Will & Bear’s Journey Video x ING Dreamstarter

Tuesday // March 20 // 2018

When creating #RadLivin, we wanted to partner with brands who could add as much value to the attendees as possible. In 2016 we came across ING Dreamstarter and it felt like the most aligned brand out there for us.

ING Dreamstarter is a crowdfunding platform that helps social good businesses get off the ground.Lauren Williams, the founder of Will & Bear, attended #RadLivin back in 2017 to connect with the community and re-ignite inspiration for her social good business that she runs with her partner Alex – Will & Bear. Will & Bear is a hat brand where for every hat sold,10 trees are planted.

Alex & Loz wanted to launch a sustainable product range and after Loz found out about ING Dreamstarter at #RadLivin, they knew this could be the way for them to fund it. They applied for Dreamstarter, launched their campaign despite feeling a bit of fear, and were rewarded with genuine support from their community around the world.

From coming up with the idea of Will & Bear, to where they’re headed now, this is their journey.

Applications for ING Dreamstarter are now open until April 3rd. Click here to learn more.

“If all the little business start giving back now, then by the time we’re all the big businesses we might be the big guys that can really make a massive difference.” – Lauren Williams, Co-Founder of Will & Bear

Special thanks @jaxonfoale

Sip & Soul Podcast with Danielle Knight & Olivia O’Connor

Sunday // March 18 // 2018

This week I had a soulful chat with my good friend Danielle Knight on her new podcast, the Sip + Soul Podcast.

I met Danielle in Byron (well first Instagram) at her Boho Bliss Getaway. Our conversations were so natural and always left me feeling inspired and so when she asked me to be on Sip & Soul I couldn’t wait to hop on and record. There were times when I forgot that we were even recording because the conversation flowed so naturally, like how we would normally speak over coffee.

Listen Here

We chat about:

– OVERCOMING FEAR + FINDING THE CONFIDENCE TO GO AFTER BIG DREAMS

– WAYS YOU CAN TELL YOUR IDEAS ARE LINKED TO YOUR CALLING

– THE EXACT STEPS I TOOK TO CREATE #RADLIVIN FESTIVAL STARTING WITH ZERO EXPERIENCE

– HOW YOU CAN UNCOVER YOUR CALLING WHEN YOU HAVE NO SUPPORT OR IDEA WHERE TO START

You can subscribe to The Sip + Soul Podcast on ITUNES to listen to more inspired stories.

#RadLivin Tour w/ Miller Chill

Wednesday // February 28 // 2018

Over the last two years, #RadLivin has grown as not only a unique festival, but a global community of like-minded people doing what they love now.

We hit the road in November to visit some of the #RadLivin 2018 speakers and community. We set out to create content that would inspire our community to do what they would love to do now, rather than waiting for the future so that whether they’re coming to Sydney on the 17th of March, or are on the other side of the world, they would be reminded that anything is possible.

We traveled to Western Australia the Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Byron Bay, and all around our backyard of Sydney.

Here’s a glimpse into the tour, filmed by Ash Katch in collaboration with Miller Chill, our good mates and beer partner of #RadLivin 2018.

Hope to see you in Sydney the 17th of March! #dowhatyoulove

Snapshots of the trip! For more fun shots head to @donttellsummer

The Salty Dreamers, DontTellSummer, and AshKatch Photo The Neverland Boys

Jonny Dustow and DontTellSummer Photo Jemma Scott Kara, Kaitlyn, and Steph – founder of Oceanzen. Stefan Haworth, Lauren and Alex from Will & Bear.

2 Nights in Fremantle

Sunday // February 18 // 2018

While on our #RadLivin adventure tour in Western Australia, we spent two nights in one of our new favourite towns, Fremantle. There’s something about it that actually reminded me of Portland. So many cool cafes, eclectic shops, nice people, and a good creative vibe.

Suburban Vibes

One of the reasons we were in WA was to see our friends Jonny Dustow and Adam Harpaz play a few boutique shows through WA. While in Fremantle, we headed to Suburban Vibes, founded by Regan Grant. It brings together the local community and up and coming musicians for a night of tunes, dancing, bevs, and good friends. Walking into Suburban Vibes felt like I was stepping into this magical oasis of good vibes. It was one of those moments where you knew you would look back on it and remember it as something that made a positive impact on your journey.

Adam Harpaz (PS he’s playing at #RadLivin on the 17th of March in Sydney)

Dusty Boots

Suburban Vibes - Jonny Dustow and Adam Harpaz

@dustybootsmusic & @adamharpaz

@donttellsummer, @ashkatch, @thesalty.dreamers, @theneverlandboys.co, @haylsa, @kyle_hunter

Quest Fremantle

When we arrived in Freo, we checked into our place at Quest Apartments. After traveling it was so nice to have a grounded space for a couple days to go out and explore from and work from our apartment. It was awesome to have a spacious dining table work space and good wifi. Quest exceeded all of our expectations. It was right next to all of the hustle and bustle of the local cafes and shops, had the comfiest beds, and we instantly felt at home. Check out Ash Katch’s vlog to see more!

Milk Belly Cafe

We were lucky enough to be introduced by The Neverland Boys to Milk Belly. The BEST cafe in Fremantle with the most delicious peanut butter chocolate brownies I’ve ever had. Such great vibes and people. We also love supporting rad young business owners – go in and say hello!

Not Pictured – The Fremantle Markets – they are a must see!

Thank you Fremantle for an epic time! X

Meet Linn & Petter: Founders of Sunshinestories Surf & Yoga Retreat

Thursday // January 11 // 2018

You know when you come across an event, place, or simply look at a photo and think, “I feel called there”? That’s how I felt when I first saw a photo that my friend, Elliott, posted on Instagram of Sunshinestories Surf Camp &Yoga Retreat in Sri Lanka

Two Swedish travelers, Linn and Petter, set out on a backpacking adventure when they found a place that felt like home, Sri Lanka. After requesting to finish their University degrees from abroad, they moved to Sri Lanka full-time and invited friends and family to stay with them. This quickly grew into other travelers coming to stay and Sunshinestories was born.

Sunshinestories attracts like-minded people from around the world and is built on the foundations of good surf, yoga, food and people. Their passion for life and community continued on to build their lifestyle concept hotel Ceylon Sliders down the road from Sunshinestories.

Linn and Petter’s story shows that you can create a life that is unique to you.

Meet Linn and Petter…

Where are you in the world?

We live in Ahangama on the south west coast of Sri Lanka. That’s also where our retreat Sunshinestories is based and our hotel Ceylon Sliders is down the beach road in the next little fishing village, Weligama.

How did you go from having the idea of creating Sunshinestories to making it a reality?

Me (Linn) and Petter met in upper secondary school when we were 18. It was love at first sight as we both shared the same dream of exploring the world. We grew up by the ocean in a small village south of Sweden and had bigger plans for our lives.

The following year when we graduated, in 2009, we went on our first 6 month trip. We had both studied photography in school and started the blog sunshinestories.com as a way to share our travel photography

This wasn’t very usual back in the days, with a couple blogging together and posting photos. We don’t want to claim that we were pionering that, but we managed to get a lot of media attention and several brands sponsored our travels such as Bing Surfboards, Billabong, Sea to summit, Seea, and Fjällräven to name a few.

The photography also came in handy when we traveled through Central America shooting hotels and villas in exchange for staying there. We traveled to South Africa, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Guatemala, Laos, and Thailand to name a few. We started interviewing the inspiring people we met along the way to try and figure out, what made a good life?

We traveled and worked for 3 years before we started university and settled in Malmö, south of Sweden. Petter started a three year media and communication bachelor and I started Information architecture with the goal as a bachelor in computing. Malmö was the perfect place for two nomads but our travel bug bite was itching. Thanks to our side jobs as freelance media creators, we had the chance to travel on every school holiday we had. On the Christmas breaks we went on month long trips back to Sri Lanka where we knew the waves and culture. When writing our last thesis and finishing up our last courses, we got the green light from University to do so abroad and we packed up our apartment and moved to Sri Lanka the autumn of 2014.Photo @mitchfongphoto

Looking for a place to live in our new country, we found the old colonial villa in the jungle of Ahangama on the south coast of Sri Lanka. The house was too big so we invited friends and family to come stay. Before we knew it ,we had to hire staff and the house was a bed & breakfast with guests from around the world. With a hashtag on instagram and our travel blog, we got super busy. We noticed the demand of doing the same things as we did; surf, yoga, eating healthy and exploring the local culture. From that, the idea of Sunshinestories surf and yoga retreat was born. It felt like everything we have been doing just came together. We opened up the doors as a surf & yoga retreat in November 2015 and got an amazing response. Many of the guests that came were old blog readers who had been following our journey.

A year later (late 2016) we opened up Ceylon Sliders a lifestyle concept hotel,Cafe in Weligama and Weligama surf shop. Situated beachfront, Ceylon Sliders also builds upon the lifestyle by the sea as well as being a hub for people to meet and create. It’s become kind of a hub for hosting surfers, artists and creatives from around the island and the world. In the courtyard lies a small café and on the rooftop and out front a little shop with some handpicked items for the traveller. This also made it possible for us to work with some of the people we met during our travels and we’re proud to sell Quality Peoples t-shirts, Seea suits and Bing Boards to name a few.

Photo @dylangordon

Photo @ceylonsliders

What is it about Sri Lanka that drew you in?

The waves, the people the empty beaches. Sri Lanka is, and was even more a few years ago, an undiscovered paradise.

We discovered Sri Lanka on one of our first backpacking trips as nineteen year olds. We traveled along the south coast for a month. It was just after the war had ended and there was a melancholic feel to the whole island.. I remember we didn’t meet a single Swede and very little tourists. It felt like traveling back in time.

Continuing our vagabonding trips through countries like Bali, Thailand and Costa Rica meeting a lot of inspiring expats who had moved and started up a new life, we often said ”I wish we were here 10 years ago.” We then realized Sri Lanka was that place. A place where we could still have a shot at creating a life for ourselves. We moved here in 2014 with the hopes to finish our university degrees, instead we ended up starting the foundation to what later became Sunshinestories just a year later.

Photo @mrbradgolden