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Why Visit New Brunswick & Grand Manan Island with East Coast Mermaid Crystal Richard · Travel Mug Podcast

• 0:00
  Meggan: Hey everyone, and welcome back to the Travel Mug Podcast.
• 0:03
  Meggan: We are so excited to be joined this week by Crystal Richard, a very successful entrepreneur and beach glass maven.
• 0:10
  Meggan: I've gotten many and a piece of advice from Crystal about beach glass.
• 0:15
  Meggan: She's also CEO of Crystal Richard and company.
• 0:18
  Meggan: , which is a global digital PR firm, and also her own travel and lifestyle brand, which is East Coast Mermaid.
• 0:24
  Meggan: Crystal, welcome to the show.
• 0:26
  Crystal: Thank you.
• 0:27
  Crystal: It's so fun to be here as a publicist for a change.
• 0:33
  Meggan: I know you're,
• 0:34
  Jenn: you're the one who's actually here.
• 0:35
  Jenn: Yes.
• 0:36
  Crystal: Yes.
• 0:36
  Crystal: As a publicist guest, but normally the publicist is always the one pitching.
• 0:40
  Crystal: We never get invited.
• 0:41
  Crystal: So this is so exciting.
• 0:43
  Meggan: Well, we're thrilled to have you.
• 0:45
  Meggan: So before we sort of dive into to your businesses and whatnot, first and foremost, of course, this is a travel podcast and we know that you also loved to travel like we do.
• 0:56
  Meggan: So having said that we would love to kick things off by hearing about some fun places you've traveled.
• 1:01
  Meggan: So, Favorite destinations, least favorite destination, and maybe some like bucket list spots You still need to go.
• 1:09
  Meggan: .
• 1:09
  Meggan: Crystal: Oh, yes.
• 1:09
  Meggan: You caught me at the perfect time for the bucket list question too, cuz I totally had a like moment last week.
• 1:14
  Meggan: So favorite places, I mean, oh gosh.
• 1:17
  Meggan: I've been fortunate to travel a lot over the years.
• 1:19
  Meggan: I was an only child, so I somehow weasled my way into a lot of conferences with my parents from a very young age.
• 1:25
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 1:25
  Meggan: Hawaii.
• 1:26
  Meggan: I mean Hawaii, I've been a few times.
• 1:28
  Meggan: It's amazing.
• 1:28
  Meggan: I can't wait to go back with my husband one day.
• 1:32
  Meggan: Peru, I was very fortunate.
• 1:34
  Meggan: Two years in a row I was working with a client from Halifax called Unleash Surf.
• 1:37
  Meggan: And actually got to go down to Peru for multiple weeks, two years in a row.
• 1:41
  Meggan: And so that was really cool cuz Peru wasn't like I did the Paris thing when I turned 30 and that was something I had wanted to do my whole life.
• 1:48
  Meggan: And I was single at the time and I thought, I'm gonna treat myself to a trip to Paris, but Peru kind of was never on my radar.
• 1:55
  Meggan: My best friend basically was like, if you don't go to Machu Picchu, which was her dream, she's like, I can't be friends with you.
• 2:00
  Meggan: So I was like, okay.
• 2:02
  Meggan: I'll plan this whole other detour from where I was going to do the Machu Picchu thing.
• 2:07
  Meggan: So that was definitely one that kind of like caught me off guard.
• 2:10
  Meggan: But then other favorite destinations, Las Vegas.
• 2:12
  Meggan: I lived and worked there after university, but I started going there when I was 16.
• 2:15
  Meggan: Again, conferences, great opportunity to bring your teenager to Vegas . Um, So that's a place that I love.
• 2:22
  Meggan: I love going back to Vegas.
• 2:24
  Meggan: It's one of my favorite girls trips destinations.
• 2:25
  Meggan: My mother and I love it.
• 2:27
  Meggan: And close to home, Maine.
• 2:28
  Meggan: It's such a simple, no one ever thinks of Maine, but Maine's actually one of my favorite states in the us And again, it's only a couple hours from us here in New Brunswick.
• 2:36
  Meggan: But I would say those are, those are a few of my favorites.
• 2:39
  Meggan: Bucket list though.
• 2:40
  Meggan: Ones I'm really excited about.
• 2:41
  Meggan: I'm very excited to eventually get to Italy.
• 2:43
  Meggan: I've never been to Italy.
• 2:44
  Meggan: That's a bucket list with my husband for sure.
• 2:46
  Meggan: Same as Alaska.
• 2:47
  Meggan: That's another one that we're both really excited about.
• 2:50
  Meggan: The one I said, you caught me at a perfect time.
• 2:52
  Meggan: When I, I recently for those listening, got my wisdom teeth out and I was in a, you know, post anesthetic drug-induced haze and spent two hours on YouTube watching videos about the Drake passage and going to Antarctica.
• 3:06
  Meggan: Ah, right.
• 3:06
  Meggan: And I kind of haven't stopped thinking about it.
• 3:09
  Meggan: And when I went back to the dentist's office on following my appointment, a couple days later, I'm sitting in the the room waiting to see the doctor, to say, you know, why does my face still hurt so much?
• 3:19
  Meggan: And on the wall is literally this giant mural of Antarctica.
• 3:23
  Meggan: And I'm like,
• 3:23
  Jenn: it's a sign.
• 3:25
  Crystal: I know because I didn't notice that when I went in for the appointment.
• 3:29
  Meggan: Wow.
• 3:29
  Crystal: But then when I was back, I was like, weird.
• 3:32
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 3:32
  Crystal: And it's just kept coming up.
• 3:34
  Crystal: And I actually have a friend from Grand Manan that works on the boats and does kayaking expeditions and all that stuff down there.
• 3:41
  Crystal: So it's, it's my, like, it's my new thing.
• 3:44
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 3:44
  Crystal: And then when I turn 40, next year, I want to go to Galaxy Edge at Disney.
• 3:48
  Crystal: That's like my,
• 3:49
  Jenn: oh, so fun.
• 3:50
  Jenn: So fun.
• 3:52
  Jenn: . I can help you out with that one.
• 3:53
  Jenn: .
• 3:53
  Jenn: Crystal: I know you can.
• 3:54
  Jenn: And I've like planted the seed with my husband.
• 3:56
  Jenn: I'm like, I know we're not going anywhere.
• 3:58
  Jenn: It's fun this year because we're spending all our money on our Reno, but I turn 40 next year and I would like to go to Disney to go to Star Wars.
• 4:06
  Meggan: Oh, that's awesome.
• 4:08
  Meggan: Yes, that is Jenn's department.
• 4:09
  Meggan: A hundred percent.
• 4:10
  Meggan: And it's so funny that you say Drake Passage because there was a side of TikTok there for a minute that was all Drake passage.
• 4:18
  Meggan: And I'm like, how have I gotten trapped on this side of TikTok?
• 4:21
  Meggan: I don't even, didn't even know the Drake passage, like as an excursion, let's say existed.
• 4:28
  Meggan: And I'm like, how did I get here?
• 4:29
  Meggan: So it's so interesting that now, like someone I know is actually said the same thing.
• 4:33
  Meggan: So.
• 4:34
  Crystal: Well, and it's funny because I had never really heard about the Drake Passage or the Falkland Islands and all these places.
• 4:41
  Crystal: Or you, you, I can't even pronounce it the place that you fly to, to go on the boat.
• 4:45
  Jenn: Right.
• 4:45
  Crystal: And like I said, my friend from Grand Manan, she regularly, oh, right before the holidays, they called her up.
• 4:50
  Crystal: She flew down to do a two week contract on one of the boats.
• 4:53
  Crystal: and I just, these were words that she was always saying and I was never, I was just like, I don't know.
• 4:58
  Crystal: I don't need to go to Antarctica, And then, I dunno, like I said, something happened, what someone I follow from Tofino on Instagram was doing the whole trip and I'm, you know, gauze and miserable in my mouth, post wisdom tooth again on Tylenol threes and I'm like this looks fun.
• 5:16
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 5:16
  Crystal: Drake passage.
• 5:19
  Crystal: I don't get seasick very easily, so I was like, I probably hack this.
• 5:22
  Crystal: So, so yeah.
• 5:24
  Crystal: We'll have to have a follow up episode when I finally somehow pull this off.
• 5:27
  Meggan: Oh, yeah.
• 5:27
  Crystal: In the next couple years.
• 5:28
  Crystal: But
• 5:28
  Meggan: I can't wait to watch that adventure.
• 5:30
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 5:30
  Crystal: It's now the new thing.
• 5:32
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 5:33
  Crystal: , Jenn: I, it's like the, this is and I'm not giving up on it.
• 5:39
  Crystal: , I.
• 5:40
  Crystal: But some of my best ideas have literally stemmed from those types of things where I was like, I had zero interest in this last week, but now I've decided to commit to it a hundred percent.
• 5:50
  Meggan: Now it's my life's journey.
• 5:52
  Meggan: Literally.
• 5:53
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 5:53
  Jenn: Like literally, and I, I can say this as a fellow, like.
• 5:57
  Jenn: Entrepreneur, like self-employed person.
• 5:59
  Jenn: That is a trait of a self-employed person.
• 6:02
  Jenn: I'm just like, yeah.
• 6:03
  Jenn: Oh, now like this is the path I'm going.
• 6:05
  Jenn: So.
• 6:06
  Jenn: Crystal: Yeah.
• 6:07
  Jenn: Oh yeah.
• 6:07
  Jenn: I even was joking with my husband at dinner.
• 6:09
  Jenn: He was like, so like, whatcha gonna talk about?
• 6:12
  Jenn: I was like, I'm definitely gonna talk about Antarctica.
• 6:14
  Jenn: Like this wasn't even a thing until last week.
• 6:17
  Jenn: And I was like, yeah.
• 6:18
  Jenn: I'm like, I know, but it's happening.
• 6:20
  Meggan: It's my personality now.
• 6:22
  Meggan: Yeah,
• 6:22
  Crystal: yeah, exactly.
• 6:23
  Crystal: And I need to find my people to come with me because, He can't, he doesn't even like boats.
• 6:28
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 6:28
  Crystal: You're all Dr.
• 6:29
  Crystal: Ashley Margeson also is like, I am in, but
• 6:32
  Jenn: let's go girls trip.
• 6:34
  Crystal: Girls trip will rent the whole boat.
• 6:36
  Crystal: It'll be awesome.
• 6:38
  Crystal: So, yeah.
• 6:40
  Crystal: Well, I can't wait Buddies.
• 6:41
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 6:41
  Crystal: My travel buddies can't do the Drake passage.
• 6:43
  Crystal: Like he will, he will never go on the dr.
• 6:45
  Crystal: Like I showed him one TikTok video and he was like, no, you can find one to go.
• 6:49
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 6:50
  Meggan: I'll watch you guys from afar and, and, and cheer you on.
• 6:54
  Meggan: Crystal: There you go.
• 6:55
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 6:56
  Jenn: Oh my gosh.
• 6:57
  Jenn: So, like we said, we, we need to thank you because you have sent some truly amazing guests our way though Alicia from Secret Nova Scotia and Rolling Sea Tattooery.
• 7:06
  Jenn: We love her.
• 7:08
  Jenn: And Sue, take it outside.
• 7:10
  Jenn: We have a super fun episode with her too.
• 7:12
  Jenn: So, talk to us about your, your digital PR company.
• 7:16
  Jenn: Like how did it come to be, what led you down that path kind of thing?
• 7:21
  Crystal: So in keeping with, I set my mind to do something and then it happens.
• 7:25
  Crystal: Mm-hmm.
• 7:25
  Crystal: ? I was working in an agency for five years in a PR agency.
• 7:28
  Crystal: I was director of PR and in that, like last year of being in the agency, I was kind of starting to feel like I'd hit that point.
• 7:35
  Crystal: That I'm like, I'm helping make someone else's dream come true.
• 7:38
  Crystal: I'm working with clients, some of them I loved and some of them I was like, I would not have signed up to work with this company if it was me making the decisions.
• 7:45
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 7:46
  Crystal: And when it's your bum on the line trying to get media coverage for a company, you want to A, believe in that company, and B, have someone that you know you can get coverage for because you're the one reaching out to journalists and saying, I believe in this company you should write about them.
• 8:02
  Crystal: And when you're not the one having those sales calls, it was like, I just found that I was in a hamster wheel.
• 8:08
  Crystal: I wasn't happy.
• 8:09
  Crystal: I worked more and was more burnt out when I worked in an agency than I ever have as a, as a self-employed entrepreneur.
• 8:15
  Meggan: Mm-hmm.
• 8:16
  Meggan: .
• 8:16
  Meggan: Crystal: So January of 2017, I year I wanted to be, My own boss.
• 8:22
  Meggan: I wanted my own little PR company.
• 8:24
  Meggan: And then two months later I made it happen.
• 8:26
  Meggan: . So, because it was my journey.
• 8:28
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 8:28
  Crystal: So it, the business just turned six and I work with
• 8:31
  Meggan: congratulations.
• 8:33
  Crystal: Thank you.
• 8:34
  Crystal: I know, I really, I did actually celebrate this time.
• 8:36
  Crystal: I don't usually celebrate.
• 8:37
  Crystal: I kind of, I'm like, oh, it's another anniversary.
• 8:40
  Crystal: But why don't you look at stats about how, you know, most small businesses don't make it past five years.
• 8:44
  Crystal: I was like, okay, this is, this is a big milestone.
• 8:46
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 8:48
  Crystal: So, yeah, I work with small businesses, brands.
• 8:50
  Crystal: I've worked with big businesses, nonprofits basically to help 'em get media coverage.
• 8:54
  Crystal: So whether that's getting them on podcasts, getting them into Forbes, on tv, on morning shows I have a blast doing it.
• 9:02
  Crystal: It's a lot of just sending a lot of emails and either getting crickets or having people say no.
• 9:06
  Jenn: Right.
• 9:06
  Crystal: But I still love it and it's been really, it's been a really fulfilling journey to this day doing that.
• 9:13
  Meggan: Excellent.
• 9:14
  Meggan: So, you know, what have you found though, when you do think back over the six year journey you've had so far, what's been the most challenging part of sort of running your own PR company?
• 9:23
  Meggan: What sort of surprised you the most?
• 9:25
  Meggan: I guess maybe what you were thinking entrepreneurship was before, when you were working for the other organization versus maybe now that you're in it.
• 9:33
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 9:34
  Crystal: So I think the, the hardest part about having a PR company is how much is out of your control.
• 9:40
  Crystal: So, I have a client right now that is amazing.
• 9:44
  Crystal: They're doing so many cool things in the weight loss space, so they're actually helping women lose weight in a way that works for them.
• 9:53
  Crystal: They don't have to make a different meal than their husbands.
• 9:56
  Crystal: They were on C T V morning in Halifax and the girls loved them and they literally blew up their socials.
• 10:01
  Crystal: They passed 10,000 followers just because one of them went on Instagram and was like, Hey, CTV doesn't have 10,000 followers.
• 10:07
  Crystal: We should do this.
• 10:07
  Crystal: Like, they are so fun.
• 10:09
  Crystal: But because they have the word weight loss in their business and what they do.
• 10:14
  Crystal: I know that a lot of the pitches I send to people, they're like, they see weight loss and it's like, oh, it's just another weight loss gimmick, right?
• 10:20
  Crystal: And so, and I'm someone that I've, you know, I've had my bad experience with weight watchers back in the day.
• 10:24
  Crystal: Like I genuinely am like, these guys are a breath of fresh air.
• 10:28
  Crystal: But no matter how much I believe in them, I'm at the mercy of journalist and what they wanna do.
• 10:34
  Crystal: And when you find that one journalist that's like, yes, I see that they're different.
• 10:37
  Crystal: I see what they're doing and it's amazing and I wanna write about it, then you're like party time.
• 10:42
  Crystal: But so much of PR for every client, not just them, for every single client, you are at the mercy of a journalist, their editor, what their workload looks like, what the current media landscape is.
• 10:53
  Crystal: You could have the best pitch and strategy for a campaign planned.
• 10:57
  Crystal: And then, you know, there's an election, there's a natural disaster and everything just gets shut down.
• 11:03
  Crystal: There's a pandemic.
• 11:04
  Crystal: So that was, that was a really fun one, was trying to pitch clients during a pandemic.
• 11:09
  Jenn: Ah.
• 11:09
  Crystal: So I think the hardest part of having a PR company.
• 11:12
  Crystal: So much of it is out of your control, and you are really, there's so much pressure on your shoulders to make this media coverage happen because that's what people are paying you for at the end of the day, but you can only do so much, right?
• 11:24
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 11:25
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 11:26
  Jenn: Yeah, for sure.
• 11:27
  Jenn: So, switching gears a little bit, we know that you also love your home province of New Brunswick, I actually just booked a trip sort of to New Brunswick just for like two nights, but we're, we're going to Maine to do our Nexus interviews, get the end of May.
• 11:44
  Jenn: So we're gonna do a little bit of New Brunswick exploring.
• 11:46
  Jenn: So I'm excited to talk to you , like, um, We did do an episode.
• 11:51
  Jenn: Way, way back.
• 11:52
  Jenn: Right.
• 11:53
  Jenn: Meggan?
• 11:53
  Jenn: How long ago?
• 11:54
  Meggan: Like 2021..
• 11:55
  Meggan: What is time?
• 11:56
  Meggan: But I think, I
• 11:57
  Jenn: don't even know anymore Anyway, why New Brunswick is not the drive-through province.
• 12:01
  Jenn: So I'll link that in the show notes if you wanna go listen to Meggan's experience in New Brunswick.
• 12:05
  Jenn: But what do you want people to know about New Brunswick and why should people visit?
• 12:11
  Crystal: That we are not a drive through province.
• 12:13
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 12:13
  Crystal: But I think the problem with New Brunswick is, okay, so I'm gonna be completely like, I'll be fully.
• 12:20
  Crystal: . Honest with you, I love Coastal New Brunswick.
• 12:23
  Jenn: Mm-hmm.
• 12:23
  Jenn: , Crystal: you put me in F Fredericton.
• 12:25
  Jenn: I am not a happy person.
• 12:28
  Jenn: . . No disrespect to Fredericton.
• 12:30
  Jenn: I have lots of friends there that I love.
• 12:33
  Jenn: I don't like being landlocked in New Brunswick.
• 12:35
  Jenn: And I think one of the problems with, when you think about this idea of drive-by, like drive-through province, , when you're coming from other places, the places that you're driving through, you're not necessarily driving through the coast.
• 12:46
  Jenn: So if you're going to Ontario, you're going through that awful, you know, middle of the province highway that you've gotta worry about a moose jumping out in front of you.
• 12:53
  Jenn: There's nothing to see.
• 12:55
  Jenn: Like, it's not exciting.
• 12:57
  Jenn: And so I think people, because they've driven through, they just think there's nothing to see here.
• 13:00
  Jenn: Same thing with Moncton.
• 13:01
  Jenn: I live in, I live in Dieppe, but Dieppe- Moncton.
• 13:06
  Jenn: , it's fun, it's funner.
• 13:07
  Jenn: If you go 10 minutes, you know, towards the ocean and you end up in Shediac or Cap-Pelé or Bouctouche, or if you keep going down to Saint john and to Charlotte County, which is like my favorite part of the province.
• 13:17
  Jenn: So I think what people need to know is if you come to New Brunswick, you need to actually get off that main drive through route that everybody talks about and actually start exploring.
• 13:26
  Jenn: Because once you start going to places like the Hopewell Rocks, I had someone from Ontario just messaged me this week.
• 13:32
  Jenn: She's so excited.
• 13:33
  Jenn: She saw them on Pinterest and found my blog and she can't wait to go see them.
• 13:37
  Jenn: And I was saying that to my husband, I said, you know, we take it for granted how cool the Bay of Fundy is.
• 13:42
  Jenn: And it's literally in our backyard.
• 13:44
  Meggan: Yeah.
• 13:45
  Crystal: Um, Whale, like we have places in New Brunswick that you can sit on a bench without having to go out on a boat.
• 13:52
  Crystal: Well, maybe you go on a boat to get to the island, but you can sit on a bench and watch whales swimming by in front of a sunset.
• 13:58
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 13:58
  Crystal: There's very few places in Canada that you can actually do that.
• 14:03
  Crystal: And so I think there's little things like that that people don't realize.
• 14:06
  Crystal: And then, I mean, there's our seafood.
• 14:08
  Crystal: Our seafood is legendary.
• 14:10
  Crystal: We have some of the best caviar sturgeon caviar in the world, and I don't think many people even know that.
• 14:15
  Crystal: I honestly didn't know that until a couple years ago.
• 14:18
  Crystal: We have the king of caviar, Acadian sturgeon and caviar company in out of Saint John.
• 14:23
  Crystal: He has a very sustainable and ethical way of getting the wild sturgeon out of the Saint John River to harvest for the caviar, re re-releasing them so that they can keep populating and keep giving us more caviar.
• 14:38
  Crystal: But people don't know that, so
• 14:39
  Meggan: No.
• 14:39
  Crystal: Yeah, there's like so many little cool things between the Bay of Fundy and the, the nature and the whales.
• 14:45
  Crystal: Sea glass, all, I mean, there's sea glass other places too, but , it's pretty darn good in New Brunswick.
• 14:49
  Crystal: So yeah, that's like my challenge to people is if you are just looking at what you're driving through to get from point A to point B, you're not going to see the magic.
• 14:56
  Crystal: You have to go off that main travel road to really see the magic.
• 15:01
  Meggan: I have to, I have to say.
• 15:03
  Meggan: . I completely agree, and that's a great way to describe it to people because it is a drive through province if you just stay on the highway like it literally is.
• 15:15
  Meggan: But to see the beauty of it, and I think that Atlantic Canada as a whole reflects what you said about New Brunswick and it is the coast and that's what people should be searching for.
• 15:27
  Meggan: During our episode about New Brunswick not being the drive through province.
• 15:31
  Meggan: We even spent some time in Saint John.
• 15:32
  Meggan: And, you know, not to be rude, but Saint John doesn't get a great wrap.
• 15:36
  Meggan: And fun.
• 15:37
  Meggan: We had a lovely time.
• 15:39
  Meggan: Like we had a very enjoyable stay.
• 15:41
  Meggan: And, and I, and I think you're right, like that's a really great way to describe it.
• 15:45
  Meggan: It can be if you don't get off the highway, you know.
• 15:48
  Crystal: And Maine is the same way if you're driving through Maine to go to, say Boston or somewhere like that, if you just stay on the interstate, you're gonna think Maine's not that impressive.
• 15:58
  Crystal: But if you actually get off and go to the beaches and the coastline, it's amazing.
• 16:03
  Crystal: You've got lighthouses, you've got, you know, places like Mount Desert Island and Bar Harbor.
• 16:08
  Crystal: You've got Ogunquit, Kennebunkport, like all those places.
• 16:10
  Crystal: And so people are, so, they fantasize about places like Maine and Cape Cod and all of those types of places.
• 16:17
  Crystal: Martha's Vineyard, but Atlantic Canada is very similar.
• 16:20
  Crystal: You just need to get off those main highways to find the gems.
• 16:25
  Meggan: Yeah, yeah,
• 16:25
  Jenn: yeah.
• 16:25
  Jenn: I think, I mean, if you judge any place by, its like interstate or , like you're just gonna be like, why am I here?
• 16:33
  Jenn: But when you actually go explore like small towns and beaches and kind of find those, those little hidden gems, then it's then you know that it's worth visiting.
• 16:44
  Jenn: So are there any new Brunswick hidden gems that you can share with us for people?
• 16:48
  Crystal: Oh my goodness.
• 16:50
  Crystal: So, Okay.
• 16:51
  Crystal: So I would have to say, so I mean, and I know, I know we're probably gonna talk about that more extensively.
• 16:56
  Crystal: You know how much I love Grand Manan Island.
• 16:57
  Crystal: It still blows me away when I meet people that are where, what, that's a thing like, you know, and it's, it's kind of crazy cuz it's literally off the coast of Maine actually, when you look at a map.
• 17:07
  Crystal: So it doesn't even feel like you're in New Brunswick really anymore.
• 17:11
  Jenn: Right.
• 17:11
  Crystal: But Campobello is a hidden gem that I will admit.
• 17:15
  Crystal: I only went there for the first time in 2017.
• 17:18
  Crystal: I knew nothing about Campobello until we went absolutely fell in love.
• 17:22
  Crystal: It is a seaglass ha like haven if you, or if you love sea, like.
• 17:29
  Crystal: . Anyone that goes to Campobello and says, I didn't find a single piece of sea glass.
• 17:32
  Crystal: Did something wrong.
• 17:33
  Crystal: Like they didn't go on.
• 17:35
  Jenn: They didn't look down.
• 17:36
  Jenn: Yeah,
• 17:36
  Crystal: they didn't look down because it, they thought it was falling from the sky or something.
• 17:40
  Crystal: Cause it's impossible to not find sea glass on Campobello.
• 17:43
  Meggan: I can't wait.
• 17:45
  Meggan: .
• 17:45
  Meggan: Crystal: Yeah.
• 17:45
  Meggan: So that, that's a definite hidden gem.
• 17:47
  Meggan: The other hidden gem that is fairly new, so I, I like to make sure I tell people about it because not everyone knows about it, is our Fundy Trail Parkway.
• 17:54
  Meggan: So that actually starts in St.
• 17:56
  Meggan: Martin's and as of now you can.
• 17:58
  Meggan: , I think it finally connected through to Fundy Park.
• 18:01
  Meggan: If not, that's opening this year, but it's this like 30 kilometer plus, kind of like the Cabot Trail.
• 18:08
  Jenn: Mm-hmm.
• 18:08
  Jenn: , Crystal: but it's scenic It's accessible, which I think is amazing.
• 18:12
  Jenn: Like you can get the, the stunning vista views literally by pulling your vehicle over.
• 18:17
  Jenn: So if someone's in a wheelchair or they're elderly and they can't, you know, do a hike.
• 18:21
  Jenn: You can still see all of these epic views and if you do the Fundy Trail Parkway, you get easy access to the Walton Glen Gorge, which a lot of people don't know about.
• 18:29
  Meggan: Yes.
• 18:29
  Crystal: But it's actually the Grand Canyon of New Brunswick.
• 18:32
  Meggan: Yep.
• 18:32
  Crystal: I hiked it.
• 18:33
  Crystal: I'm not an avid hiker.
• 18:35
  Crystal: I'm trying to this summer because I wanna do the Fundy footpath next year when I turn 40.
• 18:39
  Jenn: Right.
• 18:39
  Crystal: But I did actually hike the eye of the needle hike a few years ago with a friend before the Fundy parkway was a thing.
• 18:46
  Crystal: So you actually had to park your car in the middle of nowhere.
• 18:48
  Crystal: Hope it was still there when you got back.
• 18:50
  Crystal: . Follow these really sketchy signs and find your way down the like scaling a cliff into this eye of the needle.
• 18:59
  Crystal: Which was so cool, but yeah, like that again, I didn't know about that until Instagram.
• 19:04
  Crystal: It was kind of one of those things I saw on Instagram and I was like, what's this?
• 19:07
  Crystal: This isn't in New Brunswick.
• 19:08
  Crystal: So yeah, we have our own Grand Canyon and people don't talk about that or know about it, so.
• 19:13
  Crystal: . Pretty cool.
• 19:13
  Meggan: Yeah, we went there, it's, it was cool.
• 19:15
  Meggan: We didn't do that hike.
• 19:16
  Meggan: We just literally followed the road in from the visitors center and didn't, right.
• 19:20
  Meggan: Did that hike in.
• 19:21
  Meggan: It was all mostly flat ground.
• 19:23
  Meggan: It was not tough.
• 19:24
  Meggan: It's like a kilometer or something to get in there, and the views are spectacular.
• 19:28
  Meggan: And you do forget you're in New Brunswick.
• 19:30
  Meggan: You're like, how?
• 19:31
  Meggan: How is this possible?
• 19:32
  Meggan: So, and I, it's definitely a hidden gem.
• 19:34
  Meggan: That's a great one.
• 19:35
  Crystal: It's the same as if you're on Grand Manan Island, the southern head Cliffs at the end of the island.
• 19:40
  Crystal: I'll never forget the first time, the first time I brought my husband, it was foggy when we got there, which is unfortunately common.
• 19:47
  Crystal: You can have sun on one end of the island and then get there, and it's completely fogged in . So he didn't really grasp how big it was.
• 19:54
  Crystal: And then we went back the next day and it was clear.
• 19:57
  Crystal: Those cliffs are very similar to, you know, when you see those cliffs in Scotland and Ireland or even Hawaii, like I have sunset pictures from there that if you didn't know any better, you'd think it, you were in Hawaii and you can be standing there and have humpback wheels going by.
• 20:12
  Crystal: Puffins flying over, like it's insane.
• 20:15
  Crystal: And again, you're just, you don't think you're in New Brunswick.
• 20:18
  Crystal: So that's the thing.
• 20:19
  Crystal: I think if you think of New Brunswick as just, you know, like Moncton, Saint John, Fredericton, you really don't even scratch the surface on how much we have to offer once you get off the beaten path.
• 20:30
  Meggan: Mm-hmm.
• 20:31
  Meggan: . . Yeah, a hundred percent.
• 20:33
  Meggan: Which very good segue, because you recently purchased a property on Grand Manan Island.
• 20:39
  Meggan: So talk to us about how that renovation's going and your plans for the amazing spot you purchased in the future.
• 20:46
  Crystal: Yeah, so that was a big again, I, I'm really noticing a trend with me saying I'm gonna do something and then somehow doing it.
• 20:53
  Meggan: I like that.
• 20:56
  Crystal: I, so I first went to Grand Manan 20, I think it's 22 years ago now.
• 21:00
  Crystal: I'm losing track.
• 21:01
  Crystal: I've had a number and I think, I don't, I don't think I've kept adding a year since I started telling the stories.
• 21:06
  Crystal: I went in high school because I was actually going to go to Dal.
• 21:09
  Crystal: I started out in marine biology at Dal, like any other teenager from the nineties I went there in 2002, so I was coming out of the nineties, gonna be a marine biologist and, . My parents wanted me to see whales.
• 21:21
  Crystal: We had been to SeaWorld and stuff when I was a kid in the eighties.
• 21:24
  Crystal: But my parents knew.
• 21:25
  Crystal: I think we all knew from an early age that whales and captivity were, was not a cool, cool situation.
• 21:29
  Jenn: Right.
• 21:30
  Crystal: Even though we didn't really know better in the eighties.
• 21:31
  Crystal: But by then it was like, Hey, you need to see whales in their natural habitat.
• 21:36
  Crystal: And so we went to Grand Manan and we went whale watching, and I just felt in love, kept going.
• 21:43
  Crystal: Brought my husband four years ago.
• 21:44
  Crystal: He doesn't like boats, so bringing him on a 1.5 hour ferry ride was really fun.
• 21:50
  Crystal: And they did a safety drill that day and he got locked downstairs and wasn't allowed to move.
• 21:54
  Crystal: And I was upstairs and we didn't know it was a safety drill at the time.
• 21:58
  Crystal: So I literally thought like, he's never gonna wanna come back here.
• 22:02
  Crystal: Like, this is it.
• 22:03
  Meggan: That's terrible.
• 22:05
  Crystal: We were still dating at the time, so I'm like, we're gonna have to break up because I can't date someone that doesn't love this place as much as I do.
• 22:13
  Crystal: And then four years later we, we bought this place.
• 22:16
  Crystal: So we we got married in 2021 and I, I literally joke, we got married on August 6th.
• 22:21
  Crystal: We were sitting and having brunch a couple days after the wedding and it just sort of looked at each other like, okay, so what do we do now?
• 22:27
  Crystal: And I said, well, we could like maybe start thinking about a Grand Manan cottage.
• 22:31
  Crystal: And he was like, yeah, like we could do that.
• 22:33
  Crystal: And a year later on August 5th, we closed on the property on Grand Manan.
• 22:37
  Crystal: Like it was awesome.
• 22:39
  Crystal: We could not have planned that better had we tried.
• 22:42
  Crystal: So yeah, it's been fun.
• 22:43
  Crystal: It's been a lot more work than we thought.
• 22:45
  Crystal: I say, I say fun, it's, it's been a stressful ride, but we ended up doing much more of a renovation than we had ever planned.
• 22:52
  Crystal: And ripping a way- cuz it's like HGTV, right?
• 22:54
  Crystal: You rip open a wall and you think you're just gonna fix one thing and then you find a million more problems.
• 22:59
  Crystal: And but we have a really awesome team on the island of carpenters, expert contractors that have been helping make our life a little bit easier, which has been amazing.
• 23:07
  Crystal: And so we're really excited to have it as a cottage.
• 23:10
  Crystal: But I'm excited to continue to evolve the East Coast Mermaid brand.
• 23:13
  Crystal: And one thing that I really wanna do is start having some intimate retreats for women who wanna feel like a mermaid, who wanna go whale watching and sea glassing together and walk the beach and have bonfires under the stars.
• 23:25
  Crystal: One of the things I've really noticed since I created East Coast Mermaid is that there is a need and a want for these types of events for women of all ages.
• 23:33
  Crystal: When we go to the Seaglass Festival in Campobello, it's just, it's like having a bunch of sisters from different mothers that have never met before, but put them all in a place talking about seaglass, and you're sharing stories and you're crying and you're hugging and.
• 23:45
  Crystal: I wanna start recreating that.
• 23:47
  Crystal: And so I'm really excited to be able to have our own place there to sort of use as a, as a headquarters for these types of events.
• 23:54
  Crystal: And hoping to do the first one.
• 23:56
  Crystal: This, this fall is the plan, so.
• 23:58
  Meggan: Awesome.
• 23:59
  Crystal: Yeah, I'm excited.
• 24:00
  Crystal: It's just gonna be nice because we go there so much anyway, it'll be nice to have our own place and, mm-hmm.
• 24:06
  Meggan: I've never been, so I might have to take you up on one of those retreats.
• 24:09
  Jenn: Yeah,.
• 24:11
  Jenn: Crystal: Well, that's the thing.
• 24:11
  Jenn: I have so many people that message me and say, you know, I read about Grand Manan on East Coast Mermaid, I wanna go with you.
• 24:18
  Jenn: I've actually had people I know that have said, if you're ever like, if you ever wanna go, but you don't have someone to go with, you.
• 24:25
  Jenn: Like, I'll go.
• 24:25
  Jenn: And so I, I was like, okay, well I can't, I can't just my whole life can't just be taking people to Grand Manan.
• 24:32
  Jenn: But then I thought, what if we did something like that where I could have, you know, a group of people that want to experience it like I do and watch the sunset where I watch it and go whale watching with my friends that have the whale watching company and do the whole thing together.
• 24:47
  Jenn: How cool would that be?
• 24:48
  Jenn: And then you make friends for life.
• 24:50
  Jenn: So that's, that's kind of what I'm really excited to to bring to life.
• 24:54
  Jenn: But obviously have to get some renovations done cuz we haven't actually slept in the property yet.
• 24:59
  Jenn: So gonna check that off first and then we'll start planning stuff.
• 25:03
  Jenn: Yeah.
• 25:03
  Jenn: Before you're inviting people out there.
• 25:06
  Jenn: Have a, have a place to sleep.
• 25:08
  Jenn: . Yeah.
• 25:08
  Jenn: We've mentioned East Coast Mermaid a couple of times.
• 25:11
  Jenn: So it's a travel and lifestyle brand.
• 25:13
  Jenn: Tell us more, tell us more about it.
• 25:17
  Jenn: . .
• 25:17
  Jenn: Crystal: So East Coast Mermaid.
• 25:18
  Jenn: So I mentioned earlier, you know, I was, I was burnt out.
• 25:22
  Jenn: I was working in an agency, so East Coast Mermaid came to life in 2016.
• 25:25
  Jenn: I think that year was a bit of a, Transitioning for me in that I met my now husband at the end of 2015.
• 25:35
  Jenn: And that winter, you know, we were getting out, we were exploring, we were going to the beach a lot.
• 25:39
  Jenn: I just sort of was really starting to feel myself and I was like, okay.
• 25:43
  Jenn: Like I, I feel like there's a bigger calling for me to do something really cool and I wanted to do something that was mine.
• 25:49
  Jenn: And I think that was like the first step in working for somebody else that I was.
• 25:53
  Jenn: I'm helping you make your dream come true.
• 25:54
  Jenn: But what am I doing to make my dream come true?
• 25:57
  Jenn: And so I loved New Brunswick.
• 25:59
  Jenn: I grew up on the beaches of New Brunswick ever since I could walk.
• 26:03
  Jenn: I've been sea glassing since I was a little girl.
• 26:05
  Jenn: My mother, you know, , she taught me how to sea glass.
• 26:08
  Jenn: I can't even tell you how much sea glass we probably threw out in the eighties and nineties, because back then it was just cleaning the beach.
• 26:13
  Jenn: Right.
• 26:13
  Crystal: Um, You'd save like the bottles, like the bottles you'd save, but everything else was like, oh, this is junk.
• 26:18
  Crystal: Yeah.
• 26:18
  Crystal: Now it's like, this is the most perfect piece of blue.
• 26:20
  Crystal: Why would we throw that out ? But that was my life.
• 26:23
  Crystal: Like I grew up, my parents raised me on at a cottage on the ocean in the summer in New Brunswick, and so I just thought, you know what?
• 26:29
  Crystal: I'm gonna just start sharing coastal living and all these destinations I love.
• 26:33
  Crystal: So I basically went on 99 designs and paid $400 for a logo, which I almost threw up over cuz I, at the time, I was like, That was so much money.
• 26:45
  Crystal: What am I thinking?
• 26:46
  Crystal: Like I made the worst decision.
• 26:47
  Crystal: And it worked, it turned into a blog.
• 26:50
  Crystal: We put the logo on some tank tops and started selling them.
• 26:53
  Crystal: Cuz my friends were like, well, maybe if you put the logo on a tank top, you can make the 400 bucks back eventually, kind of thing.
• 26:59
  Crystal: And then that kind of spun into a merchandise line for the brand.
• 27:02
  Crystal: Which I'm excited to, we're gonna pivot a little bit this year and actually start doing some more giftware and things like that, that I'm really excited about.
• 27:09
  Crystal: . But yeah, it's, it's evolved and it's really become a go-to resource for all things planning your trip to New Brunswick.
• 27:15
  Crystal: And I, my little tagline is, is I help you develop a coastal crush on New Brunswick, but I really do focus on the coastal regions and the seafood and the seaglass and the seas and all of that, that new Brunswick has to offer.
• 27:29
  Crystal: .
• 27:29
  Crystal: Meggan: I love that.
• 27:30
  Jenn: Yes.
• 27:31
  Jenn: So where can people follow your adventures?
• 27:34
  Jenn: Cuz they're obviously gonna wanna go follow along now.
• 27:37
  Jenn: .
• 27:37
  Jenn: Meggan: Yes.
• 27:37
  Jenn: Where can people find you?
• 27:39
  Crystal: Where can people find me?
• 27:41
  Crystal: So east coast mermaid.com is the best spot to go for the blog.
• 27:44
  Crystal: We have a lot of content planned for this year, including guides to all of my favorite spots.
• 27:48
  Crystal: So every year we refresh the Grand Manan Guide, the Campobello Island guide.
• 27:52
  Crystal: St.
• 27:52
  Crystal: Andrews by the Sea Guide.
• 27:53
  Crystal: I didn't even talk about St.
• 27:54
  Crystal: Andrews, but that's another place that I'm just obsessed with.
• 27:56
  Crystal: We got married there.
• 27:57
  Crystal: It's very near and dear to my heart.
• 27:59
  Crystal: And we're also gonna be publishing a lot of different guides.
• 28:01
  Crystal: Like we have a fried clam guide.
• 28:03
  Crystal: So if you're coming to New Brunswick and you wanna know the best places for fried clams, that's like one of our best.
• 28:08
  Crystal: Like best post of all time is that people lose their mind over the fried clams post . And we also have a newsletter so you can, if you're on the website, I definitely encourage you to sign up for the newsletter because we send out a lot of fun stuff, everything you need to know about planning your New Brunswick trip.
• 28:20
  Crystal: You can also find me on Instagram at East Coast underscore Mermaid, and that is where I have a lot of fun and post all kinds of fun seaglass videos and things about my pet Seagull, all that I, it's not really my pet.
• 28:32
  Meggan: Carl, Crystal: Carl yeah, so that, those are
• 28:36
  Jenn: That's awesome.
• 28:38
  Jenn: I'm so excited that we got to like sit down and chat with you and rather than like just over email , it's really nice to, to sit down and chat.
• 28:47
  Jenn: So thank you for coming on.
• 28:49
  Jenn: And so that's all we have this week.
• 28:52
  Jenn: We.
• 28:53
  Jenn: Recently launched our little merchandise.
• 28:57
  Jenn: So we want to tell our listeners that there's an exciting contest, but here's what you have to do.
• 29:04
  Jenn: It's for the month of April.
• 29:05
  Jenn: So what you need to do is leave us a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify and then you need to screenshot it and send it to us either on Instagram or Facebook.
• 29:19
  Jenn: So that we know to enter you in the contest.
• 29:22
  Jenn: So when you do that, we'll enter you, we're gonna draw at the end of April, and it's either gonna be for a mug or a t-shirt.
• 29:28
  Jenn: You get to choose and it'll get sent to you.
• 29:31
  Jenn: So leave us a review, screenshot it, send it to us.
• 29:35
  Jenn: And we'll enter you in for the draw.
• 29:37
  Jenn: So we're on Instagram and Facebook at the Travel Mug podcast.
• 29:41
  Jenn: And then you can also support the show by buying us a coffee.
• 29:44
  Jenn: So we'll put that in the show notes so you get some fun bloopers.
• 29:48
  Jenn: Not that we ever make mistakes because no, we're perfect . And if we would super appreciate it if you would share the show with a travel loving pal.
• 29:56
  Jenn: And we will talk to you again soon.
• 29:58
  Jenn: Bye everyone.
• 29:59
  Meggan: Bye
• 29:59
  Crystal: bye.