura Bartlett: No, she did an amazing article all around it. But she's also a massive fashion writer as well. So as well as doing a piece all about Coachella. And then California. She did like a what to pack pages and style pages and everything. So she was the perfect person for it.
Jessica Drucker: Yeah. And so how do you decipher because with a print mat, you are limited in your space, you you know, have a set number of pages, but you obviously are getting pitched constantly with travel stories. So how far in advance you decide and like how do you decide what gets chosen?
Laura Bartlett: So we get probably maybe 20 invites per week, two trips. All over the world is insane. Like, I just can't wait to go back to normal, I will never complain about getting emails again. But how I decide. So I have a private group where all the writers are a part of it. And each invitation that comes in if it sort of fits in with one of our themes, then we'll I'll share it in the group and see who's free and he wants to go and sort of choose the person that's the most suited. So I have a writer called Angie, a wellness coach and a wellness writer so she is perfect for any sort of wellness related trips. So we had she was supposed to be in Antigua two weeks ago, and for like a yoga retreat or wellness retreat. So based on what comes in, we sort of match the perfect writer so that we get the best coverage out of it. Obviously I take take first dibs on everything. You know what's interesting when I when I first started almost six years ago, I would literally just say yes to everything. And then I only took a couple of trips to realize it. There's no point saying yes, if you're not the most suitable person for the trip, so like, going on, like a hiking trip or a biking trip, that is not for me, but like a five star luxury retreat that involves cocktails by a pool. That's me.
Jessica Drucker: I feel compelled to write about that. Got it. Um, but the magazine is really just target like a higher end type of traveler, right?
Laura Bartlett: Yeah, we're still very much like a luxury millennial adventure couples traveler.
Jessica Drucker: Right. Okay, got it. And I believe when we met you were actually on about to go the next day or that day about to go on a trip to New York, when she told me was your favorite city in the whole world? How would you just like you as a person as a traveler now traveled to New York differently knowing that it is right now the epicenter and probably will be a very intense place to visit for a long time does that keep you from coming? to New York.
Laura Bartlett: Yeah. I mean, I am going to listen to government guidelines. And yeah, New York really is my favorite place in the world. And I did go the next day. And I actually got proposed to in New York.
Jessica Drucker: So I remember that you WhatsApp me that
Laura Bartlett: Yeah, I did. So sadly, it was short lived. But it was still like one of the most amazing experiences and it's still my favorite place in the world. And I can't wait to just sit in a coffee shop and people watch in the middle of Times Square, and it just feels like a long, long way off. So I think the sensible thing to do is just listen to the news, the government guidelines and just be safe and sensible. I'm not rushing to go anywhere right now. I think health and well being is first and foremost over travel experiences. So yeah, just kind of keep an ear to the ground and see what's going on.
Jessica Drucker: And if you did get the itch to go to any to any place New York or you know Chile or anywhere. Do you think that you're That your research or how you look into traveling there would be different.
Laura Bartlett: I mean, it's quite like very important, but equally I'm not going to be scare mongering and scared to go places if the government say that it's okay to do so, I think sometimes we can get so consumed in what the news are saying and not necessarily. It's not necessarily factual information. I think speaking to people on the ground who live there and getting their feedback before you travel is probably more beneficial than watching the news.
Jessica Drucker: Would you ever include in your publication, like a box or any editorial information about what like, would COVID-19 ever be like a line? You know, it's like, where to stay, what to eat blah, blah, blah, and then like COVID-19 related info. I mean, that too extreme?
Laura Bartlett: I don't know. I guess we'll have to just sort of gauge it as we go along. But then that sort of makes you think if you're putting a line in there, then it's maybe not safe to go. Mm hmm.
Jessica Drucker: Yeah, I mean, I just think it's really hard because I think PR companies, for example, are just going to hit so hard. Like the minute that free to go, they're gonna be like, come here do this, like, you know, and I and I think about how will PR agencies pitch differently? What will what will what stories will they be pitching you? Will it be about setting like sanitary guideline adherence as much as the spa, I just wonder what your pitches will be in how the angles will be in the next year? Are you already seeing some differences in the pitches that you're getting?
Laura Bartlett: I mean, the common the difference right now is we're having a lot of people sort of just changed the story. So it's like, don't talk about what we've got going on now. But let's talk about what's happening in the future, or how you can escape to this destination from your armchair and armchair traveler has become a thing. And a lot of PR has just completely disappeared off the radar, which I think obviously the brands have cut the PR spend. And I don't always think that's a sensible thing to do. I think if you can afford it, you need to keep out there so that you don't just disappear and then come back amongst the noise. You keep that relationship going throughout the whole process. I'm intrigued to see what's going to happen. I think that publications and influences were going to be the first port of call to get out there to show the world that it's safe to travel again.
Jessica Drucker: Do you think you know, like you were saying about building trust, and I just think about first of all these poor people who have put all of their heart and soul into Instagram, and then are probably losing so many clients like Instagram influencers that are probably losing so much money right now in the travel sphere? Do you think that the Instagram influencer will still have a major place compared to a print travel mag like yourself, when when I think we want to trust, like the trust is a bigger factor more than ever?
Laura Bartlett: I think that we are going to come out of this stronger than ever as a publication. And I know as awful as it is and everything that's going on in the world. I'm quite excited to see what's going to happen on the other side. And once we do have influences that are part of our team, one of the things that are printed Scene does is it gives you what's authentic, there's more story behind it, we can give you more depth to the destination. It's not just a pretty picture. And I experienced that a couple years ago when I went to Venice. And the day before I flew out there and influencer had posted a picture by the canal with a very beautiful short dress on and the legs all out. She looks amazing. And she's saying how beautiful the weather was. And I got there just a few hours later, actually, after she posted that picture. And it was the highest tide that Venice had seen in over 400 years. So the minute I got there, I actually had to put black bags on my legs and my body and the water came up to my waist. And I thought no you see this is truly what's happening yet that influencer posted a picture cuz she wanted to look pretty, and she's not giving the audience the truth. And I don't like that. And I think we have as a publication. It's our duty to be honest about what's going going on. So there's pictures on our Instagram of me walking waiting around Venice in a black bag. I made it black back sheet I even write on my ramaa everything. But yeah, I do think that as a publication, we are going to come out really strong because we've got more space to share the story and the truth about what's going on.
Jessica Drucker: That's I'm really glad to hear how, how positive you are about the outcome of all of this. I mean, it is obviously the saddest thing we've all collectively ever experienced. These numbers are like so staggering. But what I found what I find really inspiring is the fact that people who focus in the industry in the travel world are all feeling pretty positive that as long as it's handled correctly, this might even be a chance for travel to even reset in terms of messaging things that are important. And that makes me feel just really actually, you know, I'm excited for this to end no matter what, but I am looking forward to the changes. I think when I first started this podcast and I was making these phone calls. I just felt fear inside I thought what what people Around the world doing and are they feeling as scared as I am? Now I'm feeling much more positive talking to people like you.
Laura Bartlett: Yeah. And I think seeing how you know, China, their lockdowns, pretty much over and the lifting bands and things like that were just a couple of months behind them, you know, this will pass, this is going to be something that we will all remember. But it's going to be in the past in, you know, hopefully this time next year, the year after, we'll have all moved on. And the travel industry will be booming and businesses will be back, you know, come out the other side. Because I see that in anything that goes on in the world. There's opportunity in anything. So if you can kind of keep a positive mindset, then that's just the best way to get through anything.
Jessica Drucker: That's totally right. There is a beginning a middle and an end to this. Yes. Really focusing on that.
Laura Bartlett: And I think we're in the middle of it right now, but will soon be at the end.
Jessica Drucker: Yeah, well, awesome. I'm gonna I think that's a perfect place to leave our conversation. That feels really good to know. I when I met you, I knew you were a star. I can't wait to see what happens with House of Coco in the future. I have no doubt. You are this is just the beginning for you for sure. Yeah, I mean, no question Where can people find you? How can people know everything about the house of Coco, your Instagram? I think you said house underscore of underscore Coco. Where else can you be found.
Laura Bartlett: And if you just go in the App Store and search House of Coco, you can download the current issue the dreams issue for free, get lost in that some time. And then I'm just across social media, Laura Bartlett zero.
Jessica Drucker: Thanks so much for listening today. I hope you enjoyed it. If you did, I'd really appreciate if you head over to Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts, and rate or review the show. If you want to hear new episodes as they come out, subscribe. It also, if you want to follow any links that we talked about in the show, read more about Laura Bartlett herself or get a full transcript of today's show. Head over to that's www.jessicadrucker.com/ac7. To see a list of all the show notes from adventure calls, head over to ww.jessicadrucker.com/adventurecalls. Thanks so much and we'll see in the next show.
*Transcribed by https://otter.ai AI transcription service. Please excuse any errors