As much as people are interested in coming to visit us in Greece, many seem as much, if not more, interested, in how we came to the decision to do it in the first place. So, I thought I’d write a couple of posts about the decision-making on this journey, that enables us to keep trying to live the life we want to live.
PS – the shortcut is that it is about making informed decisions and then doing the prep! Taking as much care about our lives as we do about our careers
Part 1: Going on TV (twice!)
Part of this journey has been us appearing on TV, twice. A decision I know many would not make. Why on earth would you? You’re happy, your kids like you and you’re about to risk all the credibility you’ve built up, just to appear on TV.
I wanted to do it because if it looked good, it should be great marketing for Breakaway Greece and it was an opportunity for us to shine a light on Epidavros and its small businesses. Helen didn’t want to do it because she worried about how the programme would edit us and what other people would think. Perfectly natural concerns – although in Helen’s case, fairly entrenched.
This is how we came to the decision to do it – or perhaps, it should be more relevantly titled, ‘how I justified this decision to Helen’.
1 Do the research
Before we said yes. I asked for some proof and to see episodes where guests had a great response and their businesses had grown from it. They sent me a few and some letters. The successful shows had one main thing in common, they showed off the area – like a tourist video – with their own businesses and particularly their own villa, B&B etc., taking very much a secondary role. Most people on the programme, show off their new kitchen utensils or mattresses. Viewers don’t want to see this, they want to see an aspirational holiday video. I knew we could help make that.
2 Stick to your story
We are probably not the normal type they have on the show. We didn’t want to be accused of being fancy dans with no idea. But one of the main reasons we are doing this is because both our fathers died young and we want to make sure we live the life we want while we are able. Also, Helen's Greek family have been so good to us and this is somewhere where we can pay back some hospitality. So, we made sure we got these across – it was true, so it wasn’t difficult. But we stuck to our own script and didn’t let them get us rambling – which would have been dangerous
3 The bit out of our control – the edit.
I researched that the show has ‘A’ stories and ‘B’ stories. ‘B’ stories are shorter but nothing major goes wrong. ‘A’ stories are longer but contain every single thing they film that goes wrong. We made sure we became a ‘B’ story. We couldn’t stop everything going wrong. But we did have control over the filming. When one small thing was going wrong while the cameras were there, I asked them to stop filming, which they did. I honestly don’t know why others on the show don’t do this.
4 Finally – the big one? Worrying about what other people think.
Firstly, I don’t think anyone should do this. I used to, but I remember a friend telling me when I said I was worried about standing up in front of 100 people to make a speech “Don’t worry, everyone here is more worried about what they are going to say.” True, people are more worried about themselves, than you. True, every single time.
But if something we hated ended up on screen, I was confident that we had the support of our friends and family, and they know who we are. Trolls on Twitter, of which we had a couple - we are never going to meet or care about – so that just left friends of friends and gossip that might happen – that was a risk I was prepared to take, based on our research and preparation to make the best of this.
And luckily so was Helen. Helen did find it stressful for a while, but I think eventually relaxed and she came across so naturally – far better than me We both love the finished film and it’s something that will be a great reminder of this time and something for our children, and hopefully, grandchildren to remember us by – in the long and distant future. It was fun!
PS Remember - The hardest thing about ‘Living the life you want’ is the decision to do it - but now you can research that :)
