Look and Listen

Biography

Having lived their road trip dream, Phil and Carol White are experts at dreaming – and doing! First with their trip and now with their book. The Whites have had the good fortune to retire from the everyday work world, and now help others make their dreams happen. The trip detailed in their award-winning book, Live Your Road Trip Dream, was a year in the talking, learning, researching and planning stages, and a year in the execution of the actual adventure. During Phil’s 26-year career, he was the small-business owner of a retail men’s clothing store. He has extensive sales and marketing experience from that endeavor, as well as a comprehensive understanding of what it takes to run a successful business. His skills in listening to people and engaging them in conversation were invaluable on the trip. Carol comes from the other end of the sales and marketing spectrum, having retired from Lucent Technologies, in 1999. Her 35 years in the computing and telecommunications fields with Lucent and AT&T have gained her a wealth of experience. Carol is now known professionally as a travel speaker, retirement speaker, and marketing coach and she loves all of her new found titles that this life journey has brought her. Live Your Road Trip Dream – Travel for a year for the cost of staying home was originally published in 2004 and is now in its second edition after three successful printings of the first edition. It has become the ultimate “how-to” road trip planning guide and has won numerous industry awards, including the Publisher’s Marketing Association’s prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award. Phil and Carol have presented seminars of various lengths on this topic in such diverse settings as AARP’s Life@50+ national convention, The Great North American RV Rally, bookstores, community centers, AAA, athletic clubs, and community college adult education classes. In 2007, the Whites were named as National Spokespeople for the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA) to represent the baby boomer audience. Carol is also a frequent speaker on publishing topics for aspiring authors. She has spoken at PMA-University in 2005 and on several occasions to NWABP and PNBA. Articles about the Whites and their experiences have appeared in many publications including USA Today.com, The Boston Globe, The San Francisco Chronicle, ABCNews.com, and RoadTripAmerica.com. They have also appeared in many RVing publications including Escapees, Family Motor Coaching, RV Companion, Woodall’s CamperWays, Coast-to-Coast and RV Life. Carol co-writes a monthly technology column for the Good Sam Club’s “Cyber-Sam” newsletter, blogs for the “Go RVing” campaign (2008) as well as maintaining the Road Trip Dream newsletter and blog. They are also frequent guests on radio and TV across the US and Canada and enjoy sharing their “can do” attitude and travel tips with people. The Whites are active in both travel and publishing industry groups, belonging to a variety of organizations including The Good Sam Club, AAA, Publisher’s Marketing Association (PMA), Small Publisher’s of North America (SPAN), Travel Publisher’s Association, NW Association of Book Publishers (NWABP) and the National Speaker’s Association (NSA). When they are not traveling, Phil and Carol enjoy golf, community activities, Yoga, and most of all, their eight grandchildren.

Inspiration

The inspiration for Live Your Road Trip Dream was the questions that people asked us all along the way on our Great American Adventure. They were not so interested in what we were doing (everyone has their own dream), but HOW we did it. The conversation usually went something like this: "Oh, we'd love to do what you are doing, but what did you do about..." and the laundry list of questions would begin. Everything from what did we do with our house and cars, to how could we leave our friends and family (especially those grand kids!), to how do we pay bills on the road -- and much more. When we returned home, we decided that we had had such a fabulous experience that we just had to help others to get off the couch and on the road to living their dreams. The most rewarding part of the book journey is when we get a call or email from someone - and it is happening more frequently now - telling us that they have set their date and are leaving on their trip. It is also great fun when people stop on their trip to meet us and visit with us. We always make a great lunch - so stop by on your trip!