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Welcome - This Is Raleigh - Craig and Caroline · The Erica Show

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Do you want to five? It's the air because show
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  Speaker 1: I'm so excited. So we've been trying to get this
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: amazing couple in for a while. I've seen y'all at
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: so many events over the years. It feels like, Craig
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and Caroline, this is Raleigh, our local influencers that kind
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: of know everything going on in the triangle, and you
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  Speaker 1: guys have blossom to where now you're like teaching other
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: people how to do stuff and speaking and engagement. So
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: tell us all the details so our audience knows how
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  Speaker 1: great you are.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for having us. Yeah, all right, thank you.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. So, yeah, we love rally. I mean we've lived
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  Speaker 3: in five countries, been to I have a fifty.
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  Speaker 1: And wait, you're not from North Carolina.
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  Speaker 3: No, we.
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  Speaker 2: Don't get out southern exit? Can you not hear it
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  Speaker 2: in the south?
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  Speaker 3: Like way down south as bad as southern as you
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  Speaker 3: can get, which I tell her friends. So yeah, but no,
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  Speaker 3: we're from Sydney, Australia.
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  Speaker 1: Which is amazing.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Did the kangaroos really fight like they do on the videos?
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  Speaker 3: They do like in box like yeah, yeah, they can
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  Speaker 3: get aggressive to look at, but well.
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  Speaker 2: The big reds are huge.
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  Speaker 4: They can stand up to be about six feet tall,
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  Speaker 4: and they got a mean left hook on them for sure.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so what guys you here, You've lived in five countries.
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  Speaker 1: What brushed you to North Carolina? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: Originally it was two thousand and four.
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  Speaker 4: We were living in Dublin at the time, and we were,
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  Speaker 4: you know, young, and we were living in other countries
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  Speaker 4: so that we.
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  Speaker 2: Could travel more because Australia, as you know, as far
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  Speaker 2: away from everywhere.
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  Speaker 4: And while we were there, I found an advertisement for
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  Speaker 4: a company, Participate Learning in Chapel Hill, who recruit foreign
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  Speaker 4: teachers to expose kids to other cultures. And so I
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  Speaker 4: was an elementary school teacher, applied and thankfully was accepted.
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  Speaker 4: And so we were like really excited about being able
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  Speaker 4: to live in the US. We really had not heard
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  Speaker 4: of Raleigh before, so we were unsure of, you know,
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  Speaker 4: what the experience was going to be like. But funnily enough,
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  Speaker 4: both of us felt the same way. As soon as
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  Speaker 4: we arrived here. We just loved Raleigh. We fell in
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  Speaker 4: love with it immediately, and it was the first place
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  Speaker 4: that either of us ever really felt like home.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's incredible, you still feel like that. Fast forward
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  Speaker 1: all these years.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, absolutely very rooted in Yeah, there's a hashtag
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  Speaker 4: for it.
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  Speaker 1: Are they as crazy around the world as they are?
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  Speaker 2: No?
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  Speaker 1: No, I didn't think so.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 3: America's next level for the definitely this are Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah.
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  Speaker 3: No. Australia we probably talk more about sports and stuff
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  Speaker 3: like that and lifestyle, but I mean, I guess it
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  Speaker 3: has changed. We haven't been back there since twenty seventeen,
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  Speaker 3: so who knows.
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  Speaker 2: But okay, so all of.
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  Speaker 1: Your family are they still in Australia.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, it's just us and our two daughters.
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  Speaker 2: Great parents are actually coming to visit on Monday.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, we've had family coming visits. They love
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  Speaker 3: to coming to the States, which is nice, and seeing Raleigh,
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  Speaker 3: North Carolina because Riley is like very unique. It's not
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  Speaker 3: like a typical big jurisdy destination like Orlando or La
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  Speaker 3: which most Australians would go to. So yeah, it's been
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  Speaker 3: it's been good to be able to show them the
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  Speaker 3: Raleigh and North Carolina lifestyle.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so you're accepted as a teacher and now you're
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  Speaker 1: doing all the things as far as travel and telling
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  Speaker 1: folks where to go here in the triangle and all
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  Speaker 1: of them.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 4: We started a global travel site in twenty ten that
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  Speaker 4: was part of our search to try and live in
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  Speaker 4: America permanently.
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  Speaker 2: We wanted to have a job of our own.
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  Speaker 4: And fast forward that that blog became very, very successful.
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  Speaker 4: We still run it now and we were able to
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  Speaker 4: get a green cart because of the success of that
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  Speaker 4: travel blog and our contribution to the US economy, and
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  Speaker 4: so that led us back here in twenty seventeen to
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  Speaker 4: live here permanently, and then our twenty twenty the pandemic
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  Speaker 4: happened and we needed to pivot, and it was like, well,
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  Speaker 4: we absolutely love Raleigh.
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  Speaker 2: We feel like we're great.
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  Speaker 4: Ambassadors for Raleig because we literally could live anywhere and
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  Speaker 4: we chose to live here, and we're always singing its praises.
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  Speaker 4: So we were like, well, let's let's start something about
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  Speaker 4: Raleigh to help people living here connect to it more deeply,
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  Speaker 4: save them the time trying to figure out where to go,
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  Speaker 4: what to see, how to enjoy living here. So that's
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  Speaker 4: what we aim to do, is just help people love
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  Speaker 4: Raleigh and we'll get on.
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  Speaker 1: To Raley and whatever. I mean. I'm from here too,
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  Speaker 1: and I move back as well, because it is an
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  Speaker 1: incredible place to live. You get a great quality of life,
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  Speaker 1: but a lot of fun stuff to do. If somebody
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  Speaker 1: was looking to be a travel influencer, because a lot
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  Speaker 1: of people seek that opportunity or those opportunities, what advice
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  Speaker 1: do y'all have?
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean when we first started in twenty ten,
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  Speaker 3: it was a it was a lot different. Like there
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  Speaker 3: was no Instagram, there was no Pinterest, no TikTok, none
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  Speaker 3: of that. It was basically blogging, email and then probably
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  Speaker 3: Facebook that was literally it. Yeah, and a lot less
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  Speaker 3: people doing it, so it was a lot less crowded space. So,
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  Speaker 3: I mean, it's work, like it looks glamorous, but it's
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  Speaker 3: it's not physically tough obviously, but it's it's time, time tough,
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  Speaker 3: labor intensive, and every day is different and behind the scenes,
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  Speaker 3: you know, if you saw what was going on, like
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  Speaker 3: like even our family and friends, like when they come
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  Speaker 3: and visit with us and travel us, was like, oh wow,
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  Speaker 3: they don't realize what we put into it, like all
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  Speaker 3: the shooting, the editing, because we wear many hats, like
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  Speaker 3: like with the photographer, the writer, the editor, the marketer,
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  Speaker 3: the promoter. You know, there's about twenty different things we
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  Speaker 3: do every day. But we love what we do, so
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  Speaker 3: we're very passionate about it. So definitely, I mean you
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  Speaker 3: hear passionate it through around a lot. But you have
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  Speaker 3: to because otherwise you would quit so easily. And like
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  Speaker 3: I'm being an entrepreneur. It's like it's tough. It's not
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  Speaker 3: like like we come from jobs, like we were used
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  Speaker 3: to earning paychecks every week. So so that was hard
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  Speaker 3: the mindset. It's great, So you.
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  Speaker 1: Quit like corporate America or teaching to do this full time. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: how much courage did that take to leap?
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  Speaker 4: I know at the time people ask us this a lot,
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  Speaker 4: and I sort of, well, we just did it. I
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  Speaker 4: don't think at the time we were really thinking that
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  Speaker 4: it was a brave or courageous thing to do. It
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  Speaker 4: was just this is what we really want and this
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  Speaker 4: is something we are good at. We're really good at
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  Speaker 4: speaking about travel, we're really good at traveling. And we
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  Speaker 4: just sort of jumped in and said, let's figure it out,
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  Speaker 4: let's grow our wings on the way down after we left,
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  Speaker 4: and you know, it was it was a brave, crazy decision.
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  Speaker 4: We had two young children at the time, and you know,
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  Speaker 4: you think back now and you go gosh. Yeah, maybe
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  Speaker 4: I wouldn't have made that decision if I had a
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  Speaker 4: thought about it more.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I think sometimes you do overthink life decisions and
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  Speaker 1: that what tops you out of it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, exactly, And yeah, we just had to dive
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  Speaker 4: into it. And at that time, as Craig said, no
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  Speaker 4: one was really doing it, no one was really making money,
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  Speaker 4: no one knew what they were doing right, and it
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  Speaker 4: was just we were throwing spaghetti at the wall every
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  Speaker 4: day to see what would stick.
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  Speaker 2: And I feel like we're still.
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  Speaker 4: Doing that now because of the industry constantly evolves and changes.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, we're still figuring stuff out, like algorithm changes, Google changes.
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  Speaker 1: We have some these stats we need to hit here,
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  Speaker 1: and I'm like, I just want to pull stuff that
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  Speaker 1: I enjoy. Yes, you know, you have to hit certain metrics.
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  Speaker 1: It is a lot of Okay, so here in Raleigh,
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  Speaker 1: what are your favorite spots And we're going to start
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  Speaker 1: our what Up weekend with This is Riley, that's sure,
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  Speaker 1: at this is Raleigh that you need to go check
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  Speaker 1: out on. And so you're on Facebook, give everybody your website.
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  Speaker 3: So the website is this is Raleigh dot com. Instagram
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  Speaker 3: is at this Isralei and Facebook is at this Israeli
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  Speaker 3: and see.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, so if you had a narrow down, like the
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  Speaker 1: top five places like here in the triangle that you
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  Speaker 1: have really fallen in love with, what would be your
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  Speaker 1: top five?
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  Speaker 2: Number one?
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  Speaker 1: Johnson.
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  Speaker 3: When we first moved here in four we lived on
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  Speaker 3: Lake Johnson for four years, so we've done that three
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  Speaker 3: mile loop trail like a thousand times and that's yeah.
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  Speaker 3: We still go back there now even though we don't
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  Speaker 3: live near there, but yeah, it's just such a great walk.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, we grew up by the beach, so we
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  Speaker 3: do miss the beach, but we just love to be
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  Speaker 3: near water, so we've grown to love lake life. So
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  Speaker 3: Lake Johnson, yeah, definitely.
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  Speaker 2: I think over the last couple of years, Dick's Park
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  Speaker 2: has become a favorite. I mean when we first moved
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  Speaker 2: over there.
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  Speaker 4: That wasn't really a public space that we could access.
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  Speaker 2: But now you get beautiful views of the city, you can.
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  Speaker 4: Picnic there, you can walk around lots of events, so.
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  Speaker 2: It is just a really fun place to hang out.
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  Speaker 1: And they get you shuttled right end so you don't
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  Speaker 1: have to worry about parking. And why can't you just
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  Speaker 1: get on a shuttle get over there because there's really
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  Speaker 1: no parking, yes, but it's really got so many great events. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: Eric Lake Johnson one.
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  Speaker 3: More nature park place. Sorry, i'mstead of course. I mean
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  Speaker 3: the great thing about Raleigh is and everyone says it
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  Speaker 3: when they come a visits, like how green and how
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  Speaker 3: many trees there are, and like it's pretty awesome that
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  Speaker 3: we've got this state park like fifteen minutes from downtown, right,
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  Speaker 3: So we love doing all the trails. And I'm said,
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  Speaker 3: like any time of year and particularly coming into fall,
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  Speaker 3: like with the colors of the leaves and stuff, is
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  Speaker 3: pretty special.
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  Speaker 1: You have so much greenery and that's so amazing. Like
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  Speaker 1: you go to places like the desert, you're like there's
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  Speaker 1: nothing here, and you come to Raleigh in it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: City of Books, Yeah, yeah, that's right.
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  Speaker 2: And the Greenway trails Lake Raleigh. It's such a.
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  Speaker 4: Hidden little gem on the NC State's Centennial campus that
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  Speaker 4: a lot of people who've lived here forever didn't even
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  Speaker 4: know about. And we love to go stand up paddle
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  Speaker 4: boarding there. There's a Greenway trail there you can ride
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  Speaker 4: that will take you all the way into downtown Raleigh,
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  Speaker 4: which is great. Another great Greenway Trail, which we absolutely
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  Speaker 4: love is the Art to Heart Trail.
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  Speaker 2: We love the NC Museum of Art.
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  Speaker 4: We think that is just a world class museum and
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  Speaker 4: free and you can hop on your bike and ride
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  Speaker 4: from there along the Greenway trails through Meredith, NC State
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  Speaker 4: into downtown. So it's just a great way to get
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  Speaker 4: your exercise but experience different parts of Raleigh and.
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  Speaker 1: Anything else that we need to make sure we add
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  Speaker 1: to the list.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, I'm a big sports guy. I played professional
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  Speaker 3: rugby street out of high school, so I love the
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  Speaker 3: college sports scene here in the ACC. So yeah, like
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  Speaker 3: I mean, and we didn't grow up tailgating in Australia.
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  Speaker 3: That's not a thing. So tailgating at Carter Finley is
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: a fun cultural experience.
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  Speaker 1: So you chose when you move here. You have to
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  Speaker 1: pick do Carolina or NC State? So what did you choose?
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  Speaker 3: I guess it's funny saying Cardiff we're Carolina fans.
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  Speaker 4: Oh oh, I know, I'm kind of going more in
• 9:41
  Speaker 4: C State now that we're doing that.
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  Speaker 2: This is Raleigh.
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  Speaker 3: But yeah, but we become Carolina fans in two thousand
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  Speaker 3: and four, like twenty years well, sixteen years before we
• 9:51
  Speaker 3: started our rally site, and we you know, we went
• 9:54
  Speaker 3: familiar with the acc college system and that, but everyone's
• 9:58
  Speaker 3: heard of Michael Jordan on the world, so it's kind
• 10:01
  Speaker 3: of like just gravitated towards that, I guess, but it's
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: all good.
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  Speaker 2: I like the color blue too, so.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: I'm a doog fan. I'm like, you're my best friends.
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  Speaker 3: Carolina, but wolfback friends. I'm like, what state do we live?
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  Speaker 4: In?
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: The state of North Carolina? So like, come on, okay.
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  Speaker 1: So we're going to have you guys on for our
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  Speaker 1: water weekends. But how can people reach out to you?
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: If we're speaking engagements and other opportunities. What's the best
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: way to reach out to you?
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah? Probably email, caskraig get this Isralei dot.
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  Speaker 4: Com and then you know, we do have the social
• 10:32
  Speaker 4: channels as well at this is Rali, but email generally
• 10:35
  Speaker 4: is best. Anyone listening who wants to join our email community.
• 10:40
  Speaker 4: We send out newsletters every week, so you can just
• 10:42
  Speaker 4: head to this Israley dot com and there's a sign
• 10:44
  Speaker 4: up form on.
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: The What's that does that tell you things that are
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: going on in the area? Great, I'm signing up now,
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: but I'm signing up.
• 10:50
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah,