Travel the World and the Seven Seas: What It Actually Takes to Go

The song is in your head now, isn't it. "Everybody's looking for something." You typed travel the world and the seven seas because a lyric got stuck, but let's be honest about the real reason you're still reading. Part of you meant it. Part of you already started building the business that was supposed to get you there, and you're still sitting at the same desk, in the same city, watching other people do the thing you keep planning.

I know that gap well. I lived in it for years. So let's turn the earworm into the actual question: what would it take for you to travel the world and the seven seas for real, not someday, but on a timeline you could write down?

What does it actually take to travel the world and the seven seas?

To travel the world and the seven seas from a business you already run, you need three things: income that arrives whether or not you are at your desk, a business simple enough to move, and a decision with a date on it. Most stuck founders have none of the three - not because they're lazy, but because they've been optimising the wrong one.

The lyric makes it sound like a feeling. It isn't. Freedom to move is a set of mechanics, and mechanics can be built. I've been location-independent since January 2016, across more than 60 countries, and the thing that got me on the plane was not wanting it more. It was fixing what was broken in how I earned.

Why wanting it more never gets you there

I had a business that people would kill for on paper. Cakes by Karen started as an accidental Facebook page when my daughter was eight weeks old - 100 followers and nine orders in 48 hours. It grew to a commercial kitchen, around 50,000 followers, multiple six figures.

And it became a prison. Seventy to eighty hour weeks. Copycats undercutting me until I was almost working for free. I wanted freedom the whole time. Wanting it changed nothing, because the business itself couldn't move and couldn't run without my hands in it.

If you're waiting to feel ready or motivated enough to book the trip, you'll wait forever. The problem was never your desire. It's that the laptop lifestyle isn't the problem - your stuck business is. A business tied to your physical presence will never let you travel the world and the seven seas no matter how badly you dream about it on the drive home.

The three things that were actually broken

When I finally looked at why I was trapped, it came down to structure, not effort. Here's what was broken in mine, and what's usually broken in yours.

Your income needs your body in the room

If money only comes in when you personally deliver - a cake, a session, an hour - then travel isn't a business decision, it's a pay cut. You can't move because moving means not earning.

This is the single biggest reason women who've already started a freedom business are still grounded. The model they picked pays them only when they show up. Recurring income changes that maths entirely, which is why a membership business might be the freedom model you've been missing.

Your business is too complicated to carry

Fifty products, three offers, five platforms, a to-do list that fills a whiteboard. A business that complex can't fit in a carry-on. I sold a lifetime of possessions and left Australia with carry-on luggage only, and I've come to believe your business needs the same treatment.

Most stuck founders are doing too many things at once and calling it hustle. If that's you, the fix isn't more energy, it's picking one thing when you're stuck doing everything.

You've never given the departure a date

"When the business is ready" is not a date. It's a way of never going. I only left because I made it concrete: everything sorted into Sell, Keep, Donate, Trash, a plane ticket for January 2016, deliberately homeless.

You don't have to sell your whole life. But you do have to stop treating the trip as a reward for some finish line that keeps moving.

How I actually got on the plane

The wake-up wasn't the money. It was my three-year-old's Mother's Day painting: "My mum's favourite thing to do on the weekend is sleep." A smack in the face from a preschooler.

Around the same time I was flying out of Bolivia, reading The 4-Hour Work Week, and it asked: if money were no object, what would you do? I could only write two words. Travel. Help people. I'd built a whole successful business and lost myself inside it.

Then I found location independence - the idea that you could earn online from anywhere. I got my husband Cam to agree to sell up by promising I'd never nag him to eat salad again. That's how unglamorous the turning point was. A painting, two words, and a salad bribe.

Since then: world-schooling the kids, more than 80 house sits that have saved us over $250,000, a $250-a-month apartment in Fethiye, skiing in Bansko, now moving to Mexico. My daughter ran a boutique hotel's front of house at ten. None of that came from a mood board. It came from fixing the three broken things and putting a date on it.

Is it realistic to travel the world and the seven seas on your current income?

Yes, and probably for less than you spend staying put. This is the part the lyric-loving crowd never gets told: full-time travel is often cheaper than the life you're funding at home.

House sitting has saved my family over a quarter of a million dollars in accommodation. Countries like Turkey, Bulgaria and much of Southeast Asia cost a fraction of a Western city. Nomad List keeps detailed cost-of-living data for hundreds of remote-work cities, and once you see the numbers, "I can't afford to travel" quietly becomes "I've been spending more to stay bored."

The obstacle isn't the plane ticket. It's the income model. If your business already exists but isn't paying you enough to feel safe leaving, that's a repair job, not a reason to quit. The mechanics of making money travelling when you're already years into this are more within reach than they look from the stuck side.

From earworm to plan: the grown-up version

You already believe a business can give you this life. You don't need convincing. You need the honest version of how to build one that actually moves, without setting fire to the one you've got.

That's exactly what I lay out in the pillar guide to travelling the world without blowing up the business you built. And if the money side is the real sticking point, the honest walkthrough of why loving what you do isn't paying you yet is the one to read next.

I'm not going to pretend I had it figured out. I struggled financially for years, chasing every shiny idea, never sticking. The freedom came once I finally focused on one thing that could run without me and move with me. I'm still building. I'm still in the middle. The difference is I'm doing it from wherever I want.

Frequently Asked Questions

What song is "travel the world and the seven seas" from?

It's from "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)" by Eurythmics, released in 1983. The full line is "Travel the world and the seven seas, everybody's looking for something."

How much does it cost to travel the world full-time?

Often less than living in a Western city. House sitting can cover accommodation for free, and countries like Turkey, Bulgaria and much of Southeast Asia are far cheaper than home. Your income model matters far more than the destinations.

Do I need to quit my business to travel long-term?

No. Usually the fix is repairing your existing business so it earns without your physical presence and simplifying it enough to run from anywhere, not scrapping it and starting over.

Why haven't I left yet even though I want to?

Because wanting it isn't the mechanism. Most stuck founders have income tied to their body being in the room, a business too complicated to move, and no actual departure date. Fix those three and the plane ticket stops feeling impossible.

You know the words by heart. The question is whether you'll turn them into a date. If you've already started and you're still grounded, run your business through The Reality Check to see exactly which of the three broken things is keeping you home - then fix that one first. The seven seas aren't going anywhere. But you can be.